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Friday, March 1, 2013

Multiples class and Thankfulness

Yesterday was a very successful day in our house! Which in turn led to not posting a Thankful Thursday. :( I'm sorry... I figured I would make up for it on this post and give an update as to how our multiples class went last night.

I'm thankful for my recent success on craigslist. We finally sold Monica's old car! WHOO-HOO!! It'll be nice to have that money to put towards our IVF debt. I think I mentioned before that I scoured the house and put anything and everything I could find to sell on craigslist. I've had some decent success. I've sold a bike, Monica's car and have several people coming by this weekend to buy 3 other items we have for sale. All proceeds will be going to pay off our IVF debt. I'm very pleased and hope to sell all 12 listings!

I'm thankful for an AMAZINGLY tough wife! In our class last night there were 5 other couples. There were 2 other ladies who were showing but were still 10 weeks or more behind Monica. They both had several complaints about back aches and other things. I know God has blessed us with a very smooth pregnancy, but I also give some credit to Monica for being a trooper! She's one tough cookie! She's had back aches and other things, and now has a TERRIBLE pregnancy rash called pupps, which she talked about in a previous post. She refuses to whine or complain though. I woke up one morning to find her asleep on the couch with bags of frozen corn on the bottoms of her feet because that's the only way she could sleep. She didn't whine, cry, complain or get angry. She just said that was the only way she could get comfortable and the cold helped make the rash not itch enough so that she could fall asleep. I see her wiggling her feet inside her shoes, walking through the house dragging her feet, or sitting sliding her feet back and forth across the carpet, all to scratch the bottoms of her feet. If she used her nails they would break open and blister. She's so awesome and I'm thankful for how tough she has been through it all!

Now about our multiples class! Like I said there were 5 other couples, all pregnant with twins. Two of the couples got pregnant with their twins spontaneously. The other 3 we're not sure about. We are the youngest couple and the farthest along. Two of the couples aren't even 20 weeks yet and the other 3 are 22 weeks or less. We are 32 weeks, lol! Monica's fear for this class was realized... she has the biggest belly. Haha! It's to be expected though since the other couples are not nearly as far along as we are. The class was very good! We learned several things already.

1) I believe I am slightly naive about how hard it is going to be. I have the mind set that if we keep a positive attitude and since we'll both be off for quite some time with nothing to do but take care of the babies, it'll be a piece of cake! I may be wrong... I also think a lot of that comes from telling myself I want to prove all the people who have told us how utterly horrific it's going to be wrong. It seems a lot of people have many negative things to say about us having twins. I know most of it is probably meant light-hearted and in a fun, joking manner. It still makes me want to prove everyone wrong and show them it's not going to be hard. I now have a better understanding of what to expect. We're going to do great though! I have an awesome wife, and these boys are an answer to an unthinkable amount of prayers!!

2) I think the class helped us both prepare a little more for the very real possibility of our boys ending up in the NICU for a little while. Hopefully they will come straight home, but I think it's good that we are prepared mentally and emotionally that they may not come straight home. I work with preemie babies all the time so I know what to expect. I hadn't realized that in my own mind I had already kind of convinced myself they wouldn't have to go to the NICU except for maybe a day or two. When in reality if they do go, it is usually for a week or more, depending on the circumstances.

3) It taught us a lot of little things I had never heard before. Babies spend their first 10 minutes or so crying. Then they spend an hour or 2 looking around peacefully. Then they go through a deep sleep phase for a few days where they only wake up to eat and then pass out again. Then they get to their normal baby phase. At normal baby phase is where they will cry and get upset.

3) I thought you fed a baby when it started crying which meant it is hungry. Wrong! You feed the baby when it starts to suck, chew on its hands or wiggle a lot. Crying is a late sign of hunger.

4) We learned that bumper pads are no longer recommended and that the FDA may be outlawing them soon. I always thought they were so baby wouldn't bump their head on the side of the crib. I never fully understood them as I don't think an infant can roll hard enough to do real damage by bumping their head on the crib rails. It turns out they were invented because early cribs had rails that were too far apart and babies heads were falling in between the rails and they were suffocating. Now cribs are made with the rails close together and they only remained being used for aesthetic purposes, a.k.a. they're cute.They are no longer recommended because they cause SIDS! It's common sense that you don't put blankets, pillows, etc in the crib because baby can suffocate. They now know that babies also are dying because of rebreathing their own CO2 from objects being too close to their face. Not smothering them, but being close enough that they rebreath their own CO2 and because they're respiratory system is so new and immature they stop breathing when they're CO2 levels elevate even slightly. That was news to us! We were planning on making bumper pads. Not any more.

That's all I can think of that really stuck our for now and this post has gotten pretttty long. Adios for now! Monica has a baby shower tomorrow! We'll try and share some pictures and give an update on how it went tomorrow!

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