Slowly But Surely

Gradual improvements keep coming. Brandi is off the IV now, so she's no longer receiving round-the-clock Phenegran. She can still get shots of it, along with Zofran (also for nausea) and Stadol (one of very few allowed pain meds), but only every 6-8 hours.

The Dr. said those would be the next to go. He's hoping to transition her to tablets in the next day or two - something she can take at home.

She seems to be able to rest a little more each day. I'm sure she will enjoy getting to sleep through the night when she gets released. I know I will.

The pictures today are actually from a couple of days ago, but I hadn't created this blog then, so I can post them a few days late without guilt. I'm planning on creating an album of images to tell the story of the whole pregnancy. Hopefully, that means I'll have plenty of pics to post here as we move along.

With plans to record the different stages of this journey, I don't imagine I'll be taking pictures every day just yet. There are only so many things to see in the same hospital room through the course of a week. The frequency may increase a little once we get back home.

Although it may go without saying, we welcome comments on these posts from friends, family, and even complete strangers. We truly appreciate all the support and encouragement we continue to receive. I hope this blog can serve to express our gratitude and excitement to all those interested in keeping up with our progress along this path.

Yes ... Twins!

It's official. We are expecting. And with twins, I'm expecting to be broke, exhausted, and frazzled for the foreseeable future. But everyone tells me it's all worth it.

If you're here, reading this, I'll assume you already know us, and I'll skip any tedious introductions or explanations. Suffice it to say that we (Brandi & Josef) have, in our fifth year of marriage, stunned our friends and families with the news that we'll be parents by next summer.

We found out Brandi was pregnant two and a half weeks ago. Brandi's first official doctor appointment was last Wednesday. Then, last Thursday, she went from just being pregnant to being violently, miserably pregnant.

Not wanting to risk dehydration, her doctor called in orders to have her admitted to the hospital. She has been in the hospital for a week now with extreme morning sickness, and she hasn't been able to maintain a regular diet without constant nausea medication. According to the doctor, though, this isn't anything to get too upset about at this point. He's had other patients who stayed in the hospital like this for up to three weeks, and in the worst cases they had to receive their food through feeding tubes. Since she's nowhere near that point, we're in relatively good shape for now.

They say it's the hormones from the babies that cause morning sickness, and with twins Brandi is getting double the dose. She seems to be getting a little better every day, so hopefully she will be able to get home soon.

I'll be posting pictures here as things progress. I think it's only appropriate that the first images be of the ultrasound that showed us we had twins on our hands. We only found out this little detail this past Sunday, so we're still trying to wrap our brains around it.

These pictures aren't the best, since I've only been able to photograph the printouts on the countertop here in the hospital. I'm planning on scanning them later, and if that actually happens, I'll post the scans here as well.