Three Day Check-Up

We went to the pediatrician this morning.

Henry weighed in at 6 lbs and Mary Catherine weighed 5 lbs 2 oz.

Henry has lost more weight than MC. I'm not surprised because she eats more at each feeding, or at least nurses more consistently and longer.

Their jaundice still is at okay levels. At the hospital their levels were 7-9, and they aren't concerned until the levels are 19-20. The doctor said we're good to go until the two week check up, unless I am concerned about anything beforehand.

Trusting, aren't they?

We're Home!

We're home. We got home around 1 pm today.

The twins are doing well. They have been tandem nursing the last three times, so that is helpful. Thank goodness for the twin nursing pillow my friend Sharon let me borrow.

I'm still recovering slowly, but surely. Kinsey said I looked sleepy and have looked sleepy since I had them. Hmm...I guess the whole six hours of sleep I've had since Tuesday night isn't working for my appearance.

I will post more pics tomorrow on here and fb.

Recovering...

The twins are doing well. Praise the Lord.

Mary Catherine is more alert and nursing better than Henry. However, considering all Henry went through during his birth, I would be out of it too.

I am so thankful that I did not have a c-section. When I have more energy I will provide the details of the experience for those who care to know.

I would like to ask for you to pray for me. My recovery is extremely slow and considerably more painful than with the other three. I am not sleeping well, and as to be expected, nursing twins is proving to take quite a bit of time.

I am not really into small talk right now, so forgive the neglect of the phone. Once I get some energy I will return phone calls.

I know things will improve every day, especially with prayers.

Hopefully, Jason will figure out how to feed this to my facebook page. We cannot access facebook at Wake Med.

Tomorrow is the Day!

I'll skip the details, but I went to the doctor today and he thought that we should move up the induction to tomorrow.

We will go in at 7 am.

We're trying for a 'normal' induction. It could end up in a c-section, but let's pray that doesn't happen.

We're excited, but knowing that I'm going to go in and experience labor is like being excited about getting hit by a truck in order to win a million dollars. It's going to end well, but the path is painful.

By the end of the day we will have two healthy babies, Lord willing.

Look forward to receiving an email or check facebook. Jason will update you as soon as he can.

Thank you for your prayers.

Can I?

Can I handle one more question?

Can I smile and answer one more time,

"When are you due honey? You are huge!"
"Wow! You must be overdue."
"Are you having twins?"
"Are these your first children?"
"What are you having? A girl and a boy? Are they identical?" (Um, no...)
"Are all of these kids yours?"
"Were you trying?"
"Don't you know what causes this?"
"Are you going to have more?"
"We were just talking over there and we were wondering when you were due and if you are having twins or triplets?"

Over and over and over and over and over...

I think that I am no longer going to ask pregnant women any questions. I am going to ignore the fact that they are pregnant. I don't care if they have 20 children following behind them like brand new ducklings. I have walked in different shoes and it has changed me.

I know I sound cynical. I know that people are usually well meaning.

I just want to go to the store or a restaurant without being gawked at like the center act at the circus.

Decisions, Decisions...

I went back for another appointment today to actually speak with one of my doctors.

At this point we have three options, depending on the results of our ultrasound next Thursday.

1-Both babies are head down=normal induction Friday morning

2-Girl baby head down and boy baby breech=go for normal induction on Friday, knowing that there is a big possibility that I will end up a c-section for boy baby if he does not turn during the birthing process. The dr. said he could possibly be delivered breech, but all of this is kind of dealing with the unknown of the situation.

The drawback is having to go through labor (pain), and potentially the recovery of both a normal delivery and c-section delivery. The positive is delivering 5 days sooner.

3-Girl baby head down and boy baby breech=wait until the following Tuesday and have my scheduled c-section.

We have to decide what we want to do on Thursday.

Pray for both babies to be head down and STAY head down. Pray that we will make the correct decision regardless.

36 Week Ultrasound

We went to the doctor's today for an ultrasound.

Baby Girl 'A' is head down and weighs 5 lbs 8 oz (according to the measurements of her head, belly and leg)

Baby Boy 'B' is still breech. His head is at the top of my belly. He weighs 6 lbs 3 oz.

The tech said that usually at this point they will gain 1/2 lb a week, but she was not sure about twins. I think that is a good estimate, but we won't really know until they are born. They each gained 4 oz a week since my last appointment. So if that trend of 4 oz/week is true for us then in two weeks they should be around 6 lbs for the girl and 6 lbs 11 oz for the boy.

Right now I'm carrying 12 lbs of baby, plus all the other stuff.

I will go back tomorrow and meet with the doctor. If anything changes I will be sure to update.

Things are going well. Thank you for the prayers.

Three Weeks Left...

I may go before, but if I don't, I have exactly three weeks left...

I am not certain, but I am pretty sure this is the longest pregnancy in history. Well, maybe not in actual days, but maybe in 'theory' or perception.

Soon you'll be inundated with pix of two little babies. Just start deleting my emails and ignoring my posts if you get tired of seeing them.

the big 5-0!

I've officially gained 50 lbs.

Wow. I'm not even 5'2". You can imagine what that looks like, pregnant or not. Considering I was trying to lose 10 lbs before I got pregnant, I will have a long road ahead of me after these babies are born.

Let's pray that nursing goes well. It's my only hope to weight loss in a timely manner.

Can you imagine having to lose 60 lbs? Just think about that. Now, some of it will come off initially with the babies, but not as much as you think, at least with me. Jackson was over 9 lbs, plus all the other stuff and I came home like 5 lbs lighter. What????

I'm not one of those cute pregnant people that has babies and ends up back in her jeans in a few weeks. I will be fat for a year, so get used to it.

Schedule for Induction or C-Section

If the babies are head down, then I will be induced on Friday, June 5th.

If the babies are not head down, then I will have a C-section on Tuesday, June 9th. I will be exactly 38 weeks.

I wish the C-Section was sooner, but that is the way the schedule goes when there are only two doctors.

Of course, if I go into labor sooner on my own, then this is all for nothing.

34 Week Check-Up

So, I went to the dr. today for an ultrasound and an appointment with the dr.

Technically, I'm 34 weeks tomorrow. Everything looks good. Baby A (girl) is estimated as weighing 5 lbs and Baby B (boy) is estimated as weighing 5 lbs 12 oz.

One 'problem' is that both babies have decided to turn transverse instead of head down. They are across my belly, head to foot with each other. According to my ob-gyn, it does not appear that I will go into labor any time in the next week. Although he did concede that he is not in charge of that, so anything could happen.

Jason is most likely going out of town (5 hrs away) on Saturday, so I just pray that nothing happens before Saturday.

I am hoping the babies will turn head first before my next appointment in two weeks.

33 Weeks

I did not have an appointment this week. I go next week for an ultrasound and appointment.

It is 7 weeks until my official due date, but the ob-gyn and I have discussed June 5th as a date for being induced, if I do not go before that date. At that point I will be 37.5 weeks, which is 4.5 weeks from today.

I am praying that I make it until at least 36 weeks, which is May 26th. I would like to go longer for the sake of the babies and their health, but I'm being realistic as well.

Low Iron & Ice Crunching

When I am pregnant, I usually have low iron (around 9.5, and it's supposed to be 11). In the past, I have not taken iron supplements b/c they cause my GI track to slow down considerably. Since my energy level isn't usually affected by the low iron, I just suffer through it until the end of my pregnancy.

I thought it was funny when the nurse called me to discuss my low iron and she asked me if I was tired due to the low iron. I told her that I'm pregnant with twins, I home school two children and I have a four year old boy, of course I'm tired! Who wouldn't be tired?

However, one side effect of low iron is the 'crack-like' addiction to crunching ice. Normally, I have zero desire to crunch ice, but with every pregnancy, once my iron levels drop, the addiction increases.

Well, my ob found an iron supplement that doesn't slow your GI track and I have been taking it for almost two weeks.

No more ice crunching. It's gone. I even got a large soda at Cookout after church last night, with pellet ice and didn't even crunch it. Unbelievable really because that ice is the best if you crunch ice. For months now I would go there specifically for their ice. My addiction was so bad that Jackson recognizes Cookout drinks and points them out when he sees them. "Mommy, Mrs. Cooper at church had a drink from Cookout!"

So, if you crunch ice, you probably have low iron. You should try an iron supplement for a few weeks and see if it helps.

32 Week Check-Up

I went to the ob yesterday for my 32 week check up. I did not have an ultrasound. It was a pee in the cup, get weighed, and check your blood pressure appointment.

On a side note, I informed the nurse that it might be the last time I can pee in the cup. If you had a video of me attempting to do that I assure you would win the grand prize on the AFV. Honestly, unless you have the neck of a giraffe and the arms of a gorilla, how are you supposed to do that when you are this large??

I discussed a few of the issues I'm having which are not serious, but just personally aggravating. My dr. said there was nothing he could do about any of them. Nice.

So, in two weeks I go back and get an ultrasound. As of right now, we believe both babies are head down. If it stays that way, we can avoid a c-section.

It's pretty tight in there, so there isn't a ton of movement compared to my other pregnancies. However, the boy baby moves more, or at least I feel it more b/c he's kind of on top (right under my belly button) and the girl baby is underneath him. Her movements are on the inside, so I cannot feel them.

For the sake of the babies, we want to go until at least 36 weeks. If I had my druthers I would go right now, but it's not about me. I have officially reached the miserable stage. It's probably best if you don't ask how I'm doing b/c I don't want to complain and I don't want to lie.

Low Iron & Ice Crunching

When I am pregnant, I usually have low iron (around 9.5, and it's supposed to be 11). In the past, I have not taken iron supplements b/c they cause my GI track to slow down considerably. Since my energy level isn't usually affected by the low iron, I just suffer through it until the end of my pregnancy.

I thought it was funny when the nurse called me to discuss my low iron and she asked me if I was tired due to the low iron. I told her that I'm pregnant with twins, I home school two children and I have a four year old boy, of course I'm tired! Who wouldn't be tired?

However, one side effect of low iron is the 'crack-like' addiction to crunching ice. Normally, I have zero desire to crunch ice, but with every pregnancy, once my iron levels drop, the addiction increases.

Well, my ob found an iron supplement that doesn't slow your GI track and I have been taking it for almost two weeks.

No more ice crunching. It's gone. I even got a large soda at Cookout after church last night, with pellet ice and didn't even crunch it. Unbelievable really because that ice is the best if you crunch ice. For months now I would go there specifically for their ice. My addiction was so bad that Jackson recognizes Cookout drinks and points them out when he sees them. "Mommy, Mrs. Cooper at church had a drink from Cookout!"

So, if you crunch ice, you probably have low iron. You should try an iron supplement for a few weeks and see if it helps.

30 Week Check-Up

I went for my 30 week check up today. I had an ultrasound. Everything looks good.

The girl, 'baby A', is 50% and the tech said she's 3 lbs 4 oz, I think. I might be wrong about the ounces. She's head down and has been since 27 weeks. We cannot even get a picture of her face, only the back of her head.

The boy, 'baby B', is 78% and the tech said he's 4 lbs. He has decided to turn around is currently diagonally breech. I felt pretty lousy a few nights ago when the Birminghams were here visiting and the dr. said it might have been because that's when the baby turned around the wrong way.

If he does not turn around head first in the next six weeks to eight weeks, I will have to have a cesarean section. I am not happy about that possibility. Considering the space will only get tighter, the boy better turn sooner, rather than later.

I was talking with a first time mom in the waiting room and she had an ultrasound today and was waiting for her dr. appt like me. She said she was 33 weeks and the tech said her baby was only 3 lbs 11 oz. She was astonished that my girl was that big and I had two growing in there. I have to tell you that I'm pretty shocked as well. Apparently, if the ultrasounds are correct, I can grow big babies.

Must be all that healthy 'cookout'...

Two Months Left...

I am starting this blog to journal things specifically related to raising our twins, who will be born in about two months.

I want to journal about the blessings and challenges related to the first year of having twins: sleeping, eating, playing, etc...

We have three other children and we are often asked about our parenting styles, how we got our children to be good sleepers, or what we did when our children were newborns.

I am hoping to be able to journal about all these things, plus many more. Considering how busy we will be this next year, this blog is my best shot at a baby book for our twins.

Look for more posts about the remainder of my pregnancy until the twins are born.

Pregnancy Update...

I went to the drs today. All is well. The baby girl (baby A) is measuring on schedule. The baby boy (baby B) is measuring 10 days bigger than the 'due' date. However, the dr. said that is totally fine and doesn't mean much. He will probably level out like the girl has so far.

My ob-gyn said that they will induce me around 37 weeks, if I don't go on my own sooner, which I hope I do not for the sake of the babies. So if we go by that plan, they will be born sometime between the last weekend in May and the first weekend in June. I should have about 14 weeks left.

Please pray that they are either both head down by 37 weeks, or that the baby boy moves to the bottom and is head down. Since he is bigger, if he's at the bottom and is head down, it doesn't matter if baby girl is head down or breech, they'll just pull her out regardless if necessary.

If it's not one of those two scenarios, I will have to have a c-section.

It's official...

It's official...

I'm the heaviest I've ever been in my life.

I am almost 23 weeks and so that leaves 17 weeks to go. I'm sure I'll go a little early, but that is still several months left regardless.

Let's hope nursing two babies helps take this weight off...otherwise Jason will be married to a fat girl.

The Appointment...

So, let me paint you a little picture...

We're in the ultrasound room, I'm on the table, covered in warm goo and Jason is in the chair beside the table. The technician knows that we want to know the genders, but she has to measure every little thing because it's a level II ultrasound.

The tech gets to the sex of baby A (the one lowest)and announces, "It's a girl!".

Silence.

No response from Jason. He immediately grabs his phone and texts Karl.

Jason says he's excited, ya-da ya-da...

About 15 minutes later the technician starts on baby B.

She announces, "It's a boy!"

Jason jumps out of his chair, "Woo-Hoo!"

Now, on this one, I don't have to 'ask' if he's excited. It's pretty clear, don't you think?

He claims that he wanted another boy for Jackson's sake. I originally wanted two of the same for the sake of planning, bedrooms, etc... because I'm a planner, but honestly, I have to say I'm very excited that we are having one of each. The truth is that the Lord knows best and I'm excited with whatever he wants to give us. He knows our future.

The children are very excited because they wanted one of each; one for Jackson and one for them.

The babies are growing well and everything looks great. The boy baby is measuring 18 wk 2 days and the girl baby is measuring 17 wks 5 days. I'm exactly 17 weeks today. I'm glad they are measuring bigger, rather than smaller. Of course, I feel like I'm 8 months pregnant and I'm only 4 months, but it's all worth it.