A few more pics

Ella and Beck- 8 days old

Grandma (Brandon's mom)

Grandpa (Brandon's dad)

Mimi and Beck and Ella


The babies are doing well. We are crossing our fingers that they will be home soon!!! Ella is finally starting to eat a little better and the last time they had any Apnea or Brady issues was on the 26th. I really think it has a lot to do with the co-bedding. They have both gotten much better since they started sleeping together! :)

8 day update and pics.

Check my hubby's blog for new pics and an update.

Happy Anniversary Lover Boy!

One year ago today, you agreed to be my husband for the rest of our lives. It was one of the happiest days of my life, rivaling only the births of all of our children. You have made my life complete and more wonderful than I could ever imagine. The love I feel for you is greater than any other love I have ever had.

You have been patient with me beyond belief, I would have left myself several times over the past few years but you stuck it out. You had to remind me that I really could be the person I wanted to be. Your love and support has made me into a better person, wife, and mother.

You also reminded me how to have fun again and let go. It has been a life changing experience. I really can't imagine how I lived without it for all of those years.

The first time I met you, I would have never imagined that I would have this life with you. I thought you were pompous, arrogant, and stuck up. And through the years I got to know you better and still thought you were a bit odd with all of your organic cooking and lavish meals out on the town.

And yet just a few years later you started to call me. We were both going through very rough times and you just wanted to talk. We talked a lot!Through time you became one of my best friends. I could and still can tell you anything. And then there was that day where the sparks flew and something new ignited. The rush was fabulous! I really thought that we could just have a little fun and maybe have a fling. Boy was I wrong.

Through the past few years we went through many different stages of our relationship, until I realized that I couldn't imagine my life without you. You told me you knew it way before I was ready to admit it. But since I am a little stubborn it took me a little longer to see it. So we decided since our last marriages failed we wouldn't attempt it again and just stay engaged for 50 years. I thought it was a great idea and would still be happy with our relationship if we would have stayed there. But I would have never known the joy and happiness I know today.

When we decided to finally get married both of our lives changed. Something clicked that I didn't know was even there to click. Then I realized this is what was missing in all of the other relationships I had.

I had found my soul mate, my best friend, and my lover.

Saying our vows on the side of the mountain was the most romantic and meaningful day I have ever had. The love I felt for you that day has just blossomed and grown like I never knew it could.



And now you have given me two beautiful children to love and cherish along with our other two. Our family is perfect and now complete. I love you for that more than you can imagine.

Happy anniversary!!!

Baby Update

The babies are still improving slowly. They both graduated to regular baby beds this week and just today we found out that (due to the number of deliveries preformed at the hospital today -11 total!!) they need the regular baby beds and are going to let us co-bed our babies!!! We are so excited!

They both had Brady's today which means that our NICU clock is back to 5 more days in. Beck has listened to me when I told him he needs to eat to get out of the NICU and he is eating like a champ, both with the breast feeding and bottle. Ella is still acting like a princess and only eats when she feels like it. I keep telling her that she needs to start eating regularly so that we can all go home! :)

We were able to take H and B up to the nursery to see the babies through the glass yesterday. With RSV and flu season they don't allow anyone under 14 (or 18 can't remember which) in the NICU at all. So the kids haven't gotten to see their new brother and sister at all. But they were super excited to see them yesterday.

Still trying to get my milk production up to par. And luckily I have made a fabulous contact with a wonderful woman, Cara, that is a lactation consultant. She is so super helpful and so nice!! I think with her help we will make this breast feeding happen!! :)

And right now I think the greatest invention ever is the hands free pumping bra!!! I can actually get things done, like read a book or talk on the phone while pumping now!! It is fabulous!

Devastating

My deepest condolences go out to my blog friend Beth. We had emailed a bit back and forth about twin pregnancies and I find her someone I can really relate to. She was pregnant with twin boys and just lost them at 19 weeks. She was so excited about them coming and I cannot even imagine what she is going through right now. Please keep her in your thoughts.

Updates

Check out my hubby's blog for more updates!!

Quick Day 4

Sneaking this in while Deb is pumping. Both are off of supplemental air and have had their canulas removed. They removed both of their IVs. The girl developed a little rash between her legs from all the Houdini efforts to escape the swaddling. They are both breathing well and having very few episodes. Ella has latched on well and breast fed a couple of times. Beck is doing well from a bottle and will probably get a a shot at the nipple soon.

My grandparents are enjoying their time here and spending as much time with them as possible. We got out of the hospital yesterday and enjoyed good food and our own bed. In fact I think we are going to return to that bed and sneak another hour or so while we can. More later.

Brandon

Day 3 Update

Well good news and other news. The twitters are doing well for the most part. They are on the borderline for the jaundice test, so they may be going under the lights this afternoon. They have lost a little weight as expected but it is still less than 10% which is acceptable. I was able to pump enough milk for them to get a taste and they gobbled it right up. And we got to hold them during the feeding. Considering it was the first time we have been able to since right after they were born, we left very happy. The biggest concern is that they both experienced an Apnea episode this morning. This buys them an automatic 5 day extension in the NICU. The nurses commented that they did it one after the other as if they planned. Ella had another episode while we were in there but it was pretty minor.

While we are concerned and sad that they are going to be staying we would much rather have them under 24/7 supervision and monitoring in case it happens again. It was a little scary having Ella do that while Brandon was holding her. We completely understand and support the nurses and dr's decision, but of course we still wish they could come home with us.

They are going to let us hold them more and co-bed them in the nursery if they are free of all monitoring and IV equipment. We are already working out our visitation schedule for when we leave tomorrow.

Oh yeah...I get to leave tomorrow! It will be so nice to be back in my own bed. I have honestly bounced back from this c-section faster than I thought. I am feeling pretty good and getting around pretty well. Brandon is still waiting on me without hesitation.

Here are a few pics from today. I will keep you posted daily.

Dad feeding Beck

The NICU staff made signs for the little ones. Fits our sock monkey theme pretty well.

Sleeping Beauty



Snoozing Rhino Boy. Notice his IV in his head. He kept pulling it out of his arm.

Me and Ella

Peek-a-boo Princess

Napping after lunch

Baby Update

Thanks to everyone for all the sweet notes!! They have really brightened our days up!!!

Beck and Ella are still in the NICU. They still have some fluid in their lungs and they are on supplemental oxygen. Beck is making excellent progress and Ella is still a little bit behind but catching up due to her possible later conception (there is a chance she was fertilized a few days after Beck was). They are both taking formula through a feeding tube (my milk has yet to come in) but hopefully starting tomorrow we will be able to push or bottle feed breast milk. We are really hoping that their little lungs clear up soon. We are not looking forward to the possibility of having to leave the hospital with out them. But if that's what they need, it is what we will do. So please keep them in your thoughts!

We are a bit stressed about it all right now but we know that it will all work out. And I really wouldn't be able to handle any of it without my awesome support staff that starts with my fabulous hubby, the posse, my dear friend Heather (who did this all but with a 26 weeker, she is a great help!!) , and our parents. Thanks everyone!

If you haven't checked it out yet, go to the Sugar blog to see some fabulous images from the day of the birth.

Twenty Fingers and Twenty Toes

Aunt Jenny here from in Deb's room. Mom and Dad are eating a little dinner--Dad some luke warm chicken and Mom some delicious broth and jello.

The babies were born at 12:21 and 12:23. The boy stuck out his feet first before his sister. He weighed in at 6 lbs 9 oz. The sweet little girl followed her brother and came in at 5 lbs 6 oz. Everything went smoothly.

With some grunting and low temperatures, the nurse decided to take them back to the newborn nursery to sit under the warmers for a while. At five pm, we found out that they had fluid on their lungs and needed to be transferred to the NICU. They will be fed through an IV to help get the fluid off their lungs and will hopefully be there no more than a few days.

She's tired, but she's amazing. Deb looks awesome and is holding up great. The big brother and sister got to see the little ones through the window before they were transferred.

We couldn't be more thrilled to see these babies. One thing is for sure--Brandon has a mini-me!

Today is the DAY!!

We getting ready to go to the hospital and so very excited!!! We actually got some sleep last night and we are feeling good. We'll keep you all updated!! Check the Sugar blog later today (this evening probably) for some snaps that she'll be taking documenting our journey as well!

Babies are a coming

After a dr.'s appt today it was decided that the babies are going to join us on Wednesday...yes this Wednesday. We will be exactly 36 weeks that day. My body is just running out of space and making my dr. worry about my c section scar rupturing. I am measuring at 44 weeks. I feel huge and super uncomfortable. We are super excited to meet our little ones!! We'll keep you all updated!

Nursery and Quilts

Just had to post a few pics. We have our temporary nursery set up, (we are moving in July so we need some place to put the babies until then!) the house feels like its about to burst but its all working. We turned the formal living room into the nursery, so we found some curtains to put up in the opening to be able to close the room off when needed. We have only put up one crib because we plan on co sleeping the babies in the beginning. And we (aka Brandon) really don't feel like putting up and taking down 2 cribs before we have to move!



My fabulous step mom made some super duper cute quilts for the babies. We wanted to go with a sock monkey theme and wanted something super simple and she was able to deliver on that plus some. She did a fabulous job!!!!



I also include some pics of the dogs guarding the room. Ever since we set it up they like to go in there to lay down and make sure no one touches anything. They are ready for the babies to come!



We also rearranged the seats in the van today and put in the car seat bases for the babies. We wanted to make sure we had it all right before these two made their appearance! Its been a while since we have had to do this type of thing, I'll just say it was a bit of an adventure.

My biggest advice for any new parents to be is to put all of the "stuff" together before your baby/babies come. Because if we would have tried to do this sleep deprived there would of been a lot of broken parts! And for those of you who haven't put a pack and play together in the last 6 years, if you get a new one with all the bells and whistles, its a lot harder than it used to be!! :)

35 weeks

So the Dr. told me if we make it to valentines day we will be doing really well. And by golly here we are!

I was going to write a super sweet sappy blog about my hubby but truthfully my brain is just way too tired to come up with the words. So all I will say tonight is that I am the luckiest girl in the world to have such a patient loving husband who makes me laugh daily. ( i mean if you have laughter and love what else do you need?) And he sure isn't bad to look at either! I love you baby!


I am getting huge! I really don't know if I can expand any more. I only have 2 shirts left that will fit and I refuse to go and buy anything else!

We have everything ready for these babies to come and I even have my hospital bag packed and in the car.

My belly looks lopsided (see front view of belly below) more often than not. And we all enjoy just watching it morph into new weird shapes.

I get plenty of looks when we go out to the store from all sorts of people. I'm sure they are wondering when I will "pop" but as of yet I haven't had anyone ask me when it will happen. I just figure I must be really big and they just don't want to embarrass me. LOL :)

All that I keep on thinking is that the plastic surgeon will be my best friend a few years down the road and my belly and boobs will look nice and perky again. ;) I did ask my ob if he could take care of a tummy tuck while he was doing the c section but he said it wasn't on his list of services. :(

34 weeks 5 days

Just had another dr.'s appt today. This weekly appointment thing is nice here at the end, it gives us a little peace of mind!

Everything is still looking good. No more dilation, and nothing else seems to be moving or changing. YEA!!!

It has started getting a little uncomfortable lately. I think they have both flipped into the breech position. When we heard the heartbeats today it looked like both babies were head up. At least we have the c section scheduled. :) They have been jamming their heads (I think) into my ribs the last few days. It hasn't felt that nice.

Still having lots of Braxton Hicks contractions,but not too many to worry about. I feel little baby feet still hitting my bladder and now pounding on my cervix as well. Its real nice.

We'll be hitting 35 weeks in no time! 21 days left!! I think we'll make it!!!

My other motivation to make it is that my super Dr. will be out of town for a week starting next week, and we don't want to have to deal with any babies coming while he's gone. So I'll be on the couch with my feet up, just waiting.

Fashion Show and dog puke

We had a super fun day today!

First of all I got to sleep in until 10:30...that was nice, I won't have many more days like that for the next 3 years at least.

So after we were all up and moving, we decide it was lunch and errand time. We had a nice lunch at some restaurant out on the patio...for those of you not in Texas, we had a fabulous 60 degree day today- it was beautiful! Kids fed the ducks tortilla chips and all was nice and calm (even if my hubby decided to have a margarita in front of me, which I have been craving this entire pregnancy! But I did have a sip and boy was it nice.)

Then we went off to Babies r us to get one more thing for the babies. (its a never ending cycle, just like when you are doing home improvement and you go to home depot 30 times a day)

After we came home I had a nice nap (one again, I really think the babies are stealing whatever energy I have just to get me ready for when they arrive!!) and when I woke up I was treated to a lovely fashion show.

The kids decided a fashion show was just the thing for this afternoon. I got to see a French bumble bee, Captain Underpants, Princess Belle, Captain Underpants being Buzz Lightyear, Sleeping beauty, Asian princess (with her dress on that mimi and papa dave brought back from China), and Captain Underpants as a clown. It was quite the fashion show! And I unfortunately I was too lazy to get up off the couch to get the camera and document this. But it was quite entertaining. :)

So then I decide we need to get up and moving again to go to the store if we wanted to have anything for dinner. And as we are walking out what do I see? I nice big pile of dog puke. Can I tell you how happy I ma that I no longer have any morning sickness? I would of added to that pile. And can you also imagine how graceful I looked trying to clean this up? Since hubby was at work I had no option but to do it myself, with my 40+ week twin belly sticking out and getting in my way. And the whole time I'm cleaning this up I am getting a full commentary on what the throw up smells like, it was real nice. This is not an experience I wish to duplicate anytime in the near future. I really did contemplate letting the dogs out the front door and seeing if they found their way home again, but I didn't follow through.

And because I just read something about Pollyanna's "Glad Game", I'll just say I'm really glad it was just dog throw up and not diarrhea, because if it had been the second one, the dogs would have been let out onto the highway(not really but it would have been played out in my mind over and over again). Don't mess with a pregnant woman and her sense of smell!

I really think I need some chocolate...

34 Week Update

We got to see our sweet little ones via sonogram yesterday at the dr's office. It was very cool. We could see them practicing how to breathe, hiccuping, and kicking each other. :) We could see that they both have a little hair on their heads already.

The boy is still kicking me in the bladder daily and kicking the girl in the head as well. What a nice brother! We got to figure out what body parts have been poking and prodding me lately.

The girl, it seems, is laying basically across my belly instead of being anywhere close to the cervix. And we figured out that her hands and feet are part of the belly movement baby show we watch nightly.

I'm glad we had already decided on doing a c section because from the looks of things we wouldn't of had a choice. No one is in the right position to come out naturally! They could still flip but I really don't know if there would be enough room in there to do anything else!!

The weight guesstimate of the babies looks pretty good. The boy looks like he is weighing 4lbs 9oz and is about 16.9" long. The girl is 4lbs 3oz and about 16" long. I am so amazed that they are that big already!

We are coming down the home stretch! We are planning on delivering on March 3rd. (Which is really soon!!!) We seem to have everything we think we need and probably quite a lot that we don't need either.

My cervix seems to be not moving or changing anymore, which is a good thing. We seem to be on track for our delivery date. Unless my body or these babies change their mind, because it can happen now at any time.

The couch is still my best friend. We hang out a lot together. My lovely hubby still waits on my every need. And that is very dangerous, a girl gets used to these things!

We have had a housekeeper come and help us out about twice a month and I have to say it is really nice! (thanks dad and malinda!!) I was able to work my budget magic and figure out how to work her in to it, I think it is a totally necessary expense. Our house has never looked better. And it takes care of some of these nesting urges that I can't fulfill!!

We are ready to meet these two. My big girl just can't wait! And our big boy is even drawing pictures for them. Now the just need to bake a bit longer.

My first Valentine of the year

My sweet little man gave this to me today. He's in kindergarten and just learning how to write and spell. It just melts my heart seeing all of it coming together. And of course I love how sweet he still is to me. I know it won't last long, so I will savor every moment I get!!! And of course being super preggo and emotional I get all teary eyed every time I look at it, so I thought I would share.

Huge!!!! 33 weeks 3 days

Can I tell you how huge I feel right now?!?!? Everyone keeps telling me I look great, but are any of them carrying these babies!! (Even though I do appreciate hearing it, I know I'm huge!)

I'm exhausted as well today. (You were right Amy, I did pay for all of that standing when I got home. At least the couch was welcoming and I got a 4 hour nap!) We had a fabulous day. We threw a surprise baby shower for one of our great friends and fellow posse member Megan.



And the best part of it all, is that we actually surprised her. She really had no clue!! I love it when that actually works. She is one of the sweetest, best people I know and I was so glad to be able to give a little love back to her, especially with all that she has done for all of us!! We are all so excited and can't wait to meet her new little man in a little more than a month. And best of all the twins will have a playmate!! :)

Here is a small tribute for Tracey...

Here is a shot of dueling bellies...I think mine wins alone in size!!


Here is a throw back to almost exactly 2 months earlier...my how we've grown!



And a shot of the Sugar Gang