Pictures of hospital guests and more

Here is a smorgasbord of pictures from my hospital stay. They are out of order, but oh well! Blogger is such a pain when you need to organize pictures in a post! :)

First time holding Elina
Playing with our girlie accessories (this is so much fun for me!)

More from the first time holding her.

Meeting Grandpa Groen for the first time

Meeting Grandma Groen for the first time

First pic of me and Eric with Elina

Meeting Papa for the first time

Meeting Mimi for the first time

Meeting Aunt Danielle (my college roommate) for the first time

Lil Miss E

More pics from Elina's birthday

Here's the last belly pic before we left for the hospital.
Me with the boys before they became big brothers.

Pic of the family that morning. Everyone seemed pretty excited Elina was coming that day.

Here Eric and I before we left.

I had a picture like this taken of me when I was waiting to have the boys. We were so excited!

First time holding Lil E. It was true love right away.

Introducing Elina Marie!!!

Elina Marie Groen made her debut on Monday! She is just the sweetest thing and we love her to pieces. She was born at 11:39 am. She weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and is 20 inches long.

Eric and I left the house at around 8 am to get to the hospital by 9. On the ride over, we were talking about how weird it was to have an appointment to have a baby. It was just a normal day, yet we were going to have a baby in a few hours.

We arrived a little early, but they were already ready for us. I did all the lovely pre-op rigmarole which included an in-depth Q&A session about my post partum complications with the twins. We also learned that two OBs from the practice I go to were at the hospital that day. One was the doctor who I had requested do the surgery. The other OB was the one doctor from the practice I had not met. What are the changes of that? Anyway, it was decided that Dr. Axelrod, the doctor I'd never had a prenatal appointment with, would do the surgery. He came in and introduced himself. Everyone who came in my room seemed to already know Eric is a resident, so they would basically say hi to me and then just started talking to him. Dr. Axelrod also did this by assuring me he'd done two c-sections (he he...Eric and I liked his humor) before and then proceeded to talk medical talk with Eric and guess which actor he looked like. Needless to say, it was a pretty laid back atmosphere while we waited for the big event! We both really liked Dr. Axelrod and were happy he was going to do the surgery.

Around 11 am, they came and got me and walked me to the operating room (again, still so weird to walk into room to have a baby surgically extracted from you). While the anesthesiologist was prepping me for the spinal block, Dr. Axelrod asked me if there had ever been any discussion about taking my spleen out. WHAAAAAAT?? This made my heart drop. Immediately I thought my weird blood problems were back, they weren't going to do the surgery, yadda yadda. Apparently my platelets were low. Now too terribly low (117 to be exact), but they didn't know if it was related to my splenomegaly or just a pregnant thing. Anyway, I was reassured everything was fine and they were going to continue with the surgery.

The surgery began and Eric was brought in. Eric and the anesthesiologist chatted a bit and after a little while, they pulled Elina out and showed her to me briefly before passing her off to be cleaned up. There was a tense moment for me and Eric as Elina didn't cry when she came out! The boys were immediately vocal, but Elina took a little while to start crying. That made me pretty nervous. I guess she needed to be suctioned out and there were medical students being taught how to suction out a baby. I guess they need to learn, but did it have to be my baby?:)

Eric was taken back to the nursery to be with Elina as they cleaned her up and took her stats. I was put back together and then Eric met me in the recovery room. I got sick and puked for about an hour. Then I was brought to my post partum room where they brought Elina to me.

I was so excited to be able to see the little girl so soon. With the boys, I had them and then couldn't see them until around midnight. I wasn't able to touch or hold them until the following day. To have my baby and be able to see her and touch her so soon was amazing.

Overall, the surgery and hospital stay was much more enjoyable this time. The surgery wasn't near as scary, the recuperation wasn't as bad, and I was able to see the baby soon after I had her.

Meeting Santa Clause

****Sidebar: I can't believe lil Miss E is going to be here so soon! T minus 4 days!!!****

Today my mother-in-law and I took the boys to see Santa Clause. I guess I didn't really know how they were going to act or respond to jolly Ol' Saint Nick. I thought Brandt would be intrigued by Santa's beard and if anyone was going to be upset, it would be Carter. I was wrong. Really wrong. Carter acted like he went comatose. He had no reaction. He just sat and looked straight forward until I took him off Santa's lap. In hindsight, it was as if he was thinking, "Maybe if I sit really still and be good, this will all be over soon." Brandt cried the entire time. Poor guy...Santa Clause really scared him.

Hope the boys have more fun meeting Santa next year!























As you can see, Carter's expression really didn't change at all!

















After meeting Santa, the boys got special hats. It looks like Carter's thinking, "WHAT just happened to me?"

After the Santa encounter, the boys were really interested in the train that was next to Santa, but they were still a little too young to ride it. Instead, we took them on the carousel and they had so much fun. Carter was really getting into it and by the time the ride was over, he was only holding on by one hand. Such a big boy!

A Resemblance?

Here's a recent picture of my sister-in-law, Laura, with her six week old bundle of love, Madelynn.

I saw that picture and thought Madelynn really looked alot like a little fellow I know. I found this picture of Brandt when he was also six weeks old.

Don't they look alike?

34 weeks 6 days

It was on this day in my pregnancy with the boys they were delivered. Yeah, this has been on my mind all day long. On one hand, I feel like, "Hey, the boys did great when they were born this early. So if she comes at any point now, that's a-okay." On the other hand, the thought of delivering another baby and recooperating scares me to death. So much so I've been having full blown panic attacks about it. The first week I knew I was pregnant, it felt like a death sentence and this fear has returned now that her arrival is so close. I've been reassured by all my doctors that this is a completely different pregnancy and I shouldn't go through what I did after I had the boys. The only problem, though, is that no one could pinpoint why I became pancytopenic. My bone marrow shutting down is not a normal symptom/complication with endometritis. The thought keeps crossing my mind that what if that's just how my body responds to having a baby? And then that thought turns to what if it happens again but this time I'm not as lucky? I know that's horrible thinking, but I tell ya, I'm pretty anxious about this birth! I just don't have a very good track record.


That aside, I've been wanting to write down the big comparisons with carrying twins versus a singleton. I feel so blessed to have been able to do both!

• Carrying a singleton has been much easier on my body. It's only been until recently that I've become more uncomfortable. I just remember near the end with the boys that just getting up and going to the bathroom really wore me out!
• Feeling the baby move is completely different. With the boys, I never really knew who I was feeling or what possible body part it was that I could feel. With one, you can tell what position the baby is (and if I don't know, Eric with his doctor knowledge can feel the baby and tell me...pretty neat trick he has!)
• The entire pregnancy with the boys progressed so much faster than with just one baby. I felt pregnant earlier. I showed earlier. I delivered earlier.
• I was monitored more with the boys. Although I've still received more ultrasounds with this pregnancy than most do, it still feels weird not to be monitored as much!
• Overall, I had more intense symptoms with the boys. Worse morning sickness, numbness/pain in hands, swelling in hands and feet, shortness of breath, dizziness, even being emotional. If I had it with the boys, it was way worse than with this pregnancy

And here's the ultimate comparison...me at 34 wks 6 days with both pregnancies:

Yeah, I had a way bigger belly with the boys!

Baby Girl Groen at 34 weeks

Yesterday I had another ultrasound done to monitor Little Girl Groen's growth. For having such a messed up placenta, it's doing it's job well and she is continuing to grow. Her estimated weight is 4 lb 12 oz. Based on that, I'm guessing that if I go 39 weeks, she'll be a 7 lb baby. She is already head down (not that it matters because I'm having a c-section), so everything seems like it's right on track and we're just cruising right along to the end:).

My c-section was rescheduled for December 14th. I can't imagine going that long since the boys were born so early, but we'll see! I was a little bummed the surgery got pushed back a day, but oh well :).

During the ultrasound, the tech got really excited because she was able to see the baby's eyelids in 2D. She said she's seen that maybe 10 times since she's been doing ultrasounds. She switched to 3D to get a better look at our little girl. Here she is! I think she's getting pretty cute. Before, I thought she looked alot like Brandt and the Parish side, but here I think she looks more like Carter. We're getting pretty excited to meet her!

Happy Halloween!

This year, we opted to not do costumes for the boys again. I feel slightly bad about it because somehow I feel like I'm depriving the boys, but in reality, they are still too young to appreciate it. I didn't know where to take them, anyway, for trick or treating, so we just didn't do the whole costume thing.

However, since Eric was home, I did do a Halloween themed dinner. It was really fun. My friend Nicole does it every year and it always sounds like so much fun. She even made an awesome dinner this year with only a hotel stovetop to cook on. Anyway, I found that once you get into the mindset, anything you make can be Halloween-y.

Since this was my first time, I just googled Halloween recipes and this was the menu I came up with. Although it was good, I'll have to work on making a more healthy dinner next year :) We had:

• Mummy Dogs (hotdogs wrapped in crescent roll dough)
• Goblins' fingers (green beans)
• Congealed blood (rasberry jello)
• Moldy mac n cheese (regular mac n cheese that I dyed green by adding green food dye to the water. I ended up making it more green after I added the cheese sauce stuff by adding blue dye (I'd read a tip that you add blue dye because there is already yellow dye in the cheese powder))

Carving Pumpkins

We had a lot of fun carving pumpkins this year. It was a little hectic trying to keep tabs on the boys while we gutted and carved, but for the most part, the boys were really intrigued with the whole process which made it fun. We did it outside so the boys could run around and we wouldn't have to worry too much about the mess.

Oh, while Eric was home and we had the camera out, I had him take my picture. This is where the belly is at in the pregnancy. This was at 33 weeks. I'm pointing to the big gap that is definitely getting more difficult to cover up. While my mom was here, there were numerous pics taken with my belly hanging out! This is a maternity shirt, yet I've got a big section (and this was after pulling up the jeans and pulling down the shirt so as not to show skin) that isn't really covered up. I'm definitely missing clothes with real waistbands :).
Look who I was able to get a quick pic with!

My pumpkin carving game face

Showing Brandt the pumpkin guts. He liked picking through to get the seeds.

Eric's creation. Didn't it turn out good?

My pumpkin...very original :)

And then you know what? We completely forgot to light them at night. Oh well!

Bengston's Pumpkin Farm

While my mom was here, she, Eric's mom and I took the boys to a local pumpkin farm. We'd heard so many good things about this farm. We thought we planned it right to miss the crowd, but unfortunately, we went when all the kids who were on field trips were there. The farm had a ton of different stuff to do, but for the most part, the boys are still a little young to take full advantage of the farm. The highlights for the boys, though, were the petting zoo, seeing baby animals, and running through a huge field where you could pick out your pumpkin.

The boys with their cute pumpkin hats. Too bad they won't keep them on for very long!

Brandt being so excited about the pumpkins.

Carter on his quest for more "sticks" (pumpkin stems that had fallen on the ground). He thought it was so cool when we showed him he could store them in his sweatshirt pocket.

Trying to get a posed picture....

More attempts at a posed pic. It's so hard with wiggly toddlers!

Fun in the field....