"big man on campus"

The nurses say that Colton thinks he's the "big man on campus" because he's exceeding the goals of a 34 weeker. Kempton is right on track which is awesome as well.

today we went in and colton was off the bilirubin blanket so he doesnt have to be wrapped up for most of the day and wear those horrible "sunglasses" as we call it.

we were also surprised when the nurse told us that they took his feeding tube out! Yay!! hes been taking all of his feedings by bottle and if he still has more left they will do it through the tube and then take it out again.

also the boys are moving into cribs. they were in those box cribs because they needed to regulate their temp but today Colton was moved into a crib and it was so fun to see him in the open. Itll be more fun to see Kempton out in the open since its always so hard to see him being in that box.  (colton was on the blanket which kept him warm so he was on one of those huge bed things)

i think with the boys being in cribs. itll be easier for D to come see them for the first time (which we hope will be this week... we are hesitant because she hated visiting me in the hospital).

ALSO! the boys are starting to gain weight. they were losing a little at a time and the past 2 days they've gained weight so we hope they keep it up.

here are some pics we snapped today! (i realized all of them are of colton! i had so many of kempton from before becaues of that blanket on colton that i took a lot of colt today)

 he looks so big, not so much like a preemie with out his feeding tube.

 he ALWAYS sleeps with his one arm behind his head. I believe thats the one that got bruised pretty bad. He is too cute!!

Me and Colt right when we came to visit.

We are so proud of our boys for making progress. I love when the nurses or the head Nicu Pediatrician comes in or calls and tells us how well they are doing and progressing.

we're thinking that with how fast Colt is improving, he may come home sooner then Kemp. Im not sure how i feel about them being separated and kemp being by himself in the Nicu but it would be so nice to have one (if only both!) baby home with me. It'll make it more real for me with being a mom to these 2 boys.

ps other posts with pictures incase you havent seen them below!

Mr. Roberts (and update on twins)

Incase you haven't heard.... Tom got a job! He got a teaching job down in riddle Oregon which is about 3 hrs south of where we are at now. It's a teeeeny little town and the school is grades 7-12. He will be teaching business classes and will help build the business program at the school along with some math classes. We are super excited that the stress of looking for a job is over and we will only be moving 3 hrs away. Not sure how grandma grandpa and Dulany will handle it but we can have sleepovers on some weekends! We aren't sure when or where we are going to move to yet.. Still trying to find places in the bigger towns surrounding riddle. But I am so proud of Tom for graduating and getting his first job! We found out the day after we had the boys so it's sure been an exciting week for the Roberts household!

 Update on the boys... They're doing good. Because of Colton's bruising he has some jaundice or his bilirubin numbers are a little high so he has to be on the blanket. He is doing really well feeding and they even started to see if they would take a bottle. He has really good sucking bc they said he can take a whole bottle while Kempton can get some but not the whole thing. Colton also nursed for the first time today! he did awesome. he was able to latch and he did really well with sucking. He usually gets 38 ml from a bottle or from the tube and he took 24 from my breast which the nurse was very impressed with! It was one of the most amazing experiences even though i nursed D but since i can't have them home with me it makes me feel more like their mommy when i can nurse them.

They've both lost some weight but they say that's normal and we hope they will start gaining weight back soon. Kempton is also still in the bed to keep him warm. They are both such great mellow babies. The only time I've heard either cry (more like whimper) is when they are being taken out of or put back into their beds or getting their diaper changed.

And these boys looooooove to cuddle and i can not complain at all..except when we need to leave..that's super hard! I'm not going to lie... Sometimes I have to remind myself that I have 3 kids now. It's hard when I'm not doing mommy things like changing diapers every hour or getting up in the night for feedings or getting them in and out of their crib or getting them dressed. When at home I realize I'm no longer pregnant..they really are here but it's hard! Hopefully it'll get better. I'm glad I'm able to come home and recover from the csection which is going way better then I thought.

ok now for more pictures!

 Daddy and mommy feeding the boys bottles for the first time!

Kempton:

 tiny little fingers.

 on daddys chest.

 the boys! (colton getting burped while kempton takes a bottle) 

 Colton in his blanket with his "sunglasses"

 he just looks so comfortable - Kempton

 Daddy with Colton

Feeding Colton some of mommy's milk

They're here!

Born Monday July 16th 2012 at 4:25 and 4:28 pm

This week has been quite the whirlwind! Friday night into saturday morning I started to have some contractions nd they were close and getting stronger. So I called the on call midwife and they told me to go in to be monitored. We dropped D off at grandma and grandpas at 2 am and drove to Newberg. I thought we were going to come home in a few hours bc the contractions weren't that bad.well we were there We found out I was contracting every 2-4 min and they were getting stronger. They checked me and was at 3cm dilated and 60% effaced but my cervix was very high. So they decided to send me over to the bigger hospital with a nicu and I got to travel by ambulance! Quite the ride. I got put on mag sulfate to try to stop contractions and then got shots in the bum for steroids for baby's lungs. We got to st Vincent's hospital and I stayed on the mag and got more shots rough out the night. They ended up taking me off the mag about 36 hrs after they started and I waited to see what my body wanted to do. Well maybe 5ish hrs later small contractions came back. Didn't think much of it till they started to get painfull and they re back to back. They put me back on mag and gave me oxicoden along with ambian to try to let me sleep and bam..contractions were not stopping. So they had the nurse come check my cervix and she said I was dilated to a 6! My cervix was soooo high though and touch that was painful. I then lost my mucus plug right after and they asked me if I wanted the epidural. This was it! I got all ready for the epidural and boy did it hurt. I cried. i was shaking. I remember getting it done with Dulany and it didnt hurt at all. This younger lady (probably my age) - it felt like she got me 10 x in the back. Well I then tried to prepare myself for a vaginal delivery.. or an attempt to.  Nope...I slept a bit and woke up and the doctors said the epi and mag made the contractions almost completely stop. I slept through the night with contractions only happening a few an hour. So they checked me the next morning and it was basically like i never went into labor. The dr came in and said i was actually at a 5 and not a 6 like the nurses said. (part of me was disappointed... i was very tired at this point. I knew i wanted my babies to stay in longer and bake a little more. But i couldn't handle being on all of these meds and incredibly tired for much longer. I then feared id have to be in the hospital for another week (34 weeks is when they wont stop labor) or worse - hospital bedrest till they came later.

Then the nurse came back and said they were going to take the epidural out and they did - wish it was that painless going in. And then they came in to take catheter out and iwas so excited i was going to be able to shower! well by that time, i guess i started to bleed some so they were making sure everything was ok and it was. I started to freak out a bit and called Tom who wasnt there that he needed to get there quick (thats what the nurse told me incase something was happening) They wanted to keep the babies on the monitors to make sure they were ok  (no shower.. boo!) and they saw that i was started to contract again but it wasn't painful. This happens everytime my contractions stopped. they would slowly creep back up... they wouldnt hurt and then they would get more painful. Then a few hours later they picked up and boy did they pick up. I have never been in SO much pain in my life. i thought the contractions before were bad.. no way. I couldn't breath, they were in my back, i was crying... trying to breath. I get a lot of women go through this pain... but arent their babies down in their pelvis when this happens? I had one baby there but another baby lodged in my ribs. The contractions would hurt down low but once they got to right under my boobs - i struggled to breath. One nurse even came in and saw my bright red face with tears struggling to breath through each contraction (which were back to back with out breaks.. whew!) and knew i was in active labor. This is when the Dr's came and saw i was progressing and said i needed to make a decision about if i wanted to go natural, vaginal with an epi or cesarian section. I was very surprised that the Dr's were very open about what I wanted and they said they couldn't chose for me and they just said how everything would work each way and that each way was certainly possible.

at that point i was scared to go vaginal and that colton wouldnt drop or he would turn funny and i would have to have a double whammy. I was also exhausted. I was there for 3 days now on and off medications, had compressors on my legs keeping me from sleeping, already went through labor on and off for so long, i was scared the epidural was going to stop labor again. I asked Tom what he thought and he said whatever i wanted he would be there. I wanted someone to tell me what to do! I honestly just wanted the pain to end and get my babies out. I was contemplating a csection all day that day so i went with my gut decision and just said lets go do a csection. Right when i said that my nurse said "i had a feeling you wanted to do that and dont in any way feel guilty or feel ashamed in choosing it" - i was SOOOOOO nervous. the Dr. said ok well then you will see your babies within the hour. Thats when i started to freak out a bit. I wasnt given a chance to really prepare mentally for what was about to happen.

They got scrubs for Tom and while in the worst pain ever they prepped me for the csection. They wheeled me back into the operating room and i was in so much pain i wasnt really nervous. i just wanted the pain to be over. They put a spinal in my back and my whole body went numb, gave me some oxygen and laid me down and put the sheet up so i couldnt see anything. Tom couldnt be in the room but luckily i loved my nurse and she was there holding me the whole time because i was shaking and in pain. I didnt realize how serious it was... my nurse had to call out all my information to all the people in the OR to make sure everything was right. The room was bright, all white, cold...Then they let tom in and he held my hand and it seemed like within seconds we heard Kempton crying. I didn't realize it was going to be that fast. I actually cried knowing he came out screaming and i even got to touch his hand before they took him back to the NICU. Then it took awhile for Colton to come out. he was on his back and they were trying to get him out and he got bruised pretty bad on his arm and one side of his back. It was the strangest feeling with them going in and trying to get them out. There was pressure but it was so weird. Its like when you're sticking your hand into a bunch of goo trying to find something and searching all over to grab it out (like on fearfactor!)  But when they got him out 3 minutes later he didnt cry and she i saw him for 2 seconds before they took him back to the NICU. For some reason, i wasnt scared for him since he didnt cry. I knew he would be ok. Kempton was 4lb3oz and 16 1/2 inch long and Colton was 5lb2oz and 18 inches long.

Kempton didnt need help breathing and colton needed a little help from the cpap but just for a few hours that night.

recovery was a big blur...definitely didnt even think about that. Right when they finished iwas shaking uncontrollably. My dr (who was amazing by the way!) who did the c-section said it was totally normal but it was intense shaking..and its weird when you cant feel half your body. Then i got nauseous. I cant even begin to exaplin the feeling i had of throwing up (nothing since i hadnt eaten in days!) and the feeling of my stomach and insides going all over the place since i could feel that but not the outside. tom felt so bad since there was nothing he could do. About an hour later they went to wheel me to my room but they let me see the boys first. they wheeled me on my bed and i was able to hold kemp for the firsttime. then i went over to colton but since he was getting help breathing i could only touch him. i then had to go back to my room. it was aweful leaving my babies.

they already graduated from the Nicu they were at into a different one because they weren't super sick or had serious problems. they're both have a feeding tube, Kempton is in a warmer to regular his temp and Colton got bruised so they gave him the jaundice blanket/light to help with him getting it.

we have been able to do the kangaroo style holding where we are skin to skin with them and I have even been able to see if they will go to my breast. They both have been able to find it and suck a little but obviously itll take them a good while to be able to nurse.


we are now getting ready to get discharged and its going to be a very bitter sweet moment. I don't know how i'll leave my babies (we're an hour away from the hospital where they will stay for 2-3 weeks if everything goes ok) but at the same time im ready to see Dulany. Im not sure if she's figured out whats going on but ive been gone for almost a week and i dont want her to forget who her mamma is!

anyways, here are some of the pictures for now. We will keep getting pictures and updating! 

(ps. they wouldnt let me shower the whoel time i was there until 24 hours after my surgery - so that is why i look rather disgusting in most of these pictures!)

 Kempton Dean

 Colton Thomas

 Holding Kempton after surgery

 Couldnt hold Colton but got to touch him after surgery.

 First time skin to skin with Kempton

Colton after getting off the help of breathing.

Can you believe it?? we are a family of 5!

32w5d scans

today im 33 weeks along. only 2 more weeks and ill be able to deliver at my hospital with my dr. That seems crazy!
anyways this week i had an appointment and had another growth u/s. To honest they boys are getting so big it was really hard to see what she was looking at. half the time i had one eye squinted because i had no idea what the tech was seeing haha.-

but both babies are measuring in the 51% at 4 lb 10 oz and 4lb 11 oz (forget who is who) so baby B is starting to level out with his weight, although the tech said "wow look at those cheeks, and hes got a big head" so thank you tom!

also baby A turned! YAY! i was so excited when she said baby A was head down. and then baby B is still sideways but oblique meaning his head is lower then his bum so thats good as well.

this makes me so much more excited in hoping for a vaginal birth!

here are the pictures

they both have hair! had no idea she could tell - baby B has more

baby A finally gave us a profile. he was really squished in there, being overpowered by his brother.

 baby As face sideways if you can see, looks like he was smiling

 Baby A was so squished - he was holding his foot to his mouth.

 Baby B's face - he was moving a ton so it was really hard to get a good picture. but she wrote where his cheek is - he's sideways if you tilt your head to the leftyou can see his eyes nose and big chunky cheeks.

32 weeks

1st goal met! - 32 weeks today.
good thing because 2 nights out of the past 3 ive had scares with contractions. Sunday night I was having contractions (painful ones with cramps which ive never had before) and they turned to just uncomfortable ones every 5 minutes for about an hour. Luckily they went away. Then last night when we got home I had some painful ones that were short and some were long but they were coming back to back. Luckily, again - they went away! I gotta make it 3 more weeks!! I have a dr's appointment on tuesday with an ultrasound so we get to see the babies again> Tom is actually going to take D to the zoo that day so i invited tom's mom to come see the boys with me if she wants to come!

so here is my 32 week bump (taken yesterday because i actually got ready!)

How Far Along Are You: 32 weeks

Total Weight Gain: well from last week stepping on the scale its 22 lbs so ill just say that now.

How Big are Your Babies? No idea - according to Babycenter they should be about 3.75 lbs but know one baby is bigger then that, since he was measuring 3 weeks ahead! But i have my appointment next week and we'll know more accurate measurements.

Maternity Clothes: are getting too small for this belly!

Stretch Marks: they keep creeping up my belly - but im slathering on the oils and balms in hopes that they stay light. 

Sleep: lots of peeing. lots of cramping in the legs. lots of movements from the boys keeping me up. But still sleep relatively good.

Best Moment This Week: Not going into L&D with a few scares! haha luckily bad contractions stopped. 

Movements: so.much.movement. and there is a whole lot of head up in my ribs!

Food Cravings: cheesecake ...

Food Aversions: some days nothing seems good to eat but no aversions

Labor Signs: first painful contractions. not just the uncomfortable ones. The ones with cramps and they go into my back as well.

Belly Button in or out?: very out! so much its almost flat and nonexistent.. 

Miss Anything?:being able to on and off the ground with ease!

 What I'm Looking Forward To: 32 week appointment on tuesday with an u/s! 

the 31 week bump

im seriously scared ill go into labor before taking my "last bump" pic since i said i was going to do it every 4 weeks. yeah more like 2!? hahah so sorry if youre getting sick of me posting them. They're more for me looking back anyways!

so here it is... 31 weeks.

and excuse the pj pants. Currently while at home im either in pj pants, yoga pants or tom's basketball shorts.

i think my maternity jeans, the panel, only goes about 1/4 of the way up.

and i dont know HOW you cant see the many many "tiger stripes" as D likes to call them.

thank you light! haha. 

and look at that belly button - yeah...

anyways - one more week  (a little less) and ill make my first goal of 32 weeks.

only 4 more weeks/1 month till i hit 35 weeks. my next goal.

CRAZY!

hospital bag

So with Dulany - i didn't have a bag packed, i went into labor early and had nothing. My water broke at home in the middle of the night with mild contractions and i just went straight to the hospital with my purse/wallet/phone.

it was awful. Tom had to go home and get the stuff i told him too... and half the stuff he didn't get right, sorry hun, but its true. I think D's "coming home outfit" was an outfit that was 6 months and i wore what i wore to the hospital back home. I didnt have shower products, i had to wear the hospital gown. i felt gross.

This time im going to be prepared. considering my short cervix and contractions - i could go early. and since im delivering 30 minutes away (if i make it past 35 weeks, if not ill be an hour away!) i cant relaly have tom just go home and pick me up stuff.

so here is my list i made tonight:

Hospital Bag:

• pillow
• nursing bra/tank top
• pj/pants i dont mind getting blood on. yuck.
• cheap flip flops
• my own sanitary pads (overnight ones!)
• my own towel (since hospital ones can cover my one bum cheek...)
• Robe (not sure ill want to risk using it!)
• Hair bands
• Make up - maybe to help me feel better? not sure since i dont wear it these days.
• Calming body lotion (love my aveeno stress relief body lotion!)
• Sundress to leave in (esp if i have a csection)
• boys going home outfits, including pjs for staying there to stay warm -(rexburg was awesome and gave us amazing warm swaddling blankets, but who knows about these hospitals)
• boys mittens, hats, blankets, swaddling blankets
• Clothes for tom (in case he doesnt have time to pack anything)

• Travel Size: 

shampoo/cond
body wash
deodorant
toothpaste (and cheap toothbrush)
shavecream and razor (incase i have csection and am there for a few days, might have to make tom shave my pits for me!)

then there is the ever important

• phone/charger
• laptop/charger
• camera/charger
• video camera (maybe? not to video tape birth, but take videos afterwards)

ok... now im wondering, should i bring my nursing pillow? i mean this thing is HUGE (for twins)... im thinking about bringing it and then leaving it in the car in case i need it tom can get it for me.

Then i need to remember to pack a bag for Dulany for when she goes to grandma's house - 

• few pairs of clothes
• undies/pull ups/night time diapers
• pjs
• and we will leave a key just incase they need to come get stuff.

and then obviously my purse with my I.D/Insurance cards.

WHEW ok... 

if anyone can think of stuff - they should tell me. this seems almost ridiculous the amount of stuff i want to bring but i want to be prepared. i hated not having stuff when in the hospital with Dulany and i was only there for like 36 hours! I could potentially be there for 3-5 days.

30 weeks

(if you want to see the 30 week belly, just look at our family pictures in the post i did below!)

anyways i had my 30 week appointment yesterday and it was the first appointment i didnt have an ultrasound done since my 17 week appointment (how weird!) it was kinda sad not to see the boys and have such a quick appointment. But thats ok, we'll see them in 2 weeks.

everything looks good. ive gained 22 lbs so far (not counting the 13 i lost then gained back) from pre pregnancy weight. Its weird to see the BIG number on that scale. But its all good, i dont mind!

the doctor found the heartbeats 140 and 134 i believe is what they were. I asked if maybe one baby dropped or somehing because i was so low, so after the heartbeats he checked and he goes "there is nothing down there" and then he was able to literally (what seemed like grab) feel both of their heads.. up in my ribs... Faaaaabulous... not what i wanted to hear. obviously i dont want a baby engaged yet. too early! but i also was hoping maybe baby A flipped from breech to being head down. nope. both heads up in my ribs, both breech. But i sitll have time for them to flip. Still dont understand how i got so low in one day. THursday i had my baby shower and i was up and then friay i was down. Sunday i went to grandmas house with the cousins and everyone noticed how low i dropped. Its a wonder! maybe just because there are 2 in there.

also measured my uterus for the first time - measuring 37 weeks. Whew! i can believe it.

today i went with tom to winco and a lady goes "wow you look like you're ready to pop" and i had to explain "its because im carrying twins! i got a little while left"

I think this time around im hurting and am more uncomfortable then i ever was with D. .. maybe because i never made it past 37 weeks with her.

i just need to make it 1 1/2 more weeks to 32 weeks to hit our first goal, and then 35-36.

Family Pictures

We asked leslie if she would take some pictures of us and i would do the editing before these babies come... i didnt really want "maternity" photos so we went with family pictures.

all of the pictures are on my facebook page but here are a few of my favorite:

Video of the Boys

(2nd post today - baby shower post below this)

these babies are crazy active today (even at 3 this morning) luckily i had my video camera right next to me and was able to get clips and put them together.