Celebrating 12 Wonderful Years

Steve and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary this weekend!  I can't believe we have been married 12 years.  It has gone by so fast and I love this man more and more each day!  Some of the things I love about him:

1.  The biggest tease ever.  I never take anything he says serious!  And I laugh when others can't tell if he is serious or not!

2.  Hardest worker I know.  I could never work these 30+ hr shift he works and magnify all of his church callings.  Then come home and stay awake because he thinks he will miss out on something with the family.

3.  He loves his family more than anything in this world.

4.  Takes me in to get an ultrasound anytime I want, just to ease my mind!  Even at 1:30 am.

5.  He can reason with anyone. Kids, adults, crazy hormonal pregnant women.

6.  Calls me from work just to see how I'm doing and tell me how much he loves me.

7.  Begs me and the kids to come into work when he is on-call because he misses us.  Then after an hour or two, begs us to stay longer!

8.  Makes me sit in a kid shopping cart so he can push me around the grocery store because he is worried all my walking will cause pre-term labor. (hated this at the time, but I understand his concerns. I'm just stubborn and prideful)

9.  Love the messages he writes me on the mirror when its foggy.

10.  Love how he softly kisses me on the cheek while I'm sleeping before he leaves for work.

11.  I love how loyal and trustworthy he is!

12.  I love how he tells me I'm the hottest pregnant lady ever, even though I feel ugly and enormous right now!

13.  I love how he chases the kids around the house when he gets home from work or takes all 3 on bike rides in the evening.

14.  Love how he thinks everything I make is the best he has ever tasted, even if its disgusting.  NAILED IT!

15.  And most of all, I love him because he has stuck by my side these last 12 years and I know he will continue to be by my side for eternity!  No matter what!

I can think of a million other reasons but I have to get ready for all my drs appts for today!

 

 

Happy Anniversary Steve!

Karlee turns 7

On Sunday my sweet Karlee turned 7.  I can't believe how fast my kids are growing up. Its really exciting and scary at the same time.  Karlee is such a sweet heart.  She has a very tender heart and wants to make everyone happy.  She loves to write notes or make cards for everyone in the family.  She is so good at taking care of Stella.  She is better at making her happy than I am.  She loves to run and race anyone.  Lately she decided she loves to dance.  She dances all over the house and constantly is perfecting her cartwheels and handstands.  I asked Karlee a few questions:

Favorite color? Turquoise

Best Friend? Nixon

Favorite Game? Hide & Go seek in the Dark

Favorite Thing to Do? Dance

Favorite Food? Macaroni and Cheese

Favorite Show? Jessie

Favorite Song? Party in the USA (Miley Cyrus)

What time do you go to bed? 8:30 pm

What time do you wake up? 4pm

What are you excited for this year? Cheer leading

What grade are you going into? 2nd

What do you want to name the baby boys? Maddex and Porter

Favorite thing to play with Stella?  Mommy and Baby

Favorite thing to play with Cannon? When we are both servants that take care of Stella

What are you going to do with the babies? Cuddle and kiss them.

 

 

 

Some of the things I love about Karlee is how smart she is, kind and loving. She doesn't like to fight with anyone. She loves to go shopping with me. (kind of dangerous) and loves trying new things. She is such a helpful little girl. She can empty and load the dishwasher, put all her clothes away, take the clothes out of the washing machine and place in dryer, clean bathrooms and help make dinner. I couldn't ask for a better daughter. I love her so much and I am so blessed Heavenly Father sent me this angel!

 

Happy 7th Birthday Karlee!

30 Weeks Pregnant with TWiNs

I am so excited that I finally made it to the 30 week mark.  Not because it has gone by really slow, but because it was a milestone me and my Dr set!  For the most part it has been pretty uneventful.  Besides the hospital stay because of my kidney.  These next weeks will truly be the test.  The test to see how much my body can take physically and mentally.  Things have been getting a LOT harder.  Trips grocery shopping and to places where I have to walk very far are only out of necessity!  My husband gets mad when he finds out I have gone to the grocery store so unless he is with me, I don't go.  Its a good and bad thing to have an OB as a husband.  I don't have to call my doctor with questions BUT then my husband always thinks the worst and is super paranoid if I even mention "I have cramps or a contraction".  Its always a big deal.  I know he loves me and doesn't want anything to happen to me or the babies, so I usually keep my mouth shut. 
My pelvic bones and muscles along with my stent have been giving me trouble the last couple of days and I don't want to take any pain medicine.  I did end up buying a maternity belt that seems to relieve some of the pain and pressure, but on the flip side its a pain to have to take off and adjust every time I have to go to the bathroom which is A LOT.  Especially since the stent has been in.  But I am very grateful for the stent and will continue to use the maternity belt! 
I am trying very hard to keep up on my weekly posts but I have to say it is kind of hard when you have a million things going on and can't move as fast.  Cannon just finished basketball.  Then next week he starts football and Karlee starts cheer leading, both twice a week.  Then school starts two weeks later!  This month is flying by! I wanted to keep busy and I definitely put enough things on the schedule to keep us moving!  Good thing my Dr didn't put me on bed rest!
There are a few things I still need to get done before the babies arrive such as getting the car seat out of storage, take apart and clean.  I need to get the seat belt fixed in the Tahoe and find a diaper bag.  I still need to buy wipes and preemie diapers.  Then I should probably pack my hospital bag!

30 Weeks

I am so excited to make it to this milestone!  Everything from here on out seem to be less stressful and a lot less "what if's".  This week I have started feeling rhythmic twitches from both babies and I am assuming they are hiccups.  The babies are growing fast now and hopefully each baby will gain a half pound each week until delivery!
The babies brains have been smooth until now, but this week there brains will start to get folds which give the brain more surface area, so it can hold more cells.  The brain has also started to take over the task of regulating body temperature.  They are able to turn up their internal thermostat if they start to get chilly!
By this point the top of my uterus is about 4 inches above my belly button! Yikes!  My belly is all out front.  You can't even tell I'm pregnant from behind, but as soon as I turn....Wow, there it is.  Staight out there!

Babies are the size of: a large cabbage (15.75 inches) and weigh almost 3lbs each.

How far along? 30 Weeks!  HooRaY!

Weight gain?  Yikes!  Lets just say I've never weighed this much before.

Workouts?  Ha ha ha!  LOL!  I don't think so

Symptoms? Lot of pressure and my uterus feels pretty heavy.  Sitting helps a lot and I have a chair with me in every room!  Yup!  I'm that lazy.  Bending at the waist is pretty much non-existent.  My kids have helped out so much.  I think they can see how hard things are getting for me and are more than willing to help out! 

Stretch Marks?  I'm kind of proud of myself for making it 30 weeks without stretch marks, now if I can make it the rest of the way!

Sleep?  On and off, having to wake up every two hours to use the bathroom makes getting a good night sleep difficult.  But I have been sleeping pretty good, other than that!

Movement?  Wow!  They are constantly moving.  Every time I sit down I can feel Baby A (on my right) start kicking and punching, in return Baby B (on my left) starts kicking and punching back.  Sometimes they kick and punch so hard I can actually feel my body jolt!  Its seriously the craziest thing!  I'm already starting to tell a little about there personalities just by there movements and how much they move. The nurses that do the NST nicknamed Baby A, Dr Adams Jr.  Just because he never stays on the monitor, always causing problems and kicking the monitor while its on.  Baby B is just like his mom, pretty mellow and doesn't throw too many fits while being monitored.

Gender?  Two BOYS

What I miss?  Breathing....lol, twisting and turning, being independent. And most of all, fitting into clothes.....any clothes for that matter.  Steve's scrubs are pretty much the only outfits that are comfortable.  But its to the point even his T-shirts look like belly shirts on me. 

Food Aversions?  still greasy food.  My stomach is so squished I have to remind myself to eat because I'm never hungry!  Thirsty, yes!

Food Cravings?  Fruit and something to drink.  Always thirsty!

Labor signs?  More and more contractions......if that's what they really are.  I can feel a tightening in my belly every so often.  But I've never really experienced "real contractions" with the other kids until they put me on pitocin.  This time I think I can feel them, they just don't ever hurt!

Belly button in or out?  Out as far as it can get.  Cannon thinks one of the boys is pushing it out with his finger just to play tricks on me!

Things I look forward to this week? (its a busy one)
1.  Our 12 year anniversary on Saturday
2.  Karlee's Birthday on Sunday
3.  OB appt on Tuesday
4.  Karlee's cheer leading starting on Tuesday
5.  Skye and the kids getting home on Wednesday
6.  Cannon starting football on Thursday

1st NST (Non-Stress Test)

Yesterday was a pretty busy day.  I had my scheduled Dr's Appt at 1pm. I decided to make my Dr and the nurses at the hospital that took such good care of me homemade chocolate chip cookies, just to say "thank you".  I know I'm suppose to be taking it easy, but making cookies really isn't that hard and I really wanted them to know how much I appreciated all they did.  I ended up doubling the batch of cookies, which ended up being about 16 dozen. 
My Dr's appointment went great!  My blood pressure was good, almost too good.  He keeps wondering why my blood pressure is so low.  Usually with pregnancy especially twins it raises it up quite a bit.  My pressure has always been around 100/60 even since being pregnant with twins.  Who knows?!!?  But my fluid levels looked good.  I about cried when I got on the scale.  I had to remind myself that I haven't been weighed at his office since June 21st.  But still, getting on the scale is the worst part.  In the end I will weigh more than I have ever before in my whole life.  Which really scares me!  As we were getting ready to leave I told him I was heading over to the hospital to take the nurses cookies too and he said "Great, Why don't you do an NST while your there?"  HUH??!! Why do I have to do that?  He assured me that it was just a routine thing I have to do every week until the babies are born.  Great!  Another appointment!  At least I get to see my hubby while there. 
So I drove over to the hospital and they started the NST, which is really easy, just a pain.  All they do is hook you up to three monitors.  One to watch my uterus contract and one each on the babies to check heart tones.  Pretty painless and simple right?  I ended up at the hospital for 1 1/2 because the babies were not cooperating.  Baby B was really easy.  They found the heart beat really quick.  Baby A on the other hand, not so easy.  He would not hold still and they couldn't find his heartbeat.  Steve was looking on the ultrasound and could actually see the heart beat so we knew everything was fine, but they just couldn't find it with the monitor.  They like to have about 15-20 mins of a good rhythm strip to print out and show the Dr before they would let me go.  After standing up, rolling over and going to the bathroom just to get Baby A's heartbeat, they found it best laying on my left side. 
Each baby has his own placenta, but Baby B was positioned so his head was laying right on top of Baby A's heart making it really difficult to hear Baby A's heart.
It was a knew experience as I've never had a NST with the other kids.  And now I have a standing appointment every week at the hospital until the babies are born.  Along with bi-weekly ultrasounds to check the growth and the fluid levels and weekly appointment with my OB.  (sigh)  I guess these will make the rest of my summer go by faster!  LOL

28 Weeks Pregnant with TwInS

Things have been a little busy around here and I totally slacked off on my 27 Week picture and stats, but I have a good excuse!  Last Wednesday night I started having this weird pain in my back.  I asked Steve to rub my back but it really hurt when he did.  I decided to take a couple of Tylenol to help me sleep.  A couple hours later I told Steve that my back really hurt and the Tylenol didn't help.  He advised me to take some vicodin.  I decided to only take one.  Tried to sleep but my side hurt too bad.  Long story short, took another vicadin and after that didn't help and I couldn't even sleep through the pain I decided it was time to go to the hospital.  Skye was out of town so we called my sweet neighbor Jean Khoury to come watch the kids at 3 am.  

(Can you tell I am completely amused that my husband took this picture?)

Once I got to the hospital my pain started to get worse.  They gave me a dose of morphine and that didn't help.  An hour after that dose my blood pressure started to drop causing me to get fainty and throw up!  I felt like such a baby.  All the nurses were super nice.  It was just embarrassing to have all these ladies that work with Steve, taking care of me.  Anyways, the 2 doses of morphine didn't work so they tried dilaudid.  After two doses of that, it still didn't touch the pain.  Meanwhile, my urinalysis came back negative.  At noon on Thursday they took me down for my 2 anatomy ultrasound for the twins and to scan my kidney's, gallbladder and appendix.  They usually prefer a CT scan to rule out problems, but being pregnant with twins they decided the best option would be for an ultrasound.  Thursday night the results came back and my right kidney had severe hydronephrosis and my ureter on the right was not showing any urine flow.  So they knew somewhere along the way was either a kidney stone or my uterus was so big it had kinked my ureter causing my pain.  It was bad enough that I couldn't just wait it out.  They needed to do something soon.  My doctor and husband decided it would be best if a 28cm stent was placed in my ureter to unblock whatever was causing the problem.  Friday morning I was scheduled for surgery.  I was pretty nervous but my husband and OB assured me everything would be OK and the babies would be fine.  Just in case I did go into preterm labor they gave me two steroid shots to help the babies lungs develop faster.  My OB cancelled all of his afternoon patients to come be in the OR and watch the babies.  I was so glad he was there.  It definitely calmed me down.  I was awake during the surgery and was able to watch the monitor and see the part that was blocked.  No one actually saw a stone so they are not 100%  positive it really was a stone and not just a kinked ureter because of the size of my uterus.  The surgery went well and I had no problems.  I did have to stay one more night in the hospital to get my second steroid shot and to monitor the babies and make sure I wasn't having any serious contractions.  Saturday morning I was able to come home.  I had so many wonderful friends volunteer to help out with the kids.  I know my family would have liked too but I think they felt better knowing we had an outpouring of help.  Now I'm just trying to take it easy and am slowly recovering. So I have just decided to skip my 27 week picture and jump to my next week.

28 Weeks

 

Officially started my 3rd trimester!  WAAHOOO!

The babies brains have developed more tissue and has formed grooves on the surface.  They are developing a 20-30 minute sleep schedule.  There lungs developing more, blood vessels are forming to circulate oxygenated blood and bronchial tubes are branching. They are starting to make surfactant, which keeps the air sacs in the babies lungs from sticking together.  The surfactant will allow them to breathe properly after birth.

 

 

Babies are the size of: Chinese cabbage (15 inches) and weigh around 2.25 lbs each.

 

How far along? 28 weeks

 

Weight gain?  Still not sure.  Had to cancel my Dr appt again because of my hospital stay!

 

Workouts? Nope, just waddling around to get a few chores done every day so I don't get too far behind.

 

Symptoms?  Basically if I stand for more than 30 mins, my uterus feels like it is going to fall out.  Once I sit down the pain goes away!  Now I put a chair in my bathroom so I can do my makeup, hair and getting dressed while sitting.  I could easily take a nap everyday, but all my kids are home so I usually just try to sit on the couch in the afternoon for 30 mins.

 

Stretch marks?  I'm so happy, NO stretch marks yet!

 

Sleep?  Not so much.  Last night I started out in my bed.  Moved to the couch for a couple hours, then to the recliner for a bit and then back to my bed.  My doctor has asked me to stay off my back and right side while sleeping, so basically I'm suppose to only lay on my left side for 8 hours a night?!!!?? Notta..

 

Movement?  Lots of it.  Each week the kicks and punches get stronger and stronger.

 

Gender? Still two boys

 

What I miss?  being independent.  being able to clean, cook and do chores without finding a way to do it sitting!  Still so grateful they are happy and safe inside my belly.  I wouldn't want to jeopardize that at all.

 

Food Aversions? greasy food, doesn't sound very good

 



Food Cravings?  breads, fresh fruit and soda pop

Labor signs?  luckily nothing much

Belly button In or Out?  Definitely OUT

Things I look forward to this week?
1.  My Drs Appt on Tuesday
2.  Watching Cannon play basketball
3.  Just taking it easy