Second Trimester!

So, I missed week 12.  My plan was to do every two weeks, but week 12 was chaos!  Jason's parents were down visiting, and his dad had a massive heart attack while here.  We are thankful that he is okay, and that he had such good doctors and paramedics that saved his life.  He had a major blockage, and had to have a stint put in.  The heart attack damaged 55% of his heart, but it is recoverable.  He started having major chest and arm pain in the middle of the night, so I called for help.  Thankfully, he actually had the heart attack in the ambulance, and they were able to save him.  God was looking out for him for sure.  But, all that to say, we were back and forth at the hospital in Wilmington every day, and by the time we would get home, I was totally wiped out.  The week before that, we had a scare with some bleeding.  We were really shaken, but beyond thankful that everything was fine with our precious babies.  The doctors think that since I've stretched out so quickly, that I may have popped a blood vessel or that my cervix got bruised, and caused some build up of blood in the bruise.  All foreign to me, but the most important words were that the babies are just fine!  We are praying that we won't have any more scares like that!  I am taking it easy, and when my body says stop, I do!

Anyways, here is the most recent chalkboard update.  I am actually over 14 weeks now, and will do another chalkboard in the next week or two.  

We did this one last week, and I am just getting it posted since we had our family down to celebrate Alaina's 18th birthday this weekend!  Ashley and Austin hung back a few extra days, and are still here with us while Matt is traveling for business.  Saturday night we rode into Beaufort and ate at the Dock House.  The weather was perfect, the view was amazing.  It's located right on the waterway, so we enjoyed views of yachts, sail boats, and a few kayaks.  The cool pre-autumn breeze was even a bit chilly, which to a woman carrying twins was refreshing!  We ate out on the upper deck, so we could see a ways down the water, and the lights across it where beautiful once it got dark.  We walked the boardwalk afterwards, and made a stop at the fudge factory for some yummy dessert.  It was a really fun time with everyone, and we all left uncomfortably happily stuffed.

Now that we are in our second trimester, we are no longer being seen by our infertility specialist, and we have moved to our regular ob-gyn.  We also get seen by a maternal-fetal medicine specialist for the high risk part of it (diabetes, twins).  Both appointments, we were really pleased with the doctors, and the staffs. Everyone was really nice, and we got another ultrasound at our maternal-fetal appointment yesterday.  Both little ones looked good, and were active, moving, kicking and punching.  In one picture, one of them had their arms behind it's head, lounging.  In another shot, it already looks like they may have Jason's pouty lips. It's so neat how they can see all of that with ultrasound.  We go back October 15 (less than a month!), and that's when we find out their sexes!  I'm so excited about that one.  We will be a little over 18 weeks by then.  They did all my organ function labs as well as a thyroid check, so that we will have a base line to go by, and right now, everything looks really good and normal:)  They will be monitoring my BP since it was a little higher than I normally run, and just making sure they stay on top of any early warning signs of preeclampsia.  I really feel like they have a good handle on things, and that God has placed us in the right offices.

In other news, we are less than a week away from the first day of fall!  We are feeling some cooler temps in the evenings and early mornings, and it's getting me so excited!  I can't wait to wear boots.  I keep holding off, but probably not for much longer.  To wrap up, I have to say how very thankful I am for my family and friends.  For my parents who rushed to be with us at a moment's notice when we didn't know what was happening with our scare and helped calm us down, and brought in a voice of reason, a daddy who makes his famous homemade vanilla milkshakes and a momma who dries my hair, for Alaina who stayed behind and took care of things at their house so they could be here with us.  For Ashley who has helped pick up the slack around the house this week because I've been so tired, by cleaning, doing laundry, and even making our bed, it was really nice to come home yesterday evening to a clean, peaceful house with candles lit, smelling like fall.  For the most wonderful friends who have been continually praying for us through everything, and calling/texting to check on me, and for a neighbor who came to sit with me when I was nervous in the days following our hospital visit, mowed our yard while we were back and forth visiting J's dad in the hospital, and has let us take up most of her freezer space since ours died.  Again.  In the midst of everything going on.  God has given us an amazing support system, and a bountiful supply of love.  We are so blessed.