Updates from L&D

The first three weeks here were pretty uneventful, NOW is a different story.  We have a birthdate!  We're not sharing :)  We'll make a big introductory post when they arrive, which is VERY SOON.  While that day is scheduled, my pre-e has been really problematic lately.  My bp's are on the rise and almost daily we have to worry if this cluster of bp spikes will trigger delivery.  Its exhausting!  Some days I'm ready, others I'm not.  I like that its not really up to me!  They'll come when they come and if they don't come by 3/**/11 on their own, we'll deliver.  I'm scared about getting really sick with pre-e.  Its not a pleasant disease and its very unpredictable.  If things advance really quickly, my liver and kidneys could be compromised.  I could have strokes or seizures.  The disease could constrict blood flow to my babies.  All things WAY too devastating for me to think of right now.  Its a huge concern and my nurses and Dr.s are watching me very closely in order to avoid complications.

I'm praying that we can get to our scheduled csection with no complications.

Lately, the contractions have been ramping up as well.  Double whammy!  At this point, the Dr reassures me that my contractions are extremely typical for this late in twin pregnancy.  She keeps telling me that my body is DONE being pregnant.  I completely agree!  My uterus is stretched way beyond where it should be and my muscles are just done.  My contractions seem to be braxton-hicks.  They don't really have any pain associated with them, just tightness and some pressure.  When I was checked 3 weeks ago, my cervix was closed and soft, but with these b-hicks, I'm sure I'm starting to efface.  Thankfully, the nurses reassure me that if I was in full blown labor, I'd KNOW it.  I would apparently be in quite a bit of pain.

Babies look great!  They are hanging in there like little jumping beans.  I have 3 NST's a day to check their level of activity to make sure they are getting adequate blood flow and having the proper amount of excels and decels in heart rate.  So far, so good.  Its just unreal that we will meet them so soon.  I've waited my whole life to meet these two, SO CLOSE!

Please keep all 4 of us in your prayers.  Lots of wonderful, yet scary things coming our way!

Flowers!

The excited grandpa-to-be (my dad) sent us flowers today!  Its nasty and snowy outside today and the walls are starting to close in so it was PERFECT timing.  They really brighten up the room and smell amazing!  Thanks Dad and Nova, I love them :)

I'm starting to think that I'll never want to go home...ok let me explain.  I lay in bed all day and watch TV, play on the internet, text, talk on the phone, watch movies & netflix, and sleep.  I get to eat really good food (no seriously the l&d floor has its own chef) and don't have to cook.  I get to hang out with a whole bunch of really sweet nurses all day long.  Seriously not your average bedrest, right?!  

In all seriousness, I miss home like crazy.  When M brings me fresh clothes and sheets I can smell home and it makes me sad.  I miss our pets and especially my cuddly black dog.  She's really having a hard time with me being gone :(  Poor baby girl.  I miss sleeping in MY bed with me hubby.  Here, he sleeps in the recliner or in the hospital guest bed.  Poor guy.  I miss my couch and my bathroom.  I miss my car and my MILK.  I miss it all really and when I do go home, it will never be the same.  It will be my house PLUS two.  Our family will double in size!  I will walk into my house as a MOM.  Heavy.  

The Dr came in and said everything is still stable.  Woohoo!  They may deliver me a week from today and they may wait two weeks, depending on my bp and labs.  I could be a mom in ONE week.  Holy crap!

My Scottish nurse

She's a hoot.  She's probably in her mid-fifties and I seriously want to bottle her up and take her home with me...whenever that will be.  She calls me toots, she calls the twins "the twinkies" or "wee ones"-yes she sounds JUST like Shrek!  She comes in in the mornings and asks me if I've had "breckie" (breakfast) yet.  She's a gas!  She's from Pueblo, so like 100 miles from here and she travels and stays in a hotel for the week.  That in itself would be rough, add that to the fact that she is elbow deep in cervix, placentas and babies-that makes her a rockstar!

All the nurses here are just wonderful.  One has been a bit strange-she wakes me up from naps just to chat.  Seriously sister?  Momma needs her rest.  Other than that, they are all super sweet.  We've been through the whole rotation at this point (I think) and they are all really supportive and my biggest cheer leaders.  They make being away from home a little easier to swallow :)

I'm starting to get sad that I have to be away from home.  I'm hoping its just that I'm tired and hormonal.  I've done so well, but as we reach this two week mark, I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself.  M is wonderful, he stays with me most nights-and you know how uncomfortable these hospital guest beds are.  Bless his heart :)  The days he's got to check in at work or spend time with the menagerie, he sleeps at home.  We're trying not to completely piss off the animals, that will happen soon enough when we bring home two teeny little screaming bundles.

I feel bad that M has to do it all.  He keeps up the house, pays all the bills, takes care of me, makes sure the animals feel loved, etc.  He's positively wonderful.  He does all this while preparing himself to be a dad to twins.  Men don't get much better than him :)  I hope he knows how much I appreciate him and all he's doing for us.  He claims its his "job" as the head of the household, that he's been waiting his whole life to be Daddy and this all just goes along with it.  He seems not to care about the load on his shoulders and in fact, he seems to love it.  I'll take his word for it!

Last night we were watching a movie and Baby M started to really roll around.  M came over and started talking to my belly, this kid loves his daddy!  We saw a little arm/elbow pop out and move around by my belly button, so sweet!  I never knew the love you have for your children is so intense...I haven't even "met" them yet!  Seeing M love on his babies (even though they aren't here yet) is seriously the most precious sight in the world.  I'm so thankful for him and these beautiful babies.

Hope everyone had a great weekend :)  I promise I'll try to think of more interesting things to blog about-other than the hospital and babies.  Its sort of my world right now (I haven't left these four walls in nearly 2 weeks...yep, true story).  If all goes well, we have about 2 weeks left, sigh.  I have to keep pumping myself up and telling myself that this is the best place for us and we NEED to be here.  We want to get these babies to 36 weeks and I know that probably won't happen if I go home.  I'll be trying too hard to help M out or make meals or help with the animals.  It will go down hill fast.  So for now, I just keep plugging away.  Every day is one day closer to meeting our babies!

Hospital update 3,123

For now, things are still status quo.  The protein in my urine has gone down again, which is AWESOME.  Bedrest is doing its job, for now.  My bp is still what they call labile (sp?)-its up, its down, its up, its down.  Nothing consistent yet, which is good.  If it gets high and stays there, we'll be having babies soon after and they need more time.  All my labs are currently normal, which is good.  My liver isn't involved yet, which is fabulous.  

I'm the famous bedrester here now!  Everytime there is a nurse shift change (if I get a nurse I haven't had before) I always here, "so you're the twin momma!"  Most women on an l&d floor come in in labor, labor, have their babies and leave.  I'm here until delivery...whenever that is!  My Dr's tell me if I make it to 35-36w, we're delivering then.  A little more than two weeks and I'll be a momma.  Crazy.  Its hard to believe that in that short amount of time I'll meet the two little wiggle worms.  See who they look like, if they really do have all the hair that the u/s techs claim they have.  M and I are so opposite looking (he's blonde/blue and I'm brown/brown) I'm interested to see who they take after!

Ask and you shall receive, belly pics.  So, I debated on whether or not to post these.  Keep in mind that I'm on hospital bedrest and I'm swollen.  Cut me some slack :)

Almost 34 weeks.  BIG.

I was hoping my belly button nub would show in this picture, alas, it doesn't.  My belly button is such a strange shape right now!  As painful as it is to be this big, I think I'll miss this belly.  I keep saying, I can't wait to have my body back and my babies outside, but I'll miss these sweet little kicks and baby M's hiccups.  He gets them like 5 times a day.  Its precious.  Baby A just rolls all day long.  She's butt up right now, so I have a massive lump on my right side.  I bet she'll be one of those babies who sleeps butt up!  

We had a growth u/s when we came in last week.  The babies were both head down at that point and the u/s tech said they were holding hands.  Well as much as they could through the amnion.  There's a very thin wall of gestational sac separating them (since they are fraternal), it looks like a thin piece of yarn/string on u/s.  It is really flimsy and wiggly.  I may have mentioned that in a post already, but that just melts my heart.  I hope they are snuggly twins when they get here :)  How can they not be though, right?  After 9 months of close quarters, they will probably be inconsolable without each other.  

Well thats about all I have to report from here.  Thank you for thinking of us and praying for us!  Your prayers mean so much to us :)  I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

33 weeks

Still here, hanging out :). Today marks 33 weeks. Whoop! Every day is a milestone. The babies put on so much weight and grow so fast at this point, every single day is huge. So far things are stable. The babies are doing great, they love all this lounging around! They are the "side show" on the l & d ward at this point. The nurses all come in to watch baby girl do her somersaults. My whole belly completely distorts and I swear with much more momentum she could throw me out of bed! Active little babe. Little man gets hiccups every single night when they put him on the monitors. I swear you can almost hear that sweet little voice :). Its funny that such small little babies can make such bit movements!

My bp is stable at this point. My labs are all looking good still and the docs are just watching me very closely for any changes. I don't have a whole lot to update, sorry! I pretty much just lay here and sleep most days. Let's hope the rest continues to do good things and stave off delivery, at least for another week or two.

Thank you so much for all your thoughts and prayers! We appreciate them so much :).

Update

So they have diagnosed me with mild pre-eclampsia. :(. I'm here for another night to see what my bp does. Its weird. The bottom # (diastolic) is good, but the top (systolic) is elevating. The med team is thoroughly confused at this point...hence further monitoring. This will ultimately be the reason for delivery but they are hoping to buy us a week or two. Just got my second steroid shot and I'm praying that we can keep things controlled at least a teensy bit longer.

They haven't started talking about imminent delivery yet and the mag sulfate won't come until they do. At least that's what the nurse says. Dr L will be here shortly to talk over the game plan. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. Please keep praying for us.

Love to you all :)

"You just bought yourself a hospital stay"

I went in for a routine NST (non stress test) and fluid check and they notices my blood pressure was high. I've never had high blood pressure. The dipped my urine and sure enough I was spilling protein. They immediately popped in an iv, started steroids for the babies lungs and ordered a 24 hour urine catch, which I just finished. A couple hours into our stay I started contracting...only I couldn't feel them. The did a cervical check (closed, soft, long) and another ffn which was negative. Thank goodness.

BUT the pre-eclamptic symptoms are really troubling. When we get the results back from my urine catch they will make some big decisions. I may go home on strict bedrest. I may stay hospital bound on strict bedrest. They may try out magnesium sulfate-barf. It's an evil drug used to lower bp and stop contractions. The side effects are hideous and I'd have to get a folley(sp?) catheter. Yuck. Then there is the chance that the protien got so high that they need to deliver asap. My bp has been normal and borderline so at this point things could swing any way. The good news is babies look beautiful! Its just my body that is failing them :(. Come on body-let's regulate and keep these sweet babies IN for at least 2 more weeks!

Please keep us in your prayers. We are in great hands here, but no one wants me to deliver this soon. I'm about 32.5 weeks. Thank you for thinking of us :). I'll try to keep everyone posted.

Nellie's babies

Miss Nellie has started using my belly as a headrest (I'm sure it had nothing to do with the peanut butter sandwich sitting on the other side of me :)).  Sometimes the babies kick her and she'll pull back and look at the belly in amazement.  Then she'll lay her head back down and the cycle begins again.  Friends already :)  I'm excited to see how much she'll love them when they get here.

I hit 30 weeks yesterday!  At this point every week-no every day is another milestone for twin pregnancy.  The goal is to keep them cooking.  Every day inside the mother's womb is equal to two days on the outside-development wise.  I had an appointment with the Peri today (high risk OB).  Cervix (surprisingly) looks great., a bit of funneling at the top, but no more than usual.  It was still measuring over 3.5, so thats good.  Lets hope the momentum continues for 8 more weeks!  OK thats getting kind of cocky, but I'd love to make it to full term and get to bring these babies home with me instead of watching them from a NICU window.  

The babies look perfect (of course!) and are both about 3.5lbs already.  I'm carrying around 7lbs of baby, no wonder my body is so sore!  My pelvis and groin feel like they are being pried apart by the jaws of life...pun intended?!?  I'm happy to be sore as long as they stay put and stay healthy for another month or two.  Baby Girl gave us a good scare though.  The Peri was looking at her heart watching her chambers/valves and her heart went into tachycardia (HIGH heart rate) and was over 204.  The Peri told us to give her a minute to settle herself down and after she stopped and rested for a few (terrifying) minutes she was able to regulate back down to a normal heart rate-about 150.  Whew!  He told us that her chambers/valves were all working perfectly, so she was probably just being really active before we got to her.  They always measure Baby A (her brother) first.

They are so sweet :)  We got some good shots of Baby Girl's profile, she has a sweet little button nose and pouty little lips like her daddy.  We can never see Baby Boy because he's always got his head jammed into my pelvis/cervix and he's always facing my spine.  He wants to keep us guessing what he looks like until birth.  We keep trying to guess if the wavy lines we see on the ultrasound images are hair.  M and I both had LOTS of hair as newborns, so if they don't I'll be shocked.  

This is newborn ME.  I think I must be yawning here?  (Mom, can you chime in).  Anyway, take note of all that hair!  We have some newborn pics of M here somewhere and he had a full head of curly beautiful blond hair.  I'm betting on the twins being redheads!  How cute would that be?!?

Have a wonderful week!

A shitty car update and some pics

As you can probably guess, we were handed a big poop sandwich today.  The Jeep is out of commission.  Its a 6 cylinder and one of the cylinders is CRACKED.  Mother f*cker.  I'm sorry, but thats really the only appropriate thing I can think to say right now.  I apologize if I offend.  We owe a couple thousand still on the loan (which isn't bad), so our options are to rebuild the cylinder or that block of the engine-to the tune of $2000...not including labor, have an entirely new engine put in-to the tune of $2500-$4000 or sell it for parts and buy a new coche.  Man this sucks.  Right now, we're probably going to have it towed to get a second opinion on it before we make any big plans.  My dad seems to think that Firestone isn't really equipped to diagnose something so deep in the motor, and they can't repair it anyway, so we're taking it to someone who can.  

We could get a newer used car, but we have two babies coming VERY soon and adding that much to a loan we already have is just not smart.  Sure, we have a good chunk of savings, but these days, you need savings so we're not touching that at this point.  Plus, I'm barely working since I'm on modified bedrest, so we to have a buffer until I go back to work after the babies come.  Sometimes I really just want to crawl into a hole and sleep until someone fixes my problems for me.  M's no use right now either.  He's beyond FURIOUS and theres a lot of b.s. going on at his shop right now so he's getting it piled on too...not to mention that he's completely running our home on his own since I'm essentially bed/couch ridden except for a few hours a day.  God love him.

I realize I'm usually upbeat and pretty cheerful about life.  I can take a hurdle every now and then, but this is testing my sanity.  I'm so over the "short end of the stick".  I have so much good in my life, and I know that, truly I do, but right now I feel like there's a big arrow over our heads that says "shit on these guys they got too happy".  I just goes to show you, you think you have life all figured out and you're HAPPY, content and looking forward to the future, then the rug gets pulled out from under you.  My mom keeps telling me, "it will all work out for the best, it always does."  I hope you're right mom, I really do.  I had a good convo with Momma bear tonight, had a good cry and I'm hoping that bright side of the scenario blinds us pretty soon.  I'm ready for good news :)  

Speaking of happy things :)  Some of you have been asking for updated baby belly pics, well, here ya go!  These were taken tonight at 29w3d.  I'm doing pretty well, big and sore and hoping the rest of pregnancy passes quickly.  As much as I love feeling these two pumpkins kick and move and having this special time with them, I'm ready to meet them (well I'm ready for the next 4 weeks to fly)!  I'm ready to see their daddy and our family/friends meet them!  Not now though babies, you're stuck with me for a minimum of 4 more weeks.  

We've had Nellie (dog) for almost 2 years.  We had two cats prior to her Charlie (the little one who's lighter) and Elvis (the big dark guy).  In these two years the cats have never warmed up to our poor sweet Nellie.  Seriously.  When the cats see her they hiss and bat at her and when she sees them, she chases them like rabbits...its that damn coon hound blood.  Well, lately the cats have had a change of heart.  The change of heart seems to wax and wane, but hey, we'll take what we can get!  Last night (M worked the night shift) all three were in bed with me.  Nellie was in the middle, Elvis next to her and Charlie was on M's pillow.  No hissing, no fighting, NO BLOOD!  This evening I walk to the bathroom and this is what I see.  Frenemies!  Baby steps my friends, baby steps

I hope everyone is warm and cozy on this chilly, snowy evening!  

Third trimester twin belly

Holy moly!  I swear I don't *feel* that big!  When I went in for my 25 week OB appt, I was measuring 36w, so I'm pretty huge.  We hit the third trimester a couple days ago, so I thought I'd celebrate with a picture!  Please ignore the ever widening tooshie :) 

Braxton Hicks contractions are part of my everyday reality now.  Yuck.  At this point, the OB says they are completely normal, harmless and not to worry.  Right, easier said than done!  I'm having them check my cervix weekly for any change.  I know in a couple weeks the cervix will start to soften anyway to prepare for delivery, but its too early right now.

That reminds me, I need to write a "what they don't tell you about pregnancy" post soon.  I know every pregnancy/woman is different, so we all have different experiences, but its nice to know some of these things (the likely "side effects") before hand!  My experience will be a little different from most others, since I'm having two.  It will still be entertaining :)  There are routines I wish I would have started at week 4 that can't be reversed now.  Stay tuned!