The Hospital Life

My days consist of laying in bed, going to the bathroom, taking a nap, peeing again, getting my blood pressure and temperature checked, bathroom again, eating, another nap.....  It's been pretty exciting!

Actually, it really hasn't been that bad.

Last night, Hubby's family came to visit and we had a little mini Christmas party in my room.  This included Tony's parents, his Grandpa, his brother and his wife and their two little girls.  We opened a few presents and I shared the Christmas candy that one of my visitors brought in the day before.  Hey, at least I was able to contribute something!  haha!

Today brought a little bit more excitement to my hospital stay.  It seems like every time I say things are stable, something happens to change that.  During the night, my blood pressure decided to start climbing.  I was just bragging about it staying nice and low, but then my 5:00am reading came in at 155/89.  They took it several times throughout the next few hours and it continued to read high. 
We did get a few more normal readings, but it wasn't consistent at all. 

Sooooo, the doctor ordered a blood draw and they started a 24 hour urine collection.  The lab work showed my liver enzymes to be slightly elevated, which was no surprise since they have been now for several months (you can click here to read my previous post about my liver).  The 24 hour urine collection involves me peeing into a little "hat" and then dumping that into a large plastic bottle that is kept on ice.  The nurses record the amount of urine collected and the time.  Then tomorrow morning they will take the big bottle of pee and have it tested for protein in the urine.

As of now, they are thinking I have a mild case of preeclampsia.  I am not experiencing any other side effects such as a headache, blurred vision, or liver pain.  If it is just a mild case, the plan will still be to continue to next Saturday.

It's weird being stuck in a bed all day.  Pretty much everything seems to put me to sleep.  We put in a movie, and I am asleep within minutes.  I start reading a book, and I fall asleep before reading a full page.  I play games on my phone, and the next thing I know I am dropping the phone on my face because I've fallen asleep again!  It just makes me extremely sleepy to have nothing to do. 

I thankfully am wide awake when I get visitors though!  I had quite a few visitors today, which was nice.  A few of my clients from work have stopped by.  One of my aunts and a cousin dropped by this evening.  My favorite visit today was when I got to see my sister and her family though!  I have to say that was also the most exhausting visit as well!  The boys are very... active to say the least.  Oh so cute though.  It was so incredibly nice to see all of them.  The highlight was cuddling with this little one:

my youngest niece

Tonight is my first night on my own in here.  Hubby has gone home to sleep in our own bed and will be going to work tomorrow.  He felt really guilty about going home, but I told him it was more than okay.  I might be a little bored and slightly lonely, but he has been such a trooper staying here each night.  He doesn't get a very good nights sleep on the little couch and with me getting up to pee several times each night, not to mention the nurse coming in to check my vitals a few times.  He has been so good at jumping up to help me whenever he can, and he tries to keep me entertained.  He more than deserves a night in a real bed so he can work a full day tomorrow.  He's trying to work as much as he can now, so he has more vacation time when the babies are actually born.  Even then, with the babies in the NICU, we plan on him working (although I think that will be super hard for him) so that he can take the time off when we actually get to take the babies home.

It's still quite a bit surreal to think that in less than a week, we will be parents.  I will be a Mommy! Seriously?

33 Weeks

I've managed to make it to 33 weeks so far, despite the adventure of Baby A's water breaking on Tuesday.  It's been an eventful, yet boring last couple of days.

Once they got me checked in on Tuesday, they gave me the first of two steroid injections, used to develop the babies lungs faster in preparation for possible delivery.  I also got started on a magnesium IV drip, in addition to antibiotics.  The magnesium, or The Mag, was to help provide neural protection/development for the babies and to slow the labor process.  The high dose of antibiotics was to help prevent infection due to the water breaking.  In addition to being drugged up, I was also hooked up to monitors for the babies - pretty much like a non stress test, only the monitors stayed on continuously.

The drugs and the monitors were a constant for all of Tuesday and Wednesday.  I had some minor contractions at first, but nothing major, only Braxton Hicks type contractions.  I have not had ANY leaking or bleeding the entire time I've been here.

Tony has stayed the night every single night so far, sleeping on the little sofa couch in the room.  He did go to work on Wednesday for about half day, then went home to pick up a few things for the both of us and pick up the house a bit.  Other than being constantly monitored, Wednesday was fairly uneventful.  I did get the second steroid shot, and The Mag and IV antibiotics continued.  My day was mostly filled with letting people know I was doing okay and the babies were holding tight.

Let me tell you about The Mag.  It wasn't too bad at first, but it definitely has unpleasant side effects.  It makes you really hot, so I've been freezing poor Tony out.  He's a trooper though and just keeps layers of clothes on.  The Mag also made me feel pretty woozy.  I had a hard time focusing my eyes on anything.  I had a friend come visit and I had to apologize to her because I just couldn't look at her for very long during our conversations because I couldn't focus enough to really see her.  Of course she understood.

I was mostly fine while laying in bed, but when I got up to go to the bathroom, I was starting to get a little bit more dizzy and feel sick with each trip.  At about 4:00am Thursday morning, I was really feeling out of it.  I thought a lot of it was because I wasn't sleeping well and sooooo exhausted.  I could not keep my eyes open to save my life, but I also couldn't make myself sleep while my eyes were closed.  I was supposed to continue The Mag for another 10 hours, but at 4:00am, they decided to take me off of it because it was making me so sick.

I was trying to be a trooper and do what was best for the babies, so was willing to stay on it, but they said it was okay.  The steroids were in effect and The Mag was just making me too sick.  As it wore off throughout the day on Thursday, I did feel more like myself again.  The only remaining side effect is that I am incredibly swollen from the tips of my toes all the way up to my waist and into my back.  My thighs have never been so huge, not to mention what it's done to my lady bits.

Tony went to work again on Thursday, but it was very hard for him to concentrate.  Most especially because Thursday was a little bit more stressful.  Baby A took a dip in her monitoring that morning, so the doctor ordered an ultrasound to check on things.  I had called Tony to let him know there was a little concern, so of course he was on pins and needles waiting for more news. 

During the ultrasound, Baby A did great.  However, Baby B was lethargic and wouldn't move.  He had a stable heart rate, but didn't meet the other standards they were looking for.  I knew there was a problem when I got back to my room and was about ready to eat lunch, and the nurse took my tray away right as I was about to dig in.  I told her it can't be good if I'm not allowed to eat or drink anything.  She confirmed that they were very concerned.  I called Tony and he immediately left work at that point.  They were preparing for a possible c-section that night.  They hooked all the monitors back on me for the rest of the day and continued to watch the babies heartbeats and movement patterns.

By that afternoon, they determined that it was just very bad timing for the u/s because both babies looked great after that point.  They had most likely just been feeling the effects from the steroid shots and The Mag as well, which made them pretty sluggish.  As the meds wore off throughout the day, both of them were doing fantastic and have been having Kung Fu matches inside.  They have been very, very active babies since that scare.

The doctors now think there is every reason to believe I may hold onto these babies until next Saturday, when I will reach 34 weeks.  At that point, they will induce.  They believe that at 34 weeks the babies are developed enough not to have significant health complications, but the continued risk of infection and placenta problems that could potentially occur because of the water already breaking just become too high, so they will induce at that point in time.

Yesterday, they did a repeat u/s on the babies, just to be sure everything was okay.  Both of them scored 8/8 and looked fantastic.  They seem to be pretty content hanging out on the inside.  My vitals have stayed very stable.  In fact, my blood pressure has dropped lower than it has in a long time!  It was hanging around 117/66 most of the day yesterday.  Woo-Hoo!  No temperature.  No sign of infection or of labor.

We also got a tour of the NICU yesterday.  Even if our babies make it to the 34 week mark, they will still spend at least a little bit of time in the NICU, a minimum of about two weeks and up to maybe four.  It is totally dependent on how our babies are doing.  It was very important to both Tony and I to get this tour so we could mentally prepare ourselves for the first time we see our own babies in there.  It is so difficult to see little tiny babies hooked up to machines.  I know it will be even more difficult when it is our own.  One thing I am very certain of though, is that we are in one of the best facilities in the state for NICU care.

For now, we are just riding the tide and hoping to make it to next Saturday!  We are celebrating the fact that we have at least made it to 33 weeks.  The babies are being monitored twice daily, and they continue to check my vitals  about the same.  The main target right now is finding a way to hopefully reduce the swelling in my legs and lady bits.  If the swelling doesn't come down, I may not have a choice and be required to have a c-section, which is not high on my list of plans.

There is so much more I could tell you about, but this catches you up to date with the most important part, and that is that I am still pregnant and the babies appear to be doing great.

Just hanging out in my new home

32 Weeks, 3 Days: Water Breaks

This last Saturday marked 32 weeks.  Sunday was our softball baby shower. Hubby went to the shower too, as softball and these girls have been a huge part of BOTH of our lives.  We had a great turnout, but of course not all the girls were able to make it, which was probably a good thing.  With 20 years of coaching, there would not have been enough room in the house to put everyone!  We were jam packed as it was.


32 weeks

These 3 girls and their mom hosted the shower



With all the girls that were able to attend

It meant a lot that all these girls and their moms came to celebrate these babies with us.  While we struggled to have our own kids, these girls became a huge part of our lives.  It is such a special thing to have the relationships we do with them and their families.

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Now onto the big stuff.  On Tuesday, I went to work as usual, trained my first two clients, and was actually feeling pretty decent.  At this point, working and training my clients simply involved me sitting on a physio ball and directing them as to what to do for their workouts.  Easy peasy.

We were just getting started with my third appointment of the day.  I stood up from the ball and immediately felt like I peed my pants.  I was working with two gals at the time.  I looked at them and said, "I think I just peed my pants."  But I just kept leaking.  And then leaked some more.  They asked what they could do to help and I told them I had extra pants in my office.  They could go get started with a circuit workout that they were familiar with, and I would go get myself cleaned up.  But before I went anywhere, I turned around and asked them if it looked like I peed myself before I walked through the club to my office.  They said I was good.

I'd been carrying an extra pair of pants and underwear to work for about 3 weeks at this point, just in case I did actually have an accident and pee myself.  You just never know with pregnancy and I'd heard many stories so I wanted to be proactive and be prepared.  Thank goodness I had those extra pair of pants and underwear!!!!!!

Once I got back into my office, I grabbed the spare pants and undies and went into the little closet we have in the room.  I tried taking my pants off, but I just kept leaking more fluid.  I wasn't sure what to do.  I didn't want to put on the new pants and have them be soaked too!  I finally managed to get my pants off, but was still leaking a little bit so wadded them up to catch whatever I could.  I noticed that the fluid was a little red tinged, so I knew without a doubt that I didn't just pee my pants.  I wasn't sure it was my water breaking either.  It wasn't really a big gush, just a continual leak.  I didn't know what it was for sure, but knew something was going on!

It finally seemed to stop, so I put the dry pants on, went down to the desk counter and got a plastic bag to put the wet ones in.  I asked the two gals working the desk if either of them happened to have a pad I could have.  Yes!  One of them did.  I took the pad into the bathroom, cleaned myself up, put the pad in my new fresh undies, and went back up to my office.  Of course, club members had no idea what was going on and several people tried to engage in conversation.  I just kept things short and sweet and hurried on my way.

Back in my office, I called my OB to ask them what they wanted me to do.  I actually had an appointment scheduled with them for later that morning, so the question was should I come in at the regular scheduled time, did they want me to come in earlier, or go to labor and delivery.  They told me to just go to labor and delivery to get checked out.  Pretty much the answer I expected to get.

I then walked down to the weight room to let my two gals know what was going on because I knew they would be worried about me.  I filled them in, and then once again went back to my office.  I completed my training log and emailed it to my boss so I would be sure to get my last pay check.  I knew there was a very good chance I wouldn't be coming back to work, so I needed to make sure this got done.  We still need to pay the bills! 

I then sent an email out to all the club core staff letting them know what was going on and trying to tie up as many loose ends as possible.  I had gone into work that morning expecting to at least work through the end of the week, so wasn't quite prepared to not be coming back.  I had one of the gals at the front desk call my next client that I was supposed to see that day, to cancel his appointment.

Then, I was finally on my way to the hospital, which was about an hour after the leakage incident.  I wasn't in any pain, no contractions, no more leakage...everything was okay at this point.  Just needed to get checked out and find out what had happened.  Several people offered to drive me to the hospital, but I didn't think it was necessary since I really did feel okay.

I called my husband on my way to let him know what was going on.  He had to take care of canceling all his afternoon appointments and close down his office, and would meet me at the hospital.  Once I got checked into the birthing center, they took me back, checked all my vitals, and did a vaginal swab to see if my water did actually break.

When the lab report came back, we found out that Baby A had bought us a hospital admittance because her water did, in fact, break.  That was on Tuesday, and I've been in the hospital ever since.

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The funny thing is, our softball baby shower was originally scheduled for this coming weekend, but we ended up changing the date and did it a week early.  Crazy how things work out sometimes.  If we'd kept the original date, I wouldn't have had that opportunity to have that last hoorah with my softball girls.



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There is so much more to add to this story, but that will have to hold out for another day.  Hopefully tomorrow.  I tried blogging on Wednesday from our iPad, but it did NOT work at all and was super frustrating.  Since then, we were able to borrow a lap top from my in-laws, so now hopefully I can be more connected and I will do my best to keep you all informed! 





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.

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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.

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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.

Non Stress Tests

I had my first NST on Monday.  I was told to expect it to take anywhere between 20-60 minutes, depending on how active the babies were.  They put one strap on to measure contractions, and then two more straps for each babies heart beats.

I don't think I was even there for a full 20 minutes because the babies were so active and Dr. P saw what she wanted to see!  Apparently they look for a spike in the heart rate that corresponds with movement and they want to see this happen at least twice in a 20 minute time span.

Dr. P must have forgotten our conversation from last week when I had asked her if it was reasonable for me to expect to be able to work until the 19th, because she asked me if I was still working.  She shook her head and told me I was setting the bar high for all other pregnant women.  I told her I didn't mind being the one to set such a good example!

On Thursday, I had my second NST, but met with a different doctor at the clinic.  I really liked him, but I don't think he had any experience doing an NST with twins before!  He thought he was supposed to be able to hear both heartbeats at once, but I explained to him that while it records both heartbeats, you only actually hear ONE at a time from the machine.  He spent a lot of time trying to figure it out.

It didn't help that the babies kept moving around and hiding from the monitor!  Both the nurse and Dr. H had to chase the babies around trying to pick up their heartbeats because they were moving so much!

On Monday and Tuesday, I felt really, really good.  So good in fact, that I was thinking that maybe I could even work beyond the 19th!  But then Tuesday after work, I took a few things back to Target and exchanged them for some other needed items.  I also had to shop for a baby gift for a co-worker.  I was in the store on my feet for about an hour and a half.  By Tuesday night, I hurt so bad!  My feet were pretty swollen and my back was killing me.  Not to mention my hands.  My hands hurt so much from this stupid carpal tunnel.

I totally missed my first client Wednesday morning because I apparently turned my alarm clock off instead of pressing snooze.  I woke up at 6:24am, which was 9 minutes past the time I should have left my house!  By the time I got dressed, ate something quick, threw some snack foods together, and warmed up my frozen car, it was 6:45am and my first appointment should have been starting.  It was just a cardio workout for my client and I knew he could handle it on his own, but I called to have the front desk person let him know I would be late.  I got there just in time to help him with his cool down.  Sigh.

Wednesday evening, we went to the high school girls basketball game.  Several girls from my softball team play basketball, and we like to go support them as much as we can.  We live in a small town, and of course everyone wants to stop and talk to us about the babies and find out how I'm doing.  It was kind of fun to see everyone and get so much attention, but it was exhausting for sure.  The boy's team played right after the girls. Hubby wanted to stay and watch it, but I told him I had to go home and get my feet up.  We drove separate just for this reason.

By Thursday, I was pretty much wiped out.  I fortunately had a quick workday with only 3 clients.  Then had my NST appointment, then came home and just crashed.  I hadn't had a nap in weeks and it felt so good. My feet are still swollen, which I think is probably a pretty permanent thing at this point, but I feel so much better.

It would be awesome (financially) if I could work beyond the 19th, but I'm not so sure I'll be able to.  We will see.  I'm glad to have today off and get some things done around the house, while also being able to spend a lot of lazy time.

Hubby is actually home today as well, which never happens on a Friday, but we woke up to this today:

The view out our front door

He attempted to go to work, but he didn't get very far without sliding around a bit and decided to just come home.  It's not a lot of snow, but it is frozen underneath.  We don't tend to get very much snow here in the valley, so I love to see it when we do!  I am looking forward to the day, in a few more years. that we will be able to take our kiddos out and play in it!

The Truth

Two Truths and A Lie

The rules were to tell you 3 things about myself, but I had to make one of them a lie.  I had to make it difficult for you to figure out which one was the little white lie.  I must say, I think I did a pretty good job because I even fooled my Aunt!  She didn't respond on my blog because she didn't think it was fair since she knows me in real life.  Haha!  Fooled even her :)  lol

Here were the 3 things I shared:

1. One of my favorite things to do is to take my nieces and nephews to play in the park.
2. In high school, my friends and I stole toilet paper out of port-a-potties to tp people's houses with.
3. While in college, a group of friends and I snuck onto a golf course in the middle of the night to go swimming for golf balls in one of the ponds.

The Truth:

1. False.  It is true that I love spending time with my nieces and nephews for sure.  However, I do not enjoy taking them to the park.  The park scares me!  Especially when they are just learning to climb, because they climb on everything but have no control.  Most play structures are METAL.  It would be way to easy for them to fall and crack their little heads on something.  Even though I don't like taking them to the park, I know they love it so we go anyway, but it stresses me out tremendously the entire time we are there.
2. True.  One of my nicknames in high school was the TP Queen.  My friends and I did a lot of TPing other friend's houses.  I was pretty much a goody two shoes in high school, but this is one thing we did do.  We mostly bought our the toilet paper, but hey, we were poor high school students, so yes we did sometimes try to find more toilet paper in port-a-potties.
3. True.  We were all studying late one night, but then on a whim (for some wild reason) we decided it would be cool to go swim for golf balls.  We parked down the road, snuck onto the golf course, and jumped in a pond to try to find golf balls.  I think we found a few, but mostly, we were just having a grand ole time freezing our butts off and doing something crazy.  I shudder to think what that pond water actually looks like during daylight hours.

So there you have it.  While I might have been a goody two shoes (and still am), I am not opposed to doing crazy things and having a good time.  I've never needed alcohol or drugs to be adventurous, crazy, and have a good time.

OB Visit

First, let me say Woo-Hoo!  Today these babies and I have reached 30 weeks. It seems like it's gone crazy fast, and yet, we still could have 2 more months before they make their arrival.  Then again, maybe not...

Now, about the OB appointment I had on Thursday.  As I was walking into the clinic, an old man was dropping off his wife.  The timing was perfect for us to walk in together.  I said hello and she responded by saying how lucky I was to be so blessed to be having a baby.  She told me she was never able to have kids, but her sister was kind enough to share hers.

She had to have been in her 70's, maybe in her 80's.  She could have been me in another 30 years or so.  I have been pretty fortunate to have a sister that has shared her kids with me.  I told the lady that it's taken us over 14 years and a lot of extra help to get pregnant, so I understood.

She stopped at the bench just inside to wait for her husband and I continued down the hall, but I couldn't stop thinking about her.  The difference between her and I is that I live in a time where we could seek fertility treatments.  She did not.  While my sister has shared her kids with me, she has also shared a part of herself that had allowed me to have a family of my own.  These past few days, I have often wondered if what I said might have been hurtful to her.  How could I understand where she was coming from, when I am obviously pregnant and about to have my own children?  I do understand the pain of not being able to have any kids, but I don't understand what it's like to grow old and still be in that situation.  That's something I have feared but haven't experienced, and Lord willing, I won't.

As I sat down in the waiting room, another lady sat a few chairs away from me and struck up a conversation. Of course she wanted to talk about my pregnancy.  Sigh.  She said it looked like I would be having my baby pretty soon.  I told her my due date, which produced a puzzled look on her face.  I explained that there is two babies.  Then she wanted to know if I knew what they were.  And of course, this led to her excitement about how it's perfect because I'm getting one of each, a boy AND a girl.  Aren't I just so happy?

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times a day I have this conversation with people.  Yes, I am very happy.  But I would have been just as happy with two boys or two girls.  People don't seem to get that.  I often hear how I can be done with my family if I wanted, because I'll have one of each.  That makes absolutely NO sense to me.  I know plenty of people that DON'T have twins, but still stop at two boys or two girls, even though they came from separate pregnancies.  Also, it's exhausting to even think about explaining to people that we don't have a choice in the matter anyway.  We won't be extending our family beyond these babies.  We have no embryos left and we are at the end of our financial limits.  Besides that, my sister was an egg donor for us and I am not about to ask her to go through that again.  Hubby and I don't want to go through it again either.

I absolutely am so happy that we are blessed with two babies out of this deal, but we would have been happy with one.  We also would have been happy with two girls or two boys.  Just because we are getting one of each, does not make it any sweeter.  How could we not feel immensely blessed, regardless of their sex, when it took us SOooo long to get here?

Okay, on to the appointment.  Everything is going fantastic!  I cannot believe how fortunate I am to not have had any major complications so far.  The issues I have had are so minor in comparison to what some people go through.

My blood pressure was 117/78, actually down a little bit from my previous appointment.  I was afraid it would be going up since I had started swelling, but the swelling hasn't even been too bad yet.  My urine sample came back normal.  My rash has mostly gone away, except for my right boob which itches constantly.  The worst thing I have going on right now is carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands.  My middle fingers are in a constant state of numbness and my other fingers join in the fun occasionally as well.  My hands do hurt pretty much all the time, but I can live with that.  The trade off is far too great to get upset about it.  I can live with sore hands if it means I get two babies at the end of all this.

Dr. P told me I am doing brilliantly!  She cannot believe how well I have been handling this twin pregnancy. I love her!  She is still continuing to monitor my liver, as my liver enzymes are still elevated, but remaining stable.  Not a big deal at this point.

Starting this next week, I will be going in twice/week for Non-Stress tests (NST).  My first one is on Monday.  I'm kind of nervous and excited for it all at the same time.

It's funny how 2 months can sometimes seem like such a long time, but in pregnancy the weeks just go by so quickly!  I can't believe I am at the point that I need two appointments/week already.

My goal is to work through the next pay period at work, which will be December 19th.  I asked Dr. P if that is a reasonable goal, and she said she thinks for me, it is, because things are going so well.  That will put me just shy of 33 weeks.  That is only 19 days away!!!!  Say what?  How is that possible?

Things Are Getting Harder

I feel like I reached a turning point this last week.  I had an appointment every single day after work, for one thing or another.

Monday: I got my haircut and covered my gray.  I really would have liked to grow it out a bit more, but it was just getting to be more than I could handle.  It took too much work to comb it all out (I don't use a brush, or I would have an afro), and I couldn't leave it down to sleep on because it was too much work not to lay on it.  I can barely roll over as it is without having to lift myself up to get off my hair!  So, I got 4-5 inches cut off.  It's still past my shoulders and can be pulled into a pony tail, but I feel so much better.

Tuesday: Our entire software system at work is getting replaced so we had to attend a 2 hour software training to learn the new program.  It effects all our scheduling and how we get paid, so it was kind of important.

Wednesday: My work baby shower.  I was overwhelmed with the love and support that was shown to me by the members here at the club.  There were about 60 members in attendance, and many more that contributed gifts or money toward a gift certificate.  I've worked here for over 8 years, and I've made a lot of friends.  It was amazing.  I received $510 in gift certificates!  Not to mention the actual gifts received.  As I said, it was very overwhelming, but much appreciated.

Thursday: I had an OB appointment and met with a different doctor at the clinic.  I was not impressed.  He wasn't very personable at all, so now I can only hope he is not the one on call when I deliver these babies.  I did learn that I am measuring at 38 weeks pregnant already!  Yikes!  That means, if I actually do make it to 38 weeks, I will measure as if I am 11 months pregnant.  Oy.

Friday:  I don't work on Fridays, but I did have a lot of stuff that needed to be done.  It was really, really nice to be able to do stuff at my leisure though, and take breaks as needed.  Once I did my grocery shopping in the afternoon though, I was done in!  That really zapped my energy.  That night, my in-laws came over to help move the furniture into the nursery and help get it put together.  I absolutely LOVE the nursery!  The walls are done being painted, the cribs, dresser, and changing table are put into place, and the window topper is hung.  It looks so great!  I love it.  We did rearrange the furniture a few different times to try to find the best fit.  Two cribs make the room seem very small!  I will share pictures after we get a little more done.

Saturday: We celebrated Thanksgiving with Hubby's family.

Sunday:  We went to see the new Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire.  Holy smokes, the babies were having a gymnastics meet in my belly during the movie!  It had to be the effects of my own adrenaline from watching the movie.  There were times that I jumped at different scenes, and got teary eyed at others.  They were moving all over the place!  Then we had Hubby's parents over for dinner afterwards.

So, things are getting harder.  I don't know how much longer I can keep up this pace with working.  I only work part time, but with something going on EVERY afternoon, I might as well be working full time.  This week is no different, other than I get an extra day off for Thanksgiving!  Woo-Hoo!

Last night, Hubby and I took our Infant CPR class at the hospital.  I'm so glad that we did.  I actually used to teach first aid and cpr in college, but that was a long time ago.  I feel better having it refreshed.  It makes me feel like I will be able to remain much more calm should a situation arise with our little ones.

Today, I am getting a massage!  Yay!!!  But.... it still means I won't get home until late afternoon. 

Tomorrow I have another OB appointment.

How it's getting harder:

• My feet started to really swell over the weekend.  They aren't TOO bad yet, but they are getting there.  I can't find a pair of socks that don't cut off my circulation, no matter how loose fitting they are.  I'm getting nice indents on my legs from where my socks sit.
• Swelling aside, my feet just plain hurt if I stand on them for very long.
• I have a serious case of pregnancy induced carpal tunnel.  The middle fingers on both of my hands are in a constant state of numbness, with the forefinger and thumb joining in the fun every time I lay down.
• It is a major workout to bend over and pick anything up off the floor.  Or get dressed.  Or do just about anything that requires movement.
• I can't move in bed hardly at all to change positions.  It's not just uncomfortable, it actually hurts.
• I am exhausted.

Even with all of this, I do still feel pretty good actually.  I feel like this pregnancy has been very easy for the most part so far, considering I'm carrying twins. It's just getting more difficult and I'm not sure how much longer I will be able to keep working.

I'm hoping that I can make it through the next pay period, which means I would be working until Dec. 19th.  We REALLY REALLY SUPER DUPER need for me to bring in one more paycheck.  I will be just shy of 33 weeks at that point.

I can't believe we are actually going to have babies pretty soon.  It is so surreal.  It's also scary.  I'm nervous for my doctor's appointment tomorrow.  I'm going to ask her what she thinks is a realistic time line for me to continue working.  I'm afraid that time is going to be sooner rather than later, now that my feet have started to swell.  We will see....

The Stork Award

The Stork Award is a new blogging award, created by my wonderful bloggie friend Teresa at Where the *Bleep* is Our Stork?.  Not only is Teresa a bloggie friend, but she is also a fellow Oregonian that I had the opportunity to meet in person this past summer, which made us officially real life friends as well!

Teresa and me

About the Stork Award:
Teresa thought of the hummingbird when developing this new award.  The hummingbird generally symbolizes playfulness as well as adaptability.  Additional symbolic meanings are: lightness of being, enjoyment of life, playfulness and joy, swiftness, and resiliency.

Teresa has found that many of the blogs she reads, remind her of the hummingbird.  The strength and resilience that so many of you have is fascinating and inspiring.

I agree with her.  I have found so much inspiration from the stories you share.  We learn from each other how we might better handle loss, grief, struggle.... and we also learn how to be humble and conscious of others when we experience success.

Each of our stories are important, and each of us have something in our individual stories that can help someone along the way. 

How it works:
1. Include the Stork Award icon in your post
2. Link to the person(s) who nominated you
3. Answer the 10 questions about yourself
4. Nominate as many bloggers as you want to receive the award

5. Ask your nominees 10 new questions

6. Link your nominees and let them know they've been nominated

7. Post the Stork Award icon on your blog side bar if you are so inclined

 

My Questions from Teresa:

 

1. Do you like to plan things out in detail or be spontaneous?  I tend to be spontaneous.  Some of our best vacations have been the ones we fly by the seat of our pants without reservations and decide as we go what we want to do.  We once traveled to Pennsylvania to watch Oregon State football play Penn State.  Our only planned activities were the game, and to spend one night in Philadelphia site seeing.  After that, it was a toss up.  We ended up visiting Gettysburg, then driving down to Delaware where we had dinner and spent the night.  The next morning we took the Cape May-Lewis Ferry across to New Jersey, drove to Atlantic City where we walked on the boardwalk for an hour.  Then we had to make a quick drive back to Philadelphia to catch our flight home.  It was an amazing trip, and we did SO much in just that one weekend!

 

2. What embarrasses you?  Feeling stupid in front of people.

 

3. What are some of your favorite websites?  The websites I spend the majority of my time on are kind of boring in that it is nothing unusual.  Blogger so I can read all of your blogs, Facebook, and Pinterest.  That's about it.

 

4. How would you explain your basic life philosophy?  Growing up, I lived by the philosophy that if I had to hide what I was doing, I probably shouldn't be doing it.  I was a goody two shoes.  Now, I try to live by the idea that we CHOOSE our response to what life throws at us.  We can't control what all life has to hand us, but we CAN choose how we respond to it.  CHOOSE to be happy.  I am not always successful at this, but I try to be.

 

5. Would you rather be hated or forgotten?  Ouch.  This is a really tough question.  I absolutely can't stand to be hated, or to have people mad at me.  On the other hand, it's kind of a terrible thought to think that I might not make an impact on the people around me and they forget me.  Between the two, I guess I'd rather be forgotten, because I probably wouldn't know the difference.  If someone hated me, it would grate on me forever.

 

6. What do you like least about yourself?  My insecurities (read above).  I wish I was a more self confident person.  I know who I am and what I stand for, but it turns me inside out to have someone be mad at me.

 

7. Do you have a favorite number?  Any particular reason why you like that number?  In high school, playing sports, I always had #11 or #12.  No particular reason that I can remember at all.  Right now, my favorite number is each week I get to count down in this pregnancy! 

 

8. If you could try out any job for a day, what would you like to try?  I would want to be on the coaching staff of a softball team playing in the College World Series!

 

9. If you could go back in history, who would you like to meet?  Jesus.  Without question.

 

10. How are you, really?  I am extremely happy to be growing these twins, but this past week has turned a corner on the difficulty level.  I am getting more exhausted more easily.  My hands hurt and seem to be getting worse due to pregnancy induced carpal tunnel.  I don't sleep very well at all, and I have been really emotional this week.  I am otherwise doing very well!

 

All of you who have shared your stories, and also have shared your friendship with me in this blogging community, mean more than simple words can express.  Any time I nominate my bloggie friends for awards, I inevitably leave some of you out.  Please know that all of you are important and have a special place in my heart.

 

For this special award, I am nominating those that I have felt the most love and support from through the ups and downs of my journey this past year.  Your friendship is immeasurable and truly appreciated.

 

My nominees:

 

1. Teresa at Where the *Bleep* is Our Stork

2. Erin at The Gypsy Mama

3. Em at Teach Me to Braid

4. Stacie at Life As I Know It
5. Aubrey at Two Hearts and One Dream
6. Tonisha at I Can Do This
7. Aimee at Is It Time Yet?
8. Kimberly at No Good Eggs
9. Jane at Mine to Command
10. Aramis at It Only Takes One
11. Melissa at Ask An Infertile

My questions for you:

1. If you could live anywhere in the world (besides where you live now), where would it be?
2. What is your hidden talent that few people know about?
3. Who has been your biggest role model/mentor?
4. What is your fondest childhood memory?
5. If you could change something about yourself, what would it be?
6. What is your favorite holiday and why?
7. Do you have any collections and if so, what are they?
8. What is your most prized possession?
9. What is your love story?  How did you and your husband meet?
10. How would you describe your personality?

One of my favorite thing to read on other people's blogs is answers to these types of questions.  I love learning more about you, so I hope that you will participate!  If not, well, I thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my blog :)

*Even if you are not listed as one of the nominees, please feel free to answer the questions if you want to!

 

Two Truths and A Lie

Okay, I'll play.  I follow several bloggie friends that have done this, so I've been tagged multiple times. However, I'm only going to list TWO truths and ONE lie, even though I've been tagged more than that.

If you are reading this, well, now YOU are tagged and you have to play because those are the rules :)

Tell us 3 things about you and make one of them a lie.  Try to think about what other bloggers might already know about you, what they might not know, and what might shock them.  The trick is to make it difficult to figure out which one is the lie.

Here are 3 things about me:

1. One of my favorite things to do is to take my nieces and nephews to play in the park.
2. In high school, my friends and I stole toilet paper out of port-a-potties to tp people's houses with.
3. While in college, a group of friends and I snuck onto a golf course in the middle of the night to go swimming for golf balls in one of the ponds.

THE RULES:

Comment below with which one you think is a lie.

Make a new post on your blog and play the game.

After you get a bunch of guesses (or whenever you feel like it), make a new post to reveal the two truths and the lie and explain them if you want.

Tag!  You're it!

Christmas Babies

Lady in grocery store: "you look like you're about to pop."
Me: "I still have quite a ways to go yet."
Lady: "maybe you'll have a Christmas baby."
Me: "I really hope not."
Lady launches into a story about the Christmas babies in her family and how much fun it is, reassuring me that it is the greatest thing ever, totally didn't hear me when I said there's two babies in there.  I ended up walking away to finish my shopping.

This same conversation, almost word for word, has happened 5 times in the last week.  FIVE TIMES!  All but one of these conversations were with total strangers. 

Okay, it's not that I have anything against Christmas babies.  However, I would really like to NOT spend Christmas in the NICU because my babies are born so early.  I will be 33 weeks at Christmas.  Chances are that they would be healthy and be okay, but it's a little too early not to expect time in the NICU at that point.

I find it funny and a little annoying all at the same time.  I enjoy people being excited about our pregnancy and our babies.  I really don't mind at all when people touch my belly.  I think it's kind of fun actually.  However, that is limited to people I KNOW!  I really don't understand total strangers asking when your due date is, or giving advice, or TOUCHING you without asking.  

It's different when you are actually engaging with that person who is a stranger, but I find it odd when you are just going about your business and they specifically go out of their way to stop you.

I told my husband early on that I never realized that people get a little weird around a pregnant woman.  It's as if normal rules of etiquette fly out the window.  I made that observation way back in the first trimester.  Little did I know then what I would be in for now!

For the most part, I do find it funny and get a kick out of it.  However, I suspect the whole Christmas baby conversation is going to get a little old, especially when it's already happened 5 times before Thanksgiving....

28 Weeks and Another Shower

Saturday marked 28 weeks for these babies of mine!  I can't believe we have made it this far.  I feel the babies moving around all the time now.  Actually, we can SEE the babies moving around also.  Such a cool thing to watch my belly ripple and jump.  Hubby actually got to see it the other night too.  He was so excited.

I still worry.  I don't think that will ever stop.  I worry about all the things that could go wrong, because I know that it DOES happen sometimes.  My worst fear is to have one of them be delivered stillborn.  I know too many people, in real life and in the blogoshere, that have had stillborn babies to not have that be a real fear.  I will worry until I get to see them and hold them, and then a whole new set of worries will begin!

Anyway, enough of that!  Saturday was also my second baby shower!  This time it was with my side of the family and friends.  I had a few friends from high school and college that came and it was so great to see them!  I can't even begin to express how much it meant to me that so many came to help celebrate my babies.

Saturday also happened to be my Grandma's 80th birthday.  After the shower, the men in the family joined us and we had pizza and cake to celebrate her birthday.

Here are a few pictures from the day:



My sister has a good friend that makes cakes and does an incredible job decorating them!

The entire cake was edible, including the little babies on top.  Although nobody ate them.... haha!

Do you remember me telling you about my cousins announcing their pregnancy via Facebook?  The same cousins that announced at Christmas last year that they were pregnant, only to later have a miscarriage?  Well, anyway, they just had their baby girl in October.  Between my newest niece, my cousin's new baby, and these twins, we are going to have lots of babies running around our family!  By the way, I should mention that I am incredibly happy for my cousins and their adorable little girl.  I just had a hard time with both of their pregnancy announcements when they happened.

My cousin-in-law and my sister with the newest members of our family.

Getting some practice at holding two babies.  Oh wait!  I'm holding FOUR babies!

Hubby's turn!

Hubby is pretty funny about holding babies.  When they are newborn, he absolutely has to sit down to hold them.  He is petrified of "breaking" them.  He loves babies and loves to hold them, but he must be sitting down.  Actually, he has recently gotten better and will sometimes stand to hold our niece, but he absolutely refused to stand while holding these two.  I think he's going to have to get used to it pretty quickly, because in a few months, he's not going to have a choice!



Feeling very much like a beached whale at the end of the days festivities.




My adorable 8 week old niece with her mohawk.  She was born with a lot of hair, but this is what she has left!  Haha!

All the loot from the shower

Okay, and now I will close by sharing my 28 week belly pics:

And there it is.... or should I say, there they are?

MFM Appointment

I know I promised to update yesterday and tell you all about my appointment, but....well, that just didn't happen, as you know.

The appointment went really, really good.  I am so happy with where we are at right now.  It actually seems quite unbelievable how well things have been going, minus a few minor hiccups here and there.

We got to see both the babies, although now that they are bigger, the image seemed very obscure to Hubby and I on the screen.  The u/s tech said it may seem that way to us, but to her, she is able to see what she needs to a million times better.  She is able to zoom into each organ and see details so much more clearly now.  For us, we are just lucky she is telling us what she is looking at or we would never know!  How would we know that little line on the screen was the diaphragm?  Or that certain blob was the kidneys?  You get the idea. We can tell the heart, since you can see it beating.  And of course we could make out their profiles... barely. ha!

Anyway, both babies look good.  The tech still wasn't able to see the one arch in the heart that has been eluding us every time on Baby A.  Baby girl is just not in a good position for the tech to see it.  The MFM doctor says that there is no reason to suspect any abnormality there though because everything else looks so good.

Both babies are head down.  Baby A has been head down every single time, but Baby B seems to go back and forth. As of Wednesday, he was also head down.  Hopefully he stays that way.  Initially, only Baby A had to be head down to attempt a vaginal birth.  However, Baby B appears to be ginormous!  His head measures 3 WEEKS bigger than his gestational age!  Dr. MFM says that is okay, because it's symmetrical to the rest of his measurements.  However, if he ends up breech, they do not want to attempt a vaginal birth because that would risk his head getting stuck.  That just makes me shudder to think of his little (giant) body being delivered, but his head stuck inside.  I mean, what the heck do they DO in that situation.  I agree with her assessment.  I don't want to find out.  As much as the thought of a c-section terrifies me, the other scenario is much more terrifying.  But, maybe he will behave and stay head down and we won't even have to worry about it.

Right now, Baby A is 2 lbs, 4 oz.  Baby B is 2 lbs, 15 oz.  He's basically 3 pounds already!!!  I have no idea what percentile these measurements put the babies in, but I know they are on the upper end, especially our linebacker.  When Dr. MFM was talking to us about delivery scenarios, she mentioned our due date being Feb. 7th.  I corrected her and told her it's the 8th.  She laughed and said, "oh my gosh that makes Baby B even BIGGER!"  We all thought that was pretty funny.

She talked to us about how if/when we make it to 38 weeks, that will be January 25th, and they will want to induce at that point.  She said they would be very comfortable if we can even just make it to the 36 week mark, which would be January 11th.  It was so exciting to be talking about all this.  It still seems so far away, but yet, it's really not.  I just hope things continue to go smoothly and we actually can keep these babies cooking until that point.

I was very pleased that Dr. MFM also took the time to talk about my liver issue and the rash I have.  At this point, I only have one liver marker that is elevated.  Not a lot, but enough to just keep an eye on.  She talked about how they have ruled out the 3 serious situations that could be the cause for my rash.  It's difficult to diagnose the rash, other than it just being a straight up pregnancy rash due to the stretching of the skin and hormonal changes my body is going through.  It could be PUPPPs, but it would be a very mild case at this point.  She called it a mystery rash that seems to be nothing serious, just annoying.  They did prescribe a steroid cream that I can use, but I have hesitated on rushing to get it.  I haven't even taken Tylenol this whole pregnancy.  I've always been one to take medicine only as a last resort if absolutely necessary.  She assured me that the topical steroid is safe, and we are far enough along in our pregnancy that everything is already formed in the babies and we don't need to worry about birth defects.  At this point, their (the babies) job is to just keep growing!

That made sense to me, but I asked her, what about autism and things like that.  I loved her answer in that Dr. MFM explained that there is not conclusive evidence as to what the specific causes of autism are.  She talked about several studies she has participated in, and all the research that is being done on autism, but there just aren't solid answers at this point.  I appreciated the fact that she didn't just come out and say it's nothing to worry about.  She doesn't THINK that it is a concern, but she couldn't guarantee it either.  Her final recommendation was, if one of the babies were to come out and ended up with something like autism, to ask myself if I would look back and regret using the cream and always wonder if it was to blame?  My thoughts at this point:  I don't know.  For now, I am choosing to suffer through the itching.

Also, I passed my glucose test that I took on Tuesday!  Wooooo Hooooooo!  I am soooo happy that I don't have to worry about that!  Dr. MFM said she was very impressed and that I had an outstanding pancreas.  Go me :)

We got a few profile pics of the babies, although, as I mentioned earlier, they aren't the best or most clear images.

Baby A's profile

Baby B's profile

Both heads together.  You can see how much BIGGER baby B's head is!  Holy cow!

27 Weeks and A Baby Shower

This last Saturday was a busy day!  It also marked 27 weeks for me and these babies.  At first it seemed like time was going by very quickly and I was feeling like we may not get things done in time, but now it feels like time has slowed down and I can't count these weeks off fast enough.  I know it will speed up again soon, but I just want these babies to be here safe and sound already.  Not literally here right now.  I actually want them to stay cooking a lot longer, but I want those weeks to tick on by so we are in the safe zone!  Is there such a thing?

Saturday was my first baby shower with Hubby's side of the family.  It turned out very nice and I really enjoyed it.  There were quite a few people that weren't able to make it because they were sick, so it was kind of a small shower, but I did enjoy visiting with those that came.

I was very excited to get some much needed items for the babies.  I've been stressing about everything that we may have to go buy if people only got us clothes and blankets (the fun stuff), but I'm feeling a little more relaxed about that now.  We got both of our Rock n' Play Sleepers, a high chair, and a Play Mat, which are all higher ticket items that add up!  We also got a lot of bath wash and lotions, a few bottles, diapers, and other items as well.

One person that lives out of town sent two cards, one for each baby, and a $50 gift card - for each baby!  Having that $100 in gift cards, and knowing that people at work are going in on a large gift card for us as well, provides a lot of stress relief, knowing that we will have that to use to get any other necessary items that we don't receive at the showers.

It feels pretty selfish wanting to get all this stuff at our showers.  I always thought it would just be a fun party to celebrate the babies and get cute baby stuff, but when it comes down to NEEDING all this stuff for the babies, I find myself thinking more about what I hope people gift us with!  That makes me feel pretty awful actually, but we are SO tight on money right now.  I don't know how we are going to make it without my income for those months that I will be off.  And I don't want to have to go back to work, but I'm pretty sure that is not an option.

I wanted to share pictures from the shower, but I didn't really get any good ones.  I have one picture of me with my MIL and Hubby's Aunt who threw us the shower, but it turned out super dark with my camera phone.

My sister took one picture of my super cute little niece and sent it to me.

But that's all I got for pictures.

While us girls were at the shower, Hubby and his brother tore out our moldy bathroom ceiling and replaced it, along with a new high powered bathroom fan.  The venting system was so bad that it wasn't pulling the moisture to outside and it was just pooling on the attic side of the ceiling which was causing us major problems.  They put in new venting and rerouted it so hopefully we won't have this problem ever again!  We still have some more work to do in there, but we have to wait for my BIL to make the trip down next weekend to finish it up.  They live a few hours away from us.  He builds houses for a living and I am so grateful for his help.

I don't have any before pics of our bathroom.  I am so bad at taking before pictures!  I always get the after....

On Sunday, we painted the nursery.  Okay, let me rephrase that.  Hubby painted the nursery.  I helped tape up the walls, but then I was outta there.  The walls are grey, and this week we are going to paint a big navy stripe on the wall above where the cribs will be.  Then we are going to put a thin red line on the top and bottom of the navy stripe.  On the opposite wall, I am going to put baseball stitching on the right hand upper corner and lower left corner.  It's hard to explain, but once we get it done, I WILL take pictures!

This Friday we are getting our carpets cleaned and then this weekend Hubby will start putting the cribs together!  I'm so excited to see how the nursery will look once we start getting it put together.  I also have another baby shower this weekend with my side of the family/friends.  Next Wednesday is my work shower.  I'm sure we will have more baby stuff than we'll know what to do with!

This afternoon we have a MFM appointment and ultrasound.  I am super excited to see the babies again.  I am also super nervous.  Until I see that each baby is okay, it is very nerve racking going into these appointments.  I'm also really curious to hear what the MFM doctor has to say about my liver issue.  I will try to update tomorrow about how the appointment goes.

"Do Twins Run In Your Family?"

As interfiles, we learn to deal with a lot of awkward conversations.  In the beginning, we were asked the common questions of "when are you going to have kids?" by people you know, or "do you have kids?" from people you don't know.

Those questions never really bothered me too much, although I know that others find those types of questions rather painful.  Even though I never got upset by those questions, it was still an awkward conversation to have at times.  You get lots of unsolicited advice, and I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I was asked if I'd ever considered adoption, or asked "why don't you just adopt?"

In fact, my MIL and another good friend of mine always felt the need to call me when they knew of a child in need of adoption.  They'd give me the whole story, tell me I should call so and so, and think that we could magically just adopt this child in need.  Little did they know that there is a whole entire process that has to take place.  Also, the child's extended family isn't able to just pick who they want to adopt their little one. The system unfortunately doesn't work that way.  I'd always get my hopes up and think well, maybe, what if, every time this would happen.  Another factor that people don't realize is that adoption is expensive!

Now, fast forward to our present situation.  We are finally pregnant after 16 years of being married and 14 years of trying for a family.  The questions have changed, especially now that I am obviously pregnant with my growing belly.

Remember I work in a fitness club with the public, so I see a lot of people on a daily basis at work.  When people find out I am having twins, it never fails that they ask "do twins run in your family?"  Actually, now that I think about it, I've been asked that by a few nurses as well!  Everyone just seems to jump to that question.

This is how the conversation typically goes down:

"Do twins run in your family?"

Me: "No."

"Oh, so it was a surprise then?  Were you and your husband shocked?"

Me:  "Nope.  We knew it was a possibility."

Then comes the befuddled look on the person's face.  Sometimes I will tell them that we had a lot of help from science, or we had to undergo fertility treatments to get pregnant.  I have not had ANYONE respond to that and the conversation usually ends there.  It's always awkward, but I really don't mind that either.

The one question that does get me a little bit though:  "is this your first baby(ies)?"

Yes.  And our last.

Even if we were only pregnant with one baby, this would still be our last.  I am 39 years old and Hubby will be 41 in January.  He's already a little freaked out that we are going to be (almost) 60 when these kids graduate from high school.

Besides that, it's not like we could just decide to have another baby even if we wanted to.  We are in debt up to our ears getting pregnant now, and it took us 14 years to get here.  It also required an egg donor. Yes, these will be our first babies, but they will also be our last.

We've decided there is one really great thing about all this infertility stuff.  Hubby doesn't ever have to worry about getting snipped!