The Halloween Story

Walking down the road we came across a pumpkin patch. We decided to pick a pumpkin or two to take home. We found these special pumpkins that seemed like they'd look great at our house.

Then, as we tried to pick them up, we realized they were alive! I guess that means we'd have to keep them inside instead of on the front porch like we had originally planned. We'd also have to figure out what pumpkins eat, I'm sure we can Google those details.

Google says we should also name them. Ichabod seemed like an appropriate name, but we settled on Celeste Marie for this one.
This one was reminiscent of Freddy Kruger with his sharp nails, but we settled on Daniel George.

I don't know if people will think we're weird, but I kind of feel like we make a cute little family- Me, Mark and these two pumpkins. I guess we'll need to Google what to do with pumpkins once Halloween is over...

Christi - pregnancy + babies = ?

There is truly so much to say since my last post. It was my last post as a pregnant lady. This is my first post as a mom of two amazing babies. There are a million pictures to post, videos to show you, stories to tell, and enlightenments to reveal. But there are also a million diapers to change, mouths to feed, bottles to wash, and hours of lost sleep to catch up on. Therefore, the blog is pushed to the bottom of the pile (and that's assuming I remember I have a blog to keep up with). Maybe the best way to get you up to speed is by posting visual aids to tell most of the stories for me. This is a video I made for Mark and it helps to justify my lack of bloginess...

36 weeks 4 days

This might be my last post. Tomorrow it looks like we're going in for a c-section. I hope to dear Lord we're going for a c-section. My last post about cankles is a pipe dream. I wish I had such shapely legs now. As it stands (no pun intended), my feet are so swollen that even the drs and nurses are shocked when they look at me. I'm verging on pre-eclampsia now which is why we're going in a few days early. I've included a picture of Mark and I from a couple of days ago. It may not be the best picture, but this is how it is these days!!!

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35 weeks and 4 days

I wasn't going to do any pictures for you this time because it's just getting ugly from here on out. But, rules were made to be broken, right?

There seemed to be great response to the eclipse series of photos so here is the next installment. It's a Mark Eclipse. The expression you see in this picture is the expression he gets every time he sees me these days - even if he had only turned away for a brief moment. I'm pretty shocked too every time I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

There's not a lot to say these days aside from, "Ugh. My existence..." I am extremely tired (I type, as I reach for my Ambien) and there's not much I can do due to my... well, due to my current existence.

Moving most parts of my body requires a plan, focus, much effort, and often the support of another being. I find that I usually move every 30 minutes due to my call of nature. My bladder carries 1 tablespoon of liquid while my feet, ankles and legs carry a few gallons. I've been thinking a lot lately about the term "kankles". Where does the "K" come from? I can understand "fankles" (the "F" is for fat). I can understand "chankles" (the "ch" is for "chunk" or "chubby"). I can especially understand "nankles" (because there are "No" ankles). But why "kankles"?

As an update to my kankles obsession, Mark has reminded me that it is no a"k" in kankles, but a hard "C". The "C" isn't a derivative of "Christi", but in fact "Calf". A "cankle" is the loss of deliniation between the calf and the ankle. In my instance, I'm still sticking with the word "nankle", and i might as well start introducing the term "nalf" also since my legs just seems to be an continuation of the elephant knees I've also recently developed.


At my most recent doctor visits, there are currently no signs of me going into labor anytime soon (though things can change in an instant!). My doctors have now ordered to me to get out and get moving, see the world, help these babies along the way. We dediced to go out to dinner. Keeping the above pictures in mind, imagine me showing up to an all you can eat buffet. Just kidding. But I have gone out to eat a couple of times. Tonight we went to Buffalo Wild Wings with the other ENT residents. I just sat back in the booth with a big goofy, grin on my face, just happy to be out in the world! People might have suspected me to be a little crazy, but when I stood up those people realized they better not mess with me, I could easily smoosh them. Also, as part of my prescribed activity, we had our last backyard baby pool of the summer. It was great, Mark put a sun lounger and a little table next to me in the water. We spent the whole afternoon watching Cooper dig up pebbles and place them at my nankles.

There are so many little things that happen to me during the day that I'd love to tell you about. But, as my friends and family, I chose to spare you the graphic details of my current existence. I need to keep a little mystery, don't I?

Pictures from the last month

Nugget's profile. Do you see that sweet smile lurking?
Peach's face amid umbilical cord and other stuff. Look at those squishy cheeks & lips & nose!

Peach mid-yawn. This picture was really cute when it was live action and you could see her purse her lips, suckle, smile then let out a big yawn. Caught at this moment she looks a little more like Munch's Scream. That is also Nugget's foot right in front of her face - looks kind of like his heel is about to go into her mouth!

Peach's foot and toes. Notice how the toes are wrapped around her umbilical cord. This picture is proof that Mark is the dad!!!

33 weeks 5 days & a roach

We are getting close to the 34 week point that I never thought possible - yay! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can still go home at 34 weeks (this Friday) as my Dr's once suggested. Based on my ultrasound Monday, I have remained stable for a few weeks now and the kids are still looking perfect. Once I hit 34 weeks the Dr's say the kids will be at a very safe point for being born (that would be the equivalent of a singleton baby being born 3 weeks early). They feel it is very important for my mental health to get out of the hospital and into my own environment to try to derail the onset of "bed rest psychosis". So, if I go home and end up going into labor the next day, there are no (out of the norm) worries about any one's safety and at least I'll have had a restful night in my own bed with Mark & Cooper. Obviously I'll continue my strict bed rest at home, especially considering I have no energy to do anything at all!

Today my nurse was Casey. She waddled in, almost 36 weeks along and 3 cm dilated. She said this was her 2nd to last shift before she was going to take off to give birth. I felt horrible guilt as she carried in my breakfast tray, changed my sheets, went in and out of my room to help other patients. At lunch time Amanda brought me my tray and informed me that Casey was no longer my nurse - she was now a patient in Labor & Delivery. I knew I shouldn't have let he change my sheets!

Now you're probably wondering where the roach comes into play in this post... don't worry it's not me loosing my mind amid this bed rest psychosis I'm slipping into! It's more an observation as to why health care costs might be so high! On Friday of last week I was in my room visiting with a friend who happened to notice there was a water bug (aka roach) trapped in the air vent above my bed. Alarmed and amused we watched the poor fellow pace back and forth inside this steel cage and realized that's where he was stuck for the rest of his life. My human friend left and I soon decided that this roach, even if he wasn't human, would make a good companion. I sat in bed and watch him pace, rest, circle, and meander for a couple of hours. After lunch I decided that befriending a roach was probably not in my best interest. I asked the nurse to call maitenance and have the poor fellow removed.

A maintenance man arrived and, moments into the rescue, he called for backup. A second maintenance man arrived and they banged away at the vent and couldn't open it enough to get my little friend out. Their failure meant bigger guns had to be called in and my room had to be closed down and I had to move rooms for a 3rd time during this hospital stay. We then waited one hour for housekeeping to finish "cleaning" my new room (aka, finish watching her stories in the room she was "cleaning"). A little bit later an outside pest control man was called in to euthanize my poor friend in the air vent. The rest of the day was spent mourning the loss of my newest friend and looking out my new larger window in my now smaller room.

The next morning I woke up to the sound of construction coming from my old room. Two air conditioning repair men had to climb through the vents and internally disassemble the vent to remove my deceased, former friend. One hour of hard labor which involved hammers, saws, grunting and swearing lead to the grand re-opening of "Willis Knighton South's Ante-partum Corner Suite". It took 5 men and 2.5 hours of labor to rid a room of one measly roach. So when you look at the grand scheme of things, roaches are to blame for the extraordinary costs of our health care system.

31 weeks 4 days

As my dear brother Ross said, "It's a Christi Eclipse"

34th Birthday - A Hospital Extravaganza!

My 34th birthday came and went without any babies making an appearance. Woo-Hoo!!! We hoped we’d make it this far but really weren’t sure we would. So the patient waiting continues to all of our pleasure.

My 34th birthday was also a lovely day! It started just after 6:00 am when the nurse woke me up for my morning medicine. A few moments later the door opened again and I was very surprised to see Mark walking in the door. Just as surprising was the bag of Czech Stop Bakery kolaches, danishes and peanut brittle. Super yum! Since candles aren’t allowed he brought along a bic lighter and held it next to the apricot Danish as he serenaded me with Happy Birthday. I blew out the candle and made a wish. Actually I lie because everything that I would have on my with list is either already true or is about to come true! Instead I had a little moment of birthday thanksgiving and gratitute.

The rest of my day was filled with birthday phone calls & texts. I imagine there are some emails and facebooks messages waiting for me until I can log back into the system. (This is being written on word, then will copied and pasted in case you’re confused about my time frames or questioning my knowledge of verb tenses in the English language). Honey & Giddo (aka Ann & George) spent the day with me. We watched a movie, talked babies, laughed about a million different things, ate some muffaletta, and even managed to sneak in a five second snooze. They were so sweet to bring me a thriving ivy plant and tall and graceful bamboo plant (they’re supposed to bring wealth apparently!).

Mid-day Mark surprised me with a real birthday treat – a pre-natal massage right there in the hospital room (by a masseuse of course, not mark!). It was great and was certainly something I was dying to have but never would have gotten for myself. I got some other little goodies and they all managed to have an underlying theme of pampering myself (I guess it’s for now- while I still can pamper myself, and not be drowning in Pampers).

In the evening we shared a lovely meal from the local Indian restaurant, Indigo,.and moved onto to my mini birthday cake from Honey & Giddo. It was delicious! Some more good news from my birthday-in-the-hospital extravaganza was I managed to eat exactly what I wanted and my silly gestational diabetes all stayed within the acceptable range (woo-hoo! I wasn’t going to get in trouble!).

Thanks to all for helping to give me a great birthday. Now we just have to wait patiently for the next birthdays in my soon-to-be not-too-small family!

Nursery, almost finished

This is the nursery. It's a little hard to see, but her bed has a striped skirt and a funky flower bumper - all in pink, orange, brown & tan. His also has a striped bed skirt, funky circles on the bumper - all in blue, orange, brown & tan. To my right, as I take the picture is a tall bookshelf for lots of family pictures and a super-comfy brown leather rocker-recliner. We still need to do a little work on it - new rug, valance, pictures. But all the essentials are done and the room is stocked and ready to go for the kids!

Pillow update

This is how my pillow is being used while I'm at the hospital...

Hospital Stay, round 1

hospital bed rest round 2

On Monday, Aug 17th, I went in for a regular weekly check up with my perinatologist and I had major de ja vue. He looked at all the kids (vital organs et al) and said they are growing just perfectly. He was about to let me out the door when I reminded him to check my cervix. Well, he did, and, as he did, he and the nurse hmm'd and haa'd and rechecked then hmm'd and haa'd some more. After a few minutes I, not knowing the actual results they were inspecting, said, "Just go on and send me back to the hospital."

As it ended up, on Monday my cervix was measuring 1/2 to 1 cm (remember, it should be closer to 3 cm). More worrisome to the dr was the fact that I was funneling, which can speed up the cervix-shrinking pace. The good news is I'm not at all dialeted. As with before, these are the problems that can be kept under control (usually) with good behavior and medicine. We also now know that my contractions have increased, and my uterus is even more "irritable", both of which lead to a shrinking cervix.

Now I'm back at Willis Knighton Pierremont Hospital for observation and strict bedrest. Looks like I may be here till the kids arrive, which hopefully will be 5 more weeks (I am currently 30 weeks as of tomorrow, and full term for twins is 37 weeks). One thing to note is that I will not be at this same hospital for the delivery, I'll be going to Willis Knighton South. So as long as I'm here that's a good sign the kids are staying put!

In addition to my bed rest, they have kept me on vistiril (anti-histamine and smooth muscle relaxer to calm contractions), upped my terbutaline (the anti-contraction medicine) and now added Pro-Cardia (blood pressure med that also calms contractions, though my blood pressure is on the low end of normal). It's so interesting to me all the different meds and how multi-functional they are! I had a follow-up visit today, we remeasured and there's no more funneling and I'm back up to 2 cm... oh the roller coaster! I did fail my FFN test (see previous hospital post for explanation) so there is still some concern and reason to keep me here for a while.

I am grateful to be here in the hospital - first of all, this is helping to ensure that my kids stay healthy and grow stronger. Also, I'm a much better patient here than at home, even with lots of help. I know Mark misses me at home but he also has a major sense of relief considering I'm under constant care. Did I mention that I'm on the sixth floor in the corner suite? My room is great - I have 2 full walls of windows overlooking all of Shreveport, down Youree drive to downtown and all the trees in the neighborhoods in between, then I've got a view of the tree tops and sky off to the east. Yesterday a huge storm blew through and I had a birds-eye-view of the whole thing. Very pretty! To top it off my room is huge, very comfortable for visitors. All-in-all, this is a good thing I'm here.

We're staying positive about everything (especially because feeling down about it would only make things worse!). And cosidering how far we've made it, we know that this is just a drop in the bucket. Finally, please know I always welcome visitors and emails - because, as you all know, I am a social creature and I've got to stay connected to the world somehow!!!!
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Totally cute doctor I found at the hospital... I'd like to carry his babies some day!!!!
That was fast!

8-10-09 dr update

I just wanted to let you know that I saw the multiples specialist today (my Perinatologist, Dr Briery) and he had a great report!

My cervix is thickening back up at a great rate (2.2 cm)!!! The kids are measuring perfectly for size and continue to have excellent functional levels. My bed rest a the few meds I'm taking are really helping out. I'm still not in the totally safe zone but I'm much closer than I was a week ago.
Thanks for all your support and help! I'll keep you posted as we continue to make progress!

Map Dreams

They say pregnancy brings strange dreams and boy I've had 'em all! I tend to have recurrent locales - there's the same high school, same university, and 2 different cities I visit. But I've always had that but now there's a recurrent theme. MAPS. And, I think the point is very clear.

Sometimes I'm just driving for work and I need to get to a small town here in Louisiana, so I draw out my route on a map. Then sometimes I need to cross the state line and go into Arkansas or Texas. On those trips I have to use a bigger map and there are a few routes that I have to decide which one is the best. Then I have to go all across the Southern or the Northern part of the country. Again I have to pick my route and I'm always torn between the route with the major roads or the route with the more direct, less traveled route. Then there are the trips around the world - city to city, going through Mexico, going through Italy, and the list goes on. In all of these dreams I think I know best way but I constantly look at the map double-checking myself.

In the last week my dreams have changed just a little bit. I'm still looking at the map, but this time I'm confident in where I'm going. I'm able to make up my mind and I don't think twice about where I'm going and how I'm getting there.

First Dream about the Kids

Last night, for the first time, I had a dream about giving birth and my babies. In a nut shell (because what's more annoying than listening to some one else's dreams), I was checked into the hospital and started noticing that I could seemore definition when the kids moved around. If they pressed their hands or feet against my belly it was like they were pressing against a balloon. You could easily see the palm, fingers and toes as they pushed, and my skin would stretch so thin!

Well Nugget, seemed to eventually poke a hole through my belly and crawled out into the big world and Peach followed shortly after. Both babies were so sweet and affectionate and all they wanted to do was snuggle. The kids were also just beautiful. They looked very similar to each other (which I was very suprised about) - they both had darker skin tones and full heads of jet black hair. I was dying to know their eye colors.

As much as I wanted to snuggle up to them, I kept telling them to get back inside but they insisted on staying in the outside world. In the meantime I was franticly trying to locate Mark at work to let him know the kids were here (which was not an easy task). Eventually we gave up and decided to let them stay.

I woke up so excited. Right now my anticipation is such a oxymoron. I can't wait to see them and meet them and hug them and hold them. But at the same time I so desperately want them to stay inside as long as possible and I have to force myself to be paitent. So kids, if you're listening, sit back and relax. Your Dad and I can't wait to hug and kiss you, but it will be so much easier if you don't have to be hooked up to any machines. Take your sweet time in there!

(P.S. There was also an abundance of people coming to visit me in the hospital and bring me cereal. I was so grateful!)

Hospital Visit

Last Thursday we had a slight change of plans that wasn't too unexpected, I was admitted to Willis Knighton Pierremont Hospital and am currently staying for an unknown period of time. And, to put your mind at rest, the babies and I are doing very well - we are just staying here at the hospital for now as a precaution. I'll try to fill you in without getting to bogged down in medical details.

Just over a week ago I went to the specialist who reported that the kids looked perfect (almost 2 lbs each, both are exactly the same size). He was a little concerned about me since my cervix (the barrier holding the kids in - first it thins out, then it dilates to allow the baby a way into the big world). My cervix had thinned out way faster than it should have at this point but he wasn't too concerned, said to just continue the partial bed rest as I had been and then to start seeing my OB Dr every week.

Last Thursday I went for my regular OB Dr appointment and they saw the kids and said everything looks just great. Then they looked at my cervix and it had thinned out even more over that week. She was very concerned about it thinning to the point of being a risk to the kids. She sent me directly to the hospital to check in and start monitoring the kids and my contractions. Fortunately Mom was with me that day to help me get settled in.

Over the next 24 hours the monitors picked up some contractions, but nothing regular enough to be worried about. They put me on some medication to relax my uterus and slow down the contractions, which has been helping and since then they've upped my dose to make a bigger impact. They also rechecked my cervix which managed to thicken over the 24 hours, my Dr was very happy about that. She initially thought I was in the direction of home-bound bed rest - as long as one more test came back with good results.

That one more test (FFN Test) is the kind of test doctors use as a tie-breaker. If you get a negative result then you're most likely continue to carry out your pregnancy as expected. If you get a positive result there's a slim chance you might deliver early. There are lots of reasons for a positive, including false positives, which don't exactly mean you will deliver early. I, unfortunately got a positive result. Typically if your doctor is very concerned they'll put you on a slew of medications to prevent early labor and prep the babies. My doctor (who is very cautious) did not put me on any of those meds. She just wants to make sure I'm doing well enough to go home so she kept me in the hospital for further monitoring.

In the mean time, I was at the point in pregnancy where every woman has to take the Gestational Diabetes test so my Dr had me take on Saturday morning. When she came in Saturday with the results we were both shocked to learn I was way over the normal range. She scheduled me to take the big 3 hour test the next morning. At this test I have to be normal in 3 out of 4 readings to be considered clear. I, of course, was just over the limit on 2 of the readings. She is not concerned at all about my health or the babies health with this new diagnosis. The biggest thing is I just have to track my diet and take my blood sugar 4 times each day through the end of pregnancy. I figure God gave this to me for a distraction while I'm in the hospital. (Mark and I are actually hoping we get the "side effect" of a larger baby at birth so our kids can beef up a little bit!)

I just saw my Dr today and she said we'll redo the FFN test on Friday. If I get a negative result I can go home for bed rest, if I get a positive I'll stay here longer. Everyone seems very upbeat and shows no immediate concern of anything happening too soon with the babies. I'm doing all I can to relax and make the most of the quiet time here, and training myself for when I get home and have to be on real bed rest! I'm getting such good care here at the hospital everyone is a little bit torn on the good news to go home versus getting to stay here. There's one exception, I do know Cooper Dog is ready for me to come home, even if it is just to watch me lay on the couch and not have playtime.

2 out of 4 Nieces

Here's a cute picture of Ella & Carla, my two oldest nieces. Very sweet!

Birthing Class

Six hours of birthing class and I learned a few helpful things, but really I walked away with some concern for the leaders of Louisiana. Our teacher was a nurse who loves teaching, is very enthusiastic, and leads about 3 different classes every week. So, she obviously has her verbiage down, right?

Mark & I knew we had a great teacher when she was giving us details on the cerbix (aka cervix), explaining the ministral cycle (aka menstrual), and notified us that we will excretiate the mucus plug (aka excrete). I was also a little concerned when words were written in big letters across the screen and she still had trouble with them, such as L-A-N-U-G-O, which was "lango" in the lecture.

If I wanted to be mean I'd linger on some interesting turns of phrase such as those that came up when discussing medication during the birthing process - such as the two basic options of having a epidural or non-medication free, also known as medicated or non-medicated; or just having medication that allows you to feel the contractions, just not that vagina part. She also went into great detail about making a nice environment in the delivery room through aroma but explained why candles, lotions and sprays are a bad idea - instead you need one of those vile aroma smells. It seems to me that might be a bad idea, but she's the pro. But, I'm not mean so I won't linger on those topics.

In it's own brief realm is the concept of math, of which I just assumed nurses had a basic understanding. When trying to explain the size of an epidural bag she wasn't sure how big it was, but she did feel very confident it was "half the size of a two-liter bottle of coke, what ever size that is." I guess you can take the girl out of Louisiana education, but you can't take the Louisiana education out of the girl.

Finally, the creme de la creme, what we all think of when we think of birthing class - relaxation & breathing. She had some great tips on exactly how to get yourself in the right mindset. For relaxation she showed us a beach scene from clip art circa 1992 and explained, "This is my peaceful place. I love the beach. Notice there are no people, I don't like people on my beach - they talk too loud, listen to loud music, the kids scream - I want it to be quiet. I also don't want any big waves on my beach, so these waves are small. I hate big waves anyway since they knock you down and that can hurt, and they're too loud. I also don't have to wear sunblock on this beach. I hate sunblock- it's sticky and feels bad on my skin and I hate how it smells. And the sand on my beach is soft. I hate walking on rocky sand, that really hurts my feet." Well you get the idea - relaxation through thinking of all the things that could ruin your relaxation.

The other thing that goes hand-in-hand with relaxing is breathing, she had some great suggestions there too. We concentrated on two kinds of breaths - the cleansing breath and the slow, deep breath. To understand a cleansing breath she painted a great picture (again reflecting the guidelines of visualisation), "For a deep cleansing breath imagine you just screwed up real bad at work and even you can't deny it. And your boss is really ticked off and he's comin for you. He's about to give you a real big chewin'. You're real scared about what he's gonna say and you don't wanna face him but you gotta. So as your walking up to his office, and all you really wanna do is run and hide, and your put your hand on the door, well that's where you're gonna wanna take a cleansing breath."

"For the slow, deep breath that's what you're doin' while you're getting chewed. And you gotta keep that slow, deep breath goin 'cause as you get yelled at all you wanna do is tell him off. You've got all those years of frustration that you're tryin' not to let out but you know he deserves a good tellin' off. But instead you just keep it all inside." Inspiring. Truly inspiring.

Thanks to this class, we've been armed with invaluable information, knowledge and now skill. Our instructor painted such a vivid picture that Mark can help guide me in breathing and I understand exactly where he's trying to take me. Regardless, with all of this, for some reason Mark and I are still strongly considering driving across the state line to deliver these babies.

dreams

They say pregnancy brings strange dreams and boy I've had 'em all! I tend to have recurrent locales - there's the same high school, same university, and 2 different cities I visit. But I've always had that but now there's a recurrent theme. MAPS. And, I think the point is very clear.

Sometimes I'm just driving for work and I need to get to a small town here in Louisiana, so I draw out my route on a map. Then sometimes I need to cross the state line and go into Arkansas or Texas. On those trips I have to use a bigger map and there are a few routes that I have to decide which one is the best. Then I have to go all across the Southern or the Northern part of the country. Again I have to pick my route and I'm always torn between the route with the major roads or the route with the more direct, less traveled route. Then there are the trips around the world - city to city, going through Mexico, going through Italy, and the list goes on. In all of these dreams I think I know best way but I constantly look at the map double-checking myself.

In the last week my dreams have changed just a little bit. I'm still looking at the map, but this time I'm confident in where I'm going. I'm able to make up my mind and I don't think twice about where I'm going and how I'm getting there.

July 4th, 2009 - Family Picture

Here's a preview of the maternity/family portrait pictures we took last weekend. I am officially 23 weeks (aka beginning my 5th month) in this picture.

Sleeping

So, as a pregnant lady, sleeping is a very big deal. My sleeping has been a source of fascination. My insomnia, my bat ears, my pea-sized bladder, my pillows - they are true entertainment in my household.


Starting from the very beginning, after we conceived but before we knew, I had big red waving flags. For the first time in my life I started waking up to pee every night, and not just once. Since that first night, when our little embryo's were still just a guess to us, I've been waking up every single night. I like to play a little game with myself and see just how long I can make it before my first pee. If it's an hour after lights out, I've lost. If I last 3 or 4 hours, I win! I guess my my gold medal prize will ultimately be the same thing as my consolation prize... waking up in a few months to feed two little babies!


Early in the pregnancy I was going across the hallway so I wouldn't wake up Mark during my frequent pee-runs. But, considering I would freak myself out every night looking down the hallway (too many ghost shows!), I decided that Mark would just have to deal with the noise of a sliding bathroom door attached to the bedroom. Now I roll (literally) off the side of the bed, take 4 steps (hoping none of them are on Cooper's head) to the bathroom. Fortunately there are no images that conjure thoughts of ghostly TV shows past. Less importantly, Mark is a great sleeper and doesn't budge. Neither does Cooper (except the one time I closed his head in the sliding door).


Speaking of Cooper, he has proven to me that I will not get a lot of use out of a baby monitor. When ever he gets up I hear the pitter-patter of his paws and I'm wide awake. I hear him whimper at the dog door when I accidentally leave laundry near his landing path. I hear him paw at his food bowl if he gets the late-night munchies. I hear all his nocturnal adventures and I can't go back to sleep until he's soundly back in his bed. I guarantee you that the more I try to ignore it and sleep through it, the more demanding he gets until I have to get out of bed to tend to what ever the issue is for the night. Isn't that sweet of little Cooper to prep me for motherhood! In fact there's a mosquito I need to thank also. One little persistent mosquito managed to keep me awake all night - not Cooper or my bladder, but the muted buzz of a mosquito.


Lastly who would have thought that something as simple as pillows would play such a big part of pregnancy life. At first there were just 2 pillows I needed. Then a friend gave the mother of all pregnancy pillows - it's U-shaped and takes up half the bed. I decided it would be good to have in a spare bed to use during the day. I just couldn't bring myself to sleep with it in bed, it was not conducive to spooning. Well then I started using 3 pillows (added on between my legs), then 4 (behind my back), then 6 (more for my head), and then someone suggested I put 2 under my feet and one in between my feet. That was a total of NINE pillows. Well, I challenge any of you to strap a bowling ball to your stomach and situate 9 pillows round your body in the middle of the night. I gave the monster pregnancy pillow a try and now I'm back down to three pillows (kind of). So Mark, laughing at my pillow collection by, on and around the bed, decided to play a joke on me last night. After washing my face I came to be to find EVERY pillow in the house piled on my side of the bed under the covers. Yes, even the throw pillows from the couch. I laughed so hard I almost had a major accident (see paragraph two). So even in the most mundane of tasks, as annoying and frustrating it can be, my Mark can still bring sheer joy to the moment. These kids are so lucky!!!

pictures

This is from two weeks ago. We went to the Country Club pool here in Shreveport with our friends and had a great time. I ran into a few of my other friends who are also pregnant... The non-pregnant ladies were all a little concerned about getting in the water since it is so contagious!

Here are some pictures of the kids from May 29, you can see they're going to be so adorable!

This is our boy Nuggett. He looks so relaxed and happy, just like his dad. I think he's going to be so handsome, also just like his dad.

This one is our girl Peach. You can see she's about to suck her thumb. Mark says that she's playing an imaginary trumpet. Looks like she might have my pointy chin!

Firsts

Well, this is my first blog. If some one told me an hour ago I'd have a blog... but apparently it's really easy (as you can tell by my presence).

Firsts things first. Mark & I are living in Shreveport for ENT residency. We are expecting twins later this autumn - a boy and a girl (aka Nuggett & Peach). I'm now on modified bedrest which means I have a lot of computer time, so I guess this blog was a no-brainer. I'll be using this to post to friends and family how everything is going. I tend to see the doctor every 1-2 weeks so I'll keep you posted on those reports. I'll also keep you posted to how Mark and I are adjusting from living large to living with a family of 4!