Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!!!!!!


Have a very safe and fun Halloween everyone!!!!!

~Finch, Wren, Baby A and Baby B

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Belly Paintings

Hey ya'll!

Wren and I just returned from a wintery wonderland trip to her hometown for a shower hosted by her family. Thank goodness we were able to have it -- this freak snow storm could have totally through a wrench into the plans, but it all worked out. We had another great shower, and were blessed with lots of great things. More news of that and pics to follow. 

However, right now, I want to talk about Wren's super-cute belly!

Wednesday she mentioned to me that I go to Michael's and buy some paint to paint a pumpkin on her belly for Halloween. Well, I am creative...not artistic. So I immediately text a childhood friend of mine who is a professional face, body and belly painter (what a cool job, right?). She said she was available Thursday afternoon and the following pictures are a result of what happened next:

Fall Harvest Belly

The making of the painting

Finished product, The Woodland Belly with nursery tree in the background

2 owls -- Woot loves ya babies?!

The Spooky Halloween Scene -- Boo!



Baby A and Baby B pumpkins


Have a good night everyone!
~Finch

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Week 30 update

First of all, THANK YOU for all of the continued prayers and well wishes.


Let me "rewind" first...Last Tues I ended up at L&D with contractions so I worked from home the rest of the week to REST.  I continued having contractions on Wed and Thurs but woke up Friday feeling much better. My mom comes to visit a couple times a year and she arrived on Friday. We had our 1st Babies Shower on Saturday (pictures to follow below) and had over 50+ of our friends and family that came to shower us with love.  Needless to say it was so much fun and we received a ton of diapers and gifts from our registries and I was exhausted after it was over. I was thankful to come home to my recliner. Oh, how I love my recliner! :)

I am so thankful for my mom's visit and her help with sorting items and washing all of the clothes/cloth diapers/blankets, etc.  We have it all put away into either cubes in the nursery or into plastic bins.  We celebrated my mom's 60th birthday on Sunday - she can't wait to be a Grandma again - my nephew (the only grandchild) is 16 years old so it has been a looong time since there has been any babies around.

Ok, fast forward to Monday morning. I woke up and was having some sharp pains and contractions. Our full growth scan was scheduled for 8:30am. I was so afraid that the Doc would send me to the hospital and they would keep me that I had a small meltdown before we left the house...oh the joys of pregnancy hormones X 2. LOL.   We took my mom with us to the ultrasound and she was very excited.

We always see the ultrasound tech first and both babies weighed in at 3 lbs. 4ozs. at 29 wk, 6 days. They are 1-2 weeks ahead of schedule on their weight. The doctor said my uterus is measuring at 40 weeks right now and I will continue to have contractions, so it didn't even phase her that I woke up cramping or was having sharp little pains.  I was relieved that she didn't put me on Procardia on a daily basis to decrease/stop the contractions because it gave me a nasty headache at the hospital. She measured my cervix and it is still at 4.62 and is showing no signs of early labor.  BP was 116/57 and she told me I was a "champ" and that the babies look great!  The heartbeats were 153 for Baby A (still head down) and 132 (still breech) for Baby B.  The ultrasound tech had a slip of the tongue and when showing us the face of Baby A - she said, "here is "her" little nose" - lol.  Neither of us said a word but we all heard her say "her" - hmm...our guess is still one girl, one boy.  That is our final answer...so we will see.  Doc told me I need to REST and cut my hours back so I am going to work partial days at my office and then come home and work from home the rest of the time.  She gave us our "drop dead" date that she wouldn't let us go beyond and that is December 21st.  In the event that we don't go into labor before then and need a c-section (due to positioning) she scheduled us for one at 8am on December 21st which means we would be coming home on Christmas Eve :)  We reviewed our Birth Plan with her and the hospital already called to do our pre-registeration, so we are as ready as we can be...so hard to believe!!!!

We are off to my hometown on Friday for our last Babies Shower with my family and a few friends - we are only staying overnight one night though and right back in case anything changes so we can be close to the hospital.  So for now we are just taking it day to day and praying that the contractions stay light and pain free and that we make it til at least Nov 30th (35 weeks) but hopefully to the finish line at 38 weeks.   

Below is a few pictures from our Babies Shower :)


Finch, Auntie Julie (one of the Shower Hosts) and Wren

Wren at 29 wk, 5 days and Auntie Dena (the other Shower Host)

Finch's Boston Red Sox Diaper Cake made by Auntie Julie


Our friends and families

Stroller and Car Seast ready - check!

Our collection of diapers from the shower :)

The jungle themed diaper cake made by Auntie Jodi

The Woodlands Diaper Cake made by Auntie Julie

Showered with L.O.V.E. - before being organized

Our Dining Room after organzing into storage tubs and clearing out the boxes

All of the clothes, bath and bedding put away into cubes (the other one is on the other side of the nursery)

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Contractions - YIKES!!!!

Oh week 29 you have came in with a bang! I started having contractions on my way home from work on Monday evening - it was just a couple with low abdominal cramping and I came home, drank 2 bottles of water and lay on my left side on the couch all evening.  I thought maybe they were just Braxton Hick as this is our first pregnancy and have no idea what to expect.

All was good until I started getting ready for work yesterday morning.  I started having cramping and looked at my belly in the mirror and my belly was tightened to where I could see the outlines of both babies. Not good. I went to Labor and Delivery after talking to our doctor's office and they monitored me from 11am-5:30pm. The babies kicked the crap out of their monitors and were moving so much they took them off after an hour or two and just monitored my contractions.  I was having 12 an hour. YIKES!!!!! 
They gave me procardia (which gave me a nasty headache) to decrease the contractions and did the first pelvic exam - the fetal fibronectin test came back negative for preterm labor which was great but the doctor discovered I have an infection. They started me on a dose of antibiotics. The ultrasound showed cervix is still 4+ in length and closed and after a second pelvic exam around 5pm to make sure the cervix hadn't changed and was still closed, they finally released me.  Needless to say, I picked up the antibiotics and came home and have been either on my left side on the couch or in the recliner since then.  The doctor said to work from home the next 3 days and rest until our next full ultrasound growth scan on Monday morning.
Finch slept on the couch last night and I slept in the recliner downstairs so I didn't have to climb the stairs and cause more contractions.

Doc said the contractions will take a few days to go away until the infection starts to go away.  Luckily, I have a job where I can do reports and work from home if needed. All of this scared the crap out of Finch and I - we are at 29 weeks and 1 day today.   We are not ready for the babies arrival or ready for a NICU stay.  The nurse said the babies looked great on the monitor - heartbeats were 120 and 140 and both very active.  We have one Baby Shower this Saturday and our other one next Saturday in my hometown.  Continued prayers, positive thoughts, energy, wishes, etc. is more than welcome.  We pray that they continue baking until at least Nov 30th at 35 weeks - that is our goal - of course the ultimate goal is Dec 20th but we will take every day we can at this point.  

On a positive note, my aunt/uncle/grandma bought our 2nd car seat and it arrived TODAY along with 2 Fisher Price Rock and Play Sleepers - it is like Christmas at our house - boxes everywhere. lol.  
As I lay in the hospital bed, the "to-do" list grew longer  - we haven't completed our birth plan, car seats are not installed, hospital bag is only 1/2 way packed, we haven't completed our wills or added on extra Life insurance coverage to our policy and I haven't ordered our breast pump!!!! ...it is crazy all of the things that run through your head!  Although we are both pretty organized and I was feeling pretty prepared - I am anxious to get these "details" finished in the next few days in the event that something changes.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

28 weeks and counting...

Below is a collection of some of our favorite shots over the past month - October is one of our favorite months of the year!!!
  • The ultrasound pictures are from our 26 week scan - Baby A was 2 lbs. 5 oz and Baby B was 2 lbs. We had another quick scan yesterday and  heart rates were 140 and 133.  Baby B has now flipped and is breech while Baby A has remained head down.  BP was 116/64 and I PASSED the glucose tolerance test!!!!!  I was SO EXCITED!!!! Doc said I passed with flying colors and she was giving me an A+. 
  • I have continued Physical Therapy twice a week and my sciatic pain is practically gone although I wish I could say the same for the pelvic pain and pressure when I walk. 
  • We went to my hometown last weekend for the Mountain State Forest Festival and had a great time - funnel cake, ribbon fries, corn dogs, and rainbow snowball treats.  Yes, I do know that hot dogs may contain deadly Lysteria - Finch posted the corndog picture to her facebook page and we received a firestorm about how I should NOT be eating corn dogs. I have one a year and it is deep fried so the risk of infection was minimal.
  • We went to a Breastfeeding class at our local hospital and it was terrific! I would highly recommend everyone take a class - we learned so much!!
  • We are off on our Baby Moon this Thurs-Sat for some R&R and then my mom is coming to visit next week and we have back to back weekends of Baby Showers! Can't wait!!!!
  • Only 7-10 more weeks to go......
  • Happy October everyone!

28 week belly - at my mom's house for the Forest Festival


28 week "bump" aka. I say it looks like baby dinosaurs in my belly. LOL.

Baby B - 26 week scan



Baby B - 26 week scan


Baby A - 26 week scan


Baby B sucking his/her thumb at 26 weeks

Grandma and Wren - October 8, 2011
 
Finch and Wren - Forest Festival Oct 2011
  

Sophie Ann keeping the babies warm on our ride home




Wren and the delicious snowball - yummo!



Wren and the Festival Corn dog  (**yes, I know that hot dogs may contain Lysteria)


Send your love and prayers over to twomomsandababybump

Sending love and prayers over to H1 and H2 (Hope1 and Hope2) at http://twomomsandababybump.blogspot.com  They are 25weeks/6days pregnant with twin boys - Dashiell and Emmett - H1's water broke last night and they can use ALL of our thoughts and prayers.

Wren