They're here!!!!

Our babies were born on Wednesday, February 23rd.

Tuesday night Justin asked if I wanted him to take my 36 week picture. My response was "in a little bit". Later he headed up to bed and I slowly started up the stairs and realized we never took that 36 week picture. Oh well, I thought - we'll take it a day late.

Once upstairs, Justin was getting into bed and I headed into the bathroom to get ready for bed. A few minutes later I called out "My water just broke." Justin's response was "Are you serious?"

He put his regular clothes back on and went downstairs where my mom was still working and said "Looks like we are headed to the hospital - Julie's water just broke." My mom's response was the same as Justin's - "Are you serious?"

It was a long night of being on baby monitors and starting contractions before the decision was made to NOT proceed with a C-section and administer petosin to speed things along.

At 1:10 pm Joel Michael was born weighing 5 lbs 14 oz and measuring to be 19 in long.

At 1:13 pm Jeremy Mitchell was born weighing 5 lbs 10 oz and measuring to be 17.5 in long.

It was a traumatic birth for both babies (and for mommy), but definitely more so for Jeremy since he was breech and ended up being both pulled out by his feet while the 2nd doctor was pushing him out by putting all her weight on my belly.

Joel and I are definitely being discharged tonight and hopefully Jeremy will be as well (his bili levels were high and he has been under the lights all day today).

13 days and counting

Definitely the least attractive picture taken of me this pregnancy. 35 weeks pregnant with twins = super tired and uncomfortable

At my appointment this week, my doctor decided that I could have the babies whenever I want. Everything looks good with them and I am super, super uncomfortable. Baby B has his head way up in my rib cage and both babies are so crowded now that there is no turning for him.

At first it was really tempting to say to schedule the C-section for next week when I will be 36 weeks. But from the very beginning I really wanted to make it to 37 weeks. I know it is better for the babies to make it that far, plus between mine and Justin's families there are already more birthdays in February than any other month (and it is the shortest month). I know that is a silly reason, but I really didn't want to add 2 more birthdays to the month of February.

As of now, we are scheduling (maybe already scheduled?) for C-section on Tuesday, March 1st assuming I don't start having contractions again and everything looks fine at my appointment next week.

Update on our crazy day from last week

I set another personal record today. I am 34 weeks and the twins are still safe and sound in my belly!!! In case you didn't know - I had Jacob right at 34 weeks.

I haven't had any more contractions like I did last Wednesday, but I am also taking medication to keep contractions at bay. Yesterday both babies measured to weigh about 4.9 pounds and Baby Boy B is still pretty stubborn and head up. The bigger these guys get, the less likely I think it is for him to turn. The good news is that I am still only dilated 1cm. So despite how uncomfortable I might be, hopefully we have at least 2 more weeks before the babies decide to make an appearance. Big huge thanks to our family who helps us out so that I can take it easy and just grow these babies!

I've had a few people ask about what the ENT said about Jacob's hearing. Apparently he hears fine, although his ear drum doesn't vibrate as much as it should - it isn't anything that should cause him to have hearing problems. So his hearing is not why he doesn't say any words yet. Not that he doesn't talk. He talks a lot - it just isn't a language that we understand.

Now for the frustrating part of the update.

We are still in limbo after the accident from last week. I'll attempt to make a long story short.

We got the impression that the guy driving the other car was avoiding talking to his insurance company (Farmers). Well, today we learned that as of now they are considering no one at fault for the accident. The other guy told the lady handling our claim in his statement yesterday that he stopped at the intersection (although he didn't), so it is currently Justin's word against his. It takes 7-10 days after an accident before the police report is available, so we are just hoping and praying that the report says he was at fault because he failed to stop. In fact, when we had our minor fender bender in December the police that came to the scene said that any time an accident occurs, if a report is written they have to assign fault and issue a ticket. Justin didn't receive a ticket so we are assuming this other guy did and that will be that.

We aren't sure what he thinks he is achieving by lying to the insurance company since the police report should support Justin. But in the meantime it is super frustrating to us. We know we can go through our own insurance to get the ball rolling while we wait for the police report, in fact we have already talked to our company about everything but the truth is it really just complicates things. Things like the type of rental vehicle we really need will cost more than what we had elected on our insurance. It would be fine for us to pay the difference (for now) as long as we were certain that the police report supports Justin and we would be reimbursed, but to be honest we have no idea what is in the police report.

The whole thing is just super frustrating/aggravating right now and it makes me wonder why people feel the need to lie. In fact, the lady at Farmers let Justin know (in a round about way) that she doesn't believe the other guy's statement. She told Justin that at the end of the statement before turning off the recording device she asks if everything they said in their statement was true. The guy didn't answer and everything was silent. After a certain amount of time had passed and he hadn't said anything she asked if he was still there and he replied that he was. So she asked again if he was truthful in his statement. After another slight pause he said yes.

Maybe he does have a guilty conscience about lying?

can you say "crazy day"?

Today has been a crazy day around here.

I woke up around 6:30 with my back killing me and feeling pain - stronger pain than I have felt this pregnancy (I have had lots of pains this pregnancy due to all the stretching to accommodate 2 babies). I adjusted my position and tried to catch a few more zzz's. About 15 minutes later I felt pain again and our power went out. Hmmm.

I got up and started getting ready for the day (in the dark) but the pain in my back wouldn't go away and the other pain kept coming back. Our power was out for about 20-25 minutes and we learned that rolling black-outs were occurring all over Texas today. After trying to lay in different positions for a while and the pains still coming back, I called the doctor's office. I was instructed to go to Labor & Delivery to be checked out.

Jacob had an appointment this morning at an ENT to be checked out to see if they could find a reason for why he isn't talking, Justin had not gone into work so he could take Jacob to the doctor. We all piled into the van (Justin, Dorothy - Justin's step-mom, me and Jacob). Our first stop was to drop me off at the hospital, and then everyone else headed out to Jacob's appointment.

My contractions seemed to stop for the first 20 minutes or so that I was on the monitor, but then they came back with a vengeance. The nurse came in and said that I could head home, but I let her know I was having a lot more pain again. It seems like the monitor wasn't really in the best place to pick up the contractions, so once it was adjusted they saw that I really was having stronger contractions and my doctor decided that something needed to be given to me to get them to stop. I received a series of 3 shots and a prescription for medication to take at home to keep the contractions from coming back so strongly.

While I was in the hospital getting my contractions under control Justin, Dorothy and Jacob were heading home from the ENT. Due to the rolling power outages stop lights are out at various places around the area. When they were not too far from home, they got to a light that was out and stopped. It was clear one way, but a bigger vehicle was blocking Justin's view of seeing any traffic from that direction so when the bigger vehicle started to go, Justin went as well. Turns out that a kid was coming from the other direction and not paying any attention to the fact that the light was out and he was supposed to treat the intersection as a 4-way stop. Somehow the kid and the bigger vehicle missed each other, but Justin ran into the side/back end of the truck. Sadly our van got the brunt of the wreck (instead of his truck).  The van ended up turned 180 degrees from the direction they were heading.
We are pretty sure that the van will be declared totaled. Which makes us really sad. We got a great deal on it and had it for less than 6 months.

The plus is that it seems like no one was seriously injured. The air bag deploying caused a burn similar to a serious rug burn on Justin's hand. And both Justin and Dorothy are already feeling sore backs from the impact. We should hear by Friday what the kid's insurance decides as far as our van and a rental vehicle are concerned.

We are very glad that the contractions have stopped and we aren't having babies yet. And that no one was seriously hurt in the accident. We are also grateful to our friends and neighbors who were able to go pick up everyone from the accident and take them home.

Today hasn't been the best day, but we have definitely been blessed!

A milestone

We hit a milestone this past week! When I was pregnant with Jacob I went into the hospital at 32.5 weeks. I am 33 weeks today and still at home!!!

I tell you - this shirt fit me about 2 weeks ago. It looks so tight now. :(

The babies are growing well (obviously). By ultrasound measurements yesterday it looks like Baby Boy A is 4.25 pounds and he is head down and all ready. Baby Boy B is 4.6 pounds, but he is standing up with his head in my lungs, ribs, etc. I would love it if he would turn around - if he doesn't I will be having a C-section.

Today has by far been the most uncomfortable day I have had so far. Baby B's position makes it difficult to breathe, to eat, or to sit comfortably, and Baby A's position keeps me needing to go to the bathroom. The uncomfortableness makes it hard to say but I hope we have at least another 2 weeks before our boys arrive!

**If you are reading this on facebook, you might be thinking that I already posted most of this. I post updates as my status on facebook after my doctor's appointments but the next day I take my picture and post to my blog, which gets imported into facebook. I have contemplated changing the settings to no longer import blog postings to facebook, but I think more people read these postings on facebook than actually come to my blog to read it. What's a girl to do?