36 weeks ~ LAST sono pictures and UPDATES

jannettebasham.blogspot.com

I would be in bed but since I have to wait for the dryer to be done I figured I'd be productive rather than get all comfortable in bed and want to cry when I hear the dryer buzz.

I had my last sono today and got some cute pictures of my squished babies. I think it's time they start sending that signal to my body that they need to come out! Poor things! Gavin had his foot up to his forehead and his butt or privates pressing against Camia's face the entire time.

Me: My left kidney is down to mild and my right is about the same at Moderate/Severe. I am only dilated to a ONE! Figures. But that is a good thing right now I suppose since Daniel will be gone from the 4th-9th of January. I now have a little more peace of mind that I'll make it through this next week just fine. My doctor scheduled me to be induced on January 17th. So that is the new due date I will be telling people when they ask. With any luck though, I'll go sooner. 17 days just sounds WAY too long right now. So much for having little babies! I'm going to have two solid 7 pounders! I haven't been sleeping well for 3 nights in a row. I feel fine though, no pain or anything. Just heavy and uncomfortable. So I roll from one side to the other every 30 min! At least Daniel will get some good sleep for a week!

Camia: 5lbs 11oz and her head is still down still like a good girl. She was yawning and opening her mouth a lot so it was cute to see her do that. Her face is really pressed up against the membranes AND Gavin's butt or privates. Poor girl. But she is active, healthy and catching up to Gavin on weight!

Gavin: 6lbs 3oz with his head up still. Don't think that is going to change in the future so we are going to try for vaginal birth with Camia first and then try to turn Gavin. There is a chance I may have to have a C-Section after Camia is born. But it's worth the try I suppose! Gavin had is foot up to his forehead and his head squished in to his belly. I feel so bad for them!

Here are the pictures I got today.

Gavin:

Look at those cheeks!
The best face shot we could get of Camia:

Camia with Gavin's butt pressed against her face, thank goodness there are membranes between them!

34 week Pictures

All you facebook friends and family have seen these already but I forgot to post them to my blog and got some requests for pregnancy pictures. So here they are! These were taken on my Birthday, my sister Mariah bought me this shirt, and this is the only outfit I have that fits me, ha ha. So every time you see me I will most likely be wearing this!

Hospital

It's amazing how things can change in just one minute! I was having a great 34 weeks, going to parties and actually making it through them!

Saturday however changed my good streak. It started out fabulous, I rested pretty much all morning and then went to see Canberra and Seth get their next belt advancement. Then we went to the Basham's Christmas party about 4;00 and I found a comfy seat and stayed there pretty much the entire time. When it was time to get up however, I had the stretching pain under my belly, something I had not had for several weeks. This threw me off a bit, I could hardly walk even! Went home and got right in bed. I had bad pain in my back and realized that I hadn't been to the bathroom since about 1:00pm that day! That was about 7 hours! I had plenty to drink all day so this was weird! I tried to go and just a little bit came out. With my back hurting so bad and NOT going away with laying down I called the on call Doctor and was told by the answering service that my doctor said to go into Triage. So to the hospital I go at about 9:30pm.

I got monitored and they put in a catheder (not cool) to see what would come out. Not much at all. Did a bladder scan to see how much was still in my bladder and there was still a lot in there. That was pretty much the end of that. They monitored the babies for a while and the babies were fine and active and they told be to go ahead and go home and to call if I got any pain. Never saw the doctor on call. Grrr. I was so tired! I got home at about 12:30 that night and was just exhausted.

At 4:00am Sunday morning I woke up to burning contractions. BAD ONES! Not the solid hard pain contractions, these were burning my belly top to bottom! They lasted about 4 hours. All the time I had the phone in front of me trying to NOT call because I didn't want to go back. I knew my doctor would be on call startigng at 7:00 that morning so I was really trying to wait until then to call if I needed to. Every 3-4 min I got one and it was miserable. They started to slow down about 7:00am and I went to get back in bed to see if I could sleep. I slept for 2 hours and got woken up with another burning contraction. So I called my Doctor. And of course she told me to come in.

I got to the hospital at about 11:00am. I only got 2 more contractions. One on the way there and one at the beginning of my being monitored again. My back however felt great! I had no back pain! Still wasn't going to the bathroom as I often as I should have been so they put in a long term catheder. Ok, so I'm done with the catheder thing really, that is just torture. Did another bladder scan, blah dee blah dee. My contractions stopped of course, babies were fine of course, no back pain of course. What is it about getting to the hospital and all your symptoms just go away so you look like a liar?!? Still, my doctor hooked me up with an IV to get some major fluids in me to monitor my urine out go and told me to stay over night and get some tests done in the morning. So off I go to my room, which I shared with someone. A LOUD someone. I just started to cry because I was so tired and I wanted to sleep so bad! It was about 4:00pm. So I had a ways to go before visiting hours were over, but she kept the TV on the entire night! They also wouldn't give me my sleeping medicine until 9:00pm! Needless to say I was awake until after 10:30pm WAITING for this sleeping pill to WORK! I was back and forth all night.

6:00am they came in and took out my catheder and my orders were to go to the bathroom 2 times and if there was enough "void" I could go home. 9:00am came and they woke me up to take me to my sono to get a growth on the babies and make sure they were ok. I went to the bathroom first and did a fabulous "void". It felt so good (not to gross you out on details) but it had been a while since it felt that great! Got to the sono and once again it was fast. But babies were just fine. I will post baby info at the end. After the sono (about 11:00am) they took me to get monitored again... uh just had a sono, the babies were fine... there was NO order for another NST... tried telling the nurse that and at about 12:30 it clicked and she said... "oh, I just can't find an order for this, I'll get you back to your room" DUH! I sat there in a wheel chair for almost 2 hours! Then I got back to my room and waited for the on call doctor to come for the next step. Which she didn't until after 5:00pm! I did get to sleep for about 2 hours! I didn't get home until around 8:00pm. All that just to pee 2 times. What ever.

I thought I'd sleep good last night BUT, with my WORKING bladder I was up every 2 hours on the dot going to the bathroom like a normal pregnant woman. Yippee! So yes, I am tired. Very tired. I have 11lbs of baby in my belly and now, even being in bed in uncomfortable. I really don't think I will make it to 38 weeks. I can't even imagine doing this that long. I am rolling from one side to another every hour it seems because my legs fall asleep. I don't sit longer than 30 min due to my back/kidneys and standing is about the same due to my feet swelling. So we shall see what the next 2 weeks brings! I have my next apt AND sono on December 31st.

I think that is enough on the negative... I try not to be negative I'm sorry. I'm really NOT complaining, just saying it as it is and how my weekend was. I really do LOVE feeling the babies inside moving around and knowing they are ok. I love wearing maternity clothes and seeing my BIG belly! I LOVE knowing that my body is making little babies... it's amazing to me, I just stare at my belly and think about that all the time. So to the fun stuff... the BABIES!

I am 35 weeks...

Gavin: measuring in at 35 weeks and 1 day ~ 5lbs 15oz ~ 14% bigger than Camia ~ Chubby cheaks and BIG belly. We saw that he had HAIR also. Not a lot but it was there. He is actually head UP now, the stinker and had his butt right in poor Camia's face. His face was hiding behind hands, arms, legs ect so we couldn't get a good picture but we did see glimpses of him and his chubbiness. He has plenty of fluid still and his stomache was full and heart was perfect.

Camia: measuring in at 34 weeks and 2 days ~ 5lbs 2oz ~ We could have gotten a better picture of her had Gavin's butt not been in the way but this is all the nurse got (she didn't try very hard to get a better picture). Camia's heart was perfect and tummy full also. Saw her hair again and got another very clear confirmation she is a girl. She also has plenty of fluid and is still a good girl with her head down!

Both babies were very active and healthy.

Here is Camia and Gavin's butt (round bump covering half of Camia's face lower Rt. corner)

Shane's 8th Birthday

Shane said "It was the best Birthday ever!" We ate pizza, opened presents and then decorated gingerbread man, girl and baby sugar cookies. I made them from scratch and the butter cream frosting. Yumm! I must say they were SUPER yummy! We made Shane 2 really big ones and then there were the next size down girl and boy and then a little baby one. Each kid got to decorate about 3 of them. It turned out really nice. They had fun and really didn't make a mess. We had red hots, mini M&M's, pull and peal twizzlers, red green and white frosting, red and green sprinkes, Christmas color nerds etc. It was great. Those who attended were: Papa and Grandma Great, Papa and Grandma with the fishies, Grandma Basham, Aunt Tanna and Macey, Aunt Mariah and Savanna, Mason, Vanessa, Prudence and Piper, Ethan Ardis, Logan, Berlin, Michael Jones, Sydney, Canberra, Zander and Seth.

Roller Coaster!

I am going to type so fast so I can get through all this as fast as possible so please, sorry for the misspelled words and incomplete sentences.

FIRST - UP and DOWN: Our van. I re-posted it on Craig List and within 2 days I got a few inquiries. The first one didn't work out but then the second was fabulous. They loved it right away and wanted to buy it the following day that they saw it... Cash. Great! That was easy enough. Until I went to get the title and found out my bank that we got the loan through was a Virtual Bank. The title wasn't in Tucson or even in Arizona! Nice. So I got the step by step LONG process of fees and phone calls and wiring to be able the get the title here the following day via overnight FedEx. The buyer was fine with that. Great, perfect. They paid in cash and the money was wired and posted to the account. Everything was great. Until the next day when the overnight package didn't arrive and the company said they have no tracking on it and has no idea where my title is. Not great. Not perfect. So I have to pay for another 3 day permit for the buyer and pray the title comes in today. Yes the company got an ear full from me and gave me my money back for the overnight fees. But that is just ridiculous! The poor buyer was waiting at the bank on her day off all day for the thing! I feel so bad for her!

SECOND - UP: We went to the dealer ship the night that the van was paid off in search of our new family vehicle. We were not in a hurry but had a 9 passenger Suburban in mind and went to really dissect the truck to make sure it will fit everyone comfortably. No rush. They showed us a beautiful silver blue metallic truck. LOVED the color right away. They told us to drive it that day for a few hours and come back. So we did. LOVED IT! Felt comfortable in it right away and it felt like it was part of our family already. The sales man Mike already quoted us a payment. I told him our payment max and he called back with... our payment max. How about that! No back and forth a million times! It was so easy and stress free! So we knew we could afford the truck from the beginning which made it easy for us to fall in love with it so quickly. We went back that night and in 1 1/2 hours the paperwork was done and financing set. The financial man always tries to get people to buy extra stuff and so I told him... if you can make our payments the SAME I'll get the extended warranty and GAP protection. A $3,000 upgrade. In about 5 min.... He did. So we have GAP and a 75,000 mile 6 year bumper to bumper warranty and our payments actually went down $1. On top of that.... we actually financed about $2,000 LESS than our initial 0% apr deal. How about them apples! We got the call the following night that our financing did go through with no worries. We have great credit scores so that helped out great. Daniel was around 735 and mine was a 764. I love having excellent credit! So we drove our new family truck home that night!

THIRD - UP and DOWN, UP and DOWN - The DOCTOR APT: The babies seemed to be healthy, active and growing just fine. Both heads are down! Tummies were full. The babies have plenty of fluid around them still. Pictures... not so great. A doctor came in to "observe" and so she couldn't play around as much and take the time to get a good shot like she wanted to. Just my luck! We did get some pictures that I will post but I am so not happy with them :-( Oh well, a few more weeks and I'll see them for real. I GUESS I can wait.

My doctor told me that if I show up pregnant to our January 11th apt that she will induce me on January 12th if I am so uncomfortable. But NOT before that. So really, feeling great right now is a blessing because if I was miserable she would NOT take the babies... I would be on bed rest! I feel so blessed to be feeling energetic with no pains! Another issue is if I don't have the babies in December we are pushing our luck on having them when Daniel is out of town at orientation in Chicago from January 4th-9th. We keep saying with our luck lately I will go into labor on the 4th right when he gets on the plane. I hope that's not the case but it's VERY possible it could happen!

Back to the sono... They checked my kidneys... Left kidney is worse... it's at Mild to Moderate and my Right kidney is very worse... it's at Moderate to Severe now. Can they hang in there 5 more weeks!!! My blast! There is nothing they can do about it either so it's just a matter of playing the waiting game to see what happens with them. All that's really in store for me is PAIN PAIN PAIN if it keeps getting worse. As far as I understand there is no risk to the babies. But I am going to ask my doctor a bit deeper on the subject to make sure I understand better. Right now I am feeling fabulous, I can get around with no more cervical pain or stretching pains. My only issue is first thing in the morning (every morning) I feel like I am in full labor just to go to the bathroom... Now I know why! It's my kidney problem, so I won't expect that to go away. I don't feel heavy or weighed down, I can do pretty much anything, but I still try to lay down when ever I can. I really really feel great. However, I start to get worn down about 3:00 and I can't sleep well at night unless Daniel rubs my hands or back or something for a few minutes. Then I can sleep good. That's it for me in a nut shell.

While they were checking on my kidneys they noticed that CAMIA has HAIR! How CUTE! I was on my right side away from the screen so I didn't get to see it but Daniel did! It wasn't a bunch by any means but it was there floating around! We got to see her moving her mouth like she was sucking on a pacifire or something. It was so cute! GAVIN still has his cute chubby cheeks although he was hiding his face with his hands the entire time! We got a few peeks.

Baby A - CAMIA: Measuring right on time at 32 weeks 3lbs 14 oz.
In comparison from 1 month ago: She was 2lbs 8 oz.

Baby B - GAVIN: Measuring the same at exactly 32 weeks and 4lbs.
1 month ago he was 2lbs 13oz.

Again, I gained my consistant 4 lbs. Glad my body likes to be consistant like my brain ;-)

So here are the pictures we got this time :-(


Camia was spooning Gavin and so her face was pressed right up against the membrane separating them. The first picture the nurse was pressing on her to get the picture so her nose and face are squished. The second picture she took she tried not to press so hard, but Camia moved so we didn't get a clear shape of her face. However, it is very clear she has my nose shape and perhaps my chin. But these 3D things pick up other things in around the baby that really, this only gives you a slight idea of what they look like.

This isn't the best shot of Gavin but you can see one little chubby cheek and his two hands covering his face. The nurse commented on how long his fingers were! At one point he even had his toes up to his forehead!


So there you go. Our roller coaster of a week. What a way to start December!

Thanksgiving weekend was our pet rat Mia's 1st birthday! We love her! She has been a wonderful pet and hope she stays with us more years to come!

28 week update

Baby A ~ Camia ~ 2 lbs 8 oz right on 28 weeks. Head down and heart rate 133 bpm. Growing perfectly. Placenta still nice and thick for her. She is just a bit smaller than Gavin right now.

She was still looking down but she didn't have her hands covering her face this time so the nurse was able to get this front view. She got some other shots of her side profile but unfortunately I was in room #3 which meant.... OLD Computer. So no fun pictures this time :-( I go back for another growth on December 3rd and it's scheduled in room #1... NEW computer! :-)


Baby B ~ Gavin ~ 2 lbs 13 oz which put him at 29 weeks. He mainly has LONG LEGS the nurse said. His head was up and heart rate at 154. He's always been faster than Camia's. proves that old wives tale WRONG about the heart rates! He also is growing perfectly with his placenta nice and thick also. This picture shows a more front/side view of him. She said it showed his chubby cheeks!

Me ~ Bad and good news. Bad is that my right kidney is as big as it was 2 weeks ago. Good is that it hasn't gotten bigger! I have gained 22 lbs this pregnancy, which is on the lower side for twins, from the last visit my weight gain has been exactly the weight gain of the babies. So that's nice. I have all the rest of my apts scheduled for this year... crazy. Every two weeks. I took the glucose drink today but the nurse didn't come up to draw my blood in time so I have to take it again in 2 weeks. I was going to go to bed but I drank all this water at dinner and I figured I'd be up in an hour anyway so I decided to just stay up and get this posted for all those who care :-)

Quarters and Dimes

Grandma Basham bought all the kids these enormous (to say the least) Halloween cupcakes. We saved them to eat on Halloween night since we do not participate in the normal Halloween activities. These cupcakes were like 3-4 in one with frosting like 3 inches high! I wanted to puke when I saw them but we just told the kids to eat what they could and that they didn't have to eat it all. Which they couldn't of course. ANYWAY what brought me to post this is because Sunday night when we were decorating sugar cookies they were talking about the big cupcakes Grandma brought them. Shane said while frosting a cookie, "I only ate a quarter of my cupcake." Seth in deep silent thought for about 15 seconds then said VERY seriously and with a sigh, "I only ate a dime of mine." I still can't stop laughing about it. Leave it to Seth. I love what that boy comes up with. A few other classic that come to mind from Seth are these:

Friday April 11, 2008 - "My butt is burping!" "look Mom.. Yogurt is lotion!" As he walks in covered in yogurt. "No Seth... it's not." "Yah, it's sticky."

Tuesday, October 21, 2008- While helping him blow his nose, I was checking to see if we got it all out. I said "oh look, we have some sticky boogers still in there" and Seth said in response "I can just get them out with my finger." Yes, yes you can Seth, but lets use the tissue instead. It was just funny because he said it so seriously like there was no problem with that and as if he did it all time!

Canberra the poor little girl woke up with a runny nose Sunday morning. So we just went to Sacrament meeting and came home to have Primary here. That's what we've been doing when we hear half the people coughing at church. Only this time it was because of poor Canberra. Thankfully it's only been a runny nose which I think is due to the 2 days of literally freezing weather we had then it turning back to the 80's. Dang weather. Fingers are crossed it stays as a cold My Doctor will be calling me back today. She is staying in her room and playing in there so, as she put it "she doesn't get the babies sick". She is so thoughtful!


In her new shirt from Grandma and Papa great... she loves the sparkles!

Painting her birdhouse she got from her Birthday.


Here are some random pictures from the last two weeks.


Canberra has started Karate. She is in Seth's class and Shane is a helper teacher in the class. She loves it and is so excited to be able to learn Karate! She gets her white belt as soon as we give the ok. She has to say "yes Mam and yes Sir". Which she has been doing better that the boys ;-)


Zander didn't want to be left out...

Shane and Seth's school pictures...

Canberra's 4th Birthday Party

Canberra had been so excited for WEEKS about her party. She loved coloring her invitations and handing them out herself to her friends. Thank you Lis Bell for the adorable picture... once again!

The morning started off bad for me. I had a lot of pain in my lower abdomen when ever I walked so I got a slow start to getting things ready for Canberra's Birthday. But it all worked out perfectly in the end. Thank goodness. I made her cupcakes, Daniel and I stuffed over 50 balloons with candy and prizes, I made frosting and frosted her cupcakes, did some minor decorating when Daniel came home with the balloons and got myself ready. All VERY slowly!

We waited for all the guests to arrive and started to open presents first. Every gift was so thoughtful and Canberra loves every one! She used her new cleaning set to sweep up crumbs in the kitchen and used her vacuum. She came into the room where I was lying down and said... "I'm 4 now, I can help you clean." She played with just about everything she got that evening while the boys were at Karate Belt Testing. She put on all her dress ups, colored some pages, played with her magnet wooden dolls, HAD to put on some "lips", She put her PINK car in a safe "secret" place so the boys won't get it, the works. Today we will play the butterfly catch game when Zander wakes up from his nap.

We then played a game where the kids popped the balloons we filled to get their prizes. I only have one picture because I video taped it all. We had Canberra do the first one and as soon as her balloon popped the rest of the kids could pop. Canberra picked a balloon that just would not pop. It was funny and the kids loved it. So she went to another balloon and it popped right away and the LOUD fun began! Popping, screaming, running kids everywhere! A couple of kids got a bit nervous from the loud noise but in the end everyone shared a candy and prize with the girls that didn't get any. So everyone was happy.

After the game we sang Happy Birthday and had cupcakes and "mommies yummy dessert" which is really my Grandmothers recipe changed just a bit. It's my kids favorite! The cupcakes I made just so happened to turn out the exact number to spell out Happy 4th Birthday Canberra on them. I was so proud of myself. They were pretty darn good too!

All in all, it was a fun Birthday and Canberra had a blast. That night I asked her if she had fun and she said "I had a lot of fun, all my friends where here. I have a lot of friends." Such a sweet girl would have a lot of friends. We love you Canberra! To those who came: Aunt Tanna, Jordon and Macey, Aunt Mariah and Savanna, Grandma Basham, Grandma and Papa with the fishies, Grandma and Papa Great, Emily, Prudence, Piper and Martin, Sydney, Natalyn and your brothers Shane, Seth and Zander THANK YOU!! And to Wei, Mason and Vanessa... thank you for the Birthday wishes and sorry you couldn't make it! Sorry for the spelling errors, I am typing fast so I can get back into bed!

I really LOOOOOVE my kids!

I WAS going to lay down all morning but my brain didn't let me. I ended up figuring out Shane's 8th Birthday invitations instead and looking up "buses" online for our next vehicle that we have to purchase in the next 2 months. Ended up with a Ford E350 in the burgundy red color. We have to go look at them first. It's NOT our dream car but it will be much more comfortable for the kids as they get older than the Expedition. It's also about $6,000 less expensive. The only down side is that there is only one side to get into the van. So we will have to see if that will work for the twins. We don't get the take in and out car seats... we just get the ones that convert from 5lbs to 40lbs. Save's us some $$$$.

What brought me to post was that since 8:00am this morning (it's now 11:30) Zander and Canberra have been in their own little world together. First, they brought all their baby dolls from Canberra's room into the playroom by baby stroller, lined them all up with blankets and bottles for their picnic. Then continued to get their food ready on plates etc. No crying, pulling hair, screaming, movies, yelling, NOTHING! They are SO CUTE! It's been a fantastic morning! Why couldn't my brain just LET ME SLEEP!?!

Camia Star Basham INFORMATION

I thought I'd do some research on the name we picked out. It started with Kamea, which is Hawaiian. The meaning was wonderful! But the pronunciation was Kuh-may-uh. I didn't like that as much. I liked it with a kuh-ME-uh. (or Kaa-MEE-uh) however is easy for your mouth to say. So I did some playing around and came up with the spelling Camia. The pronunciation from my research is just how I wanted it to be.

We also like that we will have a Canberra and Camia for our girls.

I think that looks positively adorable and PERFECT for sisters!

On top of that, it's interesting because they have similar meanings. In one Turkish definition of Camia they state that Camia is "a society or group of people who have JOINED TOGETHER to pursue a common interest." Canberra is an Aboriginal word meaning "meeting place".

We chose Star as her middle name. I had a great friend in high school named Star. She is beautiful, outgoing, creative and always made friends with everyone! I've loved her name since I met her! I've always tried to get Star as a middle name for our girls, even Canberra Star but it wasn't what Daniel liked at the time so we put it aside. Now we know why. It was waiting to be Camia's middle name, and what perfect timing!

We chose Gavin's name a while back and his middle name is Knightly. I know it's not "night" in the "correct" form to go along with "star" but saying the names sound so cute together and I think it ties them as twins beautifully! So we have:

Gavin Knightly
Camia Star

Don't get me wrong, I am sad about Serene. I LOVE that name and I felt it fit my image of her perfectly. Everything about the name. But I also wanted Daniel to be happy with his daughters name. Serene will ALWAYS hold a special place in my heart for a name. I think it's beautiful!

However, I am VERY happy with Camia Star. It feels right and I CAN picture our daughter with that name. I think it fits into our family and Daniel really really really likes it. In a percent form... Serene was 100%. Camia is 99.99%. That works for me! When I see her, I know that will change to the reverse. So here is what I found on our Camia!

Camia is a rare and endangered Philippine flower.

The flowers are very fragrant with a smell like Jasmine and Hyacinths.

Some information regarding Camia as a name:

Camia (Butterfly Lily) – Gay of heart and light of head

Most people would imagine a person with the name Camia to be: Tall and a flawlessly beautiful lady

In one word, you might describe Camia as a "beautiful" person.

Camia is Latin - Said to have been used in reference to young female ceremonial attendants in Ancient Rome.

NaMes! nAmeS! NamEs! nameS! NAMES!! BAHHH!

With all our children we've been able to agree immediately on an name once one of us has said it. Once we KNEW that was that. There was no looking for other names. I said Shane Charles one afternoon and bang that was it, Seth came after seeing the name 2 times and on the third I KNEW! Seth Rankin was his name! Canberra took a few days when Daniel said it and Larae came as her middle name a few weeks later since we already liked it. Zander I KNEW no matter what that my next boy was going to be Zander, I had his name picked out when I was pregnant with Canberra, Quin came about 3 days before he was born from a movie I saw that day "Rein of Fire." Now my situation right now is that I LOVE this name Serene Adelaide BUT it is not the same for Daniel. I do not like that we don't feel the same BUT at the same time I feel deep down this is her name. Am I wrong? Is there some reason Daniel doesn't like it that I am completely missing? When I found the name Serene we were actually looking for a middle name for Kelia. It was late at night, we were both in bed talking about names... at least I was talking, Daniel may have been half asleep. I came to the conclution that a good middle name for Kelia should start with S. So I was sounding out the sssss sound and Serene just slipped from my lips. I've never used that word before, I knew what it meant of course but never use it in my vocabulary, thought that was strange it would be the first S word to come out. We liked that for a middle name for Kelia. The more I thought on it the MORE I didn't want to HIDE such a beautiful (I thought) name in a middle name! So I started thinking of middle names for Serene! We came to Adelaide. Which I love because it involves my mission to Australia. Daniel has a hard time with it because of the RENE part in SeRENE. He's ok with Serena but I think that's too long and it's too common for me. I just can't get around Serene. Why is that!??! It was the middle of the night when I found Gavin's name! Daniel liked it right away. We always like Knightly but I didn't want the ly as an ending in our boys first name. I've always like Gavin since my mission and we've always considered it with Gavin McAndrew, never thought to change the middle name... dah! Till that night I thought Gavin Knightly and whah lah! That was it! I got an immediate smile and that was that! I poked Daniel and asked what he thought and immediatly he agreed. Why couldn't that happen with Serene? Does Daniel need more time? I needed a few days when he suggested Canberra but my blast it's been months! Am I wrong to keep pushing it on him? Why do I feel so dang strong about Serene and he doesn't? It's just not fair. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to list out names we've considered for our children over the years.

Boys:
Knightly McGregor
Knightly Coleman
Zander Darius
Graham Carter
Cameron Rankin
Connor
Blake Anthony
Gavin McAndrew
Timothy
Tanner
Rankin
Tucker
Shane
Zander William Darius
Peyton
Nathan
Parker
Zander Maddox
Jaydon
Landon
Jake Allen
Brady

We came up with: Shane Charles, Seth Rankin and Zander Quin

Girls:
Athena
MaKenna Larae
Daesha (ha ha, in just jokes we were going to do Daesha and Knightly)
Anaya
Alaira
Kirralee
Carly
Canberra
Kelia Eden
Kelia Elise
Cieli
Serene Adelaide
Serena Elise
Alaira Serene

We came up with Canberra Larae and ............. .............???

I'm sure there are more but these are what came to mide right off. I just had to get this off my chest! Any comments or suggestions PLEASE tell me!

Thoughts and Feelings

I love my life! I really do! I am very happy right now and very content. I have an amazingly wonderful husband that loves me inside and out. All my moods and all. And he loves me after knowing me longer pregnant than not since we first met!! He love me even when I get crazy ideas like painting my computer room/nursery PURPLE and goes out with me to buy the paint, knowing HE'S the one who is going to have to paint the room! I have 4 fantastic, well behaved, healthy, smart and happy children. With any luck 2 more just like them on the way. I love my tiny little house. I can clean it top to bottom spotless in 4 hours! It's perfect, we all fit in it. It keeps us safe and cool in the summer and warm in the winter, it's clean and organized and well, just perfect! We have all the necessities we need and plenty of the things we want as well. I have the best family, extended and all. I love my small circle of devoted friends. I love my husbands job! It was given to us by Heavenly Father I KNOW it! It has been a joy in Daniels life! He LOVES IT!! He comes home happy! He leaves for work happy! He works with wonderful people! Now who can say that about their job? I get to stay home with my children! I get to take them to school and pick them up and hear about their fun day. I get to experience all my children's firsts. I am the one who cleans their boo-boo's and wipes their tears when they get hurt, I'm the one who makes sure they are eating correctly. I get to see the funny and not so funny things they do through out the day. It's fabulous! I am so lucky! I wouldn't have it any other way! I am just SO HAPPY! Life is wonderful! Without the bad things that happen we would never know we were experiencing the good things. I acknowledge the good that is happening right now, with full knowledge the bad will come one day. But we just take it one day at a time. I can go on and on, but I'll stop. Today... is excellent!

Pregnancy: Despite having all my energy sucked out of me by 11:00am every day, I feel... like a pregnant woman with twins should. I can't walk without a limp due to strain on my stomach muscles (so I waddle). But at least I can walk! I don't get that hungry really. Hence the fact I've only gained 9lbs in 21 weeks! But I do eat and I eat healthy. I know the weight will be revealing itself here shortly :-) I LOVE feeling these babies move around. It's so cute! The KIDS love feeling the babies move around too! They are constantly giving my belly (the babies) kisses and hugs (or pushes). Sleeping is uncomfortable and it takes me a good hour or two to settle down (usually with the help of my husband massaging my hands or something) but at least I get sleep! I do get plenty of sleep once I am settled.

I guess that sums up what's been on my mind lately. I feel very peaceful with my life right now. It's a great feeling.

All the sono pictures from today's visit CONFIRMING we've got a GIRL and a BOY!

Daniel: "Yee Haa!"

Today's visit went great. Both babies cooperated perfectly. Heart, brain, head, belly, spine etc. all came out perfect. They are BOTH healthy and active and growing as they should be! What a relief! They both had their heads facing down and Serene was spooning Gavin. She was right up close to him. I didn't realize they were that close together! If I were her I'd be behind him also, it's much safer there than getting kicked in the face like she was before! It does feel very normal for us to have twins. We call them twins when talk about them and it just comes out naturally. It's really nice.

Here is Miss Serene:

Here is Mr. Gavin: Another side view of Gavin... The front of Serene was hard to get to because she was facing the other side of the belly.
Here is Serene "spooning" Gavin:

Here is our sono CONFIRMING Gavin is a boy... not that we needed but thanks for showing us again Gavin :
Here is our sono CONFIRMING Serene is a GIRL... Your Daddy REALLY appreciates you being cooperative today :-) I already knew deep down inside you were a girl.

More details on the Dr. Visit today with more Sono Pictures

I went in today because of pain in my lower abdomen. The exam turned out normal and everything looked great. She sent me in for a sono to check the length of the cervix and that was nice and long. Perfect. My wonderful doctor doing the sono checked to see if we were having boys or girls. We went to baby A first and didn't see anything right away. It was in a fetal position with legs crossed. So she went on to baby B. As soon as she got the light on that baby he flashed everything to us! There was no mistake he was a boy. We took some cute pictures of him and went on to try baby A again. Still stubborn and had not moved at all, through much pushing and wiggling, we were able to come to a conclusion that it was a girl. We saw the three lines and never saw anything hanging out. So I'd say we have a 100% boy and an 80% girl. We will find out a confirmation on the 10th when I go get the anatomy done. I have to say... this is what I've thought all along. I kept calling baby A a girl. I wasn't too sure of baby B but I had the feeling it was a boy. What a nice way to have my last baby. One of each. We have the names picked out already however, Daniel isn't 100% on the girls name. But I am. So if by some divine intervention, I get another named yelled at me, these will be their names.

So to introduce you...

Baby A (right side) ~ Miss. Serene Adelaide Basham



The fetal position with her hand over her head...

It's a girl! We think...


This is a picture of her mouth




And to introduce you:

Baby B (left side) ~ Mr. Gavin Knightly Basham


They were a ying yang position, so Serene gets kicked in the head by Gavin... Oh, and he's a boy.


For Aunt Tanna who loves baby feet: Here is a picture of Miss. Serene's foot.