Almost 37 Weeks -- The Grand Finale!

Here we are... on the eve of 37 weeks... 

My mom arrived ten days ago and has been a tremendous help, pulling together all the stuff that I couldn't do in the last couple of months. Mostly every day I just have been laying in bed or on the couch, with my little protector, Oatie. He has a major affinity for "The Hill" as I like to call my belly, either sitting on it or wrapping his little body around it. I think he knows the twins already. 

My mom arrived a week after I sprained my ankle twisting it off my shoe and shortly after I was diagnosed with Cholestasis, which is bile spilling into your bloodstream. It affects approximately 0.7% of white pregnant females. Apparently I am good at weird odds. About two weeks ago, I'd suddenly been up for two nights with intense itching all night long (sleeping with a towel to itch myself instead of using my fingernails), and ended up in labor and delivery on a Saturday morning. Luckily Kaiser was familiar with Cholestasis, and had me started on medications even before all the labs came back. I was feeling way less itchy after about four days. It's an important one to catch, because if it gets out of control or goes undiagnosed, you have a higher risk of preterm labor or stillborn birth. With Cholestasis they want to deliver twins in the 37th week. 

So we are truly nearing the end with week 37 looming on Wednesday. I'm thankful to be here, and thankful the end is in sight. At this point, I have a uterus which is contracted almost all night long and quite a large chunk of the daytime hours as well. This means every night, I am awake most of the night. It will stay contracted for 5-20 minutes or more at a time and never really releases to normal/soft. It's pretty painful and very hard to sleep when it does this. Changing positions, drinking water, or taking magnesium does nothing. The overnight contractions started about one week ago or so. It's good sleep training for when the twins come, but it is pretty horrible and makes it impossible to sit up at all. 

So I cannot wait to be able to sit up again, and to breathe and to eat normally. And to meet these two little buggers who are in my tummy. It is hard to believe that in not so many days, I will have two kids. 

I've posted a pile of pictures below.

Our delightful OB, Dr. Brass, who also had twins. This was our last appointment with her before birth and final growth ultrasound.

Oatie relaxing on the hill riding in the car. 

We had a handyman (Jeff) in this week to fix the ceiling in the basement where the HVAC people left a huge mess after installing our furnace. Four before pictures of the mess. My mom has built like ten new houses so has a lot of experience with this sort of thing and was able to be there to make decisions and help while I laid on the couch upstairs.

 

The Kathy helping Jeff tear down the wall and get rid of the door.

First after, more to come.

Oatie protecting The Hill.

 Oatie Ha hiding in my robe on the couch. 

Dug out my mom's 1972 Singer, which works like a charm, to sew together car seat covers for the Charlies. I bought the fabric months ago but couldn't get around to doing it until now. My mom helped a little with the placement of the straps because I was too pregnant to think but I sewed it all myself. She also did a little trouble shooting on the machine, as it had been quite a while since I had used it and with pregnancy had threaded something wrong!

 Finished product

Remnants of the ankle sprain- one month now, still lingering... :( The last time I sprained my ankle it stayed swollen for 3 months. I'm hoping once I lose some of the 40 pounds I've gained, it will go down. This is even with wrapping, heating and icing it.

This was a few days ago. About 36.5 weeks along here, measuring 48 weeks pregnant. 

 The BAG is packed and ready to go! We got the little hats from one of Justin's customers in the Midwest.

My sweet niece Lily (6) drew a picture of her whole family, which includes Justin at the end holding "boy & girl". Pretty amazingly sweet drawing. 

 This is a crooked Hill. They are way off too the right. Which explains why most of my pain is on the right side.

Gorgeous handmade quilts from Great Grandmom Winona in North Carolina. She made fishermen and kiters for our son and little girls in bonnets for our daughter. She worked on them since February! They will be with the kids for a long time.