Monday, January 30, 2012

Our Babes are STUBBORN

I am officially 38 weeks and 4 days... if you would have told me I would still be pregnant today back in December I would have cried.  Typical twin pregnancies deliver between 32 and 37 weeks.... obviously that is not the case here.  I really should be proud that my pregnancy and babies are extremely healthy to have lasted this long.  In the back of my head though I am just panicking at just HOW big they are getting to be.

Last week we called the doctor about inducing and the nurse said we can induce as early as Wed, Feb 1st, so we scheduled it.  Then at our dr apt on Thursday we were told that since our babies are healthy the hospital won't allow us to induce until Friday, Feb 3rd.  To be honest I was a little bit relieved because I really dont like the idea of inducing.  The doctor said that the risk when inducing is a longer labor, higher chance of cesarean etc... I am praying that I go into labor on my own before Friday because I don't know if I could pull the trigger to induce.

We have another dr appointment today where we get an ultrasound, heart monitoring and checked by the doctor. My dr knows just how frustrated I have been that now he always starts off with, I will check you to see if you are dilated as long as you promise not to be sad if you're not... I must show my emotions on my sleeve. ha!

At this point I am just praying to go into labor on my own before Friday.  I'll try to keep everyone posted.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Have Patience to Perservere

MpThese last few weeks have been particularly rough for me.  My doctor said I could go into labor now and not have to worry about any complications with the babies.  This was huge for me because I finally felt like, ok let's get this show in the road.  Much to my own disappointment all of my contractions have slowed down if not stopped.  I thought for sure that these babes would have made their debut by now especially with all the preterm labor and bed rest I have been having. 

After much walking, squats, spicy food, etc. nothing is happening.  The hardest part for me is knowing that it could happen any moment and not knowing when.  If I knew a date then I could relax and just hang out until then... I have even tried pretending their was a date or using my actual due date as the date but it doesn't work. 

To add insult to injury, i threw my neck out yesterday so now my pain totals are even higher.  Today I decided to go to www.lds.org and watch some of the Mormon Messages.  One stood out to me particularly called Continue in Patience, if you have a sec I highly recommend watching it. It's a very sweet message.

http://lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#continue-in-patience

"Gods promises are not always fulfilled as quickly or in the way we might hope. Patience means staying with something until the end, it means delaying immediate gratification for future blessings. "

I do not know why I have not had these babies yet, but I have faith that God is keeping them in for a reason and only he knows what's best.  I have so much to be thankful for and need to keep an eternal perspective that this is His plan and that I can endure a little longer until he is ready to let them enter this world. 

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Baby Arrival Update

We went to the doctor today to get an update on how the babies are doing and to see if I can get off bed rest.  I am 36 weeks tomorrow and so happy that I have made it this far, especially with all the preterm labor I have been having.

The babies look good. Baby boy appears to have some fluid in his kidney but the doctor says that most of the time it goes away on its own after delivery. I guess the tube that goes from his kidney to his bladder is 2 centimeters when it should only be 8 millimeters, scary if you ask me.  I guess it's not super bad because the doctor isn't rushing me into the OR for an emergency delivery.

We learned that our babies legs are measuring in the 98th percentile which is LONG!  We also learned that our little man is weighing in at a whopping 6 lbs 14 ounces, 78th percentile and our little lady is a modest 6 lbs 6 ounces, 58th percentile. Gosh I hope they come sooner rather than later!! They are great size babies for twins but I'm afraid if they stay in much longer I am going to have two huge babies to deliver!

The doctor told us he is extremely happy that we made it this far and is ok with them delivering any day now... Woohoo!!! So I am off bed rest, even though I can barely do more than I did while on it.  We'll have to see how it all goes... I'm not dilated at all and my cervix is still shut so this might be a while.. Bring on the lunges, spicy food, walking etc!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Cravings throughout my pregnancy

It's funny because when I thought about getting pregnant I always wondered what kinds of weird cravings I would have.  This post is really just for me to remember the little things that I craved so if it's boring I apologize.

In the very beginning I had no cravings what so ever. I felt great, no morning sickness no nothing.  Brian even asked me one morning, aren't you supposed to be sick? That was short lived. We told our parents on Father's Day and I was 7 weeks along.  My first major food aversion was pineapple and that started the same day.  It seemed like as soon as we told eveyone I got sick.  I had morning sickness for about 3 weeks straight.  It was so bad that I had to cut back hours at work and could not think of anything to eat.  The only thing I wanted was a baked potato and the only place to get one was Wendys.  I went there so often that the lady that works the drive thru recognizes me now.   In the morning at work I would force myself to eat a toasted english muffins with peanut butter and a glass of milk.  

It's funny because at lunch time I would have to look at pictures of food to see what looked good and what didn't so I knew what would settle ok in my stomach... Well that was really tough because more often then naught nothing looked good.   I remember one time the only thing that sounded good was a steak quesadilla from Taco Bell and the closest one to my work was 20 minutes away.  I remember getting to the drive thru and being so hungry and cranky that I wanted to yell at the cars in front of me, "Can you PLEASE hurry up?!? I am going to die if I don't get this quesadilla in the next minute!!! Don't you know that I am pregnant here?!"  For breakfast everyday after the first month or so all I wanted were english muffins and eggs, i could literally eat it for every meal.  Saltines didn't work, ginger ale didn't work, all the usual remedies didn't work for my nausea

After I learned I was pregnant with twins I downloaded a book called What to expect with Twins, Triplets and Quads.  In it the author talks about gaining weight and how crucial it is to gain it in the first and second trimester.  They recommend eating hig fat meals, for example, for lunch you should eat a cheeseburger, fries and a milkshake. Sounds awesome right?! Well it wasn't. I followed their recommended diet for one day which included a big breakfast, hearty "snack" (which includes a bowl of cereal or a large muffin with milk, those are meals for me normally), then that stellar lunch I described, another hearty "snack" and then a big dinner.... It was the first time out of maybe 3 times that I threw up. My body couldn't handle that kind of diet even for a day... So from then on I decided I would only eat what sounded good and when I was hungry. 

I craved Del Combo Burritos from Del Taco, hamburgers, MEAT, enoug said.  Then for a while all I wanted was pizza and pasta with tomato sauce. For about two weeks Oreos were a big deal, i could eat a whole sleeve in one sitting with milk however I limited myself to half a sleeve a day ha! Then it switched to cereal and milk, I was drinking whole milk like it was going out of style. I would go through two gallons a week! 

For the first two trimesters I wasn't craving anything sweet, the sight of sugar just churned my stomach.  Once the doctor handed me my glucose juice and told me to drink it at the next appointment all of the sudden my eyes were wide open and searching for sugar. I wanted milk shakes, cookies, brownies, cinnamon rolls, etc. So strange. 

I do have healthy cravings like Cutie oranges, roasted tomatoes, strawberries, etc.

Now that I am 36 weeks my cravings change day to day, right now it's brownies, two days ago it was the pork barbicoa salad from cafe rio, before that it was crunchy tacos from del taco, then eggs, etc.

This has been quite the roller coaster and I am so excited for it to be over!!

A few maternity photos

Yesterday I decided that if I wanted any maternity photos then I would have to do them quickly. So I finally did my hair and make up and Brian grabbed his camera and here are a few of our amateur photos... Don't mind the weird look on my face in some, I promise, I'm not mad at my belly. Ha!









Thursday, January 5, 2012

My Tuesday hosptial visit

On Monday night i was having painful cramps/contractions.  I thought they would get better if i went to bed earlier but that was wishful thinking. On Tuesday I had my next doctors appointment so i wanted to try and hold off on calling the doctor. Tuesday morning I woke up still contracting so i called my doctors office to see if i could come in sooner and they rescheduled. I went in at 10:45 and had an ultrasound to check my cervix, 2.99 centimeters thick.  Apparently my body is having an inner battle with itself. It doesn't want to grow anymore but it doesn't want to let the babies out.  They also hooked me up to monitors and determined that it was enough to send me back to the hospital. I had another fetalfibernectin(sp?) test done which is supposed to help predict the odds of delivering in the next two weeks, however i was told that the accuracy of the test dwindles around 34 weeks and i was 34 weeks and 4 days.

At the hospital i was hooked up to another iv, joy, and was given another injection of terbutaline. This time i experienced my first unpleasant nurse and super uncomfortable bed. Luckily after about 3 hours i was moved into a huge beautiful suite that made up for it. I was so comfortable that i would have been ok if i had to stay there up until delivery. 

My doctor sent in a high risk specialist to talk to me about all the preterm labor.  Since i haven't had any complicatiins other than preterm labor she wasn't too concerned.  She did say that it wouldn't surprise her if i came back one to two more times before delivery to stop preterm labor....yay...

I was at the hospital overnight and given a second dose of terbutaline. My contractions slowed way down and i was given the ok to go home on strict bedrest.  The plan is to get me to the 13th at the earliest, 36 weeks and then i am "allowed" to go into labor so i won't be on strict bedrest after next Friday but should still take it easy and rest. 

I must admit this is so much harder than i ever could have imagined, but i know it will be worth it.