The Only Explanation for Today's Doctor's Appointment.... GOD!

WOW! God is beyond gracious to our family. After the few small scares that we have received over the last few weeks, today's appointment proved the POWER of PRAYER is evident and real. Here are some amazing key points/results to our doctor visit today:

1. Lilah (who was breech as of last week) and "Jax" (who was transverse as of last week) are both head down now! This is a HUGE praise for ME, as I dreaded even the near thought of having to go through a c-section. My doctor said that there is still time for the babies to switch positions, of course, but more than likely they won't. He said, "Babies love this position and don't normally move once they are in this position."

2. My cervix length today was at 4.4 centimeters (with a 4.0 being the BEST). It "grew" from 2.8 cm (as of last week) to 4.4 cm. Looks like bed rest is NOT a necessity for me. HALLELUJAH. Just a little aside... your cervix cannot grow in length once it has shortened. My doctor suspects the sonogram camera, last week, took a picture of my cervix at a BAD angle.

3. Lilah now weighs 2 pounds 11 ounces (up from 1 pound 11 ounces three weeks ago) and Jax weighs 3 pounds 1 ounce (up from 2 pounds 5 ounces three weeks ago). There is ONLY a 12% variance between the two babies now verses a 36% variance just three weeks ago. This variance is normal when comparing a BOY baby to a GIRL baby.

I, personally, haven't gained a pound in three weeks. I have actually lost 1/2 pound. I was put on workout restriction for an entire week too. How is that possible? I was given permission to workout starting tomorrow so you know I will be there bright and early at 5 am.

My doctor asked his nurse to schedule an induction on March 25th. So... mark your calendars. Liliah and Jax will arrive on March 25th (if not sooner). Only 8 weeks left to go. WOW! I am so nervous.

Thanks to EVERYONE who has kept us in your prayers. God is sovereign over everything and he continues to prove that to us daily.

28 Weeks Pregnant and another "scare!"

At 28 weeks pregnant, I pray I am still on target to be induced no earlier than Week 37. Afterall, I'm not nearly as prepared as I would like to be. However, after today's appointment, I realized that things are getting much more serious and much more surreal and that I truly have no control over when these babies decide to enter this world.

The babies are growing great and the amniotic fluid levels are perfect, but now mommy has had a "scare". I'm still unsure if the scare is real or NOT. My doctor told me today that the length of my cervix has decreased from 4cm to 2.8 cm. A cervix length of 2.5 cm or lower causes a mommy to be a strong candidate for premature labor. So today, along with my glucose testing, my normal sonogram, my Rogham shot, and a regularly scheduled check up with my doctor, I had to have a "fetal fibronectic test" done. It's one of those lovely vaginal exams. This test is a non-invasive test that measures my level of fetal fibronectic. With this test, my doctor will be able to tell if my body may be getting ready for labor, even before I feel any of the symptoms. Fetal fibronectic is the "glue" that my body makes to hold the babies inside of their uterus. When my body is getting ready to give birth, the glue begins breaking down and will leak into the vagina.

Anyhow, I will receive the results of the test today: positive or negative. If the test produces a negative result, I am 99.2% assured to not deliver in the next 2 weeks, so I will then be able to avoid unnecessary interventions. If the test produces a positive result, it is a possible sign that my body is "leaking" fetal fibronectic. This means that there is a possibility for an increased chance that the babies are trying to arrive early and my doctor may need to restrict me and give this pregnancy some extra attention. NOT EVERYONE who receives a positive result delivers early though.

I have been placed on workout restriction for the rest of the week, but after these results and a 3 day break from working out, he may allow me to start back up next week. I was a bit bummed, but my doctor said, "Well, you can be bummed and deal with a 3 days break or you can have LOTS of time to workout while your babies live in the NICU." That shut me up REALLY quickly.

Please pray.

On a lighter note, I have NOT gained 1 pound in two weeks. My doctor is fine with that being I have gained enough weight throughout the entire pregnancy. He said, "Your babies are like parasites. They are going to take from you no matter how much weight you gain!"

Look out for the update on the results today, but in the meantime, enjoy a CHUCKLE while viewing the hideous belly shots, as I humble myself and show that my girlish figure no longer exists.

We decided on a name for our baby BOY!

BABY B", as my doctor knows him, has now been given a name. After MANY hours of random Internet name searching, exploring every baby name book we own and then some, from top to bottom, and creating a name poll, we keep coming back to this name! I think the reason we struggled so much, besides the fact that BOYS' names are just so hard to decide on, is because we were feeling the pressure to RHYME their names. We want these babies to feel like they have their own identity and we thought creating special and unique names for each child (that didn't rhyme) would be a great start to making that happen. I mean, is it really necessary to name them Faith and Hope or Mickey and Ricki???

As of last night, we finally decided that our second son and hopefully our last child's (sorry Darren) name will be Jaxon Reid Bolling. We really LOVED the name JAX, but felt that Jaxon had a little bit more substance to it. So, we will be calling our little man "Jax" for short and when he gets older he can decide if he wants to be called Jaxon or Jax. I think both names are very handsome/GQ. In addition, you know me, I wanted our son's name to have five letters in it since Lilah's name has five letters in it. And yes, that is the way we are spelling it!

Jax's middle name is a family name. It's Darren's father's name. We thought it flowed wonderfully with the name Jaxon. We considered a biblical name, but it just seemed like nothing went well with the name Jaxon other than Reid. So, Grandad, we hope you feel honored!!!!!!

Tomorrow, I will be 7 months pregnant. I only have less than 9 weeks to go. YIKES. I have my glucose testing tomorrow, on top of another sonogram, so please keep us in your prayers that everything goes smoothly. I plan to take some belly shots this week, too, since this is week 28. For those of you who haven't had an opportunity to see me lately you will be quite surprised at how quickly I have grown!!!! It's quite disgusting if you ask me, although, it's still only 21 pounds. I guess that's not bad for having two babies, two placentas, and two sets of amniotic fluid inside of me.

Stay tuned....

Inquiring Minds Want to Know... What Vehicle Did We Decide On?

Darren and I have finally decided which vehicle we are going to purchase. Today, we actually wrote a $500 check, as a deposit, toward the vehicle. We narrowed it down to the Volkswagon Routon (you know, Brooke Shield's minivan) and the Toyota Sienna. We chose.... drum roll please.... the Toyota Sienna. The entire Bolling family practically owns a Toyota and we have never been disappointed in the product they produce. I am excited to announce that we are purchasing a 2009 Black Toyota Sienna. The vehicle has many wonderful amenities such as: heated leather seats, a navigation system with the rear back up camera, window shades, a dvd player, 4 disc cd player, the list goes on and on. I owe a special thanks to my hard-working husband for being able to provide our family with a safe and beautiful minivan. I have had plenty of time getting used to the fact that my once 4-runner has been replaced with a minivan. I know, in the blink of an eye, my children will be all grown up and I will be wishing I could bring myself back to the day I was driving them around in it. Hopefully, by then, I will have some sort of sports car!!!!

This is NOT the exact vehicle we are purchasing,

but it is a picture of a 2009 Black Toyota Sienna.

Are the Babies Okay?

Praise God... Yes, they are!!!! After today's appointment, the BPP Testing and Sonogram showed my doctor that the babies are "perfectly healthy". The amniotic fluid level is normal, both babies' placentas are healthy, and their flexibility score is where it needs to be. The highest score you can receive from a BPP test is an 8 and both babies received an 8. Thank you to everyone who reached out to us in prayer and thought.

I will still need to go to the doctor weekly, starting next week. I will continue getting a sonogram weekly NOW and I will also be getting the BPP testing done weekly. I will be so over going to the doctor's office when this pregnancy is completed :) Oh well! Like the front desk clerk said, "It could be a lot worse. You could be coming in here bi-weekly or tri-weekly like some of these other pregnant mommies do". I am counting my blessings for sure. And man, on top of the two (really three with Ty) that God has already given to me, I really have more blessings than I could ever wish for.

PS. I got the DVD today! And no, it's not blank this time. I will try to post that later tonight if you are interested in seeing two fetus' swimming in my "belly".

Love to ALL and God Bless!

Trying to Think Positively....

Today Darren and I had another check up. Now at week 26, we are almost 10 weeks away from our possible induction week (week 37). Our appointment was a bit of a disappointment. For one, the sonogram technician was filling in for someone who was on vacation. She was nice, but didn't produce the results we were hoping for. Lilah did give us an amazing profile shot and we witnessed her move her entire arm and place her thumb into her mouth. We watched her very intensely suck on her thumb. It was so awesome to witness. We did pay out of pocket to have a DVD made of our twins and when we arrived home to view it, the dvd was blank. AHHH!!!! That's just the beginning of our disaster appointment.

After the sonogram, we waited over 30 minutes for my regularly scheduled doctor appointment. I felt bad that Darren was already gone from work for over 3 hours, so I asked my doctor's nurse if we could just leave. She said, "I can have you see a nurse practitioner if you can't wait for Dr. Swisher." So, I agreed. BIG MISTAKE. No offense to anyone who is or knows of a nurse practitioner, but she seemed pretty worthless.

There is a small concern because Lilah and Baby B's (Boy) weight are significantly different. Lilah is 1 pound 11 ounces and Baby B is 2 pounds 5 ounces. The nurse practitioner said that there was a 26% difference in their weight. She was unable to confirm what exactly that meant for us, but she started saying "you're probably going to have to start coming in bi-weekly now, you need to stop working out or cut it back a lot", and she was unsure how critical this actually was. Her answers were so non-concrete. It was very frustrating and extremely nerve wracking.

I informed my nurse to please have my doctor call me because there was no way I could sleep tonight without knowing more detail. Around 4:30 pm, my doctor finally called me. He was a lot more reassuring and positive than the nurse practitioner was. He said, for right now, I'm not overly concerned! We're not at the point where we need to put you on bed rest or worry YET! I feel as if this situation is taking place not because something is wrong with Lilah, but rather because Baby B has just had a big growth spurt. He included, you have to remember, your having twins so naturally your babies are going to be smaller in general. Boys are normally larger babies and girls are normally smaller babies. Lilah is in the 34th percentile and Baby B is in the 60th percentile (both babies were at the 19th percentile 4 weeks ago). According to my doctor and without going through any testing, he seems to think Lilah is just growing normally and Baby B sprouted quickly over the last 4 weeks. I pray he's correct.

Anyway, he is not restricting me from working out, but is having me come in on Thursday to take a BPP test aka Biophysical Profile Test. This test will measures the health of the babies. A BPP test may include a nonstress test with electronic fetal heart monitoring and a fetal ultrasound. The BPP measures the babies heart rate, muscle tone, movement, breathing, and the amount of amnionic fluid around them. He did say that I will have to start coming in WEEKLY (yuck) now, but I just praise God that I am not YET on bed rest. Please, please, please keep us in your prayers. I will be certain to post an update on Thursday after the test. We know God is in control and that really brings up the most comfort of all.