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.