Update #1 for this week. . .I anticipate more!

Hi all! Sorry I haven't updated yet - I was trying my best to keep the largest number of people updated that I could, and facebook seemed to be the easiest avenue to accomplish that (for the time being anyway).

That said - I'm still pregnant and the babies are still tucked safely inside me. . .for now. . .

Tuesday, well, I guess technically Sunday, I started having back pain. I have had back pain previously (prior to getting pregnant), but I haven't had ANY since I have actually been pregnant. Weird, right? Anyway, so I starting having some back pain on Sunday. I didn't think much of it. I figured I had overdone it doing laundry or something, or I had slept wrong. Monday the back pain was still there, and was a bit more consistent. Tuesday the back pain was still there, and was getting pretty intense! I wasn't having a ton of abdominal contractions or anything so I didn't really have any idea what was going on. I decided around 2 PM on Tuesday to call my OB and get his opinion. Well, I didn't even get that much. I got "go straight to L&D at Bergan to be checked out". Sigh.

Okay, I understand being cautious and all, but seriously, I didn't think I was in labor or anything. Si and I had googled and thought that maybe, just maybe, I was having some back labor, but I had no way to tell how far apart any contractions may be or anything like that. Overall, I just didn't want to go sit in L&D and be monitored for 6 hours again just to be given terbutaline and sent home (like I was every other time I went in). AND, I wasn't any too thrilled about the prospect of them stopping my contractions if I was indeed in labor. I mean, I understand that every day that the babies are in mommy make a better outcome for the babies, but seriously. . .they are over 5 lbs a piece, we were 35w1d at the time. . .the babies would be FINE if they were born. Anyhow, I digress.

So Si came home from work and hour early, and we went in to L&D at about 4 PM. The nurses couldn't really figure out why exactly I was there since I wasn't having too many abdominal contractions that I could feel, but they humored my doc and hooked me up to the monitors anyway. Well, for once I was glad that I went in! The on call doc from my OB's office ordered them to monitor me and to check me (dilation, effacement, etc.). I was dilated to 3.5! Holy buckets! 50% effaced, -2 position. Sure, these aren't incredibly impressive results, but when I wasn't dilated at ALL before, being a 3.5 was craziness to me! The doc ordered IV fluids, and wanted to monitor me for a couple of hours to see if that made any difference in my contractions. Well, the IV fluids made me contract like no one's business! Who would have thought? They pumped one bag of fluids into me, then started another, at a much slower pace. At this point they checked me again to see if I had progressed. Nope, still at 3.5. The OB decided to give me some procardia to see if it would slow down the contractions. It did slow them down a bit, but it didn't stop them. He decided that he wanted to continue to monitor me for the next few hours to see how my contractions reacted. By this time it was 10 PM. I was STARVING, and all I really wanted to do was go home! The nurse cleared it with the doc for me to have some food (yay!) and told me that if my contractions slowed down to less than 4 per hour that the OB would potentially let me go home at 2 AM. Fine by me! So, I watched a whole pile of bad late night TV, and watched my contractions. I was down to about 3-4 per hour so I was pretty sure he was going to let me go home.

The nurse came back in at 1:45 and told me that she was sorry, but the doc wouldn't let me leave and wanted to monitor me overnight. Seriously??? UGH. So, with the pregnancy hormones, here come the water works. . . and for no apparent reason mind you. . .I mean, what's the big deal? Sure, I hadn't brought my hospital stuff with me (we live 5 minutes from the hospital and figured we could go back and get it if this was the real thing), and we didn't have anyone set up to watch the pugs for the night, but otherwise, we were bound to have babies sometime and I was bound to be confined to the hospital bed for monitoring eventually. I guess I was upset because Si was going to have to go home, and I was going to have to hang out by myself. I am SUCH a wuss! Si finally went home around 3:30 AM to get some sleep. Anyway, long story short, the OB came in first thing in the AM (at 7 AM - Wednesday) and checked me and told me I could go home. YAY!

I had a follow up appointment scheduled with my OB for yesterday (Wednesday) at 4 PM, so I actually got to talk to my OB about what our plan would be from this point forward. I guess the deal is that they really want these babies to stay in until 36 weeks if at all possible (for us that is Monday). They understand that this may not happen, but they want to try and do everything in their power to try and make it happen. They sent me home from the hospital with procardia (which has been causing me massive nasty headaches), so then they also added butalbital (to help with the headaches).

The OB did an ultrasound check and measurements on the girls, and they as usual look awesome! There is ZERO room left in there, but they are still growing and developing perfectly. He even showed us how they are "breathing" - SO cool! They really would be fine to come out whenever! Here are the approximate weights:

Baby A - AKA - Baby Olivia - 5 lbs 13 oz (head down, ready to go!)
Baby B - AKA - Baby Brianna - 6 lbs 1 oz (this little lady WAS head down last time, but has since flipped breech again! Little stinker!)

At this point the OB is most concerned about momma. My blood pressure has been elevated, there was protein in my 24 hour urine check last week (this was news to me!), and since I am dilating early and have had several bouts with pre-term labor, they think that my body is about done being pregnant. My OB thinks I may be able to last another week, but he said he wouldn't be surprised either if I didn't last but a couple of days. SO. . .that's the scoop! These little ladies are going to come when they are darn good and ready, and it isn't going to make one little bit of difference to them when that may be!

I will try to keep you all updated as new things happen. When I am actually in labor (for sure) and they aren't going to stop it I will at least do a quick post and let you guys know=). Hope you all are having an uneventful week - there's enough drama going on here for everyone! LOL! =)

33 Week Update and Pictures =)

Hello! It's been a little crazy around here for the last week, so I didn't have a chance to post belly pics or anything last week. That's okay though, because I have enough pictures this week to make up for it!

First, on Wednesday my grandma brought down the baby quilts that she made for the girls. I LOVE them!! Here are a couple of pictures of them=)

This is Baby Olivia's quilt


This is a close up of the center of Baby Olivia's quilt


This is Baby Brianna's quilt


This is a close up of Baby Brianna's quilt


Si was out of town in Baltimore all weekend for a friend's wedding. I wasn't allowed to go for obvious reasons (I'm ginourmous and pregnant and the OB was worried that the change in cabin pressure on a plane could cause my water to break). I was a MESS while he was gone. Pregnancy hormones are nuts!!!

So Si got back Sunday and the girls were very patient and waited until about noon on Monday to start acting up. Contractions. . .about every 10 minutes. . .starting at noon. I called the OB and he told me to come on in to his office and they would do a NST (Non Stress Test) and make sure the babies were okay. We figured it would take an hour, two hours max. Well, we got to the OB's office and it turns out that the NST machine that they have does a cruddy job with twins, so we needed to go to L&D (labor and delivery) at the hospital instead to be monitored. Sigh. The only cruddy thing about going to the hospital to be checked out is it takes FOREVER! So we went, we were checked, and 6 hours later we were released to go home. We were having contractions of course, and my uterus is nice and irritable. They gave me two shots of terbutaline to reduce the contractions, checked my cervix (still thick, high, and closed - YAY), and sent me home with procardia to take at home to continue to attempt to keep the contractions at bay. We are supposed to go back in and see the OB on Thursday to make sure all is well, no cervical changes, etc.

We have another wedding this weekend, and Si is the best man (his brother's wedding), and we are hoping for a nice quiet uneventful weekend. Fingers crossed!! Stay put and stay quiet little ladies!

The only other thing I have is we were slacking last week and didn't take any belly pics, so I made sure that we took some tonight. Here are some pictures of 33 week preggo momma for your viewing pleasure=).
Here's a couple of side views. . .



Here is a bare belly pic - getting bigger by the second!


Here is a picture of my swollen ankles and feet! Yuck!


If I find out anything interesting at my OB appointment on Thursday I will make sure to post it! Otherwise. . .until next week. . .hope you have a great one!!! =)