House and Baby Update

So many of you are so sweet asking for updates on these 2 crucial events in our life right now, so I thought I would give everyone an update. Below are some up to date pictures of our house. They are so close to finishing the exterior, then they will be onto the fun stuff on the inside which will go very quickly! It will not be ready before the girls get here, but it's making great progress and turning out even better than I expected. I absolutely can't wait to bring our girls home to this house. As far as the estimated finish date, we are unsure at this point. We are hoping to be in by the first of December-ish, but you never know with inspections, etc. if that will work out. I figure at this point, we are in no rush so I'm not worried about when the exact finish date is. Truth be told, the only reason I'm shooting for December is so I can hang our stockings on our new fireplace mantle. :)

Sorry my iPhone takes horrible quality pictures, but this is obviously the front totally bricked and almost finished with the rocking. We will have one more rock column to the far right of our front porch.

The front entryway to the house. I'm really pleased with how the rock and brick look together.

And our outdoor fireplace in progress! We will have a rock ledge underneath it to sit on and sip hot coco by the fire. :)

And the amazing, gravity-defying 32 week belly!

A quick update on the girls:

1. I am 33 weeks today!

2. We had our final ultrasound today. Both of the girls are growing and healthy. Campbell is measuring 4.5 lbs, and Sophie is measuring 4.3 lbs. They both received an 8/8 on some special baby score (??). That sounded great, so I didn't ask any more questions!

3. I have started going in this week for non-stress tests twice a week. This is standard procedure for being 33 weeks with twins. I have to go to the 5th floor of the hospital, and they put heart rate monitors on my belly and record the heart rates for about 30 minutes just to make sure they aren't under any "stress" and their heart rates stay stable. Sophie had the hiccups yesterday for about 5 minutes which was fun to listen to. :) Again, all sounded great with their heart rates!

4. And the million dollar question: when will these girls come out to meet everyone? I have NO idea! It could be tomorrow, next week, or 2, 3 weeks from now. Basically, keep your phones nearby! Kyle and I have agreed that making it to 35 weeks would be great, but obviously very out of our control. Dr. Shanbour seems to think I will make it to 36 or 37. I am doing everything in my power to keep them cooking which basically equates to me doing not much at all. I haven't been put on bed rest by a doctor, but I sorta put myself on a modified bed rest. You can imagine with almost 9 lbs of baby in me that being on my feet a lot during the day doesn't sound so great.

5. Both of the girls are head down and have been since 18 weeks. I am fortunate to have a doctor that is very good at delivering twins naturally (and by naturally, I mean non-C-section, not drugless-BRING ON the epidural). He seems very optimistic that we can stick to this plan unless other things come up closer to delivery. This has been a very difficult decision for me to make, and I may still decide to take the C-section route. I know a C-section recovery is tougher, so if I can avoid it with 2 babies to take care of, this seems like the better option, right? Although a C-section sounds SO easy (see what I mean about difficult decision?). Guess we will have to see what happens once it becomes go-time.

Kyle and I ask that you continue to pray for us and that these girls stay in there as long as possible, so they are big and strong when they decide to arrive.

Have a great weekend! :)