Week 33: My Week In Doctor Appointments

I did have this all written but lost it before saving it so this will be a quick retrospective summary. If I can remember two weeks back I think it was my tummy that was driving me nuts, and that was all. Apply some itch cream and would sit with a cool wash cloth on it and this would alleviate most problems. I did pop into the store for some oatmeal bath soaks and did that a bit as well. Looking back it was tolerable and not so bad. I think PUPPP was not even know to me at that point. I just figured it was itchy stretch marks.

What else went down? Had another ultrasound and had to go up to Foothills for it, got lost and arrived late but the staff were all cool... except I ended up with a student doctor who did it. She was super nice but took soooo long. Now I'm trying to smoosh this in a lunch hour and in addition to driving across the city for it I have to be patient with this well meaning student. Oh well, at least she seemed to be having fun with the challenge of scanning twins. Baby girl was definitely much more uncooperative then her brother with being in the right positions... do we have a trouble maker coming? Luckily, the results were mostly good. Their movement is great and still normal, everybody looks healthy, however their growth definitely has slowed down. They are still under 4lbs and now both in the 20th percentile for single babies. Baby boy has finally outgrown his sister. We will see how this trends out at the next scan.

Also, actually saw our actual OB. She's very nice and seemed a little more on top of things than the fill in guy, which I guess makes sense. She decided to book a tentative c-section because baby girl is still first and feet down. It is for September 11th but nobody's hanging their hat on that date. Anything could happen between now and then with growth and position and preterm labour chances.

Went to the physio as well. Yes I squished 3 appointments in a week! She did her magical massage, acupuncture, shock thing on my neck and jaw. Other than a little neck bruise I have been headache and jaw pain free. I don't know... I might like this whole acupuncture things for my jaw in the long run. Ha! Like I'll have time for such things in the future.

This week the babies are (not exactly) cabbages. They are starting to act, or I should say react to light and dark. Yes, I can tell they are not too please but the flash of light during the midnight bathroom runs. Hey, that's kind of your fault babies. Ever since our hospital run they have been moving much more consistently. Sometimes, it's actually tummy shaking jumps, and I thought they said the movements would be LESS noticeable. They are not too fond of the cold wash cloth treatments or cold ice drinks. Also, they have taken to "complaining" whenever I sleep on their side and they feel too squished. I am trying to be fair and even this out as best I can. Soon babies you will have all the room you want.

Week 32: Showered with Love

Compared to last week we had events coming out of our yin yang this week. And that was in spite of the fact that Monday was a holiday and it was a short week. At work it has been crazy trying to get everything together for this clinic sale. I wish it would just go through already! And we were busy with appointments on top of that anyway. Three more weeks... count downs are the worst.

Sleeping has been getting harder and harder. Had a nasty headache for 24+ hours that Tylenol was not helping much so there was two nights of not sleeping right there. Also my uterus has these episodes of getting really hard and uncomfortable for what seems like hours during the night; contractions or something else? I don’t know but it is very hard to find a sleepable position in such states. I am going back to physio next week for headache and jaw acupuncture as it seemed it was more helpful than not and then hopefully I can have better nights for the last six weeks. We’ll see.

Oh yeah and I forgot on top of that all I am becoming emotionally unstable. Forget the pregnant grouchiness... now I am paranoid. Not that this is new because I usually was having at least one paranoid episode a month, but as it gets closer I am getting more and more worried that something is going to go wrong. Why? Why would I think this? Well hopefully it is because pregnancy hormones make you crazy and hopefully it will go away. Or maybe I’ll just be a paranoid high-strung mother for the rest of my life! Poor babies, they won’t have any fun as bubble children.  Anyway, we had a really quiet day on Thursday as far as kicks go. Well the night had been quiet too. At first it was the boy’s side. Usually when I flip at night, whoever’s side I flip onto protests a bit as they have now become the squished instead of the squisher. Little boy was not doing this, at least that I could tell and all morning I didn’t really feel him move. At lunch it was quiet on both fronts which was also not the norm. Usually when I eat my peanut butter and honey sandwich they both get going for a bit. Not today. So I call the OB after lunch who basically tells me I’m on my own, go to the hospital. Thanks OB office... sorry what are you good for again? I miss Dr. Wong who would have had me come in pronto or set up an emergency ultrasound or something to that extent.  So then I called the health line and that nurse said I should count at least 6 kicks in 2 hours. Ok, maybe I am freaking out, I will try that. So I plunked myself down to do some book keeping and kept a tally of kicks. A little over two hours later I have 6 kicks on the boy side, 2 on the girl’s and 1 from no-mans-land. Great, now little girl is down! Yeesh, should I freak out? Yup! Up to the hospital we go... To their credit it was a really good experience and it was kind of like a dry run for us. PS... We were not ready to be coming home with babies, so as of Saturday afternoon we now are.

Anyway we were relieved to find everyone was normal and fine, moving fine. In fact, once we got to the hospital it was downright pandemonium in my womb with full belly jarring kicks and punches. Thanks kiddies for making me crazy all day long. Also learned that the placentas are at the front of the uterus and as they get bigger they act like a big air bag between me and the babies so things might get even quieter. This is very good to know. So, there you go. First hospital visit = not so bad. (That’s not counting the two seconds where the nurse couldn’t find baby girl’s heartbeat = wholly shite)

Well that was the week and then this weekend I worked on Saturday, then we cleaned out the car, put in the baby seats, threw in the hospital bag, went grocery shopping, and didn’t allow for nap time for me. Boo! Sunday we got up a little later than usual, gardened a bit, then headed over for our baby shower at Nana’s! Yeah! Matt put it best, as it is truly humbling to find out all the people who show up, and send gifts from afar, and plan, and organize, and do all these amazing things just for you. It was truly wonderful and we really are very blessed. Also, I am very glad we did not do much shopping because everyone was ridiculously generous with giving the babies presents. Our front foyer currently looks like a baby store. And it was good food (as always cuz Nana is the best at organizing food for parties) and fun games and good chats with everyone. It made for a long, but enjoyable day. Regardless, it was a crazy busy weekend. We have not even had the energy to sort through everything once we got it home. I need a nap or, better yet, a really fantastic sleep.  

The babies are honeydew melons this week. And now they actually may be slowing down a bit. Last ultrasound they were still both normal size for single babies but the doc says this is where they start to run out of room. We will see at the ultrasound next week. You know some mom’s only get 1 or 2 ultrasounds... I guess it’s nice that we are monitored, especially when I am so freaked out about losing them. I can’t be the only one right? Well, I hope not anyway. At least there’s only 4-6 more weeks or worrying of this sort to go. Then you’ll find me standing over the crib at all hours of the night making sure they are breathing. Yup, that might be me.

Week 31: Eight Navel Oranges

Well, it's been a pretty normal good week from this end. No major unexpected problems or griefs. No major headaches, mostly ok sleeps (riddled with much too vivid, weird dreams and numerous bathroom trips), and some minor vomiting. Back to taking 4 pills a day of diclectin... By the way, that stuff must be made of gold. If we didn't have health insurances we would have spent $600 on that drug alone! Instead it just costs us a trip to the pharmacy, yeah health care! I think having twins in the USA must suck for all the extra care you're suppose to get... I think probably you have to pay for all the extra ultrasounds and doc visits. I love Canada!

Things were very productive as well. Getting schtuff done feels great! Found and hired my work replacement, though my coworkers didn't seem very enthused. Things are kind of moving along on the clinic sale, more or less. Got all my papers, books, records in beautiful order. Pretty much finished all we can in the garden without starting new projects Mulched the beds finally, with the help of dad getting us some beautiful mulch and delivering it to our door. Man I hope we are even just half as awesome as our parents are... Goal number one! Oops goal number one is getting the babies out alive and healthy!

Had a successful ultrasound on Tuesday where we learned that the babies are still right in the middle of the growth curve for single babies. Baby girl still trumps the boy a bit, just by a bit. Boy is weighing 3.0 lbs and girl is at 3.2 lbs. I am thinking maybe we won't have 4lbs babies after all... Oh well, at least our car seats still look cool even if we didn't need the extra low weight range. Besides Murphy's Law states that if we hadn't got the smaller weight range seats then we would have needed them and I would much rather have bigger babies at the end of the day! The healthier they are, the sooner they come home, the happier I am.

The babies this week are (weight for it!) four navel oranges... Uh ok... Lame! And basically they are just getting fatter and pinker. Well I like the sound of that. But with carrying twins they are most definitely getting cramped for space. It's harder for the tech to get good ultrasound pictures of specific things and everybody is all up in each other business. Get use to it sis and bro! I am glad we got disks of the first couple ultrasounds! The pictures are suppose to be their faces but it's a little hard to discern, especially little girls as she was facing backwards so this is the view from inside her skull!

Also went to the second OB appointment. Not exactly impressed with them. Still cant see the doc we were actually referred to as she is still on her own mat leave. They still didn't really have our file and info all straight. They don't check or say anything that my other doctor wasn't doing. And they said our info wouldn't even be at the hospital anyway if we went into early labor... Even though they have a member of their OB group at the hospital always on call. Well, what good is being referred to this group then?  I might as well just carry my own medical records around. I am just hoping they can deliver babies because at the end of the day I guess thats all that matters. I wish I could have just seen my regular doc up until delivery, boo! Oh well, at least she's our pediatrician. Useless OB group. Hopefully I'll get to change my tune on delivery day.

Week 30: Happy Anniversary

It’s now Monday, July 29^th, and officially Matt and I have been married for 2 years. Well it’s a good time to get on with having kids I guess. It’s kind of the norm, give or take a year here or there. Look at the royal couple Will and Kate... married a couple months before us and now they just gave birth to Prince George. Guess we can’t call the baby boy George. I am not heartbroken.  We didn’t really celebrate too much as per our usual. We did head out to Banff and went to the fondue house! Yum! Mom and Dad treated us, and Dave and Lindsay (married 7 years on Aug 6), to an anniversary dinner because thy are awesome! It was awesome; I love that place. Had Duck and Beef and Ostrich... oh yeah and chocolate fondue too! Except we were really out in Banff to see Kevin so the fondue thing was just a fortunate side trip. The band was pretty good; hopefully they’ll be able to get their sound out a little more and perhaps tour out west more and maybe even play in Calgary on a night when we can stay for the whole show.

Things have been fine on the pregnancy front. No new developments. The babies are coming in 6 weeks or so... eek. Sometimes I can even envision that we’re going to actually have two more little people in the house. It’s been very hard for me to look too far beyond the day we are living. Maybe this is for the better, maybe not. I am starting to feel excited for our day of birth though... whenever that may be. And I feel that just holding these little guys at the end of it all will make it feel so much more real and worth it. Though apparently September is a big important month for shows in Calgary so I’m a little disappointed that we won’t be making it to our Oct 5th singleton birth date because I really wanted to see War Horse and 50 Shades... Yes, woe is me... lament!

In the meantime the nausea is more under control with more pills and less vitamins and bagels in the morning. Had too many incidences of rushing into the clinic and barely making it to a sink before breakfast bagels were jumping back out of my stomach. Bleck! At least when I don't make it into the clinic and am sick in the parking lot the crows have a nice snack for the day.

At work I managed to interview 1 tech of the 3 resumes I got. She was nice but I can’t find her registered with the Alberta Tech Assoc and that could be a problem. I am waiting to her back from her about this. My other interview poo poo’d the position and the other resume lives in NS so I don’t think she’s going to be too keen to come out here. It’s unfortunately and not easy and we are running out of time. I may work a little in September as well. Either way the sale of Chaparral will keep me a little occupied for some time anyway.

The babies have been good though all this. Most days they move an average amount, some days they never settle down, and some days they are pretty quite; too quiet for someone who is supposed to be monitoring and counting their movements. Especially hard when most of the movements are in the neutral zone and at the end of the day one is not really sure if it’s boy punches or girl kicks. It gets you paranoid on those quiet days but I am trying to remind myself not to get too worked up about such things. Everything has been so normal and fine that there really is no reason to worry. Still, that’s hard to tell your 2am brain such things and make it go to sleep. 

The vegetable of the week is a head of lettuce... that’s pretty variable. I feel like there is probably a better way to gauge these things instead of vegetables... oh well. Their main job now is to grow, grow, grow. All organs are functioning and mostly ready to go at this stage. They are busy bouncing around in my tummy making faces, hiccupping, swallowing, breathing, sucking their thumbs and peddling their arms and feet. That is when they are not sleeping. At this point I have put on 14 kg (31.5 lbs) which I guess is average. I still feel a little small for 2 babies, but they were normal on the growth curve 2 weeks ago and we have another ultrasound tomorrow which I am anxious to see that we are still normal. I like being normal for such things! Well, that's all for now. Luv luv!

Week 29: Return of the Morning Sickness! Yeah!

What the heck is going on? I am back to being sick every morning and nauseous until around noon. Lame! And the headaches are back... maybe I should go see physio again? Heck I don’t know, kind of a tough call. Also so very very tired again, lunch time naps please! And peeing ALL the time, almost every hour, because my bladder doesn't have any more room. I guess nobody said the 3^rd trimester was gonna be easy. At least I’ve been able to take it really easy and my feet are back to their normal size, at least for today! Just in time for pedicures, which I am in desperate need of. Nobody mentioned what a pain it is to scrub your feet, trim your toe nails, shave your legs, or landscape the bush, and it’s just gonna get worse. Ha, that’s kinda been my motto lately anyway. Not that it's worse as in ‘wholly crap I’m never gonna make it’. More like worse as in bigger and harder to do things. Such is the way right? At least I’ve gotten used to the uterine contractions so most of the time I’m barely aware they have come and gone... most of the time, not every time. Boy, don't I look pleased in this picture!

Otherwise, things have been mostly business as usual, other than trying to take care of things at work. I have to replace myself on a couple of levels. It is a pain and I really wish I could just split in two and one of us keep working and one of us do the kid thing. Multiplicity eh? I will interview techs next week and I have started setting up the girl at the other clinic to do the book keeping at least for Douglas. Chaparral is suppose to be getting sold... ugh I wish it would just go already but still so much to do until that happens. Well, technically I have over a month right? 

At least worrying about work means less worrying about other things. Jen pointed out that it was strange that I was so paranoid about loosing the babies but have no concerns at all about delivering prematurely. This is true. I feel like we can make it to the end of this one. Even so, as time goes by I feel less and less like we might lose the babies. Things have been so uneventful on that front. We had our ultrasound on Tuesday. Was able to take Daddy AND Nana. Like I said, very uneventful... babies fine, good, growing normal, moving normal (maybe too much for the US technician). Physically, all the things that put one at risk for preterm labour I’m not even on the verge of. So yeah, I feel justified in thinking we’re gonna make it to September no prob! The biggest question then is... Who will plant my fall bulbs!

Speaking of... The garden has fallen off my radar. I really need to get out to it. Matt is doing a great job of watering things, but I have roses to plant, other roses to prune, weeding to do, and the mulch will probably not go down this year. We will see if the rock garden even gets done. Might have to put the rock babies in the bed where the patio is suppose to go as this will probably not happen his year either. Well, what can you do? We tried.

This week the veggie is butternut squash... However our ultrasound says the babies are like 1.5 lbs and the app says it's more like 3 lbs. So we are maybe more twin sized now. I am curious to see what the next ultrasound says about growth. We are going to go every 2 weeks now which is nice for the whole reassurance thing. The brain is developing wrinkles this week and the bone marrow is taking over red blood cell production. Another step to being healthier if they come out early. Also, hormones should start being produced soon. Maybe that testosterone will grow our baby boy a little bigger than his sister by the end of this!

Week 28: Let the Contractions Begin

I am officially feeling very full with babies these days. The tummy is quite taut now and is probably going to actually start stretching beyond my days-of-fatness-passed. Still no popping belly button, but it’s very shallow, could go any day. So you think you’re tummy’s feeling pretty tight and then, whoa, it suddenly gets tighter and fuller and harder. I felt this once a couple weeks ago and just thought the babies were moving strangely. Then it started happening more and more often and I really didn’t know what to think until it was described in my twin book. Yup, around this time those Braxton Hicks contractions will start up. I guess I didn’t really know what to expect of these contractions but the tummy hardening thing wasn’t really it. But that’s what it is, your uterus practicing to expel those babies. But the OB says, hey, don’t worry about it now, they are just going to get harder and more painful... grrrreeeaaat. I wish I could tell my body that all that fuss is unnecessary. Hey utuerus, don’t you know we’re probably going to have a c-section so take it easy would ya. Haven’t seen our true OB yet so they have yet to give us a plan for delivery, but the kicks tell me that little girl has yet to spin around and I really doubt she will. I am back to being ok with the whole delivery thing. You know it’s just better to not over think such things. It’s gonna happen either way, so don’t worry about it. 

Other than feeling like an ever expanding pumpkin I am starting to feel like my pelvic/groin muscles/tendons have gone through some super intense work out regime and have fallen apart overnight. I am forced into an awkward waddle for most of the morning until everything down there decides that they have to hold it together so we can get through the day. So my pelvis in general is pretty sore... Oh well.

I have been babysitting the puppies this week and I’m pretty sure I am the least fun person in the world right now. I told Ty he couldn’t climb on top of me anymore (don’t need a 70 lbs fur beast on my tummy). And I told them that sleep was so important I was going to sleep with the door closed and ear plugs in. Well, at least they haven’t been getting me up at 5am. Also, the walks are less and slower when they do happen. Poor puppies. I have been trying to compensate with extra treats. Might be the last time I babysit them anyway. We’ll have to see how life is once babies come.

The babies this week are cabbages. They are storing more fat, developing better taste buds and since 'space' is at a premium they are moving lots. Things are just gonna get tighter over the next few months so appreciate while you can babies. Had a couple people try to feel the babies but they are not really wanting to move when people want to feel. Besides most of the movement is down in my groin area and ain't nobody gonna get a feel down there! Sometimes baby girl kicks so hard I wonder if she'll kick her way out and I'll find a little foot sticking out of me. Matt says this is unlikely to happen. That's good, still have 6 weeks of work to get through!

Week 27: Stay Gold, Ponyboy... Nope, Not Happening

Well I am starting to feel a little emotionally drained this week. I have never worried so much in my life and it is starting to get old! Now the doc wants us to count kicks throughout the day... And when they aren't kicking... Gah! Time to freak out, right? No, keep it together girl! Things are fine! So that's been a restless night here and there and a couple mornings where I rushed to the clinic to get my stethoscope and check for heartbeats. Thinking I should just start toting that thing around with me. If only I had myself an ultrasound machine. Guess we'll save that purchase for the next pregnancy. We see the obstetrician next week so maybe they can help calm my nerves.

So sleeping is getting less fun. Need a pillow that keeps my neck at the right angle to prevent the heachaches. Need a pillow to keep my arms straight so my hands don't go numb. Need a small pillow under my belly for support. Need a pillow behind my back to prop me up a bit. Then the baby on that side gets fidgety so one has to sit up, flip sides, readjust pillows, decide that everythingis probably still ok, fall back to sleep... Repeat as needed. Then this cycle gets interrupted by the need to pee at least twice a night. Poor kittens, they dont know what my problem is. At least my pukey pills knock me out a bit.

My saving grace is that the finish line is in sight! Hopefully not too on sight though. We want to carry these babies through to September! Someone in our class had their babies at 31 weeks this week. If that was us it would be the first weekend of August. Egads! Let's not go there. I'll sleep restlessly and worry for a bit longer thank you very much. That news gave me a "holy crap, we're going to have babies in less than 3 months, wait we're going to have babies period!" moment. Yup, this is actually going to happen when this is all said and done. Crazy thoughts.

But we are getting ready for it. Nursery done and set up, with both cribs, book collection, drawers ready to stock with baby gear, rocker for nursing, zoo pictures on the way... We have our stroller. We just got the car seats. Got most of the registry organized for the shower that Nana is doing a great job of organizing. Yup, getting ready for this to really happen. At least the nursery is kitten approved! This is most important.

Oh yeah, and I cut my hair to get ready as well; almost 4 inches and nobody has noticed. You know you're hair is too long when... Yeah, I decided that it was too hot and also going to be yanked a lot and get in the way of breast feeding. It feels good. And I didn't even do it myself, got a groupon and went to a professional. First time since before the wedding! Go me!

The babies this week are cauliflowers. Or as another website pointed out, the size of small chihuahuas, hopefully not as furry! Their brains are becoming more active and may even be dreaming at this point. They are practicing blinking, sucking, coughing, and their lungs are more or less mature at the end of this week. Good news if they plan to come early. Well, time to get these babies to bed, wont get much easier than it is right now!