Merry Christmas!

Well we had a wonderful, relaxing Christmas Day. Nana was here, and her cousin Gail and Gail's son Mike came over for dinner. Tom and Nana made a huge dinner, turkey, roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, two kinds of cranberry sauce, and my favorite: butternut squash bisque. It was heavenly! Gail brought over a beautiful salad, and everyone stuffed themselves so much that we couldn't even get into the apple crisp that Nana made.

Last night Nicky and Nana put out cookies and milk for Santa Claus. Well Santa loved them! He even left Nicky a note under the plate.



Nicky had asked Santa for a kitty that wouldn't make him sneeze, and Santa delivered! Waiting on the sofa this morning was an animatronic kitty that meows and purrs. He also brought a wooden train set, and a stocking full of candy and toys! Nicky must have been a very good boy.





Nicky later opened his other presents. Nana got him a tent set that we put up in his room today. It's actually two tents connected by a tunnel. He tried to sleep in there tonight, but eventually decided to move back into his bed. He also got a remote control car that he loves! His big present from Nana was actually opened on Wednesday night. It's a big motorized jeep/tractor to drive around the backyard. They put it together Wednesday night and Nicky rode it around the backyard Thursday. It poured rain Christmas day, so that worked out to open it early. I can't remember everything else Nicky received. He was definitely spoiled though!





Tonight when I was rocking with him before bed I asked him what his favorite present was and he said his "kitty cat." Santa really scored on that one!

On the weekend before Christmas

Last weekend we went to visit my Mom, Nicky's Grammie, and my sister Liz and her partner Jodi for a long weekend. We stayed at Grammie's and had a great visit. Grammie made a big Christmas dinner on Sunday and we all opened presents. Nicky had so much fun with the Handy Manny nail-gun that comes with an airplane to build. He also got a Handy Manny helicopter building kit, and from Aunt Liz and Aunt Jodi he got a HUGE Black & Decker tool set with safety goggles, a tool belt, vest and hat, and a bunch of tools. None of which require batteries. Score!

It was a nice relaxing visit. And our last big trip until after the babies come. Today I'm 15 weeks and not going anywhere! The babies are growing like crazy in there. I have a week off work now, and I'm so looking forward to taking at least one daily nap for a while. Maybe 2 or 3 even! Today I took a 2.5 hour nap and it was blissful.

We had an OB appointment Wednesday and at first we didn't think we were getting an ultrasound. But after a while we moved to another room with the ultrasound machine and got one. It wasn't as detailed as the ones we get at the hospital (where they did the nuchal translucency and will do the Level 2 ultrasound later) but it was reassuring to see that both babies were doing well. We saw them moving around in there. Either wrestling or doing the mambo, and saw both heartbeats. They're so big that you can't even look at one without seeing parts of the other. He did print a few photos, but really they don't look like anything much, even to us (and we're getting pretty good at reading these things).

I finally did another belly pic. My first was back in November at 8 weeks. This one is at 15 weeks (ok, so it was yesterday, but close enough). The blue and green shirts are exactly the same style and size. Can you see a difference? My pants sure can! I'm down to just a few pairs I can fit into now. I'm definitely going to need to do some maternity shopping soon. Oh, and I cut my hair too.

8 Weeks:


15 Weeks:

Welcome to the Second Trimester

Today we're officially 14 weeks along and in the 2nd trimester. I'm kind of afraid I'm just not going to get that "burst of energy" that is normally supposed to happen in the 2nd trimester with twins in there though. Bummer. Lately I've been having headaches nearly every day, sometimes all day. I've been checking my blood pressure though and it's been really wonderful, was 104/72 yesterday afternoon after an all day headache. I'll see the OB next Wednesday and ask about it though. Sometimes tylenol takes care of it, but sometimes it doesn't. I don't think they're as bad as migraines though, so that's good!

We had our second Nuchal Translucency ultrasound Wednesday. This tech was so much better than last time. She was able to get all the measurements really quickly and without all the crazy pushing. I swear I felt bruised after the last one! We'll have the official results in two weeks, but the tech said everything looked perfect. She said all the measurements were well within the normal range. This screening has only a 5% false positive rate, and the tech strongly suggested we not even get the quad screen at all. I'm going to ask my OB what he thinks about that. it's just a blood test and I have to have blood drawn for the Glucose Tolerance Test anyway, so I don't mind it. But there is a 20% false positive rate on the quad screen, so it could cause unnecessary worry. We'll see.

I will try to get movie snippets up on here soon. We're just about to head out of town again tomorrow though, so time is short. Although this time I might have internet access, so maybe I can still get it done. We're staying at my Mom's for 4 days for an early Christmas.

We just made a four day trip to GA to see my Dad and family last weekend. My Dad is looking good, although very pale and tired still. Tom took him to his doctor appointment Monday and they found he's very anemic. They considered giving him blood but decided to try iron supplements first. I hope those will give him some energy and bring his color back. He should be feeling a lot better if he can kick the anemia.

Nicky and I stayed with my aunt and uncle just down the road from my Dad's house. They have a little wire terrier type dog named Izzy that Nicky LOVED! He had so much fun with Izzy. I'll bet Izzy misses all the action she had during our visit. Nicky played with her constantly. We were hoping Izzy would wear Nicky out, but I think it went the other way round.

Nicky also got to spend one day with his cousin Tyler. Tyler is about 8 and they had so much fun. They played really well together, and Nicky just loves Tyler. We'll have to get those two together more often to play. Cousins are fun!

I told Nicky some stories of playing in the woods up there when I was a kid. My Dad's house used to be my Grandparents' house, and when I was little my aunt and uncle and cousin lived in the same house we stayed in last weekend. Nicky was a little nervous walking in the woods though. But we did walk all the way from my aunt's house to my Dad's house on the last day there. It really wasn't that far, but it was on a dirt road in the middle of the woods. He was pretty scared at first, but once he was almost to Grandpa's house he got excited. He helped pull me up the hill too. I'm not used to that much walking, and with HILLS! (Hey, I live in flat Florida people. Hills are just not done here.)

A few photos to come, and the ultrasound too! Promise!

Getting to the heart of it

I've been meaning to write about this for a while, but wanted to have some time and distance from it first. Since Dad's ok and well on the mend now, I feel like I can write about it in more detail than when I mentioned it before.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, my Dad and his wife Gwen were on the way to pick up Tom's deer from the processor. My Dad loaded up the venison into his trunk and noticed he was having heart palpitations. He'd had them before, but had put off doing anything about them. He wasn't feeling quite right though, and since the hospital was nearby he decided to go in and get it checked out.

He called his sister, my Aunt Janice, and let her know what he was doing. She suggested he call 911, so he did and then he stayed on the phone with them as he drove to the hospital, keeping them abreast of where he was at each intersection. I'm also guessing he had asked my Aunt to come to the hospital with my Uncle Frank so that Frank could take his car and get the venison to his house in the freezer (because ew, after a few hours in the ER that was sure to be a gross mess).

Dad and Gwen arrived at the hospital, where he apparently parked in the first space he saw. They went in and he got into the first wheelchair he saw and told Gwen to start pushing. As they passed people he said he was having chest pain and asked where the ER was.

They finally got to the ER, and were seen. He said he was sitting back in the bed talking to a young doctor and there were all these nurses around him. He had the EKG monitor hooked up to him, and was answering the doctor's questions. Then he heard a long beeeeeeepppp come from the monitor. The doctor looked at it and said "that's not good" and then reared back and hit my dad hard in the center of his chest! My Dad said, "what the hell are you doing?" and then promptly faded to black.

He came to with someone asking him if he was "with us" and found that there had been someone sitting on him doing chest compressions and CPR as well as having the electric paddle thingys used on him. His chest was pretty sore after that of course.

Basically he'd been having atrial fibrillations which aren't too harmful, but then, while he was fortunately sitting in the ER with a doctor right there and hooked up to an EKG he'd gone into ventricular fibrillations or V.Fib. That's the thing that causes sudden cardiac death. It's different from a heart attack though, so apparently he hasn't had an actual heart attack. The good thing about that is he didn't have the heart damage associated with a heart attack.

This is when they took him to have a cardiac catheter done too. They thought if he'd had a blockage he could just have a stent put in and go home. Instead they found that his aortic valve was so calcified it had to be replaced. He had two arteries that were partially blocked, enough that it was worth going ahead with a double bypass since they had to do the valve anyway.

So they scheduled him for a double bypass and valve replacement. First it was supposed to happen on Thanksgiving. Then it was pushed to Friday. Then to Saturday. Then finally he had it done on Sunday. I don't know why it couldn't happen Thursday, but on Friday his surgeon was horribly sick (first thought it was food poisoning, but then turned out to be stomach flu) and couldn't operate. They were going to have another surgeon come up from Atlanta to do the surgery Saturday, but then for some reason he couldn't come, so the original surgeon came in and did it Sunday after he'd recuperated from the stomach flu.

My Dad was able to come home from the hospital on the following Friday. He's sore and still trying to get rid of the extra fluid they pumped into him over his time in the hospital, but he's getting better every day.

Right now my step-sister Angela (yeah, that's not confusing at all right?) is watching over Dad and Gwen (Angela's mother) since my Dad got home from the hospital. Tom and I were planning to go up and take over for a few days to give her a break, but now we're not sure if it will be both of us or just one of us. Dad can't be around kids right now (or anyone who is the least bit sick) so one of us might stay behind to watch Nicky and the dogs. Right now I'm trying to convince my sister Liz to come with me. She was just up there at Thanksgiving, but maybe I can convince her to come up with me too. Cross your fingers for me!

The first movies of the twins!

We had the nuchal translucency ultrasound on Monday. Both babies looked great and were measuring great. I was 12 weeks 3 days pregnant, and the babies were measuring at 12.0 weeks for Baby 1 and 11.7 weeks for Baby 2. Baby 1 was easily measured, but Baby 2 was upside down and curved (in a fetal position funnily enough) and they couldn't get the nuchal measurement on Baby 2. So while everything looked good, we have to go back again next week on Wednesday to try again.

But we did get pictures! I put them up on the photobucket account. Here's one for you:




I know it's hard to see what the heck this is a picture of, so I've made a helpful illustration for you:



Yes, I know, my artistry is amazing.

Sometimes it's more fun to see movies right? So I have two snippets from the long DVD we have of the visit. They're short, but they're the best parts promise!

Here are both babies in the same scene moving around. You can see the tech number the babies too. And then last you see Baby 2 upside down.



Here's Baby 1 posing nicely for the tech and getting measured crown to rump.



They're looking like babies now! We'll see them again on Wednesday and get another movie of them.

Someone gently tapping...

Tom and I finished our final project last night and sat down to watch a movie and relax. We were watching Angels & Demons, which was pretty good by the way, and were just at a part where it was quiet and we were focused on the dialogue...

When I felt this taptaptaptap! At first I was ignoring it, but then I realized that the tapping was definitely the babies! I was 12 weeks 1 day yesterday, which makes it really early, well a lot earlier than it was with Nicky. But I guess with twins that's probably normal.

Just makes us even more excited about going to the ultrasound tomorrow. We're supposed to take a "DVD Plus" with us, and then they'll record it for us. We can't wait! I'll have to figure out a way to get some stills from it and get it up on the web for you all to see.

Still planning to go up to my Dad's this weekend as long as we're all well. We'll have to stay away if any of us are sick though. Fingers crossed!

Both babies look great!

Just back from our OB appointment. The doctor was running about an hour behind, so we scooted down to the pediatrician's office and got Nicky's swine flu booster. In 10 days he should be fully immunized. I thought he needed the regular flu shot booster too, but no, he's already had two this year. What a relief to have all three of us vaccinated.

Then back upstairs for the OB appointment. My iron was right at 35 which is okay, but 34 isn't, so to be proactive I've got a script for iron pills. Then we went in for the ultrasound and visit. Both babies look good! They're both there, both have strong heartbeats, and both are measuring within days of each other (about 11 weeks 2 days and 11 weeks 6 days) and right on track. Tomorrow we'll be 12 weeks. One of the babies might have more amniotic fluid than the other, but the doctor thought that might just be the angle he had. We'll see more Monday, and I'm feeling good about it. One of the babies was dancing around in there, moving arms and legs around and the other was sleeping. But both looked very good!

In other news, I still need to give a play by play of my Dad's heart experience. But for now, just know he's recovering from his surgery, doing well and hopefully will be coming home this weekend. What a relief!

Normally this is where you'd see a nice scanned image of the ultrasound, but we were all so excited to see that everything looks good that we forgot to ask for pictures and the doctor forgot to take any. But we have the nuchal translucency ultrasound Monday, so I'm not too upset. Hope you're not either!