Welcome to Utah

Our move from SoCal to Salt Lake City started out with a few bumps along the way. It took HOURS to sort out getting new doctors, cancelling utilities, breaking our lease, figuring out what to do with the dogs, and dealing with our health insurance company.  We worked through each issue and finally were able to commence with the packing and cleaning .

Luckily, we had lots of help.

My dad flew down from SLC to drive the moving truck (let’s face it, I’m in no condition to drive long distance with my belly this big) and we had lots of friends that helped pack us up and clean the house before we left.  It made the job immensely more bearable. I HATE moving.

We spent the night in St. George. Since I had an appointment with my new MFM on the afternoon of my arrival, I woke up early to drive up with my dad, and Steven and William stayed behind to sleep in and clean the condo.

They managed to fit in a few hours at the coolest park ever to get the  wiggles out before the final leg of the drive.

I’m a little jealous I missed all the fun.  I haven’t been allowed to run since week 10 of this pregnancy.  But I’m glad my son takes after me.

My mother-in-law went with me to see my new doctor, and I’m glad she did.  After doing all the regular tests and ultrasounds, they discovered I had a shortened cervix and checked me into the hospital for the weekend for observation.  I was *apparently* having regular contractions every 3 minutes, so they gave me steroid shots for the babies’ lungs, and medicine to stop/slow down possible preterm labor. I was less than thrilled about this, but glad we had at least made it to SLC first. Let’s just say I had other things I had planned for the weekend besides spending it in the hospital.

On the bright side, my sister-in-law, Karalee, had just been in the hospital for the last 3 weeks due to PROM, so all the nurses knew her and my brother.  It was fun to have family just down the hall, and even more fun to have regular visitors. She had her baby boy on Valentine’s Day. I got lucky and got a wheelchair ride over to Primary Children’s to visit little Matthew.

This was the first night I had ever spent away from my little boy, and I spent it hooked up to a million monitors so I didn’t hardly sleep until they finally gave me a sleeping pill. Since we were staying only a few miles from the hospital, I got to see my boys at least twice a day.  That wouldn’t have happened had we still been in California. Silly Billy LOVED playing with my “elevator bed”.

William probably did better away from Mommy than I did from him.  He was so excited to see Papa again that he didn’t even mind helping to shovel the snow over the weekend.

Especially since he had his very own snow blower.

Since I never went into actual labor over the weekend the doctors decided to let me go home on Sunday, as long as I promised to stay on bedrest.  Again. At least that’s something we’re familiar with. William was able to find plenty of fun at Grandma and Papa’s.

We thought I might even get off bedrest early since I hadn’t had any more contractions.  But, it wasn’t meant to be.  Thursday night we had to rush into Labor & Delivery due to some bleeding.  We thought we’d end up with two babies that night, but luckily there were no obvious problems…except for the fact that I had dialated to a 3 and was 75% effaced. My doctors gave me a 50% chance of delivery this week and kept me in the hospital for another 4 days. I’m getting sick of spending every weekend in the hospital.  I’ll try to avoid it this time. :)

This time, Silly Billy discovered the phone.

William calls Mommy’s Doctor

And Steve and I were able to even squeeze in a date night for the Oscars, complete with popcorn and treats (compliments of my awesome sister-in-laws, Catherine and Traci).

And speaking of awesome sister-in-laws, every single one of mine visited and brought me either treats or entertainment.  I got puzzles and movies from Karalee and Dan, and Mary Jane and Kevin brought me The Hunger Games.  I thought I was sick of reading, but it was only because I didn’t have anything that good to read.  Kevin also brought Emperor of All Maladies, which all my nurses raved about, but I didn’t’ get to read it yet because Steven got to it first.

I got lots of visitors, probably due to the fact that we thought I’d be in the hospital until the babies came.  Luckily, I got out Monday afternoon for good behavior and no cervical change (that, and the fact that we’re so close, we’ll make it to the hospital for sure once I go into labor for real).  But only on the condition of MORE BEDREST and switching my shots to Heparin (a 12-hour vs the 24-hour Lovenox) which is much more easily reversible in the case of impending delivery.

Which we are really hoping is not going to be at 32/33 weeks. I’m lugging around 9 pounds of baby, but I’d rather do that than visit them in the NICU.

As a side note, this belly has not gotten any bigger over the last few weeks.  Before we moved, I measured 42 inches around. Now I vary between 40-42 inches, pending the position of the babies (and the size of my meal, lol). But the babies are measuring nice and big.

So Long, So Cal!

We decided having two babies at once would be much easier with our family around, and moved up to SLC in mid-February.  We had an ENORMOUS bucket list of things we wanted to cross off, and luckily, were able to finish all but a few. This list including standard moving items like cancel utilities and find new doctors, but we also managed to squeeze in a whole lot of fun since we don’t know how long it will be until we come back.

Top of the list was a trip to the beach…luckily, the “winter” weather cooperated, and we had several days in the 70s. It was glorious.

We got to spend one last afternoon there with the Titeras (not pictured), and went to my favorite burger place for dinner (The Counter). 

Next on the list was a day trip to Travel Town to see the trains.

We even saw a few deer on our train ride.

And yes, I know my belly is that big.  There’s over 7 lbs. of baby in it.

Since the trains were right by the LA Zoo, we took advantage of our season passes to stop by for a few hours. As usual, the monitor lizards and apes were big hits.

And of course, what So Cal Bucket List would be complete without a trip (or 5) to Disneyland?  We got to go see World of Color (a big hit with the boys) and also spent a day there each with my sister Sherrie and her family, and Steve’s cousin Derek’s family.

Liam had a lot of fun with his cousin Nick.

The other cousins were less of a hit, so it’s a good thing we found Pluto.

The best part was ElecTRONica.  Liam was dancing to the music and had an awesome time.  Too bad we forgot the camera.  He was a HUGE hit with the ladies.

Our William is all boy…his life seems to revolve around vehicles and Disneyland is no exception.

William and dad even got to go on their first roller coaster together.  It was such a hit, they immediately went on again.

William called it a “fast choo choo”.

I think we are really going to miss California, especially because with the twins coming, I’m not sure when we will come back.  It’s funny, 5 years ago, I practically had to be dragged into moving here, and now, I don’t want to leave.  We’ve made some amazing friends, done some awesome things, and are leaving with some incredible memories. 

Silly Billy Growing up and Belly Update

Our Silly Billy has had to grow up fast in the last few months, between bed rest and the upcoming arrival of the twins.  Luckily for us, he has taken everything in stride. We’ve weaned him from the binky and (mostly) potty-trained him as well (New Year’s Resolutions: Check and check!).

He is learning new things by the minute, (like how to take pictures of his hand, for example).

Silly Billy is talking up a storm.  He is currently into sentences and has an amazing memory, often remembering (and requesting to go to) Disneyland and other such fun activities.

William is also doing a lot of imagination-type play.  He’ll talk on the phone (usually to Grandpa), mow the lawn, vacuum the floor, make his toys jump and walk, and turn ordinary cardboard boxes into racecars.

I LOVE hearing my sweet little boy talk.  We even have “conversations” now, and he loves to learn about the world and learn all sorts of new words.  His current favorites still include bike helmet, little ducky, farmer, Mommy and Grandpa; but he has expanded his vocabulary exponentially, even using words such as policeman, ambulance, pirate boat, wash hair, and even including little words like this and that.

Speaking of Farmer, that toy is definitely a favorite.  Farmer is always driving the dump truck or pirate boat, and it’s the first toy (other than sometimes a rubber ducky or puppy) that we play with in the mornings. 

Remember how we started calling him Silly Billy all that time ago?  Well, the name totally fits. Here is Silly Billy, wearing his bike helmet, with farmer in his mouth, carrying around the little blinking light from his Mickey Balloon. Things like that are an everyday occurrence around here.

I am currently 29 weeks pregnant with the twins.That means I probably have less than 2 months before they get here, and possibly as little as 1 month.  Let me just say that I am nowhere near ready and terrified out of my mind for our big change.  Between being huge and tired, mandatory rest breaks, and playing with a 2 year old, I just don’t get a lot done anymore.  I’m pretty happy if I get my regular duties done, let alone baby prep or projects. 

Speaking of huge, here are some recent belly photos.  The first is from week 25, and the second is at 28 weeks.  Not really a huge difference, but according to the doctor, we were measuring 2 lbs EACH at 25 weeks, and probably pushing 3-3.5 right now (they’ll get measured again next week). That’s nearly as much as my little sister weighed when she was born (at 32 weeks). They’re big for a singleton, let alone twins.  My MFM keeps asking if I’m going to have her 9-lb twins so she can finally retire. :)

Random people always ask me when I’m due.  When I say I’m not due until April, I see a look of shock until I reassure them that I’m pregnant with twins. It’s almost like I can see them worry about why my belly is so enormous and you can hear a sigh of relief when they find out there’s a good reason for my girth.

And in case you were wondering, I officially weigh MORE than when I delivered William (a 30 pound gain). I’m probably bigger around too, though I’ve been way too scared to actually measure my belly.  Maybe before we head to the hospital, just for fun. I’ve heard the next few months slow down quite a bit, and I can’t tell you how glad I am.  My only weight goal is to weigh less than my husband come delivery time.