Womp, Womp

Well, it's been a couple of days since I've posted and sadly it's not because I've been so happy and peaceful while resting at home.  Nope.  I am back in the hospital again.  Boooo!

I made it (almost) three full days at home, and they were completely worth trying to do bed rest there.  I had my first appointment back with my doctor on Thursday morning, and despite having nothing but good blood pressures at home, once I got into her office, I was measuring 150/110.  Which I have since learned is high.  Very high.  So the process of getting up and dressed, riding to see my doctor, and walking in and up to her office was just too much.  And as she told me, if it's going to get that high whenever I get up and come in to see her, I just can't be at home.  Womp, womp.  So cue the wheelchair.  They whisked me back up to my same hall, two doors down from my original room.  My first day back here, I was very weepy - just mad and disappointed that I was back again so soon.  Well they take tears pretty seriously here, as I was offered antidepressants if I wanted them.  I told them I wasn't depressed, just bummed to be back inside these four mauve and hunter green walls again. (For real, is there a worse wall color than mauve?!?)

After one day of being 100% bummed out, I decided there's nothing I could do and cheered up by Friday.  I still hear of mommas who are in these rooms for 3+ months, so I can surely handle another 3 weeks.  I've had a steady stream of visitors since coming back, with flowers and meals and other goodies for the twins, so that helps the time go by.  I'll work on getting some pictures posted up here, so everyone reading can see where I'm living these days, and what kinds of adventures I'm up to while being in bed for roughly 23 hours a day (I figure the 734 trips to the bathroom each day must take up about an hour!)  In the meantime, thanks again for everyone's thoughts and prayers while we camp out here.  I hit 34 weeks today, so those babies are still doing good and cooking on the inside!

Breaking News!

We interrupt our regular blogging with this breaking news --- I am at home!!  Yes.  Home.  In my own bed, on my own sheets, and showering in my own, made-for-a-grown-up shower. (Did I ever mention the hospital shower was a whopping 2 feet wide and shaped like a tiny triangle??)

Yesterday morning, when my doctor came by to see me, she told me she had a "proposal" for me.  I could go home and continue on bed rest there.  Everything they were monitoring for me was staying so steady, that I could go home, check my blood pressure several times a day, promise to stay in bed, and come back to be checked twice a week in the doctor's office.  HECK YES.  I called Mark, who left work to come pack me up and we happily signed the paperwork and left. The nurses said there was a good chance that I would eventually be readmitted, but I told them that if I even got to spend two days at home and then had to come back, it would be so worth it.  So for the past 24 hours, I've been at home.  It's been so fantastic!

To make yesterday even more of {The Best Day Ever}, my sweet Book Club friends surprised me by all coming over last night and bringing a delicious HOMEMADE dinner!  After two weeks of eating hospital food and take out, I had two large helpings of a regular meal from home.  My friend Christina had told me last week that she wanted to bring me dinner this week, so when she asked yesterday if she could bring it up last night, I happily accepted with the change of bringing it to our HOUSE instead of the hospital (woo!).  So when the doorbell rang and Christina walked in, imagine my surprise when three other friends followed her in the door!

We all enjoyed the yummy dinner (me laying on the couch).  It was the perfect end to my first day back at home.  Laying in your own bed all day is so, so, so much better than a hospital bed!  Hopefully I can stay here for the remainder of my pregnancy.  Fingers crossed!

Gloomy Day

Well the weather here in Dallas today was as gloomy as it comes, which also happened to match my mood.  Today was the day when I really started to dread being in this room, and I just couldn't bear to think about how much longer I'll be sitting here, starting at these walls.  I think the weekends are harder, because I can imagine everything I would be doing at home, or I think about how all my friends in town are running around having normal, fun weekends, while I'm still trapped here.  A couple of the nurses were trying to cheer me up this morning, and they told me how it's totally normal to get the blues about being here.  And I know it's normal - I can't see how anyone wouldn't eventually crack when they are in here for weeks on end!  But it still makes it hard to be living it, waiting and wondering how much longer it will go on.  So the clouds in the sky must have made me feel extra gloomy today.

Some good things did come out of this weekend though!  I had lots of great visitors, and really enjoyed getting to see friends.  My friend Stephanie and her hubby Mark (who are expecting a baby just weeks after us!) came by in their burnt orange with some AMAZING cookies from JD's Chippery.  I have basically been eating them as meals ever since :)  And then my other good friends Virginia and Roth brought dinner for Mark and me with their sweet daughter Audrey, who was so fun to have running around our otherwise borrrriing room.  Seeing friends is refreshing and helps the days go by faster.  Oh and I almost forgot!  My entire work team from school snuck out of inservice to bring me lunch on Friday, and then Laura and her little guy Jimmy came over that afternoon with stacks of US Weekly magazines and other goodies to keep me occupied.  Let me just say that I am catching up on my celebrity gossip thanks to Laura - did you know Jennifer Anniston is preggers?!? ;)  Plus, my parents and my sister and Mark's parents came back up this weekend, which is always great.  And OF COURSE, there was the Texas-OU game this weekend, which was a great little surprise that definitely made Saturday a great day!

This weekend I also scored some official "wheelchair privileges" from the doctor on call, which means - wait for it - I can cruise in a wheelchair and go anywhere in the hospital!  I actually cried tears of happiness when the doc told me this.  The idea of leaving the room was like Christmas morning.  So Mark has been pushing me around for a bit each day.  We've ventured down to the cafeteria to eat at a table, away from my bed, which is lovely.  He's become pretty good at navigating the hospital with all his comings and goings in the past 2 weeks, so he showed me all the "cool" places, like the restaurants, atriums, hallways and not one, but two!, Walgreens.  He makes things like Walgreens exciting and novel, which let's face it, after 13 days in one little room, a closed Walgreens is still pretty awesome.  You can look in the windows!

So weekend number 2 is behind me, and I'm glad to see another week start.  I came in here with the babies at 31 weeks and tomorrow we'll hit week 33, which is great for the twins.  So here's to making it to 34!

The Latest

Hello Readers!  There are apparently a lot of you out there, since my blog stats went from about 9 readers to over 100 readers.  Which I am perplexed by, but hey, welcome aboard!

The news with me is that I do officially have pre-eclampsia, thanks to a high protein count in my latest 24-hour urine test (yup, I got to do that one again, and this time no one threw out the pee half way into it!).  My protein count was 330, and anything over 300 counts as pre-eclampsia.  So the thing I was waiting to possibly get, I did indeed get.

So what now?  Well, with my current condition, it is still better for the babies to be on the inside, so we aren't ready to deliver just yet.  Basically, as my doctor explained to me, we are waiting for something else to go wrong, thus making my case of pre-exclampsia risky enough that it would be better to deliver the babies.  Pre-eclampisa does not hurt them, but it is harmful for me, especially when it starts to worsen in other areas.  So we are waiting for any of the following to show up, and then it will be baby day:

- consistently high blood pressure
- a sharp drop in my blood platelet count
- a bad headache that will not go away
- "flash swelling," or sudden extreme swelling in my face, hands or feet
- naseau or vomiting
- etc., etc., etc.

It is a little strange waiting around to suddenly feel really bad, and knowing that it's going to happen eventually, but we still love to buy the twins some extra days to grow and develop inside!  So no birthdays just yet.

One last thought for today.  The TV here is a little on the lame side.  I have all day to watch television, but I don't have HGTV or TLC.  Whhhhat?!  Whose idea was it to stick a bunch of pregnant women into small rooms for weeks on end with no HGTV??  For the first three or so days that I was here, I totally had TLC.  So I got to watch What Not to Wear and A Baby Story all day.  Then all of a sudden, the channel went away!  Now it is just static.  I think it's even worse that I had it and now it's gone.  So sad.

t-minus 2 months

Well, time is flying.  Like whoa.  And I keep trying to come write a post on this ol' blog, but I get maybe a sentence written before I am distracted, off to do something else, or just plain too tired to go on.

Month seven of pregnancy is wearing on me.  I am uncomfortable.  Baby girl is up in my ribs, like all. the. time.  And the two of them move around like aliens inside me, constantly pushing and shoving on my insides.  Sometimes this is really cool and amazing.  Other times I am so over it and just want to lay down without the internal drumming beginning.  My feet are starting to swell up, and some days it is so bad that I feel like Shrek with my ogre feet.  Other days it's just my toes that get swollen, which isn't too bad but still feels very weird!  I am still plagued by heartburn.  It is mostly manageable but some nights I can hardly sleep without sitting straight up (which is, you know, impossible).  And my never-ending cough is pushing the two month mark now.  That's two months of coughing.  Oy.  Plus, due to baby girl or the constant coughing or who knows what, I have a constant pain in my right ribs/side, which is especially painful when I lay down.  So again, sleeping is tough.  I borrowed a Snoogle pillow from a friend.  Despite being a little ridiculous and large, it does help with actually getting comfortable at night.  We took a quick, 24-hour trip to Oklahoma City this weekend to see my family, and you better believe the Snoogle came along!

It's not all bad news over there, though.  We've been seriously talking baby names and we are officially decided on Baby Girl's name, and down to a handful of options for Baby Boy.  So that is fun.  We aren't keeping the names a secret, but we are holding out until we are set on both names.  Hopefully in the next week or so we can share those with friends and family.  And our nursery is coming along too, thanks to Mark's hard work and my delegating of ideas :)

I've got bedding to wash and walls to decorate, but the big items are assembled and in place.  Not pictured from this angle: a dresser and a chest of drawers.  It's crammed tight in the room, but babies don't need that much extra space, right??  Let's hope not.

It's hard to believe our littles will be here in less than two months!  I saw my doctor on Thursday and she told me to expect to see "exponential growth" over the coming weeks.  Which kind of freaks me out.  I am already growing out of most of my pregnancy clothes, so what will I do after exponential more growth!  Eek.  But the good news is that everything is still going great with the pregnancy.  Besides some really minor aches and pains, I am doing well and lucky to not have anything worse than some discomfort and ill-fitting shoes and clothing. It could be so much worse.  I feel like we still have SO MUCH to do to get ready, but at the same time, I'm ready to just dive in and figure out this crazy Parenthood thing when they get here!

Bump.

I started back at work today and dare I say I'm excited for the school year?!  Getting the classroom organized, sorting out all the brand new supplies, decorating the walls and door... it really got my pumped for when the kids show up next week!  I was even a little bit sad to think that I won't be here for the entire school year - leaving for a big chunk in the middle of the year when the babies are born was kind of bumming me out, even though I know I'll feel differently when they actually arrive!

Part of being back at work means that I am actually, oh you know, showering, blow drying my hair, putting on make-up, and coming up with a decent outfit to wear (which is tough when none of your clothes fit!)  I pretty much wore the same pair of yoga pants or gym shorts with tshirts all summer and for real NEVER blow dried my hair or went further than some blush in the make up department.  In fact, one day I was up at school working on some stuff and I saw one of my students from last year.  She looked at me all confused like with her head cocked to the side and said, "Are you wearing make-up??"  I told her no and she said, "You look really different!"  I told her she had never seen the {Summer Me}!

So anywho, since I made myself look presentable today, I figured why not take some pictures to document the bump!  I have not been taking photos of myself at all since getting pregnant, not really out of choice, but more out of lack of reason to get the camera out, since the summer has been so laid back.  Other than some photos on our vacations, I have no photographic evidence of the baby bump.  Until now!

6 months and some change.... or 25 weeks, for those of you familiar with this whole confusing pregnancy-week-talk.  I get confused by it all the time and have to do the math to remember if I'm five months or six months along....  Big sister pups making an appearance!

And now I can eat ice cream whenever I want to

Hello my Loves!

Oh hey, it's been another month since I've posted.  And so it goes.  We'll just move right past that, shall we?

What have we been up to lately?  Well, quite a lot.  On the off chance that you are reading this and I don't actually know you in real life, then boy do I have some news for you.

Yes, that is two babies.  Twins.  We are having twins.  A boy and a girl.  Holy cow.

If you do know me in real life, you likely know that I have ALWAYS WANTED TWINS.  For as long as I can remember, I have had this feeling that I would have twins.  Like I knew it was destined to happen.  So now that it is actually happening, it just feels normal.  I've always told Mark I was going to have twins (ok so maybe not during our early days of dating, but once we got serious/married/somewhere along the line I told him how I knew this was going to happen), so over the years he has even made comments like "well when we have our twins..." or "since we're going to have twins..."  It has sort of been our little joke whenever we would talk about our future family.  When we got married three years ago, our loose plan was always to start a family when I turned 30.  I knew I wanted lots of kids (ok, like 3 or 4), so I always told him once we started, we'd have to have a bunch back to back, so I wouldn't be having babies for an entire decade.  But even he would point out, well we're going to have twins, so that will help.

Well then in November, I turned 30.  So we put the plan into action.  Ok, maybe the plan went more into action sometime in year 29, but now here we are, five months pregnant with two little babies.  When I had my first sonogram around week 6, the doctor leaned over to tell me, "Amanda, there are two."  To which I said, "Okay."  Mark wasn't even there.  He had just started a new job and didn't want to take off, so I went by myself.  I remember the nurse in the room leaning over to see me and saying something like, "Is your husband going to be okay with this news?"  And I was like of course he is!  When I left the appointment, I drove back to work thinking holy cow, it's all really happening.  As cheesy as it might sound, I felt like I was getting everything I had always wanted.  How did I get so lucky?

Since we're just past the 20-week mark, I am definitely already at least halfway through this pregnancy.  Twins come early, so I won't be seeing week 40.  Which blows my mind.  It has been pretty darn easy, so far.  Until recently, I've hardly even felt different, which I know is such a blessing.  In fact, sometimes I think I am not milking this nearly enough, since I'm not getting any sympathy for carrying around two growing humans all day, every day.  As a matter of fact, as I type this, Mark is out buying me ice cream because I pulled the pregnancy card out for the first time EVER tonight.  It went like this:

Amanda: Hubs, I really wish I had some ice cream.

Mark: {silence}

A: Huuuuuubbs, I am pregnant and I want ice cream!  You are supposed to go get me whatever I want, whenever I want it!

M: But it's raining.

A: Even more perfect!  Just like the husbands in the movies who run out to the store to buy whatever their pregnant wives want, even if it's snowing and in the middle of the night!

M: If I go get you ice cream will you make dinner tomorrow night?

A: Su----

M: And it can't be a pizza.

A: Oh. Well what am I supposed to make then?! {wife of the year here}

M: ...

A: Ok!  I will make tacos!  Can you pick up some taco stuff while you are out?

M: {eye roll, but gets up to put his shoes on}

A: {thinking Yes!  This is actually working!}  Oh and can you get some Tums too?  The berry kind?

And so, Mark is currently out buying multiple flavors of Bluebell for yours truly, along with some heartburn medicine.  Pregnancy for the win!

I wouldn't really say we've been in denial about this huge life change that is quickly approaching, but we are definitely very chill about it.  So much so, that until recently, we had not purchased a single thing for the babies.  No booties, cute little toys, not even a single onesie.  Sure we hit up all the baby mega stores quite often to look around, and we always breeze through the baby section at Target now, but we had not spent a single dollar on anything.  Our anniversary was last week and we decided rather than spend money on dinner or presents or even cards for each other, instead we'd actually go out and buy something for the kiddos.  But then that night, after Mark got home from work and I got back form babysitting, we just didn't feel like going out to shop.  So I did some online spending instead and today my order was delivered.  So, these little babies officially own their first articles of clothing:

My two little foxes.