Saturday, October 9, 2010
Great Day
What a great day. First I was able to button and zip my pants for the first time since having the boys. Then I went to the hospital to see my boys and was surprised to find my little Landon off the CPAP and onto nasal strips. Then I was able to hold both the boys together for the first time. Then my bracelet I ordered came in the mail. Then my husband made an amazing video of the boys first 4 weeks of life. What a great day!!
Monday, September 20, 2010
The boys are here!!!
We are so thrilled to welcome our 2 little boys into the world!!! They came earlier then we would have hoped, but we're so thrilled to have them here. They made it to 29 weeks gestation and will be in the NICU at least until November. Pictures and birth story to come.....
Justin Michael Stark
Born at 5:59am on 9/10/10
Weighing 3lbs 4oz
16.5" long
Landon James Stark
Born at 6:01am on 9/10/10
Weighing 3lbs 0oz
16.1" long
My first time to hold Landon:
Landon holding my index finger:
Justin during his CPAP change:
Justin showing off his big beautiful eyes:
Justin Michael Stark
Born at 5:59am on 9/10/10
Weighing 3lbs 4oz
16.5" long
Landon James Stark
Born at 6:01am on 9/10/10
Weighing 3lbs 0oz
16.1" long
My first time to hold Landon:
Landon holding my index finger:
Justin during his CPAP change:
Justin showing off his big beautiful eyes:
Thursday, September 9, 2010
What a week so far
This week has been pretty crazy. Chris and company were able to do start demoing the house and got the bathroom almost totally demolished. I finally got off all those antibiotics and started feeling better. Tropical Storm Hermine hit on Tuesday and dumped 15" of rain on us in a matter of hours. The house and garage flooded. The living room had 3" of standing water in it. Luckily we have an awesome ward and about 20 people showed up with towels, sand bags, etc and helped with the clean up. Now that the wood floors are ruined, I guess we get to add new floor to the list of things to get done. Chris won't tell me the real extent of the damage, but I'm pretty sure some furniture got ruined. On the bright side, because so many people came over to help with the clean up, then saw extent of the remodel and many of them volunteered their time to help Chris get things gone before me and the babies come home.
That couldn't come at a better time because yesterday we had a scare and I spent all day in L&D waiting to find out if we would be delivering the babies. I had some change in fluid and the Dr. was concerned that it may be mecunium or an infection. The infection screen came back negative and they really don't know what it is. After consulting with the Perinatologist today, the Dr. decided that we would take the 'wait and see' route. As long as the babies don't show signs of distress and I don't spike a fever, they keep cooking. I also found out today that patients that have ruptured membranes will deliver at 34 weeks. So only 5 weeks to go!!! I'm excited for this weekend because the Perinatologist is supposed to come around again this weekend for a growth ultrasound; can't wait to see how big the boys are.
That couldn't come at a better time because yesterday we had a scare and I spent all day in L&D waiting to find out if we would be delivering the babies. I had some change in fluid and the Dr. was concerned that it may be mecunium or an infection. The infection screen came back negative and they really don't know what it is. After consulting with the Perinatologist today, the Dr. decided that we would take the 'wait and see' route. As long as the babies don't show signs of distress and I don't spike a fever, they keep cooking. I also found out today that patients that have ruptured membranes will deliver at 34 weeks. So only 5 weeks to go!!! I'm excited for this weekend because the Perinatologist is supposed to come around again this weekend for a growth ultrasound; can't wait to see how big the boys are.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Week 28 and the 3rd Trimester
I actually made it to week 28 and the 3rd Trimester!!! 5 weeks ago we never thought this would be possibly when we first got here at 23 weeks! I've survived being dilated to 4cm, my water breaking at 27 weeks and numerous bouts of dehydration and IVs, weeks of being sick, lots of contractions and pushed to the edge of my sanity. I'm very blessed to be sitting here still pregnant and growing my boys. Each time I think I can't go on another minute something happens that pushes me to endure. Sometimes it's not my choice, but I'm always so grateful when I get to the other side and can look back and say I made it through another trial. Thanks to all the people who are praying for us, a wonderful family that supports me, a husband I adore and a Heavenly Father that continues to bless us. Without all this, I wouldn't still be here.
I'm also very blessed that the boys always seem to be totally unaffected by everything. Their heart rates are always nice and strong and they love to move around constantly. (I think I'm going to miss their moving the most!) These boys are fighters and hopefully they will just as strong once they're born.
The cribs and valance came in this week. The valance is even cuter then I thought it would be! I can’t wait to get the whole set and see it all put together in the nursery. Chris is going to work on expanding the closet this week so when my mom gets back next week she can paint the room and get the cribs assembled. I can’t wait to see what it’s going to look like. It does make me sad that I don’t get to participate in all the stuff you do when you’re pregnant. Especially since this is probably the only time we’ll be doing this. At least I have people who are willing to do it for me.
Here's what I do all day:
My guardian angels:
28 weeks:
I'm also very blessed that the boys always seem to be totally unaffected by everything. Their heart rates are always nice and strong and they love to move around constantly. (I think I'm going to miss their moving the most!) These boys are fighters and hopefully they will just as strong once they're born.
The cribs and valance came in this week. The valance is even cuter then I thought it would be! I can’t wait to get the whole set and see it all put together in the nursery. Chris is going to work on expanding the closet this week so when my mom gets back next week she can paint the room and get the cribs assembled. I can’t wait to see what it’s going to look like. It does make me sad that I don’t get to participate in all the stuff you do when you’re pregnant. Especially since this is probably the only time we’ll be doing this. At least I have people who are willing to do it for me.
Here's what I do all day:
My guardian angels:
28 weeks:
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Day 34
Today was just as bad as yesterday, no sleep last night thanks to the nurse coming in every hour to either check my vitals or give more meds, Erythromycin is the devil, still leaking amniotic fluid, severe stomach pains continue, feel like a drug addict with all the meds I'm taking (8 different meds everyday and many are multiple times a day), and all this just to prevent a infection that I don't even have. Did I mention how much I love this leaking fluid thing.
Chris has been a lifesaver, taking care of me and waiting on me hand and foot for the last 24 hours. He's amazing and I couldn't ask for a better husband!!! I think I hit my lowest point this morning and just about checked myself out of this place. Thanks to Chris' pep talks and incredible amount of support, I'm still here and still pregnant.
We finished the last doses of IV antibiotics this afternoon and now I have 5 days of oral meds. At least I'm not hooked up to any IV lines anymore, just the port is in. Not having the IV meds has made me feel a little better and the side effects aren't nearly as severe. I can't wait to hopefully get some sleep tonight and hopefully have a better tomorrow. These boys better appreciate what I'm going through for them!
Chris has been a lifesaver, taking care of me and waiting on me hand and foot for the last 24 hours. He's amazing and I couldn't ask for a better husband!!! I think I hit my lowest point this morning and just about checked myself out of this place. Thanks to Chris' pep talks and incredible amount of support, I'm still here and still pregnant.
We finished the last doses of IV antibiotics this afternoon and now I have 5 days of oral meds. At least I'm not hooked up to any IV lines anymore, just the port is in. Not having the IV meds has made me feel a little better and the side effects aren't nearly as severe. I can't wait to hopefully get some sleep tonight and hopefully have a better tomorrow. These boys better appreciate what I'm going through for them!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Day 33
Still leaking water, being pumped full of 3 differnt types of anti-biotics, 5 more medicines to combat the side effects of those anti-biotics, puking, severe stomach pains, pretty much the best 2 days of my life. Thank goodness for family, husbands and bathroom privledges again!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Just when you think things are going good
Friday we hit the 27 week mark, yeah! Can't believe we've been here for 4 weeks already. No one really thought when we came in at 23 weeks, 3cm dilated and fully effaced that we would make it this far. Every day is a blessing and we just hope that we can hit the next 2 big milestones; 28 weeks and 30 weeks.
Sunday the Perinatologist finally made it in to get an updated growth measurement on the babies. Things turned out even better then I thought they would!
Baby A - head down, huge head (measuring at 32 weeks!) and weighing in at a whopping 3lbs 3oz! Last month he was in the 88th percentile and this time he's in the 90's.
Baby B - breech, normal sized head and weighing in at 2lbs 13oz. He is also in the 90th percentile!
What a blessing to have such good growing boys. It makes me feel a lot better knowing that if something were to happen, they would at least be at decent weight.
I had a great weekend with Chris and he was able to come up Saturday afternoon and he stayed until Monday morning. I hadn't seen him much last week, so it was a real mood and spirit booster to have him here. I was finally starting to feel better and was able to eat real food again on Sunday. Things were looking really good and I was thinking that I could make it 9 more weeks.
Monday started off pretty normal, Chris getting ready for work and I was planning my big day to hang out in bed and do nothing. Chris left mid-morning and I got up to wash my face and brush my teeth. Around 12:30 I was laying in bed updating this and suddenly had the uncomfortable sensation that I just peed my pants. I jumped up and ran to the bathroom and more kept coming. My heart dropped because I knew what this was. I called the nurse and she came in and confirmed that it was amniotic fluid. She called L&D and they came and did an very uncomfortable test and exam. They sent us back to L&D and hooked me up to the monitors to make sure the babies were ok. I did manage to call Mom and Chris and they came right away. Chris was lucky enough to get pulled over and got a ticket on the way here.
The dr. came in and did an ultrasound to find out who was losing the fluid and confirm the babies positions. The fluid levels looks good, so she decided to start an IV again and start a course of antibiotics and see if labor started up. Luckily there have been very few contractions. We were able to come back to our room to hopefully get a good nights sleep. Unfortunately all those antibiotics are wrecking havoc on my stomach, so now we're trying to get that under control. To make things worse, I'm on strict bed rest until tomorrow morning; no bathroom privileges.
We'll find out more tomorrow, but it looks like baby A's big head is helping to plug the leak and keeping things from progressing for now. The hope is that we can stay this way for a few more weeks to get to the 32 week mark. If things remain the same, no contractions, etc then I will be able to have my bathroom privileges restored, continue the IV antibiotics for a few more days and things go back to the way they were. Apparently there are several people here that are leaking fluid. So I get to hang out in bed and feel like I'm constantly peeing for the next few weeks. But at least it's better then having the babies now.
Sunday the Perinatologist finally made it in to get an updated growth measurement on the babies. Things turned out even better then I thought they would!
Baby A - head down, huge head (measuring at 32 weeks!) and weighing in at a whopping 3lbs 3oz! Last month he was in the 88th percentile and this time he's in the 90's.
Baby B - breech, normal sized head and weighing in at 2lbs 13oz. He is also in the 90th percentile!
What a blessing to have such good growing boys. It makes me feel a lot better knowing that if something were to happen, they would at least be at decent weight.
I had a great weekend with Chris and he was able to come up Saturday afternoon and he stayed until Monday morning. I hadn't seen him much last week, so it was a real mood and spirit booster to have him here. I was finally starting to feel better and was able to eat real food again on Sunday. Things were looking really good and I was thinking that I could make it 9 more weeks.
Monday started off pretty normal, Chris getting ready for work and I was planning my big day to hang out in bed and do nothing. Chris left mid-morning and I got up to wash my face and brush my teeth. Around 12:30 I was laying in bed updating this and suddenly had the uncomfortable sensation that I just peed my pants. I jumped up and ran to the bathroom and more kept coming. My heart dropped because I knew what this was. I called the nurse and she came in and confirmed that it was amniotic fluid. She called L&D and they came and did an very uncomfortable test and exam. They sent us back to L&D and hooked me up to the monitors to make sure the babies were ok. I did manage to call Mom and Chris and they came right away. Chris was lucky enough to get pulled over and got a ticket on the way here.
The dr. came in and did an ultrasound to find out who was losing the fluid and confirm the babies positions. The fluid levels looks good, so she decided to start an IV again and start a course of antibiotics and see if labor started up. Luckily there have been very few contractions. We were able to come back to our room to hopefully get a good nights sleep. Unfortunately all those antibiotics are wrecking havoc on my stomach, so now we're trying to get that under control. To make things worse, I'm on strict bed rest until tomorrow morning; no bathroom privileges.
We'll find out more tomorrow, but it looks like baby A's big head is helping to plug the leak and keeping things from progressing for now. The hope is that we can stay this way for a few more weeks to get to the 32 week mark. If things remain the same, no contractions, etc then I will be able to have my bathroom privileges restored, continue the IV antibiotics for a few more days and things go back to the way they were. Apparently there are several people here that are leaking fluid. So I get to hang out in bed and feel like I'm constantly peeing for the next few weeks. But at least it's better then having the babies now.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Baby Furniture
Exciting day, bought 2 new cribs online and we got them on clearance!! Thanks Mom! Now we have a place for the boys to sleep and a stroller (sort of, since we don't have car seats) to push them around in. We also have a few packages of diapers, so I think we're set. ;)
My mom surprised me with a microwave yesterday so now I can start eating something besides hospital food! Yeah for Moms!! Now I have a mini fridge and a mini microwave. Life is good. All I need is for my stomach to feel better so I can really take advantage of these 2 luxury items.
The boys are moving around like crazy now. I love to feel them moving, it's such a great reassurance that they're alive and well. The perinatologist should be coming around this week to do another ultrasound. I'm very excited to see how big they've gotten and how much they weigh now. Hopefully it's close to 2 1/2 lbs each. I also got weighed again today and so far I've gained 18 lbs. Looking forward to eating normally soon; I need some home cooked food to help fatten the boys up.
My nephew Bryce started Kindergarten on Monday. He's the first one to go to school and I can't believe how big he's getting. My how time flys.
He's so cute with his cheesy smile!
My mom surprised me with a microwave yesterday so now I can start eating something besides hospital food! Yeah for Moms!! Now I have a mini fridge and a mini microwave. Life is good. All I need is for my stomach to feel better so I can really take advantage of these 2 luxury items.
The boys are moving around like crazy now. I love to feel them moving, it's such a great reassurance that they're alive and well. The perinatologist should be coming around this week to do another ultrasound. I'm very excited to see how big they've gotten and how much they weigh now. Hopefully it's close to 2 1/2 lbs each. I also got weighed again today and so far I've gained 18 lbs. Looking forward to eating normally soon; I need some home cooked food to help fatten the boys up.
My nephew Bryce started Kindergarten on Monday. He's the first one to go to school and I can't believe how big he's getting. My how time flys.
He's so cute with his cheesy smile!
Monday, August 23, 2010
More contractions
I haven't really felt great since my birthday last week but these last 2 days have just been awful. I started feeling really sick to my stomach yesterday afternoon and things just got worse from there. All that activity really upset the balance of things and started contractions again. I was really hesitant to say anything because I really had no desire to go back to L&D and repeat our last experience. After many tears were shed Chris finally convinced me to call them to come monitor me. I'm so glad I have such a great husband who can calm my fears and be the best support system! They did pick up quite a few contractions but luckily they felt most of it was caused my all the stomach issues. They decided to let me try and sleep it off and if they didn't work, then they would move me back over to L&D. A few pills and 1 Ambien later I was sleeping like a baby. I did get a great nights sleep and I was hoping to wake up feeling great and pain free, but that wasn't the case.
Today I woke up feeling crappy and things only got worse. Around lunch time the pain was getting really bad and coming every 3 minutes. They called L&D again and had them come monitor what was going on. I was really scared since this was by far the most pain I've been in and closest the contractions had been. Turns out they were only able to pick up a few contractions and most of the pain I was feeling was not related. Thou it did leave the dr. a little baffled about what was causing all this pain and cramping. She did say that if it continued or got worse, she wants me back over in L&D were they can monitor me and give me pain meds via IV. Not to thrilled about her response but a least it wasn't contractions. She also did a quick check and I'm currently at 4cm. (Even with all this activity going I really haven't changed much, so that was a sigh of relief.) Luckily my Mom was able to come up and be with me this afternoon. She was a huge help in helping to distract me from what was going on and is always good company.
I do feel better this evening and after talking to my night nurse I think we figured out what these pains might be. I think all this bed rest is recking havoc on my insides and is probably causing a lot of gas pain. She gave me some meds to help absorb those and they seem to be helping. I really wish I could get up and walk around and ease all these discomforts that bed rest causes. I really hope that tomorrow is better then the last few days; I'm really tired of not feeling good. On a good note, the babies are totally uneffected by any of this and seem to be growing strong.
26 Weeks:
Today I woke up feeling crappy and things only got worse. Around lunch time the pain was getting really bad and coming every 3 minutes. They called L&D again and had them come monitor what was going on. I was really scared since this was by far the most pain I've been in and closest the contractions had been. Turns out they were only able to pick up a few contractions and most of the pain I was feeling was not related. Thou it did leave the dr. a little baffled about what was causing all this pain and cramping. She did say that if it continued or got worse, she wants me back over in L&D were they can monitor me and give me pain meds via IV. Not to thrilled about her response but a least it wasn't contractions. She also did a quick check and I'm currently at 4cm. (Even with all this activity going I really haven't changed much, so that was a sigh of relief.) Luckily my Mom was able to come up and be with me this afternoon. She was a huge help in helping to distract me from what was going on and is always good company.
I do feel better this evening and after talking to my night nurse I think we figured out what these pains might be. I think all this bed rest is recking havoc on my insides and is probably causing a lot of gas pain. She gave me some meds to help absorb those and they seem to be helping. I really wish I could get up and walk around and ease all these discomforts that bed rest causes. I really hope that tomorrow is better then the last few days; I'm really tired of not feeling good. On a good note, the babies are totally uneffected by any of this and seem to be growing strong.
26 Weeks:
Friday, August 20, 2010
26 Weeks and one crazy night
We hit another really big milestone today, 26 weeks!!!! I can't believe its already been 3 weeks since I got here. Time sure is going by quickly and hopefully it will remain that way.
The last few days I haven't been feeling that great. My stomach has been upset and things just haven't felt quite right. Yesterday I felt pretty lousy all day and I lived off Sprite to try and calm my stomach down. After having my second trip to the restroom I could tell something was different about these stomach pains. I called the nurse in and she gave me some meds to stop the bathroom trips and we decided to call the labor and delivery nurse over. She did some manual monitoring by putting her hand on my stomach and she could feel enough contractions that she wanted to bring the monitors in. I was hooked up to the monitors for 30 mins and they picked up contractions that were pretty regular and more organized then before. They called the dr. and decided to move me back to labor and delivery. They wanted to start another IV and get me going on fluids and a narcotic to easy the contractions. I must have been really dehydrated because it took them 3 times to get the IV. The spot they finally got was right by my elbow, so every time I moved it hurt like crazy. By then the contractions were enough that I could feel them every 10 mins and they were getting more intense. I was really starting to get worried that this might be it and we were going to have the babies last night.
The narcotic made me really hypersensitive so for hours anything that touched my skin felt like a thousand needles poking into my skin. That really made it fun to have 3 bands and 3 monitors on my stomach. Then the restless leg set in and I couldn't hold my legs still. I really felt like I was on the verge of a nervous break down. The bed was terribly uncomfortable and I just felt miserable. I guess it really made me appreciate the room and freedom I had. They tried giving me Zofran for the nausea and to help me sleep but that didn't do much. Chris was really good and trying to keep me calm by rubbing my legs to ease the pain. They ended up giving me Phenergan and an Ambien just so I could calm down and sleep. Once I was able to sleep for a few hours the contractions really slowed down in frequency and intensity. Luckily they slowed down enough that we were disconnected from everything and sent back to my room this morning. With everything off I could actually sleep and I feel so much better. Hopefully this was the last episode like this and we can make it 10 more weeks.
The last few days I haven't been feeling that great. My stomach has been upset and things just haven't felt quite right. Yesterday I felt pretty lousy all day and I lived off Sprite to try and calm my stomach down. After having my second trip to the restroom I could tell something was different about these stomach pains. I called the nurse in and she gave me some meds to stop the bathroom trips and we decided to call the labor and delivery nurse over. She did some manual monitoring by putting her hand on my stomach and she could feel enough contractions that she wanted to bring the monitors in. I was hooked up to the monitors for 30 mins and they picked up contractions that were pretty regular and more organized then before. They called the dr. and decided to move me back to labor and delivery. They wanted to start another IV and get me going on fluids and a narcotic to easy the contractions. I must have been really dehydrated because it took them 3 times to get the IV. The spot they finally got was right by my elbow, so every time I moved it hurt like crazy. By then the contractions were enough that I could feel them every 10 mins and they were getting more intense. I was really starting to get worried that this might be it and we were going to have the babies last night.
The narcotic made me really hypersensitive so for hours anything that touched my skin felt like a thousand needles poking into my skin. That really made it fun to have 3 bands and 3 monitors on my stomach. Then the restless leg set in and I couldn't hold my legs still. I really felt like I was on the verge of a nervous break down. The bed was terribly uncomfortable and I just felt miserable. I guess it really made me appreciate the room and freedom I had. They tried giving me Zofran for the nausea and to help me sleep but that didn't do much. Chris was really good and trying to keep me calm by rubbing my legs to ease the pain. They ended up giving me Phenergan and an Ambien just so I could calm down and sleep. Once I was able to sleep for a few hours the contractions really slowed down in frequency and intensity. Luckily they slowed down enough that we were disconnected from everything and sent back to my room this morning. With everything off I could actually sleep and I feel so much better. Hopefully this was the last episode like this and we can make it 10 more weeks.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
I'm officially 30!
Well it finally happened, I turned 30 today. Today was not how I pictured it or how I planned it, but it sure has been a great day. First off, I'm still pregnant and the boys are doing great! That's the best birthday present ever. I got to have breakfast in bed! Room service all day long, people bringing me ice, water, food; what else could you ask for? I got to lay around and watch useless TV all day and not feel guilty. I've received so many emails, texts messages, facebook posts and phone calls wishing me a happy birthday....I feel so loved by so many people!! My sister came up and decorated my room this morning and it looks fantastic. Brad even stopped by with his entire engine crew and had the entire wing talking about what was going on in room 317 that brought out 7 fire fighters. Several nurses came by afterwards wanting to know who was single. The cook staff sent up a very yummy looking pie and my favorite nurses sang happy birthday to me. The rest of the family will be up later this evening for cake and ice cream. Not to shabby of a day.
Me and Bryleigh
Flowers from Wendy and the Willow Tree from Chris:
Maggie and the gifts she made:
Dad, Chris and the balloons Mom got me:
Me and Bryleigh
Flowers from Wendy and the Willow Tree from Chris:
Maggie and the gifts she made:
Dad, Chris and the balloons Mom got me:
Sunday, August 15, 2010
25 weeks
Well we made it to 25 weeks!! Each Friday is a huge milestone for us and Chris and I celebrate it by either opening a small gift or enjoying a piece of cake. Today we ate a piece of chocolate cake and it was delicious! Last week was 24 weeks and that was also huge so he got me a 2 willow tree figurines. I love them and we've waited a long time to be able to add those to my collection. Chris as also finally able to tour the NICU and we had the NICU charge nurse come talk to us. She was wonderful and really let us know what to expect and what life is like there. Chris got to see a baby that is 25 weeks and just how tiny and precious they are. It makes us even more grateful that our boys are still cookin'.
Last night was kinda rough. My right hip has been hurting a lot for the last few days and I can't seem to get it to pop back where is needs to be. My body is really starting the feel the effects of being in bed for 2 weeks and everything aches and hurts. I battle restless leg a lot at night and the beds really aren't that comfortable. Plus you're in a hospital and the nurses come check on you every 2 hours and it's loud and nosey. It's hard not sleeping in your own room, in your own bed. The nurses make their shift changes at 7:00am, so they usually come in and wake you up to take your vitals by 7:30am. When it's time for the lab to draw your blood, they're usually in here at 6:00am. What a great way to wake up.....with a needle in your arm! Luckily the staff is usually really great and very understanding of your situation. Having a good nurse makes a big difference for how the day/night goes. Hopefully I can take a nap today and get caught up on the sleep I didn't get last night.
My belly is getting huge!!
My kid craft project....count down chain to 36 weeks
Last night was kinda rough. My right hip has been hurting a lot for the last few days and I can't seem to get it to pop back where is needs to be. My body is really starting the feel the effects of being in bed for 2 weeks and everything aches and hurts. I battle restless leg a lot at night and the beds really aren't that comfortable. Plus you're in a hospital and the nurses come check on you every 2 hours and it's loud and nosey. It's hard not sleeping in your own room, in your own bed. The nurses make their shift changes at 7:00am, so they usually come in and wake you up to take your vitals by 7:30am. When it's time for the lab to draw your blood, they're usually in here at 6:00am. What a great way to wake up.....with a needle in your arm! Luckily the staff is usually really great and very understanding of your situation. Having a good nurse makes a big difference for how the day/night goes. Hopefully I can take a nap today and get caught up on the sleep I didn't get last night.
My belly is getting huge!!
My kid craft project....count down chain to 36 weeks
Friday, August 6, 2010
My new life
I know it's been a very long time since I'm posted anything on here. This is a very long post and I'm sorry but so much as happened in the last few weeks!
It all started on Thursday July 15th, ok well really the afternoon before, when I started having some cramping. I really played it off as normal pregnancy aches and pains. I had worked as an MA that afternoon during a busy clinic and didn't really get a chance to sit down at all, so I thought I had just over done it. The pain and discomfort continued throughout the night so I decided I would call the doctor first thing that morning. Keep in mind we had just been to the doctor for our 20 week appt. on Tuesday and everything was fine. So I called the doctor Thursday morning and of course it happens to be the day when my doctor is off. So I talked to nurse, who talked to the on-call doctor and they informed me of the office protocol. If after the 20 week mark a patient is having cramping and doctor is not in, they want you to go across the street to the hospital to have Labor and Delivery monitor you to find out what's wrong. So they told me to go and get hooked up to monitors to find out what's going on. After spending 7 hours in the triage section of Labor and Delivery it was determined that I was having some contractions, but no dilating and no change in the cervix. They suspected that I will probably always have contractions because there isn't a lot of room inside my stomach for the boys and it puts a lot of strain on uterus. They gave me some restrictions about being on my feet, lifting heaving items, vacuuming, cleaning, stay hydrated and try to be as tress free as possible. I spent the rest of the weekend with my feet up and really felt great.
Fast forward 2 weeks........ I had been following my new restrictions pretty well, but I was really starting to not feel that great. I felt like I had that little stomach bug that was going around. My stomach just didn't feel right and I could feel the boys ball up really tight in my stomach and then relax again. It felt like a charlie horse in my stomach all the time, but not really painful. I finally called the doctor on Thursday just to let them know how I was feeling. The nurse was able to get me an appt on the next day at 11:30 just to make sure everything was fine. I really didn't think much of it and was fully expecting them to probably start limiting my work hours or up my restrictions.
Friday July 30th........ I'm working as an MA at the Round Rock office that day and pull into the office at 8:00am. Right as I pull in I get a call from my doctors office saying she has a c-section scheduled at noon and they want to move all of her patients up, so they want to know when I can come in. I picked 11:30 because our last patient would be checked in by then and I could sneak out a little early for lunch and run next door to the doctors office. I ran in the office and by chance, our first patient had just rescheduled so I could be seen right now. The office said great and I told them I'd be right over. I told the ladies I worked with I'd be right back, I was running next door to the doctor. I fully expected to be back in 20 mins. ready to work.
The doctor comes in (Dr. I.) and she has me tell her wants been going on. She decides that she's going to have a test run to determine the likely hood that I'll go into labor in the next 2 weeks. All we needed to do was to get a sample of ... and I would run it across the street to the hospital lab. The office would have the results back in a few hours and we'd go from there. She does a quick exam and informs me that I'm actually dilated to 3cm. My immediate reaction is to start crying because I know I'm only at 23 weeks. The dr. holds my hands and tells me how serious this is and that she wants me to go across the street to the hospital and they will transfer me to St. Davids downtown. Then she said a little prayer with me, which was really touching. I quickly get dressed and they have a wheel chair waiting to take me over to the hospital. I can hear her on the phone making all these phones calls to get things rolling. The whole time I'm trying to get my head wrapped around what's going on and still crying. As we're walking across the street I remember to call the office and let them know what's going on and that I'm not coming in. I try to compose myself enough to call Chris and let me know he needs to come up asap. But as soon as he answers the phone I lose it all over again. Luckily he understood what I was trying to say and he was on his way. I forgot to mention that in a few hours my Dad is scheduled to have a heart cath. done at the same hospital. So both my parents are at home preparing to have this stressful procedure done.
We get inside the hospital and I expected to be wheeled into the triage area again, but we went right into a Labor and Delivery room. Waiting in the room was 4 nurses armed with various needles and tubes and monitors. They had my change really quick and began hooking my up to everything. They started an IV, drew numerous samples of blood from my other arm, started a catheter, took samples of my cervical fluid, hooked up monitors on my stomach to track the babies heart beats and contractions and my blood pressure. They quickly noticed that I was having a lot of contractions but I still couldn't really feel them. Chris was there within 10 mins and when he walked in and I started crying all over again. We just held each other for a few minutes and cried together. I was so glad he was there! The Dr. came in shortly after and she said an ambulance would be here shortly to take me downtown. They were going to go ahead and start a heavy dose of meds to stop things from progressing any further. At this point in time I still didn't comprehend the severity of the situation. They started the magnesium, which they warned me was some of the worst medicine they have to give to patients because it makes you really sick and feel like you're on fire from the inside out. They also gave me a shot of steroids right in the booty and that really hurt for hours afterwards. The magnesium was already starting to make me sick so they also gave me some anti-nausea meds and those seemed to really help. The Dr. came back in and said there was a change of plans and they were going to have Life Flight take me downtown and not wait for an ambulance and the helicopter would be there in 20 mins. It wasn't until then that I started to really understand just how severe this situation was.
Chris had called my parents right after he got there to let them know what was going on. They arrived right before the helicopter crew. They came in and quickly moved me onto the stretcher and got me ready for transport. Things get kinda blurry from all the meds but I remember saying bye to everyone and telling Chris to make sure he gets pictures of me flying away in my first helicopter ride. I remember being wheeled through the hospital and going out to the helicopter and thinking how surreal this whole thing was. The helicopter was surprisingly small inside and there was no room to move around. To bad I was strapped down the whole time, I would have to like to look out the window. All in all, I was only at Round Rock hospital for about an 1 hour. They were really worried I would delivery the babies there and they NICU at the at hospital is not equipped to handle babies this premature.
We landed at St. Davids after a 15 min. ride and I was taken directly into a labor and delivery room. I was greeted again with 3 more nurses who were armed with more meds. In addition to the magnesium and the IV fluids, they started me on a heavy dose of penicillin (I later learned that was to protect the babies in case they were born in the next 24 hours.) They also hooked me up to blood pressure monitors, pulse and oxygen monitor, the baby and contraction monitors and these huge cuffs that covered my entire lower leg that pulsed every 10 seconds to make sure I didn't get blood clots. I really felt like I couldn't move with all this stuff hooked up to me. The next 24 hours were kind of a blur for me, but I had some serious side effects from the magnesium. I developed pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs) and that combined with my pulmonary stenosis can be deadly. I remember several times not being able to breathe, so they had me on heavy doses of oxygen. My oxygen and blood pressure levels dipped dangerously low on several occasions. There was a point when they had to stop the magnesium so my body could recover a little bit. I had terrible migraines for 5 days and lived with an ice pack over my head and eyes. I was also battling dehydration so there were pumping in huge amounts of sugar water to help combat that. I was even having crazy dreams and hallucinations with the meds they were giving me to sleep and for pain. I know the neonatologist came and talked to us about what to expect if the babies came this early. He told us we needed to discuss what we wanted them to do if they did come. They only had a 40-50%chance of survival and most are born with severe handicaps. That was a very hard discussion, talking about whether or not you want the doctors to try and save your babies or let them die peacefully in your arms. Thankfully we didn't have to live that nightmare!!
On Sunday morning the bishop came and gave me a blessing. It was a wonderful blessing that didn't say what was going to happen but did reiterate that God was here and he knows what's going on and he's with us watching over us. The bishop had sent out an email to ward on Saturday about what was going on and asked for a ward fast on Sunday. I have to say that those really truly work. I've never in my life ever felt the spirit so much and felt so calm that day! I could really feel the prayers and fasting from everyone and it was so comforting to know so many people were thinking about us. The spirit was so strong in my room for those crucial days. Mom even brought the Tabernacle choir cds and we listened to those non-stop for days. We were so calm and comforted during a time of total chaos. I can't express my gratitude those of you that have been fasting and praying for us. THANK YOU!
Over the 24-48 hours, they slowly weaned me off most all the meds. I was finally able to get up and use the restroom since removed the catheter. I'll never take that for granted again! Our next big step was being moved out of labor and delivery and into long term care were I will stay until I have the babies. Hopefully for a few months!
On Tuesday we finally got a room and I was moved into a new world. I'm on strict bed rest with bathroom privileges; meaning I have to lay down all the time but I can get up for very short periods of time to use the restroom. I can only shower a few times a week and they mush be short showers. There is no sitting up in a chair and no leaving the room. I have to have things low key and non-stressful. The contractions seem to pick up with a lot of activity. Luckily I have a wall of windows that looks out into a beautiful court yard, so I do have something nice to look at and I can see the outside world. My parents brought up a small fridge so I can keep some snacks in it. My mom and sister have been wonderful and bring up things to help make this small room feel more like home. The hospital encourages you to bring what ever you need to make you feel comfortable. The good thing is that I get cable tv again! I also couldn't have a picked a better month to be here. While everyone else is suffering in this 100 degree heat, I get to lay here in a nicely cooled room that's kept at 67 degrees and I didn't have to pay for the electric bill!! I get 3 meals brought to me each day, that I get to eat in bed and I get snacks. I have all the jello I can eat! This does have it's perks.
It's taken these last 2 weeks for all the effects of the medicine to finally get out of my system and I'm finally feeling better. Hopefully this week I'll feel up to having some visits come by. I'm not hooked up to anything, so that's a real nice change of pace. The nurses come by every 8 hours and take my vitals, listen to the babies heart beats and give me my meds. Every 3 days that lab comes by and takes a new vial of blood so they always have a fresh sample on hand. The labor and delivery nurses come by every Tuesday and Friday and they hook me back up to the monitors to track the babies heart rates and my contractions. The doctor comes by every day to find out how things are doing and to answer any questions. The perinatologist will come around every 3-4 weeks to do an ultrasound to check their growth. (Which they did last week and both boys are measuring big and are in the 88 percentile!) I have a dietician that monitors what I eat and makes sure I'm getting enough good food. Luckily they don't care if you bring in outside food. It's definitely been a rough adjustment and some days are better then others. It's really hard to lay down all day long for weeks on end! It's also hard not to be at home with Chris and our dogs. Chris tries to sleep up here as much as he can, but unfortunately the real world keeps going and he still has to work and take care of things. I do miss him and my family. My Mom has been amazing and has been working from her lap top in the afternoons so she can help take care of me. I'm so blessed to have to have people put their lives on hold to be with me! It's really hard to be so far away from everyone and everything that's going on. But I just have to remind myself this is for the babies. Each day we can keep them in my belly is 2 less days of them being in the NICU and is reducing their risk of having complications.
Now that our dear friend is letting me use their computer, I'll get to update this a lot more often and keep everyone up to speed on things.
It all started on Thursday July 15th, ok well really the afternoon before, when I started having some cramping. I really played it off as normal pregnancy aches and pains. I had worked as an MA that afternoon during a busy clinic and didn't really get a chance to sit down at all, so I thought I had just over done it. The pain and discomfort continued throughout the night so I decided I would call the doctor first thing that morning. Keep in mind we had just been to the doctor for our 20 week appt. on Tuesday and everything was fine. So I called the doctor Thursday morning and of course it happens to be the day when my doctor is off. So I talked to nurse, who talked to the on-call doctor and they informed me of the office protocol. If after the 20 week mark a patient is having cramping and doctor is not in, they want you to go across the street to the hospital to have Labor and Delivery monitor you to find out what's wrong. So they told me to go and get hooked up to monitors to find out what's going on. After spending 7 hours in the triage section of Labor and Delivery it was determined that I was having some contractions, but no dilating and no change in the cervix. They suspected that I will probably always have contractions because there isn't a lot of room inside my stomach for the boys and it puts a lot of strain on uterus. They gave me some restrictions about being on my feet, lifting heaving items, vacuuming, cleaning, stay hydrated and try to be as tress free as possible. I spent the rest of the weekend with my feet up and really felt great.
Fast forward 2 weeks........ I had been following my new restrictions pretty well, but I was really starting to not feel that great. I felt like I had that little stomach bug that was going around. My stomach just didn't feel right and I could feel the boys ball up really tight in my stomach and then relax again. It felt like a charlie horse in my stomach all the time, but not really painful. I finally called the doctor on Thursday just to let them know how I was feeling. The nurse was able to get me an appt on the next day at 11:30 just to make sure everything was fine. I really didn't think much of it and was fully expecting them to probably start limiting my work hours or up my restrictions.
Friday July 30th........ I'm working as an MA at the Round Rock office that day and pull into the office at 8:00am. Right as I pull in I get a call from my doctors office saying she has a c-section scheduled at noon and they want to move all of her patients up, so they want to know when I can come in. I picked 11:30 because our last patient would be checked in by then and I could sneak out a little early for lunch and run next door to the doctors office. I ran in the office and by chance, our first patient had just rescheduled so I could be seen right now. The office said great and I told them I'd be right over. I told the ladies I worked with I'd be right back, I was running next door to the doctor. I fully expected to be back in 20 mins. ready to work.
The doctor comes in (Dr. I.) and she has me tell her wants been going on. She decides that she's going to have a test run to determine the likely hood that I'll go into labor in the next 2 weeks. All we needed to do was to get a sample of ... and I would run it across the street to the hospital lab. The office would have the results back in a few hours and we'd go from there. She does a quick exam and informs me that I'm actually dilated to 3cm. My immediate reaction is to start crying because I know I'm only at 23 weeks. The dr. holds my hands and tells me how serious this is and that she wants me to go across the street to the hospital and they will transfer me to St. Davids downtown. Then she said a little prayer with me, which was really touching. I quickly get dressed and they have a wheel chair waiting to take me over to the hospital. I can hear her on the phone making all these phones calls to get things rolling. The whole time I'm trying to get my head wrapped around what's going on and still crying. As we're walking across the street I remember to call the office and let them know what's going on and that I'm not coming in. I try to compose myself enough to call Chris and let me know he needs to come up asap. But as soon as he answers the phone I lose it all over again. Luckily he understood what I was trying to say and he was on his way. I forgot to mention that in a few hours my Dad is scheduled to have a heart cath. done at the same hospital. So both my parents are at home preparing to have this stressful procedure done.
We get inside the hospital and I expected to be wheeled into the triage area again, but we went right into a Labor and Delivery room. Waiting in the room was 4 nurses armed with various needles and tubes and monitors. They had my change really quick and began hooking my up to everything. They started an IV, drew numerous samples of blood from my other arm, started a catheter, took samples of my cervical fluid, hooked up monitors on my stomach to track the babies heart beats and contractions and my blood pressure. They quickly noticed that I was having a lot of contractions but I still couldn't really feel them. Chris was there within 10 mins and when he walked in and I started crying all over again. We just held each other for a few minutes and cried together. I was so glad he was there! The Dr. came in shortly after and she said an ambulance would be here shortly to take me downtown. They were going to go ahead and start a heavy dose of meds to stop things from progressing any further. At this point in time I still didn't comprehend the severity of the situation. They started the magnesium, which they warned me was some of the worst medicine they have to give to patients because it makes you really sick and feel like you're on fire from the inside out. They also gave me a shot of steroids right in the booty and that really hurt for hours afterwards. The magnesium was already starting to make me sick so they also gave me some anti-nausea meds and those seemed to really help. The Dr. came back in and said there was a change of plans and they were going to have Life Flight take me downtown and not wait for an ambulance and the helicopter would be there in 20 mins. It wasn't until then that I started to really understand just how severe this situation was.
Chris had called my parents right after he got there to let them know what was going on. They arrived right before the helicopter crew. They came in and quickly moved me onto the stretcher and got me ready for transport. Things get kinda blurry from all the meds but I remember saying bye to everyone and telling Chris to make sure he gets pictures of me flying away in my first helicopter ride. I remember being wheeled through the hospital and going out to the helicopter and thinking how surreal this whole thing was. The helicopter was surprisingly small inside and there was no room to move around. To bad I was strapped down the whole time, I would have to like to look out the window. All in all, I was only at Round Rock hospital for about an 1 hour. They were really worried I would delivery the babies there and they NICU at the at hospital is not equipped to handle babies this premature.
We landed at St. Davids after a 15 min. ride and I was taken directly into a labor and delivery room. I was greeted again with 3 more nurses who were armed with more meds. In addition to the magnesium and the IV fluids, they started me on a heavy dose of penicillin (I later learned that was to protect the babies in case they were born in the next 24 hours.) They also hooked me up to blood pressure monitors, pulse and oxygen monitor, the baby and contraction monitors and these huge cuffs that covered my entire lower leg that pulsed every 10 seconds to make sure I didn't get blood clots. I really felt like I couldn't move with all this stuff hooked up to me. The next 24 hours were kind of a blur for me, but I had some serious side effects from the magnesium. I developed pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs) and that combined with my pulmonary stenosis can be deadly. I remember several times not being able to breathe, so they had me on heavy doses of oxygen. My oxygen and blood pressure levels dipped dangerously low on several occasions. There was a point when they had to stop the magnesium so my body could recover a little bit. I had terrible migraines for 5 days and lived with an ice pack over my head and eyes. I was also battling dehydration so there were pumping in huge amounts of sugar water to help combat that. I was even having crazy dreams and hallucinations with the meds they were giving me to sleep and for pain. I know the neonatologist came and talked to us about what to expect if the babies came this early. He told us we needed to discuss what we wanted them to do if they did come. They only had a 40-50%chance of survival and most are born with severe handicaps. That was a very hard discussion, talking about whether or not you want the doctors to try and save your babies or let them die peacefully in your arms. Thankfully we didn't have to live that nightmare!!
On Sunday morning the bishop came and gave me a blessing. It was a wonderful blessing that didn't say what was going to happen but did reiterate that God was here and he knows what's going on and he's with us watching over us. The bishop had sent out an email to ward on Saturday about what was going on and asked for a ward fast on Sunday. I have to say that those really truly work. I've never in my life ever felt the spirit so much and felt so calm that day! I could really feel the prayers and fasting from everyone and it was so comforting to know so many people were thinking about us. The spirit was so strong in my room for those crucial days. Mom even brought the Tabernacle choir cds and we listened to those non-stop for days. We were so calm and comforted during a time of total chaos. I can't express my gratitude those of you that have been fasting and praying for us. THANK YOU!
Over the 24-48 hours, they slowly weaned me off most all the meds. I was finally able to get up and use the restroom since removed the catheter. I'll never take that for granted again! Our next big step was being moved out of labor and delivery and into long term care were I will stay until I have the babies. Hopefully for a few months!
On Tuesday we finally got a room and I was moved into a new world. I'm on strict bed rest with bathroom privileges; meaning I have to lay down all the time but I can get up for very short periods of time to use the restroom. I can only shower a few times a week and they mush be short showers. There is no sitting up in a chair and no leaving the room. I have to have things low key and non-stressful. The contractions seem to pick up with a lot of activity. Luckily I have a wall of windows that looks out into a beautiful court yard, so I do have something nice to look at and I can see the outside world. My parents brought up a small fridge so I can keep some snacks in it. My mom and sister have been wonderful and bring up things to help make this small room feel more like home. The hospital encourages you to bring what ever you need to make you feel comfortable. The good thing is that I get cable tv again! I also couldn't have a picked a better month to be here. While everyone else is suffering in this 100 degree heat, I get to lay here in a nicely cooled room that's kept at 67 degrees and I didn't have to pay for the electric bill!! I get 3 meals brought to me each day, that I get to eat in bed and I get snacks. I have all the jello I can eat! This does have it's perks.
It's taken these last 2 weeks for all the effects of the medicine to finally get out of my system and I'm finally feeling better. Hopefully this week I'll feel up to having some visits come by. I'm not hooked up to anything, so that's a real nice change of pace. The nurses come by every 8 hours and take my vitals, listen to the babies heart beats and give me my meds. Every 3 days that lab comes by and takes a new vial of blood so they always have a fresh sample on hand. The labor and delivery nurses come by every Tuesday and Friday and they hook me back up to the monitors to track the babies heart rates and my contractions. The doctor comes by every day to find out how things are doing and to answer any questions. The perinatologist will come around every 3-4 weeks to do an ultrasound to check their growth. (Which they did last week and both boys are measuring big and are in the 88 percentile!) I have a dietician that monitors what I eat and makes sure I'm getting enough good food. Luckily they don't care if you bring in outside food. It's definitely been a rough adjustment and some days are better then others. It's really hard to lay down all day long for weeks on end! It's also hard not to be at home with Chris and our dogs. Chris tries to sleep up here as much as he can, but unfortunately the real world keeps going and he still has to work and take care of things. I do miss him and my family. My Mom has been amazing and has been working from her lap top in the afternoons so she can help take care of me. I'm so blessed to have to have people put their lives on hold to be with me! It's really hard to be so far away from everyone and everything that's going on. But I just have to remind myself this is for the babies. Each day we can keep them in my belly is 2 less days of them being in the NICU and is reducing their risk of having complications.
Now that our dear friend is letting me use their computer, I'll get to update this a lot more often and keep everyone up to speed on things.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
My 100th post!
I don't know what could be more fitting for my 100th post then to announce that we're having TWINS!!! I know a lot of people already know, but for those that don't, here's my big announcement. I'm still in a state of shock but I'm also really happy, excited, scared, feel a little overwhelmed and totally and completely in love.
We had another sonogram today and they both look great, measuring right on track and good strong heart beats. It's amazing how quickly they've grown and you can actually tell that they're developing into little babies. This was our last appt. with the fertility clinic and that was defiantly mixed emotions. I'm really going to miss them and the personal attention I got from Dr. Hansard and her staff. But I'm also excited to be a normal pregnant person and join the rest of the hundreds of pregnant women my OBs office sees on a regular basis. This is the first time I will actually see my OB as a pregnant person, so that's pretty exciting. For now, I'm able to breathe a sigh of relief and start to really get excited about this. I'm still sick all the time, but at least it's not 24/7 any more. All I can say is how much I love me some Zofran!!!
And they should be here sometime around Halloween......
We had another sonogram today and they both look great, measuring right on track and good strong heart beats. It's amazing how quickly they've grown and you can actually tell that they're developing into little babies. This was our last appt. with the fertility clinic and that was defiantly mixed emotions. I'm really going to miss them and the personal attention I got from Dr. Hansard and her staff. But I'm also excited to be a normal pregnant person and join the rest of the hundreds of pregnant women my OBs office sees on a regular basis. This is the first time I will actually see my OB as a pregnant person, so that's pretty exciting. For now, I'm able to breathe a sigh of relief and start to really get excited about this. I'm still sick all the time, but at least it's not 24/7 any more. All I can say is how much I love me some Zofran!!!
And they should be here sometime around Halloween......
Friday, April 9, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
No doubt about it!
I know this is really early to post this, but I can't hide my excitement. I finally had my blood test today and it came back positive!!!! In fact the nurse said it was very, very positive. So positive that I can stop taking the progesterone and estrogen. I'm going back on Tuesday and Friday for blood tests, just to make sure the HCG levels keep going up. We'll have an ultrasound 3 weeks from know and they should also determine how many babies are cooking.
As if the blood test was lying, I also took some home pregnancy tests!
As if the blood test was lying, I also took some home pregnancy tests!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Pressure!
I'm feeling a little more pressure for this to work. I got a call from Austin IVF on Thursday and they informed me that 5 remaining embryos didn't make it to freezing process. 2 of them didn't progress past the 4 cell phase and the other 3 didn't make it past the 8 cell phase. So now I really hopes this works because I really don't want to go through that whole process all over again!! Only a few more days until the blood test........
Saturday, March 6, 2010
All those shots led up this big event....
I had my egg retrieval yesterday! Here's the quick high level overview....
- 11 eggs were retrieved (lower then we thought)
- 7 were viable enough to fertilize (lower then we wanted)
- Had to do ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection)
- All 7 eggs fertilized! (much higher the expected)
- Embryo transfer scheduled for Monday or Wednesday
For more details, read my other blog.
- 11 eggs were retrieved (lower then we thought)
- 7 were viable enough to fertilize (lower then we wanted)
- Had to do ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection)
- All 7 eggs fertilized! (much higher the expected)
- Embryo transfer scheduled for Monday or Wednesday
For more details, read my other blog.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Big Announcement...............
We've officially started our IVF cycle! I must say this whole process is pretty crazy, exciting, scary and not without its share of painful moments. Giving myself 2 shots a day in the stomach just isn't all that fun. Not to mention all the blood draws, ultrasounds and the ever dreaded egg retrieval. Thankfully I have a great doctor and an amazing husband to help get me through this. Hats off to Chris for being able to put up with my wide range of hormone meltdowns! With a little luck and a big blessing from up above, we should hopefully get a positive pregnancy test sometime in late March. It's been a long, hard journey to get here and I know how truly blessed I am to be able to do this.
FYI....I won't be posting a lot of details about this whole process on this blog site. So if you want to read all the nitty-gritty details, feel free to read my IVF blog. The link is on my 'Friends and Family' blog list.
FYI....I won't be posting a lot of details about this whole process on this blog site. So if you want to read all the nitty-gritty details, feel free to read my IVF blog. The link is on my 'Friends and Family' blog list.
Our Cruise
On Feb. 6th, Chris and I left for our 5 night cruise to Cozumel and Progreso, Mexico. What an awesome trip! This was our first 'real' vacation together and we had a great time......for the most part. We left from Galveston, TX which was really convenient because it's only a 3.5 hour drive away. The port was totally disgusting and smelled like oil, but to see a cruise ship for the first time was amazing. We spent 2 full days at sea and I still don't think we had enough time to fully explore the boat. It was really neat to wake up in the morning and look out the window and see nothing but ocean. We went to a beach party in Progreso, snorkeled in Cozumel, show several really neat shows on the boat, went down water slides, ate tons and tons of food, met some news friends and spent a lot of time just laying out on the deck enjoying the fresh air. The snorkeling was really neat. I've never seen water so clear; it seemed like you could see forever! To see tropical fish up close was amazing. The only bad part about the whole trip was the way back to Galveston from Cozumel. We had really rough seas and the boat was rocking back and forth soooooo much!! It was so bad they had barf bags set up everywhere and the cleaning crews were pretty busy cleaning up after people. Even some of the crew were sick. We spent most of that day in our room to try and minimize the sea sickness, but I still got sick and spent most of the night hugging a trash can. I couldn't wait to get off that boat and onto dry land!! With the exception of the last day we had an awesome time. I really enjoyed getting to spend so much time with Chris. (No cells phones or computers, how nice for a change.) This vacation came at the perfect time because 2 days later we started a whole new adventure.
Who's ready for vacation?
Enjoying some fun fruity drinks before we left port:
The pool deck at night:
The inside promenade:
We did this waaaaay to much:
I conquered the water slides and it was really cold!
The never ending dessert bar, so good:
Cute towel animals:
At the beach party in Progreso:
Our ship in port in Cozumel:
Heading back to the boat in Progreso:
Snorkeling in Cozumel:
Say cheese:
Chris diving down to get the fish:
A lobster under the coral:
Who's ready for vacation?
Enjoying some fun fruity drinks before we left port:
The pool deck at night:
The inside promenade:
We did this waaaaay to much:
I conquered the water slides and it was really cold!
The never ending dessert bar, so good:
Cute towel animals:
At the beach party in Progreso:
Our ship in port in Cozumel:
Heading back to the boat in Progreso:
Snorkeling in Cozumel:
Say cheese:
Chris diving down to get the fish:
A lobster under the coral:
Sunday, February 21, 2010
House Projects
Thanksgiving weekend we randomly decided to scrape the popcorn ceilings in the kitchen. We've been talking about doing this since we moved in 4 years ago but I never wanted to tackle the mess. Some how Chris convinced me it would only take a few days to scrape the ceiling, repaint, clean-up and put it all back together. So, Chris, our friend Jason and I started a project that quickly got out of control and took a lot longer then Chris thought. Part of that was because we also decided to take out the old lights and replace them with recessed cam lights. Tom was a huge help with doing those! All in all, the project took over a week but it looks 100 times better then it did and the new lights look awesome! We still have painted it yet.....
This is how we lived for a week!
Bye bye popcorn
As if that wasn't fun enough, some how Chris again convinced me to scrape the ceilings in our living room and formal dinning room. I don't know how I was so stupid! But during our Christmas time off from work we took on this new challenge. And again we decided to not only do the ceilings but to also demo our fireplace and put in tile and repaint the mantel and to finally mount our rear speakers in the ceilings. This project did start off easier since we learned a better technique and process from the last time. We had the ceilings scraped in no time and were ready for sanding, mudding, sanding again and texture. We soon found out that our vaulted ceiling had lots of problems and it took many days for Tom and Chris to fix the seams and tape, float and mud the ceilings. While we were waiting for all that to dry we worked on mounting our rear speakers in the ceiling. And again it took a lot longer then we thought. Poor Jason ended up spending many hours in the attic, but we did finally get them in and I love it! No more speaker stands for the dogs to knock over and no more speaker wire! The fireplace was pretty fun to demo and only took about an hour. We even got to use a jackhammer! When it came time to finally paint everything we ran into a few problems. Apparently we bought 2 different colors of white and didn't realize it until we had already painted everything. The ceiling, mantel and the beam all got 4 coats of paint. We still need to paint the ceiling in the kitchen and formal dinning room, but I really have no desire to get into that mess again! We're also taking break from scraping ceilings!
Prepped and ready to go
All the spots are from the dust in the room
The fireplace after we took off the limestone and the new box we built for the tile
I don't have any after pictures yet, but I will post some soon.
This is how we lived for a week!
Bye bye popcorn
As if that wasn't fun enough, some how Chris again convinced me to scrape the ceilings in our living room and formal dinning room. I don't know how I was so stupid! But during our Christmas time off from work we took on this new challenge. And again we decided to not only do the ceilings but to also demo our fireplace and put in tile and repaint the mantel and to finally mount our rear speakers in the ceilings. This project did start off easier since we learned a better technique and process from the last time. We had the ceilings scraped in no time and were ready for sanding, mudding, sanding again and texture. We soon found out that our vaulted ceiling had lots of problems and it took many days for Tom and Chris to fix the seams and tape, float and mud the ceilings. While we were waiting for all that to dry we worked on mounting our rear speakers in the ceiling. And again it took a lot longer then we thought. Poor Jason ended up spending many hours in the attic, but we did finally get them in and I love it! No more speaker stands for the dogs to knock over and no more speaker wire! The fireplace was pretty fun to demo and only took about an hour. We even got to use a jackhammer! When it came time to finally paint everything we ran into a few problems. Apparently we bought 2 different colors of white and didn't realize it until we had already painted everything. The ceiling, mantel and the beam all got 4 coats of paint. We still need to paint the ceiling in the kitchen and formal dinning room, but I really have no desire to get into that mess again! We're also taking break from scraping ceilings!
Prepped and ready to go
All the spots are from the dust in the room
The fireplace after we took off the limestone and the new box we built for the tile
I don't have any after pictures yet, but I will post some soon.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thanksgiving and Christmas
The holidays were fun and crazy and full of lots of family time. We had our usual feast at my parents house with everything except for Lizzy and Brandon. Just like every other year, we all really enjoyed the food and over ate. The next morning my Mom and I did our annual Black Friday shopping. We didn't get very much, but we sure had a great time going to all the stores and shopping at 1:00am.
This is the one picture I can find right now........My, my niece and sister Katie:
Christmas was wonderful as always. We had our annual family progressive dinner, Lizzy and Brandon were here, we had time off work, nice and cold weather, snow on Christmas Eve, lots of game playing and treat making and I really enjoyed the holiday season. It was so fun to watch my niece and nephews open their gifts this year, they really understood Santa and were so happy to open presents. I loved being able to spend time with Lizzy and Brandon. It's sad we don't get to see them very much, but we sure love the time we get. This year we got my parents a Wii and we had lots of fun playing the Wii Fit and Mario Cart. Christmas always seems to come to quick and never last long enough.
Apparently we take games very seriously in our family.......
Katie's kids:
Opening presents:
Grandma got the perfect gift:
This is the one picture I can find right now........My, my niece and sister Katie:
Christmas was wonderful as always. We had our annual family progressive dinner, Lizzy and Brandon were here, we had time off work, nice and cold weather, snow on Christmas Eve, lots of game playing and treat making and I really enjoyed the holiday season. It was so fun to watch my niece and nephews open their gifts this year, they really understood Santa and were so happy to open presents. I loved being able to spend time with Lizzy and Brandon. It's sad we don't get to see them very much, but we sure love the time we get. This year we got my parents a Wii and we had lots of fun playing the Wii Fit and Mario Cart. Christmas always seems to come to quick and never last long enough.
Apparently we take games very seriously in our family.......
Katie's kids:
Opening presents:
Grandma got the perfect gift:
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