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!!!!