Baby Updates - Week 33

Yesterday was Tuesday! That means I was able to leave the house for the first time in a week! Yay! Unfortunately, I only left for a few doctors appts, but still, it was so nice to be out and about!

There aren't very many updates from the doctors visits. My blood pressure seems to be controlled well by the bed rest, so for now, we wait. Both doctors told me to keep up the bed rest and come to see them next week.

We scheduled a c-section for October 5th, that's the first available date that the hospital will allow a scheduled c-section. We'll be at almost 37 1/2 weeks at that point. Until then, I have been told all of the symptoms of severe pre-eclampsia and pre-term labor. If I either go into labor before the 3rd, or have syptoms of advanced pre-eclampsia, we'll deliver right away.

While the thought of not delivering until week 37 sounds great, the thought of being on bed rest until then does not! Oh well, we'll just take it one day at a time and do what's best for the babies!
Oh, and one last thing....my belly measures the same as a singleton pregnancy at week 43. This is probably the reason for my extreme discomfort and inability to breathe! :)

We Have Names...

Amy and I have finally decided on baby names. That's all for now. I think we are going to make people wait. Thanks. :)

My Latest Visitors

I had three small, but loud, visitors come see me this weekend. My niece and nephews were in town passing through on the way to attend a wedding in San Antonio and they stopped by twice to entertain me! Grammie and Poppa brought them by on Saturday, and then their mom & dad (My brother & sister in law) brought them by on Sunday. They loved seeing the babies rooms, playing with the babies toys (which are mostly hand me downs from them) and of course, seeing Uncle Jason...he's easily the family favorite!

Here are two shots of the trio....I like both pictures, so, posting both!

The funniest comment overheard while they were here was when they saw all of the hand me down toys (straight from their rooms to our house)..."y'all sure have a lot of good toys, we have the same toys at our house too!" I guess they haven't noticed them missing just yet! :)

Thanks for visiting Michael, Amy, Ella, Will & Cal! Thanks for bringing the kids (and the pizza & sonic drinks) Grammie & Poppa! We loved having you stop by! The babies are excited to meet you all!

Jason's Labor of Love

We moved into our house in July of this year and since then, Jason has spent hours of work getting the babies rooms ready. Here are a few pictures of the rooms, along with a picture of him, with his "sweat heart". When Jason sweats, he gets the shape of a heart in his clothing, he finally let me take a picture a few months ago. I think it's a great reminder that the work he is doing is out of love for the babies and I!

When my niece Ella saw the babies rooms earlier today she says..."wow, Jason sure has done a lot of work for Amy." Very perceptive for a kindergartner! She was definitely correct!

Jason's heart:

Here is the boy's room. Note the crown moulding in the upper right of the picture. Jason and my dad installed the crown moulding and then Jason caulked and painted it all. He also put together the crib!

The boy's bedding is from Land of Nod....we're going to try to accent with primary colors....I just never got around to doing much decorating before bed rest. We'll get it done eventually!

Now, the girls room. So sweet! Jason painted the room brown and pink, installed the chair rail, the crown moulding, put the crib together and put her dresser together. The white rocking chair is a loaner from my brother and sister in law, they used this rocking chair for all three of their kids!

Can't wait until our kids our snug in their new beds enjoying all the work their Daddy put into the rooms!

Why my Small Group is the best Small Group at Grace!

Jason and I received a HUGE blessing and surprise from our small group on Wednesday night! You see, we normally host small group at our house every Wednesday, I was particularly looking forward to this week, even though the house wasn't in tip top shape, I was looking forward to the human interaction after being on bed rest! What actually happened was way better than I could have imagined!! Instead of going through our study of Luke, the small group turned Wednesday night into "Help the Case's" night. It was awesome!!

They loaded our attic (Jason finished putting flooring in earlier this week), cleaned the kids playroom, organized the kids closets, organized the Paper Graces inventory, sprayed for bugs, vacuumed the house, put together our guest bed, put the bed-skirt on our bed, programmed the remote on Jason's car, moved furniture, installed kids car seats and in general helped us get ready for these two kiddos that are arriving a little earlier than planned.

Here is a pic of the group at the end of the night.....

Thank you! Thank you! We appreciate you more than you'll ever know!

More Bed Rest Updates: Pre-Eclampsia and Steroids

Just a quick update from Monday. I told you they put me on bed rest - but probably didn't mention why. My blood pressure all of the sudden spiked from a cool and consistent 120/80 to 145/90 in a matter of about three days. So, what does this mean? My perinatologist seems to think it's the begininning stages of pre-eclampsia. While bed rest doesn't stop pre-eclampsia, it can slow it down, or, make it more bearable for a little longer.

High Blood pressure can sometimes put the babies in distress because it's harder for them to get oxygen. I sat on a fetal heart monitor for about an hour earlier this week. All indications are that they are thriving and don't seem to be affected by the spike in blood pressure. Additionally, we had an ultrasound on Tuesday that confirmed that they are still very active! Instead of measuring their sizes at our Tuesday appt, they look for development markers to ensure that there are specific things that both twins can do....simple things like moving their tummies up and down. Both kids passed the test with flying colors!

Because of the risks of pre-eclampsia, the perinatologist seems to think there is a 50/50 chance that we will deliver next week and a 90% chance we'll deliver the week after that. You should have seen our jaws hit the floor when the doctor shared that news. WHAT? We're not ready! Neither are the babies! I started taking steroid shots on Tuesday to help the babies develop. The steroids won't make them bigger, but, they will progress their lung development and tissue development by a little over two weeks in just a few days. That's encouraging! Additionally, if I don't deliver by the Tuesday after next, we'll go through another round of steroids to even further their development. This should hopefully reduce or eliminate their stay's in the NICU.

The steroid shots have been great for the babies and for me. Despite a few sleepless nights that they promise will go away soon, I feel better than I have in weeks! The normal aches and pains of carrying twins seems to have all but gone away (at least until the drugs wear off). I'm already looking forward to the second round of steroid shots! :) It's just too bad I feel this great, but they only thing I am allowed to do is lay on the couch!

So.....next on our list of things to do? Pick names. :)

Bed Rest - Day 1

That's right, you read correctly. My doctor officially put me on bed rest on Monday morning. What does bed rest mean? Basically, I can get up out of a lying (not sitting) position to shower, use the restroom or go get food from the kitchen. Other than that, I am supposed to be lying down at all times. This could be a long few weeks!

So, here we are on day 2 and I have already noticed that some things are more difficult when you can't even sit up! Typing is a little slower than normal, the couch gets really hot when you never get off of it, and my pregnancy induced acid reflux isn't helped by the fact that my body is always horizontal!

That said, it's only been 24 hours and bed rest has also made me realize how incredibly blessed I am to have so many people around me that love me! Here are a few examples:

My dad brought me and my mom dinner last night from Chilis, then stayed to put together a bouncy seat for one of the kiddos (he was the perfect person because he'd already put together the first bouncy seat!)

My mom was over here putting away the tons of clothes that she had taken to her house to wash and fold (dad says you couldn't even see the hardwood floors in their house for all the onesies and burp cloths everywhere). She's seperated all the clothes into bins by size and is now working on putting them all away in their dressers and closets. Oh, and did I mention that she also irons? Both babies already have lots of ironed outfits hanging neatly in their closests! I think she knows that if she doesn't iron, it just won't ever get done and her grandchildren will be forever wrinkly.

Jason is amazing. He seems to be a never ending flood of energy and he's done soooo much for me lately! I am going to save the big stuff for a blog post later this week (complete with pictures), but I have to mention the little stuff he does......getting the mail, doing all the grocery shopping, cooking dinner for me, cutting up Watermelons and Pineapples so I can quickly grab them out of the fridge and constantly refilling my glass of water. The list could go on forever! I am so appreciative and thankful to have a husband that will do literally EVERYTHING for me without any complaining!

We are going to the Perinatologist today to get another Ultrasound, so, I'll let you know more about the size of each baby tomorrow. Expect to hear more from me in the next few weeks....after all, what else am I doing??