33w3d

How Far Along: 33w3d

Milestones: Your unborn baby's senses continue to develop.  If you talk to your baby, he can hear you.  In fact, his world is full of sounds.  In addition to your voice, he can hear your stomach growling and your lungs taking in air, along with the reassuring vibrations of your heart beating.  Also, your baby's skin has turned from red to pink and he has started preparing for life outside the womb by storing iron in his liver.

Total Weight Gain:  I am up at total of 34 lbs.

Maternity Clothes:  I had Kara make another trip to the thrift store this week.  I am now lounging around in XL t-shirts!!  Yikes.  Most of the time I am bothered by clothing touching my belly so I actually spend quite a bit of time with my belly exposed.  This makes Kara laugh.  I always sleep with my belly exposed.  It is just a weird feeling when clothes are touching my belly.  I think because the skin in my belly is stretched so much the nerves are fairly shot.  I also have very few maternity shirts that fit me at the moment.  I received some clothes from my friend.  That will help a bit.  But it is getting more difficult to find clothes to wear to appointments.  Soon I will be going to the appointments in my pajamas!

Here are some belly shots ...

And a shot from the front ...

My belly is out of control.  What will it look like at 36 weeks or even 38 weeks??

Sleep:  What is this??  I have gotten rid of all pillows from the bed.  Shocked?? Me too.  I can only sleep for about an hour at a time and even then it is only a "half-sleep".  I sleep on my left side and just have a pillow for my head.  It is the most comfortable position at the moment.  I also had Kara move one of the chairs from the nursery into the bedroom.  I sit in this chair a lot during the night.  So basically I spend the night alternating between the bed and the chair because I tend to wake-up in so much pain.  My contractions are also horrible at night so I have that going against me getting a good night of rest.  I'm also getting frustrated with the comment, "It's just getting you ready for when the babies are born.  You won't sleep anyhow."  Urghh!! Please stop telling me this.  The sleep deprivation now is totally different than the sleep deprivation when there are newborns in the house!!  I am trying to take a couple of naps during the day which tends to help me a bit.  Otherwise my brain is all out of whack because I am so tired.

Best Moment of the Week:  The boys are still in my belly.

Sex:  Boys!

Food Cravings:  Ice Cream.  Candy.  Chocolate.  Jelly Beans.  Anything I should not be eating.

I am getting so tired of eating eggs and bacon for breakfast.  I am taking a sabbatical from these foods once the boys are born.  I want some french toast and pancakes and waffles!!!

I am doing a fairly decent job at keeping my blood sugar numbers in check but there are times that I slip.  For example, I absolutely love the lemonade at Raising Cane's and last week after our MFM appointment Kara went through the drive-thru and got me a super big lemonade because it was the first day it was available for the season.  It was amazing!!  My blood sugar numbers were off the charts.  Oops.  I apologized to the boys and asked for forgiveness.

Symptoms:  I am uncomfortable all the time.  The acid reflux is out of control but I seem to be able to control it with TUMS.  My contractions are always around but they can be managed with the Procardia to a certain extent.  I do my best to continue to time the contractions and at this point I am not getting more than one contraction every 10 minutes.  The rash that was on my hands seems to have disappeared.  I have a stuffy nose all the time.  I usually have a bloody nose in the morning.  I pee all the time.  My words of wisdom for the week ... "Always pee before you blow your nose."  I think the boys are running out of room in my belly.  Their kicks and punches are much different these days.  It is more of a rolling sensation.  I have hit the pregnancy wall.  But all these annoyances thrill me too ... !!!!

Upcoming Events:  We have an OB appointment on May 7th and we have a growth u/s with the MFM on May 8th.  We are forever grateful for each day the boys remain in my belly.

Please keep growing boys and stay in my belly for a few more weeks!

Mary

our superstars

Just a quick update.

We made it another month.  I always said I thought I would have May babies so we shall see what happens in the next few weeks.  I would prefer late May babies!

We also had a NST today.  And the boys were superstars!!  They passed the NST within minutes.  I don't even think the nurse was out of the room before she indicated that both had already passed the test with flying colors.  If I know one thing to be true it is that we have super active baby boys. They are always moving around.  They still kept me on the monitor for about 30 minutes to watch for contractions.  And for the first time this entire pregnancy I did not have a single contraction on the monitor.  Yippee!!!  It was a great appointment all around.  We are due to go back to the MFM next week for a growth u/s and perhaps a NST.  It will depend how the boys do during the u/s.  Now if only I could sleep at night I would be one happy little momma!

Please keep growing boys and stay in my belly.

Mary

32w3d

I think I will stick with a bullet list of all my random thoughts.

• I am up a total of 30 lbs at 32 weeks.  Is that bad??  I've slipped a bit on the sweet eating.  I blame it on leftovers from the shower last week.  The good news though is my blood sugars seem to hold steady when I eat sweets.  It's only the breads and pastas that screw up my numbers.  Here is the belly shot for the week.

• Kara and I were a bit worried on Friday night.  I woke-up on Friday morning with quite a bit of swelling in my legs and feet.  This is actually abnormal as I have been blessed to have very minimal swelling this pregnancy.  I think partially because I am not up on my feet.  Anyhow I went about my day as normal.  I decided to step on the scale on Friday evening and I quickly realized I was up about 10lbs from our appointment on Tuesday afternoon.  Yikes!!!  I started to get a bit worried that my blood pressure was elevated because the swelling had come on so suddenly.  Kara was scheduled to work until 10pm so I decided that I would wait until she got off of work and then have her take me over to the grocery store to check my blood pressure.  Isn't that what everyone does on a Friday evening?  The first time we checked my blood pressure it was 136/91.  A bit high.  We decided to sit down and relax as I knew my blood pressure could be elevated simply from walking from the car to the blood pressure machine.  We took my blood pressure a couple of more times and the final reading was 120/90.  The top number seemed to be going down.  I still thought at this point that I was going to give the doctor a call.  We went home and I stepped on the scale and my weight was already down a few pounds.  We made the decision to wait until morning when my mom could bring over her blood pressure cuff.  If my numbers were still elevated in the morning (and my weight was still up), then we were going to call the doctor.  Needless to say I did not sleep all that great that night.  I woke-up on Saturday morning and my swelling had decreased significantly.  I stepped on the scale and my weight was back to normal.  I checked my blood pressure in the morning and it was back to 120/80.  Perfect! We now know that if I start to swell at a rapid pace we really need to keep a close eye on it.  I still have no idea what brought that episode on.

• We have everything we need to bring the boys home from the hospital.  I think??  I am sure there is something that we are missing but we worked this week on getting everything put away that we received at the shower and we purchased the remaining items.  The UPS man loves us!!  I am becoming quite proficient at ordering items online.  Fun!!!  Our house now looks like we are a family with children.  I love it!!  All the clothes and most of the newborn diapers have been washed.  We just need to sterilize the bottles and put them all away.  The car seats are installed in the car.  And the Fisher Price RNPs (where the boys will sleep in the beginning) have been set-up in our bedroom.  We have a baby doll in the the RNPs in order to get the dogs use to the changes.  My hospital bags are fully packed.  The only thing we have to do is pack a bag for the boys but I'm not going to do that unless I get to 36 weeks.  It is so surreal.  

A picture of the installed car seats!!

• I am starting to get very uncomfortable.  I am fighting a rash on my hands and knee that annoys me at times.  My acid reflux is out of control.  Remember when I didn't like TUMS??  I can throw back TUMS now like I am eating gummy bears!!  It is getting super difficult to sleep.  I am up every hour and when I get out of bed I am stiff as a board.  I'm starting to experience a bit of insomnia.  I usually get up in the middle of the night and go and sit in the chair in the nursery.  It helps make some of the stiffness go away and it also relaxes me.  I just try to imagine that room with the boys asleep in their cribs.  I have been taking naps more during the day to compensate for the lack of sleep at night.  I am still getting contractions.  But I am trying not to take any medication unless I start to get "real" contractions more than six times an hour.  I think some of my swelling / rash issues might be connected to the medication.

• I have this image I keep in my mind all the time.  I imagine Baby A is wearing a super hero cape because he is the one that has been looking for an exit for so many weeks now.  I then imagine his brother, Baby B, grabbing onto the cape and telling him, "Not yet!  Momma will get mad at you."  I think I am going to have to buy Baby A a cute little super hero cape when he is born.  

• I really want the boys to stay in my belly for at least another four weeks but I am not embarrassed to express that I am over this pregnancy.  I told Kara the other night that the only thing I am going to miss at this point is feeling them kick and move around in my belly.  I am just ready to move onto the next phase of our life.  It is very difficult to be on bed rest for 6 weeks.  I cannot believe that I have not worked in 6 weeks.  It is a beautiful day today and I get sad when I look out the window thinking of all that I could be doing at the moment.  But then I feel a swift kick from one of my boys and I know that I am doing the right thing for them.  I'm just so ready to meet them!  

• We have a NST on May 1st and an OB appointment on May 7th. 

Please keep growing boys and stay in my belly for a few more weeks.  We are so proud of you!!!

Mary

a quick update

We had both a NST and an OB appointment today.  And all appears great at the moment.

The NST was fairly uneventful.  It took some time to get both Baby A and Baby B to cooperate on the monitors but once on the monitors it only took about 30 minutes for them to pass the test.  Remember the NST is used to measure the heart rate of each baby in response to its movements.  I was also attached to the contraction monitor and of course (in typical fashion) I had some minor contractions.  The contractions were much less intense and occurred in less frequent intervals then in the previous few weeks.  I think my body is responding to the Procardia.  I have noticed an improvement all around.  The nurse took the results to our MFM to review and of course the MFM always gets concerned about the contractions.  The nurse even indicated when she returned to the room that the MFM spent a couple of minutes looking at the printouts and simply scratching the top of his head.  Haha.  We even have the MFM confused at the moment.  He eventually told the nurse, "Ask her if she feels okay.  If she feels okay she can go home."  I felt good so we got to go home!!  We are scheduled back for another NST on May 1st.  Can you believe we might actually make it to next month?  I am trying not to get my hopes up!

We had an OB appointment after our NST.  It was fairly anti-climatic considering we had just come from the MFM.  I have been dealing with a rash on both of my hands for about a week now.  I think it might be a reaction to the Procardia.  Or it could even just be stressed induced.  The OB said I could use an OTC hydrocortisone cream to relieve some of the itching.  I hope this helps as all I have been using the past week is lotion and it does not seem to do a whole lot.  The OB also indicated that she is completely surprised that I have made it to 32 weeks (almost).  And she has stopped holding any expectations about this pregnancy!  I guess she has no idea that I plan to make it to at least 36 weeks.  I must have forgotten to send her the memo.  Anyhow ... she said that she will begin discussions with the MFM between 36 weeks and 38 weeks to decide on when these boys should be brought into the world. The OB did indicate that she would not let me go past 38 weeks.  So the latest these boys can arrive is June 7th!!!  We discussed c-section versus vaginal birth again and it looks like we will probably be going with a c-section at the moment.  Of course the moons could align and I would be able to do a vaginal birth in the end but for a number of reasons a c-section looks like it might be our best option in the long run.  We are scheduled to go back to the OB on May 7th.  We also scheduled the rest of our appointments with the OBs office.  Weird!!  The receptionist scheduled appointments all the way up to June 19th.  I told Kara that if for some bizarre reason I am still pregnant on June 19th that I am coming to the OBs office and chaining myself to a desk until someone delivers the boys.

Please keep growing little ones and stay in my belly!

Mary

our baby shower

We had our baby shower this past weekend.  Kara and I were simply blown away by the generosity of our friends and family members.  It was a day I will never forget and thankfully we were able to capture the event with a lot of photographs so the boys will know just how much they were loved long before they even arrived in this world.

There was not really a theme for the baby shower.  We wanted our entire family to be involved in the event so we decided to shy away from traditional baby shower themes.  Instead our friends and family gathered at the Gahanna Golf Course Clubhouse for a lot of food and fun.  It just gave us all an opportunity to get together in the same room.  Kara and I have never been able to have all our closest family members in the same room at one time.  We were missing a couple of family members but I know they were thinking about us.

I have included some pictures of the shower to give you an idea of all the excitement that was had that day.  The pictures can show you the wonder of the day better than I can describe it in words.

And what was even better ... I was able to be at the shower with the boys still in my belly.

The cake.  It matched the invitations almost exactly.  A close friend of mine made the cake for us and she did an absolutely amazing job!

The shower was given to us by both grandmothers and also by two of my aunts.  It was a team effort.  These are pictures of the favors that were made by Kara's mother.  They were awesome.

Some of the yummy food!

Here we visiting with some of our friends.

See?  We were spoiled!!

I don't think I wiped the smile off of my face all day!

Opening our gifts!

I made Kara do all the hard work!  (as always)

I love this picture of Kara!

That is a toy chest that was handcrafted by Kara's stepfather!  It is simply amazing and already has a place in the nursery.  The boys will be able to keep this toy chest for the rest of their lives.  Thank you Grandpa Park!

The love of my life!  The date of the baby shower is also extremely significant to both of us as it fell on our Anniversary!  It was six years ago that Kara and I went on our first date together.  What was to be a quick morning hike in the woods turned into a day long event and now Kara and I are preparing to welcome two little boys into the world.  I feel so blessed.

Thanks again to all our friends and family members who made this day so very special for us!

Mary