Am I Having Contractions?....

Easy answer...No. Nope. Nothing.

Every time I am at the doctor's office (which is a minimum of two times a week now), they ask me if I am having contractions. I have no idea what contractions feel like, so I'm not really sure if I am... but I imagine I would know. So the easy answer is no, no contractions yet!

Both NST appointments went well this week! Nothing new. Both babies are still head down (which makes every doctor at the office happy to hear) and pretty good at staying on the monitor during the NST. Heart rates look good and still run very similar (which is why I am thinking it's two of the same sex- two boys).

What else is going on... nothing much. Jim and I are almost done with the nursery and Jim set up almost all of the baby stuff by now. We are just waiting on the glider to come in from Babies R Us and the Pooh Wall quote for the wall. We will be putting up the babies' names above their cribs, but that'll happen after they're born since we don't know their sexes and therefore their names. And if one or both are girls, we may not even have them named right away (ha - just kidding...but I am still struggling with our girls names...)

Well, I always try to post a picture for each entry into the blog - so here I am relaxing and waiting...

Oh, I am slacking...

Sorry for the delay in posts... I haven't been very motivated to post anything. Which is surprising because being at home on modified bed rest has given me a lot of time to do anything, yet I seem to be doing nothing more often.

So the update is... there isn't really an update. My blood pressure is a little higher than earlier in the pregnancy, which is causing some stress for my doctor(s), but it always seems to go back down. I am already on blood pressure medication, so if necessary, the doctor may increase the daily dose. The early signs of pre-ecamplsia that were present weeks ago seemed to have disappeared. My blood work is perfect and the 24 hour urine collection (that was fun!) came back in the normal range for protein. So all is good.

Here is a picture of me at 33 weeks and a couple days. I am definintely uncomfortable more than comfortable these days. I sleep horribly most nights, and the nights I do sleep well are few and far between. I have noticed that when I take a unisom, I tend to sleep much better, but I fear that I shouldn't take it too often. I am not sure if it affects the babies too... I guess that is a question for the doc. Anyway, back to the picture (sorry for the dirty mirror):



And check this angle out... I barely look pregnant from the front! How awesome is that?!


Hmmm...so what else can I talk about??? I have no idea what else is new. I should have an update tomorrow since I go in for another NST and for an actual doctor visit. So maybe I will get some news to share... we will see.

Oh and PS - yesterday was July 25... and d-day is August 25... so yesterday we were a month away (max) from meeting out babies. YAY!

A Quick Peek - NST

Well, I thought I would give you all a quick peek into what my days are starting to look like. Since the blood pressure scare last week I have been off work and relaxing. But it's good timing to be off work because my Doctor's appointments are coming fast and furious now. We pretty much go in to the office a minimum of two times a week (about as often as we go to Babies R Us!!). We are going once a week for a normal OB appointment and twice a week for the NSTs (non-stress tests). Next week we also have a growth ultrasound scheduled (our favorite of all the appointments!).

Jim has been awesome and has gone to almost every appointment with me from the beginning! It is such a comfort to have him there, especially since he usually pays more attention to the medical stuff then me... I lose focus when the doctors and nurses start talking medical talk. ;-) But Jim really has been great, keeping me company and relaxed during all the appointments! He is wonderful!
Anyway, here is a peek into what the NST appointments look like:

Here I am all hooked up to the monitors (3 total: two heart rate monitors and one contraction monitor):



Here's Dad - unfortunately he doesn't get a comfy chair. Boooo!


The moniter keeping track of the heart rates and contractions (none so far!):


A sneak peek at Daddy looking on (and researching pediatricians on the blackberry!):

31 week update - warning: long!

On Wednesday, July 7th, we went in for our regular OB check-up. The appointment wasn't until the afternoon, so I worked in the morning and then met up with Jim to head off to the appointment around 3pm.

When we arrived at the office, we were called in right away - which was shocking because Dr. D usually runs behind a bit. On the way back to the room, we stopped at the scale for a weigh in... my absolute favorite part of appointments (ha! ya right). Well, my weight was up 8lbs from the last appointment only two weeks ago. Yikes! I guess I should lay off the cake and ice cream now!

When the nurse took my blood pressure, we were disappointed to hear it was 142/94. Eh - not good. I reminded the nurse that sometimes they use the bigger cuff since I am bigger than most girls. So, the nurse took my BP again with the larger cuff - but it didn't help....my BP was again around 144/96. Not good.

When Dr. D came in, she expressed concern with my blood pressure reading and took it again herself. And again, it was high; near the same numbers. After doing a reflex test (result: rapid reflexes) and checking the swelling in my hands and legs/feet (incredibly bad - though I blame the heat since it was 95 degrees), Dr. D explained that she is worried I may be in early stages of pre-eclampsia. She pulled me off work that day and to make sure things weren't progressing to pre-ecamplsia, Dr. D sent us to Labor and Delivery at St. Joes hospital to make sure everything was ok. Oh, and I should mention, earlier in the day, I think I had my first couple contractions. Nothing regular, but definitely nothing I had felt up until that point. So after telling Dr. D about the possible contractions and then having the high BP reading, with rapid reflexes (sign of neurological issue, which I guess goes hand-in-hand with pre-ecamplsia and swelling), Dr. D thought it was best to go to L&D for monitoring. What really scared me was when she said she is worried that we are going to have some premature babies. I wasn't worried about her telling me about the pre-eclampsia until she brought up how she thought the babies would be her soon and be premature. Now I know that most likely the babies will be early and may end up in the NICU, but it seemed more real once she said it that day, and that it could be any day that the babies may arrive. And that scared me. This was the first time I was really worried that my body was starting to have issues with the pregnancy and that it would be my fault if we do have premature babies. Up until that point, I have been really impressed with my body and how it has been handling the pregnancy...but now I am nervous and I hope we make it at least a couple more weeks.

Anyway....we were off...well, after stopping at home to get a couple things to keep us entertained if we ended up being there for hours (ipod, magazines, etc).

After checking in to L&D, we were called back right away. They hooked me up to two heart rate monitors to keep track of the babies' heartrates and hooked up a contraction monitor. I also had a blood pressure cuff hooked up that would occasionally take a reading. When we first got there, after right after having some blood taken, my blood pressure reading was 150 (something) / 103. YIKES! After seeing that number I started to get really nervous that I was actually developing pre-ecamplsia and the babies were going to be born sooner rather than later. But after a couple more readings, my bp started to decrease and head back into the "normal" range. Whew! Also, the contraction monitor didn't record any contractions. After they monitored the babies' heartrates for 40 minutes or so, and after a couple normal bp readings, and my lab results came back normal, they decided to release me to follow up withe Dr. D on Friday.

On Friday, July 9th, we went back in for my blood pressure follow-up and had an excellent reading of 130/82 (or somewhere right around there). Whew! Also, my weight was down 4lbs. from Wednesdays reading (much better) and my lab results were perfect. Dr. D said that my blood uric acid level was in the normal range (Normal: 2.6-6; Mine: 3.8). I had no idea what that meant, so she explained it and said that if my blood uric acid level was high, then I would be well on my way to pre-eclampsia. Instead she was pretty confident from the blood results, that we have many more weeks ahead of us with (hopefully) no more pre-eclampsia scares. Fingers crossed!!

So now I am going to Dr. D's office twice a week for the NST test (non-stress test). Read more about the test here... I can't explain what the purpose is yet because I need to read up on it! :-) Not only will I be going in for the NST, but they will also be monitoring my BP at each appointment, just to make sure it is still staying in the normal range. And then the next week, we go back in for a growth ultrasound... I am super excited to see what the babies are weighing in at again! Hopefully close to 5lbs each!

Whew - so that's the updated. If you made it this far, congrats! I know it's not a fun read, but now you are at least updated!

Oh, and here is my 31 week bump pictures... bigger and bigger and bigger... no going back!