a routine visit that wasn't so routine

Today was my first visit to the Utah Valley fetal Medicine Dept. At first EVERYONE was confused as to why I had waited sooooo long to come see them but after I explained that our insurance switched with the New Year and we had to change hospitals they all understood. Well, Dr. Gainer was our perinatologist. She was really nice and seemed just as happy about the progression of our babies as Dr. Ball was at Timp. There was a lot of review and all I can say is thank goodness I've kept this blog and a journal during this pregnancy cause I was able to recount most of the happenings from this pregnancy. Scarlett is back in baby A position and breech. The little stinker has got her butt right on top of my cervix. Apparently it's not very likely she'll move so we're probably looking at a c-section. As I go back each week for my non stress test they will do an ultrasound to check fluid levels and at that point check to see if she's breech. Also when I go into labor they'll check to see if she's breech and if so, into the O.R. we'll go. If not, we're game for a vag delivery and more likely than not Dr. Judd will just "reach in and grab the other one out." (A little scary but apparently he's a pro at that.) Anyway, Scarlett is a healthy 4 lbs and should be well over 5 lbs in a month. Isaac is 4 lbs 7 oz!!! That's almost 2 lbs of growth in the last month. I can't even believe it. Dr. Gainer said we would need to make another appt for a month from now but will most like have had the twins by then. Also she said if we are still pregnant she won't let me go past 37 weeks cause it would be too painful so it looks like the first week of February, ready or not, we will have 2 more babies in this house!

Since I am 32 weeks I had my NST appt right after my peri appt and went over and got hooked up to a monitor for Scarlett, a monitor for Isaac and a monitor for contractions. Within 3-5 minutes Scarlett's heartrate drops from the 130s or higher to 80 bpm. I saw it and thought what the heck was that? Well the nurse came right over and said, "You had a contraction. Did you feel that?" No I didn't!!!! And I'm an old pro at contractions at this point and feel things much worse than that almost daily and thought if that thing that I didn't feel made her heartrate drop that much, how much damage are the big ones I do feel doing? Well, the nurse calls Dr. Gainer in and they start talking about an overnight visit at the hospital and do I have someone who can pick up Miles and if her heartrate keeps dropping during contractions we're gonna need to seriously think about having a c-section tonight/tomorrow. At this point I'm trying very heard to fight back the tears. I'm trying to stay calm and just know that the babies are gonna be fine. They take me back to the ultrasound room to make sure Scarlett's umbillical cord isn't wrapped around her neck or anything but they thought that maybe she was sitting on it or holding it. The u/s was fine and both of the cords were in good shape so they moved me to Labor and Delivery. I get changed and set up with a bunch more monitors. The nurse calls Dr. Judd who basically wants me monitored for about an hour and then he'd make some decisions. Long story short the hour goes by and both babies are great so they send me home. That is a little nerveracking cause apparently I won't feel any problems and unless I just stay monitored 24/7 there's not much we can do. So I'm taking it easy, hoping for at least 2 more weeks of pregnancy and just getting ready for these babies to join us.

Miles was with me for this and was a really good boy the whole time. He was a little bored and did have to "wipe his own butt" cause he had to poop and I was strapped up to a bunch of monitors but we both survived. :D

31 week check up

I met with Dr. Judd yesterday and I just have to say I love this man. I am so happy Joel was so insistent on having him as our doctor. First off, the babies are doing fine. I will have my next ultrasound next week so we'll get to see for sure how our little ones are doing but their heart rates are 142 for Scarlett and 136 for Isaac. Dr. Judd said he felt a head down at the bottom of my belly so for now I don't think "baby A" is breech anymore. I told Dr. Judd that the one thing I am not interested in is delivering one baby and then having a c-section for the second and he said, "me either. And after delivering 750+ sets of twins I have never had to do that and don't plan on doing it now." What a relief! That was my biggest fear and now I don't really have a fear. We're pretty much getting past the danger zone and the contractions have decreased significantly since I was put on the Niphedipine. Dr. Judd also said that water is mostly likely to break with twins and since that is how I went into labor with Miles, we can guess pretty well that around 35-37 weeks my water will break and that is how this pregnancy will end. Joel and I feel so blessed that we've been able to do so much and that in the mean time our babies have stayed in and healthy. They're both very active and I don't think a day goes by when we don't see or feel these little ones bouncing around in my tummy. We're anxious to meet them and have them to play with!
One more piece of awesome news. I think I blogged that earlier this month when my contractions were pretty strong the advice was to take a really hot bath to help control the contractions. No problem! I do it at least once a week now whenever I have a couple of contractions...just to be safe. ;D It's a nice little bonus since I don't get to go in the "hot tub". Well, yesterday Joel thought he was gonna tell on me for eating the little orange fish eggs the last time we went out for sushi. (I, of course, just had tempura and rice and a few fish eggs). Well, to both of our surprise the dr said, "Oh sure, that's no big deal. That's just basically salt. In fact, as far as I'm concerned having sushi once in a while is fine too. Just don't do it every day." My eyes popped wide open and I was happier than a child on Christmas morning. Seriously, having the knowledge that I can have sushi once in awhile and don't have to abstain for 9 months is so awesome. Needless to say, we're going out for sushi this week!

The picture above is from Body Worlds. It is a 31 week old fetus and apparently when Miles saw it he said, "that's in my mama's tummy."

Christmas Dinner

I got this picture off of my sil's blog. I thought it looked so funny! It just looks like everyone is trying to dodge the camera (including my sil who didn't want to be in the picture at all). Em's kinda hiding behind Joel; I'm behind him on the other side; My hubby Joel is behind me; Dana is behind my mom and Michael is making this weird head ducking down face. It's slightly awkward. But the food was awesome. Weedle definitely knows how to cook! Merry Christmas.

The Worth of a Soul

Last night my husband and I went to my dad's house for boxing day. My grandfather and two of his three siblings were there including most of their children. There were a lot of people I had never met before (or at least don't remember meeting) and it was fun getting to learn something new about all of these distant-ish relatives. One in particular really touched me. My dad's cousin Phillip was there with his new wife. He kinda stood out because he had long hair and a scruffy beard which is unusual for this family of mostly bald men with no facial hair. When it was his turn to introduce himself and give an update he said something to the effect of: he was living a new life, with a new wife and found peace in an old religion. He looked very happy and we were ready to move on to the next person. My grandfather interrupted and asked if he would share a little more about what had happened to him these past few years. What a beautiful story! Basically he was approached by one of Liz Lemon Swindle's associates to possibly be a new model for the Savior for her. He agreed and this eventually led to him taking a trip out to Africa to do some work.

From a Website featuring the art piece above: When Mothers Without Borders approached me about going to Africa, I told them I was not interested. For me Africa was a world away, “and besides,” I thought, “I am too busy.” Imagine my surprise when I found myself on a plane to Zambia in June 2007.
One of the first children I met was Kennedy, the little boy you see in the painting. At three years old he has lost both of his parents to AIDS and was found living alone with his six year old brother and ten year old sister. When I thought of those three children struggling to survive and the millions of others across Africa in similar circumstances, I felt an overwhelming hopelessness and said to myself, “No amount of money can fix this.”
Later that day while we were filming, Kennedy jumped into the arms of the man portraying the Savior. As I stood watching them, Kennedy turned towards me and our eyes met. At that moment I knew it wasn’t hopeless. I realized that the Savior can fix not only the problems of Africa, but of the whole world…and we can be His hands to do it.
Looking back I realize that my reasons for not wanting to go to Africa are likely the same as yours. We are busy and feel like we cannot make a difference, but I know now that neither is true. We are never too busy to lift another and every good work is known to Him who said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of…these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” - Liz Lemon Swindle

Tears came to my eyes as I looked at this man who had portrayed the Savior. He shared how being in Africa dressed in these robes had changed his life. Many people there recognized him as the Savior and some actually thought he was Jesus Christ. He said he found new strength in his faith as so many looked into his eyes or sought to touch him in sincere faith that he could make them whole. He said he realized then that Christ does make us whole and decided to return to the faith that gave him that knowledge.

How grateful I am for my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ! I believe Christ. I believe in the Atonement. I enjoy partaking of the sacrament to renew my baptismal covenants with the Lord. This has been a wonderful Christmas for our family. We have been blessed in so many ways and look forward to the coming year. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our two little children and also hope to be sealed together as a family in early 2009.

henna tummy

Long time no blog! We are all moved in and I retook the fetal fibernectum (sp??) test and it's a negative. We are not going into labor within the next two weeks! Two pieces of good news. But we do not have internet set up yet so I haven't had time to blog at all...so sad. Anyway, I just wanted to show you how cute my tummy turned out. Jaylin did this free hand just by looking at a picture online and it lasted about a week and a half. I loved it. The boys loved it and always would ask to see my tattoo. I did have a little talk with them about how it is fake and we don't get real tattoos and it will wash off, etc. I will try to blog some more when I get to my brother's for Christmas!

A couple of updates and such

So my babies are both 2 lbs 10 oz and in the 35th percentile. They told me with twins they HOPE for anything between 20-40th percentile so ours are doing really well. Also it's very rare that both babies have the exact same weight but ours do. I'm still on my prescription and have been off my feet ALMOST completely so I haven't had anymore contractions in a couple of days: more good news. And finally, Scarlett is breech and has moved to the right side and her brother has dropped down on the left head first. So the big hope now is that she'll either turn around OR he'll just shove her out of the way and get into baby A position. As long as "baby A" (closest to the cervix) is head down we're good to go. If baby A is breech they will do a c-section no matter what.

Joel and Emily have worked so hard on our new place and it's almost ready to be moved into. I owe them both big time. We're so excited about our place and it's been such a huge blessing for us. The extra space is definitely much needed but we are soooo sad to leave this ward that we love so much. We will definitely be back for a visit with our babes.

LeDawn is still awesome. She's doing the curtains for the kids rooms, reupholstering my glider, making one more "hooter hider" (i like to call it that) and since I've decided I'm NOT gonna do a Christmas card this year AND a change of address card AND a baby announcement probably sometime in early January, she's going to help me make custom baby announcements. If it wasn't for her I would say, "Don't expect much" but she is just amazing at what she does so I think they're gonna be pretty dang cute! And it will probably be a family picture and not just one of the babies. That way you can tell me who you think these kids look like. :D

Ok, sorry no pictures but I'll get some up soon of the tummy & new place! OH! and Jaylin is gonna give me a henna tattoo on my belly since I'm on "bedrest" and sitting around doing nothing. I've been really excited about this ever since my mom read that article about water taking on the characteristics of its container. For a while she wrote LOVE on all her glasses so when we drank our water it would be better and it was! So since my body is mostly water I want my babies swimming around in good, positive water. Does that sound weird? It sounds more weird now that I'm writing it but I'm really excited so yeah!

A little baby/hospital news

So Wednesday Joel, Landyn and I drive all day back to Utah. The drive was easy and we had a great time. Miles stayed back with grandma for a couple more days of disney and park and grandma's big house fun! ;D Joel is once again the biggest trooper of all and took the second leg of the drive (Mesquite to Pleasant Grove) knowing that he'd have to get up and leave for work around 4a. When we got home he had roses and rose petals and yummy truffles and sparkling cider set out for our anniversary. There's nothing this guy doesn't do. As Joel is kissing me good-bye for the day I realize I'm having a pretty strong contraction. We wait a moment and within 5-10 minutes, I'm having another one. We discuss whether I should go to the hospital, Joel should stay home, what to do with Landyn and I have another one. I get up and get dressed, Joel grabs Landyn and I have another one. We go to the hospital and get hooked up to 4 monitors: one for Scarlett, one for the little guy one for the contractions and one for me. I get 3 shots of terbutaline and a huge shot of steroids to help with lung development just in case I'm going into labor. (And I'm such an idiot cause I'm so afraid of shots that the nurse says, "this one goes in your hip" and I say "NO!" She says, "I can do it in your other arm if you want." I opt for that and lose the use of my arm for the rest of the day and it's still slightly tender. I didn't realize until my OB came in that hip means butt!) At this point I'm bawling cause that shot hurt so bad and my arm has much less fat on it that my BUTT and my heart is racing like crazy from the terbutaline and I'm all jittery. They check my cervix and say "you're at a one." I freak out even more cause now I'm thinking I'm going into labor. We stay at the hospital for over 4 hours and they finally send me home with a prescription for a pill form of the terbutaline, at this point cause my contractions subside. I have one more scare thursday afternoon around 4:30p cause I start having contractions every 10 minutes. I call Dr Judd and he says take an extra pill and a "hot, hot bath & make sure my tummy is completely under the water." NO PROBLEM. I've been dying for a hot bath for about 6 months now and that was no chore for me. The contractions spread out to 30 minutes apart and then eventually none so we saved ourselves another trip to the hospital. One more huge blessing is that we have amazing insurance! I got a statement the other day for over $1000 dollars for my first emergency trip to labor and delivery cause of contractions and we pay $0 of that out of pocket.

I'm so grateful for a wonderful doctor, the most amazing husband, good timing, our medical benefits (and thankfully Joel getting laid off last April so he could find this amazing job with awesome benefits) healthy growing babies, my sister who has been sooooo much help these past two days, and all of my great friends who send love, support and do much much more.

Before my doctor said if I'm still pregnant by February I can get induced. Now his tune is "try and keep these babies in till mid-january. You're a much better incubator than the one down the hall. And if [I] can hold out till 34 weeks they most likely won't have to go to the NICU. So happy my mom will be here tonight until indefinitely. :D

Baby Shower Fun

So my mom, who is beyond amazing, threw me a baby shower while we were in California. It was so great to see everyone and even though I don't always believe it I love to hear everyone say how I'm all belly and I still don't look that big! A huge thanks to everyone for all of the gifts. They are too adorable. I love how a lot of them are matching boy and girl outfits. And I can't believe how little the diapers are. And seriously a huge thanks to my mom for all the food prep and home rearranging. (She even made the Russian Cream I blogged about and it was fabulous!)

I was gently reminded this would be me in a few months!!! yikes!
Angela & Dalon, Sachia & Sienna

teeny, tiny diapers thanks to stacey and cute little bottle holders from my mama!

a couple of the fun matching outfits: thanks to angela, mom, melanie

kelsi, heather delhoyo (who was too sick to come but still sent a wonderful gift) & shellie

Heather, Angela, me, Lori, Shellie, Stacey, Andrea, Melanie, Belinda & Lara (in the next pic)

Jane, Kiersten, Vanessa, Sarinna, me, Stacey, Kim, Melanie

It's a small world after all...

A little bit of a disappointment cause I heard a rumor that they were changing it to be all disney characters but it's basically exactly the same. But that's not the disappointment. The disappointment is that they took out all the "Merry Christmas"'s. That's right. It's only Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings. They do have Feliz Navidad and Mele Kalikimaka but no Merry Christmas. LAME!!! Of course the boys didn't care and they loved the two days we spent at disneyland. Landyn is our fearless child and went on all the rides he was tall enough for. Miles stuck to his favorites and refused to do splash mountain, pirates of the caribbean, soaring of CA, the roaring rapids ride, mulholland drive, storybook land, pinocchio, snow white, haunted mansion...oh well. He did tell me when he gets bigger he can go on them.

New Family Photos

One of Miles favorite things to do is get his picture taken at the mall. (I know, strange kid right?) Well, Picture People always has their free 8x10 or 10x13 so why not. This is what we ended up with. Pretty cute I think. They forced me to take maternity shots but i kept telling them I wasn't ready to take pictures and that I would come back when I was. They kept saying no, you look great, let's do it. Well my fingernail polish was all chipped and I had a little pirate tattoo on my hand and scrape on my tummy and of course it's all I can see when the pictures got developed so I didn't buy any of them. (Which I think bothered them but please, I'm not gonna spend all that money on pictures I would want to redo.) Enjoy!