No longer a mom of 3 under 2!! Happy Birthday James!

Happy Birthday James!

Well, for 12 long days I was the proud momma of 3 kids under 2. I'm happy to say those days are gone. ;) We celebrated James' birthday on Thursday with the help of Grandma Sarah & Grandpa Ron, Great-grandma Athay, Aunt Jeny & Uncle Jeff and cousins Lauren, Alex, Jacob, Jonathan, & Matthew.

Great-Grandma Athay parties with James!

Dad mans the Cam

Our little houdinis!

So we ran out of cute preemie outfits the other day and had to resort to the hospital issue onesies. The only problem is that the hospital has the same outfits for all new babies--whether they're 4 pounds or 8! Well, I arrived at the hospital and found the girls like this. Kate had completely escaped her sleeves and Clara was working on it as well.

Reality Sets In

Ever since my little sisters nicknamed the family minivan "Blueberry" back in the 90's I have vowed to never own one. I have always held to the notion that your vehicle is in some part an extension of yourself. We often buy our vehicles not out of practicality or need, but based on emotion. We chose a vehicle because of it looks, iPod adapter, or some other high tech gizmo. However, there is one vehicle that is not purchased because of the emotion it evokes. The dreaded minivan. I think the minivan is the one vehicle that is purchased solely out of necessity. The cold reality is that we can't strap James to the roof of the Galant while his little sisters sleep comfortably on the inside. We tried to hold off on the purchase of the minivan but we couldn't even get the doors closed in our car with three car seats in the back seat. So I have finally swallowed my pride and youthfulness and purchased a minivan. Go ahead laugh, I am too.

Cuddle Time

This was taken before Clara had to go under the jaundice lights. They slept super well next to each other--until Kate started wacking her sister in the face!

I love this picture.

Daddy & Daughter time

First Bath

Justin was able to bath Kate and I bathed Clara on their first day.

Our latest arrivals! Clara and Kate

Well our two little angels are here! (For those who are interested details of delivery are provided in next post.) They made their grand arrival quite a bit early--33 weeks and 2 days. We were hoping to make it to at least 35-36 weeks. They were born on 6-7-8. June 7th, 2008 at 11:50-ish a.m. and 11:54-ish a.m. Both girls weighed 4 lbs. 1 oz. and were just over 17" each.

We expect them to stay in the NICU for about 3-4 weeks, but they could leave as early as 2 weeks. They must be able to keep their temperatures up and take all their feedings from breast or bottle. Right now they are fed mostly through a tube into their tummy. Although, Clara did take an entire feeding and more from breast today!

The NICU has private rooms for the girls. We have a bed for the parents to sleep over (which Justin did last night) It's really super nice considering all. Life will be pretty crazy for awhile. But the girls are doing well and just need to keep growing!

Warning!! This post contains detail of a real life delivery

So, you'll notice no pictures here! Actually, all pictures of me taken within 24 hours of the girls birth will be burned. :) So, here are the details for those who are interested.

About 12:55 am Friday night (actually early Saturday) I was going to sleep when I felt the girls just going crazy and moving all around. I felt a sharp punch at the bottom of my uterus and a moment later I felt my water break. So, maybe Clara punched a hole in her sack? Maybe not. We'll never know for sure. After about 25 minutes to determine for sure if it was my water breaking, we headed into the hospital. I should note that is whole time I'm thinking to myself--you've totally been nested for the past several days. For about 2-3 days I had been obsessed with getting everything ready for the hospital, but I had just been to tired to get it done. Now, instead of having nice organized suitcases for the hospital I ended up with 2 sets of garments, 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of pj's and that's it. I had been having pretty heavy contractions for about a week and I had gone into my doctor to see if everything was all right. He did a test to see if I would go into labor in the next 2 weeks, but it came back negative. So, moral of the story. TRUST your instincts!

So, back to labor. We get there into the labor room. They call my doctor to see what he wants to do. He says the action plan would be not to help labor and not to stop labor. They're not sure I'm even in labor because my contractions are so irregular. He says if I haven't had the babies by in 1 week then they'll induce labor.

So, from 1:30 until 8:30 they don't check my cervix because they don't want to introduce any bacteria. Justin sleeps most of this time. Meanwhile, my contractions are getting increasingly painful. They give me 2 doses of pain meds which work for 1 hour each. But, not super well and I'm really hurting. This whole time they still don't think I'm in labor. The contractions show every 3-7 minutes on the machine but actually I'm still cramping in between the contractions, so there's no relief. All I can think is there is NO WAY I can keep doing this for 1 week without some sort of pain relief.

So, the doctor gets there at 8:30 am. He decides to check me, still saying they don't think I'm in labor. I've dilated to a 5. I'm definitely in labor.

So, they order the epidural for me. I was about a 7 when I got it. I completed about an hour later and they wheeled me into the Operating Room. By this time I'm am completely numb from the lungs down. Lets just say I wasn't a very effective pusher for the first little while. I do seem to remember the 15 people in the room discussing what radio station to listen to. The contractions still aren't regular and Clara keeps slipping back up in between. So, they give me pitocin.

At one point I got really nauseated. I tried to warn them. I had a decision to make: Justin? Nurse? Justin? Nurse? Justin! So, I threw up on Justin's side. I think I missed him. Darn. J/K :)

Anyway, Clara was born first at about 11:50 am. They let me hold her and kiss her. Justin got to cut the cord.

Then the doctor reached up and broke Kate's water bag. He grabbed her by the legs--which sounds really simple. I guess it wasn't by the amount of wild movement I could see within my stomach. He pulled her out about 4 minutes later. Again, Justin cut the cord.

They let me hold her as well. Then they wheeled me past the girls and let me hold one of them (I can't remember which) for a bit. Their APGAR's were 6 & 9 and 8 & 9.

That's it! I am soooooo glad I didn't have to have a C-Section. I am really Sooooooooo glad I didn't have to have one of each!

Yep, I'm up

Well, it's 6:30 am. I've been up for an hour. In fact I've been up every hour since midnight. Yippee! I know you're all jealous. Since I'm up I thought I'd add a bit to the blog.

Yesterday I went in for this week's appointment. It was moved up from Friday because I'd been having lots of "real" contractions over the weekend. But, I guess we're safe for a little longer. The doctor ran a test that basically predicts whether I'll go into labor in the next two weeks. It came back negative--which means I have a 1% chance of going into labor in next two weeks. So that's good news. I guess I just need to take it a little slower. Which is difficult when taking it slower means sitting on the couch and being driven mad by all the things I can see that I need to do but shouldn't. Really, who knew a simple pile of toys/papers/clothing could be so menacing.

Ah, well. Last night we discovered an important rule in parenting. Don't give a child a toy just because YOU think it would be fun. For example, let's say a particular child, perhaps named James, loves fishies. At the same time a loving Aunt and Uncle, perhaps named Carrie and William, give you a little crib toy that has fishies and lights and music. You are naive enough to think, "Hey, my child, "James", has no problems going to sleep right now, maybe I should try to mess with the good thing we have going by giving him a toy to play with while he falls asleep." Well, that sounds great. Unless the toy becomes an all out obsession for "James" and causes him to go into all out melt down once the music stops. And so, you have the fine opportunity to learn a lesson in parenting as "James" has an all out melt down every time the music stops from 9 pm until 11 pm. :) Really, who would of thought fishies ruled the world. Apparently they do.


Until dinosaurs will.


Or trucks,


Or dogs . . .


And in about 2 1/2 years


Dolls.

Breaking News!

A rare Heffalump sighting in

North Salmon Creek

Eye witness reports are still being gathered, but it is believed that a heffalump was sighted in the North Salmon Creek area of Vancouver, Washington. This heffalump is believed to be of the female variety and may be around 32 weeks pregnant with multiple offspring. If sighted, hide your recliner and lock up your ice cream. Stay indoors for at an hour or two, by which time the heffalump will typically return her nesting grounds. Above all else do not feed her! Feeding wild heffalumps only promoted their dependance on food.

Stylin' James

Here James is modeling the latest style for summer. By mid-July all toddlers will be clammoring for the 2-going-on-80 look! Just remember you saw it here first. :)

I can't believe I'm sharing this!

I can't believe I'm sharing this photo! But, I thought it would give everyone a good chuckle. Yes, I was caught using my belly as a table. Hey, the closer the food is to my mouth, the lesser the chance it'll end up on my clothing!