4-days-to-go

I cannot believe the week has FINALLY come! It has been a busy few weeks preparing. If you've been there you know and well Dustin has to do it all. I have all day to make lists and bless his heart he has to round everything up and make trips to and from the house in what little spare time he has.
I started a new medication a week and a half ago, procardia, that I take every 6 hours to null the contractions and other than one spell it has done just that. Everything else is looking good: blood pressure, swelling, etc. etc. I will say I've gotten bigger and subsequently am frequently more and more out of breath.
Dustin went home today to find that our house is all decked out for Easter thanks to Gigi. She also organized our pantry, bathroom cabinets etc. My mom and her have worked in the nursery and according to Dustin I will be so so surprised when I get home to the goodies and organization. I know this will help with all of my worries as well. THANKS MOMS!!
Thursday at 12:30 we're set for our C-Section. I've been prepped for the basics and have asked to know not much more than that. If I have time to worry about something I will but if faced with it with little time to worry I can handle and deal with most anything. I'm most worried about the spinal but hear that's relatively simple so I'm thinking it will be OK.
I'm very exhausted from my stay here at the hospital. I have meds to take every 3 hours throughout the day and night that I get very little good, deep sleep. So nonetheless I am ready to go home. I should be able to go home next Sunday. No matter what the soonest my Dr. lets me outta here I'm on it!
We've been reading Jesus calling since we've been in the hospital and here it today's devotional. I found it most appropriate!

We've saved all of the cards we've received along with prayer grams and prayer request pages from churches here and afar. Our girls, one day will be able to read these and process this all when they are able to comprehend it. This has also been a great "pick-me up" wall when I've needed it.

Our friends and family that attended the San Antonio shower wrote words of advice to the girls --this has been such a fun thing to read over the weeks. They will know they were loved long before they were even here!

Here are our last sonogram pictures. The pics are of Claire. We weren't able to see Caroline's face as she is face down kissing Claire's booty! Caroline weighed in on Thursday, 3/15, at 4 pounds and 3 ounces and Claire weighed exactly 4 pounds. We couldn't be happier about their weights! Hopefully they will be solid over 4 pounds at birth so when they lose some weight after birth we won't go down in to the 3's.

We feel so blessed to make it this far and have always known God is in control. But it has been through your prayers that we've found peace and have been able to face each day with a positive attitude. We'll do our best to post an update after the birth later in the week. Thank you for reading, sending cards, e-mails, texts, stopping our families out in public to let them know you were thinking of us, dinners, visits and countless prayers. These girls are loved and have had such a wonderful support group. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

30 weeks & 1 day

Today, Thursday marks 30 weeks and 1 day. It's amazing how excited one can get over "1 day." Our C-Section is exactly 2 weeks from today.

So far things are still stable but with contractions becoming more frequent. My body has done well considering I'm carrying two babies and I am expected to contract. At this point we're just praying the contractions don't set anything more off than a little bit of pain here and there. We need prayers specifically for this vesa previa to not rupture between now and March 22nd. That has become the forefront of my worries.

Our girls are doing so great on the monitor. When I do have contractions it does not phase them at all. They are meeting their 15 x 15 required heart races and have never shown a de-acceleration. So as I've always said: the babies are strong and are fighters....their house was just built with mud and water.

On the bright side! Our girls have lots of hair.... haha but we weren't expecting them NOT to. In a 2-d sonogram you can see it sticking up off of the head. Maybe it's curly too?? That is what I can't wait to find out is if their hair is curly like Dustin's or straight like mine...

Things I have learned (or think I've learned) over the last 6 weeks:

-Waiting is SO hard.

-Never take the smell of your own home for granted.

-If you work and have always wondered what you were missing on TV, let me tell you...you're not missing a thing!

-I think Downy is missing a large market in hospitals. Surely they could produce an odorless fabric softner?!? No one likes drying off with sandpaper...

-The San Antonio newscasts that air at 4:30, 5:00. 6:00 and 6:30 are really all the same unless someone has broke jail between 4:30 and 6:30.

-Hospital food is really as bad as you have heard.

-My husband is amazing! He's gone above and beyond and taken the initiative to complete so many open-ended tasks we left abruptly to ensure my stress level remains low.

-The selfless love one has for a child is something I'm still not able to fully able to understand at this point, but have seen it first hand through our parents. Visiting us isn't exactly the most fun right now but they've come, sat, visited and kept our minds distracted. I know this must be extremely hard for them as well...especially my dad who can't stand to sit down for 5 minutes.

-Our friends have gone above and beyond to still let us know we really are friends! ....thank you for all of the visits, food, magazines, blizzards etc.!

Sonogram Update 2/28

Claire yawning.

We didn't get the best 3-d updates today as both girls were turned away, but that's ok it leaves an element of curiosity and surprise. We did get their weights... Claire "Baby A" is weighing in at 2 lbs and 15 ounces and Caroline "Baby B" is weighing in at 3 lbs and 4 ounces. So we have made some healthy growth and we couldn't be more excited!!!! Claire is in he 50th percentile and Caroline is in the 65th percentile. : )

Now that I am in the third trimester the girls should gain 1/2 pound per week!! This looks to give us good and healthy birth weights if all goes as planned. We're beyond excited and grateful for today's sonogram. I think it's safe to say that my sleeping, eating and minimal activity has paid off. : )

How to pass the time in a hospital....

Well we have some great friends that have made numerous efforts to come up here and keep us company! Last night we had a girls night "in" and had a DaySpa ToGo come up here and give us manis and pedis while we watched the Bachelor. The boys went to the Adcocks and cooked steaks so this night was probably just as healthy for Dustin as it was for me. : )
Members of the Junior League have come up with a schedule to send someone in the day time a couple of times a week to keep me company. It's been great to break up the days and weeks.
The most time consuming project we have taken on is ancestry.com. If you have never done it then I would STRONGLY encourage you to do so....it is so interesting (sometimes scandalous) and informative. This all triggered when I was working in the girls' baby books to fill out their heritage and significance of their names and I wanted to be specific and exact so Dustin got us started on this website.
We have done each of our direct lineages from our birth mothers and fathers. Both sides of my family have been traced back to the 1500's to England. Did you know the inventor of the flushing toilet is in my family? Oh yes! He's google-able: Sir John Harington. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harington_(writer) He was also a godchild to Queen Elizabeth I. So the saying goes when you're going to the "John" that's due to his invention of the toilet. I just think this is so neat to find especially since Harrington (an "r" got added on the boat over from England) was my mom's maiden name.
Dustin is still working on his side and have found some very cool and interesting names. He has been able to trace his mom's side back to the 15 and 1600's. He's trying to do his dad's biological parents, not his adoptive parents for some true history and it has been very difficult to locate their "real," not slang, names and true birth or death dates. But if there is anyone that will stick to it...it is Dustin.
Our friends Trey and Meg got started on theirs and so far they have found that Meg's great-great-great-great (or something like that) grandfather was the mayor of Austin and sold some of his land to the state. This land now hosts the state capitol. So if you do it...who knows what you will find!
Dustin will not be taking the New Mexico Bar this week due to our situation. Though it likely would have been fine the worry of "what if" is enough to send you over the edge so he plans to take it in July. Hopefully 2 crying babies in the house won't be too much of a distraction when he is trying to study.
Today, we have a growth scan and our girls should weigh in around 3 lbs! So we're making some headway. I have gained lots of weight this week and my belly has really taken off. All which makes me happy. : ) Tomorrow marks 29 weeks and March 22nd is still our big day! We continue to request your prayers over the approaching weeks as we work to make it to our goal. So far things are going well. The babies are scanning well on the monitor that we do 3 times per day and I am having an increase in contractions but am not feeling them so at this point it is not a concern, but we have learned this process is day by day.

P.S. I'm taking is super easy tomorrow and simply may just not get out of bed. I don't want to risk having Leap Year Babies.

28 Weeks!

We made it! Today marks the start of 28 weeks and only 4 more to go. We have a countdown of days on our board in our room and we have 28 days left.
Yesterday we had a scan with Dr. Higby and will have one weekly from here on out. So far the babies look good. Great heart rates, enough fluid, lots of movement and they are getting big. We'll do their next growth scan either Monday or Tuesday of next week.
This past week was one of ups and downs for us. I had heavy contractions (for me) on Thursday of last week and on Monday. But after an injection and IV they calmed down both times, indicating it wasn't real labor. So I'm taking it even more easy than I was. All I have to focus on right now is keeping those girls in the womb and healthy! We now monitor the babies 3 times per day for an hour. Which means I get 3 naps in --- the sounds of two heart beats bumping on the monitor next to me rocks me to sleep. It is so calming and peaceful to hear.
We set our C-Section date for Thursday, March 22, 2012. (I love even numbers and Dustin and I were both born on a Thursday so if possible I want this for these girls too!) It's on all of my Dr.'s calendars and having this as a goal gives me something to look forward to. Though I wanted to push to 33 weeks I don't want to be greedy or take my chances especially with this vesa previa. We'll be very pleased and blessed to get 32 weeks and 1 day. : )

Maternity Pictures

It was a beautiful day in San Antonio yesterday and I got to go outside.....to do maternity pictures! I wasn't too fond of this idea...ever, but after some persuasion from nurses and family I know I won't regret having done this. It was so refreshing to just get dressed like a normal person!

2/14/2012

This, by far, was the most special Valentine's Day I've ever had. Being in the hospital naturally limits your Valentine's Day options....so Dustin brought our love for gourmet food to the hospital.
He brought a card table, purchased a table cloth and set up shop. I got a dozen red roses yesterday with 2 pink ones in the bouquet for Caroline and Claire. : ' )
A 5 course dinner was catered by a company here in San Antonio. We had a wedge salad, mushroom bisque, Filet Mignon with a mushroom glaze, steamed veggies and potato au gratin stack. All followed by a cherry crisp! It was soooooooooo much food but absolutely delicious. The thought that went in to this and the fact that it was a total surprise to me is breathtaking. We traded in the wine and the fancy-smancy restaurant in for peach tea and in my antepartum room and IT WAS PERFECT! I will never forget this day.

C, C & H's 14 roses

Yummy cookies from one of our favorite bakeries.

Dustin setting up.

I even wore normal people clothes for dinner! And from this I can tell my tummy is growing. : ) We end most nights with a wheel chair ride around the hospital and outside for a bit for some fresh air and last night we went by the nursery to see all of the Valentine's Day babies.

So being here so long and knowing we still have several weeks to go we know we must take care of our nurses. Dustin got them Valentine's Day cookies as well. I know what he was thinking when he bought them....oh heart's....I will take them! Little did he know that it was like a puzzle where you put them together and you have lingerie! : o He was completely embarrassed but the nurses LOVED them. As one nurse said well if there is a department that it is completely appropriate for these cookies it would be the antepartum / Labor & Delivery unit. : )

(You can see it with the purple ones!)



Today marks 27 weeks! The stats for this week are amazing and really puts us over a "hump." Mortality at this gestational age is less than 5%. Things are still going really well and our nurses and Dr.'s are very pleased with the tracings of the girls' heartbeats. I am now monitored 2 times per day for 1 hour each time and have minimal contractions or irritability which is entirely normal given where we are and the fact I have 2 babies trying to find room in there. They like to both show off, swim around and race their heart rates. So far they are acting like 32 week babies via their heart tracings so we're all very pleased with this. Dr. Gordon rounded on us last night and if things keep going as well as they are he doesn't see why we wouldn't push delivery to 33 weeks. He and his partner don't always agree on this, but we knew this going in. Dustin wants to take them as soon as we arrive to the safest place in their gestational age (so 32 weeks) and I would like to push it if heart rates for us all prove to be ok, their tracings are appropriate and if there has been no bleeding from the previas. We'll make this decision once we get a little further but I always like to have a goal in mind. So the prayers are working! 35 or so more days to go. : )

P.S. Dustin and I received a gift and it didn't have a name on it. It was shipped to our house approximately a week and a half to two weeks ago but no tag was attached. It was a swaddle so if this is from you please let me know so we can thank you appropriately!!