DAY TWELVE

January 8th, 2011

The first night at home went well and it was so great to sleep in my own bed. I do have to admit it is harder to "bedrest" at home when there is a ton to be done to get ready for the babies, but I have behaved myself...I promise I have. How could I not when every time I make a move Micah asks "What are you doing?....Stay still!" He is the bedrest nazi and with good reason.

Today was full of preparing the nursery, not me necessarily, but Micah and his mom. They did an excellent job putting together the cribs, bedding and bassinets. I switched back and forth between the glider and the bed and tried my hardest not to "boss" or what Micah calls "being a General" too much. Here are some pics of the cribs. I love the way they turned out and I am so grateful that I was able to be home to be somewhat apart of it!

In action

Taking a break. Yes I let him take a few breaks, but only a few!

                                                                                          

The cribs together

Charlotte's Crib

Mitchell's "Beaux" crib

DAY ELEVEN

January 7th, 2011

HOME SWEET HOME!!!! That's right, I got to come home today! I am treating it like a weekend leave from the "base/prison/asylum". We go back to the Doctor on Monday, but until then I am free woman! It was great to get out, feel the sunshine and of course be home in my own comfy bed with all my things surrounding me.

The Doctor and Nurses have all told me a million times that this is still bedrest....just like the hospital. I plan on listening and cooperating 100% if it means getting to ride it out at home rather than the hospital. I will miss having the comfort of knowing someone is watching the babies on a monitor almost 24/7. The Nurses and Doctors were all so great - thanks again for all your help, advice, support and TLC. (lots of the nurses are now blog followers!)

Here are a few pics of us "moving out":

Night #10 - last night in the hospital bed....for now

It takes a lot to try to re-create the comforts of home :)

Good Bye my old friend, until next time!

On the way home from the hospital I was thinking of numbers for some reason and I thought of a few of the numbers that really surprised me once I started tallying them up:

11 - days in the Hospital

31 - number of suspect hospital meals brought to my room 

33 - trips that Micah took from home to hospital

77 - times I had my blood pressure and temperature taken

3  - the number that we wished and prayed for the S/D test so we could maybe go home

2 - really happy dogs now that we are all home

IVY on bedrest with me

SUGAR - in the chair right next to me

Tomorrow Micah is going to put the cribs together. I am planning on holding my tongue and watching from my bed. We'll see how this goes.....

DAY TEN

January 6th, 2011

Well I must say Day 10 has turned out to be a good day so far. I probably shouldn't even utter the words into the atmosphere, let alone type them out for all to see, but I can't help myself and have to share the good news -

I MIGHT MIGHT MIGHT get to go home tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to the Dr. this morning and the S/D ratio (which is that restriction number) we have been following went all the way down to a 2.6! Doctors and staff were all excited and beyond pleased with the progress that the babies have made over the last few days. We are going to monitor every 4 hours the rest of the day and night and if all goes well.....everyone knock on wood......we will be able to go home for the weekend. We will then go back to the Dr. on Monday for more monitoring and another Growth Scan.

Micah and I both found ourselves talking about going home and how excited we were, but we quickly had to remind ourselves not to get our hopes up. As we have learned in the last 10 days, things change around here within a matter of minutes. We have decided to remain "cautiously optimistic".

Last night my friend Rachel came by and surprised me with a pedicure! It was just like having a real one in the nail salon - she even asked me to "pick your color" and "you want pretty design?" (said with Asian accent). Thanks Rachel, it was so wonderful and much needed!

So this brings me to the humbling fact that Micah and I are surrounded by the greatest people on earth. We have had a continuous flow of visitors, surprises, treats, eats, drinks, support, comfort and prayers. We are truly blessed and can see everyone's prayers and thoughts really working! 

I will let you guys know if I get my walking papers tomorrow....until then, lets keep all fingers and toes crossed that these babies cooperate the rest of the day and night!

DAY NINE

 January 5th, 2010


Since I did not have much energy yesterday for the blogging world, I have a lot to fill you in on. A lot for my world that is....

First off, a hospital happenings update: I received the most worldly of possessions last night from my night Nurse, Kara. Wait for it.....wait for it.....its a ......REMOTE CONTROL!!!!!!!!!!

 This is the ONLY one on the Labor and Delivery floor. Since the other units in this hospital have flat screens and DVD players, it is essentially the only one of its kind in this whole hospital. This is really going to change my life in this room. Before I had crank my arm up around the bed rail and press this little TV button to change the channels. You can only change the channels forward, not backwards, so if you want to go back to a particular channel you had scroll through all the channels. So say I was on channel 42 and wanted to get to channel 3, I had to push the TV button 39 times to get there. Needless to say I wasn't watching much TV before hand.

Another exciting event that really cracked the Nurses up was that I received mail today. Courtesy of Lindog, I received two packages from Amazon. My day nurse, Amanda, came in and said in the time she has been here, she has never seen a patient get mail. I am officially a resident!

Inside were two books - both look to be really inspirational and I am excited to get started on them! Thanks Lin!

Secondly, a baby update: Not much has changed. The babies are cooperating on the monitors so I have just been on monitoring every 4 hours for the last few days now. The heart rates are looking good and they are moving around a lot. I get to go on a "field trip" tomorrow to the Dr. office and we will look at the Biophysical profile and restrictive flow again. Pray for a good number, it was a 4.5 last time, we want that number to either stay the same or better yet lower.

Yesterday we met with the Neonatalogist and had a really good conversation with her about what to expect from these babies when they are delivered. As she told us several times, it is really hard for them to predict what (if any) major struggles that they will be up against once they are delivered, but best to be prepared for what it could be like. Since they will be born before 37 weeks we have to look at their lung/respiratory functions and their feeding/eating/sucking skills. Those will most likely be the main things they struggle with at the beginning. So, basically we know that realistically our babies will spend some time in the NICU, how long is unpredictable at this point. Again, the longer they stay in the womb the shorter their stay should be in the NICU.


I also wanted to give a shout out to Micah (even though he told me not to). He has been so wonderful balancing the house, laundry, work and court all while making about a million trips back and forth to the hospital. Not an easy task and really stressful. I think he was hitting the wall yesterday, but after a much needed nap he was ready to rally. I could not ask for a better husband and father for our children - love you Micah (he is truly embarassed now)

Watching the Sugar Bowl from his rocker

DAY EIGHT

January 4th, 2011

 Oye Vey, Day Eight! Time has really stood still in the past 24 hours. Had a miserable night last night full of contractions, no sleep and lots of monitoring. Finally, got some sleep from about 10-12 this morning and felt a little more stable after a yummy lunch (thank you Kristi). I swear every person and their dog that works at this hospital decided to stop by today. Must be something about being a resident for one full week that peaks their interest. I had physical therapy twice today - I wish I had video for all of you of some of the stretches they were making me do, especially the "hiney clench". Whom ever came up with some of these stretches was not nor has ever been pregnant with twins.They would say things like "great job" and "only two more" - I felt like I was in a Saturday Night Live skit.

Off to bed, I am beat.....will update more tomorrow!

DAY SEVEN

January 3rd, 2011

I waited to "blog" today until I was officially off continuous monitoring. I have been on for 33 hours straight. I am finally off and don't have to go back on for another 4 hours! So I am sitting up in bed and typing away. Feels great! Okay...maybe not "great" but pretty darn good.

So I had a "field trip" today across the street to the Dr.'s office. The restriction number went back up to 4.5 - so that was a bummer, but there is still flow and they have been moving well all day so that is promising. I did get a treat to take with me today -some really great 3D pics of the babies (thanks Linda!). Micah and I had opted not to do the 3D ultrasound since we heard that they don't always turn out well and it is hard to get images with twins - but here is what we got today. (remember this is a picture of a picture so you might have to look at it a minute to figure it out)

BABY GIRL - look at the right side of the picture, you can see nose and lips and chin and that is her little hand by her face

BABY BOY - center of the picture you can see the eyes, nose and mouth

I could literally look at these a million times over again, can't wait to see the real thing!!


Fran, Micah and I had a "bachelor" watching party tonight. Those of you that know me well, know that I have not missed a season since this trash show started. I made a sick and twisted promise years ago that I would watch until ABC ended it....please ABC end it!!! It is like watching a train wreck, can't watch....but I have to watch. I can stand that they let Brad Womack back on and I refuse to feel sorry him and his "rough time" and "3 years of therapy". I know the girls all tend to be a little strange, but a vampire....really? It was extra torturous tonight because we didn't have DVR or TIVO to fast forward through the commercials - we had watch it the full 2 grueling hours, but hey what else to I have to do right? So here we embark on another season full of awkward hot tub moments, the thousand of times they will debate on "who is there for the right reason"and my all time favorite "I'm not here to make friends" girl fights.

Good night folks, off to sleep a few hours...on my side:)

DAY SIX

January 2nd, 2011

What a day.....started out pretty uneventful. Breakfast, visit from the Doctor, some TV, did some work on the computer. Pretty typical Sunday, aside from maybe taking a walk or going to the movies.

Cox and Tobin visited on the their way back from Rockport and things started to go South (literally) from there. I felt bad that their visit was cut somewhat short due to another deceleration in Baby Boy's heart rate. Shortly there after I started contracting. The Doctor on call ordered an ultrasound and for me to go back on 24 hour monitoring.....UGGGGGGHHHHHHHH

The ultrasound went well, other than the contractions. The gave me some medicine to stop the contractions and take the "edge" off. The medicine kicked in and things were tolerable again.

Ann and Stuart brought us a yummy dinner - chicken Ceasar salad, biscuits, brownies, tiramisu tart, baked apples....all delicious and much needed. After seeing how many ways food can be smothered in gravy it was refreshing to see some green on my plate. The Handleys' also came to visit and brought us some fresh fruit....another type of food that I have not literally laid eyes on in 6 days. I take that back I did spot 1/2 a banana on my first breakfast plate. Thank you so much to all my visitors and their wonderful and healthy food!

Fran and Rachel also dug into their cabinets and pulled out their VHS tapes for me....yes that is right folks, no DVD player in here, just a good ole VHS player. I am currently watching "She's Having a Baby"....appropriate don't you think.

And for the biggest news of the day.....drum roll please.......we moved rooms! The nurses kept telling me that if I wanted a change of scenery I could move down to the large room. Fran and Micah packed up my things and we made the move down to Room 232. It is a much bigger room and is a nice change....see the pictures of the move below:

new room - look how big!!

Nurse Jamie....one of the many great nurses here. We have been really blessed to have such great people taking care of us! They are so comforting and helpful and they never miss a beat. I really have enjoyed getting to know them and learn about their families. Similar to teaching, Nursing is a thankless profession - but I hope they know I am thankful for their hard work!

Micah packing up the cart for the move. I think he was even more excited than me about the change of scenery!

My "Michael Jackson" look for the shower (I have to have my hand wrapped so I don't get the IV wet)

Going to finish my movie, then off to try to get some rest. Babies have been pretty cooperative this evening so maybe I will get a little sleep. Night, Night!