quick update

Hmmmm....not much time for blogging these days. We were able to bring Kaden home from the hospital on Monday. It was difficult not to be able to all come home together, but we knew we would be back for Kenley on Tuesday, and that made it a little easier. Our first night went pretty smoothly. Then Tuesday we were able to get Kenley, and after a LONG discharge we were finally able to come home as a family of four. Wow, a little surreal!  Our life will never be the same!! Kaden has been on the biliblanket for his jaundice since being in the hospital and while at home. He has to have it on at all times, which makes life a little difficult. Both kids have appointments with the doctor today, so we are really hoping to be able to get rid of it. I am planning on posting some pictures from our hospital stay, but I suppose by the time I get them all uploaded you won't be reading this until this afternoon.
(*This was my update this morning)

It's now going on 6:00 and I've got a little chance to sit down and write some more. The doctor visit went well today. Both kids look perfect! The dr. from Sioux Falls called and said that Kaden's biliruben numbers were going down so that we could take him off the biliblanket....yayyyy!!!  We hated that thing!!  They do both have to go back in tomorrow to have their levels checked again, but hopefully things will be alright.

Mom and dad are hanging in there. I've been extremely emotional the last few days.  It doesn't take much, good or bad that starts the tears rolling. Cody jokes that he's now got three babies to take care of. But enough rambling, I'll get to the stuff people are most curious about........here are some pictures of while we were still in the hospital.

just getting started

Kenley

Cody and Kaden~an emotional time as this was just after delivery when Cody was able to bring Kaden back to our room, but he knew Kenley went to the NICU and I was struggling in the operating room.

holding Kaden for the first time

dad and Kenley~any resemblance??

Miss Kenley

my first time holding Kenley

Kaden on the bilibed and the biliblanket~now we could only hold him for feedings, otherwise he had to stay on the bed :(

dad and his little peanut Kaden

Kaden

Kaden getting ready to go home

Kaden's car ride home

So when I started this post this morning, I titled it "quick update", unfortunately it hasn't been very quick as it's taken me all day to get it completed. Now that we are all home, we've been able to get more pictures of Kenley and I'm hoping to be able to post more soon. The pictures are starting to add up on my camera, now we just have to transfer them to the computer......just to find the time right??

Thanks for your patience....

Wow...we have had an emotional last few days. But, we did it, we're finally parents, and we are in bliss. We've been busy, have had a lot going on and have had lots of visitors. Here are some updates as to how our transition into parenthood came to be:

*Wednesday afternoon we got the call that I had developed preeclampsia and it was time to deliver some babies. Cody made his way home from Brewster and we were into the hospital around 4:30 that afternoon.

*After being admitted they started my induction with just a small dose of a pill that was inserted vaginally. Things started progress throughout the night. They would have been able to do 4 more doses of this, but I was progressing and that's what they wanted to see.

*Around 6:30 Thursday morning the doctor broke baby A's water and that's when things really started moving along. I was pretty uncomfortable throughout the day and didn't hesitate when they offered me an epidural. About 3:45 I was dialated to 9cm and the doctor thought we would be pushing within the hour. It wasn't long after that, that I really started to get uncomfortable again. So we didn't last the hour and were already in the operating room by 4:00.

*We had to deliver in the operating room because we were having twins. They needed to be prepared in case of an emergency and also to allow more room for the additional people that were required because of two babies. I pushed for a good hour and just wasn't making any decent progress, and by now, in terrible pain!!

*At this point, we needed to make a decision. The doctor gave us the option to have him help us out by using the vacuum/foreceps or going into a c-section. I was crying. I simply wanted medication and for them to get the babies out....NOW! Our doctor felt we had a good chance of getting them out vaginally, if we both worked hard and worked together...so that's what we did.

*We finally made it through the delivery, at which point they decided to put me completely under. I had lost A LOT of blood and was in so much pain, they thought it would be best to just put me out. I woke up back in our room and Cody and I were now proud parents to two miracle bundles.

KENLEY JO:
She was born at 5:37pm. She weighed 7lbs. 7oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long. She came out and gave us a couple big screams and then just stopped. Cody and I had a feeling something wasn't quite right, but we still had to work on getting baby B out. Afterwards one of the NICU doctors told us that Kenley was having some difficulty breathing and then had just stopped altogether. They intubated her and took her straight to the intensive care nursery. Later they took her for a CT scan and discovered that she had experienced a brain bleed from the vacuum and that's what caused her to stop breathing. We now just had to wait and see how things progressed over the next several hours. But our little Kenley showed us how strong she really was. By 4:30 Friday morning, she was already breathing on her own and they were able to extubate her. She has shown us small steps of progress, but all pointing in a positive direction.

KADEN DEAN:
He was born at 5:49pm. He weighed 6lbs. 5oz. and was 18 1/4 inches long. As we were trying to deliver him, Kaden was not happy. His heartrate was dropping and it was time to get him out, immediately. Once he was born, he demonstrated a healthy set of lungs and a fully functioning bladder :) Kaden has been able to hang out in the regular newborn nursery as well as with us. He started out having some trouble with his blood sugars. Before every bottle they had to prick his little heel and test his blood sugar. He certainly let us know that those were not pleasant. Yesterday the pediatrician felt comfortable enough with his levels to be able to stop the blood sugar checks. Poor little punker. Today however, Saturday, he's shown some increased risks for jaundice. They started him on the biliblanket but his numbers continued to climb. They now have him on a full set of lights and only want us to hold him when we are feeding him.  They are hoping to give him a big strong dose of this throughout the night in hopes that he'll be able to come home with us.

MOMMY:
I had a terrible labor and delivery experience and would honestly rather not even talk about it. Afterwards however, I really struggled. I had lost so much blood during delivery that it was finally determined I would need a blood transfusion. I received a couple units of blood during the night on Friday night and woke up a different person on Saturday morning. My blood levels are still below normal, but they are better and I've noticed a difference. Today I've actually been able to get out of bed and be more of "myself" and it's felt great. So thanks for all of your prayers for our family and your patience with me as I've been unable to update as I wished I would have.

DADDY:
Cody has been an AMAZING coach, support, husband and daddy throughout all of this. Sometimes joyous and sometimes pure hell, he's had many experiences of his own. He is one proud daddy right now! It's been very hard on us to be able to spend so much time with Kaden and not have that same time with Kenley. We try to get to the NICU as much as possible, but we've been busy trying to keep up with both of them :)

*Our plan as of right now is to be able to go home sometime tomorrow. Unfortunately we have to leave little Kenley but we are hoping to be able to take Kaden with us. He might have to go home with some light therapy, but at least he'll be coming home.


**I will post pictures, I promise!

We have babies!

Hello All, Kristal here (Holli's sister)...she wanted me to do a quick update just to let everyone know that the babies were born. She will of course elaborate much more when she is able, hopefully tomorrow. All I can say is WHAT A TROOPER! I have one heck of a sister and everyone is proud of her!

Holli & Cody have had very little "privacy" when it has come to these babies and sharing information so I thought I would let them share the names with you as I know they have been keeping their lips locked for months!

Baby girl was born at 5:37 this evening (Thursday) and weighed 7 pounds, 7 onces. I do not have a length for her...sorrry!
Baby boy was born at 5:49 and weighed 6 pounds, 5 onces and was 18 1/4 inches long.

We got to see baby boy and he was absolutely beautiful. Baby girl was taken to the ICN- Intensive Care Nursery, so we did not get to see her, but I can imagine she is equally amazing. Holli will share more information soon...I promose! A prayer or two wouldn't hurt for the health of babies (especially little girl Finke) and momma!

Kristal

It's baby time!!!

My blood pressure was still high this afternoon and the protein in my urine came back VERY high....so it looks like it's time. The nurse called and said I need to come to the hospital as soon as we could get there to get checked in. Unfortunately Cody is still in Brewster so I am currently waiting for him to get here and pick me up. My doctor is off for the afternoon so they are going to call her and get specific orders. If she still wants to deliver normally, I will labor through the night and most likely deliver sometime tomorrow.  Otherwise, I don't know, I suppose c-section is a great possibility. Oh my gosh, I'm shaking!!!!  We are soo excited!!!

Keep us in your prayers and I'm sure you will all hear one way or another as to our progress.

Maybe a change in plans??

After our appointment today, things MIGHT be looking a little different.  We had our ultrasound first, which was honestly not very fun at all. The babies are so big and cramped that it's hard for them to get a decent look at anything they need to look at. Nothing was very clear for us today and it felt as if we weren't even looking at "human beings."  Their measurements are obviously not perfect, but from what they gathered today it looks like baby girl is weighing around 6pounds 11ounces and baby boy is right at 7pounds (give or take a pound)!!!!  Let me say this again....I'm ready to be done carrying them around in my belly!  They had good movement and good breathing patterns, so things looked good on their end.

At my appointment, my blood pressure was a little high when the nurse first took it. We then visited with the doctor, who checked me....I'm about 1 1/2 cm dilated and 90% effaced. At the end of the appointment she wanted the nurse to look at my blood pressure again and for me to collect a urine sample. My blood pressure was once again high and my urine looked abnormal....both signs of preeclampsia. She then sent me down to the lab to do some labwork and also instructions on doing a 24 urine sample. I'll just say, collecting every urine sample for the next 24 hours in a jug and keeping it in my fridge, is not something I'm looking forward to. I have to then bring my sample back tomorrow afternoon and have another blood pressure check. At that time they will determine if I'm developing preeclampsia or not. If I have, which my doctor would completely not be surprised, then they will induce me tomorrow night. If things look normal, we will stick with our Friday morning induction. She did tell us, however, that we should probably come tomorrow with our bags packed!! 

I'm really not panicking as bad as I thought I would be. But I guess we were so close to being done anyway, that it doesn't bother me in the least bit to move it up a day or two. She did tell me I had to be on bedrest the rest of today, which hey, I've handled that pretty well the last couple months! My sister came home and stopped by our house this afternoon and will help get all the "last minute" things ready, so that will be a big help to me.

I'll be sure to let everyone know how tomorrow afternoon goes and what our plan will be from there!!!

I'M SOO EXCITED!!!!

10 days and counting

For sure, within the next 10 days, our twins will make their way into this world. At our appointment this morning we set a date of July 23rd to be induced, if the babies don't decide to come before that.

HOLY CRAP...we're going to be parents in less than 10 days!!!!

We did have an ultrasound, which showed both babies moving around like crazy, good breathing movements, and good fluid levels. Unfortunately, they did not get any growth measurements (which apparently was a mistake and didn't really make the doctor very happy either) but that means we didn't get to find out how much they weighed today :(  We were soo disappointed. That's one of the biggest things we look forward to and one of the most asked questions by others. So we apologize for no news in the weight department. They were both still head down, so that's definitely a good sign and hopefully we will stay away from a c-section. Once we do go into labor, they will do one last ultrasound once in the hospital to make sure they have both stayed head down, otherwise we will have to go with plan B. Also, babies are getting so cramped in my uterus that they are literally smashed up against each other....which doesn't allow for any great photo opportunities. Sorry for that too.

At the appointment with the doctor, I am still only 1cm dilated, but my cervix is really starting to thin out. She said we could be wishful thinking with trying to schedule my induction for the 23rd, but it would really be great to make it that long. She also estimates both babies to be well into the 6lb. range. We did get another appointment and ultrasound scheduled for next Tuesday. At that time, they will for sure get some growth measurements and give us an idea as to how big these kiddos are getting.

I'll leave you with a few random pictures.....

*babies closet "before"

*babies closet "during"

*babies closet "after"

*another bedroom picture

*car seats are ready to go

*Cody working on putting together the stroller

*just add babies

Are we going to make it??

I can't believe how close we are getting. Another appointment today. While being hooked up to the monitors, our little man was very active, but once again we had a lazy baby girl. It took a long time to get her woke up enough to show some accelerations in her heartrate. She finally got it accomplished though. I am currently dialated to a 1....slowly but surely. Dr. can feel baby girl's head, so we know she is still head down. We have our 36 week ultrasound next Tuesday. We'll see at that time if they are both still head down or not. We talked about what we were going to shoot for as far as delivery options. If both babies are head down, then we will try to go for a vaginal delivery. If only baby girl is head down, and boy is not, then we would most likely have a c-section. It's a little too high risk to try and deliver him breech and the doctor's suggestion would be to do a c-section. So, I guess we'll see. Also at that time, if I haven't gone into labor on my own, we will talk about a date to induce. She will let us pick any date between 37 and 38 weeks. I'm shooting closer to 37 weeks and Cody thinks we should push 38 weeks. To be honest, I don't know if we'll even make it that long. Wow....I'm getting soo anxious. As miserable as I am, it's getting pretty scary to think about labor and delivery...I'm kind of starting to freak out a little bit!!

July 7th

Another week down. We've made it to 35 weeks. I know for the babies well being we want to keep them in as long as possible. But this mama is ready to be done!!

  (please forgive the look....this is what you get when you can't spend more than a few minutes at a time standing and hang out on the couch all day....nothing done to the hair, no makeup, and even still in my pajama pants)

As many of you know, the month of July has huge meaning for us. It was 5 years ago, on this very day, that our world turned upside down. We were happy, free-spirited, naive, 23/24 year olds. And on July 7th, 2005 we had to grow up in a major hurry. Cody was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Almost 3 weeks later we  found out he had stage III brain cancer. Our month of July was filled with doctors, neurologists, neurosurgeons, oncologists, appointments, road trips, surgeries, hospitals, and PRAYERS. At the time, Cody was given a prognosis of 3-5 years to live. So needless to say, five years later, ....HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD?!?

We also get to celebrate our 4 year anniversary tomorrow as well as Cody's 29th birthday at the end of the month. Oh yeah, and one more thing we get to add to our miraculous month of July....the birth of our babies. Just one more thing to be thankful for. Last year at this time we didn't know if God was even going to allow us to build our family, and here we are about to double in size. We have so many things to be grateful for and we try not to take one second of it all for granted!!

We're getting closer!

Whew...we made it to 34 weeks. Now, if the babies decide to come, we're ready to roll. Although, we do want to get a couple more weeks. Please, just a couple more weeks!

Have I mentioned lately how extremely uncomfortable I'm getting???  Well, if I haven't, let me just fill you in. I can barely even stand anymore and walking puts me in pure misery. The pressure on my pubic bone is INTENSE!!  Cody has even taken on the roll of having to dress me from the waste down. I literally can't even lift my legs to put pants on anymore. My uterus is measuring at 49 weeks, so needless to say, even if I could walk around this belly is beyond out of control!

At my appointment this morning we were hooked up to the monitors. Everything looked great!  Both babies did exactly what they were supposed to and we were out of there in no time. The doctor checked my cervix and I've started to dialate!!!!!!

Ok, so maybe just a half a centimeter............but dialation none the less :)   I know this could still be a long process but I still feel like the process has now started and I'm getting a little excited. Cody on the other hand, freaking out!!  He has been soo stinkin' cute throughout this whole process and I've realized he panics very easily. He's completely convinced he needs to hang me upside down by my feet for the next two weeks!

33 weeks 2 days

I had my weekly appointment this morning. I must admit, with getting this close to the end it's always nice to have a check in with the doctor so frequently. For my first appointment they hooked me up to the fetal monitors, to check heart rates and activity level. They want to make sure babies are moving (which I could have solidly confirmed without the monitors) but then they also want to make sure there are accelerations in their heart rate when they are more active. Baby boy passed with flying colors (which he is probably the more active one...or at least I can feel him more than I can feel his sister). Baby girl needed some pretty good stimulation in order to get her wound up enough to satisfy them. But all in all, everything looked great. It also documented some pretty good contractions I was having at the time.

After that appointment was my regular OB appointment. Ideally she would love me to go another 2 and 1/2 weeks, just to get them to the 36 week stage. Because any baby born before 36 weeks will automatically go into the NICU, and we would just LOVE for them to stay out!! If I can't make it to 36 weeks, she at least wants me to last another 5 days. In 5 days I will be at 34 weeks and it's at that point that if I went into labor they would not stop me. They would still try to stop my labor if I went within the next 5 days. She checked my cervix today and I am not dialated at all. I am starting to "thin out" but that is to be expected. We also discussed my contractions. I am fairly consistently having contractions for periods of time throughout the day. When I'm experiencing them, they are about 6 to 10 minutes apart and will last approximately an hour to an hour and a half. But once they are gone, they are gone for a while. This too is considered normal and we should not start to worry yet. Cody on the other hand, he starts to worry when I ask him to start writing down times. I don't think he's ready for the babes to be here quite yet!

My next appointment is next Thursday. Hopefully it will be an exact repeat of how well today went and we can last another few weeks.

My feet are asking to be elevated about now. All of this heat and being on them so much today they are pretty swollen. I will do my job and get myself to the couch and I hope all of you have yourselves a FABULOUS weekend!!!

for the love of pictures...

*these are the only two ultrasound pictures we got this time around. this picture is angled so you can see both of their heads looking down from the top. baby girl is on the right and baby boy is on the left. they both look to be in about the same position, however baby girl is MUCH lower than baby boy!

*here is baby girl. she is looking off to the left with her hand right up by her mouth. our little man absolutely would not cooperate that day so we got nothing on him....stubborn little guy.

*here I am at 32 weeks and 4 days. when I look at myself before putting a shirt on...I honestly don't know what is holding those babies in there. they look like they could just fall right out the bottom!

*cody starting to work on putting together the cribs

*fully assembled cribs

*this is not exactly the arrangement I was hoping for, but the room is just too small and this is really the most functional setup we could come up with.

*this picture shows my sleeping arrangement that I've been using for the past several weeks. 3 pillows and 2 blankets arranged just perfectly and I sleep like a baby...only for about an hour though until it's time to get up and use the bathroom!!

*this is my attempt to prove to Cody document how many times in a night that I have to get up and use the bathroom. so I decided to keep a note pad in the bathroom and write down the time every time I was up. this is a pretty typical night. needless to say, i'm not getting a whole lot of quality sleep before the babies arrive :(

*as you all know, we have been working on replacing our interior doors and trim. this is the "before" picture of our old/ugly doors

*"after" picture of the new closet doors and doors

*LOVE them!!

*of course, we still have all of the casing and baseboard to get done yet. remember, slowly but surely!

Holy Babies!!!

**We have been having problems with our internet again, so no pictures today...I'm lucky to even be able to get on here and type something. So I'll be quick before it kicks me off.  I'll post pictures soon, I promise!

My appointment yesterday went very well. It started with an ultrasound, which was probably our quickest ever. They did a bio-physical and wanted look at the babies breathing, their movement, and my fluid levels. Both babies scored a perfect score! Oh yeah, and they've gained a little bit of weight too since the last time we saw them. Baby boy now weighs 4lbs 14oz. and his sister is whooping up on him a little bit now weighing in at a whopping 5lbs 4oz. I can't believe how big these babies are getting!!  As uncomfortable as they are making me, it makes me feel so much better thinking about how healthy they'll be when they come out. Today I am at 32 weeks and 3 days and once I hit 34 weeks they wouldn't stop labor if I happened to go in. I wasn't dialated at all on Friday and things looked good. My uterus only grew an inch since last month...I'm now measuring at a 43...which means babies aren't really growing "out" but pushing nicely right up against all my internal organs. Which is SOOO very pleasant! Both babies are head down now, so if they stay that way we can try and shoot for a vaginal delivery.

I continue to grow increasingly uncomfortable, which is to be expected. I used to be fine as long as I could be sitting. Now, even sitting, I just can't seem to find a comfortable position. I am also starting to experience more and more contractions, some which are starting to be a little uncomfortable. That is also to be expected at this stage in the game, my doctor just really wants me to start paying attention to them a little more. We are both getting very anxious. I know I am beyond ready to be done, but we really pray to last a few more weeks.

Today, my family threw an absolutely fantastic baby shower for me!!  Our children are going to be blessed coming into this world with the love they will receive from these people.

Update

Another successful outcome for us today!!!! Cody's MRI looked clean. Thank the Lord. Both Cody and I were a little nervous for today...just because we've been soo blessed lately. Things in our life have really been falling into place and we both just figured it was time someone threw a wrench into it all.  I guess we were wrong and God was looking out for us once again. He's scheduled again for 6 months from now. Cody will hit his 5 year mark next month and once he gets past that then we will talk about moving check-ups from 6 months to a year. (I'm not sure how I feel about that yet).

32 weeks

I will be 32 weeks tomorrow...I can't believe how fast the weeks fly by. We have a busy week this week. Thursday is Cody's 6 month oncology appointments. That too sneaks right up on us. Can't believe it's been 6 months already. On Friday, I have my next OB appointment. I will have an ultrasound and then they will also start doing fetal well-being checks, where every appointment from here on out they will be hooking me up to the monitors to get a closer look at the babies. So the appointments could get a little long, plus the fact that I will be starting to go every week. On Saturday my family is throwing me a baby-shower. I am soo looking forward to seeing everyone!!

We continue to be busy around the house too. Last weekend Cody and his dad worked on installing all of our interior bedroom and closet doors. Although it's been a slow process, and I've been ready for my house to be put back together for a long time now, things ARE coming together and will eventually get done.  Cody just keeps telling me "you've got to keep those babies in there for a little while longer!!"  He is getting nervous that they are going to be coming soon and the house won't be done.

I have been doing a pretty good job at taking it easy since being done with work. I have to admit, it's been hard though. There is so much around me that could be done and I do my best to wait until Cody gets home to help with some of it. Sometimes I can't resist and try to do too much myself, but my body lets me know pretty quickly that it's time to sit again.

I will keep you updated as we tackle our appointments at the end of the week.  I'll also try to get some new pictures posted :)

Good Times!

*A much needed break. Friday was our last day of school and I am beyond looking forward to some time off. My plan until the babies arrive, is to literally do nothing. Not anticipating any troubles in that area!!

*I had another appointment with my doctor yesterday afternoon. Things are continuing to look good. My swelling is continuing to get worse and more uncomfortable every day.  I've also developed myself a little rash and some SERIOUS itching. The rash is only on my legs below my knees and my feet, but the itching is maddening! My doctor did some lab work, looking for a possible problem with my liver functioning that is common with pregnant women. She honestly doesn't expect any problems with this, but she just wants to be on the safe side. She feels the rash has probably developed due to the pregnancy, but it might just be another thing I have to "deal with." My uterus is measuring at 42 weeks, so I've gone beyond any singleton pregnancy. I am still not showing any signs of dialation...good news. Our next appointment will be in two weeks, that will also be our ultrasound. After 32 weeks I will start going every week, so I will be seeing a lot more of them in the near future. We are on the home stretch!!

*My sister and a close friend of the family threw a wonderful shower for me this morning. It's great to have such fantastic friends and these babies were definitely spoiled today. Thanks everyone!!

*We finally got our cribs and changing table picked up. We had to order them and once they came in, one of the cribs was the wrong color and they had to order it again. So we've been waiting a while...it will feel awesome to get those together and get that room settled.