Bed Resting... A Day in the Life

Well, it's day number 9 that I've been here in the hospital.  It actually doesn't feel like it's been that many days, but also, it feels like a realllly long time ago that I was at home and at work.  I was so not prepared to go to work and NEVER GO BACK HOME last Monday.  It's very weird.  I miss being at home and I really, really miss my cat, Gus.  Every day Mark asks if he can bring me anything and every day I say "The Goose Cat!"  He hasn't smuggled him here yet, although he did offer to stand outside the window (seven floors down) and hold him up for me to see.  Humph.  Goose would flip. out. at that!  But! Gus did FaceTime me the other day, which was so fantastic that I almost got a little teary eyed!  Mark followed him around with his phone while I got to watch him pretty much ignore me, but it was awesome.

So I thought I'd do a little "Day in the Life" of my time here, so I can update others to how thrilling it is being here, and also so I can chronicle this crazy experience.  Here's how my days typically go:

9:00 pm - Go to sleep.  Since all this laying around seems to really wear me out, I usually go to sleep pretty early.  Mark stays some nights (and sleeps on this horrible little couch that I need to get some pics of, it is so tiny) and goes home some nights.  We figure it makes more sense for him to go home and actually sleep well!

11:30 pm - Nurse storms in, holy cow it is bright in the hallways, takes my blood pressure and temperature.  Then it's back to sleep.

5:00 am - Lab tech comes in and turns on the lights (he's nice and usually gives a "prepare your eyes warning") and then takes my blood.  Ouch.  I now have visible needle marks and bruises on my arm, but hey, it's for the babies, right?  Back to sleep again.

7:00ish - Mark either arrives for a little visit before work, or leaves for work, depending on where he stayed the night before.  We were having him stick around until we saw the nurse or doctor for the day, but they tend to come later and later and never have too much to report, so now he just heads out for work and I update him once I know more.

7:30-8:30 - Either the nurse or one of the doctors will come update me with platelet levels, blood pressure, etc.  So far, these have always been a "looks good for now" update, which means yay, no babies today and I get to order breakfast!  The nurse will also hook my up to monitors on my belly each morning, to hear the babies' heartbeats.  The twins always knock this test out of the park!  All the nurses tell us how perfect they are, how they've never seen better twins, how they are just the "cutest little babies ever " (this from looking at a strip of their heart rhythms!).  So clearly the babies are in no way affected by all this drama.  If it was up to them, they would keep cooking for weeks to come!

9:30 - Eat the totally awesome hospital breakfast food (sarcasm font there).  I also watch the Today Show, Live with Kelly and Michael, and Wendy Williams every morning.  Then I run out of good TV.

11:00 - Nothing else to do, guess I'll take a shower!

12:00-4:00 - daytime TV (yawn), lunch from hospital cafeteria (meh), nap, and generally lay around doing nothing.  Being lazy really wears you out!  I also still get nurses popping in every several hours throughout the day to check vitals, blood pressure, etc.

5:30 - Doctor might stop by to chat about how the day went, latest numbers, etc.

6:30ish - Mark comes up after he gets off work, runs by the house to feed all the animals, changes clothes and packs whatever new stuff I want him to bring (you should have heard me describing each piece of make-up I wanted him to bring out of the big make-up drawer!)  Sometimes he brings dinner, sometimes I just order in and he eats something from home.

7:30ish - Nurse shift change, so new nurse comes by and we hook the babies up to the monitors again.  As usual, they always get glowing reports!  We watch nighttime TV on our limited channels (hmm, The Voice or Dancing with the Stars?)

9:00 - Tired.  Mark either heads home or makes his little couch bed.  Lights out, time to get a solid 2.5 hours of sleep before someone's back in the room again....

Take that, multiply it times 9, and you have pretty much experienced my time in the hospital so far.  We've had lots of guests stop by with food and magazines and conversation, which is awesome.  I've also had some days where I feel crappy and tired and just lay around with the curtains closed all day.  But the past few days I've been feeling good and optimistic about making the most of this time, which I know is so important for our little guys.  Every day I lay in this bed is another day they stay inside and out of the NICU, so I'll do anything I can to give them that chance.  Every morning I wake up and look at the date on the little white board in my room and think to myself, October 9...hmm, will this day be their birthday?!

Cheers to Chairs!

Yesterday I noticed that there was an estate sale going on a few houses down from us.  I really wanted to check it out, not only to see what was for sale, but also to look at the house.  I love looking inside people's houses.  When I drive/walk/run around neighborhoods in the evening, I am always looking for one that has the windows open and the lights on, so I can see inside.  I like to see how people decorate and set up their rooms.  I am not alone in this, yes?

So anyways, I recruited Mark to go check out the sale with me.  It was definitely an original owner that lived or was living in there, cause it was O.L.D.  Old.  Old appliances, old carpet, old wooden built ins and paneling.  Old.  And all kinds of old stuff for sale, including an Atari that was $90.  We passed on that, but did not pass on this gem of a chair, that cost me a whopping $5.  Mark helped me carry it down the street to its new home.

I was so jazzed to do a real Pintrest-y inspired re-do on this chair.  So excited that I immediately went to Home Depot AND Lowe's to get some supplies.  I came home and sanded it down, which immensely improved its appearance.  

Today I took it back outside and gave it several coats of a spray paint primer.

I would have kept going with the re-do, but it started to super rain.  And I had a paper to write, so I called it a day for the chair, for now.

But, my chair adventures did not stop there.  This week is bulk trash pickup in the neighborhood, so Mark and I did a lap around the block just now.  We were wanting to pick up some pallets that we saw out on a curb last night, because hello, Pinterest is full of pallet projects!  And this was apparently the week to get rid of your pallets, because they are all over the curbs around here.  So we hopped in the 4Runner and hit the streets.  Before we even made it to the pallets, we saw an even better find: a pair of wooden adirondak chairs.  We have been wanting some of these chairs since we moved in, so we wasted no time loading ‘em up.  I don’t have a picture because it was too dark outside, but let’s just say these will need a little sprucing up as well.

Are you tired of talking about chairs yet?  No?  OK, here’s a picture of my anniversary chair, in action in its new spot in our bedroom.  Please ignore all the laundry scattered around it.

And finally, Gus wants it to be known that he has already claimed this spot as his own.

Is today Saturday?

This week has been a whirlwind of days, mostly meaning that I can never remember what day of the week it actually is at any given time.  I only worked Monday and Tuesday, so the string of holidays and days off is really confusing me and my calendar.  For example, my cat's birthday is today, July 7, but all day yesterday I thought it was the seventh, so I texted/called/Instagramed all day that it was his birthday yesterday.  But now it's today.  So he's been celebrating/being confused for two days straight.  And let's not even acknowledge that it's a little bit strange that I even know when my cat's birthday is, much less that I tell my entire extended family about the occasion.  In case you were wondering, he turned five :)

Now let's just move past all the cat birthday shenanigans and look at some Vegas pics, shall we?

Here are two of my friends, who I have known since elementary school, Stephanie and Mary Beth.

Here's the Hubs and I, in the Balligio.  The cool part about Vegas is that you can carry your drinks with you everywhere, from casino to casino, in the cabs, on the streets, etc.  You can even lay your glass down anywhere you want!  It's a magical place.

Some of the girls, conveniently arranged in a height line.

When you're Catholic and you see nuns in a Vegas casino, you have to stop and take some photos.

A nice shot of my new Vegas dress, with a bit of our view in the background.

MB and Steph again.

And, Mary Beth and her boy du jour, Norman.