It seems the time is flying by sooooo fast. Elliot is already THREE which still blows my mind especially since it seems like yesterday HE was the baby. There are so many things I want to make sure I remember and stow away in my mind but I'm afraid that's getting harder and harder. So, here is my random list of things I want to remember from this snippet of time in our lives. I'm hoping these 'I want to remember posts' will happen fairly frequently so I know some of those precious little details of our lives are captured somewhere!
So, I want to remember:
-the silly way Hadley moves her lips when she's not happy with something I tell her.
-how sweet and gentle Elliot is with Adelyn & Kailyn. He can be ALL boy one second and completely loving and gentle the next as he rubs their heads and gives sweet kisses.
-the newborn noises Adelyn & Kailyn make. All those grunts and moans they make can drive you nuts when they keep you up at night but they're oh so sweet and disappear too soon.
-I wish I could capture that feeling of a tiny little baby curled up on your chest. For this reason alone I want Adelyn and Kailyn to stay little itty bitties forever!!! Mommy enjoys cuddling at least one of them every night.
-Hadley counting '1,2,3,4' at 20 months old. She busted that one out of the blue one day. She amazes me with how much she understands.
-Elliot LOVES his Cars shoes. If he had a choice he would wear nothing else on his feet. We, however, make him wear sandals at least some of the time - it is summer in Iowa!
-Mickey Mouse is the ultimate bribe.
-Elliot loves to build tents. I need to remember to do this with him more often.
-Elliot loves to 'hide' under blankets.
-how much Hadley loves to read and look at books. Her favorite by far is Farmer Jones - in her world nothing compares.
-Elliot's prayers he insists on saying every night. It melts my heart to hear him pray and especially to hear him thank Jesus for all the people (and his home) that are special to him.
-the 'special book' is one of Elliot's favorite things. (It's a photo album with various pictures in it)
-Elliot and Hadley LOVE to 'chase' around the kitchen. Add in the little school bus (E) and shopping cart (H) and it's sooooo much better.
-Elliot LOVES eating nutella toast. He would have that every morning for breakfast if I let him.
-if it's not nutella toast he loves 'Mommy tarts' (poptarts) or certain cereals.
-Elliot developed a love of soccer somewhere. He would play with his soccer ball all.day.long. if I let him. I hope he keeps this love and enjoys playing.
-Elliot and Hadley love 'Ring Around the Rosie' - especially the fall down part.
-E & H also love dancing. It's always better on the tile floor in front of the front door. It's even better when they use Mommy's old Muppet piano to play the music. Elliot always starts out by counting '5,8,9, GO!'
-Hadley LOVES to cook for people and have them 'sample' her creations. Stirring imaginary food in her pots or cups is one of her favorite things to do.
-Hadley calling her sippy cup her 'duppie'.
-Hadley blowing kisses every night, saying 'I love you' and 'Night-night'. She's such a sweetheart.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Sweat Pea(t)s
Our little Sweet Peats are here!! This post was supposed to happen weeks ago but as many people know life kind of got in the way of that happening!!
On May 31 I hit 36 weeks which was my goal all along. I joked with Petey the night before about going in for my NST and getting to stay. Little did I know that was going to actually be the case!! I picked Petey up at work around 12:30 just like every other Tuesday and he dropped me off at the hospital. I contemplated skipping the registration desk & just going upstairs since I was sick of having to explain to them what an NST was. But, I'm glad I stayed since I got to see Carol again. Carol is one of the registration ladies that I had really enjoyed talking to the last several weeks.
Upstairs, Lori got me hooked up and got the girls tracing well. Just like the last several times my uterus was showing irritability. This time they seemed to be a lot more consistent but there wasn't anything too painful going on. The NST actually went really, really quickly but when she took my blood pressure things got interesting. It was way higher than it usually was. Since I had an appointment at the clinic in just a little bit she advised me to just lay down and relax until I had to head over. So, I lounged and played on my phone until it was time to see the doctor.
I told the nurse when I got there that my blood pressure had been up quite a bit when I was in labor and delivery. Sure enough it was up a LOT in the office. I'd also put on another 5lb. in the past week which wasn't a good sign. They had me lay down on the exam table which, for the record, is NOT a comfortable place to lay down especially when 36 weeks pregnant with twins! When the nurse came back my blood pressure had only gone up - 196/100. Dr. Witthoeft came in to talk to me and told me what I had already figured: they were sending me back to labor and delivery. I had an inkling that this was baby day so I told my mom that she better head this way & I told Petey to come up to L&D with the kids.
They got me situated in room 311 and started monitoring the girls again. This time the contractions were definitely coming regularly and eventually they did get painful. Most of the pain was in my back and it was intense. Dr. Labeau came in and talked to us about delivery. Petey and I were both on board with delivery and getting the girls out before my blood pressure went really crazy. If only we knew...... So, we decided 6:30 would be the time. Petey ended up taking the kids to a friends house in case my mom didn't make it in time.
Around 6 o'clock a LOT of activity started happening. They prepped me for surgery. Gave Petey his new duds to wear in the O.R. I signed a bunch of papers and they talked to me about what to expect and what would happen. Just before 6:30 they wheeled me back to the operating room. Surprisingly I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be. I'll admit I was excited the pregnancy was about to be over and that I was going to get to see the girls finally. I was proud of myself for having made it to 36 weeks and felt pretty confident the girls wouldn't have too many issues to deal with.
The anesthiologist that I had was fantastic! She talked me through everything and was very, very upbeat. One of the warmer beds kept alarming before we got things started which delayed things a bit. There was a whirlwind of activity going on and a bunch of people introducing themselves to me. To be honest I don't really remember anyone I hadn't already met before that. Oh well.
Being awake while you know you're being sliced open but not being able to feel it is a strange thing. I'm very glad the nurse and doctors were telling me what was going on and what they were doing or I would have had no idea they had even started!!!
Adelyn Grace Peat was born at 7:09pm. She weighed 6lb. 3oz. and was 18.5 inches long. Kailyn Elyse Peat was born at 7:11pm weighing 5lb. 8oz. and was also 18.5 inches long. They both gave good cries when they were born which was reassuring to Mommy! The biggest surprise for me came when they were taking the girls to the nursery. They brought each of them to me and showed me they had HAIR. LOTS of it and it was dark. I was shocked and in awe and in love.
Petey was able to go with them to the nursery while the doctors put me back together. The c-section was something I stressed about quite a bit while I was pregnant but it went really smoothly. There were a few moments that I felt kind of yucky while they were working on me but all in all I can't complain. I think I would still choose to have them naturally if that choice was available but the c-section turned out to be just fine too and the spinal - WOW - way stronger than either epidural!!
Petey took a TON of pictures (I'll share some here soon hopefully) of the girls. I was able to look at several of them after I got back to my room and was recovering. They were absolutely precious! Both of them were doing well although Adelyn ended up needing a little bit of oxygen support so she had the hood over her. I remember Petey telling me he thought they were very identical. He was very correct!!
We were both so glad and excited that the girls were here and they were doing relatively well. It wasn't necessarily how we planned or expected them to come but we are glad they decided to come when they did. We definitely felt very, very blessed that night to have four healthy beautiful children :)
On May 31 I hit 36 weeks which was my goal all along. I joked with Petey the night before about going in for my NST and getting to stay. Little did I know that was going to actually be the case!! I picked Petey up at work around 12:30 just like every other Tuesday and he dropped me off at the hospital. I contemplated skipping the registration desk & just going upstairs since I was sick of having to explain to them what an NST was. But, I'm glad I stayed since I got to see Carol again. Carol is one of the registration ladies that I had really enjoyed talking to the last several weeks.
Upstairs, Lori got me hooked up and got the girls tracing well. Just like the last several times my uterus was showing irritability. This time they seemed to be a lot more consistent but there wasn't anything too painful going on. The NST actually went really, really quickly but when she took my blood pressure things got interesting. It was way higher than it usually was. Since I had an appointment at the clinic in just a little bit she advised me to just lay down and relax until I had to head over. So, I lounged and played on my phone until it was time to see the doctor.
I told the nurse when I got there that my blood pressure had been up quite a bit when I was in labor and delivery. Sure enough it was up a LOT in the office. I'd also put on another 5lb. in the past week which wasn't a good sign. They had me lay down on the exam table which, for the record, is NOT a comfortable place to lay down especially when 36 weeks pregnant with twins! When the nurse came back my blood pressure had only gone up - 196/100. Dr. Witthoeft came in to talk to me and told me what I had already figured: they were sending me back to labor and delivery. I had an inkling that this was baby day so I told my mom that she better head this way & I told Petey to come up to L&D with the kids.
They got me situated in room 311 and started monitoring the girls again. This time the contractions were definitely coming regularly and eventually they did get painful. Most of the pain was in my back and it was intense. Dr. Labeau came in and talked to us about delivery. Petey and I were both on board with delivery and getting the girls out before my blood pressure went really crazy. If only we knew...... So, we decided 6:30 would be the time. Petey ended up taking the kids to a friends house in case my mom didn't make it in time.
Around 6 o'clock a LOT of activity started happening. They prepped me for surgery. Gave Petey his new duds to wear in the O.R. I signed a bunch of papers and they talked to me about what to expect and what would happen. Just before 6:30 they wheeled me back to the operating room. Surprisingly I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be. I'll admit I was excited the pregnancy was about to be over and that I was going to get to see the girls finally. I was proud of myself for having made it to 36 weeks and felt pretty confident the girls wouldn't have too many issues to deal with.
The anesthiologist that I had was fantastic! She talked me through everything and was very, very upbeat. One of the warmer beds kept alarming before we got things started which delayed things a bit. There was a whirlwind of activity going on and a bunch of people introducing themselves to me. To be honest I don't really remember anyone I hadn't already met before that. Oh well.
Being awake while you know you're being sliced open but not being able to feel it is a strange thing. I'm very glad the nurse and doctors were telling me what was going on and what they were doing or I would have had no idea they had even started!!!
Adelyn Grace Peat was born at 7:09pm. She weighed 6lb. 3oz. and was 18.5 inches long. Kailyn Elyse Peat was born at 7:11pm weighing 5lb. 8oz. and was also 18.5 inches long. They both gave good cries when they were born which was reassuring to Mommy! The biggest surprise for me came when they were taking the girls to the nursery. They brought each of them to me and showed me they had HAIR. LOTS of it and it was dark. I was shocked and in awe and in love.
Petey was able to go with them to the nursery while the doctors put me back together. The c-section was something I stressed about quite a bit while I was pregnant but it went really smoothly. There were a few moments that I felt kind of yucky while they were working on me but all in all I can't complain. I think I would still choose to have them naturally if that choice was available but the c-section turned out to be just fine too and the spinal - WOW - way stronger than either epidural!!
Petey took a TON of pictures (I'll share some here soon hopefully) of the girls. I was able to look at several of them after I got back to my room and was recovering. They were absolutely precious! Both of them were doing well although Adelyn ended up needing a little bit of oxygen support so she had the hood over her. I remember Petey telling me he thought they were very identical. He was very correct!!
We were both so glad and excited that the girls were here and they were doing relatively well. It wasn't necessarily how we planned or expected them to come but we are glad they decided to come when they did. We definitely felt very, very blessed that night to have four healthy beautiful children :)
Pressure Cooker
The week after the girls was born was one of the biggest whirlwinds of my life. I had every intention of documenting the girls first few days in detail so that none of us would forget those little precious details. I especially wanted to do this since we are pretty sure they are our last little itty babies. Unfortunately some medical issues of my own have taken over and I haven't accomplished what I really wanted to.
At the end of the pregnancy my blood pressure kept creeping up a little bit more but was in a 'normal' range for pregnancy. The day the girls were born it got really high and just stayed that way. The doctors termed it gestational hypertension since I wasn't spilling protein into my urine before delivery it wasn't considered pre-eclampsia. Normally a day or two after delivery blood pressure should start to return to normal. In this case I am not normal. I'm one of the lucky few people who has developed postpartum hypertension. My blood pressure has done nothing but go up. In fact I believe it's now higher than it was when I was still pregnant and when I was having the girls. From the limited info I've been able to find it peaks for most people around 3-6 days after delivery. By the time the girls were 6 days old my blood pressure was still high even with some meds.
Thursday night, June 2, was one of the scariest nights of my life. While we were feeding the girls my nurse came in to check my blood pressure and it was 200+/110 - NOT GOOD. The next several readings stayed the same. At it's highest it reached 209/120. At that moment it didn't sink in just how dangerous that was. Petey finished feeding the girls and got them back to nursery. In those few minutes one of the nurses moved me to a bigger room, started a catheter for a urine sample, got an IV in me & started pushing drugs, took 3 blood pressure readings and had the lab up there drawing blood. They also put padding on the side of the bed in case I started having a seizure. They were concerned I had developed postpartum pre-eclampsia which would be a very bad thing. The one piece of good news was that all my labs came back negative for pre-eclampsia which meant that I indeed had horrible hypertension. The IV meds & lasix they pushed that night did help bring my numbers down and I slept fantastic thanks to some Ambien. However, the next day my numbers came back up. I also felt awful but I attribute a lot of that to my milk coming in.
On Monday (when I orginally started writing this) there was not a ton of improvement. Thursday (6/2) I was started on 100mg of Labetolol which was upped to 200mg Friday. Sunday I finally consulted with a doctor from internal medicine who upped my Labetolol to 200mg three times a day and added in apresoline three times a day as well. When that didn't help to bring down the numbers significantly overnight he upped my apresoline to 25mg from 10mg. Today my blood pressure has been on a crazy roller coaster. My bottom number has consistently stayed around 90-100 which is way too high for my comfort and my top number has gone from the 160's to the 190's which is again too high.
I kept riding this roller coaster and getting more and more discouraged for the next day or so. It got to the point that I would break down and cry every time they took my blood pressure because I was so frustrated with my body. No one had any answers as to why this was happening and the meds didn't seem to be doing much of anything. I had several breakdowns in front of the nurses and even more when it was just me and Petey. I never dreamed it would be ME keeping us in the hospital and not the girls. They were discharged on June 6 and 'guested' in my room with Petey. Elliot's birthday was on my mind and, again, I never dreamed that I would miss it because I was stuck in the hospital but as the days drug on that seemed more and more a real possibility and that REALLY brought me down. Every single time I even tried to mention it to the nurses and doctors I would end up a blubbering mess. It really tore me up to think about missing his birthday especially since at that point it had been nearly a week since I'd even seen them. Mommy guilt was setting in pretty deep and I didn't think I was going to be able to handle missing that big day. Yes, odds are he wouldn't have known the difference but *I* would have!
So, Tuesday (6/7) I had finally had enough. I had one of the nurses I really liked (Barb) and that I felt really comfortable talking to. Dr. Witthoeft also was aware of how badly I wanted to be home by Thursday & promised she would do what she could to make that happen. They were able to get Dr. Johnson from Internal Medicine to come in and talk to me. I told him how frustrated and discouraged I was and how I *needed* to be home by Thursday. I kept trying to explain to everyone that the girls weren't my only kids and that I desperately needed to get back to being Mommy to my other two. He seemed to understand I wasn't doing well and decided to be much more aggressive. We ended up doubling the two meds I was on. The result was like magic. It brought my blood pressure down to a range I hadn't seen it in for months which was fantastic! This time it was happy tears that I was crying. For the first time in what felt like an enternity I felt hopeful that I might finally get to go home!!
Wednesday things continued to look good but I refused to get my hopes up too high. Finally I got word from Dr. Labeau (the OB on call) that I was good to go home from her point of view. Dr. Barsch from internal medicine came to talk to me and agreed as well that I was at a good enough point to go home. All of a sudden Petey and I were packing like crazy people and he was taking stuff out to load up. It seemed a bit surreal as I had begun to feel like I was going to be stuck in that little room f.o.r.e.v.e.r. We had to make a couple stops to pick up a blood pressure monitor and some prescriptions but we made it home late that afternoon.
Home was a feeling I don't really know how to describe. It was fantastic. And CLEAN. Our parents left the house almost sparkling which was so nice to come home too. It was also very quiet. Too quiet. The big kids weren't coming back until the next day so I enjoyed the quiet as much as I could. My bed slept really, really that night ;)
At the end of the pregnancy my blood pressure kept creeping up a little bit more but was in a 'normal' range for pregnancy. The day the girls were born it got really high and just stayed that way. The doctors termed it gestational hypertension since I wasn't spilling protein into my urine before delivery it wasn't considered pre-eclampsia. Normally a day or two after delivery blood pressure should start to return to normal. In this case I am not normal. I'm one of the lucky few people who has developed postpartum hypertension. My blood pressure has done nothing but go up. In fact I believe it's now higher than it was when I was still pregnant and when I was having the girls. From the limited info I've been able to find it peaks for most people around 3-6 days after delivery. By the time the girls were 6 days old my blood pressure was still high even with some meds.
Thursday night, June 2, was one of the scariest nights of my life. While we were feeding the girls my nurse came in to check my blood pressure and it was 200+/110 - NOT GOOD. The next several readings stayed the same. At it's highest it reached 209/120. At that moment it didn't sink in just how dangerous that was. Petey finished feeding the girls and got them back to nursery. In those few minutes one of the nurses moved me to a bigger room, started a catheter for a urine sample, got an IV in me & started pushing drugs, took 3 blood pressure readings and had the lab up there drawing blood. They also put padding on the side of the bed in case I started having a seizure. They were concerned I had developed postpartum pre-eclampsia which would be a very bad thing. The one piece of good news was that all my labs came back negative for pre-eclampsia which meant that I indeed had horrible hypertension. The IV meds & lasix they pushed that night did help bring my numbers down and I slept fantastic thanks to some Ambien. However, the next day my numbers came back up. I also felt awful but I attribute a lot of that to my milk coming in.
On Monday (when I orginally started writing this) there was not a ton of improvement. Thursday (6/2) I was started on 100mg of Labetolol which was upped to 200mg Friday. Sunday I finally consulted with a doctor from internal medicine who upped my Labetolol to 200mg three times a day and added in apresoline three times a day as well. When that didn't help to bring down the numbers significantly overnight he upped my apresoline to 25mg from 10mg. Today my blood pressure has been on a crazy roller coaster. My bottom number has consistently stayed around 90-100 which is way too high for my comfort and my top number has gone from the 160's to the 190's which is again too high.
I kept riding this roller coaster and getting more and more discouraged for the next day or so. It got to the point that I would break down and cry every time they took my blood pressure because I was so frustrated with my body. No one had any answers as to why this was happening and the meds didn't seem to be doing much of anything. I had several breakdowns in front of the nurses and even more when it was just me and Petey. I never dreamed it would be ME keeping us in the hospital and not the girls. They were discharged on June 6 and 'guested' in my room with Petey. Elliot's birthday was on my mind and, again, I never dreamed that I would miss it because I was stuck in the hospital but as the days drug on that seemed more and more a real possibility and that REALLY brought me down. Every single time I even tried to mention it to the nurses and doctors I would end up a blubbering mess. It really tore me up to think about missing his birthday especially since at that point it had been nearly a week since I'd even seen them. Mommy guilt was setting in pretty deep and I didn't think I was going to be able to handle missing that big day. Yes, odds are he wouldn't have known the difference but *I* would have!
So, Tuesday (6/7) I had finally had enough. I had one of the nurses I really liked (Barb) and that I felt really comfortable talking to. Dr. Witthoeft also was aware of how badly I wanted to be home by Thursday & promised she would do what she could to make that happen. They were able to get Dr. Johnson from Internal Medicine to come in and talk to me. I told him how frustrated and discouraged I was and how I *needed* to be home by Thursday. I kept trying to explain to everyone that the girls weren't my only kids and that I desperately needed to get back to being Mommy to my other two. He seemed to understand I wasn't doing well and decided to be much more aggressive. We ended up doubling the two meds I was on. The result was like magic. It brought my blood pressure down to a range I hadn't seen it in for months which was fantastic! This time it was happy tears that I was crying. For the first time in what felt like an enternity I felt hopeful that I might finally get to go home!!
Wednesday things continued to look good but I refused to get my hopes up too high. Finally I got word from Dr. Labeau (the OB on call) that I was good to go home from her point of view. Dr. Barsch from internal medicine came to talk to me and agreed as well that I was at a good enough point to go home. All of a sudden Petey and I were packing like crazy people and he was taking stuff out to load up. It seemed a bit surreal as I had begun to feel like I was going to be stuck in that little room f.o.r.e.v.e.r. We had to make a couple stops to pick up a blood pressure monitor and some prescriptions but we made it home late that afternoon.
Home was a feeling I don't really know how to describe. It was fantastic. And CLEAN. Our parents left the house almost sparkling which was so nice to come home too. It was also very quiet. Too quiet. The big kids weren't coming back until the next day so I enjoyed the quiet as much as I could. My bed slept really, really that night ;)
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