Babies!

I've been wanting to post this for a long time, but my computer has died and I can't get it to work, so I'm finally giving up and using Matt's computer.  Here goes.
Sometime around the middle of July, my Dr, Dr Cracroft, put us tentatively on her c section schedule for August 23, 5pm.  She said we could always move the surgery based on how uncomfortable I got, but she didn't want to go much later because one placenta usually can't support two babies much past 36 weeks, and she didn't want to go much earlier because the babies were still developing inside.  August 23 would put me at 37 weeks, 1 day, which she was comfortable with.  37 weeks is generally considered full term for twins, so I was good with that day as well.
It was weird to have a date set.  Pregnancy was super easy for me, so it was kind of terrifying to think of having two new little people completely dependent on me and Matt.  But it was also nice to know that at some point my heartburn would end and my skin could stop stretching and itching.
I kept going to my weekly appointments where I got to hear each baby's heartbeat and see my contractions, and Dr. Cracroft would check for signs of preterm labor.  Sometimes my blood pressure was high, sometimes it was normal, but in general, everything kept looking good.  On August 22 I was sitting at work and the Dr's office called to say they had rescheduled me for 12 pm on the 23rd.  That's when things got real.  I know it was only a 5 hour difference, but suddenly it seemed like I needed those 5 hours to be ready to have major surgery and to be a mom.  I hadn't been super nervous up to then, but I had major butterflies in my stomach the rest of the day.
On the 23rd, Matt and I woke up and I actually felt a lot calmer.  Matt went about his morning normalcy, like checking emails, mowing the lawn, and taking the garbage out, and seeing his calmness helped me calm down.  I packed the diaper bag and my bag, and then paid bills and did some other computer stuff.  It was kind of a normal morning.
About half an hour before we had to be to the hospital (we had to get there 2 hours early to check in), we started loading the car and putting the car seats in.  Then we said a prayer and went to meet our kids.  At the hospital, we were taken into a pre- and post- op room, and I was given a hospital gown.  Then I had the normal non-stress test, so the nurse could see if the babies were doing ok.  I was having contractions every few minutes, and I was feeling them, but I wasn't in labor or anything.  The babies were good and just hanging out.  At about 11:50, Matt put on his hospital scrub outfit thing, and we walked down the hall to the operating room.  I got up on the little table, and Dr. Cracroft came in.  We chatted about nothing in particular while the rest of the team filtered in.  Everybody (except me) was super calm.  The anesthesiologist turned me over on my side and gave me a spinal block.  It was magical.  Within a minute or so, everything from my chest down just felt warm and fuzzy.  I couldn't move at all.  I saw the doctors moving me around to get me positioned, but I couldn't feel a thing.  Somebody put up a little curtain so I couldn't see what was going on, and Matt took his seat next to my head.  I started feeling a little nauseous, so the anesthesiologist gave Matt a cotton ball soaked in alcohol to hold in front of my nose.  It smelled awful, but it actually helped me feel a lot better.  Then Dr Cracroft said I might feel a little pressure as they cut into me and took the babies out.  I was laying there waiting to feel that pressure when out of the corner of my eye I saw them passing a baby to the NICU team waiting behind me.  I didn't even know they had started.  But Hattie was out.  She was white and gooey, but awfully pretty.  She came out completely silent.  I could hear the NICU nurses working on her, but she didn't make a noise.  I must have been too caught up in the moment to realize this was kind of scary.  The nurses were acting calm, but Matt told me later that they were nervous.  I asked him if she was ok, and he said she was, and then he asked if I could hear Tille screaming.  Sometime while I was watching Hattie (less than a minute after Hattie came out), Dr Cracroft had pulled Tille out and handed her to another NICU team in the next room over (there was an open window between the two rooms).  She was screaming her head off and kept screaming for several minutes.  Dr Cracroft got me all put back together while we were watching Hattie and listening to Tille, and I still didn't feel a thing.  Evenutally, Hattie's team got her to cry a little, and I got to hold both babies for a minute.  One of the nurses or doctors (I was pretty out of it) took our first family photo with me holding the babies and Matt holding me, and then Hattie was taken down to the NICU to recover, while the rest of us went back to the post-op room.  I have no idea how long we were there.  I think we ended up going upstairs to the room where I spent the next few days, and then Matt went down to the NICU to see Hattie (he might have done that before we went upstairs).  Anyway, eventually Matt came back with Hattie.  Her blood sugars had been low when she came out, so her NICU team had done whatever it is they do to fix that, and then she was well enough to join us. One of the nurses gave us the babies' stats: Hattie was 5 pounds, 5 ounces, and 19 inches, born at 12:29pm.  Tille was 5 pounds, 2.2 ounces, and 18 inches, born at 12:30 pm.  Smaller and closer to each other than I expected.  Over the next few days, the babies and I had our vitals taken several times a day, and the babies got all their first tests done.  Hattie passed the hearing test on her first try, Tille didn't.  The audiologist told us she probably just had fluid in her ears (common with c sections since the fluid doesn't get squeezed out during birth) and we should just keep her ears uncovered to dry out.  She got retested the next day and passed just fine.  Then they did their car seat tests, where they had to be able to sit upright in their car seats and maintain good oxygen levels on their own for 1 1/2 hours.  Tille passed on her first try, Hattie had to do the test twice.  But she passed.  They were also getting their blood sugars and temperatures tested often.  I think the first day or two their blood sugars were teetering on the edge of low, and their temperatures were consistently low.  But it was never so bad that they couldn't stay in our room.  Each baby took a couple turns under the heat lamp in the nursery.  That was super cute.  They would sprawl out in just their diapers and soak in the heat, and look as contented as anybody has ever looked.  We stayed in the hospital the full four days available to us, mostly just to get all the nurse's help we could.  I was up and walking just fine the next day (getting in and out of bed was killer, but otherwise I felt great).  The babies were completely healthy.  We probably could have gone home sooner, but we weren't in any rush.
On our last day in the hospital, one of the last things I needed was to get my staples removed.  Everything I had read and heard said I wouldn't even feel the staples coming out, and they're way easier than stitches.  So I didn't even think about it.  Two nurses came in and the one who was going to remove the staples said she was a little nervous because it was only her second time.  The other nurse watched as she tried to pull out the first (of 18) staples.  It was horrible.  It felt like she was trying to pull out my scar with a pair of pliers.  She said that first staple was tough, so she moved on to the next.  Same thing.  So she went to the other end of the incision.  Same thing again.  After a few minutes of trying, the other nurse took over.  It hurt even worse and she couldn't get any staples out either.  So they called in another nurse, who they said was really good at taking staples out.  Her attempts didn't hurt as badly, but she couldn't get any out either.  So they called in another nurse.  This went on for a while.  Eventually, I had 5 nurses from the recovery floor, 2 labor/delivery nurses, and one OBGYN doctor trying to get my staples out.  They all said they had never seen staples so hard.  One of the nurses managed to get all but 5 staples out, and I didn't feel those at all.  But the 2 staples on either end, and one in the middle were just super stubborn.  One of the other nurses managed to get all but the 2 on the ends.  And then the OBGYN started trying.  She numbed my skin (I could still feel the staples tugging inside though). She said over and over that she had never seen anything like this.  Turns out, the stubborn staples had gone in funny.  They're just like regular staples, where the ends go in and kind of curl up just a little bit to hold their place.  But these ones, instead of just curling up a little bit, had wrapped around each other, like a key ring.  The Dr had to spin them and spin them until she got them out.  She let me look at them, and they really were wrapped around themselves a few times in perfect circles.  It was horrible.  But it was over.  The nurses left and Matt and I packed up all our stuff.  And then one of the nurses (the poor nurse who had first tried to get the staples out) came in and made sure we knew how to work the car seats.  Turns out we didn't, so she gave us a quick tutorial, and then she discharged us.
 And just like that we were on our own and completely in charge of keeping these two brand new people alive.  So far it's been pretty good.  They take turns keeping us up at night, and they take turns being super poopy and not at all, and we've gone through more diapers in 2 weeks than I expected to use in a month, but we're all getting used to this new life.  Matt's super cute with them.  Like, super super cute.  It's pretty great. And Hattie and Tille are the cutest babies ever.  Even accounting for my bias.

Hattie being super quiet when she was first born

Our first complete family picture

The family after a day of resting

Tille on the left and Hattie on the right.  Their first few moments at home.

They're so tiny!

Matt's a cute dad

Getting Closer!

Super long post ahead.  Get a snack.
We're definitely getting closer to having these babies!  All along, since my first appointment at 8 weeks, I've had an ultrasound and a doctor appointment every 2 weeks.  But starting this week, we've moved into the weekly phase.  From now on I'll have a non-stress test (nst) and a dr visit every week.  Today may have been my last ultrasound.  Yesterday I had my first nst.  I really didn't know what to expect, other than they'd be checking the babies heart rates.  It was in a different office than my usual doctor (same building, but down a few floors).  They took me back to a tiny room separated from the main hall by just a curtain. And then the nurse did an ultrasound.  So I guess technically I'll still be getting ultrasounds every week, just on a smaller scale.  She measured the babies fluids to make sure they're both still growing about the same.  Then she hooked me up with a heart monitor over each baby and a contraction monitor for me.  She said we had to get good heart rates for 20 minutes with a couple of raised levels for each baby.  While we waited the 20 minutes, the nurse was in the room, but entering all my info into the computer, so not really paying attention. I was watching the screen to see how each baby was doing. Baby B was great.  Her heart rate was between 135 and 160ish the whole time, with a few little jumps when she moved or hiccuped (side note, Baby B gets hiccups ALL THE TIME.  Several times a day, and they last for like 10-20 minutes.  Baby A has had hiccups once, for about a minute. Weird).  Baby A's heart rate was pretty consistently 120 the whole time.  So the nurse got out a little tool that looks like a duck call and put it over Baby A.  She pushed a button on it and it made a buzzing sound.  That woke Baby A right up, and her heart rate got up to B's levels.  It was cool to see her respond like that.  All this time, as I was watching the screen, there was a third line below 2 heart rate lines.  I didn't really pay attention to it, but it was spiking every 3-4 minutes, and then it would go back to flat.  When the nurse finished entering the info, she pointed that out and said it was showing my contractions.  ???!!!!!????!!!! I was having contractions every 3 minutes and had no idea!  My doctor has been telling me for the last couple of months that if I get more than 4 contractions in an hour, I need to call or come in.  This was 4 contractions in under 20 minutes!  The nurse was kind of worried about that, which made me kind of worried about it.  So she called my doctor, but the doctor was in surgery.  My doctor's nurse said she'd talk to the on-call dr and call right back.  We waited a while but never heard back.  By this time (it has been almost an hour), the contractions had slowed down to about every 9-10 minutes. Better, but still kind of scary.  So the nurse called the high-risk dr in her office and then went and talked to him.  Eventually she came back and they had agreed that since I wasn't feeling anything and they were slowing down, they could let me leave.  She kept me hooked up long enough for one more contraction, and when she saw it coming on, she had me feel my belly so I could know what it felt like.  It felt a little harder than usual, but with 2 babies in there my belly is pretty tight most of the time, so it wasn't a huge difference.  But she said to watch for that and call if they picked up again.  The next few hours I was pretty paranoid.  Every baby kick or punch scared me and I'd feel my belly to see if it was tight.  I think I felt a few more contractions throughout the day, but I'm not sure.
Today I had the regular ultrasound and dr visit.  The ultrasound was great.  The babies are measuring about 4 1/2 pounds each (the tech said that's a pretty loose estimate) and a few days bigger than I expected.  They should be right about 32 weeks, but they're showing closer to 33.  But they're both close enough in size that everything is good.  When I met with my dr after the ultrasound, she agreed that everything looks fine.  She said that if yesterday's contractions were something to worry about, I would definitely be feeling them.  That made me feel much better.  She said there are no signs of pre-term labor yet, and at this point I'm doing better than most single baby moms.  From the beginning, the plan has been to get to at least 36 weeks.  My dr is planning right now for about 37 weeks.  She said if I want to go a little longer, that'd be fine, and if I'm miserable she can try to get me earlier.  I think I can definitely go another 4-5 weeks, but I'm not going to argue if she wants to deliver them by then.
Oh, also, Baby B is head down and kind of sprawled out across my whole belly.  Baby A is breech and squished down next to my left hip in the space her sister hasn't taken.  They've been in those postions for 2-3 weeks. A will be first out, and since she's breech, that's kind of a guaranteed c section.  If it was the other way around, and A was head down and B was breech, there'd be a chance of delivering A and then turning B around.  But having the first one breech poses too many risks to both babies.  So unless she flips soon, it looks like I'll be having a c section.  And with her squished down under B, I don't imagine she'll flip at this point.  :(
One little fun tidbit- in the last couple of weeks we've started feeling actual feet in my belly.  One of the babies' feet are usually right next to my belly button, so I'll feel around and when I find it Matt and I can feel the heel and the ball of the foot, with tiny toes on top.

32 Weeks.  My maternity clothes are starting to not fit.

This isn't a great picture, but this is kind of what all my ultrasound pictures have looked like lately.  On the right side, you can kind of make out Baby A's face.  She's looking right into the camera.  On the left side is Baby B's bum. I think. And those are hands or feet at the top.

Baby Stuff

We had another ultrasound yesterday.  We don't really see much that looks like anything anymore in the ultrasounds.  The tech and doctor are just looking for healthy organs and measurements.  The pictures we get generally show something like a stomach or two heads sitting next to each other.  But it's still fun to see the babies every couple of weeks.  As of yesterday, they're doing great.  Both babies have always measured exactly what I would expect them to be (we usually go Wednesday/Thursday, so the babies are whatever week plus 2-3 days).  Yesterday should have been 24+2, but they came in a little smaller.  Baby A, who has always been a day or two bigger, was 23+6 and Baby B was 24+0.  But they're about 1 1/2 pounds each, so I have plenty of baby in me!  My doctor has warned me since the very beginning that I would need to stop working out at week 24. I went to the gym yesterday morning fully expecting it to be my last time.  But yesterday my doctor said I can go for another month.  Yay!  Going to the gym and walking around the neighborhood help a ton with back pain (and some other less savory pregnant side effects), so I wasn't looking forward to stopping.  I'm glad to get another month.  She also said that in another month we'll be out of the main risk timezone for the babies sharing blood/nutrition, so after that I'll only have ultrasounds every 4 weeks.
I've been feeling the babies move for about month.  Matt was finally able to feel them about 2 weeks ago. I was pretty excited that he finally got to feel something.  A week ago, I was sitting at work and felt movement, so I looked down and could see little bumps under my shirt.  Nothing big, more like my stomach was pulsing or something, but still- it was pretty weird.  Yesterday during the ultrasound I saw a little movement on my stomach, so I motioned for Matt to look and we saw one of the biggest kicks I've gotten yet.  It was pretty cool. This picture is from two weeks ago.  It's kind of hard to tell, but Baby B is kicking Baby A in the face.  Such sweeties!

A Little Bit of News

I had a whole post written out.  A big one too.  I was on the last sentence, and suddenly it disappeared.  The whole thing was just gone. I didn't delete it.  It just left. This is one reason I don't blog often.  It's super frustrating.  Anyway, I'll try again, but probably with fewer details.

We had the full anatomy scan ultrasound on Thursday this week.  Both babies were lying facing my back, so the tech couldn't get good views of everything she was looking for.  But we saw 2 hearts with 4 chambers each, 2 brains with 2 hemispheres each, 4 kidneys, and 2 bladders.  She couldn't find the main arteries going away from the heart, but she said she'll look for those next time.  And she again couldn't get a good view of the babies' genders.  But in the last 4 ultrasounds, she's said if she had to guess she would guess girls, and it was the same this time. So we're going with that.  We did get one good gender shot a few weeks ago:

In the past week or so, I've started feeling them move for sure.  Last Sunday, Baby A was flipping and kicking all day long.  Since then I've felt Baby B more, but nothing as intense as Sunday was.  In the ultrasound, the tech said both babies were kicking me pretty hard, but I didn't feel anything, so it must just be based on their positions.  They're both growing at exactly the right rates.  Baby B tends to be 1-2 days smaller than A, but it's still close enough that we aren't worried.  So that's the baby news for now.

In other news, we didn't think we had made enough life changes or big announcements lately, so we bought a house.  We had lots of reasons for wanting a new place, and we've been thinking about this house for a few months, so we finally pulled the trigger on it.  It's a house that Matt has been working with as the seller's agent for a while (they listed it, then unlisted it for a few months so they could do repairs), and from the first time he saw it, he's been saying what a cool house it is.  So I finally went and looked at it a few weeks ago, and he's right- it's cool.  It's old and needs some work, but it has tons of potential.  We're especially excited about the yard.  It's pretty gross right now, but in a few years it's going to be amazing!  The backyard is straight up hill and covered in scrub oak and ivy. We'll tear most of that out and build terraces, with areas of garden, lawn, and play spcae. We want to redo the kitchen before we move in, so we're looking at moving sometime in July.  Meaning, Matt's looking at moving us in July.  I don't think I'll be much use by then. Here's a picture:

Family Pictures

Here are a few family pictures we've had taken lately.

Feb 3

Feb 16

Mar 2

Mar 16

Mar 31

The babies are growing at exactly the right rates.  On Friday they measured at 16 w 4 days and 16 w 3 days.  As long as they stay within 3-4 days of each other, they're good.  If they start getting further than that, we're looking at emergency surgery to cauterize the blood vessels between them.  But so far so good!  In the middle picture on Mar 31, the baby is swallowing.  During that ultrasound, one of the babies waved at the camera, and we could see tiny little fingers.  They're starting to be cute!  Not like the little chicken aliens on Feb 16!  I still haven't been sick at all, other than not having much of an appetite for a few hours each day for a few weeks last month.  But that's over.  I ALWAYS have an appetite now.  And even if I'm not hungry at all one minute, I might be starving the next.  It's a lot of fun.  I have a few pairs of pants I can still wear, but not many.  I found some belly bands that are basically really wide spandex belts that I can wear over my pants and belly, so I don't have to do my pants up anymore.  It's wonderful.  I thought I'd be able to wear my tshirts for a little while, but I put one today and it wasn't good.  :(  Our next ultrasound is in another two weeks.  Any guesses on boys or girls?  Do I need to learn to do hair or to be cool with bugs and dirt?

Winter Stuff

Hey all. Matt and I have had a pretty good winter so far.  We've mostly just hung out and rearranged our house.  A month or two ago we bought some new furniture and got rid of some of the hand-me-down furniture I've had for years.  So our house matches a little better now.  We've also gone snow-shoeing a couple times.  So far we've always gone to North Fork, in the Ogden Valley, behind Ben Lomond.  They have a county (I think?) park up there with really great trails groomed for skiing and snow shoeing.  It's always good to get up there out of the inversion and into the forests.
Besides that, we've taken the scooter out for a ride (40 degrees might seem warm in winter, but when you get going fast with the wind in your face, 40 degrees feels arctic!); we've been looking for a go-to pizza place after our favorite one closed. We might have found a winner in Marco's, which is a carry-out chain and has a store near us.  It's really good. We've started making plans for our spring/summer garden (it'll be good this year, but we can't figure out where to grow raspberries).  Like I said, a pretty good winter so far.

Matt's friend from Spokane came with us on one snow shoeing day.

There is a real pine forest there, but we were going for the view in these pictures.

HAWAII!!!!

Matt and I had a really great time in Hawaii.  We got married on November 16, and spent about a week in paradise.  We stayed on Kauai, which everybody tells me is the best island.  And I believe it.  It's pretty rural: we stayed in the biggest city (Lihue), and it had a Walmart and Costco and not much else.  It took about 5 minutes to drive from one end of town to the other.  The whole island is about 30 miles wide in either direction.  So we drove around most of the island a few times.  At church on Sunday, before the closing prayer the bishop announced that after the prayer, all the visitors should stay in their seats and the ward members would go to the front to sing us a song of Aloha.  I recognized a few people from our resort, so I knew we weren't the only visitors, but when the ward members went up to sing, the congregation was still pretty full.  At least half of the people were visitors!  They sang a really cool song in Hawaiian while the youth went around putting leis on all the visitors.  It was really neat.  In Sunday School, I'm pretty sure there were only a few people who were actual ward members.  I can't imagine trying to run a ward like that.  The members must have to speak all the time!  Sidenote- the Sunday School teacher came from a family of 26 kids, 1 mom. Yikes!
Hawaii is very much it's own place.  People are super laid back and just go with the flow.  On Friday night we had gotten a restaurant recommendation, so we went there and it was closed.  At 6:00 on Friday night! Luckily we found another restaurant that had been recommended (amazing fish tacos), and the guy who had recommended it to us was there!  Small island.
My favorite activity was canoe surfing.  We were in a 4-man outrigger canoe (it was just us and a guide), and we would go way out in the bay and then sit and wait for some waves.  When the waves got there, the guide told us to paddle with everything we had.  We'd get onto the waves and then went so fast and so high that we couldn't paddle.  We just rode the waves in to shore.  On our first ride, Matt told me to look behind me.  There was a huge wave towering over us, like you see in surfing pictures. It was really fun.
A couple things I didn't get a picture of: chickens in Kauai are like pigeons in New York.  They're EVERYWHERE!!!  Roosters, hens, chicks, everywhere you go.  And they don't always move out of the way of cars. We had to swerve several times to miss the chickens.
Our vacation package included the hotel's breakfast buffet every day, and it was awesome.  Really really awesome. My favorite food discovery was coconut syrup.  That stuff is like elixir from the gods. Every day there were pancakes, waffles, and/or french toast in different varieties, and I just put coconut syrup on all of it.  Matt's favorite (and one of my favorites) was what they called island fried rice.  Basically it was rice with seasonings and whatever else they wanted to throw in.  If the restaurant served pork roast the night before, the breakfast rice would have leftover pork roast.  We think we also saw cabbage, turkey, ham, bacon, and sausage in there.  It doesn't sound like much, but it was so very good.  One night at dinner we were still hungry after we ate, so we asked the waiter to just bring out a big bowl of fried rice.  I miss that stuff.
I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

This is the pool at our resort.  You can see the ocean behind the pool.  Made for some serious relaxation

This was a little garden at our resort.  

This is at Waimea Canyon on the west side of the island.  The ground was mostly dirt and volcanic rock, and it overlooked the ocean and a bunch of mountains.  It was really pretty.

We were driving back to the resort one afternoon and came across this 'little' fish pond just kind of out by itself. 

We went to a national botanical garden on the south side one day.  It showed native plants (I think they said only 1% of the plants in Kauai are native), canoe plants (the plants that have been brought in by settlers in canoes over thousands of years), poison plants (sap can cause 3rd degree burns) and spice plants (nutmeg, etc.)  I can't remember how many acres it was, but it was big, and we just wandered all over.  It was super rainy, but super pretty.  I think we saw at least a hundred varieties of palm trees.  Some have coconuts, some have really crazy pinecones,some have multiple types of leaves, etc.  There are coconuts all over the place in Kauai. They're kind of like acorns here.  

This is the view from the highway (the road in this picture is the main highway that goes around the island; like I said, Kauai is kind of rural)

This cave was just off the road at the end of the highway.  It was so big, we could have walked all the way to the back without hitting our heads.

This is Hanalei Beach.  Remember in the song, 'Puff the Magic Dragon', there's a line that says, 'in a land called Hanalei'?  Check out the mountain- it's shaped like a sleeping dragon.  The song was written about this beach. It might have been my favorite place.

More Hanalei Beach

Those are taro fields.  Taro grows like rice, in water, but looks more like really short palm trees.  I think we ate taro bread one morning, in the form of donut holes.  They were delicious!

This is the view from our hotel balcony.  Yeah, that's right.

Let's look at that view again

Just part of the resort.

And one engagement picture for good measure.