Babies Birth Story

My blood pressure had been high for a week leading up to the babies birth. I went in Tuesday for another blood pressure check and my blood pressure was quite a bit higher than the day before. Dr Nelson said I would be going in today. I called Nathan after the appointment and told him today is the day! He came home and we packed our bags and were at the hospital by 5:00 PM.  They started me on Cervidil that night. We were able to get a little sleep, but not much, we were too excited! I kept throwing up throughout the night, that wasn't fun. That morning I was dilated to a 3. They took the Cervidil out and I got my epidural. I continued to dilate very slowly. By the evening I began to feel more and more contractions and the anesthesiologist kept having to "top off" my epidural about every hour. At midnight the resident came and checked me again, I was only at a 8. With how slowly I was progressing and all the contractions I could feel I was just about done. The resident asked if we wanted to continue to aim for vaginal or go with c section. Nathan and I talked after the resident left and I told him I was leaning towards a c section. With the rate I was going at I couldn't go through this for another 2-3 hours. Shortly after the resident left my doctor came into check me. He told me I was at a 9.5 and I would be pushing in 15 minutes! I was so happy that we were going to be able to do a vaginal delivery. We started pushing in my labor and delivery room for about 20 minutes and we were about to see the head. Then they made me stop pushing and switch rooms and beds... I was quite frustrated because I was having the urge to push and I was feeling major pressure down there! We had to move to the operating room just in case baby B need to be emergency c section (standard protocol for twins). It took about 20 minutes to switch rooms and get everything ready. Nathan had to wear a bunny suit. There were about 15 people in the operating room, doctor, resident, nurses, NICU team. Finally after everything was situated I was able to push again. Baby boys head would come out 3 then go back in 2, come out 3 go back in 2, so we had to vaccum him out. I thought it was going to be a vaccum with a on/off button but it was more of a plunger. I pushed for another 20 minutes and baby boy was born! They put him on my chest for a minute then took him away. Now was baby girls turn, who was breeched. My doctor ultrasound me and try to flip her manually from the outside on my belly. She wasn't moving, she said she was too high up in my ribs. The resident then did the breech extraction. She went in (elbow deep!!) and grabbed baby girls feet and I continued to push and baby girl was born! Having her be born breech was extremely painful, I was yelling at that point. But everyone was healthy so I was happy. Sadly, I tore all the way... While they were stitching me up I kept telling them I could feel everything! They gave me some more lidocaine and I told them I could still feel everything. My doctor told the anesthesiologist to knock me out and within moments I was knocked out cold. After stitching me up, 45 minutes later, I woke up still in the operating room with Nathan holding our babies. Nathan was such a great support throughout all this, he was so encouraging and helpful. I couldn't have done it without him. 

My nurse Jennica, she was THE BEST. 

Baby boy

Baby girl

 James Bryan and Natalie Stella

James is Nathan's dads name and also Nathan's middle name. Bryan is my grandpas name who passed away this year.

Natalie is my middle name. Stella is Nathan's "second moms" name in Chicago.

James Bryan 5lbs 10oz 19.5 inches

Natalie Stella 6lbs 1oz 19 inches

I love these pictures of them. James was quite alert and would make the funniest faces looking around. Natalie didn't open her eyes much, she hated the bright lights, but when she did open her eyes she was just too cute!

 The best dad. We were both so exhausted, running on almost no sleep for 3 nights. Nathan posing as the heisman :)

 A family of 4! Think I have enough bracelets??!

 Proud grandparents

My two little loves

I still can't believe they are finally here and I couldn't be happier!

We're pregnant!!!

April 27, 2014
We transferred two grade 1 embryos! Nathan and I had many talks about how many embryos to transfer. We knew that transferring two gave us a good chance of twins but I really thought that with transferring two we would only get one to stick. Twins crossed my mind but I really didn't think both would stick. The wait now begins to see if it worked! My blood tests aren't till May 5 and 7, I don't find out the results from both tests till the 7th. I made nathan promise me to not let me take a home pregnancy test till May 4th. I didn't want to take a test to early and get a false negative and have my hopes shut down.

May 3, 2014--3 weeks 4 days
The wait is killing us!! Nathan's parents are in town for 24 hours for an impromptu trip to go to a good friends wedding anniversary party. I talked Nathan into letting me take a test a day early so that if we are pregnant we will be able to tell his parents in person. I wake up early (6AM) having the urge to pee but don't want to pee yet because with the home pregnancy test you are supposed to use your first morning pee. I can't hold it anymore and tell Nathan I am going to take a test, he is half asleep and says go for it. I take a test, put it on the counter then get back into bed and wait 2 minutes. I start praying hard asking for it to be positive. I jump out of bed to check the test and immediately see two dark lines! It wasn't even questionable or a squinter, there were definitely two dark lines!! I start crying and hop into bed and whisper to Nathan that "I'm pregnant!!" we hug and cuddle. He falls back asleep but I am way too excited to fall back asleep. I can't believe we are finally pregnant!! After 2.5 years and so much heart break, we are finally pregnant! Later that morning I come out to the living room with the test and start crying before I even start talking and tell Rivka and James we are pregnant! They were both so happy for us. We call the rest of our immediate family and let them know the good news.

May 5, 2014--3 weeks 6 days

I have my first blood test, but don't find out the results til my second blood test May 7. I tell the nurse taking my blood that I took a test at home and it was positive, she was so happy for me!

May 7, 2014--4 weeks 1 day

I have my second blood test and we finally find out the results! The HCG numbers can sometimes tell you if you are having a singleton or twins. They are not always reliable but you can sometimes get a good idea from them. My nurse calls me with the results and congratulates me on being pregnant! I love my nurse, she has been there for me through all of this. My first blood test number was 235 and second blood test number was 509. Now to give you an idea on the numbers, the average for a single pregnancy for my first blood test is 83, and for a twin pregnancy is 147, mine was 235. For the second blood test the average for a single pregnancy is 187, and a twin pregnancy is 362, and mine was 509. My nurse said she thinks it's more than one, but remember that the numbers aren't always reliable. Nathan and I start thinking it could be twins but I am still thinking there is a big chance it's only one baby.

May 15, 2014--5 weeks 2 days

I have my third blood test. My nurse calls with my results and my HCG is 27,000. She said she wanted the number to be at least above 1,000 and it looks like I well surpassed that... She once again tells me she is pretty sure it's twins. The average twin pregnancy number is 6,300. Nathan and I start freaking out a bit and are even thinking a possibility of triplets??! We have heard of people transferring two and having one embryo split. Our minds are blown but we know nothing is certain til the ultrasound. We are dying for the ultrasound, we want to know how many!!

May 22, 2014--6 weeks 2 days

Ultrasound day!! We both could barely sleep the night before. My appointment is at 12:15 and Nathan meets me at the doctors office. I am so anxious, I am nervous but excited! We get called back into the room and have the ultrasound. Before the doctor even says anything and is looking around I see two sacs. Nathan hasn't seen it yet (he doesn't really know what he's looking at, I've had enough ultrasounds I know exactly what I am looking at!). The doctor then tells us "well they're two in there!". We both freak out inside, at least I know I did!! We got to see and hear both their heartbeats. I may have shed a tear or two. It was remarkable hearing their heartbeats! I loved it so much. Baby A's heartbeat was 123, measuring 6 weeks 3 days and baby B's heartbeat was 111, and measuring 6 weeks 1 day. We are given the due date of January 13 (we know the exact day I conceived because of the IVF) but he said twins normally come 3-4 weeks early. After the appointment Nathan and I are in shock. We are so happy and excited but in shock. We call our families and let them know the exciting news. We still can't believe it!!

June 4, 2014--8 weeks 1 day

Today is my first appointment with my OB. She is great and I just love her. She seems so excited about the babies, which is crazy to me because all she ever sees are babies! I love how excited she gets and it makes me even happier. I got to see both babies again and they look like little gummy bears! Baby A's hearbeat was 170 measuring 8 weeks and Baby B's heartbeat was 172 measuring 8 weeks 2 days. I love seeing them and hearing their hearts beat.

June 5, 2014--8 weeks 2 days

Today is my last fertility doctor appointment! I can't tell you how happy I am to graduate from them, but how sad I am because I will miss the doctors and nurses! After being with them for almost a year I really got to know and love them. At my appointment we check out the babies one last time and everything is looking great. Towards the end of the appointment my doctor pointed out that I have a small blood clot but to not worry about it. That being said, I will try not to worry but it's hard not to! Also with this being my last fertility appointment, I get to stop the injections at 9 weeks, so in just 5 days! Nathan has been giving me 1cc of progesterone into my back hip every day for the last 7 weeks, I can't tell you how happy I am to be done with injections (I will go over the whole IVF process later.) I had this post it note on my mirror to remind me to do the injections and on my last day of injections Nathan ripped it up for me :)

June 16, 2014--9 weeks 6 days

I loved this ultrasound! The babies were moving around and kicking like crazy! I did not expect to see them move so soon, it was amazing watching them wiggle around. Nathan was able to come to this appointment and he was amazed by them as well. We were hopping the blood clot would be gone by now but the clot it still there. The clot is the same size and has not grown at all, which is good but we are sad it is not gone. Nathan and I are supposed to leave for our trip to Spain in 2 days and my doctor "advises" us not to go. This really upsets me and I end up crying, it's the hormones I promise! She tells us that flying and traveling itself will not put the babies at risk, it's just what "if" something happens while we are in the air flying and cannot land. Nathan and I ask her if we can have time to think about whether or not we are going to go. We go home, fast (well Nathan fasts and so does our families) and we attend the temple. We come to the conclusion that we feel good about me going. We let the doctor know I am going to go and she wishes me a good trip. I lay low the whole trip in Spain and do as little walking as I could. Everything ended up working our perfectly. My doctor wants to see me once we get back from Spain and check on the blood clot.

July 3, 2014--12 weeks 2 days

We were both anxious for this appointment. We wanted to make sure that nothing happened to the babies while we traveled and that the blood clot was gone. We go in for the ultrasound and the blood clot it gone! Truly an answer to our prayers. Both babies are looking great and still moving around like crazy. I love seeing them. They make me so happy. We could only get a good profile image of one of the babies, the second picture is of their heads next to each other, best buds :)

Since I am out of the miscarriage stage and we just had a healthy ultrasound, we were ready to announce it to the world! Nathan had the creative idea of making fake plane tickets. We found some on google and I photoshopped the rest. I loved telling the world our happy news.

Disney World--Day1

Nathan's dad had a conference in Orlando so the whole gang met there to go to Disney World! It was such a blast and so fun spending time with family. Our first day there we went to Magic Kingdom in the morning. 

The newly wed couple posing in front of my favorite, Pirates of the Caribbean 

Claire and I waiting in line for the Aladin Magic Carpet ride

Aladins Magic Carpet ride

The girls meeting Rapunzel! 

Snow White

Splash Mountain

Erin and Stefan sat in the front and got soaked!

In the afternoon we went to Epcot!

The Van De Graaffs love Figment!

Conducting some music with Ba

Claire and I trying to catch water in the fountain

Kevin and Hannah playing

The whole gang!

Osborn Clan

Then that night we went back to Magic Kingdom for some more rides!

It was such an awesome day, and this was only day 1!

Erin & Stefan

A new family member has been added to the Van De Graaff family and we just love her! Stefan married Erin on February 13 and the wedding was a dream! It made me think of my wedding day and how perfect it was. Nathan and I flew into Utah Wednesday night and rushed to Grandpa and Oteins to do the flowers for the wedding. I had my BFFs Kaitlin and Joslin come over and help me. We all worked at Campus Floral and love working with flowers so it was a blast to do the flowers for the wedding!

We were so happy with how the flowers turned out! This is Erin's bouquet. 

Centerpiece 

Another centerpiece

Helping set up for the reception 

Loved the location, the brick walls and chandelier were beautiful!

The wedding colors were navy, gray and pink.

The schedule

The happily married couple :)

The Van De Graaff family is now complete :)

Sweet nieces

My boo and I 

 The handsome groomsmen and groom

Isn't Erin too cute?! I loved her wedding dress!

My BFFs and I

They are so in love with each other!

This place was hoppin!

First dance

Bouquet toss

Garter toss

And the send off

The wedding was perfect! I am so happy for the two love birds :)