[ICUwishing]

Jessica, that's gotta be scary as heck, but it doesn't sound like there could be any better spot to be while you wait this out! I'll be thinking good wishes and hoping you get a lot of sleep and boredom in the bank while you have the chance!

steph, your situation is a tough one. I would offer up that mulching the garden (or at least the critical spots of it that sound manageable) might give you a dose of hope/renewal - while things are difficult right now, there will be a point where you're able to stop and breathe, and nurturing the life in your garden could give you a focus point on the future.

novangel, welcome to the maintenance chat! I really enjoy your posts on the support threads. Agreed, it has been a stupidly long winter. I've been through the career change wringer, so I can appreciate how it eats your life and makes everything else a lower priority. However ... when so many things are out of your control, your routine is a lifebuoy. Grab back on to it!

I am a long way from being a serious runner, but Saucony is the only shoe made (that I know of) that has a heel narrow enough, and a toe box wide enough, to accomodate my weird feet. I think I've gone through about eight pairs - though only a couple due to running!

krampus, I hope the run turned your mood around. I've never been sorry that I went for a run - only sorry that I don't do more of it.

saef, I love tiger maple! Is it a natural finish that lets that glorious grain show?

chris, I dislodged myself from my groove and am dodging the carb demons (my vision of them is that they are crispy and salt-encrusted, or hoppy with great legs) that are trying to keep me from getting back into it. Cheers, with a toast of sparkling water with lemon, to taking back the groove!

I woke up feeling "moose-y" today. It's casual Friday so I am indulging my desire to schlumph in relaxed-fit jeans and a relaxed-fit tunic, as I don't have to meet with anybody and likely won't move too far from my desk. DS has already declared that tonight is a run night, bless his heart.

[Vex]

Jessica - The exact same thing happened to me at 24 weeks and I lasted until 25 until an infection forced labor. Let me tell you every single extra week that you can stand lying there will do worlds of good for your baby. Don't be afraid, technology is so advanced at this point that the outcome for early births have been really amazing.

[alinnell]

Jessica~so sorry for the unexpected turn of events for your pregnancy. But the medications they give you to mature the babies do work. I have a friend who was in the hospital on bed rest with her triplets and got that stuff. I think she was there 3 weeks before she suddenly started bleeding and they did an emergency c-section. All the babies were fine and didn't need to stay in the NICU for very long. Had it been different--if she had been home and not getting those medications and had started bleeding and needed the c-section--the babies would have been worse off. Take care! We'll all be sending good mojo your way!

novangel~sorry for all your job stress! I hope you get the chance to get back to the gym. Beating yourself up mentally and wanting to sleep all the time will be wiped out by a good gym session.

DH and I are golfing in a charity tournament today. Challenge will be all the food. Ruth's Chris Steak House is catering lunch (hoping for salad but imagining big sandwiches). Buffalo Wild Wings is just one of the restaurants offering goodies on the course. A local restaurant is catering dinner (usually a big buffet). Sure I'll get some exercise (not as much as my usual game where we walk the course). I did use my Endomondo app on my phone the other day to see how far I walk when we walk our short course. 2.7 miles if I remember correctly. That's not too bad, but today we'll be riding in a golf cart and doing less walking (which will be fine as the temperature should hit 95).

[traveling michele]

Jessica-- I will be thinking of you and praying for you and those girls-- hang in there!!

My water started leaking at 24 weeks. I was put in the hospital and told I would be there until delivery. After a few days, I was stable though still leaking. I begged to be allowed to go home and I did and stayed on complete bedrest until I delivered at 38 weeks. Because my water hadn't totally broke (I still had enough fluid), my situation was very different but very stressful. We were so afraid dd would be born at 24 weeks. Your girls will do fine even if they are born soon. You've done a great job taking care of them. Your hubby can take care of you and Carter. Have hubby bring you some foods you want/crave and just try to enjoy your time off. When I was on bedrest it was before the internet-- we didn't have cable TV even-- I was bored silly!!

[Shannon in ATL]

Jessica - thinking about you and the girls. I was born at right around 31 weeks, and that was 40 years ago when we weren't as advanced. I'm just fine. They can do great things with early babies now. I have faith.

[paperclippy]

Thanks for the encouragement everyone, and especially the success stories of early births. We've made it through the first 48 hours, so the steroids and the IV meds they gave me have had time to work their magic. I had my last IV antibiotics a few hours ago and am now just on oral antibiotics. Also, we didn't lose all of baby A's fluid, just some of it, so while it is still kind of in a slow leak she seems to be doing fine when they monitor her. Baby B still has fully intact membranes. In any case today makes 31 weeks, so now we'll count down the days to 32 when a lot of the risks go way down.

The nurses tell me that there's another woman pregnant with twins in here who has been in the hospital for six weeks! It's kind of twins day today since they also had two additional sets born, one in the room next to me.

[Steph7409]

Jessica, I didn't see your earlier post until just now. Good luck! I'm glad you're in such a great facility. Tell those girls it's not warm enough to come out yet.

[saef]

Jessica, forgive me, but this is like watching a batch of something sitting on an oven rack, which means I am hoping those twins come out nicely baked.

Are you actually posting from a hospital bed, or are you at home in bed, with your bags packed on standby for a hospital trip? How are you feeling, I mean physically -- your state of mind is pretty clear -- with all those steroids going into you? Are they the kind that would, as a side effect, enable you to lift a truck if Carter or your husband were threatened in any way?

I can't believe how appropriate it is that you're giving birth in this season. You're like one of those beautiful old magnolia trees that I drove past in Bucks County, PA, in the yards of the old fieldstone farmhouses. Each tree gave me a moment of happiness, to see it blossoming so richly, when the air is so chilly & the breeze is still capable of cutting a little. Same with you -- it's an early flowering for you, a bit ahead of the season.

I am wishing the best outcome for you.

Can't help thinking of Carter running around the house, relocating toys. To allay his own fears, maybe? Dagmar would have more inside into expressions of canine anxiety and self-comfort.

[ChrisMohr]

Thinking of you Jessica and wishing you two healthy babies!!

[paperclippy]

Saef, I am posting from a hospital bed. DH brought me my laptop and the hospital has free internet. I don't think I'll be lifting any trucks any time soon, but I do believe they were corticosteroids so they are at least related to those kind. I don't know that I've felt any physical effects from the steroid shots. The magnesium sulfate they had me on for 24 hours was awful though, by the end of it I could barely move my arms and I couldn't eat because chewing was too difficult. I'm so glad that's over with now!

Right now the main problem is just trying to get comfortable. I'm having trouble breathing just because the babies are getting big enough to get in the way of my diaphragm and lungs, so if I lay back then I can't breathe, but if I sit up then my butt and hips and back start to hurt. I don't know that that has anything to do with being in the hospital or it would have happened anyway. It's hard to imagine that there's room for the babies to get much bigger but theoretically they should be capable of doubling in size from where they are now, though I doubt we'll get that far.

[bargoo]

Jessica, so happy that you are keeping all us aunties and uncles posted, sorry for your discomfort and hoping the time will go fast and we will soon hear that two beautiful and healthy babies are here.

[Steph7409]

Originally Posted by paperclippy

...theoretically they should be capable of doubling in size from where they are now

Yikes. Try to get comfortable!

I feel like all I do here is whine so I just stopped by to say I had a great day today. I bought 7 bags of mulch (half of what I need) and managed to get them through my house and into the yard (I live in a row house so that's the only way) without pulling a muscle. I'll get the rest tomorrow and maybe spread it next weekend.

And then I visited my dad, who is showing some real improvement physically. He can maneuver around in his wheelchair pretty well and used the bathroom unassisted this morning (against the rules!). He still has a lot of mental confusion but he's getting better.

After that, I went for a walk with a friend and managed 3 miles before my leg started to bother me. It was a beautiful day and it was great to be outside. And then on the way home I stopped at a new pizza place nearby to try it out - YUM. It's an old railroad car (used to be a diner) so it's very small and quaint, and I really enjoyed my slice and the atmosphere. I topped it off with a lemon-glazed sugar cookie that just might be the best cookie I've ever had.

And now I'm working on a new beading project, so all in all it's been the best day I've had in a long time. I hope everyone else is having a great weekend!

[Shannon in ATL]

Steph - I'm so glad you had a good day yesterday, you need it. glad your dad is doing well, also.

Jessica - i bet that would be happening wherever you were, but maybe at the hospital they can help you with positions to alleviate some of it. I'm glad you and the babies are doing well and hanging in there.

I'm feeling particularly whiney and irritable today, so instead of talking about it and fussing I'm going to talk about furniture instead. Both of my father's parents have passed away - my grandmother in 2001 and my grandfather in 2005. Grandaddy remarried. A few years ago she decided to sell the house that they had bought and gave me some of my Grandmother's furniture - a blue chair, side table and lamp. They were my Meemw's reading furniture that she kept in her fancy sitting room. I sit and read in it a lot. Now my aunt is selling her office condo and fully retiring, and that was where my Meemaw's cedar chest was kept. My aunt doesn't have room for it anymore so I got it. It needs some restoration work and a little love to clean it up. It makes me happy to have it. I learned that it was how my grandparents met. Grandaddy was working on at a furniture store when he came home from the war and doll my grandmother that chest. It was love at first sight. The chest lived most of its early life in my dad's bedroom - they lived in a small house and dad was the only one with room space for it. His two sisters shared a room. Dad says most of the scratches on top are from him - he used it as a platform to build radios and circuit boards on, used it as a racetrack for cars, used it as an occasional step to get out the window as a teen sneaking out... The lock is broken because he picked it so many times that it got damaged and they had to take the latch mechanism off. I'm tempted to leave it as is and just clean it some - the scratches all have memories attached. It makes me happy.

[Shannon in ATL]

I have a ficus tree with white lights on it to the left of the table now, so I have a little reading nook going on. Made my own fancy spot out of it.




Every time I've walked past the chest for the last two weeks I've teared up. I figure that will happen for a little while.

[alinnell]

That cedar chest looks a lot like the one my Mom had and gave to me. I did try to restore it and failed miserably. I ended up "selling" it for like $50 to someone who only wanted to for sweater storage. I do remember playing in and around it as a child and loving "exploring" the interior. I don't remember much more than my Mom's wedding dress which she got rid of long before she gave me the chest.