31 week update with pictures of then and now

31 weeks with the Girls and I still went 4.5 more weeks :-)

31 weeks now.

Well, we have made it to 31 weeks, our goal is to get to 37 or 38. The doctor said she doesn't like 37 weeks and would much prefer 38, but if labor starts then I am done. As long as we get to 35 everything should be pretty good though, with the steroids, the lungs should be developed pretty well, but there are never any guarantees so the longer we bake the better. The crazy news is baby is already big. It is measuring 4 pounds 12 ounces, 3 weeks ahead of schedule. Baby is 3 ounces shy of what Natalie weighed when she was born. She was 4 pounds 15 ounce at 35 weeks 3 days. Here we are at 31 weeks and baby is 4 pounds 12 ounce. When my doctor saw the ultrasound scans and the results she flat out started laughing. Not just a smile, but a full on laugh. Saying, "and you thought that this would be a an easy pregnancy, because you only had one." So looks like I will be big and uncomfortable at the end, but hey the health is all that matters right? Baby is measuring in the 97th percentile, so that is a change for us, when Natalie is still struggling in the 4th percentile 4 years later, but again health is all that matters. Other good news is that my placenta moved up so that isn't an issue anymore. Baby is frank breach, which explains why it feels like my bladder is being tap danced on all the time and why my stomach feels hard sometimes, because the head is way up by my ribs. The pain under my rib has also been a little hand punching me or pushing on the ribs. Already there isn't much room for the little one to turn over, so I reckon it is good that we are already having a c-section, because I don't have to worry whether or not baby will flip and be in the right position for delivery, it simply doesn't matter. So overall we have a big one, but a healthy one and we are excited to welcome it into our lives hopefully after Christmas!

I Love Christmas, but Really?!

Christmas is by far my favorite holiday. I absolutely love everything about it. The music, the decorations, the trees, cookies, all of it. But, there is a time and a place for Christmas and that does not start the day after Halloween. I get that the economy is in the popper so Christmas commercials are to be expected on TV, displays in the stores typical, but individuals who have all their decorations out, not really okay. There is a house in the adjoining neighborhood that has their garland around their door with lights on, you can see one going up their banister and they have their tree in the window...really?! Then there is another house that has candy canes up the walk and lights on their outside trees. Finally, the kicker, there is another house that has icicle lights around the house, a Turkey hanging on the door that says Happy Thanksgiving and pumpkins on their porch. Three holidays in one...I think not. Again, I must say I love Christmas, but really is it okay to skip over Thanksgiving like it doesn't even exist? Shouldn't we still be giving thanks and spending time with family. Do you really need to put up all your Christmas stuff two months in advance? Our tree will go up the weekend after Thanksgiving like it always does, as will the other decorations inside and out. We will celebrate Thanksgiving with family and we will give thanks. I wish others could remember to be thankful and not go totally crazy the day after Halloween. Remember folks there is another holiday in there between the two!

29 week update

Well, we have made it to the 29 week mark! We had a bit of a scare on Friday, but for the moment everything seems to be okay. I had a regular appointment scheduled, which was good because I had had raging headache since Tuesday. I just knew when they took my blood pressure it was going to be elevated, I just was hoping it wasn't. As I suspected it was high for me, but not dangerous. My doctor was worried about pre-clampsia so I had to do a blood test and a 24 hour urine sample test to make sure everything was okay. My doctor certainly freaked me out though, because she said if the blood work came back abnormal I would have to go to the hospital that afternoon for evaluation and possibly to stay until little one is born...that could be 5-6 more weeks if they could keep me pregnant that long. Luckily, the blood work came back fine. This morning I found out I have small traces of protein in my urine, but they said it is nothing to raise alarm yet so I am just to take it easy and watch my symptoms. If the headache comes back or I start to swell I am to call them right away. The worst part about this whole situation was that I was totally worried and freaking out about being away from the girls for possibly such a long period of time. It is one thing to be laid up on the couch or in bed, resting and taking it easy because I can still play with the girls and interact and hug them, but at the hospital not so much. I admit I had a mild break down on Friday when I got home from the doctor because it was just almost to much, since my whole thing has been keeping their lives as normal as possible. I am pretty sure mom being in a hospital for weeks does not constitute normal! So, for now, everything is okay and I am going to take it easy and poor Tom is going to have to do more housework than normal, but we want this one  to say inside and for me to stay home! So, other than that everything is still going well. My weight gain is still good, I am sure trying hard on that one and I am measuring at 31 weeks, so there must have been a growth spurt a few weeks ago and the growth has leveled out a little. So my next appointment is in 2 weeks, assuming all goes smoothly this week and we get to have another ultrasound so that will be extra nice to see the little one going into the Thanksgiving holiday. So for now, nothing to exciting to report and lets hope it stays that way!

No Sick Days

I must preface this post by saying that I love my "job" as a stay at home mom and I never want any other job, ever! With that said, I must say that there are no sick days when you are a stay at home parent. If you work out of the house and you are sick you take the day off and stay in bed. When your job is to stay home you have to keep "working" and somehow make it through the day. For the past three days I have had a headache from hell. It started on the left side as a migraine on Tuesday my medicine wouldn't touch it. Moved to a migraine on the right side yesterday, again nothing would touch it and today it is again on the right side, mild migraine with the mixings of sinus stuff. Not sure what is going on, that is for sure. I went to the chiropractor and she cracked and pulled and did all sorts of things that broke up some of the tension I was carrying in my shoulders and neck, which helped a little, but the dull ache behind the eye is still there. I would love to curl up in bed and sleep, but you can't do that when you have two, four year olds who don't understand mommy doesn't feel well and they want to keep on moving. I will admit on days when I am just not feeling up to par there is more tv watching going on than I like, but I am okay with that if they are happy and safe. Today I pulled out the craft bucket and they have been practicing cutting. Lets just say, the hubs is going to have a nice paper mess to clean up when he gets home, but again they are at least learning and having fun. They have "cut" out dinosaurs, turtles, a cheetah, hair and various other animals. But again things can't be that simple. Maddie chose today to have an accident, lets see, last accident she had was over 6 months ago, so today would be a good day for that right?! At least she was in the bathroom, which I admit did need to be cleaned, but still, when your head is throbbing the last thing you want to be doing is getting on your hands and knees and scrubbing urine off the floor. (She waited to long and couldn't get her pants off fast enough) but we have almost made it to "rest" time which means I get at least an hour and a half where they are in their room either reading or sleeping and I can surround myself with ice packs and lay down myself. It is days like today when I have small goals, after breakfast it is make it to lunch, then make it to rest time and finally just make it until Tom gets home. At this point I will retire to my room and again ice and try to relax.  So, so far today we have made it through goals one and two and goal three is mere minutes away and at this point we can basically consider the day a success and hope that tomorrow the headache is gone and we can go back to loving staying home!

The honeymoon is definitely over!

They, as in researchers, book writers and other people, say that the second trimester of a pregnancy is the honeymoon period. You aren't so big that you are really uncomfortable, you don't have to use the bathroom as much, because the baby has moved off your bladder and isn't so big that it is constantly sitting directly on it, morning sickness is over etc. Then enter the third trimester, for me the honeymoon is definitely over. I have reverted back to the first trimester again. I have morning sickness, can you believe it, I wake up nauseous and have been experiencing actually getting sick. My aches are more apparent, I am clumsy, forgetful and using the restroom constantly, especially at night. All of these annoyance I can deal with better than others, aches, okay, you can stretch, see a chiropractor, take Tylenol if they are horrible and rest. Bathroom, annoying yes, but you can still function. It is the morning sickness all over again that is really driving me crazy. I wake up more nauseous now than I did in the first trimester. I usually would feel bad after eating in the first trimester, but now I can lay there in the morning and just feel yucky and know that it is going to be an interesting morning. Alas though life goes on and I know in a about two months it will all be over and worth it, but boy o boy I hope I find the strength to push through the morning sickness or that it passes and I go back to the "honeymoon" period, because honestly, this is rough and just when you think you are done you go back in time. Two steps forward and one step back I guess.

Identical, I think yes!

Maddie & Natalie

Having identical twins has always been interesting to me. Yes, they look a like, some days more than others, they have the same DNA, yes, but at the same time it is different. Different you ask, how can it be different? Well, somehow it is, there must have been some mild mutations in the womb while the girls were developing, because while they are identical in theory they are not identical in reality. Maddie seems to have had the most mutation or she just inherited the crummy genes. She has to wear glasses and while her eyes are getting better, she will most likely always have to have some form of help in that department. She also seems to have gotten the worst allergies, she suffers year round, where as Natalie's are more mild. She also seems to have GERD, the poor thing had been "sick" since August and we took her last week to the Allergist, her pediatrician thought it was her allergies still and he scoped her and said her throat is raw and her adenoids are totally swollen. This would explain her restless sleeping and awful snoring. (She was snoring so bad on night that Nat came into my room and said she couldn't sleep because Maddie was snoring to loudly) She is now taking prevacid, which seems to be helping, thank goodness, because if it didn't then we were going to have to look into having her adenoids and tonsils out. I asked their doctor how they can have such different problems and she said she just couldn't explain it, it is just something that happens. The whole different personalities, different likes and dislikes, I totally get, they are after all two different people, which we have always treated them as such. The medical issues though still alludes me and probably will continue to do so. So for now, we go with the flow and handle each issue as they arise and enjoy our little girls each day!

Maddie

Natalie