Starting the process....

It's truly a miracle thinking of the past year.

Our first appointment with Fertility Care occurred November 30th. That was the first time we met Dr. Trolice and his team. From there, we took a month journey of testing and scans. Brian tested, I tested, we all chatted. Everything checked out for all of us, besides the fact of my PCOS.

Then, at the beginning of January, we started clomid, soy isoflavones, trigger shot (ovidrel), and progesterone. And we thought after clomid that our chances were over because of the eggs not developing.

Lo and behold, now we have 2 beautiful, beyond anything we could ever imagine, girls!

As I was driving to Brian's work yesterday, I thought about September 21st, the day we had our girls. I started tearing up thinking of how I felt when I heard Emily's cry as soon as she was "pulled out" of me. Just a sense of relief when I knew my baby girl had lived 38 weeks inside of me and I could finally meet her. Then 1 minute later, Allison came out. She didn't make a sound so I had to ask if everything was okay. When the doctors said she was fine, my world was perfect. Brian, Emily, Allison, and I were a family starting at 12:43 in the operating room!

It's crazy that we started our conception journey a year ago, spent 8 1/2 months baking our girls, and now have had them for almost 3 months!

Every day is something new. I still have to remind myself that I'm raising twins. It's truly amazing. There isn't just one of them, there's two individual personalities, two human beings, two to take care of! Looking back, I don't know how I do it, hah ;-).

The past few days (a little over a week now), I had a sore throat and stuffy nose. Nothing terrible, a mere tickle. I took medicine immediately to conquer it. The day I got over it, Allison started with a stuffy nose. Her minor cold stayed for a day, but now peanut number one, Emily, has a runny nose. Poor thing. I'm sure she'll get better shortly as my breastmilk has antibodies in it.

The girls are smiling up a storm at us. Allison especially is SOOOO responsive to us. If daddy or mommy just look at her she starts smiling and giggling. Oh it melts my heart. Emily takes a while to warm up to anyone. She tries to hold her smiles back, she likes to sleep and stare off into space...not be reactive to us. It's okay because we have a few good ones of her.

Both girls love it when I sing Chi Omega yours forever to them. They both smile and light up. It's awesome. I have a video of it with Allison. I'll post it once I edit the video ;-)

We've been busy. Girl shopping days with Merideth, church, DC Christmas party, shopping, returning clothes (hah). I love taking the girls out, they love being out so much! We can just go shopping all the time. :)

The one thing they hate, is taking real "family" photos. We tried to do family pictures for Christmas. Yeah, it didn't work. One girl would look one way, the other down, one would start to fidget or cry, the other would do the opposite. So, we MAY give it one more shot, but if not, oh well. If it doesn't work, we're not sending out Christmas cards. If it does work, then maybe YOU will get a Quigley Christmas card in the mail! :)

I'll leave you with some pictures from the past few months.. :)

From the way they are positioned, I'd say they're identical, they always lay in the same position! ...We're getting a DNA test after the New Year! Allison on left, Emily on right.

Emily's BIG smile!

Emily again, I <3 her smile!

Allison says, "Be very very quiet, I'm hunting a rabbit"

Allison's flirty smile! She just hams it up for the camera!!

See Emily does smile at us...we just have to jump up and down and make silly noises!

All of us before the MOPS Christmas meeting!

These beautiful girls are often linking arms, holding hands, or kicking each other. I LOVE these outfits...thanks Ragsdale family!

Emily smirking...sporting Ms. Meri Mac's bows....http://missmerimacs.com/

Allison sporting the bow too!

<3 the Quigley's

7 weeks!

Well, it has been an eventful 7 weeks! It's so hard to believe that our girls at 7 weeks old, where has the time gone?

The girls have gotten so much bigger. At our last appointment, back in October, Emily was 9 pounds 1 ounce and Allison was 7 pounds 13 ounces. I'm sure they are both well over 10 pounds now! We go for our 2 month check up at the end of November. We will see how much they weigh then. They also have to get their shots. :( No fun. Brian can't take off work for the appointment, so I asked my dad to come with me. Hopefully he can. I don't want to deal with 2 crying babies after they both have their shots. :(

I went for my 6 week post check up on Monday. Everything checked out normal and I can go back to doing everything normal. Which I was doing everything normally prior to the okay, oops! :)

A lot has happened in the past month.
The girls had their first photo shoot... Sandra Johnson Photography came over to the house when they were a week old. She set up shop in our room and took pictures of the girls. They're absolutely beautiful. Take a peek:

 We've had lots of visitors...

The girls had their first Halloween:

 Allison:

 Emily:

We've gone to birthday parties...

We've ventured into the world of Moby. The girls love it...but they love doing it alone, LOL. 

We also had our own family pumpkin patch photographs!

We've started to get a schedule down with the girls. They are starting to stay awake more during the day so they can sleep better at night. 

Allison has been sleeping 6 hours for the past few days. We've been giving her the last feeding around 11:30-12:00, then she won't wake up til 6-6:30. Emily on the other hand continues to wake up every 3 hours. It's not so bad because she wakes up half asleep, eats, and then will fall back asleep. So instead of me staying up for an hour (15-20 minute feeding for Emily, 15-20 minute feeding for Allison, 15-20 minutes of pumping). I pump while I feed Emily and bam, done, I stay up for only 15-20 minutes at 3 am. It's pretty nice! 

Soon we're going to start letting Emily cry through the 3 am feeding. Just let her self-soothe with a pacifer and then feed her at 6. She's just our big girl, so I know she'll always want to eat..But after discussing it with other moms of multiples and moms, I don't want our daughter continuing to wake up at 2 years old for a middle of the night feeding.

So that's about all that's been up with us. We are excited for the holidays to come upon us. I'll be making more bows, buying Christmas outfits, and we'll have another photography session!

Stay tune for more updates! :)

Labor & Delivery

 A lot has happened since my 30 week update! As many of you know, I had my babies! It has been one wild ride from 34 weeks until now! So get buckled in and let's ride down memory lane...

The past 7 weeks of pregnancy were pretty normal. It wasn't until 37 weeks that I felt my belly was stretched to its max, I wasn't getting enough sleep or getting comfortable, and just ready to have my babies.

From 32 weeks, I started having weekly NSTs (non-stress tests) on my girls. Basically, I went into Winnie Palmer, they hooked up each baby for about 30-45 minutes to listen to their heart beat, and then went home. Each week the girls have done a wonderful job. Their heartbeats rose and fell at a regular rate.

Starting around week 33/34, Dr. Merritt continued to ask us about c-section vs natural birth. We were adamant about having a natural birth. She was fine with that but wanted to let us know that many doctors at the practice would not deliver a breached baby and we may have to have a natural and c-section delivery depending on the situation. We knew the potential dangers.

At 35 weeks, we received our last ultrasound. The tech said that Baby A - Emily - was about 6 pounds (5 pounds 8 ounces) and Baby B - Allison - was about 7 pounds (6 1/2 pounds). Allison was still breached. After much discussion with Brian, prayer for the "right" decision, and consideration....we decided to go with a scheduled c-section, for 37 weeks. Originally, after talking with Dr. Merritt, the hospital had Thursday, 9/20 available for a scheduled c-section. However, it wasn't confirmed. The next day we received a phone call saying that 9/20 didn't work out with Winnie Palmer, but 9/21 at 1:30 was available. We had it set...until a few days later when they moved the time to 12:30 on the same day.

I continued to work for 2 weeks. It was interesting having an official "end" date - if the girls didn't come sooner on their own. I wasn't too nervous and it truly didn't hit me until the Thursday before.

Nothing really happened from week 36 to week 37. My stomach grew larger, my feet continued to swell, bedtime was uncomfortable. Except one big thing...

The Wednesday before my c-section I had a "scare." As I was walking in the supply room at work, I had some water trickle down my leg. Well, after having numerous people come surround me, the nurse determined that was normal and my water had not broken. Which was fine with me, because at that moment, I don't think I was mentally ready for babies. I had started to prep myself for Friday, no sooner.

Thursday came and went, I had my pre-op appointment in the morning and that was about it. At my pre-op appointment, I was told to be at the hospital at 10:30 and eat nothing after 2:30 am.

Brian and I went to bed around 11 on Thursday, in preparation of waking up at 8:30 the next morning. The last thing I ate was around 10, big mistake. I really wish I had ate something at 2:30, but I knew little of what was to come the next day.

We woke up Friday morning refreshed. We got ready, Brian was able to eat breakfast...I just brushed my teeth. I wasn't even allowed to drink water, so the water to brush my teeth had to suffice. After putting antiseptic on my stomach to prep for surgery, we got dressed and ready to go. We packed our car with everything we needed for the weekend (assuming we were only going to be in the hospital until Sunday or Monday).

We arrived at the hospital right at 10:30, we were a little late because as we drove (right as we got onto the 408 and paid a toll), we realized that we didn't have Brian's license, our phone chargers, and a few other items. We turned around, picked up these items, and then started our journey again.

After checking in to the front desk, we were instructed to go to level 2, Labor and Delivery floor. Brian (patiently) and I (nervously) waited in the waiting room. I was quite nervous while waiting. I had never been a patient in the hospital, let alone, have to go through surgery and have my stomach sliced open. It was quite comforting seeing Pastor Mike walk through the elevator doors. He had come to talk with us and pray before the operation began. What a great feeling to know that so many people were praying for us and our girls that mid-morning/early afternoon.

The nurse called me back to the room. She asked a few questions before having me change into my gown. After changing, I walked back to my preparation pod. The nurse hooked up both babies to a monitor, the exact monitors that I used every time I had my NSTs. The nurse gave me an IV for fluids, checked my blood pressure, and did a few other prep work items. Putting the IV in hurt the most, I still have a little mark from where it was. :(

A soon while after, the anesthesiologist came in. They discussed how things would go for getting my epidural.  I got my epidural, it wasn't that painful. Actually, the IV hurt more than the epidural. The only scary part was that they said I should feel a tingle down either my left side or my right side....well I felt the tingle down both sides. so they kept asking me if I could feel things and how I was doing. I started numbing right away, so I don't know why I felt tingling down both sides of my back.

Dr. Merritt had called the nurse to see if we could start at 12:00 instead of 12:30. I love an efficient doctor. :) Well, the nurse said she wouldn't necessarily be ready at 12:30, but 12:15. Dr. Merritt arrived shortly after calling the nurse. It was great seeing her. I thanked her for doing the c-section because seeing her truly calmed me down. She made a joke about texting her parents. We talked about why she had to text both of her parents even though she knows they are sitting right next to each other. She has such wonderful bedside manner, I couldn't ask for a better doctor.

We entered the surgery room at 12:19. I love that there's a big clock as you enter the operating room. There were about 15 people in the freezing, cold room. They moved me from the bed I was in to the operating table. This was the only point in time that Brian was not with me. They had to prep me first and then bring him in.

Thankfully the nurses didn't have to tie me down to the table. After all was prepped, Brian came in. The nurses/doctors did a "time out" and stated the procedure, time, etc. Then we started.

Emily was "taken" out at 12:42. We heard her cry and it was so relieving. I only felt a bit of pressure when Dr. Merritt (I assume) was taking out Emily. She was our chunky one, weighing 7 pounds 8 ounces.
Allison was "taken" out at 12:43. She didn't make a sound while being taken out. And truly, I didn't feel any pressure when she was taken out. Allison weighed 6 pounds 3 ounces. Both babies scored a 9 on the apgar test when they were taken to be with the nurses.

Both babies were able to stay with us in the operating room. Brian snapped pictures all the way along. The girls did great and I'm so glad they weren't whisked away to the nursery or NICU. They put Emily on my chest first. I hugged her beautiful self, as much as I could. Then they brought Allison. We took a family shot together. It was beyond beautiful. Both girls were as perfect as could be. Then they let daddy hold the girls. :) More pictures were taken.

Then finally they started stitching me up and took the girls to the nursery. Brian went up with the girls.

While they were stitching me up, we were all talking about crazy things. We were listening to the music playing in the OR and Dr. Scott (Dr. Merritt's assistant, another OB at the practice) tried to name the song and artist....which then got into a discussion about the game Song Pop, which lead into a discussion about dead singers. This was about the time that I started feeling sick, then felt nauseous, then felt hungry. Dr. Merritt made a joke about how I went through all those feelings within about 3 minutes. My anesthesiologist gave me some medicine to help the nausea feeling go away, but by the time he gave it to me I felt hungry instead.

I was wheeled back into my pod where Brian came back down to visit me.  He said the girls were doing wonderfully and in the nursery. They were running some tests on the girls and we'd be back upstairs soon. Prior to the surgery, the nurse who was prepping me did inform me that there were woman who had not received a room yet that had their babies that morning. She said it would be a wait before receiving a room and only 5 babies were allowed on that floor (due to the number of nurses on that floor). I expected to wait, probably be in my little pod until 3 or 4...no problem...it was around 1:30 at that time. Plus, they said I would have to wait to move until I could move my legs....Well, when I was wheeled back into my pod I could already move my toes....by 1:30 I could lift my legs. I was recovering and wearing off from the anesthesia a lot faster than anticipated.

Well, needless to say, 2:30 came and went. I was moved into a different pod. This pod was more of a "recovery" pod instead of a "prepping" pod. Since there were so many girls on that floor they lifted the no more than 5 babies rule. They brought the girls to me. I was over the moon! Brian and I got to spend some time together, but then that is when people started to trickle in. Brian was able to give up his purple (VIP) tag and give it to other people so they could see me and the babies. I am so blessed that so many people stopped by to see me. That definitely kept my spirits high, considering I was moving no where fast out of my pod.

Due to overcrowding in the postpartum rooms, many women were kept in the recovery pods that evening. The worse part about being stuck in the recovery room...no food was allowed. It was miserable. The nurses could see I was hungry, I mean I hadn't eaten since 10:30 the night before, it was over 12 hours later...thankfully the nurses were able to get me fruit punch with ice chips. The ice chips are soft, not the crunchy square ones...so it was almost like eating an icee.

Around 8:15 the hospital FINALLY moved me to a postpartum room. Some of my family and Brian's family came to visit us...when they ran some of my vitals the nurse and tech discovered I had high blood pressure. High as in 160s - 170s. The nurse wanted our families to leave. This is when I had my major melt down. Of course I had high blood pressure, I had been in recovery ALL day, had NOTHING to eat, and I was being moved from one floor to the next. I didn't want our families to leave, they had been waiting all day to see the girls.

Unfortunately, everyone had to leave except Brian. The nurse had to check my blood pressure every hour. And we kept the girls in the room with us. Allison slept wonderfully that evening, Emily not so much. Whatever we did for her would not soothe her. I ended up keeping her in my lap and falling asleep (oops, that's against postpartum rules...no sleeping with your child in the bed).

My blood pressure continued to rise and fall throughout my whole stay at the hospital. I am on blood pressure medication now because of it. :(

Our weekend in the hospital was fine. Nothing too exciting happened. We had many family and friends help and visit us. I enjoyed eating food that I didn't have to clean up afterwards...and room service always asked if I wanted dessert with my meal (um yes, cherry pie!!).

Brian did a wonderful job helping me up out of bed, lifting the girls up, being my support system. Brian and I both said you don't realize what you need to "do" in the hospital as the husband. I never imagined him having to do certain things that are part of life (part of recovery from surgery and recovery from being pregnant) that he jumped into doing without complaining or making an "ew gross" expression. We both agree that we love each other more and more every day. The bond of these two girls and just going through the past 9 months (and more, since we struggled with fertility) has just grown tremendously. Sigh, I love him. I can't wait til he comes home (today was his first day back at work).

By the end of the weekend, nurses weren't even considering us going home on Sunday. We dealt with that.

By Monday morning, the doctor on call said she wasn't sending us home Monday. Frustration hit again! Emily had elevated levels of jaundice. I had elevated blood pressure levels. We just felt like we would all heal and get better at home. But no, nurses and doctors refused. I was walking around since Saturday afternoon, I had limited my pain medication since Sunday early AM, why was I being held "hostage?"

After accepting the fact that our family wasn't going home, we decided to just deal with it. We "went out" to eat down to the first floor. We left the girls in the nursery and had a little date. We walked around the cafe (and got to pick an assortment of food), we went to the gift shop...It was nice. :)

We finally got released on Tuesday afternoon. Everyone was released by 5 o'clock Tuesday. We were driving home and on the road by 6 and arrived home at 6:30.

Being at home has been amazing. We are all adjusting well! This past week Brian stayed at home. It has been wonderful growing and fostering our family this week. Having an extra pair of hands is extremely helpful. My pain levels have been next to none. I pretty much only take 1 pill a day and most of the time its either when I go to sleep or right as I wake up. I'm hoping that by Wednesday I'll be off pain meds, then I can drive!

Our family has truly appreciated everyone bringing us meals, lending a helping hand, or sending out encouragement via facebook, text messages, and e-mails. We can't thank you all enough! God is truly faithful  and taking care of our family via those surrounding us.

I am slowly but surely going to start responding/answering facebook and e-mail messages. I have a few other items on my to do list as well...but I will get around to it!

If you want to see pictures of our adorable little girls that Brian has taken via our camera, you can go here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g09hfd5ri3vrbta/sV-eAF20oT#f:IMG_0212.JPG. This website will continually update. While we were in the hospital it had 30 pictures, when we returned on Tuesday it had 50, and now it has 98 pictures. Save the link and continue to look for updated pictures!

If you want to help us with bringing a meal, you can sign up via the Care Calendar. We have set up a website where people can sign up to bring us a meal on a specific day. The website is:  http://www.carecalendar.org/.logon/124738. For the ID number it is 124738, the security code is 8464.

I will leave you with a few pictures that I have taken via my phone :)










Allison


Emily

Third Trimester Woes and Wows

Well, now that I've nestled in to my third trimester, we have hunkered down and got serious about our babies coming. :) Not that we haven't been this whole pregnancy!

We started our third trimester almost 2 weeks now, I'll be 30 weeks on Sunday! It's crazy how in about 10 weeks I will hold these two bundle of joys that have changed our lives so much already!

Since we've been in the third trimester we've had to get my glucose test taken care of, gone to a breast-feeding class, and of course, I've worked. :)

I had my glucose test on Friday. I had to drink my substance, which wasn't bad at all, it was fruit punch. Wait an hour, then get my blood taken. I got my results on Tuesday. Well, they weren't great. :( I mean, the good thing is didn't fail my STD, HIV, or any of those test (lol, really, was there a worry?)...but my iron test, failed, glucose test, failed. :( Epic fail for me and the girls. :( Now, I have to take ANOTHER pill (iron pill) daily and go for my 3-hour glucose tolerance test.

I have a bad feeling about my 3-hour glucose tolerance test, :(. I mean, prior to getting pregnant I took a glucose test with my fertility doctor. Although not terrible, my results came back "pre-diabetic" and I had to take metformin. So, I have a feeling my results may come back the same and it'll be frustrating. But, hopefully things are fine and everything comes back normal and I'll have a regular and normal pregnancy for the next 10 weeks.

It's crazy how I can feel so awesome on a day to day basis but have issues with my iron and glucose levels. Everyone who sees me tells me that I don't look pregnant from any angle but side/front. I have not gained weight really anywhere but my stomach, I'm not overly exhausted. This pregnancy has been wonderful and truly the only difference I feel is having an ever growing stomach.

Last night, we had our breast feeding class. That was fun. We learned some good tips and have a lot of notes to take in. We also got some breastfeeding tips for twins (positions, etc). Besides tips, I just really have to buckle down and read my Twin Breastfeeding book.

Next week (30 weeks) is a busy week for me. I'm working Monday and possibly Tuesday, Wednesday, I get to see my babies again with an ultrasound. Thursday - my 3-hour glucose test, Friday - meet with my OB and then I have an eye doctor appointment. Whew. What a busy crazy week.

The next week after that (31 weeks) I'm going to veg on the couch prior to pre-planning and going back into work.

Once school starts again I just KNOW my weeks are going to fly by!

One issue we are contemplating is day care. We started looking around a few months ago at day cares. After talking with Brian, we decided we wanted to do a nanny, someone we knew and could trust. We started going through some of our friends and family. We have asked a few people, haven't gotten an official answer really. A lot of "we'll see" or "if it works with my schedule." responses. We have a few other people on our list to ask. We'd prefer someone to be at home that we both know and are comfortable with. Last option is day care...we are thinking Kids R Kids in Waterford, possibly Tot Spot by my work. The best thing to know is that God is on our side and He has the plan and they are perfect for our family. He knows our finances, our situation, our babies.

We have a great journey ahead of us, through the woes of glucose, iron, and day cares, through the wows of ultrasound images and blessings of our babies.

We aren't promised an easy life, but we are promised that God will walk with us through it all!

First, Second, Third Trimesters!!

I am about to round out the second trimester and soar into the third trimester! Wooo hooo. I feel as though my stomach has expanded to its maximum and cannot foresee the next 13 potential weeks. AH! 

So, let's do a walk down memory lane....

First trimester:

Ahh, January, it all started with Dr. Trolice at Fertility Care. We stepped onto a course of clomid and natural (yes natural :)) conception. January confirmed the pregnancy...

February, Dr. Trolice announced there are 2 little peanuts inside of my belly. 

After that night, we announced it to our friends, family, etc....I talked with Stacey (a coworker with twins) and that started my morning sickness journey. I still think she sent it to me over the phone some how...because prior to that evening, my only symptom was tiredness.

-Morning sickness - plastic bags became my best friend while walking around school/work, traveling out in public places. I couldn't wake up or go to sleep without a run to the bathroom at home. Boy, that memory. LOL

-Extreme tiredness - taking naps whenever I could. I'd literally wake up at 7 am, come home from work at 4, nap from 4-6:30. Eat quickly, nap from 7-10. Wake up to say goodnight to Brian, and go back to sleep. LOL. 

Morning sickness went away around 15 weeks. Tiredness was intermittent from then on.

Second trimester:

Started out great without any morning sickness...but then got very very emotional. Like every day. I would have something to be sad about or cry about. Rather, I'd just cry for no apparent reason and would just need Brian right next to me. 

My emotional crazy days are pretty much done; it only lasted a few weeks. I have a random night here or there, but not much. 

 The second trimester (after the emotional period was through) has been full of greatness. I've felt back to normal, I can conquer the world attitude. Just had a growing stomach during this trimester. :)

Third trimester:

We shall see what happens. :)

-----------------------------------

So what else have I been up to? Well, Brian and I took a little babymoon last week. It was nice to relax and refresh our marriage. 

Brian took 4 days off from work and we went down to Melbourne Beach. 

We arrived Tuesday afternoon (around 1), but couldn't check in until 4. Melbourne has a really nice historic downtown area (reminded me of Park Ave), so we headed over there for shopping and lunch. We got to go into the little shops that were entertaining and fun. We went into a sports shop and, of course, bought some Eagle items. :) We had lunch and headed to check in.

We had a room at the top floor of the hotel....floor 16!! All of the rooms overlooked the ocean, which was perfect for testing out Brian's next telescope! 

We stayed up until 12 watching the stars, looking at different planets, etc....Then we set an alarm and woke up at 5:30. We were able to see clearly - right in front of our room (God set it up perfectly, eh), Venus and Jupiter. It was pretty cool. Venus was only a half planet because it was being blocked...I forget by what, but Brian explained it to me. :) And Jupiter we were able to see 4 of its moons, the red lines that make up its appearance! An awesome little experience. Then we stayed awake until 6:30 am so that we could get our Breakfast in Bed coupon (it was valid from 6:30-10, and since it was already 6:15 when we were finished we decided to head down for breakfast). We went back to sleep after breakfast, lol...and didn't wake up until early afternoon. :)

Our second day at the beach was cloudy and rainy. We had planned to spend the whole day on the beach but since it was on and off rain we decided against it. We drove to a surf shop to get some souvenirs, salt water taffy (not as good at the Jersey shore kind) and got lost looking for an arcade that apparently closed down. Oops! :) We hung around our hotel that afternoon and got ready for a fancy dinner out. The rain cleared away and after dinner had a nice walk on the beach. We also got our bathing suits on and did a little swimming in the ocean. At the end of the night we went into the pool and hot tub (that wasn't really hot, it was bath water temp - I was fine :)). It was a wonderful evening together!

Then the final day, we woke up, had breakfast and packed. Check out was at 12 but we received some calls/texts from work and from our refinancing/lending company about our closing so we decided to come home a little early. The original plan was to stay in Melbourne until dinner, but the lending company needed some more documents that were at home. We packed up and checked out and arrived home around 1. It was good to be home again though!

Brian had Friday off to recoup from the trip. Good thing because we needed more paperwork sent over again for our refinance. We enjoyed the day together and then finished our "vacation" officially at Downtown disney with our friends. :) 

We've had a great week "off" from life and ready for our munchkins to get here! We just want to hold them and love them! We both agree that our lives will not be the same, at all, not even in the least bit! We're ready for the journey for what we "think" will hold for us, but know that God will guide our steps throughout!

We have our maternity photos done on August 4th...I have 1 picture that I'm SOO excited to get done, but you'll just have to wait and see what it is when we get the pictures! :)

I'll write again soon, I promise! 

3/D-4/D Sonogram!

Brian and I just arrived home from our 4/d sonogram (at Little Life Imaging).

As always with twins, ours decided to be difficult tonight. In the back of my mind I knew they would, truly. When you have twins that are 2 different personalities and have a mind of their own, you don't know what to expect!

After a few minutes entering the ultrasound room we discovered that Emily is head down and Allison is head up. Which, we were told, is not ideal because the 3/D part can't see through items...a blocked face is a blocked face.

Unfortunately for us Allison had her butt in Emily's face the whole time and Emily had her feet in Allison's face the whole time. We were able to coax them to move around a little to get some pictures...They are just too precious for words!

Anyhow, we have some really adorable pictures of our little girls from the ultrasound! I'd like to share 2 of them right now (to keep you reading of course!) 

My little girl Emily... (see the right side of the picture, that's Allison's butt)

 My little girl Allison...(Allison moved just a little and started cuddling with the placenta, hence why it's a little blurry)

So once we got home we started browsing through our goodies. We have a CD of all the pictures, 4 printed pictures, and 4 regular ultrasound pictures. We also received a DVD video of our whole sonogram!! It is awesome, 22 minutes of just pure bliss... However, the disk is no longer working. :( Something happened (Brian claims bad DVD, ripped to fast or something), but it won't read. So now we are praying and hoping that the DVD will work! As Brian calls it, it's our first home video of the girls!!

Well, now I will leave you with some other fun pictures from the evening....I'll explain the pictures as we go :)

Emily snuggling with Allison's little booty. Hah.

 Emily just lounging around. The clear thing in front of her is Allison's amniotic sac!

Emily not happy with her sister Allison. Look at the booty and leg in her face! Poor eyebrows are all showing distress. LOL :( Again you can see how thin their sacs are between the two!

Allison just laying around, kicking her sister.

Emily just accepting Allison's foot in her face. Now she doesn't look as sad and it's more playful!

Allison just twisting and turning around. That is Emily's foot across her body now.

At the beginning Allison was in her "I'm not listening" pose. Oh boy, hopefully we don't see that pose when she's out of the womb. ;-)

This is Allison at the beginning, again she has the "I'm not listening" pose...pretty much you can see they are tightly packed together in there!

And these are the beautiful Quigley girls! <3

Huge update! :)

So I guess I'm kind of bad at posting efficiently, huh? Last I updated I said I would let you all know what Baby B is.... well, I've spilled the beans on Facebook, just never on here...But baby B is .... a girl!! :) We are having twin girls and couldn't be more excited!

Once we found out there are 2 girls inside of my belly, we got to painting and decorating right away! Here are pictures of their nursery! Our names are Emily Rose and Allison Renee'.

Below are the cribs and monkey tree :)

This is on the wall as you walk into the room. A little touch of Chi Omega :)

 This is on the small space between the closet and the door. Our giraffe! :)

We are so in love with the babies's room! It is so perfect for them! :) :)

Then, once we finalized the nursery, we enrolled in a Lamaze class and scheduled a hospital tour. Right before our Lamaze class, my baby shower and 24 week appointment happened....So let me back up!

My 24 week appointment:

- My appointment was only with the doctor this time. The receptionist did not know to schedule an ultrasound appointment too, so we didn't get to see the girls. Since it was only a visit with the doctor, Brian didn't come with me. 

-The babies' heartbeats were 147 (Emily) and 140 (Allison). Both very strong. 

-Everything checked out for me on the outside (from the look of things). 

-I scheduled my gluctose test for July 20th and I was on my way.

I had to call the Hughes Center for Fetal Diagnostics to schedule an ultrasound. This center is located in Winnie Palmer and is the high-risk doctor. We were just going for a growth check up on the twins - since my OB office forgot.

Baby shower:

-I wanted my baby shower in June for a few reasons: 1) July is a very busy month for birthdays. So instead of having everyone stretch their time & wallets for Brian's birthday, Sierra's birthday, Kyle's birthday, plus fourth of July...I said let's wait 2) Twins are known for coming early. I'm due the beginning of October, so Brian and I plan to have them in September. An August baby shower would be TOO stressful for me - the planner Type A personality. I mean honestly, I already have the nursery done, do you think I could've waited any longer to get all of our big purchases?

-So yes, my mother in law and sister in law decided with June. Unfortunately, a few of my closest friends were out of town. I truly did miss having them there. But they were there in spirit and I know the girls will grow to love their Aunt Genny, Aunt Ruth, Aunt Amanda, Aunt Merideth, and Aunt Kristen once they are born!! 

-The baby shower was so much fun! We played different games and had a blast trying to figure out poopy diapers, shouting out animal sounds, and trying to figure out what famous mommy we were (really, June Carter Cash was my person.).
-I love every gift that we got. I know the girls will love every single item as well! Besides clothes, diapers, and blankets, we got a car seat, diaper genie, and extra base. Then with the money and gift cards we received we were able to purchase the additional car seat, double stroller, and the additional extra base! We are all set on the big stuff for these two little girls!!


Here are some pictures from the event:

Here I am holding the cake, it reads, "Monkey see, monkey do, Kim's not having one, but two!!"

 The fantastic and adorable diaper cake that my mother-in-law, Mary, made for us. I absolutely love it and the monkeys are already waiting for the girls when they arrive!

 The delicious food that Mary made! Yummy meatballs and quiches and cheese!

 A copy of the invitation! :)

 Opening up some presents with the help from Katelyn!

 More presents!

 And a picture of the poopy diaper game! Yay ;)

Now, onto the Lamaze class:

-So Saturday was the shower, Sunday was the class. Brian went in expecting it to be taught by a hippie 70s chick and boring...he said at times it was boring, but most of the time it was very informational. There were girls there who were 35+ weeks that were as big as I. Crazy isn't it?! We were the only family of twins, which is to be expected. 

-Brian got to change diapers on a baby, funny stuff! I have photos on my phone that I'll have to upload at one point to show everyone! :) 

-After the Lamaze class, Brian and I decided that we would go for a vaginal birth. Prior to we were stressed and unsure of what to do...Brian truly wanted it to be my decision, but deep down he wanted to go vaginally because it was how God designed women. Me  - I was nervous about delivery of any type honestly. After thinking, praying, and being informed...we are going to do a vaginal birth. :) Of course, I may have an epidural...but everything else will be natural! 

We scheduled our hospital tour for July 6th. Woo hoo! :)

One additional item that we had TODAY....our follow up ultrasound at the Hughes center!!

We found out a lot of information on our twins today!

-Little Emily is not so little!! The size of her head is measuring at 27 weeks! That is 2 weeks further than what I really am! 

-Little Emily is not so little part 2...She is 2 pounds!!! The average twin size for 25 weeks is 1 pound 10 ounces...she is 6 ounces larger than what is expected!

-Little Allison is not so little either...She is 1 pound 14 ounces! Just 2 ounces tinier than her sister, and still 4 pounds heavier than what is expected!!

-Allison is measuring along perfectly with 25 weeks. Everything is measuring around 25 weeks (I believe her arms may have measured 26 weeks, but still).

-Emily is measuring FURTHER along at 27 weeks! EVERYTHING measures 26-27 weeks. The doctor at the Hughes center said sometimes one twin has a growth spurt and then the other twin will get a growth spurt. Wow.

-ALSO! Good news - rather GREAT news...BOTH girls are head down already!! What a great way for God to say, "See Kim, you should truly do a vaginal birth!!" No worry about what if one is flipped, etc. We asked and the ultrasound technician said that it's very unlikely that they will flip around again and will most likely stay in that position.

So now, I'll give you some great pictures of the babies from our ultrasound today and a picture of me...at 25 weeks! 

As you can read, Allison's profile image:

 As you can read, Emily's profile image:

 Emily proving herself once again that she's a girl...

 Allison proving herself once again that she's a girl too!

 This was the best picture we could get of them together...Their heads are so close to each other they are snuggling by the head! My loves! <3 Goodness I love them so much already I can't wait to meet them!!

The ultrasound technician did say they were both hard to get a good picture of from the front/side...Those are our girls, LOL. We are hoping for great results at our 4/D sonogram on Saturday!! I'll add pictures from that next week!

<3 Kim, Emily, and Allison (and Brian from the other room).