28 weeks......4 weeks to go

Today is our 28 week mark which is a great milestone for Mono-Mono twins. The closer we get to 32 weeks, the statistics show a better picture for our girl's physical as well as mental health......and while the last thirty days seem to have gone by fast...it also seems like such a long time since I last saw my home, had a breath of fresh outdoor air or had the luxury of story time in my daughter's bed. But, again, I focus on the bigger picture and try not to dwell on what I'm missing.

Inpatient life is going as well as can be expected. Craig and Jordan come up daily and we enjoy movie night, puzzles, cuddles and quality time. I have a great room with two large windows that I get to stay in most of the time...on occasion I get bumped when the number of laboring patients exceeds the number of rooms available. Technically, I'm an antepartum patient and most women in that category go to a different floor and have a permanent room. But, because I'm on an IV and I have continuous monitoring, I can only be treated on the Labor and Delivery Floor which is unusual. As a result, my room priority is lower than those who are laboring and delivering. So, two times, at midnight, I have been bumped from my room and moved to a small box of a room to wait out the influx of deliveries. This is something that I haven't dealt with too well...... frankly, it's made me quite emotional. And as of right now, it's not anything we've been able to get policy change on. So, we'll endure and hope for the best.

Another hiccup...I'm now on a restricted diet because I have developed gestational diabetes, something common with a multiples pregnancy. And while the items I can eat are very similar to my regular diet....I often feel like I'm starving.....ok, so I'm exaggerating, but I've never wanted a doughnut more than I do right now.


On a lighter note, we've chosen the names for our girls!

~ Madison Lee and Charlotte Renee ~
Our little Maddie and Charlie


The middle names were chosen to honor the important women in our lives. My grandmother's first name is Lee, and my sister-in-law's middle name is Lee. My mother-in-law's middle name is Renee. We wanted to honor these fabulous women in our lives because they have loved us, supported us, and given us strength to make it through some of life's biggest challenges. We are blessed to have them in our lives and our girls will be blessed to be loved and nurtured by them as they grow up.

Although I would love to be home, I really hope we make it to the 32 week mark. Our tentative c-section date is January 19th 2009. Oh yeah...and here's the belly.....



Additional pictures from life at the hospital......

Inpatient ~ Let the Journey Begin........

The nature of Monoamniotic-Monochorionic Twins is that it is a really high risk pregnancy. It requires inpatient monitoring at viability to allow for a higher success rate in healthy babies. I was admitted early, at 23 weeks because I was having regular contractions and they wanted to get me to at least 26 weeks. Initially, I was going to be admitted for about three days and we were shooting to send me home in time for Thanksgiving. The plan was for me to go home for about a week to enjoy the holiday and then check in again for my long term care. But, my body had other ideas and has continued to have regular contractions on and off for these last ten days. So, I am officially a hospital resident for the duration.

My first few days were a little less than ideal..it consisted of hourly monitoring, IV Magnesium and fluids, and blood draws every six hours. It was hard. I'm not going to lie. But, at the moments when I have felt myself getting disheartened or frustrated, I just focus on what is good in my life. I focus on one day at a time and I focus on those little kicks in my stomach. When I do that, the moments of sadness because I am away from home, missing my family and the freedoms of everyday life pass. The sadness subsides, hope is revived and I keep moving forward.

The girls are doing well. They are measuring 1 lb, 10 oz. and 1 lb, 14 oz.~ their hearbeats are strong and while their cords are tangled, they seem to be loosely tangled according to the views on the ultrasound a few days ago. The flows in the cords were good and all signs pointed to the positive. It's important for our friends and family to know, that the nature of this pregnancy means that we could lose the girls at anytime to a cord accident, and that terrifies us. But, we are hopeful, and encouraged by all of the positive things that have been happening and we are doing all that we can do to ensure their safe arrival. It's hard not to have more control over the outcome, but we are hopeful!

Here are some pictures of inpatient fun :0) I'm lucky enough to have Craig and Jordan up for visits everyday because the hospital is right around the corner from home. Jordan and I have enjoyed puzzle making, movie night and painting our nails. We're making the best of it!



This is the belly at 23 weeks, the day I went inpatient.

Counting my Blessings this Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving hasn't been like all of the others. I wasn't home to cook a turkey and I didn't have the pleasure of joining my neighbors for the annual dessert gathering like I had hoped. I have traded the comforts of home for a hospital bed and IV drip, but I am still counting my blessings because there are many.

I have a husband that loves and supports me. My four year old daughter is healthy, happy and thriving. As of today, our twins are still doing well and growing like weeds in "the oven". We have a wonderful place to call home where we are surrounded by a huge support network of friends. I have some of the best girlfriends who love, support and care for me. We are blessed with family members that are willing to uproot their lives to come and be with us in our time of need.

This Thanksgiving, I am counting my blessings and focusing on what's good in my life and although there are many things that are challenging right now due to my having to be inpatient with our Momo Twins, I am thankful for all of the many blessings I have been given in life.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

My Minivan Does Not Define Me!!

I am a stiletto wearing, cabernet sipping and yes……minivan driving Mama of soon-to-be three children. That’s right… I said MINIVAN (and did I mention I’m going from one child to three in one fell swoop?). I have found myself struggling with the idea of driving a minivan for several weeks now, ever since we drove it off the lot. I swore I’d never be that Mom. The one who drove a Minivan because somehow, that means I’ve given up right? Given up myself to that persona of “Soccer Mom” or “Mom Jeans wearing Mom”?

Absolutely not!

I recently read a status post on Facebook from an acquaintance and I quote:


“Why on God's green earth do people ever buy mini-vans? Does anyone realize that SUVs have just as much cargo capacity and don't make you look like you've completely given up on aspiring to be at least minutely cool. Seriously, what's the draw? Are they giving away lifetime supplies of unisex mom jeans with each purchase....?”


Really? REALLY?


What disheartened me about this post was the fact that many people make this assumption! I tried not to let it bother me. I did. But it still sits with me because I totally disagree with this assumption! My BCBG shoes and dresses are still in my closet….I will still find time to slip them on from time to time (once the twin belly is gone of course) and while I can acknowledge that with twins, and a four year old those totally awesome shoes and dresses will take a small break, they will not retire! They will simply be on hiatus. Period. No argument. Got it judgmental people with no kids?


That is all. Thanks.


PS: I’d love to hear from you Moms on how you maintain balance between your pre-Mommy days and the present. Sure, you have peas on your shirt from time to time, and you can’t get enough of those chubby, drooling love bugs in your home. But what do you do to maintain some balance? To nurture yourself and more importantly, how are you ensuring you aren’t giving up the aspiration of being “cool”?? (whatever that means…haha) I’m writing an article for a small local magazine and would love to use your perspective as a form of inspiration. Not to mention I’m about to jump from one kid to three…..words of wisdom please!!!!

Wordful Wednesday - Big Sister Love

My first Wordful Wednesday with

So the belly is getting bigger by the day with the twins growing like weeds in there....and our oldest daughter Jordan has started rubbing it, hugging it, kissing it and talking to her sisters...So the other night, she wanted to cuddle while we were watching some TV on the couch, and this is the picture we captured.....

This is a photo I will always treasure......Big Sister Love.

Getting Back on the Horse....

So I'm entering back into the blog world....go me! I started this blog with the intention of writing about the different twists and turns my life has taken, each twist and turn having their own individual affect on my course in life. Well, in recent years, most of those changes have been the normal, everyday life things you expect to happen as you "grow up", graduate college, get married, have a child....yadda, yadda....All have had their own impact and most have been such easy transitions overall. I can't complain! I started out in this world with a lot of challenges to overcome, but in recent years....nothing to complain about.

Let's see, I've been married for seven years, one daughter and one cat. We've lived in Virginia, Connecticut, Florida and now Hawaii all courtesy of the US Navy.We have fabulous friends and family, life overall is not too shabby.

More recently comes the challenge I never anticipated....and I'm a control kind of person mind you.....wait for it.........TWINS.....that's right....we're having twins. Whoa nelly! How on earth will I do that?!? I suppose we'll figure it all out. If that transition wasn't enough in itself.....we're facing a unique challenge with our twins. They are Monoamniotic-Monochorionic Twins - aka Momo's :0) What this means for our girls (did I mention girls? SO PSYCHED about two more girls...the husband has vowed to get a boy dog to compensate for all of the estrogen). Anyway....so they are our little Momo's. They are snuggling together in the same amniotic sac.....aww...sweet right? It is! But, it's also dangerous and extremely high risk....as I type this, I'm nervous about putting it out there because I'm so worried that I will have to come back here and post that it has not worked out for them....With the girls being in the same sac, they are at a high risk of getting tangled up in each others umbilical cords, which can result in compression of the cords, leading to potential fetal death because their lifeline has been cut off. It's just a surreal thought...and I have realized in these last years, just how much I have taken for granted. I have also realized that this is another HUGE defining moment in my life.

There have been others, don't get me wrong, but they have been your average, white picket fence type moments. I married a fabulous man...... who I only want to clobber over the head with a frying pan a fraction of the time. He provides for our family, supports my dreams and aspirations and loves me even when I have a huge twin prego belly complete with acne on my face and the need to sleep with ten pillows at night for comfort.

We have a beautiful, intelligent, absolutely fabulous little girl who has been blessed with great health and a wonderful little personality that makes us smile daily. She has forever changed me with her love, dimples and dynamic way of interacting with the world around her. I have never loved another person as I love her. That realization in itself has been a defining moment for me these last years. All of these things have been wonderful moments and changes in my life, and it's been just easy....simple....and did I mention easy? So when our most recent additions came into our life, I thought, "easy peasy....this will be a cinch, we'll add a new baby to our lives!" Then there were two....and then they are Momo....so here we are, TWO, wonderful little blessings....sweet, precious girls that we are trying to bring into this world safely. And so we enter into a new defining SET of moments. I am in awe of these sweet little babies inside of me and I am terrified at the path required to get them here. But I would have it no other way....let me repeat...I WOULD HAVE IT NO OTHER WAY.......Please God....give me the strength to handle what the future brings!

So, here I am....getting back on the "Blog Horse", hoping to share my life with some new and old friends, as well as family as we journey on, and step day by day into our future...hopefully as a family of five.