Saturday, March 26, 2011

Brandon's baptism

This morning my wonderful boy was baptized. It's surreal knowing that I have an eight year old. The baptism was beautiful and I cried lots of tears during the confirmation. I am so proud of my sweet boy and know that he knows he made the right choice and that he was able to feel the Spirit. He is a very special boy and he sees the world in a way others don't. We are very blessed to be his parents.

Now that the baptism is over, I can also breathe a sigh of relief that the girls decided to stay put and not mess up their soon to be big brother's big day. We got through all the stuff we had to get through and now we just wait some more for them to arrive. They'll be with us within a week, most likely.

Heavenly Father is so good to us. He hears our prayers and knew that it wouldn't work out well if the girls came just before or during Brandon's baptism. We are truly grateful that He allowed Brandon to have his special day before the girls arrived. This way it's his day and not getting pushed to the side like I was worried about if we had to reschedule.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Still Waiting

We bought carseats, an extra crib, girly crib bedding, and preemie prefolds/covers. Then we moved the changing table dresser downstairs and got the nursery all ready. Since then we've been waiting and waiting and waiting. We are still waiting for the girls to arrive.

We were so prepared for them to be born early in the next few weeks after meeting Kendra that it feels like it's been longer than it has. It's been just over a month since we met Kendra and learned that she wanted to place the twins with our family. It won't be too much longer before they join our family,though. She will be induced in a couple weeks if they haven't come on their own. Her OB told her that they won't let her go over 38 weeks, so I assume that means she'd actually be induced next week sometime as she'll be 37 weeks on Saturday.

It's so strange to have to continue life as normal knowing that we could change any plans we have real quick. I'm scheduled to volunteer at the Scrapbook Expo this Friday to earn volunteer hours at Spectrum. I volunteered to do it with the stipulation I might have to cancel at the last minute. Then Brandon's baptism is Saturday morning. That may end up being rescheduled depending on when the twins decide to be born. At this point, I hope they decide to stay in until after Brandon's baptism. It's too close for comfort for them to be born before. I'm not sure how Brandon would feel having to have it rescheduled. He had a meltdown when I had tried asking him about possibly changing it before. Let's hope it'll all work out.

It's really amazing that Kendra was having preterm labor and had to get shots to stop her labor and now that it's okay for them to be born, they have decided to stay put. Pretty ironic, but I've heard it's actually pretty common. So, for the time being, we are still waiting...

Oh and in case you didn't notice, I created a guess when the twins will be born thing. It's on the right hand side of the blog under our picture. Click it and make your guess.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Two sweet girls and their birth mother

As we continue our journey of adoption after being matched, I am continuously amazed at how wonderful our birth mother is. We text almost daily and she truly wants what's best for the girls and she has our interests on her mind as well.

The one morning I got a text from her telling us that she'd been thinking and that she's okay with us naming the girls. We would name them regardless, but to know that she feels like we should name them is truly wonderful. At that point we had already decided what their names will be. One will be Emma Noelle and the other Ellie Jayne. We haven't decided if the first one out will for sure be one or the other.

Then this past Monday, she sent a text letting us know that labor may be soon as she lost her plug. I'm not sure if she knows a pregnant woman can lose their mucus plug and have it reform many times before labor actually begins, but it shows that labor is near. Since she feels like it'll be soon, within the next week is what she's guessing, I asked her if she wanted us to be there for the the labor/delivery or if she wanted us to wait until after to come. She texted, "They are your girls, too, so it only feels right for you to be there." I about cried when I read that.


Yesterday I got to go to an ultrasound with her. She asked me to come early because she had other appointments as well prior to the ultrasound and wanted to make sure I'd be with her when it was time.

I got to sit with her as she had a NST. Never having had to have one of those before, I didn't know exactly what it involved. Pretty much it's just monitoring the baby's heartbeats for about twenty minutes. The silly girls were very active and were not happy to have the monitors on them. They kept kicking at them and moving all over the place. One of them got the hiccups during it. Kendra and I just talked about random stuff as we waited for the test to be done with.

Then it was time for the ultrasound. We got to see the girls moving around. One of the girls was facing the wrong way and was too low to really get a good look at her face. The other one I got a profile shot of her. She kept moving her hand up in front of her face, so while we got to see her in 4D, there was never a time that they could print a picture of it. I'm so excited to meet my sweet girls. They both have hair which will be interesting since both of the boys were bald when they were babies.



They did an estimate on their weights. One is just under 4lbs and the other is about 6 ounces heavier being over 4lbs a bit. The doctor said that they are both a good size for the gestational age and that they are growing well. They are both head down ready to go and at this point they won't stop labor.

Kendra texted me later yesterday and said that she forgot to tell me that she's planning pumping and freezing the milk for us to be able to feed the girls with. I hadn't talked to her about that at all and to have her offer to do so was just amazing. I have a friend who had already offered to donate breast milk whenever we adopted, so to know that their own birth mother wants them to have that as well was just wonderful.

I don't want Kendra to feel so empty after placing, so I've made her a quilt. Awhile back I had found some Supergirl fabric that I bought knowing I'd use it for a birth mother blanket when the time came. It took a long time to complete it, but it is now ready to go. I'm also going to take the boys to Build a Bear and have them each make a bear to give Kendra. She's excited that the girls will have big brothers so it's only right that they give her something to show their thanks.