September 12 - Day of Destiny! AKA: Babies Arrive

So we are going to give birth! No waiting for labour, no contractions, no vaginal delivery. Is it even fair to delivery in such a way? Am i a lesser woman for not going through labour? I don't know, but I do know a c section isnt a walk in the park either, there are down sides to it too. Even so, I cant believe I was so worried about it in the first place.

At 10am we go into the hospital, basically to hang out until they are ready for us. We were kind of squished in that day so we had to really wait for our turn. Maybe 2 or 3 pm the OB said. So we wait and I nap and Matt hangs out with his iphone... And then very suddenly it's go time.

It must have been shortly after two that we trundled down to the OR. Matt goes to get gowned up and I go in to get my spinal and be prepped. Holy crap, the anesthesiologist wasn't joking when he said the spinal was fast. My toes went numb in seconds and it very quickly spread up my body. Could barely feel the scrub and the catheter and, very suddenly, they were opening and I couldnt feel a thing! Good! Matt barely gets into the OR before we hear the Drs welcoming our first little one and her first little cries. It's 2:21! Matt and I look at each other in disbelief and wonder. And then, before the minute was up baby boy is here and healthy and crying! Then I'm crying and it's just unbelievable to have them here after months of fretting and wondering how it all would go. And so, on a beautiful, sunny September afternoon we welcome Alice Marie and Evan Robert into the world! Babies are here!

It's so exciting and the rest of the day goes by in a blissful, euphoric, drug enhanced way. I think I saw both of them in the OR, at least briefly. Alice is perfect and has no problems at all.

Evan has to go straight to the NICU, even though he is completely healthy and Apgar is perfect too, he is tiny and his sugar is low. Matt follows with Alice in his arms and all of a sudden the nurses are missing a baby! They have to go track Matt down and bring Alice back to me. Closing doesn't seem to take too long, which I thought it might and then we are in recovery. I get to hold Alice for the first time!
We hang out in recovery and I know I cant see Evan until we get out of here. My hands are just a little numb from the spinal and its the strangest sensation to see and be aware of your feet and just not be able to move them. Weird! But shortly I begin to wiggle my toes. Alice has found my breast and is sucking away even though she is getting nothing as I didn't go through labour so my body is like... What! Babies now! Whoa we are not ready yet! It'll get there. I dont think we were in recovery for very long, maybe half an hour? Soon I am getting wheeled down the hall, Alice asleep on my chest, and we stop in at the NICU to see Evan who is looking very tiny and naked, hooked up to all the monitors, but he looks ok really. It's a short visit and then we are finally taken to our room to rest.

Grandparents, brothers, and sisters are called. Linda and Val visited us shortly before the birth and come up to see us after, as do Mom and Dad. They all coo over little Alice but, true to form, the oxytocin has kicked in and I can barely keep my eyes open. The rest of the day is even more blurry but it has felt wonderful. The c section itself (not considering 6 weeks of recovering here) really was a breeze. And we finally have our two little babies out in the world. What a relief, what a joy, what a September 12th to remember!

Weights Evan 4.5lbs Alice 5.3lbs

Week 36.5: Incoming Babies in T Minus 1.5 Days

The babies are coming! Ok yes, they were always coming but now it's pretty much a set date. Here's the bounce around on dates story: so last we thought it was the 11th. At the OB on Friday she comes in and tells us we are bumped. The new Seton hospital has just opened their baby ward with no new staff, so they are taking staff from the other hospitals and telling them to cut down their daily surgeries by 20%! Since we are low risk and not even at 37 weeks we got bumped to the 17th. Alright, so now we are back to a 10 days count down but I feel like we can do it. Tuesday comes and it's our last ultrasound. There's nothing too remarkable except that baby boy has really, really slowed in growth. While baby girl is about 5.5 lbs, baby boy is still sitting under 5 lbs (at 4.7 lbs). Boo!

So the docs decide that we should deliver before the week is out, so now we are back to dates around the 11th. The OB even asks if we are cool with that night!! Eek! No! That's way too soon and I am not ready! But really we are ready so, sure, doc, whatever date you pick. The hospital can fit us in on the 12th which is good cuz that's not terrorism day or Friday the 13th! So as long as we don't go into labour in the next day we are scheduled for the c-section on Thursday morning. It looks like I will never know what labour contractions feel like... Well, this whole pregnancy was nothing like I had anticipated, but as long as the babies are healthy I really don't care how they come out.

So, I will have officially logged 12 days of actual maternity leave before the babies. Yeah, it was a decent amount of time to take it easy. I've been out and about most days because that feels healthier anyway. A little last minute bra shopping, returns, random supplies, groceries, dog visiting, popping into work at Canyon Meadows or Alpine to make sure everything is more or less under control, getting a new phone to replace the one I inexplicably lost... And napping! Lots of napping! Now that I can sleep in I have mixed up my schedule in the evenings and morning to rotate between sleeping, eating, and tar soap showers. It feels more productive than tossing and turning and waiting to go to work which I suppose is the point. Letting go of work worries has been hard though as I am super emotionally invested in my job. I will strongly recommend to my children not to get emotionally involved in your job, it makes things rough. But, either way, it will sort itself out without me and over time I may start to care less. So I must come to terms with that.

In a nutshell, other than the big decisions that were made today, it has been pretty normal, if not quiet. Physically, things feel like they are getting tolerable again. I find with pregnancy eventually the problems/worries/discomforts sort themselves out only to be replaced by something different as soon as one has adjusted. I feel like I have adjusted so we might as well changes things up and get this pregnancy over with. I will admit the reality of it is a little nerve wracking, but we are so ready to be parents, and so ready to meet these little guys. I really want to have something to look at and hold that will make this real for me. I still am having a hard time thinking beyond the day to day pregnancy thing and actually visualizing the babies at the end of this tunnel. But having it so close... Getting more and more excited to see these little people we have made! It's hard to remember where we started from and that this was the end goal, yet here we are. So again I will say Eek! with a little bit of nerves and a lot of excitement behind it.

The next time I post something our family will have doubled in size and our house will forever be completely different! Eek!

PS My Pregnancy Summary
Have officially gained 44lbs and now outweigh my husband :( His shirts make great maternity wear though. I can still pick things up off the ground and touch my toes. I have a lot of stretch marks but no more rash. Unfortunately, fighting the rash put stretch mark fighting on the back burner for me. My belly has remained a reasonable size and never felt like it was getting too out of hand. No back aches or mobility issues for me! You should have seen me jump away from a ninja spider the other day!
My boobs only started to grow in the second trimester and it has been a very slow growth but I did go from an A cup to a C and they are looking quite nice right now. Wait until the babies ravage them.
I did not nest or crave things, though white meat became a big turn off. I did not suffer from too much pregnancy brain, just a couple of episodes, and a small handful of emotional breakdowns, though I have been overly paranoid the whole time, and went through a couple months of complete grouchiness.
My fingers and toes are only mildly fat thanks to a lot of sitting around this week, but there were times when bending my wrists and ankles was hard due to all the edema. I did not glow or get long flowing locks, but maintained my regular pimply complexion and had to cut my nails a lot! Other than excessive mucus and snots, pregnancy sneezing, tension headaches, 36 weeks of morning sickness, and a few weeks of mild PUPPP rash we have had an ok run carrying these twins. However, I will not be sad to be done with it...!

Week 35: The Final Countdown

As of right now the OB wants to do a c-section on September 11th. This means we give birth in 10 days. I have a couple problems with this.
1. Is this too early? If everything is going well wouldn't it be better to wait between 37 and 38 weeks? I would really like to avoid too much NICU time and the longer they are in doesn't that mean they are more developed and healthy?? The OB has left this concern to be addressed closer to the date.
2. I still feel like if we go into natural labour that the little boy may push his head into the front and we might be able to deliver natural. I don't know if this is my preference or not, i cant decide, but i feel like natural may be a better recovery... Again, the OB didn't really have a stance to take on this matter.
3. September 11th is kind of terrorism day. I mean, yeah we're not in the states, but we are still aware of such things. So, even though we are counting, we are not counting on it. We will see... The next OB appointment is Friday.

Other than that, things are good. I feel like I have been winning this week. Of course I am winning now that the end is so close! The rash is mostly gone. Some spots still remain on my feet, armpits and groin and the itch really bounces around each night. Sometimes I still have to bath with my soap 2 or 3 times, and sometimes I can get away with some local hot water treatments on just my arms or feet. I've done some reading that the rash is related to liver toxins, however detoxing is not healthy for the babies right now. So the best thing seems to be to avoid high fat foods as this seems to aggravate things. (Science is Fun: the liver produces bile acids which help digests fats. Unhappy liver = less bile acids = residual fats in the body = rash causing toxins. In case you guys wondered.) My hands and feet are super fat and flare up at night but I am hoping that the next few days of rest will reduce that. The headaches have been gone since my last physio, so yah! for that. Still have random morning sickness despite 4 diclectin a day but I swallow so much mucus during the night it sometimes is nice to get rid of it. It's a quick morning purge and then I usually am ok to eat breakfast. The braxton hicks can be a little long and uncomfortable these days, but nothing too crazy really. Usually if i get up and move around they go away pretty quickly. If I get 5 hours of sleep despite needing to pee or getting woken up by contractions or itchiness it has been a good night!

Ewww, here are my fat feet with superman colors!

Physically, I have felt pretty good. Other than being uber tired all the time I don't really mind the belly and my joints/back/knees have held up just fine. I am going to attribute this to all my pre-pregnancy working out and core strength training. Just should have done a couple more plies (PS that's how you pick things up!) So, in summary, despite my complaining through all this there really have been lots of blessings.

Anyway... As of Friday I am officially done working. Still have some loose ends to take care of, and there will be book keeping things over this next year off, but yeah... Officially don't have to go in every morning. It will be strange. I have been going into that clinic almost everyday for the last 14 years. Looking forward to the break, but I will still miss a lot of it... like coworkers and the clients and the patients and doing the tech stuff. Yes, I know, I will be too busy to miss it... Perhaps. Still going to get out everyday to let the dogs out and do errands as needed so I'm not going to be too bored I hope. Even so, 10 - 14 days alone seems like a long time!

The babies have also been very good these last few days. Most of the time the are moving enough that I dont worry. Sometimes they can really get moving and they bounce whatever is resting on my pregnancy table (also another cool benefit of pregnancy). Ice water and ice cream seem to do the trick most of the time... I don't think they like the cold! They looked very good on their ultrasound. Much better growth than last time. They are now 4.5 ish lbs which makes me feel better to have them early if that happens. Baby girl is again bigger, but they are so close it doesnt really matter. They still have enough fluid and room to grow a bit so this is why I feel we can push the delivery date. FYI, normal babies are honeydew melons at this stage and about 5.5 to 6 lbs. Ha ha already I am referring to the babies as not normal! Poor babies!

PS My innie is only now turning to an outie :( and we almost made it all the way!

Week 34: The Itch, The Rash, The Devil's PUPPP

This week I learned that it doesn't matter how late in your pregnancy it is, the hormones can still mess with you. Most things have been going well so I'm thinking, ok we can make it to the end. Then wham! The pregnancy rash really begins to rage. The belly itch was nothing. Next my wrists begin to get bumpy and red, my knuckles flare up with angry papules. It climbs up my arms, elbows get bad, and creeps into my armpits. from the belly is slinks down into my groin and around my sides, hips, and back. here it is not as rashy and bumpy as my arms and is probably the least of the itch. Also,, shortly after my OB appointment where she says, "no big deal you whiner, its only your arms," it getsbetween my  toes, backs of my ankles, and up to my knees and knee pits. The bumps begin to merge into red raised itchy plaques over the worst parts. I look like a leper, itch ALL the time, and things get worse at night so you can't sleep. All you wanna do is scratch but as soon as you take one relieving scratch you cant stop and the whole area gets raw and inflammed. Its an evil, horrible, unrelievable cycle.

What's a girl to do... A whole lot of research. So I spent this week tired as hell and miserable, looking up and trying so many creams and baths and natural remedies for rashes that I couldn't even list them all. Nothing really helped much and this peaked over the weekend so the rash consumed me completely, all of my energies and tolerance went into suffering this thing. Maybe I was being a baby through it all, but I was ready to be induced just to get rid of the itching on Sunday night.

Then I found some longer term relief rather then reapplying creams and bathing every 2-3 hours. Its not perfect but it helps a bit... Scalding hot water treatments. Yeap, after spending all that money it's as simple as letting hot water run over your itch for 30 secs to a minute that provides the longest relief, just hot enough that you can almost not stand it. Its a fine line and one has to be careful, but boy does it work. Lucky my worst itching was on my extremities. In case you wondered, the theory is that it opens your vessels/cells and the slow release antihistamines come to the surface all at once and you get them out of your system for a bit. Sound science to me. In the meantime, I also ordered Grandpas Pine Tar Soap from the states as the internet consensus is that its one of the only things that makes the rash go away. Oh yeah, and staying dry in all those moist crevices is very important to not propagate the rash. I use baby powder, a lot of it, so the bathroom looks snow covered when I'm done. Who says it's just for babies! So between the soap and the hot water and the baby powder the rash has more or less cleared up, though some patches remain, and it is now tolerable. Still am in the shower/bath two to three times a day and usually around 2 am at night, but it is better. Even so, I will be glad to be rid of it.

The babies are happy, dancing small cantaloupes. Am curious to see their growth at next weeks ultrasound! On the fun side, here are the fully decorated cribs and library...