They're Here!!!

As planned, the boys arrived last Wednesday mid- morning. They are perfect in every way! I'll write more of a real birth story one of these days, but in the meantime I have two babies to feed and snuggle.

H was 7lbs 11oz and A was 6lbs 5oz.

We are completely in love with these two little guys!!!

Ironic...

There are a lot of reasons why I love blogging, one of the biggest is being able to go back to a certain date and seeing where I was in that moment. I've often looked back at the same day in the previous year to see how things had changed or not changed.

On THIS very day one year ago, I wrote about what I guess was the official end of my first pregnancy. It was the day my beta finally reached zero. Though I'm sure I was feeling sad for all that we'd lost, I was also ready to pick myself up and begin moving on. I was ready to start preparing both my heart and my body to try again- to attempt once more to find myself pregnant with the hope of carrying that baby (or babies!) until they were big enough and strong enough to come home with us.

I find it somewhat ironic that I wrote on that day about becoming 'un-pregnant', because today the same thing will happen, only this time my appointment is for a c-section not a beta. It is amazing in one year's time we've really come full circle. Dreams have been realized, and on a day that was bittersweet last year, I will this year have two sweet boys placed in my arms!

On this day...
4 years ago, we were in the midst of our first cycle of trying for a baby.
3 years ago, we were a couple of cycles into clomid.
2 years ago, we were in the process of beginning treatment with our RE.
1 year ago, we had just miscarried our first pregnancy.

And today... Today, we become parents and our family not only grows, it DOUBLES!!!!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow...

THE BOYS WILL 

BE HERE 

TOMORROW!!!!!

Just in time...

With the exception of one wall hanging that hasn't yet been completed, the nursery is DONE! We hung the final things this afternoon and we both LOVE how it turned out! The pictures are FAR from professional - super fancy cell phone photos, but it is so dang easy to go that route! The wall that isn't shown is mostly white doors, two into the closet and one into the hallway. 

 Jenny Lind Cribs- I made the crib skirts (gray & white hounds-tooth) and blankets- Hubs painted the letters to match the beads of the not yet completed abacus- We made the artwork that is above the cribs out of wooden embroidery hoops we found at a thrift shop, attached and painted orange.

The dresser is from Ikea- Hubs painted the green diaper pail and the A- I made the orange and white chevron curtains (I am NEVER making full length lined curtains EVER again!)  Someday the huge abacus will be competed and hung over the dresser.

.... and because you all wanted to see it...

This was taken a few days ago at 37w3d- 50 enormous cm  and 36 lbs.

37w3d appointment

Well, they are STILL in there. I keep trying to coax them out with promises of ponies and pudding, but it doesn't seem to be working out for me. I'm beyond grateful they like it in there and that my body seems to be tolerating carrying two  babies to full term just fine. As ready as I am for them to be out, knowing that the end is near (less than a week now!) makes it a little easier to function each day. Even if 'function' means laying on the couch most of the day!

Everything is still completely normal with this pregnancy. It is almost like I'm not carrying twins. I never had to be seen by a MFM, I never found myself on bed rest, no pre-term labor, very minimal swelling especially for a summer pregnancy, normal blood pressure, no protein in my urine, no gestational diabetes.... what.the.heck? Believe me, I NEVER expected this to go anywhere close to this seamlessly. 

We had a VERY early appointment this morning. First an ultrasound and then a follow up with the OB. The ultrasound was fairly uneventful because these babies are wedged in there and it is dang near impossible to see ANYTHING at this point. Everything still looks good, plenty of fluid and they are still growing at a similar pace- just a 4% variance between the two. These little stinkers add up to just over 14 lbs combined and have my belly measuring 50cm- that is about what a women 50 weeks pregnant with a singleton would measure. Holy cow.  

That was our final OB appointment. The next time we see our doctor it will be to deliver these boys! I cannot wait!

SIX MORE DAYS!!!

Over sharing...

I've said before, there are a lot of reasons why I keep my blog anonymous. One of largest reasons, is so I am able to write whatever I want and not feel uncomfortable completely and totally over sharing. 

Today is one of those days.

I have a funny story. Well, perhaps not funny, it certainly was more disappointing than funny in the moment, but now I'm just laughing about it. 

So, even though I'm home everyday and not really venturing out too often, I've been trying to at least get myself kind of ready everyday- just in case these boys decide to come. For me, this means taking a shower, shaving my legs and putting on clothing that is approximately 1/2 a step higher than pajamas. 

Yesterday as I was in the shower I was thinking to myself 'wow, I'm really impressed that I can still lift my foot up onto the wall of the shower in an attempt to bend less while shaving the lower section on my legs.' About a minute later I fumbled with my razor as I was shaving the upper portion on my leg and the razor fell to the floor. I didn't really think anything of it, other than 'at least it didn't cut me.' Are you seeing where this is going?

Anyway- I finished my shower, got dressed, put some lotion on my legs and headed to my perch on the couch for the afternoon. I had a contraction or two through the afternoon, but like usual, they didn't last long and weren't really in any sort of pattern. They picked up again in the evening and I felt some different feelings of pressure. When I went to the bathroom a bit later I noticed a very small amount of blood. YES! I thought 'wow, great! SOMETHING is happening' I'm sure you've gathered by my back story that something has got to give..... you're right. After checking into things a little more I realized the source of the blood was NOT the location I was hoping for. It turns out that rouge razor DID cause a cut... yeah, on my lady bits. 

My thrill and excitement quickly changed to disappointment and humor. 

Was that personal enough for you? 

37 weeks

How Far Along: 37 weeks... 9 days or less- single digits!
How Big are the Babies? They are each about the size of a winter melon.... whatever that is! I'd estimate they are right around 6.5 pounds each- we'll get a closer estimate on Thursday!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I'm up 36-ish pounds since retrieval- no weight gain this week.

Maternity Clothes: I'm still wearing a little of both and still have one maternity shirt I bought early on that continues to be too big- that pretty much blows my mind!

Movement: Baby A spends a lot of time sleeping unless I'm laying in just the right way for him to stretch out a bit. Baby B is the feistier of the two and spends a good amount of time getting angry when anything changes in his little world-- For example, his brother having the hiccups or me resting my phone or kindle on my belly.
Belly button in or out? Still in/flat most of the time

What I miss: Not being in pain when I change positions. Sitting to standing, laying to standing... all those transitions are getting more and more difficult. 

Milestones: 37 weeks- full term. I am SO READY!

Food Cravings: Fresh veggies (fresh mini cucumbers with pepper and vinegar), hummus and flat bread, donuts, super cold grapes and shaved ice. 

Aversions: I ate two eggs yesterday, so maybe I'm over that!

Symptoms:  Exhaustion, very tightly stretched sore belly skin, numb belly, leg cramps, lots of pelvic pain, lots of general soreness, constant hunger, excessively dry skin, Braxton hicks, contractions and heartburn.
Best Moment this week: Getting everything in order for the boys' arrival! Car seats were checked, bags are packs, house is sparkling clean, laundry is complete, meals are in the freezer.

Funny Moment: The look of amazement on my husbands face every time he touches my belly- it is CRAZY tight. One night be put his freezing cold glass of ice water up against Baby B to see if he could get a reaction from him and I didn't even flinch. He looked at me like I was crazy when I told him I could only barely even feel something touching me and felt absolutely NOTHING in terms of coldness. 

Tip of the Week: HOLY COW- Zan.tac for heartburn! My doctor told me it would be fine to take one before bedtime (that is when my heartburn is at its absolute worst) and I cannot even begin to explain how much better I slept. I wake up my usual two times to go to the bathroom, but fall back to sleep immediately. I wish I would have asked/tried something different sooner! 
What I'm looking forward to: Seeing the boys on Thursday- even if they are nearly unrecognizable in there! We'll see my Dr's partner on Thursday and that will be our final appointment before the birth of our sweet boys! I CANNOT believe we are this close!

For the record, I totally thought last night was going to be it. I was having some contractions and I felt like someone had grabbed my lower uterus/cervical area and was wringing it out like a wet towel- in other words it was PAINFUL! I sat on the ball for awhile and then finally got into bed and things slowed and ultimately stopped enough for me to go to sleep. BOO! I'm pretty sure I'll feel like I've won the lottery when I go into labor or my water breaks- I am SO SO SO ready and 9 days feels like FOR.EV.ER!

Boring....

Just the way we like it- another boring week, and another boring OB appointment. I swear every week my doctor is a little more surprised (as am I) that nothing crazy has happened. But, here we are 36w 3d and everything is completely and totally normal. No signs of labor- which obviously can come on quickly and without notice- and no signs of anything that would make it necessary to move my c-section up. This doesn't mean he is convinced that I'll make it to my c-section date. He said today he would not be surprised at all if I had these boys before.

Today my weight was ok- seriously though, I have a feeling I'm going to gain more in the last few weeks of pregnancy than I did in the first 30! No protein in my urine and my blood pressure was just fine. So, unless something shows up on our ultrasound next week, we are still planning to meet these little boys bright and early August 15th.

36 weeks 3 days

Two weeks...

 Fourteen days from today I will meet my sweet baby boys, unless they choose to come earlier. It is so surreal to be speaking in terms of days/weeks instead of months and maybes! The babies are coming- and SOON!

I have my weekly appointment tomorrow and I hopefully everything remains as it is right now- completely and totally boringly normal! As ready as I am to meet these boys, it would be good to have at least one more weekend to tie up a few loose ends! We are incredibly close to ready after my mom spent two days deep cleaning my whole house complete with windows, mopping, scrubbing bathrooms and dusting/wiping down ever square inch! This weekend we will get the car seats checked and a couple more little things done and then these little stinkers can come anytime :)

It is crazy to think we only have four more scheduled appointments-

One regular OB appointment tomorrow.
One Ultrasound/OB appointment a week from tomorrow.
One scheduled c-section surgery appointment two weeks from today.
One post-op OB appointment four weeks from today.

I still can't really wrap my brain around all of it. Its so exciting and surreal and kind of feels like it couldn't possibly be happening to me! But, then I look down and see my big belly squirming...