Week 1

Today is day 10 for the boys and it has been very exhausting but well worth it.  Eli has started to demand feed exclusively when I am in special care and Luca is starting to also get the hang of it. They are expected to spend around 1 more week in the unit before we get admitted back into the hospital for rooming in.

They are both close to reaching their birth weights and Are both starting to look more plump in the face.  We are looking forward to brining them home.

This week I have experienced projectile vomiting, explosive poos and been peed on three times.  The joys of boys times two :)

Very thankful to our parents for driving us too and from the hospital every day, for cleaning our house and making heaps of meals.

Happy birth day Luca and Eli

On Friday 24th May 2013 our twin boys were born.

Luca William Kingsley Walker born at 10.58am at 2200g

Eli Christopher Lewis Walker born at 10.59am at 2300g

Today is day 3 and they are still in special care. They are breathing on their own, blood sugars are normal and they are keeping their temperatures regulated. They just need to learn to suckle before they come out.  

I am in hospital until Tuesday at the earliest but might be a little longer as the boys need to spend a night with me in hospital outside of special care before they will discharge.  They have their little differences but when they are wrapped up together it is very hard to tell them apart. Both Adrian and I thought they had swapped them in the crib today.

Oriana got to quickly meet her brothers today. She has been unwell unfortunately and had to hear a mask and just peak at them.

Visitors are welcome in the mater mothers from 10am - 1pm and 3pm -5pm.  If we are not in our room we will be in special care.  Room is Level 10 (1005). Special care is on Level 6. If we are there just speak with the reception desk we are in pod 12.

We have a few thank you's for special deliveries whilst we have been in hospital.
Aunts Lyn and Lizzie - thank you for the flowers and gift box.
GPH exec office - thank you for the flowers
Stacey and Adrian - thank you for the yummy cupcakes and teddy rattles.
Toowoomba family - thank you for the bunch of flowers
Clough Ccjvpng team- thank you for the flowers and gift box.
Nona (Carolyn) - thank you for all the little gifts over the past couple of days. Will get to read the magazines in the next couple of days.
Granny (Jennie) - big thanks for the fruit bowl... Hospital food is good but lacking in fruit.

34 Weeks and 5 Days

Sorry for the delay in writing last weeks post!  Sunday was a big day trying to get things organised as we have very little time left before the boys arrive.  

My itch has its good days and its bad days.  This might be slightly due to the cooler nights that we have been experiencing.  For those not in Brisbane we went from 30 degree days to 8 degree nights within a couple of days.

Luckily for this week we had 6 out of 7 good nights and really the 1 bad night I had wasn't too bad.  I have got a daily routine now which includes 1 or 2 showers a day and a baby oil bath at night time followed by calamine lotion to my ankles and feet and what ever other body part decides it is going to be itchy on the night!  Tonight it is my knees.  

I went back to the obstetrician today and I have been booked for a c-section. I believe that he is worried that the boys have now become to big for me to deliver naturally without causing damage to my liver or gallbladder.  We have been given our date and the boys will have a May birthday.  We are keeping the exact date quiet at the moment mainly for two reasons.  1. We originally thought that I would be induced last week which changed so we do not want to get our hopes up until we know for sure.  2. We want the date to be a surprise.

The boys are kicking so much now.  It is really funny to watch them when I am sitting on the couch and my entire stomach does a Mexican wave or I see a hand stretch out into the side of my belly button.  It happens so often but is really hard to catch on camera. 

I weighed myself during the week and I was 82kg.  This is the heaviest I have ever weighed which means that I have so far during this pregnancy put on 19kg.  I am pretty happy with this weight as they do say the average weight gain for twins is between 15 - 20kg.  

*Note - Had to change clothes as the size 10 black singlet that I wore throughout the entire pregnancy no longer fits me.  

33 Weeks and 4 Days - Happy Mothers Day

D Day is just around the corner and I am as ready as I can be.  Mum took some photos of us today as we have made it through the full pregnancy without any photos.  I think I have had a fluid overload - looking more round in the face this week.

It has been a pretty uneventful week! Have had itchy days and restless nights this week.  Boys have been doing a lot of night time movements and there has been many trips to the bathroom to lather up in moisturiser, peppermint cream and calamine lotion.  

I am heading back to the obstetrician on Monday for my first steroid injection and then hopefully we will have an idea of the boys positions and start making a birth plan.  

No belly shots today as I am covered in calamine lotion!!!

32 Weeks and 4 days

This week was Adrian's 32nd Birthday!

Unfortunately Adrian had to spend the day at work followed by dinner at Maccas with Oriana.

We celebrated on Friday night with Paul at a lovely chinese restaurant in China Town.  Who would have known that you can still get dinner for 5 people including 3 entrées, 3 mains, and rice for under $100 in total.  Food was good.  

We then celebrated on Saturday with the rest of our close friends at Fifth Element at Southbank.  Food was amazing... recommend their mocktails and the chocolate fondant mmmmmm

Sunday was just about the two of us.  It has been a while since we have been able to go out and spend one on one time with each other as we have been trying to get the house up and running or organising items for the twins.  Was lovely to go out and have lunch at a Mexican restaurant at Graceville before coming home to put Adrian's bday present "The BBQ" up.  

Dinner tonight - Whole Fish cooked on the BBQ with Moroccan cous cous.  Cooked by my amazing husband.  

Had another obstetrician visit this week and we are still on track to be delivered in the next couple of weeks.  My skin is becoming extremely itchy due to the obstretric cholestasis.   Some nights I wake up every 30 mins to either visit the toilet or lather myself in moisturiser.  I have been told to try calamine lotion to help with the itch so am trying that tonight.  Its going to look funny as I am itchy all over not just my feet or hands.

31 Weeks and 6 Days

With the nursery now complete I have started on washing all the clothes.  I think I have done around 15 loads so far and only have a couple more still to do.  The leftovers to wash are mainly swaddle blankets so should be able to finish them tomorrow.

I had an obstetrics appointment last week and got sent off for a scan to check the growth of the boys before the obstetrician makes his decision on when the boys will greet the world.  They are both growing very well.  Baby A had put on 500 grams since the last scan only 2 weeks earlier.  Both are now at the 50th percentile.

We went to see the new wiggles on Sunday at the Logan entertainment centre.  Surprisingly they made it very parent friendly putting in a dry sense of humour that went straight over the little ones heads.  Oriana had a wiggly good time and the boys were moving around in my tummy so believe they might become wiggle fans one day soon.

This week there are a few special people with birthdays.  

Tuesday- Happy Birthday to the big girl "Lily" who turns 4 (Oriana's Cousin).   I am sorry your birthday parcel is on its way.  Bianca when you get the card from Oriana, the word "Werd" is actually "World".  It will make sense when you get the card :)

Thursday - Happy Birthday to the coolest Daddy, Adrian who turns a big 32.  Hopefully the boys stay in mummys tummy just a little bit longer so you can celebrate your bday on the weekend!

Also Happy Birthday to my cousin, Ebony.  Hope Darren and the girls spoil you.  

We had very slow internet on Sunday and Monday so unfortunately this blog has been posted a little late.  I will need to update the post tonight with pictures of my growing tummy!

30 Weeks and 4 days

Baby Shower week!

First week of real maternity leave as Oriana returned to school.  Finally got some of our wedding photos developed and hopefully should have the our thank you cards out for the wedding.  Yes I know that we got married in September last year but a lot has happened since then.

I had to go see a liver specialist this week as my bile salts are a little high.  I have Obstetric Cholestasis which will clear up after the boys are born.  Basically means that my bile duct is blocked which is causing a build up of bile salts which are trying to excrete through my skin.  My symptom was extreme itching and when you scratch the itch it starts to burn but you can't stop itching.  Very glad I had it checked because it turns out that my levels were pretty high.  It is passed through generations and it looks like it is on the same side of the family as the twin genes.  I am now on medication to hopefully unblock the bile duct and on fortnightly blood tests.

The boys have done a big growth spurt this week.  My stomach is very very tight and it is getting extremely hard to sleep at night time.   After 7 weeks of waiting for our cots to be delivered we have been able to finish the boys nursery.  As you can see the theme in their room is space.  I was a little worried about the size of the rocket but once we got it up on the wall I loved it.



















A big thank you to Janean and Mum for a fantastic baby shower.  Was lovely catching up with some friends that I have not seen in a very long time.  Was lovely to meet little Tyler and seeing the grown up Isabelle.  I didn't unfortunately get any group pictures on the day but would like to mention those who came.

Thank you to 

• Janean for organising the baby shower plus the clothes, socks, baby wipes and hand print impression tins.
• Justyne and Morgan for the clothes and tiniest socks I have ever seen.
• Carla, Brett and Tyler for the washers singlets and grow bags
• Danielle and Isabelle for the clothes
• Jane and Anthony for the clothes and cutest little scooby doo hats. 
• Eden for the baby bibs and cot sheets
• Carolyn for the baby bag, bibs and hat (plus all the other little items that have been supplied on previous visits)
• Auntie Lyn & the Dalys - for all the clothes, accessories and the movement and baby monitor.
• Stacey & Adrian for the baby clothes, comforters, bibs, bassinet sheets, muslim wraps and "Tex's" required toy cubes :)
• Jennifer (my Mum) for helping organising the baby shower plus the millions of baby clothes and baby seats

A big mention also to my Auntie Lizzie who was unable to make it to the baby shower.  Thank you for all the boys clothes they are lovely and can't wait to see them all dressed up in them especially the little zebra outfit.
Next weeks plan is to get through all the washing and make a list of everything still left to get.  We have another baby market on next Sunday so hopefully we can pick up the left overs next weekend.  I have our fortnightly obstetrician appointment on Tuesday.  









Adrian and his dad got into the backyard today and moved the shed which gave us more room for the trampoline.  

 

29 Weeks and 4 Days

First week of maternity leave and boy am I tired.  I think most people with energetic children can all relate that rainy weeks and children do not go well together.  Love the princess very much but she has definitely driven me crazy this week!!

Oriana's Kittycure

Have had several visits to the indoor playground this week to try and burn up her energy.  The sun came out for a couple of hours on Thursday and I took advantage of this by getting down to the lake with the scooter (I think she completed around 4km on the scooter).  Oriana also had her first pedicure and manicure this week (Adrian called it the kittycure).  The most important bit is that she has rainbow coloured nails.

Tuesday we went for another scan to see the boys and only one of them was photogenic on this day.  Was lovely to see Baby A's little face.  We have another scan booked for 34 weeks so might be able to see Baby B then.  Otherwise we will just met him on his birth date. 

Baby A

Baby A is sitting at 30th percentile at 1.3kg and Baby B is sitting at 50th percentile at 1.5kg.  Both obstetricians were very happy with their progress.  Good news also is that I do not have gestational diabetes.  My bile salts are a little high though so need to visit a specialist next week to see if I need to have any prescription medication or whether monitoring is the answer.

The boys have been moving around a lot more in my tummy. Oriana was able to have a big session with them on Friday night as they were having a soccer match in my tummy. Sometimes my right hand side goes really hard and I get this little ball that pops up just under my ribs.  I think it is a foot but not 100% sure.  

Looking forward to catching up with everyone on Saturday for the baby shower.

28 weeks and 4 days

I made it to maternity leave :)

My Last day at work

What a fantastic farewell I received from work. All I can say is that I am so lucky to work some of the most amazing people and I am going to be so lonely on maternity leave as I am always used to being around people all day every day. With this said i am ready for our new adventure with the boys.

Many people to thank this week!

To the executive team, thank you for my baby shower morning tea. The gift voucher will be used shortly to pick up some baby supplies.   The flowers are blooming and smell amazing.

To the medical services team including the JMO's...... Thank you so very much for all the supplies you all contributed to. I was so overwhelmed with everything and it made leaving for the next 9 months even harder.  Thank you to Sarah and Colleen for organising the farewell. 

Jowita, Matt, Myself and Caroline

Another thank you to Natalie, Julie and Marylane for all the lovely gifts we received for the boys. 

Came as a flat pack but was so easy to put together!

The nursery is starting to take shape. We have all the painting completed, waiting on the wall art to be delivered. Chest of drawers are up and clothes washed and put away. Mattresses have been delivered but no cots yet.  The wardrobe has also become the storage area for all the nappies etc.  we also picked up the pram today.

Twins Nursery Wardrobe

Thanks Exec Secs for helping me get all this stuff down to my car!

Next week we have Oriana for the school holidays. 

Health wise I am doing fine. My first glucose blood test came up high so I have had to have the 2 hour glucose test on Friday to see if I have gestational diabetes.  We had our first antenatal class on Thursday. 

Whats next:
Tuesday we have another scan and
Thursday I head back to the obstetricians for our fortnightly visit.

28 Weeks and 4 days

Feeling a little lop sided...

27 Weeks and 4 days

Happy Easter everyone!

School holidays started on Thursday and unfortunately Oriana's cross country was cancelled due a big storm the weekend before hand that took out many of the trees around her school.  I did however pick up a very excited and extremely hyperactive child on the Thursday after they had their easter bonnet parade and the easter bunny had brought along heaps of easter eggs for the kids that participated.

Thursday was also the day that Ariel and Liz welcomed their little boy "Fynn" into the world at the Mater hospital.  We popped up to see them on Friday afternoon.  He will no doubt be in our lives a fair bit with the twins also due soon.

Oriana woke up this morning at a very comfortable time of 6.30am to find that the Easter Bunny had been and eaten part of the carrot, drank all the milk and had left heaps of easter eggs on the kitchen bench for her.  This was the first easter that we have spent with Oriana in her 6 years and I don't know who was more excited (Adrian or Oriana).

The twins nursery (fingers crossed) should be completly finished from painting tomorrow.  We are waiting on the wall art to arrive and the furniture and then we will be mostly ready.


Twin A has been doing a lot of backflips this week and Twin B has decided that he prefers the right hand side of my body and has positioned himself to stretch out my belly button.  Very uncomfortable when he pushes out and also 
another thing that I have figured out this week is that breathing is definitely a novelty.  Right lung is not getting as much use as it used to.  This is causing me to become a little light headed sometimes and breathless when I stand sometimes.


Big thanks goes out to Miss Emma F for the tip on Spreets for babies nappies $15 for a box of 106.  Ended up purchasing 5 boxes of them which will come in handy very soon.

I am also going to need to start thanking people on the blog for their gifts.

Thanks to Megan K for the baby bath, clothes and toys
Thanks to Emma C for the 2 Brisbane Lions singlets and the romper suits
Thanks to Carolyn for the PJ's and bath robes, bibs and little outfits


Whats next?

• Last week of work - next week!
• Next Scan - 9th April
• Followed by Obstetrics appointment on the 11th April
• Twice Blessed Baby Shower - 20th April 9am

27 Weeks 4 days

27 weeks 4 days

26 Weeks 4 days

15 Weeks 4 days

  
Haha..... I remember saying that I felt bloated and fat at 15 weeks pregnant because my jeans and work clothes no longer fit... How my life has changed since :)

26 Weeks and 4 days

Another week over!!!

Went to see the obstetrician again this week.  The boys are coming along fine.  Baby A has turned upside down with his head in my left hip and feet up at my lungs.  Baby B is using his brothers feet as a pillow and is taking up the rest of the room on the right side.  He often has his backside in my other lung. 

No energy left at the end of the work day to do anything at the moment.  Sleep has been a precious moment and I cannot make it through the weekend now without at least a 30 minute nap.  Adrian loves this as it means that he also gets a nap in the daytime.  


We visited another baby and kids market at Mt Ommaney Special School.  It is amazing how many people attend these events. Leaving with only a few bags this time as the majority of the stuff for sale was for girls. 

Also managed to wash all the babies clothes and fold away.  The nursery has been sanded completely (worst  previous paint job ever!!).  It took us 1/2 of today to sand by hand.  Adrian has just started cutting in and hopefully during the next week he will start doing the undercoat.  This has been a big work in progress.

Also started working on organising my laundry/linen cupboard similar to the one is the below picture (thanks to my favourite new blog "The organised housewife").  Will post pictures of the final product once it has been finished.

8 more working days left before Maternity leave.  Really looking forward to trying to get this place a little more organised before these little men join us. Also looking forward to resting as much as possible...

So here is this weeks photo shoot...

 

So whats next?
- Maternity Leave as of 5th April!  Well technically it is Annual Leave to start with as you cannot start Maternity Leave until 6 weeks prior to your due date.

- Next big scan is 9th April then follow up appointment with obstetrician.

- Baby Shower - 20th April 9am at our new place. 

25 Weeks and 4 days

These posts are getting later and later on the Sunday night!!!

Adrian is sitting in the loungeroom putting together the lovely flat packs that are the boys dresser drawers.  This might be a long night ahead.

This week was Multiples Birth Awareness week and in Brisbane we celebrated with a Baby Bazaar at Sherwood State School.  Ended up getting a lot of second hand clothes, blankets, etc.  Picked up the mesh cot bumber things that are promoted by sids.

We then backed this market up on the Sunday with another market at Springfield which did not have as much second hand stuff but still ended up picking up a large amount of stuff.  Lots of clothes, blankets and baby wraps and a funky baby bath.  The photo above is only the items we picked up at the Sunday markets.. A lot of the clothes here are for 6 months onwards.

Oriana helped out big time this weekend with the shopping and if she had it her way we would have purchased everything.  We have found another baby/kids market will be held next weekend at Mt Ommaney so will have to pop in there to have a look and see what we can find.  

We finished off this afternoon with a birthday lunch for Adrian's father at Carindale Hotel.  Happy Belated Birthday.

Upcoming Events - 

26 week obstetrician appointment this Thursday.

Baby Shower is still going ahead on the 20th April even though there is a races day event at my work on this day.  I am not 100% sure of the time.  Will be either mid morning or lunch time.  

3 more weeks of work and then I need to get through the school holidays before I can rest.  

If anyone is free to help paint the nursery next weekend please let us know!!  

Can no longer see my toes

24 Weeks and 4 days

Itchy Itchy Everything is so itchy!

Have had a little bit more energy this week then I have in the past couple of months.  Work has been pretty busy but started to try and wind down to give handover in the coming month.  I have finally started sleeping better after finding a comfortable position with pillows.  

Saw the obstetrician on Thursday and have boosted up to fortnightly visits now that I have hit the 24 week mark.   He did another ultrasound to see how the boys were growing by checking their abdominal circumference.  Both are doing exceptionally well at this stage and are still growing at a great rate.  Both currently weigh around 500g each.  1 baby is up under my ribs with head up facing my heart.  The other baby is below him face down.  

 We have finally cleared out the twins nursery ready to start painting.  Running a little bit behind in the plans of painting the room thanks to the amount of rain that we have had recently.  

We have now purchased the cots, chest of drawers that will also become the baby change station and the double pram.  That is all the big ticket items apart from the car seats.  Just have to wait 4-6 weeks for them to deliver them.

Whats next - 2 weeks time back to the obstetrician; 4 weeks time next scan...

23 Weeks and 4 Days

Tired Tired Tired.

I think that pretty much sums up this week.  

Starting with photos this time.  I have my next visit to obstetrician on Thursday.  I think the appointments change to fortnightly from monthly as of this weeks visit.  Just over 4 weeks away until our next morphology scan (28 weeks)...  The boys are both kicking around a lot more now.  They do not hurt except sometimes when I sit down to quickly I get a twinge down the bottom.  I get so scared that I have squished a foot of something.

People have started asking me for a list of things that I need for the twins.  So far we have some clothes for 00000 and some blankets.  This is all.  I am trying to put a list together of things that we will need but as you can imagine we need so much that it is hard to know where to start.  I have found a gift registry on mybabywarehouse website that I thought might help people with ideas but I don't think it is fair that people have to stick to a registry as the whole fun of babies is going out looking for cute outfits etc etc.  

We know which car seats we are getting.  I can have rearward facing for up to 12 months and still be able to sit comfortably to drive.

I guess we will need all of the following and I don't think that many of the items on this list will be wasted if we get more than 1.  We are going to focus on the big ticket items.  Pram, Cots, Furniture etc.

Things we will need though are:

• Mattress protectors for cot mattress
• Fitted cot sheets
• Quilts
• Cot Bumpers
• Blankets
• Clothes - 0000 and bigger
• Baby toys
• Baby bath
• All types of baby bath stuff like - washers, towels, baby wipes, baby shampoo, baby oil, lavender babywash etc etc
• Heaps of Swaddles and GrowSuits
• Bibs

Other items that might be helpful but are not necessary are:

• Sheepskins for our pram (I am hoping to get the City Mini Twin Stroller or the more luxury model that looks pretty similar).

• We are looking at this rocker - http://www.mybabywarehouse.com.au/index.php/baby-at-home/bouncers-rockers/nature-s-purest-hug-me-bear-rocker.html
• And this swing- http://www.mybabywarehouse.com.au/index.php/baby-at-home/swings/nature-s-purest-hug-me-bear-swing.html 
• We will also need heaps of bottles, bottle steriliser.
• Car Baby Mirrors
• Portable Baby Changing Mat
• Baby Bag

The list can go on and on. The one thing that we do not want is Baby Walkers (no pun intended).  Our house is not really suited for one let alone having two of them.  

P.S - We will be keeping one little thing secret about the boys....  Their names will be completely secret to everyone except Adrian and myself until their birth.