Sunday, August 30, 2009

26 Week Appt

Last Monday we went to my 26 week Dr's appt and ultrasound. This time we were joined by my Mom who got to be in the ultrasound room with us. The tech that did the ultrasound spent so much time with us this time and even gave us a sneek preview of what the kids are going to look like using the 4D! I need to get creative and figure out a way to scan the pictures so everyone to see. I think the twins look completely different from each other, hince the fraternal piece in the equation. :)

So far everything still looks good! Baby Girl A weighs in at 2.4lbs and measured 27 weeks and 2 days with a heartbeat of 149 bpm. Baby Boy B weighed in at 2.3lbs, measured 26 weeks and 6 days with a heartbeat of 159 bpm. I have almost 5 pounds of baby in me right now! Wow! My next appointment is scheduled for September 8th and I'll be 28 weeks. After this appt I'll start going weekly so they can monitor the three of us.

Phillip's been busy working on the nursery. We have two cribs up, the changing table, bedding up, a few pictures hung, closet organized, Mom washed a ton of girls clothes leftover from Emma and Claire. I finally decided on and made curtain valences for the nursery. After we figure out for sure what we are going to name these kids then I'll have their monograms sewn one on each valence.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll post some pictures soon of the ultrasounds.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Fat Scooters

So the title of this post might not be the nicest but I think it explains what I'm about to discuss.


Today was the first day that I actually had several errands to run but definitely realized I couldn't run them like I used to. I had Emma's Dr's appointment first thing, then we went to lunch, Target, Old Navy for pregnancy panties (TMI but it's way past time for granny gigantic panties having twins) then to Wal-Mart. I won't even start to discuss the bra dilemma. I made it through Target only having to sit once. Old Navy was tougher having to stop several times. I decided that I would take measures into my own hands and decided to borrow the stores "Fat Scooter." I always see extremely over-weight people riding on them and the occasional older person. My right foot is starting to bother me. Probably due to wearing flip flops 24-7 and having put on quite a few pounds in the past several months. Guess it's time to wear the tennis shoes from now on until my feet swell to the point where I can't squeeze them into them anymore. My belly was feeling heavy today and so I made the executive decision. Usually Phillip has been going w/me to the store on the weekends but I just had to go by myself today. I was a woman on a mission. So Emma hopped on the cart and stood between my legs as we were off scooting around the store. I knew I was in for some weird and dirty looks. I felt so dirty riding on the scooter. Like I wasn't worthy of the ride. I definitely learned that you can't judge someone's situation just by looking at them. You never know someone's ailments.


We were on a roll... hahahahaha... literally halfway through the store and my list. We made it to the toilet paper aisle and what happens??? My scooters battery died! Oh for pete's sake. I had to find a cart which happened to be at the front of the store and unpack my scooter and repack the cart. Gotta give a shout out to the nicest lady with two kids and a cart packed w/groceries that stopped and help me load my stuff into the new cart. She found pity on me and said that she had to endure 4 months of bedrest with her second child and knows how hard it can be going to the store. Only other women can understand what we go through because not one man that I passed stopped to help. Matter of fact, this dude sat on his Subway stool eating his sandwich watching me and Emma unload and reload without a flinch. Luckily Emma thinks it's the coolest to push the cart even though she ends up running into everything and everyone but we manage to make it to the check out counter. Unpack everything, pay, and walk out. Semi successful shopping trip. Next time I think I'll wait for Phillip to do the Wal-Mart run. I'll stick to my Publix runs and mini errands while I can.


Sure did make for a funny afternoon though. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! ;)

Re-Visiting the Clinic

Back in July I ran into one of my old nurses at a restaurant from the infertility clinic. She was giving me a run down of what was going on with everyone since it had been around 4 months since I had been back. I had been going there over 2 years so I new everyone fairly well. It was so good to see her that she spiked my interest of going back to visit. My new nurse Priscilla (she was with the current Dr. I was seeing) has called me every once in a while just to check in and say hi and to see how everything was going. They were all worried about us after we had the shock of thinking we were having 4 then 5 babies and loosing three all in the matter of weeks. I found out that she was moving up north and I really wanted to go and see her before she moved.

Last Monday I had my regular Dr's appointment which is near the clinic so I decided that I would go and visit before my appointment. This was a VERY BIG DEAL for me to go back. It was such an emotional two years trying to get pregnant, having one miscarriage, deciding to do one last round of treatments and then stop, then getting pregnant with not only 1 kid but 5 was beyond overwhelming for me. I had no idea that a matter of 9 weeks could change a persons life FOREVER! They were by far the hardest three weeks of our lives. Life changing. Seeing a dream come true magnified five times literally scared the life out of me. I remember not knowing how I was going to make it to the next minute. Gripping fear overwhelmed me. During this time we had our faith affirmed like never before and God showed us his love in amazing ways that I'll never forget. Our friends and family stepped up and walked us through this difficult time and by the end we were ok and started accepting things one day at a time. Then we found out that we had lost 3 precious babies. How do you even start to comprehend that? Sadness and joy? Those were such odd emotions to feel at the same time after loosing three children. How do you feel right about that?

Everytime I would drive down the interstate headed anywhere near that area or just passing by on my way somewhere else I would start to feel anxious and nervous. Everytime we go to my regular OB appointment I would start to freak out. I was waiting for the ball to drop with some sort of bad news. We (and so many others) prayed hard for us to keep these two precious babies and the last thing I thought I could handle would be loosing one or both. My other fear was that at some point we would get news that one or both had some sort of defect or handicap. I knew that if that was the case that the Lord had given us these special children and it would be for His good and glory. It would be hard but He would not leave us unequiped to handle raising them. Since we had the last ultrasound at 20 weeks I have not had one since. The babies measured great and they didn't notice anything of concern. We've chosen along with the Dr's advice not to have an amnio done. Whether we have children with disablities or not it would definitely not sway us to abort our children. I trust that my children are in the hands of the Lord and that they are precious gifts given to us for a period of time. God is their ultimate protector and we trust in Him.

All this to say...I felt that I needed to go back to the clinic and experience some good things there and move past the past and put it behind me. So far my babies are healthy and things are going well. It was so nice to see everyone and seeing them excited to see Emma and I. They just loved seeing my big ole belly and being able to witness the Lord's goodness from a chaotic situation at first. It's always nice to see good results and see your patients come back after having walked such an emotional journey.

I think I've conquered my fear and put the past behind me somewhat. Knowing that we will see our three precious children in Heaven for eternity someday is something wonderful to be celebrated! Now we have less than 9 weeks to get through and deliver two safe and healthy babies. Exciting times are definitely ahead.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

24 Weeks

Monday I had my 24 week Dr's appointment with NO ultrasound. This was a total bummer since I've had an ultrasound every time we go. Call me spoiled but this is one of the pay offs of going through infertility for two years. It doesn't hurt that we had such a dramatic first couple of months during this pregnancy that they've followed me ultra close. Sometimes this girl doesn't mind being pampered. I'll be having an ultrasound at my next appointment so that made me feel better.

Today was my glucose test. I had to drink a half glass of extra sugary Hawaiian Fruit Punch like liquid and then hang out in the office for an hour. During this time I weighed in gaining more than my fair share of weight. They took my blood pressure which was excellent given how much weight I'd gained. Then went in to see Dr. D. He said that he wasn't concerned about the weight gain since I have hardly gained any weight throughout the pregnancy and also since my blood pressure was great. I'll start coming in to the office every two weeks now until after Labor Day and then I'll go weekly. We listened to the babies heart beats. Baby A's HB was 162 (she got the glucose drink first) and Baby B's heartbeat was 148. 'A' was holding out on 'B'. I guess this is a sign of things to come.

So far I feel really well. I have little aches and pains or minor complaints but they aren't anything really to list. I'm grateful for such a wonderful report. Dr. D warned us that we have four more weeks to get everything prepared because at any time I could be put on bed rest. So that started off the stress alarms in both Phillip and I. We are still confused on baby names but we are slowly narrowing them down. The nursery is slowly (and I mean slowly) coming together. The crib is up and Phillip moved the changing table in their. We put Emma's crib up and it takes up so much room that there isn't any room to put a second crib up. So the babies will sleep together for the time being. Once they start getting bigger than we'll need to get two smaller and seperate cribs for each of them. I've already found them and they are pretty reasonable. I've ordered the curtains and they've shipped today so hopefully they'll be up by next week. Emma and I went and bought letters to hang on the walls but since we are still in limbo they won't be going up anytime soon. We still need to paint them before they are hung since they are plain white. My sweet friend Kathy is going to come over and paint two special Bible verses around the top of the walls as a border. I'm super excited about this since these are two verses that I've held on tight not only over the last several years but also from the beginning of this pregnancy. I have the twins bedding already but since we only have one crib up I can't decide which one to use since they are very gender driven but coordinate. We need a lamp to put on the changing table and some decorations for the walls but we aren't stressing to bad about it. At least they have a bed to sleep in if they should arrive early. Other than that things will get done and come together.

Emma and I went the other day to register at Target for their baby registry. We also have one going at Babies R Us. It's so fun having her involved. She gets to excited and we've made her the official "scanner girl." We let her pick out things for the babies and she gets the final decision if we can't make up our minds. She's very much a part of this process. As we were leaving the Dr's office she said, "Mommy, is the Doctor taking the babies out today?" She can't wait for them to get here. She already has big plans to help them walk, swim and play. I guess I need to prepare her more for them sleeping a lot and not being very active the first several months. Hopefully she won't be to disappointed.

23 Weeks

Here's a picture of me (obviously) at 23 weeks. I haven't taken any belly shots since this one but will try and do so this weekend. Sorry to repeat pictures from the other blog.