Thankful for Thanksgiving - Part 2/3 of 5

In case you missed Sunday's post or didn't know, Thursday is Thanksgiving (and 29 days before Christmas). We usually take the day to spend time with our families, watch a parade (football), and eat - a lot. Many times we forget why Thanksgiving was started and we forget to be thankful.  My goal was to have 5 posts this week of things I am thankful for - ending with 50 things on Thursday.  We'll I got sick and Monday's post (post 2) didn't happen.  So here is post 2 and 3 all rolled into one.

Today and everyday I am thankful for my children - all three of them.

It amazes me how many people think having children is easy.  Well, the getting pregnant was easy for me too - but the staying that way was always a problem.

The first time I got pregnant was actually on accident.  See birth control pills and antibiotics don't mix.  The antibiotics make the pill null and void.  My dear hubby and I were both suprised, but excited.  Unfortuantely the pregnancy was lost at just 5 weeks - only days after I'd found out.  At that point we knew we wanted to have children, and I had been told a few years earlier - that I couldn't wait forever to have kids.  The doctor told me I'd probably have a hysterectomy by the time I was 30.  Dear hubby and I decided to let my body heal and then try again. 
September 11 happened and it was a blow to everyone everywhere.  Admist all the emotion was this sense of here and now and not waiting for the future.  A few days later I was pregnant again.  We were excited and I was at the doctor lickity split.  My ob is probably the best ob in the world.  The day after my appointment the nurse called and put the doctor on the phone.  Something was wrong with my hormone levels and I had to come in for an ultrasound.  Turned out my pregnancy was eptopic and had to be terminated.  I chose to go with methotrexate which was the least invasive.  Two weeks later, after still being in pain, we chose to have surgery - something was still wrong.
Turns out I had endometriosis which is why I wasn't able to carry.  They were able to burn off a lot of it.  And apparently the doctor told my family that I would be super fertile after the surgery - no one told me.

In December I went back to the doctor.  I was pregnant again, days later - we found out it was identical twins (for their whole story go here).  I carried them 35 weeks and 5 days with no more problems.  Today they are happy healthy boys.  I am so thankful that I can see them grow and learn each and every day.

Years after having the twins (we were scared we'd have twins again).  We were able to get pregnant with little man.  His pregnancy was fairly uneventful, but afterwards we were in shock (for the whole story go here or my life changing moment go here).  The great part is - today he is healthy (and yes one day I will blog about the journey). 

Today all my children are healthy (even if Mommy is still a little sick) and I am grateful to have three happy healthy beautiful boys.

What are you thankful for?

a Fight for Preemies

Today, November 17, is dedicated to raising awareness of premature birth (before 37 weeks).  1 in 8 children in the US are born premature, leading to time spent in NICU and dangerous complications.  In my house 2 of my 3 children were born premature.

For some of us (especially Moms of Multiples) we get it early on.  We know that our children are not going to make it to full term and we start weighing our options and setting benchmark dates early on.  I think for us, it is easier to carry longer because we are very aware of the survival rates.

When I was pregnant with my singleton, no one ever said a word about benchmark dates other than my "due date" and no one said a word about the need to make it as long as possible. I believe that every pregnant woman should know what dates are important for the chance of their child's survival and how to strive for those dates. Because the reality is nearly 13 million babies are born premature each year and more than 1 million of those don't make it.

If you, or someone you know (I sound like a commerical) are pregnant, do some research, educate your self and then pass it along.  The March of Dimes or the Mayo Clinic  has loads of information in addition to what I have below.

• Week 22 - the first time life outside of the womb is possible, but with the most risk
• Week 25 - your baby almost weighs 2 lbs
• Week 27 - the branches of the lungs are just starting to develop, chances of survival increase
• Week 34 - organs almost fully developed, except for lungs
• Week 35 - lungs almost fully developed - but still the chance of the incubator
• Week 37 - baby is considered full term (even though your due date is still 3 weeks away and your baby needs to grow more in size)

Please join us and share your story -

hemorrhoids and other crap that happens after/during pregnancy

If you are preggo or trying to get preggo - DO NOT read this blog. Really.

Today I want to complain about all the crap they do not tell us when we are trying to get pregnant or are pregnant, because yes 2 1/2 years later I am STILL feeling the effects.

No one said

• that my bladder would become a stomping ground and therefore any time a baby jumped I'd pee myself. Fabulous when this happens for the first time while your in public and haven't learned to pack a change of clothes yet. Fabulous that childbirth doesn't automatically fix the problem.
• that with multiple babies in my belly I would have so little room to breathe or eat. I understood it would be cramped, but never have I had to sit so straight and breathe so shallow while trying to feed my face.
• that my ankles would swell so large I'd have to buy larger shoes and eventually larger sandals would be the only thing that would fit. They also didn't say how this swelling would follow on up my legs into my calves.
• that after giving birth you look like you have a beer gut.
• that you will no longer know how not to sleep on your side with a pillow holding your stomach.
• that if you push out a 9lb 4oz baby you are going to have hemorrhoids, and that even if they don't show up immediately they will - and they will hurt so bad you cry, and you won't be able to sit and you will dread going to the doctor.

Am I forgetting anything?

Think of stretch marks as pregnancy service stripes. ~Joyce Armor

funky foods

So my Little Man seems to be the point of conversation this week. That child and his eating habits will be the death of me yet.

Luckily I was induced a week before my due date with him. He weighed 9lbs 4 oz at birth (and no I did NOT have a c-section). After having 2 5lb babies I believed I had a 2 month old on my hands. From day one he could drink 8 oz in 2 minutes flat.

These days - his eating has become a little more hazardous. Being 2 has given him a mind of his own and apparently he is not afraid to use it. If allowed, he would eat bananas and cheese all day long.

Being the "you'll eat more than that" parents that we are, I fixed him some cereal the other day. Before I could add the milk to his life, one of the twins yelled and I had to go see what the problem was.

When I came back, I found Little Man eating this.

Apparently - if milk tastes good on cereal - chocolate syrup (half a bottle) tastes better.

Cheers!

As a child my family's menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it. ~Buddy Hackett

Twins Turn 7

Time flies when you are having fun. I can't believe it is seven years already. Seven seems like such a big number to me - seven and going to the second grade. I really liked age 6, not really sure about turning seven and all the things it could bring. Let's go back instead, to right before they were born.

I knew who my children were while they were still inside me. I don't know how we know so much about them, or how I could tell more about their personalities than I could with a single. It is an amazing phenomenon that I have heard happen to other moms too. I want to take you through my predictions, and compare them to my children today.

BABY A: He would be the first born, in position ready to go. He would be our eldest child, more easy going, relaxed, a little shy, just going with the flow. He would be like his father, so his father named him T1.

BABY B: He would be our against the grain child, not wanting the monitors to ever keep track of him. He would be more outgoing, my risk taker. He would be more like his mother, so I named him T2.

Fast Foward 7 Years

Baby A/ T1 - Won the eldest child by a record 17 minutes. Those must have been the longest 17 minutes in history, because he plays the oldest child part very well. T1 likes to be in charge, but when things get changed, his is true to form and goes with the flow. Not easily upset or overly emotional. The only thing I didn't forsee, a class clown. While he does well in school and has learned when to clown and when not to (while the teacher's talking), he loves to make everyone laugh. He prides himself on being the funniest and is willing to take center stage to do so.

Baby B/ T2 - Let his brother be the eldest because he wasn't moving. He loves his Mommy and doesn't like change. He is a risk taker, daredevil that I watch with one eye closed, for fear of a heart attack. He likes to do things his own way and doesn't like to be pushed around. I didn't forsee such a shy child. He strives so hard to be perfect in school and wants others to like him, but is slower to make friends.

They have grown so much, so fast. I am very proud of who they are and how far they have come. And yes, all the twin mommies before me were right, it does get easier! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOYS!!!

We've had bad luck with children; they've all grown up. ~Christopher Morley

Happy 2nd Birthday

It is hard to believe that Little Man is two years old today (we are ignoring the fact that the twins will be 7 soon).
Of course every parent says it is hard to believe that their child is __ age. But Little Man carries a special story with him. He is my miracle child. While carrying full-term for me is a miracle in and of itself, Bradley redefined the term.
After having a rough first trimester, Little Man started to calm down and grow, and grow and grow. Every time I went in for a checkup they would tell me how much more he had grown past his gestational age. He was a week big, 2 weeks big, 3 weeks big. My doctor even gave me a term for it (not that I remember what it was). I knew he was going to come early, he was big, strong, healthy and ready to see his family. Little Man's due date was June 6, 2007, but after having the twins at 36 weeks, an extra 6 weeks of pregnancy sounded too long for me. At 39 weeks I was ready to pop, they told me he was 8 lbs. 8 LBS!! I knew that if I waited full term I'd have an 11 lb baby like my brother was. I did not want an 11 lb baby. I started walking stairs at lunch, eating spicy food, basically doing every wives tale there was on how to jump start labor. Of course nothing happened. At 40 weeks, they told me he was 8 1/2 lbs and gave me the choice to induce labor.
"Where do I sign up?"
I was scheduled for 7:30am on Tuesday, May 29, 2007, the day after Memorial Day. Dear Hubby dropped the twins off at day care and my mother in law took me to the hospital. It was a great day - and relatively easy. I had an epidural and started pushing about 3 o'clock. I won't gross you out with all the gory details. I will say that when he finally arrived at quarter to 4 and the doctor lifted him up for me to see I was in shock. HE WAS HUGE. My frame of reference is a little skewed as the twins were only 5lbs each when born, but that was a big baby!!!
9 lbs 4 oz , blue eyes, blond hair, just like his brothers and just like his Daddy. He was perfect. Although he did cry for two hours straight, but only because he was hungry. After that he never fussed, slept great, and was the apple of his Daddy's eye.
Everyone who came to see us thought he was beautiful, so I am not being biast. The day after was going well until the pediatrician on staff came into my room. She said "your son has a heart murmur. We found it in a routine exam, and it may be nothing, but we want to run another test, an Echocardiogram, just to be sure." I had chosen the hospital we were in for health reasons. Because I knew from previous experience, they were thorough and my son would be in the best hands. I didn't even call John to tell him about the test, because she said it may be nothing.
Two hours later a pediatric cardiologist walked into my room and I knew the pediatrician had been wrong from the moment the cardiologist introduced himself. No one should ever have to meet a pediatric cardiologist. He told me that my son has a rare (1 in 20,000) congenital heart defect known as Ebstein's Anomaly. Our son's tricuspid valve is not closing properly, leaving an opening for blood to leak back through the valve and into the right atrium. As a result, the right atrium becomes enlarged and if severe enough, congestive heart failure can result. Luckily our son's condition was not that severe. The cardiologist told me his right atrium was enlarged and our son had constant backflow. The doctor was great, he drew pictures and sat with me for over an hour.
It didn't matter. I lost it anyway; I thought it was my fault. Then he told me, no one knows what causes this defect. He also told me that CHD is the most frequently occurring birth defect, and is the leading cause of birth-defect related deaths. I was shocked. How could I not know? Over the next few days my husband and I did a lot of research and what I found was startling, not just about my son, but about all children with CHDs. According to the American Heart Association about 40,000 babies are born each year with heart defects. And nearly twice as many children die from congenital heart disease in the United States each year as die from all forms of childhood cancers combined.
The first few weeks of Little Man's life were tough.
We questioned everything. Would he have surgery? Would he be able to play sports? Would he get tired too easily?
We had to rearrange our world. We had to have and appointment with the pediatric cardiologist and got to watch the backflow on the echo. I had to switch insurance policies as quickly as possible to make sure Little Man would be covered no matter what happened. We learned what signs to watch for, how to take his heart rate. In July he had to go on a heart monitor for about a month because his heart rate was so high. It was hard, but I knew people were worse off than us. I knew that there were worse cases who were having to have surgery right then. We were lucky. We went back for our check ups at 3 months, 6 months, a year.
His first birthday was when we found our miracle. We went to the cardiologist for a echo to see how he was doing - and the defect was all but gone!!! The doctor said that he wouldn't even say he has a problem now and to come back in 2-3 years!!! Shocked, thrilled, releived, were only some of the emotions we were feeling. We had witnessed a miracle in our own son.
So today, we celebrate our miracle. I love you Little Man!

Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart walking around outside your body. ~Elizabeth Stone

The Story of Twins

Everyone loves a story. Mommies especially love a birth story, or even better a birth story on multiples - so here is mine. (Beware it is REALLY long)

Getting pregnant was not the issue with my dear hubby and I, it was the staying pregnant part. We got preggo in the summer of 2001, only to lose it just as fast. September 11th came and we chose to try again. I made it 6 weeks this time before they found a problem, the pregnancy was eptopic and we would have to terminate. We chose methotrexate, but the pain did not cease and I ended up having laparoscopic surgery. During surgery, they found that the pregnancy had dissolved, but the source of my problems was endometriosis. They were able to burn the spots off of my uterus. Now apparently my fabulous obgyn told my family that I was super fertile after the surgery, but no one told me that. A month later - I was preggo again.

On Monday December 10th, I went in for my first ultrasound. I was only 5 weeks pregnant, but everyone wanted to make sure this one was in the right spot. My mother in law went with me and we got a great pic of what looked to me like a chicken leg. So early in pregnancy all we could see was the sack and that it was perfectly placed in my uterus. We were THRILLED to say the least. Finally after multiple losses, we knew this pregnancy was going to make it. On Friday morning I woke up to spotting. Immediately terrified I called the doctor and she ushered me in right away. They scheduled an ultrasound at another location because they were booked, but wanted to see what was going on as quickly as possible. I ended up at one of these procedure clinics that don't really have doctors, but just do ultrasounds and other screenings all day long. I didn't know anyone there, none of my friends or family could make it on such short notice. I sat freezing (swear they had the air on in December) in a place I was unfamiliar with waiting on news I knew would be devastating. The technician performing my ultrasound was super nice. She immediately started chatting about the weather, and my history, what I ate for breakfast. I was so glad she was occupying my mind which was freaking out. She continued this barade of questions about my pregnancies, what I wanted, had I ever had twins. And I answered each one; I'd been pregnant twice already, one eptopic, wanted a boy, twins run in my family, my grandfather was an identical twin, my uncles are twins, my husband's brother was a twin but one didn't make it. Then she stopped talking.
Stopped talking, for a full 15 minutes (okay maybe it was 5 but it seemed like eternity). I began to wonder what was going on, but being in an unfamiliar place I was scared to ask. Then it dawned on me, maybe she wasn't asking for the heck of it, maybe I was having...
"Why did you ask?" I said.
"Oh, you're having twins." She replied, "I'll show you in a minute, just let me finish."

Oh, you're having twins! What? I was in shock. I was expecting news about losing another baby, not gaining another baby. Apparently I was having this ultrasound on the 5week5 day mark. This was the first time they could see the heart beats and inside that sack I called a chicken leg, were two heart beats. After giving me pictures, the tech told me she had to take my results to the radiologist and wait until she came back, reminding me not to use my phone. DON'T USE THE PHONE - Oh I didn't even know how to keep this kind of news to myself. But I did. I sat patiently and waited for 30 minutes while everyone looked at my ultrasound. After coming back she explained that I had Monochorionic-Diamniotic twins and the reason it took so long was that she was looking for the membrane that was dividing the sacs of our twins. Needless to say when I got out of that place, lots of squeals of joy ensued and the journey of my pregnancy began.
It was a couple of months before we found out we were having boys, and again we were thrilled. We picked out names within a week of finding out. John picking his favorite, and I picked mine. Things progressed fairly well with monthly ultrasounds and the goal of making it to July even though my due date was August 13th. In June I started having preterm labor, eventually I ended up on bed rest which for a non-stop person like me was oh so thrilling. The twins were in perfect position for birth - baby A was head down, straight, and feet up under my right rib cage. Baby b was head down, with his head on my left side, bent at his waist with his feet also in my right rib cage. By Friday, July 5th I was miserable. Having all these feet in one set of ribs hurt, and made it hard to sit comfortably or eat. I was so ready to have them. We went to the doctor for yet another ultrasound that would measure the boys and see where we were. We were told I was having giants. That both boys were already over six pounds. I was officially at 36 weeks, could come off bed rest and if they got too much bigger, we'd look at induction.
Well that was it for me - time to get those babies out!!! My wonderful hubby and I spent that July 4th weekend walking. We walked the mall, we walked some stairs, we walked everywhere. I felt so free finally being able to do things. (although I was finally cleared to drive, it hurt too much to operate the car). I started working on every known wives tale (except castor oil) to induce the labor. Not that any of it worked. By Tuesday morning I was exhausted and there was no end in sight. Wednesday would be my birthday and I did not want to spend it in the hospital, so I decided to take a few days off. Tuesday morning I laid down on the couch for a nap around 10am (you know get all the sleep now kind of thing). I was laying there basking in the silence when I heard a small pop.
There's no way I thought. That couldn't have been my water. But what else could it be. I got up and went to the bathroom, no gushing. Just dripping, that didn't end. I called a friend who happened to be a nurse and who was working with my husband at the time. She confirmed that it was probably my water. Well - I didn't believe it. I wasn't having contractions and who hears their water pop but doesn't see the gush. I got on the phone with my hubby who was quickly preparing to make the 45 minute trip home and get me, just so we could make another 45 minute trip to the hospital. I casually got into the shower and rinsed. I didn't use soap, but if I really was going into labor, I wanted to be freshly showered. As soon as I got out, my mother in law called to say she would be taking me to the hospital. She had happened to take the day off work and was a lot closer than Dear Hubby. Moments later she was there and we were off.
As soon as I got in the car, she asked how far apart my contractions were, I said I wasn't having any. Well 12 minutes later, I was having fabulous contractions 5 minutes apart. By the time we got near the hospital they were 2 minutes apart. The next little bit is really a blur. I remember being in a lot of pain, putting off the epidural only to have these awful drugs that made me loopy. Turns out the reason my water never gushed was Baby A's head was holding it back. At my first check I was already 8 cms and they were able to touch his head already. Everything continues to be a blur, although at some point I got the epidural and at 5pm they took me to the surgery room.
I was not sure what was going on. In all my preterm labor trips to the hospital, no one ever told me I would deliver in the surgery room. The doctor quickly explained that although the goal was for me to deliver vaginally, if anything happened they needed to be ready. I started out pushing on the bed they wheeled me in on. I was told they would move me to the next bed when I was really close, and the third bed was if surgery was needed. I pushed for over an hour, all the time thinking I was never going to make it to the next bed. Around 6:30 I got to move. At this point I was ready. At 6:48pm T1 was born. I saw a glimpse of him as the doctor lifted him up. He was white as a sheet and his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. We had no idea he had been in distress. My quiet child was immediately whisked away to the NICU without me getting to see him again.
But with twins there is no time to dwell, it was T2's turn. Only T2 wasn't moving. His water hadn't broke, he wouldn't drop and I was back to having contractions 5 minutes apart. Of course as in any hospital it was now shift change. So one son born, another on the way and now the room is twice as full of nurses as there were before T1 was born weighing 5lbs3oz. Barb, a nurse I'd met on a previous hospital visit, came in and took over. I was so happy to have her there. There is a 20 minute time limit on twins and 15 minutes after T1  was born, the doctor decided to break the water and suck T2 down. It worked. At 7:05pm T2 was born weighing 5lbs1oz and screaming. There was nothing wrong with him other than mad about being out. I was able to hold him almost immediately.
T1 had to endure a blood transfusion, and we didn't get to hold him for 2 days, but he only spent a week in NICU. T2 was able to come home after three days in the regular nursery.