Darek + Stacie

By this time I really wasn’t able to go to the places we really wanted to take pictures at, so most are at or close to home. It was over 100 degrees this day and it felt like at least 105.

A photo in the nursery! We really love the way the nursery turned out. I will post pictures as soon as I have time.

I’m just a tiny bit behind in posting weekly photos….I really wanted at least one including the cats, and I’d hoped to get better than this, but I just don’t know where the time went. Especially now.

My amazing sister Janaye put together the most incredible shower for us, and I was supposed to share pictures a long time ago.

I actually ended up having 3 showers, which was very unexpected but awesome, and each one was incredibly special in its own way. Unfortunately, this is the only one I have pictures from. Sad face. But at least I have photos from one instead of none.

Janaye also had a ton of help from friends and family, and the result was truly amazing. It looked like something out of a magazine (or off of Pinterest, which I guess is the current way of finding things. Crazy kids). It was super special and awesome and all those good things.

Doesn’t this look like something straight out of a magazine?

Impressive diaper cake:

I made collages of the details so I didn’t have to post a zillion individual pictures:

Desserts! The shower had a book theme since I have always loved children’s books:

The food was very impressive (and yum):

People designed pages of an alphabet book for the girls. It’s the most awesome thing ever:

With all the awesome hostesses:

Janaye, me, and 2 of my bestest friends ever:

Haha:

My mom and her iphone:

My dad:

Cousin Lucy:

I had the biggest audience for gift-opening, and in stadium seating. I felt a little on display:

Opening presents. Do you know how much cuteness there is in the world?? It’s amazing.

Their first camera!

Janaye made them a bunch of headbands; this is me being very excited:

What happens when you try to arrange a group photo:

Everyone who came:

I was surprised to see someone took a picture of us. I don’t even remember this:

My family:

Darek’s family, take 1:

Darek’s family, take 2:

Worn out:

I made it to 36 weeks! That was my goal so long ago, and it’s here.

Not without further incident; yesterday I felt really lightheaded and dizzy all day, so I called my doctor and went in to have my blood pressure checked. It was high, so to be on the safe side she sent me up to Labor & Delivery again for more monitoring and bloodwork to make sure my organs were still doing what they were supposed to (or something like that). The babies really didn’t want to cooperate and kept moving around, so it took 2 hours to get their heartbeats monitored. It finally took 2 nurses each holding a monitor on my stomach for 20 long, painful minutes. I thought my back might just die.

In the end, blood work was good, babies were great, and we were sent home with instructions for me to be on modified bed rest (meaning a lot of laying down).

We had a sonogram with our specialist today to check fluids and make sure everything was ok with the babies. Our doctor said the babies are pretty much cooked now, and if I end up in the hospital again with high blood pressure, I’m not going home without babies. The babies are breathing and a good size and doing everything they should be, so at this point if there’s any question, they’re better off out than in.

My bag is packed, the nursery is ready, clothes are washed, carseats are installed and checked, and we’re about as ready as we’re going to be. It might still be 2 weeks and 1 day, but it could be any day now. I guess I’m as ready as I will be.

Pretty crazy.