Twinbies Update and the Weekend Wrap-up

Yesterday afternoon, I had my much anticipated 37 week appointment with Dr. N. I was actually 37 weeks and 1 day along (don't want to lose that 1 day, ha!). My blood pressure was 122 over 80 so hanging in there right where it has been. 

I was pretty nervous for this appointment and it was at 2:00pm which didn't help! I had several questions for my doctor and was really hoping to get a birth date for these babies set in stone. I told several people that if he looked at me and said, "See you in a few days, and we'll talk about it then" that there was likely to be some tears! My fear was that my body would still not be progressing toward labor at all, and that he would only agree to deliver me if we did a c-section. With both past deliveries, my body has been super slow to make any sort of progress - which has been a blessing this time - but I am definitely to the point where I am ready have a plan in place! If a c-section is what ends up happening, I'm okay with that, but I didn't want it to be our Plan A. I want to at least try to push these babies out! 

Here I am . . . patiently waiting on the doctor!

Chris and the kids came with me this time. We knew this was likely the last time they would see the babies on an ultrasound, so we wanted them there.

So . . . after a short wait, Dr N came in and had me lay back on the bed for an ultrasound. When I did, I started having a Braxton Hicks contraction, and my belly got all contorted and weird looking. He asked me if I had been having any real contractions, and I was finally able to say YES. The night before, I had about three real and painful contractions, which I know isn't really anything to write home about, but it's better than nothing! That night and yesterday were just rough overall - I just had some serious aches and pains and nausea and fatigue - so that was the major reason I was so ready for some answers about when these babies are coming!

We were very pleased to see that Baby A is head down and ready to go! The baby's head is finally engaged a bit, the baby was practice breathing, had a healthy heartbeat, and looked good overall. Baby B is still breech, but also was practice breathing (after a bit of prompting by the doctor) and looked healthy. Both of our older Bs just sat there so well and observed their little siblings. 

Then, it was time for Dr. N to check me. I could tell by the way he did the check that my cervix is still very high. However, he said, "Well, you don't have much going on, but there is a little something." Yaaaay!!! I looked at him and said, "I could hug you right now!" Ha! He said that while my cervix is high, I am dialated to a little less than a 2. Again, not too impressive, but I've never been dialated that much when checked in his office before! With Brianna, I was only dialated about a 1/2cm before checking into the hospital, and with Brenson it was a little more than 1cm BUT I was almost 41 weeks with him. 

Dr. N told me to get dressed and he would be back to discuss options with me. 

As a bit of a side-note: Our goal all along has been for me to make it to 38 weeks (which is Monday). While the thought of delivering, say, TODAY is really appealing to me right now, there are several reasons that I still really, really want to make it to Monday. The first reason is obviously for the health of the babies. Reaching 38 weeks would be best for them. Reason 2 is that a few days ago I developed a little cold. It's nothing too severe, but I've had a sore throat, a little cough, and some ear pain. I'd really like to get over this mess a little before I have the babies. The third reason is really silly, but I want these babies to be born in February. That way, all of our kiddos will have February birthdays! And, since we've made it this far, what's a few more days to February? It would also be nice to have one more weekend before welcoming the newest members of our family. 

So, when Dr. N walked back in the room, he said, "Okay, do you want Monday or Tuesday?" to which I quickly replied, "Monday!" I was SO happy. As fun as I think it would be to just wait until the babies come on their own, I needed a date. I needed an end in sight to this pregnancy . . . and a beginning to our new adventure! He said, "Okay, we'll try!" and started to walk out. I quickly stopped him and said, "Wait! I have questions!" so he took a seat and we chatted for a bit.

I wanted to clarify that I should not take my Heparin injection on the morning I go to be induced (which he verified is correct). Also, I wanted to make sure that I could still take my other meds (such as my heartburn med and prenatal vitamin, etc), and that I would be able to get an epidural even after having been on a blood thinner so recently (again, the answer was yes . . . hooray!). I asked again about delivering in the OR (yep, hospital policy with twins, although I'll labor in an L&D room then be wheeled to an OR just before I deliver) and asked if my husband AND Mom would both be able to scrub in and be in there with me (he said probably, so we'll see). The last (and most important question to me) was regarding what we're going to do about Baby B being breech. I asked him this once before and he just gave me a not-so-serious answer, but I wanted a REAL answer. He said that he really thinks he'll be able to turn Baby B once Baby A is born, but if not I may deliver breech and he's okay with that. He seems very not worried about it, so I've decided I'm not going to worry about it either. He really thinks that I'll be able to have a vaginal delivery like I want, so I was happy to hear that!

When we walked out of the exam room, he had his nurse call the hospital to reserve us a spot for induction. Unfortunately, there were no openings for Monday, but we were able to get on the schedule for Tuesday (February 3rd) at 5:00am. That's perfectly fine with us . . . we are just so happy to have a date! I did ask Dr. N if he thought I may go into labor on my own before then, and for the first time ever he looked at me and said it's definitely a possibility (he's always been so sure that I'll not go into labor on my own). I know that doesn't really mean anything, but it was still good to hear! We will be meeting our babies Tuesday or sooner! Whoo-hoo!!!

One last thing about our appointment, while I was waiting for Lisa (his nurse) to call the hospital, he started rubbing my lower back and said, "How's the back doing?" to which I replied, "Oh, we're surviving, but it's definitely sore!" He delivers roughly 450 babies a year, but I never feel like just another patient or a number with him. I'm going to kind of miss seeing that guy on the reg! Ha!

Switching gears a bit, I have a lot of photos from our weekend that I wanted to share, so I'm just going to add them in here even though it makes for a long post. I know myself these days, and if I don't just include them now then they'll probably never get posted! 

I don't think I've mentioned that our "big" camera broke a few months ago. We bought it right before Bren was born - and I've loved it - but it was dropped several times in the spring and summer. It no longer focused in the bottom left quadrant. This was SO frustrating as just about every single photo was blurry in that spot. We had taken it to a camera shop and were basically told that it was user error. They reset it back to factory settings, but it didn't improve the problem. And I knew it wasn't user error because I had been successfully using it for almost 3 years. We then took it to another camera shop where it was confirmed that it was indeed broken, but the repair would cost almost as much as a new camera comparable to it. So frustrating!

Anyway, so it had been a while since we had taken photos of just us with the kids. It was LONG overdue because I just wasn't too happy with iPhone pics or pics from our smaller point and shoot. We took these photos on Sunday, January 18th before church. 

Bren and his Daddy:

Brianna and her Daddy:

Daddy with both kiddos . . . we can't wait to do this with FOUR littles! It will be an adventure, for sure!

I DO NOT like these photos of me, but I just couldn't delete them. I look terrible and Brianna looks very unenthusiastic.

This one is a little better. The camera still loves this boy's face!

There was a photo of me with both kids, but it was terrible and blurry and the lighting was bad. So I did delete it.

Family selfie . . . will this even be possible with two more babies?!?

This photo is from Saturday when Amy and Angie came for lunch. Hello baby belly!

While I was at lunch, Chris took the kiddos to a birthday party. The party was art themed. The invites were super cute, and from what I can see in these photos so were the decorations. I guess they had a station set up for the kids to craft and do art projects. Neat idea!

Brianna crafting:

Brenson crafting (so serious):

Working hard on their projects:

I think this was the cake and food table . . . Love the paint cans that look like they're pouring paint!

My sister was there with her little girl, so they took this fun photo at the photo booth:

I mentioned in my 37 week pregnancy update that Chris acquired a few extra house projects this past weekend, including fixing our leaking dishwasher. Brenson loves to help fix things, and I thought this photo was too cute. 

I'm thankful for my handy man AND that he's teaching our boy how to fix things, too!

Because I was pretty unhappy with the photos from a week ago Sunday, I decided to try again this past Sunday. Chris didn't want in on them this time, but we did get some great solo ones of the kids. 

When did she get SO big?  

Almost 5 years old! So hard to wrap my brain around that!

She brings such joy to my life.

I wish I was half as photogenic as Brenson . . .

Chris took about 10 photos of the 3 of us, but someone looked awkward in every single photo except this one. Bren isn't looking, but he still looks cute!

And this one . . . he'll turn 3 in just a few weeks. SO big.

Cutie!

Okay, I know this post was super long, but I didn't want to leave you all hanging about my appointment yesterday. I can't wait to introduce our little twinbies to everyone :-).