For Unto Us (the chabo's) A Child (or two) Is Born!

I apologize for the tardiness of this post. All I can say in my defense is that I have been very busy. :)

Welcome Alice Robin Chabo. 18 inches, 4 lbs, 15 oz. November 30th, 12:22 pm. Adorable.

And...

Welcome Penelope Anne Chabo. 18 1/2 inches, 5 lbs, 3 oz. November 30th, 12:23 pm. Cute as a button.


Late Monday evening, Nov. 29th, I felt a strange pain and wondered if my water had broken. So I told the hubby and scooted to the bathroom. A few hours later I was still very unsure. My honey is a natural worrier when it comes to me being in labor (which isn't really his fault considering he had to deliver our last one in the kitchen when we didn't get to the hospital in time. Plus, as a nurse anesthetist, he sees lots of births and knows all the things that can go wrong, while I am blissfully ignorant.) so he stayed up cleaning the house (his stress relief) while trying every tactic to get me to wake up the kids (at 1 am!) and drag them to the hospital so they could check and see if my water really broke. I flatly refused. I was having no contractions, no leakage, I was exhausted, and had a migraine. I was going to bed. He only accepted when I promised to go to the doctor the next day and have the 'i-think-my-water-broke' test done. Well rested the next morning, I got the kids up and ready, took Sophia to school, took Holly to get her hair cut, and finally dropped both Holly and Lucy at my girlfriend Elisa's house while I just whipped over to the hospital so they could confirm that my water hadn't, in fact, broken. I was mistaken. My water had, in fact, broken and I hadn't even brought the packed hospital bag. I had walked into the hospital with no more then my jacket and purse. And of course because of my speedy labors in the past and the baby on the bottom (Alice) being breech, they were all mad at me for not coming in sooner. (whatever OB people! I wasn't having any contractions and this isn't my first trip around the Birthing Center! At least I'm well rested!!) So they threw me in the OR and prepped me for a c-section.
The next 30 minutes was a miracle. Everything went great. Both my OB dr's happen to be there so they both helped deliver our 2 girls. The bassinettes were positioned such that I could see my babies when they came out, which I loved. Alice came out first and screaming. Penny was next and came out not so much screaming as grunting. (c-section babies often have goop in their lungs, and this was Penny. She coughed it out soon enough.) They were perfect. I was numb. It was heaven.
When I was still pregnant and moping about the baby being breech and needing a c-section, one girlfriend of mine commented that this way I will have experienced it all. Hospital birth, epidural, induction, home birth, natural labor/birth, and c-section. I have to say in my experience, natural childbirth is a 10 on the pain scale, and both induction without epidural and post surgery c-section pain are an 11. Holy cow. That recovery is some business. But, now 2 weeks out, I feel really great, my girls are gorgeous, and we're all happy. Hooray for babies!

Where the heck have you been?!

Well, I will tell you where the heck I've been. Mostly laying glassy-eyed on the couch, occasionally barfing, and even less often, doing something else. So here's a photo version of the past 6ish months of the latter.

Nana came to stay with us to take care of Laura and the kiddos for 2 whole months (Thanks, Nana!!) . Sophia graduated from preschool with a real degree and everything, and Sophia and Holly had their dance recital and performed like pro's.







Travis's Mom had 6 aneurysms and a stroke or 2 at the end of May (and as you can see that did not stop her from being the social butterfly that she is :)). Travis took Sophia and Holly with him down to NC to visit and they got to see Grandma, Papa, and cousins Vivi and CJ as well as cousins Lily, Abby, and Claire and their Aunts and Uncles that live there. We also went swimming at the pool and feed the animals in Amish country when Papaw came up to see Nana and us during July 4th.







We had smores in the backyard fire pit, had a girls 'spa and beauty day', danced at our friend Elisa's wedding, and Sophia and Holly took swimming lessons (they are fabulous swimmers, naturally!)







Aunt Susy came to stay with us and brought cousins Lily and Claire with her. As you can see, we were all very excited. :) We chilled at the pool, snuggled and played, and rode the pony's at Hersberger's Farm.







Sophia had her very first day of Kindergarten. Holy Cow. See how happy she is? The third photo is Sophia's face as she gets ready to go into her classroom. The fourth photo is my face when I broke down in the car. The last photo is the junk food I bought at the store to pork out on at home cause I missed her. Hey, I still weigh less then I did when I got pregnant, so I'm allowed.







Travis and I had our 8th anniversary (awwww...). Sophia and Holly started dance lessons back up. Mommy turned 27 again and Lucy learned how to make a grumpy face.







We went to the Coshocton County Fair and rode LOTS of kiddie rides. Then we went down to NC to visit and got to go to the NC State Fair to hold ducks, get our faces painted, and see amazing crafts (yes, that IS the Tardis from Dr. Who done in beadwork. Fabulous!)







Halloween came and the girls dressed up as Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Mulan. I had a costume, too. Then Travis ran a half marathon! It was freezing outside but he did great!







And finally, Lucy turned 2! She's so cute. If you look in the last picture you'll notice a dog. His name is Petey. We found him and thought we were going to keep him, but alas, after a month his owners have finally come forward. We will miss him. (But truth be told, a certain mommy who is pregnant with twins really can't handle a new dog on top of everything else right now, so even though he is a sweet little dog, it worked out for the best in her humble opinion. :))






So, there you have it. A shortened version of the last 6 1/2 months. Hopefully I'll be posting again shortly because I have given birth! I'm scheduled for a c-section on Dec. 14th (baby on the bottom is breech). So, maybe my next post will be shorter but infinitely cuter. :)

Laura got sick of the pump and just tore it off.

So I've been hooked up to this pump for the last 11 weeks that slowly pushes Zofran (an anti-nausea medication) into my leg. It does some wonderful things like make me not so barfy, makes it easier for me to eat and drink, and also to keep those food and liquids inside my body rather then having them just use my mouth as a revolving door. It also does some things I'm not so crazy about. For example, in order for the medicine to go into my leg, everyday I stab myself with what looks like the biggest thumb tack you could imagine (and then add 2 inches to that) and it's attached to a small tube that stays a few inches under the skin and the meds run into my leg and pool underneath the fat and muscle tissues there. It leaves a very large, red, swollen area (a little bigger then a computer mouse, but a little smaller then a bagel) that hurts a LOT. So much so, that you're willing to stab yourself in the other leg just to give the first one a break. As with any other owwie, they don't heal instantly, it takes about a week for them to be completely gone, so what you really end up with are 2 legs covered with varying degrees of healing welts with knots, bruises with knots, and knots. Eventually you run out of real estate. So yesterday afternoon I was trying to move that thing to a new spot, but the needle just WOULDN'T go in. I tried 8 times with 2 different needles all to no avail. I had noticed that it had been getting progressively more difficult to get that thing down into my leg for a while now, but I could always get it eventually.(according to my nurse husband, it's most likely due to the increased amount of scar tissue I have under the skin from having done this 78 different times.) So, I just turned the pump off and set it on the counter. I'm free. Probably. With the pump, I also get a home health nurse who calls every other day to make sure I'm gaining weight and don't have too many keytones (which if you don't know what that is let's just say it measures if your body is digesting your muscles for fuel). So I've discussed with my nurse what the process is for getting me off the pump and she definately didn't say 'just rip it off when you can't take it anymore'. It was more like turning the pump down by degrees till I'm off it completely. Although my nurse, Louise, is the best and she did say that a lot of girls do just turn it off one day and there's technically nothing wrong with that. So I'm free. For right now. I've been off it now almost 24 hours and I feel pretty ok. More nauseous and tired, but I haven't thrown up, and I've been eating and drinking. So far, so good. :) I'm happy. I don't have to sling on my 'medicine purse' (as my girls call it) everytime I stand up. And by the way, that picture at the top is the pump itself and some model with the 'site' in her abdomen. (you can put it there too, and I did a few times, but it hurts a lot more there on me for some reason.)

It's Twosies!!

Yep. I'm pregnant again. And it's twins. :) They're due Christmas day, but we don't expect me to make it that far, so it'll probably be closer to Thanksgiving. I'm only 10 weeks along, so I wouldn't normally we telling yet, but I'm so stinkin sick that my mom has graciously moved from her home near DC to our house to take care of me and our 3 monkeys. I'm hooked to a Zofran pump (it's antinausea medicine) and still taking other meds to help with the hyperemisis, too. I'll probably be like this (I'm basicly on bedrest and I've still lost about 9 lbs so far) till about October. So you might not hear much from me for a while. Just thought I'd let you know. Also, to any of my girlfriends who have twins, any websites, groups, etc... that you found helpful, send my way! Because eventually I'm going to get beyond needing to focus on just breathing and I'll be able to digest the fact that I'll be the mother of TWINS! Ok, so love you!