We're getting close.

The ceiling and wall are painted and look great, albeit bright, and now only needs to have the trim painted and some touch up some of the "opps" and then we can put in the furniture and viola! Ready for babies.

Last night was a beautiful Southern California night.

It was a balmy 70 degrees at 7:00pm. The scent in the air and the feel of the night brought me immediately back to Southern California. Back to one of the best times of my life. There were so many nights working on the patio of Hof's Hut, late night meals after 2 Steppin at the Neon Cactus, Grandma Sugarplum's Cafe Royale and a walk through Naples, and so many nights spent at Disneyland. So many friends that I haven't seen in years and some I just talked to the other day. Yeah, it really was a great time. As memorable as those times were, I know the life I have now and what the future holds will outshine those like the sun does the moon.

So would I trade any of this for all of that? Not in this lifetime. I have a wife I adore and 2 baby girls I'm already in love with...not a chance.

Although, I would like to be able to see my SoCal friends more often, and, of course, would love to go to Disneyland on a whim (or daily...whichever comes sooner!)

I am just so excited about the girls and so anxious to take them to Disneyland and ride King Arthur's Carousel and Dumbo and the Disneyland RR and the Jungle Cruise and Peter Pan and see Mickey and Minnie and Goofy and Pluto and Donald and... and... and...and see it through my childrens' eyes.

All in due time. All in due time.

Proudly making their debut...

Here are some long awaited pictures. These are actually the first ones we've been able to get that really shows them well.






These 3-d images are all of Baby B.












Her sister's foot is above her right eye!












This is our favorite picture. Look at that cute little face. Gina says she has my nose!











Baby B's profile...mouth open.











Baby A's profile...not so open.










Another great headshot, she's looking right into the camera...what a star!

What a party!

We had our baby shower today and a huge "Thank you" to Julie & Pam for hosting it and being so flexible and accomodating to the last minute changes.

We moved the shower to our house so Gina could be there, afterall everyone wanted to see her belly. The food was great, as was the company. I'm getting used to the coed showers...they're not bad without the games! Fortunately the only game at the shower was bingo.

We've got diapers coming out our ears...at least for now! It's probably only a weeks worth, though.

I'd say we're pretty stocked up on most of the things we'll need when the girls finally make it home, so a huge "thank you" for all the prezzies and the love.

Soon...

It is conceivable that the girls could be here in less than 20 day. Huh? 20 days!

My biggest worry is not their arrival (I am so excited about that), it is that the nursery isn't even close to being finished. Of course if they do come that soon they'll be spending time in NICU so I'll have more time to work on the room...then again, I'll be spending as much time at the hospital as possible.

One way or another it'll all work out. It just stresses me.

That was nice.

Well, Gina is back home and on bedrest basically until the girls arrive. After being monitored for 2 days they didn't see any contractions and they did the FFN test which came back negative...that means she shouldn't go into labor in the next 2 weeks. So they said she could come home on Friday evening but she could only get out of bed for 1 shower a day and necessary potty breaks. They seem to think that her body may be telling her cervix that the babies are done and that it needs to get ready to let them out. Not yet girls...hang in there!

So our goal is to make it to 32 weeks as their lungs will be developed by then and they'll know better how to feed. As Dr. Katz puts it: "In 2 weeks it'll be week 31 and we'll do another FFN if that comes back negative that'll be week 33, and anything after that is fine." So they seem to think that we will make week 32 without any problem and probably go longer, still aiming for a scheduled December 7th delivery.

That was refreshing.

Well I guess we had a chance to catch our breath. Now back to business. Today we went in for an ultrasound and it was great. The girls are as beautiful as ever and we even got pictures. Phenomenal pictures! We were able to get a 3d pic of Baby B. Gina says she has my nose... I keep telling her it's only a computer rendering we'll have to see when she gets here.

Gina's mom was here for the u/s and she was excited to see them, but we did have some concerning news. The measurement of the cervix had gone from a substantial 5cm to 1+cm (I thought it was 1.9 and Gina thought it was 1.0) Not that it mattered, they weren't happy with it so they admitted her to the hospital for bedrest and observation. AARRRGG!

Listen to this.

Sounds From Innerspace #4 - Hicups

Gina called me in to hear this so we recorded it. The audio seems to cut out at times but the rythmic sounds are hicups. Damn are they cute!

Finally we can breathe easy!

We have finally cleared the 28 week milestone and now we should be able to breathe easy and maybe even enjoy the pregnancy...well one of us can breathe easy, one of us is actually having a very difficult time breathing (that would be Gina!) Poor Mama, the girls are pressing on so many different parts of her. Unfortunately one of the spots is her diaphram! So she can't eat much and she can't breathe deeply but she can sit in a meeting and watch her belly move when the girls kick.

They still don't really kick for me but I did feel a little something and last night when I put my hand on Gina's belly, I was able to press in and feel something. It didn't kick but it did feel like a knee or a foot or some other little appendage!

It really is awesome.

I can only pray I'll be a dad like this.

This is an amazing story. I was sent an email about a father and son team that competes in triathalons together. That sounds all well and good but there is a huge twist to the story. The son was born with CP and so dad pushes, pulls and rides his son in each event...and does great. Read this story and then check out the video. Make sure you have some tissues nearby...

Click here> Team Hoyt

~

More sounds from innerspace.

Baby A's Heartbeat

This is Baby A's heartbeat. It's a little quiet but about 28 seconds into it you can hear a kick!



Baby B's Heartbeat

She's much closer to the surface I guess as her heart is much louder. I would turn down the volume before playing this one!

Take a listen yourself!

Gabcast! Heartbeat

Baby's heartbeat




Tell me that isn't the sweetest sound!

I must admit I was worried.

When Gina told me she had ordered the BabyBeat heartbeat monitor I was worried to say the least. I knew she was already stressing about how the babies were doing and all I could think about was that if she couldn't find the heartbeat there would be nothing but trouble. I told her that the first trip to the ER only to find out everything was fine, and I was taking it away! I didn't want anything to add stress. Fortunately she was able to find the beat if she tried long enough. And I have to admit it is great, and reassuring, to hear them.

She was supposed to return it at the end of September but she held onto it and I'm happy she did. Last night she tells me Baby B has the hiccups so she puts the BabyBeat on her and we can hear her rythmic spasms. It was awesome! It even sounded like a normal hiccup.

It really does add a whole other dimension to falling in love with them before we can actually see and hold them, and it's especially great for daddy because I don't get to really feel them like mommy does!

Update Belly Pics

Here they are: Mommy, Baby A and Baby B. Aren't they beautiful? I can't believe how quickly they went from little belly to "When are you due?" I'm sure it's because they are twins so she is growing exponentially faster than were this to be just one baby. I feel sorry for her, too, because they are always pushing at her diaphram and waking her up at odd hours of the night, AND making it impossible to eat any meal larger than snack size and not many restaurants worth eating at have snack sizes on the menu!

It is all happening so fast.

We put new windows into the nursery today. Now I can finish taping the walls and then prime and paint after Gina picks the colors. It seems like none of this will get done in time. I think getting the nursery ready will be the most daunting, well that and cleaning out the garage, but once it's finished we'll be able to get the closet/cabinet/drawers or whatever we decide, installed and the crib put in. It's all so overwhelming and yet the actual arrival of the girls isn't stressing me out in any way...not yet at least!