Future blogger

Love this girl...guess she gets to be my baby for a little longer!

This is NOT it!

Contractions started earlier tonight (Tuesday) but were pretty irregular, not any more intense than usual, and went away almost immediately after I lay down. I went to bed and woke up about 45 minutes later and they were back! This time a little more intense and much more regular - every 3-5 minutes with almost exactly 4 minutes between each one.

Waited an hour and called the hospital just before midnight and got a call back from the doctor on call. Now this was weird...she says, "Well if you feel like you need to be seen, go to Woman's and they'll take a look at you." Oh, thanks.

Squeezed in what I thought would be a final belly shot. 34 weeks 6 days.

We got Maddex out of bed (thankfully she went down perfectly tonight) and took her over to Mitch's parents (where she again decided it's time to party in the middle of the night). I cried when we dropped her off thinking that would be the last time she was my baby!

Late night party with CeCe. No one got any sleep :(

Checked in at the assessment center and the doc popped in to basically tell me probably going to be sent home. I felt like I've got to be in labor, so this was shocking to me and very discouraging. They took me back to a room (same one as last week actually), got me gowned up, and he checked me. I'm 2-3 cm, so we waited a couple of hours to monitor contractions and see if I dilate any further. Thankfully, during this time the babies look great! Unfortunately, we are exhausted and uncomfortable!!! Neither of us have gotten much sleep from last night and now Mitch is stuck in a chair and I'm on this awful stretcher. My contractions continued to be pretty intense. They seemed to come real close together, then take a break, then back close together.

Mitch was eventually able to entertain himself by creating this lovely artwork. (Notice our room number is 1102...Mitch's bday is 11/02 so I call this the birthday room. It also did not have a working TV. We totally could have watched I am Number Four!)

After a couple of hours, the nurse checked me & said I'm 3 cm. But apparently that's not enough change to show that I'm in active labor so they want to send me home. They offer a shot of pain meds to help with the contractions. I gladly accepted at that point because there's no way I could sleep with those contractions. They keep me another hour during which I felt totally loopy and itchy. At about 5:00, they sent me on home.

I was able to sleep for a few hours, but woke up with contractions again around 9:30. They've pretty much continued like they did in the hospital last night - a few close together and then a break. I'm waiting to hear from the doctor if there's anything I can take to help manage the pain at home until I'm in active labor. So, of course one of my fears has come true! I'm just stuck having these contractions without knowing if/when I'm in real labor! UGH!!! Please pray that either my water would break or these contractions will just GO AWAY!


Author's Note: I started drafting this post last night when I was certain that I was in labor. It was originally titled "This is it!" but, unfortunately, I had to update the title.

Middle of the night activities

Well, this chick is NOT going to sleep! After a couple of hours of us trying to get her to bed, she finally went to sleep a little after 10. Not even an hour later she was up and crying again. Mitch eventually went in and rocked her. She slept in the recliner with him for a couple of hours.

Around 1:00 I went in to see if he needed anything, and he shortly after tried to put her in her crib. Unsuccessful. Another hour of trying to get her to sleep, and she just wouldn't go back to sleep!

So, what do ya do? We get up and watch Dora of course. And eat cereal and grapes. We are all awake (including the twins who are enjoying the grapes) and snuggled on the couch watching Dora. We are just trying to enjoy these sweet moments with our baby girl because soon they'll be gone. I just can't believe she won't sleep! I am sure we'll be sending her off to Mrs. Vickie's first thing & heading to bed ourselves!

Here's a few pics of our nighttime. I look awesome at 3:00 in the morning :)

tickling daddy

watching Dora & eating cereal

Oh Lord help us!!!

Update: The shenanigans continued until almost 5 AM. I must say that those hours were spent with a sweet and silly little girl. She would snuggle with us off & on, go play by herself, talk, wear my slippers, etc. Finally, a little before 5, I decided to try to put her to bed again. She didn't seem like she wanted to go, so I fully expected more screaming. However, I brought her in her room, she gave me a kiss, I put her in her bed, she whimpered some, and went to sleep. Hallelujah!!!

Now, this child is a freak of nature and usually sleeps until 9:30 or so. This morning she was up at 8:00. I think she cried the whole time Mitch got her ready, gave her breakfast, and got her out the door. I imagine the ride to Mrs. Vickie's was a rough one. But what do you expect from an overtired 1 year old?? I am so hoping she takes a good nap (or two) today and is ready for her usual schedule tonight. Of course, her schedule may not be usual if her sixth sense is correct & these babies are born today ;)

Sixth Sense?

Well, tonight could be the night. I've said for a while that I think Maddex has a sixth sense about these babies coming. She's become a bit more clingy, whiny, and sensitive lately. Our sweet girl that always goes to bed easily (even at 7:15) will NOT go to sleep tonight! We have been trying to get her to bed for almost 2 hours...we've let her cry, we've rocked, patted, swayed, and she is just not having it! I can't even think of a time when it's been this hard to get her to go sleep (not even when we've gone out of town). It's breaking my heart!

So what do you think? Does Maddex have a sixth sense of baby arrival & is just desperately needing more time with mommy & daddy before they arrive? I have no other idea about how to explain her behavior!! Any of you out there have a similar experience with an older child?

Doc appointment

Went in for my check up today. Ended up going in a little early bc little miss Harper was being awfully still this morning. Of course, while we waited she started doing flips (it was probably the coke I drank to try to wake her up). Their heartbeats sounded great, as usual! So thankful for my healthy babies!

I saw the doc and don't show any change since Friday morning, so I go back in a week. Looks like another week of lying around while these babies cook. But I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed the car ride and fresh air - first time in over 72 hours!!!

Contractions

So....the joys of labor! I am SO not enjoying this contraction thing. I spent about an hour timing them this morning; they were pretty close together, but my stay at the hospital taught me that I can have contractions every 2-4 minutes & not be in labor! After a while, they calmed down. I've had them throughout the day, but nothing very regular, close together, or any more intense. Let's insert my fear here - I'm totally going to give birth to these babies at home because I'm not going to know when to go to the hospital!

I want some feedback from you moms that went into labor with contractions - HOW DID YOU KNOW??!!! Was it a certain level of intensity? regularity? a combination of both? Please help me have some peace of mind so that Mitch doesn't have to deliver baby twins ;)

Bed rest

Now that I'm officially on bed rest, this is what my day consists of...

A toddler that pretty much constantly wants to be in my lap

Here we are watching Elmo. The only part of my appearance I'll allow to be photographed today is my hair ;)

She doesn't quite understand how to be gentle around me, so this lap time consists of lots of elbows to the belly and baby squishing!

My day also consists of watching my house and personal space (couch for now) get trashed...

In an attempt to distract the wee one from climbing all over me, we got out toys. Her interest in them didn't last long. Or they made their way onto the couch with me.

Needless to say, I am not enjoying this bed rest thing too much with a bebe girl at home. I do think it'll be better on the days she spends at Mrs. Vickie's because then I can feel like I'll actually get rest.

In better news, we have such wonderful people in our lives that have already been supplying us with food! A couple of friends from church, our moms, and Maddex's sitter have provided us with meals over the past week! It's so wonderful not to have to cook or go buy tons of groceries. I'm looking forward to some delicious potato soup tonight :)

Also, I forgot to include in my post yesterday how GREAT everyone said the babies looked! They were cooperative on the monitors and stayed on most of the time. Their heartbeats looked great and always stayed in the right range. So proud of my good twin babes - let's hope they're that amazing when they exit the womb! We are so ready to meet our sweet boy and girl (and ready to be done with this nasty bed rest)!!!