Miss Ellie Diane McLean

I am an AUNT!!!

Miss Ellie made her debut on January 16th at 7lb 5oz and 20 inches long. 

She is absolutely adorable! I already love her so so much!!

Momma had a long long hard day of labor, but she was such a trooper!!

Their pastor came up and prayed over Ellie and their new family

We all waited patiently impatiently for Miss Ellie to decided it was time to meet everyone

     

 

Around 3:00 I went back to my parent's house (about 10 mins away) to take a quick nap, knowing it was going to be quite a while before any action. After I woke up and talked to Michael, I realized he wasn't going to be able to pick up Bryson from school {because he lives at work these days :( }, so I had to high-tail it back up to his school (25 mins away) to pick him up. I was getting minute by minute updates and Ellie's arrival was still a "safe" distance away. As soon as Bryson was buckled in the car, I got a text from Steph that said she was about to push. What!? Ahh! I couldn't possibly miss her birth, but I was still 30 ish minutes away!!!

So I might have...umm...sped a little. 

Which wouldn't be terrible if I didn't have a back seat driver that knows about "the rules of driving". :)  In our talks about Bryson obeying the rules, we always tell him the Mommy and Daddy have to follow rules, too. We have to follow God's rules, the police men's rules, driving rules, etc. He knows about the speed limit and that we always have to follow that rule and go "Lightning McQueen fast!"  So, in the midst of my *ahem* speeding, he looked up and asked why I wasn't "obeying the speed lemon driving rules". Little stinker called me out!!! :) 

We made it in plenty of time and waited in the waiting room for a little bit until we got the exciting text from the proud daddy that she was here and perfect! We couldn't wait to get back there and hold her!! Anytime the doors opened, Bryson jumped (literally) out of his chair and ran to see if it was Uncle Brandon. He couldn't wait for see baby Ellie!!

Bryson was absolutely smitten with Ellie and couldn't take his eyes of her. He wanted to see/touch/talk to her SO badly!!

  

We all got our turn to love on her :)

Jen watched as everyone passed around her little girl. Seriously, how can she look so wonderful right after having a baby? Sheesh!

Look at that proud Mommy and Daddy. So much love for their little girl!

We are so so excited for their new family and love them SO SO much!! 

Happy Birthday Ellie!!

31 weeks, a hospital visit, and 32 weeks

31 Weeks

Jen and I got to take one last picture together this week before Ellie was born!!! 

31 weeks and 38 weeks!

  

I can't wait to see little Ellie!! Jen started having contractions early Monday morning, so we all expected to see Ellie pretty soon.... but little stinker was comfy cozy inside of mommy's tummy and kept us waiting all week. All the while, poor momma was miserable the whole time we were waiting for her.

I went back to work this week and it was rough. My kids were so excited to see my belly after 2 weeks. They were so funny! One of my little boys looked at me with wide eyes and asked if I now have THREE babies in my belly now! Ha! 

But the week was flat out exhausting. It hurt so badly to walk the 5 miles back and forth from my room to the cafeteria, then back to the gym and then to the Library, etc. I literally walk slower than a turtle these days and my kids constantly begged to just walk ahead of me in line because I was so slow. Poor kiddos :)

Well, I continued truckin' through the week. 

and had to scoot my seat back in the car...running out of room!

Friday morning, I noticed I started having a lot more Braxton Hicks contractions than normal. They didn't hurt, so no big deal. They hadn't let up by early afternoon, so I decided to call my doctor. I'm not typically one to call for little things like that, especially since they didn't hurt, but for some reason I decided I needed to this time. The on call doctor told me it was probably nothing, but go ahead and go to the hospital to get monitored-just in case.

I had been told to go get monitored at the hospital 2 other times during this pregnancy, but, me and my medical expertise, decided not to go...even though I had incredible side pain both times. And this time, I had no pain, no significant problems, but actually decided to go.

And thank goodness I did! After I got hooked up to the monitors, they realized I was having pretty big contractions every 5-6 minutes. I let Michael know I was at the hospital, but decided I wasn't going to tell anyone else since Jen was sitting at home begging for her contractions to start and i really really didn't want to rain on her parade and take away all the fun, exciting attention away from them, so as long as we could get everything under control, we were going to hang onto this secret until after Ellie came. It was, however, SUPER hard not to say anything to everyone  :/

I ended up getting:

 an IV

 monitored for over 6 hours

a shot of Terbutaline in my arm to stop contractions (that hurt like the dickens!!!)

an ultrasound to check on the girls (they looked "perfect" and "mighty active" and at that point in time, they were both head down and weighed around 4lb2oz)

a swab test to predict if I would go into labor in the next 2 weeks (negative--thank you Lord!!)

a steroid shot in my booty to help the girls' lungs develop faster, just in case (which also hurt like nobody's business!!!)

my cervix checked- not dilated :) and still 4.4cm at the top (which means my body wasn't trying to start going into labor)

The contractions slowed down considerably and everything looked good, so I was finally able to go home late Friday night.

Even though I was laying in a hospital bed for 6 hours hoping they could stop my contractions, I don't think I fully let the reality of everything sink in. The next morning, I woke up and couldn't stop sobbing.The Lord is so faithful and was keeping our girls safe. He gave me the discernment to actually go into the hospital this time. Only He knows their birthday and knows how they'll enter this world. While I am so ready to see their sweet faces, I am praying for the Lord's perfect timing.

Needless to say, we decided that Friday would be my last day of work. I hadn't planned on stopping quite this early, but it's definitely the best thing for all three of us. 

32 Weeks

can you believe how big this belly has gotten!? I can't even imagine how much more I can grow.

My first few days not working and "taking it easy" really turned into a "fast and furious race to try to get everything done before the twins come....with a little bit of rest thrown in between."  I've realized they could literally be here any day now and I have hardly anything done for them. I had SO much laundry to do, I needed to pack our bags, wash all of the car seat inserts, swing and bouncer fluffy inserts, organize the nursery a little better, hang up something on the walls, and several other things. It was a verrrry slooooooow process because, like I said before, I walk slower than a turtle and I can hardly bend over or move around. :)

Steph came over to keep me company on Tuesday and we got a little crafty and made the girls some onesies!!

   

I had my Perinatal appointment Wednesday morning. Everything still looks great with the girls!! I will never get tired of hearing the doctor day they look "perfect". It's so reassuring, especially after Friday. 

In just 4 days since having the sonogram at the hospital, Emily flipped again and Madelynn completely moved positions. They move SO much!! And they are weighing 4lb 8oz and 4lb 10oz :)  I am SOO happy they're getting so big!! I asked about the margin of error with the weights and she said it was probably around 6oz or so, so even on the low side they're over 4lbs.

It's funny how we get so excited about them being 4 pounds. If the doctor told me there was a chance that Bryson could have been 4 pounds at birth, I could have cried myself to sleep with worry every single night. Sure, I wish they could be a full 7 pounds, but for twins, that's just impossible. I'm just praying they'll be healthy and strong no matter how big (or small) they end up being.

My OB appointment was Thursday and my doctor said everything looks good with me. My blood pressure is still good (115/71), no swelling, i've gained around 35 pounds...and I worked hard for those 5 pounds over the last month! It's starting to get a lot harder to eat as much, but I'm sure working on it!! My doctor also said that he'll be very happy if I make it to 35 weeks and shocked if I make it to 37 weeks. He mentioned that he'd hate to be Michael if I do happen to go that long! haha!

Ok, now that my weekly updates are turning into novels, here is a comparison picture of when I was pregnant with Bryson at 32 weeks and 32 weeks with the girls. I just can't even believe the difference!!

Oye Ve!

Yay for making it to 33 weeks!!  We're still praying to make it another 3 or 4 weeks :)

daddy's litle man

Bryson loves LOVES his Daddy!

 He loves spending time with him, playing basketball (actually every sport imaginable!), wearing clothes that look like Daddy's clothes, etc. I love their special bond :)

Daddy and Bryson spent a lot of time putting together some new Legos. Bryson is crazy into following the directions for things, so he loved following all the step by step picture directions to make his fireman :)

  

Earlier this month, we took B to the Home Depot workshop. He's been going for months and months and every single time, he wants to know if he gets to build a birdhouse. I don't know why, but he has always wanted to build one :) Well January was his lucky month ;) He and Daddy worked together to make his special bird house!!

 

He took great pride in painting his birdhouse and not missing a single spot!

   

He's started really loving sitting in his little recliner right next to Daddy's recliner (and don't you love his little doll!? he said he's going to let his sisters sit with him like that, too;) )

I love watching Michael and Bryson together. 

Michael is such an amazing daddy to Bryson and I know he's going to just as amazing with Madelynn and Emily! 

I'm so thankful for my boys. Love them so much!!

28, 29, & 30 weeks

Sooo, I'm a tad behind ;)

 I feel like I've been pregnant for years, yet at the same time, I can't believe I'm in the home stretch! I am so thankful every time a make it to the next week without anything major happening. So so many moms of twins I have talked to have gone into preterm labor around this time and that scares me so much. I'm praying hard that I can keep these girls cooking at least another month :)

But, with that being said, I really am ready to be done with this pregnancy. It's been amazing seeing what my body is capable of and feeling our girls constantly move inside my belly, but I'm not going to lie...It's been hard. It hasn't been anything at all like the first one. From day one of finding out we were having twins, my prayer has always been for God to hold our girls tightly in his hands and grow them big, strong and healthy. I didn't care a single bit about what happened to my body, I just wanted them safe. My body is really starting to feel the weight of two babies now. My stomach muscles ache constantly, and the girls' kicks are so strong that when they kick my muscles, I want to cry. It feels like I have a terrible sunburn across my stomach with my skin stretching so much. It's hard to breathe no matter what position I'm in. Sleep is nonexistent unless I take Tylenol PM, and even then  I'm lucky if I get 4 or 5 hours of sleep. If something falls on the floor, it will most definitely stay there because, well, bending down just ain't happenin' for this lady. :)

It's been hard. But I know it is SO worth it! I can't even describe how neat it is to feel 2 little babes roll around inside of you! Or two babies that have hiccups at the same time. Or when Bryson gets a paper towel roll to megaphone his voice into my belly while he talks and sings to his sisters. Or to think about the forever bond and friendship they will have :) While it's been rough (I told you I'm not going to lie! ha!) I really feel so blessed to be carrying our amazing little twin girls.

I had my Ob appointment last week. Everything still looks good with me and the girls. 

--I had a HUGE case of pregnancy brain and accidentally wore my slippers to the appointment!! THEN, halfway in, I realized I was wearing 2 watches! Haha who does that!??--

 

My blood pressure was still good (118/78)

I didn't gain any weight since the last appointment 2 weeks ago (eek)

the girls' heartbeats were good and strong (144 &155- Madelynn has been SO active the last few weeks, I wasn't really surprised at her heart rate)

I passed my gestational diabetes test (i have NO idea how-I have such a sweet tooth!!) 

and all my muscle aches and braxton hicks are normal (too bad there isn't a magic pill for it)

Madelynn moves all.the.time. and makes big rolls constantly. My stomach looks like this quite often, it's so crazy looking!! (she's on the right side...doing some sort of gymnastics...)

I had my specialist appointment earlier this week. We decided to take Bryson since he isn't in school right now for Christmas break. We prepared him the day before about everything he was going to see and that I had to lay on the table so the doctor could take pictures of Emily and Madelynn with a special wand, and that we would get to see them on the TV and so on. He was THRILLED to go with us. He couldn't stop talking about it!! 

He was THE sweetest thing at the appointment. He kept telling me to lay really still and making sure I was ok. He held my hand through quite a bit of the sonogram :)  He was paying such close attention to where the wand was on my stomach that he knew which girl was up on the screen and would talk to each of them. I LOVE seeing how sweet and loving he is with his sisters already. He has the kindest heart and is going to be the BEST big brother to his sisters!!

We did find out that Emily has flipped, so she's breech now. Blah. There's still time for her to flip though. 

The girls are growing great and are now 3lb 10oz and 3lb 11oz--the first time they haven't been the exact same weight :) We got to see them in 3D again, which is always so neat!!

Michael put the 2nd crib together this week! It's so crazy to see 2 of everything in their room. 

Their room in sloooooowly but surely coming together :)

 

We were supposed to go to the lake for New Years with my family, but since I had been having so much pain, we decided that I would stay home and relax and Michael was going to take Bryson for the weekend. I was so bummed to miss going to the lake, but it was really nice to just lay on the sofa all day long and not have to worry about bending over to pick up toys or bend down to play or pick him up and what not. I was a total lazy bum and it was lovely. Everyone else had a blast at the lake though!!

Praying for an easy week back at school next week. I'm already nervous about it! I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I can't nap everyday during Bryson's nap. Maybe during my lunch break... ;)

Growing growing!!

biker man (with a side of superhero)

Bryson has loved LOVED his bike! We haven't been able to go outside to ride it yet, but thankfully our house is so wide open that he can ride several loops around the study, dining room, kitchen, living room and hall with quite a bit of room and speed. He just looks so big on this bike!!

  

 And, he can't forget to be "Super Bryson to the rescew!" He loves this cape from Aunt Steph :)