Delivery

I have one word for you:
EPIDURAL!!!

I had the best delivery experience (not that I have any other experience) and I give credit in large part to the wonderful anesthesiologist who gave me the good stuff Wednesday morning.  But to go back to the beginning...

Looking large and in charge, Paul and I headed to the hospital at 5:30am Wednesday, April 21 to be induced.

You gotta respect the belly...that is some serious heft

We got checked into the hospital and found out that I was dilated to a 4 and was already having contractions.  Apparently the feelings that I had been attributing to Cy moving around up near my ribs were actually contractions.  Who knew???  I was feeling no pain at this point and decided to wait on the epidural for a little while.  Closer to 9am I was waiting for my doctor to come and break the bag of water Presley was in and I was starting to feel a little discomfort in my lower back.  Knowing that the contractions would get much stronger after my water broke I decided to go for the epidural...I figure delivering twins naturally is as much of a hero as I want to be and that I have no shame in accepting any drug that was going to minimize that pain.

The epidural kicked in fast and I was feeling good.

So I proceed to sleep for the next several hours and when my doctor came back around 3pm he announced it was show time.  Since I was delivering twins I had to be moved to the operating room for delivery just in case a C-Section became necessary for Cy after Presley had been delivered.  

My boys must love me a whole lot because Presley was born within 15 minutes and Cy followed him out one push and 4 minutes later.  They are my HEROS!  See post below for some of their first pictures.  All in all it was a great experience and Paul and I are so happy with our new family of 4!

Introducing...

Presley Robert Oler

April 21, 2010

3:25 pm

6 pounds 13 ounces; 18.5" long

Cyrus Paul Oler

April 21, 2010

3:29 pm

6 pounds 12 ounces; 19" long

Both boys are healthy and incredibly handsome!  More info to come...

The DAY

If nothing happens in the next week then Paul and I will be checking into the hospital on Wednesday April 21 at 6am to be induced.  Looks like the two little dudes need some encouragement to get moving!

36 weeks

Here are the stats from the doctor's appointment today:

Presley is 6 pounds 10 ounces
Cy is 6 pounds 4 ounces

The sonographer could see some hair on Cy's head but didn't mention anything about Presley's hair.  Paul and I were both born with full heads of hair so we are curious to see if the boys have the same.

I was slightly more dilated and effaced but nothing significant, so we will keep waiting...my patience is wearing thin!!!  I am off bed rest so I am hoping an increase in my activitiy  will encourage the boys to come soon.  The next update will hopefully be after they arrive!

Nursery Pictures

We put most of the finishing touches on the nursery this weekend.  My parents have been coming into town on the weekends to help out around the house so that I can rest and Paul can keep on studying.  My mom has been cleaning, doing laundry and helping me organize the nursery while my dad put the finishing touches on the changing table he built for us.  It is an awesome changing table...I basically showed my dad a picture of what we wanted in the room and he made an exact replica...so cool.

It has been really nice to have so much help especially since it takes a lot off of Paul's plate so he can study, study, study before these boys get here.  Anyway...the nursery is 98% done...I would still like to find a couple of things for the walls but I can't seem to find anything I like.  Other than that all we need are Presley & Cy to make this room complete!

the boys initials are a gift from a shower some of my mom's friends hosted and the framed picture is of one of our first sonograms of the boys that my friends here in San Antonio signed and had framed.

My friend, Janice made the bedding for this crib after I had a fiasco ordering the crib bedding that matched the other crib.  She is also responsible for the curtains :).  Thanks Janice!

Who gets which crib??? Decisions, decisions...

Changing table courtesy of Grand Pop!  It is really cool and has tons of storage.  Thank you Dad!!!

On another note - I will be 36 weeks this week and will be taken off bed rest on Tuesday. Hopefully Cy and Presley will come soon after!

Update at 34 weeks

Doctor's appointment today = 1 1/2cm dilated and 75% effaced = bedrest

Call or email me!!!  I will be bored at home :)

Showers

I was lucky enough to have two more wonderful showers in the past month and they were both so much fun and the boys collected lots of goodies to make their life more comfortable once they arrive.

The first was in RR and was hosted by all my girlfriends from high school and my sister in law, Mary Pat.  They did a nursery rhyme theme and it was adorable!

Hostesses (minus MP who had to stay in Houston with a sick Evie)

Collier is a future buddy for Presley and Cy

My shower in San Antonio was hosted by my friends whose husbands are also first year med students.  We all belong to a great bible study and instead of doing a study they hosted a shower for me and the boys!

Jackson is another future friend for the boys!  He is just a few months older then the boys

We have been very blessed by all of our friends and family and can honestly say that we are very well equipped with all kinds of fun and necessary baby items once the boys arrive.  Thank you!!!

33 weeks --- Let's get this show on the road!

We went to the doctor this morning for a check up and another sonogram and everything was great!  Presley is apparently enjoying all the nutrients he is getting because he grew over 2 pounds and is a whopping 5 pounds 5 ounces!  So big...I cannot even believe it.  Cy did not grow quite as much but still looks good at 4 pounds 13 ounces.  We think Cy is smaller because he is working harder and burning more calories in my stomach ;).  He is the baby that I constantly feel flipping and flopping.

There is so little space for amniotic fluid left in my stomach that the sonographer told us 4D pictures are going to be hard if not impossible to get of the boys faces.  All I have to show off to everyone is a standard sono picture of their profiles.  Their noses look much squishier and maybe a little more like mine in these pictures then they have in past sonograms.  We are so anxious to see these boys in person and know what they look like and what their little personalities will be.

Cy is on the left, Pres on the right

I can't say that I feel great at this point, but I am not completely miserable.  The swelling has really started to set in for my feet, and hands and my stomach is stretched so tight that it has begun to itch and burn a little bit.  Sleep is a distant memory at night but I find myself nodding off at work when I sit at my desk.  Overall though I have been very lucky because my blood pressure is still excellent and my doctor has not restricted any activities for me yet.  I am not real excited about posting a picture of me a 33 weeks, but in the interest of trying to document my pregnancy here it is...

I have a couple of more posts that I will hopefully get up tonight so check back tomorrow! 

Please keep Cy and Presley in your prayers...they will be here soon!

29 weeks and two big babies

We had another doctor's appointment today and the boys are doing great!  Cy weighed in at 3 pounds 7 ounces and Presley weighed 3 pounds 3 ounces.  That is almost a pound and a half of growth for each of them over the past 4 weeks.  I can definitely feel that they have grown quite a bit, but it is crazy to think that between the two of them they weigh the amount of a full term baby (and I have 9 more weeks to go...ahhh!!!).

There is really nothing else to report other then the fact that I will start going to the doctor every two weeks now to check on the babies and me to make sure my blood pressure and everything else remains normal.  We didn't get great photos of either boy this time around (both had their arms covering their faces), so instead I will leave you with a picture of my belly at 29 weeks since so many of you have asked about it.  Let me tell you...it is hard to miss.

A visit with Gigi

After my baby shower in RR this past weekend Paul and I loaded up with my parents and made the drive to Dallas to visit my grandmother.  We had a good visit and enjoyed getting to spend some time with her.

Cy has a special connection to Gigi, because he is named after her husband and my grandaddy, Cyrus Addams.  Gigi also passed on her love of Chicago Cubs baseball to me from the time I was a little girl, and I am very excited to pass that on to the boys.  I had suggested doing a Chicago Cubs theme in the nursery but Paul didn't think we needed to be that die-hard. ;)

Here Gigi and I are with the boys at 28 weeks

Baby Shower!

This past weekend Cy and Presley were showered with lots of love, good food and gifts at a shower hosted by my mom's friends in Round Rock.  These ladies always do it beautifully with gorgeous flowers and yummy food and always a delicious cake by Roxanne.

The hostesses

The cake!

Grammy

Opening gifts

6 months

Another doctor's appointment today...and we still have two boys!  Our sonographer likes to point that out every time as soon as she pulls up their images on the machine.  I guess after initially prediciting  a boy and a girl she wants to make sure and show us that she is 100% sure now about them both being boys.   She always includes a great picture of each boy's anatomy, but I will spare you all of those.

Each baby weighs 1 pound 13 ounces, and they are developing right on track.  Having almost 4 pounds of baby is starting to cause some slight (or sometimes a lot) of discomfort for ol' mom, but they are also very fun to feel moving around and kicking. 

We were able to get really good pictures of each boy's face.  When we were watching the actual sonogram and could see their faces for long periods of time I thought they looked a lot alike!  Of course, sonogram pictures are not exactly crystal clear, but they seem to have the same nose.  I guess we will find out in a few months!

Here is Cy:

(just like the last appointment Cy had his face covered by Presley's foot for almost the entire sonogram...I am glad we were able to still get such a good picture of him!)

I circled the main part of his face to make it easier (?) to find.  The most prominent feature is definitely the cute nose!

Here is Presley:

His nose is smashed up against his sac in this picture, but you can really see his mouth and chin!  He also managed to get his foot (circled) hiked up and away from Cy's face long enough to get this photo.

Profile of Presley!  Red line points to his ear.

California

We made a trip up to see Paul's family in northern California this past weekend.  His grandmother, aunt and cousins and uncle and his family all live in the Palo Alto/San Jose area, but we spent the entire weekend at the beach house near Santa Cruz.  It was beautiful there and despite what I consider cool temperatures and freezing water Paul enjoyed some time swimming in the ocean.

Paul and Mark enjoying the COLD water

My stomach has grown A LOT since the last post.

On our last night before coming home his Aunt Ruth, Granny and cousins Nicolas and Elisa had a mini baby shower for us!  We had delicious cake and got some really cool gifts for the boys.

We had so much fun playing and hanging out with Nicolas and Elisa, although Paul did most of the playing and I did a lot of sleeping...(my allergies have been horrible this past week and I am not too happy about the lack of medicine that pregnant women are allowed to take!)

Cy and Presley each got a bear that is exactly like the bears that Nicolas and Elisa loved when they were little.  These bears had actually been discontinued so Ruth searched all over and finally found these two in England and had them shipped over.  I know the boys will love them!

The new bears with their very loved, older bear cousins

Each of the boys received a handmade blanket courtesy of Ruth's mother-in-law, who is Cuban.  She makes these traditional style, Cuban blankets that are very soft, trimmed with lace and hand embroidered with characters.

Some cute onesies that are perfect for our Texas boys

We had a great trip visiting with everyone and look forward to getting Cy and Presley out to California as soon as we can!

Christmas 2009

Paul and I had a great, last Christmas with just the two of us, although it seemed as if the boys were already here...they got more presents then anyone!!!  Paul's dad, sister and brother in law were in town for the week of Christmas and then we drove to RR to celebrate the Whiteside Christmas on New Year's Day.

Here are some sneak previews of some very cute clothes for Cy and Presley.

Made by Aunt MP!  The boys will be so fancy in their ties!!