When Mother Nature Takes Your Sleep Away

So...on top of having Asthma as well as having babies snuggling up to my diaphragm and squishing my lungs, I have a sinus infection. I cannot use my nose for any purpose besides making my face look complete and filling every trashcan in the house with hundreds of tissues.

This has made sleep nearly impossible.

For the past three or so nights I have been in a light sleep or fully awake the entire night. This mouth breathing thing is just awful. I'm pretty sure my lips and throat are drier than the Sahara.

I have taken Sudafed. (That's funny how it doesn't work at all.) I've taken Tylenol (which actually helped a bit with the inflammation and 100 degree fever from yesterday). I've taken Robitussin for my dry throat cough. (That was also funny in the not-working department.) I've used heat packs, a warm bath, hot tea, saline rinses and Popsicles. Thus far, the saline rinses, warm bath and yummy Popsicles are the best. Granted, all of these remedies are only temporary. I would just prefer for someone to put me in a coma for the next few days until this thing blows over, and then I'll be good to go.

It's amazing how my sleep hasn't been terribly affected by the extra weight. I do find myself going from cold to hot very easily and turning over is also one heck of a chore. But other than that, I can usually find a decent position for a couple of hours until I have to get up and pee. Right now, though, I'm sure the girls are like, "Mom, seriously, all this up and down and loud honking noises are getting old." And I agree, little ones, I want it all to stop too.

In the hopes to make this blog entry seem just the tiniest bit lively. Here's a picture from my baby shower of my brother helping me put on a bracelet...even though it looks like he's tapping my belly to introduce himself to his nieces. I thought it was funny. He probably won't.

What I Learned from Childbirth Class, Part 2

I'm not against epidurals, but I would like to avoid one if I can.

Once you're medicated from an epidural, you'll be immobilized and stuck in bed. If you read the first blog on class, you'll know why that's not my favorite option. Not that pain is a favorite of mine either, but I'm a bit of a control freak.

I can have two external fetal monitors if all goes well.

I may not have to have an internal monitor!! Unless, for some reason, they can't find one of the heartbeats, I'll have both on the outside. This week's instructor said that they would just be doing more chasing to find the heartbeats. Woo!

There's more than one kind of breech baby.

There are different kinds of breech babies: butt first Indian-style which is traditional; feet first which is called feetling or something like that; or butt first pike position. The pike position is a Frank Breech. None of these babies are normally delivered vaginally because a baby's foot or behind is not weighty enough to get through the cervix properly. The Frank Breech baby is the funniest looking after birth. (Funny in a very, very adorable way of course!) When they are delivered, they cannot put their little legs down, so they have their legs basically straight up in the air. It's cute and silly looking, but could you imagine dressing and diapering one of those little ones?!

You can save a baby's life with a couple of fingers in the right place.

On of our instructors told us a story about a baby who was umbilical cord first. This is bad since the cord supplies necessary life support. The baby's head was crushing the cord, so the doctor just stuck his hand up there as if doing an exam and held the baby's head off the cord. Imagine, a woman being rushed to the OR as her doctor sits on the gurney with his hand holding up a baby! When they get to the OR, a nurse takes over, and holds the little head until the doctor has a grasp on the body.

I will probably have two cheesy, hairy babies.

When babies are born, they are covered in vernix. Vernix is a cheesy-like substance that protects them in utero. The earlier they arrive, the more vernix they will have. At a point in gestation, babies are also covered in a fine hair called lanugo. They lose this hair around 33 weeks or so and replace it with a much lighter finer hair that's far less noticeable. Hence, if my girls arrive early, they will be both hairy and cheesy.

Swaddling isn't so hard.

It's definitely not rocket science, and I'm very good at wrapping presents. It's like wrapping a wiggling burrito very tightly. I think I can do that!

Don't shake your newborn, your growing infant...or your toddler.

Shaken Baby Syndrome is possible up until age four! People are usually very aware of not shaking a baby, but people play rougher with older children. It's not going to stop me from having fun with my kids, but I will be very aware of the possibility.

The stinkiest part of a baby is her neck.

Babies have squishy little necks and breast milk, formula, spit up and whatever else likes to settle in the creases. Be sure to clean there. If you don't,  you'll nuzzle your baby and she'll smell like sour milk instead of baby goodness.

The Nursery, Part 1

It's time. Someone bought the futon a couple of weeks ago. The big dresser was moved into the closet, and we bought all the paint. Starting this past weekend, we began working on the nursery. I know there are far more important things to do when preparing for babies, but putting the nursery together is fun as well as useful. It's also one of the many things new parents can do to feel a real sense of accomplishment before the little ones arrive.

I don't know how many parts I will be sharing since I may have the patience to wait for the rest of the furniture. If that happens, then there will only be one sequel. But since we all know patience isn't really one of my attributes, this is probably part one of a trilogy.

We are not sharing the names with everyone just yet, so I've blocked out the name art on the wall. Also, if you would like to see any of the pictures bigger, you should be able to just click on them.

A money-saving tip for everyone out there--if you plan to do a mural or just highlight with some color, buy the sample paint. It costs just around $2 and you get high quality wall paint!

Since I'm not supposed to do a lot of painting (even though we bought no VOC Olympic paint from Lowes), Tim did most of the painting. I did some cutting in around the door as well as the details on the mural.

All the walls are in Vanilla Brandy. The bottom half  of the mural wall (the hills of the mural) are in Hot Chocolate. We definitely went for yummy colors. Plus I think the neutrals make all the bright colors pop more.

Here's the finished base--chocolatey hills with a vanilla sky.

Here's the beginning of the flowers. Without any buds, they look like corn stalks, don't they?

Cali was very wary of the tape ball Tim put on the closet door. As soon as it started to fall, she bolted!

The entire mural.

Showing Baby A her crib. :)

I really love the black crib against the wall colors.

Some mural details... plus the little red bird by the light switch.

Next post will hopefully have more decorations and maybe some bedding (ooooh, aaaaaah). My only concern at the moment is how well our big recliner is going to fit in the room. We may have to do a little re-thinking on the set-up, but we didn't go into this without a plan. We made sure all the pieces we have will fit, and we'll make them work!

What I Learned from Childbirth Class, Part 1

I do not get enough calcium or protein.

I need 5 servings a day of calcium for my twinkies. Five! I need to work on that one. I was drinking a lot of milk, but it kinda tapered off. Is that why I've been craving pizza? I usually get enough protein but we haven't bought groceries in awhile, and if we eat out, I tend to get vegetarian dishes. Must eat more meat (and peanut butter and beans and eggs)!

Even other pregnant women are amazed at twins.

I'm pretty sure I already knew this one, but it is very fascinating to be in a room full of pregnant women who still think I'm the interesting one.

I actually would like to wait on getting an epidural as long as possible.

Epidurals can slow the labor process. If you wait until your five centimeters or more, then it might not effect your labor as much.

I'm still not scared of labor.

After watching the birthing video and seeing those women in so much distress, I'm still good to go. I know it's going to hurt, but I also know that beautiful little wrinkly girls will come out of all that pain and distress. Check back with me when the actual labor starts, and then we'll discuss the fear.

Tim is a little scared of the labor.

All this time, we were thinking Tim might pass out from the upsurge of bodily fluids, but during the video, the actual birth didn't bother him so much. It was the last stage of labor that got him. So Tim and I both will have to work on deep breathing, focused relaxation, and partner encouragement. :)

I'm possibly going to look like a science experiment.

With twins, I'm going to have two fetal monitors. And since it's hard to keep up with who is who, I'm probably going to have one internal and one external monitor. Let's hope that I can still get up out of the bed with all that because...

I do not want to lie down for my entire labor.

Bed rest sucked. I am an active person. I want to walk, lean on Tim, pop a squat on a birthing ball--that kind of thing. Anything to keep gravity working in my favor for as long as I can before the girls arrive. Our instructors preached distraction from pain is the best way to get through the pain. Well, it's way harder to be distracted when you're lying down staring at the crappy tiled-ceiling above your hospital bed.