Birthday and Easter

Happy Birthday Natalie!!

 Our little girl turned 3 years old on Tuesday, April 19th. We can't believe how grown up she's getting. The funniest thing that happened that day was when Natalie asked when she'll be two again. We told her that she won't ever be two again, she'll just get older. She didn't like that answer at all! She started crying saying that she wanted to be two again. Kevin with his infinite wisdom chuckles and says "Yeah, you'll have to talk to God about that!!" We also started telling her that big 3 year olds don't suck their thumb. So now whenever she wants to suck her thumb, she always tells us "I'm just going to suck my thumb for a little bit, okay?" At least she's more aware of when she sucks that wrinkled thumb!

Natalie's birthday party was on Saturday. She's been talking about a Tinkerbell party for over a month. While I was in the hospital, I did some online shopping and found some great party decorations and the house looked ver festive thanks to the help of Karen, my mother in law, and my Mom. Matt, Veronica and Ava came over for pizza and the girls spent most of the time playing in the backyard.

Once Natalie's grandparents arrived, we went inside to open presents. She remains a very spoiled little girl! She got a puzzle, a couple of books, lots of clothes, Thomas the Train set, a magnetic dress-up wooden doll set, a bug catcher, and her favorite....a pink car! She wants to live in her car! She even wanted Mommy and Daddy to drive Mommy's car to church, and she wanted to drive her car. She was heartbroken when we told her no. Kevin brought the car upstairs this morning so Natalie could sit in it and watch Dora while we were getting ready for church. She also ate her macaroni and cheese in her car this afternoon.

Easter

Natalie was extremely excited about Easter this year. Everyting from her Easter dress to the eggs, she was a very happy girl! After church, Natalie had her first egg hunt of the day. She was pretty timid and didn't really understand what the appeal was. We had to coach her through picking up the eggs. After church, we went to Gramma and Papa's house for breakfast. She was much too busy playing with Ava to eat anything though!

After her nap, Kevin and Natalie headed over to Grandma Karen's house for yet another Easter egg hunt! Her and Ethan had a fantastic time searching for eggs. Natalie was spoiled with all of her Easter and birthday gifts!

A terrific weekend indeed! We are so blessed to have a healthy and happy three year old. And to think that two more little ones are going to be joining us very soon! It's interesting to think that these next few weeks are going to be the last ones with Natalie as our only child. Our whole lives have been centered around her for the past three years. So much change is coming in the near future. It's hard to imagine having enough love for each child, although I definitely know it's possible! We've been shown God's love through the family we've built. Our new adventures in parenthood are going to be very exciting!

Sciatic pain? What sciatic pain?

Since leaving the hospital, I've felt so much better! I think getting out of that horrible bed was the best thing that happened, other than my wonderful physical therapist and chiropractor. After one visit to the physical therapist on Friday, who just happens to be my friend Lisa, I felt a lot better. I went to the chiropractor later that afternoon who did some minor adjustments. As the weekend progressed, the pain disappeared. Today I haven't had any sciatic pain. I have other aches and pains, but those are just normal pains of carrying an extra 25 pounds! I have appointments all week this week. Today was physical therapy, tomorrow is Dr. Bahnmiller to check my cervix (making sure I really am abiding by my bedrest orders), Wednesday is an ultrasound to check the size of the babies, Thursday is the chiropractor, and Friday back to physical therapy. Tomorrow is a very exciting day! Natalie's 3rd birthday!! She's a very excited little girl! More to come later!

Home!!!

I was discharged from the hospital yesterday because my doctor got me an appointment with a chiropractor at 2:30. Mom came over and we packed up everything. We were sitting around waiting for the discharge papers when the nurse came in and told us "You're not going to like me." During the morning heart monitor session, Everett's heart rate kept dropping. The nurse said that it was enough to contact my doctor. He wanted me to have an ultrasound before we left. So we waited about fifteen minutes, went down for an ultrasound and found out that the boys are doing great. So back upstairs we went, and finally got the discharge papers. Mom brought me to her house, my newest home. Since my sciatic nerve is so painful, I can't go up stairs, so my house is off limits until I'm mobile enough to go up and down the stairs. I was extremely excited to see the chiropractor and very disappointed by the time we left. He checked everything and said that I was perfectly aligned, with no joint problems. He said that the pain was due to tightening of the muscle that surrounds the sciatic nerve. He said that massage therapy would be the best course of action. The only problem is that he massage therapist at his office doesn't work "normal" hours and couldn't get me in until next Wednesday. I do have to say that he adjusted my upper back and neck, which relieved a lot of pain! So, it wasn't all a loss! Today I had an appointment with my ob doctor. He measured my cervix again. The measurement was 1.3 cm and with 1.2 cm, which is WONDERFUL! The shape of the funneling is also changing. Instead of a deep v, which causes more pressure, it's flattening out so there's not as much pressure. The doctor was VERY happy with what he saw, which eleviated some stress. He did a quick check of the boys, and they were doing really well. I explained my chiropractic appointment and mentioned that my insurance doesn't cover massage therapy. They said they would look into different options. Afterwards, I came home and slept for two hours! Later in the afternoon I recieved a call from the dr.'s office and they said that there were a couple physical therapists that he recommended for massage therapy, then my insurance would cover it. He recommended a therapist by the name of Lisa Julson, who just happens to be one of my friends! The office said they would contact her. Since I knew she was not at work today, I called her and she got me all set up for tomorrow morning! I'm very excited to go in tomorrow and see if some of this pain can be eleviated. So now the biggest challenge is sleeping. There are very few positions that feel comfortable. I wake up every hour and have to change positions, which is a chore in itself. I can't lay on my right side, so I have to switch between my left side and back. Neither are very comfortable. Hopefully once this muscle loosens up I'll be able to sleep more comfortably. Thank you for all of your prayers and support. I couldn't have made it through the past month without everyone's support. One more month of physical misery, then a whole different type of stress will set in once the boys are born!

As a follow up to my last post, this one is a continuation of my sciatic pain, with a bit of humor!

My sciatic pain was pretty bad this morning. I had a hard time moving around, even in bed. When Mom came over in the morning she helped me with my stretch which was excrutiating. Soon afterward Karen and Natalie came to visit, then my angel came....Kate, the massage therapist. After she worked on me she propped me up with pillows and I laid there for a good few hours. At about two I decided to test my pain threshold to take a shower. Once I hobbled around, showered, got dressed, etc (all without getting "stuck"!), I tried to lay down. Every way I turned felt like a long knife running down my tailbone, butt and leg. I couldn't relax without being in pain. So I tried to lay on my side. I got half way there and couldn't take the pain, so I reached for the bed controls to adjust the bed. The ultrasound technician moved my bed earlier this morning and put the side rail down (which has the bed controls). Not only was it down, it was pushed up against a cabinet so I couldn't even pull it up. By this time my leg muscles were cramping from trying not to relax, then my back started cramping up and I was officially stuck....in bed....laying on my back. Somehow I found the nurse button. I had a terrific nurse today with a great sense of humor. She came in and asked what she could do and I said "I'm stuck! I can't move and I can't reach the controls and my back and legs are cramping because of the fact that I'm stuck in this bed!" I was almost laughing because it sounded so pathetic. She began laughing and said "Oh geez! You ARE pathetic!" We were both laughing and she helped me roll over. Then another nurse came in, surprised that my nurse was in the room. She said "Why didn't you turn off the call button?" She replied with "She was stuck! I had to help her before I turned it off!" She explained that I got stuck laying in bed and the other nurse started laughing too. I told her about my day on Sunday and getting stuck in different spots in the room, not able to call for a nurse. She said she'd work on getting me a Life Alert button. She came to check on me sporatically throughout the rest of the afternoon to make sure I was okay and we'd laugh each time.

Later in the afternoon I sat on the exercise ball for awhile and that seemed to help. Then Mom came by and helped me with my stretches, then gave me a vibrating heating pad....HEAVEN!!! That is until it stopped working! It must have done something though. As Mom left, I walked to the end of the hall to get some water and made it back without any pain. Yeah!!!!

Late afternoons and evenings seem to be better than mornings. My doctor told me that as soon as I'm released, he'll write a prescription for a chiropractor which should help immensely. I told him that I'd make an appointment for next Tuesday afternoon, as soon as they let me out of here! Now comes the stress of knowing that I'm going to a home that has stairs and sometimes I can barely stand up, let alone go up and down a flight of stairs. Mom has offered to have me live with her, which I may have to do. We'll have to see how I feel by next Tuesday. Hopefully tomorrow I have less pain and a great nurse as I did today. It makes my day so much better to have a nurse that I can relate to, and doesn't look at me like I'm an annoyance to her! Here's hoping for a good one! I need it emotionally.

When Times get Tough

• This has been the longest and toughest week so far. Beside the obvious fact of being absolutely sick of being here, I have a new ailment that is drastically effecting my mood, and movement. In the past three months I've had touches of sciatic nerve pain. Since Monday, that pain has been more substantial and more continuous. After waiting three days for the physical therapist to come in on Friday, she informed me that there's nothing much that can be done and it's only going to get worse. She was so negative and kept saying that she just didn't know what to do because she doesn't work with ob patients. She pulled some strings and got the massage therapist to come visit me in the afternoon. My doctor came in after the massage therapist and I updated him on everything. He just shook his head. He showed me a stretch to do, that is absolutely impossible to do alone, and with the help of someone else I can't breathe while doing the stretch. He also recommended sitting on an exercise ball and having someone put pressure on that nerve until the pain decreases. Yeah, like that's possible when I'm here alone!




• So this morning, after breakfast, monitoring, glucose testing, and a visit with my favorite 2 year 356 day old, I showered. The problem didn't begin until I tried to get dressed. It took me five minutes to put on pants because I couldn't put weight on my left leg. Putting on lotion was another painful task. Then I had to dry my hair. The smallest movement triggers that nerve and I find myself getting "stuck" in one place because I can't move due to the pain. This happened a few times, so what do I do? The only thing I could do. Stand there and cry because I can't move. One time I was actually in front of a chair so I sat and cried wondering if anyone would come in to help me....staring at the nurses call button across the room. I think I need one of those buttons around my neck like the commercial "I've fallen and I can't get up!" I finally managed to work up the nerve to get back in bed, which is yet another painful experience. So then I laid down and cried. I'm so sick of this pregnancy. At least before this week I was able to be mobile, now it hurts to even change positions in bed. This sucks, sucks, sucks.




• I had an ultrasound Thursday morning to check the babies and my cervix. The boys are doing great. They keep checking them to see if they're breathing. Tristan usually doesn't have a problem doing this, but we usually have to wait quite awhile for Everett to take a few breaths, if he does at all. Everett is constantly moving which also makes it diffucult to track if he's breathing. My cervix measured between 1.5 and 1.2 (down from 1.7 one week prior). It upset me that it decreased, then I got upset with myself for thinking... "well, the shorter it gets, the sooner they will come and the sooner all of this will be over with!" To my surprise, a nurse came in at 9:45 last night to tell me that an ultrasound tech was on her way up. What? Really? I have no idea why this was ordered, but in she came at 10 PM. Babies are still doing great. Tristan was breathing away, Everett has made progress. The thing that confused me was that the technician measured my cervix at 2.6 cm. It can't grow back together, so it makes me wonder what happened. I'm eager to talk to my doctor today about this measurement. MAYBE he'll believe it and let me go home!!! Yeah, right!!




• So, such is my life in room 220. Painful, frustrated and so eager for all of this to be over with. I've decided to have a c-section after hearing about every possible situation of twin birth. There were many cicumstances that were making me stress, and now I'm alot more calm about that time. We've (my doc and I) also compromised on a delivery date, the second week of May, in which I'll be 35 weeks. Knowing this, I'm pretty sure I can make it three weeks at home after I leave on the 19th (fingers still crossed!).

Twenty-One and Fourteen!

I apologize for the poor formatting. I've tried five times to separate this into paragraphs and lists, but nothing seems to be working. So now it is not organized, which drives me nuts! Today marks day 21, three weeks in the hospital. The significance of 14? That is the number of days I have remaining. My doctor came back from vacation yesterday and of course came to visit me. I'm sure I'm a very high priority! He was looking at my April calendar and I mentioned that Natalie's birthday is just a few days before I'm 32 weeks. He said "Well, let's make it a point to get you home on that day." That works for me!!! So all of my "exit exams" are scheduled for Monday, April 18th, hoping that everything comes back within reasonable measures for me to be discharged on the 19th. He made me feel better by telling me that by the time the babies are 32 weeks, he's not too worried about them. By that time he's more concerned about their weight above anything else. I feel as though they each weigh about 7 pounds right now! I swear there's no more room for them and it's becoming painful when they move, and they're always moving! Once I go home, I can't wait to do a few things: 1. Sleep in my bed 2. Take a shower in MY shower. 3. Use my own bathroom (with quality toilet paper!) 4. Eat my own food. 5. Look out into my backyard. 6. Watch Natalie run around in her jammies. 7. Put Natalie to bed. 8. Watch Natalie play with her babies. 9. Watch my HD television with 200 channels, even though there's nothing on! 10. Take a nap without being interrupted. 11. Go outside!!!! 12. Control the thermostat. I'm sure there's more I'll think of.....but those are the most pressing! Things I won't miss.... 1. Ultrasounds at 5:00 A.M. 2. Slamming doors 24 hours a day. 3. Uncomfortable bed 4. Daily monitoring of babies (they don't cooperate!) 5. Nurses that are very concerned about my bowel movements! 6. Explaining my life story to every new nurse I have. Don't get me wrong, about 98% are wonderful. It just gets old. 7. Feeling bad that people have to take time out of their day to come visit me. Especially my parents and Karen who bring Natalie over twice a day. 8. Staying up until 11:00 - midnight just to make sure I'm tired enough to fall asleep. 9. Waiting 30-45 minutes for food. Things I will miss.... 1. The security of knowing that whenever I have an ache or pain, it will be addressed quickly. 2. The variety of fresh fruit!!!! I order fresh fruit twice a day and get a nice combination of melons, grapes, oranges, apples.....yummy! 3. No laundry, no cleaning, daily bedding changes 4. A few nurses that I've made a connection with, some will NOT be missed! 5. All the people offering/bringing me coffee!!! 6. (Almost) daily wheelchair rides with Natalie to go see Dr. Krause's picture. She gets such a kick out of that! 7. Daily contact with my doctor. Even though most conversations last only a few minutes, it's nice to know that he's always up to date on my progress.

Latest Pics of Everett & Tristan

It's easy for me to see these boys because the ultrasound techs point out everything. I know it's not easy to identify what you're looking at. The images below the orginals have labels, small as they may be, to help identify what you're looking at. On average at this stage of gestation, babies generally weigh between 2.5-3.0 lbs and measure 14 -15 inches long.

Everett

Tristan