Two more weeks!

I have really been slacking on my blogging!! The day is getting so close and will be here before we know it. Two more weeks until we hold our precious little boys in our arms. November 15^th at 11:00 am!!  After all of our twin to twin transfusion scares the boys are looking excellent! Monday was our last appointment at Shands Hospital in Gainesville.  As many of you know we were contemplating coming back to Tallahassee for the delivery. We love our doctor here and Tallahassee Memorial Hospital makes us feel a lot more at home than the chaos at Shands. I have two more office visits with our doctor before the big day, also I go weekly for non-stress tests to monitor the babies heart beats and my contractions.  On Monday my belly was measuring at a whopping 43 weeks!! None of my clothes completely cover my belly anymore and just walking to the kitchen and to the bathroom is getting difficult and painful these days. Getting in/out of the car takes a LONG time, and if it weren’t for my boppy pillow I would never get a wink of sleep. We found out that TMH does not have a nursery anymore so the babies will be right next to us in our room! I know Greg is going to win daddy of the year award because he is so ready to take on the challenge of taking care of the boys while I’m recovering from my C section in the hospital. Now that our shock of having twins has worn off we could not imagine it any other way. We feel so lucky and blessed that God has placed these two little boys in our lives. Hopefully these last two weeks do not feel like an eternity! Tuesday we got some really great profile pictures of the boys. Their little faces look so adorable :) Also they found a lot of hair on their heads!! So on that note to my precious little boy’s mommy and daddy are waiting for you so we can shower you with loving hugs and kisses!!

Hello 33 Weeks!!!!

Wow we never thought we would make it this far! Last week went very well at Shands the babies are doing great! We are now on weekly ultrasound and NST schedules. NST is where they monitor my contractions and the babies heart beats for 20 min just to make sure they are not in distress. Baby A is 3 pounds 14oz, and baby B is 4 pounds 3oz. We are a little bummed that they are 5oz. apart but the doctors say it is completely normal and happens more towards the end of the pregnancy. Everything is going so well that we are seriously considering switching back here to the Tallahassee doctors for delivery. I am trying to eat a lot to fatten Baby A up. We met with Tallahassee Pediatrics last week and loved them. We are going to try and meet with a few more pediatricians just to make sure we want to go with them. Our insurance is very tricky! I am still 1cm and 70% effaced. Also I am still having contractions off and on but I have my medicine that usually stops them. Hopefully next week I can start doing all my baby monitoring here in Tallahassee twice a week until the big day! We go back to Shands tomorrow and then back to my OB here is Tally on Tuesday. My belly is huge! I am now measuring at 42 weeks prego!!! I am still trying to finish all the thank you cards for the shower. I have been sleeping a lot! I am back to my mint chocolate chip ice cream cravings, and still hooked on pumpkin pie.  Everything for the babies is finished so we are just anxiously awaiting their arrival! I have been having dreams about them every night. We are also still reading our books for helpful hints on how to take care of the twins in the most efficient way possible. Hopefully tomorrow I will have some more good news to post!

Night at the Hospital

This week on Monday we meet with our OB here in Tally. He was very supportive and had no problem with continuing to see us here so we had a doctor here just in case I go into pre term labor. Pre term labor is very common in twin pregnancies. I am very lucky that we are almost to 32 weeks. He also discussed delivery options with us in more detail. We feel very comfortable with our decision to have a C section. It is the safest delivery for the twins. However both a vaginal delivery and a C section have their pros and cons. Most of the time in a vaginal delivery you can only get one baby out safely, usually the other baby turns transverse  (which means horizontal) and they have to go in and do an emergency c section to get him out. This could potentially cause major problems with the heart functioning properly with this baby. Also you could deliver the umbilical cord first which is not safe either. With a C section it is a major surgery. There is risk of blood loss and infection for me in addition to a few other problems, but for the babies it is the safest. The babies will be out in a matter of minutes and into the hands of neonatologists if they have any respiratory problems. Tuesday we went back to Shands for an ultrasound appointment. Tuesday morning I was having contractions when we woke up at 5am but I just figured they were braxton hicks. When they still had not stopped by 10 and were getting stronger we discussed it with the nurse. They were very worried about how swollen my feet were ( which didn’t make sense they were swollen because I had not been walking on them at all) so they got the Doctor. When he found out about the contractions he called Triage and had them ready and waiting for me. I made the biggest mistake by not eating at all that morning and man did I regret it!!!! Greg asked the doctor if I could eat and he said no just in case they could not stop the contractions and they needed to do an emergency c section.  We got to triage around 11, they hooked the babies up to the monitors and monitored my contractions ,bp, and pulse. I was only 1 cm dilated and 70% effaced and my cervix was getting soft. When I was in triage a few weeks ago here in Tally I was not dilated at all and my cervix was still hard. They monitored me all day and kept checking my cervix every few hours. They were going to  see if labor progressed anymore on its own before they gave me any meds. Our doctor at Shands is comfortable delivering twins after 32 weeks. Around 6pm I was still having contractions but I had not dilated anymore. The nurse explained to me that labor was like a marathon and since this is my first pregnancy I could be dilated 1 cm for weeks. They gave me some medicine and decided we should stay in the hospital just in case it didn’t work and labor progressed. Also I finally got to eat! My amazing husband got me olive garden take out! All I wanted was pasta! He made me feel like a princess in the hospital and didn’t leave my side.  Wednesday morning they checked me again and I was still 1 cm. They monitored me and babies for a little while longer and then finally we were discharged and they sent me home with some meds to stop the contractions again if they started back up. We are so happy they were able to stop labor because we want our angels to stay in the womb a little while longer so they will be healthy and strong when they are born. However, after everything that has happened with the twins we feel very blessed they have been able to stay in the womb this long because there was a point when they thought they would have to be delivered at 28 weeks. Getting to 32 weeks is a major accomplishment! The boys are getting much bigger now! On Tuesday the fluid levels had gone back up so now we have been put back on a weekly ultrasound schedule till the end. We have a follow up appointment at Shands on Monday so we will see what the Doctor has planned. Hopefully it will be a few more weeks before we welcome our boys! It has been a stressful few days so I slept a lot today. Other than that I have only felt a few contractions. My new obsession and pregnancy craving is pumpkin pie!! I have gained 4 more pounds :( My whole body aches during the night and I can pretty much barley walk ( well waddle I call it). At least at the most we have 6 weeks left. I am still reading up on what to expect the first year with the babies. Next Tuesday we have an appointment with Tallahassee Pediatrics here in town to pick a pediatrician. So hopefully I will have lots of updates for everyone next week!!!

We have a date!

We eagerly waited for our appointment at Shands on Monday to get our scheduled C-Section date. We left very early in the morning, as we do every week. We got up at 5:00am and left the house by 5:30. I look forward to Shands days because Greg always gets me Starbucks! YUM! However, I do not look forward to waking up at the crack of dawn when I have had to get up to pee 10 times the night before. I have gained 5 more pounds which puts my total weight gain at 30 pounds! Ahhh depressing, but I know that it is a good thing because it means the boys are gaining too which is the most important thing. My blood pressure was great but I was still concerned about the problems I have been having with my heart racing. The Doctor seemed concerned as well and he ordered a 24 hour heart monitor for me to wear. It was just like a 24hour EKG test. That was an experience wearing all those wires. We will not get those results back for probably 2 weeks but hopefully sooner. The Doctor still thinks everything with the boys is looking great and the twin to twin transfusion is not presenting itself anymore. He thinks it is possible for me to go to 37 weeks ( amazing) depending on the results of the heart monitoring tests and how the boys continue to look on ultrasound. He scheduled our C-Section for November 15th. Yay! There is a light at the end of this LONG tunnel. Everyone who see's my belly does not think I’m going to make it that far. We will just continue to wait and see. I will be happy if we can at least make it to 35 weeks. Lately Greg and I have been thinking that since the boys are doing fantastic we might want to switch back to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital so we can deliver here. It is definitely a lot to go to Shands weekly and we are not so happy about having to deliver there. However, we want to do whatever is best for the boys. We have an appointment to meet back with our original doctor here in Tally on Monday, and then back to Shands Tuesday. So I will keep everyone updated! I am still having heartburn daily, and my belly is getting even bigger although I really didn’t think it was possible for it to get any bigger. Everywhere we go strangers make comments about how I look like I’m about to pop! The most common comments I get are "Any day now?" Ahhh it’s frustrating to explain to everyone " I’m pregnant with Twins!". Greg and I are trying to research everything we can about parenting twins, breastfeeding twins, how to tell our twins apart, and any other information and tips we can get our hands on that will make our journey with the boys a little easier. Next week will be 31 weeks so I’m hoping the time keeps flying by! I’m going to get my hospital bag ready this week just in case I were to go into pre-term labor (which happens a lot with twin pregnancies). Well I just indulged in some pumpkin pie and my belly is full so time to say night night!

Pregnancy Pics!

30 Weeks :)

Our appointment went extremely well last week!! Both of the babies fluids are in the normal range now which is fantastic! Baby A weighs 3 pounds 1 ounce, and Baby B weighs 3 pounds! We are so happy that the boys are strong and healthy and there is no sign of twin to twin transfusion anymore. Our doctor said that he is going to schedule our c-section 3-4 weeks from now.  We go back to Shands on Monday which is the day he is going to schedule the date! We are so excited that we are getting close! Things have been going pretty well until last weekend the day of the big game! I was feeling a lot of pressure and sharp pains so I finally decided we should go to Triage. I could not even get up into Greg’s truck which was awful so we ended up taking the car. The pain was so bad I could not walk so Greg got me a wheel chair. When we got to the room they hooked me and the babies up to the monitors. I was having lots of contractions and my blood pressure was very high, and so was my pulse. The babies heart beats were very strong and they were squirming all around. I don’t think they liked the loud noise of the heart monitors. After a while of monitoring the babies were perfectly fine, but my blood pressure was still really high, my pulse,  and I was still contracting. The doctor decided to give me a pre term labor shot to stop the contractions, however my pulse was so high they couldn’t give it to me so they went to plan B which was an oral medication. It worked for a while but then I was still contracting. They decided to try a different oral medication to help with my blood pressure and contractions. Also, they did some blood work to rule out preeclampsia and they did a fibronection test which detects pre term labor. Both came back negative which was great. After a little while longer of monitoring they decided that I was having severe round ligament pain and that I would probably be ok to rest at home instead of staying the night in the hospital. I was sure I was going into labor the pain was soooo bad! Thank God it was just round ligament pain because the boys need a little bit more time before they make their grand entrance.  Needless to say it was a very scary trip!! We are really excited to go to Shands tomorrow to find out what day the boys will be born! In other news heartburn has recently taken over my life once again and I have figured out each night I get up to pee every two hours. Bed rest is still soooo boring, and my belly is getting so big we cant believe it! We are so ready to hold our little boys in our arms! I am finally posting some pics today that we took at Maclay Gardens! Yes I know im supposed to be in the bed but I couldn’t resist getting up for a while to take some pregnancy pictures!

28 Weeks

So we met with our specialist on Monday and everyone is amazed as to how well the babies and I are doing. The fluid levels are getting so much better and both babies hearts are strong. Also, the babies are extremely active which is another good sign! The doctor thinks that if things continue to go this well I could carry them to 37 weeks. He will not let me go past that. I’m so miserable these days I’m not sure if I’m going to make it that long. My belly is measuring at 37 weeks prego!! Its amazing because I’m 28 weeks! Those boys are going to take after their daddy, I just know it! Next week is going to be exciting because on Tuesday they are measuring their weights again. We are hoping and praying that they are over 3 pounds, although by the looks of my belly I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. Well each week we get more and more excited. We are so happy that the problems have subsided and twin to twin transfusion is not looking like its going to develop anymore. It has been extremely stressful and scary the past few months. We just can’t wait to hold them in our arms! Bed rest is extremely boring but I think it is working! Now we just have to watch out for preterm labor because of all the pressure.  This weekend we are hoping to take some maternity pictures! I think Greg has gotten everything ready for their arrival and we finally tracked down two baby books to bring to the hospital. The only thing we have not bought yet is a playard.  So I will be trying to keep myself busy searching the internet for good reviews on them. Every day I watch making room for multiples on TLC to try and pick up any helpful hints we might need! It’s definitely going to be an adventure with the twins, but I know we are ready! I will definitely be posting our pictures this weekend :)