30 weeks and 5 days...

Let's see if I can keep this post a little shorter than the last, shall we??

I had an ultrasound appointment with Maternal Fetal Medicine today! I saw Dr. Steadman, who I really thought I had seen before, but he didn't look familiar. So I think I've now officially seen all 5 of the Perinatologists at the clinic at Woman's, haha! They are all super nice :)

The appointment started out with a regular ultrasound, like always, to check all sorts of measurements and anatomy things. The heads are measuring right around 30 weeks, 5 days, but their tummies and femurs are slightly under, at around 29 weeks, something... which is typical for them. Just means they won't be chunky babies haha. They are both exactly 3 pounds each! As far as percentiles, that puts them in the low 20's, which is still very healthy. This is a great weight for them, and it's great that their weights are the same!!

Based on their current weight, Dr. Steadman predicts they would measure between 5 and 6 pounds if I went to my due date. But he quickly followed that up with "but you won't!" He says we're looking at around 5 pounds each for their birth weights, if I go to 37 or 38 weeks, which he has no reason to think I won't make it until then. Time will tell! He said I should be feeling like someone around 35 weeks pregnant with one baby. If this is what 35 weeks feels like, it's not so bad!! I can do another month or two of this (I think)!

...about the contractions. Hm. Well, as you know if you read the last post, the on-call OB the night I went to the hospital said I should be watching for frequency of contractions over intensity. A few days later, my regular OB said I should be watching for intensity over frequency. So I decided to ask the OB I saw today to see what he thought...and it's back to frequency over intensity. I explained to him that frequency is nooo problem for me, I'm still having up to 30 an hour sometimes!! And usually no less than 4 an hour.

He said he usually suggests people make a visit to the hospital, pain or not, with 4 or more an hour; but since that's kind of the norm for me, I should go in with 8 or more an hour. I like his answer because at least it was very concrete: now I know when I have 8, just go in! I was like are you sureee? I don't want to go in if it's not needed! But he says I'm not wasting anyone's time or causing anyone an inconvenience by going to the hospital for contractions; rather, I'm making sure my babies don't spend time in the NICU! So I guess I can deal with that. I'm promising myself now that if I have 8 or more evenly spaced contractions for at least 2 hours, I'll go. Because we don't want NICU time!!

A few more bits of info from this appt: Baby A is stilllll head down (always has been!) and Baby B is laying across my tummy. For some docs, this means c-section, for others it doesn't! Dr. Steadman said it actually depends on where the doctor was trained...interesting! So I still don't know if a c-section is in the cards for me; it's still totally possible Baby B will turn head down too, but who knows. Also, neither Baby A nor B were being very good breathers today! The ultrasound tech was trying to look for "practice breathing" with both babies, and after turning me on my side, putting a little buzzer on my tummy to startle the babies, and even just shaking my tummy, they still weren't cooperating! She eventually gave up on Baby B because it was so high up in my ribs that she said she would have to put a scope down my throat to see that baby (weird thing to say?), and after Baby A did a few weak breaths, she decided that was enough. Oh well, maybe next time they'll cooperate!

Here's my most recent belly pic, at 30 weeks, 3 days!
I know I'm a little behind with this blog, I still need to post an update from my last shower and progress in the nursery! But I'm working on it ;)

Thanks for reading!

-beth

30 week update! (SUPER LONG POST).

Up until this past weekend, I was LOVING the fact that I had very little pregnancy symptoms and no problems to speak of! When I first found out that I was pregnant, then that it was twins, I thought I'd be a total mess by 30 weeks! Maybe too swollen to walk? Maybe already in the hospital ready to deliver? Maybe too miserable to finish school? It was a big scary unknown for sure, but now that 30 weeks is (already!) here, I can say I've been sooo blessed to not only make it this far in a twin pregnancy, but also that there have been no complications!

That being said, I have also tended to ignore what my body was telling me. I mean, everything had been fine, so I always went on with my day like normal: rarely stopping to rest, eat extra, or just tune in to see what the babies were up to. I could go whole days and barely notice a kick!

Apparently, I could also go whole days not noticing increasingly regular contractions! This past Friday, after a long week at school, I was casually telling Dan how my tummy had been tight all day. Come to think of it, it had been tight all week! After I kept mentioning it, we decided I should time them. The results were not what I was expecting! After an hour, I had had about 30 contractions, about 2 minutes apart! Not at all painful, but definitely there.

I called the doctor, who said drink lots of water, take a hot shower, lay down, etc...I did all of these things, then timed them for another hour--still two minutes apart! So we headed to labor and delivery at Woman's. In the assessments area, the nurse said I indeed was having regular contractions, which at this point in the pregnancy are likely caused by dehydration or an infection. I got a blood test, urine test, and hooked up to an IV, still in no pain at all.

After a while on the IV, it was clear that dehydration wasn't the problem, because the contractions weren't stopping. My blood and urine tests were completely normal too. At this point it was determined that the contractions weren't really caused by anything, but they did need to come down from 30 an hour!! They gave me a sedative, I slept for a few hours, and when I woke up, they were down to just two per hour! I went home with no restrictions, just to keep watching for regular or frequent contractions, even if they don't hurt.

Of course, I was still having a ton of contractions by the next day, which kept me worried, but they were more "irritability" (less than 45 seconds each), than actual contractions (more than 45 seconds each), so I chose to ignore them until my appointment on Wednesday. Tuesday night I had 15 contractions in an hour that were OVER 45 seconds (and about 15 more that were less than 45...), so I was getting worried again. Keep in mind the note they sent me home from the hospital with Saturday morning says to call with more than 4 in an hour.... But I called and the doc said I could wait til my appt the next day (Wednesday).

At my appointment, my doc was able to do a "fetal fibronectin test," which came back negative, indicating I'm highly unlikely to deliver in the next 2 weeks :) In other words, I have to just grin and bear the contractions, as they aren't going away until I deliver. Fortunately, they don't hurt! (yet).

So it's good to know the babies are doing well and will probably stay put for 6-8 more weeks!

This is the only pic I have of the fond memories (ha) of Friday night. As you can see, I'm busy playing on my phone, when I get a text....from Dan....of this picture that I didn't know he took. Ha, thanks Dan, not!! Now I have 1 appt with my OB every 2 weeks and 1 appt with Maternal-Fetal Medicine every 3 weeks. My next MFM appt is Monday, which = another ultrasound and weight measurements! According to my last OB appt, which was yesterday, I've gained a full 15 pounds so far, and the babies both have nice, strong heartbeats!

Here's how I can best sum up that appointment, with a facebook status that I want to also document in this blog so I can share mommy's craziness with the babies one day:

Dear other people in the Woman's Hospital parking lot, Please don't judge me as I scarf down these three soft tacos from Taco Bell in my car right before my appointment that I'm already 10 minutes late for. Sincerely, 7 months pregnant with twins

-beth

April Showers....

....bring May Babies? well, we'll see about that, but I am getting exciting for my baby shower this weekend!! Hosted by bff Mel and sister Cathy. I got a little too excited and decided to make the invitations myself, and I thought I'd share the outcome in anticipation of Saturday :) Here's the (finally!) completed ones all stacked up and ready for envelopes: Close up of the registry card--with a little "key" detail to go along with the Alice theme (I'll explain more in a bit..)

Here's one completed invite:

...and a close up, which helps explain the "Alice" theme: Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum since it's twins ;) haha! This was totally Dan's idea, which I thought was silly at first but it's growing on me and kinda cute :) And I guess that means I get to be Alice?? :D

I also spent some time decorating the outter envelopes too, even though those get ripped open and thrown away faster than the invitations, haha. But I love getting something other than a white envelope in the mail, and I thought the guests might like that as well!

The final detail: a little "open me" seal on the back of the envelope...also to help it fit in with the Alice theme!

...can't wait to post about the shower itself! :)

-beth