A Hospital Thanksgiving

Eric's mom was already in town helping with Kinsey, but Eric's dad flew in the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to spend it with us as well. It wasn't the Thanksgiving we originally planned, but it was a lot easier for me haha. My wonderful mother-in-law made dinner for us and surprised me with my family's jello salad and some berry pie. My faves (besides the stuffing, of course)!! 

I waited most of the day for Thanksgiving dinner, but it's okay because I normally don't get visitors until later in the day. I got to be my usual lazy self here in the hospital. 

The group!

Here's the food spread they brought me! Dinner tasted delicious and I wish all the stuffing was left with me.   

 Our celebration lasted less than two hours (thanks to Kinsey's bedtime) but this was probably one of my favorite Thanksgivings. I don't know if it was because Kinsey was in such a good mood, I was happy to have a home-cooked meal again, or because I have a ton to be thankful for this year, but I had a blast!

Dancing on daddy's feet.

 Kinsey was giving me so many hugs and kisses on Thanksgiving day. What could be better than that?! I couldn't choose just one of these pics to post so you get to see all three :)

 

I could live off these hugs!

 Grandpa fed Kinsey cooked carrots. One at a time is not Kinsey's style, so she decided to shove them all in her mouth at once. She looked like a chipmunk. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of it. This girl does not know the meaning of patience!

Kinsey at 15 Months

I didn't blog Kinsey's 14 month update because all my photos disappeared from my computer. Don't worry, Eric was able to fix it. So this may cover the past 2 months a bit. 

Lately I would describe Kinsey as my Little Miss Independent. She rarely lets you feed her because she wants to do it herself. She refuses to hold your hand when walking. And she MUST be the one holding the phone when we FaceTime with someone. 

Playing with daddy. 

 Kinsey has always had such a sweet disposition. I think this will help her to be a great big sister. She loves playing with her dolls by wrapping them in a blanket and putting them down for a nap. She'll give them kisses and pat their back. 

Taking care of her baby. 

 She is quite the little stinker when it comes to drawers and cupboards. We tried putting a chair in front of this drawer and then she figured out she could crawl UNDER the chair to get to the drawer. I eventually taped it closed because I don't want her to fall and hurt herself. 

 She's very used to Eric checking her back for any alignment issues. I love how little she is on the table. 

Being a big girl. 

 Kinsey is really into playing with fake food these days. She also has pretend picnics by "nibbling" on the food and "drinking" out of the cup. 

 For some reason, Kinsey decided the rug in front of the kitchen sink was her new play mat. She brings toys to the rug and then plops herself down and plays quietly. She also started walking backwards. She'll start on one side of the living room and then walks until she runs into me, then she sits on my lap (her chair of choice). She's so silly.

 As Kinsey gets older, it's harder to contain her during church. She has so much energy! I think she's really going to enjoy going into nursery but she still has a full 3 months to go. Eric takes her to priesthood a lot, and he said one Sunday she started pushing all the chairs. Yes, she enjoys pushing chairs in our house too!

Playing at church.

 Look how long her hair is!!

 She's been having fun experimenting with her facial expressions. It takes her a few days to get the face down when she copies us, but I think she does pretty well!!

Like daddy like daughter. 

 Her level of understanding shocks me sometimes. I'll be talking to another adult when she's around, and then whatever I'm talking about (food, couch, pillow) she will go to it. She hears the word and thinks she should start playing with it. 

Cutest sad face in the world.

 If Kinsey has one love besides her family, I would say it's FOOD. She would snack all day long if we let her. Even though she is obsessed with food, she may be in the mood for something one day and not the next. She is definitely a girl who knows what she wants. 

Enjoying her crepes and blueberries!

Kinsey is at such a fun age! I can't wait to see what she comes up with next. She is a very smart girl (like every mom says about their children) and she's so funny. 

28 Years

Eric's birthday was on November 23rd. As he stated to me, this is the first time in 28 years he's spent his birthday in the hospital. We were going to go see Hunger Games in the Cinema Suites for his birthday. I still really want to see it and can't wait to get out of here and go to the movies!! I also wanted to do a little party for him or something but that didn't happen, so it was nice that our friends Thane and Shelby stopped by for the hospital party. 

His mom made him a birthday cake! 

Birthday boy and the guests. 

 Eric's first birthday as a dad!!

Ignore how tired we all look. 

 Kinsey takes after me with her little sweet tooth. 

Grandma feeding Kinsey cake. 

 And then Eric opened his present from me. I use the term "from me" very loosely because his mom made this all possible!

Funny expression when he saw what the present was. 

 Just like every year, Eric got a new nutcracker to add to his collection!! You may think it's a little girly looking, but he's about to be a dad to THREE girls. Kinsey absolutely loves the nutcracker and wants to play with it all the time. 

After the guests went home, Eric and I watched Superman in my room. I couldn't keep my eyes open so we had to finish the next day. What a wife!!

It was definitely a unique birthday this year, but I'm glad we got a little celebration in. 

Day 8

On Sunday morning one of my doctors walked in my room with a machine and exclaimed, "I can't wait until Wednesday. Let's measure the fluid today!" Okaaayyy. I had a feeling everything was okay with the fluid so I didn't have any concerns about it, but if the doctor wanted to check then it was just fine with me. The doc found a lot more fluid surrounding Scarlett than when I was first admitted to the hospital. It was actually enough to be in normal range. They still wanted to see it increase a little more. I was also allowed to only be monitored 1 out of every 6 hours now. AWESOME. A lot less interruptions to my sleep. If everything continued to go the way it was going, we could possibly talk about when I could go home at my next check-up (today). 

Unfortunately, my little stinkers had another plan in mind. On Monday night Scarlett's heart rate decelerated (dropped) for 5 minutes so I was put back on continuous monitoring for at least 24 hours. I slept poorly again that night and caught up on my sleep during naps all morning. On Tuesday evening Shayla's heart rate dropped for 3 minutes. There went my hope of getting off continuous monitoring before bedtime. I slept surprisingly well last night (with a little help from Ambien). 

Missing my baby girl. 

 This morning I left my room for the first time in week. My doctor checked the fluids again and it increased!! The fluid is now looking great and almost equal for both Scarlett and Shayla. My cervix was also measured -- it went from 2.9 last week to 2.2 cm today. 

Apparently she only photographs on this side? 

There was no mention today of going home. I think we're in the clear regarding the fluid around the babies. After a long chat with my nurse practitioner, it doesn't seem like I'll be going home soon. The babies are too unpredictable with their heart rates and although my cervix could definitely be shorter, there's no way of telling at what length a person will go into labor (it varies from person to person). They want to keep me here so I'm close to doctors in case anything happens. Also, I'm unable to feel contractions at this point in my pregnancy. I haven't had consistent contractions, but I didn't notice the ones I did have. 

It's sad to think I might not be home for Christmas. Every time I think about it the tears start falling. I have a good feeling that my babies will be healthy, but I have absolutely no idea when they will be here. I hope not too soon, but if so, at least we're at a good hospital with staff capable to care for them. 

Florida Trip

Kinsey and I headed out to Florida on November 5th to spend time with my fam and be in my sister's wedding. I wasn't sure how the plane ride would go. I thought she'd be afraid of the plane because it's so loud, but she just really enjoyed getting her own seat and not being strapped down in a car seat. Unfortunately, the return flight was full and I had to try to contain her to my lap when all she wanted to do was wander off in the aisle. It was a tiring experience.

Our first day in Florida we showed Kinsey the ocean for the first time! I wanted to warm her up to it for when the rest of the family arrived.

Audrey and Kinsey

She was a huge fan of the sand...

Kinsey didn't like being so close to the water. 

but HATED the ocean and the noise it made. We couldn't even dip her feet in it without her freaking out. She's going to have to get used to it though, because I LOVE the ocean. 

When my other sister and her daughter arrived, we headed out to my favorite Japanese steakhouse, Arigatos. Yummm. Kinsey tested out the chopsticks and was a little unsure of everything when the chef lit the food on fire. 

 She loved spending time with her cousin, Amora. 

 The next day Grammy and Papa watched Kinsey while the girls got pedis! 

Audrey, Wendy, and Amora.

I tried to protect the babies from the fumes with this awesome mask. It was kind of nice not having to smile in the pictures because no one could see my mouth anyway!

 Kinsey discovered her perfect sized chair. I think Amora joined in because Kinsey was getting so much attention on her "seat." 

 After some beach and pool time, the wedding day arrived! Kinsey immediately started playing with the decor. She was the youngest and best behaved flower girl there. Too bad she didn't get her own set of flowers. 

 Gorgeous bride! 

 Sisters.

 Audrey sat down to rest her feet and Kinsey plopped down on her lap. It started a whole sitting photo shoot which all included pictures of Kinsey :)

Whoops. I accidentally cut off Audrey's head.

Here we are waiting for the ceremony to begin.

Kinsey followed the flower girls down the aisle, but because they were bigger they walked too fast for my baby's little legs. About halfway down the aisle Kinsey stopped and started looking around for things to play with. After watching her wander for a few minutes, Grammy finally picked her up and took her to a seat. The other two flower girls decided to pick UP the petals during the ceremony...

The day after the wedding all of my family hit the airport but me. Luckily, Audrey was nice enough to spend the day with us. She didn't leave for her honeymoon until later in the week. We hit up Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant and the waiter gave us Forest Gump trivia and everything. 

 Not knowing when we'll see the beach again, Audrey, Kinsey, and I went to the beach one last time so Kinsey could play in the sand. 

Happy baby. 

I love when she rests her head like this. She is soooo cute!!

I wasn't really in the picture taking mood so I didn't even get pics of Kinsey meeting her grandparents for the first time. Dang it!! We had a good trip and loved seeing my family. 

Hospital Update

I've been in the hospital for 3 days now and the days are already starting to blend together. I am trying to pinpoint a date when I can go home, but of course the doctors and nurses don't know. So I continue bringing up my "guesses" and see if they agree with me haha. It would just be nice to have a date to look forward to. I'm very optimistic about the babies' health and feel everything will turn out okay. I find myself crying every day, mostly at night when I'm all alone, but I'm pretty sure the majority of tears are due to these stupid pregnancy hormones that really started messing with my emotions a week and a half ago. I FaceTime Kinsey and she visits me every day. She's been very happy having grandma take care of her, so I don't worry about her too much. Of course Eric and his mom have been great through all of this, bringing me whatever I may need from home.

By the way...

***HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIC!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!***

I guess before I get into further detail I should probably tell you that these little girls have names. First names at least :)

Meet little Scarlett, currently weighing in at 1 lb 8 oz. She's still a little stinker always curled up low in my pelvis. Sometimes it makes it pretty difficult to keep the monitors on her heart rate. 

 And then we have baby Shayla. She's always on top of Scarlett with lots of room to roam. She currently weighs 1 lb 6 oz. 

 The first 2 days and nights I was strapped up to the monitors 24/7 to make sure Scarlett and Shayla were stable and I wasn't having any contractions. It was pretty miserable. Because I'm only 25 weeks they are still tiny and have room to move around. Hence, nurses were constantly in and out of my room adjusting the monitors to find the heart rates whenever the babies would swim. Any tiny movement I made would almost always cause the monitors to lose the heart rates. I felt like I was in a straight jacket always trying to remain completely still. That's one way to lose your sanity. I slept an average of 4 1/2 hours those nights and was not able to fall asleep during the day for naps. Needless to say, I was crying and texting Eric in the middle of the second night telling him how tired I was. I eventually passed out at 4 am. 

 The monitors are checking for dips in the heart rates since Scarlett's heart rate was low for quite a long time on Wednesday. There were a few dips the first couple days but it's improved a lot. THANKFULLY, yesterday I was taken off continuous monitoring and now I'm only strapped up for an hour every four hours. When it hits that hour mark I feel like my stomach is on fire with itchiness. I can't believe I lasted on continuous monitoring when I can barely get through an hour at a time now.  But the heart rates are looking great and I personally don't foresee any problems with them. 

 As for the fluid, they are going to re-check the levels next week, most likely on Wednesday. Checking any earlier would be pointless because they know the results would still be low. The doctor is hoping the ibuprofen I was on to lengthen my cervix is the cause for lack of fluid. Ibuprofen can affect babies' kidneys and cause them not to pee, therefore there is no fluid being recycled to protect them and the placenta. Unfortunately, even if the fluid results are good I am still stuck here. The doctor just said we need "time." Yup, that's all I have to work with. There's no guarantee that the lack of fluid was caused by the ibuprofen and if this is the case, they have no way of knowing the cause and can only monitor the babies. 

All the focus right now is on Scarlett and Shayla's health. They aren't concerned about my cervix at all. Apparently after 28 weeks they wouldn't care about what length it is anyway. So I'm REALLY hoping to get out of here when I'm 28 weeks. After talking to a nurse she thinks Christmas is a good goal. AHHHHH I hope not. I want to be able to do all the Christmas stuff with Kinsey like meeting Santa. *sigh* One day at a time, I suppose.