26 Week Update

We had our doctors appointment on 7/16/07 and it was a long one. I did the one hour glucose test first, which wasn’t fun, but wasn’t too bad either. Then we had our ultrasound, which showed that the babies were laying across the bottom of my belly, stacked one on top of the other like a triple decker bus. All heads are laying on the right side and feet were to the left. No wonder I get kicked the most on the left side. Babies A and C are about 2 lbs. and baby B is about 1.5 lbs. and sandwiched in the middle. They are about 14 inches from head to toe. Then we went on to our first monitoring session for contractions. We will be monitoring weekly now for a month. There were no contractions the first session. My cervix has shortened by 1 centimeter and is now at 2 cm. The doctor said this was normal. We looked at the cerclage stitches and it seems to be the ONLY thing holding everything in. Wow, just amazing to see on the screen. Since it was a very lengthy ultrasound, we saw all the hearts, brains, kidneys and blood flow to both the placenta and through the umbilical cord. Very interesting to watch. The doctor thinks we’ll go into the low 30’s for delivery. I’m still shooting for 33 or 34 weeks, but Dr. Bohman will be happy if we make to 31 weeks. We will definitely need to go to Summerlin to deliver.

Tuesday, 7/17/07 we met our new pediatrician, one that is very well known in the Vegas Valley, Ralph Conti. It was good to see his new office and talk face to face about how he manages multiples. I had taken the girls to him 8 or 9 years ago, but his old office was so crowded and the waits were very long. We discussed how we couldn’t bear to do that again, so he really eased our fears and was very good about offering support by providing us a beeper number and a cell number, which is an extreme rarity and we certainly appreciate that he’s making himself available. We’ll see what happens.

Tuesday night Bunny came in and it’s so great to see her! She made 3 baby quilts that are absolutely beautiful! They are so colorful and will be awesome in the nursery and using them on the floor for tummy time for the boys. Bunny, Bill, Jamie and Danny also ordered strollers for the boys and we’ve received one of them. My mom bought the infant seats and we picked those up on Wednesday. Thursday morning I received a call from the doctors office and my glucose test results are high. My blood sugar was 168 and norm is under 135. So Monday I will take a 3 hour glucose and get stuck for blood 4 times. The fun never ends!

Today is Saturday and it was a rough morning for me. Contractions I think. I woke up at 5 a.m. with so much belly pain and back pain. Finally after about an hour or so, I was able to go to sleep again and then at 8 a.m. the pain was back again. I called my doctor, but haven’t received a call back, which is highly irritating to me, but the pain has also subsided. So, I’m not sure what has been going on. It always makes me scared because it’s too early to deliver. Not sure, but maybe he’ll send me to the hospital for monitoring, which I don’t want to do. The last place I want to be is in the hospital.

Also today, Daniel and Christopher are here after coming over last weekend to show us some paint colors. Today all the work is being done. Bunny, Chip, Christopher and Daniel has been working like crazy since about 11 a.m. The girls are here this weekend too and have pitched in to help. We changed our configuration of the upstairs and nursery for the babies. Chip and Bunny primed Gillian’s old pink room, which was very pink! Now it’s the new nursery. The guest room will be our “spare” room which is also getting painted today. I’m so excited! Since I can only go up and down the stairs once a day I haven’t seen the action, but Chip has taken a few pictures, which I’ll post. It looks good from what I’ve seen.

I’ll post whatever pictures I can very soon. We finally replaced our digital camera, which met it’s maker in Hawaii after 5 good years. I’ll have Chip take a belly pic or two and we’ll post those too.

Thank you to everyone who has commented that they read the blog. I am enjoying writing and keeping a good journal of this incredible journey. My body hurts and is tired and my mind isn’t as sharp these days. I need a place to keep all my thoughts in order. Thank you to everyone for their support and help with this endeavor. It has meant the world to us and from the bottom of our hearts we can’t thank everyone enough.

Week 25 Update

We don’t have a doctor appointment until July 16, so no photos of the boys this time. Chip has been really busy putting together pack ‘n plays and we’ve been washing all the new gifts from the shower. We also received a glider rocker so Chip has that on his agenda to put together this week as well.

I am still working full time at home and sleeping less and less at night. I must say I’m not making life very fun for the rest of the folks in the house. Despite being VERY excited for these babies, my whole body just really hurts, especially the underside of my stomach. Chip gets to enjoy me tossing and turning throughout the night. He always asks what he can do, but there’s not really much. The end result is that I am crabby sometimes and everyone feels it. I just keep apologizing. Both of the girls have stepped up so much and are doing a lot more around the house. Chip is a champ too and does all the running for the girls as well as taking good care of me.

I’m still working, just working exclusively at home. I’m putting my plan for leave together and need to get it to my boss by Friday. It’s hard to leave my little work babies too, but will be one less thing to worry about. I’m torn about how long to work. It keeps my mind busy, which is very good, but it wears me out some days. I’m going to keep going as long as I can, not sure how long that will be.

I’ll post new ultrasound photos as well as new information that we learn at the next appointment.

Chris and Daniel are headed over this weekend to paint the nursery and next week Chip’s sister Bunny is coming out to visit from Florida and help us get ready with more painting and organizing. Our list of items to be done is everything from changing faucets in our upstairs bath to repainting Gillian’s old room which has become out guest/help bedroom. Right now it’s very pink and I hope to tone that down a bit. We’d also like to get the upstairs bathroom painted as well. We’ll need to put another crib together and pick up a third. Still so much to do, not sure how much time we have to do it before these boys show up.

We learned we will be delivering across town in Summerlin and I am trying to get a tour of the NICU, but apparently it’s a popular place. July is already full and August isn’t open yet. I’d like to take a look before there are wires and machines all over the boys (hopefully that won’t be needed) and we are freaking out because we don’t know what anything is.

I’m still at a weight gain of only 20 lbs. but feel huge. I’ll have Chip take some more belly pictures and post those soon. All of us are enjoying the baby kicks all day long too. The babies are more and more active. It’s just amazing that I can feel so much.

We’ll post again soon.

Baby Shower

Today was the baby shower than Lin Goldstein threw for us. Lin did an absolutely fantastic job. WOW! It was just wonderful. We had a great time with all the good people we have in our lives. It was so good to see everyone and we are now a little better prepared for the babies. All the gifts were things we really need. Kristy came from Winnemucca Sunday morning and we took video and tried to stream over the internet so mom and dad could watch. That didn’t go so well, but at least we pictures and we are sending out a DVD to Kristy. Kaitlyn and Gillian came over for the shower as well. We had a fantastic afternoon, but boy it wore me out!

Lin brought a chocolate fountain and did tons of hard work! She had some great games that we played after folks left, but Lin just went all out. Chip and Dan brought sandwiches from one of our stores. So much yummy food and good company. We had the following guests: Deann Paulen, Jennie Gauchi, Christopher Brighton, Daniel Wathen, Don Kachline, Hank Hope, Laura Besiada, Lori Buchanen and her friend Stacie, Kristy Newman and Teresa Cortorillo

Kristy being here was such a big help! She took all the pictures and made sure we got video. Chip got a break for a couple of days. Kristy trimmed bushes in the back yard, did dishes, made us breakfast and grilled an awesome tri tip on the grill. It was just too short of a time! Sure wish she could have brought her whole family and stayed longer. She promised she would come back in January. Can’t wait!

I will post photos on the photo page.