36 Weeks

Yay! I made it to 36 weeks and the twins are now full term. They're doing great and should not require any time in the NICU.

To mark the arrival of 36 weeks I have unfortunately developed PUPPS. It sounds cute, like someone is going to give me a new puppy for hanging in there so long. But it's not that cute actually. PUPPS stands for Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy, which is a really long name meaning "unknown itchy rash due to pregnancy." Its not harmful to me or the baby, although its really, really itchy and annoying. The only cure for it is to deliver the babies.

We went to the doctor's this morning and had some bloodwork done just to be sure, but all signs point to PUPPS. My case looks like tiny pinpricks all over my legs, so don't be alarmed if you google image it. Its not that hideous thank heavens.

The good thing about annoying pregnancy symptoms, discomfort, etc., is that it really makes you ready to have the babies. The fear of childbirth has been replaced with the concept of eventual relief. People keep telling me things like, "once you have them you'll wish they were back in." Um, no, I don't think so. Maybe Andre will be wishing they were back in, but as for me, I'll be happy to have them in my arms instead of on my bladder.

Still cooking...

I was up most of Wednesday night with contractions. One every hour on the hour and then at about 5 am, I started to have them every 10 minutes. I woke Andre up and then, Murphey's Law, they quit. Oddly, I felt the need to say, "no, really there were contractions," looking around, "they were here, honest, you just missed them." "I'm sure they'll be back, bet they just went out for a moment...to uh, get the paper or a cup of coffee, they'll be right back."

But they didn't come back. Andre called the nurse the next day and she had us come into our already scheduled appointment early. Trying to "fit into" a busy doctor's schedule is not a good idea. You wind up waiting twice as long to see him for half the time. Big mistake.

Anyhow, our doctor thinks I'll have the girls sometime next week. This is, of course, just some sort of voodoo prediction. I'm not dilated at all, but I am about 50-60% effaced. Both babies have dropped, are head down, and their faces are facing my back. But, I don't think he really knows for sure when they'll come and I'm starting to think they may camp out in my belly indefinitely--like middle age college kids still living with their parents. Its cozy, they have everything they need, someone to cook, clean, do the laundry, and the rent's free so there's no real urgency to move out.

I am entering my 36th week. For twins that is quite an accomplishment, I'm told. They are now considered full term and we are expecting that they won't need to be in the NICU at all. Both twins are weighing just over 5 lbs and we could even see some hair in the sonogram. We tried to get a good picture, but they both have their little booties facing out now. Rowan has been head down for a while now, so our sonographer warned us that her head may be a bit cone shaped when she's born. They're both doing well, just hanging out upside down like two little monkeys.

I have to say, my most favorite thing, even more than seeing them on the sonogram, is hearing their heartbeats. I'm not sure why, but it always chokes me up a bit.

Looking back it seems like this time has gone by so fast. Yet,looking ahead I feel like that kid that keeps saying, "Are we there yet?"

I think the experience of becoming a mother has changed me somewhat. Some ways I can't quite explain right now and may never.

There is a feeling, an idea that we can start over again. With these new lives there is a renewed sense of hope. The generational Etch-a-Sketch: we can shake things up and its new again. I don't mean I want to live vicariously through them, just that there's another chance, that maybe this time the world will be a little better and their lives will be a bit more....

With that comes a great responsibility to help create this better place for them, to make sure that they are happy, healthy, and that it is the best possible world we could give to them. And it is increasingly upsetting to see so many things in the world that do not belong in our new Etch-a-Sketch. Intolerance, war, environmental disaster, the Bush administration, the Olsen twins...I could go on, but you get the point.

Luckily, we have lots of time to just dote on them and make them happy. Play with their little toes and coo and sing sweet songs to them. That is, of course, if they ever decide to move out of my belly.

Maternity Pictures

We had our professional pictures done. They turned out really great, so I thought I'd share one with you all. I'm just beginning 34 weeks in this picture.

The girls are doing great. They are anxious to meet everyone, which is evident by the lack of sleep I've been getting and the increasing amount of contractions I'm enduring. They seem be doing well though and hopefully they can hold out for 2 more weeks. The doctor said they'll induce me at 38 weeks if they aren't here by then. Wow, time is going by fast now.

Andre has been busy finishing last minute baby room renovations. His friend Coitt came over today to work on crown molding with him. Coitt is a great friend and helped me convince Andre of the necessity of crown molding in the babies' room. Thanks Coitt.

Yesterday was Easter. We had a great time at my mom and grandmother's house. Thought I'd share a picture of Andre with the head of the rabbit piñata. He's so funny. I wasn't feeling well and thus missed the piñata and cascarones which were done outside. While laying on the couch I felt as if someone was staring at me. I turned to look and there's Andre with this giant rabbit head. So funny! The kids had a great time and the weather was beautiful. It was so nice to hang out with family and enjoy the day.

Dr. Visit and Easter

We had our weekly visit and sonogram today. The girls had a biophysical profile done--they scored 8 out of 8. So their movement is great, they are breathing well, swallowing, their is plenty of fluid, good muscle tone, and a good heart rate. They didn't have a growth scan, but the doctor is guessing they're about 5 pounds each. We should know next week when they'll have another growth scan.

I'm doing well. I'm not dilated at all, but I am about 60% effaced. I'm measuring 40 weeks now. I certainly feel like I'm full term. And I've gained 43 lbs so far. Apparently this is a good thing, but my knees have definitely seen better days--or at least lighter days.

In other news, we are planning on spending Easter at my mom's house this year. Easter is by far my favorite holiday. The weather is beautiful, the candy is sweet, and instead of eating dry boring turkey we always have a ham. Easter is wonderful. My family contribution this year is buying the traditional giant rabbit piñata. Hopefully someone else will remember to buy the cascarones. I remember when my niece was smaller than the Easter piñata, but she would carry it around with her. So cute.

The kids want Mr. Monkey and I to set up the Easter egg scavenger hunt again this year. Last year it was cold, so instead of looking for eggs, we used plastic eggs and each egg gave them a clue going to the next egg. I think last year's hunt was too easy. Maybe they need to also answer a game-show style question too. hmmm.

Well, I know everyone loves to eat, so here is my secret recipe for toasted Peeps:

* Place peep on paper towel in the microwave
* Set microwave for 20 seconds
* Watch peep grow and grow
* Be sure to remove peep before it explodes
* Enjoy a toasted marshmallow-sugary treat

Non-profit Status

I've always felt that the IRS was one agency to be feared. They are, after all, the only ones who could bring Al Capone down. My perception of the IRS was that it was generally a good idea to stay under their radar.

I am, however, singing a new tune. I have discovered how much I actually like working with the IRS.
I found out yesterday that the 501(c)(3) status I filed for Andre's bagpipe band went through and they now have federal tax exemption. This was my first 501(c)(3), so I'm quite happy about it. I've incorporated non-profits before with the State, but this is my first time completing the federal IRS tax exemption paperwork. I say "paperwork" but it is actually a series of specific documents, forms, and attachments.

Hopefully I will have the opportunity to incorporate and file exemptions for other nonprofits in the future. So if anyone knows someone wanting to start a nonprofit then send them my way.

Cutest Picture Ever!

Sea boo boo and baby sea boo booFrom the "Nature's Best 2007" photo exhibit at the Smithsonian! Taken by Eddie Schermerhorn, age 15 of Boulder, CO.

Beware you rascally villains!!

{cue dramatic music} From dark in the shadows of library stacks, where you think you see movement. There I arrise! Books on fire apparatus, fire officer tactics, and policy strewn in my wake, Mr. Mono Returns!!


So as my darlin' Mrs. Mono stated. The test is done, for better or worse. I am happy with my score, I don't think I could have written much higher of one with out completly hermitting up. And that would have made it quite a "triste casa de monos".





I fealt almost like a superhero, leaping from one daunting task straight to save the damsel in distress (tm). In this case my damsel in distress is my beautifully glowing pregant wife (though I think she would be quite happy to be done glowing, and back to her normal svelt self). The girls have grown to sizes that are making things around the house more difficult. So there I am, finally fully back; to clean, organize, assemble. Faster than a speedy train! (perhaps, faster than an old steam train, but still rather quick!) Quicker than a silver bullet... wait I think I have lost my analogy...

Hmph... oh well, lets just say I am happy to have the test over, and even happier to being able to spend time more time with my family. Even if half off the family reserves its communication to kicks in Mrs. Mono's ribs.

Dr. Visit and Mono's test

I had another doctor's visit yesterday and another sonogram. It was pretty uneventful. They just checked to make sure the girls were moving and that they had enough fluid. Our dr. says that they will induce at 38 weeks if I haven't had them by then and if I go into labor at 36 weeks they won't stop it. Both girls are still head down. We could see Evelyn sucking her thumb. It was really cute.

In other news, Andre finished his test. He scored very well (94) and with his time in the department (6 yrs) he's at a 100. However, there were a lot of other people who scored lower on the test, but had more years. So that moved Andre down the list to number 43. That means that 43 positions for driver would have to open up in order for him to promote.

Now that the test is done he's been doing loads of work getting ready for the baby. The room is almost complete.

Our little journey

Its a nice rainy afternoon here. The kind of afternoon that is nicer when you're dry at home as I am, instead of out and about in the world. Since this journal is largely about our babies and this journey we've been on; and since I started the journal sort of half-way through I thought I'd post a few pictures of the beginning. Consider this the sitcom episode that looks back over the past year and pieces together things you know already happened, but maybe forgot.

So for us, having children didn't really begin until we began fertility treatments. After a failed IUI, we knew our only option was IVF and we were referred to Dr. Vaughn. I'm not sure what I want to say about IVF exactly.

These are my IVF drugs. Like so many things in my life, if its worth anything its not going to be easy. And it wasn't easy. Would I do it again? Of course. It was an incredible experience.

The first time I had to give myself an injection, and I'm not thrilled about needles you know, so I have my eyes closed tight and Andre says, "don't close your eyes while giving yourself an injection!" So I opened my eyes, counted to three...then counted to three again...okay, deep breath, one, two, three...after about 1/2 an hour and Andre saying "just do it," over and over I finally injected my first shot. By the end of the month it was no big deal. The scary part came from the fear that I would somehow mess it all up. But I discovered that doctors don't let their patients do things that are easy to mess up. So even after one of our shots wouldn't work properly, and maybe I gave myself a double dose trying to get it to work, it was still, "fine."

The emotional ups and downs of dealing with fertility issues was by far the most difficult. I don't think people really understand unless they've gone through it. For us, to get pregnant after one cycle of IVF I realize how fortunate we were and I feel a lot of respect for those couples who endure numerous cycles, miscarriages, and losses. Not everyone understood our choice to pursue IVF and while some comments were quite hurtful, you can't really make life decisions based on other people's opinions or lack of tact. We found a lot of strength in each other and I learned many things about how awesome my husband is and how great our marriage is.

For us, I personally didn't want to feel like somehow we were failures because we couldn't have a child without help. A lot of the other women I talked to during that time who were going through similar issues expressed those feelings. I certainly understand that, but for us, that wasn't how we saw our situation. Andre has always been open about having had testicular cancer twice and has said that talking to other people may help them. We faced IVF in the same manner and told everyone. There are so many intricate hormones and steps in fertility, where's the shame in one not working? To me, it was the equivalent of wearing glasses; some people's eyes just don't work right. Well our bodies didn't quite work right, so we made them do what they were suppose to do. And that was absolutely amazing.

The whole process was amazing. The doctors and technicians have advanced so much in so little time. In a nutshell: they used medications to stop my body from doing what it normally does and then used other medications to make my body do something it couldn't normally do--over produce eggs. Then they gave me "the shot" which made my body release the eggs at exactly the right time so the doctor would be there to get them. Absolutely brilliant.

We also used intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), shown in the picture (although this isn't our material). They pick up one sperm in a glass pipette, break off its tail, and insert it directly into the egg. You can tell this is a mature egg because it has a little hat on. The glass pipette is 1/2 the size of a red blood cell. Once again amazing.

After that we wait to see what happens. Out of the 15 eggs my body produced our doctor was able to retrieve 8. Out of those 8, 7 eggs fertilized. These fertilized eggs continued to divide. Some did better than others and on day 3 they transferred the two best looking embryos. One was 7 cells and one was 9 cells. This is the actual picture of our embryos. The remaining 5 embryos didn't make it past day 3. For some reason they just stopped growing. I was sad about that and fearful that if this cycle didn't work that we would have to start all over again from the very beginning.

So, when we found out we were pregnant it was such a great feeling. And when we found out it was twins--that was awesome. This is our first picture of the twins taken by Dr. Vaughn at just 4 weeks and 6 days.

A lot of people ask us if they are identical or fraternal. Because they are both girls we don't know yet. We transferred two embryos, but we don't know if both embryos implanted, or if one implanted and divided. So after the girls are born we'll have to get a test to find out for sure.

Groundhog day?...

So I went to the doctor on Friday and our nurse--the figurative groundhog--foretold 6 more weeks of winter, um I mean pregnancy. Yep, that's right, they think I'll go 38 weeks. I know that would be great for the girls, but all I could think was, "you're kidding right?" Except I believe I was actually thinking in expletives.

Of course I want the girls to be in the best possible situation, but its hard not to think about swollen ankles, constant pain, and of course the 40 lbs I've already gained. "You're right on track," they say. For what? A circus sideshow?

The babies are doing well. I had another growth scan sonogram, which is the one where they measure the babies' head, stomach, and femur and then come up with a measurement that is more or less their weight. Rowan (Baby A) has dropped already (head down) and she was so far down in my pelvis that they couldn't get a good measurement of her head. So her weight came out to 3 lbs 14 oz, but they know she's actually bigger than that. Evelyn is also head down and is weighing 4 lbz 4 oz. She's not quite as far down as Rowan, so she can still kick under my ribs. All that talk about how its so much better after the babies drop apparently only apply to singletons.

Btw, I'd post the most recent sonogram pictures, but the babies are so big now that you really can't see much...a foot here, a hand there, but they are more or less indistinguishable. The nurse doesn't think they'll turn again since they are running out of room pretty quickly and Evelyn is blocking Rowan from turning.

In case you're wondering, in our Ob's practice we have our doctor, plus two nurses. One is a labor and deliver nurse, so when we deliver she'll be there with the doctor. The other nurse is only at the practice. Sometimes I'll see the doctor, and sometimes I'll see one of the two nurses, but they all work closely together and switch off.

I am now 33 weeks along, so its really only 5 more weeks now. I'm actually rather miserable for the most part. My mom and sister came over today to clean and cook for us. It was really great to have them here to help. They even put the crib together and washed new baby clothes that were still sitting in their gift bags.

This past week Andre and I also went to a breastfeeding for multiples class. It was a great class. We knew some of the other couples from our Mothers of Multiples group too. Our instructor was so knowledgeable that I left the class feeling very confident about nursing two babies.

This week, Tuesday actually, Andre has his promotions test for the fire department. To move up the ladder (no pun intended) in the fire department you have to take a test and then score better than everyone else who took the test. Then, if and when a position opens up you get to move into that position. So he's been studying for months now and its almost finally over. He took the test around our wedding and scored 13th place out of 280 people. But then the dept. adds years in service to your score which bumped him down to 40th. You get a year for every year you've been in the department. So if you score a 90, but you've been in 10 years then you walk out with a 100. Personally, I think the policy is kind of dumb. Just because you've been doing something for a long time doesn't mean you've been doing it right.

Anyhow, Andre's been in 6 years now and he tests really well, so hopefully he'll pass. If he does he will no longer be a "firefighter," he will be a "driver." As a driver he will no longer run into burning buildings, but when the lieutenant is gone, Andre will be in charge of the station. Unfortunately, promoting means that he will most likely change stations and he's become very close to his crew.

Family Tree

I'm working from home these days, which means I have a lot of free time on my hands. So today I was productive and scanned a ton of old family pictures and put them into www.geni.com. Its an online family tree and you can invite your family to join. You can only see your family related to you by blood or marriage. Its really neat because you can add pictures, write stories, and chart out your family history. Once other relatives are on the tree you can also send messages to each other, etc.

Andre and I have been in a competition to see who can get more ancestors on the tree. We're pretty close. I have mine going back to 1647, but he has a lot more family members.

Putting down all the history makes it come alive in a way. I'd heard the old family stories before, but it seems more real when you write down the names of 12 kids in a family and then put in the story about how all but 2 died from illness. And discovering who people were and what they did with their lives. Andre says I'm a nerd, but I think its cool.

So, since you can add pictures, I set aside my competitive nature and added some of Andre's relatives on the de la Reza side and their pictures (much thanks to Susie for the pictures). This is Andre's great grandfather Jorge de la Reza. I love this picture. He looks so happy and optimistic--I can really see Andre in him.

This is a picture of my great-grandmother Florence Vance. She's the one on the left. She was a tax assessor. At my grandfather's (Bid) funeral several relatives I didn't know said I favored her. I love the pictures that show the clothes back then. We don't know who the other lady was.

Anyhow, the family tree is really cool. I tried to send an invitation to join the tree to everyone in the family (mine and Andre's), but it kind of looks like junk mail so you may not have received it. If you haven't and you want to jump on let me know and I'll invite you again.

This is from Geni: "Geni lets you create a family tree through our fun simple interface. You can expand your tree by adding relatives' email addresses. They will be invited to join your tree and can add other relatives. Your tree will continue to grow as relatives invite other relatives. Geni is private. Only the people in your family tree can log in to your tree and your profile. Geni will not share your personal information with third parties. We will not sell your email address or spam you. Users control which communications they would like to receive from us."

En un bosque de la china

This is a Bolivian children's song Andre's dad used to sing to him. Its really cute.

For the cat lovers

The last mile is always the longest mile...

So I am now 58 days and counting. Who knew pregnancy could be so much fun? I don't think I realized that my whole body, all my joints and everything would hurt, but I'm trying not to complain too much. Andre may say differently, but I'm really not complaining as much as I want to.

We almost have the babies room finished. We put in new carpet, bought Roman shades, and painted. We have yet to put the second crib together and the wall decorations are still in the infancy stage (no pun intended). The fish on the wall aren't really that bright and the jury is still out on them. They're made from fuzzy fake fur, so the light catches them. I may put up vintage travel pictures instead. Hmmm, not sure yet. Here's a picture anyway.

My mom and I made the dust ruffles. Here is a closeup of the bottom fabric. The top fabric is all fish. I know its a lot of blue and not pink. The girls have loads of pink stuff already, so there's no need to overdo it.

We're not using bumper pads around the cribs because it is now recommended not to use them as the baby may suffocate in them. Crib slats have to be so close now that there is no longer a risk of the baby's arms getting stuck, etc. Some parents still buy bumper pads for decorative purposes, and that's fine. I just didn't want the possibility it could harm them. We plan on having the girls in our room in a bassinet for a while anyway.

Also, we picked up this lovely dresser/changing table that matches the wood of the cribs. Notice the bottle of Bac Out in the basket. Yes, insane we may be, but we are using cloth diapers. We have a diaper service that will provide us with unlimited prefolds. Then we bought several various brands of all-in-one diapers. These are really cool. Check out this picture of a Fuzzi Bunz diaper: Its actually quite similar to a disposable diaper. All you do is snap it on. Fuzzi Bunz are pocket diapers, so they have a pocket inside and you can stuff it with washable liners to make it thicker at night or when you need extra absorbency. With breastfed babies, you don't even have to rinse them out prior to washing, you just throw them in the washer. Our diaper service will wash these for us along with our prefolds. And considering that disposable diapers take 500 years to decompose in the best of circumstances, we're really excited about cloth. They're cheaper too, especially with twins and less likely to irritate your baby's skin.

Anyhow, everything is starting to come together. I even started packing my bag for the hospital. We washed all our baby clothes and packed some preemie clothes for the hospital too. Andre is certain we will lose lots of tiny baby socks over time. I think we've already lost two. They are just so tiny.