One month pictures

They have arrived!!!!

Twin BOYS!!!!!!!!!!!

Born 11/14/10 at 35 weeks 1 day gestation. Labor was induced due to pre-eclampsia.

Conner Anthony was born at 6:41pm. 4 lbs 14 oz, 18 inches long.
Caden Michael was born at 7:19pm. 4 lbs 10 oz, 18.5 inches long.

Both have quite a bit of hair!

Both boys are in the NICU but doing well! Conner is on room air and is working on feedings, Caden is on oxygen and hopefully will be on room air soon. They both go under the billiruben (spelling) lights today.

I was able to deliver them both vaginally, but had a rough go at it. Four hours of pushing and they finally came out with assistance of forceps (both). I'm still hurting, but it's getting better daily... and not to mention, totally worth it!

I'm being discharged today, and it will be very sad leaving them behind. Hopefully we will all be reunited by Thanksgiving.

I promise to post pictures soon!

I'm free!!

I'm still on bedrest, but have been released from the hospital! Two full weeks, but now I'm resting in my own bed with my cuddly pooch as company. Now... let's keep these babies cooking.

Hospital stay

I was admitted into the hospital last Tuesday (10/19/10) and have been here ever since. I was sent due to cervical changes noticed at a regular OB visit. Now, I'm here for a number of reasons...
- Pre term labor. I'm 100% effaced and 2cm dialated
- Borderline Pre-Eclampsia. High blood pressure and protein in my urine. This needs to be monitored closely, as if I get worse, the only cure is to deliver the babies.
- Contractions. They have since been controlled with medications (which also help with my blood pressure)
- Multiples. Having two babies automatically makes me high risk
- Platelet count. I'm within the normal ranges, but close. Just keeping an eye on it since we're here anyways.

The first few days I was on Magnesium Sulfate. That drug kicked my @$$! So glad to be off of that. Now, I'm just on oral meds and close monitoring.

The prediction is that I will be here until I deliver. We'll see what happens.

Hoping to keep babies in for at least another two to four weeks. (I'm at 32 weeks now)

GREAT NEWS: Babies weights are looking good! 4 lbs 5 oz and 3 lbs 11 oz
Keep growing, little ones!

31 week belly shots

fFN test

Had a fFN (Fetal Fibronectin) test done Tuesday (used to predict pre term labor) and it came back positive.

RESULTS:
a negative result is 95% accurate in predicting that you will NOT go into labor in the next two weeks.
A positive result, and there are a lot of false positives, could mean your body will go into labor in the next two weeks.
The test is internal and checks for a protien that is present before labor.
Mine was positive. Ugggg. I loved the reassurance of those negative results all this time. So, I went in Thursday to get my first of two steriod shots to mature the babies lungs, second one was Friday.
Better to be safe than sorry.
So hope this is a false positive and I'll be able to keep these babies cooking.

I'm 29 weeks today, hoping to make it much further!!

Pictures

This is a slideshow of the babies room in progress. We still have a ways to go, but I love it so far!

Well, we've hit 23 weeks. As of right now I've been ordered to 'modified bedrest'. A bit sooner that when we had anticipated, but we're dealing with it well. We'll keep you updated.

Belly Pic

As requested, here is a 17 week belly pic (about 3 weeks ago).

17 week pictures!

Baby A (is the one face down)
and
Baby B


I will try to post a belly picture later this week/month

I've figured out how to post pictures!!!

This is a picture of the twins at 10 weeks old. It will probably be the last time they are in a picture together unitl birth.

This is their 12 week picture.

They go for their 16 week picture later this week. (Can you believe it... 16 weeks already?!?!)

I just LOVE these tickers and thought I'd share...

Make a pregnancy ticker

Twins....

We are officially 15 weeks!!!

Ultra sounds are looking great and the babies are beautiful!!!

Brian and I have opted not to know the babies genders until birth. What a surprise we are going to have!

Thank you everyone for your thoughts, prayers, and wishes. We appreciated each and every one and hope you continue to pray for happy and healthy babies.

I'll try to keep everyone updated more often (and maybe even try to figure out how to post pictures!)

GREAT news to share....

Well..... Results are in....

We're PREGNANT!!!!

With TWINS!!!!!!!

Thank you EVERBODY for your thoughts and well wishes!!

We're SUPER excited!!!!!!!!!

Due date appx 12/18/10!

We'll keep you posted!!!

April Transfer

We recently thawed 8 (day 1 embryos). Three of those made it to the blast stage and were transferred back to me. We are super excited.
We are waiting to post more news soon.

April....

Just got the news that we will be up and ready to go in April!

Decision Made

Recently we spoke with our local RE (Reproductive Endocronologist) and a new RE in Colorado. Both had a lot to say.

Though CCRM (Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine) is one of the best in the country, they cannot give us better odds on an FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer) cycle. This is because our embyros were not from one of their cycles or frozen in their lab.
We have decided to stay local for a few more FET cycles (we have 15 embyros frozen at day 1, and 4 additional embryos frozen at day 5). We are going to request some more testing locally (tests that CCRM suggested). And as long as those tests come out normal, we'll proceed here in IL.
Current RE gives us <30% chance of this working. We're taking our chances.

If, God forbid, these cycles don't work for us, we will be traveling to CO for a fresh IVF cycle.

We are looking at starting a new FET cycle in March.