One year ago today, I had the first ultrasound of my twin pregnancy. I had suspected I was pregnant over Christmas, but didn’t test until I got home. And I wasn’t letting myself get too excited, having gone through a chemical pregnancy and miscarriage earlier in the year. The ultrasound, right before New Year’s, was inconclusive at best. (In retrospect, it was pretty funny. But it was really annoying at the time. Feel free to read the story.) It would be almost two more weeks until I learned my true fate.

2007 was quite a year. Got pregnant, found out it was two, stayed pregnant. Got huge. Avoided most complications, survived pregnancy in the summer. Scheduled a c-section, went into labor anyways. Babies stayed in the hospital, but not too long. Babies came home, I stayed with them. I’m a mom now. A mom of almost-five-month-old twins. The only pictures I took last December were of my dog (and there are only a couple of those). Now, my computer groans every time I open iPhoto for all of the baby pictures. My, what a difference a year makes.

December, 2006 – M and Winnie in the yard.

December, 2007 – Daniel flying home from Chicago

Rebecca in her Christmas PJs

Still cooking, alas.

Today was plenty of good news for babies, which is of course a mixed blessing for me. I half hoped there would be some indication for delivery, since I’m so tired and uncomfortable, but it’s just not in the cards.

Babies looked great on the ultrasound. Crowded, of course, and I was quite correct that baby boy A is way low against my cervix now. But fluid levels were good, breathing movements and all of that were good. And, though it’s always possible the estimates are off, they seem to be growing quite well. Baby boy is estimated to be about 6lb7oz, and baby girl is all the way up at 5lb7oz. 12 pounds of baby in my belly… no wonder everything hurts.

Non-stress test was fine. As always, little girl decided it was a great time for a nap and we had to get out the buzzer, but after that she woke right up. My blood pressure was high, but not as bad as Monday (which was apparently as high as 150/100 at one point!), so my doctor (who was at the hospital, anyways) sent me home.

So, here I sit! Still really uncomfortable, but the contractions have gone away for the moment. Hopefully I’ll get in a good nap this afternoon, since I was not able to sleep well last night at all. If everything stays the same, I’m off to the OB on Friday for my pre-op appointment… Who knows, maybe I’ll make it to next Thursday, after all!

Still pregnant!

But I wasn’t totally off the mark, as yesterday was a rather new and different day.

I called my OB’s office to report the new pressure I was having, mostly to ask if I should do anything or ask for anything special while I was already going to be at the hospital. My doctor wasn’t in, but my favorite doctor (ha!) from a few weeks ago called back and said I should come by the office after the NST for an exam, presumably to see if my cervix was dilating. Sounds like fun!

Off to the hospital. The BPP ultrasound went just fine, both babies dutifully practicing their breathing motions, still plenty of fluid, all of that good stuff. The non-stress test started rough, though. For some reason, little miss really likes to sleep during those, so it’s been taking a while to get her to be “reactive.” We keep ending up needing to zap her with the little buzzer or poke her to get the heartrate variation we want. Once we finally had the results we wanted, the nurse was almost ready to let me go when she realized she had never taken my blood pressure. And then it got interesting. I never heard the actual reading, but it was apparently high enough that they decided to keep me a bit longer for monitoring, especially since it was taken after an hour of me lying down. The on-call doctor ordered blood tests to see if I was developing preeclampsia. Basically, if the bloodwork didn’t come back with good results, it was going to be birthday time. Yikes! Thankfully, it all came back just fine, kidney and liver function were good. Four hours after the start of the NST, they sent me home. I had missed the opportunity to go in and get checked at the OB’s office, so I was instructed to call her in the morning.

Of course, as soon as I left, the back pain I had been experiencing in the uncomfortable hospital bed turned into pressure, and soon I was having regular cramping. By 7:30, it would start as a low back pain that wrapped around my lower belly like a really bad menstrual cramp. Hubby and I started timing them, and they were about 9-10 minutes apart, with sometimes a lesser aftershock at 4-5 minutes. I remembered my OB saying I should call anytime I had anything regular and painful, so call I did. The on-call doctor sent me back to L&D, so at nearly 11pm, off we went. The cramps indeed showed up as contractions on the monitor (it’s not all in my head), and babies were good and active, not distressed at all by these new developments. They were still relatively far apart and somewhat irregular, though. And when the nurse did my very first internal exam (short fingers! OW!!), we discovered I was not even a little bit dilated. The contractions, fun though they were, were not making changes in my cervix. So at about 1:00am, back home we went. I had been worried about a “false alarm,” but the nurse reassured me that I had done the right thing to call and come in, and not to worry about it.

Unfortunately, the contractions stuck around all night, ranging between 4 and 20 minutes apart. And these were not the painless braxton hicks I’ve had for the last many weeks. These hurt, enough that I had to really concentrate on breathing through them and not tensing up the rest of my body. Needless to say, it was an awful night’s sleep.

I talked to my OB this morning. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a big part of me that sort of hoped she’d tell me to head in and just deliver today. But as the contractions were still irregular and not close together, she wanted me to stick it out and wait at least for tomorrow’s growth check at the peri’s office. Much as I’d love to be done, the babies are still officially premature at this point, so we need a better reason than discomfort to justify delivering them. She was kind enough to say that she half hoped that tomorrow’s ultrasound would show slowed growth so I could get it over with, but in the meantime, the plan is to just kind of suck it up. (No, she obviously doesn’t want my babies to not grow well! She just understands how “done” I am…)

After a few more contractions this morning, they more or less petered out by about 11am. I’m still having some low back pain, but it’s definitely not the contractions I was having earlier. I’m resting and drinking my water like a good girl, and hopefully will get in a good nap to try to make up for last night.

Tomorrow at 11 is the big (final!) growth ultrasound, so we’ll see how it looks. If either of them has slowed down or stopped growing, it may very well be delivery time. If not, well, I get to keep on hanging out until I either go into labor on my own (which is feeling more likely!) or make it to August 9.

Things are getting interesting around here!

An interesting day, indeed, at the hospital. Today was a growth check with the ultrasound, in addition to the biophysical profile. Both babies passed the BPP, though we had to poke little boy to get him to wake up and move around for us. Weight estimates were encouraging, but interesting… Baby girl appears to have had a bit of a spurt and put on a full pound to reach 4lb4oz. Baby boy actually slowed down and gained only 10oz to reach 5lb3oz. Of course, these are estimates, and can arguably be further off the bigger (and more crowded) the babies get. But still, very encouraging that little miss continues to grow. An unusual twist, however, that her brother is slowing down. He also appears to have a bit less fluid than she does. As the peri said, it’s not as worrisome as it would be if little girl was the one with less fluid, but something to keep an eye on, nonetheless. Non-stress test was just fine, and as of next week, I’m going to actually go in TWICE every week. Good thing I’m done working!

The craziest part of the visit, however, was our discussion of when to deliver. First of all, if I go into labor spontaneously anytime tomorrow or later, they will not attempt to stop me. If it were to peter out on its own, they wouldn’t try to restart it, but they won’t stop me. OK. Wow. And then she said, “so, when do you think we should have these babies? I’m thinking 36-37 weeks.” Whoa!! Used to be 38, then 37-38… now 36? Holy crap! That’s two weeks!!

Basically, the plan is this: I’ll have my twice-per-week BPP and NST. If anything looks concerning, they might decide it’s a good day for a birthday. My next growth check will be in two weeks (August 1, to be precise). If either one of their growth has slowed or stopped? Birthday time. If growth is still good, they’ll schedule me for induction or c-section at right about 37 weeks.

WOW! I can barely wrap my mind around it. Three weeks at the most, possibly two or less. I’m pretty darn excited, but mostly it’s just not sinking in at all.

I’m off to my OB’s office shortly, where we definitely need to have a discussion about delivery method. Baby boy seems to have really taken over at the baby A position, and is head down, so vaginal delivery is an option on the table. We shall see.

Oh, and my blood pressure seemed to be creeping up at the NST today. We’ll see if that issue proves to be the dark horse that determines birthday time. I’ll update after the OB’s office if there are any interesting developments.

OB Update
After talking to my OB, she’s totally cool with me going directly for the c-section. She seemed to think it was probably a good idea in my case. If I change my mind and/or they both flip to vertex, I’m welcome to try for vaginal (if they don’t flip, then only if she’s the one on call, because she’ll do a breech extraction of twin B). But otherwise, she’s going to schedule my c-section for right about 37 weeks! To be moved up if things change, of course. Holy crap!!

Today was the usual BPP/NST combo at the hospital.

The ultrasound (BPP) went well. Plenty of fluid, both babies moving around well, etc. We’ve almost stopped referring to either one of them as baby A or B. Neither of them is at all engaged in my pelvis, so it remains to be seen who will “present” first. Baby boy is still head-down, and baby girl seems quite comfortable staying breech. The funniest moment of the ultrasound was when we were getting a good look at baby boy’s face. It was a nice profile shot, and we could see him not only moving his mouth, but sticking out his tongue! We tried to get a 3D picture of it, but no luck. But while we were watching, in the fluid space next to his face, we suddenly saw a shape that looked mysteriously like a little foot! Indeed, his sister was sticking her foot right by his face. The still picture we got doesn’t do it justice. It was pretty neat in motion. In the end, we got a nice profile of baby boy, and a 3D of baby girl:

The non-stress test took a little longer than intended. Both babies were a little more cooperative when it came to being monitored, so that was a good thing. The nurse didn’t need to stand over me, holding the sensors just so on my belly. But after about 20-30 minutes, while baby boy’s heart rate was moving all around as they like to see, baby girl was being pretty steady and quiet (“nonreactive”). I tried drinking some ginger ale to see if the sugar got her going, but that didn’t seem to quite work. So the nurse suggested we get “the zapper.” Needless to say, this was alarming to me. It sounded like she was going to get a taser and stun the baby. But in fact, the zapper is just a little hand-held wand that looks rather like the doppler that OBs use to hear the heartbeat. But instead, you put this one up to the side of the belly where little miss sleepyhead lives, press a button, and it makes a short buzzer sound. That’s all. And, as it turned out, that’s what it took to wake her up and get the readings we were looking for. She even developed an amusing case of the hiccups. Sorry for the disturbance, my dear. We just needed to make sure you were OK in there.

In the end, another good day. I had a couple of contractions while on the monitor, but not too many, and they didn’t seem to bother anyone. Though I know a good result today is no guarantee of what tomorrow will hold, each successful testing session makes me feel like I’ve “made it” for another week. Tomorrow, I’ll be 33 weeks. Discomforts notwithstanding… it just keeps getting better. I can scarcely imagine how far I’ve come. 35 weeks is a big goal for me, and it’s only two short weeks away! 36-plus would be better, and if I start to go past 37, I might lose my mind. But it’s all just so soon!

Today was the usual ultrasound, non-stress-test routine at the hospital. The ultrasound went pretty well. While the size discrepancy between the twins is widening somewhat, my little girl is still growing. The past several checks, she had gone up just about a half pound (8 oz) over the course of two weeks. This time, she was up 12 oz to 3lb, 4oz. Not an enormous growth spurt, I suppose, but a good thing nonetheless. Her brother keeps packing it on, putting on yet another 16 oz to reach 4lb, 9oz. He is still vertex, she is still breech, and they are both way the heck up in my ribcage. As I am nearly 32 weeks, today also marked my last cervix check via ultrasound. Just like at my very first appointment with the perinatologist, 14 weeks ago, Iron Cervix is holding steady at an absolutely ridiculous 4.3cm. That’s kind of insane for even a singleton pregnancy at this point. But it appears my occasional contractions, combined with a whopping 7lb, 13oz of baby, is having absolutely no effect on my cervix. Guess they’re not intending to make their entrance any time soon. Oh, and another good day for the biophysical profile: plenty of fluid, practicing breathing, good movement, etc.

If I caught the notes correctly, little girl is trailing off in the percentiles race again, but is not yet what you would call growth-restricted. So, we’ll keep on plugging. My peri told me they’d deliver me under any of the following circumstances: baby girl stops growing or falls below the 10th percentile, either of them start to do poorly on the biophysical profile or non-stress tests, or I reach 37-38 weeks. Certainly there are other potential complications out there, but those are the three main things she’s looking for. Depending on the next growth check in two weeks, they also might have me come in for the BPP and NST twice per week instead of once. Presumably that’s if she still isn’t growing all that much and they’ll want to keep an eye on her just in case she starts to show any distress.

Today’s non-stress test also went just fine. Took a while to get them on the monitor, because they kept moving around and kicking the sensors. But eventually we got some good tracking, and the nurse pronounced herself happy with the results. Sounds good to me! My blood pressure seems to be creeping up just a little, but we’ll see how it looks at next week’s OB checkup.

That’s the news that’s fit to print from here. We’re off to a breastfeeding class this evening, which is our final prenatal class. I can’t believe we’re already here!

Yesterday was my now-weekly smorgasbord of doctor’s appointments. The short version of the story is that all was well with all three of us.

First was my 9:45 OB appointment. Yet again, my doctor was stuck on call in the hospital. Thankfully they didn’t even attempt to reschedule me, but simply had me see another doctor in the practice. He was nice, but rushed. And was kind enough to comment on both my weight and my stretch marks. Nice to meet you, too, jerkface. Yes, I’m up about 35+ pounds, but all of my other doctors don’t seem remotely concerned. In the meantime, my blood pressure is still just fine and my belly is measuring about 40 weeks. No wonder all of my maternity shirts are getting too short.

On my way out, I realized I had managed to spill a cup full of water onto my driver’s seat, and I had only a single napkin in the car. I also discovered that the driver of the Honda Odyssey to my left had parked so close that I couldn’t actually squeeze my enormous belly in between the cars. Nothing quite so graceful as a pregnant lady having to climb in the passenger side, only to sit her big behind in a nice, wet seat. I had a damp tush for the rest of the morning.

On over to the hospital for my ultrasound, where the babies had their first official biophysical profile. They scored 100%! Good test takers, clearly. They both showed good levels of amniotic fluid, practiced breathing movements, moved their little hands, and had a good kick or two. No growth estimates, we’ll check that again next week.

The non-stress test didn’t go as smoothly as last week, only because the babies were less cooperative. Their heartbeats, though clearly good and present and all of that, were harder to find and keep a lock on to track for more than two or three minutes at a time, and that with the poor nurse standing next to me holding the sensors on my belly. Alas, they were troublemakers. But what tracking they did get looked just fine, and I didn’t have any contractions while on the monitor. So after about half an hour, they decided it was good enough and sent me home. Back again next week!

I went home and was finally able to change out of my damp shorts (I swear I wasn’t leaking amniotic fluid!), huddled in my bedroom with the air conditioning for a while, and topped off my day with my very first prenatal massage. It was nothing short of delicious. I must do this again. My back has been so stiff and out of sorts, yet it feels almost impossible to get a good stretch or to crack my back. So to have someone work on my stressed muscles and aching joints for over an hour was just heaven.

That’s the update from here. Hope everyone is doing well out in pregnancy/baby land.

Yesterday afternoon was my usual ultrasound with the perinatologist. My mom was in town, so she got to come with us. She’d never had an ultrasound with me or my brother, so it was neat for her to be able to see everything.

Both babies look good, moving a lot, plenty of fluid, all of that good stuff. And for the first time, they are both head-down (I thought my belly looked different…). Baby girl put on another 7 oz to measure 2lb8oz, still hanging out around the 28th percentile. Her brother, on the other hand, put on 15 oz, up now to a whopping 3lb9oz. So not only is there a full pound difference between them, but he has shoved her out of her “baby A” position. She is now relegated to Baby B status.

Given her continued peanut-ness, my perinatologist decided to err on the side of caution and start my weekly non-stress tests now. So after leaving briefly to get some lunch, I headed back into Labor & Delivery to be hooked up to monitors for an hour. Both babies were tracking just perfectly. They were very active for a large portion of the time (probably helps that I’d just eaten a very carb-heavy lunch), and their heartrates were very good. Interestingly, though, I was having somewhat frequent contractions! It was not a new sensation, but one that I hadn’t been entirely sure was a contraction. Well, now I know. The nurse, a very nice Irish woman named Mary, had me drink some extra water and they spaced out a bit further. And since I’d just had my cervix checked and it was still a good 4cm, they decided it was not an issue of major concern. She just advised me to continue taking it easy, and pretty much to drink as much water as I could manage. (Yes, lie on my left side and drink lots of water.)

So, I now have an ultrasound, followed by a non-stress test, every week from now until August 15 (the peri pretty much promised I wouldn’t go past then, thankfully). That’s at least two hours in the hospital, and that’s if nothing goes wrong in between appointments. Oh, and that’s not including my usual OB appointments. We’ll see how long I manage to keep working…

It’s hard not to worry about my little girl, and how very little she is. But she technically isn’t “growth-restricted,” since that’s a designation for being under the 10th percentile, and she keeps plugging along and growing, which is good. I’m just a little worried that her enormous brother is going to take up all of the space and cause problems for her. But for now, she’s showing no signs of distress, and though her movements are frequently more subtle than her brother’s, she’s still kicking away.

We’ll see what next week brings.

Another day, another doctor’s appointment!

Today was a combo, 2-hour glucose test and a regular perinatologist ultrasound and checkup. Both of them take place at my hospital, so I was glad to be able to combine the trip.

The glucose test went fine, as far as my experience goes. They only had me do a fasting and a 2-hour draw, with some glucose drink in between. The phlebotomist had to take it from the back of my right hand both times, but she was able to get it on the first stick each time, so I can’t really complain. I should get the results tomorrow.

In the middle of all of that, I went up to the second floor for the ultrasound. Both babies have flipped! Now, baby girl A is breech, and baby boy B is vertex for the first time. They both grew well over the last two weeks. Little peanut A put on another 8 oz to measure 2lbs 1oz, about the same percentile as last time (~27%). Her brother is packing it on, adding 11 oz to be 2lbs 10oz! I’m not sure of his percentile. It seems that she’s just plain littler than her brother, but since they’re both growing well and everything else looks good, no one seems worried. They both have good amounts of fluid (hence their flipping), and both of their heart rates were about 148.

After describing some of the feelings I’ve been having in my belly, it does appear that I’m having the occasional Braxton Hicks contraction, which my doctor said was definitely to be expected at this point. The good part is that it seems to be having little to no effect on my cervix, which is still measuring 3.8-4cm. Excellent.

I’m really feeling very good after today’s ultrasound. Things are moving along nicely, the babies look great, and I’m showing no signs of early labor. This really is putting my mind at ease for the time being. Certainly, I’ll freak out again, but so far, so good.

I also learned that, starting at 32 weeks, I should expect have weekly non-stress tests at my OB’s office. If fluid or growth gives any concern before then, they could start them earlier, but I should expect it at 32 weeks. I also asked about vaginal vs. c-section birth (I really don’t care which one I have, though some people have strong feelings one way or the other). She said she would not recommend me being allowed to try for a vaginal birth unless both babies were head-down at the time. If baby A was the larger of the two, they might let me try even if B was breech, but since she’s little, they both have to be vertex to even try. The likelihood, therefore, is for the c-section. No problem by me.

Back later with photos!

Had a good visit with the perinatologist today. Hooray!

Both babies put on eight ounces since the last visit. While baby girl A is still smaller than her brother, she put on a significant amount of weight and went from about the 17th percentile up to the 27th percentile! Baby boy B also went up from the 48th percentile to the 52nd. So while they’re still “discordant” as far as their weights go, they’re both going up, so that’s definitely a good thing. Heartbeats were good, baby boy’s kidneys were holding relatively steady. Still a little larger than we’d like, but clearly working. Oh, and as I suspected, baby A has turned back head-down. B is still firmly breech.

A couple of good pictures today, too!
Little miss is sort of bending her head back. Not sure what the big white shape is in the upper left, but I suspect it might be her brother’s foot. It was the best shot we could get, since her head is nice and low right now.

Baby boy, however, had no trouble showing off his profile. Of course, I suppose it helps that his head is practically up near my ribs.

And, just for fun, the ultrasound tech even busted out the 3D! The ones we tried to get of our girl looked like a big blob of nothing. But baby boy B was ready for his 3 dimensional debut. How’s that for cool?