33 weeks 6 days

We are getting down to the last month!!!! Our doctor agreed to induce labor or schedule a C-section (we'll see if they are head-down) on February 28th if I haven't popped by then. So we have an official date! Nick is counting the days, literally. He wakes up every morning and announces the number of days until Feb. 28th. Today he announced only 31 days left!

Here is a picture of me this morning... (yes, that is a maternity shirt that no longer fits)

Diaper Drive

Big thanks to Lisa and Taylor Quinlan for throwing us a "DIAPER DRIVE" party on Saturday!
Friends and family came the the Quinlan house armed with boxes and packages of diapers and wipes for the twins.
The total number of individual diapers raised: 938!
With the twins blowing thru 8-10 diapers per day EACH (apx. 18 diapers/day) we figured these 938 diapers will last us 52 days!!
Thanks everyone for helping us out with the first couple months of diapers!!!!
Now who will be changing all these daipers?

Missing Solomon

Thank you all so much for your wonderful words and support during this hard time. Your emails, calls and cards show us that Solomon was truly loved by ALL and touched many lives.

The past week has been full of tears and heartache, as I'm sure you can imagine. Losing a loved one is so painful- first anger, then regret and denial. The shock is still lingering because it all happened SO fast. We thought we had more time with him. Now we just miss him terribly and we're forced to picture our lives without him.

Today Ethan and I talked about our best memories of Solomon. Ethan read a book called "The 10th Best Thing About Barney" about a family writing down the 10 best things about their cat who passed away. So Ethan and I started a list of the 10 best things we loved about Solomon. We haven't finished the list, but we'll finish it soon and talk about it when we take Solomon's ashes up to the cabin.

The Best of Solomon

In Loving Memory

We will always love you Solomon. You are in our hearts forever.

Solomon Walton: November 15, 2001 to January 16, 2008

As many of you know already, Solomon was diagnosed with cancer just a week ago. By the time we found the cancer he was already in the advanced stages. It was an aggressive cancer and he was getting worse by the day.

The cancer had already spread to his lungs and he was no longer able to breathe well last night. My heart breaks all over again to let you know we said goodbye to Solomon just after midnight last night, and he died in my arms.

Solomon and I have been staying at my parent's house this week while Nick & Ethan are in Mexico. It was just meant to be that he and I had this week to spend together, and I was able to pamper him and be by his side 24 hours a day for his last days with us.

Some of you have called and left messages on my phone, and I love hearing from you. However, I just can't call you back right now. Please understand that I need some time. This came on so suddenly and I'm still in shock and having a very hard time dealing with this.

Solomon's Struggle

Today is a sad day.

We found out Solomon has cancer.

A few weeks ago, just before Christmas, I took Solomon to the vet because his Lymph Nodes were enlarged. He had also lost a few pounds over the past few months. The vet prepared us for the worst- Lymphoma- cancer of the Lymph Nodes, and we were sent home with antibiotics while we waited for test results. The test results came back inconclusive, but the drugs seemed to initially take the lymph node swelling down and give him energy. At that point our vet, and family member, Pierce Fleming, was hopeful that Solomon may just have Lyme's Disease, so we started a treatment for that 2 weeks ago.

Sadly, Solomon has gone downhill in the past 2 weeks and has not responded to the treatment. He's lost his spunk. His lymph nodes are enlarged again. He sleeps all the time, has stopped eating and has labored breathing. Today at Solomon's check-up Pierce felt a large mass in Solomon's spleen. The cancer has spread fast and Pierce suspects it is moving into his lungs. This seems to be an aggressive cancer, as it has developed and spread quickly.

All we can do is keep Solomon comfortable on steroids for the last couple months of his life. We are devastated, to say the least. The tears just keep coming. For the past 7 months I've been waiting and wishing for time to pass more quickly and to see our babies, but now I wish time would slow down to spend more of it with Solomon.

Ethan's first word was "Sa" for his best friend Solomon.

Solomon was our "first born" and we love him like our child.

Solomon's favorite place in the world is the cabin, and I just hope he can see it one last time.

It just doesn't seem fair for such a young, beautiful, loving dog (family member) to leave us so soon.

We love you Solomon.

30 weeks

The first blog of 2008 is starting the year off GREAT!

We hit the 30 week mark yesterday and had a fabulous ultrasound this morning.

Twin A is weighing in at 3lbs 8oz. and twin B is at 3lbs 9oz. This is a few ounces over the expected weight for this age! We are thrilled to have healthy, heavy babies. Their heads are measuring about 11 inches in circumference and their head-to-toe length is about 16 inches long.

I can't believe I already have a total of 7lbs of baby in me right now...and we still have 8 weeks to go (at most). From this point forward the babies will each gain about 7 ounces per week, for a total gain of almost 1 pound of baby per week.

Here is the ultrasound picture from this morning. Look- you can see HAIR on their heads! Don't jump to conclusions though, boys have hair too. :)