2 1/2 More Weeks...

It’s been a rough week. I previously had been feeling pretty good, all things considered, but over the past week I’ve really gone downhill. Lots of contractions, lots of aches/pains/swelling, and I feel like my belly has been stretched to the limit. I’m happy the girls are doing well, but I don’t know what’s gotten into them over the past few days – they’re going crazy in there! I got a video of baby A yesterday trying bust out of me. Here’s a link.You can’t see her on the other side, but baby B seemed to be having a dance off with her.

Today we had our 34 week ultrasound. I thought going into it that if I honestly told the doctor all the things that had gone on this week (vs my normal “I’m okay” response) that she would likely go ahead and do a C-section today assuming there was little risk to the girls in doing so.

So she walks in and took one look at me and then says to Luke “She’s really looking pregnant!” and then turns to me and said “and by that I mean you look like you’re miserable!” I took that as my opportunity to give her my laundry list of reasons I’m uncomfortable and not thinking I’ll make it to Thanksgiving. After all that she told me she still wants to aim for the Monday or Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It sounds like unless my water breaks before then, she’s not going to budge on that date.

She did acknowledge that making it to 34 weeks was a big accomplishment, but she wants the babies to be able to go home with us right away which is much more likely at 36 weeks. I can’t really argue with that. It’s a little frustrating though because a month ago she would have been thrilled to just get me to 34 weeks, but now she’s getting greedy and wants to keep pushing it. *sigh* I know it’s for the best though.

Bummer of the day - looks like the girls’ birthday won’t be 11/11/11 (unless something happens over the next few hours).

Good news of the day - the girls are now up to 4 lbs 10 oz and 5 lbs 3 oz. We also learned that they have hair! Here’s to hoping it helps disguise how large their heads are by comparison to their bodies!

I have some tests at the hospital on Monday and then will go back to my doctor next week Saturday for another ultrasound. I suspect that will be the last office visit before my c-section (if I make it that far).

Nearly 9 Pounds of Baby!

Today we had our 33 week ultrasound. The girls have now grown to 4 lbs 5oz and 4 lbs 7oz.  I’m so happy that they’ve both crossed the 4 pound mark and are continuing to do well. It's also comforting that they're close in size again. If it had gone the other way, that could have earned me an emergency c-section. We're proud of them for continuing to share!

I asked about the meds that I’m on to keep the contractions under control and whether there was any risk to the babies being on it. No risks that they’re aware of, and it’s actually routinely given to newborns to help their breathing right after they are born (it’s meant to be an asthma/breathing medication). So that was good to hear – I was a bit paranoid because it seemed to be the contraction drug of last resort.

I also asked the doctor about scheduling my c-section and what she was thinking in terms of timing. At 10 weeks I was told that I would deliver at 36 weeks at the latest, which is Thanksgiving Day. Given our previous discussions and the size of the girls at this point, I really didn’t think I’d make it anywhere close to 36 weeks. She wants to plan for the Monday afternoon after Thanksgiving, 11/28, which would put me at 36 weeks and 4 days. I’m glad she thinks the girls and I are healthy enough to make it that far, but I didn’t think going past Thanksgiving was even an option, so I have mixed feelings about it. On the bright side, if the girls stay on the track they’re on, they could potentially avoid the NICU all together and come home with us right away.

I had a rough night last night (admittedly it was my own fault – I was on my feet more than I should have been and I got myself dehydrated), so I was asking if the doctor really thought I’d make it to the end of the month. She basically said she doesn’t know what’s going to happen but wants to try to wait as long as I can. It sounded like she is open to delivering as soon as next week if I really get uncomfortable, but doesn’t want to take them out without having a good reason. She seemed surprised by how well I was doing and mentioned that her partners were trying to convince her to do an emergency c-section at 26 weeks when I was having all the breathing issues.

We go back on Friday for another ultrasound and we’ll revisit c-section timing at that point and get something scheduled. In the meantime I’m still on home bed rest. I asked about whether I was allowed out of the house for good behavior but she laughed at me and said “no, I just told you that you were doing good, why do you want to screw it up?” Fair enough I suppose. She said maybe after next week’s visit I’ll be allowed to leave the house for meals, but I’m not getting my hopes up yet.

32 Weeks!

We’ve reached another milestone today– the 32 week mark. It’s hard to believe that we’re only 2-4 weeks away from meeting the girls. Who knows, they might even try to escape sooner than that (again).

I was supposed to go back to the doctor last Tuesday, but didn’t make it that far. Last week my contractions had been increasing in frequency and intensity. By Sunday night I had 9 in an hour and the babies were barely moving. I tried everything – drinking juice, eating sugary candy, and had Luke talk to them (they usually wiggle around when they hear his voice), but nothing seemed to be working. I talked to the home monitoring nurse and she said to prepare to go to the hospital. She called my doctor and took care of everything and then called back to tell me to head to labor and delivery. It was so nice to have someone else making the phone calls while I got ready.

Of course, as soon as we got 10 minutes from the house the girls started moving again. I was still having lots of contractions though, so we still needed to go to the hospital. I have to say, I’m really not a fan of the night nurses. I’ve had some great day nurses, but, as Luke put it, it’s like the night ones are just asking for me to be an umm witch. Each time after they left the room Luke was telling me he was proud of me for not yelling at them. It was definitely hard to resist! Anyhow, I could go on and on about them, but I don’t want to send myself back into labor so I’ll drop it for now.

After my previous reactions to contraction meds I was very hesitant to take anything this time. The nurse and I argued quite a bit about it – while I realized that the contractions needed to be stopped so I wouldn’t dilate any further (I was already at 1-2 cm), I was very afraid I was going to have the same breathing issues that I had had previously. The nurse didn’t seem to understand how bad it got the last time and I had never met the doctor on call, nor had she seen my charts or anything. The doctor suggested just giving me 1 dose of the medication (it was supposed to be 3 shots each 15 min apart) and then go from there. Fortunately I was able to handle that dose and got another about 45 min later. At that point they put me on another medication which was more of a long term solution. Surprisingly I handled that better than expected and had very few of the “normal” side effects.

So now I have to take that medication once every 6 hours to keep the contractions/dilation under control. The next morning I talked to my day nurse (who was wonderful and an identical twin herself) and she asked if I was expecting to be sent back home. I told her that while I’d love to go home, I’m more realistic than that and knew I’d likely be staying in the hospital until I delivered. I was extremely surprised when she came back and said she had talked to my doctor and she wanted to discharge me but just wanted to see me first.

Luke was so exhausted that day – he got very little sleep Sunday night because he stayed in the room with me all night. He came over to the hospital after work and stayed until about 8:45 waiting for the doctor to come by to discharge me. At that point my night nurse gave me a speech about how she didn’t think I was actually going to be able to go home, so I gave up on it and sent Luke home to get some rest. At 9 she came back in and said the doctor was down the hall and to try to get Luke to turn around. Grrr! At that point I knew he was exhausted and if I went home I’d have to come back to the hospital the next morning anyhow for my tests, so it made more sense for me to just stay another night. The doctor finally came in at 9:30 and said she was ready to discharge me but was okay with waiting until the next day after my test results came in. Fortunately she also said I was ready to be taken off of IV fluids, so I was able to get rid of the painful IV in my hand that night.

After waiting all day to see the doctor on Monday, I wasn’t too optimistic about being released early in the day on Tuesday. Although she had office visits all day, she ran over at about 2 in between patients and put in discharge orders. My mom was visiting me at that point, so I was able to make a quick getaway without making Luke leave work early.

Since my doctor is now out of the office for nearly a week, I don’t go back to see her until Saturday, November 5^th. I’m expecting to schedule my c-section at that point, but I’m very anxious to see whether she wants to do it at 34 or 36 weeks. I guess it depends on how the next week goes. In my first visit with her, her nurse had told me 36 weeks was December 1, so that’s what we kept going off of. Now that we’re getting closer, I think she was actually a week off. By my calculations, 36 weeks is Thanksgiving Day.

I really want to know what I’m counting down to, but I’m not feeling like I’m in any rush to get these babies out of me. I keep reading on the multiples message board about all these women who are so uncomfortable that they just want to deliver and be done with it. I’m looking forward to being able to sleep in my own bed again (I’ve been sleeping on the couch for over a month because it’s the only place I can sleep comfortably and get in and out of on my own), but otherwise I’m happy just hanging out until they’re ready. I know I’d likely have a different response if I was stuck in the hospital, but being at home makes it a lot more tolerable.

Random Thoughts/Updates

So ya know how when you buy a new car you suddenly see other people driving the same model everywhere? I feel like it’s similar with twins. I know it’s just because we’re looking for it/talking about it, but it seems like everyone has some sort of a twin connection. It’s been really interesting to hear words of wisdom from a broad range of people – parents of twins, identical twins vs fraternal twins, siblings of twins, etc.

What’s funny is how different Luke and I approach it. We’re just generally not wired the same way, but I think that’s a good thing. I’m very much interested in hearing about how other twin moms handled the logistics of having 2 babies at once. Luke however is usually focused on understanding the psychological aspects. So he tends to ask about things like how the twins felt about sharing a birthday party or sharing a room or how their parents made them feel unique, or what they wish their parents would have done differently, etc.

It sounds like there isn’t a right or wrong way to do things, but we’ve noticed a trend that identical twins seem to be much closer than fraternals – they seem to operate more as one unit who like the same things, have the same friends, and want to spend as much time together as possible. Whereas the fraternal twins tend to operate more as siblings that just happen to be the same age. Some have a close relationship with their twin, but others don’t. We’re looking forward to seeing how our twins interact with each other.

On an unrelated subject, we’ve been amazed by the outpouring of support that our friends and family have shown. We know things could be a lot worse, but the last 2 months or so have been especially emotionally draining, so we really appreciate everything that has been done for us and all the people that have been praying for us and checking on us.

One of the nice things about being home all day is that I’m much more available for random last-minute visits. For example, during the last 2 weeks, 2 college friends who both live out of town happened to be passing through town for work and were able to come by the house and catch up for a bit. I hadn’t had a chance to talk to either of them in a long time, so it was great having that opportunity.

I’ve been meaning to post about my baby showers for a long time, but hadn’t taken the time to pull together all the pictures. Since the doctor had prepared me for going on bed rest as early as September, my mom and sister threw a shower for me on August 20. Aside from my immediate family, all of our relatives live out of state. My sister made sure everything sent from out of town was wrapped so the family would all be there in spirit. Everyone was so generous – thanks again! Here is a link to the pictures from the shower. So I guess at some point you can’t keep blaming it on the camera, but I don’t think there is a single flattering picture of me in the bunch – yikes! Family & Friends Baby Shower Pictures Link

On August 30^th, Luke’s co-workers also threw us a shower. They really put a lot of time and effort into preparing for the shower. It was above and beyond what I was expecting. They made 2 diaper cakes, bought tons of clothes and strung them along the wall, gave us a nice double stroller, had snacks and a cake and that’s all in addition to the gifts we received from individuals. Luke has invested a lot of time in his work over the past 5 years, so it was really nice for them to show their appreciation like that. Here is a link to pictures from that day. Luke's Work Baby Shower Pictures Link

Speaking of people who have been taking care of us lately…my friend Kelly is a really talented photographer and took a few pictures before we went to lunch last month. She also came over last weekend and did a full shoot with Luke and me. I’m really glad she worked with our schedule and was able to get some pictures before the girls arrive (I’m especially happy I was able to wear something other than a hospital gown in them and I was feeling good enough to move around so it’s not just a collection of pictures of me as a beached whale on the couch). Here is a link to her website where she has some of the pictures posted. Most of them are from last month, but she’ll post the new ones as she has them ready. K. Smyth Photography Link

31 Week Visit

It’s been a busy week. The pressure was definitely on to try to get everything in order before heading back to the hospital. By Thursday afternoon when we left for my appointment just about everything significant on my to-do list had been accomplished and I had mentally prepared myself for an extended stay at the hospital.

I was feeling pretty good about things. I bought lots of maternity pajamas to wear if I wasn’t connected to an IV (wearing just a hospital gown got old real quick the last time) and packed tons of craft projects and stuff to read. I figured that if I was comfortable and had projects to occupy myself then it wouldn’t be so bad. I warned Luke that he’d look ridiculous bringing it all up from the car, but that it was worthwhile if it meant fewer meltdowns later J . I’m sure the UPS delivery guy is trying to figure out what the heck is going on at our house given my newfound Amazon addiction – my way of coping with being tied to the couch. On the bright side, I’m now over halfway done with my Christmas shopping!

So all that to say, I was pretty convinced it was a one-way trip to my doctor appointment. My feet/lower legs have really swollen over the past week which means that I’m likely building up fluid in my lungs again too. Fortunately though I only gained 2 lbs this week. Amazingly that puts my 1 month net weight gain (including the weight I lost in the hospital) at only 1 lb. We were also happy to hear that the girls have now crossed the 3 lb mark – baby A is approximately 3 lbs 2 oz and baby B is 3 lbs 9oz. The ultrasound tech said that it looks like the girls don’t really have room to change positions anymore. Baby A’s head is still serving as a cork in my cervix and baby B is still head down but facing towards my back. I can’t really feel her kick anymore based on her position, but her latest trick is to arch her back and wiggle her butt where I can feel it and see my stomach move. She’s not even out of my belly yet and she’s already sassy…. we’re in trouble! I guess that’s one way to let me know she’s still doing okay.

The doctor asked how I was feeling about making it to 36 weeks. I told her “I thought we decided on 34 last week…” She just grinned and changed the subject. I know it’d be better for the girls if they could hold out an additional 2 weeks, but it really messes with my mental countdown. I have a feeling the girls are going to make the delivery date decision for us, but we’ll see.

Surprisingly the doctor let me come back home after my appointment. She agreed that the swelling is getting worse, but since my weight gain was within the normal range she wasn’t as bothered by it as I would have expected. I have to have some tests run at the hospital on Tuesday and then I’ll have an office visit afterwards to determine the game plan going forward. The doctor plans to put me back in the hospital at some point before I deliver, so it’s more just a matter of when that’ll happen. She will be out of the office for the second half of next week, so I’m expecting to be put in the hospital after Tuesday’s visit so that I’ll be more closely monitored while she’s gone. Although my last hospital stay was no fun, she thinks I would have already delivered at this point if all that hadn’t happened.

So overall it was a good visit this time. I know better than to unpack my bags, but I’m enjoying the additional time at home.

30 Week Ultrasound

It seems hard to believe that we’re already 30+ weeks into the pregnancy. Given how early I started having issues, I kind of didn’t expect to make it this far. We had our 30 week ultrasound on Friday and the girls seem to still be doing well. Since the doctor just did all their measurements last week, we didn’t do them this time.

It’s been over a month since we last got pictures of the girls, so I was anxious to get some updated ones and told the ultrasound tech that I’d love to try to get some 3D shots again if she had time (it was end of the day on Friday, so I knew she probably didn’t want to just hang out if she didn’t have to). She laughed at me, not because of the timing, but because apparently twins are nearly impossible to get good shots of since they’re usually on top of each other or squished against the placenta. Sure enough, the best we could get was the upper half of baby A’s face. Oh well, it was worth a try. It's hard to tell what you're looking at, but her eyes are in the middle of the picture. Still looks bald as can be. I guess we'll have to wait until I deliver to know what (and who) they really look like.

I asked the doctor about whether we had a new goal in terms of delivery date. It sounds like she’s now aiming for 34 weeks instead of 36 because of my breathing issues. If I’m magically doing better at the 34 week mark, then she may push the delivery date back out to 36 weeks, but that is unlikely. Luke mentioned that I was hoping for the girls to have an 11/11/11 birthdate and her first response was to tell me that she wasn’t going to deliver them that day just because I thought it was fun. But then as we talked about it, she seemed to open to up to the idea of it – that would put me at 34 weeks and 1 day. She said she’s working a half day that day, so it’d have to be first thing in the morning if we were going to do that. So it looks like we’re only 4 weeks away (at most) from meeting the girls J

The doctor is thinking that I’ll likely need to be back on hospital bed rest starting after my next appointment (next Thursday) which will continue until I deliver. She is concerned that the fluid is starting to build back up in my lungs again and that my oxygen levels aren’t being monitored closely enough from home. It’s going to be hard to stick to my strict bed rest this week knowing it’s my last opportunity to get things ready at home before the babies arrive. Fortunately there isn’t much left on the to-do list. I just need to be careful because if I start having more contractions or if my shortness of breath gets worse, then I could end up back in the hospital before Thursday.

I was talking to the nurse after my appointment and the doctor came by and told me she changed her mind and wanted me to go over to labor and delivery to check on my oxygen levels. She has already figured out that I’m stubborn and am trying to stay out of the hospital, so she wasn’t convinced that I was actually fine. I was determined to make it a brief trip and did everything I could to get in and out of the hospital as quickly as possible before they could find an excuse to keep me there. My oxygen levels were within the normal range (barely), so I was discharged in less than an hour. Whew – that was a close one!

29 and 29

This week we celebrated making it to 29 weeks (on Thursday) and my 29^th birthday (on Friday). We also had an ultrasound appointment on Friday.

The last week in the hospital I didn’t have any contractions, so I was very frustrated when I came home and started having them regularly. On Thursday I had 5 contractions during my morning hour of monitoring. Since I exceeded the allowable amount (4), I was told to drink lots of water and then monitor again. If I couldn’t get it down to 4 or less then I’d have to go straight to the hospital. I was such a mess for the rest of the day – with the way I was acting you would have thought I was about to be sent to prison or something. I kept telling Luke in between sobs “I don’t want to go back there!” Fortunately I only had 3 the second time I monitored, so I was allowed to stay home. I was pretty convinced that I was going to be back in the hospital after my Friday appointment though. At least this time I knew what to expect and packed a bag to bring to our appointment. I’m on a message board for moms of multiples due in December and over the past week several of the moms had their babies. After reading that, I was very afraid that I was going to get babies for my birthday. Don’t get me wrong, I’m anxious to meet the girls – I just really don’t want them to have to be in the NICU any longer than absolutely necessary.

Friday I woke up in a much better (less hormonal) mood. Luke made me breakfast and then ended up calling in sick for the day. He had had a rough day on Thursday dealing with me and the reality of his non-diagnosis and was just all around exhausted. It was really nice being able to spend a relaxed day together and having someone home with me to help me off the couch! For my birthday he had a pendant made for me – it’s a nest made out of copper wire with 2 pearl eggs in it. I especially appreciated it since it took some planning ahead and life has been particularly crazy lately.

My mom and sister brought over lunch, flowers and birthday gifts. Then Luke and I headed off for the doctor appointment. It was the first time I had been out of the house in a week, so even the car ride was a treat.

I waddled into the waiting room and another pregnant woman asked immediately how far along I was. I told her 29 weeks with twins and her response was “that explains why you’re so huge!” gee thanks – just what I needed to hear. I’m by no means in denial about my size, but you’d think other pregnant women would be a bit more tactful about it.

The doctor’s visit went well. I gained about 5 lbs over the past week, but was still 2lbs less than the day I ended up in the hospital (almost 3 weeks ago). The girls have also gained some weight – one is 2lbs 13oz and the other is 2lbs 8oz. Baby A still has her head wedged against my cervix which I was concerned about, but the doctor said its acting as a cork and keeping them in there, so it’s actually a good thing. My cervix has gotten even shorter, but not enough to earn me a trip back to the hospital. I was so happy when the doctor asked me to come back in a week, I said “So that means I get to go home in the meantime?!?!” She kinda laughed at me for being so excited, but said yes, home was fine for another week but to call if anything changes.

We were hoping to get another set of 3D images of the girls, or at least some good ultrasound shots, but the doctor had somewhere else to be so I figured I shouldn’t push it. Maybe at next week’s visit. We’re hoping they’ll have crossed the 3lb mark at that point too.

We stopped for cupcakes after the appointment and then went out for dinner. It had been over a month since we had last had a dinner out, so it was a nice birthday treat. I guess the upside of being on strict bed rest is that it really made me appreciate all the little things I got to do.

Hello 3rd Trimester

We’re very excited to have reached the 28 week mark. The last few weeks were pretty rough for us, so making it this far before the girls’ debut is a definite win. I’m hoping to carry them for at least another month, but at least now I’m far enough along that the risk of serious long-term health issues for the girls is pretty low. If we can’t make it to 36 weeks, I’m kind of hoping to deliver them on 11-11-11, but that seems like a long way off at this point.

I apologize in advance for the novel of a post below.

I had my 26 week doctor appointment on September 19^th. I had been good about following my doctor’s orders throughout the previous week, but still had been having contractions. Nothing painful and no more than 3 in an hour, so I was within the allowable range, but I still had a bad feeling going into the appointment (I was also still trying to figure out the “really bad news” from my dream a couple days before). I gained another 4 pounds over 10 days, which seemed impossible given I hadn’t been eating much. The ultrasound tech took the girls’ measurements and they came in at 1 lb 15 oz and 2 lbs 3 oz. One baby was measuring 1 day behind my due date and the other was 3 days ahead. We’re happy that they’re staying on track.

The doctor came in and went straight to doing her own measurements of my cervix. We were shocked to see how much it was funneling (basically opening up from the inside) and had gotten even shorter than it had previously been. Within 5 minutes of having her in the room, we were told “I don’t know what your plans for the rest of the day were, but they’re changing. I’m sending you straight to the hospital.” So off we went. The doctor’s office is in the building next to the hospital, so we were over there pretty quickly. I was admitted into labor and delivery and was immediately given a steroid shot to try to help develop the babies’ lungs. I’ve had some pain on my right side just below my chest, so they thought my liver may not be functioning properly so they also began tests for that.

Then they got an iv going to give me antibiotics to get rid of potential infections that could harm the babies if they were delivered right away and they also started a medication to stop contractions and try to avoid preterm labor.

I also had an ultrasound of all the organs on my upper right side. My liver was functioning fine, but the pain was coming from sludge in my gallbladder. Looking back, I think my gallbladder was likely having issues even before I got pregnant, but all the stuff I had been eating to try to gain weight made the problem even worse. So now I’m supposed to continue gaining weight, but on a low-fat diet. If I weren’t pregnant, they would go ahead and remove my gallbladder now since it’s not an essential organ, but they don’t want to risk harming the babies so I need to wait until after the girls are born to have the surgery.

By Tuesday night my doctor was pretty sure things were under control, so I was moved to an antepartum room to continue iv meds and monitoring. The next morning I was walking to the bathroom and my legs collapsed underneath me. I thought it was strange but kinda tried to shake it off. As the day went on and I got more doses of the medication, I started having a hard time breathing. I felt like I had a brick sitting on the middle of my chest. I mentioned it to the nurse and she got my doctor on the phone who agreed to give me a smaller dose. I continued having problems and they had to stop the contraction medication all together because fluid was building up in my lungs. They gave me medication to try to get rid of the fluid and then gave me a different type of contraction med – the kind I had been on at home. Again the same result and so I got another dose of the stuff to get rid of the fluid and was put on oxygen.

In addition to all this, Luke was at his diagnostic thing down the street through most of the day on Tuesday and half of the day on Wednesday. Since it took so much time to get him onto their schedule, I really didn’t want him to miss or reschedule it. I really wanted to be there, not just to be a second set of ears, but also to make sure nothing was left out and to be able to ask them questions directly. Technology is a wonderful thing – Luke left the iPad with me and had his laptop with him in his room. So I was able to be there virtually via Skype. The doctors weren’t sure how the head doctor was going to respond because they had never done that before, but it turned out that he seemed to like it. I think he enjoyed having an audience and felt like he was on TV. At one point he even stopped the conversation and walked over the computer to tell me that “Dr. House is in the house” and then went on to have a brainstorming session with the group. In true Dr. House fashion, he asked everyone what they thought and then told them why they were wrong. Fortunately they didn’t have to do near as many tests as we were anticipating because Luke brought the results of all the work that had been previously done. I was very happy to have him back with me sooner than expected and that he hadn’t had any major procedures done to recover from. They were pretty sure they had identified the problem, but were waiting on the results of one last test before getting to the diagnosis which was supposed to occur the following week. Unfortunately we still don’t have a diagnosis. The doctor called yesterday and explained that while he knows what the problem is, he doesn’t know what’s causing it and just wants to follow up in a few months. So frustrating!

Thursday morning I woke up to someone coming in with a portable x-ray machine to look at my lungs. Then someone came in to do an echo to check my heart. It was a really crazy day - people kept coming in to do all kinds of tests and specialists kept coming in to check on me. After numerous blood draws, an ultrasound of my legs to look for blood clots, another xray of my chest, and a ct scan of my chest, they eventually determined that my heart was in good shape but that my breathing problems were the result of the fluid in my lungs caused by either pneumonia or compressed lungs from the weight of the babies. It was all a bit of a blur – I didn’t entirely know what was going on or how serious it was. They started some iv medication to fight my potential pneumonia but within minutes I was having major contractions, dripping in sweat and could hardly breathe. They stopped the medication and gave me Benadryl to deal with my allergic reaction. I was an emotional mess at that point, but fortunately the Benadryl put me to sleep.

I got another dose of meds in the morning to try to get rid of the remaining fluid in my lungs but after that, the only medication I was getting was the stuff to fight infections. I finally started feeling better at that point. I still needed to be on oxygen, but it was a huge improvement over the previous few days. The pulmonologist (who was brought in from another hospital) came to see me at least once a day each day between Thursday and Saturday. He was able to rule out pneumonia based on my improvement without medications. The fluid seems to have been caused by the contraction medications, so the longer I was off of them, the better I got. The weight of the babies isn’t helping the situation, but I lost 6 lbs while I was in the hospital which they think was the result of the removal of the buildup of fluids.

I tried to convince the on-call doctor over the weekend that I was ready to go home. I at least had him considering it because he called my doctor at home to get her opinion. He came back and told me she basically said “heck no!” and that I needed to wait til she was back on Monday to talk to her. On Monday I feeling pretty good, and was hoping to go home. My nurse on Monday was the same one as on the previous Wednesday and Thursday. I told her I was hoping to go home and she explained how unlikely that was. Apparently I was much worse the previous week than I realized. She said they didn’t want to scare me by letting me know everything going on, but I was very close to being transferred to the ICU. She was right, the doctor was not ready for me to go home yet that day.

I continued breathing exercises and oxygen for most of the week, but was finally well enough to go home without an oxygen tank or medications by Friday. The doctor did an ultrasound before I left and my cervix has gotten even shorter but I’m not dilated at all and hadn’t had any contractions in a week. She didn’t really look at the babies at all – their heart rates stayed in the normal range throughout my time in the hospital, so I don’t think they’re the concern at this point. After a long lecture and making me promise to be on strict bed rest at home, I was released Friday night.

I go back in this Friday, 10/7 (my birthday), for a follow-up and to check the girls’ measurements. We’ll see whether I end up back at the hospital afterwards. Let’s just say I’m not planning any big celebration for that day.

In addition to the babies…

Sometimes I feel like Luke and I are being tested to see just how much stress we can handle before needing to be locked up in a padded cell. Just being pregnant (especially with twins) is exhausting and stressful as it is, but the drama lately hasn’t stopped there.

I won’t get into all the details on here, but for the past year or so we’ve also been dealing with Luke’s health issues. His walking/mobility has been getting increasingly worse and no one seems to be able to give him a diagnosis. We’ve gone to 8 doctors and he’s had all kinds of tests run, only to hear “hmm that’s weird” over and over. We’ve heard lots of theories – MS, ALS, bulging disk, muscular dystrophy, etc. but each time we go down a path, tests come back negative. Although we’re glad none of those things seem to be it, it’s still awfully frustrating to not have answers. In early August we learned of this Dr. House-like diagnostic program at Methodist in the medical center. People come from all over the world to get a diagnosis and the doctor is supposed to be one of the best in the country. After several phone calls from us and Luke’s doctors, he was accepted into the program but had to wait about 6 weeks – it was scheduled for September 20-22. Our understanding was that it was an outpatient program where each day you meet with a team of doctors and have lots of tests run and then by the end of the week you have a diagnosis. We had been anxiously counting down to that week, but as it got closer we were getting pretty concerned about how I was going to manage being there with him and still follow my doctor’s bedrest orders.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also heard that Luke’s mom may have cancer and we were waiting to hear the results of a biopsy. She expected to get the results around September 16^th. In the meantime, we got news that Luke’s grandmother, Grammie, had become increasingly more ill.

In the morning on Saturday, September 17^th, I was dreaming that someone was telling me “I have good news, bad news, and really bad news…” and then I woke up to Luke’s cell phone ringing in the other room. It’s extremely rare that I remember my dreams and given all the stuff going on I was a bit panicked. My first thought was “oh no, Grammie died and Joyce has cancer…” I got up right away and hopped on Skype to talk to Luke’s parents (they live in India). Sure enough, Grammie had died that morning, but fortunately Joyce's biopsy confirmed that she does not have cancer.

Grammie had been sick for a long time, but was so excited about her twin great grandchildren on the way. She and Luke had talked regularly over the past several months. Despite being pretty sick, she didn’t really want to talk about herself, just wanted to make sure the babies and I were doing okay. Baby B’s middle name will be Audrey, named after Grammie. Luke told her our planned names for the girls when he spoke to her the last time. At first she didn't seem to catch on that we had intentionally chosen Audrey. Her response was "That's really become a popular name lately..." but Luke explained our reasoning. He had said all along that he’d fly out to California for Grammie’s funeral if/when it happened, but given that it was on September 24^th and Luke had his diagnostic program that week, he wasn’t able to make it. I’ll add another post to detail the craziness of the week of the 19^th, but it turned out to be a very good thing that Luke stayed in town.

Updated Nursery Pics

At this point we're about 90% done with the girls' room, so we thought we'd share some updated pictures.

Things left on my to-do list:
- The dresser is going to double as our changing station, so I need to relocate the stuff currently on there (except for the lamp) and get the changing pad and supplies set up instead
- Set up mobiles
- Install video monitoring system
- Cover lampshade with fabric
- I've purchased wooden letters for each of their first initials, but I need to paint them before hanging

I have a couple other ideas if I'm feeling ambitious (or just run out of things to occupy myself with while on bed rest) but we'll see what happens. I'm happy with the way its come together so far. I really would have liked to have painted the room, but I think we found a good compromise.

I know the white giraffe kinda fades into the wall - I should have requested that they print him in a darker color, oh well.

There's Good News and Bad News...

I got a call this morning from the nurse at the doctor’s office. She had never called before, so I knew it probably wasn’t a good thing. They got the results of my gestational diabetes test and my blood sugar was 136 but needed to be below 130. I had previously heard that it’s pretty common for people to fail the first test and then pass the second, longer test, so I wasn’t completely surprised. As I started grumbling about it the nurse cut me off and explained that the doctor was willing to ignore the results since I was so close and didn’t have any other symptoms of GD. However, the lab work also showed that I’m anemic and so I need to add yet another pill to my daily routine.

I went in this afternoon for my appointment and was so proud of myself – after losing a pound during the previous 2 weeks, I finally gained 4 pounds. The celebration was short-lived though. Apparently too much weight gain in a short amount of time is a warning sign, so it actually wasn’t a good thing. The doctor explained that it was very unlikely that I had eaten enough to gain that much in 1 week, so it was more likely that I was retaining fluids. I can’t win! Although my blood pressure is in the normal range right now, the doctor is concerned that I may develop high blood pressure which could cause some serious health issues for me. So the fun continues…

Fortunately the girls are still looking good and my cervix hasn’t gotten any worse. Baby B is back to being slightly bigger (I suspect that there was a size difference the last time, but that it got lost in the margin of error) and is actually measuring at a day ahead of my due date. Baby A is measuring at 2 days behind my due date which is also an improvement. They’re now up to 1 lb 12 oz and 1 lb 11 oz. Next visit is in 10 days.

We didn’t get any good pictures of them today, but here is one of the tops of their heads together. I’m not sure if it’s by choice or necessity, but they always seem to stay close together.

24 Weeks (aka 2/3 of the way there)!

Today I had my 24 week visit which included the gestational diabetes test – yuck! I had 5 minutes to down this sugary fruit punch flavored drink and then an hour later had a blood draw to see if my blood sugar had come back down. Early on in the pregnancy Luke told me “wouldn’t it be fun if you had GD and we could be diabetic together for a little while?” Fun isn’t really the word that comes to mind.

We had been told that somewhere around the 24 week mark we could have a 3D ultrasound. The machine in the doctor’s office is capable of doing it at any time, but they didn’t want to do it before the 24 week mark because the babies would still be pretty skeletal looking up until that point.

I asked the ultrasound tech about it and with a click of a button the ultrasound flipped to 3D mode. Unfortunately the girls weren’t really cooperating (I think they were still reacting to the sugar rush), but we got a brief look at baby A before she put her arm in front of her face – she definitely looks like Luke. The face she was making is the same one that I get from Luke when I try to wake him up before he is ready. On the bright side, there is no question that these are Luke’s children (not that we were questioning it before), but I felt strangely sad that they don’t look at all like me. That may change as we see more of them, but it’s a little frustrating since I’m the one who gets the “joy” of carrying them around for 9 months.

The girls are back to lying on top of each other, so there was a jumble of arms and legs that made it hard for us to get a picture where they didn't look like aliens. Hopefully we'll get some better ones in the coming weeks, but for now here is the best one we got.

Since we just had all their measurements done a week ago, the doctor didn’t re-do them today. Fortunately there was no change to the length of my cervix this week, but the doctor wants me back in another week to get everything checked out again.

Follow-up to the Follow-up

Yesterday I had my follow-up to the follow-up appointment. While waiting for the doctor to arrive, the ultrasound tech got lots of shots of the girls (they were finally cooperating!) and took their measurements. That was nice – it wasn’t scheduled for that day, but she had time to kill and figured she’d “play” while we waited. Although the doctor has a more precise way to tell, the way we’ve been able to tell the girls apart throughout the pregnancy was based on their size. Since our initial ultrasound at 8 weeks, baby A has been about 2 days behind baby B in size. I guess baby A had a growth spurt since the previous week because both girls were measuring at exactly the same size this time. They’re up to approximately 1 lb 4 oz. Although the 2 day difference wasn’t significant, I was pretty pleased to hear they’re now exactly the same given how paranoid we’ve been about the risk of twin-twin transfusion.

Here are some pictures from the appointment. The first set is baby A and the second set is baby B.

The doctor was pleased that the medication worked, but still wasn’t real happy with the way my cervix was looking. She doesn’t want to do surgery at this point because she thinks it would likely cause more serious contractions and could send me into labor. She said that if I delivered at this point (at 23 weeks) the babies would have a 90% chance of having cerebral palsy, but that every week going forward that percentage would go down. So she wants me on strict bed rest until 28 weeks when the odds go down to 10%. Although it sounds nice to be off of bed rest in 5 weeks, I think the joke is on me because at that point I’ll be so large that I won’t be able to be on my feet much anyway.

I go back in next week Friday (9/2) for my normal bi-weekly appointment. In the meantime (and likely through the remainder of my pregnancy), the doctor wants me to monitor for contractions twice a day. A nurse came out to the house today to drop off a monitor and show me how to use it. Basically I have to be hooked up to the machine for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening and then for an additional hour if I start feeling contractions in between the normal monitoring times. After the hour, I hook up the machine to a super high tech 56K modem and dial in to send them the results. A nurse then calls within half an hour to discuss the results and make sure I’m doing okay. Although it’s a pain, it is kinda nice to have a nurse checking in a couple times a day. It gives me the opportunity to discuss anything unusual and determine what to do from there.

Follow-Up Visit

We got to the doctor’s office right when they opened on Tuesday and she saw us right away. Based on the ultrasound, it looked like there was no change in my cervix from the previous week. I kept apologizing for the false alarm, but she wasn’t convinced that that’s what it was. She hooked me up to a contraction monitor and saw 1 over the course of about 45 minutes. She gave me medication to try to stop them from occurring and asked to see me back on Friday to see how it was going. I continued feeling contractions throughout the day, but fortunately the medication worked and by the next morning I was feeling fairly normal again – just exhausted.

At the doctor’s visit I was officially put on bed rest. Previously she had had the attitude that she was ready for me to stop working whenever I said the word, but this time it was no longer my choice to make. I had said all along that, at a minimum, I wanted to make it to my promotion to manager before going on leave. Well Sunday (8/21) my promotion was effective and I made it a whopping 1 workday as a manager before going on disability. Not quite what I had in mind, but I guess it works. Since I made it past my promotion date, my disability benefits get even better and I’ll accrue more vacation days while on leave, so that one day was fairly significant.

Labor and Delivery Trial Run

I guess we did speak too soon. All day Sunday I felt really off – I couldn’t quite explain it, but something was weird. I felt really blah and didn’t have any appetite. Then Monday I was more tired than usual, still didn’t feel like eating and started having stomach pains which got worse as the day went on. I kinda thought it was nothing but after hearing horror stories from other twin mommies, Luke and I were pretty paranoid about pre-term labor. Around 8:30 pm Luke finally convinced me that we needed to make a trip to the hospital to make sure nothing was wrong. I felt really dumb because I was so sure it was nothing and figured they’d tell me it was just gas pains or something, but after the doctor’s warning the previous week we didn’t want to blow it off. So off to the hospital we went. On the bright side, at that time of day there was no traffic on the roads so it only took 45 minutes to get there.

When we got there they sent us straight to the nurses’ station in the labor and delivery wing. I was surprised – no waiting room, no paperwork, just wandered straight there. Within 2 minutes of being there they had me in my own room and changing into a gown. Unfortunately we just missed my doctor. It didn’t even cross my mind to call the doctor before we left the house. She said to go to the hospital if we had any problems, so we just got in the car and went. Lesson learned for next time I suppose. So they got me all hooked up to the monitors and then we got to the paperwork. I was really impressed with how smoothly it all went.

When all was said and done we spent less than an hour and a half at the hospital. The contraction monitor didn’t show any significant activity and the on-call doctor was confident I’d be fine through the night. The babies’ heartbeats were normal so it looked like they were okay too.

I did get quite a lecture before we left though from the doctor about the need to slow down. I tried to explain to him that I had slowed down by comparison to my normal, but he didn’t seem to like that answer. It was kinda funny because, as he put it, he has “one like me at home.” His wife had a similar mentality to me when she was pregnant with their twins and although their babies were fine, he didn’t like the idea of me doing the same things she was doing.

They called my doctor before sending me home and she said she wanted me to come in for a visit first thing the next morning for a more thorough look at what was going on.

22 Week Visit

Yesterday we had our 22 week ultrasound. The girls are staying on track (still small but not losing any ground) and have continued to share like we’d want them to. Baby B is 2 days behind where she should be and Baby A is 4 days behind.

Here is the only picture from the visit. We didn’t have much time alone with the ultrasound tech, so all we got was a creepy headshot again from the doctor and we're not sure which baby it is.

I’m not sure if it was just because she was in an unusually good mood that day, but at the 20 week ultrasound the doctor seemed very optimistic about the pregnancy and lack of complications. I kept thinking that hopefully she didn’t just jinx it. Although the babies are doing well, my cervix has now started to shorten, so the doctor warned me to start watching for contractions and to come to the hospital immediately if they started to occur. I’m not sure what they would do at this point if I were to go into pre-term labor, but I’m hoping I don’t have to find out. In the doctors words “It would be really not good if that were to happen.”

We’ll see how things go, but we’re trying to stay optimistic about it all. Hopefully going on bed rest will be easier on my body and will reduce the risk of having complications. I’m trying to make it to September 1 while still working so that I can finish up the remaining projects that are on my plate – I’m counting down the days at this point.

In the meantime, I guess my baby bump has now gotten big enough to where people generally know right away that I’m pregnant. Just about daily I have awkward conversations with complete strangers about it – most often in the elevator at work. Some of the recent gems…

Random lady: “Wow – you’ve got to be miserable, it’s really hot outside”

Me: “It’s not too bad, I just try to stay indoors as much as I can”

Random lady: “I guess that’s what happens when you plan to have a baby in the hottest part of the year. Mine was due in September too, so I understand”

Me: “Actually I’m not due til December…”

After a horrified look from her I clarified that I was having twins

Today I was in the elevator with a food delivery guy who didn’t speak much English

Delivery guy: “Do you have a baby in there?”

Me: “Yes, two actually”

Delivery guy: “Are they twins?”
Is there some other option that I’m not aware of? I’m going to chalk that one up as translation issue.

Breastfeeding Classes

Today we had breastfeeding classes from 9am-4pm. The first 5 hours were for everyone, and the last couple hours were specific to breastfeeding multiples.

The class started by everyone introducing themselves, telling their due date, baby name (if chosen), the reason why we are interested in breastfeeding and the concerns that we have with it. We got the usual reaction when telling the group we were having twins. It’s funny to us at this point because we kinda look to each other like “wait for it….” and then the group gasps in unison and turn to their significant other like “aren’t you glad we’re not them!” I’m just glad we can laugh about it- it doesn’t really phase us anymore.

So around the room the instructor went and asked the list of questions. A lot of the women mentioned that they were concerned about how it would work when they went back to their jobs 6 weeks after their baby was born. It was reminder of how fortunate I am that I can take 24 weeks off after the girls are born. Just about all of that will be full pay and full benefits. The idea of 2 babies is a bit overwhelming, but it’s such a relief to not be stressing about the financial aspects of it. The last couple years of work have really kicked my butt, but now I’m so glad I stuck it out. Anyhow, back to the class…

The instructor showed A LOT of videos to demonstrate what we’d need to do. We kept hearing “use one hand to do….use the other hand to do…” Unless I just haven’t made it to that chapter in the “what to expect when having twins” book, I don’t think you grow an extra set of arms when you deliver twins. Luke and I kept looking at each other like hmmm….how is that going to work.

Then, towards the end of the first class the instructor says “a lot of times when babies are born early, like 36 weeks or earlier, they don’t have the muscles developed to be able to suck, so you can’t breastfeed them the normal way. But that shouldn’t be a problem for most of you.”

Since we know the girls will be born at or before 36 weeks, this was pretty frustrating for us. So we just sat through how many hours of class only to hear we don’t have enough arms and most of what we just learned doesn’t apply *sigh*

The multiples session was slightly better but seemed to keep going back to “it’s different in every situation and you just have to talk to someone at the hospital and figure out what works.”

I think there was probably some value to the class and figuring out the basics, but I’m interested to see how this all works in reality with 2. I’m SO glad this was our last full day of classes. We have an infant CPR evening class and then I think we’re officially done with classes all together.

The Least Incompetent Father-To-Be

A new voice! The dad! Yes, it's me, and I'm just happy to be here. People keep asking me if I'm scared or nervous, and I don't think I'm any of those things yet. Two pooping machines and no sleep may get me there, but for now I'm just awe-struck. I think that's the difference sometimes: I know it is going to get bad. real bad. So I can sleep in a bit later for now and play my video game just a bit longer...

We went to a class titled "Life With Baby" and it had singleton parents in there as well. We all went around the room saying what our due date is and what the gender is, and it's almost comical at this point. I say something like "yes, our due date is December 22" and everyone goes "awww" and gives us this kind look, and then I finish with "and we're expecting identical twin girls" and their faces immediately flip to horror and between the gasps and the deep "oh my goodness" we've learned to just hold our head high. Not that we're naive, but that we're ready to take it on!

I have to say, I thought I would be totally behind the curve in this class. I'm not necessarily a baby person -- just never really had a need to. However, once I heard that someone in the class pronounced uterus as utter-us, I realized I would be totally fine. I'm surprised that the little bits and pieces I was able to help with nieces actually seemed like a big part of what is coming up! Anyways, we learned some good stuff (this technique where you jiggle the baby and make noises like Niagara Falls either makes them pee or go to sleep), I learned I'm a pretty good swaddler, and I confirmed that I am the least incompetent father-to-be. At least in that room. Im sure I'll be plenty incompetent in the girls' room at 2AM trying to get one of the girls to get to sleep so daddy can finally close his eyes...

20 Week Ultrasound

The big news this week is I hit the 20 pound weight gain goal. It was a lot harder than I would have expected. I can remember being conscious of my weight (and ability to gain easily) as early as elementary school, so it was quite a surprise to me that I’ve had a really hard time gaining. I feel like I’m eating all the time and had to add ensure high protein/high calorie drinks to my daily diet to try to fatten up quickly. Being told to gain weight sounded like a lot more fun in theory than it was in actuality. I always hear of people who are really hungry throughout their pregnancy and just can’t get enough to eat. I tried to just eat when I was hungry for a 2 week period and I didn’t gain anything, so now I’ve had to really force myself to eat whether I want to or not in order to give the girls what they need.

So anyhow, hitting the 20 pound milestone was definitely a victory for me. Now the doctor says I can “slow it down” to 1.5 pounds per week since I’ve caught up to where I needed to be.

The girls have continued to grow at a normal rate and have been sharing like we’d want them to, so we’re in good shape for now. Baby B flipped and is now head down on my right side with her feet up in my ribs. Her kicking is quite painful, but it’s a reminder that she’s doing well. Baby A is somewhat head down as well, but is stretched horizontally across the lower part of my stomach with her head on the right side too. At one point the girls looked like they were boxing each other which explains some of the discomfort I’ve had lately.

Now that baby B has moved, we were finally able to get a good look at her. The first one is baby B and the second is baby A's face.

My mobility has really gone downhill fast over the past few weeks. My back (especially on my right side where I’m carrying ¾ of the weight) isn’t handling the additional weight very well. It’s probably not good for me, but I’ve been trying to push through my to-do list while I still can. I got all the painting (it’s not wall paint – so it doesn’t count as breaking the doctor’s orders…) done in the nursery, which is a relief.

Luke was taking pictures of me as I worked on it last week. Fortunately the tree I painted is well above belly height – otherwise I think I might have kept dragging my stomach across wet paint.

 

Here are the final products. The first picture is the wall that I painted and the second one is the vinyl tree/animals that I ordered off of Etsy. I plan to put the rocker below the tree I painted once it is delivered.

This picture was taken today. It’s funny how my concept of being large has changed over the course of the pregnancy. I felt huge early on, but now when I look back at those pictures I realize that was nothing. I’m sure I’ll feel similarly about my 20wk size by the time I hit my 3^rd trimester.

18 Week Ultrasound

Luke was originally supposed to be on a business trip today, so my parents came with me to this visit. A lot has changed technology-wise since my sister and I were born, so I think they were surprised by how much you could see on the ultrasounds now. The girls weren’t being very cooperative though. Baby B is now not only on top of baby A, but they have their heads at each other’s feet, so it makes it really hard to tell what you’re looking at – especially when trying to look at baby B. We can’t ever seem to get a good look at her because she appears to be behind baby A on the screen.

Fortunately there are still no signs of twin-twin transfusion. The girls are still lagging a bit in size, but don’t seem to be losing any ground. They’re still about 3-5 days behind where they should be size-wise. I asked the doctor if we’d push back the December 1 delivery date goal to let them grow a bit more but she said they seem to be developing just fine, they’re just midgets (I don’t think she means that literally – just that they’re tiny like their mom). She compared it to getting your driver’s license, saying "If you're 16, you're old enough to drive- it doesn't matter how big you are. 16 is 16"

Anyhow, here are new ultrasound pictures – at this rate we’re going to have a full photo album before the girls are even born! These are both of baby A and look a bit creepy because you just see her skeletal face. The ultrasound tech assured me that they'll look more normal once they fatten up a bit. The first one is from a top-down angle.

Marvelous Multiples

Today we went to our first class at the hospital. It was called marvelous multiples and was an 8 hour class focused on things like nutrition during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and relaxation (which apparently I’m really bad at…). Similar to the MOMs group, it was mostly couples having fraternal twins. We all had different doctors, so it was interesting to hear the differences in information that we had been given.

Part of the class was a tour of the hospital. There was a decent amount of standing/walking between looking at the different rooms and nurseries. I get tired just taking the trash out, so it was more than I was prepared for. My back had been bothering me already that day from sitting so long, and about halfway through the tour I was digging in my purse looking for the Tylenol. It quickly got worse and people started asking if I was okay. I tried to fake a smile and said I was fine, but apparently I wasn’t very convincing because one of the women in the class went to the instructor and asked for a wheel chair to get me through the rest of the tour. Embarrassed and in pain, the tears started coming. Although I was definitely the shortest in the group, I was the least far along out of every one, so I was very frustrated that they were doing just fine and I wasn’t. I’m quickly realizing that bed rest is coming sooner rather than later.

In the afternoon a guest couple came in to talk to the group with their identical 10 month old twin boys. Like our babies, they had shared a placenta and had been warned of the possibility of twin-twin transfusion. It sounded like she hadn’t received any special treatment during her pregnancy and they were surprised when the doctor wanted to deliver at 36 weeks. Although the babies were born with a weight difference of almost a pound, the smaller one caught up in size pretty quickly (I think she said within 3 wks?) to the larger one and they had been exactly the same height and weight ever since. I was comforted to hear that the pregnancy and delivery was pretty normal. The boys spent some time in the NICU because of their small size but hadn’t had any major health issues. After the MOMs group story earlier in the week, it was good to hear of someone with the same situation as us that ended up with 2 healthy (and very cute!) babies. The things that this couple had been surprised by/unprepared for were things that we were warned about very early on by my doctor.

Our next class is in 2 weeks to learn about “Life with Baby.” That one isn’t specific to multiples, but I think most of the stuff should still apply. Fortunately its only 5 hours long, so hopefully I won’t make a scene in that one.

MOMs Group Attempt #2

Tonight I went to my first mothers of multiples (MOMs) meeting (I found the right group this time!). It was good getting to know some other moms of twins as well as some other women expecting.

It was strange though because I really expected to feel like my pregnancy was normal after talking to them, and that just wasn’t the case. There were some positive differences, like everyone else was talking about terrible morning sickness which I haven’t experienced, but for the most part it just made me realize a little more that it’s not just having twins that is making my pregnancy a high risk.

There was a large turnout, but very few others in the room had identical twins. I know that is statistically the case, but seeing it seemed somehow different from reading the odds in a book. With fraternal twins you don’t run the risk of twin-twin transfusion, so most of the people I talked to had normal length pregnancies whereas I already know 36 weeks is the longest mine will go. Everyone else I talked to has continued going to their normal doctor, has stayed on the same ultrasound schedule as a singleton pregnancy, and had or will have their babies in the local hospital. While I really enjoy being able to see my babies every other week on the ultrasound, I couldn’t help but think it’s probably not a good thing that those measures were taken so early on. I feel good about the quality of care I’m getting by seeing a specialist, just a little scary knowing it was necessary for me but not for all those other people.

Before I left I was talking to a mother of identicals. Hers were in separate placentas, so her pregnancy was very similar to the fraternal moms. She did mention that there is another mom in the group who was pregnant with triplets that were sharing a placenta and developed twin-twin transfusion. They did the surgery to try to split them up and thought it was under control, but she ended up losing one baby in delivery. *sigh* I know the woman I was talking to was trying to let me know that there was someone I could talk to if we started to see the signs of it, but hearing about someone losing one of their babies wasn’t really what I wanted to hear in that moment. I’m very aware that it’s a possibility, but we’re trying really hard to stay positive.

I went home with mixed emotions – on one hand I met some women that I can see getting to be friends with, having play dates, etc. but on the other I was really saddened to realize that the person whose pregnancy mine most resembled was someone who lost her baby. I think it’s going to take me a bit to shake that off.

Crib Assembly

Today we made a lot of progress towards getting the nursery ready.

Putting together the cribs turned out to be more of a labor of love than I had anticipated. There didn’t seem to be a large volume of pieces and there were only 6 steps to the directions, but that was deceiving. The worded portion of the directions was pretty vague, saying things like “step 4: attach the side rail to the left and the right ends.” There was a diagram under each step showing what pieces needed to come together to make that happen. Sounds simple enough, until I realized that the pictures of the pieces (particularly the placement of the holes) didn’t match up to the pieces I had in front of me. After lots of trial and error I eventually got them all to fit together, only to realize that I still had a bag of 30 screw locks left over when I finished. There was no mention of these in the directions (not even in the listing of parts), but there was a small piece of paper in the bag that said “You MUST use a screw lock with each screw.” So annoying! I must have done the equivalent of putting the crib together 6 times by the time I was finished.

By the time I finished the first one I finally had it all figured out – the second one went MUCH more smoothly (which was definitely a good thing because I was on the verge of a temper tantrum at that point!)

Although we’ve known for a couple months now that we’re having twins, it was quite the reality check when I stepped back and saw 2 cribs in the nursery and immediately pictured a screaming baby in each one. We’re looking forward to having the unique experiences that having twins will surely bring, but wow….2 babies…at the same time…

16 Week Ultrasound & Updates

The girls are still on the small side but are doing well. It was a pretty uneventful visit, but I think that’s a good thing. Here are the pictures from today. The first 2 are of baby A (her head is on the right) and the 3rd is of Baby B's leg. Since she's behind baby A that was about all we could see of her.

So operation decorate is in full swing. I ended up coming home from Vegas a day early – it’s not a fun place to be when you’re pregnant. I get tired really easily now, so I wasn’t up for much walking and the smoke in the casinos really bothered me. We saw a couple shows which was fun, but I really just wanted to get back to the house to get started on putting the nursery together.

I actually ordered bedding sets before I knew for sure that we’re having girls. I found a good sale on the sets that I had picked out and figured I could return them if I was wrong. Fortunately I was right, so I was able to jump right into accessorizing. Since I’m not allowed to paint the walls, I ordered a large vinyl tree with jungle animals that will adhere to the wall to coordinate with the girly jungle themed bedding.

The bedding came with valances, but the window in the girls room is really tall, so it needs some long curtains as well. After lots of looking I gave up on buying ready-to-hang curtains, so my mom and I picked out some fabric and she’s going to make some for me (the sewing machine isn’t something I’ve mastered quite yet).

Anyhow, so we’re moving right along with the decorating. The cribs and mattresses have been ordered and are on their way to the house and I placed an order for the dresser and rocking chair. Those will take 8-10 weeks, so hopefully that will give me some time to get everything else done with less furniture in the room to work around.

Although I have to take frequent breaks, this is definitely the fun part for me. I really enjoy trying to figure out how to pull it all together to make a cute/unique/functional room. I don’t think Luke quite has my “vision” figured out, but he’s willing to go along with it - trusting it’ll look good once it’s all completed. We’ll post some pictures once there is something to see.

Here is the latest picture of my rapidly expanding belly...