Baby Day

October 8:

Baby Day(s) started out like every other Saturday in the fall - with college football!  My folks and Ellen came over to watch the TX-OU game, which sadly resulted in a home team loss.  My mom brought chicken salad sandwiches from Market Street, my dad made clam dip, and I had made some banana cakes, so we had quite a feast.  They left after the game and Forrest and I settled in for the rest of the day.

We ended our night watching Texas A&M beat Texas Tech in Lubbock, which made Forrest very happy.

After the game, we got in bed.  Before I go into the start of the "labor", I must mention that it was a stormy night in north Texas.  This elated us and the rest of the region because we are in the midst of one of the worst droughts in the last 100 years.  Texans have endured record breaking heat and multiple wild fires across the state.  We need rain so badly.  Our church (and many others) hosted a "Pray for Rain" service at one point this summer.  Although this night wasn't the first relief we have gotten from the drought, it was one of the few nights we can remember in which we got any  measureable rain.

Once in bed, I immediately noticed once we were in bed that I had some increased, uh....moisture....coming out of you know where.  I rolled over and I felt a little water coming out.  Then, every time I felt a baby kick I would feel a little bit more water.  I wasn't sure that it was my water breaking because it wasn't a big gush like they say it is.  I laid there for an hour (while Forrest slept unknowingly) and finally I asked God to give me a clear sign.  Within a minute, I felt three strong kicks and each one was accompanied by the water, so I took that to mean it might be time.

I told Forrest that I thought (wasn't totally sure) that my water was breaking.  We both got up and got ready.  We made it to the hospital at about midnight and they confirmed that my membranes had indeed ruptured and that the births were imminent.  It was a very frightening moment for me when they told me I was indeed in labor.

Our L&D nurse mentioned that they had a lot of preterm labors that night because of the storm.  She said that when the barometric pressure drops, often it will break the waters for pregnant women.  My doctor scoffed at that theory, but I wonder if it "holds water" (hardee har har) in my case.  We will never know.

October 9:

By 2:00am I was in a L&D room and got an epidural, then they started me on pitocin so that my contractions would get more productive.  At admission I was 3 cm dilated and pretty much fully effaced. 

My labor was so uneventful and easy.  I was pain free because of hte epidural.  Forrest called my family right away once we got to the L&D room and they all had arrived at my room by 4:00.  Once they realized that the big event wasn't going to be within the hour, they all left to eat Waffle House and Forrest and I got a couple hours of sleep.  Mom and Dad came back at about 6:00am and Liah and Ellen came back later that morning (they slept at my house for a few minutes).

Sometime in the early morning I had dilated to 5-6 cm, so we were hoping that labor would progress quickly.  Unfortunately it didn't.  I seemed to stay at 5-6cm forever, until about 3:00pm when I finally got to 8-9 cm.  They gave me another hour to rest, then I was fully dilated.

Baby Time!

Because I had twins, I had to deliver in the O.R. (as opposed to the L&D room) as my risk for having a c-section were high. I had planned a vaginal delivery, but still you never know what might change to necessitate a c-section.  My L&D nurse's name was Linda.  Forrest, Linda and I did one round of practice pushing and they declared that I was ready to go.

The O.R. was packed full of doctor's and nurses.  I probably had 2-3 nurses helping my doctor, there was my anesthesiologist, and two teams of NICU nurses, each of about 5 people.  So, it was a full room.  We got into the O.R. at 4:49pm on Sunday October 9, I started pushing a few minutes later, and delivered Olivia at 5:10pm.  Forrest is the one who told me her gender.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to see her before they whisked her off to be treated by her NICU team (sort of behind me and to my right).  A few minutes later (at 5:21pm), out came Carter, who I also didn't see because they took him away just as fast. 

Olivia came out pink and didn't cry until the NICU team worked out her.  Carter came out kinda bluish gray.  I didn't get to hold either of them, which was sad, but I knew they needed to be worked on by the NICU.

After about 15 minutes, they wheeled both incubators up so I could see them, gave me about 20 seconds to view them, and then they left.

I couldn't see Carter very well, but I'll never forget how Olivia looked.  She zeroed in on Forrest and me with her big blue eyes and just stared at us.  It made me cry because it was the first eye contact I made with her.

One of the nurses notified my family that they should line up in the hallway outside of the O.R. so that they could see the babies as they were wheeled off, which they did.  They took the following pics:

The rest of the delivery was pretty painful for me, as my epidural was wearing off and the doctor still had some "repair" work to do.  That night I recovered in my room for a couple hours, then Forrest, Christine, and I went down to NICU to see our babies.  I don't remember much about that night except for that I couldn't walk because I was in so much pain, so I was wheeled down in a wheelchair.  I hated being confined to the wheel chair because I wasn't high up enough to see the babies.  I got so frustrated that I decided to try to stand, which was so painful that it made me cry.  Although I did get to see the babies, I don't remember anything about how they looked because I was just wrecked.  We stayed only a few minutes then we went back to the room.

We hadn't yet named them because I was just in no state to have a serious discussion about it.

I crashed there for the night and Forrest went home to shower then came back and stayed the night on the couch by my bed.

That's how October 9 ended.  I would say that it was the best day of my life, but it wasn't.  I'll get to that day in a later blog posting.  It was a nice and restful day spent with my family, up until the delivery.  The delivery was joyful but also kind of sad since I couldn't reallly see the babies (definitely couldn't touch them).  The rest of the day was pretty terrible since I was in so much pain.

Welcome Brittny and Theresa!

This weekend I expanded my blog readership by 100%, adding Brittny and Theresa to the list of authorized readers.  I hope this site can handle the increased traffic.  :-)

I met these two on The Knot shortly after I got married SIX YEARS AGO.  They were both bloggers and so was I, and eventually we started following each others blogs and became friends through that forum.  We evolved into emailing which is our primary means of communication now.  However, it feels like so much more than just email.  First of all, we email multiple times a week, so it's a pretty active email frequency.  Plus, we text and occasionally talk on the phone.  Most importantly, we put time into our friendship.  Although we only see each other about once a year, we invest a lot of time and emotions into staying friends. 

I have long since abandoned the blog I kept as a newlywed, but now I'm out of retirement and am blogging about the new stage of my life.  I'm not sure how much they will follow this blog, as they already get frequent emails from me.  But since this is how we met, it seems fitting for them to be followers.

So, welcome Brittny and Theresa.  I love you two!

Below are some pics of us.  They are in chronological order.  I believe the first time the three of us got together was in January of 2007.  We have gotten together every year since.  Once for Theresa's wedding in Rochester New York and most recently for my baby shower.

Six years

Tomorrow is our anniversary and will mark 6 years since we took the plunge into married life. How fitting that I came across this picture today. It was taken on the day that we got engaged (April 8, 2005). I love you Forrest Lane. You are the best thing that ever happened to me.

Football season is back

I'm so glad that the 2011 football season has officially started, which means the nail is in the coffin on 2010's season. Technically the nail was in the coffin on Thanksgiving of 2010 when we didn't qualify for a bowl game, but the hangover lingered most of the offseason and there's no cure like getting back in the saddle (and winning some games!). Proudly, we are 2-0. Although one of those wins was over Rice, the other was over BYU, not a ranked team but still a worthy opponent and I was pleased with how our young team played.

That first paragraph was really a farce - my whole point in making this post about football is so that I could upload this really cute maternity tee that I saw on sale at the Co-Op. It's my first go at uploading a pic, but it's a skill I absolutely must master if I'm going to be a successful blogger. So....*deep breath*.....here goes.

32ish week sonogram

This sonogram was so boring, so I would skip this post if I were you. I just want a log of the event. We had the sonogram on September 13, 2011. I was at 31 weeks 5 days gestation at the time. It was our third sonogram at Dr. Gorski's office (to be distinguished from all of the ones I got at Dr. K's office during the first 12 weeks). Our first sonogram was around 23 weeks and it was fantastic. We loved seeing the babies and Forrest thinks he got a glimpse of their gender parts (although he has kept his opinions to himself). We did another sonogram at 28 weeks and were pretty underwhelmed by the footage. Don't get me wrong, it's so encouraging to see that the babies look good and are roughly the same size, but once it gets too crowded it's hard to really "see" anything meaningful. We found this to be true for the 32ish week sonogram too. I was actually pretty surprised that Forrest agreed to go with me to this one. I believe he will skip the next few ones. Anyways, Baby A (on my left side) is measuring about 3.25 pounds and a little under 31 weeks gestation. Baby B is measuring 3.75 pounds and a little over 31 weeks gestation.

Fast Forward to the Third Trimester

Third Trimester! It's here and it's (hopefully) not going anywhere any time soon. So much has happened since my last update (12 whole weeks ago). I went through a blissful stage of pregnancy in which I was relatively comfortable and at a "nice size" for most people's tastes. People treat pregnant ladies so well and it's something I'm really enjoying. I'm quickly growing to a size that is no longer "nice", as most people get a little squeamish once women get to a certain level of bigness. I might be there already and just in denial, but hopefully I'm still not stopping people in their tracks. The discomfort of the third trimester seems to be settling in. My biggest complaint is the back pain. The afternoons seem to be the worst for me if I'm in the office, as I've already been sitting for several hours. However, I"m now working half days, so I get to lie on the couch for those afternoon and evening hours. That does me a world of good. The doctor keeps threatening me with bedrest, but so far I'm still able to get out and about. Unfortunately at my 31 week appointment I got a positive result on the FFN test, which indicates that I'm at increased risk for preterm labor. As a precaution my doctor ordered two rounds of steroid injections, in order to expedite the babies' development. Although that was initially frightening to me, I've gotten a lot of peace about it since and am not overly worried that the babies will come early. If that happens then they will be fine. If it doesn't then they'll be even better. Both are good outcomes and I know it's in God's hands. He's provided for the babies this whole pregnancy and he's given me comfort that he intends to continue doing so. I keep telling him that the babies need me so I need to delay labor as long as possible, but he keeps reminding me that they need him and that he'll time their arrival appropriately. So, in the meantime I'm just trying to treat myself as well as I can and wait out the last remaining weeks of the pregnancy. I was blessed to have three baby showers. Yes - THREE. I am so spoiled and I can hardly stand it.....but I managed to find a way to enjoy this blessing (times 3!). The first shower was hosted by several hometown friends (Mollie McCune, Kristin Rodefeld, Sharon Hagen, Patty Froehlich, Patty Braselton, and Jan Elwell) and it was fantastic by anyone's standards (even Kim Kardashian would have been impressed with this shower). The decor blew me away, the food was excellent, and the guests were obscenely generous. The gifts filled our baby room and it has taken weeks to sort through them all and organize them (a task we're gladly performing - it's so much fun!). Sherri Henry and Susan Brown hosted a Sunday School class shower for me and it also far exceeded my expectations. About 15 women showed up and, again, spent way too much money on us. The most fun part of that shower was hearing all of the advice from the fellow mothers there. They are going to be such a huge support group for me once the babies come. They are my dear friends. Several ladies up at work through a group shower for Stephanie Toups, Bianca LeBlanc, Carolina Price, and me. We're all due this fall and we've had so much fun being pregnant together. They through a "storybook" shower and asked that the guests not bring gifts, but instead bring a children's book for us. The food and decor were also fantastic at this shower. Now we have about 30 children's books to start our collection. Like I said.....spoiled rotten!

20 weeks

I am 20 weeks and 3 days into the pregnancy, which means I have passed the halfway point. Presumably I won't carry Poppy and Pepe longer than 40 weeks (at least not without setting a new record).

Fortunately the morning sickness is gone! Unfortunately the back and rib pain is here and I suspect it's here to stay.

I'm not really slowing down yet, which is a positive. I did a lot of travel last week and I'm doing it this week too, but after that I don't have a lot on the calendar.

We had a fantastic vacation to Fort Morgan (Gulf Shores) Alabama. We spent a lot of time laying on the beach and being lazy. Oh, and I ate WAY too much fried shrimp. I need to start watching my diet before I blow up!