War Story

7 hours before the Twinkies arrive.

Dilated to a 7 we're having TWINS!!

Wow. I DID IT!

I had 4 kids in 4 years...I'm a little crazy I guess

So here's the war story! It all started the beginning of August. I was 34 weeks pregnant, and well some early signs of labor appeared. So I called the Dr. and went in to have my cervix measured. As it turned out I was 75% effaced, so it was off to the hospital for me. They put me on medication to stop my labor (Magnesium Sulfate) and they gave me steroid injections for the babies. I was in the hospital from Wednesday until Saturday. When I went home I was put on strict bed rest. I could get up to use the bathroom and to eat. (My wonderful mother came all the way from Africa to take care of my boys and me. She's the best mommy ever!!!!!)

I was scheduled to see the Dr. again on Tuesday August 7th at 11:00am. Around 10:00 am I noticed that my back was hurting about every ten minutes, and it was getting harder and harder to ignore the ache.  When we arrived at my appointment they did the ultrasound first, the babies looked great. They were a good size, and their hearts were strong. But when it came time to measure my cervix again, well, there wasn't any cervix to measure. So when I saw the Dr. she checked me as well to see how dilated I was. I was at a 3. She told me I was ok to have the babies, but that they might need to spend some time in the NICU.  So I went home and tried to sleep hoping that my labor would stop. It didn't. Around 2:00 I told Cody that my contractions were about 4 minutes apart, but I didn't want to go to the hospital yet because I didn’t want to get hooked up to the monitors, and I was SURE that my labor would stall and that we would be there FOREVER (like with Toby). He came home any way at 3:00. Another fun labor symptom (too gross to share here) appeared around 3:50ish and Cody didn't give me a choice any more, we were on our way to the hospital. We were all checked in at 4:05, they checked me and I was dilated to a 7 and my contractions were 2 minutes apart. 15 minutes later my IV was hooked up and my water broke. By then I was about an 8.5 and they rushed my to the OR (Since there is a really high risk of needing a C-section with twins that is where they are delivered). Every thing was happening so fast I didn't have anytime to wrap my head around the fact that they were really coming, but when they rolled me in to the Operating Room it all became real and that's when the emotions started.  I worried that my babies would be too small, that their lung wouldn't work, that they wouldn't handle labor well and I would need a C-Section. I wasn't in a lot of pain, it was actually not very uncomfortable at all. I can't really explain it, it hurt, but it wasn't horrible, or even unbearable. But I started to cry a little bit any way. Go figure. My wonderful nurse and sweet husband were there and they both held my hands, and once I was at the 10 and the DR told me to start pushing I was ready to go.

(Just a side note for the curious, in the O.R. there were 3 nurses there for me, 2 for each baby, a PA for each baby, 3 DR's for me [One to catch the baby, one to run the ultrasound machine and an Anesthesiologist just in case of an emergency], plus my Husband and me. It was a REALLY crowded O.R.). Pushing seemed to take forever, and was rather frustrating. But at 5:44 pm Parker Hue Plaisted came screaming into the world. Then came the tricky part. I was EXHAUSTED, I didn't have an epidural, and wow, there was A LOT of blood. So the Dr. told me to start pushing again whenever I felt a contraction. I lied to her and told her I couldn't feel them. I was too tired to start pushing again, and seriously just wanted to sleep. Well that's when they started the pitocin, I decided that I would stop lying and start pushing; Penelopie Lyn Plaisted was born at 5:59 pm. If there had been only one to push out labor and delivery would have been a breeze and every woman in the whole world would have babies everyday. It seriously hardly hurt at all. But since I had to go through pushing twice in less than 20 minutes, I'm not going to say that it was a breeze. It sucked, but I would do it again tomorrow (not really, but I love my babies and they were worth every drop of blood, every tear, and every stretch mark I have.) That being said, once the babies are out most people think that it's over and the healing can begin. Not in my case. 

(CAUTION: This next part is really gross, and explicit, and, well, not for the weak of stomach....)With all of my kids the "after birth" has been rather difficult to get out. Carter's placenta was HUGE, and Toby's got stuck. Well with these ones, they just didn't want to come out. I had to start pushing again, they up-ed my "pit drip" and well nothing helped. Finally Dr. Perrin reached in up to her forearm and started scraping the after birth outta me. I TELL YA! OUCH! My attention was taken from the wonderful little miracles that were over to the side of me screaming, to the fact that there was some one's arm ALL the way up there, and well that is the MOST pain I have ever experienced in my life.  Worse than the pain of labor I had on pitocin with Toby, and more painful squeezing 2 humans out of my nether region. I lost quite a bit of blood through this whole experience. (I'm glad I am remembering this right now because I was thinking that maybe we weren't done with kids quite yet, but now I'm pretty sure we're done). 

After that they wheeled us all back to the room where I got my IV put in, and they checked out the babies some more. They were both wonderful. Parker was 4lbs. 8oz. and Penelopie was 5 lbs. 4 oz. and both were 19 inches long. Their vitals were great, and, well, they weren't going to NICU. Nursing was hard because they were premature. They were more interested in sleep than food. So we nursed, supplemented with formula, and as long as they could take a bottle they could go home in 48 hours. All went great. I pumped so that my milk would come in and they practiced nursing some, but mostly they took bottles. 48 hours later we were on our way home. The next week they really got the hang of nursing so I stopped supplementing and we just nursed; but they weren't gaining enough weight so I we are back to pumping and I have to put a special high calorie formula into the expressed milk, and now they are on the up and up.  Today Parker is 4 lbs. 11 oz. and Penelopie is 5 lbs. 7 oz.  Still TINY but growing. I have to say that I have NEVER held a baby as small as Parker. He's rather fun to hold.

I LOVE having newborns in the house. I love that there are two of them, and I LOVE love LOVE not being pregnant any more!!!!! The big brothers love being big brothers. They are always hugging or kissing the Twinkies. They both have a favorite too. Carter's is Pennie, because he's never had a sister before, and Toby's is Parker because they are both boys. They both think that the babies are so cute and tiny.

Cody goes back to work tomorrow, and on Saturday Kathleen (my MIL) is going to go back to Utah. So I'll be all on my own after that. We'll see how I feel about 4 kids in 4 years then. But for right now I love my young family. 

-Sorry the pictures are so crazy, I finally figure this stupid blogger out then they change it on me. I'm technologically challenged.- 

 

Wearing matching outfits

Handsome Devil.

My pretty girl.

Preferred sleeping arrangement

What am I going to do with a GIRL?!

Son #3 is so TINY!

Pink and Blue

Finally!

A small miracle happened last night. I was poking around on my belly trying to find one or both of my babies, and I found a spot that was harder than the rest, then lower in my tummy I felt the little fluttering of another little life. I have been feeling movement for over a week now so that wasn't the miracle, it was that I finally felt BOTH at the same time. I am, for the first time since we found out that we are having twins, more excited than nervous.

So for the first time I could distinguish each little life I have in there, and it was the greatest feeling ever. I had been feeling so guilty that I was so overwhelmed with the idea of having twins that I didn't feel excited about them at all. I'm glad that I am finally excited about these two little kidlets.

I love when my boys ask to touch my tummy. And I LOVE t when carter asks which baby is where, "Is this one the girl baby mom?" to a random spot on my belly. Or when Toby asks "Can I tickle da babies?" and after he tickles my tummy he'll ask "Dey laughin mamma?"

So there we go, 4 kids in 4 years is going to be hard, but I don't even care any more. I get two more little blessings, and I get to share them with the best husband, and the two cutest big brothers. These babies are going to be so loved!!!

Dr.'s appointment?

So today at my Dr.'s appointment I was ECSTATIC to find out that we are expecting a BOY and a GIRL! So excited in fact that I ignored the crappy medical care that I received. So I am posting this blog to ask the other mother's out there if the care that was given to me is common among OD/GYN's or if I should find a new one. I only have experience with the Dr.'s in Laramie, who were amazing that now I don't know if it's standard procedure. So I will describe my visit to you.... here it goes:

To start off I am just over 14 weeks. I started my appointment with an ultrasound to check both babies heart beats (which I know is uncommon for singleton pregnancies). Then because my Dr was out of town I saw her PA. Who asked if I had any questions which for the first time I actually had a list in hand. She seemed frustrated and annoyed with that fact. So I only asked about 3 questions I had on my list which she didn't exactly answer and made me feel stupid for asking such questions. One question I asked was for a referral to a pediatrician who had a lot of experience with premature babies should the need arise (which in ALL honesty it might.... so NOT a dumb question), she TOTALLY sidestepped the question making me feel so dumb for asking it so early in the pregnancy. But I want to be prepared. Apparently my preparation for what's to come NOT her problem.....thanks a lot. Then seeing that I wasn't getting my questions answered I gave up, put my list away, and then said "And I think I have a sinus infection and an ear infection, would you take a look for me?" To my utter surprise she told me "No, that is not something we do at this office, you will have to see your family DR." I replied "I don't have a family DR. can you suggest someone?" She then SO helpfully said "Just go to the urgent care." I honestly felt like she didn't even care about my health at all. Plus I have had this stupid sinus infection for about 2 weeks and I kept thinking to my self that I didn't want to waste MORE money on Dr.'s bills when I ALREADY had an appointment with someone set up. So I've been suffering and MISERABLE for 2 weeks, just to be told that I needed to find another DR to go to. A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

Any way besides the fact that she was TOTALLY rude to me is it standard for a pregnant woman to be seen by a general practice DR for her health and not to be taken care of by her OB/GYN? Or should I find a new OB/GYN?

Uh-OH!

So I've been seeing double for the past few months (hmm...I wonder why...) so today I decided to give myself a rough estimate of how much we were going to need to spend on these two yoo-hoo's. So I looked up strollers (and I'm picky I know, I HATED my last double stroller the baby trend sit and stand, DON'T BUY IT!) the one that I have been researching is over $600 (ouch) BUT I have heard SO many good things about it, and the reviews are AMAZING. Dang why did I have to look? THEN I looked at some car seats. We sold our car seat at our moving sale, so we need 2. That's going to be at least another $200 bucks. Not to mention DIAPERS DIAPERS and MORE DIAPERS!!!!!!!!! AND if we have a girl, clothes, and if we have TWO girls, DOUBLE the clothes.

Not to mention we JUST bought a house (which is the main point of this blog, I gotta show off my cute new house).

The Front (doesn't our car look GOOD in the driveway?!)

The Great Room
The Great room from the second floor

Alright so I honestly have a bunch more pictures but I hate uploading pictures onto blogger. It's lame. (Check out Facebook, they are going up on there too).

Even though I've been seeing double the dollar signs lately, I am super excited to bring my new babied home to a place bigger than a shoe box. We close at the end of this month and I will try to post more pictures once I get it decorated and furnished. YAY!!!!

Carter + Toby +2 more=4

Well here we go. Third time is a charm apparently. Two babies one pregnancy. :) So a little update. It'll be easy since I haven't been doing ANYTHING! ha ha!

We found out I was expecting on New Year's day. Well that's when I peed on the stick, I had a suspicion I was pregnant with how hungry I had been and the fact that I was so congested. That's ALWAYS been my first clue. So skip forward to about week 8 and I passed a HUGE clot, and had some other issues, so I called the Dr and they supposed that I was miscarrying. I went in a week later for and ultrasound. They ultrasound tech started laughing and said: "Well you're still pregnant. There are two of them". I was crying, one becasue I was SO happy that my weeks of feeling crappy, and tired weren't wasted; and two, WHAT THE H*** AM I GOING TO DO WITH 4 KIDS?!?!?!?!?!?!

So I need to back up a bit. I had been feeling worse than I ever did with either of my other pregnancies. So I was thinking "Yay, a girl!" Cody was thinking "Twins". So after my appointment I called Cody and he answered the phone not "Hello" like a normal person but "There's two isn't there?" So, that was about 2 weeks ago. Today I had my first official appointment and I saw the Dr. I LOVE her. She is super nice, and very informative. My apt with her was super quick. I liked the fact that she didn't go over all of the typical pregnancy stuff, because this is my 3rd rodeo, and I don't really want to hear it again. But she made sure to ask several times if I had any questions, and she went over what to expect with 2 babies. So around 26 weeks, my uterus will be the size of a full term uterus. She said it was likely that I would go into labor then, and I would have to go on bed rest. Not for SURE for SURE but it was really likely. So I need to plan for that. Also, now here is the FUN part. They can't distinguish between the 2 heart tones with the regular Doppler, so I get an ultrasound EVERY TIME! WA-HOO!

So I am about 10 weeks now. I'm "showing" already, meaning I can't suck it in any more which is understandable since my insides are about double what they would be with one. I'm feeling really selfish about having 2 for a couple of reasons. One is the fact that I just worked SO hard and lost 25lb.s and I will need to gain like 50. SUCK! Also Sleep is next to impossible with one after about 30 weeks, I'm going to stop sleeping in about ten weeks, and I haven't been sleeping very well as it is. (I have a lot going through my mind when I'm idle). So more reasons to be nervous: Twice the poopy diapers, 2 car seats, double stroller, 2 high chairs, twice the crying, breastfeeding 2, and I'm sure I'll figure out more when they get here.

Alright my due date is approx. the first week of September. But the Dr said that if I don't go into labor on my own by 37 weeks she'll induce me. So REALLY they'll come mid-August.

My boys have been neglected and abused for the last 6 weeks or so, and Cody has been playing bread winner and been doing all of the house work and meal making. Really honestly I'm not just bragging he has done it all so willingly and happily. He has done it ALL. I have hardly lifted a finger this whole pregnancy. He's been amazing. I hope I can make it up to him some day.

Well that's about all. Sorry it's long and kind of boring. I always try tobe witty, but then I realize I'm not a wit so it ends up being lame. Sorry! :)