Welcome to our most precious Elle Taylor and Taylee Jean Smith!

After 36 and 1/2 weeks, millions of injections, ultrasounds, exams, and lots of anticipation, and a bout with Cholestasis in the final 24 hours, our beautiful daughters Elle and Taylee entered this world at 10:22 PM on 12/29/09 by C-section. They each weighed 5lbs 7 oz and had APGAR's of 9/9 and 9/8. Melissa did great and was an instant Mom! The babies are perfect, healthy, but pretty sleepy so far and trying to learn how to chow down. The outcome is better than we could have ever hoped for. As you can see, they are pretty dang cute!

Nesting...or trying not to go stir crazy!

I though I would share with you my new found hobby...crocheting. My aunt Bonnie came over a week ago to show me some of the basic stitches. I started with a washcloth, which did not turn out very well I must admit. I decided to move on to a hat to see if I had made any progress. I am happy with the way they have turned out, now I am just hoping that they will fit.

33 weeks

Well I can't believe that tomorrow we will be at 33 weeks. I can't believe that I have been at this whole bed rest deal for 2 weeks now. I promised some of you that I would give you the update after my last appt (Tues). It turns out that I don't have much to report. The doctor decided not to check me based on the fact that it could start me into having contractions again. The non-stress test showed that I am still contracting, but not nearly as much as I was when I was admitted to the hospital. So, I am just continuing with the same medication and have a follow up appt. on Tuesday.

32 1/2 weeks down

Well it has now been 1 week since I have been home from the hospital. It is much nicer being in my own home vs. the hospital. This weekend was great as we got permission to go to Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house. It is the one year that I did not have to participate in any of the cooking or clean up (I do feel a little guilty). John made his yummy garlic mashed potatoes which were better than ever. Over the weekend, John has managed to put up all of our Christmas decorations between taking great care of me. I couldn't ask for a better husband. Thanks to my aunt Bonnie who came over yesterday to teach me how to crochet. I think I might finally be starting to get the hang of it. Well John is back to work this week, so hopefully it remains an uneventful week. I have a doctors appointment and another non-stress test tomorrow. We are hoping for no new surprises.

Yeah!

Good News, I get to go home this afternoon. We had another non-stress test and an ultrasound today. I am still having some small contractions which will probably continue to happen until the babies are delivered. The babies looked great on the ultrasound, both weighing in at 3 lbs 11 oz each. We of course would still like to see them get bigger before they are here, but we are excited that they are getting close to 4 lbs.

Hospital Food

Why is it that hospital food has to be so bad. They talk about nutrition being such a big part of patients being able to heal and recover quicker, so why do they make the food so bad. Saturday I had a menu dropped off to my room for the entire week. I just have a hard time thinking that Pork Tenderloin with apple creme and lemon cous cous could be any good coming from a hospital cafeteria. Fortunately John has been able to keep me from becoming too hungry. I thought I would share a picture of what was suppose to be a chicken wrap for lunch. John was helping me get everything all set up for lunch and pulled off the lid only to find a little chicken breast. We had a good laugh.

Well now for the update of the day. I was hooked up to the non-stress test twice yesterday and the last time didn't really show any contractions at all. I have also been stable as far as not dilating anymore. They were going to send me home last night but realized that I was due for a regular ultrasound and non-stress test today and figured that it would be easiest just to keep me here overnight, get the testing done and then send me home. Keep your fingers crossed for an uneventful morning. I am sure Thanksgiving dinner isn't any better here.

Update

Well, we have made it through the weekend without having to deliver the babies. Isn't it crazy how exciting it can be just to make it through another day. Sunday was a bit more eventful than what we had planned on, especially since we thought we were going home on Saturday evening. I started contracting again yesterday morning and was quickly sent down to Labor and Delivery for further monitoring. Fortunately they were able to stop the contractions and I was able to return to my regular room. The only problem with going down to labor and delivery is that they stop all food and drinking as well, so I didn't get to eat all until 4:00 p.m. yesterday. I swear they are trying to starve all of the pregnant ladies here. Fortunately, the girls are still doing well. They don't seem to be stressed at all even with the contractions. They are getting pretty tricky and like to wiggle out from under the ultrasound probes during the non-stress tests. We are so excited to get to see them, but would rather have them get a bit bigger before we do. Thanks to all of you who have been inquiring about how we are doing and for all the prayers.

Bed Rest

Well I guess we all knew there was a good chance that I would land myself on bed rest at some point in time during this pregnancy, I was just hoping it was not this soon. Yesterday I went in for my routine appt and found that I was 80% effaced, dilated to 1 1/2 and was contracting every 2-3 minutes. That quickly landed me a bed in the hospital. Fortunately they have been able to stop the contractions at this point and I have already had 1 dose of steroids to help mature the babies lungs. I am not exactly sure how long they are planning to keep me here, but figure my routine at home isn't going to be much more exciting. I guess on the flip side, I will be able to keep the blog updated more often to try to ward off my boredom. We are just praying our little girls have a few more weeks to mature before making their big debut.

Baby Showers

Thanks to all who threw us some amazing baby showers over the past 2 weeks. Our little girls are already spoiled and they aren't even here yet (and we are hoping that they don't come too soon). It is so fun to see the nursery coming together. I guess it makes everything seem a lot more real. I have uploaded some of the pictures of the bedding. Thanks to my mom, Bonnie, cousin Morgan, and cousin McKenzie for the amazing quilts and bed skirts.

New York

Chelsea Piers...Interesting driving range

Chocolate by the Bald Guy....Best chocolate croissant ever!

New York Stock Exchange

John and I spent last week in New York. We figured that we needed a vacation before the babies get here. We had a great time being tourists. We were able to see Ground zero, Statue of Liberty, Battery park, Central park, 5th avenue, and Canal Street. The best part of all was being able to visit with Krystle and Raleigh. Thanks for showing us a good time!

Celebrating Fall

Big Belly at 26 weeks!

John and I took a walk up City Creek Canyon yesterday. It was so pretty to be able to take in all of the beautiful fall colors. I drive past City Creek Canyon almost every day on my way home from work, but we have never actually taken the time to walk up the canyon this time of the year. It was spectacular.

Time to Vote

As most of you know, John and I are expecting twin baby girls on January 22, 1010. We have entered a contest with the radio station 97.1 ZHT (www.971zht.com) called the baby bump contest. There will be 3 winners in all. The grand prize will be a “dream nursery” from Babinski’s Baby and the 2 runners up will get a $200 gift certificate to Babinski’s Baby. The winner will be based on who gets the most votes overall. So we need your vote! Please go to this website: http://www.971zht.com/pages/babywatch09/ Click the button next to ENTRY #68, enter you email address and click on the Vote Now button. I have attached a copy of the picture that we submitted in case you don’t want to scroll through all of the other entries. Thanks for your support and feel free to pass this on to your friends, family, and co-workers. We will take all the votes that we can get. Voting ends on September 30 at 12:00 p.m.

Thanks a bunch!

John & Melissa

Wasatch 100

This weekend John and Mike ran the Wasatch 100 Endurance Run. I think you have to be somewhat crazy to even consider taking on such a task. The race started at 5:00 a.m. on Friday and they allot 36 hours to complete the race. The race consists of running up and down several mountains to take you from Kaysville to Midway. Karen and I were in charge of crewing our guys! We had a lot of fun doing it. John unfortunately had to pull out of the race at mile 53 due to dehydration (down 10 lbs) and big blisters on his feet. Congrats to Mike who finished the race with 21 minutes to spare. I am so proud of John for making it 53 miles. Most people wouldn't be able to run back to back marathons, especially one that goes up and down mountains. Good job guys!

Baby Nursery Contest

So...we decided it would be fun to enter a baby bump contest to win a your dream nursery from Babinski's Baby or $200 gift card for 2 runners up. We thought we would get creative to see if we could persuade your vote. Voting begins on September 18 and ends on September 30. You will be able to vote online at www.971zht.com. I will keep you posted when I know what number I will be listed on the web site. We just thought that it would be funny to share with you the "final project". John did a great job being my makeshift tattoo artist. Maybe he has a new career in his future.

Meet the twins

Meet the babies. John and I had out 20 week ultrasound yesterday and it looks like girls!!! I guess Riley's streak had to come to an end at some point. We are so excited. Now for the hard part...picking names.

Mesquite

So...I know we have been big blogger slackers lately, but I guess we have been pretty busy. Last week, we went on the annual Smart Family Golf trip to Mesquite, NV. We had a great time. John got to golf to his hearts content and I was the big BINGO winner $250!!! Here are a few pictures from the trip. We will try our best to keep the blog updated from here on out.

Tales from Costa Rica

In the mist of cooking up some yet to be determined offspring....John took off to Costa Rica for a week of surf lessons (a.k.a. "surf camp") with his brothers Tom and Joe. Sadly, my skills only improved marginally, but progress was made. The waves were great...small at first and slowly building during the week. The experience is drastically different than our usual day to day grind at the hospital.

So, while Melissa was home enduring lots of what we fondly call "pokies" (shots), John was surfing and fishing. All of this leads me to a new Costa Rican "tale", a superstition if you like. It turns out that if you or your spouse is pregnant...you wont catch a Marlin..a fact that I only found out after the fact when my brothers and I spent a day fishing. Sure...we caught some small stuff, but when we actually saw a large sailfish right next to the boat and maneuvered to get it interested in our bait...it just headed the other direction! That is when the guide let me know this little known fact of Costa Rican lore! My brother Joe reminded me that it is why they call it "fishing" rather than "catching... Regardless, we had a great time.

My only cell service was if I went to a particular spot on the beach in the evening and stood very still so I could talk to Melissa every evening. I would send her these pictures of the sunset and wished that she was sharing it with me. I am ever hopeful that the costa rican superstition holds true..and we will know in a few days if that is the case.