34 Weeks!

This is starting to get old. Obviously I want what's best for the babies and if that means them staying in for a few more weeks then I will be ok with that, but I'm SO ready to not be pregnant anymore. Now that I know they would be healthy if they were born I don't feel guilty saying that.

I know, not much longer now...

Being off the medication hasn't caused any changes in contractions so it looks like I may be staying put for a while.

Chris put together the bureau we got from his mother and grandmother. It looks great! It was in a million pieces.

Checkup 33w 5d

Went to the doctor again yesterday.
This time no protein in the urine and heartbeats were perfect.
Jackson weighed in at 4lb 4oz (21st percentile) and Madison was 4lb 14oz (40th percentile).
I am now carrying over 9lbs of babies!
Doc told me to stop the nifedipine so I'm on my own now. They don't do anything to stop labor after 34 weeks anyway. He thinks I'll get to 37 weeks though.

Window Trim

Chris finished up the trim on the window wall last night. Now the nail holes need to be filled and bottom painted white. Then we can put the other crib together and set up the room. We are waiting for the deliveries of a bureau that Chris's mom and nana bought for us and a glider rocker that Chris's family in Gloucester bought us.

A day out

I broke all the rules today to go to a friend's baby shower. Chris took me and stayed with me so he could wait on me. I really did nothing different there than I would have at home. It was nice to get out and get to see some friends that I haven't seen in a while. Jenna and Cindy did a great job planning and decorating.

To the right is the happy couple, Barbara and Daniel. Chris and I were so happy to be at their wedding in Las Vegas in September of 2005. Here is a link to their wedding photos...http://www.klgproductions.com/gallery/album11
(warning: risque photos of gogo dancers from the after party at Studio 54 at MGM)

The photo of the three of us is funny. I am 33 weeks, Barbara behind me is 32 weeks, and Veronica behind her is 27 weeks. We all work for the same company.

I have some more photos of the day but I'm having technical difficulties getting them uploaded to my gallery. I will update when it works out.

New windows in the babies' room

My dad came over this morning and helped Chris replace the very drafty windows we had in the nursery. It went very smoothly and now Chris can finish up the trim work. Then all we (haha)...Chris that is, needs to do is paint the bottom of the room white.

Chris installed a beautiful closet organizer which is great for storing all the little things we got for the babies.

Checkup

Wednesday (my birthday :( I got that dreaded stomache bug. I was sick through friday morning. And I just FELT nauseous the whole time.

So then Friday morning I had a checkup at 10am and Chris's mother took me. I had protein in my urine and Jackson's heart rate dipped once during the nst so they sent me off to the hospital. Got in a room at 1pm and got all strapped up for a 2 hour nst. They also drew blood to test for pre-eclampsia (my blood pressure won't go up because I'm on bp medication to stop my contractions). They said the blood work would be back within 2 hours. 4 hours later, no word and I'm still on the monitor. At 5:30 the labs came back all normal except still protein in my urine. They sent me home to do a 24 hour urine collection so they could get a more average reading. Chris has to bring it back to the hospital tonight. Doc said if it's still elevated they will deliver :-( I know I'm at a great point to deliver now but I was definitely hoping to avoid nicu time if at all possible.

So with traffic getting out of boston I didn't get home until 7pm. It was a long day. I hadn't eaten at all on thursday cause of the bug and then I had breakfast on friday but they wouldn't let me eat at all at the hospital until 5:30 when they knew I was going home.

I still felt pretty sick after I got home but I think a good night's sleep has got me back to normal.

33 Weeks

One more week down.

Bedrest really isn't as easy as it sounds...even for me. I definitely have things to entertain me but it's pretty depressing when you can't just run to the store when you need something. Plus I think I'm coming down with that stomache bug that everyone I know got over the past couple months. It really hasn't turned into anything but I feel very yucky.

The evening is ok because Chris is here and there is usually somethign good on TV.

Today is my 34th birthday. Chris brought me beautiful pink roses and bought some baby clothes and like 10 cards! My wonderful friend Susan had very pretty tulips delivered.

Time for Carvel ice cream cake!

OH Baby! Shower

Wow! What a day. First of all it was wonderful just to get out of the house :-)

The party was amazing and I literally spent 2 hours opening gifts. I felt bad that I didn't get to socialize except to say hello and goodbye. It was a fabulous turnout for such short notice. I want to thank everyone who came to and planned the party for their flexibility and spontaneity. It means more to me than you will ever know.

Here are a few shots from the day. If you have some time you can see the rest of the pictures at

http://www.klgproductions.com/gallery/album68

This is my friend Gia who helped our mothers plan this wonderful occasion.














These are our mothers (mine on the left, Chris's on the right). This picture of the two of us laughing really is our most natural state.





























This picture is very special and I am very lucky to be able to have it. On the Left of me are the two great grandmothers to Madison and Jackson on Chris's side and on the right are the two great grandmothers from my side.

32 Weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I made it! With the scare over three weeks ago, I feel so proud to have made it this far. Of course now I'm feeling greedy and want to make it to 34 weeks. Who knows, maybe I'll make it to my scheduled c-section at 38w 2d on March 30th. Not sure I'll be mobile at that point.

These next two ultrasound photos are the same photo. I annotated one to help you see what you're looking at. Then I posted it without the annotation so the lines aren't in the way. I think she looks like she's smiling sweetly :-) You can click on the images to make them bigger.

Good checkup

I had to go to the doctor today to check my cervix. It is behaving itself which means I get to stay home :-)
He told me that at 34 weeks they will take me off the nifedipine and they won't do anything to stop labor if it happens after that. I wonder how far I will go.

Home!

Being home is amazing. Chris and the kitty are happy to have me here. However me being home is SO much more work for Chris.

Believe it or not the hospital bed was much more comfortable than my bed here. We have a very firm mattress which causes extreme pain to my hips and now my shoulders if I lay on one side for too long. We have a feather bed that I have folded into quarters and I sleep on that. It helps a little.

Day 19 (the best day)

I really never hoped for this day for fear of it not coming. This morning my dr came in and woke me up at 8am and asked me if I wanted go home. What a funny question. I of course said "YYYYYYYYYYYYESEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", and she said "OK you can go home".
I'll still be on bed rest at home but I'm perfectly fine with that. It will be so nice for people to not have to drive so far to see me and pay for parking, to actually get to see Chris every day, and see my kitty...I miss her so much!!
I want to thank everyone who came to visit me. It really meant a lot and helped make my stay here more bearable.

Day 18 update

Tonight our Mothers came in for a visit. Chris's mom brought me dinner from one of my favorite restaurants and my favorite pie. The best thing about it is they give HUGE portions so I have leftovers for lunch or dinner tomorrow. My mom brought me a book I asked for. There was a write-up about it in a magazine I happened to be reading while waiting for my ultrasound today. I knew from the write-up I had to have it.
It's called "Waiting for Daisy". It's a memoir of a woman's quest to have a baby. I'm only on page 36 and I've already cried knowing I have gone through the same things she is writing about.
I guess in a way you are reading MY memoirs :-) Sadly for you I am not a very eloquent writer. Maybe I should rename my blog "Waiting for Madison and Jackson"

Day 18

OK, finally got my ultrasound! Things are looking good although they discovered I have a dynamic cervix which sounds good but really isn't. It means it's unpredictable. When the tech first checked my cervix there was no funneling at all and it was measuring 2cm (it was only 1cm last week). She poked around a bit to see if she could get it to change and nothing changed. She called in the dr to double check it and by the time he got in there and looked all of a sudden there was tons of funneling and the cervix measured 1.4cm. It's still bigger than last week and all I could really hope for was that it wasn't smaller.

The kids are doing excellent. Madison weighed 3lb 10oz in the 42nd percentile. Jackson weighed 3lb even and in the 24th percentile. I'm so happy that he is getting bigger and jumping percentiles.

I got an adorable picture of a foot, unfortunately I don't know who's it is but it's still adorable!!




The lighting coming into my room was very nice this afternoon so I decided to try to photograph myself with the auto timer...got a couple of decent ones. I like the one with the white board in the background. If you click on the picture you can read what it says. The ticks are the number of days I have been here and it also says how far along I am today. And there is a picture of Chris and me on the board. It was taken just over two years ago at Chris's office holiday party where we won a trip to London

Day 17 (31 weeks)

Today my friend Michelle came by for another visit. She works at MGH so it's good of her to come over on her lunch hour. It's also nice to see her because she is 2 weeks ahead of me in pregnancy so we get to chat about the woes and joys. If she comes to visit again I really should get a picture of the two of us to compare our bellies.

I was tragically injured in the shower this morning. I dropped the shower head and it landed on my baby toe. It actually really hurt but the pain went away. When I got off and was drying myself off there was blood all over the towel!! I was a little scared and couldn't find where I was bleeding from. I eventually discovered it was myy toe bleeding like crazy! There's a pretty good slice in it. Leave it to me to get injured in the shower.

I actually had kind of a rough day. I was waiting ALL day for someone to come get me to bring me to have an ultrasound. I was so looking forward to it, not to mention just getting out of the room. I kept asking when I was going and the nurses kept saying they didn't know that they just had to wait. They said that they took people until 6:00pm so at 5:00 I made sure I asked again. They said they'd look into it and at 5:45 the nurse came in and told me they closed down at 4:00 for some reason today. I was NOT happy! It was such a dissapointment and I totally cried.

Things have been starting to get to me anyway...the monotony of my daily schedule, room service arguing with me when I try to order my meal, room service messing up my order, the constant baby heartbeat checks that sometimes take a half hour to get because they're moving around so much, being woken up in the middle of the night to take medication, residents coming to my room at 6am and asking me the same questions over and over again (if something was different I would certainly let someone know!!!), the nurses trying to be social and chat with me especially when I'm trying to watch something on tv or on the computer (which sounds cruel to be annoyed by, but sometimes I just don't feel like chatting), stabbing myself with a needle after every meal to check my blood sugar, being stabbed by the nurse three times a day to get insulin, eating the same food over and over again (at least it tastes good). I guess that's about it for now. Sorry, just had to get some things off my chest...it's been building for some time now.

Chris was here with me. He was going to leave at 9:30 so he could be home by 10 so he could watch Lost. So he left the room and I started crying. He happened to come back for one more kiss and he found me crying. He ended up staying and watching Lost with me. I didn't want him to get home so late but of course I wanted him to stay with me. He has a whole other life in work that he needs to deal with and I feel so bad making him worry about me. He's got enough on his plate.

So, I've reached another milestone (basically every day is a milestone just being able to keep these two in my belly) getting to 31 weeks.

Throughout my pregnancy everyone has said these welcomed 7 words to me, "You don't even look pregnant from behind!" Well, at 31 weeks pregnant with twins I got that lovely comment again. Since I can't see myself from behind I had Chris take a picture. Lucky for me I think they're right! :-)

Day 16

Nothing baby related to report...all is stable.

Gia came by for a visit and brought me a blizzard from dairy queen!!!!!!!! It was the yummiest thing ever! Then my poor cousin Chris came by and got to hear from my nurse all about stool softeners and cervix stuff. Just how he was expecting to spend his evening I'm sure.

That's about it.

Day 15

Nothing to report today. Chris left work a little early and spent the evening with me.

Day 14

Nothing new today except I asked my dr what she thought would happen at 32 weeks (I will definitely be here until then). She said that if my cervix hasn't changed they would consider sending me home remaining on this new medication. If it has changed I will have to remain here.

Being off the mag has brought my aches and pains back. The mag was a muscle relaxer and I remember being so surprised and happy that I wasn't in pain anymore...I slept with no hip pain and got up without belly or back pain. Well, that's all back now.

Chris's mom came in for a visit tonight and brought us dinner. It was the first non hospital meal I have had in 14 days! She also brought us a gift for the babies...little sleepers...so cute.

Chris is packing up to leave now :-(

Day 13

Last night Chris's dad came by for a visit on his way home from work. Chris came in also but a bit later than he said he would so I wasn't too happy.

Today (day 13), my amazing friends Kristin, Rachael, Susan, and Brenda all came in for a visit. My baby shower was planned for today. It is obviously postponed but Susan who is from Chicago had already bought tickets to come to it. The four of them went in on a shower gift for me so they gave it to me today. It was actually a picture of the item since it was too big to bring in...the double stroller we registered for. It was so nice of them.

We visited for a little while and then a student photographer came to take pictures of me, my belly, and Chris. She offered to do them for free because they were part of an assignment for a class plus she can use them for her portfolio. She was very nice and very good. I can't wait to see what the pictures look like!

Day 12

This morning the nurse came in to take me off the mag again. It really came from nowhere so I questioned who had ordered that and she wasn't sure exactly. So I paged my dr and she said that she had a meeting with a group of drs and they were all concerned with me being on it so long...apparently it has some pretty bad side effects. So at noon they disconnected my IV again and gave me a pill of another medicine called nifedipine. It's mostly used as a blood pressure reducer but also relaxes muscles (which will relax my uterus and keep the contractions away). At 1:45 I went on the contraction monitor and I didn't have any at all which has never happened before. I always have at least 4.

My cousin Venetia came by with her almost 3 year old son Jack. He played shy at first but he warmed up. We were able to have a nice visit until it was time for him to take a nap. She also brought by all of her baby boy clothes for us! What a relief! We have nothing!!

Chris will be coming by after dinner tonight to spend the weekend with me. I can't wait to see him :-)

Day 11 update

At midnight they decided to put me back on the mag but at half the dose.
I seem to feel better this morning.

Day 11

Last night when I went to bed I noticed that my eyes were feeling strange...hard to focus and kind of lazy. I figured I was just tired and needed some sleep. When I woke up they still felt the same. The nurses are always asking if my vision is changing so I figured I should say something. I mentioned it and at the same moment my dr came in so we discussed it and she said if it got worse to let her know and they would decrease the magnesium. Throughout the day it never really got worse but I also developed a headache and started to feel groggy and yucky. The nurse paged the dr on call who happenes to be the dr that trained my dr so I trust his decisions like I trust hers. At 7:30pm they disconnected my IV. I am now on my own. The mag will take a good 6 hours or so to get out of my system. I feel like they pushed me off a cliff and there is no net to catch me. I'm very scared. They said that it's possible that it wasn't necessarily the mag that was keeping my contractions down so i could just stay the same. They also said that if the contractions come back I may be able to go back on it after a break. All I can do is lay here and wait...not very comforting. It actually feels really strange to not be tied to the iv pole.

On a brigher note, I met with the other ladies on the floor today who are also here on bedrest. All of us that were there last week were still there this week so that's good. It's funny to get together with them cause we all have the same gripes so we all have a good laugh. I also had a visit from my friend Michelle today. She is two weeks ahead of me in pregnancy and it's so funny to see how much bigger I am than she is (she's only having one). She looks great and we had a nice long visit but then she needed to get back to work.