Chap and Tenny

The boys have been here for almost three weeks and I'm afraid that I am going to quickly forget all of the details of their birth given the lack of sleep that I've had. Hopefully I can remember all of the details of that night.

On December 20th I went in for my last appointment with the doctor. That day I actually saw his PA. I had hoped that I wouldn't actually have to have this appointment because the babies would already be here. My mom had been in town since the 15th and was leaving the next day. I really didn't want her to leave without meeting them first. I knew she would be back in two weeks, but there is just something really special about seeing newborns that are so fresh from heaven.

I started my appointment doing a non-stress test. The babies passed just fine, but my blood pressure was slightly elevated on the top each time they tested it. I thought this might be a way to get me admitted that day. Next I went to the basement of the hospital to radiology and had an ultrasound. During this test the babies had to pass off a few things like movements and breathing. Baby B did great and passed easily, but Baby A only did 10 seconds of practice breathing instead of 30 seconds and was still breech. I thought this would also be a way to get me admitted that day since a C section was inevitable anyway.

When I went back up to see the PA and she checked my cervix I was only dilated to a 2. After consulting with Dr. Hennesy she said that we were still going to "wait it out"and let my body go into labor naturally and then do a C section. I left feeling really bummed. It was dinner time by the time I left and we had dinner and got the kids ready for bed. They each opened up a present from Grandma as this was the last night that she would be there and we glued together a nativity set that I had growing up.

Gracie said a prayer that the babies would come that night so that Grandma could see them before she left...

Well...her prayer worked! I was feeling a little crampy all evening after my appointment but I figured that was probably just due to being big and uncomfortable. I mean I did have 12 lbs of baby in there after all. I was starting to get really uncomfortable and not able to do much.

I finally settled into bed about 11:00pm and fell asleep timing contractions that were about 10 minutes apart. At 12:20am I awoke to my water breaking in bed. I'm not sure why it always happens this way, but this has been the case with 4 out of my 6 pregnancies. Laying down at night always seems to trigger my water to break.

I jumped in the shower to rinse off and put on some new clothes. At this point, the contractions were about every 5 minutes and were getting a bit more intense. My other babies were born 6-24 hours after my water broke so I figured we had tons of time. We woke up my mom and told her we were leaving for the hospital. On the 20 minute drive to the hospital the contractions were about 3 minutes apart and by the time they checked me at the hospital I was dilated to 6 cm and the doctor could feel a hand and bum coming down. When the doctor (who ended up being an on-call doctor named Dr Opoku, since it was the middle of the night) saw what was going on with an ultrasound, everything started moving a little faster.

The nurses were prepping me quickly for the operating room. That was quite a different experience from my other children as they were all born vaginally I was used to waiting around for things to happen. Shad was given scrubs and they assured him into another room while I went into the OR. They told him "you may think that we have forgotten about you after a while, but we haven't." He later told me that he was in there for 45 minutes although it didn't feel that long to me. He took a bunch of pictures to keep him distracted.

In the OR the anesthesiologist came and gave me a spinal block. During that time the nurses were commenting on how calm I was. I asked them if I was supposed to be freaking out. I commented that they probably get all kinds of people in the operating room. I am just not an anxious person so I felt calm and collected the whole time even though it was all totally new to me. They also checked my blood sugar since I was a gestational diabetic. They were surprised to find that my blood sugar was actually LOW at only 56 and had to give me some glucose to bring it up so they could operate.

It's a good thing I don't get anxious because when the spinal block wasn't working and I felt everything when they started pinching me I really should have panicked. When the anesthesiologist said "let's do a test cut" I said "um, nope. I can still feel that." Right after that, I don't remember much. Since the spinal wasn't taking well he gave me a general anesthetic to knock me out a little. I felt like I was having an out of body experience. All I remember is having a blue sheet in front of my face, my head was spinning, and I could hear Shad's voice with babies crying in the background.

I repeated in my mind over and over "you are having babies, you are here because you are having babies right now." I wanted to talk but I didn't feel like I could make cohesive sentences. I felt totally sedated. This was a completely different experience as I was used to pushing out the babies and having them laid on my chest and being aware of everything.

By the time I saw the babies and they brought them up to my head I was finally able to talk, although I still felt like I wasn't making much sense. Later Shad told me that when he came into the room he came to say hi to me and I stared blankly and him like I didn't even know he was there. He squeezed my hand and I didn't squeeze back. It's a good thing that the babies came out right after that because I think his anxiety would have gone crazy if not. Right when they came out he was snapping pictures so there wasn't any time to pass out.

Chapman Durfee Anderson (left) was born first at 2:01am weighing 5lbs 14oz.

Tennyson Ray Anderson (right) was born at 2:02 am weighing 6lbs 4oz.

The NICU nurses were there but left shortly after as neither of the boys required any help from them. they both didn't have any issues and I was able to nurse them right after leaving the operating room. It was quite a different experience trying to juggle two tiny babies and getting them to nurse but I was eventually able to get them both to latch at the same time.

They look so different from each other. With them being in two separate sacks with two different placentas I knew that they would most likely be fraternal twins but I also knew that there was a 30% chance that they could still be identical. However, after seeing them for the first time I knew that they were FOR SURE not identical. They are actually almost complete opposites of each other. In our family, we seem to have two different molds and Chapman was from one mold and Tennyson from the other. The interesting thing too is that Chapman reminds me more of Shad's family and was named after ancestors in his family line and Tennyson looks more like my family and was named after my ancestors. We had their names picked out long before we saw them, so I thought that was interesting.

After a few minutes in the recovery room, they wheeled me up into my room on the 11th floor. I was able to sleep a little, but not much. I was pretty exhausted when the kids showed up to see the babies that morning. They missed school and my mom brought them to the hospital. When my mom walked into the room she got a little teary-eyed. I was really glad that they were born before she left that night. Luckily the hospital didn't have any restrictions on visitors yet, even with it being flu season. They started the restrictions on January 2nd so we were lucky.

The kids absolutely adored the babies, except for Ruby who didn't seem to care at all and just wanted to see me. Haken and Jack especially loved holding them. I thought about how cool it must be for them because they are old enough that they will actually remember them being born and having baby brothers. When my sister was born I was only 2.5 and I don't remember anything.

My mom stayed with me all that day at the hospital and Shad took the kids to school. I figured it was probably better for her to spend the entire day with these new babies before she left that evening. I nursed them both separately all day which was fine because I didn't have anything else to do while I was there anyway.

I actually enjoy my hospital stays after I have babies because I have time to relax, order room service and not worry about the daily things I need to do. The only downside is the nurses coming in constantly and the fact that they don't have a nursery for me to send the babies off to so I can get a good night's sleep. I always liked doing that with my other kids. Not having a nursery is a fairly new thing I think.

My mom's flight left at 6:00pm that night, so the first night there I had Monica come stay with me so Shad could get a good night's sleep at home. The first night was a little rough as Chap was really struggling to sleep. Monica was holding him for hours trying to get him to quiet down. She was worried he was waking me up. I was so grateful to have her there as there was no way that I was going to be getting up and down by myself to get the babies for feedings.

The incision was another thing I was not used to with having a C-section. It felt like every move or twist that I made was tearing it apart. It would burn every time I tried to shift positions. I had medicine to keep the pain under control. It was actually fine until they had me get out of bed the next afternoon and walk around. I hunched over and didn't feel like I could stand up straight without tearing it open.

Shad came the next day and stayed with me while the kids went to the Bednars. They had so much fun playing with them all day long.

That evening YSA friend Steph took over and put them to bed at our house and stayed the night. That day was a great day for Shad and I getting to know the babies and having a "celebration dinner" together in the hospital.

Right before lunch that day I got up and took a shower. I was feeling really good but still sore. I was anxious to get all of the bandages off of my incision and the water helped with that. As I was taking the bandages off I started to feel light headed. I sat down and called for Shad telling him my blood sugar was dropping. He called a nurse from the hallway and all of the sudden it was code red out in the hallway. A nurse came and snapped something in front of my nose to keep me from passing out and then gave me a juice box and lots of snacks. It was kind of embarrassing but I was glad that I didn't actually pass out and make it worse. I was surprised that my blood sugar was low as I was dealing with highs during my pregnancy. I think my body was trying to adjust to not having babies in there. During the rest of my hospital stay I had to eat more frequently to keep my blood sugar up.

The babies were also monitored for low blood sugars as that frequently happens with babies of gestational diabetics. Tenny had a slightly low blood sugar reading but after having some supplemental formula he came up just fine on the next feeding. The boys checked out just great on all of their screenings and finally got to have a bath.

On Sunday morning Steph took the kids to church. We were discharged from the hospital about 1:00 and headed home. I had a pretty bad headache, but I figured this was probably due to the blood sugars I was dealing with. The drugs kept it at bay well enough, however, right before we left it was pretty bad but I was determined to check out. I did not want to be there on Christmas Eve which was the next day.

In the car on the way home, I had to close my eyes and keep my head down. The sun was so bright and my head was pounding. I have never had a migraine before but that must have been what they are like. When we got home I decided I was going to say hello to everyone, including Sister Carter who was there taking care of the kids and dropping off dinner, and then head straight to bed. My head was pounding as I climbed in bed. I left all seven kids with Shad downstairs and I took a 2-hour nap. When I woke up I sat up but my head was still pounding. I realized after looking online that I was probably experiencing a spinal headache from the spinal block I had at surgery. They usually appear about 24 hours afterward so that made sense.

That night James came and gave me a priesthood blessing as well as Gracie who was not feeling well either. She had a terrible cough, red eyes, and runny nose. I was really worried about how that night would go as I had to still get up and feed the babies even with my headache. I woke up two hours later to feed the babies and my headache was completely gone. I was so grateful for that priesthood blessing. I had read online that spinal headaches could last up to a week and I knew I wouldn't be able to function with that headache.

I am so grateful that everything went so well with the delivery and now at three weeks I really feel almost normal. Recovery from a C section has been very different and taken a lot longer but we have had so much help that it hasn't been as big of a burden for us. Nicole came the day after Christmas and stayed for 10 days and that was super helpful. I don't know how I would have survived that first week without help. She helped to keep everything under control so that I could rest and take care of the babies. We also had meal after meal come in from friends, bags of groceries, and boxes of diapers dropped off. We are feeling very loved and blessed after having these boys. We really do have the best friends surrounding us right now. I can't even keep track of all of the thank you notes that I need to write.

We are completely in love with these boys and are loving getting to know them each individually.

Coming up on the finish line- 36 weeks

Here I am sitting at 36 weeks and 4 days. I thought for sure these babies would be here by now. Today is my grandma Mildred's 81st birthday. I thought it would be pretty special if these babies were born on her birthday as we are naming one of them after her father. 

In my picture on Thursday (Dec 13th, Jack's birthday as well as my great grandpa Alfred Tennyson), I didn't see a lot of difference, I almost feel like I look smaller. A lot of people have said that they think I have dropped so the babies are ready to go. The problem is there isn't a baby head down pushing on my cervix to get things moving.

When I went to my doctor appointment with Shad on Friday we thought we were really going to be able to convince the doctor to take me before my December 26th C-section date, but we didn't. He said that babies just do better if they are taken when they decide to come on their own. Their lungs are developed and they are less likely to have NICU time. This convinced us enough to leave them be for a while. In the ultrasound on Thursday they were measuring 6lbs and 6lbs 2oz. No wonder I am sore by the end of the day, I am carrying around 12lbs of baby!

The hardest reality this week is that my mom flew in the day after my doctor appointment and is staying for a week, hoping that maybe she can catch the babies. I was super convinced that they would come while she is here, but now I am not so sure. Every day I feel like today might be the day and then the day passes without a hint of labor. I've been walking in the mornings and doing all of my normal routine cleaning and that hasn't stirred anything up at all. When the doctor checked my cervix on Friday I was only a 1.5cm and not effaced at all.

We just might have some Christmas babies on our hands... Although I'm not holding out hope that they come before grandma leaves on Friday.

I am just really blessed to have made it this far without any complications and bed rest. I am definitely counting my blessings and hoping that the C-section and recovery goes as well as the rest of the pregnancy has.

33 Weeks!

Tomorrow will mark 33 weeks for this pregnancy. I looked at the calendar and started to kind of freak out as we are really getting down to the last 3-4 weeks. I'm really trying hard to get everything in place for when the babies get here and for Christmas.

Last week I had my 32 week appointment. From now on they will be weekly appointments.

On the ultrasound the babies looked great however... Baby A is still breech. This is a problem as he really needs to be head down in order for me to even try to deliver vaginally. Baby B is transverse but it doesn't really matter what position he is in. I can deliver him vaginally as long as Baby A is head down since he is closest to the cervix.

So...when I went to my doctor appointment after the ultrasound we talked about what our options are. Basically she said at this point there is a 95% chance that they are stuck where they are and aren't going to turn. They are just too big and run into one another so it doesn't happen very often. Although I have heard of a few cases of it happening as late as 36 weeks in a twin pregnancy. The babies are already both over 4 lbs so that would be a lot of baby to maneuver around in there. When I found out how big they were I thought "no wonder I am getting so uncomfortable! I have over 8 lbs of baby in there already!"

The doctor said that a C-section was inevitable with these babies. I am kind of bummed as I really wanted to avoid that. I heard that the recovery is harder, especially when you are trying to nurse and have to deal with recovering from a surgery. However, it is not the end of the world. I just try to keep telling myself that I really just want healthy babies so if that is what we need to do then I will do it.

However, since we are going to be having a C-section that also means these babies and myself might be more at risk and the Gibson City hospital might not be the best place for us to be. It would really stink if the babies got shipped off to Carle hospital 30 minutes away and I was stuck at Gibson City recovering from a C-section.

So, with this news Shad and I decided we better start looking into what it would cost to deliver at Carle. We called the financial aid office and it turns out that the last time I looked into the cost was when we were delivering 1 baby. Now that we have 2 babies coming, instead of only qualifying for 50% financial aid, we now qualify for 100% financial aid like we did with Ruby. Gibson City was offering us 90% so that is one of the reasons we went up there.

When we found this out we were so excited as Carle at 50% is still outrageous and more than we could afford. 100% is a huge tender mercy and we are so grateful that we qualify. Shad makes just a little under what the threshold is for 100%. Next year with his raise we may not qualify, but at least we qualify right now when we need it the most. I am really sad to leave Gibson City though as I LOVE Dr. Austman and her team. Their care is on such personal level compared to Carle. I know the nurses by name and I feel so comfortable with them. I was also really excited about delivering at a smaller hospital as that has always been a better experience for us. But ultimately I also wanted to have healthy babies and since Gibson City does not have a NICU we need to switch over to do what is right for the babies as well.

I feel so bad leaving Gibson City clinic as I did this exact thing with them when I had Ruby because we qualified for financial assistance with them as well. I knew it would be a hard thing for me so I asked him to come to my appointment with me today. I felt a little bit emotional about it as we told them our situation and what we had decided. They totally understood but I told Shad that I felt like I was breaking up with a good friend that I would never see again. They had discovered the twins and helped me this far along and I was very happy with the care that I received.

The nurse switched my records over today and I have an appointment with a PA at Carle on Monday afternoon and then another with the Dr. the following week. I had 3 doctors to choose from and I had only heard of the name of one of them but I couldn't remember where I had heard of him. When I looked up his picture I realized that he looked familiar. I think he was the one who ended up delivering Ruby because our Dr. was signing on a house that morning. So I guess Dr. Hennesay will be delivering the twins if all goes as planned. Although you never know what you are going to get when you go with Carle. It could be a doctor that you have never seen before.

Most likely the twins will go to the NICU because they have one there and they like to have them all checked out, but I am just glad that is an option now and hope they will come healthy and not have to be in there for very long.

Just a few more short weeks and we will meet these little boys. I am anxious to be done with the diabetes diet, although my doctor said that my blood sugar is very well controlled. I do try to do low carb most of the time, but I have had a few days where I cheat a little. I am really trying to see what I can and can not eat. It's interesting that there are some things like white bread, cookies, and candy that send my blood sugar skyrocketing and then other carbs like potatoes, wheat bread, and ice cream that don't do that much at all. It is still important that I eat carbs, just in small doses, so I am trying to stick to that, even though sometimes all I want is a cookie or candy.

I am still sleeping really well except for the 2 times every night that I have to get up to go pee. However, I fall right back asleep afterward so that is a blessing. I do get really sore by the end of the day and I am pretty tired, but I am surprised at how much energy I still have. I try to do some form of work out every day. I alternate between a prenatal workout video, walking on the treadmill, and walking in the field house with my friends. I'm tired by the end of the day when I go out with my friends so those days stretch me a little bit more.

The twin nursing pillow Jennifer Jenson and Monica
gave me. It is pretty amazing and huge.

I haven't really gained any weight in the last month, but the babies have which is what we want I guess with my gestational diabetes. I guess the lack of weight gain is probably due to my diet. At first, I always felt hungry but now I am starting to learn what snacks I can eat to keep myself full in between meals. I'm kind of getting sick of salads though. I feel like I eat the same things over and over again.

Just a few more weeks. I keep telling myself "just keep swimming." The end is definitely in sight!

Gestational Diabetes

At my appointment earlier this week I did my standard glucose test and drunk that lovely sugary carbonated beverage. Well, the next day I got a call from the nurse that I indeed did NOT pass the initial glucose test.

I didn't worry about it too much as I actually didn't pass when I was Haken either. However, with Haken I ate strawberries at lunch right before and I think that messed up the results. I also ended up passing the 3 hour glucose test that I had to take.

This time, however, I made sure to eat a carb free breakfast so the results would for sure be accurate. The nurse said I barely didn't pass, but I still had to go back in and do the 3 hour glucose test later that week.

So, today I went in and did the 3 hour test at the hospital. It was actually kind of nice as I got to sit there for a solid three hours by myself doing whatever I wanted to do. I took the laptop with me and got my blog all updated through the summer. It's amazing how much I can get done when I don't have any distractions. Shad stayed home with the kids and it was a good thing that he did because Jack ended up having a pump site at school that wasn't working at all. When Shad went to go change it out it was completely kinked. We haven't had an incident like that in a while. I'm glad he was close enough to take care of it so we could get his blood sugar down.

During the test I actually felt a little bit nauseous in the beginning, probably due to the high blood sugar on an empty stomach because I had to go fasting that morning. I was done by 11:00 though, so it wasn't too bad.

On the way home from the hospital I got a call from the nurse. I did NOT pass the 3 hour glucose test and so I am now considered a gestational diabetic.

This was so weird to me as I thought I was actually being really healthy this pregnancy. I was eating a salad a day for pretty much my whole pregnancy. I was trying to exercise regularly, although the last few weeks I had been a little lazier as I just didn't have the energy and thought carrying twins was a good excuse to sleep in instead of wake up and work out.

Apparently, you are more prone to have gestational diabetes if you are carrying multiples and have a history of diabetes in your family. Obviously, we have type 1 that runs in our family, but my dad was also technically considered type 2 so I think it is something that I will need to watch for in the future.

Because my numbers were technically "right on the line" she said to start by managing it with diet and then we will see where it goes from there. I have to check my blood sugar in the morning before I eat, 2 hours after lunch, 2 hours after dinner, and at bedtime. She was going to order me in a blood glucose monitor and test strips but I told her that we have an extra meter and lots of strips because of Jack, so we didn't worry about getting a new prescription.

Jack is kind of loving the fact that I get to check my blood sugar with him. Although, my numbers do look a bit different than his. I am supposed to be under 95 when fasting and under 120 after a meal and before bedtime. I think they just like to see that I am coming down on my own. By looking at my fasting blood glucose they can also see whether that is happening overnight as well. If it starts to rise, then that means it is not well controlled and I need to do more than just managing it with a low carb diet.

This pregnancy has been really easy so far so I thought something like this was bound to happen eventually. I am determined to keep it under control though because I read about the effect it can have on the babies like having low blood sugar when they are born and even making them more prone to being diabetics later in their lives. It sure is going to be a challenge though with the holidays coming up.

Say a little prayer for me.

27 weeks. Third trimester!

October 11th marked the beginning of my third trimester! Honestly, I can't believe we are on the home stretch, but at the same time, I feel like we have such a long way to go. When I think about having to go 10 more weeks it seems a little daunting to me.

2 weeks ago I had a little bit of a reality check. I decided to compare how big I was with my last pregnancies with this one. I have been feeling really big and telling people that I felt like I am the same size I was when I delivered my other kids. The picture I found was from the night before I delivered Gracie and I think I was right. I actually think that I look bigger right now than I was when I delivered her. She was my smallest baby, but I still wasn't much bigger with any of my other kids. I can't imagine how big I am going to be in 9-10 weeks when I deliver. It is going to be insane.

Today I had my monthly doctor appointment and ultrasound. It was also the glucose test appointment. I haven't heard the results back yet, so I'm just praying it comes back normal as it would be pretty hard to be on a strict diet right now.

The babies looked great on the ultrasound. Both are measuring almost exactly the same with Baby A at 2lbs 10oz and Baby B at 2lbs 9oz. The ultrasound tech said that Baby A tends to typically be smaller than Baby B, so I guess that is a sign they are doing really well. I honestly can't believe I already have over 5 lbs of baby in there already!

The ultrasound tech did a little 4D ultrasound for me, but we didn't get a great shot of Baby A because he is breach, his arms and legs were over his face, and his face was towards my back. Hopefully he flips around in the next couple of weeks and gets in position because if he is not head down then the doctor will be doing a C-section instead of a vaginal delivery. It all depends on which way he is positioned because Baby B can squeeze out breach since he is second. We did, however, get a good shot of Baby B's face. I think he has a "butt chin" like the rest of my kids.

My weight is sitting at 157 which means I have gained 37lbs already. This is definitely over the weight that I delivered my other babies. I think I topped out at about 150. It this rate I may actually catch up to Shad as we are only about 15lbs apart. Hopefully this is the only time in our marriage that this will be the case.  Here's hoping that nursing two really does help the weight come off quick.

I'm measuring at 32 weeks which means I am about 4-5 weeks ahead of a singleton pregnancy. This is actually kind of small for a twin pregnancy as most measure about 6-7 weeks ahead. However, the size of the babies is right on where they should be for gestational age, so I guess there is just lots of room in there still.

Overall everything is looking great! The doctor is really impressed with how well everything is going. Hopefully that will be the case for the last few weeks.