The girls first Thanksgiving

Well, after much deliberation for a few weeks prior to Thanksgiving, Matt and I decided to take the girls to Columbus, GA to see my grandparents. We were not sure how the 3 hour trip and a night in a hotel would go with two 7 week olds, but it was very important to me.

Every year my grandmother hosts Thanksgiving dinner and my whole family goes to Columbus for the event. Last year, a few days before Thanksgiving, my 85 year old grandmother fell off a ladder and had hip surgery. Needless to say, she was in the hospital for the holiday and after that everything kind of changed. My grandmother took care of my granddad, as his health has been steadily depreciating. After the fall, they were forced to move from their house and into an assisted living facility.

We were unsure how things were going to work this year. Thoughout the year granddad has been getting so much worse and is now on hospice care. As my pregnancy progressed I could no longer drive there to see them, and there were times I was unsure if I would get to ever again. I wanted my girls to meet him so much, so with the support of my wonderful husband we took the trip.

We got some pictures and granddad and grandmother got to see the girls. It was a great moment for me, and my grandmother cried knowing granddad did indeed get to meet them. He now has 9 great grandchildren, 7 of them girls. The girls did wonderfully on the trip. They were quiet until the last 15 minutes on the trip there and slept the whole way home. Not a bad thanksgiving!

Thank you, Matt for being such a supportive husband and taking on the task of a road trip with two babies for me. I love you!

Iron-Brother

I know this is not 100% about the girls, but it relates. Siblings make for such an interesting dynamic. Two people made from the same people, but most likely so different you would never know they are brothers or sisters. This is interesting because we have twins, and already they are two totally different little girls.

For me though I enjoyed having a brother 5 years older than me (he might not have liked the brat little brother though). It gave me someone to look up to and admire. He was a great example for a brother to have. As the years pressed on, we started seeing each others as equals, and this created a strong bond that people are amazed at. We still fight, argue, disagree, but we are brothers that would do anything for one another.

This weekend though, I became the little brother again. Jason participated in the IronMan Florida. A race that consists of 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking, and 26 miles of running. I watched my big brother suffer through 13.5 hours of physical hell and come out on the other side smiling. That is something a little brother can look up to. I am 25 now, and have my own family, but I dont think I will ever get to the point where I do not look up to him. He was truly awesome this weekend, and he is now and IronMan, IronSon, IronHusband, IronFather and to me an IronBigBrother.

I pray one day that my little girls even though the same age will be able to find inspiration and example like I find in my brother.

Congratulations to all the IronMan competitors this weekend, and a shout-out to my good friend Ben, who is now a two time IronMan, beating his last year time by 45 minutes.

Thank any of you who sent down prayers for Jason and his safety, we know God was watching over him the whole day. Thank you to my parents for getting us a place to stay, thank you to my loving wife and sister in law for watching the girls so I could go, and lastly thank you to my brother for showing that pain is temporary, and that reaching for your dreams and goals only happens through hard work and perseverance.

A trip to "Christmas Village"

Last year I went to Christmas Village at the BJCC and vowed that whenever I had kids I would have to go back. They have some of the cutest things (especially for little girls). Well now I have my little girls and I really wanted to go again, but I was kind of thinking it would be later in the year.

It apparently ends this weekend so Thursday night I asked my sister if she wanted to venture out with me on Friday to go to the BJCC with the girls. We came up with the brilliant idea that we would carry them in the Baby Bjorns (infant carriers that you strap around your back so they are nestled up to your chest with their legs and arms hanging out - wonderful contraption. We figured that if they were not together in the stroller and we did not match them, people would be thrown off and not know we had twins. We could in fact just be two friends who happened to have babies at the same time.

So we awoke and fed the girls, then Laura and I both got showers, packed the diaper bag, bathed and dressed the girls, and after another feeding we were on our way (3 hours later). Hannah and Leah are great in the car (so far) so it was a peaceful trip downtown. After strapping them in the Baby Bjorns and again changing them, we walked our way to the arena. It started on the stairs outside. A lady asked if we had twins and ogled over them. Ok she figured it out but we werent in a crowd. 5 minutes later we were finally at the ticket window. I tried my best to give the lady my card, but we got a gambet of questions yet again. After about 10 minutes she took my card and gave me the tickets.

It was funny at first, and I didnt mind showing off my beautiful babies (just dont touch!). Laura and I got stopped a few more times in the next few minutes after getting inside and we thought we would count how many people said something. There is no way we could have kept up! I would say that we had about 150 people (not exaggerating) come up to us and always asked these questions - after saying they looked like baby dolls: How old are they? How much do they weigh? How much did they weigh at birth? Are they girls or boys? (hello - they were both wearing bright pink), Who was the mom? Occasionally we got asked how old we were, and also we sometimes had to hear the whole family history related to twins of whomever was asking us the questions. Apparently everyone always wanted twins and had X number of sets in their families but never got any (you get the drift).

What was worse was I would say out of the 150 people, about 50 of them didnt think they were real babies! So they would come up to us and touch their hands (cue baby wipes) and then tell us they thought the babies were dolls and we were high school students who were in some home ec class and carrying around those fake babies that seem real. SERIOUSLY? I know I look young but who would do that at christmas village and I had a 50lb diaper bag I was carrying as well! We had one lady approach us and say that she had been discussing with her daughter whether the girls were real or not, and swore the next time we passed she was going to ask us.

I really didnt mind so much but it does get a little tiring telling everyone the same thing. And also, we just wanted to enjoy the shopping. If one person talks to us for 5 minutes, does that person think he/she is the only one who has done so? I think w could have been done in about half the time! :)

So our brilliant planned to throw people off the twin trail did not quite work. But I have to say that I was told that going out with twins was a spectacle but I never EVER thought it would be that big of a deal. On another note though, the girls racked up with all kinds of cute things (most that I could do myself but now no longer have time). They slept the whole day in their little carrier. We only had one outfit change after lunch and no screaming fits. A success! Laura and I could barely walk afterward though and all 4 of us slept rather well last night!

I enjoyed getting out!!! And now I feel like I can do almost anything! :)

Returning to normal life....hopefully not too soon.

Well life is trying, or we are forcing it to return to some sort of normal. In the past week the following has taken place. We have gone to my brothers for my belated birthday party and the Auburn Ole Miss game, Allyson has taken the girls by herself to an eye appointment, that same day she brought them to visit my work crew and today Allyson and Laura were brave enough to venture to Christmas Village. Too much, too soon? well most likely for the parents that are dog tired after a pretty rough sleep week, but for the kids only time will tell.

The first few days postpartum

The stay in the hospital was a blur. I have never been so tired in my life, and in all the exhaustion and pain after labor I had a little baby to take care of (Leah was still being cared for in the Nicu). Between going up and down to see Leah and juggling the family visits, I was exhausted and emotionally drained. But Matt and I created the most beautiful babies in the whole world! (argue with me - I dare ya). My recovery was relatively well. I just had a lot of residual back pain and of course pain from where I tore, but it could have been worse!

Leah was officially admitted to the Nicu because her blood sugar was borderline (40) but other than that she was fine. She got the smallest cast in the world and on Thursday I was finally able to hold her and try her at breastfeeding (she did very well). I was forced to supplement with formula for both the girls because they were born premature and it was important for them to keep their blood sugar up. This was against my wishes, but now I am so glad that other people can help give a bottle. I dont think I could keep up with them even with pumping!

We got to go home on Friday, after watching a car seat safety video (Nicu requirements for discharging a patient). The car ride home was completely surreal, with both babies in their little car sears asleep. We were going home as a family of 4! (plus 2 dogs of our own, my sister and her dog of course).

I have to admit that when we got them home, I had no idea what to do! Its like, what now? What do we do with these two babies who are completely relying on us for everything? I got in the shower that night and bawled from the pure emotion of everything. Again, postpartum hormones are wonderful - lemme tell you. I continues to cry for the next week over everything, but thankfully that is over now...

Leahs little arm posed a bit of a challenge but we managed. It was awful if she spit up on her clothes and we had to change her or had a diaper blow out. We struggled to feed them as well, since neither really acted like they wanted to eat and according to the pediatrician we HAD to get an ounce and half in them every 3 hours - they are eating over 3 oz every 3-4 hours now.

Things are getting easier! I am still not getting much sleep but the time it takes to feed them has dramatically lessened, so that helps (really need to work on Matt feeding them both at the same time, but I cant complain because he has been awesome). I am ok seeing people again... for the first few days I was anti any social interaction. :) And now that Leahs cast is off they can both get baths which is a HUGE plus over the wonderful sponge bath and squirmy child with broken arm.

Im sure Matt will post his humerous stories since he has been the one to have most of the bodily fluids spilled over him.... For now I am done for the children are now screaming!!!

Labor Day - Oct. 3rd 2007

I will try to recap this day as best as I remember but I am sure Matt may be able to tell about it better (as long as he does not say that I was dilated 9 inches anymore)...

I got up early with the nurses coming in and everything and was able to take another shower - which was very nice since my back really hurt after contracting so much the night before. At some point Dr. Ross came in and the nurses gave me some meds to pick up the contractions some. He broke Hannahs bag of waters (VERY strange feeling, and kinda gross I might add) and the contractions seriously picked up. I immediately went to a contraction every 2 minutes but I never had really bad pain in my belly, just my back. At 3cm, they gave me some Nubane which took the edge off but made me very tired. I think all the family started coming around this time, but I was so sleepy. At 4cm they gave me the epidural. They did such a great job. I could feel my contractions but they didnt hurt and I could even move my legs still - sort of. It was awesome to be in full blown labor and be as comfortable as can be, though still tired.

I think it took a little while to get up to 9 cm. Dr. Ross had an emergency and at 10cm said that I could just hang tight as long as I was ok while he took care of that. Hannah just kept going lower and lower and right when I told the nurse I felt like I needed to start pushing, Dr. Ross sent word out for me to start pushing - perfect timing.

So I started pushing to get little Hannah out. I started in the labor and delivery room for a couple pushes and they put the mirror up so I could see Hannahs head (again, very weird). When she crowned it was time to travel to the OR. I guess the time that I had to lay on my back and the issues I had had with my blood pressure I got very nauseated. And I had epidural shakes REALLY bad. I got on the OR bed and immediately got sick, but then I felt better and was able to start pushing again.

I love how OBGYNs and nurses become a little cheering squad when you are in labor. It went something like this:
Ok, PUSH! 1, 2, 3 You are doing great! 4, 5, 6, 7 Keep going, 8, 9, 10, and breathe.... Ok 1, 2, Thats the best one so far! 3, 4, 5... etc. From my perspective I could not even tell I was pushing. I could feel the contraction but I just thought I was scrunching up my face. no matter what, the cheering continued.

At one point, as I am out there for the world to see, some man I had never met came in to talk to Dr. Ross. So he went right on down there for a little chat as I was in the middle of some pushes. Dr Ross just kept his hand doing whatever he needed to do, and kept counting, all the while talking to this dude. No modesty!!!!

So Hannah was delivered successfully. She was a little distressed but did well. They did not show her to me (again the movies failed me) but took her straight to the table. I did not yet hear her cry but Dr. Ross said not to worry anything about Hannah, that she was fine and I needed to focus on getting Leah out. So he broke Leahs bag (and dont think I am not straining to hear Hannah cry, which I finally heard and felt much better.

I felt Leah's birth. Hannah didnt hurt too bad. Leah.... well.... wow. Dr. Ross had to reach up in me literally and grab her. At one point I asked if he was up to his elbow in there and the nurse replied that I did not want to know that. He said he had the feet and I then felt the feet, legs, butt, and chest come out, like a pop, pop, pop. Then I felt him struggling but I didnt know what was going on. Finally Leah was born, 5 minutes after her sister. The rest of my time in the OR was a blur. I know they eventually showed me Hannah and I was very surprised that she was so wide eyed. And when they took Leah, they almost forgot to show her to me, but I got to see her briefly as well. Then Matt was taken to the NICU and Dr. Ross delivered the placentas (oh my gosh they were huge) and sewed me up where i evidently had torn (glad I didnt feel that). At some point he told me that he thought Leahs arm or clavicle was broken but that she would be just fine and it heels quickly. They wheeled me back to the L&D room and I guess I was there for about an hour before going to postpartum.
Hannah was in well baby and Leah was in the Nicu for her arm. That was really tough. But I was finally able to hold my Hannah and see my family who had been there for about 8 hours that day. I then went to the Nicu and saw Leah but could not hold her because her arm had not been set.

We kept Hannah in our room that night, and she did very well. It was a wonderful moment to be able to hold her and feed her, a feeling only new mothers can know. It was sad though because I could not hold and feed Leah and I almost felt like I was showing favoritism, but I know that was postpartum stuff talking.

I have to say that after that long day and after all the issues I had at the end of the pregnancy, the second it was over and the babies were born, I joined that old cliche and said I would do it all over again. That it wasnt that bad. (Matt may not join in my enthusiasm, having listened to me complain for the last 2 months). But, on top of that, I dont want another baby right now! haha

Update: Tuesday - the night before "Labor Day"

I have to say that it was very strange to go in to the doctor on Tuesday knowing that I would have my babies the next day. I guess I always imagined the typical movie scene where I would wake in the middle of the night, tap Matt on the shoulder and say "Honey, it's time". But that was not the case.
After we went to the hospital on Sunday night because my blood pressure went to 160/105 and being sent home because I was "positional" (my pressure dropped when I layed on my left side), I didnt really know what was going to happen. Dr Ross had said he was going to induce me on Monday, but I didnt hear from him til about 7pm Monday night. He had about 7 deliveries that day. So he told me that my 24 hour urine was 292, the magic number being 300. But since it was not a full 2 hour specimen he told me to come in Tuesday so that he could check me and then I would be there for an early induction Wednesday morning.
So, Laura took me to the hospital on Tuesday. It was odd knowing that was the last time I would be going there and still be pregnant.
When he checked me I was still only 1cm dilated and about 75% effaced. Dr. Ross told me I could take my terbutaline pump out when I got to the Labor and Delivery room and he would be in early the next morning and I would have my babies!
So I took the pump out around 4pm and by 6 I was having a contraction every 5 minutes or so. I was not in pain so much, but I could tell I was having them! I was seriously a poster child for that pump. Dr. Ross came in about 7 and said that Dr Adcock was on call and was mad at him for letting me discontinue the pump, since he was sure he would be coming in later that night for a delivery! Dr. Ross gave me strict orders not to have the girls til the next day or he would be in trouble with Dr. Adcock! (Ill try???) He wrote an order for more terbutaline in case I needed it (I did). But luckily I made it through the night.
It was actually a nice night. Matt and I watched House and he went and got Brio and brought it to the room. (I had wanted to have a last date night before we had the girls, but I got put on bedrest and squashed that idea) I took my shower and went to bed ready for the next day! (As ready as I would ever be!)

Coming up for air.

Ok...I get it! Based on all the im's and emails from the 5 people that read the blog, yall actually care that I am not updating it :). I know it has been three weeks to the day that the last you heard was basically they were born.

Well, I am coming up for air and actually posting to the blog. There are plenty of stories to tell, and I hope to have a night that I can post all the stories, but this will be a brief overview on everything.

Overall I cannot begin to explain in a paragraph the day, but overwhelming might be the best word. It was a tough roller coaster of emotion going from the delivery to the NICU in a matter of 30 minutes. You are given few answers, yet your mind is asking a million questions. But in the end things could have been worse---but of course things could have gone better.

We have not heard this directly from the doctors mouth, but based on his actions and the words he used in the O.R., Leah became distressed, and bottom line he made a choice that he had to deliver her (me and Allyson are totally at peace with this decision), and this lead to her breaking her arm. It was a very tough thing to deal with for new parents...you prepare for a lot of things based on the books with a twin birth...but broken arm was never in the play book. Either way Leah is doing great, she got her cast off yesterday. Her arm is still broken, but has healed enough for her cast to be removed. She has pretty good movement and overall seems in pretty good spirits about it.

The first few days home were crazy, after all we never got to keep both while in the hospital, so first night home was first night with both. Every noise made that night was checked on, that is when you realize you are in over your head. It was overwhelming emotionally and physically for the first few days, but after a week we actually made our way downstairs.

Unfortunately, I got sick about that time, which shoved Allyson into being a parent to both. This was the point I think she realized she could do it and everything will be OK. Unfortunately, I do not have that same confidence yet. After that i returned to work and we are starting to roll into getting some sort of normalcy back in our life. Allyson has had her hair done, gone to the store, we have watched football games, and we even went to target for 10 minutes...hey we are not going to push it.

We owe a lot of people thanks, for gifts, time, money...but I have to especially thank my sister Laura. Without her, this would have been 400% harder, she has gone way beyond being an aunt.

So things are going, we are getting better at things....I can change a diaper in like 2 minutes...pretty impressive, since it took 10 the first time :). Allyson can feed both at the same time (bottle and breast). So hey we can do this parenting thing...we hope :). Like I said I will try to be better about posting, especially some of the funny stories we have had, but figured I would give a quick update. Lastly if you are wondering how big they are...well Hannah is 6lbs 12oz and Leah is 6lbs 3oz.

Check out the pictures on our flickr account, they really are cute if I don't say so myself. I hope to get some video up pretty soon.

Thanks for all of your prayers for our family and Leah's arm, and please be praying for my Bro, he will be participating in the Iron Man next week. Pray for his health, strength and perseverance.


Leah, Hannah and Kody "The Protector"


Hannah


Leah

The first few days

I am sitting here at 10:15pm exhausted and awaiting the next round of feeding/burping/changing so I thought I would write on this blog for it may be a while before I get to it again.

This first week has been challenging and yet the most wonderful week of my life. Aside from the hormones (and constant crying) and lack of sleep, the girls have already brought so much joy to this house that I cannot even put it into words.

We have a wonderful family, and thank you to everyone who has helped us ease into these first days home. Just so it is recapped a little better from my perspective I promise to go through the events of October 3rd but I just heard a baby cry! Til later...

Its Birthday Time!!!!!

I am going to use this post from time to time to update everyone (all 4 of you) who read the blog.

5:30 - Woke Up and she got to take a shower.
6:30 - Doctor does and ultrasound, both babies are in the same position, he checks her cervix measuring at 2 centimeters and breaks her water
6:45 - Starts induction.
8:16 - Contractions are one ever two minutes and her cervix is at a "good 3 centimeters" they are going to give her some pain relief and check back in an hour
9:40 - She is measuring 4 centimeters, the are doing prep work and will soon order the epidural
10:20 - Epidural in, life hopefully is good, smooth sailing from here right :).
11:00 - We are at 6 centimeters, he hopes to be at 8 or 9 in a couple hours.
1:00 - Measuring 8-9 hopefully will start pushing in an hour.
2:50 - Measuring a little over 9 inches, but we are on hold a little because our doctor has just been called to emergency surgery. So he is going to try to get done and still do our delivery. We will keep you posted, but it might be a little delayed now.
4:07 - Allyson is ready to start pushing and the doctor will be arriving in the room in a few moments.
4:19 - Allyson is pushing now and they have moved her into the OR. This is a normal precautionary procedure for delivery of twins. She is still planning to deliver naturally.
5:20 - Hannah and Leah McCay both born at 5:18 PM
5:45 - Hannah weighed in at 5lb 7oz and Leah weighed in at 5lb 4oz. Everyone appears happy and healthy. They are in the NICU now, being bathed and attended to.
6:18 - Correction... Hannah was born at 5:13 PM and weighed 5lb 7oz. Leah was born at 5:18 PM and weighed 5lb 5oz.
6:29 - Hannah has a cone head and curly dark hair. Leah has more round head and lighter hair. Leah's arm broke during delivery, but with a little splint, she will be fine in no time.

Stay Tuned.

Just a small note...if there was any reservation about whether we made the right decision about today, Allyson's blood work came back and confirmed preeclampsia.

T-1 Day and Counting

So we had an interesting weekend. First off, our Auburn Tigers decided to play football and beat the #4 Florida Gators...WAR EAGLE. Then Sunday came...our favorite day. Allyson started to feel pretty rough and her blood pressure spiked. We had been kinda waiting all weekend for the results of her test, but they went ahead and brought us in. After monitoring and based on the information the on call doctor had he sent us home. We thought this a little weird since her lab results were borderline and it was not a full 24 hours.

After talking with Dr. Ross, he confirmed our suspicion that if she would have had a 24 hour sample she would be over the limit, so here we are.

Sitting in the Labor and Delivery room waiting for tomorrow to come. They will start everything about 6:30 in the morning, and according to the doctor the girls should grace us with their presence mid to late afternoon. If you are interested, read the blog or visit my twitter feed here. Hopefully I will have time to post images to our flickr account as well.

And the winner is...

Well we did not put any money down, but for fun we all put our bets down on when the girls would be born. My parents, her parents, laura, my sister in law even picked today.

Well we had a follow up appointment today since Allyson was put in the hospital this past Sunday and Monday. Unfortunately, Allyson has all the symptoms of preeclampsia. So for the next 24 hours, Allyson gets the fun task of collecting a 24 hour urine sample. If the labs come back positive, he is pretty sure that he will bring her on in on Monday to induce labor.

The funny thing about life is sometimes the things that challenge you really do have their purpose and reason. Dr. Ross let us know that if the test does come back positive, the pre-term labor she has been experiencing might have actually been a blessing, preparing her cervix for labor. Proof that God is always in control and has a plan for us all, even my unborn little girls.

So who will the winner be, if the test comes back positive, it looks like there are two people in the running, myself with October 1, and Ms. Sizemore with October 2. If the test comes back negative, I would guess Laura is looking pretty good with the 6th.

If you are one of the 4 readers of the blog, check back Monday and I will be posting either an update to this entry, or a new entry announcing the birth of our two little girls.

Thank all of you again for your thoughts and prayers.

Round 2

Well apparently we like going to the hospital on Sunday. After the Alabama game, and I blame Georgia, Allyson's contractions picked up to about 12 a hour. So we called the doctor as instructed he told her to double up her meds and give it a while and call him back.

That seemed to work, so she went to bed, only to wake up about six the next morning with contractions up and the return of the abdominal pain she was having two weeks ago. So she did the regement, got a shower, took her meds, drank some water and continued to monitor.

The pain and contractions did not go away, so we called as instructed again. Based on the night before he went ahead and called her in.

Basically he is in a weird spot, because she is not dilating yet, but is basically contracting anywhere from 6-12 times an hour, with the medication. So he is going to try to put her on a drip that will give her the medication a little bit at a time constantly. We will see, but i would guess anywhere in the next 5-10 days is fair game. I must say that this is no longer fun (if it ever was), but the selfish part in you just wants them to come instead of these in and out of the hospital weekends. We know though, that every day counts, so we will take every day we can get.

Thank all of you again for your prayers and we will post any further updates.

"If we get two weeks, I will feel lucky."

What a quote! But hey after last weekend we are happy we have made it one more and can have the goal of two more weeks. We had our 33 week appointment today and everything went good. We got a little worried because on Sunday night she was having 7-10 contractions an hour for a few hours, but the doctor told us to wait till our appointment as long as she was not in pain.

So we had an ultrasound, we have not had one since our 26 week appointment. It is always fun to see the girls, just getting a little tougher since they are getting so big. They both measured in at 4lbs. 11oz. There is a plus or minus of about 10%, so the smallest they would be would be like 4.5lbs. So that was GREAT to hear, they are actually big for twins (poor Allyson), they are actually measuring like a single baby.



We also got to see them breathing, which is really good they are developing their lungs, since that is such a worry of premature births. The really cool part was on Leah, you could tell that she has hair and quite a bit.

After the ultrasound we met with the doctor. He was a little concerned with her having contractions, but really happy with the babies size. He checked her cervix and she has dilated 1cm since last Tuesday, which while not bad, is not a good thing either. Either way, it basically solidified that bed rest and medication will be the recipe till the girls come for Allyson. After that is where the lovely comment came out, "If we get two weeks, I will feel lucky." Well Allyson is doing great and I am sure she will keep them in their as long as she possibly can, but when your body is measuring 40 weeks, it thinks it is time to go.

We welcome and thank everyone for their prayers, we really want the girls to be as healthy as possible. I will try to post the two profile pictures we got tomorrow.

Stuck at home

Well everyone tried to tell me it would happen eventually, but I was not convinced. Overall this pregnancy has been text book, and after my appointment at 30 weeks I felt like there was not much that could change that since everything still looked great.

But Saturday I woke up with a different feeling. I still felt just fine, but I thought that my time was now limited in what I was able to do. So I got ready and went to the grocery store, came home and did a few things I have been meaning to do for the nursery. I told Matt that I just felt like I was not going to be able to do these things shortly.

I felt pretty rough Saturday night, and the Auburn game did not help much, but it was just a general discomfort. Sunday morning I got up and had some breakfast and decided to take a shower. Thats when it started. I had this awful cramp on my left side. So after calling matt to come in there, we decided we should call the doctor and he told me to come on in (thinking it could be kidney stones).

The pain kind of moved on my way to the hospital, so I was like "great, they are going to think i am an idiot, I am just uncomfortable which is normal". But when they hooked me up I realized I was so uncomfortable because I was having a contraction every 2 minutes. That would do it! So first they gave me a drug (Brethine) which basically is like speed - if i ever took speed. It makes you jittery and speeds up the heart. That didnt work so they had to start me on Magnesium Sulfate. After that went it, it was an interesting hour. It completely messed me up. But it worked. They weaned me off that on monday morning and i had to take the Brethine tablets every 4 hours, which seemed to be doing the trick. I just wanted to go home! That night, after a full day of minimal contractions, they started up again. The doctor upped my dose on the Brethine and luckily I did not have to go back on Mag. So i got to come home yesterday!

I am on bedrest but I am allowed to get up to pee and shower and get something to eat/ drink. Just nothing else. I had to start my maternity leave a bit earlier than planned but hopefully it will all work out. So I am sitting here with the computer in my lap writing in my blog after doing a little online shopping. Since I am still on that medication that makes my heart race so much, I feel weird getting up anyway, so this is not too bad yet. Ill just settle down with my Harry Potter books and hope that these girls stay in me for 4 more weeks - that would be nice.

This weekend was a rude awakening though. They could be here seriously soon! Just not too soon I hope...

And then came bed rest...

Well we made it to 32 weeks, not bad. Yesterday, Allyson went into pre-term labor having anywhere from 24-30 contractions an hour. They hoped to slow it down with a simple shot and IV fluids, but the girls would not have that weak stuff. So they basically did an all out attack with pain killer for Allyson, mag wash to slow the contractions and steroids for the girls lungs. The girls are doing great, heart beats are strong, hopefully they will measure them today, so we will know a little more.

The doctor came in this morning to inform Allyson "You are done." And will be on bed rest till her next appointment where they will reevaluate.

Keep us and the girls in your prayers. We would definitely like a couple more weeks.

I will keep you posted if anything changes, and who knows Allyson might even write an entry since she will be stuck in bed.

By Two They Came

Ok maybe not everything, but Allyson has had most of her baby showers, and by twos clothes, pumpkin seats, highchairs and whatever else started to come into the house. We really were blessed with all the gifts we got, and we appreciated every gift we got, but I have to admit that with babies, i think especially baby girls (and in our case twins), people cannot help but buy clothes.

You should see our closet, it is packed with more clothes than Allyson and I have combined...but wait there is more, check out the dresser and its hanging bar is full and its drawers are full. The other thing people I think like with girls over boys in monogram everything. We have monogrammed bibs, blankets, burp clothes, and I think clothes. Allyson and I joked that we should have told everyone we decided not to go with Hannah and Leah...but thought better than to taunt the people getting us such nice gifts.

The other crazy part is finding space for all of this. When we bought our new home, I never thought those words would come out of my mouth, but alas. It is just a lot at one time, and when you slowly consume stuff you find better ways to stuff things into nooks and crannies.

So after all the stuff was put away we still had to put some it together. Well, that was fun...me and Allyson had a "Rachel Green" moment (And if you don't watch Friends you will not get this). We were putting together the bouncy seats and the Pack N Play and it just was not happening in the easy manner the instructions laid out, so we started to wonder : if we cannot put together their stuff...how screwed up are our kids going to be...ok maybe a little extreme and we were more laughing about it, but it was just funny.

All and all, we were really blessed by all our friends and family.

28 week appointment

Nothing too exciting to report after this appointment, which is good. So far everything looks great and he has no huge concerns. I did not gain very much since my 26 week appointment, but he is just going to look at that in another 2 weeks. Dr. Ross also said I could keep working (just keep an eye on my pressure and contractions) and then referred to me as the "energizer bunny". Truthfully I feel normal most days before my cases; its after the case when I feel a little more tired than I should.

The funny part was when he measured my fundal height. At 26 weeks I was measuring the same as someone pregnant with one at 32 weeks. I guess they hit a growth spurt (even if I didnt) because I am now measuring 36 weeks! Thats 8 weeks ahead! You Grow Girls! But, that does explain a lot!

Unfortunately I think I have a little sinus infection right now, so he gave me a zpak and hopefully that will clear things up quickly. One of my best friends is staying with me this weekend and I have my moms baby shower this saturday so I had best snap out of this!

Speaking of baby showers, I have had two thus far. One from work last thursday and my mother-in-laws shower on Sunday. I tell you what, putting everything away makes it that much more real! We are in the home stretch which is hard to believe. And I definitely have enough burp cloths to last a while!

Thats all for now. I go back 2 weeks from today. He said anything could change between now and then, but he is still hoping for me to deliver at 36 weeks. 8 weeks to go. wow. Does that mean, i will be measuring... 56 weeks at this rate? I can't possibly get much bigger!

Literally Nesting

Well there is a new form of nesting going on at the McCay house. It is not cleaning or organizing (even though some of that is going on), but literally nesting. Let me paint you a picture. Allyson and I sleep on a king size bed. There was a day where snuggling was ok, then there was Kody the big dog that thinks he sleeps between us...ok remedy that, train him to sleep on the floor. Then we (I say we lightly because I do not want to get tons of comments from the ladies) got pregnant, so she is hot all the time, so no snuggling again. So here we are in a nice king size bed, with plenty of room to not snuggle.

Then week 23 or 24 roles on in, and sleepless nights start to become the norm. I really do feel sorry for her, but you have to picture a 6 foot 6 inch wide bed, on one side is a 245 pound man on his side hugging the edge of the bed (freezing I might add because the house now has to be at 65 degrees), on the other side of him is a wall of pillows (all the new/good ones), my loving wife and then on the other side of her another wall of pillows. So, it occurred to me, this is her natural instict to create a nest :).

The funny part is she takes this nesting strategy to the big couch downstairs as well where she has cosumed all but a couple of the throw pillows and purchased a new body pillow (that matches the couch of course) just for her couch sitting.

I give her a hard time, but I got to laugh about some of these things. I love her to death and I am sure I would be crying like a baby if I had to do what she is having to do, but I had to share the new nesting phase.

Money Well Spent

Allyson has already posted that we had our 4D ultrasound (my friend Ben hates that it is called this, he says by this thinking then the regular ultrasound should be called 3D since it is in real time as well...oh well), so I will not say much about it, but it was totally awesome and well worth the money. The only downside I think is it makes you want them to be here, so you can see and hold them.

I am posting two videos, one is Hannah and one is Leah. Since you pay for the ultrasound you actually get a lot of video...we got right at an hour, so I did my best to shave it down, but hey we are first time parents and it is hard to take out video. So, please fast-forward if you want, else the Leah video is 11 minutes and the Hannah video is 20. Of note, no we are not showing favoritism already, Hannah was not cooperating so we had to try the most with her to get a good image, which produced some pretty good video, but we never really got her 100% focused. I am also posting a few extra images, you can check them all out at our flickr account.

VIDEO



Hannah Marie 4D Ultrasound from matthewmccay and Vimeo.



Leah Nicole 4D Ultrasound from matthewmccay and Vimeo.

PHOTOS



(Hannah on left -- Leah on right)

Our 26 week appointment

Today was a very exciting day because we had another very long sonogram done of the girls which included our 4D. I know my husband will be putting up the pictures soon since he is good at all that, but all I can say is seeing those images just made me that much more excited for them to be here. Granted, I don't want them born tomorrow - I of course want them to come when they are really ready, but time seems to be slowing down. The images are just so much more than the skeletal pictures you get with the normal ultrasound and it made me want to hold them!

The appointment started with my dreaded sugar test. I am completely retarded when it comes to drinking things that in my opinion should never be consumed. Ex: Liquid medicine, any type of barium or anything to do with an upper GI, and that also includes orange flavored sugar water. I took every bit of those 5 minutes I had to swallow the nasty stuff, making a little bit of an ordeal out of it. But once it was finished, we were sent to the ultrasound room.

I must say that the girl that runs the machine is amazing. She can just go directly to any part of their little bodies and do her measurements, heart rates, or (because we made her) check if we still have girls! Leah was very cooperative in her photoshoot today, though her cord kept getting in the way. Hannah was stretched way down behind my pelvic bone and hid most of the time. So Leah basically stole the show. We got some good pictures of both in the end though. The lady was very patient. She tried for about an hour to get Hannah to come out of her hole, and then suggested I get up to get my sugar read and come back. Maybe that would help.

(My blood sugar was 132 - it has to be under 140) So I barely passed but at least I dont have to do the 3 hour test! When we returned to the ultrasound room Hannah was still comfy behind the pelvic bone but eventually came out a little bit so we could see her face.

Hannah weighs 2lbs and Leah weighs 2lbs 1oz. They are growing evenly which is very good. Also, Hannah is head down now so maybe I won't have to have a C section. Leah is still breach so they both kick each other in the head (which we witnessed).

After the pictures were taken we then had to wait for the regular appointment which basically consisted of "Hey! How are yall? Any bleeding? Good. Let me measure your belly. You are measuring 32 weeks! Well everything looks great, see you in about 2 and a half weeks!" Nice. Easy enough, this whole pregnancy thing! Just old hat. :)

So all in all a very good appointment. The next one will be shorter and then we will have another sonogram done in a month. Now that the 4D is over, I have the baby showers to look forward to!

Joined the Van Crew

As a whole Allyson and I were both not big on the idea of a van, and thought the Pilot would be plenty good for having kids...that was before we found out we were having twins and before I saw my brothers van packed to the top when they came to the beach with us. Plus in the future it will be easier for the kids to get in and out and the are really safe vehicles.

So Allyson and I started looking, just to see what was out there in the form of used vans, we wanted to stay in our comfort zone of Toyota or Honda.

We ended up getting a pretty good deal, but had to drive out to Ensley to get it. But we ended up getting a Toyota Sienna XLE Limited 05. The nice part is it was a little high on the milage for a 05, so we got to get one with some extra features like nav, DVD, power doors and back hatch, so we are pretty happy.

The funny part of the story is we told the guy the price we wanted based on what we were talking to honda about, and he gave us the "I think we can work with that." So we sat and he came in saying great news we got it down because we want to get rid of the car because it has been on the lot 45 days. HA...it was no where even near to what we asked. At that point I let him deal with the pregnant woman :). After a little back and forth and you meet me half way talk we got our van for 25 dollars a month more than what we wanted to spend and that included a bumper to bumper warranty..so hey sometimes it helps to have a pregnant lady with you :).

My Beautiful Wife (Hannah and Leah's Beautiful Mother)

I know she most likely does not feel it, and a lot of people will say I have to say it...but there is something totally beautiful about Allyson carrying our children. It is really hard to explain, but I am sure it is a mixture of my wife is beautiful, the awe of her ability to carry and care for our children, and there is just something cute about that belly sticking out...especially since her belly button pokes through her shirts. I know I am biased, but she really is beautiful, and I am sure I will find her even more attractive when I see her caring for our children once they are born. I thank God for her, we have our ups and downs, but I feel blessed for her to be my wife and the mother of my children.

Ok so where did that come from, me and Allyson decided instead of spending a lot of money on maternity photos we would take some ourselves...here are just a couple.



It was raining that day, so we are going to try to take some outdoor ones soon, so if you like check back and I will post those.

The funny looks...

Once again, another story that is not directly associated with the twins, but sort of. This weekend our niece, Avry, was visiting us so we went to the pool where she got to hang out with our friends daughter Abby who is just a year younger.

After the typical hour of shyness, they warmed up to each other and were good friends. With this new friendship they wanted to go to the dinner and a movie together that we had planned on taking Avry to that night. Well that is cool, give Wendy and Scott a night off, and we get to be parents for a night. So we go out with a nine year old and an eight year old, and Allyson is pregnant.

We finally all sit down for dinner at Cheesecake Factory, the girls had stepped away to the ladies room, when the guy at the table next to me gets up to leave, and says..."If you dont mind me asking how old are your daughters, because I was trying to figure it out because mine look the same age and I know how old I am." I acted quickly to explain who they were and he laughed and congratulated me on being a father soon. Thinking back though, it took some guts to ask me that if they really were my daughters, i really am not sure what I would have thought if they were.

The funny part was that was not the last comment made. We were walking out of the restaurant, Allyson leading, the girls, and then myself pulling up the rear. As we walked out a younger couple was sitting there, where the girl looked at us and audibly said "WOW" as we walked by. You know it is funny I would just give a person the benefit of the doubt that they are baby sitting or whatever first, and not just assume they were a bunch of crazy teenagers that got pregnant. PLUS it is like I told Allyson, if we did for some reason have two kids at 16 and 17 and are pregnant again and eating at Cheesecake Factory, I would say we did pretty good :).

So while it was a fun night, the funny looks made me laugh the most.

PS..To all guys, do not get duped into seeing Hairspray.

Getting more and more real...

It is a funny time, sometimes it feels like time just stands still because you cannot wait to see them, and other times it feels like we are living in fast forward. The more days past thought the more real it all becomes.

We got the invitation to one of Allyson's baby showers, we are even starting to get some things bought off our registry. The nursery is to a point where it is waiting for bedding, the garage is clean, the shelves are installed, we are really getting ready for them to be here.

It all seems like it is just coming together, with 12 weeks max left. Now if I can just figure out that diaper changing thing :).

Nesting

You know you read a lot of stuff in books or on websites, a lot of it is really good, some isn't and some you just don't know what to think about it. One of the things I am referring to is reading about pregnant woman going through the "Nesting Phase."

I am here to tell you that this is very very real. Over the past couple weeks I have seen a woman on a mission. Clean the carpets, clean the house, get the nursery ready, touch up the paint in the house, add shelves to all closets for storage, clean the garage (are the babies going to hang out in the garage?), clean the bathroom drawers, clean out the kitchen cabinets, add cabinets to the laundry room...shall I continue. I am convinced God put this phase in to get you prepared for the cost of children.

Tonight it was hilarious, Allyson was talking and in mid sentence she just breaks into "I have to clean out the freezer" and then just continued talking. I could not help but laugh.

All I can say is the carpets are cleaned, closets are done (thanks to my Dad for helping me out), I will be cleaning the garage this weekend, and cabinets are going into the laundry room next month...help me...13 weeks and counting.

Putting together nursery furniture...

Well, it has been a while, been kinda crazy the past few weeks. Hannah and Leah got to go to the beach for a week and they even were able to get some sun, but waiting for us when we got back was the baby furniture. Actually we are still waiting on the special order glider, but everything else came in.



Thanks to my awesome neighbor Chad, we got it delivered and he helped me get it out of the truck and into the house, each piece averages 100 pounds except for the cribs. Allyson had to work late the night it came in, so I got into SUPER HUSBAND/DAD mode, I will just put the cribs together before she gets home, winning me some points. Well it is a good thing no one was around because putting together a crib without help I am sure was a funny thing to watch.

Step 1: Hold cross piece with hands, balance side pieces between legs and with chin (That part was not explained in the instructions).

After struggling with one crib for over an hour, my SUPER HUSBAND/DAD powers had run out (along with my patience), but hey I got one together and that was plenty to make Allyson happy. The next day the process was pretty much repeated, with some help from Allyson. I must say it makes it a little more real when you see those two cribs side by side.





There is a changing table, but I have not taken a photo since we got the drawer fixed on it.

The pink and white are really a lot for a guy to take in, but as every day passes I get more and more excited about seeing our two little girls, but as you can see they are not even born and I am doing things I would never do voluntarily.

Kody's Gift

Even though this blog is supposed to be about the girls, I have to write about my four legged son for a moment, since perhaps this is preparing me to be a mom.

Last night while I was taking a shower, Matt let the dogs out and came in the bathroom to take out his contacts. Busily washing my hair, I was oblivious to the scene that was playing out in the bathroom until I hear a bunch of yelling from Matt. All I could see through the fogged glass was my wonderful husband shoe-ing the dogs out of the room. And then I saw it. Out of the corner of my eye, laying in the bathroom tile was a brown blob... that moved. A RABBIT! Kody brought us a present! It made its way into the closet and hid under some clothes. The whole time I am yelling at Matt, "IS IT ALIVE???? IS IT SUFFERING??? I DONT WANT TO SEE IT!!! ... Do you need help??? " (Like I was going to be much good seeing an innocent creature who my beloved dog decided to bring in to us.) So for some reason, Matt did say he would need my help (HAHA) so I hurried and got out of the shower. I refused to look at the little bunny. "Is it dead yet?" I kept asking. "ALMOST!" Matt would say. I got a laundry basket and put a towel in the bottom and gave Matthew another towel to pick up the rabbit when it did in fact die (probably out of shock from all the screaming - bet Kody had little to do with this murderous act). So Matt watched Little Rabbit take its last breath and scooped him into the basket. I am an emotional pregnant woman. Probably a good thing Matt took care of all this. Little Rabbit was then taken out into the woods and that was that. Kody was the proudest thing you would ever see. I yelled at him, but he did not understand why. He thought he did something good! Like "I normally catch birds, Mama, didn't I do a good job this time???". It was time for bed after that, but Abby, our beagle was on the hunt all through the bathroom and bedroom for the next 2 hours, determined it may still be in the house.
I am thankful Matt had been there, because if I had been alone I don't know what I would have done. I would have knocked on every neighbors door but I would not have looked at that rabbit. Unfortunately I would have needed the exact play by play Matt had given me on his status and well being. That could have gotten annoying. Also, it makes me glad I am having girls since hopefully they will not bring lizards or snakes or any other creatures into this house. Kody does a good enough job at that. All in all, fun night!!!

Gotta love the "Words of Encouragement"

I am about 22.5 weeks right now, and yes I am showing quite a lot. But thats ok, because there are two growing girls in there! What I am starting to hear more and more of however are the lovely words from stangers as they offer their comments regarding my growing belly.

It started at 18 weeks when a man at the elevator at work asked me how many months i was. Shocked that he could even tell in my baggy scrubs, let alone be daring enough to comment,I told him - and I got that look of disbelief. He did not stop there though, he went on to say "Wow! You look big for 18 weeks!" I find myself wanting to defend my little belly and so I then must tell the inquisitive stranger that there are in fact two babies in there.

Then there were the ladies at walmart and at a recent party we went to. The question starts: How far along are you? and I tell them ___ weeks. I get the look of shock and I again must tell that I am having twins. Most of the time I hear "Oh my gosh! Poor you! I wasnt that big until I was ready to deliver!" Thank you... I get it! :)

I think the funniest comment lately came from the lady at Food World. She looked at me and said "It wont be long now!" I laughed and had to tell her, actually , I am 5 and a half months... Shock and disbelief follows where I feel like I must defend myself and state that I am having twins. "Girl, you look ready to deliver!" Actually I dont... but thank you for the words of encouragement.

Really I find all of this very amusing. What I dont like is the image that follows in my head ... Ok, if I am like this now (which i am not HUGE at the moment, but growing rapidly) what will I be like in a couple months!? Luckily I have a wonderful neighbor who showed me her pregnancy picture and I have to say she was quite huge with just one. But she is small and she looks great now, so if she can do it, so can I.

On a different note, we had our 22 week appointment on Monday and everything seems good so far. I met another doctor in the practice who is quite a cutie but does not seem old enough to have 4 kids of his own! He has 8 year old twins, and he told me to hope for a 36 week delivery, but prepare for 32. Thats the second week in September!!! Had a little freak out moment but I am good now. The heartbeats were 156 and 159. And I officially hit the 15 pound mark per the doctors scale... I know that is normal, but it is a strange milestone to reach! :)

We also got our baby furniture in this week, all but the glider. The room is definitely small for 2 cribs but it works and it feels good to be one step closer in getting prepared when there is so much to do! Matt is cute because he will just walk in there and admire his work. The room is the most feminine room out there. I love it.

Its all coming together! I cannot believe in a few months we will be a family of 6! (of course I am including my dogs in this count). Time is definitely flying!

They are moving like crazy!

Ok, Matt has been very good about writing his blog, and I must admit that most of the time I just read his and think "sounds good to me!" He pretty much covers it all. But since he does get on to me about my not blogging well enough, I thought I would add my thoughts on the last 2 weeks. I have to say that the girls are definitely growing. I am getting much bigger and slightly more uncomfortable, but mostly I have to say they are getting very strong! It is awesome that within 2 short weeks I went from feeling them move inside to feeling them move with my hands laying on my belly. They kick/punch everywhere and it is just the most amazing feeling. If I happen to catch the right moment I can see my stomach move when they do. They are active all the time. They kick low next to my bladder and I feel them the next second near my ribs. They are about a pound each (according to Babycenter.com) so I guess I understand why I feel them so well now. I am looking forward to seeing their little feet or hands through my belly. Every little milestone like this makes it that much more real that there are in fact two little babies growing inside me, and in a few short months they will be here. So, so far everything seems to be going well. Our next appointment is on monday!

Am I too much of a kid to be a dad?

Allyson and I are taking our "Baby"moon at Orange Beach, where Allyson's boss was very generous and let us stay at their place at Caribe Resort. My friend Ben and his wife also came down with us. Caribe Resort has some pretty cool water slides that Ben and I could not help but ride over and over, even trying things like riding face down and face down on a float, even to the point of injury. It was like we were 12 year olds again, running up in down the slide with kids a third our age. Oh well that is what vacation is for right...plus there were other Dad's older than Ben and I riding the ride...sure they were riding with kids but who is keeping count :).




Riding the Big Slide
from matthewmccay





The Slides at Caribe
from matthewmccay

Feeling Them Kick

Allyson has been able to feel the babies kick for quite some time now, but I still have not been able to feel them. Allyson says I do not wait long enough, but at first I just kinda felt like I will eventually feel, even see them, so if I don't feel them now what is the big deal. Well last night, for one small second I felt one of our little girls kick or punch or whatever. It is an amazing thing, it almost makes you jealous of woman who can feel them kick all the time, then reality sets in and all men know we could not handle all woman have to handle.

I still am not as patient as Allyson wants, but I am very excited to feel them again and maybe soon be able to see them push against her belly.

The Furniture

Well my first fathers day...ya I know it really doesn't count and that was clear by the lack of a present from Allyson, but I know that I am already a Dad. So to celebrate my first father's day we got to go spend money, Matt's favorite thing to do (ya right).

We took a nice drive to Babies R Us. Now here is the thing, I am the kind of guy that actually loves to buy things for the people he loves, I am a giver, but it is really easy to get overwhelmed in Babies R Us, especially when you start thinking about two to buy for. So right now, not my favorite place to be, because it just means I have less money, and it isn't for fun stuff for the babies, its for furniture.

So, we had for all practical purposes already picked out the furniture so that was rather painless, then we had to pick out a glider. Our dream glider...way to expensive...so we went with a pretty comfortable chair that was a lot cheaper...but the kicker...purple. So I now have pink, purple and white in a room in my house. I feel my masculinity disappearing as we speak.

The sad part is you only have to pay 20% to make the order, and that made me crawl up in the fetal position and cry. In all seriousness we have very loving parents who are helping with a huge majority of the cost, so it really has not been that bad, we could not do it without them, but it is still furniture shopping, so I must complain. I also complain because it means I will be spending 3-4 hours minimum putting stuff together.

Take a look at it here...

Pictures of the Nursery

Side and Accent Walls



Ceiling Fan

The Nursery

The funniest comment of the weekend was, "Just think it is for the babies." YA RIGHT! Don't kid yourself, nursery's have nothing to do with your kids minus a crib. We as parents go to extreme measures, and expensive I might add, to make sure we have one of the cutest nurseries so we can show it off to friends and family and they can go "AWE, how cute!"

So 300 dollars, 5 gallons of paint, 8 rollers, 2 paint tarps, 4 walls, 1 ceiling, 1 ceiling fan and 15 hours of work later we have a painted nursery. It also needs to be said Matt hates painting, repeat HATES painting. In the end though, it really is cute, and it does make me feel good that our little girls will have a cute room to stay in.

Just a side note for all you guys who have not done this yet...if your wife is a perfectionist, it is most likely a good idea to give her 100 bucks and let her go to the mall. This tip might just save your marriage :).

I now understand...

My parents would sometimes make the comment, "You will understand one day when you have kids of your own." More than ever I am starting to understand that, and we are four months away from being able to hold our little girls. The reason I say all this is I was waiting in the doctors office to be called in to see the ultrasound and saw this poster on the board.



Now, I have always believed based on my faith and in my personal opinion of simple right and wrong that abortion is murder, plain and simple, but now that I have seen the video of my two girls kicking, moving their fingers and stretching out I truly understand now more than ever. And maybe if you are on the fence about this issue, you should watch the video in the post below or think about the poster above.

All I know is that I thank God everyday that he has blessed Allyson and me with two wonderful girls and we cannot wait to see them in four months.

UPDATED: We are blessed with...

Well most of you know by now what we are having, but if you have not been able to watch the video or you don't know you can take a look at it here...




We are blessed to announce we will be having...
from matthewmccay

Hannah Marie McCay



Leah Nicole McCay



----

Now that I have some time to actually post I figured I would update you on the day and how it went. After a long 5 weeks, luckily 1 was spent in Disney World, we got to go find out what we were having. I can't 100% remember how I felt as a kid, but probably worse than waiting on Christmas morning. We got there a little late, poor Allyson had to drink 2 bottles of water and these days she just can't hold that much fluid, but finally they called us back. YA!!!!! WE GET TO FIND OUT. "Umm, Mr McCay, you will need to stay out here first while I look at things, oh but don't worry we wont show her anything." WHAT!!!! FINE!!!! Let it be said that if I thought the weeks building up to this felt long, the 30 minutes I waited in that lobby felt like 4 hours. Finally the nurse called me in, Allyson assured me that everything was great with the babies, both are 8 ounces, one measured in at 18 weeks 1 day, one measures 18 weeks 2 days, 4 chambers in both hearts, all is good. That is a big big load off your mind...now to the fun stuff.

So through an eight minute process, she showed us both of our beautiful girls. Allyson was really excited for one, but could not stop talking once she found out she was getting two. It is an amazing experience to see, and how much respect you gain for your wife when you realize that God has entrusted them to care, protect and provide for your children as they grow inside of her, it is something men will never be able to fully appreciate. Well I wont spoil the video, but they really put on a show and it is worth giving a watch, you can also check out the other images by clicking on the two above. If you don't read this blog a lot and you read this one, check back on July 31st and we should have the 4D ultrasound up.

Belly Watch Update - Week 17

Most of you I am sure do not care, but we think it is kinda fun, and get a kick out of it. Plus I think it will be fun to look back and see the progression. Plus as before people still ask me is she showing.

So here is week 17, week 18 should be up sometime this week, but I kinda want the ultrasound post to stay at the top for a few days.

Week 17


Week 16


Week 14

Tic Toc

Waiting for this coming Monday is like waiting for Christmas. We will be finding out what we are having on June 4th, and this week already seems like it is crawling by. I am really nervous that with all this build up they wont be able to tell. Some friends of ours went at 15 weeks and no dice, but hopefully with us being 18 weeks they will be able to tell.

We have planned a little get together with my parents, my brother and a couple friends, so expectations have been set. We also have the stress of all the other tests at this appointment concerning the health of their hearts and what not.

So be praying for us, and stay tuned we will post a link to the video and the latest pictures as well.

Babies first outfit.

We took our trip to Disney World, and it was really tough to see all the cute kid stuff, like "My First Mouse Ears" and other similar stuff. Without knowing what we were having we tried our best to not get anything, it would just be wasting money as most stuff is not unisex. But on the last day we broke. Let it be stated though, that Allyson and I will be happy with whatever we have, and our prayer is for two healthy babies. With that said we sure would love to have a boy and girl if we were being selfish :). So with that thought process we stumbled upon two outfits one for a girl and one for a boy, and we broke. To our credit we did not buy them initially, we actually even left the store, but we had to pass the store to leave Downtown Disney and just could not resist.

Check out their first outfits...can you blame us?

Belly Watch

A lot of people have been asking "Is Allyson showing yet?" Well the answer is yes, over the past few weeks, we are starting to see actual external proof that we are having twins. She is the most beautiful pregnant woman ever (I know I am biased.), and let it just be said there is nothing more attractive that your lovely wife carrying your children. It is something guys will never understand and be able to truly respect.

Here is Allyson at week 14 and week 16.

A Funny Story (Nothing to do with the Twins)

I know this blog is supposed to be for twin stories and stories about our pregnancy, but Allyson and I both agree this story was funny.

We were returning from Magic Kingdom on Sunday night, waiting in yet another line. Finally we got on the second bus that came, but the bus was full forcing us to stand. So it is late, we are tired and we are standing on a bus just to be able to go back to the hotel (Yes, we know this is the norm for Disney).

The bus driver comes over the speakers and apologized for the people standing, but that he would entertain us with some random facts about Disney World. So he started with the usual things like the size of Disney World, the fact that Disney Land would fit in the Magic Kingdom parking lot...and then he got to the amount of buses and drivers. This apparently was his transition into a rant about Disney. He started by saying that they will soon be going on strike, and had the right to, all because Disney thinks they can offer him a 4 cent per hour raise, and raise his health care by 25 dollars a week over the next three years, and that they were stupid for thinking that it would not cripple Walt Disney World. We all kind of chuckled at the rant and stared at each other in disbelief, but he just kept going. He proceeded to inform us that eventually Disney would give in, but being the kind of company Disney is they would not honor the eight months it took to negotiate the raise.

I think the entire bus was just shocked to the point of laughter, but there were some pretty angry people who would have just preferred ole Bill just to shut up; we are on vacation and could care less he was stupid enough to join a union and was unhappy with his job. Just drive us back to our hotel thank you very much! If anybody at Disney reads this, you might want to consider letting good ole Bill go since he is so unhappy with his job.

I am sure it does not seem that funny, but at 12:30 at night, stuck on a packed bus, I thought it was hilarious that in Disney World, where everyone must smile and wave, our bus driver took 30 minutes to dis Disney to everyone who had just had a great day at Magic Kingdom. Yay for free speech!

She felt the babies move.

Allyson can speak more to this, but at about 3 o'clock in the morning one night while on vacation, Allyson woke me to let me know that the babies are moving and she can feel them for the first time. This was a very exciting event, she says that girls move early, so maybe, just maybe we will add a girl to the family.

The many bathrooms of Walt Disney World.

First there was the one at the entrance to Epcot, then inside The Seas, then inside The Land, then in America, then in Italy, then in France, then in Great Britian, then at every food stand at Typhoon Lagoon, then at the entrance to Africa in the Animal Kingdom....oh I give up.

If I had a dollar for the number of times Allyson had to pee, we could have paid for the trip. So, the babies had a good time "jumping on her bladder" as allyson says. So basically Allyson got to visit every bathroom in Walt Disney World, some twice :).

Babies first trip to Disney World

Well the babies will be making their first trip to Disney, keeping with the family tradition started by my mother, to visit the land of "The Mouse" while in the confines of their mothers belly.

We will be taking it easy no doubt, catching up on some much needed rest, considering rest will be an infrequent thing once the twins come.

I am sure there will be plenty of pictures and stories to tell when we get back.

Buying Clothes for a Pregnant Woman

I have always been pretty good at buying Allyson clothes (not sure if I should admit that or not), but when I went to purchase Allyson some clothes for our upcoming Disney trip, I found myself in a very interesting position.

If you go too small, it will then highlight in her mind that she is gaining a tummy, if you go too big, then alas she will think that you think she is getting big. So it was a very delicate process of holding things up and checking the stores sizes. Man how I wish sizes were consistent across the board; it would make life a lot easier.

Alas, I decided on a few shirts, and after she tried on the first shirt I had already gotten one with the wrong size. Oh well! Luckily Allyson is in the I am happy to be showing phase. Although that might be quickly changing...last night she pointed at her stomach and was yelling(jokingly of course) "Look how big I am getting, I am getting bigger by the day!" I cracked up of course.

What can a husband say at this point, she knows I am lying if I say she isn't any bigger, so all you can do is laugh and tell her she is awesome and very beautiful.

The To-Do List

Wow how this can be overwhelming at times...but I got to thinking of all the things we had to do before the twins came...some of it fun, some of it not so much.

1. Order Furniture
2. Move office furniture to current upstairs guest bedroom.
3. Clean nursery carpet.
4. Paint nursery.
5. Hang closet shelves in nursery and and guest bedroom closets to increase storage space.
6. Hang 3 ceiling fans..in two guest rooms and nursery.
7. Build nursery furniture (two cribs total)
8. Organize garage (just need to do that since the twins will consume a large amount of my time)
9. Decorate nursery (I hope this will be mostly Allyson)
10. Register at Babies R Us and Target...with two this can be overwhelming
11. Install baby gates up and downstairs...I know it will be a while before they are crawling, I want it done just to have it done and also it will allow us to isolate the dogs if we have to.
12. Attend CPR class
13. Attend multiples class
14. Crawl out of fetal position :)

Ok...well that is at least some of the list..I am sure Allyson can make some nice additions to this list, that I am sure will be fun for me.

Let us know if you see anything we need to add to the list.

Funny Facts

This really belongs a few posts back, but I wanted to share how I ended up telling my work that we were having twins. We went through at least half a dozen ideas, but really thought the fact that the chance of us having twins is 1.7% was worth preying on.

So we put together a few funny facts, one particular for my work since one of our clients is Bayer Advanced, throw an ironic song in and the idea was complete.



Funny Facts from matthewmccay

A playmate for the twins!

I just wanted to say that I am super excited because we just found out that some good friends of ours are pregnant! She is 5 weeks, so just 9 weeks behind me! It will be fun to have someone else going through this whole experience with me! So everyone be praying that all goes well with them and their new baby! I know my two will enjoy having another rugrat to play with!

On another note, I was in a wedding this weekend and realized that I am officially no longer in a size 6 bridesmaids dress! Though I did manage to get it on (with Matts help) I was not able to breathe for 8 hours... When we got in the car after the reception, Matt unzipped me about 4 inches and for the first time that day I took a deep breath! invigorating! But I was able to wear it, and its not like I have to get back into it any time soon, so all is well! And so for anyone who knows her, congratulations to Sarah Muzer who is now Sarah Knighten! :)

Our Appointment

Again I have to add to Matt's post :) It was so exciting to hear the heartbeats! Of course, me being who I am, I have been trying my best to push the stethescope on my belly where I think the babies may be to listen to it, knowing good and well its far to early to hear it with my stethescope - but you can't blame me for trying! Since they could not differentiate between the two babies and hear separate heartbeats we got to see them again, and they were moving around like crazy! (I keep telling Matt they are jumping on my bladder and he got to see the proof for himself.) They dont look like little blobs anymore - more like little aliens! :) Its strange that they can move around so much and yet I still don't feel them. A couple more weeks. At 13 weeks I am measuring the same as a 17 week pregnant woman (with one baby). I'm not huge yet but I am sure it is coming.

I am in a wedding tomorrow and thank goodness I can still fit in that size 6 dress I ordered back in December. Luckily it starts to flow a little above the waist. Matt will just have to help me zip it. I tried it on about 2 weeks ago and it was definitely fine, and then I hit a... growth spurt if you will.. this week so I was a little worried.

I did a little shopping this week and realized that most stores now carry maternity wear - well thats actually just the style even if it isnt intended to be for pregnant women. Its great though because I dont want tight shirts, yet I am not in maternity clothes either. Gotta love the fashion of the day.

Oh, In case Matt did not say, we find out the sexes June 4th at noon. I am so excited! I tried to convince him to sneak us in for an early appointment before we go to Disney World in two weeks, but it would still be too early. I dont care what he says, I think I saw a boy in there. :) Off to get ready for the rehearsal dinner tonight! I did find a cute dress that hides my belly (for now)

How it becomes so much more real.

We had our 13 week and two day appointment today. It was exciting to know we were going to get to hear the heart beat, but nothing can really prepare you for it. I mean we have seen it on the screen, so how much more different can hearing it be?

And I am sure it takes it being your child's heartbeat to really appreciate it, but hearing it makes it so much more of a reality. It is one more step toward the day you will actually be able to hold and touch your child. I am sure it sounds sappy and cheesy, but for me it was an awesome experience.

We asked if you could hear both babies hearts separately, but the nurse explained why you couldn't at this time, so Dr. Ross let us take a peak at them and make sure everything is ok with both. Babies are doing great; they grew 2.5 inches in the past month. So right now Allyson has 7 inches of baby in her :).

Baby A


Baby B


Our next appointment will be the big one where we get to check out the heart and other things as well as find out the sex of the babies. So stay tuned, its getting really really cool now!

Gadgets for the Twins

I stand by the fact that I bought this just for the twins, it has nothing to do with the fact that it is palm sized, shoots 720p HD video, 7.1MP and has a 10x zoom. Pretty cool so far, can't wait to use it for video and pictures of the twins.

Prayer Request

This hit just a little harder because Allyson and I are considered a high rick pregnancy.

The roommate, Beth, of one of our best friends, Sara, lost her baby at 7 months due to heart complications. They named the little girl Love. I cannot imagine the pain that her and her husband, as well as her family is going through. Please keep them in your prayers, that God will give them the strength to know He is in control.

Also Ben and Sara are trying to raise money for Love's funeral, costing around $6000 dollars, if you would like to help their family during this tough time, please contact me or Ben.

Allyson's side of the beginning

I had to add my two cents about all this!

Finding out:
Ok, so it was my first month off birth control. That means its normal to feel queezy and like you have been overdosed with benadryl, right? Well thats what I thought the whole weekend before I took the test. I went to see my grandparents and have never been more tired in all my life. I hoped that these could be signs of being pregnant, but honestly I didnt think it could be true. I drove home from their house and almost fell asleep on the road. The next day I was on the phone with my mom and had an uncalled-for reaction to something she said. I randomly started crying and she asked what the heck was wrong with me! I wasn't going to take a test that early because I did not want to get a false negative, but I couldnt resist. The tests say that the line may be lighter than the control but that was definitely not the case. A minute later and I had two very dark pink lines - (maybe that should have been a sign). I thought about waiting before I told Matt; find a way to be creative, but he was not going to be home until after 10pm! That was about 8 hours away and there is no WAY i can keep something that long. So I had to call him at work and was so excited I sounded like I was crying. That of course worried him, but when I finally got through that I was pregnant he called me back from outside his office and we got to talk about our happy news!

Our First Appointment:
Matt pretty much summed this one up. It was one of the happiest and most shocking news I have ever heard. Who would have thought, Matt and I - with no history of twins in the family- would have twins. I wanted to shout to the world but we had to wait to tell the family!

Since then:
I am 13 weeks pregnant now and we have had two appointments so far. Our third is this Thursday and we will hear the heartbeats! At about 12 weeks (which is so cliche) I finally started to feel better after 7 weeks of throwing up everything I ate. I lost 4 pounds and have gained 3 back. But at least now I am eating again! We had a little get together in the neighborhood this past weekend because I was once again able to entertain. To tell you the truth it was rough for those weeks, but I am so happy I am feeling better now and have a renewed spring in my step! I feel like in the last 2 days I kind of popped - my belly got a little bigger all of a sudden... guess I still have a lot of growing to do but it makes it that much more real. :)

So we are having twins!

Let me repeat that Twins! All the cliché's, twice the fun, twice the work, double the money, etc, etc, etc, etc. This first post should be kinda long so we get kinda caught up, but the blog will be opened up to our family to post and maybe even a few of our friends who experience or help out in taking care of our two bundles of joy.

So where do we begin....

Allyson and I had been talking and praying for a little while about when to have kids, trying to answer all the questions...do we have enough money? do we want to sleep? have we done the things we want to do? have we built our marriage strong enough? Well reality set in that, like a large amount of the decisions we make in life it takes a little faith, a little family, a little friends, and taking each others hand and leaping.

Needless to say we got on the Internet and looked up all the dos and do nots. Allyson had even talked to her doctor. We bought into the fact that it could take some time to get pregnant, especially with some of the past issues she had gone through. Well forget six months, try 15 days and we were pregnant.

Finding Out
Unfortunately, when we started trying was a really, really busy time at my work. We were in the process of developing a high level Internet application with an unrealistic time line that forced me to work late hours almost every night. We had bought pregnancy tests for the month, but needless to say I did not expect to use them the first month nor did I expect my wife to try one 5 days before you are suppose to. Sometime after lunch I got a phone call, Allyson was crying and upset (at least that is what it sounded like), in a panic I wanted her to tell me what was up...well I made out only a few words..."I'ts pink, were pregnant!"



First Doctors Appointment
The first doctors appointment, (Allyson was about 7 weeks pregnant)started pretty rough. Allyson was sick as a dog and running to the bathroom every five minutes while we sat in the waiting room. We were finally invited into the room, where Allyson had to change and wait for the doctor. Here is a side not for you guys: (it was a very weird experience waiting for another guy to come in and look at your wife with you sitting in the room.) The doctor came in, said a few things, asked how she was feeling and proceeded to start the sonogram. They start with the screen facing away so that they can check everything out before talking with you. The exact words we then heard were "Well I wanted some excitement before my trip." I thought little of the comment until I heard what he said next. "Do twins run in your family?" HAHAHAHA...doctor is so funny messing with us. I am sure a picture says a thousand words and the look on mine and Allyson's faces could have said a million. The best the nurses could do to soften the shock was to say "At least it isn't triplets!" Thanks, much better now! Needless to say it took some time for the shock of that news to subside.



Telling the Parents
Well this was now a challenge, how do you do something like telling your parents you are having twins justice? After much debating, we came up with a couple ideas that we felt fit our parents best.

For her parents, her dads birthday was the next week, but he would be going to Florida, so we decided to do dinner for him. We asked if we could come early and do presents. Allyson and I had done a couple gifts. The first was a playschool golf set, we wrapped the card that said happy birthday grandpa inside so he could read it after opening. After the shock of being pregnant was semi calmed down, he opened gift number two which was a picture of the sonogram. After looking closer, and even a little closer it started to register that hey, there is not just one, there are two. Tears, hugs, shock and excitement followed.

For mine, luckily it was near my dads birthday as well, and Katy, my sister-in-law, was about to have her second child, so we played the card that we did not want dad to not have a birthday celebration in case Katy went into labor. Traditionally my dad will say the prayer before we eat, but today on his birthday I decided that I would take the lead. I asked for God to bless our meal, bless Katy and Eli and then I asked (and this is my prayer everyday) for God to protect Allyson and keep her healthy and to protect the two newest members of the McCay family. After a lot of confusion and rechecking what I just said, the same reaction of tears, hugs, shock and excitement followed.