Here is the same questionaire I filled out last month and I’m sure not much has changed so I’ll do a modified questionaire. Here is another belly shot, I forgot to post it yesterday when I posted the 30 week update.

How Far Along: 30 weeks

Total Weight Gained/Loss: 22 pounds

Sleep: Me and sleep don’t get along right now. I’m up a lot throughout the night either going to the bathroom or just awake. I toss and turn all night just to get comfortable and I’m sure I keep Jonathan awake more than he would like.

Best Moment of the Week: Getting to see a 3D/4D image of our Baby A…too bad Baby B wouldn’t cooperate. I’m hoping we will get a chance to see Baby B in 3D/4D but it just depends on the sonographer.

Movement: They have slowed down in their movement, but are still active. They don’t do as many kicks and jabs but more rolling over and just moving.

Food Craving: Ocean Waters from Sonic.

Labor Signs: I still have contractions all throughout the day but not nearly as many as when I was working. Laying on the couch the majority of the day has definitely helped. They are the same in frequency as they have been the last month or so but are getting stronger in intensity (still not “hurting” really though) Other than that no signs of labor – thankfully!

Belly Button: Ya, I guess I can say I have an outie now

Stretch Marks: So far so good, no stretch marks, hopefully it will stay that way!

Wedding rings: It is getting a little tight every once in a while, just depends on the day.

What I miss: clothes that fit and feel comfortable and being able to just run to the store if I want to.

What I’m looking forward to: getting to see the boys again in 2 weeks and my shower next Saturday

Other NEW news this week: They boys are roughly 3 pounds each!! I’ve got 6 pounds of baby in me, that’s crazy.

We had our 30 week high risk sonogram to get the boys’ weights and make sure everything is good with them and their growth. They checked my cervix and it was the same as it was when I had it checked last so that’s great news. The boys were a little sleepy this morning so they didn’t really cooperate much and were both hiding their faces. But eventually Baby A (Hayden) turned over and we were able to get a profile shot. He did move a little bit so his nose and forehead are a little elongated.

He actually cooperated enough at one point that the technician decided to grab the other transducer out and got a 4D picture for us! You can see part of Baby B (Ian) to the left of Baby A’s head. It will be interesting to see how much this picture actually looks like him when he’s born.

Of course Baby B (Ian) wouldn’t cooperate as well so we couldn’t get a good 4D picture of him. We kind of got a shot of his face but nothing remotely close to what we got on A.

Now on to the other stuff. The boys looked great, they are both growing like crazy. Baby A is estimated at 3 pounds and 4 ounces and Baby B is 2 lbs 12 ounces. Their amniotic fluid levels and heart rates were good. A is still head down and B is transverse again – completely sideways! Baby A has hair, so he takes after me (I had A LOT of hair when I was born) and Baby B has none…poor thing, I guess he takes after his daddy since he didn’t have much hair when he was born (so I’ve been told).

Now I will be getting biophysical profiles (I talked about what these were in an earlier post) every two weeks starting at 32 weeks and then sonograms every week. My life is going to be full of doctors appointments starting in a few weeks. I sure hope Jonathan has a lot of sick time at work to use since I’m not driving and need him to take me. It’s getting so much closer to the arrival of these little boys and I CAN’T WAIT!! Seeing the 4D image of Hayden just makes it even harder to wait.

Jonathan found this video and he says he’s so there. Its all the things first time dad’s, or I guess dad’s to be in general, are searching for on google. I should put together one that shows all the searches that pregnant women and first time mom’s look for. Some of them would be similar to what the dad’s search for….except for the ones like maternity clothing, belly bands, symptoms at x number of weeks, how to get your pre-pregnancy figure back, etc etc

The boys are already giving me gray hairs! Really, you should see all the gray hairs on my head…I think I’ll have to go visit Valerie after they are born for a color change. Anyway, here’s what the boys have been doing lately.

H-diddy and I-diddy are always VERY active little boogers and are moving constantly, day and night. On Monday they were moving so much they were having a territory struggle in my belly and you could see it on the outside (more on the struggle going on later-I’ll announce the winner). Well on Tuesday they were still pretty active and kicking me all day long. Wednesday they weren’t as active and I though maybe they were just tired from moving like crazy the couple days before. I-diddy is still active throughout this whole time, he moves a lot! He’s the one that is in a different position every sonogram we have. Anyway, H-diddy was the quiet one. He is normally pretty active too, he’s been the one taking over the all the space up until this point, he had basically shoved I-diddy over in to a corner and took the rest of the room. So when I didn’t feel him move as much it was weird. I decided to give him another day or so to see if he was just sleepy. By Thursday evening he still wasn’t doing a whole lot. Don’t worry, I had felt him move the entire time, just very infrequently. I tried everything they say to do, drink something cold, sweet, lay down..all of it and nothing made him move more. Friday morning when I woke up I ate a sweet bowl of cereal and waited for them to move (which is their most active time of the day) and not much happened so that’s when I decided to cal my OB. I figured she wouldn’t be in yet (she usually does surgery on Friday mornings) so I talked to the nurse and expected her to say I’ll call you back after my Dr. got in. She said to go ahead and go down to the maternity observation so they could monitor me and just check everything out. She called down there and they were expecting me.

Since Jonathan was at work in Dallas already I had my mom drive me up to the hospital (since I don’t drive due the fact that I could pass out at any minute) and Jonathan met us there. They hooked me up to the monitor to monitor the boys’ heart rates and any contractions I was having. The boys’ heart rates were good but the nurse said they were still a little too young to tell some of the other things they look at in the heart rates, etc (not sure what else they look for). She came in the room and asked “Are you feeling those contractions your having?” – HA “Yes I do, well I feel most of them, it depends on how many you are seeing.” So after all that she called my doctor to tell her about everything they had found out while monitoring me and I could here her tell my Dr. “She’s having contractions every 4 minutes. do you want me to give her a shot of terbutaline?” I heard that and was in the room saying “NO” and as soon as I could say that I heard the nurse say “oh ya we don’t want to give that to her then.” My Dr kindly reminder her I have a history of SVT and other heart arrhythmias. if you have a history of those you don’t want to give them Terbutaline because the side effects are all cardiac side effects.

Remember that fetal fibronectin test (the “glue” test) that I had done about 5 weeks ago, well my Dr. had them do that again and then do a sonogram (a BPP biophysical profile). A biophysical profile is a simple, painless test used during pregnancy to assess your baby’s well-being — specifically, whether he’s getting enough oxygen in the womb. It’s typically done if you’ve gone past your due date, or sometime in your third trimester if you’re having a high-risk pregnancy. Its a detailed ultrasound to observe your baby’s body movements, muscle tone (flexing of the arms and legs), and breathing movements (the baby’s ability to move his chest muscles and diaphragm), and the amount of amniotic fluid surrounding him.

Everything with both tests turned out ok, the fetal fibronectin test was negative again and the BPP was good. The resident doing the sonogram did find out that more than likely the reason I’m not feeling Baby A move as much is because he is basically stuffed down into the corner of my belly while Baby B is taking up most of the room. Baby B is a lot lower than he as been too so it’s not like they two babies are running out of room yet, there’s plenty of room up top, they are just choosing not to use it. B is kind of sitting like a pretzel, he’s all curled up with his butt in the middle right below my belly button and he head is over on my side while his feet are up by his head – crazy! So I-diddy is finally taking back his space and pushing H-diddy out of the way now -payback! Both boys were being kind of lazy and still weren’t moving as much as they normally do on the sonogram but since they look ok they said it would be alright. As they get bigger and I get further along I’m expecting them to run out of room and not feel them as much.

I will have another sonogram on Wednesday at my perinatologist appointment so we’ll find out their weights and see how much more they’ve grown, and what new position I-diddy has gotten himself into!

So there you have it, my very very long explanation of events from yesterday. 8 more weeks!! But whose counting?

I know I just gave you guys an update on the babies and our appointment but here is more of a general update.

I am at 28 weeks and 5 days now and at this point I have finally made it into the 3rd trimester – WAHOO!!

As far as the babies go, at this point their eyes are no longer fused shut and are beginning to open and blink. They have started to have REM (rapid eye movement) as they also have more regular wake/sleep cycles. Luckily the boys have seemed to keep the same wake/sleep cycles. They tend to be quiet and calm at the same time and tend to move at the same time now. I can only assume it’s because of the limited real estate they have rented and when one stretches or moves, it wakes the other…In my mind, its just getting them ready for when they are here and hopefully they will be so used to the jabs and kicks from one another that it won’t even phase them when they are sleeping in their king sized beds (AKA their cribs). Let’s hope that’s the case!

Their eyes now have color and while babies usually have a blue or gray color to them when they are born, it takes up to 6-9 months after birth for their “real” eye color to change if it is going to. I would be totally fine if they both had blue eyes like me!

The babies are down right chubby compared to a few weeks ago, but still look like little wrinkled old men and need more fat to fit under that extra skin.

They are starting to hiccup and I can feel it sometimes…it just feels like slight rhythmic taps.

Their kicks have turned into more of just movements now, they don’t have as much room to pull back 3 or 4 inches and slug me in the side anymore. I can feel a knee, elbow, leg or arm (I couldn’t tell you what’s what by feeling) by just putting my hand on my stomach. It’s funny because when they have a leg or arm pressed up against my stomach and I push on it, they immediately pull back like they are thinking, “wow, what was that?” But I think they are getting used to it by now, because it doesn’t seem to phase them really anymore. Jonathan keeps telling me to quit poking his boys!

As far as how I’m feeling…each week gets a little more uncomfortable. My ribs are hurting from my stomach pressing up on them, I get full really fast and don’t eat a whole lot. I can’t stand for that long without feeling lightheaded and even sitting up makes me feel that way sometimes. The bigger they get the more its’ going to happen because they will be pressing on my main vein more. Sleeping is horrible! Not only do I get up 3 times a night to go to the bathroom, but when I get up I usually can’t go back to sleep. By the morning when Jonathan leaves (about 630) I’m awake and can’t go back to sleep because my hips and shoulders hurt from sleeping on my sides. I did get some Ambien to help me sleep but I can only take it a couple nights a week…those nights I definitely get sleep. In fact the last night I took it I didn’t move at for like 8 hours! It felt great to get some actual sleep but by the morning my hip hurt really bad…but I’ll live with it for the sleep I got! I am still having contractions all throughout the day and that’s why I am still on bed rest. They don’t really hurt but are very uncomfortable and when you have them all throughout the day it wears you out.

I know my uncomfortableness is just going to get worse as time goes on but it will all be worth it in the end and CAN’T wait to meet our little boys! If all goes as planned, we have roughly 60 more days to go!!

I had my 28 week OB appointment on Friday and it went well. I got to drink the horrible tasting, super sweet, pure glucose drink for my gestational diabetes screening and then had my blood drawn an hour later. I don’t anticipate hearing about the results until my appointment next month, unless of course I failed the test. If I failed then I’ll have to drink even more and do a 3 hour glucose tolerance test. I also got to get a shot at this visit. I’m about to get medical on you so bear with me…..But, apparently I am Rh Negative so I got a Rhogam shot…or Rho(D) Immune Globulin which is a solution of IgG anti-D (anti-RhD) antibodies that bind to, and lead to the destruction of, fetal Rh D positive red blood cells that have passed from the fetal circulation to the maternal circulation. Therefore, in an Rh negative mother it can prevent sensitization of the maternal immune system to Rh D antigens, which can cause rhesus disease (Rh incompatibility) in the current or in subsequent pregnancies.

My Dr. did a sonogram and the boys still look good, the heartbeats were good, fluid levels were good and they are measuring like they should. We’ll get the more accurate measurements with weights, etc on Sep 1 when we go see the perinatologist. Baby A (Hayden) is still head down and Baby B (Ian) has turned breech again, the last four sonograms he has been in a different position, I think he likes breech the best since he’s in that one the most. We talked about delivery and have decided to go ahead and do a c-section for sure. We’ll wait to schedule it until I get further along..if I make it, it will be scheduled at 37 weeks. We just both agreed that it would be best for me to have a c-section instead of try a vaginal delivery. She said with twins, usually what happens is when baby A is head down (like ours is) he/she will deliver vaginally just fine but then baby B will usually get into trouble of some sort so they end up with a c-section. That combined with my heart, we decided it would be best. I also had her promise me she would deliver our boys. I don’t want anyone else delivering them!

As far as my cervical length and bed rest goes, nothing has changed. My cervix is about the length it was when I saw her last and I’m still on bed rest. I do have permission to go to the pool but a long as I only float, which is all I do anyway. When I’m in the pool I don’t have one contraction so when I told her that, she said “sure you can go…just no swimming laps or anything” I can also go out to eat every once in a while, but other than that I’m supposed to stay on the couch/bed with “minimal” activity. No cleaning, working, etc.

Since I see the perinatologist once a month as well, that appointment and my monthly OB appointment end up being every 2 weeks. So my Ob said as long as someone is seeing me every two weeks then I don’t need to see her every 2 weeks yet. At about 32 weeks (my next appointment with her) she said she will probably start seeing me weekly.

So there you have it, we’ll have another appointment update in a few weeks from our perinatologist appointment but until then, here is another belly shot for you. I realized after I took the picture that I was wearing the same outfit as the last picture I posted. What can I say, I don’t have many clothes that fit anymore and I’m not exactly allowed to go shopping!

There’s not much difference in the size of my belly in the pictures but I can definitely tell a difference!

We had a baby shower this past weekend for me and the boys and I can honestly say I have never felt so loved! The gifts and “blessings” we received from everyone was amazing and will help us tremendously with the boys. There is so much a baby needs and we have that times TWO…two cribs, two car seats, a double stroller, two bouncy seats, two adorable little butts to diaper, two mouths to feed, etc. It can get a little expensive so every little bit helps!!

I want to thank Jen, Kara, Evie, my aunt Linda and aunt Gwen for giving us the baby shower, I can’t begin to express my gratitude to you guys and how much Jonathan and I both appreciate your hard work – Love you guys!

Here’s a picture of me with the wonderful hosts:

All the tasty food they prepared:

And even a diaper cake made by Evie, which included something like 190 diapers – that’ll last us about what 10 days?!

Jen also put together this “blessings tree” where people could write down some advice or a prayer for us. I’ve enjoyed looking over some of them and will finish looking at the rest soon. Thanks Jen, it was a great idea.

We have another shower coming up in a few weeks and then I think we should be all set! Then we just have to wait for the boys appearance. Hopefully not too soon though. If all goes as planned and I make it to 37 weeks we have roughly 9 weeks left!! Crazy isn’t it.

Now, I’m off to write some thank you notes.

When Jonathan and I got married we started the website www.casadeblundell.com which hosts our two blogs. We really haven’t done a good job at keeping it updated but since I have some time on my hands these days I decided to redesign the website and give it a new look. We updated the content, which was several years old, and added some things such as a page for the twins. Take a look at the new site and let me know what you think. I think it looks pretty good if you don’t mind me saying so myself.

Here are the top 15 questions from one twin mom and her answers. Some of them are pretty funny and others I just can’t believe someone would ask you such a thing. I’ll have to put together my top 15 questions list after the first year or so.

15. “I could never do it.”
Oh really. What would you do? Would you put them on the curb with signs around their necks that say, “Free to a good home. My mom can’t do it.”?

14. “Do they have different personalities?”
No. They are the same human being divided into several parts.

13. Said by a stranger, “They’re identical, right?” Mom answers, “No. They’re fraternal.” Stranger response, “They are NOT!”
OK. You’re right. I have no idea what I’m talking about. These are not my children. I thought it would be fun to borrow them from a mom down at Baby Gap. It’s been more than an hour. I guess I should return them.

12. “Are they ‘paternal’ twins?”
Yes. They have a father. There was only one virgin birth.

11. “Just wait till they’re older. It only gets harder.”
Thank you. I woke up this morning hoping I’d receive a word of discouragement while pushing a cart of preschoolers down the cereal aisle.

10. “When one cries, does he wake the other?”
No. Multiples cannot hear each other’s cries because they all communicate with their special telepathic language only.

9. From a perfect stranger: “Were they in the same sac?”
Hello. Nice to meet you, too. Will you be sharing your gynecological history with me as well?

8. “Are they developmentally behind?”
Well, let’s see. They’re 3 years old and thus far, all their graduate school applications have been denied. We’ll get back with you on that.

7. “How do you do it?”
Haven’t you seen the Nike commercials?

6. “Are they natural?”
Nope, their arms and legs are made of silicone.

5. “You must be SO busy.”
Are you volunteering to clean my house?

4. “Did you take drugs?”
Well, there was this one time in college….

3. “What do you do when they all cry at the same time?”
Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I go to Starbucks.

2. Said to a mom of boy/girl twins: “Are they identical?”
Uh. Not exactly.

And No. 1. Drum roll please. . . .

1. After a stranger had been informed that the toddler boys were twins, she asked a simple question:

“Are they brothers?”
Enough said.

HAHA, I’m sure I’ll get some similar questions to these and I’ve even heard a complete stranger asking a mother of twins if she breastfed them. I’m sorry, but I’m not going to talk about that with a complete stranger…but I better get used to it I guess.

I found this pregnancy questionaire on another blog so I thought I’d give it a go and fill it out once a month.

How Far Along: 26 weeks (26 weeks 3 days to be exact)

Total Weight Gained/Loss: depends on how you look at it…11 pounds if you go by what I was before I got pregnant and 18 if you go by my first OB appointment after I had lost 7 pounds from morning sickness.

Maternity Clothes: I basically hate clothes in general right now…nothing is comfortable. Luckily since I’m on bed rest I don’t work and can spend my days in T-shirts and comfy shorts. I can’t go shopping for bigger maternity clothes since I’m on bed rest so I only have a few items I can wear.

Sleep: What’s that? I only sleep a few hours at a time before I either get up to go to the bathroom or try to get comfortable. Since I can only sleep on my sides my hips hurt after a while so I have to turn over. I feel like I’m constantly tossing and turning. I also get insomnia so I’ll wake up to go to the bathroom at 2 or 3 and then lay awake for an hour. My doctor did give me something to help me sleep but I can’t take it every night.

Best Moment of the Week: Hearing that I can now be on more of a modified bed rest and can go out to eat every once in a while or run to “the post office” if I need to. And to find out that baby B had doubled his weight in only 4 weeks.

Movement: When don’t they move! The hardest part about it is sometimes I can’t tell who is kicking. The bigger they get, the bigger the kicks, jabs, punches get. Sometimes though, when they roll over it feels like a fluid like movement and kinda tickles.

Food Craving: Not sure if I really have cravings, there are certain foods that I like better than before but nothing that I crave. I do prefer sweets now when I used to prefer salty foods. I like little debbie swiss rolls and cream soda. I have been eating a lot of BBQ since I got pregnant so I guess that would be a craving.

Food aversions: At first it was chicken, anything chicken except fried chicken. I’m getting better with it now but it still isn’t my favorite thing to eat.

Morning sickness: The first 3 to 4 months was 24 hour nausea and vomiting in the evenings – horrible! But the zofran definitely helped me…it didn’t take away the nausea but made it tolerable.

Gender: TWO BOYS! Hayden James and Ian Christopher

Labor Signs: I still have contractions all throughout the day but not nearly as many as when I was working. Laying on the couch the majority of the day has definitely helped.

Belly Button: Reaching maximum capacity. No outtie yet but it is slowly stretching out and disappearing.

Stretch Marks: As of now, none to report and hopefully that will continue!

Wedding rings: No problems here. Mine still fits just fine.

Exercise: My exercise consists of walking from the couch to the kitchen/bathroom. I haven’t been able to exercise since my first OB appointment at 8 weeks.

What I miss: clothes that fit and feel comfortable

What I’m looking forward to: Besides meeting the boys…my shower next Saturday.

Other NEW news this week: Not much to report. I did get to go to the pool yesterday!

Since so many people have asked to see a belly picture I’ll post one….I wouldn’t show this to just anyone, so it’s just for you guys. Drum roll please………..

Can you believe there are 2 almost 2 pound babies in that belly?

Now for my favorite belly picture………

This is our version of the new game we like to play called “which one is pregnant?” We play this game sometimes when we are out, especially at Babies R Us. Its an easy game to play, you just look at a couple and try to decide which one is pregnant or just had the baby. Believe it or not, there are a lot of guys out there that look like they are about 8 months pregnant.

Yesterday we went to have our monthly ultrasound with the perinatologist (high risk doc) and got a good report. We’ve got 2 almost 2 pound babies that are growing like they should. Baby A (Hayden) is still head down, like he has been all along and weighs 1 pound 14 ounces. Baby B (Ian) is now laying completely sideways and weighs 1 pound 12 ounces. They checked my cervix length to make sure the contractions still weren’t making me dilate and it was about the same as it has been. So based on that and the negative fetal fibronectin test I had a few weeks ago the perinatologist said I am allowed to get up and do some things. He said if I needed to go to the post office or if I wanted to go out to eat every once in a while I could, I don’t have to stay on the couch or in bed 24 hours a day. Obviously I’m not going to take advantage of this and I am still going to stay on the couch the majority of the time. Not doing as much and staying on the couch for the past couple weeks has helped with Baby B (Ian’s) growth and him catching up to his brother. They were watching his size because the difference between the two babies was getting bigger and this time they were almost the same – Yeah! I also get more contractions when I am up on my feet or move around too much, so I’m just taking precautions and trying to keep these babies in for as long as I can. We’ll see what my regular OB says when I go see her in 2 weeks.

I think we have finally finished the nursery, well almost. We still need another crib bedding set that matches the other one and there are two blocks that I got that need to be painted. Other than that it’s pretty much done. Jonathan finished putting up the names above he cribs today and it looks finished now. Here are some pictures of the room:

Last night my sister-in-law, Kara, had a benefit dinner for Portion for Orphans. All tips given to their wait team will be given straight to Portion for Orphans to provide daily necessities and medical needs for children around the world. It was a great opportunity to learn more about Portion for Orphans and what your tip money can do to bring hope to children in need.
After the event she sent us a text and told us they got about enough money to feed and diaper a child in Kenya, India, or China for 1 year. If only it were that cheap to feed and diaper a child for a whole year here!

Portion for Orphans exists to fulfill three primary goals:

* Raise public awareness about orphans worldwide
* Improve the quality of care provided to orphans
* Promote physical and spiritual development of orphans by offering training and educational support to their caregivers

“Raising society’s awareness of orphans and the critical problems they experience is the first step towards becoming compassionate to them and acting to solve their problems. Through visits to orphanages around the globe and first-hand interactions with orphans and their caregivers, we heighten our own awareness of the numerous challenges that orphans face each day. Portion for Orphans relies on informational events, public speeches, as well as printed and online publications to distribute alarming information about orphans to individuals and organizations who have the ability to become a part of the solution to their problems.

By partnering with supporters and volunteers, Portion for Orphans strives to improve the lives of orphaned children by meeting their physical, educational, emotional, spiritual, and vocational needs. Face-to-face contact with children at supported orphanages enables Portion for Orphans to accurately assess and prioritize their problems in order to determine their most vital needs. On a case-specific basis, Portion for Orphans volunteers take an active, personal approach to finding solutions and bringing together the resources required to meet the urgent needs of children and orphanages.”

On Friday we had my monthly OB visit and found out the test I had done earlier last week ( the fetal fibronectin) was negative. From what I understand it can turn positive and some doctors do it as often as every 2 weeks but I doubt mine will. My cervix still hadn’t changed but I was still having contractions about the same frequency as beofre. She said to continue the bed rest and with that Jonathan followed up with “what is your definition of be rest” and she said “staying on the couch and getting up to go to the restroom and a quick shower” and my reponse, “that’s it!”
She did give me privileges to go to mine and Jonathan’s parents house as long as I’m on the couch.

In other, not so depressing news, the boys looked great, as usual. Their fluid level in the amniotic sac looked great and the were moving like crazy. BabyA (Hayden) was scratching his head and flipping back and forth while Baby B (Ian) was kicking his feet. Baby B (Ian) is no longer head down like he was last week, he flipped back and is breech again. I think he just didn’t like being head down, but we’ll see…he could change again by next week when we have our next sonogram. Or maybe he didn’t like looking directly at his brother’s face so he flipped back!

My doctor did give me something to help me sleep at night since I can’t really fall asleep some nights and then when I do, I wake up several times a night and sometimes then I can’t go back to sleep for a few hours. I took it for the first time last night and slept all the way until 6:00 without waking up – wahoo. But since I took it kind of late last nigt, I still felt a little drunk so I went back to bed. So I am now up, a little more refreshed and ready to, well do nothing but lay on the couch – FUN! I’m thinking of asking her if I can have pool privileges since anytime I was in the pool in the past I didn’t have a contraction. Its not like I’m out there swimming laps or doing water aerobics, I’m just relaxing and floating in the pool. We’ll see what she says.

Well, that’s all for now, I’ll give you another update next week when I go see the perinatologist. Hopefully we’ll have some more pictures to show of the boys.

A week ago today my OB took my off work and was told to “take it easy”. I had been having contractions off and on starting at about 19 weeks and I was told to take it easy and call my doctor is I have 6 or more in an hour. Last weekend (22 weeks) I started having more regular contractions and by Wednesday I was having 6-8 an hour so I called her and she said to come in. She checked my cervix and it still looked long and closed so she was happy with that. She put me on the monitor to check my contractions and one of the babies heart rates (she doesn’t have a double monitor, that’s why we only checked one baby). I was having contractions every 5 minutes or so and Baby A was moving so much that we could hardly get a heartbeat. He moved the entire time I was on the monitor, which is pretty normal for him, he moves regularly throughout the day. My doctor made the comment of how active he was and one of the MA’s that was in there looked at me and asked, “does he move like that all day?” My asnwer, “yep, but luckily I don’t feel all of those movements…and that’s just one of them. The other one likes to move at night when this one is calm.”

After she monitored me and saw the contractions, she told me to go home, take it easy and I’m off work. She did a urine culture to see if I had a bladder infection because sometimes that can cause contractions. So I went home and layed on the couch. She never told me I was on bed rest at that time, she did mention that she may put me on bed rest, but not at that point. All weekend I was having contractions and Monday I called to get the results of the urine culture, which did show a mild bladder infection so she started me on an antibiotic to take and when I talked to her I mentioned that I was still having the contractions just as frequently and even throughout the night while sleeping. She told me to come in that day so she could check my cervix again and do a test to see if the contractions are doing anything, like pre-term labor. My cervix was still long and closed and she did the test, a fetal fibronectin test. Fetal fibronectin is a protein that acts as a “glue” during pregnancy, attaching the amniotic sac — the fluid-filled membrane that cushions your baby in the uterus — to the lining of the uterus. It is often present in cervical secretions during early pregnancy, but also shows up later in pregnancy, about one to three weeks before labor begins. A positive fetal fibronectin test is a clue that the “glue” has been disturbed and you’re at increased risk of preterm labor. I will go back to see her on Friday for my monthly OB visit and will get the results of the test at that time. I did find out, however, that Baby B (Ian) is no longer breech so they are both head down now. But that could change next week too, he could flip back.

I will be 24 weeks tomorrow and that is a milestone in pregnancy because that is the point of viability for a fetus. At 24 weeks a fetus has a 50/50 chance of survival if they are born now. We went on a tour of the NICU at Baylor last weekend and they told us in their NICU babies born at 24 weeks have a 75% chance of survival. Even though that is a good percentage, I still don’t want them here yet, they aren’t done cookin yet!

My doctor did mention starting me on some medications to stop the contractions, but with my history of cardiac issues, she doesn’t really want to unless its a MUST. And, since my cervix isn’t shortening yet, it’s not a must. Tocolytics, or drugs that stop contractions, are known to have cardiovascular side effects and in someone that already has those issues, it’s not a good combination. But again, if I needed them, I would take them. She called and talked to my perinatologist, high risk doctor, and they both agreed at this point the best thing to do is for me to be on bed rest…so here I am, on bed rest. She hasn’t told me exactly what my restrictions are for bed rest, but I’ll find out Friday. I think it’s more of a modified bed rest, where I’m supposed to stay off my feet as much as possible, no working, cleaning, shopping, etc but I can still get up to shower, take a ride in the car, walk around the house some, etc. My dreams of that may be shattered on Friday, but we’ll see. I’m hoping she says I can still go and relax in our pool, that’s taking it easy!

We are also meeting with a pediatrician on Friday before my appointment with the OB. I worked with this doctor some when I was at Children’s and liked her. She was good with the kids, parents and knows her stuff. I really don’t want a pediatrician that doesn’t have any hospital experience, other than residency and being in the medical field, I am going to be REALLY picky when it comes to picking a pediatrician for our babies. She has years of hospital experience and since I worked with her some I know she knows how to handle serious medical issues that may come up….you always want to be prepared and you don’t want to pick a pediatrician for your child and then when they get really sick, you find out they don’t know how to handle it. This doctor is in a practice with two other ladies and one of the other doctors was a doctor at children’s as well, while I didn’t work with her as much, I did some and liked her too. So we will meet with her and get to see the office/staff, ask some questions and Jonathan an meet her. I have pretty much made up my mind that she’ll be the boy’s doctor but I still want to meet with her because working with her as a resiratory therapist on a professional level and having her as MY children’s doctor are two very different perspectives.

Ok, I think this long enough of a post but I’ll leave you with a picture of my resting buddy…

I just realized I never updated on our last visit with the high risk doc. So much has been going on it just slipped my mind….More on that later. We saw Dr. Rosnes (high risk Dr.) about 2 week ago and everything looked good. They checked my cervix length since I had been having some contractions off and on and it was still long so that’s good. The boys are growing and looked great. Baby A (Hayden) was roughly 1 pound, 1 oz and Baby B (Ian) was about 14 oz. There was a little bit of a difference in weights so Dr. Rosnes said he will keep an eye on it and measure them again in a month to make sure the difference between the two isn’t getting bigger.

There has been a question whether or not there are two placentas which could mean they are identical instead of fraternal. He looked at the sonogram and is pretty sure there are two placentas that just fused together to look like one, but he said we can’t be 100% sure until they are born. I’ll go back in another 2 weeks for another check and we’ll see how much bigger they are!

I am a lucky, lucky woman to be married to this man. This man is my best friend, a wonderful husband and one of the best men I know. He is going to make an amazing father and I can’t wait to see him in action. He has always been good about doing things to help me out around the house. When our house was on the market, he was great with helping me clean and get it ready for a showing. He helps do the dishes most nights after dinner, he does a lot of the cooking, and helps out with the laundry…and lets face it, who likes to do laundry

The last month or so since I haven’t really been able to do much and am supposed to be “taking it easy”, he has really had to step up and take over doing the majority of the house work and everything else that needs to be done before the babies get here. He has painted the babies room and our room, all by himself! Put the second crib together, hung curtain rods for me, done a lot of the house work and laundry and spent like 3 hours in our backyard pulling all the massive weeds that had taken over. All the while, I lay on the couch! I feel bad that all this has landed on him and I really wish I could have helped him paint or pick the weeds and clean the house or do laundry, but apparently that’s more than I’m supposed to be doing….

He does all this without complaining too and I can’t thank him enough!! So thank you for all your hard work and I love you!

I hit 20 weeks and everything started to fall apart.

What happened? Last Saturday I started having contractions (braxton hicks), just a few a day. Monday and Tuesday I started getting more and they were becoming more frequent. By Wednesday I was having on average of 5 an hour. They aren’t painful, just uncomfortable. Luckily on Thursday I had my monthly appointment with my OB and she did a sonogram and checked my cervix to make sure it wasn’t thinning out at all from the contractions. Everything looked good, the cervix hasn’t thinned out any and the boys looked great.

She told me to “take it easy” and by that — she means don’t do anything. I can still go to work but she said once my cervix starts to thin I will be off work. It’s difficult for me to not to do anything. I had planned on painting the nursery this past weekend, but because I can’t do that now, Jonathan had to step up and paint it all by himself. He did a great job and it looks awesome. I’ll post pictures once we get it all finished.

So needless to say I was on the couch the majority of the weekend.

Then yesterday, we had a fun time at church, and let me add, this was only our 2 time to visit the church. My brother and his girlfriend had come in and sat by us, so we were all there just singing and worshiping and I started to feel a little lightheaded so I sat down. When the pastor got up and started the message, Jonathan went out to get me some juice to drink. That seemed to help and for about 4-5 minutes I felt semi-normal. Then all of a sudden it hit me again, and this time it hit hard… I leaned forward and put my head down hoping that would help, and well… that’s all I remember.

The next thing I remember was opening my eyes and my head was on Jonathan’s shoulder, well as close to his shoulder as I can get – its kinda high up there. Then I knew what happened. Once I came to a little bit more and was able to walk, we left and came home. I ended up staying on the couch all day because I was pretty out of it. I was also very nauseous all day, which I haven’t been in over a month. And by the end of the night, my body finally gave in and well, lets just say I lost everything I ate for the day.

I was still pretty out of it last night and still getting lightheaded so we decided that I would stay home today from work. This morning I was still getting lightheaded and didn’t feel “normal” but as the day went on I started to feel a little bit better. I made a call into my cardiologist and OB’s offices. Of course my OB was out of the office today, so I talked to the nurse and she basically said if I still feel bad tomorrow I should come in and see my Dr. and I will see my cardiologist Wednesday morning. Since I have been on the couch for 3 days I haven’t had too many contractions. Some, but not too many. She told me if I have 6 or more in an hour to call her. I’ll keep you updated on everything.

The boys are doing great, the HR’s were 151 and 146 and they’re moving around like crazy. Ian was having hiccups when she was trying to get his heart rate so that was funny to watch, and of course he wouldn’t cooperate. He’s our little wiggler, in every sonogram he’s the one wiggling all around and won’t let them get a good picture. Then there’s Hayden who is a good little boy and just lays there so we can get a picture. He does move around a lot too, just at better times. He is the one I feel move and kick more often. The last few days I have felt them both move and kick a lot. I have to say that is probably the best part of being pregnant, because the rest is for the birds!

We will see the high risk doc next week for another sonogram and we’ll get to see how much they have grown… it better be a lot because I know my belly sure hasn’t just gotten big overnight for nothing. Well, this has gotten to be a long post, so I’ll update you next week after my appointment with the high risk doc.

I was surfing the internet today (what else is there to do) and found this video on a blog I found. I have never heard of this song before and it hits home on so many levels for me and any other woman that has gone through infertility. It’s a beautiful song but for some of you girls out there that I know (you know who you are) might want a box of kleenex with you when you watch it.

The artist is Kellie Coffey and you can read her story about becoming a mom here.

Enjoy!

An update on our 20 week appointment coming next…