Category: Expecting

The Nursery

November 16th, 2012

If I was a “lol” person I would add a big LOL after the title of this post. I meant to post these months and months and months ago, but it never happened. I had babies or something.

So anyway, here are some pictures of the nursery. Back when it was all neat and new looking.

I realize I’ve left people hanging a bit; having 2 newborn babies has been as crazy as everyone said it would be.

Three weeks ago we had an appointment with our specialist for our weekly sonogram. I had woken up feeling very “nesty” that morning – trying to get a bunch of stuff done and things ready for the babies. I planned to crochet a bunch of stuff that day/evening for their photo shoot. I asked my mom to help me run a few errands to pick up a few things we’d need, including a diaper bag. We had In & Out burgers for lunch.

While we were in the waiting room at our appointment, I started to feel really lightheaded and dizzy. When my blood pressure was taken, it was on the high side around 138/88; we’d been told that it needed to stay under 140/90. All throughout the sonogram, I felt really sick and dizzy. Afterwards, I couldn’t even sit up because I felt so bad. They brought me water and had me lay down for awhile. Then the doctor came back and asked if I wanted him to call my OB and see if we could move our c-section up a bit (it was still supposed to be 8 days away) and we said yes. When he came back he said “okay, you’re going to the hospital.” And I said “now?”

So off we went. We stopped by our house to pick up our bag, feed the cats, and get things in order. Then we went up to the hospital, this time knowing that we weren’t leaving for awhile. At this point we knew the drill – get in the bed, put the monitors on, etc., so it felt like another false alarm. But this time we were calling our parents to tell them to come, because this was it.

Around 7:00pm, they wheeled me into the OR. Darek wasn’t there for the first part, which made it really frightening. Luckily I had an amazing nurse who talked me through it – the epidural, getting on the operating table, and getting prepped. I couldn’t stop shaking, probably from a combination of the cold, the anesthesia, and terror. Finally Darek was allowed to come in. He sat by my head and told me over and over that everything was fine and we were going to meet our babies and not to worry.

The c-section was weird. I could feel sensations, but not pain. They pushed so hard on my stomach that it hurt a bit, and after what seemed like forever I heard someone say “there’s a head.”

And then there was a baby. The first baby out wasn’t crying, so they took her straight to the baby table to be examined. Her blood sugar was a little high, but she was fine. Then the second baby was out and crying, and they held her up for me to see.

I couldn’t believe any of it was real. Darek was allowed to go over to the tables to see the babies and see what was going on. I couldn’t really see much, but after awhile someone put a swaddled baby on my chest and Darek held the other one. They had their eyes closed at that point.

Then Darek and the babies left while I was put back together. Finally I got rolled back to our room where he was holding both babies. My mom was there but the hospital wouldn’t let anyone else hold them before I did. They put Baby B – Norah – on my chest first. Then when Olivia was declared ok, she was on my chest too. Their eyes were open and they were beautiful. They had little hats with big bows attached. They were perfect.

Unfortunately I felt really sick at that point and it’s all kind of a blur, but luckily we hired a birth photographer to capture everything. It was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my entire life, because he caught moments that I not only don’t remember, but also moments that I wasn’t able to see. I was originally planning to ask him to not share any photos publicly, but they were so tasteful that they’re just all over facebook. So for anyone who hasn’t seen them and wants to, you can view a slideshow here:

http://f8ashley.com/slideshows/?%2Fset%2F80e5%2Folivia-and-norah%2F

See, I could have just saved myself the time of typing all that out. But there it is. Exactly 3 weeks ago, on August 1, our babies were born. Olivia was born at 7:50pm weighing 7lb, 0.7oz. Norah came one minute later at 7:51pm and 6lb, 10oz. Both were exactly 19.29 inches long. Today is their official 40-week due date. I still can’t believe they’re here, but I’m glad we didn’t have to wait any longer. We’re completely in love and they are perfect.

Well, except for their dislike of sleeping between 8pm-1am.

And maybe someday I’ll get around to posting some pictures.

Here they are! Olivia is on my left and Norah on my right (closest to the window). They are perfect and we are in love.

photo | 37 weeks

August 9th, 2012

This was the day we met our babies! I really don’t like this picture, but it was our last opportunity to take it. I was dizzy, nauseous, not allowed to drink water, and miserable in the 107 degree heat of the day. I was 37 weeks and that’s the hospital behind us – we were on our way in, and promised to be leaving with babies!

I was really out of clothes that fit by this point, so this dress makes an appearance way more than I planned. On this day we were on our way to the hospital and thought it really might be The Day. It wasn’t.