Our Birth Story

I've decided that perhaps I should start at the beginning. Hubby and I had tried for a year on our own to become parents before finally breaking down and using Clomid. For most people Clomid only results in one baby. But since I also have a very long family history of twins it increased our chances exponencially. After only one cycle of the drug I got those two little lines on my home pregnancy test that I had been praying for for a very long time.

So when the ultrasound tech said that we had 2 babies in my belly we were surprised, but we weren't completely shocked. We knew it was possible, even without the drugs it was possible.

The day before the girls were born I had a perinaitologist appointment. Several weeks prior my parents had decided that I could not go to any more appointments alone, and insisted that if DJ couldn't go with me then one of them would. This was quite a commitment for them because I was going to 2 NST appointments and 1 ultrasound appointment each week. By the end of my pregnancy I was threatening my Dr. to bring my sleeping bag and camp out in the waiting room. lol All of this to say, DJ was going to have to work June 11th, 2007, so my mom made room in her schedule and planned to go with me to the appointment. At the last minute DJ decided to take the day off work and go along as well, and since my mom had already planned to come I had TWO chaperones that day rather than just one. They both kept telling me that they felt they NEEDED to be there with me. I thought they were both silly, but when you're 34 weeks prego with twins your will to argue lessens tremendously. I pretty much threw my hands in the air and said something along the lines of, "Fine whatever, but nothing's going to happen! He'll just say everything's fine and then you will both feel silly for taking the day off work for nothing!" But somehow they just knew, even though I didn't.

Maybe it was because I looked like this:


In any case, the ultrasound tech that day took a lot of measurements. They were especially concerned about Ziva because she was so much smaller than her sister. But we also knew that they were fraternal, and there could be a natural disparity between them just like any other set of sisters born on different years. So I really wasn't worried at all, I felt like the doctors were making a big fuss over nothing. But I was thankful to be getting such great care, and I was happy to go along for the ride. There was one ultrasound several weeks earlier when they mis-measured Ziva, so the tech really took her time to make sure everything was correct. And then she got quiet, and left to get the doctor. I could see her heartbeat and everything so I knew she wasn't in distress, but her actions still made me nervous. DJ said, "Well, I bet it's time." My mom agreed. I said, "Psh.. you guys are crazy!"

The doctor came in and said, "Time to deliver!" And I said, "What?!" I was in total denial... which ain't just a river in Egypt! I thought for SURE that I'd carry them to at least 36 weeks! I had been visualizing it, picturing me taking home 2 healthy 6 lbs. babies as soon as I was released from the hospital. This was NOT my plan! Apparently Ziva had dropped off her growth curve, which meant that she would grow better outside rather than inside. He offered the option of checking myself into the hospital right then, or waiting until the next morning. I picked the next morning. I wanted to go home, do laundry, eat a normal dinner, pack my bag, etc.

So that's what we did.

The next morning we arrived at the hospital. They wanted to hook me up to the NST to monitor the girls, I helped them. By then I was getting to be a pro at knowing where the girls heart beats could be found. The nurse checking me in talked me through what would happen. Turns out she was an identical twin, so she had a special place in her heart for twin births. And then she got to the part of her speech where she explained that after the girls were born they would show me each girl, and then they would go to a little room next to the OR, and then they'd sew me up, and I'd get to spend a brief amount of time with each girl before they were taken to the NICU and I was taken to recovery. And that's when I broke down and cried. No, I sobbed. Because these precious little girls that I had spent every moment with for the past 8 months would now be taken from me in such a sudden way, and I wouldn't be able to share a room with them the way I had envisioned. It was terrible, just writing it now brings me to tears.



And bless his heart, DJ just cried right along with me. They had to delay my surgery by 15 minutes just so we could pull ourselves together.

The surgery itself went without a hitch. I had the two best Dr's I could have asked for performing the surgery: Dr. Hutchinson and Dr. Gibbons. They were amazing! Ziva, who was breech, was born first, and then Anya was born 2 minutes later.

Here is what I wrote in a mass email once I got home that gives most of the basic details:

Well our girls arrived on June 12th and they’re both doing great! Ziva Lynn was 3 lbs. 9 oz. and Anya Jean was 5 lbs. 11 oz. Right now they’re both in the NICU and it will probably be a week or two before they get to come home. The c-section went without a hitch, the worst part of the whole experience was getting my IV placed which took 3 tries (ouch!). Both babies came out crying. Ziva came out with both arms outstretched like she was saying “Here I am!” Anya needed some help with suction at first to get all the fluid out of her lungs, but once that was done they were both doing fine just breathing room air. At this point Ziva has gained 3 oz. over her birth weight and Anya still has a couple oz. to go before she reaches her birth weight. They’re both doing great regulating their own body temperature, so today they took them out of the incubators and put them together in a crib. So we got some great pictures of them in the crib together all cuddled up. They seem to really enjoy it! The only thing that’s keeping them in the NICU at this point is that they need to learn how to eat. They both have feeding tubes and we’re working on breastfeeding, but I’ve been told that babies that are born 6 weeks early usually aren’t ready to eat on their own until it’s closer to their due date. The feeding sessions are going well and they’re both catching on but don’t stay awake long enough to eat as much as they need to.

What I didn't say in that email is that after they were born Dr. Hutchinson showed their placentas to DJ. Apparently Ziva's placenta was 1/2 the size of Anya's, which explains why Ziva was so tiny by comparison. Plus Ziva's umbilical cord had grown along the side of her sack, which means if my water had broken unimaginable things could have happened to her. So THANK GOD I had good doctors watching out for me!!! And THANK GOD they decided I needed a c-section! Because it could have easily gone bad and Ziva might not be here with us today.



They stayed in the NICU for 2 weeks.



They were very cute.





It's amazing to think about how tiny they were.



I feel completely honored that God entrusted them to me.

6/11/07

Well I have another growth scan today, I'll let you know how that goes. I can't believe I'm almost at 34 weeks! I'm starting to get more and more excited about the girls being here rather than in my belly. I'm still enjoying being pregnant at this point though, so I'm not too miserable. :) I'm trying to savor every little bit knowing that it might be my only pregnancy. I am starting to have more BH though. For the past couple nights I've had them from about 7pm on until I go to bed at 11pm. Not frequent enough or painful so that's good. I'm also experiencing some of that 'evil crotch pain' that I've heard some of the new twin mom’s mention. I went to BRU with DJ yesterday, and afterwards I could barely move. UGH! But other than that things are going pretty good. :)

5/31/07

Well I had another growth scan on Tuesday. My dad came with me this time. My parents have decided that they don't like the idea of me going to my appointments alone anymore. I don't mind them coming to the growth scans though because those are the ones where they might potentially tell me to head to the hospital for emergency C-section. So anyways, the girls both look good. Baby B is now 5 lbs. (YIKES) and Baby A is 4 lbs. For a second they were a bit concerned about Baby A's leg growth from the last scan to this one because there wasn't much change, but then after graphing her leg growth overall they decided that they probably mis-measured last time. They both look like they have plenty of fluid, and Baby A's cord blood flow has actually improved so that's great! So everything looked good and healthy and normal. Yay! I still can't believe I'm carrying around 9 lbs of baby inside of me… no wonder I feel so uncomfortable!

5/25/07

Had another Dr's appt. yesterday and the babies are both doing just fine. They've turned and are no longer transverse, YAY!!!! Let me tell you, two babies going sideways is NOT COMFIE!!! So now Baby A is breech, and Baby B is head down. And even though their current position would still mean c-section for me I'm just happy that I'm more comfortable. And my guess would be they're more comfortable too.

Also the Dr. said that my cervix is long and closed, and I'm not having any Braxton hicks contractions, so therefore my body is handling the pregnancy very well and I'm looking good for carrying them the long haul. Only thing that would bring them early would be if Baby A slows down or stops growing. My next growth scan will be next week, so we'll see what they have to say then.

5/15/07

We had a bit of a scare yesterday. I went in for my regularly scheduled NST (non-stress test) and the nurse had a hard time finding Baby A's heartbeat. So they did a quickie ultrasound and found her all scrunched up down in the bottom of my uterus and Baby B was taking up all the rest of the space. But they did find Baby A's heartbeat and measured her amniotic fluid and her umbilical cord blood flow. They thought her blood flow was too high and her fluid was too low, so they sent me over to maternal fetal medicine that afternoon for a full growth scan. They also let me know that they would contact the Dr. on call and let her know what's going on and warn her that I might need an emergency c-section that day. Yikes!!! So I called my dad first because he's retired and I knew he'd be available to at least come and hang out with me until my appt. And then I got ahold of DJ and his boss let him get out of work so he came too. So the three of us went out to lunch to kill time before my appointment.

At maternal fetal medicine they did the full growth scan. There's actually some good news, Baby A is now in the 32nd percentile (she was in the 28th percentile 3 weeks ago) and according to their machines her fluid was just fine. Her umbilical cord flow rate is higher than they'd like to see, but not dangerous at this point. They are now both transverse, Baby B is at the top of my uterus and Baby A is at the bottom. They did think Baby A was in a tough position, but they didn't seem to think it was anything to be worried about. So no c-section for me yet. YAY! I was so worried they'd send me directly to the OR. I know it wouldn't be the end of the world to have them at this point, but it's certainly not ideal either. So we'll see what they say at my next appointment on Thursday. In the meantime DJ says my assignment for today is to pack a hospital bag.

5/1/07

I've decided that I'm done with my cooking days. I just can't be on my feet for that long anymore. My mom says she's going to cook up some freezer meals for me and if she does that should finish up to my goal of 60 meals.

The baby shower was really fun! We got lots of great stuff. My mom went overboard (as usual) and gave us 2 months of diaper service, 2 diaper pails (one for upstairs and one for downstairs), some disposables and wipes, and diaper rash ointment. And she let it slip that for my next shower (on Saturday) that she's going to give us the stroller and car seats. Woo hoo! Genette got me my diaper bag from my registry and completely filled it with all kinds of great stuff: nursing pads, nursing shawl, preemie outfits with hats and mitts, health care kit, pacifiers, etc. All kinds of stuff! Rita & Lindsey who had recently been on vacation in Hawaii gave us two little Hawaiian sun dresses that will fit perfect next year. I got a bunch of other cute outfits and money too. Plus my mom made me a sugar free blueberry cheesecake using splenda so I actually got to partake in desert! Yippie! It's amazing what they can make with splenda and how many products you can find that are sugar free or low sugar, makes me super glad I didn't have GD say 20 years ago.

I swear, my belly is SO HUGE, and it's just gonna get bigger. Yikes! Last week I measured 33 weeks! I seriously look like I'm about to give birth any day now except that I have 2 months to go. DJ swears that my belly grows overnight. I’ve grown out of all the clothes Karin loaned me, and I’m now wearing XL maternity t-shirts and L dress shirts.

4/28/07

Well I had a peri appt. on Thursday along with u/s. He said that they both look healthy and normal, except for the fact that Baby A is so much smaller than Baby B. But this time Baby A was up to 28th percentile, which is great! He said that if Baby A was a singleton we wouldn't even be talking about her health. Baby B is up to 64th percentile. He says I'm still at a low risk of pre-term labor, the only reason they'd be born early is if Baby A looks like she's in distress or stops growing the way she should. So that sounds promising and I'm really just not going to worry about it.

My first baby shower is tomorrow, I'm so excited! The next one will be next weekend at my house, so we're working on cleaning things up and putting stuff back in order after our whirlwind weekend last week.

DJ got to feel a really strong kick last night for the first time, so that was fun. Before he just felt sort of a bump which wasn't as exciting.

Pregnancy Journal 4/10/07

Well, my appt. was very interesting to say the least. It was about a two hour ultrasound and then after that another 30 min. or so with a parrinatologist (sp). Both the babies were wide awake and not making it easy to get certain measurements. In fact when we started the ultrasound baby B was transverse and by the end she was breech! So lots of movement going on which was fun to see. :) Didn't get many pictures though because it was strictly a medical ultrasound.

The Dr. was very detailed in explaining things to us. He said that there are three main things that Dr.'s worry about with twins. First, pre-term labor. He said that I'm at a very low risk for PTL because my cervix measures 4cm and usually they're happy to see 3cm so that's a huge positive! Second he said they worry about pre-eclampsia. My blood pressure is always great whenever I go in, and I told him that I'm simply just not going to have that problem. I've decided. :P He said, "Ok, we'll just mark that complication off the list then." And then thirdly the thing that they worry about is growth problems.

He said growth problems can be caused by three issues in fraternal twins. One is a virus, which he said is not an issue in my situation. If it was there would be other obvious problems with both babies and there isn't. Two is a chromosome abnormality. He said that in 95% of cases with chromosome problems there are also other visible defects in the baby, and he said that other than her size Baby A looks perfectly healthy so he said he'd be VERY surprised if that were the case here. Three is some sort of placenta problem. He said at this point he can't really tell if there is a problem with Baby A's placenta, but that as time goes on it would become more obvious if there was. He said it could just be that Baby A's placenta implanted in the uterus in a place where the circulation isn't as good. And he said that since the babies came from separate eggs that it could just be that the two babies inherited different genetics that play a roll in how big or small they will be.

He said the good news is that since my cervix is so long that we have plenty of time for Baby A to grow enough to be healthy. He said that at some point I may want to have an amino test to verify that there is no chromosome problem with Baby A, but at this point he said that was too risky. He said right now he only has one point of info, so he'd like me to come back and have another ultrasound there in 2-3 weeks to check on Baby A's growth.

Pregnancy Journal 4/9/07

We had an ultrasound on Monday that confirmed for sure that we are having two girls. So now we just have to nail down names! We’ve pretty much agreed upon Anya for a first name for one of them, and we were toying with Elsa for the other one but DJ nixed it. So now we’re back to the drawing board. I’d really like their middle names to be Jean & Lynn after our mom’s middle names. I think that’d be an awesome gift for our moms. But really we’re undecided, so we’ll see.

At our ultrasound they discovered that Baby A isn’t growing like she should. Last time she measured in the 11th percentile, and this time she measured in the 6th. So I have an appointment with maternal fetal medicine today to run more tests and find out what’s going on. They did say that all her systems look healthy. They measured the flow of the umbilical cord and it was the same for both babies, which is a good sign that they’re getting enough nutrition. And just to reassure me, she was moving around like crazy yesterday, probably more than I’ve ever felt her. So I’m actually feeling pretty positive about my appt. today.

It was a good Easter weekend for us. Great one even! :) We had Lee & Sabrina over on Saturday for a BBQ and had lots of fun even though it rained and we ended up watching a movie instead. Sabrina is throwing a shower for me, so she asked me lots of questions about what I wanted or what I liked/disliked. I pretty much gave her free reign to do what she wanted with a few exceptions (such as I really don't want everything to be pink). Lee & DJ moved all the exercise equipment downstairs to the garage, so that’s one more thing to check off our list of things we needed to do. And then DJ and I went to church Sat. night and the sermon was really good. :)

Then on Sun. morning we went to an Easter brunch with Mom & Dad, Aunt Darlene, and Suzy Wayne & Jalen. The food was good, and there was lots of good conversation. And when I got home I felt so energetic that I weeded nearly our entire yard! lol It was sunny and beautiful and I guess I just wanted to be out in it after the rain the previous day. Now I have all kinds of great ideas about what I want to plant this year. I may go buy some plants today if the mood takes me.

Pregnancy Journal 3/27/07

We had a very busy but good weekend. On Saturday we went to a Breastfeeding & Baby Care class. It was much better than I expected! I read a lot, and cruise these boards all the time for info, so I wasn't sure how much I'd actually get out of it. But I actually did learn quite a bit, and took a lot of notes. And I think it helped reality to set in for DJ.

It was an all day class on Saturday (9-4pm), and DJ had worked Friday night from 10pm to 6am Sat. So he was EXHAUSTED! I'm amazed that he was able to stay awake for the whole class, although I know there were parts he missed because he was starting to zone out. So needless to say we didn't get a whole lot done on Sunday because we were both pretty tired. But we did do a lot of talking on Sunday about how we're going to re-arrange things, and what pieces of furniture we need to buy so that we'll be ready. One of the things we decided we need is 2 twin beds to go on the spare room. DJ's family will be coming from out of town to see the babies, so it will be good to actually have extra beds to sleep in. Plus, who knows how this whole thing will work out. We may end up hiring someone to come help out at night, or my parents my come help out at night when DJ goes back to work. Or one of us may end up sleeping in the spare room when we're on baby duty.. who knows! Either way though it would be helpful to have some extra beds. Plus, eventually they'll become kids beds, so they'll get long term use. So I've started looking for 2 matching twin sized beds on craigslist and hopefully I'll find something good. :)

We've also decided that the best place to start is to finally get some closet organizers for our closets. We built this house 2 years ago, and so far we've been living with only a wire shelf and bar to hang things in our closets, and we REALLY need to get something better so we actually have places to put things. So that's gonna be our next project.

Yesterday I went and got a spa facial w/ my mom. It was really awesome! I've never had a facial before like that. They had us change into bathrobes, and we sat in this room w/ relaxing music before they came to get us for our treatments. And then we each went to separate dimly lit rooms and laid down on these massage type tables. And a beautician came in and put layer upon layer of goop on our faces. They used a LOT of different kinds of massage on our faces, shoulders, neck, arms, hands, even our scalp! The whole thing lasted about 2 hours, and when we were done we both felt SO relaxed! Then we went out to lunch. It was really fun! :)

When I got home, DJ was spinning around our house like a whirlwind cleaning! Our house was SO disgusting, hadn't been cleaned in a long time. And I was THRILLED to see him cleaning from top to bottom! So now my house looks perfect and even smells good! He even had dinner going! What a guy!

My blood sugar numbers haven't been that great this week. When I last met w/ the dietician she thought I was cutting back too much on carbs, so I've been eating more of them this week and even though I've started insulin I'm on a very low dose. My guess is that when I see my Dr. tomorrow she will tell me to increase my dose. I'm ok with it at this point, I'm happy to do it for healthy babies.

I’ve been feeling lots of kicks and a few rolls from the babies. I feel Baby B quite a lot throughout the day, and I feel Baby A about once or twice a day. A couple days ago I felt them both just moving and rolling together! It was so cool!

I’m getting a LOT bigger. A few of Karin’s shirts don’t fit me anymore. I’ve also started to have rib pain, especially on the right side. I guess it’s just from everything getting pushed up. I saw Minga on Friday, and she said that the reason my right side hurts more is because my liver is on that side, and it’s getting shoved up to make room for the babies. So there’s pretty much nothing that can be done about it until after they’re born, and then I’ll probably need a major adjustment.

Pregnancy Journal 3/8/07

Well my glucose test came back on the high side, so I had to do the 3 hour glucose test yesterday... I don't recommend it! I didn't eat anything from 7:30 the night before until the test was over at around noon the next day! I was SOOOO hungry that by the end I was wobbly on my feet! Luckily DJ came with me because I don't think I would have been ok to drive myself home. Anyways... Dr. called today w/ the results and they were high. So the next step is an apt. w/ a dietician. Man... I'm so BUMMED about that!!!!

Anyways... /sigh

DJ and I printed off a list from the SSN web site and we narrowed down our list of names to 13! Out of those I think there's two that really stand out, Anya & Elsa. What do you think?? We're still working on middle names.

I'm absolutely huge already dang it! I don't know if I mentioned but at my apt. last week when I was at 19 weeks, they measured my belly and I measured at 24 weeks! I'm 20w now, so my guess is I'm bigger than 24 weeks at this point! Yowzerz! I definitely look like I'm in my 3rd trimester not my 2nd! And it's weird, the left side of my belly where Baby B hangs out actually sticks out more than my right side! I thought I was just imagining it, but DJ confirmed, I'm definitely lop sided. Baby B is just a little bruiser I guess. I'm definitely feeling movements on that side now. I think I'm starting to feel Baby A on the right, but it's not very often.

Pregnancy Journal 3/2/07

We had our full anatomy ultrasound yesterday. Babies both looked great; all major systems looked healthy and functioning as they should be. No abnormalities to report. The tech had a hard time getting pictures of their spine because they were both laying on their backs, so I'm going to have to go in again so they can get that certain picture they need. They were moving around a lot, but not in the way that was helpful for the tech! :P And we tried everything, she even had me get up and jump around a bit. :P But they were both comfy and wouldn't budge.

They're both head down right next to each other. Baby A is on the right and B is on my left. And their placentas are both right across the top of my belly, so she said I might not feel them move on a consistent basis for a few more weeks. Baby B is measuring ahead of Baby A, but they've pretty much been that way since the very beginning. She said as long as their growth stays consistent for 'them' (not in comparison to the other baby) then there's nothing to worry about. So if Baby B is the bigger one then I think I might really have felt that one the other night. It makes sense that I should feel the bigger baby first.

They're both girls! lol Poor DJ...he was really hoping for a hunting buddy. I told him that you never know, maybe one of the girls will take to it. But he says he doesn't want to turn one of our girls into a tom boy just because he wants a hunting buddy. :P So I guess the circumcision debate we were having will go right out the window. Now we just have to debate about names! Oh geez.. it's gonna be brutal. I like old fashioned somewhat traditional names and he likes trendy modern names... ugh! He's all Madison and Piper, and I'm Analise and Esther. Another thing he likes to do is name them something that's really a nick name instead of the full name, like Jessie or Kate... and I just think that's so wrong! :P Why Jessie rather than Jessica??? I just don't get it. It's gonna be an uphill battle that's for sure!

Pregnancy Journal 2/11/07

I got my library books about freezer cooking, and man it sounds like the first cooking day will be crazy, but then I won't have to do it again for a month and even DJ could pull out dinner and warm it up if I'm not feeling good that day. After 4 months of me not cooking we're both getting SO sick of take out and fast food.

I haven't started feeling anything and the Dr. said I might not until later because of the position of the placenta. At the last ultrasound the babies heart rates were between 120-140 bpm, which was kinda interesting because the time I had this ultrasound was about the same time that I usually take my nap and when the house is really quiet. I was a little worried that their rates were so low, but the Dr. didn't seem at all concerned.

You know how they say that the first thing the babies hear is their mother's voice? I swear the first thing my kids are gonna hear is me yelling at our dogs. I'm kinda worried about how loud and crazy our house is and how they will sleep. We live near the train tracks, and you can certainly hear it plain and clear, especially when they blow their horn. And then of course there's our crazy herding dogs always running around and yipping at each other.. yikes!

Pregnancy Journal 2/6/07

This week has been crazy.

Last Sunday morning I started to come down with stomach flu, apparently it's really been going around. And by Tuesday night I woke up at 2am with vomiting and diarrhea. Called my Dr. Wednesday morning and she wanted me to go to the ER because she was concerned about dehydration. So I went w/ DJ and they gave me an IV and some Zofran. They also did a quickie ultrasound to check the babies’ heartbeats, and they were VERY active and fine.

Then Thursday I had my regularly scheduled OB appt. and ultrasound. My parents came, which was fun. The babies seemed to be resting with lower heart rates. They moved around a little bit, but not much. I think it was such a different time of day than when I saw them at the ER the previous day that we caught them at their nap time. The tech said that she thought they both looked pretty 'girly' but wasn't completely sure, especially about one of them. So we're kinda thinking one is most likely a girl (I could see the 3 lines on the screen that are usually girl parts so I feel pretty sure about that one), and the other who knows.

Then Friday I was feeling a LOT better so I went and got a haircut. Ended up WAY shorter than I'd like... GRRR!!!! I've always had very long hair, and it was starting to bother me, especially tossing and turning at night. So I wanted to go shorter, but seriously, my hair hasn't been this short since jr. high. At least Locks of Love is going to get a nice donation.

Then this weekend DJ and I went and bought a freezer for the garage. My mom has been pushing me to freeze away meals for after the babies are here. She suggested 60 meals. So I've been doing some research and now I'm actually really excited about the idea. I think it'll be so convenient to just pull dinner out of the freezer instead of trying to figure out what we're gonna eat each night and then making stuff from scratch all while caring for newborns. The freezer should be here in 3 weeks, so that gives me lots of time to try out recipes and decide if we like them enough to make it in bulk.

Then DJ and I both ended up buying shoes. I really needed some shoes I could just slide into without bending over, and DJ needed new casual shoes which isn't easy to find for him because he has triple wide feet. But we were successful and ended up finding shoes we like and that fit.

So after having a few good days I thought maybe my m/s was over... HA HA HA!!! I went out to lunch w/ DJ yesterday at Ruby Tuesdays and ended up throwing up in my soup bowl. I'm still feeling pretty yucky today. So I think it's time to eat a snack and take a nap.

Pregnancy Journal 1/30/07

My throat is all good. It actually only bothered me for like a day and after that I was fine. I think it's all due to the awesome multi-vitamin I'm taking. I switched brands about 4 months ago and I notice a HUGE difference in how I feel and how healthy I've been.

I saw some matching cribs on craigslist.com and we went out and bought them on Saturday. They're in pretty good shape, but after doing some research about new cribs I discovered that by buying these I'm saving $90 per crib! So I'm glad because there's other things I'd rather spend money on. The only thing I'm gonna miss out on is picking out a crib for myself, but like my mom said, what makes a crib really cute is the bedding. So I'm gonna go w/ that theory.

So I felt GREAT on Friday and Saturday, thought for sure it was the end of my m/s. And then Sunday was the PITS and yesterday wasn't much better. And this morning I felt so bad that I skipped out an an important meeting because I felt like I couldn't leave the house. Although I definitely have more energy, but I'm just wide awake and feeling rotten. Oh well.. the end is in sight right??

I'm scheduled for our next ultrasound on Thursday. My parents are gonna be there because I'm hoping we might find out the genders. It should be very exciting! DJ and I still can't agree on any girls names... Now he seems to think that it's gonna be 2 boys. But I'm still hoping for a boy and a girl.

Pregnancy Journal 1/20/07

I've had some good days and bad days with the m/s. I'm guessing that's improvement because before it was only bad days. I thought I was doing good yesterday, but last night I was in the WORST way! I kept having these tummy pains (definitely felt digestional) that kept waking me up. And then finally around 2am I threw up. Made a huge mess too because I basically just leaned over the side of the bed. Yuck. But I guess it's not too bad because this was only the second time I've lost my cookies through this whole process.

I woke up yesterday w/ a sore throat and white spots on my tonsils, so I went to my PCP right away and found out it isn't strep and that it's just viral. So I'm feeling kinda yucky all around. Oh, and by going to my PCP I found out that SHE has twin boys! She said that they were born on their due date, and they both weighed over 7 lbs. AND she breast fed for 4 months. So it can be done!

I got this awesome book called Mothering Multiples that I'm reading right now and it's mostly about BF'ing twins. It has all these pics of women BF'ing two babies at once. I showed it to my mom and she said, "I see it, but I still can't believe it can be done!" ROFL I'm definitely gonna try it.

Pregnancy Journal 1/7/07

Well Christmas went well at our house. Afterwards I felt completely wiped out though. Pretty much did nothing but eat and sleep the following day. We didn’t do anything for New Years and I was actually in bed before the main event. I’m just SO tired and sick feeling all the time. So far I’ve only thrown up once, but I’ve felt nauseous almost all the time. I just hope I start feeling better soon.

We had our first Dr. appt. on Friday. We got to hear one of the babies heartbeats, the other one was being so active that she only caught the heartbeat for a second and it was REALLY high 185 beats per minute! She said it must have been from all the jumping jacks. :P She also said that when my progesterone levels test came back that they were the highest numbers she’s ever seen (And she’s been a Dr. for over 25 years). Which is good because it’s healthy for the babies, but bad because that’s what’s making me so sick. She said some Dr’s prescribe progesterone as a sedative, so no wonder I feel so wiped out and exhausted! I seriously have maybe 1 or 2 good hours each day and the rest of the time I feel horrible.

So next week I’ll be officially in the second trimester. YAY!!! I hope that means an end is coming to my sickness.

Pregnancy Journal 12/16/06

Well we had our second ultrasound on Thursday, and there’s definitely two little heartbeats in there! They’re growing nicely too. One measured at 8w and the other at 8w5d. One of the heartbeats was faster than the other, so I’m hoping that means that one’s a boy and one’s a girl. DJ hopes that it’s one of each too, but he says he keeps having this gut feeling that they’re both boys. Either way I’m excited and can’t wait to meet them! I keep wondering which one of us they’ll take after, if they’ll be fair or dark, if they’ll have narrow or wide feet, if they’ll get DJ’s broad shoulders. It’s gonna be so awesome!

So DJ and I have been talking about baby names already. So far we’ve come up with Gabriel Bryce, I think it’s a nice strong name but lately DJ is wavering about Gabriel because it’s becoming so common. We got this awesome book called The Baby Name Wizard and it suggests possible brother/sister names for each name listed. So by looking up some names that we liked we were able to come up with other names that we might like. Doing that we also came up with the name Caleb which we both really like. It’s a nice strong masculine name with a biblical meaning. We also really like the names Hannah and Emma for girls, but again they’re becoming so popular that we’re afraid there will be 5 other Emma’s or Hannah’s in the same class. One of the other names we’ve come upon is Chloe. I really like it a lot, but DJ’s not so sure. And so our debate goes!

We’ve started to look at some of the bigger baby items like cribs and strollers and car seats. We figure that clothes and little stuff we’re likely to get as presents but that we may have to get some of the bigger items on our own. At this point we’re just comparing brands and prices. It’s so much fun!

Pregnancy Journal 11/28/06

Well we announced it to my family on Thanksgiving, and they cheered and toasted to us. So that was fun… but little did we know that things were about to get even MORE exciting!

We had our first ultrasound yesterday, and found out that we’re having TWINS!!! We could definitely see two little egg sacks, with a yolk in each one, and a nice thick membrane between the two. I still can hardly believe it! They said that they can’t say for sure that we’re having twins until they can hear a heartbeat on each of them, so they scheduled me for another ultrasound in two weeks. So we’re praying that they’re both healthy and strong and that we get to ‘confirm’ twins in a couple weeks.

So we’ve been having a blast telling people our even more exciting news! Mom said, “Oh wow!....We’ll help!!” Dad said, “Oh Amy, Oh Amy!” And then he just cracked up laughing! And he beat me to the punch calling grandma to tell her the news. :P Karin was excited for us but said, “Amy, I don’t envy you!” ha ha, I don’t think I envy me either, it’s gonna be a LOT of extra work. Norma was happy for us, but kept reprimanding DJ and telling him he’s gonna have to learn all about babies and help me out. :P It was cute. We finally got a hold of Debbie last night, she hadn’t gotten the news that we were pregnant yet because she was on vacation for the past two weeks. So she got the double surprise!

So we’re all excited and nervous and happy and… yeah!

Pregnancy Journal 11/22/06

Well, we told Karin & Todd and Sabrina & Lee. Karin was so excited for us. She said that if we have twins that she’ll make us TWO cross stitch birth announcements for us. :P And Sabrina screamed and said that she can’t wait to be Aunt Brina :P So that was fun.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I’m SO excited! It’s gonna be a blast telling people what we’re thankful for!

So today I’m making pumpkin pie and cookies. And if I feel up to it I’ll clean my house too, it’s a MESS! DJ cleaned up the clutter yesterday, but we have dust bunnies that are ready to rise up and revolt!

I currently have a yeast infection, which I learned yesterday is super common for the early stages of pregnancy because the estrogen raises your glucose levels and more sugar feeds the yeast. I 'feel' like my belly is getting bigger, which is silly because it's WAY too early for that, I think I'm just bloated. I read that the hormones will make your stomach muscles stretch out, and I have felt some muscle tension type feelings so I'm wondering if that's what's going on. DJ says I look the same, but what does he know?! lol