Day 10 (30 weeks)

Here I am at 30 weeks. Chris brought in some clothes from home so I don't have to wear hospital attire. I have been much more comfortable in them.

Today I left the room! You have no idea how exciting a wheelchair ride down the hall is for me! I went for an ultrasound check of my cervix and the babies. My cervix is not any smaller than it was when I was admitted which is good but there is some funneling (not sure exactly what that means but it is some sort of progression of labor). So as of today the official word is I will remain on the magnesium until 31 weeks. When they checked on the babies the tech asked me where the babies were and I told her Jackson is head down and Madison is head up, and she said "Not today!" Somehow in the last two days she turned around. Two things amaze me about that. First of all that she had enough room to do that, and second that I wasn't in agony when it happened. I didn't even know!

Chris came to visit me tonight. It's very nice of him to come in since all we really do is sit here and watch tv.

This is a profile of Madison



This is a head on shot of her face. It's kind of hard to see but her mouth is at the bottom, then her nose and two eyes. It looks like her hands are above her head.


This is from today when I saw their heads together for the first time. I love how it makes the shape of a heart. I think they are discussing their escape plan.

Day 9

nothing exciting to report today.
I started watching a movie at 4pm and now at 11:22 I still haven't finished it...just keep getting distracted with emails and instant messages and nurses and phone calls. Life is rough...:-)'
No visitors today. Even chris stayed home. He had to work late and I didn't want him to bother coming in for just an hour or two. I'll see him tomorrow.

Day 8

Hospital was fine today. It was my first day by myself and it was totally fine. I was kept plenty busy on the computer emailing people. Chris did end up coming back at 4 and spent the evening with me. It's really not so bad here. I'm fed every two or so hours, I get to watch whatever I want on tv...although channels are limited here, I don't have to clean (or at least not feel guilty for not cleaning). What more could anyone ask for? HAHA

This morning I took a shower and when I got out the nurse was hooking me back up to the iv. I asked her if she could "tie me up" meaning my hospital gown and she replied "well i can't do it now, but I'll come back and do it" I though it was strange that she couldn't take two seconds and do it but oh well. So when she was done hooking up the iv she did a couple other things and I said "are you sure you can't just tie this for me?" and she said with a huge sigh of relief "OH!!! I though you said 'can you tidy up'". The poor thing must have thought I was horrid!! We had a good laugh about it.

We also got to go to the NICU for a tour tonight. We got to see a set of twins that were born the day I was admitted at 32 weeks. They looked great and only had a feeding tube at this point. The girl had her eyes open and was looking at us. I wasn't prepared for how small though. It made me feel good though to know I just need to make it another 2 weeks and I can have babies like that with little help from the docs.

My dad came by for a visit tonight. He was here when we went for the tour so he got to come too.

Day 7

Today was pretty slow again. The weekends seem to be a lot quieter here. Nothing new with me. Our moms came to visit tonight and Chris's mom brought in more cookies that Courtney made. Chris went home with them and he is now home. He hasn't left my side since this happened so tonight was a little difficult for me. I have plenty to keep me busy though and he'll be back tomorrow evening.
Time for bed...

Day 6

Today was a little hard for me. I'm not sure why though. I'm just very emotional.

Chris's cousin Danny came to visit this afternoon and Jenna and Tim came in the evening. They brought me magazines and a book and yahtzee. Chris and I are about to play now.

Still having contractions sporadically throughout the day but everything is still stable and the babies are kicking away.

Day 5 down

It's the end of my fifth day here. I'm starting to realize that the magnesium IS effecting me...I just don't remember. HAHA. It seems to be imparing my memory which Chris says is nothing new, but it's definitely happening.

Day 2 - Our mothers and Courtney (Chris's sister) came to visit us. I had had a bad night sleep the night before so I'm afraid I wasn't great company, but it was nice to have visitors.
Day 3- Chris's dad came over after work

Day 4 - Gia came to visit along with Chris's cousin Danny ane my mom and dad. While they were here I was hooked up to the contraction monitor and they kept making me laugh to see how high they could get the spikes on the monitor to go. Gia brought me pretty paper whites which are now starting to bloom and some gossip magazines

Day 5 - Chris's parents came to visit. Mike (Chris's brother) called from Atlanta while they were here.

It's so nice to have visitors and it's so appreciated since I know we're not just around the corner from home.

My new home (29 weeks)

I'm in my new home. Beth Israel hospital in Boston.

On Monday January 22nd I was wondering about the movement of Jackson...I was worried that maybe I wasn't feeling him. So I called the doctor's office and they said to come right in. Chris came home from work and took me. Both babies were measuring just fine. Jackson went from the 16th to the 19th percentile and Madison went from the 52nd to the 37th. However when they measured my cervix it was half the size it was two weeks prior. They hooked me up to a monitor to see if I was having contractions and I was. They sent us immediately to the hospital to labor and delivery where they discovered my contractions (which I was not feeling) were three minutes apart!! They basically rushed me to a room, got an iv in my arm and gave me a heavy dose of magnesium to stop the contractions. After 20 minutes they lowered the dose in half and I stayed there overnight. The magnesium did it's job and the contractions were spaced at a much safer interval. By Tuesday afternoon the doctor was comfortable with my reduction in contractions so the moved me out of labor and delivery and to a floor where they put pregnant ladies on bed rest! At 29 weeks the babies would most likely be fine if they were born...they would need help from the nice people in NICU but they would survive. However, noone here wants them born before 32 weeks. So the short term plan is I am here until next Wednesday on the magnesium, only up to go to the bathroom. By then I will be 30 weeks and they will see what happens when i go off the magnesium. If the contractions come back they will try a different drug because magnesium is only effective for a certain period of time. So only time will tell.
Chris has made my new home wonderful. He hasn't gone to work this week so he has been by my side the whole time which has been great. There is a little bed for him to sleep on although there isn't much sleep to get at night around here with the nurses in and out checking on me. Today is Thursday and I was just able to take my first shower today. This picture is me looking my very best (believe it or not) right out of the shower. I felt SOOOO good after!
It's now almost 6:00pm and while I've been writing I've been feeling some contracitons so I'm going to go for now so the nurse can put me on the monitor.

28 Weeks

Still getting bigger. I figured since I still don't have any stretch marks that I should show off my bare belly while I still can. And I made another collage.

27 Weeks

Today's appointment brought some interesting information. The weight difference between the twins is starting to be quite different. The girl is in the 52nd percentile (2lbs 6oz...almost a pound in three weeks!!) but the boy is only in the 16th percentile (1lb 14oz). All they can do at this point is recheck them in two weeks. Hopefully she just had a growth spurt and his will happen in the next two weeks. If not they will consider steroid shots to prepare their lungs for delivery. Prayers for the prior.
Still no pictures. We didn't even see their faces.

The room

More progress has been made in the room. Chris has gotten up all the moulding/trim/wainscotting that he can with the old windows still being in. We ordered new windows a couple weeks ago so still need to wait a few more weeks. The trim that makes up the wainscotting will all be painted white as well as the wall behind it so it will all look like one. And look! We have a crib!!! We wanted to put one together to make sure all the parts were there etc. before too much time passed and couldn't go back to the manufacturer if something was wrong. It went together fairly simply and I even helped! The other one is still in the box for now until we get the room done completely.
I stopped work last Friday at 26 weeks. I'm sure I've written before but my back and hips are in pain unless I'm sitting in a fully supported chair/couch. Getting the extra relaxation has been good because I can now actually make dinner for Chris. When I was working he had to do EVERYTHING around the house because I just didn't have time or was way too tired. Sleeping at night is still horrible. I just can't get comfortable and wake up every hour or so in excruciating pain in my hips....and of course to use the ladies room.