Announcing our New Arrivals!

We welcomed our beautiful twin girls into the world on Monday, August 18th. Abigail Marie was born at 5:22pm, weighing 4 lbs 4 oz. and measuring 16.5 inches. Chloe Nicole was born at 5:23pm, weighing 3 lbs. 6 oz. and measruing 16 inches.

Abigail is the bigger twin with the darker hair and Chloe is the smaller twin with the lighter hair.
Mom was discharged from the hospital on Friday afternoon but unfortunately the girls had to stay in the NICU to fatten up and grow a bit more.

We will keep you posted on updates for the girls. The new Mom needs to focus on resting now and healing from the C-Section.

Last Minute Preparations

This weekend was pretty quite. On Saturday, our friends Todd and Kerry came up to Jax from St. Augustine for a visit. After a nice dinner we dragged them along with us to Target and Babies R Us to get a few things we still needed with our gift cards (Boppi Pillow cover, mattress pads, crib skirts, nipples for bottles, changing pad and cover, mobiles and exchanged the swing).

On Sunday in the afternoon after church, Joe and I spent a few hours finishing up the nursery. We made up the cribs which are now complete with mattress pads, crib skirts, sheets, bumpers and the most adorable pooh mobiles ever, cleared off the top of the dresser so we could put the changing pad on top and the diaper basket, I took apart two diaper cakes (one took forever...each diaper was rolled and rubber banded but we got lots of diapers!), Joe put together the second swing and Joe put the car seat bases in the cars.

I've made my list of what to put in our hospital bag and hopefully tonight Joe and I will get that packed and ready to go. My doctor's appointments went well on Friday and Monday. The OB I saw on Friday did a "32 Week" happy dance. It was hilarious but he was just happy we made it this far. All the doctors keep reminding me I could have these babies any day now. So for now we just wait and see.

Fun at Work!

At Joe's work this is what happens when you go on vacation for a week and your birthday is missed. Joe told me there are approximately 900 balloons. Notice you can just barely see the top of the computer monitor on the desk.

32 Weeks and 5 Days...

I had been looking forward to Wednesday's appointment this whole week. Every two weeks on Wednesday they measure the twins and give us an approximate weight. Abigail now weighs 4 lb. 12 oz. and Chloe weighs 2 lb. 7 oz. Our doctors are still pleased with this weight gain. While Abigail is in the normal range for her gestational age, Chloe is below average but still growing. If we can continue to have her gain 5 ounces every two weeks, by 36 weeks she will be just over 3 lbs.; she'll still be small but we will take it!

Wednesday was a busy day all around for me. Joe's work threw us a baby shower (making that baby shower #3). What a great bunch of people who obviously like Joe very much. But I can't blame them...what's not to like:) They spoiled us with gifts and great food. When I arrived home a little after 2pm after being gone since 7:30am, I was exhausted. My afternoon nap didn't even help much, I still went to bed around 8:45pm. Today I've spent the day resting and doing what I'm supposed to be doing...being on bed rest.


*This is a picture of one of the two swings we got at the shower. It swings front to back and side to side, plays 10 songs and has an adorable rain forest theme. I know the girls are going to spend some quality time in these!

32 Weeks and Still Going...

I am proud to announce I have reached my doctors initial goal of carrying the twins to at least 32 weeks. When Baby B (Chloe) became distressed, the doctors set a goal of 32 weeks and were unsure if I would even make it that far. But here it is Saturday, August 2nd...the first day of my 32nd week of pregnancy! I have high hopes of making it another 4 weeks so these girls have more time to grow. Overall the past week or so, I have been feeling pretty great. Knock on Wood...I haven't had heartburn or terrible indigestion (I'm back to enjoying eating again), my feet have returned to their normal size and have not swollen since being put on bed rest and I just feel blessed to have the gift of two babies inside me. I do get tired very easily but I guess I can blame that on carrying around 30 extra lbs and two babies stealing my energy:) I am hoping they will measure the girls again this week for an approximate weight update!

*On a side note, our cat Vivian loves the fact that I am home all day long with her. We take naps together, she gets to go out on the porch and she follows me where ever I go around the house. Boy is she going to sad when the girls come and she isn't the center of our attention:(

Hiccups

While some people seem to been prone to having hiccups from time to time, I have never been one one these people. I guess I am different but I usually only get a hiccup. Yes, one loud hiccup and I am done. I know it sounds strange, but that's just me. On the other hand, my twins living inside me get them all the time. The first time I noticed this was a few weeks back during an ultrasound. I could feel this little constant thump but I didn't put two and two together until the ultrasound tech. said Baby A (Abigail) has the hiccups. It was cute and fun to feel the movement and see it on the screen. Baby B (Chloe-our little twin) had not had the hiccups, but on Monday she got them! I was hooked up to the fetal heart rate monitor where they were monitoring both babies heart rates and testing for stress (they call it NST-non stress test); I have this done three times a week with the ultrasound. This time I was actually down in Labor and Delivery where I had been admitted for the afternoon for additional monitoring; Chloe was not behaving during my Monday morning appointment and the doctor was concerned (she's fine...just better safe than sorry). I was listening to Chloe's heartbeat because she is the hardest to find and keep on, when all of a sudden I heard another constant thump that wasn't her heart beat. After I inquired I was told it was Chloe having the hiccups. I was pretty excited about this. It felt like a little milestone had been met, since her sister has been doing it for a couple of weeks. After some research it was fun to find out that some scientists believe the brain releases a growth hormone when the baby hiccups, while others believe the baby is strengthening their diaphragm in preparation for breathing. With either theory, it meant that our smaller twin was growing! Sometimes it happens several times a day and sometimes not at all but I just love feeling the little thump, thump, thump of them getting the hiccups.

Busy but AWESOME Weekend!

This past Saturday my two older sisters, Sarah and Laura threw me an amazing shower. The shower was an afternoon tea party theme including this great spread of delicious food, all my favorites of course, and an adorable cake decorated with a tiny little tea set. Although I did not drink any tea, they made this lemonade punch that was a huge success...I think I probably had 6 glasses. The shower was just perfect. It was fun, girly, intimate and although I was exhausted by the end I had a wonderful time. I received tons of gifts, everyone is so generous, and to my amazement I only received a few clothing items (besides the 3 adorable handmade outfits from my mother-in-law which included matching little purses, bonnets and pink baseball caps). I guess with twins everyone is much more practical realizing we need the other stuff more than the clothing. After all, we have been so blessed with hand-me-downs! I have been given three bags from my friend Carey who has twin girls, a box from a coworker and two boxes from my cousins Mary and Kim (who even sent left over diapers from her son...thank you for those!) I also received gifts from my Aunt Pat and my two cousins, Mary and Kim who all live in Indiana.

On Sunday, our families were a wonderful help in getting some much needed things done around the house. My Mom worked hard on our laundry, which has become Joe's job since my bed rest and he obviously was slacking in that department...but I can't blame him who really likes doing laundry anyways, while the other girls helped put away all the new gifts and organize the twins nursery. The nursery was a mess because I kept piling all the new stuff in the cribs. They organized the clothes in the dresser, packed the bigger items in boxes to trade out in the future and organized the closet. Whew I was tired when they were done and all I did was sit in one of the gliders, help open some small items and of course put my opinion in. I can't thank them all enough! Clean laundry... and an organized nursery!

Yesterday at the doctors they measured the twins again. I am happy to report that Abigail now weighs 3 lbs. 12 oz. (she gained 10 oz. in two weeks) and Chloe weighs 2 lbs. 2 oz. (she gained 5 oz. in two weeks) . The doctors were very pleased with both of their progress, although Chloe is only growing at about half the rate of Abigail, she continues to grow, remains very active and is showing no more signs of distress. The doctors set a goal of carrying them until at least 32 weeks a few weeks ago but I am feeling much more confident about making it to 36 weeks! On Saturday I will be 31 weeks so that would only be 5 more weeks.