So, lots has been going on and I'm sorry to everyone who has been waiting to hear news.

I was supposed to have a babies shower on the first of August, but the lady who was throwing it wanted to wait until she got some more address from me of people who I wanted to invite. So Chuck and I were going to go to my parents' house that weekend anyway to stay and spend time with them. Plus, I wanted to go to Kid's Korner and show all the kids and ladies my giant belly. Chuck said he didn't think it was a good idea because of how far along I am, and last time I went home I ended up in the hospital a couple of times because the cat's dander affected my asthma. I'm now on asthma controller medicines, but he still thought it was a bad idea. So, we didn't go. Instead, my parents came up and visited with us for a bit, and Chuck and I got married. It was a very small ceremony, maybe 20 people tops. I will be posting a link to a website where you can see the pictures. We got married at Stone Park here in Sioux City at one of the overlooks. It's actually where we first said "I love you" to each other, so we thought it was fitting to get married there. A friend of Chuck's was the officiant, and he wrote a beautiful ceremony. Chuck read it before but I didn't want to, I wanted to be surprised. For my flowers, I picked them off of some local landscaping here. I didn't have money to buy flowers, and free ones were sitting right there! It's not like it was someone's garden, that's different. You can see in the pictures how very pregnant I am.

After the ceremony, some of us went to eat out at Hu Hot. It's a Mongolian grill buffet. They have good food. Since they cook everything next to each other on a big circle grill, it's always interesting to see what random food item you get that you didn't put in. I got a piece of baby corn, and Chuck got a snow pea pod. Then, my parents had to go back to Laurens because my dad had to go to work.

Other than that, I have been having appointments and now twice every week we go to the hospital to do non-stress tests on the babies, to watch their heartbeats and movement for an hour to make sure they are fine. On Monday, we went in for one such test. Well, I sneezed and the monitor moved. The nurses freaked out and started talking about how there was something wrong with the baby's heart. There was nothing wrong, I just sneezed and the baby was moving, so all of that meant that they couldn't find the heartbeat again. Well, they called a doctor, and he said I better stay overnight. Just in case. Whatever! I was not happy about that. I know they are just being careful, but even the nurse who called the doctor said they were being too careful. Basically, they were covering their own asses just in case something did happen. So, they did a short ultrasound and the ultrasound tech said they are fine, but they made us stay over night anyway. This meant that I had to try to sleep with these three monitors strapped to my belly. I couldn't sleep all night. The next day, we had an ultrasound in the hospital with the specialist doctor to check the babies. The ultrasound tech measured the babies and told us the weights: almost 5 lbs for little baby A (the moving troublemaker from the night before) and almost 7 lbs for bigger baby B. We also learned that baby B has some hair! That's so cute! The doctor talked to us about the babies, and he did an amniocentesis - which is where they take some of the baby's amniotic fluid for testing. I was scared for this part because I was picturing a needle about the size of a straw being injected into my belly. The needle was actually a lot smaller than that. It was long, compared to most needles, but it was thin. Before the doctor did it, he said that getting your belly button pierced hurts more, and he was right. I was still scared though, and I kept my eyes closed during it. Then we went back to my room, and we had to wait for the results and to talk to the doctor. After about 2 hours, they told us the preliminary results that the baby's lungs (baby B) weren't mature. If they had been, I'd be having babies that day or the next. They only tested the one baby because she's bigger and if her lungs are mature then the other baby's are also. So she's the standard, sorta. Then after we got the preliminary results, we were told we had to wait another few hours to find out the extended results, and to talk to the doctor. Well, lo and behold, the extended results were the same and we never did talk to the doctor. We ended up being in the hospital for over 24 hours when we went in initially for an hour.

I have another one of these non-stress tests today and I'm nervous. I don't want to stay over night! It was horrible. I didn't sleep, and one of the nurses was kinda spiteful about that. When we got back from the ultrasound, I laid down and turned off the lights because maybe I would get to take a nap. Then the nurse comes in to strap me in again and says, "I bet you thought you were going to get to take a nap!" How rude! It was like she was mocking me! I hadn't slept and here this bitch was telling me I couldn't! I was really worried I was going to have to deliver babies on no sleep. Plus, we don't have car seats, or a working car, or a place for the babies. And all the baby stuff we do have is at my parents' house.

I'm taking out the "Days Until Babies" because we don't know when the babies are coming. I'm going to update it with how many weeks and days I am.

1:47 P.M. - Thursday, Aug. 07, 2008