Thursday, April 29, 2010

28-week appointment

Well! I finally had a great OBGYN appointment with a doctor who took a lot of time and answered most of our questions. It was great!

First, despite my paranoia, the babies are great and now I think I understand why I feel kicking mostly on one side (on the right, just under my ribs). Baby A, Tadpole (the girl), is head-down on my right side with her feet up under my ribs. Which is awesome, if she stays that way, because I'll get to attempt a v.agin.al birth! Yay!

Baby B, Turtle (the boy), is breech on the left, with his head also up under my ribs (sort of between Tadpole's feet), and his feet down near my cervix/left hip. Which might explain why my hip hurts (probably not), but probably does explain why sometimes I feel like there's a baby stomping on my cervix.

They're both 2.5 pounds, which is ahead according to some websites I visit, but the doctor didn't tell us their lengths. They should be around 14-15 inches, which sounds pretty big to me.

As for me, I have gained about 33 pounds, which is a little ahead of where I'd like to be, but not too bad at all. Everyone tells me that I look small for carrying twins, that I am only gaining in my belly, and that from the back you can't even tell that I am pregnant. I'm guessing none of that would be true if they saw me in a swimsuit, but still, it's nice for people to think that. If I gain about 1.5 pounds per week (as predicted for twins) and this pregnancy lasts only about 8 more weeks, then I'll be right on target.

I want to start my maternity leave on June 1, which is actually a bit later than I hoped. The doctor said a reasonable time to expect the babies would be around June 27-July 4, and that they would probably consider induction around 38 weeks, if not sooner (July 7). So I can look forward to only about two more months of pregnancy, not bad!

I have two baby showers planned so far, the one my sister is throwing for friends and family on May 22, and the one my office is throwing for me a few days earlier. My husband's office is considering doing a baby shower too, I've heard, since a few of them can't make it to my other showers, so I might have three! But that's only 1.5 per baby =)

We do have their names picked out, and I might share them, pending my husband's ok.

Work is the only really negative thing in my life, and I'm so happy to be leaving. I am actually considering filing a grievance with the union, but since I'm leaving, I'm not sure if there would be a point. Suffice to say that my boss, and all those above her, and being bitches and adding so much to my stress level that I am now thinking I will move up my end date by at least a week. She's now making her approval of my time off for doctor's appointments (or just schedule changes for doctor's appointments without any actual time off) contingent upon doing certain things for which she has given me almost no instructions. Is that even legal? So maybe I'll be out of here early. Which means I have at most four more weeks left! Yay!

Sorry, no belly pic today - we really have to do that, though. Hope all's well in the blogosphere!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Twenty-eight

Pretty soon, I'll be the same number of weeks pregnant as my age. Huh. That's an interesting thought.

I'm so amazingly happy to have reached 28 weeks. I feel like it's the last really big milestone, and while it probably won't be smooth sailing from here, I hope to be less worried (ha!). I have a doctor's appointment today, so of course I feel great. I always feel so fantastic the week of doctor's appointments, I'm looking forward to scheduling them more often now!

Seriously - I've barely had heartburn, I've slept well for several nights, my hip stopped aching for a couple days, even my severe rib pain seems to have eased up. Lying in bed when my alarm went off this morning, I almost felt like I wasn't pregnant. Until I rolled over. But hey - I rolled over! I haven't been able to do that in weeks, if not months, because of my hip.

News on the new house - apparently, some of the pool equipment doesn't work, which no one (including the pool inspector) told us about. We arrived last week to find the pool completely green (the sellers had apparently also stopped putting in chlorine). I have spent days going to the pool store, learning to check the chemicals, adding chlorine, brushing the surface, cleaning out leaves, adding more chlorine, only to discover that the filter never turns on automatically, and when I turn it on manually, it does not appear to work. After five days of chemicals and cleaning, it might be one lighter shade of green.

The yard was also completely overgrown by the time we got the keys. Amazing how you let the sellers do a rent-back for two weeks, and they let the place fall apart. We got my mom's old lawn mower running after about 15 years of neglect, and cut the grass and mowed down a bunch of weeds. And went to about 6 different stores and bought tools and supplies and other crap. My back was aching at the end of the weekend.

We are struggling with our moving options. Want to weigh in? I'm not actually sure we'll have a choice, but here's the situation:

1. We already have the keys to our new house, but we wanted to remodel the kitchen, bathroom, living room, and entry, plus replace the bedroom flooring before moving in. That will take probably 12-14 weeks, and it would be faster and easier if we did it before moving in. If we could just get started already, we'd be done sometime in August. But the contractor is not getting back to us.

2. Our current lease is up June 30. We have been great tenants - we fix most problems ourselves, have been there long term (over five years!), kept the place in great shape, and we actually took over the previous renter's lease, preventing our landlord from having to force them to pay when they moved out early. Now he doesn't want to give us an additional month or two on our lease because he doesn't want to rent to students, and it will be the typical student turnover time in our college town. So we may not have a place to live in two months - he's still deciding.

3. The babies are due July 21, but since twins can come early (let's say 36-38 weeks, if not earlier), that puts their adjusted due date smack in the middle of the time when we will have to move out and construction will be going on at the new place. OMG!!!! Can you imagine having to move on June 30 and going to the hospital June 29 to deliver twins?! The thought is making me hyperventilate a bit. What will we do?! And if the damn contractor doesn't get back to us, we will be weeks behind on getting someone else to get started, and it will definitely be too late.

So there you have it. We're just sort of screwed. Even one extra month at our old place will make all the difference, so even though both my husband and I are really pissed at the old arsehole, I hope he'll give us that one month. In the meantime, I installed a lock on the garage at the new place and I'm starting to try to move a few boxes per day over there after work to get us started. It keeps me from panicking.

I KNOW that in 6 months things will be great - we'll have a beautiful remodeled house, two beautiful babies, and we will have hopefully mostly unpacked and moved in. But thinking about the next three months is a little overwhelming.

I'll post an update tonight or tomorrow after my appointment and maybe a belly pic, too.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The big 27

27 weeks. My in-laws have been visiting, so I've been really busy. Hopefully they fly out today. I don't mean hopefully b/c I want them to leave, but rather because they really need to get back and flights to Europe haven't exactly been easy the last week. I don't want them to get stuck at a random airport somewhere, unable to get home.

I got some sleeping medication to help deal with the insomnia. It was nice, but awful. It made me sleepy ALL THE TIME. I didn't see the point in sleeping 8 hours per night if I was going to be sleepy all day anyway. Plus, perhaps it was my own paranoia, but it seemed like I felt the babies moving a lot less in the few days when I was taking the meds. So I stopped. Sleep has been a bit hit or miss since then.

I feel humongous these days. I think I've probably gained around 28 pounds, give or take. Maybe more like 30. I don't have a scale at home, so I rely on doctor's visits, which are somewhat few and far between.

My in-laws brought some cool stuff with them from Italy. In addition to the cheese (OMG, the cheese!), they brought hand-crocheted baby blankets, crib sheets with the babies' names cross-stitched on them, adorable little outfits with matching shoes, and more. It's nice to finally have some baby stuff around. I'm also having two showers next month - one with friends and family, and one at work.

I think I might be starting to have Braxton-Hicks contractions, although I'm not really sure. I sometimes feel like my stomach muscles are involuntarily contracting, and my stomach is a little less squishy, but that's about it.

We got our housekeys last week, and even though we STILL haven't settled on our remodeling plans, I'm realizing there's going to be a lot of work involved. The pool is already dirty (reminder to self to find someone to clean it), the lawn will need to be mowed pretty soon, and we need to pick up the mail regularly. I also haven't done any of the more recent paperwork for it. I wish we could move in now and get things set up before the babies come. I'm worried about what's going to happen in the meantime. I'm at least grateful that it's been raining, so I don't have to worry about the watering system!

In short, all is well, I'm excited to be 27 weeks, and even MORE excited to get to 28 weeks next week. And MOST excited to be able to stop working soon!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Big numbers and childbirth class

A lot of big numbers around here this week.

Tomorrow is 26 weeks!
Yesterday, my ticker showed only 100 days until the babies arrive, and today it dropped into the double digits at 99 days! (Of course, it's likely the babies will be early)
And, I'm almost to 200 posts! (Maybe I should wait to celebrate that when I get there)

I also wanted to write about my childbirth class. It's ... interesting. I actually found the first class quite informative, even if it did duplicate most of the reading I've done. It was a meet-and-greet, an overview of the birth process, and a tour of the birthing center, which is supposed to be the best one in Northern California. Every room is private and has either a shower or a tub, plus a window that looks out onto a private garden and is tinted so no one can see in. The postpartum rooms are all private as well (although they are SMALL! How are they going to fit two babies plus two parents in there?), and have TVs, mini-fridges, and other amenities.

The second class was a bit long and repetitive, and it started with a visit from the person who manages the birth center (she's a nurse, maybe?), who told us and the other twin-parents-to-be that mothers of twins may labor in the L&D rooms, but must deliver in the OR. Um ... news to me! Someone couldn't tell us that BEFORE our tour? I know I may not get what I want, but I had been imagining giving birth in one of those beautiful spacious rooms with a window on a private garden. Not in a sterile windowless operating room!

It brought up a lot of questions I haven't had answered yet - will my husband have to change into scrubs to go into the OR? When will he do that? (They said we don't have to move into there until right before the actual delivery). They said they'd bring me over there in a normal bed - will I have to deliver in bed? How is this going to limit my other options?

I know none of this will matter in the least if I end up having to schedule a C-section, or if I have an emergency C-section. I am completely committed to doing what is best for the babies, and keeping them safe, and I'm not too upset about this policy. I think mostly I just wish I had known to not have such high expectations in the first place, and I wish someone would have told me earlier.

In the meantime, things are progressing well. I'm getting huge, my hip still aches, I have insomnia every night, and I have occasional heartburn/reflux. Honestly, compared to what I could be dealing with, I have it pretty easy, and I'm grateful.

My in-laws arrive in a few days from Italy! I'm excited to see them and wish they were staying longer.

Here's a question for all you twin moms and moms-to-be out there (and singletons too, really) - what do I need to register for? I'm at a complete loss. So far I've got some clothes, a few toys/rattles/etc., baby books, a cosleeper and sheets, two carseats, bibs, socks, hats, waterproof changing pads, a twin breast-feeding pillow, bottles, diapers, stroller frames for the car seats, one or two other odds and ends, and a Moby wrap baby carrier. I feel like I must be missing something. I also already have or will be given a baby bathtub, bouncy chair, in-bed cosleeper, boppy, cribs (from my mom) and bath towels. ANd I picked up some receiving blankets and crib sheets at a sale.

What else do I need?

OMG, I'm so excited, I can't wait for the shower! It's the first time in my life I've ever been excited about a shower (even pre-IF, I always hated baby showers).

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Mid-weekend

It really is mid-weekend right now - 4:40am on Sunday morning. Insomnia strikes again! My husband, who has nagged me incessantly (and rightly so) to make a doctor's appointment, finally won, and on Tuesday I go see a family doctor to ask why this keeps happening to me (and who hopefully will listen when I say this was a pre-pregnancy phenomenon and therefore not caused by the pregnancy, even if that's exacerbating things).

I am finally accumulating a few baby things. I may have already mentioned the baby books I bought, which I'm hoping my husband will help fill out (I think it would be nice if the pages about his family and history are in Italian, for one thing). I had a few things from the RE that they gave us in our congratulatory bag - two cute onesies, a horrible plastic rattle (I'm not a fan of mixing babies and plastic), and an extremely strong-smelling baby lotion (not sure if I should keep this or not - it's SO strong, I can't imagine babies liking it).

Now I have a few things from friends or coworkers - a baby bathtub, a little cosleeper thing (which would also work on a couch to keep one baby from rolling off), and a bouncy chair with lights, music, and vibration.

And today, I dragged my poor husband out of bed early (for a Saturday) to go to a Mothers of Multiples Club sale about 30-45 minutes away. Unfortunately, apparently you need to get there before it even starts to have a chance at the good stuff (like double-strollers), so all I got was two crib sheets and some receiving blankets. Still, now I feel like I'm finally starting to prepare.

Tomorrow is birthing class #2 (or I guess it's actually later today). I'm excited! And, I'm going to try to go to our hazardous waste drop-off and finally get rid of all my used (and unused) needles, before my in-laws arrive from Italy on Thursday.

Which brings up an interesting point - I still have a few things infertility related. I was going to give them to a friend who was about to start IVF, and then she got pregnant on her own, and now I don't know what to do with the stuff. It includes a vial of Follistim, several vials of PIO, a Follistim pen, and a bunch of supplies like needles, alcohol wipes, etc. Mostly, I don't know what to do with the meds - and I don't know if/how to ship the Follistim if I give it away, since it needs to stay refrigerated (and I guess I need to check the expiration too). Any advice?

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

25 weeks

I keep writing posts and then not posting them. I don't know why.

I'm struggling these past few days with worse-than-usual insomnia. It sucks. I wake up at 2 or 3 or 4, and I may or may not get back to sleep, after an hour or two. This morning it was 4, so I decided to just get up and go to work around 5:45. Now I'm not sure I'm going to be able to function today, and I'm supposed to be training my coworkers this afternoon. Yikes.

I'm still paranoid. I feel a lot more kicking on the right side than on the left, which I know doesn't really mean anything, but there you have it. It worries me. I need something to worry about no matter what, I guess.

I want to post about my first childbirth class on Sunday, before I get to my NEXT childbirth class next weekend. Also, my in-laws are coming from Italy next week, a sort of last-minute surprise visit that I'm excited about (and desperately hoping the insomnia eases up by then).

But for now, I'm thrilled I made it to 25 weeks, and even though I'm sometimes ready to evict these babies at the earliest reasonable date (like yesterday when my hip pain was unbearable and I was shuffling around like an old lady), I'm so excited to carry them for as long as reasonably possible and meet them in about three months.

Wish me luck with staying awake today. Cheers!