Know what's awesome at 4:07 a.m.?

Spit up down your cleavage. Oh yes.

Our 2-For-1 Birth Story

Well, obviously my last OB appointment didn't go quite as expected. Instead of begging and pleading with my doctor to get these babies OUT, she surprised me by suggesting it herself. As I was sitting there running through my persuasive arguments and plan of attack, she popped her head into the exam room, said she was going to make a few calls, and see if she couldn't get us into the hospital that. very. day!

What?!? Hurray! Hallelujah! Praise all that is holy!

When she came back, she told me to march myself and my bag straight over to labor & delivery. The risk of me becoming preeclamptic over the week-end was more pressing than the risk of delivering the boys a little early. Besides I was already 36 weeks and 3 days pregnant, which is more than enough for twins, and I knew they were over 6 lbs each so the danger of them being underweight was minimal.

I cannot even describe the mix of shock and excitement going through me as I called Greg to tell him it's time! Get your booty down to the hospital!

I checked into labor & delivery. They took me back to the recovery room, hooked me up to about a million monitors and wires, and there I sat, fighting the nervous urge to pee until Greg showed up to calm my nerves.

Once there, he snapped my last belly picture, probably ever.

Me, bloated and huge and a bundle of nerves

My doc had set up the delivery for 6:30 p.m., which meant Greg and I would be sitting around going stir crazy for another hour. But shortly after 5, the nurses told me that my doc had called & we were starting a little early. I was again relieved and shocked - we had no time to freak ourselves out too badly, but everything was also happening so fast!

They wheeled me into the OR. While Greg waited out in hall, they set me up for surgery. I don't know if it was freezing in there or they put something in my IV or if I was just that nervous, but I was shaking uncontrollably at this point. And I do mean uncontrollably. It was weird. I had never felt anything like it before.

In the middle of my shivers, the anesthesiologist went to work. I leaned forward onto the shoulders of a nurse, while he dug his hands into my spine searching for the gap in my vertebrae to start the spinal block. Believe it or not, this was the most painful part of my whole c-section. Because I was so swollen, he had to dig and dig his thumbs into my back. Ouch! He must have finally found the sweet spot because soon I felt the needle and the sting of the medicine as he injected it. Ouch again! As my legs started going numb, the nurses positioned me for surgery - another odd feeling to have people move your limbs around for you while you have no control. It's an odd vulnerable feeling, especially because I was being splayed out for what felt like all the world to see.

The gang of nurses all hanging out, waiting for the show

Finally the sheet for a curtain went up and Greg came in to join me.


I was lying there, listening to the docs discuss a kickball team they were creating and began to feel a few tugs. I turned to Greg and asked, have they started yet? Greg peaked over the curtain and said yep. Greg could see my insides!

So apparently Joseph, Baby A, wasn't willing to come out at first. That's when I felt them pressing on my chest to presumably move the babies lower down in my abdomen. More pressing. And more pressing. I couldn't breath and began to silently freak out a bit. But then we heard that first precious cry! Greg and I just looked at each other, wide eyed and stunned.

I'm pretty sure this is not allowed, but no one seemed to notice when Greg peaked over the curtain again and took this shot!

Baby Joseph enters the world

And soon more pressing and more breathless near-panic. And Greg snuck this shot in.

Luke's little legs making an entrance (or exit)

More precious crying as the babies were whisked over to the heaters.

Greg didn't know what to do at this point, but I told him to go with the babies while they began stitching me back up. So I lied there just listening to those sweet, little cries.

Baby Luke getting cleaned up - one of the few shots where you can't see their boy bits

Finally I got to meet my new family. We still can't believe that we made these guys! They're just so beautiful and precious!

Luke on the left, Joseph on the right, Daddy beaming

Off to the nursery with Daddy - I missed them... :)

While I was being closed up, Greg went with the boys to the nursery.

Getting footprints

Double duty Dad

Joseph bonding with Daddy's finger

I love these next two pictures because you can see just how handsome my boys are. :) You can also see a lot of differences in their looks.

Luke finds this birth thing utterly exhausting

While Joseph is just very, very confused by the whole ordeal

I was wheeled into our room and patiently waited for my new family to rejoin me.

Meeting the boys properly - me & Joseph

Greg and Luke

My mom drove in from West TX and met the boys at about 11 p.m. that night.

Mimi in heaven

Mommy in heaven

I still can't believe these sweet, little guys are ours. We just love them so much!

New

Joseph Dylan and Luke Asher made their first appearance in this world a little early, much to mommy's delight.

They were born on Thursday, June 4th at 5:56 and 5:57 p.m. Joseph was first, weighing 6 lbs 8 oz and measuring 19.75 inches long. Luke came next, weighing 6 lbs 4 oz and was 18.75 inches long. Their first names are both family names - Joseph after Greg's father and Luke after my maternal grandpa. We took this picture from our hospital bed early on Saturday morning. Joseph is on the left with thick, dark hair and mommy's nose (sorry about that, little guy). Luke is on the right with lighter and curlier hair and daddy's chin dimple. :)

Both are doing well. I'm still recovering from the c-section, of course, and will be for a while yet. Greg is a superstar at diaper changes and swaddling. My mom has been an absolute blessing in helping us figure out this whole baby thing. :)

We're, quite frankly, exhausted but loving every minute of being new parents to these beautiful baby boys.

Lots of love,
Larisa & Greg & Joseph & Luke
xxx

A Super Early Father's Day Present

Our friends Mike & Amy, the same ones who sent us a boat-load of boy clothes not too long ago, mailed us another two boxes of baby stuff! One included a father's day present for Greg -a tool belt stocked with toys, books, burp clothes, diaper rash cream, gas drops, and some other cute stuff.

Greg sporting his manly new toy

Thanks, guys! :)

An Excuse to Use Power Tools

(FYI - Still here. Still no babies. Still monstrously huge. Ugh.

And now back to our regularly scheduled blog post...)


Due to some unplanned changes in our original nice, calming nursery furniture and decor ideas (thanks to the lovely McGee), it's become necessary to inject a bit more color in there to round everything out. You'll see what I mean when I finally post pictures of the nursery, and I promise I will. But not until I can thoroughly impress you (maybe - or you might find it hideous) with the finished product. :)

To add color, I decided that paper lanterns were the way to go. But in my usual quest to make life just that little bit more challenging and complicated, I decided I'd make a mobile for the lanterns rather than just stick them to the ceiling as most sane people would choose to do. It was a fun, little project and it gave me my first opportunity ever to use power tools. Now I ask you, what's not to love?

Ingredients:


Paper lanterns of various sizes & colors
3-ft long 1/2-inch diameter wooden dowels (I only used 2)
nylon-coated stainless steel wire
crimping beads
wire cutters
pliers
sand paper
drill with a teeny-tiny drill bit
hacksaw (oooh yeah, baby!)

1. I found it helpful to sketch out a plan for my mobile and break up the construction of each portion into smaller pieces. I also found it most useful to construct it from the bottom-up, if that makes sense. I would assemble the smaller pieces and slowly add them together to make a bigger piece. Then that bigger piece would be added to the main dowel to make up the whole. If you try this yourself, you'll soon see what I mean...

2. First, take a wooden dowel and drill two holes, leaving enough space between each to accommodate for the circumferences of the lanterns you'll be using in this small section. You don't want the hanging lanterns to touch each other after assembled.


2. Use the hacksaw to cut the dowel so that each drilled hole is on the ends. (Check out my poor, swollen hand!)


3. You'll want to use sandpaper to smooth the ends of the wooden dowel because it'll be nasty and splintery after the cut - not the best for babies.


4. Next you'll play with the wire and cut out appropriate lengths to create your mobile design. Use the crimping beads and pliers to create little loops on the ends. These loops will be attached to the the metallic C-shaped bit inside the lanterns.


5. Take a quick break to coo over kitty adorable-ness.


6. The looped end of the wire will be used to hang the lanterns. With the other end of the wire, insert it through the drilled hole in the wooden dowel and loop the wire around the dowel a few times. Use a crimping bead to attach the loose end of the wire to the part of the wire hanging down from the dowel. (Hope that makes sense...)

7. After you've attached lanterns to each side of the dowel, you'll need to find the point along the middle stretch of the dowel where, when suspended from that point, each side is balanced so that the dowel will hang horizontally. This was the trickiest part for me (and I messed up on my first try). What I found most effective was using the tip of a ballpoint pen, moving it along the bottom of the dowel until each side was balanced with the dowel hanging horizontally. (This was too hard to photograph, but below you'll see a piece of wooden dowel with lanterns attached to each side and another hole drilled between them.)


8. This hole was secured as described in step 6 (inserting the wire through the hole, wrapping the wire around the dowel a few times and securing it with a crimping bead). With the other end of the wire, attach this smaller piece to the main dowel that runs along the entire top of the mobile. Secure this smaller piece to the main dowel in the same way as above.


9. Continue to attach each smaller pieces to the main dowel, making sure that when each smaller piece twists and turns, the lanterns won't bump into each other. Here's all the pieces assembled.

10. All that's left to do is add a hook to the top of the main dowel, making sure again to choose a location where, when suspended, the main dowel will hang horizontally. I plan on using a thicker wire (and bigger drill bit) for this as it needs to support quite a bit of weight.

And voilà! My bright, colorful paper lantern mobile!

I'll get Greg to insert a hook into the ceiling in the nursery so that this mobile will stretch over both cribs and give the babes something cheerful to stare at while they're stuck in their cribs.

After that, all we really need are the curtains and our nursery will be done. Finally! Can't wait to share. But let me warn you now that all that color above is just a small sampling of the BURST of color you'll find. Prepare yourselves accordingly.

I Just Heard the Cutest Thing

A few weeks ago my friend Shawn popped in for a little visit with her 2-year-old Olivia. They came to check out the nursery and dropped a few presents off for us and the babies. Olivia is quite the little cutie-patootie. She was unusually shy during our visit so didn't say anything the whole time but just kept smiling and checking Greg and me out from the safety of her mom's lap. I was telling her about the two babies in my belly, showing her where each of them were in there. But I didn't think she believed me at the time. :)

Apparently ever since then she's been going up to her mommy, sticking her stomach out. She'll look up, point to her pooched belly and say, "Momma, look. Biiiig belly. Two babies. Just like Risa."

Ha ha ha! Kids are so stinking cute!

Worry Wart

I had a nightmare. About losing one of the babies.

I think as the reality of their birth gets closer and closer, my bouts of soon-to-be mommy anxiety are getting more and more intense. Usually I'm stressing about the day-to-day stuff. How am I going to breastfeed two babies at once? How do I bathe one if the other has a meltdown? How am I going to deal with this whole stay-at-home mom thing? Will I be able to give them each the kind of individual attention they need? How do I raise them to be healthy, happy, independent boys and not serial killers?

This is the first time in a long time - probably since we were at the halfway mark - that I've actually had any kind of morbid thought about losing one of them.

This latest nightmare may be due to my OB appointment yesterday. It wasn't horrible by any means. I'm now 75% effaced (instead of 50%) but still only 1 cm dilated. That's all okay. However, I've gained 8 lbs since I saw her last week. EIGHT! It's all water retention but still! That ain't right! My blood pressure was definitely on the high side compared to my normal although still acceptable (120/80). But that weight gain and the fact that I'm carrying two in here, which puts me in a higher risk category for developing preeclampsia, got my doc nervous again.

Honestly, I wasn't really worried. I was more excited about the prospect of meeting my boys soon. Yay! But then I got home and finally read through the brochure about pregnancy and high blood pressure that my doc had given me a few weeks ago. Turns out it is really scary stuff! And I have 2 of the 3 warning signs for impending preeclampsia.

1. Sudden weight gain of more than 2 lbs per week (yep!)
   
2. Swelling, particularly of the face and fingers (check!)
   
3. Headaches, blurred vision and upper abdominal pain (I haven't had any of these)

To top it off, Greg came home yesterday and told me he'd been talking with Lauren, one of our baby shower hosts, about this. She apparently has a friend who lost her baby due to preeclampsia. Damn, I really didn't need to know that... And now we're both freaked out. Great.

I go back in on Friday to have everything checked out. If my bp is high (in the 140/90 range), I'll be wheeled straight over to the hospital to get this show on the road. At this point, I'm completely fine with that. Better safe than sorry, right. And by the time I'd be discharged, the babies should be at 36 weeks exactly, which would probably mean, no time spent in the NICU.

So I'm going to try not to freak out about the what-ifs, and instead focus on the positive. I could have outside babies by the end of this week! My boys could be here in a matter of days! That's insane... :)

Bump Progress: 35 Weeks

I've made it to 35 weeks! Yay!

Congratulatory kiss from Greg :)

Me with my ridiculously skinny little brother

A nekkid shot for your viewing pleasure...


...with my I-can-eat-anything-I-want-and-still-stay-slim-and-sexy husband. No fair!

(I'm starting to question the brilliance of displaying myself next to these skinny guys... Why did I do that?)


Ok, so what's new?

The doctor's appointment last week showed a bit more progress - 50% effaced (instead of 25%) but still only 1 cm dilated. Still okay but more reason for me to stay on bedrest.

The exciting bit - we've scheduled a c-section date! If the boys don't come on their own, they're being forcibly evicted on the morning of June 15th. My doc doesn't think I'll last that long though. Honestly, if they stick around for another week, I'm perfectly fine with them coming earlier than 38 weeks.

Our ultrasound last Tuesday measured the boys at 5.5 lbs each! That is whole lotta kiddo! I'm a little scared to see how much higher they'll go before I pop. I'm absolutely sure that my tummy can't stretch any more than it already has. It's just not humanly possible. My skin is tight. My lungs are squished. My belly button still hasn't popped (by some strange miracle) but it's creating this volcano-like structure, especially after I've eaten, that is threatening to blow.

One week, babies! Or June 5th at the latest, okay. Have pity on your poor, bloated mommy.

Love you guys, but mommy cannot wait to be human-sized again...

Strange Stuff Happens When You're On Bedrest

For instance, your husband may get a wild hare to bake a cake. Carrot cake, to be exact.


This is him mixing what I thought was the batter. Turned out to be the cream cheese icing.

With his hands.

I asked him if he'd ever heard of a mixer. His response: Well, your recipe didn't say to use a mixer! Ha ha! I had to use a fork to help him get all the ooey-gooeyiness off his fingers.



But it turned out to be a pretty tasty cake in the end.


Thanks, babe!

Wild Game Hunt

Watering day is a big adventure around here.


That pot might as well be made of pure gold.


Lani knows that if she's really patient...


...and watches carefully...


...then maybe, just maybe...


...she'll hit the motherload of fat, juicy, wiggly...

...EARTHWORMS!

Like Christmas every week!