A Christmas to Remember...

In front of our Christmas tree at home...

The twins with my Nana and Papa, their Great-Grandparents...

Sleeping through Christmas day in front of the fire...

Well, we headed to my parent's house in Montgomery, AL on the Thursday before Christmas right after the boys got their 2 month shots. They didn't like it very much, and they let us know it. But they were little troopers, and slept almost the whole way home. Honestly, it was probably harder for me to watch them cry, than it was for the boys. But they survived and so did I.

Once we got there and got all settled in, Drew began crying uncontrollably. If you've spent any amount of time around the twins, you know that they just don't cry very much. So I immediately knew something was wrong. I picked him up, and for some unknown reason checked his hernia. It was protruding much farther than normal, and he acted like he was in pain. So we called the pediatrician and the on-call nurse at the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital (where the boys will have their surgery on the 27th) and they said that if it were to get worse, it would be best to be near a Children's Hospital. Feeling worried for our baby boy and sad about leaving family, we threw everything in the car, and headed back to Nashville at 10:00 pm on Christmas eve. We got home at about 2 in the morning, and walked in to an empty house, a bare fridge and two boys who were WAY off their schedule. But Michael built a fire, and we pulled dinner together with what we could find, and we made the boys' first Christmas one we'll always remember! At least you can't say we're boring...always an adventure! Merry Christmas!

it's about time!!!

i cannot believe that ben and drew are 8 weeks old, and i have not posted one thing since their birth! i'm horrible at this whole blog thing. but what can i say? things tend to stay pretty busy around here. to be honest, it's really comical how many times i've sat down, and actually tried to update this page. but inevitably, just as soon as i start, someone will start crying or need something. even now as i sit here and type, ben has spit his paci out by accident and is telling me that he'd like me to come and put it back in his mouth.

life has held so much for us since the birth of our little guys: first baths, first halloween, first thanksgiving, and this past weekend we had christmas with michael's family. next weekend we will be with my family in montgomery. the twins have no idea what christmas is, or even that there are presents involved, but we are enjoying this season with them. we took them to the opryland hotel to see the lights, and i got so much pleasure from watching the boys watch the twinkle lights. they loved it! their eyes were as big as saucers, and i don't think ben even blinked. so cute. they've come quite a long way from their meager 4 pound start at life. we go to the doctor on thursday, and i'm certain that they now weigh more than 8 lbs a piece! here are just a few pictures from our journey thus far. ... and i promise to do better with the updates! ;)


though this is a terribly unflattering picture of me, i had to include it because it shows just how little my sweet baby boys were when they were born. i get teary just looking at this one.




here is a picture taken at the breakfast with santa at otter creek. i just love our church!!! and since getting anywhere with these little fellas is quite an ordeal, we were very very late getting there. but we got the picture! for those of you who still can't tell them apart, ben is on santa's left, eating his hands because he's hungry, and drew is on the right!


and here we are at the opryland hotel. all four of us!!! look at how big ben and drew are! merry christmas!!!

Our Babies Are Coming!

okay, we went to the doctor yesterday, and - as promised - here's the latest:

unless ben and drew decide to come on their own before, we will do a c-section on october 21st!!!!! i am so excited i can hardly stand it!!! i mean, that's so soon. it's only a week from friday. i will admit that i'm not thrilled with the idea of having surgery. but dr. crowe feels like it's the safest and best route to go for all four of us. so, naturally, we went with her opinion. we'll have to be at the hospital at 5:30 that morning (do you know what time that means i'll have to get up?!?!), and they'll do the surgery at 7:30. so that means by about 9:00 our little boys will be here!!! oh, i can't wait to see what they look like. it's unlike anything i've ever felt before to have them grow and live inside me, and to love two people so much that you've never even met before. now that it's almost over, i wonder if i'll miss being pregnant once i'm not anymore.

anyways, that's the scoop. i'm sure that there's more to say, but honestly, i can't think about anything other than getting ready for them. thanks again for checking in with us and keeping us in your prayers...please continue to do so.

What a Weekend!!!

This weekend came and went in one big blur! But it was such a wonderful weekend on so many levels! Mama and Daddy were here for the Zoe Conference, so it was great to see them...it always is. And they'll be back up here in just a couple of weeks when the boys finally get here. Can you tell that the anticipation is killing me??? And on top of that, Katharine came to stay with me for a night too! Man, I really really miss having her here.

But the real highlight of the weekend was that I finally had my shower from the girls at work and it was just the most fun I've had since I've been on bedrest. I miss my friends so so so much, and though I try to tell them, I'm sure that they don't know how much they all mean to me. I get weepy and teary eyed everytime I think about each of them, and not being there...and I don't think that it's just my out-of-control hormones. It's true emotion stemmed straight from all of the ways that they've each touched my heart. No work place is perfect, each has it's own fair share of faults. But Dr. Hunter's office really is a special place full of special people and I find myself feeling very fortunate to have been a part of it for the last year and a half. The only real consolation is that I really believe that we'll stay pretty close. The day was lovely, and as soon as Shelley (she and Diane are the work event photographers) emails me the pictures, I'll post them on this site for you all to see. The girls really went to so much trouble for me, and Michael and I were just so touched by such love and generosity!

I will admit though, that my body is very worn out after all that busy-ness this weekend. And since Michael is in New York for the day, I'm doing my best to not do anything at all. I'll post more tomorrow after we go to the Dr's office...it should be a good one!

Day 9 and Counting

Okay, okay, okay. Now, I have shown ultrasound pictures to my Nana and Papa. And they have told me that only a proud mama could actually see a baby in the pictures. But seriously, these are the pictures from yesterday, and I can definitely see two of the most beautiful faces I've ever seen. The top one -- just in case these need an explanation -- is of Ben's profile. See his sweet little nose and mouth?! How cute is he???!!! The next one was taken looking down on Drew's face. And the last one was just so sweet. Both of their little heads are down and touching side by side. They have been in this position now for the last couple of months, which means that I often wake up with a sore rib cage, or with a lop-sided tummy from all the knees and feet that poke at me. But don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, and I love that there is so much that the three of us have shared that no one else will ever know about. I think that that is the part of being pregnant that I'll miss the most. Well, that, and of course having both of my arms and hands at my own disposal.

The visit yesterday was good. The Dr. said that both of the boys look great, and it looks like the medicine helped them be a little bit more content with staying inside for a little while longer. The only really noteworthy thing that came from our visit was that at next week's visit we will go ahead and schedule a date for the end of October sometime to induce labor if they don't come on their own. That will be pretty cool to choose their birthdate. However, if I know my husband, then I'm sure he'll pick some date relevant to UT football...like game day so he can have "Rocky Top" playing in the room when they come into the world, or something crazy like that.

Anyways, today is day 9 of bedrest, and since I have the most wonderful sister in the whole world, it hasn't been quite as bad as I'd dreaded. She comes over when she doesn't have class, and hangs out with me, and gives me something to look forward to. I try to keep my activities to one thing per day, and that works out pretty well since much more than that makes my feet swell up and I get exhausted.

Well, time for me to head back to the couch. I'll post more as soon as there is more to write! Thanks for checking in, and keeping us in your prayers!!!

What a Ride!

i have to make this short and sweet, as being on the computer isn't really supposed to be a part of the definition of "bedrest." so here goes, for those of you who don't know...

last wednesday i suddenly began feeling terrible. i mean, really really awful. so i called my dr. and they sent me to the hospital. as it turns out, i had been having contractions about every 2 minutes, and had no idea. on top of that, i was dialated to 1 cm. so, they admitted me to the hospital. they gave me a steriod called beta methazone which was supposed to help the boys' lungs develop sooner, in case they decided to make their appearance early, and they gave me high doses of magnesium to make the contractions subside. that was good, but the mag really made me feel even worse, if you can believe it.

after 48 hrs on the mag, they took me off of it to see what the boys would do. the only problem was that somehow i had also gotten an upper g.i. bug that made being on the magnesium look like a paid vacaction.

today is monday, and i got to go home, and that has been the best part so far! we are hoping that the boys will develop at least another 2 weeks. but if they decide to come on sooner, then the dr. feels really good about how they might do. that is very reassuring.

i need to wrap this up and head back to my spot on the couch. but i just want to tell each of you thank you for your prayers, love, visits, support, and goodies while we were in the hospital. michael and i feel so blessed to have such an amazing group of friends to share this time with. you all are so wonderful, and i feel like there just aren't words to describe how much we appreciate all you have done for us and our babies. we love you all, and hope you'll continue to pray for the 4 of us....we are continuing to pray prayers of thanks for you!!!

Busy Busy Busy

Who knew that getting ready to be the mommy of two boys could make for such a busy life??? Well, even if it isn't all that busy, that's the excuse I'm currently leaning on for not keeping this little site up to date very often. But I do promise to do better once I'm home for good. Which, incidentally, may not be too long from now.

We went to see the doctor yesterday, and the boys have grown by a full pound a piece. One of them is 3.1 lbs, and the other is a whopping 3.5 lbs. That makes for a very large and very uncomfortable me. But we're hanging in there just fine. We saw them on the ultrasound, and they both have a full head of hair! Still not sure what color that hair will be, but I'm placing my bets on brown. We'll see. On a different note, the doctor's only observation is that my frame isn't really big enough for both of these boys, and she has therefore cut my work hours back even more. Now I'm down to working no more than 4 hours in a day. And at one point in my life, that would have been great. But since I love my job, and I dearly love the friends I work with, it is more than just a little bit sad. Very bittersweet. But necessary if I want to get my sweet baby boys here healthy.....and I do!

We had our Otter Creek shower this weekend, and I have to tell you that I was truly touched by the outpouring of love that was shown to us. We are so blessed to be a part of such an amazing family of God. Honestly, I was moved to tears more than once during the course of the afternoon, and I feel like I have so many wonderful friends to be thankful for. Holly, you just don't know how much I appreciate you!!! That kind of generosity and kindness inspires me to be a better servant and giver, and I can't help but think that this is one of the reasons that we have 'community.'

We did take a few pictures at the shower that I'd love to post on here for my big audience of 3 readers to see. But, unfortunately, I am very technologically dumb. So I'll have to wait until Michael gets back home to have him load the pictures from the camera to the computer. (Seriously, could I be any more helpless???)

The babies have worn me out, and my ankles are more than swollen. So I am off to bed to hopefully make these contractions subside. Thanks for checking in again...and in the meantime, I'll try to do a better job at keeping this thing a little more up to date!

To the Two People Who Actually Read This...

Okay, a huge apology!! I am seriously the WORST blogger EVER!!!! They probably have rules against people logging blogs who are as far behind as I am. But here I am, posting my second blog...I guess that makes me a rebel. How exciting! I digress. To the best of my knowledge, Katharine and my mama are the only people who actually read this thing. And I talk to them every day, so I figure I'm not really tearing anybody up by having been so forgetful. It's not really that I've been forgetting to update everyone on how the boys and I are doing, it's just that we've been so busy lately. Hopefully things are settling down just a bit.

So, onto the information that you probably logged on here for. We went to the Dr. last week, and got a glowing report. They were just bouncing away on the ultrasound, playing and kicking and being boys. It was so sweet, and I think I cry every time I see their images up there on that screen. It's just so amazing to think about the two of them. Their heads were touching, and it kind of looked like they were talking. You can already see very defined noses, eyes, mouths and chins. One of them was trying to suck his thumb. Dr. Crowe said that they looked "fantastic," which makes a worry-wort like me only feel somewhat better. They each weigh 2lbs and 2oz, which is rare that they are still developing at exactly the same pace (also a good sign).

She has now moved us to a schedule of 1 visit every 2 weeks, and at our next visit, she is anticipating cutting back my work hours. I knew this would come at some point in time, but I've felt so good this far, and have gotten such good reports that I was not really prepared for it to come this soon. I guess it's the hormones, but I cried at the thought of leaving all my sweet sweet girlfriends at work. These women have become my family in the last year and a half, and there is no way they could possibly know how much they have meant to me.

This week is a little more low-key than last week was (thankfully!), so hopefully I'll get myself back on track with letting yall know what is going on with us. At least, that's the goal!

Trial Run

Welcome to our page! This is my first time to ever blog -- if you're even reading this at all, then I'm sure you already know that I'm not very technologically inclined, and you're getting a kick out of the fact that I'm even motivated to do such a thing as "blog!" Nonetheless, this is my first time, so go easy on me....I'm definately still learning. But I got inspired from some friends of ours at church who just had twin girls. They, through the wonderful worldwide web were able to post pictures of their brandnew babygirls for all of their family and friends to see. And, since so many of you live so far away from us, I thought that this would be a great way for all of us to stay in touch, especially with the babies coming in just a few short months. So, we'll try it out. And if no one other than my mama reads this thing, then no harm, no foul since I talk to her about every day anyways!

Michael is traveling on business right now, so Reagan and I invited Katharine to come stay with us for a few days. I have to say that though I miss my hubby like crazy, it was SO great to be with her and have a girls' weekend!! She is just one of my most special friends, and one of my biggest blessings. She and Britt and I ate at all our favorite places and have mostly just talked and laughed. We did a little shopping for the bedding for the boys' cribs. But we found nothing, and I left feeling very frusterated. So we treated the pregnant girl to a Sonic slush! Yum!! It's just been good to be with good friends, and today I find myself very, very thankful for them.

Well, we'll see how this whole blog things turns out. Right now, it is just in it's trial run stage to see what we think. But I hope that it turns into a cool way for us to all keep in touch. See you soon, Heather