Yesterday was another doc appointment, and this one included a sonogram. I have been so lucky to have monthly sonograms, but it felt like it had been ages since my last one. I guess that’s because of all the excitement we had last month. The thought that these little ones could come sooner rather than later made me wonder just how big they were and how they would do. Fortunately yesterday’s appointment cleared some of those worries.

Baby A is weighing in at 4 lbs 12 oz, and Baby B is 4 lbs 9 oz. For you math whizzes out there, you’ve figured out that I’m carrying almost nine and a half pounds of baby! This helps to explain some of my “complications” lately. It was explained to me yesterday that my body can tell there is a nine and a half pounder in there and it thinks it’s time to let go and deliver. My body doesn’t realize it’s actually two smaller babies. So I am working on defying gravity.

The doc was very encouraged by the babies’ size, although she’d like them to be bigger and wants at least three more weeks if I can give them to her. I’m on board with that, now we just have to convince my body. My blood pressure was a tad high, so she’s watching that again. It’s just hard work to grow babies.

The doc did another preterm labor test and the results came in negative again. Remember, that’s positive. It means there’s only a ten percent chance I’ll go into labor in the next two weeks. She cleared me to continue on my three days working at home and two days in the office as long as that’s ALL I do. Of course, she’ll change that if my blood pressure continues to rise, or if I start to dilate again. I am still taking anti-contraction medicine and it seems to be working. The contractions are minimal and mostly happen when I am doing too much activity. Duh! I guess it’s harder for me to slow down than I thought it would be. Who would’ve ever thought walking from the kitchen to the bedroom would be too much activity?!?!

Just like the last sono, we weren’t able to get any good pics. Too many limbs in the way. Baby B is breech again and Baby A is just waiting to jump out. Baby A appears to have some hair, but Baby B is still a bit bald. Amazing stuff to see!

The nursery is coming together nicely. It’s pretty motivating to hear that I only have five weeks left – at the most! Can’t wait to meet them!

Next Appointment: October 2

We’ve had quite a bit of activity since the last post. All of my posts are sunshine and roses…babies are so big…I’m puking and I don’t care…all the fingers and toes are there…blah, blah, blah. Well this week it got exciting!

Last week I had some bad headaches. It happened last month, and the doctor gave me some drugs to shake it. This time the drugs weren’t working. Apparently I have stress and tension in my life. I don’t profess to be the most stressed out person with the most stressed out life. Puh-leez! Frankly, I’ve had it fairly easy. But apparently my “easy” stress is easy for my body to handle when that’s all it has to worry about. Add growing two babies to the list, and my body fights back with headaches. Headaches lead to high blood pressure – I don’t care for pain – and that lands me at the doctor on Friday to figure out what the heck is wrong.

Her first solution was that it might be time to stop working. What?!? I started to cry – not because I feel a deep dedication to the CPAs in Texas that far surpasses my commitment to healthy babies, but because I wasn’t ready to stop working. So we talked and compromised with a three days at home, two days in the office schedule. I still have to hammer that out with the powers that be, but so far it looks workable.

But even after that negotiation, I still had a headache and blood pressure to deal with. So she sent me to labor and delivery for a shot of demoral and an hour of watch and wait. If the demoral kicked the pain and the blood pressure came down, I would be free to go to enjoy my weekend of no stress. Good news – demoral kicked the pain and my blood pressure came back into a normal range. It was still high compared to my norms, but not as bad as it had been. So all better, right? Not exactly…

About an hour after the demoral shot, the nurse came in and asked if I was feeling those contractions. Yep, I was. I was blocking it, but they were there. And not only that, after my doc stopped in to check on me, I learned I was also dilating. Cue the blood pressure.

The doc admitted me for the night so they could give me hourly shots to stop the show for a while. By 2:00 Saturday afternoon I was given the all clear to come home, but put on strict no stress bedrest and given pills to take every 4-6 hours to keep labor at bay. I had to wait until my Tuesday appointment to see if this was doing any good.

So I tried to lay low. I did a pretty good job. My office sent over a laptop so I could relax by feeling like I had a handle on some deadlines I left on Friday. I was able to work while reclining on the couch. All the while saving some valuable vacation time. My house is a nice, quiet, stress-free zone and I did everything I could to keep it that way.

Yesterday I went to visit the doc. The blood pressure is still high for me, but ok by “normal” standards. I haven’t dilated any more since Friday, and the pills seem to be doing their job. She did one more test to tell us what my risk of preterm labor would be in the next two weeks.

Today the results came back negative – which is positive! That means I only have a 10% chance of going into labor in the next two weeks – if I mind my p’s and q’s. She approved the three days working at home and two days working in the office, and instructed me to chill out any time in between that. My appointments are now weekly and she’ll check my progress next Wednesday to be sure I’m still in the clear. Her plan so far is to leave me on the meds with this new schedule and the goal of eliminating all stress from my life until week 35 (October 11). After that, it’s up to the babies to decide when they would like to make their debut.

If you’ve made it through all of this commentary, I applaud your dedication! Thank you for caring about us. Brian and I have had loads of people offer to help, and we appreciate every offer. Hopefully the next couple of weeks will be low key and the next post will be short and sweet!

Next Appointment: September 19

Last week brought another visit to the doc. At the time of the visit I was 28 1/2 weeks pregnant. Both babies are measuring 30 weeks in size (about 3 pounds each) and my belly is measuring at 34 weeks. Yikes! The doc says I could measure up to 45 weeks when this is all said and done! 40 weeks is the “normal” pregnancy with one baby. She also made another “scary” prediction – that these babies could be up to 7 pounds each! Watch out…I’m seeing years of “do you have any idea how big you were when you were born and what I went through to get you here?”

With all these great measurements I asked the doc if she thinks I’ll make it to our scheduled c-section date of Nov. 1. After a smart quip about her lack of a crystal ball, she told me my first milestone to hit is 35 weeks (October 11). Once I hit that target she’ll watch my blood pressure and be sure one baby isn’t “stealing” nourishment from the other and then we’ll have a better idea on how long they’ll stay put. The good news there is that my blood pressure has been great, and so far both babies are exactly the same size. It is not uncommon for one twin to show dominance and start “stealing” all of the food. Unfortunately, the only way to stop that behavior is to deliver the babies. We’ll hope they both stay oblivious to each other and keep growing like only children. As long as they don’t behave that way when they arrive!

The downside to bigger babies is that the sono pics aren’t good anymore. There isn’t much room for them to strike a pose, so we’re left with some odd pictures of limbs covering faces. Both babies are now head down, which means my ribs are taking a beating with each kick-fest. Not a bad price to pay.

My glucose test came back great – no gestational diabetes – bring on the donuts! My iron was a tad low making me slightly anemic, and I’ve had to add an iron supplement to my diet. No biggie in the grand scheme of things.

Another good report from the good doctor. Two more every other week visits and then we move to weekly visits. I guess I’d better get started on that junk room we’ve been calling the nursery!

Next appointment: September 11