An (exhaustive) update

I spend lots of time these days on the couch or in bed.  I sit on our white couch by the window and look out at the birds on the phone line. They seem peaceful.  I like these birds.  I like them so much that I broke bedrest and took a picture.  I'm still on bedrest.  Officially I am on modified bedrest.  This means about 5 hours off my feet a day, no errands (for the most part), and minimal cleaning.  My blood pressure is actually doing quite well.  It wasn't totally normal, but pretty close.  However, these next few weeks are so critical to the development of these little babies that the doctors want to be very cautious that my blood pressure doesn't peek again like it did.  As of a few days ago the babies were 2.5 pounds (girl) and 3 lbs. pounds (boy).  I was very pleased with the fact that they were already so big and seem to be thriving.  I am getting really excited to meet them and to expand our family.  

It has been good to take a bit of a break, it seems as though I almost needed to be ordered to do it.  I mean, it was recommended, but with all that needs to be done on a day-to-day basis, a "recommendation" didn't quite cut it.  My body is thanking me for taking it easy.  The end of the day doesn't come with so many aches and pains which is a welcomed change.  Don't get me wrong, my body is tired and has aches, but it is less.

This has been a growing time.  The Lord has given us much and is never ceasing to surprise us and show us how he will provide for us.  A major means of this provision has been through friends and family. Since this bedrest thing has happened we have had people drop meals by, drop by to clean, offer to carpool, and to watch the kids.  I have been amazed at how quick people are to jump in and help.  My parents have come up and Nate's folks have come to help out as well.  My parents brought us the most fantastic meal- mmmm, it was good.  And below Edie and Will are working on a little sewing project I hadn't been able to do.  My sisters are both coming up for a couple weekends to work on random projects.  To be in a community like this is amazing.  And though it's also hard to just receive sometimes, the Lord is teaching us a lot through it.  Thank you everyone, you don't know how thankful we are for you- this would be so daunting without you.

Sooo, back to bedrest.  What have I been doing to occupy myself?  I have been doing more reading which has been good.  Currently I'm reading, Until We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis and would highly recommend it.  I've also been reading up on twin stuff and looking up pictures of mom's pregnant with twins (full term with twins = huge!).   I read books with the kids and do legos.  We don't have cable, but I've discovered some shows online to watch (project runway), and we started getting netflix.  Finally, I've been organizing my pictures and doing some editing.  Below is a picture that got left behind and I really like it.  All that said, for now, it's kind of been nice to have a break.  I haven't been board and have felt so blessed by the people around me.  We'll see if with time I can continue to entertain myself- I have a feeling I will be able to.

I'll conclude with a 29 week picture 

By the way, I'm measuring like I am 9 months pregnant with a single baby!  I feel like I've been pregnant forever, but am reminded of what a short time it really is, and in the end we get real, live, kids.  Totally worth it. 

Grandma-shee at 28 weeks

I used to go to my friend Ashley's house many many times for many many swims at her pool. After each swim I would say, "my hands feel all grandma-shee. My fingers were all wrinkly (oooh I hate that feeling). That said, I'm feeling quite grandma-shee these days. To start, I have 3 gray hairs. I can't believe it- 28 and gray. I also think I'll need to purchase some support hose here soon for my beautiful looking legs. Going up stairs, bending over, standing up from a chair and the like are dreaded tasks these days. Whenever I hang out with Granny I feel I can relate on a new level. Speaking of Granny, she donated 2 of her picker-upper thingy's (as pictured above) and I love them- but I think they too age me. Many of my picking up tasks have been simplified with this little gadget, it's a great thing. At this point I feel like I've been pregnant for what seems like forever. I had Ada, fully recovered from the c-section 6 weeks later, and then got pregnant 6 weeks later. I forget what it's like to run, jump, play sports, enjoy a couple glasses of wine- very foreign things to me. I'm ok with them being foreign though, knowing I won't be pregnant forever. In fact, right now I'm staying more focused on trying to stay pregnant for as long as possible. I guess this lead me into another update...

So, the last couple days I have been pooped, just tired. I went to the doctor feeling like I had pushed myself maybe a little too much and didn't have a great feeling. I had a late night before at a ping-pong tournament that the church put on (documented by Kristen at the link).  The nurse started taking my blood pressure and said, "that's way too high", why's it way up there? go down". She then had me rest for 10 minutes and took it again, it went down a little, but not that much. She also checked my heart rate and it was a bit high. Because of these concerns they did an ultra-sound and the babies look great- no problems there. So, they put me on bedrest for 24-48 hours until my next appointment to see if there are any changes. I'm not too psyched out by this because I don't officially have anything to be psyched out about, but you can just pray that the numbers are better at my next appointment. I know that as far as the babies go, the next month of development is really important. The good news of all this is that my mom and dad are coming up tomorrow and Friday, it will be good to have them around. I'll post another update after my appointment on Friday, thanks for checking in.

The Blues

Definitely sisters, definitely different... in my humble opinion

Here's Ada our little red head.  She's all about crawling, babbling, cruising, smiling, clapping and waving.  And, we, well, we're all about her.

So, my whole family came up a couple weekends ago to celebrate all the summer birthdays and to see the new house. It was really fun to have them all up. I must confess I didn't do a great job documenting (there are too many photographers in my family, I get lazy). Anyways, for a house warming gift, my sister Stacie brought up a bunch of canvases and paint. We all painted a canvas with the goal of it going up somewhere in the house. We'll see how many end up going up, but it was really fun.

Here's the mantle of art with some missing.  My sister Jodi's is missing, and hers are awesome.  Will's room doesn't have much on the walls so I assigned her the job of painting a couple robots.  The robots are perfect and are now hanging in Will's room.  I think one of them kind of looks like Lucy's.  Mine are in the twins room (ada's now) and Nate went for a more modern piece that ended up down in Stacie's place.  






Sister's in painting gear getting set up

Will's masterpiece, we call it "Black Hole Sun"

The duo

After I took pics of my sister's family, I snapped a couple of these two.

1st Day

Lucy's first day of Kindergarten and Will's first day of preschool. Only one child at home, currently sleeping, what do I do with myself?

cute sis and fam

My whole family came up for the weekend and we had a wonderful time. I took a few pics of my sister, Jodi, and her family, thought I'd share. Good lookin' family huh?