30 week bump

How far along? 30 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: about 26 pounds
Maternity clothes? going to have to shop up a size on the shirts soon... things are getting too short!
Stretch marks? my belly button still looks funny - still dont wanna call it a stretch mark though. Mark, on the other hand, is convinced I have stretch marks... guess I can't see them (eh, whatevvy)
Sleep: still sleeping well thanks to zantac. I get up almost exactly every hour and a half to pee which is annoying but workable
Movement: Granny S. & Aunt Kelly got to feel the girls move this week - I was so glad they were able to feel them move around... they weren't as cooperative a few weeks ago!
Food cravings: mozzerella cheese sticks are a fantastic way to get some extra cheese in! I'm really jonesing for some movie theater butter popcorn, but will wait til we get to see toy story 3 (not promising to share with anyone though)
Foods aversions: ice cream does not wanna stay down... If I weren't positive I was the mother of these babies I would be worried they weren't related to Grandpa L!
Gender: 2 girls
Labor Signs: I'm gonna be spending a lot of the next few weeks on the couch... the babies don't like it when I stand up. I get contractions about every 8 minutes when I'm up on my feet
Preggo PITA symptom: the sweating! WOW!
Mood: the day after our hospital visit I was pretty down in the dumps. Cried EVERY time I got a contraction (which was about every 5 minutes)... I DON'T WANNA BE ON BED REST!
Arthritis severity: 3 - ouchy knees
What I miss: being able to help around the house. this place really looks awful
Fundal height: 35-37cm
BP this week: last check was weds... 128/80. not as good, but i was really anxious about the contractions in the doctors office so I'm sure that's why it was up
Milestones: 30 weeks!!!
Other

Wedding!

Today was Nick and Heather's wedding. We were only able to go to the reception because Mark worked today and I am still contracting a LOT. I sat through the reception so Mark could hang out and enjoy his friends. We still had a really great time. Even tried to dance 1 song... I could only do about half... how sad.

Mark & I


Trish & I


Frank, Chris, Vito, Keith, Kevin, Mark & Nick


Mark, Phil, Frank, Nick, John, Vito, Nick (Back: Kevin, Keith, Chris)


Trish & Vito (along with some MATURE person's beer)


Nick & Mark


The brothers Oriti with the groom

First trip to the hospital

Last night I went to bed with contractions every 14 minutes. After drinking lots of fluids, I gave up and went to sleep hoping for improvement in the morning. When I woke up, they were every 10 minutes. Standing to shower increased them to every 5 minutes. After 2 hours of contractions every 5-8 minutes, I called the OB and she asked me to come in right away.

She checked my cervix which was closed, did an FFN test, and sent me over to the hospital so they could monitor both babies and my contractions. By the time I got hooked up to the monitor in the hospital, the nurse said my contractions were every 3-4 minutes.

IV fluids were very helpful to slow the contractions (to every 8 minutes), but did not stop the contractions. A shot of terbutaline finally did.

I was eventually sent home by my doctor with instructions that I would be home from work "until further notice" This is totally bittersweet for me. Work has been very hard for me lately. I am exhausted and my body is screaming for me to slow down, but the work load continues to stay the same. I NEED a break, but financially this could be very rough on us. I'm very greatful that we've saved some money for this, but I really wasn't counting on using that money. UGH...

29 week bump

How far along? 29 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: no change
Maternity clothes? had to buy a new set of maternity scrubs this week - the others were so tight they were hurting my belly! Cherokee makes a better, more twins friendly version of scrubs than Grey's Anatomy does Also got to buy a dress for my shower and the upcoming wedding we're going to
Stretch marks? on cocoa butter alert... nothing changed this week, but I'm getting burning sensations in certain areas... wondering if it's pending growth
Sleep: I love ZANTAC! I got 11 hours of sleep last night... was EXHAUSTED from the shower!
Movement: someone moved last night... I'm getting kicked in different places. If I'm ever wondering if either one of them is ok, I can gently press on my upper belly and feel one or both of them rolling around in there :) Very reassuring
Food cravings: cheese pleese!!!
Foods aversions: carnation instant breakfast helped for a few days, but the amount of abdominal discomfort the milk caused, led me to contract a bunch. ugh
Gender: 2 girls
Labor Signs: I had a better week this week. Saw the OB and in the waiting period I had 3 braxton hicks contractions... she checked my cervix and it was fine. Very good to hear
Preggo PITA symptom: my energy level has taken a NOSE DIVE this week
Mood: easily tearful this week... not wacky moods though
Arthritis severity: 1
What I miss: Normal temperature regulation... damn am I HOT!!!
Fundal height: 37 cm
BP this week: 116/68
Milestones: baby shower is done :) and was fantastic
OtherIt's Father's day! We got mark brown's tickets so he can go to a game sometime this fall to have his own day away :)

Baby shower!

Today was our baby shower! It was a gorgeous sunny 87 degree day and the shower was beautiful! Our moms did such a fantastic job planning the day.

Location: Mapleside farms restaurant
Food: salad(s) bar... chicken salad, make your own salad bar, waldorf apple salad, pasta salad, bread and sticky buns. Everything was delicious!
People: all 3 families! My mom said we had 59 guests... it seemed like more to me!
Aunt Sue and Uncle Larry came into town from Chicago and Stef came in from Pittsburgh! :)
Games: name the baby food, melted chocolate bar dirty diaper game, name the famous twins game, and baby gift bingo - everyone seemed to have fun
GREAT ideas:
Diaper cakes. Our moms and sister(s) made us 10 diaper cakes - one for each table's center piece - out of 4 huge boxes of size 1 diapers (total 1000 diapers!)










Favors were chocolate bars:


Cake (mmmmmmmmm.... frosting was sooooooooooo good! and she did a beautiful job!):


On our invitation, there was a note that if you brought diapers you could be entered to win an additional prize... we got an additional 1000 diapers from that!!!

Relief is spelled

R-A-N-I-T-I-D-I-N-E

a HUGE thanks to my OB for giving me the okay to take this. I'm not waking up throwing up from reflux!!!

28 week bump

How far along? 28 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: 25 pounds
Maternity clothes? some of my shirts are too short. ugh
Stretch marks? Mark pointed out a stretch mark below my belly button today... I haven't looked at it yet... can't bear to check
Sleep: good days and bad days. I'm up frequently but fall right back asleep. I noticed I haven't slept in in weeks... I can't!
Movement: boy are they getting strong! My girls are more subtle movers... they kick occasionally, but they seem to roll and move about more subtly otherwise
Food cravings: cheese!!!
Foods aversions: tolerating chocolate better, and ice cream... just in small amounts. We are starting carnation instant breakfast this week because my 1 cup of cereal and banana breakfast is getting to be TOO big to fit in my stomach
Gender: 2 girls - confirmed again by ultrasound
Labor Signs: Thursday I left work due to frequent contractions. They started out every 5 minutes, but let up after I peed, but still continued every 20 minutes. After 2 hours of that, I knew I needed to lay down and drink some water, but couldn't if I was working. I went home and spent the day on the couch drinking water and counting contractions (every 12-32 minutes for another 6 hours) Finally I called the OB's office and they said to call back if there were more than 4/hour. I should "expect to have an irritable uterus" since there are twins in there and expect it to get worse... WORSE?! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WORK LIKE THIS!!!?!!!
Preggo PITA symptom: back pain at the end of my work day. I can make it about 6 hours and then it gets severe quickly
Mood: Pregnancy seems to be agreeing with me. Can't really complain too much
Arthritis severity: 1
What I miss: taking care of my pool. I hate bossing mark around about chemicals and such
Fundal height: 35 cm
BP this week: 116/66 - wow!
Milestones: 28 weeks - we were told that at this point, my babies have a 90% chance of survival outside the womb at this time - what a huge relief... I still want my take-home babies... 9 weeks to go til my goal date -
37 weeks

special ultrasound update

Today was our fluid-specific ultrasound. Baby B still has more fluid, but it's evened out a little more... more like 4cm and 6cm. The maternal fetal medicine specialist came in, quickly viewed their fluid levels, found a large pocked of fluid lying to the side of baby A and proclaimed that they both had plenty of fluid. Sounds good to me. Next ultrasound in 3 weeks...!

Lab dream/patient prayer

I had the weirdest dream last night. When I receive a lab test result on a patient, things that you will notice on the results include
1) if a test result is abnormal it will be in bold print.
2) when I receive a lab test result on a patient, occasionally the lab will write "result checked" under the result so we know it was double checked...

so i dreamt that i got my own test results back (on my fluid levels). Nothing was highlighted or bolded as "abnormal" - and underneath one of the numbers, was clearly written "checked by god." That was a nice dream to wake up to

I called a patient today to set her up for more tests pre-op. When I finished talking to her she wanted to place my voice with a face from her appt the day before... I told her I was the last person she saw...

"Hunny, I don't know if I'm saying something inappropriate here or not, but I just want you to know that last night at church/adoration I prayed for you. I think pregnant women are a gift from God and just wanted to tell you that I prayed for you"

I burst into tears on the phone and thanked her for her kindness... that any and all prayers were VERY appreciated and accepted.

27 week bump

How far along? 27 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: 24 pounds
Maternity clothes? DO NOT DRY THE MATERNITY WARDROBE IN THE DRYER OR BEWARE OF BELLY SHOWING!
Stretch marks? just started using cocoa butter... belly button looks funny around it... not calling it a "stretch mark" yet
Sleep: good days and bad days - bad days from acid reflux or diarrhea
Movement: baby A is definately more "awake" in the morning... baby B is my after dinner girl
Food cravings: still loving cheese, but curious/scared that its causing some severe GI upset/diarrhea again... lactose intolerant again? (PLEASE NO)
Foods aversions: anything that gives me severe heartburn
Gender: 2 girls - confirmed again by ultrasound
Labor Signs: belly is continuing to get and stay hard - usually related to GI upset, exhaustion, or having to pee. It's quite uncomfortable
Preggo PITA symptom: my back is starting to hurt...
Mood: okay. i cry easily. my dear goddaughter alyssa made her first communion this weekend. I spent a good 15 minutes sobbing over her pictures... wanting to be there to celebrate with her
Arthritis severity: overall 2 - except 3rd trigger finger on the right hand has been reacting to cheesy popcorn (salt). getting hard to bend
What I miss: the more uncomfortable I get, the more anxious I'm getting to meet these girls :)
Fundal height: 34 cm
BP this week: 116/70
Milestones: 27 weeks - THIRD TRIMESTER!
Other:

The babies' room!

Growth scan update

Today I am 26w4d pregnant. Babies looked great:
.
Baby A is measuring 2lb 3 oz and in the 55th percentile - she is vertex (head down and 2 my left)

Baby B is measuring 2 lb 6 oz and in the 64th percentile - she is in a weird position - breech/transverse... butt in baby A's face

Cervix is 4 cm and closed.

We had one problem show up on the ultrasound - Baby A has a little over 3 cm of amniotic fluid and Baby B was showing to have approx. 7.5cm. Since their growth discrepancy is only 7%, they told us to come back in 1 week for a recheck of fluid.

I came home from our ultrasound and googled every little bit of info I could on TTTS (twin-twin transfusion syndrome). First good news is, we DONT have it. Definition of stage I is <2cm and >8cm for the other and of course stage V is the worst possible scenario. This is going to be a long week of waiting and praying... will spend much of it on my Left side...