And Then There Were Four...(Part 2)

Although the babies were now born and stable, the next several weeks began a giant emotional rollercoaster for me.

Each day I had to look at my sweet, tiny babies attached to all kinds of wires and tubes and all I wanted to do was hold them in my arms and comfort them.

 I could only see my babies at certain times of the day and each time I went to see them, I was faced with having to pass by dozens of other tiny babies, beeping monitors, and the sounds of conversations about babies that are not doing very well. It was beyond troubling.

All I wanted to do was care for my babies and comfort them and all I could do stare from afar and provide breast milk which was almost impossible since the hormones that it takes to produce the milk were on stand by since I had never held my babies or heard them cry.

I felt like a failure.

I failed to carry them to term, I was failing to comfort them, and I was failing to produce food for them.

I spent weeks beating myself up.

Finally the day came when the nurses told me I could come in once a day to hold the babies and from then on my life was complete. I finally was a mom.

Baby Des

 Baby Amélie and tired mommy

Desmond during his bili light treatment.

And Then There Were Four...(part 1)

I always said that when I have children, I would have a natural birth. Why? Because my tolerance for pain is so high- it would be a snap!

However, that high tolerance for pain is what landed me in the hospital at only 30 weeks into my pregnancy.

For a couple of weeks I had been working long hours at work and going to meeting after meeting after meeting. I was exhausted and noticed that the long hours were taking a toll on my body. I also noticed that I seemed to be losing control of my bladder (or so I thought) because I would often find that my pants felt wet while going to my next meeting. It was totally embarrassing- so I never mentioned it.

Around Memorial Day weekend, we found ourselves still unpacking and moving into our new home and also putting together nursery furniture. It was a lot of work and by the time the nursery furniture was built- I found that I was so uncomfortable that I didn't think I'd sleep again until I finally got the babies out of me. Luckily, I had a scheduled visit to the doctor the day after Memorial Day- so I could ask the doctor then for something to help me sleep.

Once I arrived at the doctor he came in the room, took one look at me, and told me that I was having extreme contractions and that I was not wetting my pants- I had been leaking fluid! Here I had been going weeks thinking that my tight belly and loss of bladder control was just a part of being pregnant and instead I was in labor!

Thus began Desmond & Amélie's Wild Ride as Matt called it.

From that moment on everything was in fast forward. I was sent to the hospital, had a sonogram to confirm that Amélie had indeed ruptured her sack, admitted, and put in a room in L&D where I was strapped to all kinds of equipment for hours and hours until they were able to make the contractions stop. I was asked time and time again, "Didn't you feel the pain of labor?" and all I could say was, "Well...I've never been in labor before...I guess my pain tolerance is pretty high."

I was told I would spend the following month on bed rest until July 1st when they'd take the babies early at 34 weeks.

I was beside myself.

I spent all of my time looking up 34 week old babies on the internet and seeing how long they'd be in the N.I.C.U. I researched every abbreviation I'd see on my sonograms. I researched head growth and the chances that my babies would have to wear helmets. I made myself sick, but eventually convinced myself that my babies were troopers and would come out ready to come home and not have to spend time in the N.I.C.U. It's amazing what you can convince yourself to believe when you're sitting alone in a hospital room for days and days.

When I wasn't researching premature babies, I spent my time reading People magazine, doing crossword puzzles, and educating the food staff on food allergies. It's puzzling that I was the first person to enter the hospital that is allergic to dairy... (this is what they told me after poisoning me several times with whey...it's obviously not true).

Every 2 or 3 days I'd once again go into labor and have to get shots that would make me forget practically everything to get the contractions to stop. It was a long vicious cycle, but finally on June 17th Amélie rolled over and unplugged the hole she had poked in her sack and the rest of my water broke. Once again things were in fast motion and I found myself hooked up to all kinds of machines in L&D to try and get the labor to stop, but eventually at 5am on June 18th, the on call doctor made the decision to do a c-section and take out the twins.

The sweet relief of not having babies rolling around in your stomach without fluid was great. I know now why women scream like crazy down in Labor and Delivery- their water had to of broke.

I mustered up all the cheer I could to pose for a few pictures so that Amélie and Desmond would look back on these pictures and think that it was a happy and easy experience.

Cheese!

Matt really liked his scrubs.

First came Amélie.

3 lbs 13 oz
16.5 inches

Then came Desmond

4 lbs 2 oz
17 inches

One glance at my babies was all I got until the next day. I only thought the hard part was over. 

Twins Belly Progression Part 2

I'm very behind on posting these pictures due to moving into a house, being in the hospital on bed rest from May 31st through June 22nd and then living at a NICU nursery with the twins from then until July 27th.

Below are the rest of my belly progression photos!

19 Weeks

20 Weeks

21 Weeks

22 Weeks

23 Weeks

24 Weeks

25 Weeks- Look new background! We moved!

26 Weeks

27 Weeks

28 Weeks!

29 Weeks

30 Weeks- Officially on bed rest at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas due to Amélie rupturing her sack.

31 Weeks

The babies were then born at 32 Weeks, 4 Days.

Ending pregnancy weight: 129 pounds

Maximum weight reached during pregnancy: 134 pounds

Time it took to lose all of that weight afterwards: 10 days

Being pregnant was a lot of fun. I wish I could have done it a little longer, but I have a new found appreciation for the human body and how well it goes back to normal afterwards.

Twins Belly Progression

I'm halfway done, so I thought I'd put up the first half of my belly pictures.

Throughout my whole pregnancy I've been looking online to try and find someone pregnant with twins that is my size so that I can compare my growth to them, but it has been pretty hard to find someone with the same build, height, and situation as me. So- I made my own. Hopefully these might help someone else one day.

It has taken a while to grow, but since this is my first pregnancy and since my torso is so long,

they said it is perfectly normal.

Starting weight after all my rounds of shots: 108lbs.

Height: 5'3"

Original Waist: 22"

4 Weeks- Waist has thickened.

5 Week- No change

6 Weeks- Nausea starting hitting harder causing me to throw up 3-4 times a day for the next 10 weeks. My stomach almost always looked sucked in from all the ab work I was doing over a trashcan.

7 Weeks

8 Weeks -(Tucker wanted to be in this shot)

9 Weeks

10 Weeks

11 Weeks

12 Weeks- Started hitting the sugary drinks and soda (caffeine free of course) a lot to try and gain some weight- I know that's not good, but you do what you've got to do.

13 Weeks

14 Weeks

15 Weeks

16 Weeks

17 Weeks

18 Weeks- Duplex renovations have started and boy does it HURT! I feel like my ab muscles are being ripped open!

Current Weight: 118lbs

Waist: Unknown until I find my missing tape measure...

Nausea: About once a day

I think I'll finally have something for the doctor to measure next time I go in for an appointment!

Let the Shopping Begin!

I told myself I wasn't going to buy anything until the very end of my pregnancy, but I finally broke down and bought a few things that I just had to have.

Below are my awesome finds:

Des and Amélie go together like..

...Peas and Carrots...

or....Peanut Butter and Jelly! Ha!

Then I've had my eye on these Trumpette socks for-ev-er. I think I was still a teenager when I vowed that my kid would one day have some of these socks. It was so hard picking just 3 styles, but I eventually settled on:

T-Straps

Pixies

And Skater Johnny for little Des.

I also made one serious parent purchase and found our Angelcare Baby Movement and Sound Monitor on Amazon.com for a steal of a deal. We originally thought we'd have to buy 2 of these at the store, but I found this one unit with 2 pads and saved a whopping $174.00 + tax! Cha-ching!

Thank you Amazon!

Matt has already read the entire owners manual and we both know we're going to sleep a lot better at night with this.

Hopefully I have now gotten my splurge out of my system and I can begin saving for these two once again...

Fortune Cookie Baby Prediction

Fortune cookie fortunes don't always come true...but sometimes the back of them do!

These fortunes came out of my cookie weeks before we knew what we were having. I just knew I'd end up with 2 boys, but the cookie knew better. The cookie knew....

What It Takes To Grow A Family

Here's a quick glance at some of the things that we had to do in order to grow our little family.

First a couple of baby photos:

16 Week skeleton face babies. Spooky!

Okay- to get started: You've got to buy a heap of medicine.

And just when you think you've got enough...you have to get more...and more...and more...

Then you have to do a lot of this early, early in the mornings...

And this as soon as you get home in the evenings...

You also need one of these bad boys full of smokey ice to keep your babies frozen on the car ride from one doctor to the next. It was kind of cool. It made me think of Jurassic Park.

Then you've got to do this a few times. :o(

And when that's over you have to have plenty of these containers to fill up with insane amounts of needles after your husband sticks you in the butt with those needles like lawn darts. Yeow! Sometimes you'll feel like an Intervention junkie.

And finally, you've got to go to the doctor.....A LOT....

But the most key ingredient to make it all work:

A loving husband that keeps the excitement high and the mood always positive.