more pics...

liam

liam, sleeping peacefully

seriously

thanks for the sausage fingers...

finn, looking like a drunken bird :)

and making a fist, because his grandma said he looked like a drunken bird

introducing...

so it's a tad early, but apparently my uterus didn't want to hold out any longer... christmas was too much for it, and i went into labor yesterday, the day after christmas. i had a scheduled non-stress test that i showed up for at 4pm, contracted through the entire thing, was checked at the end of it, and turned out to be 5-6cm with a bulging bag of water. my doctor being out of town, my nurse being out of town, and my two least favorite doctors in the group there to do my c-section all made for an interesting, but wonderful ride... i had a great! anesthesiologist, so isn't that what really counts?!?! onto what you're really reading for... we now introduce, with surprise and so much love it's unbelievable: Finn Patrick Stork and Liam Andrew Stork, born December 26, 2008 at 6:13 pm and 6:15 pm, respectively. Finn weighed 4 lbs 6 oz and was 18 inches long, Liam came right behind at 4 lbs 5 oz and only 16 1/4 inches!! finn was having a little trouble breathing at first, but has since stopped requiring any sort of assistance, liam never needed any help at all. both had sugars of around 30 at delivery, so they required a little bolus of some sugar and haven't needed any more help in that department either... they are obviously in the NICU, next door to each other, but because it's so crowded, will hopefully be moved to the same room and maybe the same crib. that's what i'm hoping- they've been kicking each other in the head for the last 7 months, they miss each other! :) neither one is on oxygen, and they'll probably start feeding them through their NG tubes later today! so we have been extremely blessed, albeit a tad early, but they couldn't be doing better!!! here they are! :):)

daddy, an itchy mommy, and baby liam

liam with a mohawk just for auntie mel

adorable little liam

liam, already looking very smart

finn, holding daddy's finger

finn, striking a pose

long overdue pictures of our house!

so we've been meaning to do this since we've settled, but let's face it, we're still really not settled.  we only got these last few pieces of art up a couple of weeks ago, and that was probably only because we had our baby shower to motivate us to get it done.  but we've since felt like we're finally done for a little bit 'moving in' and can enjoy our new home.  and i wanted to get some pictures of our christmas decorations, just because it's 4 days before christmas and we only just got the chance today to do it...  i'm super sad we're not going to do a tree this year, but the time that we would have done it was kind of taken up by a certain uterus misbehaving...  here is our home!! :)

the view from the front door

our living room/view into the dining room

my favorite- the mantel with our stockings- bryan noticed 

we're going to have to get a bigger word next year :):)

our dining room- yes, those are unwrapped

christmas presents and miscellaneous baby things

the other side of our dining room- painting

by my bf, the great and talented jen stirling :)

the blue paper in the crib is what i'll be covering

cardboard letters with once we have their names :)

our nursery's shaping up- looks a lot better

now that the cribs have sheets/bumpers etc. on them, right? :)

the aforementioned changing table/wall mounted CD player :)

and notice our gnome on his little shelf to the right :)

and don't worry, all of you who are thinking- those babies are going to pull that cord and that CD player is going to come right down on their little heads!!, bryan is going to drill a hole in the wall and run the cord back into the babies' closet- problem solved! so obviously, these are just a few rooms, but our office, guest bedroom, and our bedroom were not presentable at the time this article was run... stay tuned for those :)

finally... a belly picture!

i've not been very good about this part of the blog... can you blame me when for the last almost two weeks, i've been lying in a hospital, definitely not wearing makeup and having very below average hair??? so i promised a couple people that since today, i had to go in public to see my doc, that i would remember to take a belly pic and post it. here it is!! :)

yeah, i know it's huge.  just think, i'm only 31 and 3 weeks- i'm planning on growing this watermelon way bigger!!!  and oh, by the way, everything went well at the doctors, the babies looked good, i have a 45 week sized uterus (nice), and my wonderful doctor is going to be out of town from next tuesday to sunday... yikes!  all the more reason to stay pregnant all the way 'til we ring in the new year! and then some...

hangin' in there...

which is what i'm supposed to do, apparently... :) what i'm supposed to be feeling: grateful these babies aren't here yet, grateful for the time that all i have to do is lie in bed and do nothing but surf the internet and watch bad TV (seriously, so bad), taking advantage of this time because in a few weeks, all i'll want to do is lie around, and so on and so forth... what i'm actually feeling: incredibly grateful that these babies aren't here yet, and so FREAKING stir-crazy that i'm about to lose my mind!!! i am happy for my many doctor's appointments/non-stress tests, because at least those get me out of the house. but what's inside the house is what's driving me nuts- mainly the nursery, i think. i'd like to not think of myself as a control freak, and i don't necessarily think i'm a 'freak' about it, but i think all wives/mamas kind of have a certain way of having things, and husbands/daddies just go along with it... for those of you who know bryan, you all know that he just kind of goes along with most everything. :) so the fact now that i have to sit/lie in bed and relinquish all control over how certain things are going to be in the babies' room is just a tad difficult. it's just little things, mainly: for instance, bryan wanted to get a radio/cd player for their room "so we can play them baby Radiohead and baby Beatles" (thank you again, auntie mel). so he got a wall mountable one and put it over the changing table. it looks great, but it's off-centered between the doorway and the closet door. i'm assuming that happened because the changing table is off-centered between the doorway and the closet door, and the radio is centered from the table!!! something that could have easily been avoided if i could have seen the off-centered-ness of it all... ok, so maybe i am a freak about it... but no worries, we're not fixing it, we're just going to off-set it with a basket of diapers or a diaper pail or something, and mama will be fine. just little things that i have to get over, and i will, because he is so great for doing all of it with a smile on his face and no complaining whatsoever... seriously, best husband ever.

no more bad TV!!!!!

well, i've reached my point of getting just a tad stir-crazy... i was trying to figure out what i was going to eat for dinner yesterday and it kind of just hit. i'm tired of deciding what i'm going to eat (who ever thought i'd ever get tired of eating?!?), i'm tired of watching horrible re-runs of 90210, i'm tired of lying in this bed, i'm tired of the extraordinary water pressure in this place, and so on... and so forth... but good news: my doctor came in yesterday and delivered the good news that if my uterus continued to stay quiet, i could hopefully go home on wednesday! and then he came in this morning and said i could definitely go home tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he's not going to check me- i quote, "i would rather not check you EVER again... :)", and he'd like to see me twice a week from now on... as for christmas, he said we'd have to be pretty much calling delivery for me to have to miss christmas. :) so it's home tomorrow and hopefully not back until we're ready to have these babies!! which is going to be january 6 or later... that's 34 weeks and that's my goal!! everyone cross your fingers! :)

an update...

sorry it's been a bit, but we managed to break our laptop with wireless capabilities on it, so i haven't had a chance to get on here...  luckily, my sister em came by and saved me by letting me borrow hers.  so the last you all read was that i was off everything and there was a good chance i was going to go home.  yeeeaaah, not exactly what happened, but at least this post isn't one introducing our little ones!  we're still here, because as soon as the mag was out of my system, my body decided it wasn't quite ready to go home yet.  i started contracting again, and i got a medicine called terbutaline to help stop them.  and it worked wonderfully, even though it made me feel like poo in the process.  but that was ok, the contractions stopped.  so that was wednesday night, i needed that med again thursday morning, then again thursday night.  the thing about re-medicating me like that, even though it works, is that it can increase the risk of complications to ME, such as pulmonary edema.  at this point, i'm thinking, so?, who the hell cares? it works, just keep giving it to me until i start having trouble breathing, then we'll cross that bridge!  yeah, doesn't work like that, i guess... :)  but luckily, although i thought i was starting up again friday morning, it stopped and i haven't had any pattern of contractions since thursday night.  yea!  so my doctor's not back until monday, and not any of his partners that will round on me today or sunday can make the decision to send me home.  and although i'm a little bit hesitant to do that, just because it's comforting being here just in case something happens, it really would be better for me to be home...  i just have to behave and continue NOT DOING ANYTHING for the next couple of days and then maybe he'll think about it.  we'll see, we just have to wait and see...  so maybe now stay tuned for updates from my bed at home, and keep your fingers crossed that my doctor's feeling particularly santa claus-y... :)

was i really that bad of a nurse before?

WARNING: this is gonna be a long one...

so apparently, i needed more empathy towards my patients... in addition to having to go through fertility treatments to get these babies, i've now also added to my list: end up in the hospital dilated to 3cm and have to be on mag! yea!!!! however, i have to admit, it hasn't really been that bad... well, except two things: Foley catheters are the devil, and 3 grams of mag is kind of not for me. at all. tiff, you know when i admitted you, gave you 2 or 3 gms/hr (i can't remember), gave you an ambien, and steinke was a little concerned in the morning? yeah, i think mighta been there yesterday... i'll start at the beginning: we had our showers this weekend (see previous post), so much fun, maybe too much excitement, but nonetheless, smashing good times. we went in on monday for our first non-stress test, which went really well- the babies looked really good, she found them immediately, they stayed on for 15 minutes, both had really good variability and accels, and my uterus was only a tad irritable... ok, i can handle that. so then i wait and have an appt. with my doctor. everything was going really well... until he checked me. (it's like that song, and then he kissed me... :)). so i wasn't still 2/thick/ballotable, i was 3/70/-2!! not cool, seriously, NOT. COOL. as i thought he might say, he asked if i could go straight to the hospital to be observed for 24 hrs, and get steroids on board to help out babies' lungs... sure i could do that, at this point, i really was not contracting that much, so we talked about what the plan would be and it didn't really involve anything like mag or any sort of meds to stop labor- because i really wasn't showing signs of being in labor- except my cervix slowly opening without it being ok to do so... well, i'm a little dramatic at times (what, me?!?), so i kind of got myself worked up about the possibility of these babies coming at one day shy of 30 weeks, bryan was very quiet, so i knew he was working himself up in his own way (which didn't help my state of calm), and as soon as i hit the friggin' hospital bed, i started bangin' 'em out! seriously, usually it's the opposite! but anyway, the plan of care changed ever so slightly to now include a full admission, IV, and the wonderful magnesium sulfate. :) the perinatologist came in to consult, and he said he had to be the bad guy, just because when i'm already dilated 3 cm, and i have twins, there's just not a whole bunch of wiggle room til there's no stopping these babies from coming. and i didn't care at that point, of course, do whatever you have to... but he also scanned me, said the babies looked great, good fluid, good movement, didn't try to figure out what they were, both measuring 30 weeks, with heads measuring 33!!! yeah, i know, a little much :)... they're their father's children. :) so anyway, we started the mag- 4 gm bolus, 2 gm/hr, and that was fine. once that had been going for a bit, dr. finley (the perinatologist) popped his head back in to ask if i was ok with a foley cath... and i was, just because i was getting up A LOT to go to the bathroom with all the fluids... and i didn't know how i'd react once my mag level was a little higher... yeah, let's just say that was hell. absolute hell. it was in for about 25 minutes before i made the nurse call the doc on call and ask if we could take it out... my conclusion is that i have a small urethra. so that was ok, and it was out before it had even been in for a half an hour... big surprise, lily being a difficult patient. but i was still able to get up to the bathroom, so it was fine with my doc that i did that. however, i didn't stop contracting- probably didn't help that all the docs that came in to see me through the course of my admission (3 in all) all prepared me for delivery that night. i know they have to do that, i've seen it a million times, but not fun to be on the receiving end of things... so i kept contracting and they ended up bumping me to 3 gm/hr. fine all night, still getting up to the bathroom with bryan's help, not sleeping well, but that was the least of my concerns. 730 the next morning rolls around and wow, did it hit! look up the word gorked in the dictionary, i was it. head felt like it was 300 pounds, couldn't keep my eyes open, double blurry vision, the works. but my biggest fear was that i was going to get super nauseous, and i managed to avoid that. and my mag level was only 6.6- mallard-warren would have been like, turn her up!, she's not therapeutic yet!! my doc came in to round at about 9:30 and had my nurse turn it down to 2.5 b/c the majority of the contractions had gone away- this was good. i almost immediately felt better, more with it, and she eventually was able to turn me down to 2! then i was back to my normal self- bryan said when he looked at me, it was like there was someone there again... :) plus, i stopped contracting! so fast forward through the night of no contractions, much better sleep, etc., to my wonderful doc coming in to round this morning- i was expecting this: let's keep the mag on for 24 hours after your last dose of steroids, and then we'll start to wean you off of it... what i got was: what do you think about stopping it? um, yeah! so we go from weaning to stopping it this morning, saline-locking my IV, taking me off continuous monitoring, and giving me the possibility of going home in the next couple of days!!!!! yea!!!!!!!!!! so i have to drink, drink, drink water, and my uterus has to behave today, but i might be able to return to semi-normalcy... :) and i might have to miss some christmas festivities, but if it means we can make it to at least 34 weeks with these babies, I DON'T CARE. 36 wouldn't be bad, either :)... so i've had the experience, and it really wasn't that bad, but i definitely have become a little more empathetic towards all my future patients... stay tuned for lots of updates via my bed at home! :)

two showers for two babies!!

wow, i'm still reeling a bit from all the excitement this weekend...  we had 2 showers, one on saturday and one on sunday- the one on saturday was given by my best friends from nursing school, kari and kelli, and the one on sunday by two of my closest friends from high school, jen and tara. they were both so much fun, and we really cleaned up!! :) great friends, great food, great gifts, and lots of laughter...  here are some pics from the saturday shower... i'm a horrible person, i forgot the camera on sunday... enjoy!!

~the set up in my dining room- could that wrapping paper BE any more perfect?!?~

~kel, me, and kari- they insisted on the hands on my belly~

~me, my mama, my sister molly, my grandma keck, and my older sister kate~

~the stork women: michelle, me, lisa, and kathy~

fun times had by all- i just wish all of my favorite california people could have been there to share... i really miss you girls!!! :):)

good news!!

as i believed it would be, because i've been VERY good about staying down these past 5 days, my cervix has not dilated anymore!!!! yea!!! so although it's not the greatest thing in the world, i'm only 2cm and have orders to keep doing what i'm doing and to "flood myself with water"...  i hate it, he knows i hate it, but it really does make a difference in how active my uterus is.  so i guess these babies heard auntie mel's threat from across the country and decided to behave.  right now, they're saying- hey it wasn't us, it was mom's ute!!!! :) this means no holiday shopping for me, though.  you can all imagine how disappointed i was to hear that... i wish there was a way to convey sarcasm, because that's the greatest news in the world!!!! :):) so everyone, keep your fingers crossed and keep thinking positively that we're making it to the end of january!!!!

chuck and ned's web debut

yeah, maybe i should re-think the title... anyway, i was in bed the other night (apparently, i was gearing up for the couple of months to come) watching alias (i love jennifer garner), and the babies were listening to bach... yes, we are one of those couples who believe playing them classical music in the womb will make them smarter :). just kidding, but they really do respond to it... so i took this little video on my phone just to send to jen out in l.a, but then i realized i could put it up on here!!!  and since i have so much time on my hands, i figured out how to do it!! i had to do it sideways to fit my giant belly in the "shot", but you can still see them moving... this is when my brother came up with 2001 space odyssey. :)  and seriously, i could watch this all day long... enjoy!

dos bebos

as kari has so lovingly nicknamed them... here they are yesterday- like i said, they're getting pretty scrunched in there, so it's a little harder to get really good profile pictures of both of them, although chuck did cooperate... not without ned contributing to one of them... :) 

i know, its a little freaky...  we still think he/she's pretty cute

we gotta have more cowbell!

i hope the title makes sense to everyone who's reading this.  if not, stop right now, go directly to www.youtube.com, and search christopher walken snl cowbell... you are then allowed to come back and resume being my friend. :) so this morning was our 28 week appointment.  we went first to the ultrasound, where everything was, as usual, perfect! these babies continue to amaze us both! they're both 2 pounds 8 ounces and are measuring right on with their gestational age.  they never stop moving, which is so awesome, except when it involves really hard kicks/punches to my bladder... then it's only marginally fun. :) chuck was still vertex and ned was still breech, so we'll see what happens with that... chuck was kind of turned away, so she couldn't get a good look at him/her- usually when we need babies to wake up or move, we use the accoustic stimulator- buzzes babies back to life, or it's supposed to... well, apparently, that's not what they use here :)  they use a cowbell! yeah, i'm not kidding- it was seriously hilarious to see her shaking this cowbell right ON my stomach to try to get chuck to turn!!! hence, the title of the post :)... so it was kind of a quick scan, because i guess as they get bigger, they're too scrunched in there to get good looks at them... so then we had our time with the doc, who i continue to fall more and more in love with every time i see him :)... ok, yeah, i'm exaggerating, but he really is great.  so everything was good with me, good weight gain, clean urine (and by clean, i mean no protein or glucose spillage- ha ha)... we talked about C/S vs. vaginal deliveries again (as we probably will at every appt until i deliver because i can't make up my mind), good fetal movement, small talk, measured my uterus, which is at 39 weeks!!!, listened to both babes, more small talk... and then he checked my cervix.  this is where my bubble bursts.  i'm dilated to 2 cm. not cool, cervix, not cool.  he told me that and my instant reply was, bullshit.  and then immediately following that, i'm really sorry for that... oops.  so yeah, i'm dilated and not very happy about it :(... what this means: he didn't officially put me on bedrest, but took me off of work, and basically told me i needed to sit/lie down as much as possible. i am allowed to go to thanksgiving tomorrow, but i'm not allowed to participate in our tradition of going down to the Plaza (a fancier and bigger fig garden village), and watching them turn on the christmas lights for the season.  it's a big thing in kc, and i had really been looking forward to that because i hadn't been here for it the last few years... it's one of my favorite things that kicks off the christmas season (my favorite time of the year, especially since we're somewhere now where snow is a possibility), but like my mom said, nothing's worth having these babies come early.  which i understand. and i'm not going to be one of those defiant patients.  so i'm not going to be doing much for the next couple months except going to the doctor all the time and getting non-stress tests... the good thing about it all is that i'm not contracting, not really having that many braxton-hicks (fake ones), my cervix is thick and little chuck is still ballotable (his/her head is not low down enough to be engaged in my pelvis and is still able to be pushed back up into my uterus)... we're a little scared here at the stork house, but i think once it's set in, we're going to be fine, and we'll make it as far as we need to go for these babies to be healthy.  AND there's still procardia (ew), terb (ew-er), and mag (ew-est) if we need it... i just hope we don't need it... i hope you are all well and stay tuned for a couple of pics of the little ones- and my ginormous belly... or as my clever brother calls it- 2001 space odyssey... :)

the owl...

ok, just a quick note about the bird- i'm on a bird thing lately, i don't know if it's the babies or i'm turning into my kooky grandmother, but i'm loving neat patterns with birds in them.  i know, it's a little crazy, i'm hoping it's just a phase... :) and no, i can't figure out how to move my title so that it's not interfering with the owl.  any suggestions?

thing 1 and thing 2

i've been getting a few baby gifts kind of since i found out i was pregnant, just because i found out right as i was leaving fresno and several nurses at work gave me presents at our going away party...:(  when i was visiting fresno, tiff had told me she found something that she had to get for me that would be perfect, but hadn't gotten around to it yet... what, you don't have time to shop for me with 3-year old triplets and little sophie?!?!? :) so yesterday, in the mail, i received a package from the schwebach part of fresno- and she was right, perfect!!!! totally perfect- you did so well, tiff :)...

thank you thank you for thing 1 and thing 2!!

babies, it's cold outside!

when i moved to fresno 4 years ago, st. agnes was slow enough at night for us to have a good amount of down time.  imagine that! every time i ask mel how work is, the reply is always, nuts!! so anyway, something all of the nurses would do to pass the time was to knit or crochet. i always thought that was kind of an old lady thing to do, until i saw some of the creations the girls were making (mary zschogner).  plus, it just happened to be the knitting was totally "in", so i hopped on board...  i never really got very far, but i did master enough to be able to make these adorable baby hats.  i've given a few of them to friends over the last few years w/the initials of the baby's first name stitched on the side.  well, i've completed the first two that i don't have to give away :)... obviously, they don't have their initials in them yet, but that won't take long to do.  i think i did pretty well, and i'm really proud of myself that i didn't have to send the unfinished product out to fresno for mary z. to sew the seam for me :)- i figured it out all by myself!! :) look at me go!

brrrrrr....

a hobbit to watch over me...

as in the gershwin tune, someone to watch over me... i know, sometimes i'm a little out there. but this little guy was a gift (a birthday gift for me for the babies) from my mom.  there is a store called the dolphin song that mainly sells pottery, but also baby/children's gifts, yarn, books, etc... there is no 'plastic crap' that i love to hate so much, just cute little toys like this one- lots of wooden products, just more along the lines of what i love for kids.  so she saw this and really loved it- it's a little house w/a tiny gnome (dwarf, hobbit?) in it... it looks big in the picture, but it's only about 6 or so inches tall...

we decided it would be perfect in the babies' nursery to watch over them. we're just trying to figure out where we can put it so it can watch over both babies... some people have guardian angels, i guess we have guardian gnomes... :)

the first of many preparations...

well, bryan and i have registered (a mind-numbing and overwhelming process), but we decided not to put the cribs on there just because they're the big-ticket items... even though, after all my research, i've found that these are consumer reports best buy- and we really liked them!! a combination i usually don't encounter!  so they're safe AND cute! :) and simple... i really need for everything to stay simple for my sanity... so here they are- in what used to be our pretty spacious nursery- we've found there won't be room for much else! but that's ok, we just need there to be a changing table and a rocker'n (shout-out to where my dad's from and how he would pronounce it might he still live there- yea carthage, mo!!) chair... and like bryan said- the babies are small, they won't take up that much room :)...

and much love to my husband, who pretty much did this all by himself, with me looking on...

don't worry, i won't go on and on... i think you all can probably figure out how i'm feeling today!! i think this is a huge step for our country, i think john mccain very graciously conceded to barack obama, i'm so glad sarah palin is headed back to alaska, and i am disappointed that proposition 8 was passed in california.  however, as bryan pointed out, it took 50 or so years from the civil rights movement for this country to elect a black president, so i guess we can't all be so progressive at once.  oh, but it's coming... :):) GOBAMA!!!!

what if i have two boys?!?!?

so in my endless hours of parusing the internet in search of "baby stuff", i often find myself looking at baby clothes/shoes/paraphernalia... it used to be maternity clothes (those of you at work who would catch me asking me, are you, are you!??!), but i'm kind over being excited about those and i've moved on to much much cuter things.  such as these mary janes:

of course, i looked at them several times before asking bryan if it was okay if we could buy them.  we haven't really bought a lot of clothes, just because i'm kinda picky (go figure) about what clothes i like and all the unisex stuff i've found is not up to par :).   i couldn't resist these, though.  so of course, bryan wasn't going to tell me no because he's great, and i bought them.  the first thing my mom says, what if you have two boys?!? well, then, they'll either stay in the closet until the boys get a sister, or they'll become a gift for someone else's baby.  but i had to have them.  so here's hoping i have at least one little one in there that i don't have to dress in drag just to wear these. :)

not for the faint of heart...

so they're a little blurry, but you get the idea... sorry if it's a bit graphic- i guess my brother never looks at this, so i don't really have to worry about anyone getting grossed out- i think the majority of you all have either been here yourselves, see it on a regular basis, or can simply stomach a giant vein-y belly... here we are at 24 weeks and 1 day!

they never cease to amaze...

well, we had our 24 week appointment this morning and... lots of things!  we'll start with breakfast: a small bottle of very sweet orange soda.  go figure, i liked it! :)  i couldn't eat anything else, so i welcomed something- believe me, i could've had to eat a lot worse... so we stocked up on almonds, and apple and granola bar and went in.  it's nice, they have the result of the test by the time i saw the doc and... NO GESTATIONAL DIABETES!!!! yay!!!  so that was good to know.  then came the ultrasound- we told the tech we didn't want to know, as we have to every time- and because i had maybe seen something last time on chuck (baby A), i really was hesitant to look even when she told me it was ok.  but of course, it's totally impossible not to and we ended up getting some really good pictures.  these babies are just amazing!  last appointment, they were both vertex (head down), this time, chuck had stayed put and ned decided to be breech.  i go back and forth between wanting to deliver vaginally and by c-section, i'm currently in a c-section phase, so that was ok that ned was breech.  but we'll just have to see what they are when the time comes.  she did all the measurements and everything was right on schedule- they both have legs that are measuring about a week ahead- and we've all seen their noses, so based on these two things, we know they are definitely storks :)...  they both weigh (according to the scan, which she said can be up to a half of a pound off either way) 1 pound and 10 ounces! exactly the same :).  their heart rates were both 153 at the second she was measuring, but by the time my doctor listened to them, chuck was 140s and ned was 160s.  and super super active- maybe the sugar rush had something to do with that... :)  

as for mama, i'm doing well- i had a little protein in my urine, but that was probably because i hadn't had any water to drink, i've gained 8 pounds, so 19 pounds altogether, blood pressure's good (120/80- which i never trust when they give me that exact number, but at least it's not higher).  they had drawn an H&H w/my glucose and i guess i'm still borderline with my hematocrit- he didn't tell me what my hemoglobin was (bryan said some docs are hemoglobin docs and some are hematocrit docs, so he must be the latter), but he does still want me to keep taking my iron.  my uterus, according to him, is measuring 34 weeks! but bryan and i both think he's aiming a little too high on my belly- i don't ever think he's wrong about anything, but i feel the top of my uterus and from where he was, i think he's about 2cm off and we're measuring about 32 weeks.  and of course, he said that was ok. as for the final part of my appt., he checked my cervix and closed and thick, baby!!  he did say it was anterior, which i would rather it be posterior, but he said it was fine- he does say everything is fine, but i trust him and i know what's going on, so we're good.  

okay, okay, baby pictures!!! :):)

so as you can see, pretty perfect! stay tuned- i promise, later tonight, we will have some belly pictures up! hope you're all good! :):)

what a babymoon it was...

so as most of you know, bryan and i traveled out to truckee/fresno/vegas/and back again to truckee last week for our last trip before the babies come.   we had a great time, bryan feels like he got a lot out of his boards review course, and i got to see all of my absolute favorite california people!  i'm currently kicking myself because i'm looking through all the pictures to post and i didn't manage to get any of luke and lily... grrrr... but overall, it was a great trip, not exactly relaxing, but nonetheless, we wouldn't have done it any differently. :)

everyone at breakfast at mimi's- so great to see you all :)

sam and ben at the playground

too much!

happy 4th anniversary to the storks!! :)

sophie- 1 year old!! so big :)

the three preggos... and munch :)

less than a week!

hello all!! just wanted to remind you that i'm coming on monday!! i can't wait to see all of you and i'm wondering if anything's been put together so it's possible... i will drive all over fresno if i have to, but wouldn't it be nice to sit and share a pizookie (or something of the sort)??  as of right now, i'm planning to visit jamie and tina monday for lunch (at our old house) and until thursday morning when i'll be leaving to go back to truckee, have no other plans than to hang out with my triplets plus sophie- and their mama :)...  i'm hoping that even though this is kind of short notice, we can all get together for lunch or dinner and catch up- i miss all of you so much! see you in a few short days!!

two perfect little babes!

well, we had our 20 week ultrasound today- technically, i'm 20w1day, but who's counting? :) bryan was able to go w/me this time (mom went last time b/c he had to work), so he was chomping at the bit because he hadn't seen them in 2 whole months!!! i had to tell him, just wait until we only have one in there- we don't get this many :)... with my previous ultrasounds, i hadn't been feeling the babies move yet, so i would get a little nervous right before the scan and then they would be alright. but this time, i've been feeling them for almost a month now, and i cheated and listened to them at work the other night, so i wasn't nervous, i knew they were good.  better than good- turns out they're perfect!  don't worry, i'm not going to be one of THOSE moms, but i still can't get over how amazing it is that these little beings just know what to do and how to develop- that sounds funny, but their hearts are beating, they're swallowing, their brains are all complete and i am just blown away! and talk about active!  we could see the membrane between them and it never stopped moving because they never stopped- and they totally egg each other on, which we love... :)  and my doc said he doesn't know what they are, it won't say anywhere in the chart, but he did say that the tech knows (obviously).  bryan and i both thought we saw a little something on chuck, so we just get to wonder until they get here...  it's going to get to the point that i'm not going to look at all, because once i'm looking at the screen, i'm looking for something.  i know, i'm bad. i can't help it! it's good bryan's there because he's good at not trying to figure it out... as for me, i'm doing well- my uterus is already measuring 28 weeks!!!!, pressure's good, weight gain is good (my backside hasn't started to widen yet!!), and since i have twins (and all i pretty much eat is some form of sugar), there's a bigger risk of me having gestational diabetes, so i get to take my test early- at the end of the month, which will be 24 weeks.  oh, well, at least i'm not nauseous trying to do it, and orange soda's my favorite, i'll just try and pretend it's that :)   so i thought we got better pictures last time with a different tech, but these two are pretty good.  the rest are on the floppy disc, so i'll post them as soon as i can get out to my parents and check them out.  here are chuck and ned, looking great at 20 weeks and 1 day!!