28 Weeks =)

I feel kind of like I am neglecting posting about "Baby C" (aka - "Baby Boy H" or "Little Man"). I posted SO much about the girls when I was pregnant, but everything is so different with a twin pregnancy; more doctor's appointments, additional monitoring and ultrasounds, more possible issues...and with one baby, well, it's easier.

Okay, so I think "easier" is open to discussion. I don't know that this has really been any easier than it was with the girls honestly!

I think another big part of my neglecting posting about Baby C is that we have two crazy toddlers running around, being adorable, and keeping us crazy busy. I don't have the time to analyze every little thing going on with this pregnancy, and since I'm only being monitored once a month, if we don't get good ultrasound pictures (we NEVER seem to get good ultrasound pictures), I have little to nothing to post about.

We don't have another OB appointment until next week, but since it's been 4-5 weeks since I've posted anything about baby C, AND 28 weeks is a milestone time point for pregnancy, I figured it's about time I just wrote some items down!

So...

We are 28 weeks this week. Wow! Only 11 weeks to go if we go the C-section route, and about 12 weeks to go if we go the VBAC route. We are on the home stretch for sure! I should probably start buying clothes for this little peanut....too bad baby boy clothes aren't nearly as cute as baby girl clothes! I'd have his little closet filled already! Well that, and I don't really know what size to buy...with the girls I knew they'd come early and likely would be in newborn clothes for a while. But with this little man being full term, he will likely be 8 lbs (or more!) at birth, so I don't know that newborn is the size that I should be shopping for! Any insight mommas?

So what else? This little man is very very active! Brianna was a very active baby too, but I think that this little man may have her beat. He really squirms all over the place and takes full advantage of all the space he has in there. Full, BIG movements are common now. I can watch my entire belly move like a wave. Very cool! The girls continue to be obsessed with my growing belly and belly button. I keep telling them that there is a baby in there, but they still don't really get it. Livvy has started giving my belly kisses though, which is absolutely adorable, so I think she maybe has some tiny bit of understanding that there could be a baby in there.

A couple of things that have been different with this pregnancy (and the reason that I note that this pregnancy may not be any "easier" really than the first pregnancy) is the amount of soreness I have been experiencing. My hips and pelvis are SO sore. So sore! All the time. My OB says that since the two pregnancies are so close together that my ligaments pretty much just stayed loose, therefore not supporting my frame and structure (and are getting more loose by the minute it feels like)! While I may not be carrying as much baby weight around, the whole act of moving around, standing, sitting, etc. is more difficult this time. I have definitely been surprised. I was looking forward to an easy, pain free pregnancy! HA!

The other thing I have been watching for with this pregnancy is Pre-Eclampsia. Since I developed pre-e with the girls I now know what to watch for. It makes the symptoms easier to spot, but I also get concerned a bit easier too when I see a new symptom pop up. My blood pressure has been elevated for about the last 6 weeks, but it's not too high yet to where it's overly concerning. They did a 24 hour urine on me about 4 weeks ago, and my protein was already at 260 (300 is clinical indication for pre-e), so that is being watched as well. I just had my week 28 blood work and Rhogam shot, and they went ahead and added on a CMP (Complete Metabolic Panel) to check my liver function and make sure that all is still well there. I feel like I'm being appropriately monitored, I just wish there was something I could do to prevent the pre-eclampsia from occurring all together! My OB told me that my chances of developing pre-eclampsia in a second pregnancy are lower, only about 15%, but with my numbers already being elevated on several of the clinical markers it makes me think that probably I will end up fitting right into that 15% the longer I progress into my pregnancy. I'm hopeful that won't happen, but I'm not counting on it.

So, that's the story! Now on to belly pictures! Just as I did last time, I will post a comparison shot - one of me now, with a singleton, and one of me at the same point with twins. Definitely smaller this time around =).

Here I am today, at 28 weeks 1 day with "baby C"

Here I am at 28 weeks with the girls

HUGE difference right? LOL!
Okay, so that's all for now! I hope you all are having a great week, and if you have any input for me, clothes-wise, pre-e - wise, or otherwise, please feel free to share it! Thank you!!!

Until next time -
Megan

A week old already! Birth story, NICU, and update =)

I can't believe Olivia and Brianna will be a week old tonight! The time has gone so quickly and the girls have changed SO much already! So, we will get to that in a minute. . .for now I want to share the quick version of the girls birth story, and what has happened in their little lives since that point.

So, last Tuesday I went to the OB for my 36 week checkup. He took one look at me and told me I was pre-eclamptic and that the babies needed to come out as soon as possible. My blood pressure was high, my swelling was crazy, I was having headaches, and I was seeing spots. . .all classic signs of pre-e. I was admitted to the hospital for "observation" on Tuesday afternoon. I was seen by the maternal fetal specialist (that I had last seen at 34 weeks) Tuesday night who started me on lebatalol (a blood pressure medication), and told me that he would consider doing an amnio on Thursday to check the babies lung maturity, and if they were mature then my OB could make the call on whether or not to do a C-section. This was my 5th trip to L&D. My OB told me when he sent me to the hospital that the babies would either be born on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. I was over 36 weeks pregnant with the twins, and we were all pretty darn sure that if the babies came now that they would be just fine. The specialist apparently had different plans and wanted the babies to stay in as long as possible. I was frustrated and didn't want to be hanging out in the hospital forever before we were delivered. BUT, I was willing to wait and do what was best for my babies. After a long night of spiking blood pressures, the specialist agreed to do an amnio on Wednesday morning. It came back that the babies lungs were mature (a 69 - anything over 55 is considered "mature"), so we got the go ahead for the C-section. My OB was out of town in clinic all day, but said he could do the section on Wednesday night when he returned to town.

At 830 PM Wednesday night my OB finally arrived at the hospital and we got our show on the road! They had to poke me about 5x to get the spinal done, but once it was it was really smooth sailing. Miss Olivia was born at 8:59 PM on 10/13/2010 weighing 6 lbs 1 oz. Miss Brianna followed directly after at 9:00 PM on 10/13/2010 weighing 6 lbs 4 oz. Brianna didn't get all of the fluid out of her lungs when she was born and ended up in a bit of respiratory distress which required her to be admitted to the NICU and be put on a CPAP overnight. Olivia went up to the normal nursery only to get ticked off when she found out that she wasn't going to get to hang out with her sister right away, so she decided to have a blood sugar of 24! After some formula it only increased to 45 so she quickly joined her sister in the NICU as well. Crazy kids!!

I have been breast feeding, and I have been SO lucky to have help from some wonderful nurses and lactation consultants at the hospital, as well as help from a great friend who is currently breastfeeding, and from two moms (mine and Si's). I don't know what I would have done without everyone! I am currently producing enough milk for both girls, plus a little extra to supplement with if we need to. AMAZING right? I figured there was no way I would be able to make enough milk to feed the girls, and it has taken a TON of work and commitment, but so far so good!! I am so glad I can provide for my babies in this way!!

We (Si and I) were discharged from the hospital on Sunday, but the babies have not yet been released. This makes life a little more hectic for Si and I at this point. Even though we only live about 5 minutes from the hospital, we still have been choosing to make the trek up the hospital every 3 hours for breast milk feedings, and it is really quite exhausting! We expect to be exhausted when the girls come home as well, but I think it will be so much easier not to have to worry about getting dressed, getting in the car, driving to the hospital, scrubbing in, etc. every 3 hours. We shall see. We are just SO thrilled to be in the situation we are currently in and feel so blessed to have such beautiful healthy babies=). It was worth every second of the pain we had to endure to get them here. EVERY SECOND! It's an amazing feeling to be a mom! I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world =).

What else. . .oh, since they were admitted to the NICU, we have had a whole different set of standards that we have had to meet prior to discharge. The girls have had to:

1 - Show that they could regulate their body temperature (check!)
2 - Eat properly and often enough (absolutely no further apart than 4 hours) (in progress)
3 - Lose no more than 10% of their body weight at birth (check!)
4 - Gain weight (or at least not lose) after day 4 of life (finally - check!)
5 - Maintain decent billiruben levels (14 or under) to reduce the risk of jaundice (check!)
6 - Have a minimum of 6-8 wet diapers a day without supplemental (IV) fluids (in progress)
7 - Pass the "car seat" test (the babies must be able to be hooked into their car seat for 1 hour while hooked up to the monitors - blood pressure, heart rate, respirations - and they can not have any significant decreases that could cause issues such as apnea, desats, loss of consciousness, blockage of an airway, etc.) (in progress)

So far the girls have done great with body temperatures and eating (for the most part anyway). The girls were on IV's for the first 4 days of their lives (just sugar water though), so we had a bit of an issue with having enough wet diapers yesterday after they came off the IV's, and we were threatened with the possibility of having to put the IV's back in, but that has since been resolved. We just started gaining weight within the last 24 hours so we are finally doing well on that front. Brianna's billiruben levels had spiked yesterday AM so she has spent the last 24 hours under the tanning bed lights (LOL) with her funky glasses on, but the levels finally dropped and now Brianna is working on getting back out of the isollet. We are still working on gaining weight and having enough wet diapers in a day, and we have to pass the car seat test yet, but with a bit of luck we will be released from the NICU some time on Thursday, only 8 days after birth. We have been VERY lucky. We are SO excited to have the girls home! We will miss all of the assistance we are getting with the girls from the nurses in the NICU, but we can do it=).

SO. . . I tried to upload some pictures of the girls, but for some reason I can't get the pictures to load. I will go ahead and post the information, then go back and see if I can get some pics to upload on a different post. You guys will laugh - the girlies are most definitely NOT identical. The older they get, the more obvious that becomes! Olivia has thin blond hair, a light complexion, and a bit of a double chin. Brianna has thicker brown hair and has a darker complexion. Brianna continues to be the larger of the two babies, but only by an ounce or two. I can hardly believe this is all happening! It's so surreal! Si and I are parents. . .so cool! We have been so so blessed and are immensely grateful!!!

Hope you are having a great week!!

36 weeks - can you believe it?

Hello! As of today we are officially 36 weeks pregnant with our twin girlies! That means we have officially hit "full term"! Woo hoo! Honestly, I didn't think we'd make it this far. We did though. I'm quite sure that we won't make it much further though. I am SO swollen - feet, ankles, calves, thighs, and now even my hips. I can hardly move my legs. It's crazy. My BP is still high, and I have protein in my urine. All not good things during pregnancy.

The good news? Now that we are 36 weeks, they will not stop my contractions. YAY! Now if only they would be productive and progress! Last night I had 2 hours of contractions that were 5-6 minutes apart, lasting 45 -90 seconds. I thought maybe last night was going to be the night. . . .no such luck! The contractions slowed down to about 8 - 10 minutes apart and have been like that ever since. UGH - really??? I am SO tired and sore now!!!! I called my OB, and there isn't really anything they can do for me at this point. I go in to see them tomorrow at noon and they will assess me again then (essentially for pre-eclampsia), but today all they would have done is send me to L&D who inevitably would have sent me home because I wasn't progressing. Don't want to waste my evening on that! LOL!

Anyway, I digress! I am posting some pics taken from today. I highly suspect that these will be the last pregnancy pictures taken. 36 weeks =). Enjoy!

Here's a pic of me sideways. . .


Here's a bare belly pic


And here's a couple of pictures of my legs/feet (looking down from above) - they are SO huge!




Hope you all are having a great week! I hope to have some exciting news to post soon along with some fun baby pics! Hang tight!!! =)

Yet another OB appointment!

So we had an appointment with the OB today to follow up from the peri appointment yesterday. Turns out my OB was called in for an emergency C section, so he wasn't around to see me, so I saw his PA instead. The girls continue to look great on the ultrasound! They are both measuring pretty darn close now on this ultrasound machine as well, and I'm guessing that's because baby Brianna has flipped head down and it's harder to get accurate measurements on her. Their weights at the OB today were:

Baby A - AKA Olivia - 4 lbs 15 oz

Baby B - AKA Brianna - 4 lbs 12 oz

Either way the PA wasn't concerned about the girls at all and said they were doing great! Baby Olivia actually has her cord wrapped around her neck once, but the PA wasn't concerned at this point and says it's pretty common. Hopefully it doesn't stay that way though. . .I can imagine that could become problematic during delivery!

So, the babies are doing well. YAY. Momma though. . .well. . .I'm having a LOT of swelling - my feet, ankles, and legs - all huge and full of fluid. And I can't get it to go down. I have gained a ton of weight in the last month - nearly 25 lbs - and my blood pressure has gone up some too, so now they are concerned about preeclampsia. They are having me do some additional blood work in the morning and are having me do a 24 hour urine (yuck)! I go back to see them Thursday afternoon for a recheck and to discuss the results of the blood work and 24 hour urine test, and then I am scheduled to come in again on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. They are keeping a very close eye on me at this point.

So, we are keeping on a trucking here! 34 weeks 1 day, and overall doing pretty darn well! Hope you are doing well too!!!