I don't have a whole lot to say. Yesterday was another routine check-up. Both boys look great, still breech. I'm officially a beached whale, measuring in at 42 weeks already! Dr. K told me it was time to schedule my c-section (I'm still hoping these boys decide to cooperate and turn south...) and that she'd have Nurse Terry call me when she gets it set up with the hospital. I received a call back before I even made it home.
It looks like their birthday will be July 6th, unless they have other plans. Surgery is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Please pray that I don't freak out on the poor nurse and doctor like I did a few years ago at my spinal tap. I told her the odds were pretty high that she'd have to give me something to calm me down beforehand.
This past weekend we traded in our Honda Pilot for a Honda Odyssey. I never thought I'd be driving a mini van, but honestly it is already so much easier - even with just one kiddo. It has a ton of cool features our old vehicle didn't, so that's kind of exciting, right? Okay probably not, but it does take the edge off of the "holy crap, I drive a mini van" embarrassment.
Kevin told me it was an early birthday (which by the way is tomorrow) present. Thanks, babe. I feel it is important to note that last bit there was completely sarcastic - definitely NOT what I wanted as a "gift". Good try though, Kev. I'll be expecting my beautifully wrapped package with gigantic bow on my pillow upon awakening ;) And it had better be good, you owe me! Kidding of course, I'm not really in the celebrating mood lately, more like the "someone put me out of my misery" mood...just really uncomfortable. The swelling has started too, super fun! But hey, on the brighter side, I'll take any excuse to eat an extra piece of cake!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
More Doctors Appointments
Yesterday I had an appointment for a growth ultrasound and immediately after was scheduled to see a specialist in Maternal and Fetal Health. Apparently he is the head honcho for difficult/complicated pregnancies up at Missouri Baptist Hospital and his practice is in the same office where I get my level II ultrasounds. I'm in good hands no doubt with the team of doctors I've got behind me since both are associated with the hospital itself. They are on the same page as far as treating things and being aggressive when they feel the need is there. That alone is enough to make me as comfortable as I physically can be this pregnancy.
The ultrasound went off without a hitch. Both boys look fantastic and are growing like they should be - and believe it or not they are only an ounce apart in size (pretty rare in identical twins)! One was 2 lbs, 4.9 oz. and the other was 2 lbs, 3.9 oz. Fluid levels were looking pretty good as well, but there is more on that subject later.
Like I said, our appointment (according to Dr. K's office) was supposed to be immediately after our ultrasound. I had the tech show me where to go and we sat in the small waiting room. We ran into the triplet mama from our multiples class in the waiting room and chatted it up for a while. She lives just a few minutes from us, so I'm thinking tonight at class I might ask for her email or phone number or something.
We ended up waiting in the waiting room for three hours before seeing the Dr! We were pretty irritated at the office staff since no one let us know what was going on or why it was taking so long. But when we finally met with Dr. P, we didn't mind waiting that long. He is an AWESOME doctor and extremely thorough. I came out of the appointment much more educated on things.
According to him, this twins pregnancy (mono/di) is one the most challenging multiple pregnancies because of the many complications associated with it. At this point he has pretty much ruled out many of them, but let us know that there is still time for these things to happen. Intrauterine growth restriction (where the fetus falls behind in growth/weight), twin to twin transfer syndrome (when one baby gets more blood flow from the shared placenta, making that baby much bigger than the other, has many risks along with it), birth defects, the list goes on.
We aren't out of the woods so to speak on any of these, but given my latest ultrasound report, things appear to be good for now. One baby had a slightly high level of fluids, so I am going back in two weeks to monitor that and also get another measure on cervical length. I will also be meeting with Dr. P again "immediately" after.
I found out on Monday that I passed my glucose tolerance test with flying colors, but I failed the hematocrit test. I am slightly anemic at this point, so I am now taking a slow release iron supplement.
According to Dr. P, with anemia it is common to have decreased levels of Folic Acid, so he gave me a script for a folic acid/b6/b12 combination. I just received a phone call from his office that Walgreens won't fill the prescription because my insurance won't cover it. Insurance won't cover it because it has the b6 and b12 in it and those are over the counter supplements. However, the Folic Acid would still require a prescription. See what's going on here? What a joke!
I'm thinking of just paying out of pocket for it, if it isn't too expensive. By the time I purchase a bottle of the two b vitamins and have to pay for the prescription of just Folic Acid, we might end up being at or above the cost of the meds anyway - and I really don't want to add 3 more pills to my arsenal.
Overall the day went okay yesterday. I am super excited to have Dr. P behind me and my babies. I know he will take great care of us!
The ultrasound went off without a hitch. Both boys look fantastic and are growing like they should be - and believe it or not they are only an ounce apart in size (pretty rare in identical twins)! One was 2 lbs, 4.9 oz. and the other was 2 lbs, 3.9 oz. Fluid levels were looking pretty good as well, but there is more on that subject later.
Like I said, our appointment (according to Dr. K's office) was supposed to be immediately after our ultrasound. I had the tech show me where to go and we sat in the small waiting room. We ran into the triplet mama from our multiples class in the waiting room and chatted it up for a while. She lives just a few minutes from us, so I'm thinking tonight at class I might ask for her email or phone number or something.
We ended up waiting in the waiting room for three hours before seeing the Dr! We were pretty irritated at the office staff since no one let us know what was going on or why it was taking so long. But when we finally met with Dr. P, we didn't mind waiting that long. He is an AWESOME doctor and extremely thorough. I came out of the appointment much more educated on things.
According to him, this twins pregnancy (mono/di) is one the most challenging multiple pregnancies because of the many complications associated with it. At this point he has pretty much ruled out many of them, but let us know that there is still time for these things to happen. Intrauterine growth restriction (where the fetus falls behind in growth/weight), twin to twin transfer syndrome (when one baby gets more blood flow from the shared placenta, making that baby much bigger than the other, has many risks along with it), birth defects, the list goes on.
We aren't out of the woods so to speak on any of these, but given my latest ultrasound report, things appear to be good for now. One baby had a slightly high level of fluids, so I am going back in two weeks to monitor that and also get another measure on cervical length. I will also be meeting with Dr. P again "immediately" after.
I found out on Monday that I passed my glucose tolerance test with flying colors, but I failed the hematocrit test. I am slightly anemic at this point, so I am now taking a slow release iron supplement.
According to Dr. P, with anemia it is common to have decreased levels of Folic Acid, so he gave me a script for a folic acid/b6/b12 combination. I just received a phone call from his office that Walgreens won't fill the prescription because my insurance won't cover it. Insurance won't cover it because it has the b6 and b12 in it and those are over the counter supplements. However, the Folic Acid would still require a prescription. See what's going on here? What a joke!
I'm thinking of just paying out of pocket for it, if it isn't too expensive. By the time I purchase a bottle of the two b vitamins and have to pay for the prescription of just Folic Acid, we might end up being at or above the cost of the meds anyway - and I really don't want to add 3 more pills to my arsenal.
Overall the day went okay yesterday. I am super excited to have Dr. P behind me and my babies. I know he will take great care of us!
Monday, April 20, 2009
Hormones & Hamburgers
Friday turned out to be an interesting day in my world. I woke up that morning knowing I was going to have to leave pretty early to have my Gestational Diabetes/Glucose Tolerance test. It was difficult to work in logistics wise because of the medicine I have to take, also I didn't want to starve myself longer than necessary.
I got to the lab around 9:45 and was given my glucola drink and finished it at 10:05. That would put my blood draw at 11:05 - just in time for lunch! While I was waiting that long hour, there was a dad that came in with his son who looked to be about 16 months or so. I almost couldn't contain myself when they brought him back to the room for his sample. The poor little guy was screaming and crying so loud, I remember having to do this with Evan at about the same age. So there I was, sitting in the waiting room, looking through the glass windows into where the little boy was being tortured...yeah, I started to tear up a little bit. It was then I had a feeling this was going to be an out of the ordinary day.
After I'm finished with my test, I made my way out to the car and immediately called Kevin. I was hungry and the nurse told me she would prefer I eat something right away. Turns out Kevin had just asked a co-worker if he had wanted anything for lunch and that he would go and pick it up. Kevin suggested we go through the drive thru, bring co-worker back his food and eat in the lunch room at work. No thanks, I've been VERY anti-social lately. I'm tired of hearing the same old questions and just don't feel well. We decide to drop the guy's food off and head out to a parking lot to eat in our car (we used to do this a lot when I was working).
We had just pulled out of the driveway after dropping off co-worker's food. All of the sudden Kevin wondered if he had given him the right burger (he and Kev ordered the same thing...a double with just cheese. I had ordered a single with the works). I quickly check the bag and discover that my sandwich is in fact gone. Nice, thanks Kev! He turns around and runs back into work, grabs the sandwich and makes his way back out to the car.
Yeah, this is the part that I start to flip out. I open up my burger and notice the toppings had been scraped off and put back on. First of all, Kev works for a construcion type business - very dirty, even in the office. It was clear this guy used his hands to "get the job done" on MY burger. If you didn't know...this pregnancy I've been very weird about drinking and eating after people, including my husband and son. I just can't do it. So you can imagine what was going through my head at the thought of dirty hands touching all over the insides of my food. There was no way in hell I was eating it. I didn't make a huge deal of it right away, but did express my disappointment. I was going to be perfectly happy eating my fries and drinking my drink. I would just grab something with my parents a little later (I was about to meet them to pick up Evan from school so they could take him to lunch).
Kevin started yelling at me, he didn't understand what the big deal was. My hugely pregnant self took great offense to his harsh words and began to sob while sitting in the car. I couldn't even look at him I was so irritated. One of the pitfalls of my husband is that he doesn't know when the time is right to shut his mouth. This was the time. Did he stop? Nope. He kept on with it and said "FINE - don't eat it!" To which I yellled, "I wasn't planning on it!!" while slamming the sandwich into the floorboard of the car. More waterworks, just more intense this time, and they wouldn't stop.
It was as if someone else was inside my body making me do and say these things (technically I guess there are two ;) ). I immediately felt great remorse for making such a scene and said that I was sorry, Kev also profusely apologized. He ended up going back into the same restaurant and ordering me a whole new burger, what a sweetheart! I think my eyes were red and swollen for the rest of the day.
I got to the lab around 9:45 and was given my glucola drink and finished it at 10:05. That would put my blood draw at 11:05 - just in time for lunch! While I was waiting that long hour, there was a dad that came in with his son who looked to be about 16 months or so. I almost couldn't contain myself when they brought him back to the room for his sample. The poor little guy was screaming and crying so loud, I remember having to do this with Evan at about the same age. So there I was, sitting in the waiting room, looking through the glass windows into where the little boy was being tortured...yeah, I started to tear up a little bit. It was then I had a feeling this was going to be an out of the ordinary day.
After I'm finished with my test, I made my way out to the car and immediately called Kevin. I was hungry and the nurse told me she would prefer I eat something right away. Turns out Kevin had just asked a co-worker if he had wanted anything for lunch and that he would go and pick it up. Kevin suggested we go through the drive thru, bring co-worker back his food and eat in the lunch room at work. No thanks, I've been VERY anti-social lately. I'm tired of hearing the same old questions and just don't feel well. We decide to drop the guy's food off and head out to a parking lot to eat in our car (we used to do this a lot when I was working).
We had just pulled out of the driveway after dropping off co-worker's food. All of the sudden Kevin wondered if he had given him the right burger (he and Kev ordered the same thing...a double with just cheese. I had ordered a single with the works). I quickly check the bag and discover that my sandwich is in fact gone. Nice, thanks Kev! He turns around and runs back into work, grabs the sandwich and makes his way back out to the car.
Yeah, this is the part that I start to flip out. I open up my burger and notice the toppings had been scraped off and put back on. First of all, Kev works for a construcion type business - very dirty, even in the office. It was clear this guy used his hands to "get the job done" on MY burger. If you didn't know...this pregnancy I've been very weird about drinking and eating after people, including my husband and son. I just can't do it. So you can imagine what was going through my head at the thought of dirty hands touching all over the insides of my food. There was no way in hell I was eating it. I didn't make a huge deal of it right away, but did express my disappointment. I was going to be perfectly happy eating my fries and drinking my drink. I would just grab something with my parents a little later (I was about to meet them to pick up Evan from school so they could take him to lunch).
Kevin started yelling at me, he didn't understand what the big deal was. My hugely pregnant self took great offense to his harsh words and began to sob while sitting in the car. I couldn't even look at him I was so irritated. One of the pitfalls of my husband is that he doesn't know when the time is right to shut his mouth. This was the time. Did he stop? Nope. He kept on with it and said "FINE - don't eat it!" To which I yellled, "I wasn't planning on it!!" while slamming the sandwich into the floorboard of the car. More waterworks, just more intense this time, and they wouldn't stop.
It was as if someone else was inside my body making me do and say these things (technically I guess there are two ;) ). I immediately felt great remorse for making such a scene and said that I was sorry, Kev also profusely apologized. He ended up going back into the same restaurant and ordering me a whole new burger, what a sweetheart! I think my eyes were red and swollen for the rest of the day.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
*sigh*
I had another OB appointment yesterday. It was all pretty routine...check the heartbeats and fluid on the ultrasound, measure my belly, ask questions. Next week I have another growth ultrasound and will see the MFM right after it, so we'll see what he has to say. As of this week I will be having appointments once a week for the remainder of this pregnancy.
I don't know what to think about these boys...A is always kicking the crap out of me, but has not once changed positions, he's always been head down. B is usually the more quiet of the two, but that little stinker started out breech, flipped to head down, and just within the past few days has flipped back around to breech again. Dr. K says I have about 2 weeks left for him to change positions again if I'm hoping to get through this without a c-section, otherwise there won't be enough room to wiggle around. I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that this will probably require surgery. :/
In other news, I think I've hit a brick wall. It is becoming increasingly difficult to breathe and nights are becoming more and more restless. My arms fall asleep, my neck hurts, my back acts up. And then there's the hunger. I've been having to get up in the middle of the night to eat a snack and drink water because I get so ravenous. Oh, and how could I forget about the impending doom of heartburn. I think I might need to upgrade drugs to prevacid instead of zantac, it just doesn't cut it anymore.
Sorry, this post is fully of gripes and complaints but that is honestly how I feel right now.
I don't know what to think about these boys...A is always kicking the crap out of me, but has not once changed positions, he's always been head down. B is usually the more quiet of the two, but that little stinker started out breech, flipped to head down, and just within the past few days has flipped back around to breech again. Dr. K says I have about 2 weeks left for him to change positions again if I'm hoping to get through this without a c-section, otherwise there won't be enough room to wiggle around. I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that this will probably require surgery. :/
In other news, I think I've hit a brick wall. It is becoming increasingly difficult to breathe and nights are becoming more and more restless. My arms fall asleep, my neck hurts, my back acts up. And then there's the hunger. I've been having to get up in the middle of the night to eat a snack and drink water because I get so ravenous. Oh, and how could I forget about the impending doom of heartburn. I think I might need to upgrade drugs to prevacid instead of zantac, it just doesn't cut it anymore.
Sorry, this post is fully of gripes and complaints but that is honestly how I feel right now.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Bragging Rights
I just have to brag quickly that Evan entered his first contest ever a few weeks ago. Grandma picked up a coloring page from her local grocery store and Evan absolutely loved coloring it in. In fact, he loved it so much that he did not want to give it up.
Grandma and PawPaw finally distracted him enough to make him forget about it and Grandma turned it back into the store a few days later. Today my mom was off of work since it is Good Friday. Early this morning she received a call telling her that my talented little guy had won a prize. That's right, I know you're all jealous. Okay, probably not, but it did make me swell with pride.
He didn't win first place (a $25 savings bond) but he did win a really cute stuffed Easter bunny. I think he ended up getting third place. I think it will be neat to take a picture of him with his coloring page and bunny for his scrapbook.
We finished the twins' nursery last night. I'm very excited about how it turned out. I might post pics later if I can find the time this weekend.
Today Evan's school was closed, so I've been super busy trying to take care of him while not neglecting my situation. It's really hard! I've been slacking on the water intake today. Anywho, we did an Easter project this morning. We made the grandparents cards using his handprint to make a bunny and on the inside using his footprint to make a baby chick. I will try to take pics and post them as well. They turned out absolutely adorable.
I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!
Grandma and PawPaw finally distracted him enough to make him forget about it and Grandma turned it back into the store a few days later. Today my mom was off of work since it is Good Friday. Early this morning she received a call telling her that my talented little guy had won a prize. That's right, I know you're all jealous. Okay, probably not, but it did make me swell with pride.
He didn't win first place (a $25 savings bond) but he did win a really cute stuffed Easter bunny. I think he ended up getting third place. I think it will be neat to take a picture of him with his coloring page and bunny for his scrapbook.
We finished the twins' nursery last night. I'm very excited about how it turned out. I might post pics later if I can find the time this weekend.
Today Evan's school was closed, so I've been super busy trying to take care of him while not neglecting my situation. It's really hard! I've been slacking on the water intake today. Anywho, we did an Easter project this morning. We made the grandparents cards using his handprint to make a bunny and on the inside using his footprint to make a baby chick. I will try to take pics and post them as well. They turned out absolutely adorable.
I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Every Word Is The Truth
I have recently made this blog private, and for several reasons. In a moment of non-clarity I posted the link in a little box under my profile picture on Facebook, thinking not a lot of people would really see it. Over the last week or two I've noticed more traffic on this blog and quite honestly it freaked me out. The first thing I did was take my link on Facebook down - there are way too many people I am "friends" with that I'd prefer not read the details of my girly goods, etc. Why is it always easier to share with people you don't really know? Also, I found that family was passing word along of how I was "doing" or "feeling" based on what I post here. I tell the truth in every single post, but I don't add in every detail or give updates every minute, hour, or even day. That's not why I started this blog. Who knows, perhaps sometime in the future I will make it public again.
I am keeping track of details for myself. I am ashamed to admit that I have no written records from when I was pregnant with Evan or even his first year and a half of growing up in this world. Even though those memories are somewhat fresh, I realize that I will lose those special details in my head over time. I don't even have his baby book started since every picture from birth to three months is on a computer that isn't working at the moment. You can't really start it beginning with month four, right?
Anyway, since I've now stated the purpose of this blog, I'd like to add a few details that I haven't written or posted about on here yet, some of you will find that you already know these details, but I don't want to forget these things.
A week to the day before we found out about the two little miracles in my belly, I had posted on a forum for moms. The topic of that post read, "Be honest, does it look like there should be two of them in there?" and then contained a picture of my belly at 18 weeks. It is quite safe to say I felt like a cow (and now we know why). Of course everyone who replied was nice and assured me that I looked great. I have come to the conclusion that these girls are a bunch of very supportive liars! They did it for my own good and sanity, no one wants to here that they really are huge. It's quite funny in retrospect.
It might have been that same afternoon, I don't remember the exact day...but sometime around the event mentioned above I was cooking dinner and cracked open an egg. I looked down, and to my surprise that egg contained TWO yolks! They even had the appearance of being fertilized, even though that would be highly unlikely considering the living arrangements of hens that are being utilized for egg production, but I digress.
Also, a few weeks before our surprise I made a same day appointment with my OB for pains I was having in my pelvis. I suspected it was round ligament pain, but couldn't remember having it that early with Evan, so I went in to get checked out. While I was there, Dr. K was having a hard time keeping the heartbeat on the doppler long enough to calculate the beats per minute. She would lock in on it, only to find that in about two seconds it seemed like the baby was moving and rolling around and she would quickly lose track of it. She went from one side of my stomach to the other repeating this chain of events about five or six times. It was actually quite comical and we were both giggling wondering what my little baby was up to. Hind sight really is 20/20, isn't it?
Something else I don't want to forget...it was the Sunday after we found out about our twins and I was attending the bridal shower of a younger cousin. My mom felt it would be good to wait and tell our relatives the news in person, so I obliged. There were only a few of us there at the time since we were getting the room set up. My Aunt Janet (John's Janet - there are two Janets on that side of the family) had asked me when I was due. For those of you that don't know this particular Janet, or my weido family for that matter, some of us have really strange things, feelings, visions, dreams, what have you, including myself and also my father. Bizarre circumstances always seem to unfold, call it what you want. When I explained my new circumstances and shared my story with her, you could see that look come across her face.
She had just had a flashback to when I was probably somewhere around a year old and crawling around on the floor playing. She was pregnant at the time and was talking with my Grandpa about how she was scared she was carrying twins. (Remember they didn't have the technology we do nowadays, so she really had no clue.) According to her, my Grandpa reassured her that she only had one baby in there...and then pointed to me crawling and playing on the floor and said, "Nope, Diddles is the one that will have twins!" For the record, I'm Diddles...that was and still is my nickname in our family. It was deemed apon me when I was a teeny little baby (again) crawling around on the floor and babbling "diddle diddle diddle" everywhere I went.
My Grandpa passed away in August of 1996 and I still think about him all the time. When my Aunt told me that story it comforted me greatly (and also gave me chills/freaked me out). In some weird way it makes me feel like he chose me to carry on this family trait - his father was an identical twin, as are two of his sons, one of them happening to be my father. It's just something that makes me feel closer to him even though I know he isn't alive anymore. Just reliving that story in my mind makes me smile.
I am keeping track of details for myself. I am ashamed to admit that I have no written records from when I was pregnant with Evan or even his first year and a half of growing up in this world. Even though those memories are somewhat fresh, I realize that I will lose those special details in my head over time. I don't even have his baby book started since every picture from birth to three months is on a computer that isn't working at the moment. You can't really start it beginning with month four, right?
Anyway, since I've now stated the purpose of this blog, I'd like to add a few details that I haven't written or posted about on here yet, some of you will find that you already know these details, but I don't want to forget these things.
A week to the day before we found out about the two little miracles in my belly, I had posted on a forum for moms. The topic of that post read, "Be honest, does it look like there should be two of them in there?" and then contained a picture of my belly at 18 weeks. It is quite safe to say I felt like a cow (and now we know why). Of course everyone who replied was nice and assured me that I looked great. I have come to the conclusion that these girls are a bunch of very supportive liars! They did it for my own good and sanity, no one wants to here that they really are huge. It's quite funny in retrospect.
It might have been that same afternoon, I don't remember the exact day...but sometime around the event mentioned above I was cooking dinner and cracked open an egg. I looked down, and to my surprise that egg contained TWO yolks! They even had the appearance of being fertilized, even though that would be highly unlikely considering the living arrangements of hens that are being utilized for egg production, but I digress.
Also, a few weeks before our surprise I made a same day appointment with my OB for pains I was having in my pelvis. I suspected it was round ligament pain, but couldn't remember having it that early with Evan, so I went in to get checked out. While I was there, Dr. K was having a hard time keeping the heartbeat on the doppler long enough to calculate the beats per minute. She would lock in on it, only to find that in about two seconds it seemed like the baby was moving and rolling around and she would quickly lose track of it. She went from one side of my stomach to the other repeating this chain of events about five or six times. It was actually quite comical and we were both giggling wondering what my little baby was up to. Hind sight really is 20/20, isn't it?
Something else I don't want to forget...it was the Sunday after we found out about our twins and I was attending the bridal shower of a younger cousin. My mom felt it would be good to wait and tell our relatives the news in person, so I obliged. There were only a few of us there at the time since we were getting the room set up. My Aunt Janet (John's Janet - there are two Janets on that side of the family) had asked me when I was due. For those of you that don't know this particular Janet, or my weido family for that matter, some of us have really strange things, feelings, visions, dreams, what have you, including myself and also my father. Bizarre circumstances always seem to unfold, call it what you want. When I explained my new circumstances and shared my story with her, you could see that look come across her face.
She had just had a flashback to when I was probably somewhere around a year old and crawling around on the floor playing. She was pregnant at the time and was talking with my Grandpa about how she was scared she was carrying twins. (Remember they didn't have the technology we do nowadays, so she really had no clue.) According to her, my Grandpa reassured her that she only had one baby in there...and then pointed to me crawling and playing on the floor and said, "Nope, Diddles is the one that will have twins!" For the record, I'm Diddles...that was and still is my nickname in our family. It was deemed apon me when I was a teeny little baby (again) crawling around on the floor and babbling "diddle diddle diddle" everywhere I went.
My Grandpa passed away in August of 1996 and I still think about him all the time. When my Aunt told me that story it comforted me greatly (and also gave me chills/freaked me out). In some weird way it makes me feel like he chose me to carry on this family trait - his father was an identical twin, as are two of his sons, one of them happening to be my father. It's just something that makes me feel closer to him even though I know he isn't alive anymore. Just reliving that story in my mind makes me smile.
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