Fri, 9/6 – Appt w/ Dr. Lindauer: We had an appointment with Dr. Lindauer the day after I last blogged. Both of us checked out good and received our flu shots. We were measuring at 35 weeks – even though we were only technically 31 weeks along. Since she uses the same measuring tape as she would for someone with one baby – they just expect those of us with twins to be measuring further along. We also talked to her about the girls’ low waist measurements from the previous days’ ultrasounds. I asked her if I should try to eat more to plump them up. She said since my weight gain is fine that I don’t need to do anything else. She also explained that the low waist measurement is a potential sign that the placenta isn’t doing what it’s supposed to be doing. But she said since each girl has their own placenta – it would be surprising that there were issues with both placentas. Dr. Lindauer also said that if there are issues with the placenta not performing right – then typically they would see less fluid around the babies. And since the fluid around the girls looked good – she’s not as concerned about it. In the next ultrasound (which is tomorrow, 9/27) – they will just be looking to make sure that the girls’ waists have grown since 9/5. If their waists don’t continue to grow – then they may decide to have me deliver them sooner than later. So we will find out tomorrow!
Sat, 9/7 – Games, Granny, & Jenn: My husband’s sister (aka Sissy) flew up from Charlotte to spend the weekend with the family. As I mentioned before on the blog, she is also expecting and is due one day before us (November 6th) with her 2nd son. It’s been so fun being pregnant with her and my sister this summer! And we were so happy to get to see her one more time before all of the babies arrive this fall. J We got in lots of quality family time that day – by going to our nephews games in the morning. We watched Lucas play tackle football and then watched Jo-Jo play tee-ball. After that we headed to Granny’s house and watched the OSU game and Reds game with her. Loved watching Joby watch the game with his Granny – even better that they won!
Sun, 9/8 – Troy Shower: This Sunday we had another baby shower in my husband’s hometown of Troy at his brother’s house. The Johnston family did such a wonderful job decorating with a super-cute Dr. Seuss theme for our Things 1, 2, 3, & 4 on the way. So nice to celebrate with the Johnston/LaVelle family members, family friends, and some of my husband’s high school friends! Chris (photographer from the Columbus Dispatch) also showed up to take some pictures for the article they are working on about our babies. So nice of him to make the long drive to Troy just to take some pictures. We were showered with lots of love, well wishes, and a van full of wonderful baby gifts to take home! Such an awesome day – and for the record, opening presents with Joby by my side was much more fun than doing it alone! ;)
Thurs, 9/12 – Totem: Thanks to one of the shower gifts from the Boekes – we enjoyed a night out seeing the Cirque de Soleil show, Totem! Great show – so sweet of them to give us show tickets. We definitely love our shows!
Sat, 9/14 – Eisa Picnic: Every fall my mom’s Okinawan group has a fall picnic. My parents are very involved in the planning of these events and we always try to attend as we can. We weren’t sure if we’d be able to attend this year – but since we were still feeling good, we were able to go! Everyone seemed very excited about all of the babies and were amazed by the story. Up until now, whenever I attend these types of events – the Okinawan ladies are always asking when I’m going to have babies. So it was nice to attend as an expecting mama and avoid those types of awkward questions. We look forward to taking our four babies to the picnic next fall – either before or after naptime. ;)
Sun, 9/15 – New Members, Baby Laundry Begins, & Girl Clothes Sorting! We've been attending Lewis Center UMC pretty regularly since last fall. We found the church because it's where our nephew Wendel goes to preschool. My sister and I started singing in the choir last fall/winter and have gotten involved in the Shepherds committee. We have been meaning to officially join the church since last fall - but were never around (shocking, I know) whenever they held the new members class. The new members class was on 9/8 - the same day as our Troy shower, so we again missed the class. But Pastor Dan made a special house call to give us an abbreviated version (since we're already so involved in the church). Thanks to him, we were able to become new members on the 15th of this month. After we were all officially added as members that morning and we were all heading back to our seats, Pastor Dan asked us to stay up with him for a little bit. He gave the Reader's Digest version of our story to anyone who may not have heard his sermon earlier in the summer that referenced our story. And then presented us with a most generous $500 gift card to Babies 'R Us and also gave my sister and her husband a gift card to go out to a nice dinner and some movie gift cards. He thanked us for sharing our story with them and wished us well. We were all very surprised and humbled by their thoughtful gesture. So thankful to have a wonderful church family for our kids to grow up in. The congregation can't wait to meet (and hold) our 4 little ones! :) Since we’ve received tons of baby clothes for our kiddos, we’ve had to sort them by size. Our plan is to have the newborn and 0-3 month sizes washed and ready to go when the babies are born. Anything that is size 3 months or greater has been put sorted and organized into boy/girl bins. They are being stored in our basement until we need those sizes. On the 15th, we decided that it was time to start the laundry process for the newborn and 0-3 months clothes. I was thrilled at how many little tiny baby items can fit into one load in our washer and dryer. Then I quickly learned how looooong it takes to fold a huge load of baby clothes. ;) Luckily, my husband and my mom were around to help me with the folding! We also had a new load of baby girl clothes (sitting in our great room for weeks and weeks) that needed to be sorted by size and reorganized with the existing bins of baby girls that were already in the basement. And we got that work done on this Sunday as well!
Mon, 9/16 – Dinner & Boy Clothes Sorting: Monday night we went to a friend’s house for one more dinner at their place before the babies arrive. So nice to visit with Lucas and his parents and one of our other college friends! We went home to watch the Bengals game and finish sorting our boy clothes that were also waiting for us in our great room. It actually didn’t take as long as I thought and we got everything sorted to either go upstairs for washing or go into bins for basement storage. Definitely felt great to get all of the clothes sorted!!
Thurs, 9/19 – CMOTC Meeting with Chrissy: Earlier this summer, I joined the Columbus Mother of Twins Club. Figured it would be a good way to meet other mothers with multiples and also gives you first dibs on their bi-annual sales! The president reached out to me a couple times over email to welcome me. When I finally got the chance to respond and shared our story, she let me know that she had already heard the story and figured it was probably me. She asked if Chrissy and I would come to their monthly meeting in September to share our story. So we went last Thursday (at 33 weeks) to speak to them. The ladies were all very nice and welcoming – of course, they just assumed that we were just carrying our own sets of twins. I was actually expecting everyone else to be pregnant – but this group is more for ladies who’ve already had their multiples, not ladies that are expecting multiples. ;) We were brought up with the other first-time members that were in attendance and she just told us to be at the end of the line. After the other members introduced themselves, they dismissed them and then the president gave a little introduction about us. I shared our story with them that night – starting out at the beginning with our baby journey. I didn’t really have a chance to plan out what I was going to say. But since it’s a story that’s so near and dear to my heart and a story I’ve shared so much lately – it was pretty easy to share our journey with them. Definitely seems like a good group and I look forward to attending more meetings in the future– though I doubt I’ll be making the October, November, or December meetings. ;) (Funny story – so apparently at the beginning of the meeting the president must’ve said something about a new member sharing their journey about how they came to be a member of the group. We ended up leaving the meeting early because Joby and I were heading to Tiffin that night. Well, as we were walking out Chrissy mentioned that she was kinda sad that we didn’t get to hear that new member’s journey about how they became a member. I paused for a moment and said, “Chrissy….that was us. I’m the new member!” I guess she didn’t realize that I had really signed up to be a member – so she was thinking it was someone else. We definitely enjoyed a good laugh on the way home together!)
Fri, 9/20 – Mom’s Retirement Dinner: Tomorrow (9/27) is actually my mom’s last day at Mercy Hospital – she is retiring so that she and my dad can move down and help take care of our new babies. Such an amazing gift and sacrifice they are making as grandparents – we didn’t even ask them to do it. As soon as they heard we were having 4 babies, they just started the plans in motion to make their move down to Columbus. (My mom was originally planning to retire in January – but bumped it up to the end of the September.) Last Friday her hospital co-workers past/present gathered together for a dinner to celebrate her retirement. It was nice to be there to help celebrate! We got to see some of her co-workers that she worked with when we were growing up. And also got to meet some of the younger girls that she works with now. Everyone is definitely sad to be losing her – but they were all very excited about the babies and kept telling us how excited Mom is about it, too. They got her lots of wonderful gifts – but her favorite gift was an IOU for OSU basketball tickets. So we’ll have to give her a night off so she can go enjoy a game this winter. I’m thinking we can arrange it so that she goes to more than just one this upcoming season. P.S. Oh, and on Friday is when I realized that my ankles (especially my right one) were REALLY starting to swell up for the first time. Hello, cankles! ;)
Sat, 9/21 – Childbirth Class & Neighborhood Party: On Saturday we took our all-day childbirth class. I’ve been trying to sign us up for a class for a couple months – but we always seemed to have conflicts (mostly baby showers) with the available dates in previous months. When I scheduled us for this date, part of me thought the babies may arrive by then – but I’m glad that we were able to take it. I think we both learned some things – so if I go into labor (which I think is pretty likely with twins), we will feel more prepared. Even though I know every labor experience is unique – at least we will have an idea of what to expect next throughout the process. In these classes, they always make you go around and say when you’re due and whether you’re expecting a boy, girl, and a surprise. So you can imagine the reaction we get when we share our story. I think we actually put the rest of the class at ease about becoming first-time parents to one baby – when they think about us being first-time parents to 4 babies at once. Later that night, Chrissy & James had a neighborhood party in our honor to celebrate “the Johnstons taking over Holderman Street.” :) We’ve been so busy this summer – it was nice to catch up with our neighbor friends! As you would expect, everyone is very supportive and anxious to meet the 4 newest neighbors on the block that are on their way. We are definitely lucky to have such a wonderful neighborhood for them to grow up in! Thanks for a wonderful party, Knott Bunnies!! Holderman Street 4 Life!
Sun, 9/22 – More Laundry & Organizing with Mom: My mom and I tackled some more baby laundry this past Sunday. We made it through all of the baby boy and baby girl clothes and started on the baby towels, burp cloths, and blankets! She also helped me figure out how to organize the baby clothes into the drawers. I’m not sure if you can have “too many clothes” when you have 4 babies – but I think there’s a chance that we could be there. My mom kept joking about how we won’t have to do laundry – because by the time they wear everything once, they’ll be ready to move onto the next size.
Mon, 9/23 – Appt w/ Dr. Lindauer & Numbers Painting Party: This past Monday we had our follow-up appointment with Dr. Lindauer. We both checked out good and we are both now measuring at 38 weeks (though we were only 33.5 weeks at that point). Most people tell us that we don’t look that big for twins – but we would technically still have 6 weeks left in this pregnancy, which is a lot of time to grow! As you know, they won’t let us go past 38 weeks – so we have 4 weeks left to go. We also learned on Monday that at this point, Dr. Lindauer would not do anything to slow or prevent labor should either of us go into labor at this point. I guess the risks of stopping the labor outweigh the benefits – so they will just let us go. After hearing that, I feel like we may make it through these pregnancies without any bedrest afterall. Kinda exciting to know that they’ve made it to this safer zone of the pregnancy – even though that doesn’t mean that they still wouldn’t need to go to the NICU at this point. They also gave us both the TDAP vaccination – which is recommended for our babies’ main care-givers. My parents have their TDAP vaccines scheduled for Monday and my husband actually got one a couple years ago, so he’s good to go! Later that night, a bunch of my friends went to Elphie’s for the “Nursery Numbers Painting Party.” I was pretty stressed out with the few letters that I painted last time – so I managed to avoid painting altogether this time. The rest of the ladies do such a great job – the numbers turned out amazing! Chris (the Dispatch photographer) wasn’t able to make it to the painting party – but he is going to try to come out when we hang them in the nursery next Monday. I just love the painted letters and numbers so much – because they were so wonderfully painted, but even more so because they were painted by our amazing friends!! I love artwork with special meaning – can’t get much more special than that. ;)
Tues, 9/24 – 1st Rough Day: I almost hate to admit it because I’m sure every other pregnant lady may want to punch me in the face. But Tuesday was probably my first "rough" day being pregnant and it wasn’t even really that bad. I’m still not exactly sure what caused it all – but my guess is that it could have been a reaction to the TDAP vaccination that we received on Monday. I went into work that day feeling fine, but during one of my lunchtime meetings I started feeling hot. Then later I started feeling like I was getting the chills and just felt really exhausted. I was up late the night before for the numbers painting party and got up at 5:30am for an early morning work call – so I thought maybe I was just tired. But I felt weak and more than just normal tiredness. I went home early in-between calls and took my 4 o’clock meeting from my bed to be more comfortable. I napped for a little bit and then went down to watch my nephews for a little bit. Since Oliver was still napping and I wasn’t feeling great, Wendel got some extra computer time! Chrissy came home soon after Oliver woke up and took over while I laid on the couch. I went home and went straight to bed around 7:45pm. Joby brought me home some Sprite (what my mom always gave us when we didn’t feel good) to drink. The good news is that I felt much better when I woke up the next morning!
Wed, 9/25 – Kitchen Re-org: We also realized that we were going to need to do something to make room in our kitchen for baby stuff. Last night we tackled that project! All of our cupboards were full – but after doing some reorganizing we were able to maximize our space and free up 3 shelves for baby stuff. For now, we just have some bottles and formulas filling up the shelves. We received lots of bottles at our showers – but we want to make sure our babies will take these Avent bottles before we open them all. I’m also not sure exactly how many bottles we will need – so we’ll just have to wait and see. If we have too many, we can return some. If we don’t need enough, we definitely know where to go to get more.
Thurs, 9/26 – 34 Weeks, TODAY! See… I told you we’ve been busy the past few weeks. I tried to keep it short and sweet – but you all know I tend to be wordy in my posts. :) So thankful that we’ve both made it this far and that we haven’t reached the super uncomfortable stage yet. I mean, don’t get me wrong – we definitely feel 34 weeks pregnant and are having back aches and move around a little slower than we used to. But I really thought we’d be feeling much worse at this point or that the babies would’ve started to arrive by now. Excited for our ultrasounds tomorrow – hoping and praying that our Baby Boy A has flipped for his aunt and that our girls’ waists have grown! It's really late.... I should go to bed. Good night!!