Hospital Bed Rest ----- What!!!!

How in the world did I end up here??? Haha. I went from easy, breezy twin pregnancy to WHAM BAM hospital bedrest. Here's the gist...

Last Monday (March 25) I woke up with horrible pains in my right side. I wrote about that little episode here. It went away though, and the week went on as normal. I did feel a little off - kind of puffy, nauseous, and just really pregnant. Didn't think much of it.

Thursday afternoon I went in for my normal weekly check-up. Thirty minutes later I was across the street in L&D at the hospital getting checked out. High blood pressure, swelling, and crazy reflexes had the doc concerned so he sent me for some blood work. I really still thought I'd be heading home shortly. Silly me. My labs came back with protein in urine, slightly elevated liver labs, and my blood pressure was still high. They admitted me "for the night" for observation.

Here I am 5 days later!! And I will be here until the bebes arrive!

I was diagnosed with mild to moderate preeclampsia. Luckily none of my labs or blood pressure have been way off, so as the doc says, I am just 'teetering' on the edge. Things are good as long as they stay as-is, but I guess with preeclampsia things can change quickly - so that's why they are keeping me here.

The NEW target baby date is next Friday, April 12th!!!! Woo hoo!!!! I will be 37 weeks, which is considered full-term for twins (and maybe all babies? I dunno). And at 37 weeks, they are much less likely to need NICU time than if they came earlier. So, that's my goal... lay in this hospital bed and keep these kiddos growing.

I'll be eating a lot too. The bebes weighed in at 5 lb 3 oz and 5 lb 6 oz yesterday, but I'd love to plump 'em up a bit more.

The hubs has been amazing, as usual. He has stayed up here with me every night; we've been watching season 1 of Revenge, and tonight we're moving onto Mad Men. Haha! This is the last week we will be able to lay around watching TV so guess we better take advantage of it. We've been blessed with flexible jobs, so as I sit here on my laptop approving AD creative and finalizing details of an Open House, he is sitting next to me working on customer reports and scheduling meetings. Although I'd much rather be at home, someone is definitely looking down on us!

My parents came up here on Saturday to hang out with us and spent the night at our house. It was much appreciated! They took Laila back to Houston, brought us dinners, and spent Easter morning chilling in the hospital with us. We are lucky to have so much amazing support from our families, and I know everyone is as anxious to meet the babies as we are.

Well, back to laying down I go!

Excited for tomorrow - since I can't make it to bible study, the girls are going to come up here and we'll have it in my hospital room. haha! Maybe I should order us a pizza.. yum! It's bad, but I am already tired of this hospital food. Although the grilled cheese is pretty legit.

I need to put more pics up here. I'm going to take a new bump pic tomorrow and try to upload some of my new camera photos as well.

Camera

While I don't plan on becoming some crazy photographer (let's face it, I am usually the last person to whip out my camera at events...), I do want to capture memories as we grow our little family. And my digital camera just wasn't cutting it. A few years back, I purchased a Canon Powershot XS500  from Best Buy. I can't even really remember why. It's heavy, and while it does have the potential to get some good shots, I just never put the time into figuring out the settings. Essentially it is just a digital camera - no extra lenses or special features at all.

The Hubs and I were both blessed with unexpected bonuses and a great tax return for the year, so we decided to treat ourselves to one thing each! We make really smart (in my opinion) financial decisions, so its very out of the ordinary for us to splurge unless its for a special occasion. I decided a DSLR camera would be my splurge.

Here's another thing... the last time I made a big purchase, I didn't make the best choice. Last summer I reaaaalllly wanted road bikes. I thought I would become this super cyclist and love the sport, so we went out and bought two brand new Trek bikes. While we did enjoy riding them every once in awhile, it just wasn't a passion. And then I got pregnant. So, last month we sold them on Craigslist - and while we did get a big chunk of our money back, we definitely took a hit. It was a 'live and learn' moment in my books.

When I told Justin I wanted a camera, you should have seen the look I got. "Um, are you sure?" ... "Yes. I mean I think so, yes! Yes, I do!" haha. SO. After checking out all these entry-level DSLR cameras, I decided not to jump to one of the higher-priced options just because they looked cool. I set my budget at about $700, which I knew would get me a perfectly capable camera. After talking to Tess, she told me about camera package deals at Costco. We have a Sam's Club membership, so that's where we went!

I basically had three package options in my price range. The packages came with extra lenses, so I could have chosen from any camera below, if I wanted the camera, only:

• Nikon 3000 - $500 
• Nikon 3100 - $600
• Canon EOS Rebel T3 - $580
• Nikon 3200 - $770 *** Out of budget, but I thought twice!
• Canon EOS Rebel T3i - $798 ***Out of budget, but I thought twice!

My sister has the Canon EOS Rebel T3, and I have been super impressed with the quality of images she's snapped with the camera. That, plus the fact that I have her 'advice and expertise' at my finger tips, was the deciding factor. The Rebel T3 it was!

I am super thrilled to play around with the camera over the next few weeks before Noelle and Keegan make their debut. Any suggestions on where I should start? Youtube videos, books, websites to learn tricks??