TXDeaton's

Wreck, Turkey Day, Dizzy non-Blonde, Christmas, Twins Turn One, I turn 40!!!!

2010-02-14T17:54:00.023-06:00

So I started typing up this post in January.....I have managed to become distracted (shock, I know!) and so I'm just now finishing up and publishing ... yeah, sometime, I suck.

...

Whoa! What a FULL few months we have had down here on the Deaton Ranch! :o)

Let's see...where did we leave off?

Okay, I remember...

WRECK
November arrived, and we were planning on going to Thanksgiving in Louisiana to see my extended family and grandmother. I had been trying to tie up some loose ends, errands, etc. On November 20th, we were scheduled to be at our lawyer's office in Fort Worth to sign our final Wills and Estate Plan. It was raining that morning. The hubby had dropped off Elise at school and moved the twin's car-seat's to the small truck. I don't even remember why we decided to take the small truck, but in the end it was a blessing.

We had just gotten on I30. It was right around 9:00 am. The hubby pointed out that a lot of cars were starting to put on brake lights, and that I should probably slow down. I noted the cars in the right most lanes were breaking, so I took his advice and let off the gas. I also moved to the left most lane. I then started looking for the entrance to the HOV lane. There was a semi truck in the lane right next to me. Then I felt it...The front tires started to slide out from under us. I quickly looked at the semi and thought "no way do I want to slide under that." I let off the gas, and tried to adjust the steering to make contact with the road again, but it just was not meant to be. When I felt the back end go, I cut hard to NOT go the direction of the truck...I had to choose: Semi or Concrete Median. Yeah. I choose the median.

It happened really fast. You hydroplane going 60-65 mph, it's gonna be fast. I saw the wall approaching and just closed my eyes right as we hit. I felt us go over 2 or 3 times. When we were still again, I opened up. We were right side up, facing the median...sort of 'on' the median....the front end...a little bit. The windshield was still intact, but shattered. I turned to look at the hubby, and then turned back to the windshield. Then I started spitting out all the glass that I began to notice was in my mouth. The babies erupted in screaming. The hubby looked at me and said "well, I guess we are getting a new van now."

And then all the pain started. I hurt from the base of my skull all the way down to my tailbone. I tried to reach back to check on the babies, but that just wasn't going to happen. Needless to say, people saw us wreck, and stopped to help and call 911 for us.

In the end, I was carted off in the ambulance to make sure I didn't break anything in my back, which I did not; just pulled a LOT of the muscles back there...as of this post, I am STILL sore. The hubby called one of our friends and they came and picked up him and the twins from the crash site and followed me to the hospital. Everyone was checked out, with just a few bumps and bruises on them. Yay!! Nothing Serious!!

TURKEY DAY:
We were all recovered enough to still make our trip to Louisiana for Thanksgiving. That was fun! Aunt Gretchen hosted and everything was just so yummy! We were able to let the kids hang out with their great grandma on my side (Nanny), and they got to play with a lot of their cousins too. It was a good visit.

DIZZY NON-BLONDE:
I had my follow-up visit with my ENT and also had a balance test. Turns out I am a perfectly balanced individual....keep your comments to yourselves, thank you very much. :o) And here I was thinking it was all because I dyed my hair from blonde to brown... to red...to merlot......just trying everything to keep from continuing to be a dizzy blonde. The official word is a few more months of some medication for my Eustachian tubes and I will be rechecked, but hopefully all the dizziness will be gone. The belief is it is a residual side effect from the twins pregnancy. Which, by the way, is totally uncalled for, seeing as they are 13 months old now!!! Sheesh!

CHRISTMAS:
We drove to AR to Memaw & Paw's for Christmas. All of my siblings were present and accounted for except for Tim. So Memaw/Paw had 11 of the 13 grandkids in the house! The hubby was thinking ahead....he suggested and I agreed to bring the Bounce House with us. It was a HUGE hit!!! We ended up setting it up in the 2 car garage, and when the kids were getting stir crazy, a few of the parents would just go in there, turn it on, and make sure no one killed themselves. :oP

We got 'rained out' for seeing Grandma, MommaJo, Chuck, Aunt Gail and the boys for Christmas Eve. However, things had dried out by Christmas Day. So we headed down to Hot Springs Village and had a nice visit with MommaJo, Grandma and Chuck.

TWINS ARE ONE:
On January 9th, M & F turned one! I sadly, only remember bits and pieces of their birth. But I sure am glad I have them! They are a true scream to have around.

They can each hold their own bottles, which is GREAT! They are both crawling and pulling up on things and then walking around. M has 6 teeth and F has 4. They each can say 'mama' and will call out if they want some attention.

F seems to be a better parrot at the moment. He can also say "uh oh", "Whoa" and "O's" (asking for cheerios). They generally play very well together and with E. I am starting to see some jealousy start between the babies...I try to give as much equal time as I can to all three....but I think I'm going to lose that battle in the long run.

They are funny when you get them up from a nap or in the morning. I change one and put them on the floor. Then I get the next one, change them, and put them on the floor too. Then I go into the hall and start calling both of them. I refer to it as the 'baby races'! If one gets too far ahead of the other one, he/she will sit and look back and wait for the other to catch up. Then they go again. Yysterical in real life.

And then I turned 40....so not fair!

{sigh}

We also had record snow levels for DFW!!! Again, So Not Fair!!

That's enough for now. I'll try to be a little more habitual with my posts going forward....but that is about all I can promise. :)

Love to all,
Cherise

Me, TX State Fair, Halloween, 9 Month Stats...

2009-11-01T19:36:00.018-06:00

Texas State Fair
This year we took E to the Texas State Fair for the first time. Her school gave away free tickets and a day off, so to the Fair we went. I am not so good with the rides, so the twins and I mostly watched and took pictures. She rode some of the rides (with her Papa) and played a few games, but was pretty overwhelmed by it all. But the next day she was asking to go back, so I think next year she will enjoy it a little bit more.

Halloween
For Halloween, my sister-in-law landed us a butterfly outfit for M and a bumble bee outfit for F. We thought it would be super cute if E went as a flower, and she was agreeable to the idea, until she saw M's costume. Then she wanted to be a butterfly too. No problem! She was a beautiful Purple Butterfly! We had some fabulously fantastic bugs for Trick or Treat Night! :-)

9 Month Stats
M and F went in for their 9 month check up this month. F weighs 18.12 pounds and is 29 1/2 inches long. M weighs 18.04 pounds and is 29 1/4 inches long. They are basically the same weight and height, but they are not built the same. You would swear that M was way bigger and heavier than F. She is a well built little girl! :-)

M can sit up and stay that way for quite a while. She likes it. F, on the other hand, is Greatly Offended at the THOUGHT of sitting, and will promptly throw himself backwards if you try to sit him up. He is just lazy, and prefers to lay down and roll around to whatever it is he is wanting to see or get to.

M has attempted to crawl a few times, and is dangerously close to completing it. Again, F is just not interested.

They have both cut two teeth on the bottom. M's two came in crooked! :-P
They are both gradually getting more hair.
They both babble a bit, and I'm am working on getting them to say Mama :-) F will say it, but I think it is just part of his babble.

They are still very good babies, and very happy the majority of the time...Thank you Jesus!!!

Me
Well, to say I have been 'under the weather' for the past 2 months is putting it mildly. I've been depressed...I guess I'm still working on that too. I have some really good days, but then I have a few bad ones. I'm getting better now, or at least I think I am...

I had to go and see my hematologist again. One of my last tests in August came back too low/bad. After meeting with the doctor, the game plan for me going forward will be taking low dose aspirin every day; and not to sit for long car rides or plane rides. I'll take this over being on coumadin again! Basically, I am trying to avoid situations that would cause me to throw another clot, because evidently, now I am susceptible to them.
{sigh}

Also going on, I have been fighting really bad vertigo with headaches and nausea...and general exhaustion. At first I thought it was side effects to the different meds I had been taking, or possibly a sinus infection. But after a while, I began to wonder if something was really wrong....jury is still out on the final verdict. I have, however, now acquired reading glasses to help with the headaches / eye strain. I have switched the time I take some of my medication, and changed out others altogether. The next doctor visit is looking like an ENT....and then maybe a dermatologist....I -have- met my deductible for the year, so I may as well get everything checked out before January 1st!

And October was Awful in Texas, weather-wise. It was cloudy and dreary or raining at least 3 weeks of the month....I'm seriously Sun Deprived. This proves I could never live in Buffalo (sorry Kimmy....just give in and move here!).

I'm happy with my kids and my hubby, but just not quite happy with me yet. I'm working on it, and getting there, but not quite there yet. I know I will be back to my sarcastic funny self soon enough, but in the mean time, keep me in your thought and prayers.

For now, I will end by giving you happy baby pictures and a few videos! :) And yes, the videos are not high quality....we need to get a new video camera....maybe Santa will bring us one ;-)

Love to all,
Cherise

The long drive home...

2009-08-19T19:41:00.014-05:00

We left Texas and drove to Louisiana for Sev's memorial service on Wednesday of last week. It was -wonderful- to see all of my family...wonderful and sad.

On Wednesday, shortly after arriving at the hotel, we found out that Sean's best friend had been killed in Afghanistan that day. I just stood there thinking, "how much can he take??" I was just at a loss for words when I finally saw Sean later that evening. He was sitting in the hotel bar with what I assume were some other military friends. They were visibly upset. I just hugged him and told him I was just so sorry. I can not imagine what was going thru his mind, his heart, his subconscious.....guilt, anger, sadness? I just don't know. As for me, I was settling in on Anger.

Anger is probably not a good choice for the situation, but that is what I picked. I was angry at the coward that blew up Sev's jeep. Angry that we were having to fight this fight. Angry that it started in 2001 and it is 8 years later and we are still fighting. Angry enough to consider enlisting just to go kick someone's ass....ANYONE's Ass! Ridiculous, I know. I'm 39 years old, 5'2", abhor exercise, and just had twins.....like enlisting is anywhere near the realm of Rational!!! Someone just needs to slap me for even thinking it....but I guess the point is, I wasn't thinking....rationally, that is.

And for the record, I'm sure that technically it probably started before 2001. But I'm not hip to military history, so I'm just sticking with the 9/11 attack and going from there, okay? But if you feel the need to correct me, by all means, make yourself happy.

By Thursday, the day of the service, I had changed my mind on anger. I kept coming back to the fact that Sev was -born- to be a Soldier. He absolutely LOVED it. He was a true patriot. And besides, I don't think he would want me to enlist....it would make us look like bad, militarily speaking ;-)

The service was extremely moving. Sev was the first of my grandmother's 20 grandchildren. Of the 19 remaining, 18 showed up for the service (my cousin Amy has an excuse, as she is in a permanent care facility). There was what I can only describe as a "sea of Army Green" everywhere you turned. The military turn out was very touching...Sev touched a lot of people.

The service started and ended with bagpipes. I was so proud of myself. I had managed to get the twins fed and asleep by the time the service started. That didn't last long! The bagpipes (three of them) started in the lobby and worked their way into the room. By the time they hit the door, F was crying and screaming and E was holding both ears and doing the same. Oh well for that plan. I took out F and Uncle Rock took him into the play room.

The chaplain was the same man that had married Sev and Tammy in January. He read Sev's vows. On one hand it was very sweet, on the other I thought it was cruel. Tammy later said that was unexpected, but that she has Sev's handwritten original of these vows. That she reads them anytime she wants to...but hearing them at the service got to her. Got to lots of us.

Andree's daughter wrote and read a poem. The Advocate paper of Baton Rouge mistakenly reported it as Shelby....to quote Shelby "stupid Advocate." Also military personnel honored Sev with words and actions (they marched in and saluted). At the end of the service, the bagpipes were back. They played Amazing Grace, and everybody cried....which is what you do when you hear Amazing Grace played on Bagpipes at a funeral. I found it surreal.

Back to the hotel, a change of clothes and then off to my cousin Kitzia's house for chili....which, for the record, was REALLY good! My immediate family was there and the kids all played and had fun. Mom asked David to take a photo of us, and it is below. Good looking group, right?! At one point in the evening, Kitz turned to me and basically said, "Well, there are 19 of us left. We really need to try to get together again before another one of us dies." That hit home like a sledge hammer.

She is totally right! We are all spread out and enjoying our lives and our kids, but rarely get to see cousins and aunts and uncles. She said she was going to start working on something, and I volunteered to help out with whatever to make it happen....so "Major Family", consider yourself on notice! :)

Friday, we stopped by New Roads on the way out of town to visit with Nanny and for lunch. I have some really cute pictures of her with the twins and E. Four generations of us with Pa sitting on one couch! Pretty Cool! The kids had fun posing with a fake crocodile in the restaurant. We also got to meet my Cousin Liz's kids. Cutie Pies! The baby, Aimee, actually liked the hubby....Liz laughed and said that was rare, that she generally doesn't like people! HA! He has that effect on babies!

Then we left for home...

I had managed to keep myself 'busy' since my last post by organizing/planning for my entire immediate family to arrive in Baton Rouge in time for the service and then return to their respective states. I also forwarded emails that I received from various people (most of which I did not know, but had contacted me due to my post). I helped out a little bit with passing on info and whatnot. Basically, after I posted on Aug 3rd, I put my emotions on "Hold" and put them in a box on a shelf. I discovered that if I started to fall apart, E would get very concerned and come over and start asking 'what's wrong Mama?'

I left them there until Aug 14th.....two weeks. I really never let 'it all out'....until the drive home. With each mile that passed, with every mile driven, I became more and more upset. It was finally sinking in....I was driving, the hubby was reading a book, the kids were sleeping, and the radio was playing various songs, all of which I pulled sad meaning out of....gradually, I just started to cry, quietly. I usually look forward to the 'Welcome to Texas' sign, but this time I just dreaded it. It would just make it so...Final. So real. The tears just kept flowing. There was no wailing or sobbing loudly, but instead quiet reflection of the previous two weeks and everything that had happened.

For one of the rare moments in my life, I had nothing to say. I would stop and start crying for the next 3 days. In fact on Saturday, I just really didn't even want to get out of bed. The hubby held down the fort for me while I just processed all of it.

On Tuesday, Aug 18th, Fort Bragg held a service for Sev. My cousin Sean put it like this:

"When you play bag pipes, followed by roll call, taps and a 21 gun salute and the ballad of the green berets . . . well if you don't cry you have no soul . . . even if you didn't know the person being remembered."

I must plead my ignorance at this point, I had to look up what a 'roll call' means at a military funeral. Yesterday, my Aunt Charlene called and said that it was very hard to listen to. I cried again.

I am -really- tired of all of this crazy emotional roller coaster action going on in my life. I've gotten to where I really focus whenever the news says anything about Afghanistan or Iraq.

That part is probably good. We should all try to focus and pray for our military on a daily basis.

I wanted to let all of you know that SFC Severin W.Summers,III , 2/20 SFG will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on August 31st at 10:00am. If you are in the area, please stop by and show your respects to a fallen hero.

The hubby and I are talking about trying to make a road trip in a few years, and take the kids to the D.C. area for a week or so and show them all of the monuments and museums....and we will check out Sev's grassy view. And remember with a smile, all those off color jokes!

Love to all,
Cherise

SFC Severin W.Summers,III , 2/20 SFG...

2009-08-03T14:32:00.022-05:00

Very early this morning, I found out that my oldest cousin, Sev, was killed in action in Afghanistan. The note from my Uncle West was simple and to the point:

SFC Severin W.Summers,III , 2/20 SFG was killed in Afghanistan August 2, 2009. Sev was a warrior who never avoided a challenge. We love him,we are proud of him and we will miss him immensely.
Charlene,Tammy & West Summers

The following was published by the Natchez Democrat:

Natchez man killed in Afghanistan
By Julie Cooper (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat
Published Monday, August 3, 2009
NATCHEZ — Sgt. First Class Severin Summers of Natchez was killed in Afghanistan over the weekend.
Summers’ wife Tammy was notified by a sergeant major and a chaplain from the Army National Guard Sunday night.
Summers, 43 or 44, was killed by an improvised explosive device, family friend Phyllis Beach said.
Tammy Summers is currently in route to Dover, Del., where her husband’s body will be sent. No arrangements have been made, and it may be several days before the military releases Summers’ body, Beach said.

Summers was deployed July 2 for Afghanistan, a repeat trip for the special forces solider and ranger who has been in the military nearly 20 years.
Recently, he was stationed in Bagram, Afghanistan, but had recently left for Marzak, Afghanistan.
Tammy had received an e-mail from her husband Saturday.
The couple was married Jan. 17.
“They were that perfect couple,” Beach said. “She met him right before he was deployed three years ago. They were soul mates.”
Summers also has a 13-year-old daughter, Shelby, who lives in Baton Rouge.
He is survived by his parents West and Charlene Summers of New Roads, La., three brothers and one sister.
One brother is currently serving in a different part of Afghanistan and another brother is in Iraq.
Summers split his time in the states between his house in Natchez and his job as the Mississippi Special Forces recruiter in Bentonia.

This says so much, yet not nearly enough. My family is in such pain right now. I can't stay focused on things that need to be done today, because they just seem pointless at this moment.

In my family, I have 15 first cousins on my dad's side (my mom is an only child). Sev was the very first one of us, and has always been larger than life!

He was so funny!!! The last time I was able to see him in person was during the 2008 Easter trip we made to Louisiana to see my Grandmother and extended family. I had spoken with him on the phone a few times, and we had exchanged the occasional emails. We had talked about arranging a visit to MS to check out his new place and land. Best laid plans, right?

I find myself flipping through my pictures from the 2008 trip, and am posting a few of these for you guys to see.

I was not able to go to Sev and Tammy's wedding in January...had just had the twins. Here is a Wedding Picture:

He had sent me pictures from his previous tour in Afghanistan from 2006. He was a self proclaimed Bad Ass, and we all agreed! But he kept his sense of humor. In one of the pictures, he is imitating a Mountain Goat!! :) In his own words:

It was the end of a fun day zeroing our sniper rifles in strong winds and high elevation. I thought there would be no one around and yet three Afghan children and a donkey show up out of know where. And naturally I had to impress them w/ my mt.goat like skills! Even Afghan kids think I'm funny!

He died Serving and Protecting our Country. He loved doing it. He VOLUNTEERED for this tour. His full time job was as a Special Forces recruiter stationed in Mississippi. But he volunteered to do yet another tour, because it was that important to him. I believe he volunteered for some of his other tours as well, if not all of them.

He was a Son, a Brother, a Father, a Soldier, a Husband, an Uncle, a Cousin....really, a force of nature....

And given that we are all God's Children, he was that too.

He was funny and serious; someone that you wanted to be friends with, and never wanted to get cross with.

He will be missed more than I can put into words, at least not words adequate enough to convey.

I loved him, and there will be an empty place in my heart now. But I will try to remember him and smile when I think of him; and laugh to myself when recalling the last joke he told me....I'm sure some of the family will know it....the one about the tattoo on his leg ;|

Sev, I love you!
I'm proud of you!
And I will miss you terribly.

Your Cousin,
Cherise

UPDATE AS OF 8/5/09: I want to express my family's gratitude for all of the wonderful comments that have been left on this post. At this time, Sev has arrived in Dover, escorted by his brother Sean, who was also deployed to Afghanistan. The arrangements are still pending. When we know something, I will post what I can here. Again, thank you for all of the fond memories and prayers and support. It is just what we all need. God bless you! And Bless our Military!

Love to all,
Cherise

UPDATE AS OF 8/7/09:

There are 10 of these billboards all around Baton Rouge. They were donated by Lamar Sign Company. Sev would love this. We are very grateful to the Lamar Sign Company.

For those of you on Facebook, the family has started a group named Sev Summers Memorial: Click Here. This group gives people the opportunity to post comments and stories, and also pictures and videos regarding Sev.

For those of you not on Facebook, there is another Memorial site for Sev on Legacy.com: Click Here.

We are still waiting on the ARMY to release the remains....so we are in the "Hurry Up and Wait!" mode. Again, I will post the date of the memorial as soon as that information has been finalized.

Thanks again for all of your love and support and kind words. They are very much needed and appreciated.

Love to all,
Cherise

UPDATE AS OF 8/8/09:

The FUNERAL DATE is still PENDING.

The Funeral will be held at Resthaven Funeral Home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He will then be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

The family is requesting, in lieu of flowers, to please make a donation to Hunts for Heroes. Mailing address is:
Hunts for Heroes
P.O. Drawer 1663
El Campo, Texas 77437.

We are honored to have the Patriot Guard Riders attending both the funeral and the burial.

Love to all,
Cherise

UPDATE AS OF 8/10/09:

FUNERAL DATE HAS BEEN SET FOR AUGUST 13, 2009.
VISITATION will be from Noon until 3:00pm.
The SERVICE will begin at 3:00pm.

Love to all,
Cherise

Where does all the time go...

2009-07-20T14:26:00.020-05:00

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything. These kids sure do keep me busy! :)

So we packed up the kids and headed to Arkansas for the July 4th holiday with Memaw and Paw. Also Aunt Marcy and Uncle Taim were there so we were able to finally meet our newest cousin Madeline, Lucas' little sister. And we got to show off M & F to Aunt Marcy's crew :)

We tried to watch some fireworks that weekend, but E does not like loud noises. She likes the lights, but she has to have her ears covered to enjoy it. :)

Later in the evening I started showing my age...the house behind Memaw's sits in a cul de sac and around 10:00 pm, they were shooting off fireworks that were SO LOUD...I lost my temper....we had 3 infants and 2 toddlers trying to sleep. When the firecrackers started hitting the house, I went into Memaw's room and told her she should probably call the cops before I started walking around the block to perform some violence (I know what you are thinking: "{gasp!} No! Not you Cherise!")

Yup. That was me. Well she did in fact call...they told her they had had more than one complaint in that area. But God still loved me despite my temper tantrum....so He rained on them, and then it was all quiet. However, the storm did eventually wake up E with nightmares...she and the hubby spent some quality time in the recliner in the front room while trying to reassure her it was all okay.

{sigh}
Anyway...

E is really starting to swim more and more on her own. The hubby has worked miracles with her this summer! She will actually jump in from the side of the pool without any type of flotation device and swim to you; and then turn around and swim back so she can do it all over again!! We are very happy at her progress! There is a short little (very grainy) movie clip of E swimming back and forth to Papa.

She is also practicing writing. They are teaching her to write the letters of the alphabet at school, and she will come home and ask us to write out words, like "Mama" and "Papa" and then go off and write them herself. One day she surprised me with writing these out ON HER OWN without me having written them first for her to use as an example!!!! She wrote Papa as Popo and Mama she wrote as Momo, but backwards....still!! We are just so excited for her! She just seems so eager to learn! She does write stuff backwards a lot, but we are told that is normal for her age. Still! Pretty Cool!

The twins, M & F, are both rolling over now. F is -way- better at rolling from his front to his back than M is, but every now and then, they both end up stuck on their tummies, WAILING for someone to come and save them from the blanket or carpet or what ever toy is under them. But they are getting better and better.

M just loves her toes, and with all this Texas heat, we have taken to letting them go sock-less...they both find this to be rather enjoyable. :)

They are both eating cereal 2-3 times a day. M is very vocal with her eating...she likes to make yummy noises and hums and coos while eating. F is still trying to figure the whole spoon thing out, but is starting to get the hang of it with each passing meal. They will be starting green veggies very soon! Green Beans! Yay! Come on people....show some support here.....YAY!!! Thank you.

Also they are really starting to recognize each other. It is like they see each other and after a few seconds, they get very excited, like they are thinking "Holy Cow! Short People!" HA! I laugh my butt off when this occurs. There is a lot of very excited leg and arm gestures and wide eyes and smiles and laughing and cooing between them. We keep trying to get it on video, but have not succeeded yet. They get distracted by the camera and turn their attention to it instead of each other.

As for me, No More Coumadin! I am officially eating spinach and drinkin' beer people!!! Very happy to be doing so! My very last test will be in Aug and will be a blood draw to make sure that everything is still ok, sans coumadin. So happy that is all over! Whew!

The twins had their 6 Month Blue Chair pictures taken this month. Those are below for all to see!

And on a strange note, a Cicada Killer Wasp decided she wanted to inspect what I was doing one afternoon. And Yes, upon hearing the sound of what I can only describe as a helicopter buzzing around my head, I ran screaming like the little girl I am.

I was cleaning out our game room to prep it for the complete overhaul we are having done, and the door was open to make all the trips to the trash cans easier. She came in, snooping around. I ran out screaming, and slammed the door. Got the hubby. He saw nothing. The next morning, he found her in his office (next door to the game room) on the ceiling. A quick smack with a fly swatter knocked her 'loopy' long enough for us to put her in a mason jar. He then went and looked her up on the internet and found out she was a Cicada Killer.

We had friends coming over for swimming and lunch, so we saved her to show them. Their son is collecting bugs, so he suggested we put the jar in the freezer to kill her with out having to open the jar again. Done! But check out that stinger!!! Dude! I'm so glad I got the hell outta there :) The picture is of her in a mason jar lid.

I do feel bad for the cicada's ... but that is the circle of life, I suppose.
Everything in Moderation. Bugs, Beer and Spinach :)

Love to you all,
Cherise

Coffee with a side of Sweet Big Sister...

2009-06-19T08:11:00.004-05:00

So the morning routine in our house for the past few months has been the same:

1. The Hubby gets up b/w 5:30-6:30 am and 'does his thing' [translation: surfs the web and drinks coffee]

2. He feeds the twins at 6:30 am.

3. He then gets E up at 7:00 am if she has not already come out front to greet him. They then watch 'abc videos' [translation: he opens a second browser window (shrinking his own to share the screen with E 50/50); goes to youtube and searches for videos of different things that she likes, such as School House Rock videos, any cartoon that is peppy and sings, etc.; she watches her screen while he continues to do his thing in his screen.]

4. I get up by 7:30 am and help out with either the twins or E until he takes her to school at 8:00am. He returns by 9:00-9:30 and begins working for the day; I take over with the kids for the duration of the work day. {sometimes he pitches in during the day if he can or on his lunch, if I need him to hold a baby}.

Pretty basic stuff, right? So the only change has been with E. Now that the babies are out front with us when she gets up, she starts to interact with whichever one might be awake! Pretty impressive considering they are only 5 months old :)

As with any 3 year old, E has her pile of FAVORITE Toys. These are almost exclusively stuffed animals. They are:

"Kitty"
"MommaJo Kitty"
"Puppy"
"Squishy/Winky Baby" (the name depends upon her mood)
"Baby Bob"
"Turtle Dude"
"Blue Turtle"
"Purple Monkey"

This pile comes out with her in the morning.......EVERY morning. She then takes "Kitty" to school with her for naptime. ["Kitty" was the original stuffed animal / lovey toy that she HAD to have at nap and bed times....the rest have come on board thru the years]

After the twins came home, she would gently place these "lovey's" around one or both of the twins. Just for a little while. And then tell us "I want them back now". We would smile and tell her "Go ahead. Be gentle. And THANK YOU for sharing so nicely with your brother and sister!"

This morning M was awake and in the pack-n-play cooing at her mobile. E went over and placed "Kitty" in there with her.....and then proceeded to bring her large quantities of M & F toys from the floor.....virtually covering her up! The hubby said it was so sweet to see her ferrying all those toys to M. :)

Once out in the truck to go to school, the following conversation occurred:

E: "Kitty! Kitty! I need my Kitty!"
The Hubby: "Oh my gosh! We almost forgot her! I'll go get her. I know right where she is....she is in with M."
E: "Okay, but she wants another toy. Give her my "MommaJo Kitty".

:)
{sigh} . . . So Sweet!!!! So Precious!!! So Generous!!! I just love our kids!!!!

Love to all,
Cherise

Baptism, Friends and Potty Training Updates...

2009-06-10T08:55:00.012-05:00

This past weekend we had the Twins (M & F) baptized at St. Joseph Catholic Church. It was a great event! We had asked two sets of our friends to be godparents and they graciously agreed! It was a beautiful ceremony, and the twins were great! They were not freaked out by the water or anything...the priest was a little concerned when we asked him to hold both of them for a picture, but he mustered up the courage and complied :)

Our friends from St. Louis came in with their crew and we had a great weekend with them, cooking out and swimming. The hubby commented that any reservation he had about the return on investment on installing a pool was completely washed away with this visit.....their kids wanted to stay in the pool morning, noon and night! :) Glad I talked him into a house with a pool! HA!

The twins are moving around a little more everyday. They have both discovered their hands....and (unfortunately) how yummy their own fingers are ... especially to suck on.....LOUDLY. We have started calling M "Col. Sanders" when she starts to slurp loudly on her hands ('cuz she's "finger lickin'")....which we immediately remove and try to substitute with a binky. Sometimes it works, other times not so much. They have both started 'trying' to roll over....they end up on their sides, but have not completed the roll as of this post. But they are VERY close to doing it!

E is very close to being what we would consider 'completely' potty trained. She has even started to let us know when she has to poop....which is a REALLY big deal.....we were not making any progress on that front, but the hubby worked his magic, and now she let's us know so we can scoop her up and run to the potty. She even gets out of the pool to go 'pee pee on the potty'.....which is really funny, cuz I snatch her out of her suit -before- I run with her into the Air Conditioned House to go potty....yes, that's right: she is streakin' at age three! :)

Speaking of swimming, we have been doing a lot of that this year also. E has decided that the latest flotation device we purchased for her is 'acceptable'. This is like number 5 or something, but she Loves It! So she is all about swimming this year. And she insists on floating around without you holding on to her. She will even Jump Into The Pool!! She has figured out that when she kicks her feet she does, in fact, move. Yes, it is true. We were not lying to her about all that. :) So we are hopeful that this summer when we sign her up for swimming lessons, it will take this time! [said while crossing fingers and saying a little prayer]

The twins have turned 5 months and I'm attaching the 5 Month Blue Chair pictures to this post. They both are getting better at sitting up in the chair, and don't fall over as fast. They are babbling and smiling and drooling and in general, lovin' life!

And finally, I cut my hair short. The twins kept grabbing it and trying to basically snatch me bald...so I gave in to the scissors. When E saw it, she stared at me for a very long time. Then this exchange occurred:

E: "What happened to your hair?"
Me: "I got it cut. Do you like it?"
E: "Why?"
Me: "Because the babies kept pulling it. Do you like it?"
E: "...{staring blankly at me}
Me: "Well? Do you like it?"
E: "You look funny."
Me: "Thanks."

Love to all,
Cherise

Coumadin Update...

2009-05-19T20:20:00.005-05:00

So Monday I had a Doppler Sonogram of both of my legs. They showed NO clots! YAY! Upon hearing this, I was expecting my appointment today with my hematologist to be my -last- appointment....but, alas, no.

Dr. Maisel informed us that I need to stay on the blood thinners for 6 months total. That means until the 4th of July. Well, I guess the American Independence Day may be more meaningful to me this year than in years past! :)

He also told us that he wanted to run the "full battery" of tests they normally run when someone throws a clot. He is being extra careful, and making sure that the clots truly were just a side-effect of the pregnancy and not something else. Fine by us! We would rather not have any additional surprises down the road! So they took EIGHT VIALS OF BLOOD! DANG!!!!

So let us all pause and take a moment to thinks positive happy thoughts and offer up some prayers requesting that all these tests come back with nothing but good news.....please.

In the meantime, we will just keep truckin' along! :)

Love to all,
Cherise

Twin's First Cereal Event

2009-05-18T20:41:00.004-05:00

Remember in the last post, I mentioned that we were given the 'green light' to start the twins on cereal? Well, we started that today.

I must admit, the hubby and I found it hysterical! I'm sure, based on their initial reactions, the kiddos did NOT find it as amusing as we did... hehehehehehe!

I am attaching a video we took of the event. It is 3 minutes long. Enjoy!

Love to all,
Cherise

4 Month Blue Chair Pictures, the Coston Women Visit, Potty Training E and Mother's Day

2009-05-11T23:15:00.023-05:00

So the twins are now 4 months old! Yay!! At their doctor appointment today we found out that M is now 24 1/2 inches long (in the 50th percentile) and 13 lbs 12 oz (in the 50th percentile); F is 24 3/4 inches long (in the 25th percentile) and 13 lbs 8 oz (in the 25th percentile). Isn't it interesting how that all works out! The average height of an American woman is 5'2" and for an American man it is 5'8". So even though he is 'taller', she is farther 'up the chart' than he is! WEIRD.

At any rate, they are GINORMOUS to me!!!! M is getting to be so ROUND....her little cheeks and her little thighs!!! F is getting to be so LONG....he is like a bean pole to me. They are virtually the same weight, but they do not look like they are...it is just spread out differently on each baby....and we love every inch and every pound of them!!! :)

Today we were told we get to start them on Cereal too! So hopefully, this will use a little less formula....right now, they are drinking 6 oz each, 5 times a day....that's 10 bottles.....which means the BIG can of formula lasts about Three Days!!!! Yikes!! Can't wait for the 'you may now begin to feed them food' portion of this event starts! :)

We started Potty Training E about 2 weeks ago. It is going pretty good. The first day we went through 13 pairs of panties but by day 2 that was almost cut in half! She only occasionally wets her pants now, and it is usually during nap time at school, night time if we let her drink too much after 7pm or if she does not want to stop playing to go. We are optimistic she will be 'completely' trained within another week or so. And what a relief that will be! One less Butt To Change!!! HA! Two is enough!

Last week we had an excellent visit with Grandma, MommaJo, Aunt Gail and Aunt Kaye...all the Coston Women came to visit us and hold babies! We had a great time with them, and E really enjoyed her visit. This was her first time to meet Aunt Kaye, and it had been too long since we had seen Grandma or Aunt Gail. Aunt Kaye had lots to share with us on E, M and F's cousins (her daughter's twins) Ike and Sophie....they are 2-3 months older than M & F, but M & F are bigger! We had a good time comparing stories about the sets of twins and like and dislikes....kids are just so different and charming! Or at least, they CAN be! HA!

We also took advantage of them being in town to stage a 'delayed birthday celebration' for E at school. Since the twins were born basically right before her birthday, we only did a low key party at our house....well, all the other kids in her class were celebrating their birthdays at school, and it became a glaring absence in her mind....evidently, they do a 'little presentation' for the birthday recipient....yeah, that was working against us :)

So we brought muffins and strawberries to school for the morning snack in honor of E turning 3, and bought a cake for our celebration at home that night. She has two friends that she really loves: Uriah (which she calls "My-riah", as opposed to "Your-riah") and Sarah. Ms. Loren told us that she and Uriah are inseparable during playtime and if left unattended will begin to wrestle! HA! But we are not surprised....her best buddy outside of school friends has always be Elliott!!!

For Mother's Day, E's school put on a little program for all the Mother's. Her class did a group song in sign language; it was "Wind beneath my wings." It was too much for her too early in the morning....she was so excited and was waving to us and very happy, but about 2 minutes into the song I noticed she was no longer doing the signing, and was rather glassy eyed....and yup, you guessed it, she zoned out and fell over / fell asleep while standing up....PLOP! Fell right over! And she was in the middle on the front row, baby!!! YEAH! THAT'S my Kid!!! The sad thing is that the hubby had -just- stopped filming and then she fell over.....classic! Oh well, it was still funny to everyone there....and chances are *somebody* got it on film! ;o) I'll start combing thru youtube.com starting tomorrow....

That was Saturday....on Sunday we went over to Aunt Lisa and Uncle Alan's place for lunch....he always puts on such a spread! It was -way- more than we could eat, and it was all so yummy! E had huge fun playing with her cousins! We are going to try to have them over -this- Saturday for a shrimp-crab-and-crawfish boil, barring any bad weather....Alan is from Bay St. Louis, and he eats crawfish, but no one else in the family does....so the hubby and I are trying to decide how much to get for just the three of us.....do you think 30 pounds will be enough??? :oP

We are excited about the Deaton Memorial Weekend Camping Trip to Lake Ouachita Arkansas. We will be 'camping lite'.....staying at Grandma's in Hot Springs Village in the evenings, and then driving into the campground during the day. Still, it should be fun! Just a little too soon to go full fledged camping with the twins....but next year should be good!

The twins are staying awake more and more during the day, and are consistently sleeping thru the night. F is our 'smiley boy.' He has been smiling and cooing for a few weeks now. M has finally caught on this past week and is equally cute and smiley. I have tried to capture some of their smiles and 'conversations' on the videos attached.

E just loves them to death! She is very concerned whenever they cry or are upset. And she loves to have her picture taken with them! Right now, they still do not intentionally grab things, so we are still in the 'honeymoon phase' of this sibling relationship.....and we are lovin' it......but this too shall pass {sigh}

But for now, just enjoy the pictures!

The hubby took the kiddo's to a British Car Show down by White Rock Lake a few weekends back....I had to work at the Antique Mall that Sunday, so he just loaded everyone up and headed out. E had such a good time....she declared that she liked all the RED ones....she still talks about 'all the cars in the park'....I think the addiction to British Sports Cars has begun :) Like Father, Like Daughter!

We also have the 4 month 'Blue Chair' pictures of the twins.....and I don't know if I sent out the 3 month ones or not....someone should let me know if I need to post those or send them out....

Also, my dad, "Pa" is headed to Africa for about a month to do some Missionary Work....please keep him in your prayers!

We are baptizing the Twins on June 6th.....so if you want to come, let us know! Pa will just be returning from Africa this weekend, so we are really excited that he will be able to make it! Our wonderful friends the Korson's and the Selligman's have agreed to be their God Parents. We are so Blessed!!

Love to all!
Cherise

Easter, the Godmother, Smiling Babies and Getting Punched...

2009-04-27T18:04:00.009-05:00

First of all, the hubby has told me that my posts have become way to 'wordy'...me??? Wordy???? NO!!! hehehehe....

So I'm going to try to work on making more frequent posts that are smaller in nature....but not this one!

Let's start with Easter! Easter was fun here in Texas. Since I have the largest yard of all my friends, we decided to have the Easter Egg Hunt here. We planned this a couple of weeks in advance. There would be 4 families including ours, all with small kids in similar age groups. The 4 moms all met at a local restaurant (Spring Creek BBQ - yum!) one evening to 'stuff' eggs with various candies and small toys. I think there was around 10-12 dozen eggs total....yeah, I got a little carried away with the egg count :) There were 10 kids total.

But we all know how the best laid plans sometimes work out, right? Yup! You guessed it! RAIN!!! Oh well. I was bummed out initially, but the other moms all were like "No big deal. Just hide them inside. That's what we always did." Inside??? I've never had an egg hunt inside. But my mom friends are from Wisconsin, South Florida, and Alaska.....they almost ALWAYS had to hide their eggs indoors due to Rain or Snow on Easter. HA!

So the family got up EARLY to hit the 8:45am Easter Mass, which we managed to do successfully. Yay Us!!! Then we came home to straighten up the front few rooms for the egg hunt. We also invested in a Bounce House for the family. It is big enough for several kids, and small enough to still fit in the Family Room in the house! (We have friends that bought one for their family, and it comes in -really- handy for wearing kids out at night or when the weather is yucky or during winter when it is too cold or wet to go outside.) So we decided to put up the bounce house after the Egg Hunt, and had to make sure we had enough stuff cleared out of the family room so it would fit.

All in all it was a great afternoon! The Easter Bunny brought E two new swimsuits and some books and some miscellaneous toys. No candy, but she found her share during the hunt. The twins also each received a stuffed bunny. Fun for all!

The kids made quick work of finding all the eggs and then proceeded to sit down and devour as much of the candy as they could in the shortest amount of time! HA! So the bounce house went up quickly....so they could wear off some of that sugar before they all went home! Hysterical!

Also, E's Godmother Kim and her son Logan came in for a visit for Logan's spring break. I got to play tour director while they were in town. While E was at school, Kim, Logan, the twins and I went to the J.F.K Museum, the Dallas Zoo, the Dallas Arboretum, the Dallas Aquarium and the exotic animal rescue park, In Sync Exotics. Basically, we wore everyone out! But we had pretty big fun! We did take a day in there to just be lazy and sit around and watch movies. They were supposed to fly back home on Saturday, but their plane had mechanical difficulties (yikes) and they ended up delayed until Monday....so Logan got to miss school that day (aw, poor baby - HA!). They went home tired but with good memories....glad to be back home. I told them to come back when we reach 'swimming weather'.....Logan -really- wanted to go swimming, but with the pool registering 68-71 degrees, that is a bit chilly for us....he did get in a few times, but quickly got back out! Maybe the airlines will be having a 'fare war' around August and everyone can come back down?? That would be awesome!

The twins are getting bigger....I'm thinking they are around 12 pounds each by now. They are starting to stay awake a little more after each feeding. F will smile at you and start to talk and coo....he is definitely my 'smiley boy', as I call him....he has been doing this for about a week now. M has just now started to sort of smirk and smile....so she is not far behind. I keep trying to get a picture of them doing it, but alas, I have not succeeded so far....stay tuned.

So most of you are aware that the hubby is an ACTIVE SLEEPWALKER/TALKER/RUNNER, right? Well if not, now you are. He is very active. He has extremely vivid dreams and they 'break on thru' and he acts on them. Usually, it is funny.....like the time he dreamed the dog was a bomb....he jumped out of bed, picked up the sleeping 60 pound dog and threw her out the window - through the screen - dog didn't wake up until she hit the ground! Thank God it was a one-story house! Ah, poor Lucy....she was like "Dude! What did I do to deserve THAT???"

He has woken me up having arguments with people at work, saying things like "Well, NO, we can't make the application do that process in the short amount of time you are giving me!"

My favorites are when he jumps out of bed and starts running to 'do' something. If I'm quick enough, I can catch him -before- he gets completely out of the bed....but sometimes, all I catch are the covers as he is flinging them off....his old roommates can just go on and on with stories of him sleepwalking around the house.

So one night last week, he had gone to bed early, as is our routine - he has the first feeding at 5:30am, so I take the last feeding at 9:30pm, and he goes to bed between 8-9pm.

I fed the twins, watched a little TV, read some emails and then brought the kiddos into our room to go to bed myself. I had brushed my teeth and was climbing into bed when, Pow! He rolled over and punched me in the chest! At first I was startled. We both just froze for half a second .... and then I said "OW!!! Hey! Why did you punch me???!!!" He said "OH MY GOD!!! I'm SO Sorry!!! Are you okay??" I was totally okay, but man I was mad! It was not exactly what I was expecting upon climbing into bed. But we had joked about something like this happening....his dreams are so vivid, he always feared he would do something to me, thinking I was part of his dream. I always joked that if he did anything to me, I would do something back.....that totally sounds like me, right? The conversation would go like this:

ME: "Hey man, if you hit me, don't be shocked when I hit you back!"
Hubby: "But me hitting you won't be on purpose."
ME: "Okay, but when I hit you back, it WILL be on purpose."

He never liked that idea....so for a split second, I considered picking up my Louisville Slugger which is close to the bed.....but I didn't :)

The next night when I was going to bed, I went in and turned on my bedside lamp. Then when I was actually crawling into bed and he rolled over. I stopped and when he looked at me, I made a funny menacing face and pointed at him and then made a fist, like 'go ahead.....make my day......or rather, night' :) We both busted out laughing. He apologized for two days. He told me he was dreaming that I was falling and he was reaching out to grab me....his reach made it to me sooner than he thought, thus the punch. I sure would hate to have to beat down my hubby! HA!

Like that is possible! Look, I'm a mean, scrappy coonass and all, but still! My man's nothing to sneeze at! :)

Love him to death...wouldn't trade him for anything! :)

Love to all,
Cherise

How was your day sweetie?

2009-03-27T13:49:00.002-05:00

So Craig checks the mail every day. He likes to do this. I find it utterly depressing, as bills are in there. If he checks after E is home from school, she goes with him.

Yesterday while walking to the mailbox, the conversation went as follows:

Hubby: "How was your day, sweetie?"
E: "It was okay. How are your babies?"
Hubby: "They are fine. Thanks."
E: "Your welcome."

Spring Break 2009 and other stuff...

2009-03-23T12:54:00.012-05:00

Well it has been a while since our last post, so I finally carved out a little time to put up another. And let me tell, carving out ANY time with a set of 2 month newborns is not exactly easy! :o)

So E was on Spring Break for a week...and the same week the Hubby went back to working full time. Needless to say, with the twins not sleeping thru the night yet, we needed backup for that week. MommaJo to the Rescue!!!

She showed up and entertained E during the first part of the day while I slept from being up during the night. We even managed to sponsor a Spring Break Craft Day at our house for some of our friends who were also on Spring Break. We painted and applied foam stickers to pots and glasses and door hangers. When the paint dried, we planted seeds in our pots of either flowers or spices. E's pots are just now starting to show buds, so it seems to have been a successful "planting"...at least in our pots!!!

We did not do a big Birthday for E this year, just low-key-family-only-celebration. Cupcakes and a few small things, mostly Movies that she did not have - yes, all princess based {sigh}.

MommaJo came loaded for bear with Princess Dresses and accessories to match, including Crowns, Heels, Earrings and Rings. She also brought a new book that E insisted she read to her almost everyday! True sign of a successful gift :o) The hubby said that after a week of reading it, she had it memorized! Smart kiddo! Chuck sent her a tricycle with two wheels in the FRONT and one wheel in the back...pretty cool. And the hubby found a few of his scooters in the Shop, and they have been riding those around the driveway too!

E is starting to speak more and more clearly. Full sentences and broad topics. Even her whining is mostly audible, unfortunately. We have had to start employing new methods of deterring her from things and actions that will get her into trouble. One of the best things we have started is "If you need to cry, you need to go to your room. When you are done, you can come out." This works 90% of the time, and it is used when she is 'fake crying' for either attention or resisting something we have told her to do/not do. If she is truly hurt, we of course, do not do this (duh). At any rate, seems to dry her up pretty quickly. Credit to the Hubby for thinking of this one.

We also still employ the Time Out. She has to take her time outs in the hallway behind the fireplace on the tile floor, where there is NOTHING to entertain her or really, even give her anything else to look at....thus forcing her to 'think' about what landed her on the cold tile. One day after taking a turn in time out, a few hours later she put her "MommaJo Kitty" in time out. It was funny! See the picture below!

M & F are growing. At their 2 month check up, M weighed 10 pounds and is 22" long; F weighed 9 pounds 11 oz and is 21 3/4" long. So M has almost doubled her birth weight, and F -has- doubled his! Today was E's 3 year wellness check up, and she is 29 1/2 pounds and 37 1/2" tall!! It will not be long before we are eye to eye.....which is NOT saying much! HA! But hey, I'll still out weigh her! :oP

{sigh}

As for M & F, they are not sleeping thru the night consistently yet. But I am hopeful that is around the corner....somewhere....close....I hope. Also, I'm posting their 2 month Blue Chair Pictures.

They are still eating every 4 hours during the day, mostly eating 5 oz each....sometimes a little more, like 6-7 oz.....I'm contributing that to growth spurts. They are starting to track objects a little bit. They are also starting to make longer and longer eye contact. Which is kinda cool. They both smile when they sleep but not when they are awake yet. And of course, they make funny faces in their sleep and occasionally when they are awake. Their hair and eyelashes are really starting to come in now, and we are noticing the same "reddish tint" to their hair that E showed at the same age...that and the Really Long Lashes - thank you Papa!

E still thinks they are pretty cool. She comes to get us when either of them cry, declaring "Mama! Papa! My baby! She's crying!!" Yes, she has not quite got the pronoun thing down yet, so it is always "she" is crying. :o) She also likes to share her favorite toys with them. I attribute this to her total love and devotion to her brother and sister....or it could be that they don't GRAB the toys and keep them...so when she comes up to me and whispers "I want them back now" it is not a big deal to retrieve them :o)

Th hubby got to spend some time in his shop while on vacation, and got his 1967 Datsun running again....long story short, it turned out to be a spark plug issue. In the process though, he got new seats for it, and E claimed the box with all the packing peanuts to be her new favorite place to climb into and play!

As for me, I've been given the all clear by my OB, with my next follow up in 3 months. I'm still taking the Lovenox Shots twice a day, due to my Coumadin levels still being too low. It is taking a little bit longer this time to get it up to the necessary therapeutic levels, which sucks. I hate the shots. I think the hubby does too, as he is the one giving them to me. We are scheduled for another doplar of both legs in two months. My Hematologist believes at that time the clots will be completely gone. He also told me that given the reasons for my clotting (pregnancy, involving not moving), that he does not think I will have any clotting problems going forward.... YAY!!!!

So we are just trying to get back to some kind of a normal routine mostly. We are starting to take the twins out when we make little trips or errands. They like being in the car, so that makes it easier.

They have been on straight formula for about 12 days now, and have had some pretty substantial gas issues. I'm gonna give it another couple of days to see if it subsides any. If not, I will have to look into different formula. Luckily for me, I have Isabel doing all that I'm doing, but sooner! So she has given me some tips on that topic. Thanks Isabel!

That's all for now.
Love to everyone,
Cherise

The Last Surgery from the BABIES...

2009-02-27T15:19:00.012-06:00

Or "How to almost die, part 3…"

What is it with my inability to do anything simply????

First, the ‘catch up’ part:

It has been a while, but the bottom line is F came home on Wednesday, January 21, 2009. YAY!!! He passed his car seat test, and home he came! So everyone is home and good!

My Coumadin levels finally had stabilized to the point that I did not have to go and have it checked weekly. But we still needed to face the final surgery to have the filter removed. That appointment was scheduled for Thursday, February 26, 2009…we will get back to this in a minute…

Meanwhile, the twins had reached their 1 Month Birthday (on February 9th)!!! We have taken the "Blue Chair" photos with each of them, but admittedly, it was WAY easier with E; she was almost 9 pounds at 1 month, and could support herself a little bit. M & F were only 7 pounds on this day, and not very good at supporting much more than their heads. But the pictures have been taken!! We are due to take the 2 Month pictures in a week or so.

We had about 10 days of help from MommaJo, who arrived shortly after Memaw and Pa left. Our family support systems have been AWESOME.

Right after MommaJo arrived, E came down with a virus and missed a week of school. This forced us to 'quarantine' the twins in the master bedroom. MommaJo was basically quarantined with them. She camped out during the day with the twins, feeding and taking care of them, while the hubby dealt with E and I pumped and slept. That was a crazy week!

I'm not long for the pumping...it had become more of a hindrance than a help. It was taking away time from the twins AND from E AND it was excruciating. I went to my 6 week Post-Op visit and after talking it over with Dr. G. we discovered I have DOUBLE MASTITIS. Well No Wonder I’m in such PAIN!!!! So I’m on big doses of antibiotics and trying to dry them up, and complete the switch from half breast milk and half formula to just formula for the twins….just the first week on antibiotics so far has made such a huge difference.

After MommaJo left, Memaw came back for a week…..she was here the week I was finally diagnosed with the double mastitis, so it was not a fun week for her.

This week Aunt Charlene has been here….and she has been Great! She has 13 grandkids of her own, so she fell into the routine without batting an eye. And granted, this week, I’ve been more able to help out….not as many ouchies on my part….that does help!

So lets get back to the LAST Surgery:
Remember when I said my coumadin levels were great? Well, I had to come off of it in preparation for the surgery. So I’m back on the Louvenox shots again… (sigh) After the surgery, I will ramp back up on the coumadin, and the shots will go away again…..now on with the story…

We were told that the Interventional Radiology Nurses would call to ‘fill us in on the details’ on Wednesday, the day before the surgery. When they did not, we did not think too much about it, because we had already been through this once, so we kinda knew what we were in for…..or so we thought.

We showed up at 7am, and from 7am until 9am, things were going very smoothly. We were passed off from one Nurse and one department to the next waiting Nurse in the next department. All the paperwork went smoothly, and when they called us to go back we were like “hey, this is going to be smooth and quick….we will be home before lunch!”

So I dropped off the hubby in the waiting room and they wheeled me back. Dr. Clare came in to talk to me…..everyone asked about the babies….everyone was all smiles, this is going to be easy, type attitudes…..I was very relaxed. She mentioned the risks, both high risks and low risks……I joked with her “hey, remember, I’m Special Ed. Be prepared for ANYTHING!” We both laughed…..should have known better….

Continuing, she told me they would be going in through my neck again, as opposed to my leg, due to the positioning of the filter….basically, you have to get it out the same direction you put it in……she also told me I would be getting the FULL dose of Happy Drugs this time! YAY ME!!! I let her know that I had mastitis and was wearing an ace bandage around my chest, that I really did not want to take off…she said no problem, let’s go.

They remembered about the claustrophobia, so that was not a problem. I got my first dose of happy drugs and was listening to the doctors….everything started out so nice….

Then I started hearing them say things like ‘the filter is tilted……do you have it?.....can you get the cone over it?.....’ Then there was more pressing on my neck……OW!! Then they would give me more happy drugs…..then Dr. Clare started making requests for additional staff to be on hand….she was covering her bets…..more struggling to retrieve the filter…..more pressing…..more OW…..more drugs……then all of a sudden, I heard one of the doctors say ‘shit’ under their breath……the room went completely silent for about 10 seconds……then I was saying OW, OW, OW!!!! She was yelling at me, ‘Where??? Where is the pain?’ I was yelling in my head, “I’m having a heart attack”….but finally I managed to say out loud, “it feels like I’m having really bad indigestion”….

Next thing I knew, I had another line put into my neck, a line put into my leg, and what seemed like ‘new’ doctor voices in the room……I clearly heard Dr. Clare tell the nurses to draw blood for cross and type and called for a Cardiac Thoracic Surgeon, and she kept saying ‘Is Thoracic here?’

Then someone was saying, “What is that? What is in my field? Are those clips? Get those clips off her bandage, they are blocking my sight!” So then the nurses were wrestling with my ace bandage trying to pull it off or down or something….I’m trying to help, but they are like “Don’t Move!” They got the clips off…..I got more drugs….

So now I’m thinking……”hhmmmm…..Am I fixing to die? I can’t Die!!! I have Twins that need me! I have E that needs me! I have the hubby that needs me! I can’t die! I can’t die!” Then I had what I call my “Saving Private Ryan Moment”: I started whimpering on the table, “momma…..momma…..” {reminded me of the scene on the beach in the beginning of that movie when the solders would call out for their mothers]…..Then I just started praying as hard as I could……

The next thing, Dr. Clare is saying “check it! Check it! Do you see 6 legs? Are all 6 legs there? Are you positive?” Then it seemed like they were done and I was being wheeled into recovery.

Recovery….that was totally weird too…..I’m awake, but loopy…I’ve been awake but loopy this whole time…they tell me to keep my leg straight and my neck still……I have catheters in both…..the nurse removes these in recovery, which turn out to be HUGE…..not exactly what I wanted to see being pulled out of my leg…..I saw the first 6 inches of the tube come out of my leg and when she went to pull again, I closed my eyes. Then she moved up to my neck…..she pulled one out, I started to move, she said “wait” and then pulled out the other…..I got bandaged up and told not to move my leg or neck for a while.

Meanwhile, the doctors have been popping out during all of this, letting the hubby know what is going on.

Bottom Line:

• The filter had tilted, as is typical with filters placed in pregnant women. The blood flow changes after birth, so this effects the placement.

• They tried to get it and fish it out, but when they were passing my heart, they lost their ‘grip’ on the filter, and it got sucked into my heart.

• It became what Dr. Clare described to me as a “video game”….the filter is bouncing around in the first chamber of my heart and three different doctors are in there trying to catch it, with the Thoracic Surgeon standing behind them, ready to Crack my chest if it got away from the first chamber and into the second ….the second chamber would have sent it to my lungs….(this is the part where I said I am feeling ‘really bad indigestion’). When she was telling me about this part, I’m imagining people running around with nets trying to catch a butterfly…..good analogy….For those of you interested, here is a link to a visual of the Heart

• They caught it, got it out, checked to make sure nothing had ‘broken off of it’ inside me, and sent me on to recovery.

• I ended up with 7 doctors and one Surgeon in the room with me…..basically ALL the doctors from the Day Surgery Staff…..I put everyone behind schedule for the day…..I did not go to recovery until Noon. The hubby was in the waiting room with another guy, who kept calling the staff and going “they STILL have not started?” After the last update to the hubby, they guy looked at him and said, “I guess they are all in with your wife”

Yep! That’s me! High Maintenance! Special Ed!!

{…Sigh…}

We had to stay in the hospital for about 4-6 hours, to make sure the leg and neck entry points stayed closed. Then they let us go home.

Our friends the Carzola’s had picked up E the day before for a sleepover, so Aunt Charlene would only have the twins to deal with on Thursday. And after the scare, the hubby asked them to keep her again. We will get her today, Friday, after school…..’cuz I -need- to see her! :o)

As for me, I got to sleep for about 12 hours when we got home….got up and pumped, ate a little something, and went back to sleep for 3 more hours…..I feel SO much better than I did.

The hubby and Aunt Charlene took over the feedings for last night, but I’m hopeful to be able to pitch in today and tonight.

I gotta say, now that this is O.V.E.R., I am very grateful to know that I will not EVER be doing this again! HA!!! I believe God is telling me ‘Be grateful for your kids! Be grateful for your spouse! Be grateful for you life!!’

So I am telling all of you to do the same!

Here is hoping you are well rested and happy!

Love to all,
Cherise

BABIES part 2

2009-01-31T19:16:00.009-06:00

So, where did we leave off? Oh yeah, babies have been born…

Shall we continue? Yeah, I think so too….

Saturday, January 10, 2009:
I wake up on Saturday, and am more lucid than I was on Friday. The nurse comes in and tells me they are taking away my “happy drug dispensing button” and switching me to Motrin and Hydrocodone pills. Okay, okay….as long as the pain killers keep coming my way, I should be good. The nurse tells me I have to ASK for the pain killers; they will not just bring them to me….great…..now I have to think…..this is a stretch….

I cry…..a lot…..this is a recurring theme……it happens everyday, several times a day….which is WEIRD for me…..because I’m not a crier…..I’m a screamer and a curser, but not a crier……so this weirds me out, which makes me cry more…..yeah, I’m not getting anywhere with this…

I also feel like someone else had the babies and I’m just a stabbing victim. I tell everyone that I would like to see the babies, because I have not seen them yet. They all look at me like I’ve grown 2 heads. They tell me that I saw them yesterday….I argue and say “NO I Did Not”…..they show me pictures of me in the NICU with each of them……I burst into tears….again…..’cuz that always helps….

They load me up in a wheelchair and cart me off to the NICU to see the babies for what I think is the FIRST time…..it was GLORIOUS!!!!! They get each of them out of their NICU enclosed cribs (which we have started calling their ‘Condo’s”) and I get to hold each of them. The NICU rules state that there can be no more than 2 people at each baby’s bedside…..so Memaw and Pa and the hubby and I take turns rotating between the two kiddos to maximize our ‘baby time.’ Simple GLORIOUS!!!!!

Back to my room….at this point, they trade out my 2 Heparin shots daily for 2 Lovenox shots daily…..still to be taken in the abdomen…..still painful…..what a shocker…..

My pain is still pretty bad, and I let it get ahead of me……I suffer thru the afternoon and evening trying to get back on top of it. I request the nurses to BRING me my pain meds every time I can take another dose, instead of me calling to request them…..I even ask for them to wake me up to administer the doses…they agree without hesitation…..the Nurses at Baylor Dallas ARE SO AWESOME!!!!!

E comes to see me. It has been a few days since I remember seeing her, so it is good to see her, even though I’m not at my best. She also receives her “presents from her sister and brother.” Her sister M gave her a Hello Kitty with matching Purse and book and a Kitty Rice Krispy Treat on a stick (she loves food on sticks). Her brother F gave her a hardback book containing 4 Superman comics (she loves superman too). She was thrilled with it all! She still did not -really- get that she has a new sister and brother. With this being RSV season, she is not allowed in the NICU, so all she has to go on is our word and some pictures we took.

But the hubby made her a ‘flashcard’ with M on one side and F on the other and laminated it so she can carry it around with her….which she does!

Sunday, January 11, 2009:
Memaw and Pa take a break from us and head to the house for some down time…. and our good friends the Korson’s take E to a Camping Expo in Arlington for the day…..she gets to see fish and hang out with her friends, so she is pretty happy.

I finally get to start eating real food today.

Monday, January 12, 2009:
Today they have added Coumadin to my drug regiment; there are significant food restrictions with this one. Anything high in Vitamin K will jack with my Coumadin levels…….which is bad. I will be on this drug for 6 months. Also, I have to continue to take the Lovenox shots until I reach the appropriate therapeutic levels of Coumadin. Now I’m checking out soon, so this means Memaw will be giving me these shots to the abdomen twice a day……ah yes…..fun for everyone.

Dr. Graham’s partner, Dr. Weinstein comes by to check on me and basically says “you gotta get outta here before you catch something!” We agree. But at the same time, I’m not really trilled about checking out with out the kids. They are estimated to be in the NICU for about 2 weeks. We go over all of the drugs that I will be on upon leaving the hospital. Obviously the Coumadin is the one for concern.

He also mentions that the Coumadin will put me at an elevated risk for bleeding injuries….so a cut will bleed more than normal…..but something big, like, say, a car wreck, might be a significant risk……just what we need to hear….”Drive Careful”…..it’s like this is a never ending cycle of “gotcha!”…..

He also tells us to see Dr. Maisel by Friday. This is to check my blood for the Coumadin levels….he does not want me to go too long on both the Lovenox shots AND the Coumadin…..me too, so I’m okay with seeing Dr. Maisel sooner rather than later….

Also, I have started having back spasms, due to me having to use my back to walk and sit up instead of my abdomen……hell, I sneezed once and thought I -must- have popped a staple loose……the thought of using my abdomen for ANYTHING is really, really far in the back of my mind…..like maybe next year I’ll consider trying again….maybe….

Tuesday, January 13, 2009:
We check out without the kiddos……I cry A LOT today……

I’m checking out with doctor’s instructions/prescriptions to be on the following:
• Lovenox Shots (2 times a day)
• Coumadin once a day, and a healthy list of “do not eat…”
• Iron
• Prenatal Vitamins
• 1200mg Calcium
• Hydrocodone
All of the above come with ‘don’t exceed blah, blah, blah’ type of instructions. The hubby fills all my scripts for me.

My Back spasms have replaced the gut wound as ‘the most painful’ spot on my entire body. They actually take my breath away…..I’m beginning to think this will never end…..and yes, there is more crying…..{sigh}

Wednesday, January 14, 2009:
The Kiddos “graduate” from the North Hall to the South Hall in the NICU. This is GOOD! This means they are getting closer to release. They both have been moved out of the Condos and into the Regular Open Cribs.

M is on target for check out on Friday. However, they had to put F back on his Cannula (oxygen tube to nose) and moved him under a Heater – he is losing weight and can not keep up body temperature. He has lost weight 3 days in a row, and they are speculating that he is using his entire food intake to try to stay warm. However, once stripped down to his diaper and put under the heater, he stretches out and appears to be VERY relaxed....kinda looks like he is thinking "Ah.....I could use a beer...waiter?"

Late this evening the hubby discovers one of my prescriptions is wrong; I was supposed to be taking 1200mg of CALCIUM Carbonate, but the Pharmacy made a mistake and the Rx was filled for LITHIUM Carbonate. The hubby discovers the mistake after I had taken 600 mg of Lithium in the morning, and was retrieving the ‘second’ dose of what we believed was Calcium. WE ALL FREAK OUT! The hubby calls the NICU (pumped milk expressed after I have taken the Lithium has been dropped off for kids). It was a -rough- night for all with worry……and yes, MORE crying……{when will this part end???}

Thursday, January 15, 2009:
The hubby calls to check on Kiddos with regard to our Lithium scare. The NICU Pediatrician reassures us kids are not in any danger, due to the dosage being so small; however, he does instruct me to “pump and dump milk” for 48 hours from the time I ingested the Lithium. {sigh} All that effort, for nothing…..

The hubby goes by the Pharmacy to confirm our Prescription is for calcium. The pharmacist he talks with (not one who filled script) is visibly shaken over the mistake; we get a copy of paperwork documenting the Lithium mistake on -their- end.

I call Dr. Graham’s office to confirm I am supposed to be taking Calcium not Lithium – yep, they confirm it’s the pharmacies mistake. {NOTE: Dr. G’s office is also extremely Freaked Out by the mistake}. They also tell me the Calcium can be Over the counter; yeah us!

I should pause right here to address all those little voices screaming inside most of your heads……..MAYBE CHERISE –SHOULD- BE ON LITHIUM…….yeah, I thought it too, but come on! Talk about Wrong Timing!!! :o) This can be addressed at a later date, right? Right?

Back to the timeline…

The NICU had to put F back into the Condo to help him maintain body temp and gain his weight back; he had dropped in weight 3 days in a row. His temp is holding and he is starting to regain the weight....so it is working.

M had been cleared for check out on Friday!!! YEA!!! But NICU protocol requires us to “Overnight with her” prior to release. So the hubby and I pack a bag and head to the hospital for the evening with M. Memaw and Pa handle E at home.

The night comes and goes……very slowly…..I still have a lot of ‘ouchies’ and have to figure out how to get in and out of the hospital bed again, every 2-3 hours to pump; meanwhile the hubby is up every 3-4 hours to feed M. We are totally spent by the time the morning arrives……and I am thinking “Holy Crap! That’s just ONE baby…..I’m screwed….”

Friday, January 16, 2009:
We meet with Dr. Maisel to go over our blood levels and future treatment; he is a really nice guy. I am confused as to where exactly the filter was placed. He draws us a picture of where the filter is located….it is funny, and he keeps saying ‘this is not to scale’….but still, it is funny…..we ask him to sign it, which he does….he laughs at us! It is nice to laugh….almost forgot what that feels like…..we tell him it will be on our blog….he laughs again! :o) The drawing is included with the explanations added by the hubby...

He tells us the filter will be in for 2-3 weeks then we need to go get it out…..oh goody! Another round of the light flashing, neck pain, pushing fun…..wait! I won’t be pregnant this time……maybe I will get the FULL dose of Happy Drugs!!! Yea!!! Maybe I won’t even REMEMBER getting it removed??? Wouldn’t that be GREAT?!?!

Blood work comes back showing we are still too low on the Coumadin levels….we have to continue with the
Lovenox shots 2x/day plus Coumidin; we are scheduled for another check in a week.

Texas Oncology at Baylor makes me remember there are others out there also battling serious diseases/cancer….in addition to the massive amount of folks in the waiting rooms, there is a wig store located right next to the main check in counter…..Makes me very grateful for everything we have, and try not to complain as much…

Next we go to our Dr. Graham appointment to have our staples taken out….Man! That feels SO much Better!!! We tell her about the Lithium scare…..she just shakes her head and reiterates that life can change on a dime….we ask for an update on Baby Sophia….she tells us that the baby’s kidneys are functioning and her seizures have stopped, but that she is still waiting for confirmation of brain activity…..it is hard to ask for details, given the patient confidentiality rules she is working with…..God Bless Baby Sophia And Her Family.

F continues to gain weight and eat more; he is still in enclosed crib for temp issues for today. But otherwise, he is doing Great!

We bring in the car seat for the stress test for M. We also take a mandatory Infant CPR class. Then we sign all the release paperwork. It is VERY HARD to leave F in the NICU…alone….without his sister… :o( {it should be a given that there was more crying…}

M comes home! E is DELIGHTED; she brings all of her favorite toys over to M….she even shares “kitty” with her (it is a VERY special moment).

We are very blessed!

Oh! One of the pictures was just too cute not to share....I am holding M in the NICU and she is dreaming and smiling really big....the hubby managed to snap up the picture of me smiling back at the right time....totally too cute!!

Love to all,
Cherise

BABIES!!!!

2009-01-25T11:16:00.006-06:00

WARNING: This is a REALLY LONG POST…..so make sure you have gone to the bathroom, have a snack and possibly a beverage before you settle in to read it! :o)

Okay, so this post will be a little different than my previous ones….I’m having to resort to a day by day recap….and my days are a little foggy, so some of this is coming from the hubby and Memaw’s account of how things went down.

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?
Monday, January 5, 2009:

Good thing the hubby reminded me to throw together the hospital bag this past weekend.

We arrived at our OB appointment Monday morning, and after the sonogram, Dr. G told us we needed to go to the hospital and check in.

At that time, Baby Boy B's amniotic fluid was measuring lower than it had been the previous weeks, plus he was continuing to trend smaller in size than Baby Girl A. These two things combined made Dr. G want to get a second pair of eyes, and put us on Hospital Bedrest.

So we called Memaw and Pa to head on this way. Called MommaJo to let her know what was going on. Then called one of our friends and asked them to watch E for us for the day. And then my brain pretty much ceased to function clearly.....go figure.

We arrived at the house, passed off E, grabbed our hospital bags and pillows and headed to the hospital. We were really nervous, and anxious to speak to the Specialist, Dr. Magee. But being the Monday after a holiday weekend, Labor and Delivery was pretty busy.

We told the staff, "hey man, we are not critical, so feel free to deal with those who are critical....but if we become critical, we would like to be moved to the top of the list!" ;o)

Late that afternoon, Dr. Magee came in and performed the scan and determined he did not think Baby Boy's levels were too low...he thought it was his positioning that was making it hard to determine an accurate read on his levels. Dr. G talked to him and they decided that we need to stay put and have scans done twice a week (Monday's and Thursday's) to keep an eye on Baby Boy. He was optimistic and thought we could go until 37 weeks. Dr. Graham did not want to push our luck, and put us in an emergent situation for the birth. We, needless to say, were siding with HER! :o) Sensing a birthing sooner rather than later, Dr. G ordered Steroid Shots for me to help with the babies lung development......and boy DO THEY HURT :o(

So the bottom line of all of that was "Go Check In Until These Kids Come Out." We were moved to a regular room around 9pm (this was after we checked in to Labor and Delivery for observation at 12:30pm). The hubby left for the night to go and retrieve E and head home with her, as she resumes school on Tuesday.....no point in jacking up her schedule over all of this....Memaw and I set about unpacking and settling in for the evening.

Then I started to notice that my legs were really starting to ache….they had started down in Labor and Delivery, but I contributed it to me having to be in the bed hooked up to the baby monitors…..basically, I did not think too much about it.

Also the steroids were keeping me awake. So what started out as something I did not think too much about turned into the only thing I noticed from midnight until 3:30am, when the pain was too much for me to handle. Every time I got up to go to the bathroom, that leg would throb and pain would shoot through my calf with what seemed like a knife stab. I almost fell twice. I tried to continue to ignore it until I noticed the knot on my left leg. I woke up Memaw. We called the nurse. She called the doctor-for-the-evening. He blew it off. She was visibly mad about his decision. So the nurse brought Hydrocodone for the pain, but wanted us to be sure to tell the Morning Resident about it. I managed to get a total of ONE HOUR of sleep…Memaw can (unfortunately) verify this as I keep her up with me from 3:30 on.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009:

The Resident came in, and I explained that I was in excruciating pain. She decided to have my legs Doppler-checked for clots. The nurse was relieved.

The hubby came to the hospital after dropping off E at school. Dr. Weinstein came in and also determined a Doppler of my legs was in order. This was scheduled to happen before lunch. So down to Radiology I went. The Tech was also pregnant, so we had something to chat about while she dopplered both of my legs.

The hubby and I were taken back to my room to wait for the results, which came rather quickly: The scan confirmed a 2.5 centimeter clot in my RIGHT leg and a ‘superficial’ clot in my LEFT leg. The nursing staff came in and put compression stockings (called TEDs) on both of my legs, and then put on the “Leg Squeezing Machine” – this was a set of calf-long blood pressure cuffs, that alternated inflating to assist with moving my blood around (to keep it from pooling in my legs). This first night of the Leg Squeezers was really annoying, due to me having to disconnect them every time I had to get up to go pee – remember I’m still pregnant at this point.

They also put me on Heparin Shots, 2 times a day, which REALLY burn…..and they have to be administered to the abdomen, in the subcutaneous fat layer – and mine was REALLY stretched thin, so finding it became a game of sorts. AND I also had to have my second steroid shot this night. Ah, Pain……is there enough to go around? My experience says “yes”. :o\

Dr. Graham came by to inform us that this latest blood clot development really puts us in a Critical category. The Heparin is necessary to keep the clots from growing and/or breaking loose and getting to my lungs and killing me and the babies. She has consulted with a Hematologist Oncologist (Dr. Maisel) that she has worked with before, and he will be stopping by tomorrow with his assessment of our situation. But she suspects that an intravenous filter will need to be put in place to catch any clots that come loose. The problem is we have Placenta Previa, which is a serious bleed risk, and now we have been put on Heparin (a blood thinner). She is visibly concerned, and is telling us that she is have team meetings with all of her colleagues that will be assisting on our case, and getting input from them for the next steps. She will meet with us again after Dr. Maisel meets with us.

Meanwhile, the hubby had gone and retrieved E from school and brought her down to the hospital to see me. She is a little cautious upon seeing me in the bed with the Leg Squeezer machine going. When the nurse comes in to check my vitals, she looks at her and in all earnest says:

You take good care of my mother, okay?

It was very sweet, and I was glad to know that she was somewhat getting that Mommy was sick, but that the nurses and doctors were there to help me, and that I was going to be okay.

Memaw took a picture of me in the hospital bed with the leg squeezers on, big-as-a-house-pregnant.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009:

We meet Dr. Maisel, who again confirms the clot is in the RIGHT leg…..which is just totally baffling to me, cuz the pain is totally in the LEFT. He assures me, it is the Right, with the pain in the left coming from a superficial clot. Okay…..he’s the expert.

My brain is really starting to become overloaded. I’m starting to really freak out on a mostly internal level, but I can totally see that changing and exploding into the external very, very soon.

So Dr. Maisel tells us that we will be on the Heparin until right before the C-section; at which point they will stop the Heparin (about 6-8 hours before surgery), and will resume it 6-8 hours after the surgery. So the filter HAS to go in. Great. He explains that usually, they go in thru the artery/vein in your leg and weave it up to the Inferior Vena Cava (IVC). However, me being the super-doper pregnant person I am, they have concerns. The other option is to go in thru my neck to get to the IVC. Neither sound appealing. I ask if I have to be conscious for the procedure, and he tells me unfortunately, yes…..but that some type of “happy drug” will be administered…..yea me.

All of this is starting to swirl around my brain at a rapid rate……and I kinda lose it a little bit….so when the nurse comes in to administer the Heparin shot for the night, I tell her that I don’t know if I’m really supposed to get it, given the filter surgery they are trying to have scheduled for tomorrow……she doesn’t argue, just says OK, and leaves.

When Dr. Graham shows up later that night, she says:
Dr. G: Cherise, you can’t be telling the nurse not to administer drugs to you! If you were a nurse, I would have you fired! You are fired!
Me: Oh. So I need the Heparin shot tonight?
Dr. G: YES!!! And then she laughs…

She then tells us that the plan is coming together. She has called in all her favors for all her colleagues that she would like to have on deck for the now decided Friday delivery day. (Memaw calls Pa to tell him to come on down). Dr. Graham does not want to name names, but does mention calling “Chris” for her anesthesia doctor. This turns out to be Dr. Christopher Haas.

She confirms that a filter does indeed need to go in. She also explains that she went down personally to find the “right doctor” to do the procedure from Internal Radiology. She was funny about it…she said:

I’m a Doctor Cherise. I can just write an order and make this happen. But I didn’t. I wanted to see the doctor face to face and talk with them and make sure they were completely on board with our case. You will be seeing Dr. Clair Savage. I have spoken with her several times, and she is very good.

I love Dr. Graham. She was SO COMMITTED to our case.

She also tells us that they will be going thru my neck to insert the filter. Also they will not be stopping at the IVC, but rather going to the Renal Artery. This should catch the blood clot(s) if it/they break loose. I will be awake during the entire process, which should take about 20 minutes. Then, I will be in the 'radiation area' recovering for another hour, I think. The entire time, there will be a dedicated person monitoring the babies for any changes, distress, etc. She also said there is a "minimal risk" to the babies due to the radiation from the x-ray. After the hour of recovery, I will go back to labor and delivery and get to see the hubby and my folks, and continue recovering until Delivery Day on Friday.

So I should point out that at this point, I’m really not sure where my IVC -or- Renal Artery is with relation to the entry point of my jugular. My hubby, being the overly intelligent man that he is, starts this conversation with Dr. G about “so, the filter will go thru the neck, thru the heart, thru something else, past the IVC and then be deployed in the Renal Artery”…..she says yes…….at this point I’m white as a sheet and my eyes are bugging out……WAY too much info for me……I was happy in my denial of “Hey, renal sounds close to the jugular, right?” He realizes his mistake and immediately starts to apologize and comfort me….too late….I start to cry……I’m so freaked out and scared.

She also says that the amount of “Happy Drugs” will have to be very minimal to reduce the risk to the twins…..again I say, yea me.

We call upon our good friends again to pick up E, and she has her very first “sleep over” with Mrs. Sidra, Mr. Paul, Sebastian and Ava. I’m worried about her, but comforted in the knowledge that she is in good hands.

The hubby stays with me in the hospital room and Memaw stays in hospital hotel…..neither one of them want to be ‘too far away’ from me, and frankly, I don’t want them to be too far away either……I’m really starting to experience this week as a spectator…..surreal …..

Thursday, January 8, 2009:

Dr. Haas stopped by and introduced himself. He and his team have been ‘tapped’ by Dr. Graham to participate in our delivery scheduled for tomorrow. He let us know that I will be unconscious for procedure. The hubby and Memaw will NOT be allowed to be in the OR for the procedure. I will have 5 IVs including a central line (thru the neck). The being unconscious part does have pros and cons, but after the last meeting with Dr. G, they are in agreement that unconscious is the way to go.

So then a little bit later on in the morning, the hubby and Memaw and I headed down to Internal Radiology to meet Dr. Savage and Dr. Giles, her colleague. The hubby and Memaw were peeled off at the waiting room and I was led away thru the “No Admittance Beyond This Point” doors (queue scary music sequence…)

When I arrived at the nurse station, all of the doctors and nurses went silent upon laying eyes on me……kinda weird, but then again, big-as-a-freaking-house-pregnant…..so didn’t REALLY put too much thought into it…..initially…

So I was parked in a location where I was facing the Nurses Station….there were funny little “Savage Country” posters on the walls …. I was beginning to speculate what Dr. Clair Savage looked like….at this point Dr. Giles wondered over and introduced himself, and explained a little bit about the procedure, and I managed to put a good face on it, and smiled weakly as he talked. Then Dr. Clair appeared. She smiled upon entering my little “holding spot”…..I could not help but chuckle and smile back….I said:

Me: You must be Dr. Clair
Dr. Clair: Yes I am
Me: So I take it you have talked to Dr. Graham
Dr. Clair: I have had SEVERAL conversations with her including one this morning; except in this conversation Dr. G started talking –BEFORE- I had answered the phone. When I did answer, Dr. G was saying ‘And another thing, I don’t understand why…’ I had to say ‘whoa, whoa, whoa….let’s start over.’

I had to laugh out loud. I said ‘Yes, Dr. G is VERY thorough.’ She said ‘You are right. I’m going to switch to her for my OB/GYN!’

Dr. Savage explains the Filter procedure as follows:
I will be wheeled into the Radiology OR. I will not be administered too much of the happy drug due to risks to the babies. The procedure will involve them administering a local in my neck at the point of entry. They will apply a dye first to decide on the placement of the filter. Then they will deploy the filter. This should take about 20 minutes.

So in I go…..the next part was kinda like a bad acid flashback (except that I have never done acid…hhhmmmm)…..So they move me from one table to another, and place my arms in these plastic shields to keep them from falling off the table – translated “trapped”. Then one tech starts to try to gather up my hair in one of the hair nets, and they removed my St. Gerard necklace and wrap it around one of my hands. Then they start to administer a little bit of the “Happy Drug”.

But nothing could be complete without a Claustrophobia attack, right? Dr. Giles starts to unroll this type of drop cloth across my face, where my head is turned to the left, exposing just the right side of my neck….but it keeps on unrolling until I can not see and I start having my anxiety attack….the only thing I can think is “I’m suffocating in a Wal-Mart bag!!!” I start to try to move my arm to push the drop cloth off my face, only to discover They Are Trapped. That’s when I lose it…..I say very deliberately:

Hey. Guys. I’m. Having. A Claustrophia. Attack.

Two Techs rush over and pull the cloth off part of my face to allow some fresh air to come in…I hear them discuss how much of the “Happy Drug” has been administered, and how much more I can take….which turns out to be not much….so then they ramp up the procedure…..they administer the local…which REALLY FREAKING HURTS…..then a serious of things happens….the lights go on and off a few times, one of the techs keeps messing with my hair, there is a lot of discussion between Dr. Savage and Dr. Giles on the placement. They administer –more- local…..then they start to deploy the catheter with the filter in it…..this part REALLY HURTS…..they have to push really hard, and I can hear the tube scraping on the drop cloth…..nothing says love like Sound Affects in a Scary Surgery! YIKES! I manage to hold it together….finally they pull off the drop cloth and hair net, and call the L&D nurse over to do the baby checks….but it has been too much for me and I finally start to cry….Dr. Giles says “Please don’t cry. I can’t go home today and tell my wife I made a pregnant woman cry today.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Savage brings and update to family:
• She had not been able to anesthetize me as she normally would have, due to the babies.
• I was more awake than normal patients having the same procedure.
• My neck was going to be sore, because they really had to push to get it inserted and thru to the Renal Artery.

So the hubby said “Great. So she will be in pain and pissed. Wonderful!”
Dr. Savage also told them that she had never performed this procedure on a pregnant woman before…..glad everything worked out!

Dr. Savage and Dr. Giles are back in the OR with me, intently watching the Labor and Delivery Nurse try to find good heartbeats on both babies….she finds Baby Girl pretty quickly, but can not find Baby Boy, due to him wiggling around too much. Finally she looks at the two Doctors and tells them she wants to go ahead and move me to L&D to hook me up to the big monitors. Both Doctors went a little stiff and opened their mouths….then Dr. Savage says, “Ok, but you will call us when you get the status on the Boy, right? All we need is a thumbs up, okay?” It became very obvious that Dr. Graham had told them to make sure the babies were alright when they were done. They were not thrilled at the thought of the nurse taking me without this confirmation in hand. The nurse assures them, and I’m carted off.

And of course, Dr. Savage was right….or at least partially right….I was indeed VERY sore on my neck…..so now my neck hurts and my legs hurt on top of all the ordinary aches and pains associated with 34 week pregnancy of twins! Yea Me!!!

That evening, Dr. Graham drops by to go over the final plan. The filter will stay in for about a month. I will be on blood thinners for about 6 months. Due to me having to be unconscious, she will need to go fast, and she will need to go vertical instead of horizontal on my abdominal incision. Since I will be unconscious, the babies will be born unconscious too. There will be 2 units of blood hanging when she begins and there will be 2 more in the room. There will be 2 NICU teams in there along with the Anesthesiologist Team, the Labor and Delivery Team and her Surgical Team.

The hubby and I tell her we completely trust her and her judgment in all things regarding this procedure. I reassure her that the vertical incision will be OK….and that I can always have it ‘fixed’ at a later date if it bothers me too much….that the important thing is to get the babies out.

She again reviews that the heparin will be stopped and then restarted after the procedure.
She leaves and we digest all of this info.

Meanwhile, Pa comes in and he and Memaw decide to stay close, so they stay in the hospital hotel that night, with the Hubby staying with me in the room.
E stays with Mrs. Sidra again.
Mr. Paul comes by to check on us and brings Krispy Kreme doughnuts. YUM!
Also Uncle Alan / Aunt Lisa come by and drop off some gifts for E “from the twins”. We are very grateful they can do this for us.
The hubby stays with me tonight.

With all of these procedures going on, Blue Cross/Blue Shield calls Dr. Graham “to find out if this is all for one patient.” Dr. Graham tells us that by the time she was done speaking with them, they told her, “whatever you need Dr. Graham, make it happen.” I SO FREAKING LOVE MY DOCTOR!!!!!!!

Friday, January 9, 2009:
Birthing Day! They stopped Heparin shots for the surgery.

Dr. Graham, Dr. Haas, 2 NICU teams, and the L&D team are ready (Latoya, one of the Labor & Delivery nurses came in on her day off just to be involved in my delivery).

They took me down around 7:30am, and put in the first IV, which knocked me out (thank God) before they inserted the other 4 IVs. The surgery started around 9:40am

M was born at 9:45am, she was 19” long; F was born 9:46am, he was 19.25” long – both were unconscious, like me [NOTE: if you want to know their actual names, send me an email].

Memaw, Pa and the hubby got to see babies almost immediately; the nursing staff offered to take pictures for us in the delivery room.

Everything went relatively smoothly; they were prepared for every possible scenario. After the babies were born, Dr. Graham clamped and cross clamped Uterus; then she discovered the bright red bleeding coming from the placenta’s AFTER this was done; she unclamped and had to deal with placentas then. Up until this point, she had not touched them, in an effort to control the bleeding risk.

Well, it turned out to be I had DOUBLE placenta previa, and they were stacked like pancakes. I had dilated, and both placentas had turned into accreta, grown through cervix and into vaginal cavity; they were the only thing keeping the kiddos IN. Dr. Graham did her magic, and stopped the bleeding with only having to put in 2 units (remember, they had 4 on deck). The nursing staff was so ‘shocked’ at the size of my uterus, they weighed it! The uterus plus both placentas weighed 4.5 pounds…..that was like a third kid!

At any rate…..I remember waking up around 3pm, semi-lucid for the first time…..but evidently, during my recovery, when the hubby and Memaw and Pa were in there checking on me, Swearing occurred…….I know, I know…..pick up your jaws…..

I am told there was a lot of
“Holy Crap, this HURTS!”
And a few of
“Shit, this Hurts a lot!!”
And finally, one
“I just want you guys to know, “F*#@ this Hurts!!!”

Now, I don’t remember any of this, but I’m going off reliable sources….not to mention, I did all of this in front of everyone, including MommaJo, who drove in that morning…….again I say, Yea Me. :o\ {sigh}

Evidently, later on I was wheeled to NICU to see M and F; I totally don’t remember this, but there are pictures of me doing this, so it had to have happened.

My Pain is unreal – abdominal and Neck; they have equipped me with a lovely pain-killer-button…..how I love that button!

They resume the Heparin shots. {sigh}

Dr. Graham checks in on us. She tells me in no uncertain terms that Lisa, our ultrasound technician in her office, literally saved my life. We completely agree. If she had not warned of the low fluid on F, we would have gone home and never given a second thought to my leg pain; I would have died going into the c-section without the blood thinners and filter in place. May God Bless Lisa!!!!

She also tells us that life can turn on a dime. After our successful operation, the next patient they asked her to assist on (not a regular patient of her office), had severe complications, and she is really worried about the baby……she asks us to put Baby Sophia on our Prayer List. The hubby sends out the request immediately.

So!

We are eternally grateful to everyone out there that was praying for us and our doctors. I believe it really worked. Those of you that know me really well know that I am not prone to being overly mushy or strongly religious, but in this case I must be both.
I would not be here nor would the babies if it had not been for my God, my Angels and my Doctors.

Go hug someone! And tell them you love them and that you are glad they are part of your life.

Okay, enough of that :o)

[NOTE: This is the recap of the first 5 days….there will be another post with the next few days worth of drama, but this at least catches everyone up on how we finally got babies. So stay tuned, because there was more drama…..which is not really saying anything, because what is life with Cherise without Large Quantities Of Drama!!! :o)]

Love to everyone,
Cherise

Christmas and Week 32 and 5 days...

2008-12-29T13:22:00.009-06:00

We had a very low key Christmas here at the Deaton Ranch. Memaw and Pa came in on Dec 15th, and left on the 28th. They were VERY helpful in getting the last minute 'stuff' completed before the twins arrive.

Being that my brain does not work all the time right now, I had started a list of things I needed to have done when they were here, and it was about 3/4 of a page when they arrived. After they got here and we started marking off things as they were accomplished, other items came to mind and I added them to the list. This increased it to 1 1/2 pages. They were like "I think we are moving backwards, not forwards....stop adding to the list!" HA! :o)

So I stopped.....and we got basically all of it done!!! VERY helpful.

So Christmas Eve marked us making it to 32 Weeks!!!! YAY! We are so happy to have made this very critical date in our pregnancy. I am as big as a house. To prove this point, Memaw took profile pictures of me at every possible opportunity!

Santa came, and brought E lots of dolls with doll accessories like a crib, stroller, swing, clothes, etc. He also brought her a Sandbox complete with an umbrella for outside. She was very excited. I would have to say the "top" gifts for her were the Superman Comforter for her bed (she -LOVES- superman, cuz Papa has superman stuff too); the Dora the Explorer Princess Dress (which she -immediately- put on and wore the rest of the day); the play tool set she got from her best buddy Elliott; a battery operated fish that swims in the hot tub/bath tub from Chuck; and all the doll stuff. There is something to be said about your daughter wearing a pink princess dress, sitting on a superman comforter, hammering :o)

We did manage to get some cool pictures from that morning. Memaw and Pa enjoyed some really nice gifts as well, sent in from all over. All of us kids went in together and got him a really nice dehydrator (per his request). Memaw received some really nice knives and pots; and they both received a really cool Family Tree framed, from Uncle Tim and Aunt Courtney.

The hubby received a really cool black fedora which he put on and wore most of the day. We bought each other a new digital camera for the family.

Pa made a nice pork roast for Christmas lunch, and I had two helping of EVERYTHING, including dessert!!! I scared everyone with the sheer quantity of food I was able to put away that day....mostly myself! :o)

We also enjoyed a visit from the LeGarde's during Christmas week. It was a very nice visit. And talk about it being a small world...within 15 minutes of my folks talking with Aunt Lisa, they discovered that one of Aunt Lisa's roommates in College was the daughter of a family friend of my folks when we lived in Greenville, MS!! We ate good food and had a fun evening laughing and visiting.

Today was another visit with Dr. G. Everything checked out okay; we are still doing well, and Dr. G. would like to see us hit 34 weeks.....she actually said she would like to see us hit 36 weeks, which means 4 more weeks! Ugh! I don't know if I will be able to hit that mark, but I will do my best. As of today I'm measuring 40 weeks (and we are only 32 weeks and 5 days). Baby Girl A is -still- breech and is measuring 5.1 pounds, while Baby Boy B is measuring 4.6 pounds (+/- .5 pounds).

So for some background info, E was born at 41 weeks and weighed 8.1 pounds.....I already have more "baby" inside me than E at term! ACK!!!

So we will be continuing to see Dr. G. every Monday morning for sonograms and checks, and we will keep all of you in the loop as best we can.

Here is hoping everyone has a safe and happy New Year!!

Love to all,
Cherise

Week 30 and 6 days...

2008-12-16T16:45:00.008-06:00

Monday morning, E was standing on the stool at my sink brushing her teeth with the hubby. I was in the bathroom with them changing out of my pj's into my clothes for the day. E turned around to me and this was the exchange:

E: Oh Momma! Your belly is SO beautiful!
ME: Oh Thank You Sweetie! Did you hear that dear? E says my belly is beautiful.
HUBBY: {smiling} Well of course it is!
E: Papa! Look! Momma's belly is Great!
HUBBY: {smirking} Great BIG!!!

So much for my 'special moment' with E... HA!!

So Wednesday is 31 weeks......and we are extremely pleased!

We also saw our OB doctor Monday; she walked in the room and told us that we were 'her good news of the day.' She was very happy to see us still doing well, and having reached 30 weeks. She told us she -really- wanted to see us go another month (get to 34 weeks). Actually, we would not mind that either....the longer they stay in, the better off they will be when they arrive, which means a shorter stay in the hospital for them.

We took measurements and the sonogram indicates that Baby Girl A is measuring 3.7 pounds and Baby Boy B is measuring 3.3 pounds (+/- .5 pounds). I am measuring 36 weeks in gestational size, have gained 31 1/2 pounds and measure 44 inches in circumference; which means I have expanded by 4 inches in 4 weeks! YIKES! When the doctor came up with the 36 week number, she speculated that I might be growing out on the sides instead of just out the front.....now that is depressing....I am going to look like I swallowed large inflatable doughnut before this is all said and done. :-\

The babies have not really moved from their previous positions. Baby Girl A is still on the left side, facing 'out', in the breech position (head up, feet down). Baby Boy B is still on the right side, but is now more on his right side...last week he was facing 'in', more on his stomach....he is still kinda in an "L" shape with his head down and his feet curving over to line up beautifully with his sister's head! :o)

The babies enjoy several rounds of WWF a day....and they can go into the night and wee hours of the morning. It just takes one of them to start moving around to cause the other one to 'respond' with jabs and kicks.

The doctor is very pleased with their movement and amniotic fluid levels. Their heart rates and other internal organs are still looking great. The placenta previa is still in tact, with no indication of bleeding or rupture - SUPER DUPER YAY!!!!

She also told us that she will be 'on call' next week, and that we will be seeing her associate, Dr. W., on Monday. We asked what would happen if we rupture while she is on call....will Dr. W. call her to come in and deliver the twins? Or will Dr. W. deliver the twins? She kinda laughed and said "well, you just never know when a call will come in when you are on call. I might be in the bath tub, or just stepped out for a basketball game, or maybe I just poured a second glass of champagne for myself." She basically went on to tell us that ultimately, her idea is that both her and Dr. W. will be there to deliver the twins, a sort of 'tag-team' event if you will. She said she will bring me a glass of champagne when this is all over.....I asked her to bring the bottle :o) She laughed again, but said sure!

We also discussed the possibility that I may have started dilating. I keep getting the sensation of what I call "a foot falling out" when I stand up. She said, 'well, it could very well be a foot falling down, but because the placenta is blocking the cervix, it is staying in.' Now, if that train of thought does not freak you out just a bit, you need to go back and re-read this paragraph :o\

Bearing that in mind, we are keeping our eye on the week by week progress. We learned that we were a few day off in our counting, and that the weeks start on Wednesdays instead of Saturdays. This means tomorrow marks Week 31 and Christmas Eve marks Week 32. So we are a few days farther along than we had originally estimated. I will take every day that I can get! :o)

Last week we had a Momma Jo visit. E was very happy to see her. Momma Jo brought with her the first Christmas Presents to go under the tree. So now we have started trying to teach E 'Christmas Present Etiquette.' In the previous two Christmas' the presents did not appear until the day before Christmas, and then they were not really noticed. But she definitely noticed the boxes under the tree this time. She wanted to open them immediately. She does not do good with grasping time yet, so to tell her she had to wait 2 weeks to open them just went over her head. We also had to explain that she could not throw them or jump on them either :oP

On Wednesday afternoon, the hubby took the afternoon off and he, Momma Jo and E went to the Dallas Aquarium (way too much walking for me to go). They really enjoyed themselves. I got a full report from E of all the animals she was able to see when they got home. Momma Jo was a little disappointed that E did not want to take her hood off for the majority of the Aquarium visit....interferes with the picture taking :o) I'm attaching some of the photos she managed to snap.

Memaw & Paw arrived yesterday early afternoon. They left AR just in time to avoid all the REALLY bad weather that hit. They will be here with us for the next two weeks, helping us with the last minute arranging and organizing for the twins. I am VERY grateful. I am sure for the next post we will have some Christmas activity pictures to share with all of you.

I guess that is all for now.

Love to all,
Cherise

Thanksgiving and 28 Weeks, 2 days...

2008-12-01T17:29:00.010-06:00

Thanksgiving here on the Deaton Ranch was very quiet. Instead of doing a huge spread with lots of folks over, it was just the 3 of us (well, FIVE, counting the twins). We had a ham instead of a turkey (due to the size of the turkeys and our small group - just could not see us eating all that bird!).

Trying to engage E in the thoughts behind Thanksgiving, the hubby and I were going over the day's menu, among other things. One of our side dishes was to be a Spinach Salad. When I asked her if she wanted to help make the salad, she excitedly said "YES!" and then ran into the kitchen...now mind you, it was 8:30 in the morning...a little early for Thanksgiving Lunch :o)

But she was excited, and we wanted to encourage it. So the hubby set her up at the kitchen island with a bag of baby spinach leaves and a big bowl. She insisted on a spoon, so the hubby got her a serving spoon. "That's too big papa." So eventually she declared that a soup spoon was the right size. She then determinedly moved the spinach one leaf at a time from the bag to the bowl. He walked out to check on some other things, and reported to me that after about 20 minutes, she had managed to move about 1 cup of the spinach from bag to bowl (HA!) ...So he walked back up to her and this was the exchange:

"E, are you making progress?"
"No papa. I'm making salad."

When all the parades started to play on TV, she sat just mesmerized. She loved all of the floats and dancing and singing....she even clapped and joined in dancing when she deemed the TV performance worthy of her participation.

Later on we explained to her that Thanksgiving was all about being thankful for things we have, people we like, etc. She understood it best when we told her it was about naming the things that make us happy. Not too bad of a grasp for an almost-three-year-old.

Pregnancy is really wreaking havoc on my brain. For example, last night the hubby had spent a good bit of the early evening prepping and then starting a pot of beans (with the Thanksgiving ham bone) and a batch of cornbread muffins (which E assisted in preparing). Then when we were about 30 minutes from being ready, we had friends call and ask him to come over and watch their kids, due to them needing to take their dog to the emergency vet. So E and the hubby headed over, leaving me to "tend" to the muffins and beans. Seems pretty straight-forward: buzzer goes off, take out muffins, turn off oven, turn off burner under beans and cover.

Buzzer goes off.
Muffins come out.
Oven gets turned off.
Brain checks out.
Beans end up boiling out all of the water and scorching to the bottom of the pot.
Damn it!

Does it count as dinner if all you have are cornbread muffins???? Yeah, I didn't think so.

So Saturday was our Second Most Important Goal Date of 28 Weeks!!!! Everyone (but me) do some kind of break out dance of joy!!!!! So as of this posting we are at 28 weeks, plus 2 days!

My sciatic pain is still with me, but I have also developed pretty severe side and now back pain to go along with it. Our OB had suggested that I start taking hot baths in the evenings to help easy those tired muscle, which I was doing, and it was helping.....until E wanted to join me. Not so much on the relaxing as much as it was on the 'catch the slippery kid before she falls on me' end of the spectrum. But the hubby came to the rescue! He fixed our hot tub!!!! Now the funny thing is that sometimes my back/sides start to give out really early on in the day....like before noon. So he just turns the tub on and says "Go Float." You just gotta love a man like that! I have a maternity swimsuit, somewhere.....but that brain thing I was telling you about earlier, yeah that one... well I just can't seem to remember where I put it. So I just put on a bikini top with swim shorts and go for it. It is Quite A Sight, I must tell you...words fail to describe it accurately, although 'scary' is definitely included! HA! :o) And yes.....the purple rose has blossomed into a full blown purple cabbage! :oP

We met with our Doctor today and had another sonogram. Baby Girl A is in a breech position on the left side, while Baby Boy B is in a 'transverse' position where his head is kinda down and on the right, but his body then goes up and wraps around, and it ends with his feet near Baby Girl A's head. Very weird!

They are really starting to move and push off each other and everything inside me. There are several times a day where all of a sudden, I can't breath because one of them is pressing into my lungs. Or even better, trying to rearrange the location of my ribs....very uncomfortable, needless to say.

Today's measurements: I have gained 30 pounds to date. Baby Girl A is measuring 3 pounds. Baby Boy B is measuring 2.7 pounds. I am measuring 35-36 weeks along. For those of you keeping up with all of these lovely measurements from visit to visit, what this means is Thanksgiving Was Good!!!! Don't you just LOVE pie?!?!

We asked Doctor G what are we to expect going forward. She wants to see us every Monday, and will probably do sonograms every visit. At our current rate of measurement increases, we will probably measure like we are 40 weeks along in just 2 more weeks (which will only be 30 weeks in actuality). She told us some key warning signs to look out for, and if they should happen, to call the office immediately. She also said if they happen, she will most likely put me in the hospital. She would really like to see us get to at least 32 weeks, which is the Saturday after Christmas. I told her I'm aiming for one Saturday after the next! Just taking it one week at a time :o)

Side Note: The hubby's cousin, Isabel sent out a link to snapfish, and an album of their twins. Their two darlings are home and doing well! Yay! I'm including the link:

Click Here

You just need to sign up for a snapfish account, if you don't already have one, to view the pictures.

Love to all,
Cherise

Week 26 and 2 days...

2008-11-17T19:17:00.013-06:00

So uncomfortable does not even BEGIN to describe my current condition. I was curious so I asked the hubby to measure me around 'my equator' (basically the circumference of my girth measured at the belly button): as of today, I'm 40 1/4". WOW!!!!! I never did measure how big around I achieved with E, but Memaw does tell me that she has pictures to prove I was Quite Large....ah, ya gotta love yer ma, no matter what she does! :oP

I have reached that point in our pregnancy where I'm not supposed to do anything....our next goal date is the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and I'm doing all my best to make sure we make that date and then some.

Well that statement is a little misleading. I actual do very little...period. Mostly due to the fact that I still have pretty severe sciatic pain and am having to wear a pregnancy support belt - like a weird pregnancy girdle of sorts. On top of that, my back hurts from all the weight in the front (see the measurement listed in the first paragraph). And I have been extremely tired....like I spend up to 16 hours a day unconscious...I did not have all of this with my pregnancy with E.

We had our pregnancy glucose test last week, and that came back fine, but turns out, I'm anemic. So back on the Iron Pills I go....and supposedly this will help with some of the extreme fatigue I have been feeling. The Doctor is worried about me having enough blood flow for the delivery, and then the stamina to care for the newborns afterward. Lord knows I can't be sleeping 16 hours a day with twin newborns!!!

We had another ultra sound today, and everything is progressing as they should be. Baby Girl A is measuring 2.3 pounds, and Baby Boy B is measuring 1.9 pounds. They are arranged Horizontally and Stacked....kinda like they are in bunk-beds. Currently, both of their heads are on my left side...so they have not gone into the 'head down position' as of yet...not that it will matter with a c-section. I'm not showing any signs of preterm labor, and the placenta previa HAS NOT MOVED ONE INCH (sigh). So we are still on track for the mandatory c-section.

At our last meeting with Doctor G (last week), the hubby and I asked some more questions about the delivery. I did confirm that the hubby and Memaw can both be in the delivery room with me, just like when E was born.

I did ask what would be the procedure with regard to them if the mandatory hysterectomy comes to fruition (in the event the previa becomes accreta). She informed us that she would probably ask Memaw and the hubby to step out at that point...but my thought is, the babies will be out, so they can follow them while Doctor G finishes up whatever needs to be done. I will also remain conscious (via epidural) as long as 'things don't become dicey.' If dice happens, she will knock me out completely.

We did ask her what are her preliminary plans at this point for our c-section delivery. If things continue to go well, and we get to schedule the c-section ahead of time (versus a preterm labor situation), she will schedule it for a Friday. She said she intends on having my blood typed and crossed and units waiting in the OR before she ever begins to cut. She also said she plans to 'be quick', at which point the hubby asked why. She said she will have no choice but to cut thru the placenta to get to the babies; so she wants to go as fast as she can to get the babies out, and then start to assess what additional steps need to be taken.

She also wants to tie my tubes while in there, because an additional pregnancy after this high risk one will put my life in jeopardy. Enough said! But truthfully, the hubby and I had already decided we were done having kids after this pregnancy...if we had started earlier in our lives we might have more, but I'll be 39 when the twins get here, so we are calling it 'perfect' with the three we will have been blessed with! :o) Besides, as the hubby put it, we are ready to 'start getting on with the process of Raising Kids, and end this business of Having Kids.' Sounds great to me!

We also had another nice visit with Momma Jo last week. E really enjoys her time with all of her grandparents!

E is growing like a weed! She is 2 1/2 years old right now, and boy do we know it on some days! She is just getting us ready for when she will be a teenager, I think :o) Most of the time she is just great. She likes to play 'bat'....which means she holds the bat and you throw the ball so it hits the bat....she is practicing on actually swinging the bat and hitting the ball all on her own, but for now it is just easier to let her swing and you aim for the bat.

She also likes to help out in the kitchen. She is very interested in whatever you are cooking, and likes to help pour stuff and stir stuff....she also will let you know when stuff is boiling, by running up to you and saying "hurry! it's cooking!"

We are practicing with her daily on the concept of 'baby brother and baby sister.' She is catching on, and now calls most of her dolls 'baby brother-sister.' She also insists on having at least TWO around her, which is GREAT, considering there -will- be two around from the beginning! Practice makes perfect!

She has really settled into her school, and has decided 99% of the time, this is where she would like to spend her days....she gets to play with other kids her age and learn cool new stuff....and she sings all these nursery rhymes. Ones that I, frankly, had forgotten about. And of course, you have to ask permission to sing with her, or she will tell you "no, mommy, don't sing!" I don't blame her....Aunt Chantelle is the one who could always sing....definitely not momma! :o)

Love to all,
Cherise

24 Weeks and 2 grandma visits...

2008-10-29T19:21:00.010-05:00

So life here on the Deaton Ranch has been moving right along....albeit slowly and largely :o)

I'm a couch-potato for all intents and purposes. I get to venture out about once a day, but if I over do it, I'm house-bound for 3-4 days to recover. My sciatic pain in my right leg is bad enough to warrant me wearing a pregnancy support belt (like a girdle) everyday....if I don't, I can't walk or stand or sit for very long.....and if I keep going anyway, I become bedridden, cuz laying down is the only way for the pain to stop.....which is not fun. Just call me the poster child for Slug-girl!

Also, I'm now big enough, that if I lean back too far in a chair or on the couch, I'm like a turtle on it's back.....stuck! :o|

Oh well, all for a good cause....

This month we have been blessed with two separate visits from both sets of our parents.....

First, MommaJo came for a couple of days to help me clean...YAY!!!! It was GREATLY appreciated! E really enjoyed her time with MommaJo! So much so, that on Thursday afternoon when the hubby went to pick her up from school WITHOUT MommaJo, E was very upset about it! :o( But we reassured her, that MommaJo would be back!

While she was in town, we went over to have dinner with Aunt Lisa, Uncle Alan and their gang. MommaJo did not get to attend the House Warming/Decade Birthday Party at their house over Labor Day weekend, so we took advantage of Uncle Alan's cooking, and brought her over to check out the new place. She took some pictures from our visit.

The next week, Memaw and Paw came in for a couple of days to cook and freeze some meals, and to so some sewing projects for me.....YAY!!!! Again, it was GREATLY appreciated! And again, E really enjoyed her time with both of them......Paw is a great 'tickler', and she is a fool for it! The house smelled so good for the three days of cooking! And now the freezer smells good too!!! Unfortunately, we suck and do not have any pictures from that visit....and yes, when the hubby brought home E from school to NO Memaw or Paw, she was very upset.....but we reassured her, they would be back!

Then we went to see the Specialist last Friday, for a follow up ultrasound, to check on the twins. They checked for all the internal organs on both babies. Everything was where it was supposed to be! The Doctor that was operating the ultrasound machine was very nice.....she was looking at Baby Girl's (Baby A's) brain, and she said "look! she has a pretty brain! you can tell her you saw it even Before she was born!" She was a really nice Doctor who obviously loves her job. After she took all the initial photos, the Specialist came in and reviewed them, and then took some of his own. They were 'ooh-ing' and 'ahhh-ing' over the pictures so much, we finally asked what was the big deal....did they get a new machine or something? No....they said the pictures are so clear and pretty because 'I'm not fat'... !!!! ...HA! I thought, good thing you are not ultra-sounding my butt! :oP God love them, I think they called me skinny!! :o)

He also checked on the previa, and it is still right where it was when they first discovered it. He also did a check to see if it has advanced to a definite accreta state, but he did tell us the test is just a visual test..."guestimate" if you will....and that we really won't know until Dr. G goes in to deliver the twins...but we are hopeful that the previa will NOT advance to accreta. We have a couple of profile shots of each baby and one shot of Baby Boy's (Baby B) foot.....don't you just LOVE baby feet!?!?

And then today we went to our regular OB appointment.....heartbeats sound good....moving around good....all the usual 'good' stuff....we go back in two weeks, but we don't have to see the Specialist again, unless Dr. G discovers something 'new' and wants a second pair of eyes.

I'm also attaching a little video we took of E dancing the other night....she LOVES to dance....she loves just about any kind of music as long as it is not TOO loud, and she lets us know when it is.....so far, she is not a fan of thrash metal, but we are totally polluting her with 80's music.....she likes to get her dance on before she goes for her bath....in this video, she is rocking out to Rick Springfield (yes, we went there...)

On another topic, the hubby's cousin, Isabell, and her hubby Charlie, welcomed their twins Ike and Sophie into this world on Monday. Ike's water broke late last week, so they put her in the hospital to monitor the kids and administer some drug therapy for the twins to help with their lung and brain development...they made it until Sunday, which was 32 weeks for her, and then stopped the drugs.....she went into labor on Monday and had them shortly there after.....Ike delivered first, but then Sophie started doing 'toe touches' in-utero and got stuck, so they had to delivered her via c-section. Both babies are in the NICU, but doing fine according to the latest email correspondence from Grandma.

We can't wait to see pictures of Ike and Sophie! That is a hint, by the way...

And we send a hearty Congrats! to Isabell and Charlie!!

Love to all,
Cherise

Twins update at 19 weeks 3 days...

2008-10-03T11:55:00.006-05:00

After a 24 hour delay to see our OB doctor, we saw Doctor Graham on Wednesday morning...(her office called to ask us to reschedule our Tuesday appointment to Wednesday, due to Dr. Graham being up all night Monday night performing an emergency c-section to deliver twins....talk about Karma!)

We were very relieved to talk to Dr. G. After seeing the specialist, I have to admit, I have been more than a little pent-up over this past weekend. The 24 hour delay just depressed me. But getting to talk with her, and have her answer our questions and concerns, really put us both back on even ground.

She said that she had experience in treating patients with cases just like mine, and being very successful at saving not only baby but mother as well. She also told us that we will not really be able to tell how bad the previa is until she goes in to do the c-section, but we will have a better idea a little farther along in the pregnancy.

She is so funny. She was trying to reassure us and said "it is really hard to say this without sounding like I'm bragging on myself, but before I entered civilian life, I was pretty famous in the military." She went on to tell the following story:

She was an OB doctor in the military (Air Force, I think), and 'in charge' of the OB department for the National Naval Medical Center (where all of the Army, Navy and Air Force personnel are treated...so to speak). She was coming onto her shift to be On Call, and checking in with the Interns and Residents. It was also the 'changing of the guard' time with the Interns...the old class had moved up to Resident status and a new class of Interns was coming on. The old class Interns were telling her what was on board for the day, which included a scheduled c-section. But upon looking at the patients information, she looked at the Intern and told them they were not going anywhere....the patient had a history of c-section births and had an indication of placenta previa. This patient had never seen her before and the Intern had been taking care of her during her pregnancy. She told him, 'you are staying thru to see this one to the end with me.' She rescheduled the c-section to after lunch, to guarantee that the nursing staff was fully awake and on their game. She also ordered 4 units of blood to be hanging before she ever got started. Long story short, it turned out to be the worst possible case scenario of placenta accreta, requiring immediate hysterectomy to save the mother's life; she delivered a healthy baby and did in fact save the mother....but she ended up putting 37 units of blood into her before the surgery was all over. Her heroic efforts quickly spread throughout the military, and an internal email went around basically saying "if you have a high risk OB patient, send them to Graham."

So!

We are in the Best Possible Medical Hands! She has successfully dealt with patients in our exact situation before. [Whew!]

She went on to tell us that the next 4 weeks are important, as they will get us to 24 weeks, which means viability for the babies. But the following 4 weeks, 24-28 are The Most Important....28 weeks will get us past most of the pre-term labor complications with the babies (for us, this will be Thanksgiving)....she ultimately would like to see us go to 37 weeks, as would we, to ensure the babies are good to go from the moment they are born.

She also reassured us that a hysterectomy would be necessary only with the worst case scenario of accreta. And these chances are small in comparison. In most cases, the placenta just detaches once she is in there, so no problem.

She said that she wants to see us every two weeks, but we will not necessarily do a sonogram every time. But if it will make me feel better, we can come in every week!

She did say that as long as I felt up to it, I could make dinner or do little shopping trips, or do a little laundry...the mundane things of life....but no lifting and no long trips.

We did talk about hospitals, and which one to go to in what type of situation. So the hubby and I are all clear on that plan.

Basically, we are back to being mostly calm, but still careful, and just waiting....

We are just looking at the next 4 weeks....and then will move on to the next 4 weeks...and so on, and so on.

So please keep us in your prayers and thoughts!
Love ya,
Cherise

The Specialist Speaks...

2008-09-26T16:43:00.003-05:00

So today we met with the Maternal-Fetal Specialist doctor. Both he and his staff were very reassuring and nice.

Shall we start with the good news first? Yes, I think so too.

He confirmed that we are in fact, having one boy and one girl. Both babies are doing great and are measuring right where they should be at 20 weeks. All of their parts and organs and limbs and stuff all look great! So YAY!

Moving on to the not so good news: when he saw the Previa, he stopped and said "WOW! Now -that- is previa. You have -complete- previa, not a moderate or mild case...Complete."

So the bottom lines from this visit are as follows:
(1) Previa babies tend to be smaller on average, but we can't really tell at this point how small she will be, we will just have to watch them and see how the weight thing goes.

(2) There is a chance that the previa will NOT move (due to my previous c-section) and turn into something called Placenta Accreta. Kinda scary sounding...could mean I end up with an ordered 'C-Section' and a side dish of 'Mandatory Hysterectomy' that we were not counting on.

(3) The specialist said that if our OB was anyone -other- than who we are using, he would have to be way more involved in our pregnancy....basically, he said our OB Doctor ROCKS!!! Which we knew....and is why we use her :o)

(4) There is a chance that before we get to the end, I will end up hospitalized. He looked at the hubby and said "You will basically become a Single Parent." We had already wrapped our minds around this possibility, so this was not -new- news for us to consider.

(5) And lastly, I'm not to pick up anything 'heavier than a spoonful of gumbo.' Which by the way, is FINE with me! As long as it is PAW'S GUMBO! :o)

We go back to see our OB on Tuesday of next week, and will see what she has to say about all of the above....and add anything else that we need to be aware of...

If I could drink, I would be.....so all of you out there that CAN drink, please do so and think of me :o)

I'm a little (okay a lot) freaked out by this latest round of info, but I'm glad we have the info. If you are of the praying kind, please keep all of us in your prayers....these next few months will be hard on all of us....E is already kinda taking it on the chin with me not being able to pick her up and play with her like I used too....the hubby is pulling triple duty as employee, hubby and father....

We can definitely use any and all positive thoughts and prayers!

But hey! The Twins Are Doing Great!!! And in 4 more weeks they will be viable, should anything tragic happen, so that is really, really soon.....so we are keeping our chins up - all three of mine :oP

Love to all,
Cherise

Weddings & Sonograms

2008-09-11T20:54:00.017-05:00

So the Texas Deaton clan drove up to Kansas City for Uncle Bin's wedding this past weekend. The event was held in a really cool old hotel that they have converted to a resort and spa The Elms Resort. They are really big into Truman there! :o)

At any rate, the hubby, E and I drove up to KC on Friday morning. It was a long ride, about 9 hours. E did pretty good, considering. At one point, the only thing she liked was when the hubby would spontaneously roll down the windows in the truck and all manner of stuff would start flying around. She thought that was hysterical! And we in turn, thought she was hysterical! You should try it, driving about 70 mph :o)

We arrived around 7:15pm, and took a pit stop at Bin and Carmen's house so E could get out and play with some cousins before we tried to drive up to the hotel and check in for the weekend. Memaw and Pa were there too, so it was a big fun time for all the little girls! E and Bella played really well together, and the twins (which are a little over one now) are getting so big! They can stand up, but not quite walk yet. I can -finally- tell them apart...if they are together.....if it is just one, I'm batting a 50-50 average....go figure. But they sure are CUTE!!!

So a little after 8pm, we headed up to the hotel with Memaw and Pa following us. Thank God for GPS!!! It was a little squirrely in the dark, but we all made it. E was so tired, but was NOT interested in sleeping on the air mattress we brought for her. She decided that the best place for her to sleep was between the hubby and I....and 'sleep' is being generous! She is a little talking windmill in her sleep...she gets that from the hubby!

After a restless evening, we hooked up with Memaw and Pa, and Tim's family for breakfast....and then went exploring the hotel and property. We located the outdoor hot tub and the indoor heated swimming pool....and the SPA!!!! Memaw and Aunt Courtney opted for mid morning massages....me being just shy of 4 months pregnant, I opted to watch the kids :o)

Saturday was fun playing with the cousins and going through the rehearsal. Then we all caravaned back down to Kansas City for the rehearsal dinner at a Mexican Restaurant. E enjoyed eating her very first soft taco and trying the cheese dip. Pa gave a toast, that I'm sure, Bin could not wait -to end-!!!! But all in all, we really enjoyed meeting Carmen's family. They are a great bunch of folks who also can laugh at themselves as much as we laugh at ourselves.....so we all got along great!

After returning to the hotel, everyone without kids hooked up at the gazebo and sat around and talked and drank and laughed, and some of those with kids hit the indoor pool. As for us, E fell asleep on the car ride from the restaurant, and we took advantage of it, and fell asleep too! We are so 'party poopers'! :o)

Sunday morning we got to watch Bella until picture time, which started at noon. She and E just had a big ole time playing and running around outside. Then it was on to getting everyone dressed and ready for pictures and then the wedding started at 2pm. It was a nice ceremony, filled with funny moments....like when Carmen was doing her "repeat after me part" of her vows and got to the "in richer or poorer" part, she said "in richer or richer" and everyone, including the minister busted out laughing.....she just looked at all of us and smiled and shrugged her shoulders as if to say "what?".....hysterical! Later on, I told Carmen that we all needed a laugh, and Bin piped up and said "hey man, we have already done the poorer part....there is only one way to go from here, and that is UP."

The reception was great. After eating all they could, the kids decided someone just HAD to boogie.....so they took to instigating the dance craze that followed. There are some great pictures of the kids dancing with various people, and one short video of E dancing with her cousin Andrew below.

Eventually we dwindled out of the reception and regrouped later on at the indoor pool. All of us with kids that would be going into cars the next day for the long rides back to our perspective homes decided it was an EXCELLENT idea to wear them out in the pool! It worked :o)

Our ride back home Monday was pretty uneventful and remarkably quiet. Both E and I did a lot of sleeping on the ride home. And everyone was happy to get to sleep in their own beds Monday night :o)

New Topic:
On Thursday, the hubby and I went for our 17 week sonogram and were told we would be having One Boy and One Girl! We are very excited! This sonogram showed them both to be doing pretty good, and growing according to plan. We even got a really funny sonogram picture of Baby Boy with his butt in Baby Girl's face!!!

We also received some bad news. The girl is Baby A, or the one lowest/closest to the 'exit'. I have been diagnosed with a condition called Full or Complete Placenta Previa. It is the girl babies placenta that is causing this issue.

What this means for me is No Lifting of any kind, including picking up E. My life of Leisure just became more leisurely....I will be having ultrasounds every two weeks to see if it moves, and hopefully it will. If it does not, I have just won a door prize of One Scheduled C-Section! We are all just hoping and praying that it does not get worse, and I end up on some kind of bed rest or worse.

If bed rest does occur, the Grandma's are all on alert and have volunteered to come down and help out whenever we need them.

So!

If you are the praying kind, please keep us in mind!

Love to all,
Cherise

Link #1 to Some More Wedding Pictures

Link #2 to Even More Wedding Pictures

Link to Wedding Slide Show

The Monster Came Back....

2008-08-23T20:49:00.004-05:00

So, remember the post about the scary monster in E's butt??? Yea, that was funny...well joke's on me.

That monster left her and came over to visit me......rat bastard!

About two weeks ago, I started to not feel well on a Thursday night. It became evident immediately that I had some kind of stomach bug. I was really hoping for a 24 hour bug...but I was not that lucky....by Friday night, I was beginning to think this could be a serious thing. On Saturday morning, I called the doctor's office, and the on call nurse called me in a prescription. She said if I was not any better by Sunday, I would have to go to the ER.

Needless to say, I was not better by Sunday. Funny thing about Sunday....the hubby was supposed to leave to go out of town for 2 days to NY for business. I woke him up around 7am to tell him he could not leave....and that I thought I was dying (drama much?)

We called back to the doctor's office, and they returned my call with the "go directly to the ER" response we were expecting. So we gathered up E and headed to Baylor. I guess we got checked in around 9:30am or so....they immediately hooked me up to an IV to try to put some fluid back into me.

They came in and drew blood, and then changed out my IV to one with 'sugar' in it...per my OB's orders....and everyone reassured us the babies were just fine....evidently I'm a great filter....so they are happily growing, and I'm in hell...that seems fair.

We were in the ER a LONG time....long enough that, thankfully, some of our friends came down to Baylor and picked up E to go and play at their house. Around 4pm, we were moved upstairs to an official room, and told we would be staying there over night, and until my levels 'looked better.'

So up we went....at this point they moved my IV from my right arm to my left (thank God! 'Cuz I'm right handed, and that was an issue). They came in twice and drew blood....again.....I went thru about 7 IV bags in the first 20 hours of being there....pretty miserable....

Sunday night the hubby went home so both he and E could sleep in their own beds....E had school on Monday, and he would not have gotten any sleep staying in the room with me....with all of the 'vital check interruptions' and me going to the bathroom all night (remember....SEVEN bags of IV.....gotta go somewhere).

Needless to say, it was not a very restful night....but the hydration worked....The hubby dropped off E at school Monday morning and then came back down to Baylor to stay with me.....another set of friends picked up E from school and brought her over to their house to play and eat dinner....we have really great friends!

Nurses came in again to draw blood Monday and by 6pm, my doctor came by to say that my levels were good enough to be allowed to go home.....but that I had a virus, therefore, no antibiotics...and that it had to run it's course.....so leaving, but still pretty sick....

Today is Saturday, and today is the first day that I have felt just 'pregnant sick' not 'virus sick.' So 10 days of ICK!

And all along, the babies are just fine.....totally weird.....I was told that while you are pregnant your immune system is suppressed quite a bit, so pregnant women tend to acquire more illnesses while pregnant than when not....so unfair!

But it all will work out in the wash, I'm sure.....we go back to the doctor this week for a Baby Check....that will ease my mind.....yes, yes, I know.....I'm neurotic :o)

Love to all,
Cherise