Morning Update

I timed the contractions for 2 hours last night and after 4 bottles of water and some complete rest in bed, the contractions nearly stopped (down to maybe one an hour). As long as I can keep the number of contractions down, I'm in good shape! Really I just need to make it to my ultrasound/appointment on Monday to make sure nothing is changing. Dan has volunteered to take the boys for the day and let me rest in bed to make sure I make it to tomorrow without checking into the hospital. Angie will have the boys in the morning while I go to my appointment, so hopefully everything looks good and he sends me right home. I'll pack a bag just in case since last time we were caught totally off-guard.

Back Labor

It's been a busy busy week and weekend. I've been totally exhausted. I'm hoping that's because of the anemia and now that I'm taking iron pills, I'm hoping that will get better.

Friday started off with some lower back pain. I believe that lower back pain was just sore muscles due to doing too much the day before. I took it easy on Friday and things seemed to get better.

I started my iron pills last night. They are horrible. They make me totally nauseous and make my stomach really upset. I'm about to take my last dose of pills for the night and in order to make it at least tolerable, I'm eating chicken nuggets at 11:00 PM just to have food in my stomach.

I'm starting to think that I am having back labor. It isn't painful, so I just can't be sure. But the fact that I don't feel regular contractions makes me a little leary. For me, this back thing is more like all the sudden the skin tightens on my back and I can feel a massive blood flow up and down my spine. I have no idea what this means, but at the moment I'm timing them, so I guess they must be contractions. If they get to be too frequent, I'll get to be a visitor at Sacred Heart tonight. If they calm down I'll reassess in the morning. I have an OB ultrasound and appointment on Monday, so I'm really REALLY hoping to make it to then. However, these back contractions seem to be more frequent that I thought they were, so keep your fingers crossed.

If you're someone who volunteered to come play with the boys if things got rough, start looking at your schedule. I'm going to try and prepare a back-up plan just in case.

31 Week Update

My goal is to have Dan take a picture tonight, so all you wanting a picture, check back then.

Today I am 31 weeks. I'm getting so close! I'm hoping to make it 4-5 more weeks, which doens't seem to be too far away. I'm more exhausted than I ever remember being with the boys. Somedays I just can't even function.

My glucose test came back this week. I failed, miserably, with a 200. With both of my parents being diabetic, these numbers are familiar to me. Ugh. I get to go back next week for a 3 hour glucose test. I'm not looking forward to it and wondering if I can complete it without puking since I can't eat for about 15 hours straight. An empty stomach is not going to go over well. I am also extremely anemic. This is not so surprising. I just get to take extra meds now...neat. However, amidst all my complaints, I'll take it all over bedrest, so I consider myself to be doing fairly well. Contractions are at a minimum (maybe 1-2 a day) and even though I have no energy, I seem to be managing fairly well considering there are 2 toddlers running around all day long.

In fact, those toddlers call.

30 Years and 30 Weeks

Yesterday I reached my 30 week mark. 30 weeks at 30 years old. Last time I'll ever hit that mark!

I've been a little nostalgic the last few days. I know I'm nearing the end (around 6 weeks left) and I'm just not ready to be done yet. I want to feel them move more. I want to be pregnant more. This is my last time and I'm not ready for it to be over. I like when people feel my belly and feel the babies move (even though these girls are really quiet). I like being huge and answering a gazillion questions about the pregnancy. I know I'll miss it when it's gone, so I'm trying to enjoy every moment. The sheer exhaustion of having toddler boys and being pregnant with twins makes that difficult, but I make it my goal to connect with the girls during rest time every day.

Speaking of which, the girls are getting on a fairly consistent schedule (Lord knows that will change once they're here, but for now it's nice). As soon as I wake up they are kicking and moving and telling me they are hungry. I know it's 2:00 (rest time for the boys) because the girls just start moving around knowing I should be sitting still for a while. Yesterday we went to a basketball game and I could tell when 2:00 hit because the girls just started squirming like crazy. They also like to be up late at night. Anytime after midnight is fair game for them to start fighting, touching, pushing, or whatever they are doing in there.

Now that we've found the camera again, I'll try and get a picture. This is the really fun growing time so there should be some good changes over the next several weeks.

28 Weeks Picture

I'm a little slow at taking pictures. Seems like I wasn't real big for a while so there wasn't much change, but in the past 2 weeks, these babies have grown! The first picture is me right now, the second picture is me with the boys at about the same time....compare!

Ultrasound and Dr Appt (27 Weeks)

I had my ultrasound on Thursday and my follow-up appointment today. Apparently everything is still on track. Both girls weigh 2 1/2 pounds which is exactly 50th percentile. There is lots of amniotic fluid and there are no signs of pre-term labor. I am now at appointments every 2 weeks which becomes really fun!

The girls have nearly been permanently named. Joshua use to call them Bumblebee and Homer but has recently switched to Kaitlyn and Emily. I'm still holding out for Madeline instead of Emily, but I guess we'll just wait and see what she looks like. Kaitlyn is a definite name and we will call her Katie, although you will be welcome to call her ALMOST anything you like. : )

The ultrasound picture is only of Baby B (Emily). Baby A (Kaitlyn) is very very low and refuses to have her picture taken. We've not gotten one decent picture of her because she chooses to hide behind my pelvic bone at every ultrasound. Maybe the next one we'll get a good one!

Picture

Here's the picture as promised. 25 weeks, 4 days.