HI! So by now you know the big news (we had our babies), and I will get to posting on that whole story later, but wanted to share my thoughts of this current moment. I am very very happy to be feeling pretty damn good right about now. Here's what got me to this wonderful state:
1. A long hot shower
2. Brushing my teeth
3. Vicodin
4. Putting on my white fluffy robe (gift from Kaiser hospital)
5. All bodily parts and functions feel like they're operating correctly
6. Ability to get up and down on my own (out of chairs, beds) and walk around whenever I want to move objects from one place to another, feed myself, etc etc.
7. Cat on my lap (Napoleon)
8. Knowing I have two very healthy babies waiting to see me tomorrow morning in the NICU
9. Knowing I will be able to go to bed tonight and not be completely uncomfortable and waking up every 30 - 45min.
10. Progressive success with the milk factory
Joy!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Rampe Twins (19 photos), by Matt Rampe
I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
http://www1.snapfish.com/fbshareredirect/p=825281246249128801/l=1670284016/g=1666679/redirectURL=share/otsi=SALBBL/AlbumID=824701016/a=1666679_1666679/usercomments=I_xqd%20like%20to%20share%20my%20Snapfish%20photos%20with%20you.%20Once%20you%20have%20checked%20out%20my%20photos%20you%20can%20order%20prints%20and%20upload%20your%20own%20photos%20to%20share./counttext=19%20photos/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish
Monday, June 22, 2009
This is almost getting "normal" (32 weeks)
Ok truth be told, I'm posting this a day early as 32 weeks is officially tomorrow. However, I've gotten pretty good at this bed rest thing and have no doubt that I will make it through tomorrow without adding to our family. 32 weeks is a milestone, that six weeks ago, seemed a lot more tentative but I'm happy to report that other than getting larger by the day, not much has changed.
I now have weekly doctors appts on Wednesday afternoons just to be sure I'm not missing anything, but otherwise am just holding out on bed rest until I deliver or am released which I guess might happen at 36 - 37 weeks or so. Though at that point I probably won't be *able* to move even if I wanted to...but we'll see!
There are a lot of things we still need to do before the babies come home, like buy cribs, rearrange things, get rid of all of our personal belongings to make room for baby "stuff", oh yeah and go through labor and delivery. Luckily we have lots of baby clothes, thanks to bags of hand me downs and various purchases by friends and family, it's nice to have one less thing to worry about there.
My mom has been staying with us for the last two weeks making my life on bed rest even easier (no getting up to get food - just call mom!). I know this has helped us make it this far and will help me keep the boys incubating till 34 or 36 weeks or more so they can pop out screaming healthy and ready to walk (or something - just not too much time in the NICU please). Matt is also quite happy to be getting lots of meaty, protien filled meals which I need at this point and mom is great at making. Everyone always asks if I'm bored, and I'm still not really there yet. Some moments are definitely less exciting than others, but it's really not that bad. I could do without the discomfort that bed rest + 32 weeks with twins offers, but such is life and I only have 6 or 7 more weeks MAX to go I'm sure. I can easily do this for that long.
Oh and I haven't been to the hospital in over two weeks which is soooo great given my track record mid-May - mid-June!
Mini Rampe Reunion
Two weekends ago we had more Rampes in our house than ever before! Here's a photo of the extended family together: Jason Rampe, Sally Rampe, Rivers Rampe, Matt Rampe, Kristen (+2) Rampe, Roxanna Rampe, Scott Edmonds (a Rampe by matrilineage), Jeff Rampe and Sang Tran.
The Sunday afternoon involved some BBQ, some beer and some assembly of train sets and baby swings. The question is where and when will the next Rampe Reunion be?
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Yes, we're home! (30 weeks!)
Sorry this is coming so late, and if you've been waiting on the edge of your seat, I did manage to get discharged from the hospital on Monday evening and came home, off all drugs and ready to be on home bed rest yet again.
The hospital stay was a little less fun in the beginning this time because they gave me a HUGE dose of magnesium sulfate, which is really no fun. It wasn't as bad the first time but this time I was hot and thirsty and miserably groggy and uncomfortable. Not to mention I had to use a bed pan! But anyway I survived and the tikes are still where they belong. The latest word from the doc that discharged me was that we're probably done with all meds to stop contractions/labor and they'll just let me go at this point. Granted it's still pretty early to have babies, but much better than 26 weeks and I think they don't want to keep pumping me full of chemicals in the meantime (ok with me).
So now I'm allowed 10 contractions an hour (or so - I think I get to decide a little more now that I've been through it so many times). Every day is still a great milestone to not deliver and we are hoping to make it to 34 weeks at the very least...please keep the positive vibes coming our way!
On Tuesday when we celebrated 30 weeks, we opened the baby shower gifts for the shower that didn't happen except for a few fabulous visitors to the hospital in Hayward. Here's a current family photo for you. (Complete with Matt trying out putting a Dad tattoo onesie from Jenny on the teddy bear)
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Hold on for the ride
Many things are unclear right now, but we do know that the boys are going to have to come through in a big way on Mother's Day each year...
This Friday I got a text at work from Kristen - it was time to play ambulance since her contractions had spiked to 12 an hour. Even after having her contraction limit adjusted upward, this was still too high. So we took off to the hospital on a nice sunny Friday afternoon. SF was full again, so we opted to visit our friends in Hayward again.
I think the best words to capture the experience of our third trimester are "rollercoaster". After being called out of comfortable home bedrest on Friday (that pleasant, slow climbing on the rollercoaster), we arrived at Hayward in the triage department where Kristen was promptly examined by a doctor who told us we may be delivering babies the next day (this would be that sudden cliff-like drop in the ride where everyone looses their stomach and screams before going through 5 upside-down twisty turns). Kristen got put on a very heavy dose of anti-contraction medication, which made her feel very hot and groggy. She also got put on a clear liquid diet (meaning only can eat popsicles and soup broth - diabetic popsicles and soup broth mind you). When I came in Saturday morning she was looking pretty miserable from the drugs, but the upside was the contractions slowed dramatically and it looked like we would probably stave off delivery for at least another day (sudden corner turning and ascent up another big hill).
With a full day of hospital ahead of us, we decided to have a very scaled back baby shower (aka - just a few people came to visit). It was great and I think Kristen really appreciated seeing and hearing from everyone. I personally want to say a big thank you to everyone who calls and visits etc. - it is a huge help physically and mentally to have so many caring family members & friends and I know there is no way we would have gotten this far without you (I for one would have lost my mind long ago).
Saturday night Kristen and I had dinner and a movie in the hospital - Chipotle and a DVD from the Blue Planet series (the ocean version of Planet Earth). That's pretty much what a date night looks like for us right now, but we both enjoyed it.
Sunday we are still in the hospital although Kristen may get to go home tomorrow if her cervix behaves itself. The head labor & delivery doctor informed Kristen that the drugs they have at their disposal haven't been scientifically proven to actually postpone pre-term birth (rather they slow the contractions - which aren't 100% correlated with delivery surprisingly). So his advice was to just stay as relaxed as possible and lay low as long as possible since the women who seem to last longest in this situation are the ones who stay relaxed.
To that end we are going to up the bedresting efforts and try to keep Kristen laying down and relaxed as much as we can. We are almost at 30 weeks (Tuesday) and are going for every extra day we can get!
Thanks again to everyone for their thoughts, prayers and help!
This Friday I got a text at work from Kristen - it was time to play ambulance since her contractions had spiked to 12 an hour. Even after having her contraction limit adjusted upward, this was still too high. So we took off to the hospital on a nice sunny Friday afternoon. SF was full again, so we opted to visit our friends in Hayward again.
I think the best words to capture the experience of our third trimester are "rollercoaster". After being called out of comfortable home bedrest on Friday (that pleasant, slow climbing on the rollercoaster), we arrived at Hayward in the triage department where Kristen was promptly examined by a doctor who told us we may be delivering babies the next day (this would be that sudden cliff-like drop in the ride where everyone looses their stomach and screams before going through 5 upside-down twisty turns). Kristen got put on a very heavy dose of anti-contraction medication, which made her feel very hot and groggy. She also got put on a clear liquid diet (meaning only can eat popsicles and soup broth - diabetic popsicles and soup broth mind you). When I came in Saturday morning she was looking pretty miserable from the drugs, but the upside was the contractions slowed dramatically and it looked like we would probably stave off delivery for at least another day (sudden corner turning and ascent up another big hill).
With a full day of hospital ahead of us, we decided to have a very scaled back baby shower (aka - just a few people came to visit). It was great and I think Kristen really appreciated seeing and hearing from everyone. I personally want to say a big thank you to everyone who calls and visits etc. - it is a huge help physically and mentally to have so many caring family members & friends and I know there is no way we would have gotten this far without you (I for one would have lost my mind long ago).
Saturday night Kristen and I had dinner and a movie in the hospital - Chipotle and a DVD from the Blue Planet series (the ocean version of Planet Earth). That's pretty much what a date night looks like for us right now, but we both enjoyed it.
Sunday we are still in the hospital although Kristen may get to go home tomorrow if her cervix behaves itself. The head labor & delivery doctor informed Kristen that the drugs they have at their disposal haven't been scientifically proven to actually postpone pre-term birth (rather they slow the contractions - which aren't 100% correlated with delivery surprisingly). So his advice was to just stay as relaxed as possible and lay low as long as possible since the women who seem to last longest in this situation are the ones who stay relaxed.
To that end we are going to up the bedresting efforts and try to keep Kristen laying down and relaxed as much as we can. We are almost at 30 weeks (Tuesday) and are going for every extra day we can get!
Thanks again to everyone for their thoughts, prayers and help!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
29 Weeks!
Another week! Here's a rundown of what happened over the last 7 days:
May 27: bed rest
May 28: bed rest
May 29: bed rest
...
ok, I'll spice it up a bit:
May 27: bed rest and post the "28 weeks" blog entry
May 28: count 11 contractions in the evening. follow procedure and drink 16oz water and recount, with 7 - 9 (some I wasn't sure of). called nurses, who of course said "you have to go in", find out SF is full again so requested Hayward which I learned is 45min away not 30. hung out in triage at Hayward from 10pm - 2am discharged with a prescription for Procardia to reduce contractions.
May 29: Slept. Matt worked from home (yay!). Had pizza and coke for dinner with Matt and Scott.
May 30: Chris and Emilie came over and cooked chicken piccata for dinner. (yes my life still revolves around food). Came up with a list of "real movies" that I can add to my NetFlix queue.
May 31: Practiced bed rest skills all day with Matt who is busier than ever caring for me and keeping up with his job, oh and taking a dip in the SF Bay to prepare for his upcoming aquathon. The bay is about 52 degrees cold +/-.
June 1: Contractions, which were down to about 4 - 5 per hour with the medicine, are now back up to where they were (7-8/hour). Can I enter my uterus in some sort of strength contest? I think I'd win with all of the workouts it's fitting in.
June 2: 29 Weeks! Bed rest all day then Emilie and Matt cooked dinner and a quiche for me to feast on for my diabetic breakfasts over the next several days. Being the greatest friend ever, Emilie also did some shopping for me as I'm outgrowing articles of clothing that I know Matt would prefer not to shop for. I know I'm entering new territory here because my new bra has not one, not two, not three, but FOUR rows of clasps at the back to secure everything into place.
May 27: bed rest
May 28: bed rest
May 29: bed rest
...
ok, I'll spice it up a bit:
May 27: bed rest and post the "28 weeks" blog entry
May 28: count 11 contractions in the evening. follow procedure and drink 16oz water and recount, with 7 - 9 (some I wasn't sure of). called nurses, who of course said "you have to go in", find out SF is full again so requested Hayward which I learned is 45min away not 30. hung out in triage at Hayward from 10pm - 2am discharged with a prescription for Procardia to reduce contractions.
May 29: Slept. Matt worked from home (yay!). Had pizza and coke for dinner with Matt and Scott.
May 30: Chris and Emilie came over and cooked chicken piccata for dinner. (yes my life still revolves around food). Came up with a list of "real movies" that I can add to my NetFlix queue.
May 31: Practiced bed rest skills all day with Matt who is busier than ever caring for me and keeping up with his job, oh and taking a dip in the SF Bay to prepare for his upcoming aquathon. The bay is about 52 degrees cold +/-.
June 1: Contractions, which were down to about 4 - 5 per hour with the medicine, are now back up to where they were (7-8/hour). Can I enter my uterus in some sort of strength contest? I think I'd win with all of the workouts it's fitting in.
June 2: 29 Weeks! Bed rest all day then Emilie and Matt cooked dinner and a quiche for me to feast on for my diabetic breakfasts over the next several days. Being the greatest friend ever, Emilie also did some shopping for me as I'm outgrowing articles of clothing that I know Matt would prefer not to shop for. I know I'm entering new territory here because my new bra has not one, not two, not three, but FOUR rows of clasps at the back to secure everything into place.
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