Here we sit at 1:40. Another 5 hours and 20 minutes stand between our arrival at the hospital! Then we will have to wait another 2 hours and 10 minutes to see those babies!
We are both in good spirits today. Giddy is a good word. Matt worked a half day and Melissa did her nesting one more time this AM. She is currently starving and thirsty as she began fasting at 9AM for the surgery. What a cruel way to end pregnancy for women with C-sections! After pigging out and being told to drink lots and lots of water for 8 months.... she now has to go food/fluid less for 12 hours prior to the surgery. Ouch!
Matt's parents are currently making their long trip up from Georgia and should be arriving in a few hours. We are happy that they were willing to make the trip to share in this special day to meet their #5 and #6 grandbabies!! Melissa's family will also be at the hospital (parents, gramma, sister & family). We are fortunate to have so many loving family members who want to support us on our special night with us! Kudos to you all for waiting the long wait and probably not getting home until the wee hours of the morning. We are sure it will be worth it :D
We keep getting asked what we still need for the babies at this point. In all honesty, if you would just keep us all in your prayers and hope for a quick, safe delivery... that is all we need! We look forward to sharing pictures in the next couple of days and finally being able to introduce you all to our little darlings... Anna Mae & Abigail :D :D :D
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
The Twinsie's Birthday is Set
July, 22 2009. :D
We will finally get to kiss and squeeze our little girls' cheeks soooo much that day! After Dr. Gibson did his normal routine with us today, he decided it would be best to schedule a C-section for this week. He just didn't want to risk us going into labor on my own any longer. This Friday, he happens to not be in town so 7/24 was out. Then we took a step back and looked at Thursday, Jully 23rd. That also happens to be Mimi J's birthday. How cute of a gift to get twin grandbabies! However, there was really no spot for us available for surgery on 7/23. That made us look one more day back and look at Wednesday, July 22nd. That is his surgery day at OSF but he is squeezing us in at 9:00 PM! We hope Dr. Gibson can take a nap after his long day at OSF and before coming to take care of business with us that late at night.
Melissa will have to fast for 12 hours Wednesday. Yikes. Someone might be going into surgery a little crabby. Blood pressure was good today & babies are still breech/transverse (no surprise there). She has to go to the hospital tomorrow for some quick blood work and have a talk with the anesthesiologist. Then its up to Labor & Delivery to talk about our birth plan with the following questions... Can you drop the curatin so we can see the girls being pulled out? Can daddy Matt cut the cord? Can Melissa not be strapped to the table like Jesus so she can touch her babies once they are out? Can we take pictures and video? Can we attempt breastfeeding in the recovery room? ETC.)
Oh, and after speaking with several people with experience & after some of our own consideration, we are going to request visitors (with the exception of family) to hold off from coming to the hospital for a couple of days. Maybe Saturday at the earliest? Since we are having such a late surgery Wednesday, and Melissa is a big wuss for pain... Thursday & Friday may be one heck of a couple of days for us with lack of sleep, adjusting to little ones, learning to breastfeed twins, etc. We want to share our little girls with our family first and foremost, but once we are home we would love to show them off to you all as well!! Don't worry, we will try and post pictures ASAP from the hospital!
Can you believe it's finally time to have some babies? Looks like we may successfully make it to 38 weeks after all... and that's been our goal from day one!! :D
We will finally get to kiss and squeeze our little girls' cheeks soooo much that day! After Dr. Gibson did his normal routine with us today, he decided it would be best to schedule a C-section for this week. He just didn't want to risk us going into labor on my own any longer. This Friday, he happens to not be in town so 7/24 was out. Then we took a step back and looked at Thursday, Jully 23rd. That also happens to be Mimi J's birthday. How cute of a gift to get twin grandbabies! However, there was really no spot for us available for surgery on 7/23. That made us look one more day back and look at Wednesday, July 22nd. That is his surgery day at OSF but he is squeezing us in at 9:00 PM! We hope Dr. Gibson can take a nap after his long day at OSF and before coming to take care of business with us that late at night.
Melissa will have to fast for 12 hours Wednesday. Yikes. Someone might be going into surgery a little crabby. Blood pressure was good today & babies are still breech/transverse (no surprise there). She has to go to the hospital tomorrow for some quick blood work and have a talk with the anesthesiologist. Then its up to Labor & Delivery to talk about our birth plan with the following questions... Can you drop the curatin so we can see the girls being pulled out? Can daddy Matt cut the cord? Can Melissa not be strapped to the table like Jesus so she can touch her babies once they are out? Can we take pictures and video? Can we attempt breastfeeding in the recovery room? ETC.)
Oh, and after speaking with several people with experience & after some of our own consideration, we are going to request visitors (with the exception of family) to hold off from coming to the hospital for a couple of days. Maybe Saturday at the earliest? Since we are having such a late surgery Wednesday, and Melissa is a big wuss for pain... Thursday & Friday may be one heck of a couple of days for us with lack of sleep, adjusting to little ones, learning to breastfeed twins, etc. We want to share our little girls with our family first and foremost, but once we are home we would love to show them off to you all as well!! Don't worry, we will try and post pictures ASAP from the hospital!
Can you believe it's finally time to have some babies? Looks like we may successfully make it to 38 weeks after all... and that's been our goal from day one!! :D
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Good News!
We went back on Friday to get our results from all the blood work, and everything just looked peachy! All levels were either normal or low.... so NO toxemia! The blood pressure spike must have been from my poor food selections from the last week. I really splurged since I had such good numbers the week before. whoops. :D No more splurging.
Girls are breech and one is slightly sideways. If they flip to the head down position now, unbelievable. They have been a little less active these last couple of days. Of course that makes me nervous, but Dr. Gibson likes to reassure us that they are just running out of room and their kicks and tumbles won't be so dramatic as before.
Matt has put the finishing touches on the nursery this week. Shelving is up on the wall for pictures and such. He also put up the curtain rod. Today we are going to sneak out and purchase the curtains and stock up on groceries one last time before their arrival. Did I mention that tomorrow we get the delivery date for Anna Mae & Abigail?? Im keeping my fingers crossed, as he said he wouldn't make it past the 17th either, but here we are on the 19th and still completely pregnant. I would just love to hit our goal of 38 weeks on Wednesday!!
Bags are packed... dog sitter is lined up... Matt & I are rather calm and collected. I think we are ready to join the parenting club :D
Girls are breech and one is slightly sideways. If they flip to the head down position now, unbelievable. They have been a little less active these last couple of days. Of course that makes me nervous, but Dr. Gibson likes to reassure us that they are just running out of room and their kicks and tumbles won't be so dramatic as before.
Matt has put the finishing touches on the nursery this week. Shelving is up on the wall for pictures and such. He also put up the curtain rod. Today we are going to sneak out and purchase the curtains and stock up on groceries one last time before their arrival. Did I mention that tomorrow we get the delivery date for Anna Mae & Abigail?? Im keeping my fingers crossed, as he said he wouldn't make it past the 17th either, but here we are on the 19th and still completely pregnant. I would just love to hit our goal of 38 weeks on Wednesday!!
Bags are packed... dog sitter is lined up... Matt & I are rather calm and collected. I think we are ready to join the parenting club :D
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
We are Officially Full Term! 37 Weeks!
The average pregnancy with twins is 36 weeks and it is such a great feeling surpassing that by another week. I have been reading that 37 weeks is considered "full term" for any pregnancy becuase the lungs of the baby are typically fully developed. So to be sitting here at 37 weeks with two healthy babies is a wonderful feeling. We may still hit our 38 week goal. Maybe not. I'll explain that in a little bit!
We met with the sonographer probably for the last time today, followed by an appointment with Dr. Gibson. The sonogram session was great again... and we finally got an image of Abigail's face! She is so stinkin cute with chubby little cheeks and a little button nose. I am doing my best to wait patiently for their arrival, but I can't wait to kiss those chubby cheeks! Anyway, they are still stinkers and both are sitting breech. I can't blame them, I would hate to stand on my head for weeks on end too. So we will forgive you's for being breech and causing mom to undergo a C-Section. :D Both girls have hair! Unbelievable. Must get that gene from Matt, as I was as bald as a baby's butt for months when I was born. Heartbeats were good and Anna Mae weighed in at 6lbs. 7oz. while Abigail was just a little behind at 6lbs. 2 oz.
Now for the "iffy" news. I put on another 3lbs this week, so that brings total weight gain to 41 lbs. I have high hopes of losing 20 of it that first week out of surgery. We'll see. My blood pressure was HORRIBLE this week and I find it so confusing how it can go from "perfect" the week before to sky high this week. Dr. Gibson is now concerned that I may have toxemia, so he ordered blood work and we are waiting anxiously for the results to come back tomorrow afternoon. Basically, if I do have toxemia, he is going to "pull the plug" on my pregnancy as he put it. I am assuming at the earliest he will deliver the babies first thing next week. I doubt he does it this Friday because we already have an appointment with him at 8:00 A.M. We also have to go back on Monday at 8:45 A.M! We of course hope blood work comes back looking good and I'll get a clean slate of health to wrap up the pregnancy.
He did finally give us the absolute last possible date to deliver... July 28th. That would make us one day shy of 39 weeks!! But he also threw in there, more than likely he will deliver our sweet babies next. So what birthday sounds good? I like July 21st or 23rd. I like those odd numbers. :D
We will keep you posted!
We met with the sonographer probably for the last time today, followed by an appointment with Dr. Gibson. The sonogram session was great again... and we finally got an image of Abigail's face! She is so stinkin cute with chubby little cheeks and a little button nose. I am doing my best to wait patiently for their arrival, but I can't wait to kiss those chubby cheeks! Anyway, they are still stinkers and both are sitting breech. I can't blame them, I would hate to stand on my head for weeks on end too. So we will forgive you's for being breech and causing mom to undergo a C-Section. :D Both girls have hair! Unbelievable. Must get that gene from Matt, as I was as bald as a baby's butt for months when I was born. Heartbeats were good and Anna Mae weighed in at 6lbs. 7oz. while Abigail was just a little behind at 6lbs. 2 oz.
Now for the "iffy" news. I put on another 3lbs this week, so that brings total weight gain to 41 lbs. I have high hopes of losing 20 of it that first week out of surgery. We'll see. My blood pressure was HORRIBLE this week and I find it so confusing how it can go from "perfect" the week before to sky high this week. Dr. Gibson is now concerned that I may have toxemia, so he ordered blood work and we are waiting anxiously for the results to come back tomorrow afternoon. Basically, if I do have toxemia, he is going to "pull the plug" on my pregnancy as he put it. I am assuming at the earliest he will deliver the babies first thing next week. I doubt he does it this Friday because we already have an appointment with him at 8:00 A.M. We also have to go back on Monday at 8:45 A.M! We of course hope blood work comes back looking good and I'll get a clean slate of health to wrap up the pregnancy.
He did finally give us the absolute last possible date to deliver... July 28th. That would make us one day shy of 39 weeks!! But he also threw in there, more than likely he will deliver our sweet babies next. So what birthday sounds good? I like July 21st or 23rd. I like those odd numbers. :D
We will keep you posted!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Did I forget to post week 36?!
They call it placenta brain, and I definetly have it.
Our 36 week appointment was last Wednesday, the 8th of July. We waited a good 30 minutes to get in the office and visited with the doctor for maybe 5 minutes. To our surprise, there was no talk of setting a date for this supposive C-section. I was still only dialated to 1 cm, which according to my baby books is actually 1/2 an inch. Why is known as 1 cm than and not .5 in? Anyway, 1 cm dialated and still 80% effaced and baby was at a -2 station. I guess babies haven't dropped afterall!
My blood pressure was as good as it has ever been, 110/72! Weight LOSS of 2 lbs too. Dr. Gibson thinks one baby is head down and the other is breech. Kudos to the baby who flipped into the head down position! I hope you stay that way and the other turns ;) Mommy's orders.
He again said I have done quite well this pregnancy and post-poned talk of a D-day until this Wednesday at our THIRTY-SEVEN week appointment! He schedules surgeries at our choice hospital on Friday's... so it looks like we may be having a July 17th or a July 24th birthday for our girls. Or, if they girls decide to both be head down maybe we can still hope for a vaginal birth. We'll all have to wait and see but I hope to inform you this Wednesday!!
Oh, Matt said he will handle the 2 AM feedings just fine... :D
We can not wait to meet you, Anna Mae and Abigail!
Our 36 week appointment was last Wednesday, the 8th of July. We waited a good 30 minutes to get in the office and visited with the doctor for maybe 5 minutes. To our surprise, there was no talk of setting a date for this supposive C-section. I was still only dialated to 1 cm, which according to my baby books is actually 1/2 an inch. Why is known as 1 cm than and not .5 in? Anyway, 1 cm dialated and still 80% effaced and baby was at a -2 station. I guess babies haven't dropped afterall!
My blood pressure was as good as it has ever been, 110/72! Weight LOSS of 2 lbs too. Dr. Gibson thinks one baby is head down and the other is breech. Kudos to the baby who flipped into the head down position! I hope you stay that way and the other turns ;) Mommy's orders.
He again said I have done quite well this pregnancy and post-poned talk of a D-day until this Wednesday at our THIRTY-SEVEN week appointment! He schedules surgeries at our choice hospital on Friday's... so it looks like we may be having a July 17th or a July 24th birthday for our girls. Or, if they girls decide to both be head down maybe we can still hope for a vaginal birth. We'll all have to wait and see but I hope to inform you this Wednesday!!
Oh, Matt said he will handle the 2 AM feedings just fine... :D
We can not wait to meet you, Anna Mae and Abigail!
And the Worries Begin!
Is this how Matt will respond to 2:00AM feedings?
That is the only picture I could find that resembles the facial expression of "stressed-out" in our photo albums. :D And how I miss my cuddle-buddy, Maddox the cat. :(
Here I sit at 5:00 AM completely unable to sleep. It may be because I slept for a solid 14 hours yesterday (I am completely exhausted these days), or maybe its because my mind will just not stop spinning! I feel that D-day is fast approaching, even though we don't quite have the official date marked in our calendar. I was reminded yesterday that Dr. Gibson has his "Methodist" days on Friday mornings. Does that mean he will schedule us for a C-section THIS Friday, the 17th? Or maybe he will push us off one more week until the 24th. (That would be AWESOME since we would then accomplish 38 weeks of pregnancy)!!! Wow I can't believe we have successfully made it this far with two kicking, tumbling little girls!
I'll give you a nice list of some of the concerns I have as we enter the last week or two before the babies arrive!
1) How are the dogs going to respond to having two new babies in the house?
2) Are the dogs going to eat EVERYTHING that we may accidently leave in their reach, including toys, blankies, pacifiers, etc. They like to demolish what ever they can get their sneaky paws on.
3) What if for some reason I can't breastfeed successfully?
4) Do we have enough bottles?
5) Will the girls' lungs be well-enough developed considering their early arrival?
6) How is Matt going to cope with late night feedings and working the next day?
7) How am I going to cope with people telling me how to do a specific task with my babies?
8) How long will it take for me to recover from this blasted C-section? I don't think I will ever come to terms with being cut open like a fish.
9) How do you politely turn away ill visitors that don't have a clue to stay away from newborn babies?!
10) Will the girls fit into their "coming home" outfits or will that be the first red flag of bad parenting... two little girls swimming in their clothes?
11) Will we be successful at getting Anna Mae and Abigail on a schedule?
12) Our double-stroller doesn't fit in the Tahoe... now what? :D
What a huge change in our life this is going to be (I can already hear some of you saying, "DUH" as you read that). I am up for the challenges and rewards of parenthood and I realize most of the issues that I have right now will be figured out in the upcoming weeks and we really just have to play it by ear. I look forward to the help from our parents! As of now, I believe my mom (and hopefully Dad, here and there) will be staying with us for about two weeks and then the Mimi & Papa shift changes to Matt's parents who will be up from Georgia for several weeks in August. I know we will need the extra hands to get us off to a good start. We are lucky to have such a great support system of family & friends and I need to remind myself of that more often. But, as many of you know, I am such a worry-wart!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
A Unique 4th of July
We had a very memorable Fourth of July this year. We spent the majority of the day up at Melissa's parents home for a nice lunch and good conversation. Plans were hashed around for our afternoon plans, but with the rain we decided to do a nice dinner out in Peoria and attempt to catch the fireworks show there as well.
Melissa had complained of an "achey" feeling throughout the morning and just about the time we were ready to leave for dinner, some side pain really kicked in. We got in our cars and drove to Peoria for dinner anyway, but on the ride down the pain brought her to tears and we decided to call Dr. Gibson. He directed us to go to Labor & Delivery at the hospital. So we went, a little worried.
We arrived at the hospital at about 6:50 P.M. and were immediately directed to an exam room where Melissa had to strip and was attached to two heart rate monitors for the babies and another one to pick up contractions. How love to hear the girls' heartbeats! All was well with them and they seem to be in constant competition already. The pain had subsided but apparently she was contracting every 2 minutes! They called them "irritable uteran contractions." Supposively it was false labor and her uterus is just about stretched to the max. She was given two vaginal exams, one at 7:00 and one at 8:00 and both times, still only dialated to a 1 and now 80% effaced. Since she wasn't in true labor (thank goodness), we patiently waited for the word of when to leave.
We were released from the hospital at about 9:00, and with that news decided to catch a good view of the Peoria fireworks from the hospital parking deck. We hope you all enjoyed your fourth of July events, despite the rain and cooler weather!
Melissa had complained of an "achey" feeling throughout the morning and just about the time we were ready to leave for dinner, some side pain really kicked in. We got in our cars and drove to Peoria for dinner anyway, but on the ride down the pain brought her to tears and we decided to call Dr. Gibson. He directed us to go to Labor & Delivery at the hospital. So we went, a little worried.
We arrived at the hospital at about 6:50 P.M. and were immediately directed to an exam room where Melissa had to strip and was attached to two heart rate monitors for the babies and another one to pick up contractions. How love to hear the girls' heartbeats! All was well with them and they seem to be in constant competition already. The pain had subsided but apparently she was contracting every 2 minutes! They called them "irritable uteran contractions." Supposively it was false labor and her uterus is just about stretched to the max. She was given two vaginal exams, one at 7:00 and one at 8:00 and both times, still only dialated to a 1 and now 80% effaced. Since she wasn't in true labor (thank goodness), we patiently waited for the word of when to leave.
We were released from the hospital at about 9:00, and with that news decided to catch a good view of the Peoria fireworks from the hospital parking deck. We hope you all enjoyed your fourth of July events, despite the rain and cooler weather!
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