Happy Birthday Avery and Morgan!!!

Our sweet little girls are here! We could not be more in love with two little people!

Avery Leigh Plothow

Born October 5, 2012 at 5:18 am

6 lbs 3 oz, 19.5 inches long

Morgan Jo Plothow

Born October 5, 2012 at 5:19 am

6 lbs 6 oz, 20 inches long

Counting down the days

Less than a week to go! I am so surprised that I made it this far along! I have to give credit to Matt for letting me lay around on my bum these past 8 weeks of bed rest so these girls could grow, while he took over all the household duties!

I feel like I have been pregnant forever! I am really ready to get this show on the road... but then I have these moments where I think "Oh my God, next week at this time, we will be responsible for two babies!" and I sort of freak out a little. Not that I want them to stay in my belly forever, but it definitely gets scarier the closer we get to their birthday. I'm so thankful that my mom is going to be able to help us out the first few weeks and that Matt's mom will be coming afterwards.

We had our last check-up yesterday. Both babies are doing well. We had another non-stress test and they both passed with flying colors. We had an ultrasound and they estimated the babies at about 6.5 pounds each. We'll see how close that estimate is in a few days.

We found out we are first on the wait list for a c-section on Monday and that we don't have an official time scheduled yet. I was not thrilled about that - I definitely don't want to wait a single day longer than I have to. We hope to find out by tomorrow afternoon that they are able to fit us in and what time we'll be meeting our daughters!

No babies yet

These girls are staying nice and cozy... but I sure am ready to meet them!

Our nursery is stocked, hospital bag packed, car seats installed, all baby clothes washed... and I am feeling like I could explode any minute! I look like I'm smuggling a beach ball!

My doctor gave me permission to move around a bit more these days. At this point, the babies are good to go. Maybe a little more motion will move things along.

So this weekend, I left the house a few times for reasons other than my weekly doctor's appointment. It felt so nice to get out of the house. I even got a manicure/pedicure with my sister and mom!

My parents were up in Chicago for Sandi's bridal shower and Brett and Kyle's bachelor party.

Sandi's bridal shower was Saturday afternoon. I didn't go, but Erin sent me a few pictures (and brought me home a cupcake)! The theme for their wedding is the movies, so these were the cupcakes that Sandi's sister-in-law made. They have marshmallows on the top to look like popcorn. So cute!

Update

It's been a month now that I've been on bed rest. It has gone by faster than I thought it would (thank goodness!) I'm very happy to have made it to 34 weeks. The babies are doing great and estimated to weigh around 4.5 to 5 pounds a piece.

They are surprisingly strong and still trying to move around. But they are definitely running out of space. Baby B has decided to migrate even farther north into my ribs. I try to nudge her back down but she is having none of that! Baby A is pretty set in her spot. She's been breech for 10 weeks now and the doctor doesn't have much hope that she'll make a big move to be head down at this point. So, looks like I'll be having a c-section.

I had a dream last week that when the doctor pulled out Baby A, he said "It's a boy!". So at our most recent ultrasound, I asked to confirm they were both girls. Baby A is in a bad position and we couldn't see anything. So that was no help! Baby B is still definitely a girl, though. I told Matt that if Baby A is a boy, he'll be the youngest cross-dresser, because we have a lot of pink clothes! :)

Here are a few nursery pics... I wish I had taken a "before" picture of the room. It's quite a change from the dark blue paint we had in there previously! I haven't put anything up on the walls yet, but I'm planning to. Maybe their names... once we figure out what they are! Lots of thanks to my mom who spent a weekend up in Chicago setting up the nursery while I sat in the glider watching!

Matt working on the cribs

Cribs are done, but the dressers were a little more involved

Small room - packed with baby stuff!

It's pink/green with a monkey theme

It seems so surreal to me that in a few weeks, these little babies are going to be here!

Under house arrest

I didn't realize it's been so long since my last post... totally slacking here.

Both babies are continuing to get bigger and are still moving around tons. I can now see them moving from the outside, which is really freaky! Sort of like little aliens in there trying to bust out!

The girls tried to make an early appearance two weeks ago, but luckily they were convinced to stay put for a while longer. I had gone in for a regular weekly check-up (coincidentally the first time Matt wasn't at the appt with me) and the doctor sent me straight over to the hospital. I called Matt and said "um, can you meet me in Triage at Prentice?" I'm sure that was not the update he expected to get after the appointment! We had plans to go out of town for the weekend, so those were shot. Matt had to spend his birthday weekend laid up in the hospital with me, instead of lounging by a pool and playing golf.

Anyway, turns out I was 2 cm dilated and having contractions every couple of minutes. At the hospital, they monitored me and the babies for a few hours and the contractions got worse. So, they admitted me. I got medication to stop the labor from progressing and steroid shots to help boost the babies' development. I was released a few days later and put on bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy.

So far, I haven't been too bored on "house arrest". I wrapped up my projects at work. I've been reading some baby books to figure out what to do with these girls once they get here. I've also been doing a little online shopping to get the nursery stocked.

Speaking of the nursery... we had it painted and installed new carpet. Matt put the furniture together himself. The cribs were easy - he got those done in less than an hour each. The dressers were another story. There were TONS of parts! Once we get it all set up, I'll post some pictures. It's still a work in progress!

26 weeks

26 weeks down, 12 to go!

Both babies are doing well and measuring right on track.

Baby A is the more chill of the two. She gives me a few swift kicks/punches to the bladder every day to remind me she is there. Thanks, kiddo.

Baby B is super active and a night owl! She flips around like she is dancing in there. Every time we have a doctor's appointment, she causes trouble by not staying still long enough for a good ultrasound picture or moving out of the range of the Doppler when trying to get her heartbeat. My doctor said she's a show off! Ha!

Originally, Baby A was the one that was always moving when we had ultrasounds. I was actually worried about Baby B because we never saw her move until the 20 week appointment. Funny how things change.

I've been feeling pretty good for the most part. I'm moving a lot slower these days. Getting up from sitting or out of bed takes a lot more effort than it used to! Getting comfortable to sleep is a chore and I'm constantly readjusting all night. I've elbowed Matt in the head a time or two recently. No black eyes... yet. : )

According to the average measurements for people having one baby, my belly is measuring 32 weeks pregnant. At this rate, when I'm 38 weeks pregnant, I will measure 44 weeks pregnant... yikes! It's a good thing I'm tall and have more space to disperse all this baby belly. The only other way to go is straight out! I sometimes feel like this belly can't possibly stretch any more, but it somehow manages to.

Today at our appointment, we (well, just Matt - I was totally oblivious) saw Jay Cutler and Kristin in the waiting room. I had scanned the waiting room when we walked in and didn't really look that closely at people. Then I went to the bathroom and when I got back, Matt says to me - "did you see who was sitting right next to us?" They had been called back while I was in the bathroom, so I missed them. We are there a lot, so maybe we'll run into them again. Who knows. I told Matt we need a signal when we see celebrities so I don't miss this stuff. He says to me "um, yeah, like it happens ALL the time". True.

Rain delay

Our group at work all went to the Cubs game on Friday afternoon. The game was delayed almost 4 hours! By the time the game started, I was ready to go home. : ) I made it about 2 innings and then bailed.

Just a little storm... no big deal.

Then the wind kicked in and blew the rain all over the place!

This was our view for about 3 hours.