Week 35!

We had our ultrasound and our OB appointment today. The babies are doing great! Mason has passed Maddy now in weight. He now weighs 5 lbs 12 ounces and she's right on his heels at 5 lbs 9 ounces. Kids... they grow up so fast!

We usually get better pictures of his face, but this time she stole the show. Can you see her face looking right at you in this picture? She's going to be beautiful like her mommy!

Amanda is doing okay. She's starting to have a little blood pressure issue. We had to go to the birthing center to be monitored and do a non-stress test on the babies after our appointments today. Amanda's blood pressure went back down, so they let us go home, but we now have to go back in on Monday. Basically, the OB said she wants us to come in twice a week to be checked out until the babies are here. The good news; if Amanda starting going downhill, they can now do the C-section with no problems. The babies are fully developed and a good birth weight. In fact, 50% of twin pregnancies don't get to week 36. (don't believe everything you read though, when it comes to statistics, four out of five are completely made up. And I'm 70% sure of that)

If there's anyone out there who cares how I'm doing, I'm okay :-) I caught a bug yesterday and I've been feeling a little under the weather. Oh, well huh... I've got to suck it up. When the babies get here I won't be able to take a sick day!

I hope everyone is having a nice week!

Chris

WOW!

Every week that I take Amanda's picture I think she can't get any bigger, but she does! For the last few weeks the pictures have been pretty similar, she's been growing, but it's been hard to see in the picture. This weeks picture is noticeably bigger than last weeks! Check her out...

So we've come to the final few weeks of the pregnancy, although both of us have a strong feeling it will be even sooner than that! We're in our final preparation mode. This weekend was all about getting done with projects and last minute things we wanted off our "to do" list before the babies arrive. I think, for the most part, we're pretty much ready to go (there's a confident statement for ya). I don't know if we'll ever be completely ready. It seems like every time we check something off the list two more chores are added. Oh well, I guess that's the way it goes!

We have an Ultrasound and OB appointment on Wednesday. I'll write an update on here afterwords, and if we get any good pictures I'll be sure to post them.

Oh, an interesting note: I chose the plaid background for this post a few weeks ago. I thought it looked nice, but I didn't recognize it at all. My mom informed me a few days ago that it's the exact color and pattern wallpaper that I had in my bedroom when I was a baby! Interesting. Was I subconsciously drawn to it?

I hope everyone is enjoying their week!

Still going strong!

We've reached week 34! So far so good. This week is somewhat of a benchmark for us because it means we shouldn't need the NICU. We were worried about having the babies early because Meridian Park doesn't have a NICU. So, if Amanda went into labor we would have to go to St. Vincent, or stop the labor at Meridian Park and possibly be transported later. Anyway, our Doctor said that past 34 weeks it should be a non-issue. If Amanda were to go into labor now, we would just go to Meridian Park and they would delay the labor for two days, giving the babies a shot that would develop their lungs. Then we would have the C-Section and the babies would be fine. Of course, the longer they can stay in Amanda's belly the better, As long as she's doing well. And she seems to be doing fine. She's extremely uncomfortable all the time, and can't stand for more than a few minutes at a time without having contractions, but she's good! We have another Doctor appointment, with an ultrasound, on Wednesday. It should be our last ultrasound, and of course I'll post pictures on the blog the first chance I get. We hope everyone is doing well! bye.

Update

We officially changed the date of the C-Section to Monday, February 16th. I'll be surprised if we make it that far though!

Also, we're starting a betting pool on the weight of the babies. We're thinking that those who would like to participate can place $5 in the pot, and email us their guesses for each babies weight. The winner will be the one who is closest to the total combined weight of the babies. (example; I think Mason will weigh 6lbs 8 ounces and Maddy will weigh an even 7 lbs for a total combined weight of 13 lbs 8 ounces.) closest guess wins!

At the last ultrasound (19 days ago) Mason weighed 3lbs, 9 ounces. Maddy weighed 3 lbs 15 ounces. Generally, during the third trimester babies gain an average of 1/2 pound a week. send me your guesses!

Today's Doctor Appointment

Today we had two doctor appointments. The first was to meet with our new pediatrician, Dr Armsby, who was great! The second was with Dr. Allison, Amanda's O.B.

During the second appointment Amanda's blood pressure was a bit high. So, for the first time, she was admitted to the Birthing Center to be monitored.

They hooked Amanda up to all of these monitors and had us hang out for an hour or so. It turned out to be nothing really, her blood pressure was great when they checked it again, and the babies were doing fine. They did see a contraction on the charts, but that's very normal for this stage of the pregnancy. It got us thinking about how close we really are!!!

Officially, Amanda's belly measures 42 weeks, which is 2 weeks bigger than a full term singleton pregnancy! And we still have several weeks to go!

Speaking of that, we are in the process of moving the scheduled c-section date to Feb 16th. We have the okay from the doctor, so as long as the O.R. is not booked, that should be the day. We should know for sure Monday or Tuesday.

Okay, that's it for now.

God bless.

This weeks update

Amanda’s downstairs wombmates have been driving her nuts!
They are awake at all hours of the night, doing who knows what! They have been stretching her out to the max! We have decided we’re done renting out the womb to those two! Just goes to show you, never do business with family!

So, officially, we’ve posted their 30 day notice to vacate. They have one month to pack up the placenta and get out of the womb, or we’ll cut them out if we have to. And we’re not going to fall for that “but our lungs aren’t developed” excuse! They should of thought of that before they kicked Amanda in the bladder one too many times. Ah…kids!

Quincy seems to be losing real estate on Amanda’s lap at an alarming rate. Give him credit though, he’s hangin’ in there! He’s holding on to what little he has.

He seems excited to see the 30 day notice on the womb…. he has no idea what’s coming.

Well, not much to report on Amanda’s health. I guess no news is good news. She’s doing great so far. She did have an extended contraction a couple of days ago at Babies R Us that caught our attention. It was the first time we both thought something might be happening. It turned out that once we got home and she rested, it went away.

Other than that, all of her problems are related to comfort and/or sleep. She’s having a rough time sleeping for more than 45 minutes at a time. Maybe that’s Gods way of preparing us. I think I’ve outsmarted God though. I’ve moved down to the couch… ha ha ha… Sleeping like a baby! Except for last night when Amanda waddled her way downstairs at 4 am to eat.

By the way, I know it’s not nice, but watching Amanda huff, puff, grunt, flop and waddle her way around this condo is oh so funny to me! I feel so bad, but I can’t help but laugh. Don’t judge me… you’ve never watched her try to get up from lying on the couch! It’s quite a show! Two acts, from lying down to sitting up, and from sitting up to standing, with an intermission in-between. Seriously, at intermission I’ll go use the restroom and pop some popcorn. Poor Amanda.

If anyone cares about me, I’m doing just fine thank you.

Well, that’s what’s new. Thanks for reading.

Just a little something I put together this evening.

INSTRUCTIONS: Before hitting play on this video, scroll down to the very bottom of the webpage and press the pause button on the green music player. (it's on the upper left, just below the album picture)

Another week goes by

We're getting so excited for the arrival of the twins! They can't come soon enough for Amanda! She's becoming very uncomfortable now. It's becoming very difficult for her to do anything! She's hanging in there though. She's been working part time for the past few weeks and plans to continue until next Friday, at which time she'll go on leave.



Here's this weeks picture of her tummy, which is in a constant state of motion! The twins are sure getting strong now, and seem to get hiccups every day.


We were able to make it out of town on Sunday, one last time before the chaos ensues. My buddy Chris Shaw gave us a gift certificate to a nice hotel in Lincoln City, so we packed up and headed out for a quick getaway. We had a really nice time relaxing in our oceanfront room, knowing it was our last trip for quite a while. It felt kinda like a last goodbye to our old life, and a celebration of the new life ahead. (Just so we're clear, that's apple cider in the picture). Actually, it was kind of funny, we got to the room and settled in and then realized we didn't have much we could do! Amanda couldn't really walk on the beach, plus it was raining so we couldn't really go window shopping or anything. Plus you need money for that. Amanda can't drink, we couldn't go to the smokey casino! We quickly realized that all we could do was play dice, sit in the jetted tub, and eat. But we had a great time doing that!



This last Tuesday I started my EMT course. I'm taking the accelerated course, so it will be quite a bit of information crammed into 3 months. I go to class out in Milwaukie on Tuesdays from 6-10 and Saturdays 10-6. The school is a private college affiliated with American Medical Response. As I get further along in the class I'll get to ride along with an Ambulance in 911 operations, and I'll get to do job shadows and patience assessments in an ER and other areas of a hospital. I'm excited about that, should be really interesting!





Well, we'll keep you updated as we go along. Thanks for checking out our blog! Leave us a comment to let us know you were here, just click on the "comment" link below.
God Bless