They're Here (Announcing the birth of our Twins)

Short Story:
Doctor decided I needed to be induced. Checked into the hospital Tues night but due to no room in the inn (labor and delivery), I sat around the hospital until Wen night when at 9pm my doctor broke my water sac on Baby A, presenting baby. Baby A was born at 1:06am. Baby B being breech my doctor was awesome and delivered her fully breech, born 1:10am.

Here is the long story (not for those of you who hate birthing details)
Last Sunday my husband arrived back from his deployment for his RandR. RandR planned to be here for the birth. Due to the distance we live from our doctor and the hospital we were planing to deliver, we went to Tucson to stay for however long it would take. Tuesday morning when we arrived in Tucson I had an NST (nonstress test) and then a doctor's appointment. The NST went well, and so did my doctor's appointment, when the doctor checked me I was dilated to a 6! Not in labor. So we discus that although our hotel is 8 minutes from the hospital, it isn't 8 minutes from the delivery room and if these babies come anywhere near as fast as my son, then we might end up delivering in the hospital lobby. So it was decided that she'd induce me that night, show up at 8pm to the hospital. But by 8pm the hospital was hopping and it was super busy and there were no available beds in Labor and Delivery, but I was considered Pre-Term labor and they put me in a room to wait. In the morning we did an amniocentesis to make sure they were actually ready to come out (SUPER PAINFUL- rather have contractions than that ever again). Their numbers were good so we were a go. Still just waiting on a bed in Labor and Delivery to open up. I was so upset, I felt like a prisoner in the hospital and that they were never going to move me to L and D unless I went into full labor. Finally around 8pm they said there was going to have a bed open. At a few minutes before 9 my doctor broke my water on Baby A. Contractions started, but even after 2 hours I hadn't progresses a ton. After a lengthy discussion I finally gave into a low low dose of Oxytocin. This really kicked the contractions into gear. I was able to stay on top of them, but they were hard and didn't always let up with a break in between. Then the nurse boosted me to a higher dose. This almost made me pass out. I couldn't take it. I started to not be able to breath and my face was flushed. I asked the nurse to lower the does back down. I was so grateful that she complied because I couldn't do those high contractions. After all a woman can only take so much with no pain reliving drugs. At about midnight they wheeled me into the surgery room. Because Baby B was breech they had to be ready in case a c-section was needed. Baby A still wasn't far into the birth canal so we had a lot of pushing to do to get her down and out, born at 1:06am. Then the high risk doctor assisting my doctor was looking at Baby B through the ultra sound, she was telling everyone to prepare for a c-section. My doctor was so awesome. I am so grateful we felt inspired to go with her. She told everyone to hold on, reach up inside, grabbed Baby B's feet, pulled her partial out. Broke her water sac, then reached in again tucked her arms safely down and pulled out the rest of Baby B, born at 1:10am. Wow that was intense on my end but I am so grateful that she was comfortable doing that rather then resorting to a c-section. Awesome. 

Welcome back all readers....

We named Baby A, Penelope. And Baby B we named Rosalind. We are going to call Penelope, Nellie, or just P is what our toddler calls her. Rosalind we are going to call Rose. I wanted to call her Roz, but my husband doesn't like Roz, but we were both will to go with Rose. They are new and beautiful and so tiny. The Pediatric nurse who discharged us said that she wouldn't have felt comfortable discharging us if this was my first pregnancy, they would have kept us at the hospital at least until Sunday sometime. But because I was showing I knew what I was doing with nursing and taking care of them she was comfortable sending us home with our babies who were born pre-term at 36 weeks and 2 days. I am so grateful everything worked out well. It was a great stress in my life. Now my stresses can change to learning to take care of two babies at once with a toddler running around.

Daddy's Home

We had to request Daddy's R and R leave like vacation time so that he could be for the birth of these babies. He got home Sunday late morning. Yeah! We drove to Tucson yesterday morning and picked him up. Came home, he showered and then we went to sacrament meeting as a family for the first time is a little over 3 months. It felt so nice Now my paranoia about having to go though child birth without him can be put to rest. We did have a joke that if these babies came before he made it back then he was relinquishing naming rights to these babies. So now he has all his rights to naming back.
Now that Daddy is home we need these babies to come on their own. I don't want to wait to our induce date, Aug 18 Thursday an induction is scheduled at the hospital. I think that next Monday would be the best day to have these babies.

Friends to Visit

My roommate from college lives in the New England area. Each summer since they have moved out there they do a long summer road trip stopping in Wisconsin, Utah, and California. Each summer she has talked about coming all the way down south to come see me and my family but the long and the short of it is, my home is too much out of the way. Last summer she decided that no matter what they were making a stop down here. that was also before we knew we were going to be expecting at that time, let alone with two. But the plans were made. After a doctor tried to paranoid me into voluntary bed rest (not entirely sure what he real point was), my sister suggested that I let my friend know my situation and have her cut her plans to come see me. I felt fine about it and figured if they only stay a couple days it was still better than nothing.

They stayed from Tues to Saturday and it was fine. Our children got along great! My son would even still take his naps and go to bed on time. Two things that never happen when his cousins come to visit. We spend a lot of that week at the park, playing outside, and going to the pool. My friend did most of the cooking, not just because she was trying to help out the pregnant woman, but because her daughter is deathly allergic to all milk and dairy products. I never knew dairy was in so many products that you'd never think about. Since I'm Gestational diabetes and she has her milk allergy, we must have been an odd crew when ordering food when we ate out.

I loved having my friend come visit. I felt a little bad taking time away from her family members visiting time. But it was so much fun and I have missed her greatly. I said she was my roommate in college. We have actually be very good friends for much longer than that. We met at BYU music camp when we were 15 years old. We have kept in contact all that time, when we got to college we became roommates, I took classes with her husband (we had the same major), I went to her wedding, and when I finally got married she came out for mine. One Thanksgiving when we were roommates, she came home with me for the holiday break. We learned that my mom and her mom were roommates while young adults. Such a small world. 

Thanks for the visit. I really should visit you, but at least for the foreseeable time to come I don't see any road trips in our life.

Baby Shower for Twin Girls

My mom and sister threw me a baby shower for these twin girls. Everyone must love picking out girl clothes because we were given so many more clothes items then we did with my son. It was going to be a smaller family and close friends shower, but just about everyone came and it was a big group. 

Sometimes I forget that when you're inviting just family even we have a huge family then add in a few friends and we have a big group. I wanted to talk to everyone, but it was so busy and I hardly had the time. My sister did a great job planing. She enjoys putting things like this together. She wanted to play some twin games. She came up with two. 

The first one was called "Is a twin or has twins" I've pasted it here, see how you would have done:

·         Justin Timberlake

·         Sarah Jessica Parker

·         Elvis Presley

·         Shawn Marion

·         Singer Duffy

·         Celine Dion

·         Vin Diesel

·         Millionaire tycoon William Randolph Hurst

·         Lisa Marie Presley

·         Ed Sullivan

·         Liberace

·         Isabella Rossellini

·         Denzel Washington

·         Jane Seymore

·         Julia Roberts

·         Broncos quarterback John Elway

·         Mariah Carey

·         Mohammad Ail

·         Actress Parker Posey 

·         Actor Andy Garcia

·         Eva Green

·         Terminator Linda Hamilton

And the answers...

·         Justin Timberlake-twin(Laura Katherine, died after birth)

·         Sarah Jessica Parker-has twin girls, (Marion Loretta and Tabitha)

·         Elvis Presley- Twin (Jesse Garon, died at birth)

·         Shawn Marion- twin (sister Shawnette)

·         Singer Duffy- Twin (sister katy)

·         Celine Dion-has twins (Boys 2010)

·         Vin Diesel-twin (Brother Paul Vincent)

·         Millionaire tycoon William Randolph Hurst- twin died at birth

·         Lisa Marie Presley- has twins(Finley and Harper)

·         Ed Sullivan- twin, died in infancy

·         Liberace- twin, died in infancy

·         Isabella Rossellini- Twin sister (Isotta)

·         Denzel Washington- has twins (Malcolm and Olivia)

·         Jane Seymore- has twin boys

·         Julia Roberts- has twin (Hazel and Phinnaeus)

·         Broncos quarterback John Elway- twin brother

·         Mariah Carey- has twins (Monroe and Moroccan)

·         Mohammad Ail- has twin girls (Jamillah and Rasheda)

·         Actress Parker Posey- twin (brother Chris)

·         Actor Andy Garcia- conjoint twin, brother died shortly after removal

·         Eva Green- twin sister Joy

·         Terminator Linda Hamilton- twin sister Leslie

           How did you do? 

       The other game she came up with was done on Power Point. She would show a picture and we'd have to       guess who the person's famous twin is. Most of them I didn't even know who they were. I'm not up on my current celebrities.

        We had a great turn out to the shower. 

Thank-you to all who came. I wish I had been able to catch up with each of you.

Uncle Justin and Winnie the Pooh

The last couple times we've gone up to Phoenix I haven't contacted my brother-in-law. Busy, oversight, forgetfulness, lack of knowing what to do, all are to blame. I don't want him to feel that since my husband isn't around he isn't going to see his nephew. So this trip up I made the effort to contact Uncle Justin and see if he had time to meet us for breakfast or lunch some time. I even threw out there that if he wanted to he could join us in seeing the new Winnie the Pooh movie (came out July 15). He jumped on breakfast and going to the movie. Cool. Saturday July 16th we went to breakfast at Denny's (side note- really diabetic friendly place to eat). 
Then after breakfast we went over to the movie theater. My in-laws had given us gift cards to a movie theater in our Christmas stockings our first Christmas. We had used a little on each card over the past 3 years, but never seem to use them because we don't live near the theaters the gift cards are to. So I made a point of us going to one this time, after paying for 2 adults, 1 child, popcorn, water, and soda, it only cost us 3.50. Sweet. Winnie the Pooh was really cute. It was enjoyable for my son, and I really liked that it was cleaver, cute, and done in the traditional Winnie the Pooh style. Yes its not a movie I would choose to go on a date with my husband to or see with my girlfriends, but really enjoyable. My son handled the theater experience really well. The movie itself was only 1 hour and 3 minutes, I don't think he would have done with a much longer movie. We saw CARS 2 on my father-in-law's birthday and I had to take Al out once just for the change of pace. So Pooh was just the right length. Also now he finds stuffed animals of Pooh or pictures of Pooh and holds them up and says "Pooh", you can also prompt him by saying "Winnie the" and he smiles and finished "Pooh"- cute. 

We had a good time with Uncle Justin. I didn't think he'd be interested in the movie, but he was interested in getting some Uncle time. I forget that out of my son's uncles (not counting my brother on a mission), Uncle Justin gets the least amount of time with Al and the least amount of quality time. I was glad he had the time to meet up with us and get some uncle time.

4th of July Weekend

 The weekend of the 4th of July my sister's family came down to play. We went to splash time on Saturday morning, and dinner at Denny's that evening. Sunday they came to my ward with me and then instead of going over to my in-laws for dinner, my in-laws joined us at my house. On the fourth, we went to my ward's annual pancake breakfast. The primary children preformed and after breakfast the children rode their trikes, wagons, and bikes. 

In the afternoon we went over my in-laws home for a cook out. Yummy food and then it started to rain. The children played in the rain and got so soaked. When we brought them inside they got to play in their diapers while we dried their clothes. 

Lizzy and Al are so cute, same size and all running around in diapers. Tuesday we went to Bisbee and then my brother-in-law went home. 

My sister and her children stayed a couple more days and then drove with me to Tucson on Thursday. It was fun having them down. We love having visitors. 

Going Good

my sister caught me off guard with this photo, 31 weeks

Everything is going well with these twins. They are growing at a healthy rate. We're doing good. Twins are a lot more trouble getting them to full term than I'd want to deal with. Not only do I have my weekly doctor's appointments but now they want me to go to the hospital maternity ward for NST monitoring (non stress test) twice a week. It just takes so much time out of my life to be doing all these appointments. Every time I go I should expect it to take an hour, but the baby on the left is a trouble maker and keeps moving behind her sister so we can't read her for the full time, so it gets extended. When the one on the right is done with her ~20 minutes she decides she is done completely and kicks the monitor until it goes away. How do I end up with such stubborn children? The nurses at the hospital are going to know me real well after all this.
In addition, I'm gestational diabetes. I had already been eating a gestational diabetes diet since 24 weeks. My midwife had recommended this with my son and it made since. She recommends all her patients to eat this way for the last couple months of their pregnancy even if they passed the glucose test. She says that it helps you and your baby gain "the right type of weight". Well with Little Al I only gained 13lbs total and he weighed 7lbs 6oz so I felt confident that eating that way helped. So I had decided to eat that way. Now until week 27 I wasn't super strict on it. I would eat something here or there. I took the one hour test and failed it. Since I had already made the commitment to this type of diet, I declined taking the three hour test. I just didn't feel like I could handle it or the stress of doing it. So my doctor got me a glucose meter and I test myself regularly. The hardest part about actually being GD is I can't every once in a while say oh well and eat something. But I can't now.
Overall all the frustrations of this pregnancy haven't been that bad. Nothing that I can not cope with. I was telling my chiropractor the other day when getting my adjustment that if this back pain from carrying two is the  worst thing to happen during this pregnancy I should feel blessed. Sometimes I can't help but wonder if the only reason everything is going so perfect for twins is that Heavenly Father knows that with all the other trials in my life right now the last thing I need is to be on bed rest in the hospital worrying about my son. Whatever the reason, I feel very blessed.

Bye Bye Calling

Its no surprise that they've decided to release me- I'm expecting twins and my husband is deployed. They were worried I had too much, or am about to have too much on my plate. Both the bishopric and the current Primary President has has me to stay around and help the new chorister get up to speed with our plans for the program and feel a bit more comfortable with her calling.
I'm a bit disappointed that I was released. I had worked everything out in preparation for these babies and had made arrangements afterwards. I had it all figured out. I won't have much of a role in the primary. I'll post anything I do have.
Good luck to all ya Primary Choristers. 

D-Backs Game

I love baseball. I love College football more, but I do love to watch baseball. My husband's first love in sports in baseball and college football second. So we're a good match in that respect. My team is the Arizona Diamondbacks. My husband's team is the Chicago White Sox. He lived in the Chicago area as a pre-teen for a few years and became attached to them as his team. Its not a big deal. He will cheer for the D-Backs whenever  they aren't playing the White Sox and I'll even cheer for the White Sox when they aren't playing the D-Backs. When do they ever play each other? Good question. Mostly only in spring training. One is a National League team the other an American League team. But on a rare occasion they will have an inter-league game during a season. This year was one of those rare blue moon occasions. We had seen it on the schedule. Arranged for that family to go with my in-laws. Then my husband was offered the job that sent him to the Middle East. My in-laws and I decided to still make this our seasonal game. My husband would have been happy the White Sox won the game. I lost in two ways. Not only did my team not win, but my toddler, who last year did so well at the game, just lost it right before the 7th inning stretch. So we went home early (although after seeing the final score, I don't feel as bad). Another reason it was bad, was all the walking and sitting without being able to put my feet up made me swell so bad. I was still swollen at church the next morning. I did enjoy myself. But seeing all the food I couldn't eat- gestational diabetes, was really torturous. There are so many things available (everywhere even the ball park) that caters to gluten in-tolerances (wheat allergies), but nothing for diabetics. Aren't there more diabetics in this country than wheat allergies? Oh wait we treat most diabetics with insulin shots and those of us that are dealing with it by diet only are just out of luck. Back to the game, I don't regret going. I did enjoy myself, I would do it again.

I made this design for a shirt for Al to ware to the game. I was so proud of it. But because of the mail not being delivered because of the post office being closed, because of the wildfire, it wasn't delivered in time for us to ware it to the game. Rushing to get it together I bought a t-shirt at Walmart and some iron on paper and printed and ironed. It didn't even last the game. Sure enough the wonderful looking original was in the mail box when we were allowed back home.