a thought

A thought on naming your baby:
Never give your baby a name you wouldn't have wanted to have. Siobhan or Dallas or Liberty or Candida might sound like perfectly cute names for your little plaything, but would you have liked those names? Would you have enjoyed being named Anais or Cayden in high school?

Just a thought.

I'm not dead!

Madame Incubator has been mighty busy with the ol' postamatronic as of late. I figured I'd chime in - let you guys (both of you) know I didn't die or anything.

You know how you're watching like, wheel of fortune or jeopardy or something, and you just *know* the answer, like a full minute before the contestant does? You know how you sit there, squirming and wriggling, yelling the answer at the T.V. like they're actually going to hear you thru the cable, and 6 weeks in the past when the show was taped? You just cannot wait for them to finally get it. You can't wait for the moment when it comes, and you can release, because you know you're right, and you know they're gonna get it right, too.

I feel like that.

I am just about to burst with anticipation waiting on little Wesley and Evan to come into the world and show us their wonderful little faces. I can hardly stand the wait. I just know it's gonna be wonderful and amazing, and I know I'm gonna be filled with joy. I'm already filled with joy. I just want to be filled with joy while I'm holding my babies. I keep hearing how big they are, and how long babies born now would probably stay in the NICU, and all that just makes me wish that time would come, so I could release my joy.
Jeez but I'm sappy.

I MADE PEOPLE!

WHOA

Only a maximum of 6 weeks to go. I'm officially overwhelmed now.

February 14 falls in that week... Please cross your fingers that they let me go a few days past 36 weeks. We'd LOVE to have that date...

Joshua (big brother) injured in brutal planetary assault

Joshua's nose is blue. Apparently, while he was asleep last night, Neptune crashed into his face and then floated back into space, leaving part of its "great blue spot" on his nose.

I vote for marker, personally. He says that Neptune was apparently also wielding a large blue marker. The kid didn't stand a chance.

I received this today in my inbox

E. T. Sullivan once wrote:

"When God wants a great work done in the world or a great
wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He
doesn't stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunder-
bolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a
simple home and of some obscure mother. And then God puts
the idea into the mother's heart, and she puts it into the
baby's mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the
world are not the earthquakes and the thunderbolts. The
greatest forces in the world are babies."

Wow.

Back from the ultrasound and doctor. All news is good. No signs of preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, or TTTS. I still have to take it easy because of the hernia, but everything else is looking great, which is a HUGE relief. What is NOT such a relief is that I don't go back for a month! The clinic is only open one day a week during the weeks of Christmas and New Years and they have to reserve those appointments for the ones who MUST come in weekly. Since I'm this far along and everything is going so well at this point, they don't feel it's urgent that I come in before then.

I can do some of the basic stuff on my own- Monitoring fetal movement, taking my blood pressure, continuing to test my blood sugar, weighing, and looking out for symptoms that might indicate a problem. BUT the urine tests are important and it makes me nervous to wait that long without having them, so I'm going to have to try to find out a way to have them done until the return appointment.

Now for the fun part- The ultrasound. Our boys are measuring as 29 weekers and weighing in at approximately 3 pounds apiece. 3 pounds is very small, but for a 27 week fetus, it is HUGE. They are in the 90th percentile of size (All measurements, including head circumference, abdominal circumference, and femur length, are in line with each other). These are some big kids.

IF I manage to keep them in until 36 weeks, it is quite possible that I may end up with a set of babies who are 7 pounds each, maybe more. If I don't explode by then.

Some general details of the birth were discussed today and I turned in my consent form to have my tube (Yes, there's only one) tied during the c section. I was lucky enough to have an endocrinology resident at my appointment today and I was able to ask her lots of questions regarding confusion about my blood sugar. I was relieved to find out that even though my blood sugar "crashes" (Did I mention I'm hypoglycemic?) make me feel AWFUL, they in themselves are not a danger at all to the babies- HOORAY!

The scary thing is that I'll be at 32 weeks when my next appointment time rolls around, and this is well within the window that these boys could be born. The possibility exists that this was my last appointment before the birth. I hope not, but it is very possible.

In other news...

According to her facebook page, my friend Jeannette just had her baby! Congratulations, Jeannette and James! (and thank you for letting me know, Sarah!)

Tomorrow

Well, tomorrow we have another appointment. We're not sure what the heck is going on- The high risk resident clinic has been closed all week due to the ice storm and I couldn't reach anyone at OU who knows if they are going to be open. However, the ultrasound is at the Prenatal Diagnostic Center and they ARE open, so we're going to go ahead and go down for that and I guess we'll see if the other office is open. I hope they are able to do the bp and urine check at the Prenatal Diagnostic Center if the other office is closed- At the stage I'm at, it' s very important to keep a close eye on that stuff and I'm not comfortable waiting another 2 weeks (possibly more, given the Christmas holiday) if they don't check it tomorrow.

Hopefully we'll have all good news to report tomorrow.

A kidney?

Try a Porterhouse, baby. That is one beefy placenta you've got there. If it were in the supermarket I'd want to buy it and grill it.
Anyway.
We both really love Dr. Richardson. He's like a ferret, all lively and hopping around. He's kinda effeminate, but would you really want your Ob/Gyn to be a football player? In any case, he's the Dr. we've seen the most. Everyone else we've seen has been a resident, or in the case of the last visit - a Med student. But Dr. Richardson is just the greatest and we're gonna try and convince him to deliver the boys. Apparently when you deliver a baby down there, it's a couple 4th year residents and an attending "real" doctor, and you don't really have any control over who does what. That and the long drive are my main gripes with this place. You never know who's gonna see you, and unless the last one wrote down what's going on in your file - you've gotta tell the new one what's going on. It's much better for reasons of a personal connection to have a single doctor do all your care, though it's better medically if you have lots of minds thinking about your pregnancy. We both hope Dr. Richardson will agree to pull the boogers out when the time comes.

Signing off,
The Fertilizer

Another quick update

It's taken awhile to post about last week's appointment, but it's been a really busy week. The appointment last Thursday went great. The babies are each approx. 2 pounds, give or take a few ounces, and are measuring right on target. The doctor described the babies as "thriving and robust" and they seem to be doing great.

Their placenta is on the front and is HUGE and extremely thick (It looks like a kidney on the ultrasound). This is great and it means that the placenta is good quality and is getting lots of nutrients to the babies. It's also apparently dulling how I feel the babies move and kick. This means that if it was in the back, I'd probably feel like I had a belly full of puppies ALL the time, because these boys are ACTIVE and I feel them move and kick all day long.

There are still no signs of TTTS (HOORAY!), and the risk decreases the longer we go. If it develops late in pregnancy, birth is an option to prevent the progression. This means we can finally slow down with the ultrasounds soon, which is good on one hand, but also kind of sad because we've gotten used to seeing them every two weeks!

They said that at the next appointment (12/13) we will begin to discuss details of the birth (Statistically, Most twins are born between weeks 28 and 35), which is both exciting and scary. Aside from still being in shock over being pregnant at all, let alone with TWINS, part of me has not allowed myself to fully process the fact that we are going to have two babies very soon. I guess because there is such a risk of something going wrong. But at 26 weeks, 4 days, the babies are doing great and if they were to be born today, their chances of survival would be excellent (though they would spend a LOT of time in the NICU). It finally feels REAL.

I'm doing OK- Handling the hernia pain as best I can, along with normal pregnancy pains like sciactica and things like that. I know it's all temporary, so it's no big deal. I have been told it's time to start taking it easy and that I should spend an hour or two each day lying down. Apparently this will also help prevent swelling. I can't believe I've made it this far with twins and still have ankles. I have no swelling whatsoever, and I hope it stays that way. I have friends who felt like water balloons for their entire third trimester (with a singleton), and that has to be absolutely miserable.

My weight gain isn't. I think I am finally starting to reach the point where I will start to rebound from the weight loss. I have lost 30 pounds since I got pregnant. At this point, unless my body starts rapidly dumping weight, I have to gain SOME of it back, because the babies are going to be getting heavier and heavier.

Joshua helped us pick out some clothes for the babies the other day. He is REALLY excited and can't wait to meet his brothers.

Anyway, I guess that's it for now. More news after the next appointment.