Thursday, December 12, 2013

Happenings

Okay, so I have about a million posts that I would love to write but never seem to have time to sit down and put my thoughts together for you.  I actually started a post on Monday, but then ran out of time so never actually posted it.  I've deleted it and am starting over with this one.  So, here's a summary of what life has been like this past week:

We took a tour of the Birthing Center at the hospital we will be delivering at on Saturday.  I was hoping we would be able to see the NICU, which I knew wasn't included in the normal tour, but was turned down when I asked if we could see it.  We got to see the entrance to it, and that is all.  I understand the reasoning, as there are some very sick babies in there, but I would really like to be prepared if the time comes and we have our own babies taking up residency in there.  Oh well.

After the tour, we went to pick up our niece and nephews.  The plan originally was to take the older two (Eli 8, Steven 3.5) to see the new movie Frozen, and then go back and pick up Nathanial, who's 2.  However, the theater in their town wasn't showing that movie until later that night and we didn't want to be on the snowy/icy roads that late.  So we decided we would just take them all back to our hometown for the afternoon movie showing.  We discovered that the two year old isn't quite ready for the movie theater experience yet.  Not that he was bad, just had trouble sitting still and staying entertained.  Uncle Tony had to save him twice because he got stuck in his seat that folded up on him!  It was actually pretty hilarious, but I'm sure the people around us didn't think so.  Haha!

We've been dealing with freezing temperatures lately.  We've spent the last two weeks with temps in the teens or as low as single digits.  It got down to 7* Saturday night.  I don't remember it ever getting down that low before.  It's pretty unusual for our area, and our house (along with many others) wasn't built to handle it.

I'm afraid to see what our water and electric bill will be next month!  When the temps get below freezing, we generally leave our faucets at a slow drip at night so the pipes won't freeze.  Well, it didn't help too much Saturday night.  We woke up with every single hot water pipe frozen!  So we spent the entire day on Sunday trying to get the hot water running again and hopefully preventing the pipes from bursting.  Fortunately, we had running cold water at least.  Then, when we finally got the hot water running in one of the bathrooms, the cold water froze!  Arg!  Finally, by about 3:00pm, we had all faucets functioning.  However, we had water running at every faucet for over 24 hours straight in this process.  We also had the heat cranked up higher than we would have liked, hoping it would help thaw the faucets.  We've had one or two faucets freeze over during the night since then, but we've been lucky enough to get them back running by the afternoon each time.  Like I said, I'm afraid to see our bills at the end of all this.  I am praying that we don't have any major leaks somewhere from the pipes expanding and contracting so much.

****************

On to baby stuff....  The non-stress tests have been going well.  The babies are moving a lot and have great heartbeats.  My blood pressure has remained nice and normal and I continue to have no protein in my urine.

Yesterday I had my MFM u/s and again, the babies looked really, really good!  They still couldn't get the one arch measurement of the heart on Baby A because of positioning, but that isn't a concern as everything else looks good and doesn't indicate a problem.

At this point in time, Baby A (girl) weights approximately 3 lbs, 11 oz and Baby B (boy) weights 4 lbs, 13 oz.  He's huge!  Basically, I have just about 9 lbs of baby in me right now and hopefully they just keep on growing for another month or so.

In two more days, I will be 32 weeks and the MFM doctor said that is the point where we officially leave behind extreme prematurity.  Yay!  Then, two weeks after that I will be 34 weeks and at that point they will not do anything to stop labor.  I asked if they would still need to do the steroid shots at that point for the babies lung development and she said nope.  She asked me if we were ready to have babies in 3-4 weeks?  Wait, what?  I am so excited and in awe of the fact that we are so close to bringing these babies home!  She doesn't think they will let me go beyond 37 weeks.

While the babies are doing great, she is concerned at the risks of preeclampsia for me.  She said that of all her patients right now, if she had to name the one most likely to develop preeclampsia it would be me.  She wasn't being rude, but definitely stressing that I needed to be on the look out for signs of it.  The conversation came up because I asked about my swollen legs and feet, which have gone to a whole new level.  They are pretty huge.  Also, I am at the MAX of what my weight gain should be (52 lbs) for the pregnancy and I have several more weeks to go.  Grrr.... I guess I need to stop indulging in my ice cream.  I don't eat bad, but I definitely could eat better.

As I said, I don't have any blood pressure concerns or protein in my urine at this point, so all is good there.  The biggest markers indicating risk though, is my age (yay for being "old") and twins.  They will continue to monitor me closely.  If at any time I get to the point that preeclampsia is a concern, Dr. MFM stressed that I WILL be in the hospital if it comes to that.

Let's just hope it doesn't.

****************

I am still working.  The plan is to work through at least next week, but then when I thought about it, I realized the next two weeks would be short work weeks due to Christmas and New Years.  I might try to make it through the end of the year, if my body will hold out for me.  My client load is pretty minimal right now, and when I am training someone, I am sitting most of the time so it's really not that hard.  We'll see.

I could go on and on about other things too, but I think that is enough for today.  It's time to go eat lunch.

16 comments:

  1. Glad you and the babies are doing so well!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow so much to plan for and think about in such a short amount of time at this point!! Or maybe it just seems that way to me from reading all of this! lol I am so glad that things are going well for you and pray that you don't have any issues with preeclampsia. Can't wait to see these sweet babies :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, I can't believe the time is almost here for you to have the babies! And I can't believe you are still working!!

    Good for you Mama, you are such a trooper :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was wondering how you were doing with continuing to work. I know how uncomfortable I am, so I can't imagine how you are feeling! I'm so glad you haven't picked up a cold like I did...sneezing feels like a belly explosion could happen! The crazy low temps arrived here today. I hope you get some pipe relief soon! Glad your pre-e markers are the 'easy ones'and not because of anything else. Praying all continues to go smoothly for the next few weeks so you can GET READY!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Boo on the cold! It is cold in Kansas too! But yea on the babies being almost here!! Man your baby boy is going to be a big one. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. wow! so glad you are doing so well and have made it so far! those are big milestones! 32 weeks! I cannot believe you are still working! I am sure you must e taking it easy some too! I am so excited to see their picturs! Do you have names picked!?

    ReplyDelete
  7. I can't believe how soon this is all going to happen, seems like just yesterday you were getting your BFP! Take care of yourself though, you tend to go go go and with the risk of preeclampsia you need to take it easy! :Can't wait to meet your babies!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh my gosh, when I first read, "We took a tour of the Birthing Center at the hospital we will be delivering at on Saturday", I thought for some reason you were going to deliver on Saturday! Glad that is not the case!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ahhh I'm sure time is and isn't flying for you but I, for one, am surprised you've almost fully cooked these two babies already! : )

    ReplyDelete
  10. I am very impressed you are still working. I'm not sure I could have done it at 32 weeks and I sit at a desk for my job. I was very lucky I was able to be off work by 28 weeks.
    34 weeks is sort of the magic number. My OB kept saying "Just get me to 34 weeks". I was only 4 days short! For my hospital, anything under 34 weeks was an automatic NICU visit, after 34 weeks was a case by case basis. You are almost there! Take it easy as much as you can. It's great you have such frequent doctor visits because they will catch any blood pressure rise immediately. You are being well taken care of.
    And holy cow, Baby B is a big kid. At 33 weeks when they were born, my girls were 4lb7oz and 4lb8oz and the nurses kept saying how big they were - certainly the biggest in the NICU. So, good job cookin' those babies, mama.

    ReplyDelete
  11. So glad that things are still going well for you. Yeah I'm just North of you in WA and it is so COLD!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I wrote a comment and blogger ate it. So, here again: I'm so happy things are still going so well, and that you have left the scary zone of extreme prematurity behind!
    Hoping you can dodge the pre-eclampsia issues. Take care!

    ReplyDelete
  13. You're getting there - and quickly, too! Glad you're all doing so well, despite the increased risk of preeclampsia. Keep taking good care of yourself, and I'm looking forward to hearing some wonderful news soon :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Happy your body is holding out! Getting closer mama. :) Can't want to meet your babes.

    ReplyDelete
  15. saying prayers for you as I heard Baby A's water broke! hugs!!! I pray for peace to come over you and wisdom for the doctors

    ReplyDelete
  16. Finally, have my computer back!! Like Nathanial, I had to rescue Bethany from the folding seat! And yes, IT WAS HILARIOUS!!! I had read that the movie was geared for 5 and older. But both mine did okay but more squirming than normal. Glad the cold is moving on some, one less than thing for you two to worry about!! Prayers, love and hugs, Auntie

    ReplyDelete