merry christmas!

So thankful for what we celebrate today! That years ago, God set his "Great Rescue Plan" into motion! (As the Jesus Storybook Bible puts it). True love really was born in a stable.

"Then the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.'" - Luke 2:10-11

our new reality.

So, Jordan and I both have a little OCD when it comes to keeping things semi picked up and pulled together at our house.  Yes, we skip a few days here and there.  And our tubs aren't always scrubbed and the kitchen floor isn't mopped daily.  But, everything kinda has it's place and we both like for things to be put away.

Well....that is no longer our reality.

So, here's keeping it real.  A little video.  Just so I can remember what this has been like.  (And, the video cuts off at the end without me getting to the living room.  Which was one of the best parts.  But, I didn't have time to redo it.  It was time to feed the babies :))

goin' with it.

Okay, so I've totally made this whole blogging thing a whole lot more difficult than I ever intended it to be.  I used to blog consistently.  And then I fell off the bandwagon.  But, I realized, I put all of this pressure on myself and that's when I stopped blogging consistently.  I decided that every post had to be long and well thought out.  That it had to have pictures, but not just any pictures, they needed to be good pictures.  That I took the time to edit and make collages and all of that.  And if I didn't have time to blog something, I would just stop altogether because I didn't want to post things out of order.

And now, I'm behind.  I meant to blog the whole time the boys were in the NICU because there are so many things that I want to remember.  So many feelings.  So many funny stories. So many hard stories.  But I felt behind. 

And then we got home and I wanted to blog about random things.  Funny pictures.  Favorite things.  Just little happy moments.  But, I felt behind.  I hadn't even posted pictures of them coming home (in their HUGE newborn, Feltman Brothers outfits!).  So surely I couldn't post a picture of the Christmas card.  Or tell a story about the chaos that has ensued since we've been home.  

So I've just fallen further and further behind.  Not having time to do a long, picture-filled post.  So just not blogging at all.  But I feel like I'm going to miss this.  I want to record it.  I want to remember how unproductive some days feel and how sometimes I don't shower for days (4 is a new low for me.  Gross.  Before Crews and Tate, I had a hard time only taking one shower in 24 hours.  Needless to say, hats have become my best friend.).  Or how much fun it is to snuggle with my boys.  Or a video of them trying to eat each other.

So, you know what?

I'm picking up today.  Hopefully I'll get around to posting pictures of the boys coming home.  And tell you about how it was while the boys were in the NICU.  But until I do get around to it....how about a random picture of my new favorite coffee creamer?   I'm super excited about it!  You should definitely try it :)

Happy Friday!

How it all went down...(part two)

So, we're picking back up from yesterday.

They moved me to a labor room and I talked to the doctors about when we should call our families.  My parents live about 2 1/2 hours from the hospital and we definitely didn't want them to miss anything but we also didn't want them sitting in the waiting room all day Tuesday waiting for the babies arrive.  Dr. Gilner told me that I should probably go ahead and tell them to head this way because the babies were definitely coming and they were coming sooner rather than later.  With my blood pressure rising, they were going to see how things progressed.  But if things didn't progress quickly they would do something to move the process along.  So, we called our parents and told them to head to the hospital.

A little while after being moved to our room they came in and decided to break my water. They checked me before breaking my water and I was dilated to a 5.   An epidural was required in case of an emergency c-section on Baby B.  But, I had told my doctor that I really wanted a natural delivery so I wanted to wait until the last second to get the epidural. (I also was very adamant about trying to deliver the boys vaginally.  Which is often uncommon with twins - doc will tend to automatically want to do a c-section)

 Our parents arrived and my sister, brother and brother's girlfriend arrived and we filled them in on all the details.  I was so concerned at one point about not having any mascara on and about my face being buuuusteeed ("pregnancy glow" must be a myth....for realz).  So my mom and mother-in-law took a few minutes to "fix" me.  Which, you will see from the pictures afterwards, did not do a ton of good - I still looked rough.  But, for some reason I thought that some concealer and waterproof mascara were going to change my appearance from woman that just pushed out two babies to a cover girl ad.  Ahem, I was apparently confused.

(MiMi and Nonny)

So, annnnyway, I labored for about two hours after they broke "Baby A's" water and then they gave me the epidural.  Then they checked me about 30 minutes after the epidural and I was at a 10 and ready to push!  I think Dr. Gilner was quite surprised that I was at a ten.  She told me we had to go and we had to go right then.  That Baby A was about to make his grand debut and we better get to the OR...STAT :)  I begged Dr. Gilner to give me five minutes and she granted my request.  Our families came back in the room and prayed over me.  I just knew that I wanted God to be in the OR with us.  This was really about to happen.  We were going to deliver two baby boys.  At 32 weeks and 4 days.  And they were going to be taken to the NICU.  So I definitely needed all the prayers we could get.

Sidenote:  Praise the Lord for the dr. appt on Monday afternoon!  Since I was already in labor on Monday afternoon when I arrived, they told me I would have probably ended up at the hospital at some point in the middle of the night anyway in labor.  And, with how quickly everything progressed, we would have probably ended up having these babies in the car on the way to the hospital if we hadn't had the doctors appointment that afternoon!).

(Jordan in some tiny scrubs :)  They let him change into a different pair that were made to fit someone taller than 5 1/2 feet.)

After we prayed, they rushed me to the OR (again, just in case of an emergency c-section).  It was 5:30 a.m.  They went into turbo mode trying to get everyone ready because Crews was about to make his grand debut a little faster than thye were expecting.  There were lots of people in the OR.  A team for each baby and then medical students, anesthesiologists and a couple of OBs.  It was crazy in there.

I told Dr. Gilner that I hadn't taken any kind of class and she offered to give me the Cliff Notes version of delivery.  She give me a 2 minute overview explaining that one push is considered pushing for 10 seconds, taking a small breath, and doing that again two more times.   Then, after the two minute lesson, it was time to start pushing.

(Dr. Swammy, Me and my double chin)

(Dr. Gilner)

I pushed 1 1/2 sets of pushes with Crews and he arrived at 5:48 a.m.  They rushed him into the next room with one team of doctors.  They told me he weighed 1340 grams.  I asked how much that was in pounds and ounces and...dead silence.  No one could answer me.  Out of the twenty plus, highly educated people running around in the OR...no one could tell me. After a few seconds of silence, I asked "anyone?" and a doctor spoke up over to my left and said, I'm working on it.  She had a pencil and paper out trying to convert it.  They told me "umm...about 3 lbs.".  They checked him out and brought him back to the bed and let us meet him for the first time.  He was beautiful.  I was so amazed.  That he was mine.

(Seeing sweet Crews for the first time)

I only saw him for a quick second before it was time to start pushing again.  Tate arrived even faster than Crews.  I pushed a couple of times to get Tate to move down so I could start real pushes.  Then, I pushed one set with Tate and he came out squirming at 6:01 a.m.!  He didn't cry at the beginning but once they got him to the next room and started checking him out, I heard him start crying.  It was such a sweet noise!  Unfortunately they didn't get to bring him back to my bed because they had to take him straight to the NICU. Jordan help the door open as they wheeled Tate away so I could at least see him from afar.

(Jordan went to take a picture of Tate so I could at least see him on my camera!)

What an amazing blessing...an easy delivery!  It was the most amazing thing I've ever experienced.  I am still in wonder and awe of how our bodies are designed!  Jordan and I were both just so overwhelmed at the thought that those twenty little, perfect fingers and twenty little, perfect toes had been inside of me.  That's what we had been feeling move around in my tummy and here they were, outside of me!

(Us with Dr. Gilner - LOVE that woman!)

Okay, how about a part three?  I'll pick up with that soon :)