32 Weeks!

We’ve reached another milestone today– the 32 week mark. It’s hard to believe that we’re only 2-4 weeks away from meeting the girls. Who knows, they might even try to escape sooner than that (again).

I was supposed to go back to the doctor last Tuesday, but didn’t make it that far. Last week my contractions had been increasing in frequency and intensity. By Sunday night I had 9 in an hour and the babies were barely moving. I tried everything – drinking juice, eating sugary candy, and had Luke talk to them (they usually wiggle around when they hear his voice), but nothing seemed to be working. I talked to the home monitoring nurse and she said to prepare to go to the hospital. She called my doctor and took care of everything and then called back to tell me to head to labor and delivery. It was so nice to have someone else making the phone calls while I got ready.

Of course, as soon as we got 10 minutes from the house the girls started moving again. I was still having lots of contractions though, so we still needed to go to the hospital. I have to say, I’m really not a fan of the night nurses. I’ve had some great day nurses, but, as Luke put it, it’s like the night ones are just asking for me to be an umm witch. Each time after they left the room Luke was telling me he was proud of me for not yelling at them. It was definitely hard to resist! Anyhow, I could go on and on about them, but I don’t want to send myself back into labor so I’ll drop it for now.

After my previous reactions to contraction meds I was very hesitant to take anything this time. The nurse and I argued quite a bit about it – while I realized that the contractions needed to be stopped so I wouldn’t dilate any further (I was already at 1-2 cm), I was very afraid I was going to have the same breathing issues that I had had previously. The nurse didn’t seem to understand how bad it got the last time and I had never met the doctor on call, nor had she seen my charts or anything. The doctor suggested just giving me 1 dose of the medication (it was supposed to be 3 shots each 15 min apart) and then go from there. Fortunately I was able to handle that dose and got another about 45 min later. At that point they put me on another medication which was more of a long term solution. Surprisingly I handled that better than expected and had very few of the “normal” side effects.

So now I have to take that medication once every 6 hours to keep the contractions/dilation under control. The next morning I talked to my day nurse (who was wonderful and an identical twin herself) and she asked if I was expecting to be sent back home. I told her that while I’d love to go home, I’m more realistic than that and knew I’d likely be staying in the hospital until I delivered. I was extremely surprised when she came back and said she had talked to my doctor and she wanted to discharge me but just wanted to see me first.

Luke was so exhausted that day – he got very little sleep Sunday night because he stayed in the room with me all night. He came over to the hospital after work and stayed until about 8:45 waiting for the doctor to come by to discharge me. At that point my night nurse gave me a speech about how she didn’t think I was actually going to be able to go home, so I gave up on it and sent Luke home to get some rest. At 9 she came back in and said the doctor was down the hall and to try to get Luke to turn around. Grrr! At that point I knew he was exhausted and if I went home I’d have to come back to the hospital the next morning anyhow for my tests, so it made more sense for me to just stay another night. The doctor finally came in at 9:30 and said she was ready to discharge me but was okay with waiting until the next day after my test results came in. Fortunately she also said I was ready to be taken off of IV fluids, so I was able to get rid of the painful IV in my hand that night.

After waiting all day to see the doctor on Monday, I wasn’t too optimistic about being released early in the day on Tuesday. Although she had office visits all day, she ran over at about 2 in between patients and put in discharge orders. My mom was visiting me at that point, so I was able to make a quick getaway without making Luke leave work early.

Since my doctor is now out of the office for nearly a week, I don’t go back to see her until Saturday, November 5^th. I’m expecting to schedule my c-section at that point, but I’m very anxious to see whether she wants to do it at 34 or 36 weeks. I guess it depends on how the next week goes. In my first visit with her, her nurse had told me 36 weeks was December 1, so that’s what we kept going off of. Now that we’re getting closer, I think she was actually a week off. By my calculations, 36 weeks is Thanksgiving Day.

I really want to know what I’m counting down to, but I’m not feeling like I’m in any rush to get these babies out of me. I keep reading on the multiples message board about all these women who are so uncomfortable that they just want to deliver and be done with it. I’m looking forward to being able to sleep in my own bed again (I’ve been sleeping on the couch for over a month because it’s the only place I can sleep comfortably and get in and out of on my own), but otherwise I’m happy just hanging out until they’re ready. I know I’d likely have a different response if I was stuck in the hospital, but being at home makes it a lot more tolerable.

Random Thoughts/Updates

So ya know how when you buy a new car you suddenly see other people driving the same model everywhere? I feel like it’s similar with twins. I know it’s just because we’re looking for it/talking about it, but it seems like everyone has some sort of a twin connection. It’s been really interesting to hear words of wisdom from a broad range of people – parents of twins, identical twins vs fraternal twins, siblings of twins, etc.

What’s funny is how different Luke and I approach it. We’re just generally not wired the same way, but I think that’s a good thing. I’m very much interested in hearing about how other twin moms handled the logistics of having 2 babies at once. Luke however is usually focused on understanding the psychological aspects. So he tends to ask about things like how the twins felt about sharing a birthday party or sharing a room or how their parents made them feel unique, or what they wish their parents would have done differently, etc.

It sounds like there isn’t a right or wrong way to do things, but we’ve noticed a trend that identical twins seem to be much closer than fraternals – they seem to operate more as one unit who like the same things, have the same friends, and want to spend as much time together as possible. Whereas the fraternal twins tend to operate more as siblings that just happen to be the same age. Some have a close relationship with their twin, but others don’t. We’re looking forward to seeing how our twins interact with each other.

On an unrelated subject, we’ve been amazed by the outpouring of support that our friends and family have shown. We know things could be a lot worse, but the last 2 months or so have been especially emotionally draining, so we really appreciate everything that has been done for us and all the people that have been praying for us and checking on us.

One of the nice things about being home all day is that I’m much more available for random last-minute visits. For example, during the last 2 weeks, 2 college friends who both live out of town happened to be passing through town for work and were able to come by the house and catch up for a bit. I hadn’t had a chance to talk to either of them in a long time, so it was great having that opportunity.

I’ve been meaning to post about my baby showers for a long time, but hadn’t taken the time to pull together all the pictures. Since the doctor had prepared me for going on bed rest as early as September, my mom and sister threw a shower for me on August 20. Aside from my immediate family, all of our relatives live out of state. My sister made sure everything sent from out of town was wrapped so the family would all be there in spirit. Everyone was so generous – thanks again! Here is a link to the pictures from the shower. So I guess at some point you can’t keep blaming it on the camera, but I don’t think there is a single flattering picture of me in the bunch – yikes! Family & Friends Baby Shower Pictures Link

On August 30^th, Luke’s co-workers also threw us a shower. They really put a lot of time and effort into preparing for the shower. It was above and beyond what I was expecting. They made 2 diaper cakes, bought tons of clothes and strung them along the wall, gave us a nice double stroller, had snacks and a cake and that’s all in addition to the gifts we received from individuals. Luke has invested a lot of time in his work over the past 5 years, so it was really nice for them to show their appreciation like that. Here is a link to pictures from that day. Luke's Work Baby Shower Pictures Link

Speaking of people who have been taking care of us lately…my friend Kelly is a really talented photographer and took a few pictures before we went to lunch last month. She also came over last weekend and did a full shoot with Luke and me. I’m really glad she worked with our schedule and was able to get some pictures before the girls arrive (I’m especially happy I was able to wear something other than a hospital gown in them and I was feeling good enough to move around so it’s not just a collection of pictures of me as a beached whale on the couch). Here is a link to her website where she has some of the pictures posted. Most of them are from last month, but she’ll post the new ones as she has them ready. K. Smyth Photography Link

31 Week Visit

It’s been a busy week. The pressure was definitely on to try to get everything in order before heading back to the hospital. By Thursday afternoon when we left for my appointment just about everything significant on my to-do list had been accomplished and I had mentally prepared myself for an extended stay at the hospital.

I was feeling pretty good about things. I bought lots of maternity pajamas to wear if I wasn’t connected to an IV (wearing just a hospital gown got old real quick the last time) and packed tons of craft projects and stuff to read. I figured that if I was comfortable and had projects to occupy myself then it wouldn’t be so bad. I warned Luke that he’d look ridiculous bringing it all up from the car, but that it was worthwhile if it meant fewer meltdowns later J . I’m sure the UPS delivery guy is trying to figure out what the heck is going on at our house given my newfound Amazon addiction – my way of coping with being tied to the couch. On the bright side, I’m now over halfway done with my Christmas shopping!

So all that to say, I was pretty convinced it was a one-way trip to my doctor appointment. My feet/lower legs have really swollen over the past week which means that I’m likely building up fluid in my lungs again too. Fortunately though I only gained 2 lbs this week. Amazingly that puts my 1 month net weight gain (including the weight I lost in the hospital) at only 1 lb. We were also happy to hear that the girls have now crossed the 3 lb mark – baby A is approximately 3 lbs 2 oz and baby B is 3 lbs 9oz. The ultrasound tech said that it looks like the girls don’t really have room to change positions anymore. Baby A’s head is still serving as a cork in my cervix and baby B is still head down but facing towards my back. I can’t really feel her kick anymore based on her position, but her latest trick is to arch her back and wiggle her butt where I can feel it and see my stomach move. She’s not even out of my belly yet and she’s already sassy…. we’re in trouble! I guess that’s one way to let me know she’s still doing okay.

The doctor asked how I was feeling about making it to 36 weeks. I told her “I thought we decided on 34 last week…” She just grinned and changed the subject. I know it’d be better for the girls if they could hold out an additional 2 weeks, but it really messes with my mental countdown. I have a feeling the girls are going to make the delivery date decision for us, but we’ll see.

Surprisingly the doctor let me come back home after my appointment. She agreed that the swelling is getting worse, but since my weight gain was within the normal range she wasn’t as bothered by it as I would have expected. I have to have some tests run at the hospital on Tuesday and then I’ll have an office visit afterwards to determine the game plan going forward. The doctor plans to put me back in the hospital at some point before I deliver, so it’s more just a matter of when that’ll happen. She will be out of the office for the second half of next week, so I’m expecting to be put in the hospital after Tuesday’s visit so that I’ll be more closely monitored while she’s gone. Although my last hospital stay was no fun, she thinks I would have already delivered at this point if all that hadn’t happened.

So overall it was a good visit this time. I know better than to unpack my bags, but I’m enjoying the additional time at home.

30 Week Ultrasound

It seems hard to believe that we’re already 30+ weeks into the pregnancy. Given how early I started having issues, I kind of didn’t expect to make it this far. We had our 30 week ultrasound on Friday and the girls seem to still be doing well. Since the doctor just did all their measurements last week, we didn’t do them this time.

It’s been over a month since we last got pictures of the girls, so I was anxious to get some updated ones and told the ultrasound tech that I’d love to try to get some 3D shots again if she had time (it was end of the day on Friday, so I knew she probably didn’t want to just hang out if she didn’t have to). She laughed at me, not because of the timing, but because apparently twins are nearly impossible to get good shots of since they’re usually on top of each other or squished against the placenta. Sure enough, the best we could get was the upper half of baby A’s face. Oh well, it was worth a try. It's hard to tell what you're looking at, but her eyes are in the middle of the picture. Still looks bald as can be. I guess we'll have to wait until I deliver to know what (and who) they really look like.

I asked the doctor about whether we had a new goal in terms of delivery date. It sounds like she’s now aiming for 34 weeks instead of 36 because of my breathing issues. If I’m magically doing better at the 34 week mark, then she may push the delivery date back out to 36 weeks, but that is unlikely. Luke mentioned that I was hoping for the girls to have an 11/11/11 birthdate and her first response was to tell me that she wasn’t going to deliver them that day just because I thought it was fun. But then as we talked about it, she seemed to open to up to the idea of it – that would put me at 34 weeks and 1 day. She said she’s working a half day that day, so it’d have to be first thing in the morning if we were going to do that. So it looks like we’re only 4 weeks away (at most) from meeting the girls J

The doctor is thinking that I’ll likely need to be back on hospital bed rest starting after my next appointment (next Thursday) which will continue until I deliver. She is concerned that the fluid is starting to build back up in my lungs again and that my oxygen levels aren’t being monitored closely enough from home. It’s going to be hard to stick to my strict bed rest this week knowing it’s my last opportunity to get things ready at home before the babies arrive. Fortunately there isn’t much left on the to-do list. I just need to be careful because if I start having more contractions or if my shortness of breath gets worse, then I could end up back in the hospital before Thursday.

I was talking to the nurse after my appointment and the doctor came by and told me she changed her mind and wanted me to go over to labor and delivery to check on my oxygen levels. She has already figured out that I’m stubborn and am trying to stay out of the hospital, so she wasn’t convinced that I was actually fine. I was determined to make it a brief trip and did everything I could to get in and out of the hospital as quickly as possible before they could find an excuse to keep me there. My oxygen levels were within the normal range (barely), so I was discharged in less than an hour. Whew – that was a close one!

29 and 29

This week we celebrated making it to 29 weeks (on Thursday) and my 29^th birthday (on Friday). We also had an ultrasound appointment on Friday.

The last week in the hospital I didn’t have any contractions, so I was very frustrated when I came home and started having them regularly. On Thursday I had 5 contractions during my morning hour of monitoring. Since I exceeded the allowable amount (4), I was told to drink lots of water and then monitor again. If I couldn’t get it down to 4 or less then I’d have to go straight to the hospital. I was such a mess for the rest of the day – with the way I was acting you would have thought I was about to be sent to prison or something. I kept telling Luke in between sobs “I don’t want to go back there!” Fortunately I only had 3 the second time I monitored, so I was allowed to stay home. I was pretty convinced that I was going to be back in the hospital after my Friday appointment though. At least this time I knew what to expect and packed a bag to bring to our appointment. I’m on a message board for moms of multiples due in December and over the past week several of the moms had their babies. After reading that, I was very afraid that I was going to get babies for my birthday. Don’t get me wrong, I’m anxious to meet the girls – I just really don’t want them to have to be in the NICU any longer than absolutely necessary.

Friday I woke up in a much better (less hormonal) mood. Luke made me breakfast and then ended up calling in sick for the day. He had had a rough day on Thursday dealing with me and the reality of his non-diagnosis and was just all around exhausted. It was really nice being able to spend a relaxed day together and having someone home with me to help me off the couch! For my birthday he had a pendant made for me – it’s a nest made out of copper wire with 2 pearl eggs in it. I especially appreciated it since it took some planning ahead and life has been particularly crazy lately.

My mom and sister brought over lunch, flowers and birthday gifts. Then Luke and I headed off for the doctor appointment. It was the first time I had been out of the house in a week, so even the car ride was a treat.

I waddled into the waiting room and another pregnant woman asked immediately how far along I was. I told her 29 weeks with twins and her response was “that explains why you’re so huge!” gee thanks – just what I needed to hear. I’m by no means in denial about my size, but you’d think other pregnant women would be a bit more tactful about it.

The doctor’s visit went well. I gained about 5 lbs over the past week, but was still 2lbs less than the day I ended up in the hospital (almost 3 weeks ago). The girls have also gained some weight – one is 2lbs 13oz and the other is 2lbs 8oz. Baby A still has her head wedged against my cervix which I was concerned about, but the doctor said its acting as a cork and keeping them in there, so it’s actually a good thing. My cervix has gotten even shorter, but not enough to earn me a trip back to the hospital. I was so happy when the doctor asked me to come back in a week, I said “So that means I get to go home in the meantime?!?!” She kinda laughed at me for being so excited, but said yes, home was fine for another week but to call if anything changes.

We were hoping to get another set of 3D images of the girls, or at least some good ultrasound shots, but the doctor had somewhere else to be so I figured I shouldn’t push it. Maybe at next week’s visit. We’re hoping they’ll have crossed the 3lb mark at that point too.

We stopped for cupcakes after the appointment and then went out for dinner. It had been over a month since we had last had a dinner out, so it was a nice birthday treat. I guess the upside of being on strict bed rest is that it really made me appreciate all the little things I got to do.

Hello 3rd Trimester

We’re very excited to have reached the 28 week mark. The last few weeks were pretty rough for us, so making it this far before the girls’ debut is a definite win. I’m hoping to carry them for at least another month, but at least now I’m far enough along that the risk of serious long-term health issues for the girls is pretty low. If we can’t make it to 36 weeks, I’m kind of hoping to deliver them on 11-11-11, but that seems like a long way off at this point.

I apologize in advance for the novel of a post below.

I had my 26 week doctor appointment on September 19^th. I had been good about following my doctor’s orders throughout the previous week, but still had been having contractions. Nothing painful and no more than 3 in an hour, so I was within the allowable range, but I still had a bad feeling going into the appointment (I was also still trying to figure out the “really bad news” from my dream a couple days before). I gained another 4 pounds over 10 days, which seemed impossible given I hadn’t been eating much. The ultrasound tech took the girls’ measurements and they came in at 1 lb 15 oz and 2 lbs 3 oz. One baby was measuring 1 day behind my due date and the other was 3 days ahead. We’re happy that they’re staying on track.

The doctor came in and went straight to doing her own measurements of my cervix. We were shocked to see how much it was funneling (basically opening up from the inside) and had gotten even shorter than it had previously been. Within 5 minutes of having her in the room, we were told “I don’t know what your plans for the rest of the day were, but they’re changing. I’m sending you straight to the hospital.” So off we went. The doctor’s office is in the building next to the hospital, so we were over there pretty quickly. I was admitted into labor and delivery and was immediately given a steroid shot to try to help develop the babies’ lungs. I’ve had some pain on my right side just below my chest, so they thought my liver may not be functioning properly so they also began tests for that.

Then they got an iv going to give me antibiotics to get rid of potential infections that could harm the babies if they were delivered right away and they also started a medication to stop contractions and try to avoid preterm labor.

I also had an ultrasound of all the organs on my upper right side. My liver was functioning fine, but the pain was coming from sludge in my gallbladder. Looking back, I think my gallbladder was likely having issues even before I got pregnant, but all the stuff I had been eating to try to gain weight made the problem even worse. So now I’m supposed to continue gaining weight, but on a low-fat diet. If I weren’t pregnant, they would go ahead and remove my gallbladder now since it’s not an essential organ, but they don’t want to risk harming the babies so I need to wait until after the girls are born to have the surgery.

By Tuesday night my doctor was pretty sure things were under control, so I was moved to an antepartum room to continue iv meds and monitoring. The next morning I was walking to the bathroom and my legs collapsed underneath me. I thought it was strange but kinda tried to shake it off. As the day went on and I got more doses of the medication, I started having a hard time breathing. I felt like I had a brick sitting on the middle of my chest. I mentioned it to the nurse and she got my doctor on the phone who agreed to give me a smaller dose. I continued having problems and they had to stop the contraction medication all together because fluid was building up in my lungs. They gave me medication to try to get rid of the fluid and then gave me a different type of contraction med – the kind I had been on at home. Again the same result and so I got another dose of the stuff to get rid of the fluid and was put on oxygen.

In addition to all this, Luke was at his diagnostic thing down the street through most of the day on Tuesday and half of the day on Wednesday. Since it took so much time to get him onto their schedule, I really didn’t want him to miss or reschedule it. I really wanted to be there, not just to be a second set of ears, but also to make sure nothing was left out and to be able to ask them questions directly. Technology is a wonderful thing – Luke left the iPad with me and had his laptop with him in his room. So I was able to be there virtually via Skype. The doctors weren’t sure how the head doctor was going to respond because they had never done that before, but it turned out that he seemed to like it. I think he enjoyed having an audience and felt like he was on TV. At one point he even stopped the conversation and walked over the computer to tell me that “Dr. House is in the house” and then went on to have a brainstorming session with the group. In true Dr. House fashion, he asked everyone what they thought and then told them why they were wrong. Fortunately they didn’t have to do near as many tests as we were anticipating because Luke brought the results of all the work that had been previously done. I was very happy to have him back with me sooner than expected and that he hadn’t had any major procedures done to recover from. They were pretty sure they had identified the problem, but were waiting on the results of one last test before getting to the diagnosis which was supposed to occur the following week. Unfortunately we still don’t have a diagnosis. The doctor called yesterday and explained that while he knows what the problem is, he doesn’t know what’s causing it and just wants to follow up in a few months. So frustrating!

Thursday morning I woke up to someone coming in with a portable x-ray machine to look at my lungs. Then someone came in to do an echo to check my heart. It was a really crazy day - people kept coming in to do all kinds of tests and specialists kept coming in to check on me. After numerous blood draws, an ultrasound of my legs to look for blood clots, another xray of my chest, and a ct scan of my chest, they eventually determined that my heart was in good shape but that my breathing problems were the result of the fluid in my lungs caused by either pneumonia or compressed lungs from the weight of the babies. It was all a bit of a blur – I didn’t entirely know what was going on or how serious it was. They started some iv medication to fight my potential pneumonia but within minutes I was having major contractions, dripping in sweat and could hardly breathe. They stopped the medication and gave me Benadryl to deal with my allergic reaction. I was an emotional mess at that point, but fortunately the Benadryl put me to sleep.

I got another dose of meds in the morning to try to get rid of the remaining fluid in my lungs but after that, the only medication I was getting was the stuff to fight infections. I finally started feeling better at that point. I still needed to be on oxygen, but it was a huge improvement over the previous few days. The pulmonologist (who was brought in from another hospital) came to see me at least once a day each day between Thursday and Saturday. He was able to rule out pneumonia based on my improvement without medications. The fluid seems to have been caused by the contraction medications, so the longer I was off of them, the better I got. The weight of the babies isn’t helping the situation, but I lost 6 lbs while I was in the hospital which they think was the result of the removal of the buildup of fluids.

I tried to convince the on-call doctor over the weekend that I was ready to go home. I at least had him considering it because he called my doctor at home to get her opinion. He came back and told me she basically said “heck no!” and that I needed to wait til she was back on Monday to talk to her. On Monday I feeling pretty good, and was hoping to go home. My nurse on Monday was the same one as on the previous Wednesday and Thursday. I told her I was hoping to go home and she explained how unlikely that was. Apparently I was much worse the previous week than I realized. She said they didn’t want to scare me by letting me know everything going on, but I was very close to being transferred to the ICU. She was right, the doctor was not ready for me to go home yet that day.

I continued breathing exercises and oxygen for most of the week, but was finally well enough to go home without an oxygen tank or medications by Friday. The doctor did an ultrasound before I left and my cervix has gotten even shorter but I’m not dilated at all and hadn’t had any contractions in a week. She didn’t really look at the babies at all – their heart rates stayed in the normal range throughout my time in the hospital, so I don’t think they’re the concern at this point. After a long lecture and making me promise to be on strict bed rest at home, I was released Friday night.

I go back in this Friday, 10/7 (my birthday), for a follow-up and to check the girls’ measurements. We’ll see whether I end up back at the hospital afterwards. Let’s just say I’m not planning any big celebration for that day.

In addition to the babies…

Sometimes I feel like Luke and I are being tested to see just how much stress we can handle before needing to be locked up in a padded cell. Just being pregnant (especially with twins) is exhausting and stressful as it is, but the drama lately hasn’t stopped there.

I won’t get into all the details on here, but for the past year or so we’ve also been dealing with Luke’s health issues. His walking/mobility has been getting increasingly worse and no one seems to be able to give him a diagnosis. We’ve gone to 8 doctors and he’s had all kinds of tests run, only to hear “hmm that’s weird” over and over. We’ve heard lots of theories – MS, ALS, bulging disk, muscular dystrophy, etc. but each time we go down a path, tests come back negative. Although we’re glad none of those things seem to be it, it’s still awfully frustrating to not have answers. In early August we learned of this Dr. House-like diagnostic program at Methodist in the medical center. People come from all over the world to get a diagnosis and the doctor is supposed to be one of the best in the country. After several phone calls from us and Luke’s doctors, he was accepted into the program but had to wait about 6 weeks – it was scheduled for September 20-22. Our understanding was that it was an outpatient program where each day you meet with a team of doctors and have lots of tests run and then by the end of the week you have a diagnosis. We had been anxiously counting down to that week, but as it got closer we were getting pretty concerned about how I was going to manage being there with him and still follow my doctor’s bedrest orders.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also heard that Luke’s mom may have cancer and we were waiting to hear the results of a biopsy. She expected to get the results around September 16^th. In the meantime, we got news that Luke’s grandmother, Grammie, had become increasingly more ill.

In the morning on Saturday, September 17^th, I was dreaming that someone was telling me “I have good news, bad news, and really bad news…” and then I woke up to Luke’s cell phone ringing in the other room. It’s extremely rare that I remember my dreams and given all the stuff going on I was a bit panicked. My first thought was “oh no, Grammie died and Joyce has cancer…” I got up right away and hopped on Skype to talk to Luke’s parents (they live in India). Sure enough, Grammie had died that morning, but fortunately Joyce's biopsy confirmed that she does not have cancer.

Grammie had been sick for a long time, but was so excited about her twin great grandchildren on the way. She and Luke had talked regularly over the past several months. Despite being pretty sick, she didn’t really want to talk about herself, just wanted to make sure the babies and I were doing okay. Baby B’s middle name will be Audrey, named after Grammie. Luke told her our planned names for the girls when he spoke to her the last time. At first she didn't seem to catch on that we had intentionally chosen Audrey. Her response was "That's really become a popular name lately..." but Luke explained our reasoning. He had said all along that he’d fly out to California for Grammie’s funeral if/when it happened, but given that it was on September 24^th and Luke had his diagnostic program that week, he wasn’t able to make it. I’ll add another post to detail the craziness of the week of the 19^th, but it turned out to be a very good thing that Luke stayed in town.