Ugh.

I have a cold. It started with sinus congestion, tender glands and a sore throat on Monday. Now it's gone to my chest. I feel like crud. Ugh.

**Update**

I had a hard time sleeping last night, mostly because I couldn't breathe out of my nose, but every time I became aware of it, my chest would get tight and I'd end up coughing until my lungs burned. When I finally got up, I was achy and miserable. I even fell back asleep during my 8 a.m. monitoring.

My nurse, Robyn, said that since I was coughing, they'd have to "take droplet precautions" to keep from exposing the other patients to whatever I have. This basically means that before someone who is going to touch me can enter the room, they have to put on a paper gown, gloves and mask. And if I leave my room, I have to wear a mask the whole time and be sure to wash my hands thoroughly and regularly. And if I have any visitors, they either have to put on all the gear before coming in the room or they have to wear a mask when they leave until they get out of the building.

Because of the all media hype and attention the H1N1 flu virus is getting (Swine flu to laypeople, but the new "thing" is that it might be offensive to some people so we shouldn't call it that *sheesh* Are those people actually pigs in disguise? Don't answer that.) I have to get my nose swabbed in a few minutes and in a few hours we'll know if it's just a run of the mill cold or flu or something more. I'm not worried.

They've offered me everything from Tylenol to Sudafed. My perinatologist said that nothing is really going to affect the babies, but nothing is really going to help me feel much better anyway. It's always surprising the variety in opinions we've encountered throughout this whole experience.

Luckily I have a bit of an opportunity to get some rest recently, and full access to lots of liquids, so I'll get over it soon. And Sean brought me a box of Kleenex with lotion, so my nose is already happier!

Day 5

Hospital pictures

Ok, I'm getting more settled now. I wake up around 6 from the sunlight, text Sean because that's usually when he's on his morning lunch break and can respond, and then I have an Ensure. I get up, dressed and presentable, and the chief of OB/GYN and Resident make rounds about 7 am. They quickly ask me how I'm doing, make one small obligatory personal comment (good book, I like that IPod speaker, how's the fridge, etc.) and then they shuffle right on out again.

I hop on the laptop and start work until the morning nurse comes in and starts my monitoring around 8. I order breakfast about 15 minutes before we're done so it arrives when I'm ready, and then I eat. I keep working until I break for lunch, usually left-overs from what Sean brought the day before (I'm still not won over by the food provided here). My second round of monitoring starts around 2, and after that I have a protein shake.

Sean arrives sometime after 4 and we hang out, talk about our days, and pretend like everything is normal. He leaves between 7-8 and I hop back on the laptop and complete a few more things for work before I shower and get ready for bed.

Being able to work via laptop has been wonderful. It fills my day with tasks and achievements and makes it go by much faster, and so far I haven't had any issues that keep me from doing what I need to get done. *knock on wood*

Overall the monitoring has been going pretty well. It takes about 10-15 minutes to find the girls and put the monitors in a place that will track them even if they shift around a little. But they usually shift around a lot. They're still just small enough that they can move around in there, but the further along we get, the more crammed in they'll be and unable to roll and slide. Baby A is the big mover and shaker, but both start to act up if I've eaten anything in the last hour, so I try to time my meals around the monitoring to make it easier. With the belts around my belly (one for each girl and another for a third monitor that tracks contractions) I definitely start to get uncomfortable by the time we're done.

Their heartbeats run between the low 140's to the low 160's, with slight variations that haven't been of major concern yet. It would be worrisome if one dropped below 100 or stayed very low or high for more than a few minutes, but we luckily haven't experienced any of that.

While Baby A (the one on my right-hand side, sitting lower in my abdomen and in a cradled position) is the more active of the two constantly, Baby B (the one on my left-hand side, sitting more toward my rib cage and in an up-and-down position) is the more sensitive. B tends to move more when in response to my stress. And during the monitoring a very loud paper jam alarm went off - I looked over and Baby B's heart rate had soared to 200 in response to the sound and Baby A stayed just the same. It's so interesting to get these little clues to their individual personalities.

This place is surprisingly quiet when my door is shut, so I'm sleeping well, with the exception of the many bathroom breaks throughout the night. I still roll over carefully and quietly so that I won't disturb Sean, the dog or cat and create more activity that wakes me up further. And then I realize I'm all alone in this bed. It's an adjustment. I know, I know, I'm in for a lot of adjustments soon.

We're still working out the whole parking situation. There is a lot behind the building that isn't supposed to be monitored very frequently in the afternoons, but the first time we tried it there was a $30 ticket waiting. I posted an ad on Craigslist hoping that someone would have a quarterly pass they'd be willing to sell us, maybe because they're dropping a class, or buy and sell to us at face value, but no responses yet.

Sean is thankfully staying home today after work and doing something for him (nap? project? motorcycle ride?). He needs and deserves it. He did make me double fudge frosted brownies yesterday, after all. Mmmm.

Day 2

I woke up around 6, slowly and peacefully, to the sunlight streaming through my windows and baby B kicking away. If the smell of fresh-brewed coffee had been in the air I would have pinched myself to make sure I wasn't in heaven. : )

They have what they call "room service", which is a menu of items I can choose from and have brought to my room when I'm ready, instead of having a set time and meal decided for me. Unfortunately they brought the wrong thing this morning, but at least vegetarian, and it was clearly hospital food. ("Breakfast potatoes" apparently means deep-fried tater tots the consistency of sun-aged rubber.) We'll try again for lunch!

My room is across from the little kitchen, which is stocked with some simple snacks like cheese and crackers, and beverages like milk, water and an ice machine. There is also a large fridge we're welcome to use for our personal food (which is good because it may be awhile until they can get a mini fridge in my room), and a microwave.

I haven't ventured far from my room, although I'm assured I can go down to the cafeteria and the coffee shop. I've spent any awake time I've had so far either being on the monitors or working on the laptop, and figure that's pretty much how my routine is going to go.

I'm a little bit lonely, but mostly because I know it will be so long until I can be back home. I gave Roscoe a big cuddle before I left and walked barefoot on the lawn for a few minutes. Cooter was off making the rounds in the neighborhood, but we'll see if he really notices my absence - it is mole season after all. I tried not to cry, but it's an emotional thing to leave for so long and a few tears slipped out. Sean stayed until about 9, but with the drive home, showering, and needing to get up before 4 a.m. for work, he must be extra sleepy today. I'm not sure if I can convince him that skipping a few days a week visiting me will be just fine, but I really want him to take care of himself, physically and mentally, as much as possible. He's such a trooper with all of this.

So that's where things stand at the moment. I'll keep the updates coming!

My info at UWMC

Ok, so here is the 411 on getting a little Britt time...

To call me
Call 206-598-4616. They route all calls to the nurses station, so just ask for Britt Sparks. This helps me to keep my cell phone minutes down if it's weekday daytime hours, but I will still have it with me in case anyone forgets about calling the room or it's the evening/weekend.

If you're coming to visit, just give me a call first to make sure I don't have a phone meeting scheduled, as I'm continuing to work as long as I can from my room. But I'd love to see you!

To get to UWMC
1959 N.E. Pacific, Seattle, WA 98195

From I-5:

• Take Exit #168B (Bellevue /Kirkland) onto State Route 520.
• Take the first exit off SR520 to Montlake Boulevard N.E.
• Turn left onto Montlake Blvd. and continue north.
• Cross the drawbridge and turn left onto N.E. Pacific Street at the traffic light; move to the right-hand lane.
• Turn right at the second "Patient Parking" directional sign onto N.E. Pacific Place, then immediately turn right into the Triangle Parking Garage.

From the east via 520 westbound:

• Take the Montlake Boulevard exit.
• Continue north on Montlake Blvd. and cross the drawbridge.
• At the traffic light, turn left onto N.E. Pacific Street. Turn right at the second "Patient Parking" directional sign onto N.E. Pacific Place, then immediately turn right into the Triangle Parking Garage.

Parking rates are (not cheap):
• 0 – 15 minutes Free
• 15 – 30 minutes $1
• 30 – 60 minutes $3
• 1 – 2 hours $6
• 2+ hours $7

To get to my room
The Triangle Parking Garage has an escalator that takes you up to the main entrance. From there, take a right and go to the elevators at the end of the building. (The main floor is what they call the 3rd floor.) Go up to the 6th floor and take an immediate right and go right around the corner to the Labor and Delivery unit. Go through the doors, pass the nurses station on the left, and continue straight down the hallway. My room is through the set of double doors, on the right side (#618).

Day 1

We checked in around 7 pm, after a "last meal" at Red Robin (because bottomless steak fries just don't transport well in a to-go box). The shift change happens around 6:45, so they suggested that we swing in a little after that to avoid the chaos that can sometimes accompany that time. I managed to pack a giant duffle with clothes, a carry on shoulder bag with toiletries, a box of books and games, and a laptop bag with all my computer gear. I could have ACTUALLY been moving in.

Since this was the last room available, it stands to reason that it wasn't quite the best possible, but this one is missing it's fridge and it's tv remote. Hopefully we can get both of those remedied before too long.

ALmost immediately we got hooked up to the monitoring gear and spent about the first hour just trying to find the babies' heart beats and get them situated so they stayed on for longer than 4 minutes. The monitors are each about the size of a flattened Hostess cupcake and get gooed up in ultrasound gel before getting squooshed on to my belly and held in place by a tube top. Sometimes they have to strap them in a little tighter with stretchy velcro bands or add pressure in one direction or another by shoving a rolled up washcloth under the band. That approach is actually kind of fun because when the girls kick the washcloth visibly jumps!

After spending the first hour finding them, I spent the next hour and a half just laying there while the machines tracked their heartbeats. It was nearly 10 pm by then and I still had to take the 1 hour glucose test and then get a blood draw to see how I did.

In the meantime, I met the charge nurse, the on-call OB/GYN, the anesthesiologist and several other nurses, most of whom asked me the same questions over and over (Any previous surgeries? Any allergies? Staying here long?). Time for some electronic medical records!

I will still have to get two steroid shots tomorrow to help with the babies' lung development (grow, girls, grow!), and every day I'll go through the monitoring three times for about an hour each. I'll also try to post room pictures tomorrow to give you an idea of our temporary home, and some information about getting in touch with and/or visiting!

Hurry up and wait

After spending all weekend running errands and getting things prepped around the house and packing-wise, we got a call in the evening from the charge nurse of UWMC maternity, Carrie. Apparently there was a baby boom over the weekend and rooms were full. She was aware of our care plan and just wanted to let us know not to wake up early in the morning and plan on coming in rigth away (we were supposed to call first anyway, so that wasn't a big deal as far as our planning). She is suppsoed to call us this afternoon and let us know whether some moms had discharged and opened a room up for us. If it doesn't look like there will be one, we'll still go in and do the monitoring today, but we won't be admitted until at least tomorrow.

So today I'm working via laptop on the back patio and absolutely loving this warm sunshine. Ah!

So little time!

Man, this incarceration deadline really snuck up me. One second I had a month left, now I'm down to 4 days. 4 days! OMG! OMG!

So I know off the bat that I don't have a lot of room in my jail cell, so I have to prioritize what I bring. I figure if I need more, I can have someone bring it to me, if I need less, I can send things home with Sean. Here is my list so far:

Entertainment:
Books
cards
dominoes
laptop, gear
dvds
dvd player
phone charger
bluetooth
ipod charger
water bottle
earplugs
down blanket
pillow
stamps
thank you cards

Clothing:
bras, underwear
socks
robe
slippers
Lots of clothes
going home outfit for me

Toiletries: (this makes me look more high maintenance than I feel)
laundry bag/s
face wash head band
shampoo
face wash
contact solution
extra contacts
glasses
face lotion
deodorant
loofah, body soap
sugar scrub
razor
hair foam, conditioner
toothpaste
toothbrush
caddy

Baby gear:
bag o' preemie clothes

What am I missing? I think work is going to keep me pretty busy (thankfully!), as are the evening visits from Sean and the intermittent visits from all of my wonderful friends and family. And if I squint real hard I can probably watch the 14" television. Seriously, it's tiny.

I love my husband more than words can say, but I have my suspicions about what will and won't make his priority list while I'm gone, so I want to do those things before I leave, just in case. Things like changing the bed, scrubbing the toilet, weeding the backyard, finishing the ironing pile, cleaning out the fridge - things that if left undone for 8 weeks will be even more of a pain to do when I return.

And I still need to buy a few things, like extra maternity T's, tank tops and pajama/sweat bottoms. I'll be transitioning more to weekend-style comfy clothes and I currently only have enough to get me through, you guessed it, the weekend.

We're still working out the whole parking situation, too. Since we'll be on the UW campus, there aren't any private lots/garages close by where we can get a monthly rate, and UW only offers quarterly rates to students and staff (but Sean is alumni!!). The only option we're down to is the hourly lot for UWMC and that can run around $7 a day even with validation, which adds up super quick. Taking the bus would involve two transfers, and walking very far would be harder if he has an armload of things (like laundry or dinner) that he's bringing along.

We still have a lot to learn about what to expect when I get there, but I suppose I'll have nothing but time to get the hang of it all. We have an ultrasound, non-stress test and final clinic appointment this afternoon - I can't wait to see the girls again!

24 weeks

This is a good week for lung development - bronchi and bronchioles are expanding in growth and adding surfactant, a substance that will help air sacs inflate once they hit the outside world. The girls are also doing "practice breathing" with the amniotic fluid (which we saw in the last ultrasound!) All of this brings them ever so slightly closer to being ready to join us. Technically, this is the week where they would be viable if they were born, albeit with extreme challenges. We've already been working on telling them to stay put and stay healthy - let the parenting begin!

When I look at the week-by week information online, references to size and length vary quite a bit right now, and none of them talk much about twins, but they say a baby at 24 weeks is between 8.5-11.5" long and a little over a pound. One site even said the baby will gain nearly 6 ounces this week as their body begins to fill out. That's a lot of weight all at once! Times two!

In the meantime, I'm getting bigger by the day. Literally. I looked in the mirror Sunday and my belly was actually noticeably larger than it had been the day before. Noticeably. Right now I feel like I look practically full term and yet I still have a long way to go. Exactly how enormous will I be by the end? Bigger and bigger and bigger she grows - where she stops, no one knows!

The movements are getting ever cooler right now. I had a nice bath over the weekend and realized that with the buoyancy of the water, gravity wasn't pulling as much and I could see each kick as it came instead of just feeling it. On Sunday, I put my hand on my belly and felt two distinctly different kinds of movement - one big rounded bump like a head and one pointed bump like a foot or fist, both from the same baby within the same few seconds. Pretty nifty!

It is now less than two weeks until my "incarceration" as Sean puts it. I've been busy working on lists of things I need to bring with me and things I need to accomplish before I leave (shocking, I know). The cribs, dresser and bedding have all arrived and Sean and I have developed a game plan on what the nursery will look like, so after this point it all rests on him.

I cleaned up the front yard from the winter (weeded, pruned, raked, etc.) so now I feel better about how that will hold up while I'm gone, but I'm still in the process of getting the back yard in shape. Spring is when I normally spend a lot of time gardening and there is a lot that just won't get done this year, including planting my favorite annuals and doing the starts for the veggie patch, which makes me incredibly sad. I spent about 4 hours in the yard Sunday and as much as I wanted to continue, my lower back was screaming at me to call it a day even though I felt like I was really taking it easy compared to normal. I'm SO not used to having limitations. I'm Britt! I can do anything I put my mind to! I know I overdid it when I went to dry off my legs and discovered I couldn't lift one enough to towel it off. Stupid sciatica. Pregnancy is my kryptonite.

The name game

Back when we thought we had things all figured out (HA! Double HA!!) Sean and I worked out a system for naming our new addition. We bought a 60,000 name book, we watched movie credits closely, I would call out names, he would have a chance to veto, and I'd write down the ones that passed. I started a boy list and a girl list and posted them on the fridge. We figured either of us could veto a name at any point for any reason and it would be *poof* gone.

Some of our guidelines:
-It has to start toward the beginning of the alphabet. Sean Sparks spent too much time in the "S" lines and wants to give his kid a chance to move up a little.
- The closer it was to the #1 spot on the Social Security names list, the lower it went on our list.
- More than one syllable. With a one-syllable last name, short first names sound kind of awkward.
- Can't start with the letter S.

I had a boy middle name I really liked, so if it was a boy, we'd use mine, and if it was a girl, he could pick her middle name, and for our next kid we'd switch regardless of gender. Surprisingly, we had a lot of boy's names on our list and a short little roster when it came to the girls. I'd list our favorites, but I know how cool they are and don't want to risk losing them to someone else should we possibly decide for another later down the road. Sorry!

Once we found out we were having twin girls, most of that went out the window. Our girls list suddenly seemed tiny, and now we had to use several of them! We figured out pretty quickly that since our Grandmas had unique names (Bud's mom is Choriene and my mom's mom is Dorene - they rhyme), those would make great middle names. We could acknowledge people that are important to us and the girls would get names that were somewhat matching but less obvious since they don't use the middle names as often. Check!

Early in the process, I liked the name Charlotte. Sean told me later that it is the name of one of his other grandmas (Teri's mom), and we both agreed we liked it. Check!

But for the second first name, we're a little more stuck. We both like the name Natalie, but I don't think it flows well with the name Charlotte. I like the name Kenley, but Sean isn't too fond of it. We're both on the verge of using a veto on each other's names, but we can't seem to figure out a better solution, either.

So, we think they'll be:
Charlotte Dorene Sparks
? Choriene Sparks

We do still have time, but it's quickly pouring out of the hour-glass....