Catching up

A long story short with the major happenings:


At 30 Weeks, I went into premature labor. I was at a routine OB visit when my doctor noticed I was 3cm dilated and sent me to triage. I was monitored for about 9 hours and was given several doses of Nifedepine to stop contractions and also Betamethasone in case I did deliver that would help the babies premature lungs develop before I was released from L&D and sent to an antepartum floor to be loosely monitored. I was put on bedrest for this monitoring of every 8hour fetal heart rate monitoring and was told to let them know if my contractions were getting more frequent or more intense - they were not. Thankfully, I was released 3 days later and was told to be on bedrest (still at 3cm dilated and with twin A at -1 station) at home until my next OB checkup (1 week and 2 days).
I was just about ready to go back to work, when I had woke up on January 19th (two days away from my 33rd week gestation) with fever and chills. I was told to come into triage again. There I was worked up to rule out an infection with my respiratory system and my GI system. Both ruled out negative. Although they also tested me and said my babies amniotic sac was not leaking or broken, they still were questioning the risk of the babies (since I was not having an upper respiratory tract or GI infection) and I was starting to have "real" contractions. Delivery of the babies was inevitable and they put an epidural in me and broke my water. One hour later, I went from 5cm dilated to 10cm dilated. I was taken to the OR to delivery my twins. The whole natural delivery of my babies only took a total of 36 minutes.
They were both quickly whisked away as fast as they were taken out of me. Evander, born first, had to be intubated and Madeline was not. They were rolled past me as I was being rolled out of the L&D room and they looked so tiny. I can't believe I had just delivered my babies and was feeling great. I was actually a mom!

Braxton hicks

Wow, can these suckers be intense! Short lived and pretty random, but when they come, they make sure you remember. I had to call my doctor about them because they had woken me up in the middle of the night. They said things are fine (water intake, exercise, etc), but I had preemptively put myself on light duty at work. Doc said its normal with twins and to keep doing what I'm doing. Pretty scary though, I want these babies to stay in me until they're good and ready to come out (iow, not before 36th week). Last weeks prenatal said everything was good and babies were actually in the 78th percentile. They also confirmed a boy and girl (again), so we feel a little more confident that that's what we're getting. Hooray!
They are scheduled for their birthday (c-sect, unless they are in proper position) on February 28th at 1p. Yikes!

Nursery is coming along!

Although we've been told with each ultrasound that it is a boy and a girl, we still went with gender-neutral colors (just in case). Yellow on top, brown line and green on the bottom with an owl theme!

About 3 more months to go

With Braxton hicks reminding me almost every day that the day these babies come is just around the corner, I have to recognize that we are not even close to being ready. Other than most things picked out in the registry and a couple of baby showers in the planning, we are materialistically not prepared either. Other than the basics of a few outfits and enough cloth diapers to last maybe a few days and a changing table/dresser, we have nothing.
This Tuesday is our next prenatal where they want us to schedule a c-section. However, if the babies (or at least twin A) is in the right position, we can try for a natural child birth. Scary.
For any random Internet people who would like to help us out, it would be too awesome:

http://www.amazon.com/registry/baby/IMZIFZY5UM6T

Halfway there, first time out of jogging pants.

Naturally, as a runner, I've tried to keep up my exercise routine. My MD said I could no longer run with twins, but could do light cardio like the elliptical or walking. I mix up both 5-6 days a week for 40-60minutes. The first trimester I was in no mood to work out or even eat right (was constantly nausea and only eating carbs to feel somewhat normal). Needless to say, the pounds packed on quickly. From a small framed girl and a weight that was easily kept under 120 but always above 110, it was a hard thing to accept. Although there are conflicting feelings of feeling like an elephant and also that of feeling like a vessel full of babies and you are mostly always aware of trying to be as safe and conscientious as you can in mind of your babies, this is a part of life I am glad I am experiencing.
As a nurse, I am on my feet all day and doing things in my job that sometimes instinctively require using my abdominal muscles, moving fast quickly where you could easily forget the size of your abdomen has changed and also bending over when you really can't anymore. So I go home and put my feet up and inevitably feel most comfortable in jogging pants and going bra-less. It's a lifestyle I have rarely pursued, but wow is it great. My usual OCD tasks of cleaning or organized are put to the back of my mind and lackadaisically reminding myself to do them later or perhaps save them for the weekend. I cannot fit in anymore more of my pants or my shirts and this is quite sad, as I refuse to buy myself new clothes when I could be buying clothes or other things for the baby. However, there are times when I gave in and it actually feels good to get into a maternity dress. :)

The idea of twins

Our relationship went through so many changes and stages; from long distance dating off and on for years and years (he lived in Canada and I lived in the states) to moving in with each other and renting a vintage apartment complete with clawfoot tub to an industrialized artist loft with two stories, to get married in a court in downtown Chicago. Now, having agreed on a decision to own a house complete with 4 bedrooms, lawn and garage to deciding we should have a child of our own. Both of which happened and finalized within the same hour of each other.
The house was bought and we were wondering if it was too excessive with 4 bedrooms and wondered if we could fill up the one and what we would do with the others. After our HPT's showed positive and our hcg blood test came back positive, we were determined to become adults (finally, in our early to mid 30's). Our first ultrasound showed a little sac and a fuzzy thing in the middle, somewhere in that fuzziness was the combination of our genes. Fast forward to a couple months and our ultrasound was somehow showing two sacs now, which means there were two babies somehow trying to share the same womb. One was confirmed to be two days younger than the other; a naughty egg that decided to sneak in and join the womb made for one. My husband was ecstatic. Me? A whirlwind of panic and denial. How could this be? How were we going to do this? How can we raise two kids when we don't even know how to raise one? It took me a couple months of deciding this will be natural and to accept it before I started to tell anyone (other than my parents).
Beginning my second trimester: