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Thursday, November 18, 2010

Photo Post 6 months old!

We had our 6 month pictures taken last week by our friend Kristina who also did the twins newborn pics!

 We started out all giggles and smiles


 Then we started to get a little tired
 Then Landon fell asleep
 While Landon napped we got some cute pics of Ava's rufflebutt...Have I mentioned I love Etsy!!
 And slept
 O well if brother is going to sleep, I guess I'll be the star


Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Prematurity Awareness Day

November 17th is Prematurity Awareness Day!! This is a cause that is now close to our family's heart since the twins were born at 32 weeks.  We are so lucky to be in the age of medical science and the ability to care for babies that are born before they are truly ready to face the world.  Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go to make sure that every baby has a fighting chance to make it home to their own crib and stay in their mother's arms forever!

Once you have been a parent of a NICU baby and have spent time in a NICU, you will learn what little fighters these tiny little babies are.  We were so blessed that the twins never had any major setbacks and for the most part everything just went forward without the steps back.  The NICU is such a sad and happy place, happy for those who get to bring their little babies home and sad for those who aren't as lucky. 

During our stay in the NICU it was difficult and there were times where you were aware that things were not going positive for certain babies in the NICU, machines constantly going off, nurses and doctors running around, all you could do was pray for those babies who were just trying their hardest to make it home. 
Please consider supporting March of Dimes in their fight for preemie babies!

Monday, November 15, 2010

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

A lot of the blogs that I follow on a regular basis have been blogging about Shutterfly's awesome promotion for bloggers!! Lets face it as a mommy of two new babies and the fact that Christmas is just my absolute favorite time of year, Christmas cards are on the top of my list! I have just been waiting for the day to send out a Christmas card with pictures of our children on them!

I have used Shutterfly for their awesome photobooks, I plan on doing these every 6 months so that the babies can have cute books to look back on when they get older, I love these because they are organized! The last thing I want is to end up with thousands of pictures stuffed into boxes never to be seen again, and creating these books online is so much easier then trying to set aside time to scrapbook, add that to the fact that I am creatively stunted and Shutterfly photobooks are my new best friend!

Here are a few of my favorites, I am going to have such a hard time deciding!





We just had our family pictures taken for Christmas and now I just can't wait to see those pictures on one of these Christmas cards!
Shutterfly also has:
Calendars
Greeting cards
Wall art

If you are a blogger and would like to learn more about this amazing deal from Shutterfly please visit them at http://bit.ly/sfly2010 

I hope you have as much fun as I've had browsing all of their wonderful items for Christmas time and also the rest of the year!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Time flies when you're having fun!

Boy last month flew by and now we are so close to Thanksgiving and Christmas! The twins will be 6 months old on Saturday and since I skipped a 5 month post I will for sure be posting their stats from their 6 month appointment which is next Tuesday! This week is a fun one, Grant's and my anniversary is on Thursday and I can not believe we were married 5 years ago! My how time flies! The babies are growing like weeds, they are rolling around and "talking" all the time, they are sucking on their fingers and realizing that there is another baby there, they are so cute when they play together!! They seem to spend a lot of time just reaching out for the others face right now, its so darn adorable! Hopefully next weekend I will have time to update everyone on:
Halloween (which kind of was a bust since the babes had colds)
The babies 1st colds
My 24th Birthday~!
Our anniversary!
and a big 6 month stats (I am anxious to know how much they are weighing in at now)

OK well I'm home from work and have to finish cleaning my house since my wonderful mother in law already cooked dinner!!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

One year ago

Really this post should have been yesterday, but well things were to crazy to sit and write. 

One year ago we went through IVF, hoping and praying that it would work and we would be blessed with a baby.  Well now one year later I have my beautiful twins.  I thank god for modern science and the oppurtunity to go through IVF.  We are really so lucky that we did put two embryos back and have our son and daughter, since we were left with no more embryos left to freeze.  Sometimes I can't believe that it worked our first time, I was so nervous/anxious one year ago that it would work,  that all that money would have been wasted, there was quite a few breakdowns where I was positive that it didn't work since I didn't know what to expect in the terms of pregnancy symptoms.  I remember going out to dinner with our friends on my birthday, they had gone through the IVF process at the same time as us and she had taken a pregnancy test and it was positive and thats when I thought that it could not possibly turn out positive for both of us, I mean statistically speaking I thought it just wouldn't happen. 

Now those two teeny tiny little embryos are 5 month old babies who are rolling over, grabbing at toys and laughing like there is no tomorrow.  Its amazing to think what the human body is capable of creating in that short amount of time. 

Here is the twins 5 month photo, they just get bigger and bigger by the day! It just amazes me. 

In the middle is the picture of the twins as teeny tiny blastocysts.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Picture Post


Ava coming home from the NICU on June 10th, 2010

Ava September 10th, 2010, 3 months later!!

Monday, September 6, 2010

Blowout sale!

http://www.zulily.com/ is having a BIG blowout sale in honor of Labor Day!! This has become one of my favorite sites for great deals on baby/toddler and other great items for moms to be and new mamas! They also have great deals on gear for baby.  So run over to Zulily.com before all the deals are gone!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Picture post

June 5th 2010
Coming home from the NICU


                                                                
September 5th 2010
Look at that round face

I'm pretty sure my insurance hates me now

SO every single bill is now in from my pregnancy/the twins birth/NICU stay....and the total....drumroll....613,000...well thats a few Bentleys or BMW's, this does not even count the years of fertility treatments or ultimately IVF.  Thank goodness for insurance(well not for IVF, but thats a whole other issue)!! My babies are worth every single penny and I would have paid anything as long as they are healthy and happy! But WOW I have never seen that amount on a bill. 

Quick Breakdown:
IVF: 17,000+
My pregnancy related expenses: over 100,000
Ava's NICU stay: about 300,000
Landon's NICU stay: about 250,000

I like to think that their little isolettes in the NICU were as nice as a Presidential Suite in a Las Vegas hotel that runs for 8K a night!!

I am just glad we have great insurance and cap out at 6,750.

Could someone please explain....

So I do not understand why there can't be a standardized baby clothing scale, I get so confused with every brand having a different way of sizing everything,  So Landon is roughly probably 14ish lbs now and he is almost 4 months old, but adjusted age of 2 months.  So while he fits in some 0-3 because it fits larger such as Circo from Target, but is in some 6 month when it is Carters????WHAT THE WHAT!! Why can't it be a standard thing.  Everything should either be 0-3, 3-6, or they should stick with 3,6 etc. Or just plain put the weight range.  I mean everything else baby is confusing enough why should clothes be too.  So now my 4 month/2 month old baby is wearing a 6 month old pair of pants because its from carters...I'm just saying...

Thursday, September 2, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUBBY!!


Today is my hubby's 27th birthday, my how so much has changed in one year, now he has TWO babies to celebrate with him today!! Last year I think we were getting our IVF calendar together and ordering meds and getting all geared up for the IVF roller coaster, I think we even talked about if next year we would have a baby(ies) by his birthday...WOW!

Im sure we will lounge around today and celebrate where our life is at this very moment, maybe take the babes on a walk with the pups, just hang out as a family. I just can't believe that at this year last time it was just a hope/thought, that maybe we would have a family in 2010! And now we do, thank goodness for modern science and the abilities of all of our doctors! I am so very thankful for my hubby and the daddy that he is today on his birthday!!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

...

Wow being a mommy of twins is both so tiring and so fun! Mainly the tiring part is probably working two days a week and for some reason I am more tired from working then when I take care of Ava and Landon all week long! It seems to take me a day to recover before I have my energy back.

While I would love to just say um...I think I want to stay home and play with babies all day it just is not financially feaseable for us right now, I have to work. Maybe sometime in the future it will be but right now it just isnt. Working is nice, I get to have "adult time" and I get to see my work family, but I love MY family more!

Ava and Landon are amazingly great babies, they are sleeping about 8 hours at night which is awesome and both really don't fuss unless they are tired/hungry/dirty. Other then that they are pretty much smiles and giggles all day long. My days are seeming so busy these days, I swear if I have a day where I don't have to go anywhere I might die of shock. It seems I always need to go to Target/grocery shopping/costco/dr. appointments/mall/babies r us...and the list goes on and on and on.

I love the days where we all lounge in our PJ's and watch reruns of Rachel Zoe on Bravo!! I really should get better about blogging to keep everyone updated and now that we seem to be heading towards a schedule I probably will be able to.

Here is the Twins latest picture from their 3 month photoshoot!


Thursday, July 29, 2010

Little SMILES!!

We have a couple of smilers on our hands, Ava and Landon now are both smiling, mostly in the morning when they see Grant or I for the first time, but its so adorable and just melts my heart!! Im so glad that they are happy babies!! Well thats all for now, just had to let you all know!!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Two months old

Our twins are now two months old, I can't believe how fast time flies. Landon and Ava are both getting bigger by the day it seems. Here are the stats from their two month well check appointment.

Landon:
9 lbs 4 oz
21 1/2 inches long
Ava
7 lbs 12 oz
20 1/2 inches long

The doctor says that they are both doing really well, both are eating so well and growing just like they need to be. They both got 3 shots which broke my heart to see them cry like that but soon enough it was over and they both just went to sleep. They both did so well.

In other news... Grant stepped on a hammer in the garage which ended up requiring 6 stitches in his foot and a tetnus shot which was great. He was out of commission for a few days but is now on the mend.


I have officially returned to work for 1 or 2 days a week which is an adjustment for those couple days where I am more exhausted then usual.


Our dogs love the babies, we usually catch Mogley napping in there with them if the door is open, I think he is their protector now. Toby just wants to cuddle with them.


I think we have gotten our schedule down pretty well, we are very lucky and I sure hope I do not jinx myself when I say we have good sleepers for babies, they both sleep straight 4 hour stretches at night so we both are still getting decent sleep for having two new babies at home.

I have a few other posts that are floating in my head at the moment including our Family reunion, 4th of July and baby play dates that will just have to wait for another day, here is both of them together on their two month birthday!!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Newborn photoshoot

Here are some of our favorite shots from the twins 1st newborn photoshoot. These photos are now our little treasures of when they were so small and precious.





Happy Due Date Babies!!

The title says it all, my babies originally due date was today July 6th, 2010, the day that was burned into my brain the day the stick came out positive!! Instead I have to get July 6th out of my head and replace it with May 13th, 2010 the day the were actually born, while they are now 7 and a half weeks old, sleeping quietly in their mama-roos (LOVE THESE), I can not believe we have had them both home for a month now and soon they will be 2 months old! Time really does fly with little ones in the house.
I am headed back to work part time for awhile to adjust to life working with twins at home. I am excited to be back at work and sad to leave them even if it is only for a day or two a week.

Friday, July 2, 2010

mama got a brand new....diaper bag!

So Grant has been telling me that I should get some sort of "push" present, I could not decide what I wanted, I'm not a jewelry kind of girl, I only ever wear my wedding ring. I thought and thought and finally decided after using my boring diaper bag I bought for 35 dollars from Lands end that I wanted something much much cuter! I kept dragging around my purse with my diaper bag as to not loose my stylish feeling.


I love Coach, I mean love. I looked on their website for diaper bags and I found one I loved, the only problem is I could not bring myself to spend 500 dollars on it. So I remembered the new Coach outlet down south of us and decided to call and see if they had any diaper bags in stock. They did, so I headed out to Coach.


I now am the proud new owner of this....
My new diaper bag!! It is much much better then my other one, I feel like me with it, and best of all , it actually fits everything I need for the twins inside! I got such a killer deal on it, 50% off with an additional 20% off coupon for the 4th of July weekend. Just because I have my babies now doesn't mean I want to become a boring mom. I can't wait until Ava can appreciate a purse, now if only they had a kids line...

Monday, June 28, 2010

6 lbs left

So I finally got weighed at my 6 week postpartum check, because well I do not own a scale, I never have and I really don't know if I ever will. I have 6 lbs left to pre-pregnancy weight. YAY! Of course the fact that I pump allows me to have an extra 500 calories a day per child which I am sure I take advantage of. So in 6 weeks I lost 42 lbs CRAZY! Im cleared to do excercise HA, ok maybe walk with the babies because it is summer or maybe do some power shopping at Target. Hope everyone is having a great Monday!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Here is what our days look like right now

4 am-get up feed babies/pump

6:30- get up cause the suns up

6:30-8- clean bottles/dishes/clean counters/laundry

8 am- feed babies/pump

8-?- run any necessary errands/groceries/target while Grant can be home

11 or 12- feed babies/pump

12 or 1- eat

1-4- clean house/clean more bottles/wipe counters/dishes/laundry maybe nap (maybe)

3- pump

4-5 feed babies

5 or 6 eat dinner

7-pump

8- feed babies

call it done for chores

10 pm- pump/Brittany goes to sleep

11 or 12 am- Grant feeds babies



As you can see pumping rules my life at the moment, while I may not breastfeed my twins they are both getting breastmilk, in all honesty it is just easier for us to both be able to feed the babies anytime they need to be fed. They also still have to have 2 formula bottles a day (for preemies) and to avoid confusion for them between bottles and breast. I know that every book says sleep when the baby(ies) sleep, well I now know what all moms talk about when they say that is impossible. You can try and lay down but you are just going to lay there and think about the laundry/dishes or chores that need to be done around the house. My husband is an awesome helper and luckily takes care of everything outside the house (yard, garage, garden), but is not a huge fan of the inside work which is fine. He also hates grocery shopping since more often then not he buys the wrong thing. I maybe take a cat nap which will go away as I return to work. So for now this works, the babies are calling the shots which is how it is supposed to be this early in the game. Lucky for us I am pretty sure both babies are very happy babies and really only make noise when they are hungry or have a dirty diaper...for now anyways.

Too much cuteness!




These are the twins 4th of July/family reunion outfits!! I shrunk them down as much as my washer would so fingers crossed they fit ok!! I am still having trouble finding shoes that will fit my babies feet, they both had very skinny and narrow feet (sorry babies thats all from your mom), if anyone knows of somewhere that has shoes for such tiny feet please let me know!!

Twins first outing to Costco

We took the twins out to Costco this past week, it was funny to watch people look when you walk in with a stoller that has 2 carseats attached to it. We had lots of points and stares. O well I guess I better get used to it.
We also took them to Target because with me as their mama they will be spending a lot of time there, Target is my most favorite store in the world, I never seem to walk out of there with less then a hundred dollars worth of randomness. I love that they open at 8 am which I learned the other day!! AWESOME!! This means I can get up with the twins for their 7ish am feeding, put them back down and get all of my shopping done before daddy has to go to work.
It definitely does take a little more planning to get out of the house with two little ones in tow. I hate being late I mean HATE it...I like to be at least 15 minutes early anywhere. So this will be an adjustment that sometimes one may be all ready to go then well...dirty diaper...crying baby...wants food. So I am learning to adjust my punctuality expectations.
We are getting more comfortable with taking them places, they got to go to their Grandma and Grandpa Echols' house this week and finally both were able to hold the babies, everyone had been passing around germs for the last 6 weeks. Well thats all for the outings for now, but I am sure that as we get more comfortable and they get older there will be plenty of parks and zoo's and walks to come.

Blissful

Finally it feels like summer is trying to make an appearance!! Its been a busy week in our house but I am sure it is just the beginning of busy weeks. Our good friends had their baby girl on Saturday June 26th!! Baby Scarlett weighed in at 8 lb 4 oz and she is now officially Ava and Landon's new best friend. We are all so excited to have babies so close in age, the funny thing is that Scarlett was due on July 4th and the twins on July 6th but now the twins are 6 weeks older then Scarlett. We can not wait to take strolls around Capital Lake with our strollers and enjoy the sunshine!! So we are just super excited to all have our babies here safe and sound.

This next week I am sure will be a busy one, the twins have another pediatrician appointment to make sure everyone is still gaining weight which judging by my mama scale they both are. We are looking forward to Grant's family reunion this coming July 4th weekend! The twins outfits are washed and ready and they are ready to make their appearance as the newest little Echols' family members. We are excited to see everyone, we have not seen everyone since the last family reunion in 2008!

The twins are just growing and growing these days. We are waiting for them to start smiling at us, we see smiles but we are both convinced its still newborn gas...

I have learned what moms meant by don't feed into the hype of all baby products, of course I bought everything that looked like a good idea to have around for a newborn baby. So far the most helpful thing that I never thought of was a sterlizer for all of their bottle nipples and pacifiers, instead of keeping a pot of water on the stove this saves time and money since its a small amount of water and takes only a few minutes to complete a cycle. I definitely bought too many clothes so I am lucky that the twins are small and will fit into most of it for a longer time then most babies. I am still waiting to use our cloth diapers, they do not fit them quite yet but I excited to see if I actually like the idea of cloth diapering two babies. It definitely will save us some serious cash if I can do it.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Finally a Birth Story

Wednesday May 12th, 2010

I was not feeling very well this day, my contractions had increased, they were starting to become more painful and last longer. I had just been sleeping on and off. At 1 in the afternoon I was surprised by a few girls from my office who must have literally flown up from Olympia via I-5 to visit me on their lunch hour! I was so excited to see them, I had been on bedrest so long I had not gotten to see most of my work buddies, so I visited with Christie, Emily and Debbie for a little bit before they had to get back to work. Later on Emily would tell me I looked like I was in pain (I thought I faked no pain pretty well but o well). After they left I decided to call the nurse because the contractions were just not getting any better and I was done with pain by that point again. The nurse came in and offered me some pain medication while we waited for the Doctor to come in and see if the reason for the contractions was that I was progressing. Dr. Mckinney came in and checked me, I was back to 3 cm, she made the call that we were having babies this time, I was thrilled, mainly because by this point I was mentally and emotionally as well as physically done. She discussed again her view for a natural birth and that they could guide Ava down the right way since she was laying transverse (head to my left and feet on my right side). I said I would think about it since they did not need a decision yet.


I called Grant and my family and told them what we had been decided. The nurses got me ready to move back to Labor and Delivery again. We had to load up or hospital (hotel room), and move everything to my new Labor and Delivery room. I'm pretty sure the more times you get moved the better your room gets. My room this time was HUGE! It was a corner room and was so nice and spacious compared to the other L&D rooms I had been in. I sat in the bed and waited while a plan of attack was formed by the doctors.




The "plan" went like this...




Watch my labor and see if I continued to progress on my own




If not, I was to be given potocin to move things along




Then go from there.




I was offered pain medication and to get into the birth tub, which I would highly recommend! That was the only time my contractions were eased. I washed my hair, shaved my legs (people were going to see them and I had not bothered to shave my legs in quite awhile). I felt nice and dare I say refreshed. I was only allowed to do this for a little while since I had tested group B strep + so they would have to have an IV of antibiotics in at least 4 hours before I was to give birth.




I got out of the tub and got back into bed to apply make-up, vein (yes) necessary (no) but do you know how many pictures people take of that day and after laying in a hospital for 8 days I did not look super great or perky with dark circles under my eyes from the exhaustion of it all. Our friends and family all came up to visit. The nurses would periodically come in to get everything ready to go. They got my antibiotics started and more fluid, I weighed myself on the Sunday before the twins were born and I saw 166 on a scale!!!!!! All of which was fluid and baby but WOW! Now we sat around and waited for the potocin to take effect.




And waited.....and waited....and waited...




Got the epidural, which I was a pro at, being it was my 2 attempt at labor for the week, the first had been on Mothers Day were I also received an epidural and then stalled in labor.




And waited....tried to rest...and waited...




They kept upping my potocin, I was having consistent contractions but was not dilated past a 4 on my own, I really lost track of time during all of this, I tried to rest but the excitement of finally being able to see my babies was keeping me awake.



Thursday May 13th...



Sometime in the early morning hours they decided to put an internal monitor for contractions in to see if my contractions were really strong enough to keep me dilating or if we would just need to go to a c-section. I think this was around 7 am.



I went back to sleep around 8ish, my nurse stayed with me until maybe 8:45 when she went to go get some breakfast, Grant had gone down the the cafeteria and my mom and aunt had gone out to get some food as well. Next thing I remember was waking up in terrible pain. Grant had returned and I tried to tough it out for a few minutes but it was obvious that something was going on. My nurse had decided it was taking too long for her breakfast and she must have had a sixth sense because she returned right as we called for a nurse. She took a "look" and immediately called for the doctor, because between about 9:00 and 9:15 I had fully dilated and was ready to go, Landon's head was already peeking out, so they immediately had Grant change into his daddy scrubs and I was wheeled off to the OR(when you are pregnant with multiples you always give birth in an OR just in case). Grant got changed and followed with his cell phone calling everyone that it was GO TIME! Camera in hand we were ready to meet these babies!!



Everything was so crazy fast from there, I got to the OR, there were so many doctors and nurses, we had 2 NICU teams, several other nurses, anaesthesiologists, 3 doctors. They got me onto the surgical table and ready to push, we waited for my next contraction to push, I pushed maybe 6 times and we saw Ladon make his BIG appearance into the world.

They whisked him to his warming bed, and gave him extra oxygen, we were so in love! I turned back to the doctors only to hear them say that Ava had instead of going the way we wanted her to and turn head down she had gone breech, they attempted to turn her, which did not work, then her heart rate dropped, all I could hear was a nurse counting her heartbeat, it was under 100. They told me I would be having a crash c-section because she was in distress. The anesthesiologist gave me a block to numb my whole lower body for the c-section but when the doctor did her "poke" test, I could feel sharp pain, I was starting to freak out and was looking to Grant who was near my head, I could see worry on every doctor and nurse in there, I turned to the anesthesiologist and told him to "knock me out and get her OUT!" so he did, I remember the mask being put over my face and I was out. This is sad to me because Grant was not able to see his daughter born since they had to put me under they had to kick him out. We also have no birth pictures of Ava, which may be a good thing since she was not very responsive and required help immediately after birth, her cord had gone around her neck.



I woke up in recovery a couple of hours later just asking if they were ok, I was in pain, I had just had happen what I had told every single doctor there that I did not want to happen, I had given birth to Landon naturally and then still had to have a c-section. I got the full experience. They had me hooked up to pain medication that I could push the button to get more, whatever they gave me in the beginning did not work so they switched me to morphine which worked better. All I wanted to do was see my babies and see for myself that they were ok. Once I was ready to leave recovery, they wheeled me to the NICU to meet my babies. They were so tiny and had so many different things hooked up to them, monitors, IV's, cpap masks, and lots of prick marks from where they had been poked and prodded. I could not believe that they were mine and I had carried them for all that time. My mom, dad and Grant's mom had all been able to come in and meet them as well. After about 10-15 minutes they moved me up to the postpartum floor.



This was my story, it was alot of unplanned things, many things that were totally out of control, many things happened that I wish had not, but bottom line was my babies were here, safe and healthy for 32 week old twins. That is really all that matters to me. I never went into it with a plan (thank goodness) because I knew most likely none of it would happen, I played it by year which I guess kept things kind of exciting for us, completely unpredictable. It took a lot of healing time and a month long NICU stay but here, 6 and 1/2 weeks later I feel better, my babies are home with us and thriving and now I really have a story to tell.

































So whats going on with us

Wow so I am terrible at finding time to update this so I am going to try harder...well as hard as I can with two newborn infants at home. I will also attempt to put together their birth story as well, in a weird way I am still absorbing everything that happened between the 5th and the 13th when they finally were born, eventually it will get on here.
Baby Update:



Landon was able to come home from the NICU on June 5th and Ava followed on June 10th. We have now had two infants in our house for 1 week. We are learning the meaning of day by day or even hour by hour with what needs to be done for the babies, the dogs, our house and well our sanity as well. The babies are doing wonderfully in the weight department, we had a pediatrician appointment on Tuesday and Landon is weighing in at 6 lbs and 4 oz, and Ava at 5 lb and 15 oz, so she is over 6 now I am sure. According to the pediatrician they are doing really really well, they have another appointment in 2 weeks to check their weight and then they will get scheduled for their 2 month shots!! HoLY COW 2 MONTHS!! They both love to eat and get better and better at taking their bottles and larger amounts every day. I could stare at them for hours but I won't because I still have a house to keep clean. Seriously thinking about hiring a housekeeper every other week to keep up on it all. Landon and Ava both sleep for about 4 hours and then wake up and eat and just go back to sleep for 4 hours. We have got them both where they wake up within a half hour of each other and get back to sleep, this way we have about 3 1/2 hours to do other things around the house.



We had some newborn pictures taken this past Saturday by our friend Kristina and today we will have some more taken by my friend Jill who has just moved back home to Washington from Utah and is starting her own photography business, she offered to take some for us as well as some family shots which I am super excited for!! I will post pictures when we get them!!



For now I will leave you with their 1 MONTH photos!! I can not believe its already been 1 month!!





Thursday, May 27, 2010

Part 2 of ??!

May 6th, the next morning after all the craziness. I woke up from a semi comatose, morphine induced sleep, not feeling so well from the medications that I had been given before and was so sick to my stomach, they finally gave me something to calm that down and it worked like a charm. I was able to fall asleep a little longer before they decided they were going to move me to the Perinatal Special Care Unit, where I would stay for the next 8 days. This unit is specialized to watch women in my condition, they keep a close eye on contractions and babies heart rates to make sure everything is going OK and I am there in case the twins decided they wanted to try and escape again (more on that later). Grant gathered our few items and we were moved. I really do not remember the first day on account that I was soooo tired from everything. I finally got some food which for a almost 31 week pregnant women was so nice! My stomach had finally calmed down and I wasn't feeling like I was in Death Valley any longer. My sister decided to come home since we were not sure what was going to happen at this point and she did not want to miss anything. Unfortunately for her it was a long trip back and forth and back and forth and back again before the twins actual decided to make their appearance. All of the nurses were so nice and amazingly comforting for someone who like me is such a planner that this was not in any way what I had expected. I mean I knew twins were high risk, but with everything else we had been through to get here I thought eventually something had to give in this situation.





Here is a picture at 31 weeks in my hospital room...

Sorry, I had no make-up on and well lets just say a few days in a hospital makes for some serious bags under the eyes. Thanks to the nurses I learned how to "order" special food from the cafeteria and well when you have a craving pregnant woman in the hospital it is not good to have a set menu, I had to discover what there was for take-out around.

I met with the perinatologist every morning to figure out what to do next, they tried a couple different medications that I had not had before to see if those would stop anything, nope, my contractions broke through everything until, Friday morning the Doctor decided at this point the twins would be fair very well if they were born and that it was obvious that nothing was going to stop them so we should just discontinue medication and control pain from contractions. Now I am so sick of someone asking me what my pain level is from 1-10 but I guess that's how it goes. I seemed to get more contractions later in the afternoon and would usually require something to make me relax. Nurses will tell you if there is something that can help you relax and not feel so much pain to just take it. Now I am not against people who want the natural birth and no pain medication but for me, who had been literally in labor since March I was a little tired of pain, and for those of you who know me, I do not deal well with pain!

Thursday passed so slowly, cable television at a hospital is nothing to brag about, neither was the fact that they had a VHS to play movies on complete with a "rental" list, eventually I would just turn the tv off because there was nothing ever on. I would wait for people to come visit me. Grant returned home to gather essentials (laptop, phone charger, and clean clothes) that we would need for at least a few days. This day was still fairly busy with Doctors and nurses doing alot of registration information and removing of medications and adding of medications and letting me finally get out of bed and take a shower. Luckily in the PSCU they leave you alone for the most part at night so you can try and sleep, they also provide you with sleeping medication which was extremely helpful with my stress level.

Friday May 7th, came and went...this is really how it went for the most of when I was there, days passed by, I began to forget what day it was or what the date was. I would think to update my blog then think I'm tired I don't have the energy to go into details, my immediate family and friends knew what was going on and I had updated somewhat on Facebook I think.

On Saturday May 8th, the Doctor gave me permission to walk around and not being completely bed bound! However, Grant decided he did not want me to get out of bed, he was going to keep those babies in there one way or another. It took about 24 hours of whining, and pity party to me to get him to let me out. He decided Sunday for Mother's Day he would bring my puppies up to say hi and I could go outside (in a wheelchair) to play.

So Sunday May 9th, was my little field trip outside into the GORGEOUS May weather we had for a few days. I sat outside and did not want to go back inside. Later in the day we went shopping at the hospital, I bought the twins each super soft stuffed animals, a few cloth diapers (Fuzzi.bunz) (which I will give my thoughts on soon), and a few other mom essentials that I had not purchased yet, just in case. I think we are now the gift shops best customers. Grant then left to take the dogs home, which he did not make it that far and had to drop them at a friends to have them take the pups back home since I called him back to the hospital ASAP!! I knew that my field trip could possibly get the twins all ready to go again. This catches me up to my next trip back to labor and delivery and a botched epidural which I will get to very soon I promise...

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Do I have a story to tell now Part: 1

I planned on updating on May 5th after my doctors appointment but boy did that change fast. I got to my doctors appoint right on time as usual, got checked in, I had been having more and more contractions the day before and on the 5th so I decided that would be the first thing I would ask about. I had been on two different medications since March to help stop pre term labor so when I notice that there is a change it is kind of a big deal. I was called back to my appointment, did the usual, pee in a cup, step on the scale (149 lb) holy COW, took my blood pressure, which, was normal as usual. My doctor came in and I told her about the contractions, she basically did nothing else because she decided she needed to send me over to St. Peters Hospital to be checked out and sit on the monitors for awhile. Grant and I headed over to St. Peters to do this, went right to the Family Birth Center and got into our exam room, which we had become quite familiar with the process by now. They got me hooked up and I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes, the nurse decided she would do a fetal fibronectomy test which would give an idea if I was in immediate danger of delivering very soon, that was negative. She also checked to see if I had dialated anymore. I had been at 1 cm for quite some time (2 weeks or so), but I had moved to 2 and definitely was open, Landons head was very low so they got really worried really fast. The rest was such a blur to me. I was rushed to a different room and given magnesium sulfate to stop my contractions, this is a medication you never ever ever ever want! It made me hot and uncomfortable, I'm not talking sit on a beach hot in Hawaii I'm talking stuck in Death Valley in a black box with no holes hot. They leaned me so far back that my feet were higher then my head, I guess they try to use gravity as their friend. Soon things started to get more and more painful and no better, another OBGYN from the practice checked me and felt I was at 3 and immediately made the decision for me to be transported to Tacoma General or UW medical center where they could handle premature babies.
The Decision was made to transfer to Tacoma General and we sat and waited for the Ambulance. Somewhere in there I guess Grant called my parents and they rushed over to be with us. I don't really remember. 30 minutes later the Ambulance arrive to take me to Tacoma General with the rule that they were to have lights and sirens on the entire way. My anxiety was pretty much completely out of control by that point and I lost it. I have never been in an ambulance and there was too much going on too fast I could not keep up. I signed papers which I found about 3 days later and had no recolection of signing, got moved over to the gurney and was off. Grant was with me which was good because otherwise he would have had to try and fight the I-5 traffic roadwork. The ambulance was mostly I guess on the shoulder to pass traffic with lights and sirens on, I was completely terrified.
We got to Tacoma General and the paramedics had to find their way to the Labor and Delivery since Tacoma General had just completed a major renovation. We finally found it and I was rushed to a room, and hooked up to several IV's, I was still on Magnesium Sulfate and they put me on morphine for my pain which apparently made me very loopy or so Im told. The nurses were all trying to calm me down, which wasn't working but the pain meds eventually did it for them. I was so exhausted from all the craziness. They brought in a ultrasound tech who determined possible sizes and positions of both babies. I was pretty much asleep by this point and did not remember a thing. The ultrasound is the last thing I remember of that day. Right now I must go to a diaper change on my son, so stay tuned for part 2.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

So let me introduce everyone

The two of us! We love watching movies, hanging out with our friends, going out to dinner! We have a thing for amazing food, we will go out of our way to find something new or incredibly tasty! Its our weakness. When we go on vacation anywhere we try to find either the most unique or the best resturant in the area no matter the cost of the food! Grant works for Aflac currently and enjoys himself, and well as for me, my job is to grow our two little babies, I have been on bedrest and yes I am bored but I know in the end it will all be worth it. Grant is getting used to being a house-hubby and doing quite a good job at it too!


This is Mogley! Our fun loving Great Dane. He is almost 2 years old and he is such a fun dog to have. He spends his days sleeping, rotating from his bed to our bed to the couch depending on where we are in the house. He loves squeaky toys and playing outside, he kind of looks like a horse when he runs but it is so cute!

This is Toby! He is our cute little Cavachon! He is 2 1/2 and so funny! His personality cracks us up on a daily basis! He loves to cuddle, and pretty much thinks he is the baby of the family (for now). He is an awesome dog and just wants to be everyone's best friend. He spends his days protecting his toys from Mogley and trying to not get trampled on. Ok I'm just kidding, he would never get trampled cause really he is the BOSS dog.

This is Landon, he is our little boy and twin A. Right now as far as I can tell he spends his days twisting and turning and occasionally kicking his sister. He seems to like to kick my tailbone as often as possible and escape out of my belly button, I do keep telling him that the belly button is not an option for an exit but he does not seem to listen...go figure.




This is Ava, our little girl, twin B. She may not know it yet but she has quite a few very girly headbands with adorable flowers attached!!! I can't wait to dress her up! Until that day comes she spends her days defending her space against her brother and digging into my rib cage. She seems to think it is comfortable. She is on top of her brother and I think her personality is fiesty! If I try to move her she just moves right back so really I have just given up. She going to have to be a tough girl to deal with her brother, dad and her 4 uncles! Poor girl only has a couple of girls on her team! If Grant has anything to do with it she will be a tomboy.
Well that pretty much sums up our family. We love our little family and can't wait to love on these babies when they get here!

My first official blog post! Kind of long catch up story below...

After reading multiple blogs over the last few months, I have decided to start our own! Not only to offer the chance to our family and friends to follow our journey with our soon-to-be-here twins but also as a way to put my story out there for anyone who may want to read or is going through the same thing.
As some of you may know by now it has been a long journey to pregnancy for us. We were married in November of 2005 and about a year later decided to not prevent anything....well nothing happened. It was supposed to be easy but it turned out to be anything but easy! After years of different doctors and multiple diagnosis' for both of us we finally had answers in February of 2009. I was diagnosed with endometriosis and my hubby with MFI. I was going to need surgery if I ever wanted to have a baby or babies. In March of 2009 I had surgery to treat (because there is no cure) for my endometriosis. Our doctor was still not too optimistic about us being able concieve on our own but said he would give us 2 months to try.
After two months had passed with no double lines we moved on to IUI, now after two rounds of IUI it was fairly obvious to our doctor that IVF was our only option. So we decided we wanted this now, we did not want to wait, both our conditions were never going to just disappear but would just most likely get worse. In August we began the process with our clinic. At the end September we started the multiple injections, ultrasounds, appointments, and bloodwork. Our doctor harvested 18 eggs on October 13th, 2009, not such a fun process. We waited for daily calls from our clinic to let us know how our embiebabies were doing! We went from 18 to 15 that were succesfully fertilized, down to four the day we transferred. We went back and forth all week about how many to transfer, we knew the risks of a multiple pregnancy and also knew the chance of us being able to do this again was slim. We have always wanted at least 2 children so we put it in gods hands and decided to trust the doctors opinion. I kept leaning towards 1, hubby 2. October 18th rolled around (day of Embryo transfer), and the doctor suggested transferring 2 with a 10% chance of both taking.......well 7 days later we had a big fat positive on a HPT.
I called the clinic to move my bloodwork up and sure enough our numbers were HIGH. The clinic tests the HCG in your blood, normal range for 9 days (when my blood was taken) for one is somewhere in the 100's, ours was 368! We went back 2 days later and it had more then double, the clinic was betting on twins! Our first ultrasound was at 7 weeks and sure enough two beautiful babies were there, both with strong heartbeats!
That brings us to today well...kind of...without a super long story on typical morning sickness, exhaustion, cravings and everything pregnancy related! We are now at 30 weeks 4 days with our little boy and our little girl, I have been on bedrest for 6 weeks because of preterm contractions/labor. We are sooooo looking forward to having our twins here sooner then later now!! So now you can follow this parenting of multiples thing, my favorite mommy items, favorite baby items and trying to stretch a budget for two babies, two dogs and two adults...this should be interesting.