Family of Four

I will update later with the whole labor and delivery story. Here are a few pictures of our boys until I have time to update with all the details.
I am holding Reed and Ryan is holding Braden.

Brothers! As you can see below, Reed is the fatter one of the two! Braden weighed 5.08 lbs and Reed weighed 5.9 lbs. Reed's hair is also darker than Bradens and his head is bigger:-)
Reed is waiting for a whole heart! The team of doctors has decided that a heart transplant will be a better option for him that the 3 stage Norwood procedure. We have been praying this whole time that Reed will be able to do all things like his brother and we believe that God is answering our prayer just a little different than we had planned. When Reed receives a heart, he will have a whole heart instead of half of a functioning heart! PLEASE pray that a heart will become available soon for our little fighter. He is on the top of the list at Vanderbilt!!!!

Here is Braden on his first night at home!

Braden in his bed. Doesn't he look so small in his bed! Here is Reed's sweet nurse, Jessie. She has requested to be with Reed each day that she is working. Reed is already stealing women's hearts!!!

Profiles of the brothers. I think that they look a lot alike here.

Thank you for all of the prayers on our behalf. We know that God has a great plan in store for our new family of four! God is good!

Here are a few pictures of Braden. I have not seen Reed yet, only pictures since he is still in the NICU. Please keep them all in your prayers especially Reed.

Keeley is still recovering, so keep her in your prayers. Also, say a special prayer for Reed that everything will continue to look o.k. for his surgery next week. He was having tests done today.

The babies are here!

The babies came by c-section around 3:30 yesterday afternoon. The babies are doing great. Reed weighs 5 lbs. 9 oz. and Braden weighs 5 lbs. Reed was immediately taken to the NICU and hooked up to all the appropriate monitors. Everything is still on track for his surgery next week. Keeley is doing better now. She obviously had a long labor, then ended up having a c-section. She had a ceizure right after delivery, so they did several tests last night and I believe everything came back fine. Keeley was staying in ICU overnight then they will move her to a normal room today. She will get to go see both the babies today, too. Please keep them all in your prayers.

Still in Labor

Well, it's been about 24 hours and they finally broke her water a little after 1:00 p.m.

Still in Labor

As of about 8:00 this morning, Keeley is still in labor. She is dilated to a 3cm. Keeley was able to sleep for a few hours last night.

In Labor

Keeley is in the hospital. They checked her in after her appointment this morning. Everything is going fine. They gave her an epidural around 9:45 p.m., then another one around 10:45 p.m. because she was still feeling pain. We can't wait to meet the babies tomorrow! Hopefully, we will have pictures of 2 precious babies soon! Say a prayer for both babies and Keeley!

38 Weeks!!!!!

Yes, we have already decorated for Christmas. This was Ryan's idea since the boys will be here any day now! I was not going to set up much this year but he wouldn't let me get by with that. So on Halloween night, Ryan with the help of my parents put up all of my Christmas decorations including my X-mas village.
I have made it to 38 weeks!!!! We went in this morning for another ultrasound and everything still looks good with the boys. We will go back Tuesday and see if they can stay even longer! I am so blessed to have carried them this long and I know it is because of all of the prayers being said for us!

Most people say that it looks like I stuck a basketball under my shirt. It must look like something because people sure do like to stare!
Here are our new stockings of our soon-to-be family of 4!

The Christmas tree which just finished getting decorated.

I have posted some other blogs so be sure to scroll on down. I am trying to get caught up before the boys gets here.

Remodel Project

I owe a HUGE thank you to my dad for these past 5 months. My dad retired in May and started working on remodeling our downstairs in July. He did such a great job and we absolutely love our downstairs now. Ryan helped out on the weekends and nights when he could. This is a picture after they had been mudding drywall one day.

This first picture is after they knocked out walls. You can see where the ugly green carpet starts and stops...that is where walls used to be. This is the open area/office area before:Here is the open area after. Ryan, Zach Crawford and my dad installed these hardwood floors in 3 full Saturdays. This was not an easy task but it turned out great! This is a picture of a bookshelf that dad built to hide some pipes that were in the wall. I love having extra storage. This next picture was after dad redid the entire wiring. This was huge task for him because this old house had some crazy wiring going on! He installed 12 can lights and track lighting. This made a huge difference because before all we used were lamps. Here was a storage room before with an old cast iron bathtub in it. There was not any plumbing for a bathroom and dad installed all of this himself! I'm telling you my dad is a man of many talents!! Here is the bathroom after. Ryan installed the tile floor and I helped grout it. This bathroom was much needed considering our house only had 1 1/2 baths before this. Here is the den area before:The den area after! Dad built these columns to go around the existing metal poles. These stairs had ugly green carpet on them before and now here they are after! Ryan and dad knocked these out on one Saturday. I think they turned out really good.

Ryan is already enjoying watching the Titans play in our new space. Thanks dad for all your hard work and time spent doing this for us. I know that we will get much use out of this especially when Reed and Braden get here!

Past Showers...35 weeks pregnant

Laura Karkau and Mandi Terry hosted a book shower for me on October 23. What a great idea for a shower! Reed and Braden received tons of great books and I cannot wait to be able to read these to them! The shower theme was chocolate! They had a chocolate fountain, cupcakes, cookies, mints, etc... The table and decorations looked so cute.
This is me at 35 weeks and 4 days. This sweater is stretched to its max!
The next day, I had a shower given by the math department at Belmont. I got so many thoughtful and practical gifts! A lot of these ladies I have known since I was 5 yrs. old because my mom taught here for 20+ years. They are all like family to me.
Here is one of the blankets that Joyce knitted for the boys. The other one coordinates with this one but it is blue with a yellow border. I cannot imagine the time that went into making these and I greatly appreciate them!

Another handmade gift was knitted booties for the boys. These are so cute and so tiny. Joan started making these when she found out we were having 2 boys. I cannot wait to put them in these cute little shoes!

Updates and Requests

Well, I am currently on moderate bed rest. I went to the doctor this past Tuesday and Reed measured 5 lbs 14 oz. and Braden 5 lbs. 2 oz. A doctor that I do not normally see said that we should go ahead and deliver since I was 37 weeks and 2 days and the boys growth was slowing down some. I didn't really agree with this but who can argue with a doctor. Well to make a long story short, we went to the hospital and they put me on monitors and an IV. Before they were going to induce me, Reed's cardiologist along with my normal doctor that I have been seeing agreed that we would be better off waiting since I am the best incubator there is for these boys.
Reed needs to be placed on medicine for a week before they perform his surgery. If we would have delivered this past Tuesday, he would have had surgery today b/c the surgeon is going to Kenya tomorrow. So, if I can keep these boys in me until Sunday or later then that would be perfect for Reed's surgery since his surgeon will be back Monday, November 17th.
I am not going to the doctor every 3 days to get ultrasounds done. We went today and everything looked great for both boys. The do what is called a BioPhysical Profile(BPP) which is where they check blood flow through the placenta, heart rate, movement, breathing, amniotic fluid, etc... They both scored 10 out of 10. We will go back on Sunday to have another BPP. Please pray that Reed and Braden will hang in there until next week. Thanks and sorry for the long post with no pictures!! My camera is already packed in our hospital bag:-)

Rough Draft of the Nursery

I am finally updating my blog with 3 posts in a row so be sure and scroll down to the other new posts!
I am still not done with the nursery but it is getting there! I still lack some stuff on the walls but we are definitely gettting closer. As you can see below, we still have not even put the mattresses in there cribs. I am currently washing the crib sheet!
The wall hangings above the cribs are pictured below. The colors are not exactly how they show up here but you can get the idea. The border is green which is the same color as their changing table/bookcase. I painted the background a diamond pattern to match with the lattice pattern in the cutains. I thought this scripture was fitting for their nursery.
Picture below is a piece that I drew up and a guy at the flea market made for me. I picked out the paint color to match with the bumper pads. This piece will look a whole lot better once the 1970's computer is taken off...it is sitting where the changing pad will go. I also cannot wait to get some pictures to fill the picture frames on the top with! Hopefully we will not get those pictures for another 3-4 weeks!
I had to buy a smaller chair since our rooms are not huge in our house. This chair matched with the brown on the crib skirt. It is a rocker and glider which will hopefully come in handy!
My sister-in-law, Tina, is so creative with her gifts. She bought Reed and Braden their very first pair of 'cowboy' boots. The leather on them is so soft and they are John Deere boots. I think these will fit the boys around 9 months. The picture frames are ones that my friend Kandice made and they match perfectly with the nursery.

Needless to say, their Aunt Tina has already spoiled them rotten. She also bought them their own little chairs from Pottery Barn. I am getting their names monogrammed on the back. Thanks Tina!

Update on the boys: Two weeks ago, Reed was weighing 4 lbs. and Braden was weighing 3.8 lbs. They were a little concerned with the discordance between their weights so we have begun weekly monitoring. I didn't think a half pound was that big of a deal but it can be a problem with twins. So we are getting ultrasounds once a week and they have gone well these past 2 weeks. They check their movements, breathing, amniotic fluid, blood flow in the placenta, etc.. and they have 'passed' the previous 2 tests. We still need your prayers that these boys will continue to both grow and stay in my belly for another good 3 weeks. The bigger that Reed is the better for surgery! God is good and we know that He will provide but please pray! I feel great and know that I could carry these boys as long as they will cooperate. I am going to have to get onto them for giving me some lovely stretch marks...but I have only gained around 23 lbs so far. I welcome the stretch marks if that means they keep growing!!!!

Massey Shower

My parent's next door neighbor, Mrs. Massey, and her daughter, Sonia Hoover, had a shower for me this past weekend at Sonia's beautiful house. They did the whole shower super nice. When we pulled up to the house, there were two men waiting to help you up the stairs and take your gifts for you. They then took us to the Art Gallery which was off of the pool to enjoy a piano player and some appetizers. (I am 34 weeks in this picture)

This is the Art Gallery. They have beautiful paintings displayed everywhere and a lot more paintings stored in a back room. The walls were even air conditioned to a certain temperature for the painting! I felt very "cultured" being there!!!

This man was a great pianist and he would play anything you would request.

All of the picture below are of people that attended the shower. We had a luncheon outside the pool area then I got to open gifts!!
My mom, me, nanny and granny

High School Shower

Meredith and her mom hosted my shower for my high school friends, their moms and some other ladies from my parents church. Pictured below is: Sarah Scott, Kara Gaylor, me, Tina(my sister-in-law), Meredith and Martha. All of us went to school K-12 together except for Tina. There are 4 other girls that could not come that I also went K-12 with. This was a gift that Ryan sent to the shower. He is always so good about surprises. I know that Reed and Braden will love these John Deere tractors when they get older.
My mom and I. I think that I was around 32 weeks at this shower.
Thanks to Mrs. Cilla and Meredith for a great shower. The cooked tons of food and showered me with too many gifts! Meredith made her mom strip the wallpaper that was in the room we are standing in. From what I understand, it was quite an ordeal but the room looks beautiful.
These were two day gowns that Teresa Pirtle made for the boys. She smocked them by hand and I absolutely love them!