Rita's 2 Year Weight Loss Transformation vid on youtube

Rita's 2 Year Weight Loss Transformation on youtube :)

Mommy Makeover Time

For those of you that know my story, you know that I am probably panicking about excess weight.  My history involves battling weight off and on since high school.  On 9/4/2009 I underwent Duodenal Switch weight loss surgery.  After losing a hundred pounds, I reluctantly started P90X.  I was deathly afraid.  I was so out of shape and just scared.  I loved it.  I also started drinking Shakeology daily and ended up losing another 45 pounds.  See my story here: Rita78.com

Well now, I am on a quest to lose 50 pounds.  I started February 4, 2013 with the Beachbody Ultimate Reset which was an amazing way to start! I dropped 9 pounds with those 21 days of clean eating.  Then my husband and I started P90X (again lol) and of course we have the Shakeology in our diet.  We would have it no other way.  I am currently down approximately 12 pounds. 

You can watch me or join me!!  I help others!  I need to be able to chase these twins around!

Twitter but the best place is Facebook!

The Twins are 3 1/2 Months Old!

Whoa! Sure, I know, I know.. time flies.  I do love watching the twins learn new things and grow.  I don't miss them being tiny beebies for more reasons than them being so unbelievably tiny.  They are doing great and we sure enjoy each others time. :)

Right now they are just waking up from a little morning nap, laying next to me on our littered king size bed.  We always have our dogs on our bed so it seems much more like a twin sometimes.  I still find it hard to believe I have children let alone twins and boy girl twins.  I absolutely am aware of the blessings I have received from above.  Sigh.

The twins are now smiling a ton and carrying on baby conversations and just starting a little bit of giggling.  They go back to the doctor in a couple weeks so we will have them weighed at that time.  I am not sure what they weight right now.  But Sebastian no longer fits into newborn easily and Mila is no longer in preemie.  Ahh, milestones.

It has been much easier handling the twins sleeping and feeding schedules for the last month or so.  I am so thankful for a few things.  One being double swaddling where you use a blanket to secure their little arms primarily and then tuck them into a sleep sack.  This has helped Mila tremendously since her little arms cause so many problems with her when resting and eating.  The second thing is that the twins are now sleeping uninterrupted from about 11pm to 5 or 5:30am.  It sure helps a ton.

Nathan has discovered that babies make him tired.  He often starts falling asleep when holding and even feeding them.  True story.  With Nate's position demanding an unacceptable amount of hours, we are seeking something else to help our family out.  We want dad in our lives and not worn out, working and stressed.  Nate is seeking a life-work balance and we have our fingers crossed the change happens soon so we can move forward.

It's so amazing to be on this side of the table now.  We did our time battling infertility.  I went through a long twin pregnancy that was less than pleasant for me on many levels.  We have twins.  I can't believe it.  We love them so much and never thought it could happen.  We are 34 and 35 years old so starting late is better than never.  I was so close to never.

This picture is from when they were five weeks old and balding much like Mr Burns on the Simpsons.

We can sleep when we are dead... sure!

oh boy....

Talk about exhausting- having twins at home.  We brought Mila home about 11 days ago and she is doing great.  So is Sebby (Sebastian).  They are precious, adorable, perfect, beautiful and all those other fluffy adjectives to describe newborn miracles.  My DH and I have helped each other out with the late night feedings, changings and cries but it primarily is in my court.  Since I am now at home just four weeks after giving birth to them and he works a more than full time job here in Omaha.  I find it very hard to get much sleep even between their feedings. As you see below- they are SUPER CUTE! :)

This is how we have it laid out for the most part thanks to the guidance of those helpful RN's in the NICU at Methodist Women's Hospital:

• wake each child slowly by changing their diapers if they are not already waking up and do so about every 3-4 hours- typically we are being told by the twins they are ready just before three hours
• then prepare their bottles by warming them in a steam bottle warmer and feed them

This process is a good 20 minutes for the feeding as the nurses taught us that over 20 minutes of feeding is too much for newborns as they are then burning more calories than consuming.  The diaper changing, burping and getting them back to sleep could be another 20 minutes.  So, with twins we are spending about a hour or more per feeding time.  This makes it very hard to get myself back to sleep.  I am spent.  I get the baby blues thing now.  Baby blues are the mildest of the levels of sadness felt by 70-80% of new mothers.  I find myself happy one moment and sad the next.  It is just exhausting.

I love my children so much, it's just very very hard to raise them thus far.  Challenging.  I don't know about you but I hear every little coo and grunt they make so I wake easily.  I have found that their binkys can be my worst enemies and after researching the situation of them falling out of the mouths of newborns, I have decided I need to cut back on my use of them.  Pacifiers were given to them in the NICU as they are proven to increase weight gain in preemies by strengthening their sucks early on.  But, when putting them to bed and they have their pacifiers falling out of their mouths- it can become disturbing to them and fast.

Last night (Christmas Eve), Nate stayed up all night and watched the babies.  Why did he stay up all night? Because he was worried he would sleep through a feeding and he knew I needed sleep like something severe.  I actually messed up the spiral ham and the cinnamon apples I made for Christmas dinner on Sunday here at my house for my side of the family.  I was a very grouchy and irritable person that day and it was totally out of my hands and out of my control.  My husband has been working way too much: evenings, days, weekends, holidays for the most part that when he works I am expected to handle the babies both while he sleeps and while away at work.  Of course we have discussed on many occasions how this is not conducive to twin life for new parents who both want to be hands on.  This just makes things more difficult- primarily for me.  I have never felt to selfish as I type this but I am tired.  Sigh.  True story.

Tomorrow the twins are 4 weeks old.  It's crazy.  Very crazy... We spent so much time in the hospital and in the NICU that 4 weeks just flew by.  Mila was released on a Friday weighing 4 lbs 2 ounces I believe and by Monday she was 4 lbs 7 ounces.  Sebastian was at the dr that Friday and was weighed in at 5 lbs and by Monday he had plumped up to 5 lbs 9 ounces.  Their pediatrician said it was better than textbook for both of them.  We waited a full ten years ever so impatiently to start a family and this is exactly what we wanted and wouldn't trade it for the world.  We wouldn't have it any other way.  Just wish it were easier.  We look forward to them sleeping more through the night.  :)

The Twins Arrive in Small Packages

They are here!  

Well, in the NICU but making progress.  They arrived via c-section on Wednesday, November 28th, 2012.  We had went in for an amniocentesis the day before at my perinatal doctors office but realized that Mila was squished up under my right rib and was not growing much anymore.  We skipped the amniocentesis and went ahead with the scheduled cs the next day at noon at the Methodist Women's Hospital in West Omaha. 

When the babies were born they were:

Sebastian Marcus 4 lbs 9 ounces and 17" long, 12:22pm
Mila Lorren 3 lbs 9 ounces and 17" long, 12:23pm

They are healthy, just extremely small.  I will go ahead and blog the rest of the birth story a little later.  Time to go visit them in the NICU.

Our hearts swell.  They are absolutely amazing little turkeys! Ahhh, LOVE! I am complete.

Amniocentesis: Lung Maturity at 36 Weeks

36 weeks? Wow!  Tomorrow is our amniocentesis to check for lung maturity.  If it's positive the scheduled c-section will be the next day at 1:30.  I am very excited for tomorrow. More excited than scared. I did think they would test both the twins but my perinatal doc said we will choose just pick one sac to test.

If the dipstick test shows my protein level is a 1 or 2 they may just do an emergency cesarean section due to preeclampsia.  Up until now I have only had traces of protein spilling over along with several symptoms including high blood pressure, floaters, headaches, anxiety, etc.  My blood pressure is normally low since knocking off 145 pounds but the last few weeks it stiffly teeters on 140/90.

When arriving at my appointment tomorrow they will first be doing the urine test and an ultrasound to find the area where there is easy access to the amniotic sac of either twin.  If the dipstick test is acceptable then it is time to do the amniocentesis.  An amniocentesis is a fast procedure that scares many. Its when a hollow needle is used to drain a small amount of amniotic fluid from the mothers uterus.  The fluid is then tested for cells that can determine the maturity of the unborn child's lungs within an hour.  They will monitor me for about thirty minutes to ensure there are no complications such as water leaking from the amniotic sac or start going into labor.

I'm thinking that by 3/CST we will know if Wednesday, November 28th will be our twins birthday. :-)

Electric Carts, Wheel Chairs & Contractions... OH MY!

 

Well, I have embarked into the third trimester and the latest level of frustration.  Don't get me wrong- I am so proud to be carrying two tiny miracles but I have been so independent and active for years and staying in bed so much and staying inactive is hard.  Mostly mentally but also physically.  I easily pull muscles in my neck just due to sleeping or laying wrong.  I do see a chiropractor a few times a week but this far along, I am being lazy and going less.  I don't wanna get ready to go.  Ugh.  I am whining.  I know.

I am now 34 1/2 weeks along and the twins are doing great.  They are beautiful as ever.  It is amazing that a year ago we tripped into fertility treatments and went down the following road:

• trying to conceive 8, 9, 10 years
• attempting to adopt outside of using an expensive agency to only come out of it with horror stories
• being told we could not have children together due to my husband shooting blanks (azoospermia)
• finding out he had sperm after all, just needed a biopsy to get them out
• planning our IVF and succeeding after 1 vigorous round
• finding out we were expecting, not only expecting but having Boy/Girl Twins!

So, here we are.  Ready for our family to grow by 4 beautiful, cute, little feetsies!  We have gotten the nursery ready, had our unisex baby shower and had a few uneventful visits to the Labor & Delivery department at Methodist Women's Hospital.  We have decided to have the twins together in one room for the time being to help them feel most comfortable since they have been 'womb-mates' for their fist 9 months in-utero. 

I have been experiencing those fun Braxton Hicks contractions for a few months now.  They have gotten stronger this week.  Well, so strong on Monday night that they became consistent for the first time and I actually thought I was going in labor.  I had a perinatal and OB appointment earlier that day finding out that my cervix was soft, 38" so measuring 38 weeks for a singleton mama, no dilation, Sebastian way head down and Mila is booty down.  When I went to Labor and Delivery that evening I had contractions consistently for 2 hours (ended up being a total of 3 hours), going from 8 min 55 sec down to 5 min 56 seconds apart.  I get hooked up to the monitor and they were just done.  Ugh. Seriously.  Am I losing my mind.  So, I have come to the conclusion they are just more of the Braxton Hicks contractions beings they stopped and were pain free- just very hard and tight.  It was just frustrating.  I thought I might actually have a little excitement but ended up feeling a little silly.  The pain between my legs is insanely painful at times - my pelvis.  Sometimes I cannot walk much till there is a little change in the babies position or a little time passes.  I have graduated into the situation of riding in wheel chairs (thanks for pushing me around Hobby Lobby, Mom!) and electric carts at grocery stores.

(scar from open DS weight loss surgery)

So, here I am two days later chilling out in bed with Kanye West filling my bedroom with tunes and Young & the Restless playing quietly in the background.  My two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels watching my every move.  Yep, this is my life right now.  I am so fortunate to be home and carrying two precious miracles that I truly never believed I would ever be lucky enough to carry myself.  I already love my babies so much that I am a little impatient to meet them.

So that leads us to our birth plan.  On November 27th, 2012 at 1:30pm we will go ahead and do a quick amniocentesis (wish me luck) to see if the lungs are mature enough to do a cesarean section the next day at noon.  Yep, we are on the books ladies and gentlemen. I am told that we will only do one poke and in Sebastian's sac to see if he is ready since boys lungs normally mature slower.  I am excited yet scared.  I have made the decision with my perinatal specialist to do a c-section.  Not only because I am a high risk mama with these twins but also because of my previous surgery- Duodenal Switch weight loss surgery done 9/4/09.  We don't know if there is extensive scar tissue or bowels adhered to my scars so... Dr. Robertson will take his time as he is the one assisting my ob Dr. Berryman.

Our back up plan if their lungs are not ready at week 36 will be to do a cs the week of 12-10-12.  We originally had 12-12-12 scheduled but since we are gonna attempt week 36 with the amniocentesis, the surgery scheduler had to remove my 2nd date since it's 'illegal' in the office to be scheduled twice.  BOO!  I really would love the date of 12-12-12- it's just sweet.  LOL- don't judge :)

Now, these plans only will take place if I do not go into labor on my own.  Which I really may not.  It sure doesn't seem as if I will ever really know what a real contraction pain is- which is probably a great thing.  Pregnancy is just crazy.  It has been hard as a heck for me, however, it's not uncommon to find me rubbing my belly (massaging a baby one at a time) while smiling.  The sensations of each baby are so unique with their movements.  Mila is very gentile and docile.  Sometimes hardly moving or just lightly tickling me with her toes.  Where Sebastian (baby a) is my little break dancer, lol.  He lets me rub his knees and feet as he slowly slides them across the palm of my hand.  He moves a ton and he is very strong.  He is certainly a mover and a shaker.  When on monitor at the dr and l&d, we often have to turn down his monitor cause his movement makes so much loud noise as if he is saying "look at me, look at me!"  It's really cute.  (smiling mommy right here).  Every time that I try to video record what I call an alien movement, they stop.  Oh well, I have locked the memories in my brain.

Now, back to waiting for the calendar to progress forward.

We have the Christmas trees up and ready for them and their first Christmas! :)