the girl's 1st year

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They're here!

During a routine screening on tuesday, the doctor discovered that one of the babies hadn't grown much since the last screening a month earlier. According to their measurements, there was a 22% weight difference between the girls which meant there was a pretty significant growth restriction happening. that, along with a few other factors (low amniotic fluid and stress signs) led to the decision to deliver the babies ASAP. We went to the hospital that evening to be induced. Both babies were head down, so we were planning for a vaginal delivery. 14 hours into the induction the nurse started noticing pretty significant dips in baby b's (the smaller baby) heart rate. This continued pretty frequently for a good amount of time. She called my dr. And he made the call to have a quick c section since I was only at 3cm and the baby needed to be delivered pretty soon. The next hour was probably the scariest of my life as I watched and felt myself being poked, prepped, numbed, cut open, ripped apart, sucked out, squeezed, and sewn back together. My girls were out though and were doing great. Jovi Mei (baby a) was born at 10:07 a.m. weighing 4lbs 15oz and 18.5in and Beah Grace (baby b) was born a minute later weighing 4lbs 6oz and 18in. The ultrasound measurements were off by several ounces, but I'm glad everything happened the way they did. It turned out that Beah had her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. Going into this, I thought for sure at least the smaller baby would have to spend time in the nicu, but they are both so healthy inspite of their small size. They have been with us the whole time. There is much more to share, but I'm writing this on an iPhone and it's taking forever. I just hope that, more than anything, you all can see as clearly as I can how faithful and good God has been in this whole thing. This journey has tested my faith more than anything I've ever been through and I've had to learn to truly trust him. He has carried me and my girls through this whole thing and I'm overwhelmed by his grace and goodness towards us. They are just perfect and I'm so happy to be their mom!

maternity shoot

My littlest sister-in-law is an amazingly talented photographer.  I am so blessed to have her in my life for so many reasons and I also get the benefit of her talents ;)  Here is a link to her blog.  Her most recent post is of our family, a little maternity shoot we did at our house. 

http://kmariphotography.blogspot.com/2011/07/kara-justin-august.html

34 weeks, soccer mom status, and the scariest day EVER!

We've made it to 34 weeks!  That feels like an even greater milestone after yesterday...I almost had to have an emergency c-section (or at least I thought I might have to). 

I'm going in for non-stress tests twice a week now and I had one yesterday.  During the monitoring, one of the baby's heart rates shot up significantly for an extended amount of time and then dropped very rapidly to a super low number.  The nurse that was monitoring me freaked out and thought that the baby was under major stress and that I needed to get to the hospital asap in case the baby needed to be delivered.  So for about an hour, I thought I might loose my baby or have to have a c-section.  Thankfully, once I got to triage (on a stretcher via ambulance of coarse) and the nurses and doctors there checked the reports, they decided that the baby was just having a normal excel in heart rate and then moved so the monitor was picking up my heart rate instead of the baby's.  Just to be sure, they monitored the babies for another 6 hours.  During that time, both babies heart rates looked completely normal and healthy.  It was a false alarm, thank God!  I'm so glad my babies are ok, but man, I am still stressed out and upset.  I've been anti all these tests and monitoring from day one, but now I'm convinced they are definitely doing more harm than good.  This pregnancy has really been testing my faith, but I know now, more than ever, how much I need to just trust and depend on God.  All my human emotions are just too much for me to handle sometimes.  It's only by His grace that I can have the courage and peace to get through the next few weeks.  He's been so faithful so far.  I know whatever happens, He loves me and my girls.

Anyway, on a brighter note, we finally found a vehicle that's big enough for 2+ adults, 3 car seats, and a massive triple stroller...a minivan.  It's officially ours as of today.  I never thought in a millions years that I would be driving one, but it really is the only thing that works when you have so many little ones and so much stuff!  It's going to be hard to part with my Element, but the sunroof, butt warmers, and remote doors on the minivan make it a little easier.  Say hello to our "new" 2005 Honda Odyssey.

33 weeks

I don't have much to update except the babies are still healthy and I'm still pregnant.  They measured the girls on Friday and they are currently right at 4lbs each, which is just over the 30th percentile (which I think is really great considering they are girls and identicals and have a small mom, all things that usually mean smaller babies).  At this point in pregnancy, they should gain about 1/2lb a week, so my goal is to stay pregnant for at least 3 more weeks so they can get nice and big.

Speaking of nice and big, here are some recent belly shots.

And here are a few pics of august.  Here he is wearing his daddy's hat.

And here he is telling me he's ready for nap time.

ultrasound pictures

I think I have more pictures of the twins than I do of august at this point with all the ultrasounds I've gotten.  They always give me a bunch of print outs of random body parts, most of which I cannot even make out.  I do have a few good ones of their faces that I wanted to share.  I don't have a scanner, so I just tried to take pictures of the pictures with my camera.  Not the best quality, but it's the best I can do.  Hopefully you can figure out what you're looking at...it's not easy.

This first one is hard to make out, but it looks like one baby is punching the other in the face.  The one of the right is a profile shot of baby A from May 5 (27 weeks).

Here is a 3D image of one of their faces from April 7 (23 weeks). 

And here are two more 3D face shots, baby B on the left and baby A on the right.  Both were taken May 5 (27 weeks).

pregnancy/twin update

So I've made it through 7 months (28 weeks) of twin pregnancy.  I still have a long way to go, hopefully.  It sure hasn't been easy.

I spent the first few weeks after I found out we were having twins in panic mode.  I had to wait 3 weeks to see a doctor, so I decided to educate myself as much as possible and by as many means possible while I waited.  I joined the Mother's of Twins Club (MOTC) in town, contacted all the twin mom's I knew, and stocked up on twin pregnancy books.  I got a lot of really great, helpful information, but it was super overwhelming.  Preterm labor, NICU, low birth weight, diet, activity (or lack there of), etc...I all of a sudden had a million more things to worry about.  I was hoping my dr. would give me some peace of mind, but she didn't seem to know much about multiple pregnancy at all (woman told me to try not to gain too much weight, but that's exactly the opposite of what I had read and heard from other mom's who delivered term, good size babies).  That, along with the fact that only 2 or 3 of the doctors at that office would vaginally deliver twins (out of 15ish), left me with a sick feeling.  I began searching for a doctor that had experience with twins, prenatal care and vaginal delivery, and that would be on call for me when I go into labor instead of just whoever was there at the time.

I found a really great OBGYN through the MOTC who was more than comfortable and experienced with multiples, so that was one less thing I had to worry about.  It wasn't long after I started seeing him that he started sending me to a specialist for tests.  With twins that share a placenta (like mine), there are a lot more complications that can occur.  One of those is called Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTT), which basically means one baby gets more (the other less) blood flow.  We had a scare there for a while when one twin hardly grew in two weeks.  There was more than 25% difference in their size.  Two weeks later though, they measured them again and they had both gained the same amount of weight.  There was still a discrepancy, but at least they were growing at a normal rate.

There's is also a test that they do to determine if you might go into preterm labor (Fetal Fibronectin Test).  I've been testing positive since they started testing me at 24 weeks.  For that reason, my doctors recommended getting steroid shots to help the babies lungs mature faster in case they do arrive super early.  So, as a precaution, I went ahead and got those.  The day after I decided to go ahead with the shots, I came down with a horrible stomache flu.  I woke up one morning with an upset stomache, took a sip of water, and started vomiting.  I think I vomited for 3 hours straight so we decided to go to the emergency room.  I couldn't keep anything down and with all the violent vomiting I was doing, I was scared it might trigger contractions.  I got checked into triage, they put me on an iv of fluids, gave me antinausea medication, and hooked me up to contraction monitors.  About an hour later, I was feeling much better and once my doctor came and checked on me and I held down a sprite, I was on my way home.  I had a few minor contractions, but nothing hard or long enough to trigger true labor.  They pretty much went away after I stopped vomiting.

So as of right now, I am going for ultrasound tests every week.  One week they measure the babies to check for TTT, the next week they do a biophysical profile (check babies lungs, brain, heart, bloodflow through the umbilical cord, amount of amniotic fluid, and muscle tone/movement) and do a nonstress test (monitor their heartbeats and contractions) and do a vaginal ultrasound to make sure my cervix is holding up.  It really feels like an overkill to me and I wonder how much these tests are really helping my babies, but my doctors think they are necessary.  

My last TTT test was last Thursday and the girls had grown a ton (12oz and 14oz) and the smaller baby is now only 3oz behind her sister.  They are measuring at 2lbs 7oz and 2lbs 10oz.  A twin mom friend of mine told me to pray specifically for things, so for the last week I've been praying that the girls measure at 2.5lbs, which I thought was a stretch, but praise God for his faithfulness!  I'm now praying that they gain 0.5lb a week until birth (which is the norm).  If they do and I can carry them till at least 35 weeks, they will avoid low birth weight status and hopefully be able to stay out of the NICU!

So that's pretty much it for now.  I'm just trying to take it one day at a time and rest as much as possible.  At 7 months I already feel like I did when I was 9 months with August (probably because I'm already as big, if not bigger than I was then).  As usual, I've done a horrible job documenting my belly growth...I've been waiting to take pictures when I look decent, but that doesn't happen too often these days.  Oh well.  Here is the proof:

So here I am, 32 weeks pregnant with Augsut...

 

and 28 weeks with the girls (way bigger). (trying to take a picture of myself while talking to august doesn't make a pretty picture, but at least you can see my belly.  also, i'm using a mac and i have no idea how to rotate the picture on it so it's still sideways.)

Here's me and August at 37 weeks...

 

and me again at 28 weeks with the girls (twin belly wins again!).

I actually measured my belly and it's the same size around as it was just a few weeks before I had August (42").  I really want to carry these girls for 2 more months, but I sometimes I wonder how much bigger I can get!  

florida part 2

Here are a few photos from our last trip to Florida.

Here's August and Sissy playing with the IPhone.  My amazingly generous boss just gave me her old one today...August is going to be so excited!

My pal Daniela was also in town that week and I got to meet her little one, Lukas.  I think he's almost 3 months here.  August did pretty well around the baby.  He even cried when Lukas started crying, which was kinda weird, but sweet.  Daniela also threw me a baby shower while we were in town, but somehow I don't have any pictures from that.

I wanted to take August to the beach while we were there, but my family lives about 2 hours from the shore.  We settled for a lake beach really close to where my dad lives.  August had a blast playing in the sand and splashing in the water.  They had a pool there too and August got to swim with his Grandpa.

Here's Grandpa and August at the 'beach' making a sand castle.

My brother, Tommy, lives in Orlando so August and I took a day trip to see him.  Tommy went with us on a fun shopping trip at Ikea and then we hung out with his new kitty.  August and kitty played 'chase the laser pointer' together.

August learned how to ride a horsey too ;)

august lately & Florida trip part 1

August is almost 15 months already!  I haven't done a very good job capturing his most recent milestones, but he is just growing up so fast!  He started walking a few weeks after his 1st birthday and gets faster on his feet everyday.  He's also gotten very vocal.  I don't know if I can pinpoint a specific first word, he just keeps spitting things out, sometimes only once and then you never hear it again.

August and I just got back from Florida a few days ago.  It was a great trip and we had so much fun hanging out with my family.  Here are some videos from the trip.

playing with nanna through the glass door

playing with balloons

running around nanna's house

Grandpa took August to a lake beach in town.  August LOVES the water and had so much fun playing in the sand and splashing in the water.  

and in case you were wondering how huge i am, my mom got it on video

You can hear august in the background saying his new favorite phrase, "ut oh!".

It's official...

Well, it's 2 girls, but I couldn't find a picture for that ;)