she must be recognized...

i just realized that cindy actually nailed the date that the babies would be born on the actual day! go cind!! i'll be honest, when i saw your guess initially, my immediate thought was there is absolutely no way!
well...what do i know?!! i'm impressed! so what about you...do you have your expected date pegged???
sorry there isn't a huge prize or something for you, but i'll come up with something!! very impressive!

introducing zachary grant and zoe katherine!

BE FOREWARNED...may be TMI for some of you...and sorry so long.

jason and i welcomed zach and zoe into this world on saturday, january 10th at texas woman's hospital. as per the plan, we went in that morning at 7:15 for induction and within an hour and a half, the doc broke my water, started the pitocin and contractions were coming full on not soon after. i was a little disappointed in myself for not being able to bear the pain longer that i did, but after an hour and half of contractions coming every minute and a half to two, i was pretty eager to get that epidural!

when we arrived at the hospital, i was 3 cm dilated, and beared the contractions until i was 6 cm. the epidural was beautiful...i never thought those words would come out of my mouth, but they are! for those women who have done it all naturally, i have so much more respect for you...i have no idea how you did it!!

anyways, so once they inserted the epi, i was good to go. it just became a waiting game at that point. it was probably another three to four hours before the action began. i was pretty much fully dilated at 10 cm by about 2:30, but there was a little "lip" of my cervix that was still in the way. at that point, the doc had me start pushing a little bit to see if we could she could maneuver it out of the way, but before i knew it, she was prepping me for the operating room.

i remember checking into the OR at 3:39 and making my exit at 5:40. but i tell you what...those two hours were the longest of my life! to begin with, there is definitely no time to be modest while there! there seemed to be twenty people of which i think i knew four in there and they had me propped up and exposed in under a minute flat it seemed. i was completely at their mercy totally unaware of what was going on down there! i'm not complaining by any means, since they are the experts and did a fabulous job, but not something that i'm quite used to!

this post is actually a lot longer than i had anticipated...sorry! i didn't realize it was going to turn into my birth story! so let me try to speeden things up a bit! hmmm...so i pushed for what seemed like forever and it got to a point where the doc said "two more pushes and then i'm sorry, but we're going to have to do a section." in between contractions the babies started getting distressed, so she didn't want to take any risks. you better believe i gave those last two pushes my all after i heard that, even though i felt like my head was about to explode! to be honest though, i was so close to just giving in...i didn't know how much more i could endure. whatever i did worked because by this point zach was so far down now in the birth canal that there was no turning back! sounds fine and dandy, but my goodness. the next thirty minutes were horrible! his positioning was off (sunny side up) and she kept trying to turn him, but nothing was working...all the while me still pushing for dear life! she pulled out the vacuum to no avail and then came the forceps. after a lot of thought and debate, dr. swaim just felt that something wasn't right for forceps use because of where the soft spots on his head were located, so we collectively decided against it. so of course that meant it was all in my court now!

zach was finally born at 5:03 pm and little zoe soon followed at 5:06 pm.

that wasn't even the worst of it. when zach came out, jason said he was purplish blue and looked lifeless. the look on the doctor's face didn't make things any better nor did the mass of people who rushed in to tend to him. of course, i didn't know any of this was going on at the time, since i was still working on getting zoe out. at the end of the day, zach was okay...thank goodness. he did need to be resuscitated and suffered two major hematomas on his head, but healthy overall. jason and i are just fine with him having a square head for a few weeks given the scare he gave us.

the babies were in the NICU for six hours following their arrival, so around 2am that morning i finally got to hold and admire these little angels. i just don't think it quite sunk in that these little guys were mine for quite some time. we spent two days in the hospital and came home late monday night. zach had to go back to the hospital the next morning to check his bilirubin levels and as it turned out, we had to put him under the lights for almost five days but thankfully we were able to do it at home. he is now officially in the clear as of yesterday!

what else? we did go to the doctor four days after they got home to get a baseline established and the good news was that zach maintained his birth weight and zoe lost only 0.06 oz. i guess i should provide their birth stats...zach was 6 lbs 4 oz, 19 3/4 inches long and zoe was 5 lbs 9.6 oz, 19 inches long.

i am nursing and so far so good. using some formula to supplement, but i'd say that's probably about 10-15%. they're really quite good during the day, but of course the nights are a bit more of a challenge. we've had a ton of much appreciated support especially from jason's parents and my mom. my aunt is here from jersey for two weeks to help out as well...thank you! it's amazing how much two little ones can take out of you! it's been worth it though!

it just amazes me to see their progress each and every day, even thought they only are ten days old! zach is much more laidback, quiet and quite the eater whereas zoe just loves to sleep and will let you know LOUD and clear when she needs something!

we had their newborn session done yesterday and it went suprisingly well. i've attached a pic that we got from it (below) as well as a pic of the two of them in the hospital (above).

thank you all for your emails, calls , presents and support...it has meant so much! i owe many of you a call or a note back, (and probably a thank you note) but please bear with me! i can't wait for you all to meet them!! :)

we have a date!!

well...we just got back from the doctor's office and we officially have a date for induction...this saturday, january 1oth. YIKES!! so unless they come before then, we have three and a half more days until our lives are changed forever!! :) it actually works out perfectly if they are delivered on saturday because i will officially be 38 weeks and our doctor just happens to be on call that day.
the other interesting tidbit is that apparently our baby girl is making a run at being the first one out. all of a sudden, she is now the closest to the cervix which is interesting since all along it's been our baby boy. so it's actually not him who's the stubborn one...it's her! somehow that doesn't really surprise me! :)
thanks to everyone who has been calling and writing and checking on us. sorry i've had to disappoint you with no news to report, but finally!!

nope...still no babies

sorry for the lack of updates, but as you can imagine we've been quite busy around here with family in town for the holidays. christmas was pretty lowkey, since the weather was so miserable and we unfortunately had our share of sickies in the house.

so here we are now at december 30th, in my 37th week and still prego! i honestly thought they would have been here by now, but not the case! had a doctor's appt this morning and i'm sitting a 1cm dilated....which is nothing to get terribly excited about since that's exactly where i was two weeks ago!

so now, if they are not here by next week, we'll be picking a day to be induced. so much for our 2008 tax deductions!! well i suppose they still have 36 more hours if they decide they're ready!! :)

hope you all had a wonderful holiday! and have a happy new year!!

maternity pics

we went to take some pics a few weeks ago, and i thought i'd post the few that i have. i was quite pleased with our photographer, but i'm more excited for when the babies get here to take their newborn pics!

fFN test results

so....we went in yesterday and had the test done and the fetal fibronectin results came back negative...meaning there is a 95% chance that these babies will not be arriving in the next two weeks! there seem to be many who doubt this test, but my doc seems to be a believer, so i've got no reason to think otherwise!
of course parts of me are so ready to have and meet these babies, but it's obviously better for them to be in utero for as long as possible. in two weeks time, i'll be 35 weeks, so that is definitely a good thing if they're still in the belly. on top of that, house remodelling is still underway, so not exactly ideal if they arrived before that was completed (target still is 12/15).
other than that, still feeling great and if i make it to next saturday, doc says i can resume my physical activity again! :) of course that really just consists of walking and a little weight training, but that's perfectly fine by me!

happy turkey day!!

happy thanksgiving everyone!! so much has happened it seems in the past couple of weeks. perhaps it's easiest to just list one by one...

• dawn came to visit from australia - she came and stayed with us for a few days and it was so great to see her. she looks fabulous and is getting married in australia next november! it was a short visit, but we managed to cram quite a bit in which was good fun!

• work threw me an amazing baby shower last friday, the 21st - i love my co-workers...everyone is so sweet and generous. not only did they spoil us rotten with presents (our mdx had both rows of seats down and it was filled to the brim!), but they wanted to start a little library for the twins, so books out the wazoo...such a fun idea! i'll post pictures as soon as i get them.


• kitchen and bath remodel - not sure this is the most brilliant idea that jason and i have had to date, but we've just begun some work on the house. we've been wanting to do this for quite some time, but finally just got everything finalized. we're having the tile, countertops and backsplash in the kitchen replaced and then the counters, shower and tub area done in the master bath. they're supposed to be done by the 15th of december, so let's hope they meet their deliverable and these babies don't come early!!


• 32 week appt - we went for a checkup yesterday and the dr. swaim has officially told me that i am to quit exercising and to take it easy...ouch! :( my cervix has thinned, although still completely closed, but she does not want to take any chances. she hasn't put me on bedrest, but just wants me to take it easy. we go back next friday to take a test which can tell us if i will deliver in the next two weeks (fetal fibronectin)...that will be interesting! let's just hope they don't decide to come before then! otherwise, i still feel great, so this no exercise and taking it easy bit is going to be tough! 32 week belly pic...

other than that, we made our annual trip to the renaissance festival last week, went to see our friends allison and sean who just had their sweet baby cate a few weeks ago which definitely made our babies upcoming arrivals that much more real and supermom kristyna just delivered leighton last week! babies everywhere...so exciting, but so scary at the same time!! and last but not least, janice just got in from the uk last night, so had dinner with her last night and will be fun catching up with her through sunday.

sorry to blab for so long, but lots of updates! btw...a lot of you aren't so much fun not guessing an arrival date! (although i know you're reading these posts!)