I have not blogged since last Thursday. This is because I am TIRED!!! In no way do I want to minimize what the parents of single babies go through but twins really is a full time job. Just the feeding and diaper changes takes about an hour and we do that every 3 hours. So by the time you finish you only have 2 hours before the process starts again and there are plenty of other things to get done. We have worked out some type of schedule. I cover the late evening feeding at about 11pm and then Andrea handles whatever disaster happens overnight. She will get up and feed at about 3am and then I get up at 6-7am and do the morning feeding while she gets a few more hours of sleep.

The girls have been pretty good except for the late evening. They seem to get all tuned up every night from about 8-11pm. That may be helpful though since they seem to tire themselves out for the start of the overnight. We have started learning their individual nuances and habits. They have a different cry also. Riley wails while Reagan sounds like a bleating goat. Riley sucks the binky angrily and looks like Maggie from the Simpsons TV show. Riley also likes to trick poop. That is where she poops once but saves enough for a second poop minutes after you get done changing her. Several people have said all I talk about is poop but that is one of the things that dominates my days now. Both girls are back at the weights that the docs wanted to see so we do not have to go back to the Dr. for 2 weeks. I am happy about that because every time we go the copay for the insurance is $30 each. For those of you that grew up in Munhal that is $60 every time we take them in.

We had a bunch of visitors today and that was nice for Andrea as she can't get out of the house much yet. So thanks to Pavan, Kevin, Doug and especially Lisa for the yummy peanut butter pie. We are going to try the first overnight at grandma and grandpas house Friday night to get Andrea and I a little break. I know they will be fine but still wonder if we can make it through the night without them. The picture above is their outfits they wore for Christmas. As you can see Reagan thought they were ok but Riley was not impressed.

Christmas Eve

Things have been very busy at the Gregg house. Andrea continues to improve and is venturing off the pain meds today. Things went fairly well last night. We fed them at 10pm and put them down at 11pm. We got up and fed them at 2am and they went back to sleep quickly. Andrea got up and fed them both at 5:45am and I slept. They got a little mad at 6:45 and I got up with them. It is now 8am and I am now on duty and will let Andrea sleep as long as she can. Andrea and I have been a great team but I expected nothing less. She needed out of the house last evening so we ventured off to Target for an hour while my mom and dad watched the girls. Andrea always thinks it is funny when I get peed on while changing a diaper. She got paid back by Reagan last night as she got peed on and sprayed with a "poop fountain". That was her description of the event, not mine. I have quickly learned that you can not reason with an infant. I keep telling R&R, if you are happy when binky is in your mouth and you are sad when it falls out, why do you keep dropping it? They don't seem to learn though. Riley is very often silenced with a binky ( a pacifier for you non parents ) and Reagan is silenced about 80% of the time if I sing the mamamamama song that I wrote. Lastly, just a quick note to the inventor of the binky, bouncy seat and motorized swing, thanks! You are my hero!

11 days old

All is progressing at the Gregg house. R&R are doing well. We had a Dr. appt last week for Reagan as she had not pooped in a few days. The doc was not worried and that night she made up for lost time. When the big moment finally came it was a major blow out. She blew through the diaper, her jammies and onto the sheet on our bed. I could not have been more proud. Since then they have been feeling good and improving on the overnight sleeping thing. When they do have a bad night it is real bad. They take turns being grumpy so it lasts all night. Last night they slept for 2-3hours periods. What a change when you are thankful for 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep. My parents have been great and been over at the house as much as we want them here to help give us a break. We had another Dr. visit today and Reagan was back to her birth weight. Riley is a bit behind but that is ok. We will go back Monday and have her checked again. The doc was not worried. We are still learning our way but I am having the time of my life. I am working from home this week and probably next. I am already dreading going back to the streets on a daily basis. Andrea is feeling alot better and has been doing a big part of the overnight care for the last 3 days. Friends and family have been cooking for us and we appreciate all the help. My friend/neighbor Bob is even dog sitting boo today since he has been a bit ignored recently. I think Boo loves Bob and Patty more than Andrea and me. Andrea is already a GREAT mom and I know she will just get better. Thanks again to everyone for everything and to whoever invented the pacifier, you are my hero!

Stuffing her bra

Andrea is improving. She is more mobile and is alot more involved in caring for the girls. She will be covering most of the night shift tonight as I have to go to Greensburg for a meeting Friday. The dairy farm is in full swing. Her milk is here and she is trying to get it to go away. She had biguns before but WO MOMMA you should see em now. Her friend Patty told her to put fresh cabbage in her bra and it would help with the swelling. She even went to the store and got a head of cabbage for her. So on the advice of Dr. Green Grocer Andrea stuffed her bra with cabbage. I laughed way so hard I woke one of the girls. The problem with it was I was walking through Walmart and saw a Cabbage Patch doll and got strangely excited. As you may know I do sell produce for a living so I hope it does not affect me at work. The nights have been not so great still. The love to torment us from about 11pm-5am. We will see how tonight goes.

2 day averages

First Dr. visit went well, dad and I took them as Andrea is not allowed to leave the house unless it is on fire. Another night of little sleep last night but Andrea was able to help overnight for the first time. We now have 2 complete days under our belts so here are some averages

Number of diaper changes per day- 20

Bottles per day- 16

Hours of sleep per parent per day- 5

Number of times I get peed or pooped on while changing a diaper per day- 2

Number of visitors to the house per day- 5

Number of times Andrea cries for no reason per day- 2

Number of times Andrea says "Jeffrey look" per day- 15

Number of times my dad calls them "precious" per day- 6

Number of trips to Babies R Us for supplies per day- 1

Number of times Andrea says her boobs hurt per day- 3

Number of times friends have brought us food per day- 2

Number of times I am thankful for my 3 girls per day- I can't begin to count.

The first day of the rest of our lives.

We have now been home over 24 hours and they sure do poop and pee alot. They were very good all day yesterday and then they decided overnight to change. They took turns screaming all , and I mean ALL night. I made Andrea go to bed even though she didn't want to and I stayed up with them. By about 6:30 this morning I was spent. I had been up for 24 hours and I called my parents to come rescue me. They came over and took over and I slept for about 4 hours. I am back in the game now and Andrea is doing as much as she can. She is still moving really slow and in pain but it is getting better. All of our friends have been wonderful. Bob fixed my TV before I threw it out the window yesterday, Patty, Andrea's mom and my parents have all gone shopping for us. Jan is on standby at all times she said and Lisa is bringing dinner tonight and staying with Andrea while I run to Babies R Us for more bottles. I am hoping that there is a bit more sleep tonight but don't have high hopes. They have been great all day so they should be good and rested up to cause havoc all night.

Sunday

Mother Nature tried to keep me from my girls today but I finally made it to the hospital. R&R are doing great and Andrea is improving. We are out of here tomorrow at 10am. We are looking forward to getting home and figuring out how to do this by ourselves. We will have lots of help though. Both our families are close and ready to jump in and we have a bunch of wonderful ladies Andrea has met at the church that will keep us well fed for weeks. Several people have asked for the girls stats so here they are.
Reagan Lynn was born at 3:09 pm December 11th. 6lbs 2oz, 20 1/4 inches long.
Riley Anna was born at 3:10pm December 11th. 7 lbs 13 oz, 20 3/4 inches long.
We had several more visitors today and the highlight for me was watching my father feed Reagan for the first time. He looked like he could not be any happier. I know the feeling.

Meet Reagan and Riley

Wow what a difference a day makes. I just fed, burped and changed my two new beautiful baby girls. Andrea is moving slow and in pain from the surgery but improving. Reagan joined us at 6lbs 2oz and Riley at 7lbs, 13oz. The girls are great but they sure do poop alot. Today I got puked on, peed on and pooped on and I loved every second of it. I will update more when I have had some more sleep but all is good for now.

Tax deductions, here I come.

We did the Amniocentesis today and while it was not a pleasant experience Andrea got through it well. The procedure was not as bad as we thought it would be but the cramping afterwards for several hours was painful. We left the house at about 8am and got her home at noon. That was a long 4 hours and it wiped her out. We got the results back and the official word is that I am gonna be a daddy tomorrow. The girls lungs were done baking so at 1:30 the fun starts. We have to be there at 11:30 and the prep stuff starts. At some point Andrea will be taken from me and to the operating room. They will do the spinal, IV, cath her and then I will be allowed into the room. I think it best that as I enter the room that I inform the 15 or so people that will be there that I have every intention on crying like a little girl when I see my little girls. I am at a place in my life that I can admit that occasionally I am a cryer. I remember one time when I was searching a house for a trapped child in a structure fire. I looked and looked but was beaten back by the flames several times. After I had been outside several minutes and I had accepted the fact that the child was in the room that was still on fire and was surely dead I looked up and one of my partners was carrying the 6 yr old boy out unharmed. He had been hiding on a different floor behind a couch the whole time. The emotions that came over me were uncontrollable and I sat in the yard and cried in front of all my fellow fire fighters and EMS people. I have news for you, I was not the only one crying. One of my not so proud moments was when Andrea caught me crying while watching Extreme Home Makeover on TV. I may never live that one down. Andrea is also convinced that I cried at our wedding but I still stick to my story that I had something in my eye. My point is that real men do cry and I have every intention on proving it tomorrow.

And the winner is-

Not too much to report as of yet except that Andrea keeps getting bigger and the girls keep getting rowdier. We have fetal heart monitoring and a Dr. appt scheduled for Wednesday, an amniocentesis scheduled for Thursday and if all goes well with the results from Thursday a C-Section at 1:30 on Friday. Andrea will be in the hospital till Monday or Tuesday and then the real fun begins. I am busy getting all the last minute details done to be ready. We do have a winner of the guess the birthday contest. It is one of my best friends and old partners from my EMS days Kevin Laskovich. He guessed today and no one guessed any date after that so he is the winner. When I asked him what the wanted for a prize he told me he wanted both girls middle names to be Kevina. I think he may be disappointed though. That may be a hard sell to Andrea. I think I paid him off enough this weekend when I helped him clean up at his bar after a car decided to make the place drive through accessible. You may have seen it on the news. The picture above is from Saturday. Will update after Thursdays procedure. We are on the final countdown.

Less than a week

Well, we are getting close to the day that we have been waiting for for about 5 years and all of a sudden it is sinking in that things are about to change in a big way. Last night I held my neighbors 10 week old Cameron for about an hour or so and I loved every minute of it. I had it easy though as I knew if she started to cry, had a diaper blow out or was hungry that momma Maria would swoop in and deal with whatever the need was. All I had to do was the fun stuff. Cameron and I talked, played peek a boo and I beat her in 5 out of 5 staring contests. She then took a nap and I was done. How different will it be when Andrea and I are responsible for the crying, diaper changes, feeding, etc? Especially during the first 2-3 weeks when we don't know what we are doing and I will be a lot busier with Andrea recovering from the surgery. Oh, and by the way, double the babies. I would not say I am concerned as much as terrified. When my friend Adam went off to the Air Force survival training school for 3 weeks I told him that lesser men than him had been there, done that and did just fine. I guess I need to take my own advice and know that we will figure it out as we go and it will be fine in the end. Andrea continues to be pretty uncomfortable and not sleeping well but I think she sees the light at the end of the tunnel. I just wonder what is on the other side of that tunnel.

T minus 211 hours

We headed for our weekly trip to Magee today for fetal heart monitoring and a Dr. visit. All went well with the monitoring and there were a few contractions while we were there. Before the test a complete stranger walked up to Andrea and asked how many babies she had in there. We then went to see the Doc. We were happy that we were scheduled with one of the ones that we really like. We thought that she was going to have a pelvic exam but the Doc said it was not needed since we were going to do the C Section. Andrea was very happy about this as her "girl parts" are all jacked up and she knew it would really hurt. We met with the Doc in her office and she said that since Andrea still has the Cholestasis and now something called Pupps which makes her belly very painful that we would move the scheduled C Section to next Friday December 11th. She will have to have an Amniocentesis on Thursday though to make sure that the girls lungs are ready to do their thing. I put up an argument that I would like the Amnio. done sooner and if they were ready why wait another 9 days. She gave me a bunch of medical reasons as to why it is prudent to wait and I agreed. After all the last school she was in was medical school and the last class I took was on the difference between a chicken tender and a chicken fritter. I know you are wondering so here it is. A chicken fritter has over 30% breading. I bet you didn't learn that in medical school Dr. know it all. We then discussed having Andrea "fixed" while we are in there and the Doc said it was easy to do so we scheduled that. I told her it didn't really matter since I was fairly sure I was never ever ever getting sex again. The Doc laughed but I saw the look in Andrea's face and I think she agreed with me as she was scolding me for potty talk. So here is the schedule. Next Wednesday we go back for fetal heart monitoring and a Dr. visit. Next Thursday we go in for the Amniocentesis and next Friday afternoon we go in for the birth of my baby girls. Andrea will be in the hospital until Monday or Tuesday and they said that she would need to take it real easy for 2-3 weeks. Of course this will all change if the girls decide that they want out sooner. The picture above is what Andrea wanted to eat when we got home from the hospital. Pickles and milk, disgusting.

Fish on!

This is a non pregnancy blog but I thought that it was pretty cool. As many of you know my favorite (and only) brother had a double lung transplant last year. A friend of his submitted a story about them fishing together to a Charleston magazine and won first place for his essay. You can see it at http://thecharlestonangler.com/reelblog/winners-of-the-2009-charleston-angler-photoessay-contest/. Thanks to USAF Captain Lewis for being a part of Jason's life and being a good friend. You can check out Jason's blog at http://www.thesouldier.com/. Jason is scheduled to be in Pittsburgh next week so with any luck he will be able to meet his neices before heading back south.

They called

Andrea's Dr. called me this morning at 8am and we talked for about 10 minutes. The conversation went well and they are working on a plan of attack for the Cholestasis. We will be meeting with them tomorrow and will see what the plan is. They did say that they were not very concerned about the babies being effected and that the best thing for them was keeping them in the oven as long as possible. Luckily we are scheduled with one of the Dr's that we really like tomorrow so we will see what she has to say.

Really impressive Doctors

I am even more impressed with Andrea's Dr's today than I have ever been. After telling us that if the babies do not come on their own by December 10th that we will schedule a C-Section for between Dec 10 and 17 we are now told that we have a confirmed date of December 19th at 10am. They really do seem to have trouble with a calendar. Today I called them at 10am to tell them that the medicine that Andrea started taking last Wednesday, you remember the one that they screwed up the prescription on, has done nothing and that there has been no improvement on the symptoms from the Cholestasis. I told them I was concerned that maybe we should consider doing a C-Section sooner or maybe they would want to up the meds or try something else. Do you know what their response was? Me either, no one ever called me back. The office is open until 4:30 and when I called at 4:20 they were already gone. It is now 7:30 and no one has called us back. It is probably a good thing that I will not be able to talk to anyone until Tuesday morning. Maybe the rage and fury that I am feeling now will subside and I will be able to get through my conversation with them tomorrow without using the words, incompetent, ass or die.

Black Friday

You may remember that this pregnancy has had a lot of holiday involvement. We planted the embryos on Easter. We found out that she was pregnant on my birthday which is also Earth Day. When we thought she was pregnant with only one baby the due date was New Years Eve and when the Dr. told us that we really wanted to shoot for keeping them in for at least 35 weeks we looked and 35 weeks to the day was Thanksgiving. That is why I picked yesterday as my guess for the due date. Now with that Thanksgiving has come and gone I am terrified that the holiday theme is still going and we will have to wait till Christmas. I am now grasping at straws and looked up all possible upcoming holidays. Maybe I will have some luck on Dec 7th, Pearl Harbor Day, or December 10th which is Human Rights Day, or December 12th which is the start of Hanukkah. Maybe that is the winner since the girls are 1/4 Jewish. If not then I have a shot on December 17th which is the Wright Brothers Day. December 18th is the Islamic New Year and December 21st is the first day of winter. I am still sure the big day will be on a holiday so these are all my guesses. If I have to wait for Easter I am going to kill and eat the stork when he finally does show up.

Dr. or just a good guesser?

Week 35 arrives on Thanksgiving. That is the point that the Dr's said was a pivotal point in the pregnancy. If we got to 35 weeks the odds were good that everything would be fine if they were born. As you may remember Andrea and I thought that she had a condition called cholestasis which jacks up the liver and can negatively effect the babies. The Dr. said that she did not think that she had it but we pushed her to check for it. She reluctantly did and the results came back today that she does have "cholestasis of pregnancy" This occurs in 1/1000 pregnancies so based on our recent luck we were sure that she had it. When we called them and told them we thought she had shingles they said that it was a skin yeast infection and my wife had to suffer longer than was necessary. We have been told by one Dr. that if she does not have the babys by December 10th that they would go and get them between the 10th and the 17th. Today she said that they would wait until between the 17th and the 24th. Then she wrote the prescription wrong to treat the cholestasis and I had to wait an hour for the pharmacist to clarify the order. I also asked the Dr. if we were able to use over the counter version of Prilosec. I asked because the prescription version cost me $55 last month and I bought the over the counter one tonight for $16. If it was fine tonight why were we not told this last month? Some one owes me $39. No real money saved though because the new medicine that she starts tonight has a copay of $60. So here is the question to the Dr's of the world. Do you make this crap up as you go? Do you really know what the hell you are doing. Oh, and by the way, Blue Cross Blue Shield, you suck!

Opa!

Andrea has been taking suggestions as to what helps in stimulating delivery. She has heard Italian food so Domenico's here we come. We were told sex, yea right, I guess they are never coming out and last night she was told dancing so she did Greek line dance at a baptism party that we were at. The picture is not that great but there she is with Maria, Sandy and Sylvia getting down. My only experience with a Greek party was from watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding and I found out last night it was not far from the real thing. We had a good time but it looks like the dancing thing was a bust. If you saw the movie you may remember that the father thought that Windex was the cure for all that ails you. I thought it would be funny to take a bottle of Windex with me last night to the party but Andrea would not let me. We have no plans on going to Domenico's today so maybe I will get lucky.

Never again

Sometimes you just do things because it is the right thing to do. Last night my sick, uncomfortable, very large wife asked me to take her to see a movie. Her choice was a movie called New Moon. It is the sequel to the movie Twilight which is a movie marketed towards and made for teenage girls. It was one of the most anticipated movies of the year and my wife wanted to go on opening night. As we got there the line was wrapping around the theater. The line was full of 15 yr old giggling girls so I was sure that I was in for an event. We waited in line for about 15 minutes and then proceeded into hell. I can not describe how bad the movie was. It was 2 hours 20 minutes of horrible chick flick. I considered leaving, napping and crying but stayed for my wife's sake. The constant talking and antics of a room full of teenage girls would normally drive me insane but I did not care since I had no interest in following the movie. She actually looked at me several times during the movie and apologized for putting me through this. About 1.5 hours into it I started thinking of things that I would rather be doing at that time. The short list was ball room dancing, donating blood at a phlebotomy training school, smashing my big toe with a hammer and a prostate exam by a Dr. with abnormally large hands. I think that even Reagan and Riley hated being put through it because they paid her back last night. She was up again alot overnight and had another puking session at about 2am. There are two more movies due out in the series. When they do premier I think I will let Andrea go with her friends and I will stay home to play pretty pretty princess with my girls. That has got to be the more manly option. Remember to e-mail me your birthday guesses at jtgregg247@yahoo.com. So far November 30th is in the lead.

Hit the wall

I think that Andrea has reached the point where her lifestyle will be changed from now on. She did too much yesterday and it showed. My mom and her went to lunch and to get their nails done yesterday and we went and met a friend of mine for dinner last night at Panera and stopped by her house as she had some presents for us. We then stopped by Andrea's mothers house for a few minutes to drop some things off. With all this rigorous activity Andrea was really in pain last night and did not get to sleep until about 4:30am. I had to rescue her from the couch once yesterday. She laid down and could not get back up. Bob, keep your phone on ya. If Andrea calls you while I am out come over with a tow rope and a winch. She may have to pee and got stuck in the couch. Keep your schedule open she has to go about every 45 minutes. She did have what she thinks was a "real" contraction at about 5pm last night but that was the only one. She was told the other day at the hospital that she had been having contractions during the fetal heart monitoring that she was not feeling yet. It looked like at least 2 of them during her 30 minutes that she was hooked up. As far as I know none since then but I am pretty sure she will be packing a bag today. I am not saying that delivery is imminent in any way but I think that contraction last night got her attention. She was not even sure what was going on and had me call Maria over to explain what she was feeling and to confirm. It is great to have 2 recent mothers on the street to call on. Maria and Sylvia are on question standby at all times and have been very helpful. Remember to email your birthday guesses to jtgregg247@yahoo.com and thanks Heather for all the great stuff.

A whole lotta babies

Today we did the ultrasound and there is a whole lotta babies in there. Reagan is estimated to weigh 5 lbs, 6 ozs and Riley 6 lbs, 9 ozs. That is one ounce shy of 12 lbs of baby girls. We are still on schedule for a December 10th due date according to the Dr. The girls have grown just shy of 1/2 pound each over the last 3 weeks. If that trend continues and we think it will if they make it to the due date they will be about 7 lbs and 8 lbs. That is enormous for twins. The average twin birth weight is 5 lbs 5 ozs and we have already blown past those numbers with 3 weeks to go. I started getting guesses as to when they will be born. If you have not sent in your guess please do so. The address is jtgregg247@yahoo.com . Check out the picture of Rileys face from todays ultrasound.

Due date guesses

We went to the Dr. yesterday because Andrea has been very itchy, especially at night. She has all the symptoms of something called Cholestasis. She had a blood test but the results are not back yet. It occurs in about 1/1000 pregnant women so based on our luck so far we are sure that she has it. You can read about it at http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancycomplications/cholestasispregnancy.html

She has not had a good nights sleep for about 4 days until last night. She started a new medicine that seemed to help. We go back to the Dr tomorrow for a fetal heart monitoring, ultrasound and a meeting with the docs. Hopefully they will have an answer for us. I am very excited to see how big the girls are from the ultrasound.

It is driving us insane not knowing when the girls are arriving. The due date is still December 10th but I really think they will run out of room before then. I am looking for some help in figuring it out so I thought that you all may assist me in a less than scientific way. E-mail me your guess as to when the girls will be born, date and time to jtgregg247@yahoo.com and I will keep track of all the responses. When the date comes I will figure out who is closest and you will win a prize. Not sure what yet but I will come up with something. Help a brother out and send me your guess with "Birthday" in the subject line.

Booby do

Did heart monitoring and Dr. visit today. Not too much new except that they gave us Andrea's chart to carry with us at all times in case she starts to pop. Could be any day or it may not be for another month. Andrea said she needed, not wanted, needed Fettuccine Alfredo at Domenico's tonight so we went there for dinner. They are one of my customers and I texted them that we were coming in. As the waitress was seating us she was insistent that Andrea sit in a specific seat. I found out why, Filippo had put out a nice cushy padded chair for my wife and nothing special for me. Throughout dinner I noticed people checking out Andrea's belly and specifically one table that was near us. As they were leaving they stopped by our table and commented that Andrea looked uncomfortable and wondered if she was having twins. I guess she is starting to show.

One month and counting

We went to Magee tonight to do the hospital tour. We saw the L&D rooms, patient rooms, where to go when you get there, etc. There was about 10 other preggos there and Andrea again had the biggest belly of them all. We did find out a few things we did not know like since we are having twins we will not be in a regular delivery room. They take us to the operating room even if they are born the old fashioned way. I think we will be doing a C Section though as I am pretty sure that both babies are still breach. They have been kicking the crap out of their mother. Riley is constantly up under her rib and Reagan is usually kicking her in the bladder making for many trips to the bathroom overnight. Tomorrow we have a fetal heart monitoring session and a Dr appointment, no ultrasound until next week. As of today we are exactly one month from her due date but I still do not think she will make it that long. I am still picking Thanksgiving as the day.

5 weeks

We are 5 weeks away from Andrea's due date and 3 weeks from the day that I predict the girls are coming. I am still predicting a Thanksgiving arrival. We had several appointments yesterday at Magee and all went well. We started out with the fetal heart monitoring and then a regular Dr. visit. We then went to Magee North to wait for over an hour to get Andrea a H1N1 vaccination. There were well over 100 pregnant women there to get the shots and as far as we could see Andrea had the most impressive belly of them all. Andrea has been feeling much better and has not been sick for over a week. She is having trouble sleeping and gets pooped out pretty quickly. She got out of breath the other day going from the living room to the kitchen to get a drink. The picture above was of the swine flu vaccination event that we went to.

Date night

We decided to go out last night for a hot date and I found myself thinking how things have changed between now and say 10 years ago. It has nothing to do with love. We are more in love now than ever before. Things are just very different. Then- I would start the evening by bringing her flowers. Now- I start the evening by bringing in the mail. Then- we would have started the evening with a few drinks at a local bar. Now- we start by taking a few Tums to prepare for the meal. Then- we would go out to dinner, maybe something in the Strip, Southside or Mt. Washington. Now- we are very predictable, almost always to Domenico's in Cranberry. Then- We would go to a movie or maybe a casino, something fun. Now- last night we went to Costco to look for a robe that would be conducive to breast feeding. Then- out till the wee hours of the morning. Now- home by 7pm. Then- home for wild, crazy, fill up the bath tub with strawberry jello, don't forget the clown wig sex. Now- just home.

An expensive day

Today was an ultrasound, a fetal heart monitoring session and a visit to the Dr. Everything is looking good. We found out that the girls have hair and are a couple of big gals. Reagan is 4lbs 1 oz and Riley is a whopping 5lbs. That is a combined weight of 9lbs 1oz of baby plus 2 placentas, double the fluid, etc. That is alot of kid in there. No wonder she looks like she should beep when she backs up. Now consider this, she is due in another 7 weeks and they will gain an average of 1/4 to 1/2 pound each week from here on out. Andrea got a new medicine to try for the indigestion which causes a good puke at least once a day. Of course the new med is not covered by insurance and was $55. Combine that with the $520 we had to pay the Dr. today in copays and it was an expensive day. I sell Kobe beef for about $25 a pound. Today these kids cost us about $63 a pound. I am sure they will be worth it. Both babies are now breach. If they stay that way then Andrea is in for a C-Section. If Reagan flips to a head down position then they can probably be brought out the old fashioned way. Weekly visits from now on and another ultrasound in three weeks if we make it that long.

Trip to Virginia

Against my better judgement we went to Williamsburg Virginia for the weekend. I wanted to skip the trip because of how Andrea was feeling but she really wanted to go and needed to get out of the house. We took a side trip to Virginia Beach to see our friend John and went to the boardwalk and had dinner on the water. Had a very nice time. On Saturday we went to Yorktown and shopping in Williamsburg. Saturday night we had a dinner with a bunch of my coworkers and home Sunday. With the exception of about 5 emergency puke breaks over the weekend Andrea got through just fine. She is fairly uncomfortable all the time but she really needed to get out of the house for a few days. The pictures above are of our room in Williamsburg, an emergency stop alongside the PA Turnpike and Andrea on Virginia Beach. We have an ultrasound, fetal monitoring and Dr's visit this Wednesday.

Cabin fever

A customer of mine told me a joke the other day and as it turns out it is true. What is the difference between a pregnant woman and a terrorist? You can reason with a terrorist. Andrea has a case of the 3rd trimester pukes and terrible indigestion. She is back on the Zofran for the sickness and a new medicine for the acid reflux. She is not sleeping well and getting a bit of cabin fever. To try to combat this we are headed to Williamsburg Virginia for a few days with a side trip to Virginia Beach. As for the babies, everything is doing good. We are going every week for check ups and fetal heart monitoring. We have an ultrasound scheduled for next week and we are still expecting a deliver date of December 10th but I think it will be earlier. The picture above is of Andrea doing the fetal heart monitoring. She has to sit there for about 30 minutes each week from now on. Unfortunately the Wexford office that we used to go to does not have a monitor capable of handling twins so we have to go to Magee every week to get it done.

Happy Birthday

No, not Reagan and Rileys, today Andrea turns 31. To celebrate we went to Arbys for lunch, her choice, not mine. Then we went to Babies R Us and bought some things that were on the registry and we did not get at the shower. Surprisingly it ended up being over $1,000 with the one dresser that we needed. We had other places to go but pregosaurus had enough for the day so we came home. We were not home long when she had one of the most impressive pukes of the pregnancy. This is becoming a more common occurrence. It appears that the pukes are back for a third trimester run.

8 weeks and counting

We started the weekly Dr visits and fetal monitoring. We are now less than 8 weeks away from the expected due date of December 10th. Andrea has not been feeling great between a cold, not sleeping well and getting as big as a house. While still 8 weeks away she is currently carrying as much baby as a normal single pregnancy at full term. We are continuing to get the house ready and trying to prepare as much as possible. This picture was taken this week at the Dr's office.

Baby shower

Today was Andrea's baby shower. We had about 50 people come and it was a great event. Thanks to all that were there. You were all very generous with your gifts and we are looking forward to using the gift cards to finish off the furniture in the nursery. I have limited knowledge of what baby showers are like as this was my first but I think this one was a winner. Thanks to my mother for hosting such a great event.

Really good news

It has taken over a month but today we got the news we have been waiting for and it was all good. We have been looking to find out what gene mutations Andrea's cousin has. He has Cystic Fibrosis and if he had any mutations that can be tested for then we would be in the clear. As it turns out he has 2 mutations that are tested for and Andrea was negative for those. That with the fact that the Echogenic Bowel that was present 3 months ago has been gone in the last 2 ultrasounds means that all should be well. This means that we are at no higher risk than anyone else for CF and only a very slight chance of Downs Syndrome. Chances are that the original Echogenic Bowel that showed up was either a fluke or the baby may have swallowed a small amount of blood. I sometimes wonder if we were better off without all this medical technology. One bright spot on an ultrasound and we lose months of sleep and while insurance paid the majority of it there was about $10,000 in tests to find out that everything is fine. While I am sure that she did not do anything on purpose I think Riley is still grounded as soon as she comes out for putting us through this. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for this and thanks God.

Man hands

It has been a long last 24 hours. My first meeting yesterday was at 7:30am and I didn't get home till 7:30pm. I then got little sleep last night as preggo kept me up all night. We had a Dr. appointment, blood tests and an ultrasound appointment in the afternoon. Blood test was for gestational Diabetes and results will be in a few days. Dr. said all was good and starting in two weeks we will be on weekly visits with weekly tests on the girls before the visits at Magee. The ultrasound was good with no echogenic bowel in Riley. Andrea has been saying that Riley is my daughter and Reagan is hers because Riley is always up under her right rib and causing her pain. She was convinced of that yesterday when we found out that Reagan weighed 2lbs 9oz and Riley weighed 3lbs 3oz. The ultrasound pics are harder to see as it gets more crowded in there but in the above picture you can see Rileys hand. Look at the size of that paw. Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode with "man hands". During the ultrasound Reagan flipped us the bird and Riley put her butt in the face of Reagan. These are definitely my daughters. Last night after a long day we tried to go to bed at 10pm but this was made impossible by Andrea who has a cold and she also had what she calls "jumpy legs". It is also called restless leg syndrome and it is impossible to fall asleep. Between her jumping around all night, not being able to get comfortable and the cold we did not get to sleep till about 2am. At 2:52am the dog who never barks at night started losing his mind downstairs and let out some barks and howls I only hear when he is really mad. Andrea woke up screaming and I went off to investigate. You may not want to picture this but I sleep in a natural state. When the dog tells me something is very wrong in the middle of the night the last thing I think about is getting dressed so down stairs I went with only a gun and flashlight. I figured if someone was in the house I would not have to shoot them. They would see me and Ruger (that's the gun, not what you were thinking) and be scared to death. What do I find, a burglar? No, my stupid dog is angered that a neighborhood cat has the nerve to look at him through the window. I contemplated shooting the dog and the cat but did not want to clean up the mess at 3am so back to bed I went. Up at 7am and now off to go sell something to pay for these kids, or maybe a new dog.

Meet Cameron

Meet Cameron Foster, she was born early Wednesday morning to our friend Maria and our neighbor Adam. She came in at 8lbs 12 ounces and full of cuteness. I love her already and she is not even mine. I can't to see what I think about my own.

Andrea is feeling much better. The Shingles are about gone. They are a miserable ailment. I would not wish them on a liberal Democrat. Now that they are gone she is feeling pretty good for being 6 months pregnant. She is getting pretty big but only belly so far. It is making it difficult to sleep. The girls are not helping as they have started a nightly, what Andrea calls the 2-4am dance party. She has become an expert at the Nick at Night schedule on TV. No sleep is no fun but as my father says often "enjoy the process". That is what we are trying to do. The girls are very active and Andrea feels them moving alot. I can feel them now also and for the first time this week we were able to see her belly move on its own.

We have decided on first names for the girls. They are Reagan and Riley. The middle names are still under discussion. When we were at Disney last week we had shirts made with their names on them. Can't wait to see them in them.

Andrea is going to Columbus for a day to see her brother and his family and I am going to finish working on the babies room. If you are looking to get some churchin in this weekend my brother will be speaking at Northway Christian Community in Wexford Saturday at 6pm and Sunday at 9am and 11am. He had a double lung transplant last year and will be talking about what he and his family went through. Check it out if you get a chance. www.northway.org for further information. That's all for now. Have a great weekend.

Week in Orlando

We have spent the last 4 days between the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Sea World. Andrea has held up great. The Shingles are about gone, she has been walking around in 90 degree heat every day with no complaints. She isn't running the parks like she used to but she has kept up well. We did our traditional trips to Old Town and Downtown Disney. We were going to stay here in Orlando until tomorrow but I think we will head back to Charleston early to see Kyleigh play soccer Saturday. We will then go to a Charleston Flea Market that Andrea likes and we are driving home with my brother on Sunday. The girls have been pretty active. Yesterday they were quiet and sleeping and I started talking to them, they immediately started kicking and getting rowdy. Andrea swears they were responding to me but I can't be sure. I tried later and no response. I even offered to buy them a car when they turned 16 for one kick to mommas belly but there were no takers. They must be getting stronger and bigger because occasionally Andrea will get kicked so hard that she gets startled and yells. That's always funny when we are in a crowded area. Her belly is getting impressive looking. I can't imagine how it will be in another 2 months. We are going to Downtown Disney today before we leave so I can buy 2 shirts with the babies names on them. Only one problem with that. Andrea has not committed to the names yet. She was given clear instructions that she had to decide before we leave Florida. We will have to see what happens.

Weekend in the low country

We got to my parents house Friday about 9pm and settled in. They have queen beds so we got our own rooms. Not enough room for me and a preggopotamus in the same non king bed these days. Saturday morning dad dropped off Andrea with Natalie and Kyleigh and I helped my mom set up for a small surprise baby shower that kicked off at noon. When dad got back the boys went for a ride down the inter coastal through Charleston Harbor and met my brother at some restaurant. The girls had their shower and we all met later that day for dinner. We went to a nice seafood place on the water with Ron and Sandy Willis and had a great time. Sunday morning we met Jason, Nat and Ky for breakfast and we were off to Orlando. We borrowed one of my parents cars and headed 6 1/2 hours south. We got to our hotel at about 7pm and settled in for a swim. Good news here, the room has a king bed so Andrea does not have to sleep on the floor.

Traveling on September 11th.

The herps have improved enough that with some pharmacological help we were able to head out for a bit of a vacation. We left da burgh Friday afternoon and went to Charleston SC via Atlanta. Our first flight we sat with an army lawyer guy. It was interesting to fly with an Army officer on September 11th. We enjoyed speaking with him and plan on hooking up with him and his family in the burgh. It was great to see the response people had to the uniform especially on 9/11. Many people thanked him and the attendant even offered to buy him a drink. He was a bigger guy so my poor pregnant wife sitting between us was very protected if there was an incident. I am fairly confident that if anyone was committed to meeting Allah and a bunch of virgins we would have made that happen with no damage to the plane or buildings on the ground. He is a lawyer in the burgh also. If anyone needs an attorney that likes attorney jokes, check him out at http://www.trautmanlaw.com/. We made it to Atlanta just in time to make our connecting flight. We sat with a closed eye quiet talker on that leg of the trip. That would be fine in most circumstances but he was the father of twins so I had lots of questions. I love asking complete strangers about breast feeding and nipple covers. We chatted with him for about 30 of the 40 minutes we were in flight. We got to Charleston alive and well. We were picked up by my father and off to the house to crash for the night. Next time I blog I will tell ya about the weekend in South Carolina. Goodnight Arlene.

5am can't sleep random thoughts

* Andrea has been feeling the babies move for over a month. I felt them for the first time yesterday. I will be spending the next few months following Andrea around with my hand on her belly.

* The shingles have improved everywhere significantly except the "mipple". I still live with a nudist.

* The odd food cravings continue on a smaller but sometimes more disgusting scale. I have recently been sent out often for iced mocha coffee's and yesterday she ate an asiago bagel with cream cheese and Quaker Steak medium buffalo wing sauce and a pickle on the side.

* I showed up for a Dr's appointment yesterday on time and waited 45 minutes to be seen. When I finally was seen my blood pressure was still 124/82. Not bad for the rage that I was feeling at the time.

* While at the Dr. I got another Percoset prescription for the wife. I am a pusher!

* It still hurts for Andrea to wear a shirt or bra so last night she pulled one out while driving home on 228. It was after dark so she thought she was fine. It wasn't dark enough or the guy in the Jeep has very good vision.

* I think we are headed for Charleston, SC to see my family this weekend and will not be back for a week. Time for the braless big hootered pregosaurus to get out of the house for a little vacation.

Shingles update

These Shingles are like the Energizer Bunny. They just keep going and going and going. The ones on the back are significantly better, the ones on her chest are a bit slower in healing and the "mipple" is still very painful. So much so that she is still living the life of a nudist. I am looking into if there are any nudist colonies in the Pittsburgh area just so I can get her out of the house. Awhile back I would have been totally content with my wife living topless all the time. 5 1/2 months pregnant with the Herps, maybe not so much. It has been hard for me to see her so uncomfortable but I have been doing everything I can for her. I know it will all be worth it as I saw 9 month old twins on the way into church this morning. I stopped the father to talk to him. It was 9am and he already looked tired. He told me as nicely as possible that the first few months were rough. I told him we were doing everything we could to get ready and he said you can never be ready. The twins were born last year on December 31st. That is the day we are due also. I am sure it will be late November to early December though.

Two heads are better than one.

Alot has happened this week. I will start with Andrea's Shingles. The patches on her chest and back are getting a bit better. There is a new issue though. A part of her is very painful. I don't want to say where cause it is a bit private but it rhymes with "mipple". She got through her Valtrex prescription and is on Prednisone now. Today her Dr. gave her a prescription for Lidocaine to put directly on her "mipple". It has been so painful that she has been working at home without a shirt on. I now live with a nudist. She was worried that the Lidocaine would hurt or burn so I jokingly said I would put it on my nipples to show her it did not hurt. Unfortunately for me, she took me up on my offer. I put the numbing medicine on to prove it would not hurt and she proceeded to flick my nipple repeatedly and giggle. What I won't do for love. We had an ultrasound today and all was well. The girls were very active and all measurements, heart rates, etc were good. Baby "B" did not have an echogenic bowel anymore but this is not a big deal. It is nice to see it gone but the genetic counselor and Dr's said that even if it was gone the chance for Cystic Fibrosis was still there. We did meet with the mother of Andrea's cousin that has CF and they are working on getting the specific gene mutations that may be on Andrea's side of the family. If we can get this info and the mutations he has are the ones that Andrea was tested for then we should just about be able to rule out CF. They were checking with WVU to see if the information was available. They have been very kind and helpful. We go back for another visit to the Dr. in a few weeks. For now we continue to wait for any info from WVU and try to get through the Shingles.

One step forward, two steps back.

It has been a long week. Andrea still has the shingles and they have just started to improve in some areas but are getting worse in others. She is not very happy and I feel terrible that I can't do more for her. We had to cancel our ultrasound we had scheduled for this past Wednesday. There was no way she could lay there for 2 hours. We will try again this coming week. These shingles are really something. They hurt her all the time. We did the test results back that we were waiting for. Some good, some not so good. The Downs screening came back good. There is a 1/388 chance that the baby with the echogenic bowel has Downs. The test for the infection came back that she had been exposed to that virus in her life but not recently and they were not concerned. The CF test came back that I was a carrier so our odds went south on that one. Before we started the process we were told that we had a 1/1200 chance of having a kid with CF. Two weeks ago we were told that we were at 5% of the baby having CF and now with the new information we are at 15%-20%. On a good note she has been feeling the girls move more and more and that is always exciting to her. Her job has been very good to her and letting her work from home. I wanted her to take the time off but she wants to stay working. So that is it for now, pray for her and the girls and I will update after the ultrasound on Wednesday.

Valtrex and Percs

We love pharmeucitical commercials. We always pay attention when they come on the TV. Our favorite part is at the end when they list the side effects of the product. We crack up when an allergy medicine commercial ends with. Yada yada has been known to cause dizzyness, hunger, ulcers, cramping, anal leakage, blindness, incontinence and in some rare cases death. Our other favorite is for the drug Valtrex. Valtrex is a medicine for genital herpes. The commercial starts with a good looking couple talking to the camera. He says "I have genital herpes" and then she says "and I don't" then they say "and we want to keep it that way". That one slays me, that is always funny to me. Andrea and I have reenacted the commercial before, that's how much we love it. Where is this going you ask. I am about to take you there now. MY WIFE HAS THE HERPS! That's correct folks. Shingles is a form of Herpes. While I feel terrible that my wife has Shingles I have been walking around for a day telling everyone I find that my wife has Herpes and I don't, and we want to keep it that way. She even played along with me last night while hanging outside with the neighbors. She said she was mortified when she went to the pharmacy yesterday with a prescription for Valtrex and Percocet. She said she thought the pharmacist not only thought she had the herps but the really bad kind that hurt so bad that you need narcotics. Her sense of humor while dealing with this is why I love her soooooo much. Even if she has the herps. For better or herps, till death do us part.

Shingles- no Doug not the roof kind

Friday afternoon Andrea started to really complain about a rash that she had on her side and belly. She called the baby doc and had a prescription called in for a cream to put on it. The rash continued to get worse and more painful through the weekend. Last night at 3am it was so unbearable that we went to an urgent care center that we thought was open 24 hrs a day. They were closed and Andrea did not want to go to the Emergency Department so back home we went. We got to bed at about 5am but did not really get any sleep. At about 9am she got an appointment at her primary Dr and it was diagnosed as Shingles. They are spreading across her chest and back and hurt all the time. They gave her medicine to treat them and also pain medication to try to help her get some sleep. It sounds like it is not a quick fix and she may be pretty uncomfortable for a week or more. Her primary and baby doc both say the pain medication is fine for the babies so hopefully she will be able to get some sleep. On another note we got notification back from Magee for the first test for infection which was negative. We are waiting on the other results but they will not be in till later this week.