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!!!