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. 

Iowa, the land of quiet happiness.

Flying in early yesterday morning, I pressed my nose to the window enjoying the view from the plane. It was the first time I've flown into Iowa. All other times were by car. It looked remarkably like North Dakota- squared off farmland, in shades of tan this time of year. A stretch of river. A lake. The flat horizon sparsely populated by trees. Mostly a bunch of blue sky. I liked it. 

Trudging from the gate to the exit overburdened by heavy carry-ons, I noticed the security checkpoint and continued walking, wondering how far it was to the exit and where my mom would be waiting for me. I saw a large group of people on the right, kept walking, then did a double-take- it was Mom, Chuck, Molly, Hazel, Claire and Lily! All there. I didn't even know I'd left the terminal. Lily and Claire ran up right away. Then the braver Lily gave me a hug with Claire behind her, followed by hugs from everyone. Then Claire snuck up again, grabbed my left hand and kissed it. We all walked out to the mini-van, seven of us strapped in, me between two car seats in the back row. It was a full load. The sun shone down, and we got home to North Liberty within twenty minutes. 

Later that day, we participated in a Halloween costume party. Originally just the girls were dressing up, but when I tried on my costume I borrowed from Auntie Carrie, they wanted me to wear it too (had to talk myself into it a bit). It was pretty fun. The dress was uber-short and when I was trying to get Claire out of her car seat, I said "I think I might be flashing people." Lily jumped up and yelled, "I'm blocking you! I'm blocking you!" It was quite a sight, I'm sure. I appreciated the effort. 

Last night Lily tried to stay over, and was very sweet, laying in bed, holding my hand. She did very good actually, but at about 9:20 ended up having to go home. The phone rang and she was still squirming around a bit and decided maybe she wanted to be by her mommy. There were a few tears, and grandma drove her home, telling her that she had to pick up Molly at all hours of the night for many years, and it was no big deal. Josh was happy to see her home, having just arrived himself after a night of call. I was actually pretty tired after two hours of sleep the night before on the red-eye, and crashed immediately again, and didn't wake up for nine hours. 

This morning, Claire came over and played with us. Little Claire is the old Czech lady, and washed dishes by hand with her sleeves rolled up. She toodles around the house keeping busy and hanging out playing with herself wherever we were sitting, dragging in whatever toys she wanted to play with. I sliced up an Asian pear Auntie Carrie sent and she liked it. Later Molly and crew came over for a bit and they went home when everyone was too tired to play anymore.

So far so good. Justin is on the road, and will hopefully be here on Wednesday. We plan to have a big early birthday party for him. 

Kathy & Chuck's Seattle-Astoria Road Trip with regression to Portland before they arrived.

I found this in my recipe book- one that I used when I lived in Germany. I loved this poem. I think I mostly understand it. It's funny, because often now I wonder, "Did I really live in Germany?" "Did I really live in New Zealand?" "Did I really do all those things?" They seem like distant memories.

I've been working a ton of extra days- sometimes nine or ten in a row with only one off. I've been fortunate to work in different locations, which allows me to explore the city a bit. These few pictures reminded me of my first freedom, when I was freed from my relationship with my first boyfriend, who I had not so much in common with other than attending the same school. I bought myself a red paddington bear coat from JCrew shortly after he left. I normally don't even like red. I remember thinking I didn't even know what I liked, or who I was. I had just been doing what everyone else did or what he liked for so long. It was an interesting experience to realise I loved live music, and records, and hiking and the city.

Oatie is a treasure. I keep worrying that he is going to die. He turned eleven on September 16th. Every day, I feel grateful to have him around. So sweet and loving and in the moment.

How I spend lunch. At a coffee shop. Writing. And sipping something. Maybe a treat or an apple or a banana to accompany the coffee (which is often decaf).

 Oatie walking in the Pacific.

 Cannon Beach.

 The Shipwreck at Ft Stevens.

 I never knew that anyone drove on the beach but apparently it is free here in Oregon.

 My crappy camera wouldn't focus on the horses.

 Also at Ft Stevens.

 Running back to the car.

 Astoria Sunday Market

 Arrival in Seattle.

 Pike Place Market

 They had good stuff here.

 Beecher's Cheese

It was crazy sunny

 Beecher's Cheese

Glass sculptures at the Space Needle

 

My mom and Chuck left this morning about seven AM- the sun was rising and the car was loaded. It wasn't long enough for any of us, but at least I'm coming home soon, and Carrie will be there in December.We all had a pretty good time together. As well, we visited Mike and Tammy Larson in Seattle but somehow forgot to take a photo.