Early Halloween Fun

Last week Marbles held a special family fun night for families of special needs and abilities. Since the March of Dimes was a sponsor, we were invited as a March of Dimes family. The girls were very excited to debut their Halloween costumes at this special event.

Classic Lily - I caught her in mid-fall off the bouncy ball.

Madeleine channelling Ariel as she sings "Flippin your fins, you don't get too far..."

The event was very well-attended and it seemed pretty crowded compared to our weekend visits in the past. They also showed an IMAX movie for free for anyone who wanted to go, but the girls were happy to play downstairs all night.

Playing catch up - birthdays

For the girls' fifth birthday, we had a party at a local gymnastics school. We recently switched day cares, so we had a good mix of old and new friends in attendance. Since starting at their new school they've been attending gymnastics weekly and have really loved going.

The kids spent about 50 minutes going through floor routines, the bars, the big foam pit thing, and the trampoline. But the highlight for the girls was getting to wear the harness and flip in the air like a fairy.

Hard to believe my little girls are already five!

A post five years in the making

Today my little girls are five. No longer babies anymore, they are truly young ladies. They have been for some time, but this age thing makes it seem more official.

October 6, 2005 was my third day at UNC Hospitals. I knew the girls were coming that day, but had no idea when. Finally around 9am they came to get me and take me to L&D. That may seem early, but days in the hospital started at 6.

They put me in a laboring room to wait for prep for the OR. I was there for three hours. The only person who checked in on us was a med student who asked if we would participate in her nausea study. Apparently we'd been delayed due to an emergency.

Around noon, our nurse arrived and seemed annoyed we hadn't started the paperwork yet. But then things got started. I got into the OR and got my anesthesia. Dr. Strauss walked in and said, "so why am I cutting you?" He read the file and got down to business.

12:44 pm. Lily arrives. All I see is a tiny hand above the curtain before they whisk her away to the other room.

12:46 pm. After a lot of tugging, Madeleine arrives. They take her to the exam area to my left where I can see her surrounded by nurses. They wrap her, bring her over so I can see her, and take her out the door.

That would be the last I would see of them on their birthday. I headed to recovery while they headed to the NICU. They spent a few hours on CPAP, but were off it by the evening.

I was totally out of it pretty much into the next morning.

Happy Birthday Lily and Madeleine! You have been such a joy to me. Thank you for letting me be your mommy. I can't wait to see what the next five years bring!

5 Years Ago...

I was admitted to the hospital to have my girls.

That Monday started out like any other. Work with a noon appointment at Rex for my twice-weekly BPP ultrasound. They did measurements, blood flow, etc. Then we waited for the girls to show "breathing." Madeleine was fine, but Lily wasn't moving her diaphragm. We tried for close to 20 minutes to stimulate her with loud noises, movement, etc. No go.

The ultrasound tech called Dr. Ivester in. He tried for a bit but was unsuccessful as well. Then he looked at me and said, "It's time."

Inside I screamed, "Noooooooooo! We need two more weeks!" He said he was on duty on Tuesday, so he wanted me to get to the hospital for a pitocin drip. He was going to induce labor. Again , "Nooooooo!" I'd figured on a c-section the whole time and totally didn't pay attention in birthing class.

Then the tech leaned in and pointed out that I was only 33w3d. He'd thought I was almost 35 weeks, not 34. That changed things. So, instead he wanted us to go to UNC to do another NST.

We went home, packed a bag just in case, and headed up to L&D at UNC. They hooked me up to to the monitors, and everything was just fine. Eric and I started discussing where in Chapel Hill we were going to go to dinner. I think we'd decided on Tyler's Tap Room in Carrboro.

As the resident was checking me out, I asked her about the possibility for leaking fluid. For the last month or so, I'd felt wet after using the bathroom. I'd talked to the other women in my birthing class about it as well as Dr. Ivester, but since it was only occasional, they didn't think it was anything.

She said it was an easy test, so we checked it. When she came in with the results, I knew we weren't going anywhere. I'd failed two of the three tests. They admitted me to L&D and started the first of two steriod shots. The plan was that I would have the girls after the shots.

Dr. Ruma was on duty that night, and he came in with his contingent of residents to evaluate the situation. With Madeleine (Baby B) being transverse, he'd prefer a c-section if I needed to deliver while he was on duty. So with that, I felt we were good for delivery on Thursday.

Model perfect

If you've already seen these, please feel free to move along. We took the girls to Portrait Innovations for their five year-old pictures this weekend. I swore I wasn't going to buy as much as in the past since they also have school pictures this week, but I did.

Their photographer was Ryan, and of course the girls thought he was super funny. I LOVE Lily in the picture below because that is such a natural smile for her.


There was a family there with 18-month old triplet boys. Two of the three boys totally melted down, and I really felt for the parents. I remember how hard that two year shoot was when they were mobile and not really into listening. I had my parents there for reinforcements and was still exhausted after the hour-long shoot.

But now it takes us about 20 minutes, even with two outfit changes.

Bragging on my girl

When I dropped the girls off at daycare this morning, their teacher wanted to show me something. Apparently they've been discussing morse code and the symbols for each of the letters. During free time, Lily spelled out her name correctly in morse code from memory.

Now, she's probably since forgotten it, but I'm glad she was interested enough to work on it in free time too.

Madeleine also talked to me about it, but just SOS specifically. I guess I need to brush up.

Roller Coaster....of love

Lily was singing this song all weekend. They apparently played it at her gymnastics class last week, but it totally describes our crazy weekend.

Saturday morning we went shopping at Old Navy because I realized we didn't have any light jackets and it was chilly. They have nice coordinating things, so the girls look similar but not matchy-matchy.

In the afternoon we went to the fair at Saint Rapheal Church in North Raleigh. I remember going when we first moved here and thought the girls would like the rides.

I think we're almost to a point where they're outgrowing the kiddie rides. They got bored on some fairly quickly, but the Scrambler and the roller coaster were more exciting. They also had more fun on rides where they sat together rather than alone.

Sunday afternoon was Nixon's birthday party at Davis Drive park. Nixon's mom had an animal educator bring out 8 animals for the kids to touch and learn about. She had a rabbit, a python, a turtle, a blue-tongued skink, two frogs, a tarantula, an opossum, a hedgehog, and hissing Madagascar cockroaches. It was an all-girls party, and I was surprised that almost everyone wanted to touch even the slimiest animals.

Lily checks out the tarantula.

I don't have a lot of pictures of Madeleine with the animals since she was on the other side. But she was super thrilled to hang out with her friends from her old class at EPLC.