More on Memory Lane!

Warning: Do not look at this blog post if you are feeling queasy. It's not that bad, but I don't want anyone to say I didn't warn them there are definitely some pictures in here that are a little detailed. I did try to stay away from the bloody ones though.



So, our due date was March 18th. That would have been day 266 or just before the 40 week mark. And from the recent reminiscence post you may know that it was January 17th when I went into labor. I went home from there on January 23rd, still in labor - just the contractions had been heavily slowed to one every 20 - 30 minutes with lots of IVs and crazy medications. I went home on bedrest with an infusion pump in my leg, lots of medicine, and shots I had to give myself in the stomach.



This is what I went home to. We were having built-in cabinets made. Also, they were paving the main road into our neighborhood. So I had interesting things to watch that week!

So this was me at 32 weeks, still just 2 cm dilated.

This is the bad one, because you can see all the bruises from my awful belly shots. Imagine me sitting on the kitchen floor crying holding ice on my belly trying to numb it before sticking a needle in - not a pretty sight. Kevin had to do it for me a couple of times, because I just could not work up the courage every time. I can't express what a great husband he was through all of this. Let's just say it made me know he was going to be an excellent Daddy!

The contraction monitor I was having to wear at home was picking up to many contractions per hour on Saturday the 27th, so the nurses monitoring me at home made me go to the hospital. I stayed in the observation room that night. My Dr. was so great - he came to check on my several times and took me off that awful shot that the McLeod doctor had put me on and took me off of the contraction monitor. That night did me so much good as far as getting medicine that actually let me sleep and lots of IV fluids to build my system back up and just seeing Dr. Spielvogel - he made me feel like everything was going fine and he was going to do all he could so I wouldn't have to be completely knocked out for the delivery! I had an appointment for UltraSound at his office for Tuesday, so he let me go home and told me to call in if I had any trouble between.

I was so looking forward to that appointment to see what the boys were weighing and how they had grown and how much I was dilated (he did not check that Sunday morning so it wouldn't speed anything along).

And here I am Tuesday morning for the real thing - not just an UltraSound. I woke Kevin up around 2:00am Tuesday, January the 30th and told him it must be time. No water break or anything like that. It just was steadily getting a lot stronger. I couldn't sit or lie down at all. And up until that night I was resting 30 minutes to an hour at a time before having to get up. But that night, there was no getting comfy.

I was so scared I wouldn't get an epidural when Dr. Vu (my doctor's partner) got there and told me I was 8 cm dilated at 2:30am! She said I did all the hard work at home, but there was no way I was delivering twins without an epidural! I love her!

She broke my water and got me pushing before we even got in the Maternity OR (all twins are delivered in the Maternity OR at our hospital). Dr. Spielvogel got there just in time to pull Cade out and decide he needed to do a Stat C-section since Carson's heart tones were dropping as his placenta was trying to come out ahead of him.

And the moment I'll never forget! The first time I got to hold Cade!

He's so sweet!

I could only see Carson through the window as they wheeled me by in my bed.

Look how sweet!

I can't tell you how happy I was when I was finally strong enough to get up and go see him that night!

Then I got to see the twins together - and not on the UltraSound!

The next morning we took our first family photo!

Look at my sweethearts!

Cade with his bilirubin lights and what we called the aviator mask!

The boys all dressed up in their preemie outfits on the day Cade and I were released!

So sad to leave Carson at the hospital, but so happy the Lord blessed us with these beautiful baby boys!

It was really cold that night when we were taking Cade home, so he's all bundled up!

Here he is in the Carseat - so tiny!

And here we are leaving with Carson just 2 days later!

Home sweet home!

Those monitor bags were just another part of them for the first 3 months, but it was fine b/c they both went home at 4 1/2 pounds, so I wasn't carrying over my limit!

Aren't they precious! And today is their last day as one year olds! I can hardly believe it! Praise the Lord for His miracles and all he's brought us through!

No more point and shoot . . .

Professor Smith wants me to stop with the point and shoot cameras on auto. Yeah right! But I am attempting to manually do my pictures here and there getting used to the camera. I didn't have the aperature and shutter speed right in this picture.
Here it's getting better, but noone was ready for the picture.

I'll get a lot of practice trying to be quick with all these crazy guys!

Our Yummy Dinner!

We cook a lot at home! We both really enjoy it. But we also really enjoy eating out and try to go out to a nice dinner at least once or twice a week. We usually only eat fast food 2 or 3 times a week. Well, this week we had already had Wendy's twice and McDonald's once (the boys have started to really love burgers). We also made burgers two nights at home this week because the boys request burgers so much lately.
Well, we got so much done today around the house and were really looking forward to our plan to eat at PF Chang's tonight. Well, yes, Kevin had asked me if we needed to make reservations! Guess you know what I must've said. Who would've thought they'd have an hour wait at 5:30? (obviously, not me!) And our boys really like to eat by 6:00. So, we decided to call our back up plan - Miyabi - booked until 8:30. So, we decided to go to Outback and were on the way there when we decided we eat at Outback way too much. We wanted something different, so we decided to go to Carraba's. (Of course we did call ahead to both of these places after the mistake of not calling PF Chang's.) Keep in mind all these places are about 10 minutes away from each other all in different directions at the beach.
As we were passing Wendy's at about 6:00, we decided it would be too long before we actually got to eat at Carraba's after driving getting seated and ordering. The boys were both requesting burgers at this point. So, it just made since to stop at Wendy's. It wasn't what we wanted, but it was good. Well, we ate and did our shopping around at the beach. We were at Bruster's to get our ice cream when I realized I didn't have my debit card. Oh yeah, it was back at Wendy's. Needless to say we burned over half a tank of gas in Kevin's truck tonight!
And he's been so creative on how to tell me we should've called ahead! Just a little bit ago, he told me he thought he had some PF Chang's chicken stuck in his teeth. Ha! Ha! Good thing we love each other! And here's the boys delirious from all the back and forth trips tonight. They thought everything was funny at this point. Cade is just pressing this ball to his face and Carson thinks it's hilarious.
You should have heard the squeals of laughter! These pictures do not tell the story at all, but hey, they're all I've got!

When we got home they made sure they still had belly buttons!

Carson loves to cheese it up!

Cade really won't stop for a picture!

This is the only picture I got tonight with the two of them relatively still!

They're like, "Mommy, we're supposed to be playing!"

Random Times this Week!

Carson just had to eat some poptarts on the way to Day Care the other morning - they usually wait til they get there and get a hot breakfast. This day they got two breakfasts!
Here's Cade with his poptart!

Cade and Carson looking outside at the snow the other day!

Wrestling with Daddy!

Playing after bath time!

Carson lost his ball and had to find it!

Cade was trying to fit this football in the seat of the truck - too big!

Carson parked his truck before bed!

Carson with the ball mid-air!

Homework!

I'm so glad Kevin gave me this Christmas present! I'm learning so much in my Photography class! I have really been wanting to learn how to use my "Big" camera ever since we got it last Christmas, so the class was a great idea! Here's what I'm learning! This is the bus with the background in focus:
This is the bus with the background blurred out:
Here is the book with the background in focus:

Here is the book with the background blurred out:

And the gas can just looks so cool with the background blurred out!

Well, that's about all I can do so far, and I'm surprised I didn't freeze to death out there today taking those pictures. This assignment had to be done outside with 12 objects each way. I titled mine Backyard Toys!