Well, it looks like we've made it through another day of keeping these babies in. :) If they stay in until the 24th, we only have one more weekend before they arrive. Although it is kinda exciting to think they could start to make their move at any moment - would LOVE to know whether they're going to arrive on their own terms! After being there when my sister gave birth to her two boys - I definitely have always been curious to see how I would handle the labor and delivery process and probably always imagined that I would be doing it the same way that she did. But on the other hand, knowing that there can be more complications trying to deliver twins - experiencing a C-section on the 24th and having all of our little ones arrive on the same day - sounds pretty good, too. I can be somewhat indecisive at times - so I guess it's good that our current plan leaves both as possible options. As long as they arrive safely, that's all that matters!
On Saturday, my sister and I were out running errands together. Typically when we are together - we're with friends/family that know the story - so we don't typically have a lot of questions to answer. But since we're both VERY pregnant - we definitely drew a little more attention in the check-out from the cashiers. Depending on the types of questions they asked - they received varying levels of details about our story. Most would just say something like, "Wow - you're both pregnant!" And then ask each of us when we were due or whether we were sisters. The lady at Babies 'R Us asked if we knew what we were having - so I responded with "Two girls!" and Chrissy said, "Two boys!" When she followed up asking if twins ran in our family - then I ended up giving her the whole story. We definitely blew her mind - but she was very sweet about it. We hit up quite a few stores during our outing and pretty much had to hit up the restrooms at every other store! As some of you know, my sister was on the "One Born Every Minute" show - when she gave birth to her 2nd son, Oliver. We decided to watch it on Saturday afternoon after we ran our errands. And both us were just crying throughout the whole episode - especially right when little Oliver was born - screaming his head off. ;) Another couple on their episode, had an unresponsive baby girl after birth. Even though we both knew that she survived - we couldn't stop crying! Seeing the tiny little babies made me realize that I'm still not sure I really believe that we're going to have 4 little ones of our very own.... very soon! But I think I'll believe it when I see them - can't wait to meet them. :)
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We made it to 36 weeks and I turned 34 years old today - which made this October 10th even more exciting! ;) I decided to take the day off to enjoy my birthday even more. My 3 housemates sang "happy birthday" to me when I got downstairs this morning! I enjoyed a very relaxing maternity massage at 10am - finally used the gift certificate my husband got me for Mother's Day. :) I spent the afternoon hanging out with Wendel & Oliver - playing video games, riding bikes to the pond, & making Halloween decorations. Then we had dinner with my parents and my sister's family at "House of Japan." Such a wonderful day and I definitely felt the birthday love from all of the birthday texts, calls, & Facebook posts!
It's still so hard to believe that both of our twin pregnancies have made it this far with no major complications. Even though it's getting a little harder to get around and our feet are pretty swollen, I'm still amazed at how good we feel. And it's even harder to believe that our 4 little miracles will be here in 2 weeks or less!!!! A lot of folks are thinking that this year is gonna be my best ever and I think they are absolutely right!!! Tonight we had our first set of new housemates move into our house... my parents! :) My mom's last day of work was back on 9/27 - so they've been working to keep packing up their house and getting ready to move down to Lewis Center with us. My childhood home hasn't sold yet - so they're going to stay with us until it does and they are able to find a house close to us (preferably on Holderman Street). My parents bought the house the summer before I was born (34 years ago), so getting it ready to be on the market and packing things up is definitely no small feat. We are so thankful for their support as we jump into the world of parenthood with our 4 little ones. I'm pretty sure that none of us know what to expect when the babies arrive - but I'm sure that we will figure it out together. Our kids will be so lucky to have one set of grandparents in-town and the other just an hour and a half away.
Appointment with Dr. Lindauer: This morning we had our weekly appointment with Dr. Lindauer! We were both expecting another "under the hood" check - but Dr. Lindauer said that since we weren't having any real labor signs, she didn't need to check us. I was a little curious to know - but was okay with skipping out on that part of the appointment. Chrissy was definitely curious as she kept asking a couple times whether it wasn't needed. Dr. Lindauer said she would check us if we wanted to - but we decided to save her the trouble. ;) Everything else checked out fine today. Our blood pressures were both exactly the same today (120/80) and our weights were only off by 1 pound. She used the little tape measure and found that I was now measuring at 40 weeks and Chrissy was measuring at 41 weeks. That just shows growth and it's the same measurement she would use for someone with one baby - so it just shows that we are definitely bigger, which is what they want to see. We also got to hear all four heartbeats - though the girls were a little difficult to find today! ;) Dr. Lindauer also talked to us a little more about our double C-sections planned for 10/24 (15 days if anyone else that may be counting). Assuming we make it that long - we'll need to go to Riverside on 10/23 to get some blood drawn. Then we won't eat/drink anything after midnight and will be there by 7:30am. They're going to prep both of us together - so that Joby and I will have more time with our little sons in-between the C-sections. Chrissy and I were both asking if we would feel out of it after the C-section and Dr. Lindauer said that we would be alert during the procedure and afterwards. She said that some ladies that are in labor for hours and then get switched to a C-section may be exhausted or a little off after all of the medications- which may have been the types of C-sections that we've heard about. Dr. Lindauer explained that there would be a sheet up to cover what they're doing - so that we could see as much (or as little) as we want throughout the surgery. She said it usually takes about an hour after the anesthesia is delivered into the spine and that it takes a lot longer to close things up than it does to get the babies out. Joby asked her what her panicked face looks like - so he could know if anything was going wrong. :) She said that since she's a doctor, she hopefully doesn't have that face and that she would keep us updated but remain calm throughout the surgeries. ;) He also asked if there were any umbilical cords to be cut after C-sections and she said that they don't let the dads do that for C-sections. I have mixed feelings about whether I'd like to deliver the girls vaginally or with a C-section. After being there when my sister gave birth to her boys - I am definitely curious to see how I would do in labor. And definitely think that pushing the babies out gives the mom more of an active role in the delivery of the babies - compared to the C-section where they are taken out by the doctor. There are a lot of unknowns as well - which is why we're opting for the C-section for me on 10/24 if the girls haven't started to make their move yet. Although I would of course love to know how it's all going to play out - it is kinda exciting to think that I still have a chance at vaginal delivery if they decide to come out before the 24th. And since I'm a girl that loves having a plan - there is some level of comfort in knowing that the babies will be born on the 24th via C-section if nothing else happens between now and then. At the end of the day, we just want all 4 of our babies safely delivered into the world - so whatever we need to do to make that happen is what we will do! Our next and last scheduled appointment with Dr. Lindauer will be on Thursday, 10/17. Who's Your Daddy?: As you may or may not recall, my IVF Buddy helped us with our gestational carrier contract between us and Chrissy/James. This contract was required by ORM before they would let us start the IVF cycle. She saved us a lot of money by serving as our attorney and having her partner serve as my sister's attorney! We knew that additional legal work would be required when the boys are born - in order for us to be recognized as their parents. We've been calling the Delaware County courts off/on for months - trying to understand what they needed us to do. But this is a new situation for them, so we kept getting the "waiting to hear back from the judge" response from everyone. Riverside Hospital told us that we just needed to get a "pre birth order" form filled out for them to recognize us as the parents when Chrissy gives birth to our boys. Unfortunately, we were having a hard time tracking this form down. Since we're now officially in the zone of babies potentially arriving any day now - we figured that we needed to get this taken care of sooner than later. My IVF Buddy talked to a friend of a friend and we ended up meeting with him on Monday to get things figured out. Our appointment with the attorney went really well - he has a lot of experience doing surrogate/gestational carrier contracts in Franklin County. He let us know that Franklin County's judge won't do the "pre birth order" form - because they believe that the child has to be born before the judge can have jurisdiction on parentage. He also knows the judge/magistrate in Delaware and is going to just call them up and see if the process that the Franklin County judge follows will work. He said typically Delaware will follow suit, so we're hoping that they will go along with it. Assuming that Delaware agrees to this approach – he’s going to have Dr. Williams sign the affidavit saying he did the transfer of our embryos into Chrissy and should have the waiver for us to review later this week. It will have everything filled in (even the boys’ names… we gave them to him to make things go smoother when they are born) – except their birthday. Then we just wait for Chrissy to have our boys. After the boys are born, he will bring the form to the hospital and have us all sign it, get the judge to e-sign it, and then bring it back to the hospital. During our appointment, we just had to fill out a couple forms with all of our information and Chrissy/James’ info. He also needed to know the dates of when the transfer was done, when the pregnancy was confirmed, and when we had our first ultrasound. Luckily, I have all of those dates memorized! ;) Oh, and we did (of course) have to pay him for his services - kinda crazy that we had to pay $1600 in legal fees to claim our boys. But that's a small price to pay in the big scheme of things. We are just so thankful that it sounds like he’ll be able to get everything taken care of before the boys are born! Bethenny Show Update: We found out earlier this week that our actual interview with Bethenny wasn't going to happen this week. I was okay with it - since it didn't seem like they were going to be able to give us much advanced notice. But part of me did wonder if we were all going to end up on the cutting room floor after all of our time with the crew on Friday. But today we got an email from our producer contact saying that they wanted to schedule us to be interviewed by Bethenny on Tuesday, 10/15 during their 2PM taping. For this piece, just Chrissy and I would need to be available between 1-3PM that day at my house. We checked our schedules and let them know that we would be available. I assume we will find out more details between now and then - not sure if it will be via phone or Skype or if another crew will be coming to do the interview via satellite. Since I don't think her show is live - my guess is that they record shows the day before, so maybe it will air next Wednesday. I'll definitely let you know - once we find out for sure. In closing, I'd like to shout out a very Happy 5th Birthday to Miss Katelyn Marie! :) And a Happy Birthday Eve to my fellow 10/10 baby, Nicholas. I'd also like to thank my cousin for inspiring me to blog (even though I was kinda tired tonight) by sending me an email with the subject line of "Worst Blog Updater Ever" today. #thanksgreg 1 hour and 6 minutes until my birthday!! Good night!! :) Just wanted to post some pictures from our interviews today! We had a great 3-person crew of freelancers from Cincinnati show up for the shoot.. Includung set-up and tear-down, they were here for about 4 hours. All to get footage for the "Bethenny" editors to make a 1 min & 30 second package about our story! The story should air sometime next week - we'll keep you posted! ;) Happy Birthday to Debbie!!! And Happy Wedding Day to Mitchell Dean & Abby!! The Johnston Quads have made it to the 35 week mark and we had our weekly appointment with Dr. Lindauer this morning. :) Even though Dr. Lindauer has been very positive this whole time regarding us making it to 38 weeks - she is definitely surprised that we're both doing so well at 35 weeks. We did the normal drill as always and got to listen to each of the babies' heartbeats. They were all beating strong! Today was our first internal check to see if we're effaced or dilated at all, The good news is that I'm barely 1cm dilated and not effaced at all. And Chrissy is between 1-2cm dilated and also not effaced. Dr. Lindauer said she was able to feel a head in me and some feet in Chrissy! ;) Things could definitely change at any moment - but for now, it doesn't seem like our uteruses are making any moves to evict these babies. I'm starting to really believe that these babies are going to stay in until 38 weeks.... October 24th, here we come!
Delivery Plan for 10/24: Today we finalized our delivery plans with Dr. Lindauer, should all 4 babies stay in until the 38 week mark. Since Baby Boy A is still breech, Chrissy will most likely need a C-section. So unless he flips, there's not much to really decide about that. The question was whether I wanted to try to delivery naturally or do a C-section. Since I haven't been in labor before, if they have to induce me - there's no telling how long I'd be in labor. And with twins, there's a higher chance that I could end up with a C-section at the end of the day. Most moms in labor wouldn't be worrying about their two other babies that were born that same morning - but that would be my situation. So in an effort to make things logistically easier for everyone and to have all 4 babies born on the same day, we have scheduled back-to-back C-sections for 10/24 with Riverside. Chrissy will go first at 9:30am and then I'm scheduled for 11am. Kinda exciting to have our plan.... well, at least our plan for the 24th. Of course, if any of the babies show up before then - this whole plan goes out the window. If Chrissy goes into labor before then, they would just do her C-section at that time. If I go into labor and Chrissy hasn't had the boys, then I would try to deliver them naturally without a C-section. If I go into labor and Chrissy has already had the boys, then we'll have to figure out if it makes sense for me to be tied up in labor all day or if we should just do the C-section to get things moving. These are the things you have to consider when you're expecting quads that are being carried within two wombs! ;) Well, I have a breast-feeding class tonight - so I should probably get going. In closing, I'd like to shout-out a very Happy 30th Birthday to Jack's mama, Megan!! :) I know some of you may fall out of your chair when you see that I blogged two days in a row. ;) Since we're in the homestretch, I figured it's the least I could do, right?
Throughout this whole pregnancy, I haven't really had any crazy dreams and no dreams really about the babies arriving. But last night, I had a dream that one of our girls was born. The weird part of the dream was that I don't remember seeing her - I just remember walking around talking about how she had arrived. When I woke up I was a little confused and wondered whether they forgot to deliver our 2nd little girl! Somehow I doubt that will happen - so I think we'll be okay. Also wanted to let you all know that it really sounds like we might be on the new "Bethenny" talk show - hosted by Bethenny Frankel. Chrissy has been talking to their producers over the last month or so - but nothing concrete was really set-up until today. They are going to have their crew come to our house on Friday to interview us and create a little package to tell our story. Their plan is to air the story during one of her shows next week. They also may try to do some type of satellite interview with us and Bethenny next week - but we'll just have to see how things play out. We've been on the local news here - which has been pretty cool. It's still hard to believe that we're going to be on a national show - but we figure, the more people that hear our story - the better. We hope it will be inspiring and give hope to others dealing with infertility. And who knows - maybe we'll inspire a whole new generation of gestational carriers! ;) Joby and I worked hard tonight to continue to get things put away, organized, and ready for our new roommates! Not only are we getting ready for our 4 babies - but my parents are going to be staying with us (until they sell their current house and find someplace closer to us). So tonight we made a lot of progress getting the guest bedroom closet cleared out for my parents and sorting through the baby stuff that was piling up in our dining room! Tomorrow is our "under the hood" check with Dr. Lindauer - will be interesting to see if either of us are dilated at all. I will definitely post an update tomorrow - so get excited for 3 days of blog posts in a row. Maybe October should be "Blog-tober" for me. ;) In closing, I'd like to ask for prayers of comfort and peace to Holly as she and her family mourn the loss of her beloved grandpa, Owen. Good Night!! It's still hard to believe that both pregnancies have made it into the month of October with no signs of the babies trying to make their way out! We have our next appointment with Dr. Lindauer on Thursday morning, so it will be interesting to see if either of us are dilated! I honestly would've guessed that at least one set of babies would've shown up by now or that we'd be on bedrest or something. But we're both doing great in the homestretch of these pregnancies! Although I still feel good and I'm able to sleep pretty well at night - the swelling of my hands/feet are a good reminder that I'm pretty pregnant. I also notice that walking down to my sister's house or going up a flight of stairs is a little more difficult than it used to be. My sister and I are both still working and going about our business as usual! 9/27 Ultrasound: Last Friday, we had our follow-up appointment with Carol down at Riverside Hospital. Carol actually had to leave a little early that day - so she called us earlier in the week to see if we wanted to reschedule or just have another technician do our ultrasounds. Although we're sure the other technicians are just as wonderful - we all wanted to have Carol, so we had her move our ultrasounds up a little earlier in the afternoon! We were all anxious to check in on the babies! During our last appointment on 9/4, they were a little concerned that the girls' waists were measuring at 28 weeks and we were 31 weeks along. The great news is that both of the girls' waists had grown quite a bit since our last ultrasound (3 weeks earlier). On Friday, we were 34 weeks along and one girls' waist was at 32 weeks and the other one's waist had caught up to 34 weeks. Carol said that they wouldn't have expected either of them to get "caught up" - they just wanted to make sure there was growth within the 3 weeks. So both she and Dr. Fox seemed very pleased that the girls' waists were up to 32 & 34 weeks! The not-so-great news is that Baby Boy A still has not flipped for his aunt - he seems very comfy in his breach position. Carol said there is still fluid and time for him to flip - so we'll have to see what happens. If he doesn't flip, it appears that my sister will have to have a C-section. Sorry, Aunt Chrissy! :( Dr. Fox also noticed that one of the kidneys in one of the boys appears to have a little more fluid than the other. He said it's probably nothing - but we should probably have it checked out via ultrasound after he's born to make sure it's nothing.
Overall, all babies are doing great! The important thing is that they are all growing - which is exactly what we want them to be doing! The boys are now estimated to be weighing 4 lbs 12 oz and 5 lbs 4 oz. Aunt Chrissy has an even 10 lbs of Johnston boys inside of her! The girls are each just 2 oz less than one of their brothers - weighing in at 4 lbs 10 oz and 5 lbs 2 oz. At the end of the appointment, Dr. Fox said that they didn't need to see us again - since all babies seem to be doing so well. Since we're scheduled to deliver them by 10/24 - he said there's not much point in doing an ultrasound a few days before they are born! Although of course, we were all relieved that the babies are doing so well - it was a little sad to know that we wouldn't have any more ultrasounds with Carol. We got our picture taken with her before we left and talked about how glad we were that she called us to reschedule - especially since Friday ended up being our last ultrasound. She got a little teary-eyed hugging us good-bye and promised that she'd come up to see us after we have our babies! Such a sweet lady! Yay for Team Kortlandt!! This weekend we headed out for our last weekend trip before the babies arrive! We went to Tiffin (my hometown) to participate in the Alzheimer's Walk with my Kortlandt family. This was our 6th annual walk and we raised over $3500 for the Alzheimer's Association! Thanks again to those of you that donated. As always, it was a great weekend with our extended Kortlandt family! Nursery Numbers: Last night, my husband and I hung up the nursery numbers - on the wall opposite of the nursery letters! They turned out really nice and I love that we have one wall of letters and the other of numbers. Thanks again to Libby for the great idea to do numbers as well. :) And thanks to Elphie for prepping the numbers, hosting the painting party, and cooking a delicious meal for the painters (and me). The photographer from the Columbus Dispatch came out to take some pictures of the "hanging of the numbers." He also re-recorded us giving a quick summary of our story (for the web piece they plan to do when they publish the story) - since the recording didn't work as expected when they came out to the house earlier in the month. Being an October baby myself, I'm super-excited that we're going to have 4 more October babies in the family. Besides my own birthday (which is 9 days away, FYI) - there are a lot of family members with October birthdays (Megan, Wendel, Grandma Kortlandt, Grandpa Jack) before 10/24 and quite a few friends, too. Hopefully, no one will mind sharing a birthday with the babies! We appreciate everyone's continued prayers and well wishes that the pregnancies continue to go well and that all babies arrive safely this month. We are so blessed that our babies are doing well so far and pray for their continued health and safety as they make the transition into the world! Good Evening! My apologies for the lack of blogging – some of you may have thought the babies arrived. But I am happy to report that at 34 weeks, all 4 babies are still warm & cozy in their wombs. :) You would be AMAZED at how much we’ve been able to fit into the past 3 weeks. I’ve been meaning to blog for awhile – but I knew it would take awhile to catch up and never felt like I had the time. Not sure that I have enough time tonight either – but I’m just going to get ‘er done. So in a nutshell… here’s what we’ve been up to as “Operation Prepare for the Johnston Quads” continues! 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! ;) Mon, 9/9 – Hanging the Letters: We hung up the letters (painted with love by my friends back in August) on one of the nursery walls and we absolutely LOVE them. My friend, Libby, suggested that we do numbers after seeing my Facebook post and… (SPOILER ALERT) we ended up making that idea come to life. ;) Tues, 9/10 – Fiserv Shower: Just one month before my 34th birthday, my dear friend (Elphie) threw a work shower for us in the cafeteria. She baked all sorts of yummy muffins and J-Lo made the most adorable little cake-pop cupcake things. It was nice to have my co-worker friends stop down in the morning to visit and meet Joby and Chrissy. Lots of people couldn’t make it down because of work or meeting conflicts and later when they heard that Joby & Chrissy were there – they seemed very bummed that they missed meeting them. Everyone at work is super-excited about the arrival of these 4 little babies! Wed, 9/11 – Dispatch Interview: On our dear friend Brenda’s birthday, the Columbus Dispatch reporter (Misti) and photographer (Chris) came to our house to interview us. Misti interviewed myself, Joby, Chrissy, & James in the great room. She asked lots of great questions about our journey and about us. A couple times she apologize for taking us back to the not-so-happy times – but we definitely understand that it was a big part of this journey and didn’t mind at all. They are planning to publish one big story after the babies arrive. They asked if we would be okay with them coming to the hospital when the babies are born. We said that would be fine. And they gave their cell phone numbers – so that Joby can call them whenever any of the babies start to make their way. Chris did take a few pictures up in the nursery and mentioned that he’d love to be invited to either the numbers painting party or the hanging of the numbers event. ;) We told him that he’s more than welcome to either or both. Definitely excited to read the story that they write up about us! Later that night, our little 2 year-old nephew (Oliver) was having fun playing with our Cabbage Patch Doll (Joby Doby Jr.) and all of the baby items we already have set-up in the great room. Too cute! 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! Fri, 9/13 – Pedis: I had a fun girls’ night with one of my college friends on this Friday night. We met out for pedicures – her treat! So nice to catch up over pedicures and dinner. Thanks again, Jen! :) 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!! Wed, 9/18 – Follow-up Interview with Ellie: Back on July 24th, the local NBC4 station aired a couple short segments about our story on the 5 o’clock news. Ellie (the news reporter) mentioned back then that she’d like to check back in on our baby preparation when it got closer to the babies arriving. So last Wednesday she came up to our house with a cameraman to check out the nursery and interview us. Here is a link to the interview – hoping that they will be able to put all of these little segments onto a DVD for us at the end. We didn’t really talk about the next follow-up, but I have a feeling they will want to come back after the babies arrive! And we’d be happy to have them – at least that’s what I say now. ;)
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!! Happy Friday Eve!! Even though it was a short work week with the Labor Day holiday, I'm SUPER excited that tomorrow is Friday. Last weekend we headed to Troy (my husband's hometown) for the Mumford & Son's festivities on Fri/Sat and a family reunion on Sunday. Such a fun weekend - wish we could do it all over again! Even though we're still feeling good, I tried my best to take it easy and left the partying up to my husband and our friends - headed home around 8:30pm on Friday night and 10pm on Saturday night. Although I may have been slightly pushing it with all of the standing I did on Saturday night at the concert - I think I would've been much more uncomfortable sitting for that amount of time. ;) 31 Weeks! Today marks the 31 week mark in our pregnancies - yahoo for us! And although I'm sure things could change at any moment - so far, the babies and our bodies aren't showing any signs of them arriving anytime soon. We're hoping they stay in for at least 5 more weeks - which also happens to be my 34th birthday (10/10 for those of you that I haven't brain-washed with my birthday)! Only time will tell, but we appreciate your prayers and positive thoughts that these babies don't show up in September. Monthly Ultrasound Update: Yesterday, we had our monthly ultrasounds at Riverside Hospital with Carol and Dr. Fox! When Dr. Fox first heard of our story during our first ultrasound appointment back in June - he asked if it was okay to share our story with their PR department. We agreed and since then I've been talking to Christina - who actually helped coordinate the "One Born Every Minute" filming and actually recognized Chrissy from the show when she saw one of our Facebook videos online. She ended up reaching out to our local newspaper, The Columbus Dispatch. After hearing about our story, they wanted to do a story on us - so they joined us for our ultrasound appointment. They didn't want to disrupt the appointment - so just stood in the back of the room like "flies on the wall" and listened in on our appointment. They are going to come to our house on Wednesday to interview us and get some pictures of the nursery. The nursery is set-up for the most part, but I do want to get our beautiful hand-painted-by-friends alphabet letters hung on the wall by next Wednesday. ;) I'm sure they will do a wonderful job telling our story and I think it will end up being a nice keepsake to share with the kids someday. Our Boys: Like always we kicked off the ultrasound by checking in on the boys who are nice and cozy in their aunt's womb. Despite his aunt's pleading - Baby Boy A (the lower of the two boys) is still in breach position. He was definitely playing up his "cute" card during the ultrasound by rolling around and opening/closing his eyes for us. So amazing to see! His heart-rate was nice and steady at 138. Carol also showed us how he was doing some "fetal breathing" - which is basically breathing in and out the fluids. She explained that this is something that babies will do intermittently in the womb to practice for breathing air. While Carol was taking the various measurements this time around - I asked her what is used to calculate their estimated weight. We learned that they use the measurement of the head, waist, and femur to come up with the estimated weight - based on historical data of measurements during pregnancy and actual birth weights. It is still an estimate - but at least gives them some way to estimate the size throughout the pregnancy. Baby Boy A weighed in at 3 lbs and 5 oz yesterday - he was estimated at 2 lbs 1 oz back on August 8th. Baby Boy B actually did make the flip - so he is no longer breach anymore. Carol was showing us how Baby Boy B had his foot real close to Baby Boy A's head - looked like he was about to kick his brother in the head. The fact that he flipped gives us hope that his brother will also make the flip within the next couple of weeks. He was also showing off his fetal breathing skills for us and his heart-rate was at 139. According to his measurements, he now weighs about 4 lbs and 2 oz! That is a big jump from last month's weigh-in at 2 lbs. 5 oz - just under a 2 pound gain for our big boy! Below are a couple of pictures from the boys' ultrasound. Since Baby Boy B has his head down, it was harder to try to get some good pictures of him. And the 3-D pictures still kinda freak me out - but hopefully you can make out Baby Boy A's face in the 3-D picture on the right. The other picture is just showing how Baby Boy B's foot is right in line with Baby Boy A's head. We did get to see a little bit of hair on the back of their heads - but couldn't tell the color via the ultrasound screen. Our little guys are growing and doing great. So crazy to think my sister has 7 lbs and 7 oz of Johnston boys in her! :) Our Girls: Next it was my turn to be in the ultrasound chair - after hearing how much the boys had grown, I was anxious to see how our girls were doing. We started off with Baby Girl A - she seemed to be sleeping for most of the appointment. She wasn't interested in showing off for us. Her heart rate was at 143 and we were able to see some hair on the back of her head. Based on her measurements - she weighed in at 3 lbs 1 oz. She was 2 lbs 3 oz last month - so she was just a few ounces shy of gaining a full pound. She's our girl with the missing artery in her umbilical cord - but since she's still gaining weight, that's a good sign. I did ask Dr. Fox if he wanted me to do stress testing due to her condition - but he said that it wasn't necessary just for that! I was a little curious to see what the stress testing was all about - but after talking to some mothers of twins who said that it was pretty time-consuming and not so comfortable, I'm okay on missing out on that experience. Baby Girl B was much more alert than her sister! As you can see in the pictures below - she was showing off her limberness by having her straightened leg right infront of her face for a little bit. We did see her doing the fetal breathing and her heart rate was about 156. We couldn't see her hair based on how she was positioned - but she had her arm going back behind her head, so it almost looked like she was playing with her hair. Baby Girl B weighed in at 3 lbs 2 oz - last month she was 2 lbs 1 oz, so she's gained just over a pound. I was definitely glad that the girls had both gained weight. We found out that both girls are still head down - Baby Girl A is still much lower than Baby Girl B. Since she was so low - it was very difficult to get any good ultrasound pictures of her. Below are a couple pictures of Baby Girl B. In the one picture she was showing off her flexibility and limberness - she had her legs stretched out infront of her face! It wasn't up there for very long - because when Carol went back to try to get some 3-D pictures, her leg was no longer in the way. The 3-D picture of her face is a little lumpy - but you can see her eyes, most of her nose, and part of her mouth. Definitely looking more like a baby - but still a little creepy! ;) When Dr. Fox was reviewing the pictures and measurements - he noted that both girls' waist measurements were measuring smaller than what is expected. I looked at the screen and it looked like their waists were measuring around a 28 week timeframe, instead of at the 31 week timeframe. Due to their waist measurements being small, Dr. Fox asked Carol to schedule us to come back in 3 weeks instead of 4 weeks - just to see how they are doing. So we're going back for our next ultrasound on Friday, 9/27! When I was walking out, I mentioned something about eating more and Carol said that more protein or protein shakes would probably be good. I'm going to see if I can add a mid-morning snack and mid-afternoon snack to make sure I'm getting my extra 600 calories a day - which is what is recommended for twin pregnancies. We'll see if that will help to fill out our girls' waists. All I know is that they are definitely not getting their hourglass shapes from me - when I'm not pregnant, I'm definitely a tube! ;)
Overall, the babies seem to still be developing and doing great! Despite the girls' waist measurements being a little small - neither Carol nor Dr. Fox seemed super-concerned. Tomorrow we have an appointment with Dr. Lindauer - looking forward to seeing her. Good night! We had a great Labor Day weekend with family and friends! Amidst all the fun, I was able to make lots of progress on our thank you cards. I'm done with the thank you notes from our Charlotte, Galion, & Columbus showers!! Feels good - only about 20 other cards to go for other gifts that folks have sent to us. Then I will be all caught up!! :) It's good that I enjoy writing out thank you cards because we have had soooo many family, friends, and a few folks we've never met to thank for their generosity!
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