Getting Closer

After my doctor's appointment today, I am no longer on strict bed rest, but I am still supposed to take it easy. The boys were weighing in around 6 lbs. 10 oz and 6 lbs. 2 oz. It was good to hear that they are still growing well and everything looked good. I am now dilated to 2 cm, and I am supposed to stay on the medication to stop my contractions. Even with the medication, I am still having a few contractions. It could be any day or within a week or two that things start progressing more.

Bed Rest

Well I should actually be on the couch or in bed right now, but I felt like my blog was being neglected and I thought it would be okay to post a couple of things. Then straight back to the couch:) On Friday, I noticed that I had gained a few pounds a bit more quickly than normal and my blood pressure was high as well. I called the doctor just to make sure and see if he wanted me to do anything. He was out of the office and the only nurse that was in ended up telling me to go to the hospital to get it checked out just as a precaution. I think she was just busy and didn't want to risk anything since she had never seen me before. Anyway we headed down to the hospital and my blood pressure was fine. They hooked me up to a bunch of monitors to check the babies heart rate and to monitor any uterine activity. It was actually the first time we had heard the heartbeats. We do an ultrasound at every appointment, but not the heartbeat doppler. Very cool to hear! One of the boys got the hiccups while he was being monitored which was funny to hear. The monitors were picking up the heart beats just fine, but they were also picking up quite a bit of uterine activity. I was having contractions about five minutes apart and other uterine irritability in between contractions. They are not painful and I barely notice them which makes it difficult to monitor them on my own. After a few calls to the doctor, they ended up giving me medication to try and stop the contractions. They also gave me a steroid shot to help with the babies lung development. I had two doses of the contraction medication and the contractions died down quite a bit. My cervix was dilated to about 1 cm so the contractions were doing something. Anyway things were looking good with the contractions, but I am now on bed rest. I also have to continue taking an oral form of the medication to try and keep my uterus calm. After about 5 minutes of laying on the couch, I was already thinking of the list of things I should be doing instead.

We had to go back into today to get a second dose of the steroid and they monitored my contractions (or lack thereof) for about 30 minutes. Everything looked good. I will go see the doctor on Monday and find out further instructions from there. I am just about 35 weeks along, and I am grateful I have made it this far with so few problems. Until Monday I am on bed rest and probably will be until the boys actually come. They are definitely running out of room in there. Hopefully they will wait another week or two before they decide to join our family.

Birthday Lunches

Heidi and Mom both celebrated their birthdays this week. We got to go out to lunch twice. We went to Oregano's for Heidi's birthday and to My Big Fat Greek Restaurant for Mom's birthday. Oregano's is a classic birthday location for our lunch dates. We especially like sharing the free birthday skookie. Dallin actually ate lunch at the restaurant as well which kept him occupied almost the whole time! Because he is so picky, it is usually hard to find something that he can or will eat. Spaghetti and bread are 2 of his favorites so we lucked out on that one. It was nice to have an entertained two year during lunch.

My parents went to Greece in February and I think my Mom was craving Greek food. I have never really enjoyed Greek food too much, but my lunch was great. Mom ordered an appetizer of fried cheese (can't remember the fancy Greek name for it) which was a bit pricey, but very tasty and very cool to watch them present. They pretty much light it on fire right in front of your table to finish cooking it. You can't go wrong with going out to lunch twice in one week.

Lost Ring

My hands have been swelling a lot lately, and it has been difficult to wear my wedding ring. I end up putting it on my pinky finger because I feel like it is cutting off circulation to my ring finger. When I am home I don't even wear it at all. Just over a week ago, I went out for the day and I know that I had my ring with me. Since then I have not been able to find it. I have looked over and over again in the same 2-3 places that I usually put it when I am not wearing it, and I have tried to imagine every other place that it could be. I couldn't find it for church last Sunday or any other day this week. I was feeling very guilty about losing it and was starting to wonder if it would ever show up. Last night while saying my personal prayers I felt like I should go look in a certain place. Unfortunately it was not there, but Brooks came in while I was looking and asked what I was doing. He knew the ring was missing, but had not done any searching of his own yet. About 5 minutes later, he came to me with a big grin on his face and the ring in his hand. It had fallen into the laundry hamper which is right next to the bathroom counter and he had found it! I had looked all around that area, but not in the hamper. He says he has a knack for finding missing objects. In all seriousness, I feel very blessed to have found it, and I am glad Brooks came across me searching last night. I think that the ring will go into a very special drawer until after the babies come and the swelling goes down a bit just to be on the safe side. I got the ring on for just long enough to take this picture before having to peel it off my ring finger:)

Side Shot

Well, I knew I was getting bigger, but even I was a little surprised at the size of my belly when I saw the picture. I guess the boys are really starting to grow. I am about 34 and 1/2 weeks here. Just a few more weeks to go! My feet and hands have been swelling up much more lately and I am just trying to stay off my feet. I have a hard time just sitting there and feel like I need to be doing something. I should probably just enjoy sitting down for a minute now while I have the chance.

And the Verdict Is...Gonzaga

It looks like we will be moving to Spokane, WA in the fall. After long hours of discussing, praying, thinking and more discussing, we have decided on Gonzaga. Brooks has a scholarship offer there, and everything just seemed to fall into place. Both schools were great choices and we feel very blessed. Now this feels more like a reality! It is scary to think that we will be moving so soon and starting such a big adventure. This is a big year for us! School starts towards the end of August and we will most likely move at the beginning of August. Brooks and I have never done anything like this before and we are excited to start this adventure. I am grateful that Brooks is able to pursue his dream. He has wanted to do this for so long and finally got the chance. I love his motivation and determination to go after what he wants. We are not excited about leaving family and friends behind, but you are all welcome to visit and come enjoy this adventure with us!


This is a picture looking at part of the park that goes through the downtown area. There is a Ferris wheel, some other rides and Brooks thinks there is an ice skating rink.

34 weeks (Almost)

The boys are still growing just the way they should and looked great on the ultrasound. Both are head down, but one is quite a bit lower than the other. They both have their feet crammed up on my left side and I am not surprised by that at all. I can feel them over there often. We did not do exact measurements today, but the doctor did measure each stomach. They both measured on track and are probably around 5 and 1/2 pounds each now. I think with twins they start slowing down in growth towards the end because they are running out of room. We are hoping to get into May before I go into labor. I am having contractions, but nothing consistent. They just recently started to be slightly painful and not just tightness in my stomach. My body seems to be preparing for when they are ready to come. I have just hit a new level of nervousness that we are so close to having these babies! We are both thrilled!

Visiting Law Schools

Brooks has heard back from most of the law schools he applied to to. He has received acceptance letters from Gonzaga (Spokane, WA) and Willamette (Salem, OR) and a letter from Montana stating his application was going into the second review process. We booked a trip for him to visit Gonzaga and then a few days later received an acceptance letter from Willamette as well. Luckily we were able to change his flight and he was able to fly to Salem, then Spokane and then home. It didn't cost much more and the timing worked out great. I really wanted to go with him on the trip, but it is a little late in my pregnancy to be traveling. Mark was able to go with Brooks to Salem which worked out nicely. Mark's brother, Dave, lives in Salem and attended law school at Willamette. Mark & Brooks stayed with Dave's family while they were there and Dave set up a visit at the school for Brooks. They flew in on Saturday and watched conference, went to Priesthood, and out to eat. On Sunday they all went down to the school between conference sessions and walked around. Brooks really liked it and said the school was very nice. He took lots of pictures to show to me. Out of all the pictures he took the whole trip, there is not a single picture with him in it!


Here they are walking around the school. The building in the picture is the law school.

There is a stream that runs through the middle of campus. How pretty! I guess it is cherry blossom season as well and all the trees are in bloom. It rained on and off every day he was there. I guess that is why everything is so green. Salem is about 45 minutes south of Portland. It is about a 1 hour drive to the beach and a 1-2 hour drive in the other direction to snowboarding. Brooks really liked the sound of that!

This is the law school. On Monday, Brooks was able to sit in on a law class and meet with the dean of admissions. He said both were a great experience. He really enjoyed the law class and had to restrain himself from participating. After the class, he met with the dean for about 20 minutes. When he left Oregon on Monday night, he was very happy with everything he had seen. It was a place he could see himself going to school and a place he could imagine our family living. He told me he hoped he didn't really like Gonzaga because it would make the decision a lot easier.

Brooks enjoyed staying at Dave and Kathy's place. He said their four kids were a lot of fun. I guess they pulled out the Wii a few times and had fun playing that. It was great that Mark was able to go with him and that they had somewhere to stay to free. Everything worked out so well! Brooks flew to Spokane Monday night while Mark flew home. In Spokane, he picked up a rental car and actually stayed the first night at the Hawker's home. Brooks had served with Josh Hawker on his mission and it was great to have that connection in Spokane.

Halfway through the trip, Brooks decided to visit the University of Montana as well. Spokane is only 2-3 hours from Missoula, MT and it just made sense for him to visit the school while he was so close. On Tuesday, he drove to Missoula and saw the law school. He loved the drive over and thought the town of Missoula was beautiful. Before he went on this trip, Missoula was probably his top choice of schools. The area sounded appealing to him and there was just something about it that interested him. He ended up not liking it much. The law school felt uncomfortable to him. He actually said that as soon as he got there, he wanted to leave. To me that was a pretty strong answer that it wasn't the place for us.

This is the main school area at University of Montana. He actually didn't take any pictures of the law school.

Gonzaga ended up being a different story. He absolutely loved it there! This is a picture of the law school. He thought the law school was really nice and he said he kept running into LDS people. Gonzaga is a Catholic school, and we had read that the LDS population was low there. From talking to other students in the law school, it sounds like there are actually quite a few LDS students in the law school. Some said as many as 25%. On Wednesday he was able to sit in on a class there and meet with admissions as well. He enjoyed both and felt like he had a lot of his questions answered. Brooks said he could see our family living there as well. Now we have a big decision to make. He loved the two schools he has been accepted to and this is a big decision for us. We will do a lot of praying and pondering over the next couple of days before the decision needs to be made. We are happy that we have two great choices and feel that either one of them will be good for Brooks and our family!

Brooks saw this groundhog and had to take a picture. He said he had never seen one and I don't think I have either.

By the school is a great system of parks and walking/biking trails. This river runs right through the park area by the school. There are a variety of family friendly activities to do around the park.

Brooks had some extra time on Wednesday before his flight home and drove around the town a bit. He said in about 5 minutes time, he drove from the center of town into pine trees and forest area.

32 Weeks

I had my a doctor's appointment on Tuesday and everything is going well. The boys hearts were beating strong and they are very active. We took all the measurements this time and they are getting very big. They now weigh about 5 lbs and 4 lbs 10 oz. which is about 1-2 weeks ahead in size. I am shocked that I am carrying around that much baby at this point. Both boys were head down for the second appointment in a row. The doctor says there is still time for them to move, but chances are that the baby that is lower will probably stay where he is. That is good news! One of them had his feet right up in my ribs which was no surprise to me. My mom actually came with me to this appointment and it was fun to have her there for the ultrasound with me. Picture 1 is a profile and body shot on one of the boys. Picture 2 is another profile (with a hand close to his mouth). Picture 3 is of both boys heads. The one on the left is clearly a head, but the one on the right is a bit tricky to make out.