So when we left off last time, I had been having regular contractions for 21 hours, got to the hospital, and found out that I was dilated...

ONE FREAKING CENTIMETER.

Ugh.

We went home to try to get some sleep.  I think Andrew may have gotten some?  And my sister may have, but she probably just stayed up reading Sweet Valley Twins.  I, however, was lucky enough to keep experiencing regular contractions that no position could ease!  Hooray!  

I was sleeping like a baby

I lay in bed for a few hours trying to breathe through them, pray through them, adjust positions to make myself more comfortable.  I went downstairs and used the exercise ball to find a comfortable position.  I knelt on the floor and played computer games between contractions.  Finally the house started stirring and everybody began waking up!  Company!

Not me.  Pretty sure I was still sleeping. I'm usually still sleeping.

Andrew had told everyone at work that I was in labor when he had left the day before, so he awoke to a few angry texts asking WHY he hadn't given them news about the baby yet!!!  Um, because the baby was still in utero!  I ate breakfast (and puked it up shortly afterwards) and we went walking outside, timing the contractions all the while.

I think they woke me up for this part.

But it was Virginia.  In July.  So it was a liiiiittle hot!  We ended up inside watching Ice Age at about 2 pm (because there was no way we were keeping our date to see Ice Age 2 in the theater) while I moaned, flung over the exercise ball.  Things stayed spaced about the same, but the contractions were getting more and more painful.  I was crying through every contraction and was sooooo exhausted, because I hadn't been able to sleep or keep any food down in the past 33 hours.  We finally called the doctor and told them things seemed to be getting more intense, so they had us come back in around 5 pm.

We got to the hospital excited and exhausted.  Maybe NOW we would be having the baby?  After all, it was his due date!  And I had been in labor for 36 hours at this point - surely I had made progress!

They didn't make me go to triage this time - they saw how miserable I looked, how I couldn't talk through the contractions, how the tears continued streaming down my face because of the utter exhaustion, and sent me straight to a delivery room.

The nurse took my temperature and then we waited what seemed like an eternity for her to get me a cup of ice water.  She finally returned with the OB on call, who checked me.

Actually, Rosie asked for ice chips and the nurse told her she couldn't have any till after they'd taken her temperature. We're all pretty sure that's not a thing. Rosie moaned from thirst (and probably pain) for 45 minutes before I tracked the nurse down and asked if she could take Rosie's temperature so she could have something to drink. She looked at me like I was stupid and said she could have had something a while ago if we'd asked. This was when I figured out that I was going to have to do more tracking down of nurses and nagging than I'd anticipated.

One.  Centimeter.

ONE.

One centimeter.

Need I remind you that's where I was BEFORE I WENT INTO LABOR???  And again AFTER 21 HOURS OF LABOR???

And now, after 36 hours, still only ONE centimeter dilated.  I probably cried.

She definitely cried.

She suggested I take some sleep medication and go home to try to get some rest.  I think the look on my face with that suggestion made her realize what my answer to THAT suggestion would be.  Then she said they could try breaking my water to speed things along.  But I was a Bradley girl - no way was I going to consent to all those medical interventions!  The nurses were on board with my birth plan - no medication of any sort unless I asked for it specifically.  And I was going to stick to my guns, by golly!!!

To the nurses' credit, they really were on board with a natural birth. The only time anyone mentioned medication was when I went and asked them about our options for my poor, miserable, barely-conscious little sister.

So we seemed to be in it for the long haul - my sister set up camp in the waiting room with her Sweet Valley Twins Save Christmas, or whatever she happened to be reading...

I don't really remember why I was in the waiting room at any point--maybe just to give Rosie and Andrew some space? But I was out there in the middle of the night--one of the nights--and I was reading some Sweet Valley Twins book. That in itself would be bad enough, but I think that in this one they went back in time and became princesses. Usually when I tell this story I make something up about how I wanted something mindless so I wouldn't mind being interrupted and so I could read it even when I was exhausted. This being the anonymous internet, I'll tell you the truth: I love princess books written for 14-year-olds. Judge away.

So I was sitting there, reading my awesome book, when the gentleman across the room from me struck up a conversation.

"Is your mom having a baby?"

"Oh, no, my sister, actually."

"Oh! Your older sister?"

"Nope--my little sister. And her husband. They're having a baby. They're married."

Now, I'm pushing 30 and people still think I'm in college. So I can see why he thought my younger sister had no business having a baby. That's why I threw the husband thing in there. We kept talking and I must have mentioned something about college.

(Glancing at my book, then humoring me) "You went to college? Good for you!"

"Yeah, Notre Dame actually. For undergrad and grad school." At this point, I realized the man had gone from thinking I was young to thinking I must be mentally handicapped. "Oh, this? No, I read real books. It's just that this was the only one I had and...well, I wanted something that I wouldn't get too into, because...it's actually kind of an interesting book, see...I should go check on my sister."

One perk of being there forever is that by the time I gathered the nerve to go back to the waiting room, he was gone.

And Andrew and I walked the halls trying to keep my gown closed in the back (don't you love how they design those?).

The nurses came to check on us periodically and hook up the monitor every hour or so to check on John Paul.  His heart rate looked great, so we just kept going the way we were going.  I refused cervical checks because I wanted to make sure I had REALLY made progress before letting them check me again.

Things were rough though - the contraction were getting stronger and nothing was relieving them.  I had asked them originally if I could be in a room with a tub, but both rooms with tubs were in use when we got there.  Well, lucky us, when you're at the hospital for that long there will be MANY women who give birth and vacate their delivery rooms while you're still in labor!  We picked up our stuff and moved to the other room, filling the tub so that I could climb in for a little relief.

No relief.  Still awful.  We were about 43 hours in and I began wondering about those non-epidural pain relief options...  So I asked them to check me.

You guessed it.

One centimeter.

I asked about the risks to the baby for pain relief options, and we decided that morphine would be a gentler approach and since there was no way the baby was coming in the next 4 hours, that would be an okay option. 

(I just want to say here, the Bradley Method is great and works for lots of people.  But all those videos we had to watch that basically terrified me that an epidural would pretty much be a guaranteed C-section made this a rather difficult decision...)

For those of you who are keeping track, this is 9+ hours after checking into the hospital. Still 1 centimeter.

Since Rosie had been adamant about not wanting any medication, neither Andrew nor I had researched anything. As it became apparent that she was going to need medication, we tried to do some Googling but couldn't get a signal even though we'd brought a computer for just such a purpose and the hospital claimed to have wi-fi. This was back in the ark ages of 2009, though. I remember calling our older brother to Google for us but having weak cell signals. We also tried calling their Bradley instructor but didn't get an answer. Finally, we decided that if the nurses thought morphine was reasonable, it wasn't going to kill anyone. All either of us knew (from what Rosie had told us) is that epidurals are bad. Morphine wasn't an epidural, so it must be better, right? Turns out, maybe not.

So 44 hours in, I got hooked up to some morphine for some sweet, sweet pain relief.

(I don't even remember how they gave it to me)

Oh sorry, NOT RELIEF AT ALL.  Somehow everything hurt MORE.  And I started hallucinating.  And I think there were issues with my breathing, too?  John Paul was still doing great, so that was something!

But this was CLEARLY not working.  And then an anesthesiologist walked into the room and said,

"So, I hear we're prepping you for a C-section!"

WHAT????????????????????

(Aren't you glad I didn't leave you on THAT cliff hanger?)

The nurses shot daggers at him and told him, "YOU'RE IN THE WRONG ROOM!!!"

(If I had made any progress at that point, I'm sure I would have closed up tighter than the Hoover Dam...)

But at that point it seemed to me that my options were limited - if I didn't get SOME sort of rest or sustenance (did I mention I was still puking up those hospital popsicles?), there was no way I'd be able to push this baby out.  So we made the decision to get an epidural.  Because, even 47 hours in, I was still only dilated 1 cm.

At this point, Rosie was practically incoherent. She was so tired and so hungry and so miserable that she couldn't think straight. Andrew had been prepped well: Rosie can do this without medication, he'd been told. She's going to want it but you have to be strong. Just keep saying no.

And, to be honest, I think she'd only given him the negative information about epidurals since that's what had stuck out to her. So when Rosie started toying with the idea, he knew to stand his ground and defend his baby. He did a wonderful job but they hadn't been prepped for this situation: 48 hours in, no sleep, no dilation.

I was beginning to be concerned, so I went to talk to our nurse. Because John Paul was doing fine, she wasn't terribly worried. But she told me that the way things were going, Rosie's options were epidural, c-section, or death. She explained it gently, but that was the gist. So I went--against all Rosie and Andrew's requests--to convince them to get an epidural. Rosie kept crying and looking at Andrew and he kept saying he didn't know but it was pretty clear that nothing was going to progress without an epidural. We discussed how she wasn't a failure and that this was a good choice since it helped her avoid a c-section. Andrew kept telling her how every contraction was helping their baby grow stronger, which I think gave her a lot of strength. But at a certain point you have to recognize that lots of women can have unmedicated births but medication exists because some births can't progress without it. This was clearly one of those situations.

So the anesthesiologist (a different one that my awesome nurses called in from a different floor because they all HATED the one who had come into the room before) came in and administered the epidural, and it wasn't nearly as terrifying as I thought it would be.  I finally had some relief from the contractions that had been incredibly painful and about 2 minutes apart for I don't even KNOW how long!

They checked me after I was back in position.

FIVE CENTIMETERS!!!

Just like that, pump me full of pain meds, and my body is willing to get stuff done!

As is inevitable with epidurals, the contractions slowed down, but my OB wasn't pushing for any faster progress.  My water hadn't broken, and at least we had finally made SOME progress (at this point there were nurses coming back on their shifts who had been on during the beginning of my 2nd time at the hospital.  "You're still here???" was their incredulous query, because any other OB would have pushed for a c-section by then!).  I finally got some SLEEP.  

Hallelujah--sleep! Well, not for me--I was on ice chip duty, as Rosie kept waking up thirsty. But I'd slept the night before--2 nights before at this point, so I was good.

I remember it all as a hazy sort of progress - I'd wake up and open my mouth and she'd shovel ice chips in (those things are SO delicious!), or I'd moan "Yellow button!" and she'd press the yellow button for more medication to be administered.

The epidural wore off eventually, but I was still not dilated enough to push, so we got a SECOND dose around 54 hours.  That one turned out to be a dud, so I got to experience some lovely pain until they got a new bag. 

It was around here--I'm guessing transition--that Rosie turned to me and said, desperately, "Can you just tell everybody to please pray for me? And call St. Veronica's and ask them to pray?" Rosie's pretty shockingly strong and I don't think she'd ever asked me to request prayers for her before, so you'd better believe I got on it. I texted all my praying friends--pointing out that she'd been in labor for 58 hours--and called the church to ask them to pray for her. Looks like prayer works, because:

Then THAT ONE wore off around 59 hours and GUESS WHAT???

I WAS READY TO PUSH!  FINALLY!  And, despite the epidural, I could feel every urge, and all the pain associated with it.  And that was fine by me, because that's what I wanted anyway. 

As she was pushing, the dear priest from the parish they didn't even belong to showed up with communion for her. I thanked him very much and told him now wasn't a good time. What a wonderful priest!

The nurses asked Andrew and me to each hold one of Rosie's feet which was cool and ridiculous and not something I was expecting. They asked her if she wanted them to set up a mirror so she could watch and she shouted NO! Which I totally get but it was funny that she yelled at them.

John Paul finally arrived after an hour of pushing, and his lovely, conical, 15-inch head (always and forever in the 99th percentile) seemed to have been the reason it took SO. FREAKING. LONG.  To get that baby out of my small-hipped, 5'2" frame.

8 lbs 6 oz, 21 inches.  But do you SEE that conehead???

I was pretty disappointed that I didn't have the unmedicated birth I was convinced I would have.  But I don't think there's any way I could have lasted that long without food or sleep and STILL been able to push off a baby with a massive head...  The only thing that got me through it was what little rest I got from the epidural.

This was after 2 days and a shower...  I did NOT allow any pictures of me to be taken immediately after that ridiculous labor!

 

 Healthy mom, healthy baby, right?

So there you have it.  60 hours of labor, and he was FINALLY born at around 5 pm on Wednesday, July 15, the day after his due date and the feast of St. Bonaventure.  Clearly he just didn't want to be born on Bastille Day. 

Also the feast of some random St. Benedict. I tried to get them to name him John Paul Benedict Hill so his name was less monosyllabic and more hardcore, but I lost that one.

Again, 2 days after he was born.  I'm still ridiculously puffy and swollen from all the IV fluids, and yet Andrew looks glowing and wonderful.  Also, do you see John Paul's massive feet???

John Paul's Birth Story: Part II

I know, I know...  I started off Part I and never got to anything having to do with birth.  I'm sorry!  I started writing and it got so long that I felt like I needed to stop...  But I have a guest collaborator for Part II!  My awesome sister!!!  She'll be writing in bold to distinguish between the two of us

 

If you don't already read her blog, you should - funny, Catholic, and educational!

Anyway, when we left off, I was heavily pregnant and all alone in Williamsburg, VA, 2.5 hours from my OB, husband & hospital where I'd be delivering.  I just had a couple weeks left of teaching my little hooligans before joining Andrew in Northern VA, and my due date was in mid-July.

Sure, I was huge, but I had PLENTY of time left!  Every woman in my family who has ever had a baby has always been ridiculously late.  The secretaries in the office were convinced I wouldn't make it to my due date.  My students made jokes constantly about my water breaking in the middle of class.  But John Paul stayed put and there was no early arrival!  I packed my bag full of maternity clothes and headed up to NOVA to join my husband.

Only a month left!

I was ready for John Paul to be REALLY late.  My sister joined us after her school year ended and we spent every day either sitting in the pool or trying to do random things to keep our minds (well, my mind) off of when this baby would make his appearance. 

Have we mentioned that this meant all three of us were staying with Andrew's father at his house? Just imagine the bizarre dynamics that led to.

  It was HOT.  I was swollen.  And exhausted.  And the baby was staying put.  And every time I didn't answer my phone, my mom would leave a frantic phone message asking where I was and was I in labor and did we need her and she was going to call the hospital to see if we had checked in!!!

I have no recollection of going to the pool. What pool would we even have gone to? Maybe I wasn't there yet. But I do remember many, many panicked voice mails. I'm pretty sure one time she even started driving to NOVA because we didn't answer the phone....

My strategy to keep my mind off of the due date was to plan something exciting for every day past the due date that I was pregnant.  I was due on July 14, so we decided that our due date excitement would be seeing Ice Age 2 in theaters (WILD, we were!).  I was pretty excited to see the movie!  I figured there was no way I'd have had the baby by then...

We also went to the Newseum.  Not the first time I took advantage of a free wheel chair while heavily pregnant...

Well, Monday July 13 came and at about 5 AM I woke up feeling serious stomach cramps.  I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep.  10 minutes later, same thing.  10 minutes later, same thing.  As Andrew's alarm went off, I told him, "I've been having contractions for an hour but they don't hurt that much, so I don't think it's anything..."

"Do you want me to stay home?" He asked.

"No, I'm sure I won't be having the baby any time soon, just go to work and maybe we can go to the hospital when you get home."

The contractions continued throughout the day, still about 10 minutes apart, not really increasing in intensity.  When Andrew got home, we walked around outside for a bit, timing the contractions.  Things weren't speeding up, so we decided to go to Mass and to my friend Leslie's house.  Having contraction all through Mass was not a pleasant experience, since it's not like I could lie down or bring my exercise ball in!  We chatted with some friends in the parking lot afterwards and headed to Leslie's for a late dinner.

It wasn't until after Mass that Rosie mentioned to me that she was in labor. I'm a fairly observant person but had missed her evenly-spaced grimaces throughout the day. At that point, we just figured she was really good at being in labor and that the whole delivery would be a piece of cake since the early part was. Ha.

The best part of the whole day was borrowing books from Leslie. We were at her childhood home so all of the books were pretty much at a 6th-grade reading level or below, but that didn't bother me. It's not like anybody was going to see what I was reading and judge me. (We call this foreshadowing--something those books did not have.)

After we got home, I promptly vomited up everything I had eaten.  The contractions started picking up and by about 2 AM they were 5 minutes apart.  We called the hospital and they said to come on in!  I was so excited - I had been in labor for 21 hours already, surely I would be 8 cm dilated and practically ready to push by the time we got there!  But I was also concerned that when we got there they'd just send us home for not being far enough along...  I was torn, and so was Andrew - should we stay or should we go?

This is my favorite part of the story. I stayed up too late reading a Sweet Valley Twins book--yes, I was 25 at the time--and had been asleep for an hour or two when Rosie came and woke me up. 

"I think maybe I'm having the baby but I don't really know because I'm having contractions but I'm not sure if we should go to the hospital."

"Well, what does Andrew think?"

"He doesn't know either."

It was about this moment that I figured out that I was going to be doing more than just getting Rosie ice chips.

"Okay, well why don't we all just go for a walk and see how you're feeling?"

So it was that at 3am Rosie, Andrew, and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. As we were walking back up the driveway, Rosie and Andrew were still torn. They wanted to go in but Rosie was worried that it was too early and we shouldn't go yet. She'd mentioned the day before that we needed to stop at the store and buy some hard candy, though, so I made the following ridiculous statement:

"Well, we have to go to the store to get hard candy anyway, right? So why don't we all get in the car and go to Walgreen's (or CVS - neither of us can remember - Rosie) and see what we think once we're there?"

Because why wouldn't we all go to the drug store to buy candy in the middle of the night?

Once we got to the store, I was pretty sure that Rosie wasn't going to be getting any sleep anyway so she might as well labor at the hospital as on the streets of suburbia. So I suggested that maybe we should go to the hospital. Rosie was a little woozy from pain and hunger and lack of sleep and Andrew was way too concerned with taking care of Rosie to be decisive so they agreed and we got in the car to go to the hospital.

Well, we got to the hospital and went to triage, where they checked me (after asking about a trillion questions, of course.  WHY?  I answered all of those on the pre-admission forms!!!).

1 cm.  Which is where I was at my last appointment.  The contractions had slowed down, and it was time to go home and come back when things sped up again.  But I still had a chance for a due date baby - it was July 14!

And I was going to get to sleep!

To be continued (in Part III - I'm the worst!!!  I'll try to get it up soon but my mother-in-law is about to come to town and time may be at a premium!)

5 Favorites - I'd rather be sleeping, though...

Ah, gotta love a late-night linkup when one of the babies won't sleep...  And since that means I don't get to sleep either, heeeere you go!

ONE

 Reusable Straw Cups

I'm loving these for smoothies and iced coffee (HAH, a week home and I've started drinking coffee - you all were so right!!!), and the kids are so obsessed that I told John Paul I'd get him his own for his birthday!

TWO

Gap foldover maxi skirt

I don't know why they style it with those stupid heels...  It's way better looking in person, and SO comfy, and 30% off if you buy it today!  And while I'm hesitant to spend that much money on a skirt, a black maxi is a closet staple that you'll be using forever!

Here's how I styled it yesterday, day 2 of Pants-Free July:

 

Psst, I'm posting outfit pictures every day at the facebook page, and then I'll try to recap each week on Fridays!

THREE

Flip diaper covers!

I know I've told you all about my favorite cloth diapering necessities, but there's a seconds sale at Cottonbabies right now and BumGenius & Flip stuff almost never goes on sale!  We've gotten a ton of "seconds quality" products and the only thing I've ever noticed was a black spot on one diaper shell.  One.  Out of quite a few that we've purchased!

I love the colors these come in, and they work so well for our babies once they're big enough.  The snaps are awesome for summer when you want the baby to be able to cool down in just a diaper but don't want her to pull the velcro and end up naked!

FOUR

These french fries 

I made them last week and didn't take a picture because I couldn't stop eating them...  Very little oil used, wonderful crunch, so tasty!

FIVE

Polyvore 

Mom Style 2 by rosiehill425 featuring leather shoes

It's like paper dolls for grown-ups.   What could be better?

Check out more favorites at Hallie's!

Twin Talk

 

Cecilia, 3.5 months

 

Mary Claire, 7.5 months

The twins are 7.5 months old and boy, are we having fun!  They're rolling here and there, army crawling, flinging themselves wherever they can, and in serious danger of turning my hair gray!

Today John Paul ran outside and didn't shut the door.  Elizabeth, seeing her opportunity, started crawling as fast as she possibly could (about 1 foot/5 seconds) to freedom!  I'm so thankful that this is as far as they've gotten - I can still leave them on the floor and return to find they've only moved about 5 feet.  They're not trying to get into stuff they shouldn't, they're just happy with toys scattered about them to explore on the floor.

They've sampled a wide variety of food, with Mary Claire being more of a fan of everything than Elizabeth.  It's apparent who eats more solid foods when I change their diapers!  So far they both seem to love meat more than anything else, and tonight they get to try meatballs for the first time.  I think I'll have two little fans!

 

They still aren't sitting up on their own for more than a few seconds - we tend to have late sitters and early crawlers/walkers, so I'm not concerned. 

 

 They've also been more aware of one another, but mostly in the sense of, "That baby has something I want!"

At which point they use their newfound mobility to snatch said object!

Thankfully nobody minds...  Yet!

Can't get enough of twin babies?

 

Mary is having a virtual baby shower for Sarah (below), who's due with her twin boys any day now!

Ashley's identical twin boys are almost 1 month old and she already has their birth story up!

Sheena keeps it real and shows you that things CAN get accomplished with twinfants at home.

Abbey's TwinsDay Wednesdays are one of my favorite things, and her post for new twin moms is a must-read!

Adele just found out she's expecting twins - ever met a mom and thought, "SHE could absolutely handle twins!"  Adele's one of those moms - peaceful, poised, patient, incredibly loving, and amazing at conveying the beauty of a simple lifestyle.

Have I fed your twin addiction enough?  Should we call it a "Twindiction" just to be cute?  Go visit these other blogs - you won't be sorry you did!

John Paul's Birth Story : Part I

I'm going to preface this with the fact that I hate it when birth stories are in multiple parts.  I want it ALL IMMEDIATELY and I hate waiting to find out how it ends!!!  

But this is going to be one of those hated multi-part birth stories...  Because the whole thing took that long.  But it's almost John Paul's 4th birthday and I still haven't written up his birth story.

Sooooo here we go!

John Paul's Birth Story, Part I:  The Preface

Back in 2008 Andrew and I had just gotten married and moved into an apartment in Williamsburg, Virginia as he started his second year of law school.  Just 4 short months after the wedding, we found out we were expecting a baby!  This was a little bit terrifying for us, since I still hadn't found a job and we were making ends meet through student loans, singing professionally, my two nanny jobs and my tutoring job.  

Trying to keep it a secret was difficult, since my morning sickness was fairly debilitating and my sister was about to visit for Thanksgiving.  The two of us normally cooked Thanksgiving dinner together and there was no way I'd be able to hide my pregnancy from her!  But I was still in the first trimester and my mom always told me I should NEVER tell people I was pregnant that early on!

When she got to Virginia for her visit, I ended up showing her the "Grandpa" and "Grandma" shirts I had bought my parents as Christmas presents, and she got the hint pretty quickly ;)

We didn't think there was any way we'd be able to pull of  a complete Thanksgiving dinner with our side of the family and Andrew's side without someone sensing something was up...  After all, I spent most of the day curled up in a ball on the dining room floor while Sister cooked, and I'm pretty sure I only ate a couple of bites of mashed potatoes and the driest piece of turkey I could find.

Somehow, they didn't notice!  We pulled it off!  And we only had to wait another month before the big reveal at Christmas, at which point I would be 12 weeks along.

At the beginning of December I was offered a teaching job at the middle school down the road from us, replacing a teacher who was having a baby and leaving permanently.  Hallelujah!  I didn't break the news to them that I was pregnant, since I wasn't due until July.

So Christmas came and my sister rented a house for all of us to stay at near my parents, and we gave them our big news - she was going to enter the convent and I was going give my parents their first grandchild!  

Much fun was had by all as I spent the whole vacation lying in bed moaning and asking Andrew to peel me an orange or bring me a bowl of canned pineapple (but it HAD to be cold, it needed to be refrigerated overnight).  We managed to have a little bit of Christmas fun with our new Wii, creating characters for every member of the family including the new baby, whom we dubbed "Polycarp" in utero.

My new job started and my belly started growing: 

  

Since I didn't know my new students or co-workers very well, I wasn't really sure how to tell them I was pregnant...  So I just kept wearing tight-fitting clothing and there came a point when a student asked me, "Um...  No offense, but...  You just look like...  Are you maybe pregnant?"

I glared at her.  "You NEVER ask a woman that question if you're not absolutely positive that she's pregnant!!!"

She looked horrified.  What kind of a mistake had she made???

I couldn't keep a straight face for long, and my students were ecstatic to hear that I was pregnant, just like their old teacher!  The rest of the school year went smoothly (aside from the student who threatened to punch me in the stomach and kill my baby.  Did I mention it was a little bit of a rough neighborhood?), although Andrew and I were still traveling to Northern Virginia every weekend for our singing job and to go to our awesome pro-life NFP OB practice up there, since we'd be there for the summer.  We lined up a private Bradley class because I knew there was no way I'd be having a medicated birth - if my mom, who cries when she combs her hair because it hurts to much, could have 4 totally drug-free births, I could do it too!

 I was craving some very specific things - McCain Ellio's frozen pizza, Celeste individual frozen pizzas, Tina's frozen pizza burritos (sense a theme?), boiled potatoes with cottage cheese, and canned pineapple that was as cold as possible!  I didn't want to eat ANY meat, except sometimes bacon...  These were the food themes for all 3 of my pregnancies, so you can imagine how angry I was when NO grocery store anywhere near us sold pizza burritos when I was expecting the twins!

(Because Katrina wanted to know!)

There was also an incident in which I cried because Andrew wouldn't buy me potato chips, but I won't go into that...

We started amassing the baby clothes (we found out at 20 weeks that we were expecting a boy), cloth diapers, and other baby gear.  My belly kept getting bigger.  My co-workers were convinced I wouldn't make it to my due date, and when I was about 34 weeks pregnant Andrew left to stay in Northern Virginia to start his summer internship.

It was just me, Polycarp, the DVR, and the internet.

To Be Continued...