Will we get to 37 weeks?

For those of you that were guessing the 28th as the big day - I'm sorry to disappoint you... Tuesday came and went just like any other day. So here I am, 36 weeks and 1 day and not feeling any closer to delivering these babies. Today's appointment went well and we learned that the girls are getting pretty big. At this point, with such limited space, it's hard to get really accurate measurements and the nurse said the weights can be off by as much as a pound. Anyway, Baby A's estimate is 5lbs 7oz and Baby B's is 6lbs 9oz. I'm carrying at least 12lbs of baby - YIKES!! But as one of my friends recently pointed out - isn't it better to have the 12lbs split between two babies and not just one big 12lb baby??? Knowing that labor and delivery are right around the corner, I'm going to have to agree with her. :D My Dr said I'm about 1 1/2cm to 2cm dilated so I guess I've made a tiny bit of progress over the past week. I wasn't able to convince him to push up the scheduled induce date but he did try something to get labor going naturally. It didn't work last week, but we figured it wouldn't hurt to try it again. We'll see... I'd like to avoid having Halloween babies, but at this point, I know I shouldn't be so picky.

Nothing to say

That's right, you guessed it - I have no news to report. I'm getting quite tired of waiting and wondering and when you pair that with the aches and pains.... I'm a bit cranky. Just ask Paul! :D
On a positive note, at least we didn't have to fight the football crowds yesterday. And with no more home games until late November, that's one less thing for us to worry about when the time finally does come to go to the hospital.

Still no change

I went to the Dr this afternoon for my weekly check-up and spent close to an hour on the monitor. Both heart rates looked good, it just took some time (and a few loud noises) to get Baby A to wake up. I'm also still having contractions about every 6 minutes or so - if only I could start to feel them! After the monitoring, the Dr checked for dilation and I'm still about 1 to 1 1/2cm. He's guessing, though, that I'll be having the babies on Saturday and I'm not real sure what made him pick that day... But considering there is a home night game (against Penn State) on Saturday, I'd prefer Friday or Sunday. And since none of us can really predict what's going to happen when, we'll just have to wait and see....
I got a note from my Mom today and something she wrote reminded me just how blessed Paul and I and our 2 little girls are. Back at the end of August, not too many people (myself included) ever thought I would make it to the 35th week yet here we are... And I think a lot of the success is because of the number of family and friends that have been praying for us. So THANK YOU to everyone who has kept us in their thoughts and prayers the past 10 weeks. We certainly couldn't have done this without all your love and support! And with each day and week that has passed, we have moved further and further away from NICU babies and closer and closer to healthy baby girls. I can't wait for the day when we get to introduce them to all of our friends and family and announce that they are officially home with us!

I swallowed a basketball!

Since my Dr gave me the OK for short trips out and his nurse really encouraged Paul and I to take advantage of our last few days of a calm and quiet house, we decided to have a "date night" this last Saturday. Unfortunately, I don't have the energy to do a whole lot so our date consisted of a dinner out. Very exciting, I know... Anyway, once we got home, I called my parents to make sure they knew the OSU - MSU football score :D and learned that people want to see more pictures on the blog. Considering I spend most of my days laying around in sweats with no reason to take any pictures, we decided to take advantage of the fact that I had gotten dressed, brushed my hair and put on a little makeup that afternoon and snapped a couple pictures. Note my outfit for "date night" - Paul's t-shirt and maternity jeans. This picture marks 34 weeks 4 days and I feel enormous!

Wanna bet? - is it going to be 35, 36 or 37 weeks?

After having last week off, we are back to the Wednesday doctor appts and yesterday's was rather uneventful. My doctor is thrilled that after all the drama over the past 8-9 weeks, we've actually made it to 34 weeks and the possibility of having to visit any babies in the NICU is getting smaller and smaller. Paul and I are very happy about that as well and of course, it would be great to have babies come home from the hospital with us! Anyway, at the appt, I spent about 30 minutes on the monitor and both heart rates looked good. I had a few contractions, but nothing that I felt and I'm still only 1cm dilated. Basically no change from last week... The doctor seems optimistic that I'll go another couple of weeks and was checking his Blackberry for when we might schedule an induced labor after the 37 week mark, but his nurse said she'd be surprised to see me at the 36 week appt. I'm hoping she's the one who is right!
I know that the best thing right now is for the babies to stay inside me and keep growing bigger and stronger. But at those times when I feel really awkward and uncomfortable (which is almost all the time now!), it seems like they will never get here. It's like when you're a little kid waiting for Christmas morning - counting down those last couple of weeks is SO hard. :D But then the big day is here before you know it. I guess I just need to have more patience and trust that when the time is right, we'll meet our little girls. Now if only I could do something about how hard Baby B is kicking and punching me. It was almost non-stop yesterday and by bedtime, I was starting to take it personally. I suppose I should be thankful that only 1 baby is putting that much strength into her movements because if both A and B did that at the same time, I'd be a wreck!

No news is good news...

For those of you that check our webpage fairly often - I'm sorry for going several days without any new posts. I guess there just isn't that much to talk about (unless you want to hear the details about all my complaints - extremely tired, back hurts, puffy hands and feet, head is congested, can't sleep, can't eat, walking is now waddling, blah, blah, blah....).
After last Tuesday evening's trip to the hospital, the rest of the week was uneventful, which is a good thing. I spent Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday doing what I normally do - resting, watching some library DVDs (and Grey's Anatomy of course!) and taking care of a couple things online. Yesterday, Sunday, Paul and I ventured out together, hitting Babies R Us and a few other places. I had forgotten just how busy BRUs is on the weekend and pairing that with Paul pushing me in the wheelchair.... Kind of a frustrating trip. Hopefully that is the last time I have to shop there in a wheelchair!
Two things before I forget....
First, I want to thank Paul's Mom for all the Friday house cleanings. For the past few months, she has found time to come over just about every week to clean our house. We really appreciate all her help. Thanks Kathy!!
Second, tomorrow is my brother-in-law's birthday and since I had to rely on a little help in getting him a card and today being Columbus Day (no mail), I want to wish Todd a "Happy Birthday" and apologize in advance for his card arriving late. :D

Trip #4 to the hospital

After a quiet weekend around the house, we were due for some excitement.... Part of my routine here at home is monitoring my own blood pressure and watching for any changes. I noticed with my Monday afternoon and Monday night readings that I was getting somewhat borderline numbers and definitely up from my usual average. Then on Tuesday afternoon, my blood pressure was higher still. So I put in a call to my doctor's office and since my own Dr was over at the hospital working in Labor & Delivery, he said I should just come over to the hospital for a few tests. Paul came home from work to get me and by 3:30, we were on our way to the hospital. I must say, even though we never got to go on the official "hospital tour", we are getting pretty good at finding our way around those hallways. And I'm getting awfully familiar with the Registration Desk in L&D!
Once I got into a triage room, I was hooked up to the fetal monitor, had my blood drawn and a blood pressure reading taken every 10 minutes. After a few hours of monitoring, the Dr said all my tests came back OK, my blood pressure seemed to be just under borderline and both babies heart rates looked great. What's funny though is that while we went in for the blood pressure issue, we left with something else to consider....I was having fairly regular contractions (about every 6-8 minutes) and am currently 1cm dilated. Now I know that 1cm isn't a reason to start calling all our family and neither are contractions that I'm not even feeling, but it's still very EXCITING to think that our girls could be born sooner rather than later! I guess just learning those couple of things made the reality of the upcoming birth really hit home - at least with me. Paul, on the other hand, seems quite laid back about it and even said last night "well, they've got to come out eventually"... :D
Anyway, after all the tests and monitoring, my Dr gave the OK for me to come back home and just keep resting. And I had a "talk" with the babies last night, explaining that our Dr is out of town until next week and since we all want him to be there for the delivery, we've got to focus on not going into labor until at least Monday. So while I plan to really rest and keep my feet up over the next several days, I'm also more motivated to get a few last minute things taken care of --by phone and internet, of course!

Our 1st Video or WARNING: LONG, BORING POST

Here on the Clopton Family blog, once the kids arrive, you will find 1) exciting written accounts of the crazy adventures that result from TWO baby girls, 2) links to photographs documenting those adventures, and 3) links to exciting video of all the zany highjinx. Today I want to tell everyone how the video will work and link my first attempt.

I wanted to make sure we had a good HD camcorder before the kids arrived. These kid’s entire lives will be documented in no worse than 1080i 60 from day one. We bought one in July because I was panicking. I take still pictures far faster than I do anything with them and I was afraid the same would happen with video unless I had a couple months to get a “workflow” down. So I packed the thing with us on our August trip to PA with the intention of figuring out the camera, the editing software, and how we are going to distribute it.

Well a month and a half later, I have finished a five-minute video. (I edit at the rate of 7 seconds per day.)

Short videos will be posted to Vimeo. We will link to them from here. Or you can add our Vimeo page (www.vimeo.com/aprilandpaul) to your favorites if you like. Long videos will be put on DVD and distributed accordingly. Once we have enough short videos, they will end up DVD as well. Vimeo has a couple big advantages. 1) It’s 720p HD. DVDs are standard D. It’s like a snobby, high-quality YouTube. 2) Anyone can view them (security is available if needed). That’s easier than sending EVERYONE DVDs.

So please, everyone, take a look at my first video. It’s just scenes around the house in PA. I’ve got at least three other videos from that trip to assemble.

To just watch the video:
1) Click Here
2) Press play

OR...

To enjoy the video in 720p HD
1) Click Here (same link)
2) Click the little square box (it's like four little arrows pointing out) at the bottom right corner of the video window . (That makes it full screen)
3) Click the “scaling is on” button toward the top right. It will then say "scaling is off".
4) Press play

If the above steps worked for you, then you are all set to enjoy the thousands of hours of exciting baby videos that will be posted soon. Thank you for your time.

Where did the week go??

For someone who is on bedrest and spends most of her time sitting around the house, I find the days and weeks starting to go by rather quickly. Maybe too quickly.... When this first started, at 25 weeks, I found myself making lists, lots and lots of lists. Lists of things to do to pass the time, lists of baby tasks that I could do from the couch (or bed), lists of things we still need to buy, lists of errands for Paul to run, lists of chores I needed Paul to do around the house, etc, etc. You name it, chances are good, it's on one of my lists. Now here I am, with maybe a month to go (if that long) and I think only about 25% of any one list is actually finished (except for the things to buy list and that's thanks to the baby shower). So the question is - do I sit around and worry about what I didn't get done? Or do I just relax and figure it will all work itself out in the end? I know the right answer is to just relax and enjoy the remaining few days and weeks of the pregnancy and a quiet house and having the time to rest during the day, but anyone who knows me knows just how hard it is for me to do that... I guess now is the time to prioritize all the remaining things to do and work on just the top few most important stuff (like finding a pediatrician and reading up on childbirth).
I need send out a great BIG "thank you!!!!" to my Mom for all her help this week. It was great having her here to help me for a few days and keep me company (and calm my nerves). She drove me to the hair salon on Tuesday, to the doctor's office on Wednesday, did laundry, cooked, cleaned, even pushed me around Babies R Us in a wheel chair! What would I do without her??? Thanks Mom!!
The last two days have been spent just resting and watching A LOT of Grey's Anatomy. I'd like to say "thank you" to Brooke for getting me hooked on a new show. A few more days and I'll be moving on to Season 3! Not bad considering I just started with Season 1 about 9 or 10 days ago.

Another Wednesday = Another Doctor Appt

Today is a milestone day - at least for me (and Paul and the babies). I have officially made it to October and into the 32nd week of this pregnancy! When the bedrest started back in the middle of August, October seemed so very far away... I guess listening to everyone's advice and just taking it "day by day" really worked. I am feeling more and more relaxed with every day that passes and more and more ready to meet our little girls.
Everything looked great with both babies at today's appointment and my blood pressure "couldn't have been better" (according to my Dr). According to the ultrasound measurements, Baby A is estimated to be around 3lbs 12oz and Baby B around 4lbs 5oz. The half pound difference seems big to me, but both the Dr and the nurse said that their weights are healthy and consistent with how far along I am. In fact, the Dr said that at some point, genetics can start to play a role in their size and that it could just be that B is going to naturally be a bigger baby. They tried again to do the 3-D ultrasound, but there is just too little space and both girls had an arm right around their face so all we could get were profile pictures. So not only will their names be a surprise for everyone, but so will what they look like! :-)
The last bit of news - while my Dr really doesn't think I'll make it to 37 weeks (which is considered full term for twins), if for some reason I am in the 36th week with no signs of delivering any time soon, he will start to look at inducing. That means just another 4 to 5 weeks, at most!! I've been feeling pretty uncomfortable the last couple of weeks and knowing the end is so close is wonderful news!