happily unexciting

I'm happy to report that things are still uneventful up here!  Our monitoring sessions have become a bit more challenging this week, because Baby B is very feisty!  Baby A is almost always in about the same place, and she will sometimes move around and get off the monitor, but most of the time she comes back without anyone even needing to adjust it.  Baby B, however....is a different story!  She will flip, move, kick, and even nudge the monitor off of herself!  I love that I feel like I'm getting to know these girls during all of our monitoring times together.  :)

Other than some extra long monitorings, things have been pretty routine this week, which is exactly what we want.  I'm excited to get to see the babies tomorrow morning!  Here are a few picture updates from the week.

Playing games with Will....love him!

Will had his FIRST trip to the dentist on Monday!  I was really worried that he would completely freak out, since that's sort of his standard move at the pediatrician's office.  He surprised us all and was a model patient!  He even let the dentist use the tooth scraper and the electric toothbrush!

And finally...how cool is this?  My mom found a TWIN flower growing in her yard in the middle of winter!  {although it doesn't feel like winter out there..}  There were no other flowers growing, and this sweet little one sprouted up.  Gotta be a sign, right?!

twenty seven!

Our sweet baby girls are 27 weeks today!  Hooray!  Twenty-eight is a big milestone for their development, so I'm excited to be just one week away from that.  I took a couple of pictures to document the belly:

 {No, I did not actually unhinge the bathroom door and put it on the other side.  I had to flip the picture after I downloaded it when I realized that my "27" was showing up backwards in the mirror, oops!}

So in baby news, all of the monitoring sessions have gone well today.  I really think they totally listen for the sounds of the monitor and start dancing immediately when it turns on!  We even spent some time today guessing whether we were feeling elbows or feet as they moved all over the place while my nurse and I were holding the monitors on my belly.  I also got a round of steroid shots today, which should help my batting average tremendously.  Oh wait....no, these were for the babies' lungs.  

In other news...I failed my second glucose test, boo!  So I apparently have gestational diabetes, which my doctor said is more common with twins because more of the hormone that interferes with insulin production is released.  It's been less awful than I originally thought...the new diet isn't necessarily fun, but it's not so bad.  Definitely the least enjoyable part has been the finger stick blood tests four times a day.  UGH!  But it's really pretty nice that I'm here rather than at home, because I don't know if I would have the guts to gather my own blood four times a day.  So it's really nice to have a nurse take care of that while I look in the other direction.  

But I always get to look forward to THIS time of the day:

 And I just got these fun pictures of my boys, having a dinner date with some wonderful {and generous} friends.  What fun!!  It is such a weight off of my shoulders to know that our family and friends are taking such great care of them.  

making pizzas

milk date!

and finishing the night with some yummy ice cream.

What a fun night!!  Thank you, Whalens!  :)

ultrasound wednesday!

See, I told you I'd be posting more often!  :)  Just wanted to share a picture of one of our sweet girls and an update from this morning.  Only one twin would cooperate for a profile picture, but since they're identical, just imagine this times two:

Both girls are looking great, and they are measuring exactly the same...right at 2.5 pounds each!  Their cord knots still look about the same {which is a good thing}, and they are still getting good blood flow through the cords.  Hooray!!

They've looked great on the monitors all day, so it's been a fabulous day except for one tiny thing....I failed my first glucose test on Monday.  BOO!  So there's still a chance I don't have gestational diabetes, but I have to take a more intense test tomorrow to find out for sure.  So if anyone happens to be up at 5am, I'll be chugging a whole bunch of sugar solution at that hour, and then having blood drawn every hour until 8am.  {maybe I can sleep through it all?  no?}  But you know what?  If there has to be a hiccup along the road, I'll take this one!!

However...I'm going to eat an extra cookie tonight just in case it's my last one for a few weeks...

life at hotel presby

I am here!!

I checked in a bit later than planned yesterday, because I ended up needing to take sweet Will to the doctor.  Poor guy has a double ear infection!  He's never had a ear infection before, and he decided to go big and start with both ears at the same time.  Ugh.  I'm just glad that we now know what's going on, and he's on an antibiotic which should knock this infection out.  Needless to say, leaving him was much harder while he is sick, but he just came up to see me, and he seems to be getting better already!  We are so lucky that my mom is able to keep him while I'm here.  Not only is he completely comfortable and happy, but I get to see him every day!

I'm all settled in and starting to get into a routine here at the hospital. {Most surprising part of the routine so far...dinner is served at 5:45!  Am I weird for thinking that this is crazy early?  Good thing I brought a giant bag of snacks for the evenings...}  Ok, on to more important things...  The girls are monitored 3 times a day, and I'll get to have an ultrasound every Wednesday morning to check their growth, positioning, progress, etc.  {I'm already excited that tomorrow is Wednesday!}  The daily monitoring sessions are a bit tricky, because the goal is to find both girls' heartbeats, and then to get both to stay on the monitors for 20 straight minutes.  And these girls like to move!  The monitors are little discs that we strap to my belly once they're positioned correctly.  {Plus there's a third monitor for contractions that has to be put somewhere.}  Sometimes we even use rolled up washcloths to push down one side of the monitor in order to get a better reading.  What does this look like, you may ask?  Like this...

And this is on a GOOD session, when they are cooperating!  :)  Last night, we ended up having to monitor them individually, and the sweet nurse had to sit on my bed and hold the monitor on each one because they were so wiggly.  I'm getting to know my nurses well, and they are all SUPER nice.  Every single person I've met has been awesome.  So while the monitors are on, I get to watch this screen to see their heartrates, and everything also prints on the strip of paper on the right.  

We're watching for decelerations, when the rate drops suddenly.  My doctor said that all 26 week babies have these decelerations, so we're really just watching for repetitive ones that might indicate distress.  I'm sure that when I'm on my hundredth session, this will get a little mundane, but on day 2, it's pretty interesting!   

I'm already feeling spoiled with all the sweet visits, texts, emails, and calls.  You guys are the best!  And the newest addition to my room are these gorgeous flowers from some fabulous friends:

This is a little bit blurry, but here's a picture from my playdate with Will this afternoon.  SO glad to see him smiling and starting to feel better. 

Since I seem to have a bit more computer time than I'm used to, maybe I'll be better at keeping the blog updated while I'm here!  Although, let's be honest...hopefully there won't be anything super exciting going on for about 6 weeks....so I'm not sure that my updates will be very entertaining.  But in this situation, that will be a very good thing!  

Happy Tuesday to all!  

TOMORROW!

Tomorrow is hospital check in day!  Eek!  I truly meant to take a 26 week belly picture today, but poor Will has been sick all day, so my last day at home was almost 100% couch/chair time with him.  I am really hoping he feels better tomorrow, because leaving a sick boy will be even harder than leaving my normal crazy, happy, energetic boy. 

We got to see the girls on Friday, and they are still looking great.  Their cords are ridiculously tangled, and even look almost braided and knotted together, but luckily the babies are still getting good blood flow and growing perfectly despite the knots.  God is good! 

Thanks so much to everyone for all the prayers, emails, texts, calls, etc...they are working!  :)  

ABC!

Best discovery ever for Will?  The "repeat" button on his new boombox!  This means we get to hear the alphabet song over and over...and over.  You might think that this could get annoying, except that sweet Will sings and dances along with it....and I love it!  :)  My favorite part is when he yells, "here we go!!" right before it starts.  Love this guy!

merry merry christmas!

Will was pretty excited about Christmas this year.  He had been wearing this Santa bucket around as a hat for a couple of weeks!

We had several Christmas celebrations, as we usually do, and Will thoroughly enjoyed each one!  We went to Matt's dad's house on Christmas Eve, but somehow I didn't end up taking any pictures.  We enjoyed a great meal and opened lots of presents.  Will's favorite thing from this evening was his new Spongebob boom box, which came with a Little People CD of kids' songs.  The first song on disc 1 is the alphabet song, which is Will's favorite, so he is constantly walking up to the boombox and asking for "numba one!!"

I have LOTS of pictures from Christmas day, and since I print the blog as our yearly scrapbook, I'm including a bunch of them.  Enjoy!!

First things first....Will enjoyed his second visit from Santa!!  He had been very skeptical all week about the scary guy in the red suit coming into his house, but I think that he was sold on the idea when he saw the presents on Christmas morning.

checking out his new tee ball/baseball set with daddy 

and some basketball!

Then the Hawkins side of the family came over, and the tree was filled up with presents again! 

Will & Aunt RyRy, checking out one of the gifts she got him

it was a puzzle, and he LOVES it

lots of fun presents to open!

Then we decided to take some pictures in front of the tree, but Will had already swiped some melts out of his stocking, so he was way too distracted to look at the camera.  You will notice that in most of the pictures from the rest of the day, he is holding some sort of snack food...

 

Time for real clothes!

Mimi and Duke came to join us for brunch!!

Will got in some bball practice while we cooked brunch.

And of course, some snacks...

After brunch, Will enjoyed a much needed nap while we all played with our new toys.  After naptime, we headed over to my parents house for our next celebration.  Such a fun day!

We started by reading the Christmas story

{a very abbreviated version for Will}

Will was ready to get down and open presents!

What's this?!

a new car!

he didn't get out of this for most of the afternoon!

Matt was excited too!

Will also had fun playing with this little Santa in a rocker that was on my parents' fireplace.  When you make a loud noise, Santa starts rocking and singing.  Never-ending fun for a toddler!

Clap!

 checking out his new coloring/sticker book

 and a new Thomas the Train toy from Aunt Christa and Uncle Steve!

I also have to include this video, which shows Will seeing his new trampoline from Nana assembled for the first time.  We put it together after he went to bed on Christmas night, so he was excited to see it the next day, and he knew exactly what to do!

 What a wonderful Christmas!  We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family.