Better Late Than Never!

Forgive me bloggers for I have sinned! It has been 10 days since my last entry!  Sheesh!  The good thing is that the time is flying, so much so, that If Nikki hadn’t text me to yell at me about the amount of time that has passed since my last post, I wouldn’t have even noticed!  With Christmas (and the birth of my sons) quickly approaching, there has been tons of shopping, wrapping gifts, school meetings (parent teacher conferences), drama being fosters moms (I’ll touch on an update later in this post), packing bags, baking cookies for the OB and our rental office, taking Mary to see some of the cool Christmas light displays in our area, spending time with family, and simply spending time with Callie before our life gets REALLY hectic (as if it wasn’t enough before!), I just barely had time to put many words on screen.  I HAVE been reading everyone’s posts and staying connected that way.

So 32 weeks!  The boys are the weight of pineapples!  Can you imagine!?!  Our boys are probably weighing a little more, but still!  According to the different sites, they are approximately 17 inches long.  Their digestive systems are fully developed, and their skeletons are fully formed, but their tiny bones are still pliable and soft.  Their skull bones are still not fused together (they wont be for A LONG WHILE) so that it makes it easy for their heads to get through the birth canal (still really keeping our fingers crossed for a vaginal delivery).  Babies lungs are also continuing to develop (they get tons and tons of hiccups and it is ridiculously cute, even though I think it’s WAY too many!).  We also met for a second time with our doula, who we LOVE!  She is so kind, calm, and funny.  We went over some of our birth plan, and came up with tons of questions to ask our OB at Callie’s appointment the following week.  Can she eat (my wife LOVES to eat!)? To what point?  How do they feel about her moving around during labor?  Can she labor in a hot shower?  Does she have to strapped to monitors the whole time?  How many people can be in the L&D room?  Can the doula come with us for the C-section?  How about the epidural?!  When is her cut off for that if she decides to use it?  So many questions!

MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE

33 weeks!  Callie has been so incredibly uncomfortable, poor thing.  It has been a tough week for her.  She has been feeling what she expresses as pins and needles in her vagina, and the contractions have gotten to the point where they cause her to stop and catch her breath sometimes.  I keep saying that it won’t be long now!  This past Wednesday was her OB appointment.  Unfortunately, because of my new work schedule, it’s hard for me to make the appointments, so her mom and my mom have been alternating turns taking her.  It was officially her last cervical length scan.  She is at 1.7cm, the lowest she’s been, so we are gearing up for these boy to be here any day now.  Noah (baby A) is right in position, constantly head butting her cervix (hence the pins and needles).  Levi (baby B) is sort of in fetal position above Callie’s belly button but under her breasts.  They are both still head down, so vaginal delivery is still possible, BUT Levi can turn at any point, so there still isnt a 100% guarantee that he will come naturally.

MY FANTASTIC ART SKILLS

All of our questions were answered! Callie can eat (Thank the heavens!) up until 4 cm dilated. Then she can only have clear liquids (water, juice and broth basically).  Once she goes into active labor, ice chips and that’s about it.  She’ll need to be strapped to monitors for most of her labor because it’s not just one baby that they are monitoring, it’s two, but she is able to walk around in intervals, which is fine.  Having a doula is great and encouraged, but unfortunately, only one person can be present in the event that there is a C-section and OBVIOUSLY, that would be me!  Our OB said that Callie can have her epidural WHENEVER, and that there is no specific time frame for when she has to do it, which is great because Callie was a little concerned about that. Depending on how bad her labor pains are, the shower is an option and so are other birthing techniques like a labor ball, or a rebozzo (a laboring scarf to pull on).  So we feel much more ready now that we don’t have so many unanswered questions floating around between us. Callie wighed in at 157lbs, the heaviest she has ever been in her life, whci means a weight gain of 22lbs!  Not bad for carrying nearly 8lbs worth of babies!  Also, if they don’t come on their own, we have an induction/c-section date set, but we aren’t telling just yet! Let’s just say, it’s not too far away.

Babies are just fine!  This week in their development, they have an extra half-inch in their head circumference to help accommodate those growing brains.  They also have their own immune systems and start to inherit mommy’s immunities.  They can also start recognizing day and night, mainly because they spend most of their awake time with their eyes open and their sleeping time with their eyes closed.  And when they are awake, WE KNOW IT!  Elbows and asses everywhere!  My little honeydews are so darn cute!

NOAH HAD HIS ARM OVER ONE SIDE OF HIS FACE (BUT LOOK AT THOSE LITTLE LIPS!!!)

LEVI WAS RELAXING WITH HIS HANDS BEHIND HIS HEAD

WHY IS MY WIFE SO DAMN HOT?!?!

I also decided that this week was as good as any to install the car seats.  I’m still not used to the way they look in the back seat of our small SUV.  Every time I have climbed into my car this past week, I did a double take and imagined my life with 2 little babies in it.  Even after 7 1/2 months of acknowledging and recognizing that we are having twins, it  still truly hasn’t sunk in yet.

TWO INFANT SEATS IN MY CAR! YIKES!!!

*FOSTER MOM UPDATE*
We have won this battle.  After insisting to our case workers and Mary’s therapists and moms Parenting Therapist about the excessive amount of gifts that Mary has been receiving, they have spoken to mom again, in length, about the negative effects of giving her so many (undeserved) gifts.  She has agreed to bring gifts/toys to her sessions, and then take them home with her.  In the past week and a half we have sent more emails, to more supervisors then we can count.  Luckily it’s all gotten squared away.  Sticking to our guns has worked…for now!  We also, just found out (after receiving Mary’s report card and speaking to her teachers) that Mary has developed a new habit of blatantly ignoring people when they are speaking to her.  Her teacher had to call her 4 times on Friday out of the cubby section to go back to her desk.  The other students in her class speak to her and she turns the other way and pretends not to hear them.  We have also noticed this behavior at home and have tried to correct it, so we weren’t aware that it was happening at school to.  When she got home from school on Friday (which is Hot Chocolate, Stay Up Late, and Movie Night) she was EXTREMELY upset when we told her that her privilege would be taken away.  It the first time that she showed to us that she was disappointed in her self and affected.  Normally if we say we are taking away her privileges she says, “Fine!” and goes to her room and puts herself to bed.  What 6 year old punishes themself?!?! Our six year old, what’s who!  So when she finally had a real 6 year old meltdown tantrum, Callie and I smiled at each other, and knew that finally, finally, we are breaking through.  It melted our hearts to see our little girl cry…LOL!

So I believe we are all caught up.  Christmas is only  3 days away (2 if you’re Latino because we celebrate Christmas Eve), and I’m excited to play Santa for the first year ever.  Hope that everyone has a beautiful holiday shared with your loved ones. I know I will but how could you not, when you have these two as nieces!?!?!

THE LADY AND THE PRINCESS

Lots of love….

~SAMMIE ❤