Little Picassos

Today I decided to cater to the whims of one little Megan, who wanted to paint. With Joey, actually, but she settled for Bridget. Resisting the urge to think about the havoc this could create in my house, I got out the paints, and the girls had a great time! A good hour of entertainment, and some priceless artwork that is sure to be worth big bucks someday!

Best Hide n' Seek Spot Ever!

Now that cabinets are installed in our bathroom, Megan and Bridget love playing in them, and show absolutley no originality in finding a hiding spot during Hide n' Seek now. I'd also like to draw your attention to the fact that this is one of two cabinets they can both fit into at the same time. That's right - we'll have two sinks in there!!! Yay for a functional, pretty bathroom!

No babies yet, thank God!

Well, we made it to 34 weeks, and I honestly didn't know if we'd be here 2 weeks ago. But, I had a great round of appointments on Tuesday. Things seem to be looking up! I saw a different OB since Dr. Wiggins was on vacation, and this one was so optimistic she even said she thought I would go full-term with these girls. Ask me in a few weeks if this is still my desired outcome! And, I took another FFN test, which came back negative, indicating it'll be at least 10 more days before labor starts. After that, I went to the perinatologist again, for the first of several non-stress tests I'll need to have. The babies did great, and I only had a couple contractions over the course of about 30 minutes, which is totally normal. Yay!

I decided to celebrate today by talking the girls on a small outing to the "indoor park" at the Rec Center down the street, basically a big gym with slides, tons of little cars and trikes, and a jump house. I think they were really confused that I was actually going with them, since all other activity outside the house these last two weeks has been with fun aunts and doting grandparents. They got to play with Joey and Clara (who they hadn't seen in 2 weeks!) while Sara and I caught up. It was a great morning, and I don't think my cervix is any worse for the wear (I know, too much information yet again!).

My next goal is to get to 36 weeks. Even at 36 weeks, the babies may have to stay in the NICU for a little while. I'm really hoping we can avoid that - keep us in your thoughts!

Meanwhile, we have plenty to do before little girls 3 and 4 get here, namely:

Minivan shopping. Ugh. The thought of dealing with car salesmen and figuring out car seat scenarios in each different van is more than a little overwhelming. I am really looking forward to all of the features, though, like automatic sliding doors and more space!! I just wish we could skip the shopping part.

Finish our bathroom remodel. We'll see how that goes, but we may be in the home stretch. Matt's been working so hard, in the middle of baseball season, no less. We hope to have this done in the next two weeks. A bathroom on the same level as our bedrooms (and not two flights downstairs in the middle of the night, multiple times/night) would be handy right about now. Either that, or Pull-Ups for both Megan and me! I can't wait to have this done - we'll definitely post pictures with the finished result.

Organize lots of little girl clothes. I started this last night, and I also put the bedding in our bassinet, where one of the girls will sleep. Going through little newborn clothes got me really excited. Or was it because I was watching The Millionaire Matchmaker at the same time? Hard to tell.

Name little girls 3 and 4. You'd think this would be a piece of cake since we can narrow it down to two and call it a day. It's almost harder to come up with two that sound cute together, fit in with Megan and Bridget, and come up with middle names we can agree on. I have a feeling we'll be on day two at the hospital again before we decide! Some contenders are: Mary, Theresa (Tessa), Anna or Annie, Caroline, Kerry. Comment away :)

Get ready for our lives to be insanely busy for the next 18 years.

Almost 33 weeks!

Luckily, my bedrest situation isn't as dire as I feared. New doctor's orders: "modified" bedrest. My OB was much more lenient and relaxed when I met with her on Friday. She says I can still have the girls at home with me as long as I spend a lot of time lounging around and not doing anything strenuous. Translation: Lots of cartoons and less of a need to change out of PJ's. The girls are sticking to a pretty similar routine :) And, my FFN test came back negative, which is almost a guarantee that these babies won't be here for at least another week. I'm really hoping to make it to 36 weeks, though, and avoid any NICU time with these babies! This whole pregnancy is just so different than my other two, and I realize how important it is to stay off my feet and really limit my activity. Looking back, I'm amazed at what I did in the final weeks of my pregnancies with Megan and Bridget, namely cleaning the garage, installing shelving (actually using Matt's power tools!) and going to Tahoe a couple of weeks before Bridget was born. Oh well.

The fact that I can't even consider taking the girls out on my own at this point is the hardest thing about being housebound. Megan still asks every morning, "Where are we going today?" Most days, the answer is not what she wants to hear! Fortunately, we have had lots of help in getting them out out every couple of days. I'm optimistically thinking I'll be able to resume some of our normal activities like going to the park, library and the zoo once the babies arrive. We'll see if that happens. The bigger barrier might be transportation. You'd think we would have figured that out by now, but we still need to go minivan shopping. Yes, I said the "m" word. When you have 4 kids, you can have an opinion on whether you want one or not :)

So, having whined about all of the terrible things about bedrest, the best thing is being able (forced) to lie back and just watch the girls play, or cuddle with them without thinking about all of the housework or errands I need to do. It's nice to appreciate this time before our life becomes a zoo!!

Bedrest - 'nuff said

Need I say more, really?

I've been banished to bed by my perinatologist after my routine 32 week ultrasound on Wednesday revealed that my cervix has shortened - I know, too much information. I'm hoping this "prescription" will change after my OB appointment today. I'll have an FFN test done to determine the chances that I'll go into labor in the next 10 days, and get more of an explanation about how strict this bedrest should be. Cross your fingers for us!

I keep thinking this would be so much easier, and really a plus if we didn't have two cute little girls to take care of. I feel terrible not being able to take care of them during the day, and am indebted to everyone stepping up to help!! Thanks Pat, Amy and Sara! And, thanks to Sara and Tim for the use of their laptop, without which I would not be able to bring you all this fun news!

On a happier note, the babies are still growing right on track. Baby B weighs 3 pounds, 15 ounces and Baby A weighs 3 pounds, 13 ounces. So, I have nearly the amount of actual baby weight that I did at 40 weeks with each of the girls. Sadly, no cute ultrasound pictures to share. This late in the pregnancy, everything is so squished that they can't get good pictures. Oh well. I think we can wait a few weeks (hopefully!) to see them.