28 weeks!!!

28 weeks as of yesterday.  I am measuring 35 weeks so I guess it makes sense that there is no position that is comfortable for me right now and presumably for the next 8-9 weeks.  Yay!  Stretch marks appeared overnight about 4 weeks ago and they keep on appearing despite my use of a variety of creams and oils...  I guess twin pregnancies are not kind to your belly skin -it is not made to stretch so fast!  

Baby A (lower left baby) listened to my plea last post and now weighs more than his brother.  Baby A was estimated at 2 lbs 5 oz and Baby B was 2 lbs 4 oz.  Baby B (on my right side), started out today's ultrasound feet down head up.  Bu the time the tech was done looking at Baby A, Baby B has flipped and was head down feet up.  Later, he moved to transverse, with his head on my right and feet on my left.  Once again, the tech was amazed at my little acrobats.  The downside was it took them 2 hours instead of 1 hour to finish the ultrasound.

This pregnancy has been pretty miserable.  Of course I will do everything I can to grow healthy, full-term babies, but just for fun, here are some things I can't wait to do again:

Sleep on my stomach

Take a hot bath or better yet sit in a hot tub

Drink some wine while in the bath

Walk in a normal fashion (not the pregnant lady walk)

Trail run

Ride a bike

Drink only as much water as I am thirsty for (no more measured gallon jug)

Play with my beautiful baby boys!!!

Weekly doctors appointments from here on out.  Baby B still had slightly high fluid, but Baby A measured normally so no worries at this point.

Mike just finished painting the nursery Monday night.  We still haven't finished hanging curtains and other things, but here is a preview picture.

Baby Updates

Well, I've managed to make it through 5 weeks of bed rest so far!

Baby updates

Since going to labor and delivery with contractions 2 minutes apart at 21 weeks pregnant, I have progressed well and am just over 26 weeks pregnant now.  At 24 weeks, the boys' estimated weights were 1 lb. 4 oz. and 1 lb. 5 oz.  During the fetal echocardiogram, they found that the cord to the slightly smaller baby had slightly (very slightly) restricted blood flow.  They also found the levels of amniotic fluid to be slightly high, an indication that I might have gestational diabetes (no results yet).  During yesterday's ultrasound, the cord blood flow was back within normal range and only one of the amniotic sacs had slightly high fluid.  A large difference in fluid levels between the sacs is an indication of twin to twin transfusion syndrome.  But I was elated to hear things have gotten better and not worse over the past 2 weeks.  Every ultrasound tech and doctor have commented on how extremely active these boys are in my womb.  It is so very reassuring to feel them having a dance party in my belly every day. I swear they are going to be born crawling!  

The baby on my lower left did a complete 180 during our ultrasound 2 weeks ago, going from standing on my cervix to resting his head on my cervix.  He seems to prefer head down and will likely be the first born.  Our firstborn baby will be named Jackson.  He was also the slightly smaller baby (by on estimated ounce) at 24 weeks.   The baby on the upper right likes to be breech or transverse.  He seems to be slightly more active than his brother.  

Our ob will allow me to attempt a vaginal delivery even if the second baby is not head down as long as the baby closest to the exit is head down.  Also, for a vaginal delivery, the second baby cannot be significantly larger than the first baby.  The idea is that once the first baby is out, the doc will try to rotate the second baby head down.  If it is unsuccessful, a breech delivery is possible unless that second baby is a lot bigger than the first.  A big breech second baby might get stuck, a small one should just slide right out (i wish).  Right now, my lower baby is slightly smaller.

Dear lower left baby, 

Please grow as big as your brother.  Thank you.  

Love, Mommy

Mommy update

Bed rest is not fun.  That's all I'll say for now.  If one more person tells me to enjoy being pregnant or enjoy the rest while I can, I might punch them.

Lactated Ringers and gallon jugs

We went to the hospital yesterday with contractions, I was 21 weeks 2 days yesterday. They were about 2 minutes apart but very short in duration. There was no change in cervical opening or length, which was good. The first thing they did was give me IV fluids (the Lactated Ringers in the picture). I feel like I am the most hydrated pregnant woman on Earth, diligently drinking my gallon (or more) of water each day. It was almost insulting to suggest my lack of water drinking could have been the cause of the contractions. Every person who was seen me lugging around a gallon jug of water thinks I am an absolute lunatic...yet there I was being told again to drink more. At least the gave me a cup with a bendy straw:)

After about 6 hours in the hospital, the contractions were decreasing in strength and frequency. They sent me home with instructions to rest and go back in if things picked up again. I have a follow up appointment with my OB on Monday (she's in surgery today).

Sunday morning I started my first 24 hour urine collection. That was fun! Not only to you get to collect all of your urine for 24 hours, but you also get to put in the your refrigerator! They gave me a nifty 3L opaque container to store the urine. When I asked the nurse if anyone ever needed a bigger collection container, she actually LAUGHED and said NO ONE HAS EVER FILLED THE CONTAINER BEFORE. Well, I hope she got to see all of the pee I brought in on Monday morning. I had to call the on call doctor Sunday afternoon about 4pm because I was about to set the urine collection record and needed to know what to put the rest in since my container was nearly full. Don't worry, I don't really think the Guinness Book of World Records folks will be contacting me anytime soon, I think the nurse was just a dipsy-doodle. Lesson to her, gallon of liquid in = gallon of liquid out.

Normally this joyously fun activity is reserved for later in pregnancy, however, twins and pre-existing hypertension make me high risk for preeclampsia. They check your urine for protein, which means you are developing ( or already have) preeclampsia.

No contractions today so far! Babies seem to be doing their normal amount of kicking. I am resting it up until Monday. TTTS monitoring ultrasound on Wednesday. Stay put Jack and Ben!

20 week anatomy scan

The boys are 11 ounces each! They didn't give a length, but from head to butt they should be about 6.5-7 inches long (plus legs which they don't measure as part of length in utero).

For the anatomy scan, they scheduled 1 hour for each baby. It ended up taking three hours total. The ultrasound tech kept saying how active the boys were. You would think she does this all the time and sees all kinds of active babies, but she was really entertained by our boys. I wish they allowed video during the ultrasound, but they are super strict...

I'll label these photos later, just doing a quick update on the iPad (blog app kind of lacks functionality for multimedia posts).

Halfway cooked

Last week, our OB said they consider 36 full term for mono/di (our type of identical) twins. I was 18 weeks on Tuesday, making these babies halfway cooked!

We had our 18 week TTTS monitoring ultrasound on Wednesday, and all looks great. No signs of TTTS - I think this only happens in about 5-10% of identical twin pregnancies.

Sleeping is getting difficult already. I guess gaining the baby belly so quickly because of the twins doesn't agree with me. Whichever side I lay on starts to ache or falls asleep (pins and needles) about every hour. Plus, I think the boys are dancing on my bladder. Hoping that one of those pregnancy wedge shaped pillows will work to help me sleep...regular pillows are not working for me.

It's not all doom and gloom though! So excited the boys are doing well and can't wait for he big anatomy scan in 2 weeks. We will get their estimated weight for the first time!

Its a boy! Its another boy!

Last Saturday, both sets of grandparents came with us to an elective 3D/4D ultrasound for the gender reveal.  The car ride survey was 5 guesses for boys and one guess for girls.

Before the big reveal!  From Left to Right: Grandpop, Mom, (? debate over name - Grandma?), Gran, Pop (photo by Dad)

The ultrasound was a lot of fun and I am so glad we got to share it with our families!  We got lots of neat photos and a (long) video of the whole scan.

Oh, did I mention we are having two boys!  Jackson Lee and Benjamin Michael.  

Its a boy!

Its a boy, too!

Baby B hamming it up on the camera.  His "I'm too sexy" pose:)

Baby B on left, Baby A on right (you can see his butt at the top).  Also, an umbilical cord in the background.

Baby parts!  Baby A is on left, head at top just out of the screen.  Baby B is on the right head down and out of focus, arm of B in middle of picture.

Our next TTTS (Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome) monitoring ultrasound is Wednesday and our Anatomy scan is two weeks after that!  At the OB's office, they told me they consider 36 weeks full term for mono/di twins.  Tomorrow I will be 18 weeks, making these boys halfway cooked!  Yippeee:)  The OB also said if things were progressing normally with the pregnancy, they would let me go until 37 weeks before scheduling an induction or c-section.  So the latest these boys will arrive will be August 9.  They also said that a lot depends on how the pregnancy progresses, how the shared placenta performs, how the babies are growing and if they are growing evenly (since they are sharing the placenta), and my health.  If there are issues with any of these things, the date may be earlier.  I am hoping everything goes well and I can cook these boys until 36 weeks, which should minimize the chance they have to spend time in the NICU.

In other news, the grandmothers are throwing us a baby shower!  I asked to have it early since this pregnancy is considered high-risk and I want to be able to enjoy seeing friends and family.  The shower will be in early May when I am 24 weeks pregnant.  For those who want to see a nice pregnant belly, have no worries, they say when carrying twins, your uterus is the size of a woman carrying a singleton who is 6-8 weeks further along.  Meaning at 24 weeks, I should look 30-32 weeks;)  Yay for me...  I keep forgetting to have Mike take a nice belly shot, and he is traveling for work today and tomorrow. 

We have started doing a bit of shopping.  I picked up the cutest baby blanket and nursery set - we are going to use the colors from this for the boys nursery - not sure which color(s) yet.  The foxes tail is a rattle and there are all kinds of neat textures on the quilt, so when the boys are too small to use the blanket, they can sit on the quilt on the floor and play with it!  We also picked out cribs and crib mattresses at Ikea - nice and affordable for buying two (they don't recommend co-sleeping twins anymore due to increased risk for SIDS).

Nursery theme - woodland animals!

Early shower gift from Mike's mom and dad - our stroller!  Mike almost got the whole thing together without the directions:)

The car seats (also and early gift from Mike's mom and dad) snap into the stroller frame.  This one is a compact double, so the car seats sit side by side.  You can see the babies, they can see each other, and they each have a view.

View of the car seats from the perspective of the person pushing the stroller.

We picked up some clothes at another consignment sale.  Once again, you have to be at these things early to get any of the baby gear items.  We are looking for a used pull behind bike carrier for my mom, a BOB brand jogging stroller with the front wheel that swivels but can lock, and extra car seat bases.  Yard sale fun this spring/summer:)

Middletown mom's club consignment sale.  All the heads are people in line behind Mike...  Sale started at 8 am and this was about 8:45!

Lots of toys!

Much Ado About Nothing...

We had a bit of a scare two weeks ago and I haven't felt like writing about it...
I woke up, did the usual pregnant lady bathroom trip, got back in to bed, and noticed a wet spot on the sheets.  I turned on the lamp, and sure enough, there was fluid...enough to wet the top and bottom sheets making a spot about 8 inches in diameter.  The fluid was clear and odorless.  I had been having a few drips show up for the previous 3 days, fluid of similar consistency and nothing that seemed like normal discharge to me.  The next day I called my OB and they advised me to go to the hospital.

After some waiting...well, lets say a lot of waiting, they checked my cervix and said it was closed, which is good.  They took a sample of fluid from around the cervix area and looked at it under the microscope and said everything looked normal.  After some pleading on my part, they checked both babies and the amniotic fluid using an ultrasound scan.  Again, everything looked normal.

Side note, note sure why they were so insensitive at the hospital.  Once they found the cervix to be closed, they were about to send me on my way.  When I asked if they were going to check on the babies, the doctor actually said there would be nothing they could do if there was something wrong.  Really?!  That's what you tell your patients you crazy jerk?!  Well, the look on my face must have said it all, because he changed his tone and said he would see if they could do an ultrasound at the attached maternal fetal medicine office, which thankfully they did and the doctor there was super nice!

They said to resume normal activity.  I continued to have some small drips of fluid, I am talking dime sized drips every 4-6 hours, for 3 more days.  I went to work for a few hours the next day, but couldn't take it, so I went home and put my feet up.  No issues since and the last leakage was 1.5 weeks ago.

The positive side to the whole crazy story is that when I talked with the really nice doctor at Maternal Fetal Medicine, she said since my twins share a placenta, I should have appointments scheduled every two weeks to monitor for Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome and an anatomy and growth scan every four weeks.  No one had told us about that and we were able to schedule those appointments while we were there.

Today we went in for our 16 week monitoring, the first of many!  Everything looked normal and healthy!!!  Amniotic fluid was fine!  The two of them were moving around some much the poor ultrasound tech had trouble getting all of the information she needed.  It was great to see them moving around and active.  Initally, she had asked me if I thought I felt movement yet, and when I felt some jabs here and there since Friday, she looked a bit skeptical.  Once she saw them moving around like crazy in there, she said that she wouldn't be surprised if I was already feeling them moving around at 16 weeks.  Also, she said the placenta is all in the back, so the front was "nice and thin."

Both babies together, lying on top of one another, one head is on the right, the other on the left.

Baby B (aka Baby 2) profile shot.  The little bugger was moving around so much it make his features look blurred.

Baby A (aka Baby 1) sat still enough for a photo!

On Saturday, Mike and I went to a Mothers of Multiples Second Hand Sale.  This one was in Pennsylvania and we were using it as a practice for one coming up in Delaware in April.  It started at 10am; we got there at 9:45.  The line was around the building!  By the time we were inside, most of the "gear" type items were sold, but we did pick up a nice changing table.  There were a lot of clothes, so once we know if we are having boys or girls, we will be able to take advantage of that too!  We kind of figured it was going to be like a black friday of sorts, so now we are planning on going to go to the DE sale early.

Nicole @ Mothers of Multples Sale!

Mike with the changing table we bought.

We picked up a new changing pad and cover at Buy Buy Baby and started a Baby Registry there!  

Diaper Bag Daddy!  Mike modeling the diaper bag we picked out at Babies R Us! 

Me with the same Diaper Bag!

On Saturday, we are going for an elective ultrasound and will find out if we are having boys or girls!  Both sets of grandparents will be there for the big news.  Most of the old wives tales point to boys, which is what I have thought from the beginning, but something tells me it has to be girls.  Either way, we can't wait to see our babies again on Saturday.  And it will be nice to see our parents too:)

What is your prediction?  Boys or girls?!