Hospital Bag

When thinking about pregnancy, one thing I had always heard not to worry about was the hospital. You just show up with a few necessities and creature comforts and everything else is provided for you. The advice from my friends was even to bring extra bags to take home everything from extra diapers to nasal aspirators because hospital policy is not to reuse anything that has been in your room. Packing for the hospital seemed to involve throwing some P.J.’s, sleepers, slippers, music, snacks and maybe glasses or contacts into a bag and having it ready to run out the door.

Upon learning that, like most things, it is just a bit different here I began researching what people take to the hospital. I compiled a list and it included the following. Some may be the same as the states but some I am still shocked that people are expected to provide themselves such as diapers, formula (the hospital won’t provide it unless you have attempted to breast feed and couldn’t for medical reasons) water.

Hospital Bag
*Pack one bag for you and one for the babies
• Ear plugs (you’re in a ward with up to 5 other women and their babies.)
• Old night dress (to give birth in… no hospital gowns.)
• 2 P.J. Sets
• Old underwear
• Your own large fluffy towel (have heard tons of stories of people drying of with the paper towels because no clean towels were available)
• Pillows (You get one flat one.)
• Overnight pads
• Toiletries
• Wet Wipes (To clean out the shower… can’t make myself think about it but because you are sharing a shower with the women on your ward they aren’t always cleaned out when you are able to shower and I have heard horror stories of bloody floors women have had to wipe down)
• Shower Shoes
• Breast Pads
• Journal to keep track of changes and feeds and pens
• Snacks (the café is only open during the day.)
• iPod with Audiobooks (no internet or cable T.V. folks)
• Water (there is a water cooler and Dixie cups should you become thirsty. Otherwise, better bring your own.)
• Camera
• Birth plan and hospital notes (Notes = records)
• Phone numbers
• Plastic bag for really dirty clothes
• Glasses
• Contacts
• Lanolin cream
• Change of clothes for Trey


Baby Bag
• Diapers (New Baby)
• 10 sleepers (extra for twins and sometimes they stay in the hospital longer.)
• 2 baby blankets
• Cotton balls
• Wipes
• Nappy sacks
• Going home outfit

Now, you can only bring what you can fit in your little area of the ward but, fortunately, your husband has to go home when it isn’t visiting hours so he should be able to make plenty of trips home to restock your diaper supply and bring in extra water should you need it.

We Have 48 Housemates

We've known it was coming. Jan Term. The shortest course period for the university we work for. We planned, we prepared, we laid out 48 fitted sheets, 48 flat sheets, 48 towels. The house was ready but were we? I have been thinking about Jan Term since the day we agreed to be a resident managers of this property in London. I would be 33 weeks pregnant with twins and 48 people would come to stay in a 6 story Victorian with us for four weeks. They descended on the house in two huge bus loads blocking off the narrow street we live off of in Central London. Everyone (except the hugely pregnant woman who carried the heavy driver tips only) grabbed the loads of luggage and threw them into the house fast soon as possible. Within two hours we had all the luggage distributed to rooms, all the baggage being stored at the house for a group who was leaving to travel for two weeks before coming to the next session checked, all the students fed, oriented and out to roam the city with their professors. It was a whirlwind.

The first night I managed to sleep as well as I have been considering the two babies kicking and pushing around. I woke up about every hour to every hour and a half and finally got up at 4:30. The whole night one group of students or another was up and about. The last time I heard the front door close was 6:30 AM. We had breakfast for the whole group in rotations from 7:30 to 8:45 then everyone was gone again for class from 9 to 5. The house actually doesn't feel that crowded most of the time other than the middle of the night and the morning because the students are gone all day and only have time to move around London in the evenings. We'll see if they keep up that pace of go, go, go for the rest of the month. Trey and I actually cooked and ate dinner tonight with only about four interruptions. One thing I can say is that I am very glad we finished preparations for the babies before this group arrived. Everything is ready to go other than a few things to pack in my hospital bag and those are at least on a list that both Trey and I know about so we can grab as needed.

I am still a little apprehensive about being able to keep up this pace for the next four weeks, however, it is fun to have several faculty and excited students around. I'm enjoying hearing about their adventures and it is nice to have Americans around.

Christmas Eve

We are having a pretty low key Christmas. It is our only few days alone in the house. For those of you who don't know our living situation, Trey and I are kind of a dorm Mom and Dad. We have our own bedroom but we share all other common areas of the house with students including a bathroom and, sometimes, shower. During the semesters so far the crowd hasn't been too bad and even when there are a few guests staying in the house between groups of students it isn't too bad because the house is 6 stories and they are usually here to visit London so are out and about a lot.

Tonight we made blueberry pancakes (got the Bisquick batter mix from the American grocery store) then headed to our church's midnight Christmas Eve service. It was a nice service but smaller than I expected. I was happy that most of the carols were almost exactly the same as ones we sing in the States. Other than waiting on the bus in the freezing cold it was a perfect Christmas Eve. Now we're back at home, changed into P.J.s (the poor elastic of my biggest pair of P.J. pants is now stretched almost to full capacity) and sipping hot chocolate. The only thing missing is our family and friends. We love and miss you!

31 Weeks

December 17, 2009

First of all, I forgot to mention in my last post that Trey's Dad got to go to an ultrasound with us! We just happened to have one scheduled the day he arrived and we were so excited to get to share a part of the pregnancy directly with our family as we have felt the strain of being far away from them through this amazing time in our lives. The technician was really kind this time and answered all of our questions. At that point (Dec. 11) the babies both weighed a little over 3 pounds which made me feel a bit more validated about being so sluggish. After all, I am carrying the weight of a normal full term baby plus all of the extra fluid and goodies that go along with having two babies.

We had my favorite ultrasound moment during this scan. I was asking about the position of the babies. The tech said one (the girl who is lower) was breech and the boy (who is up by my ribs) was mostly transverse. He did have his head angled down so that both babies were face to face. She zoomed out and it looked like they were looking right at each other. ADORABLE! She said she couldn't get a picture because the babies were getting too big. I don't exactly understand that but I guess they just don't have the equipment they do at home.

The weekend prior to this picture Trey's Dad was in town. I had started to feel a little tickle in my throat and throughout the week it turned into a full blown cold. I felt awful and could only sleep sitting up. It was strange because normally when I'm sick I feel better when I sleep but I awoke every hour through the night and when I would get up in the morning I felt much worse than when I had gone to bed. On this day I had to get dressed to go to the doctor and it happened to be on the day I turned 32 weeks so I sucked it up and took a picture to document this moment in my pregnancy. Hopefully I won't be sick the rest of the pregnancy. I am sad to say, I gave Trey my cold.

28 Weeks!

November 30, 2009

I can't believe I am in my third trimester! As soon as I hit that mark, I relaxed a lot. With a twin pregnancy you hear so much about complications. Between that and all the change we had experienced over the past few months, it had been hard to really relax and enjoy the pregnancy. I definitely wasn't super obsessive but the load, figuratively only, felt a little lighter passing that mark.

On this evening we had our Thanksgiving friends in town and we went to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with James Earl Jones and Phylicia Rashad. It was a great performance!

Tourists Again

While our friends were in town for Thanksgiving we got to be tourists for the week again. Trey took most of the week off and I tried to walk around like I wasn't 28 weeks pregnant with twins. I think I did pretty well but I am officially done with that! I am glad I was still up for the challenge but it was definitely the last week I was up for adventures such as 6 hours of shopping down Oxford Street or touring the Tower of London and St. Paul's.



That look on Trey's face means "I'm freezing." I didn't really notice. Babies are good heaters.



About this far from St, Paul's (which is where we were heading)...



is Tiffinbites. My new favorite restaurant in London. You can get a DELISH Indian rice, veggie and meat for £8.50. Here is the site for any tourists interested: http://www.tiffinbites.com/

Thanksgiving

Whoa, I am really late putting this up.

We were blessed to have friends visit us this Thanksgiving. We were really excited to have been able to find all the necessary ingredients for a full, traditional Thanksgiving spread. Here are a few pictures...



That's a lot of food for four people! Don't worry we managed to eat most of it over the following week.