Introducing...

Landon Gregory and Juliana Lynn.  They were born August 26th via c-section and are now home and doing very well.

Landon (left) and Juliana (right)

I had planned on uploading another post  a few days ago with the names we'd chosen.  I figured I had time until September 1st, the date of my scheduled c-section. WRONG!


I had been having  random Braxton Hicks contractions for a couple of weeks and had had 3-4 actual contractions. No real signs of impending labor.  Thursday night, I had a pretty bad headache, almost a migraine, so I took something for it and went to bed.  I was  feeling very uncomfortable because both babies were really high, basically hitting my ribs,  but I  managed to sleep in one long stretch until 4:00 a.m. thanks to the headache medicine.  I got up to go to the bathroom and it was then that my water broke.  Well, time to call the doctor. This was at about 4:30- 4:45.
 

 He had us go to Labor & Delivery so I could be checked.  We got Amber  ready and dropped her off at a friend's house, then headed to St. Luke's hospital.  Thank goodness for the fact that we live in a small(ish town).  As we kept driving,  I kept leaking amniotic fluid (TMI, I know)  and I was starting regret the fact I didn't bring more towels with me.

Once at the hospital, they confirmed I was in labor.  They hooked me up to monitors in triage and saw that I was having some mild contractions and babies were doing fine, but it was Landon's water that had broken.

 At first they were going to have me wait  and said they would take care of another c-section already scheduled for 7:00.  That was fine with me, but when they called my doctor, he told them he'd be doing my c-section first, so they started prepping me and gave Andrew his scrubs while we waited for him to come in.   He got there quickly, and we were in the Operating Room in a matter of minutes.  

The anesthesiologist (the same I had last time  - who was awesome) started the spinal block.  I had some not so fun side effects (mostly dry heaving), but they passed fairly quickly.  Andrew came in and the rest was a blur of activity.  Cutting, clamping, pulling, and out comes Landon, crying.  Then some pushing (by the doctor and nurses) and moving around and Juliana comes out, crying as well.  Landon was born at 7:26 a.m. and Juliana at 7:27 a.m.

Andrew helped clean up both babies, took some pics and asked the nurses to take a couple.

   I was then wheeled to recovery, where I spent a few hours.  In the meantime, Andrew went up to the nursery with both babies.  I finally got to see them at about 1:00 p.m.

 It looks like Juliana took  a lot of Landon's food over the past few weeks.  Although he was baby A and seemed to have more room to grow during the pregnancy, he weighed 5 lbs 6.8 oz at birth (he measured 19.5") , while Juliana weighed 6 lbs 6 oz (she measured 21.5").  So far they've both been eating well and they really like being in the same bassinet (I love watching them).  Their little personalities are starting to show :)

We are in so much trouble....

What's the story? (Part III - up to date)

I guess I forgot that some of my (3.5) readers didn't know what we're having.  I just assumed I'd told everyone in person, via email or Facebook.  Obviously not.

Well, we are having a boy and a girl :)  Here are a couple of snapshots from the 20 week ultrasound in April (could have posted these 3+ months ago, I know...)

 Baby boy

 Baby girl

 ...and a little sibling rivalry in utero

Andrew and Amber came with me to the ultrasound.  Amber was kind of interested in the babies, but mostly it was a bit boring: dark room, not much talking, a TV with no cartoons.  The ultrasound tech was very sweet and gave her paper and crayons, which entertained her for most of the time.  Andrew was just hoping at least one of the babies would be a boy, so he was watching the screen very closely.  Well, the first baby she scanned was Baby Girl, and Andrew just couldn't help it:  "Can you go over and scan the other baby before you measure this one?"  The tech responded with a firm "No", and let him squirm for a few more minutes.  Once she found everything was fine with Baby A (girl), she moved on to Baby B.  I think Andrew's exact words were "Is it just wishful thinking, or am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?"  Yep, Baby B =  boy.

  The weeks after that ultrasound seemed to go by slowly, but starting at about 27-28 weeks, it feels like everything sped up and we're now at 35 weeks, only 5 weeks away from the due date.  Because Amber had to be delivered via c-section, my doctor didn't want to put the babies or me at risk and scheduled a repeat c-section.  That will be on September 1st, a little more than 3 weeks away!   I KNOW!

Right now, we're trying to prepare as much as we can, but I have a feeling we won't have time to do all the things we'd like to do before these babies get here. Oh well, at least their room is painted...

What's the story? (part II)

Caution: I will be using the words "ovary", "eggs", and "fertility" in this post. You have been warned.

Where was I...? Oh yes, New Year's Eve and the positive pregnancy test. 

Well, I was very excited, but I the same time I kept second guessing myself.  Had I tested too soon?  Were the hormones from the trigger shot still in my body? A trigger shot is HCG injection that releases eggs once they're mature. HCG is also the pregnancy hormone detected by pregnancy test, so testing too soon could show a false positive.  I know, you're hearing much more about my medical/reproductive health than you ever wanted to know.  So, I figured I would test the next day, see if the 2nd line on the test grew fainter or darker.  Well, on New Year's Day, I took another test and the line was darker, so I felt pretty confident this wasn't just leftover HCG from the trigger shot.  I decided to send a picture text to my parents to surprise them with the news (they didn't know we gone through fertility treatments in December).  I send the text and a few minutes later my mom calls. "Really? Are you sure?" " Yes, Mom, pretty sure, although it's very, very early."  Meanwhile, in the background, my dad keeps asking "Is it hers?"  No, Dad, I just go around stealing/randomly taking pictures of other women's positive pregnancy tests. 

Well, the pregnancy was confirmed later that week at the doctor's office and a date set for an ultrasound a few weeks later, at the end of January.  In the meantime, you know how I was talking about second guessing myself?  I did plenty of that while I waited for the for the date of the ultrasound.  Was I still pregnant? The symptoms were different. Did that mean anything? 

Well, the date of the ultrasound finally arrived.  Andrew had to work that day, so I went by myself.  The tech started the ultrasound and everything looked normal.  "There's the baby. Everything looks great so far,"  she said.  I told her about some of my symptoms, some of the aches and pains I had been feeling in my belly, which I thought might have to do with the injections and how they had stimulated my ovaries.  She offered to check their size, make sure things were getting back to normal.  As she moved the ultrasound probe,  all of a sudden, this bubble moved across the screen.  'What was THAT?' I thought.  "There are two!" the tech blurted out. Talk about shock.  I knew that, because of my age, the chances of a multiples pregnancy were higher, but at the same time, there were fewer mature eggs during this cycle than the number I had when we conceived Amber, so I didn't think  having twins was a possibility.

This picture is actually of the 2nd  ultrasound, two weeks later.  

I left the fertility clinic in a bit of a daze.  Was this really happening?  I sent a picture message of the ultrasound to Andrew... no answer. I called a while later... voice mail.   Alright, desperate times call for desperate measures.  I headed over to Andrew's work and handed him the ultrasound pictures.  "Doce?" (12 in Spanish)  "No, no, not twelve! Just two," I said.  After a laugh and congratulations from Andrew's co-workers, now there were two of us in a daze.  We talked for a little while and it was time for me to let him go back to work and leave.  We shared the news with family and friends, still trying to come to grips with the news.  Now, assuming everything went well, we had to wait another 12 weeks (3 months) to find what we were having (babies, of course)....

What's the story, morning glory? (part I)

Well, I figured it was about time I posted an update.  Every time I look at that baby ticker on the right, it keeps whispering "well, are you gonna post anything? only 6/5/4 months left, heeellooo!"

Here's the story:

As most of you may know, we went through fertility treatments to conceive Amber.  I wasn't sure if/when we'd have the chance to have more children.  In the fall of 2009, Andrew told me he thought it was time to try again.  I felt the same way, but the day after we talked about it , he lost his job, so we had to put things on hold. Andrew decided to sign up at the local college to get a degree as a surgical technologist, which would take about 2 1/2 years.  He started his first semester in January 2010.  During the next few months, I found myself getting used to the idea that maybe we were not going to be able to have any more children. By the time he could finish his degree and secure a job, I would be almost or already 40 years old, and I felt uneasy going through treatments after that age.

Andrew went through his first 3 semesters, doing very well and preparing to apply for the Surgical Tech program  in March of this year (he'd been working on prerequisites).  Sometime in  late October/ early November of last year, he approached me again and said he felt it was time for us to try to have another child.  I was stunned.  Here we are, he's not even halfway through the program, I'm working part-time and doing freelance work. It just didn't seem like the right time to me. Still, I thought and prayed about it, and started feeling that maybe we could make it work. We agreed we would only do one round (one month) of fertility treatments.  If it worked, wonderful. If it didn't, we would wait or eventually decide not to try again.

We met with our doctor and she suggested we replicate the treatment that helped us conceive Amber.  We started treatment at the beginning of December (injections, yay!).  We were done with the injections by mid December; now we had to get through the dreaded 2-week wait.  There isn't much you can do during those two weeks, other than over analyze every symptom you think  you have and count down the days until you can find out whether or not you're pregnant.  I had symptoms, but I didn't know if I should chalk them up to the side effects of the injections or (secretly) hope I was pregnant.

Finally, New Year's Eve came around and I could not wait any longer.  I stocked up on pregnancy tests and took one of them that day. 

two lines!