They're HERE!!

I'm sorry I've been so slow to post. I am going to post an entire birth story, but first and foremost I wanted to get some pictures up!!

I'm happy and proud to announce that Samantha Mary was born on August 11th at 825am weighing in at 6.2 lbs and 19 3/4 inches long. She came out first, screaming her lungs out! It was a wonderful beautiful sound!

Anthony Mark was born one minute later, at 826am, weighing in at a whopping 6.12 lbs and measuring 19 inches long. He took a moment to shout, but once he did, he let us know he was there!

Both babies are beautiful, healthy and required NO NICU time!! Yeah!!

I didn't fair quite as well, had a few issues after delivery, but I'll save that for the full birth story post ...


But, without further ado, PICTURES! There are lots more pics if you click on any of these pics and look at my shutterfly album ... I'm having a hard time picking just a few to display! They are all so cute!

Here is my sister's beautiful family! My sister is holding little Anthony, and Anthony is holding Sami.


The twins are fighting already! Although I prefer to think that Anthony was shielding Sami from the paparazzi!


Anthony all wrapped up and not looking happy about it!


Sami just peering out with one eye!


My twins meeting the new twins!


All dressed up and leaving the hospital.



And birth story to come, I promise!
Enjoy,
Caba

Just a Quickie

So, tomorrow is the day. C-section is scheduled for 7:30am. I'm not sure what the status of wireless is at my hospital, but I'm hoping that I can get online, post an update, and get some pics up here for you all to see!

Thanks for all the support along the way. It's really been awesome! I will update you all as soon as I can!

Caba

Hi guys ...

I'm still here! No babies yet! I'm 37w1d today, and still hanging in there! I had an ultrasound on Wednesday, and the babies are estimating in at 6.1 lbs and 6.8 lbs. Then I had an OB appt, and my cervix is completely closed. No dilation or anything! So that's a really good thing! My OB seems to think that I will make it to my scheduled c-section on Aug 11th. I actually think I might too!

Things have been getting a little tough over here. I'm really tired, I'm getting more and more uncomfortable, and I just can't move well. If I stand or walk around for any extended period of time I just get EXHAUSTED. Thankfully, my sister is like an angel, and has been over all the time, helping to take care of the kids. And every single weekend they go to her house and my mom's house for a night. So this weekend my sister and her husband picked them up at like 10am Saturday morning, and brought them back around 5pm tonight. It's so nice for us, because it gives us one night/morning every week where we know we can relax and then sleep in. Plus, we've gone to the movie every single week. This week was Funny People. I liked it.

It's amazing that I've made it further in this pregnancy than I did with my twins. Boots and the Moop were born at 36w3d. And by 36w I was dilated 1-2 centimeters. So I'm excited about how well I am doing ... I can't believe it!

Since I feel like I've been ignoring my kids a lot on this blog lately, I will offer up some pictures! All pics are links to shutterfly with more pics ...


Here are some pics from when my sister took the twins to a
local zoo near our house.


Here is Mr Moop playing in the kiddie pool at my mom's house.


And Boots wearing a fancy hat!


Here are Boots and the Moop at the beach ... We took a trip July 4th weekend and they LOVED playing in the sand!


Here are some pictures from a visit with my husband's family. We went down to visit his sister, and Moops and Boots cousin's Brandon and Allie. His parents came by too, so Grammy and Grandpa were there, as well as DH's cousin's wife, and her daughter Gracyn. All the kids had a blast playing in the kiddie pool!






My fabulous sister and her husband bought bikes for the twins. They are the cutest things ever. Moops is a CARS bike, and Boots is a Princess one. They even having matching helmets and knee pads! Look how cute!




And lastly a few pics I snapped randomly when the kids were laying around watching Dora.





Enjoy,
Caba

I suck

I know ... it's been a month. That's a long time. The good news is, no babies yet! So I'm doing good, going to be 35 weeks this weekend, and everything is looking good with us! We have a scheduled c-section date of Tues Aug 11th. I will be 38w3d then. Pretty exciting! We were hoping to schedule it for Aug 10th (which is my DH's birthday) but the Dr we wanted wasn't on that day. And the one that was on refused to be on camera. So we pushed it a day.

I can't remember if I talked about it on here or not, but they are doing an episode of "A Baby Story" on us. We actually taped all the pre-birth stuff last Friday. It was fun, and kinda awkward and weird ... but I can't wait to see it!! Unfortunately Boots and the Moop were both sick ... so they weren't in the best of moods for their tv debut! I will definitely keep everyone posted about when it will be on tv.

My last day of work was June 26th, so I've been enjoying my maternity leave. Trying to relax as much as I can. But the kids have been sick a lot, so they've been home more than I would have liked. But luckily my sister is around, so she would come over and hang with the sick kid so I could still relax.

Luckily, everyone is healthy now, and back at daycare, and I'm enjoying just laying around and reading/watching tv/surfing the net.

I got nothing else for ya. I'm too lazy to put any pics up right now. I do have some cute ones of the kids, so next time I will. And I won't wait until the birth of these kids to post again!!

Enjoy,
Caba

Summer fun

These pics are about a month old ... but I figure its time to get them up! It's completely misleading, giving that right now in NJ it's miserable, non-stop rainy, and cold! Well, about 65 degrees, which I think is freakin' cold for June!!

But we did have a few really nice days ... and the kids enjoyed playing outside in their sprinkler and pool. As you can see in the background of the pics, all the adults enjoyed a nice beer sitting outside in the nice weather, except me. Who was pounding my water like I know I need to do. But god, water kinda sucks after a while. I would give anything for a nice ice cold beer and some sushi!!!


Here is Boots having a blast in the pool. She would not take off her sunglasses!


Here is Mr Moop smiling up a storm. He wouldn't take off his shirt for some reason!


And here are a few "having fun in the pool" shots! I love the last one where they were like hugging!






We also just got their school pictures back that we ordered. A little back story ... daycare sent home a reminder on Friday that picture day was Monday. My sister had picked up the kids from daycare on Friday, and forgot to grab their daily sheets ... so we didn't know it was picture day. We sent them into school in messy clothes and looking disheveled!

My angel of a husband went home and got them outfits and brought them back to school so that they wouldn't be the sloppiest kids in the class for their pictures! But the daycare teachers didn't do the best job with their hair! Moops is supposed to be combed to the side (and this was before his 2nd haircut, so his hair was still kinda long!) ... We asked the teacher to put Boots hair in pig tails, but they didn't do as good a job as I do!! Anyway, for your enjoyment!


Sweet Lady Boots


Cute Mr Moop


My two Angels together



Enjoy,
Caba

Baby Shower

So, I'm a bit late with this post. I've been lazy this week, and I've meant to post, and I just never get around to it. I know, I stink.

We had my sister's baby shower this past weekend. It was SO nice. It wasn't a surprise or anything, she knew about it. But it was such a wonderful celebration. All our friends and family there to support her and her husband and these new babies. In a way, it felt like a celebration of everything she has gone through in the past year ... the cancer diagnosis, the surgery, the treatment, the surrogacy cycle, everything. And here we are, almost a year exactly from when you got her diagnosis ... and she went from finding out she had cancer and that she would never be able to carry a baby, to being cancer free, treatment free, and expecting twins in about 2 months!!


Here is me and my beautiful sister!


And with both the parents, my sister and Brother In Law!


And all the loot she got!


For lots more pics, click on any of the ones above to go check out tons others on Shutterfly.

The shower was so wonderful, and very emotional ... my sister got up and spoke and pretty much made the entire room cry! It was a beautiful shower and a wonderful experience and I'm so glad it went off so well ... my mom and I put a lot of thought into it, and I think it came across!

Now we just need these babes to get here so that they can enjoy all the stuff they got! But not for another 7 weeks or so please!

Enjoy,
Caba

Random Cuteness and my first L&D visit

I'll start with the L&D visit. Last Thursday I was working from home and wasn't feeling great. I was very crampy and achy in my lower abdomen. So remembering my other twin pregnancy, I dutifully layed down on my left side, and started downing my water. Unfortunately, about an hour went by, and I didn't feel much better. So I continued to lay, and I continued to drink. Another hour goes by, nothing's changed. So I decided to call my OB's office. I talked with a nurse there, and she consulted with one of the docs, and they agreed that I should take a trip to Labor and Delivery to get checked out.

Luckily my sister was on her way over to help with the twins that night, so she picked me up and off to the hospital we went. We basically just spent a bunch of time in the PET unti (pre-natal evaluation and testing). They checked on the babes, who were very active and the heartbeats were perfect. They then put a contraction monitor on me and told me they would monitor for contractions for a half hour. One half hour later, the doc came in. Not a single contraction. Cervix long and closed. Bottom line, the doc thinks the pain was round ligament pain. I'll take it! We would LOVE for these little bubs to spend another 10 weeks in my belly!

What else? My sister's shower is this weekend ... it's not a surprise (obviously, since I'm mentioning it here, and she reads this!) But I'm very excited and can't wait for it! She deserves her very special day in the spotlight!

And now I just want to share some super cute pics of the kids that I have taken over the last few weeks. These first few pics were from this play zone area by our house. DH and I took the kids there one weekend morning ... it was really fun! Lots of different play areas with slides and climby things ... and then different rooms to pretend-play different stuff, like a Vets office, a dress up area, a supermarket, a post office, etc. Then we had lunch there... the kids LOVED it!


Here is Boots going down the slide


And Moop going down the slide


Boots in the "supermarket"


Moop doing his shopping


Moop laughing at his sister


Boots being goofy


Moop chillin' and Boots wearing Daddy's shoes

And lastly, a picture I like to call "My Little Diva". Yes, she is wearing her sunglasses inside, while relaxing in her chair, getting a pedicure from Mommy. She loves her "painted pink toes" as she calls them.



Enjoy,
Caba