Another L&D trip - and 36 week bump

Yesterday, during my normal NST and OB appointment check-up, my blood pressure was running high again. This time it was pretty high; all three checks were in the 150s/100s. So the dr. sent me to the labor and delivery unit at St. Joes to be monitored and make sure it goes back down.

After about 3 hours of monitoring, I was sent home with the instructions to increase my blood pressure medication. All my blood work came back normal and the babies were doing awesome on their monitors. So, another scare for no reason.

But things are getting close now! When I was in the hospital, the nurse informed me that I was having contractions every 8 minutes or so. I was shocked to hear that since I was feeling fine and didn't notice anything. So I of course am optimistic that all my contractions will be unnoticeable and easy. Haha! Everyone laughs when I mention that... I wonder why?!

My normal doctor is back in town this weekend (August 14/15) and on call both weekend days. I am not expecting anything to happen that soon, but you never know. Otherwise I spoke with Dr. D about scheduling the induction (which she still wants to do by 38 weeks) for a day when she is on call. So my awesome hubby printed out the on-call schedule one day while he was at work and it turns out Dr. D is on-call August 14 and 15 (too soon), August 18 (37 weeks), and August 23 (two days shy of 38 weeks). So, if the babies continue to enjoy their comfy and cozy environment, and my blood pressure behaves itself, then it is very likely I could be heading in to the hospital to be induced on August 23! Who knows though - it really could be any day now! AH!

So, here I am at 36 weeks. I decided to wear the same gray shirt I wore for most of the other pics so you could really compare the weeks.



Next week we have a growth ultrasound (our last one!) - scheduled for Monday. This will be the last time we "see" the babies (most likely) before they are out and about and we get to meet them!! Woohoo! Hopefully, both babies have gained over a pound (or more) each since the last ultrasound. Last time they were 5lbs and 4lbs 14oz, so hopefully they are both over 6lbs by now. I will keep you updated!

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!

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!

23 Week Update

Yesterday, we went in to see Dr. D for our regular check-up. The ultrasound results were in from last week and everything looks good on Baby B, well, except the "white spot" (aka: echogenic intracardiac focus) is still there. But neither Dr. D nor the ultrasound tech seem too concerned about it. So I am trying not to be either.
So far my weight gain has been good. I am up 18lbs., which I guess is a good thing. It is pretty stressful to see the numbers on the scale, but I am remembering that it is for the babies- and they need all they can get. Dr. D wanted me to gain 24lbs by 24 weeks (next week), but I don't think I am going to make that goal. To be fair, she only just told me about it the last appointment, so technically I had to gain 10lbs within 4 weeks... which I don't think is realistic. Gaining that much weight, that quickly will probably lead to stretch marks (eh!) and I want to do everything I can to prevent that!
I will be scheduling my 1 hour glucose test in 3 weeks - so wish me luck on that! Hopefully, I pass it, but if not, I then go in for a 3 hour glucose test... and if I fail that, well then I will most likely be diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Dr. D informed me that because I am carrying multiples, I am higher risk for developing it. (Ah!)
My blood pressure was great at the appointment - 117/76. Woohoo! I am hoping it stays that low - but again I remember that I am at a higher risk for preeclampsia too. My, my... lots of higher risk issues are approaching.
What else - hmmmm... nothing really. We got to see both babies briefly again on ultrasound (we did see that Baby B had the hiccups - how cute!), mostly just so Dr. D could determine their positions to check their heart rates. Baby A's heart beat was easy to find and hear, and was 153 bpm. Baby B's heart beat was hard to find, of course, but each he/she is our stubborn one! After a few minutes of searching, Baby B checked in at 145 bpm.
Dr. D said that they will schedule an induction/c-section (depending on the positions of the babies) no later that August 25th (which is 38 weeks). So there you have it - these babies will definitely be making their appearance by then - if not sooner. I am really hoping they stay put that long so that the NICU time is minimal if not non-existent! We will see!

16 Week Appointment Update! (on week 15, day 6)

And Happy Birthday Shannon! LYH!

Today we had another appointment with Dr. D to check up on our little ones. All is going well.

The appointment was rather anti-climatic. We did get to hear one of the babies heartbeats (around 155 bpm) and then we did get to see them both on the ultrasound again. So I don't know why I am feeling sort of let down by the appointment. It is quite a silly feeling really. I think it is because we weren't sent home with any new pictures of the babies. Booooo! But otherwise, we did get to see them briefly and while we were peeking at Baby B, Dr. D pointed out that he/she had the hiccups. Awwww.... (I couldn't tell though). On a side note: why do babies get the hiccups? I will have to google it.

Dr. D is having me take a 24 hour urine test. Ugh - gross. I guess the purpose of the test is to get a baseline of what my urine normally looks like for protein and sugar readings. Since I am at a higher risk for preeclampsia, Dr. D wanted to get a reading now, before things potentially get all out of wack.

Next appointment with Dr. D is April 20th at 2pm. But, drumroll please.... our big ultrasound is the week before that, on April 14 - just a short 3 weeks away. Yay!

So on a side note... I saw a website that predicts the gender of the baby based on the heart rate reading. So, according to the heart rate of 155 - it looks like one of our babies is A BOY! AHHAHAHAH!!!



Well, I also have a bump picture for you. I am definitely starting to show now. Some days the bump is more pronounced than others, and I am having trouble sucking anything in anymore! So as of yesterday, this is what the baby bump looked like. YIKES!



That's all folks. More later!