Quick Update

Sorry it's been a lifetime since I posted anything. It's just how it goes anymore. Since the last post Tamina was born and is now 4 1/2 months old and Tori and Gunner turned 2.
Let me tell you about Tamina's birth story. Everything was going "okay" she was measuring small and I was feeling the normal "I feel like crap" feelings of my pregnancies and what seems to be the norm for me of not feeling the little one move. But this time I was feeling extra sluggish and I was swelling up like a freakin' balloon.
The day of my 36 wk appt I woke up and had the worst pain in my sternum and kind of under my ribs on the right side. I had to sit on the side of the bed for a few minutes before I could get myself to move any farther. It subsided enough I could function but the pain just never left. This had been normal pain for me for a week or so though so I wasn't too worried. I had an NST before my appt. After the NST I did my sample and happened to be waiting when the MA did the test for protein. I asked her, "So, do I have protein in my urine today?" I expected her to say no, or no more than normal. She said, "Yes, the dr will talk to you about it."
When I saw the dr he asked if everything was okay, told me the NST was okay, baby was moving within normal range. Then told me he would see me next week. I asked him how much protein was in my urine. He hadn't looked at that and asked the assistant if I did. She looked on the computer and her eyes kind of bugged out and she nodded and said yes. The dr asked how much she said it was at 4+. Yikes! That's as high as that test goes. He then asked if I felt okay, I told him no I felt like crap but I wasn't too worried about it. But I did tell him about my pain and he then got real serious and asked some more questions. He then said, "You may be having your baby today."
That phrase was a familiar one. That's what I was told on Tori and Gunner's birthday.
He ordered blood tests to check the function of my liver and kidneys. The phlebotomist told me it would be dumb to to one of the tests because they do it in conjunction with a 24 hr catch of urine. I actually left frustrated. Once I got home I thought to myself, "No, the dr ordered it and put STAT on it. He knows what he's doing." I went back and had her draw my blood anyway.
Needless to say my doc called me an hour or so later and told me to get over to the hospital as soon as I could so I could get hooked up and be monitored. Hmmm. Sounded pretty scary.
Tamina was born in the 6 o'clock hour (same hour of day Tori and Gunner were born). She weighed 4 lbs 9 oz (2055 g, she missed going to the NICU by 55 g).
While on the operating table the doc asked if he told me that this would probably happen again but worse and earlier in the pregnancy if I got pregnant again, would I do it again? I was so out of it I couldn't really even answer. I felt like I was on my way out of this life actually.
After I was back in recovery Allen went to give Tamina her first bath. While he was gone the nurse came in to check on me, pushed on my tummy and seemed to panic a little bit. She left the room and came back in with a scale. Figured out how much blood I had lost and told me I was hemorrhaging. "Well, that's nice." I should probably tell you I was hooked up with a magnesium IV to keep me from seizuring and I was told it does weird things to you. They got that taken care of.
While a couple of nurses were talking in my room I found out I had HELLP syndrome. I had never heard of that before so I looked it up. That is pretty scary stuff. Thank heaven for a good doctor I can trust to keep me and my babies alive.
On a happier note, here are a few pics of our growing little family. The first few are of Tamina and hospital pics the others are just random between now and the last post. (Sorry about the sideways ones. I just didn't have time to fix it after I got them loaded and realized I need to. Nap time only lasts so long, ya know.)

Sept 3, 2013 Tamina's birthday :)

Still in the recovery room. Just after she got her first bath.

Look how swollen! YIKES! No wonder I felt like a blimp. Day after with Dr Young.

Gunner lovin' on his new baby sister. This made him a big brother. :)

Tori lovin' on her baby sister. Now she really needs to be a good role model.

Tamina was almost too big for her carseat. Actually we had to buy this one because the one we bought before only went down to 5 lbs. Guh.

Our family with Dr Foulk. Tamina was one week old.

Allen calls this the picture of his 3 favorite "gals".

They both LOVED corn on the cob fresh from the garden.

Believe it or not this is not completely unusual. I love their close times. :)

Easier to Post Pics Than Type

 I adore the fact that Allen loves and enjoys being a dad! He would do anything for these little ones of ours. He loves spending time with them and they love every second they can spend with their daddy. Especially Gunner, what a daddy's boy!

  

 

 Back in June our family ended up sharing the flu bug. First Allen had it, then two days later within hours of each other first Gunner, Tori then I all had it. It was horrible! I'm so glad Grandma was able to come and help. I couldn't take care of two puky baby's with my head in the toilet. I took care of Tori and she took care of Gunner. It worked out pretty good.

Tori was in recovery period when I snapped this one. Poor things. It took them better than a week to get back to 100%.

Gunner couldn't get comfy while he was sick. He took this blanket and disappeared. I couldn't help but get a pic of him. so precious. Look how sunken in and dark his eyes are.

 

 

 From the end of may til the end of June or first part of July poor little Gunner seemed to catch something new every time he started feeling better. These pics are him playing in the sun trying to get warm one of the times he wasn't feeling top notch.

We got the new car seat for the one on the way. Tori had to be the first to try it out. I think she was telling me I needed to make sure to read the instructions.

I love these two especially the times they are just stinkin' adorable together.

These two disappeared and were being way to quiet. I found them just chillin' together. Talk about cuteness!

A few days prior to this picture they had learned what it meant to go for a walk. They were always grabbing my hands and commanding me, "Walk. Walk." So I would go for a walk with them through the house. This time Gunner was taking Tori for a walk because I had turned him down. As you can see though, there was no resistance this time.

I'm sorry about the lame posts with no stories but what do you expect at midnight from a lady that has been run ragged by two 1 1/2 year olds, is 32 wks pregnant and is just waiting for her hubby to get home from his second job. Haha! Poor me... LOL

How Did I Skip This News!?!

We are currently expecting our 3rd. She will be 31 wks old tomorrow. I haven't got u/s pics saved to the computer yet except this one and it has been cropped but this is a pic of her about 10 wks ago.

I won't go into details but she is the only one that decided to stick around out of 8 embryos doing IVF treatments. She is due on Sept 27th but who really knows when she will decide to say hello or it will be decided that I have failed her too and she is better off not being attached to me. I'm praying for the former.

Her conception date, technically, is Tori and Gunner's 1st birthday. If you understand IVF you'll understand what I mean. lol I thought it was kind of a perk of doing IVF to chose what day. If I would've thought it through though I would've waited a few months to avoid being very pregnant during the hottest part of the summer. My bad. hehe 

Really though, because Allen and I were feeling such a strong impression to move forward with our family that we would've just done it anyway.

This pregnancy has been much harder physically that Tori and Gunner. I'm not sure if it's because I was 15 lbs heavier to start or because I'm not working full time at a physically demanding job or what but, dang, this little girl seems to be pretty demanding. 

I can't wait to meet her! I'm a bit nervous about what Tori and Gunner are going to think about the whole adjustment. But Tori seems to like babies and Gunner is a little snuggler. I think as long as I make sure to give them plenty of attention and lovin' they'll do just fine.

Tori and Gunner Joining Our Family

I'm not sure what I have posted since our little people have joined our family so here is their birth story. Shortened a bit. Or a lot, I left out a lot of details.
January 4, 2012 I had an appointment to check on Tori and Gunner. Fluid was disappearing from around Tori and it seemed they had quit growing. :(
That morning Dr Young looked at the pics from the u/s and said, "How would you feel about having today be your babies' birthday?" I didn't think it was that great of an idea but it seemed the time had come they would be better off in the cruel world than inside their mommy's tummy. Talk about making mom feel like a failure. They weren't even born yet and I felt inadequate and like a failure. I was 35 wks pregnant on that day. Dr Young called the hospital and scheduled a c-section, told me not to eat or drink anything (including water) and to be at the hospital at 3:30 that afternoon.
When I left I called Allen at work and told him we were having our babies whether or not we were ready. I came home packed a hospital bag, took a shower and prayed. Allen came home at lunch and we were both a huge bundle of nerves.
On our way to the hospital we stopped at my parents and asked my dad to help with a priesthood blessing. Dad was sick. When we walked in the door I looked at him and my exact thought was he looks like death. No color and his eyes were pretty vacant. He gladly helped though. Then Allen told him we could wait and have someone help give him a priesthood blessing. Dad actually took him up on the offer.
We left for the hospital and they shortly left for a dr appt for dad. While waiting for my turn in the OR I was talking to mom who was in the ER with dad. The dr sent him straight to the hospital. His temp was over 106 and he didn't know if he was coming or going. He ended up in the hospital for quite some time. I like to believe my little munchkins talked him into sticking around for at least another few years on their way to their birth.
Tori was born first. Her cry was weak and squeaky. The nurse told me, "That cry means she's having a hard time breathing." I got to see her from across the room for a split second.
When Gunner was born there was no weak or squeaky about it. I got to see him to close to focus on for a total of about 2 seconds.
I sent Allen with them while they got cleaned up and taken care of. Meanwhile I got stitched up and taken back to recovery.
I was in the recovery room for a while just when they came to take me to my room Allen showed up. Most of the night I was alone because he was with our little ones. I wish I could've been with them but I wasn't allowed to go anywhere until the anesthesia wore off. Six hours later my backside and the bottoms of my feet were still numb but I had to get out of my bed so they could change the sheets because I threw up my slurpee Dr Young had brought me. LOL
Allen came in right after I paged the nurse to tell her what happened so he grabbed a wheel chair and took me down to the NICU so I could finally see the precious cargo I had been carrying for 7 1/2 months.
Tori had oxygen on in addition to all the wires to monitor her vitals. Gunner was just wired. I honestly don't remember the first thoughts I had but I remember the feeling of my heart sinking when I saw them because I knew they wouldn't be coming home with us and I was so disappointed in myself for not being able to carry them for just a couple more weeks. I think the drugs were still doing their thing.
Tori was off of oxygen and forced air by the time I checked out of the hospital. She was only on oxygen for six or eight hours then bumped down to forced air which she ripped off and proved to the nurse she didn't need it because there were no alarms going off when Allen and I came to see them and it had been removed by our little Tori.
The next couple days are all a blur because I didn't sleep more than a six hours total the two nights I stayed in the hospital. And with all the emotions...it was pretty traumatic really.
The night I came home (with no babies) it was late when we got home and there was a huge mess of construction type stuff in my living room and my house was freezing because our furnace was having problems. I had a break down and pretty much passed out on our bed. Even with hammering and air tools working on the nursery Allen said I didn't budge.
A week or so later while over at the hospital one of the nursed told me our babies were "eaters and growers". I asked what she meant. Her reply was they are doing really well so really we are just watching them eat and grow. This ticked me off. My thought was, "Well, they should be home for their Mom and Dad to watch them eat and grow. Not here."
Another week later we had found a pediatrician. One Dr Young had recommended. And we asked him how we go about having him take care of Tori and Gunner instead of Dr Gertsman. He pretty much took care of it. Although the day that their care was being transferred Dr Gertman came and found me and says to me, "I was told we have never met." I did not like this dude. I had never met him, I had seen him and wondered who he was but never had I even seen him around my babies. Just the NPs.

A few days later Dr Wise got them out of the clink for us and we brought them home on their 3 wk birthday, which also happened to be my nephew's birthday, January 26th. That's when the fun started!

Here is a pic of them when they were deemed healthy enough to cobed. I don't remember when exactly that was but it seems like it was a week or week and a half. The round band-aid looking thing on Tori's cheek was from the oxygen tube.

Almost a Year Later...

I only have a few minutes but wanted to share some updated pics of our two little 18 month olds.

7 Months and Going Strong

 Tori and Gunner will be 7 months old on the 4th. I can't believe it's been so long! They are growing like weeds fast and strong. So happy they are so healthy and it's fun to watch them grow, develop and learn new things. They are my life!

They definitely have a special bond. When they haven't seen each other for a while they always light up when they see the other. In the morning when Tori wakes up (she doesn't sleep as much as Gunner usually) When I get her out of her crib she leans over to look at Gunner almost as if she is checking on him.

They are so "tight" that I worry a little that they are making secret pacts that mom isn't supposed to know about.

Tori can belly crawl she just chooses not to at this point. Unless of course she wants something really bad. Then I'm not sure who goes faster, Gunner or Tori. She usually does this fly away looking thing.

They are both getting their own attitudes too.

They have also made the discovery of their feet. Gunner isn't near as flexible and can't quite get his toes to his mouth. But Tori...oh, Tori, we can't keep her feet out of her mouth.

They both chew on absolutely everything and especially cold objects. Tori even like is so much she will chase a bottle around a room too!

Gunner seems to be on the go from the time his eyes open until they close. He's our little crawler right now. I have a love-hate relationship with it. I love he's growing and developing but can't he please just slow it down a bit?

Gunner also thinks he is a little monkey now too! He climbs up everything he can.

As high as he can.

But sometimes he has a problem...he can't figure out how to get back to his hands and knees.

They are growing up so fast! Makes me want to cry.

Love'em so much!

Just a Few Pics

 We have a bit of sibling rivalry going. Even while they sleep. So often one of them turns in their sleep and can't help but kick the other one. Can't wait til they get older and it gets worse.

Here's Tori kicking Gunner in the ribs.

Gunner knows how to get even though. He fights back hard kicking Tori in the head.

There are times though they just have to be close without the hostility. I love when I go to check on them and they have wiggled so their heads are together. This happens more often than the not.

Sometimes we can just be taking pictures because they are so stinkin' cute...

then out of nowhere...Blamo! Right in the kisser!

These two keep me hoppin'. I am so glad my mom lives just 4 blocks away and loves to come and visit her grandbabies.

  Daddy loves lovin' on the two of them at the same time too!

You would never guess how proud he is of his two little ones, would ya?

This pic I just had to throw in.

Gunner seems to be out growing Tori by a little bit. This picture is the only one that I could find that really shows how much bigger he is than her. She's still my "baby girl" but he's my "big guy".

Can you tell whose hand is whose, just from the size? If not here is a hint: Tori's skin tone is olive like her daddy's.

 I love my family and I thank Heavenly Father for all of them every day! Allen is such an cute daddy and an amazing man, I wouldn't trade him for anything! Tori and Gunner, well, they are our little miracles and such a huge blessing in our lives and to our family!