Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Videos-walking and roller coaster

Here are a few videos we took a couple days ago.

Leah is walking too, she just wasnt' in the mood at this time. We need to get a better video of her. Just in the last few days Bella has also gotten even better. It is crazy how fast they went from nothing to taking tons of steps at a time. Just in time for their b-day!!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

One year ago today...

*this post is really for me and the girls...I realized that I have forgotten a lot of details about the weeks leading up to the birth of the babies, so I want to write down what I still remember...this will probably be boring to everyone but me, so you can just skip this post if you would rather just see pictures :) *.
One year ago today I was in the hospital. Prior to this day, I felt great. My pregnancy could not have been easier! I had a little heartburn, but otherwise, I barely felt pregnant. My belly was big, but not crazy big, I was still exercising, and I had absolutely no pain. SO...on the 25th, I went to work, felt great, and went to my routine weekly doctor's appointment. The doctor said everything looked good, but went ahead and did a fetal fibronectin test. I left there, went to a consignment sale in my neighborhood and while I was there got a message from the doctor that I needed to go directly to the hospital to get a steroid shot. The girls were not going to be in there for long! So...I did, and when I got there, they informed me that I was having contractions every few minutes. Hmmm...contractions aren't so bad I thought (ha ha ha...I had no idea. fast forward two weeks and I was a crazy woman...screaming and throwing up because the contractions were THAT bad!). They also realized I was CRAZY dehydrated...they put two bags of fluid in me before I even felt the need to pee at all...apparently this is bad...whoops! SO..I stayed in the hospital for two days, took all kinds of drugs to try to stop the contractions (including magnesium sulfate which is the absolute WORST drug EVER!!!!!). Finally, after two days, I went home with a diagnosis of pre-term labor and preeclampsia. I was also swollen up like the fat guy in Austin Powers. The pants i wore to the hospital wouldn't even fit over my legs on the way home. Apparently, the medicine they gave me makes you swell...I wish I had taken a picture, but I was too miserable (and vain) to allow any pictures. Some of the swelling went down over the next few days, but my face stayed puffy and swollen until about a week after the girls were born!! Over the next two weeks I visited the doctor 8 times, was sent back to the hospital twice, and had a nurse come to the house twice. I was on complete bedrest which meant I was only allowed to walk down the stairs in the morning, get up to go to the bathroom, and walk up the stairs at night. Otherwise, I was supposed to lay on my left side all day. Talk about torture! Cesar was so nice and brought down a mattress so that I would be more comfortable and Deanna and Kai came over A LOT to babysit me :) Ugghh...it felt like an eternity at the time, but looking back on it now, it was nothing! I think if I had known the girls would have been as healthy as they were when they were born, I would have been able to enjoy the calm of the two weeks, but hindsight is twenty-twenty and at the time it was super stressful! So...that's my pre-birth story...I will write about the birth in two weeks :) P.S. Can't believe my babies will be a year in two weeks...CRAZY!!!

Our Playground

This little playground is on our street!! We just "discovered" it the other day. I mean...we knew it was there, but we didn't know there was a baby swing OR that the girls would like to crawl around on the mulch so much. Hopefully it won't get cold too soon so we can enjoy it a little more before the yucky winter comes!!













































Thursday, September 16, 2010

Leah

I was trying to get a picture of her hand but she was such a ham that I had to post all of these :)





























First trip to the ER

Little Leah had her first trip to the ER yesterday!! She was playing in the kitchen during the afternoon, stuck her hand in the recycling bin (she is getting too tall!!!) and pulled out the top of a can that had been opened the night before. OUCH!!! I hope she learned not to do that again (ha ha)...I certainly learned a lot...

Things I learned yesterday:
1. Never leave sharp objects in the recycling bin...even if I think my "little" babies can't get to them!
2. Leah is a STRONG little girl...she was such a big girl and barely cried at all!!!
3. Leah has been eating A LOT the last few weeks! She is up to TWENTY pounds!
4. Kelly, our Nanny, is GREAT under pressure!! She handled the whole situation perfectly...she didn't even freak out about getting covered in blood (I think that would have put me over the edge!!).
5. I still love Frederick Memorial Hospital! Every experience we have had there has been positive. We were getting treated within 10 minutes of arriving at the ER and all the people we came into contact with were great (as has been our experience with all we have been through there).
6. Cesar is such a great Daddy (I knew this already...but it was confirmed even more yesterday). He was so sweet and so concerned for his little girl!! I love love love to see him father these girls :)
7. I have great co-workers who took over for me immediately and without question so that I could go home and take care of my baby!
And most importantly...
8. I REALLY want to put my kids and a bubble and protect them from anything that can cause them harm!! I definitely think it hurt me way more than her to see her covered in blood like that. However, I also learned that I don't freak out at the sight of my own kids blood as I do with anyone else AND I can handle situations like that better than I had assumed. Hopefully I won't have to put that theory to the test anytime soon!!




Monday, September 13, 2010

For Grandma...

Grandma can't see the push video for some reason, so here are some still shots of it!!





































Sunday, September 12, 2010

Pushing

Cesar took this video of the girls while I was at the grocery today. I LOVE IT :)

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Urbana Park

After lunch on Monday (see post below), we went to a park in Urbana. The girls really just love to explore. They crawled all over the place. I love to see them get so excited to find new things!! Leah even got to go on the playground with Daddy!!












































Dinner

Monday we went out to dinner with our friends Gabe and Ashley! The girls got to sit in high chairs for the first time and they had a great time! Well...it was fun for about 30 minutes..then they decided it was time for a nap and wanted to get back in the stroller...but until then, it was great!