28 Week Bumpdate & Another Trip to the ER

How far along: 28 weeks!  Officially in the 3rd Trimester!!
How far along am I measuring:  35 weeks.
Weight Gain/Loss: 35lbs.
How Big are Babies: both should be around 2.5lbs this week; approximately the size of an eggplant.
Major Achievement for Babies: Gaining more and more fat. And lungs are mature enough to survive outside the womb (although we don't want that to be the case yet!)
Maternity Clothes: Exclusively
Sleep: Bad. Baby B is really high up right now so whenever I try to lay down I get terrible heartburn and indigestion. I'm living on Tums at night.
Movement: Yes. Although they seem to have different schedules now.
Food Cravings: Captain Crunch.
Food Aversions: Fruit and eggs
Genders: Baby A - GIRL!!!! Baby B - GIRL!!!!!
Symptoms: Back Pain - Right side, upper back hurts all of the time. Sitting makes it significantly worse. More and more Braxton Hicks, shortness of breath, acne, continued cankles, etc...
Best Moment(s) This Week: We had to have an ultrasound done in ER, and it was very reassuring to see both babies doing well! (more info below). We also started getting gifts in the mail and, because of this, I've been able to almost completely finish the nursery!!
What am I Looking Forward To: Baby Shower tomorrow!! Also going to be scheduling a maternity massage for the next few weeks!


Now for the ER update. Starting on Tuesday afternoon I was noticing that I wasn't feeling Baby B move nearly as often as I was used to. Just about the time I'd start to get concerned though, she'd flip over or start kicking me. Wednesday was the same.... felt like a general decrease in movement from her, but she would still move. Thursday it got worse though. I hadn't noticed her move all morning so after lunch I made a point of just laying down and doing the "kick count." For those not familiar, there are different recommendations for doing the kick count, but my OB's office says you should feel 10 movements/kicks within a 2 hour period.

I made sure to do it after eating and was drinking ice water the entire time (both increase babies' movements). Within 15 minutes I felt Baby A move at least 18 times. After and hour and a half, Id only felt Baby B move 1 time. Now, with twins, I'll admit I can't always distinguish who's who and I know there's a strong possibility that they could have changed positions so the movement I was feeling could have been from either of them.

For the sake of my own peace of mind, I called my OB office to ask what they thought and they immediately said I needed to go to OB triage for decreased fetal movement. Of course I was home alone and couldn't get ahold of Bob right away so had to drive myself there. (I did eventually get ahold of him and he met me there :)

Thankfully my OB's office had called ahead so the triage nurses were waiting for me and had me hooked up to the monitors within minutes. Now, don't take this personal anyone... but I have this thing about RN's.... every RN I've ever personally worked with or interacted with in a medical setting, has been a bit of a.... dummy...... as in, they don't seem to really know what they're doing. As was the case yesterday. She started out by telling me that my blood pressure was way too high and she'd need to continue to monitor it... it was 135/74..... I'll admit this is higher than normal for me... but please, I was in the ER for decreased fetal movement, of course it's higher than "normal!" Also, this is NOT a concerning high blood pressure. Period.

The woman had no idea how to get both babies to show up on the monitor. And once she figured out how to do it, she never actually found both their heart rates. My babies' have NEVER had the same heart rate... Baby A is always in the 160's and Baby B is always in the 140's. I know that this can change; however, I also know that two separate individuals do not have the same heart rate that fluctuates up and down at the exact same moment. She kept commenting on how cool it was that our twins were so "in sync" with one another.

Thankfully the Dr. walked in, took one look at the monitor and said, "Those are picking up the same baby.... why would she position them like that?" (which I'll admit made me smile). The Dr. then tried to adjust the monitors to get separate heart rates, and finally was able to find Baby B's heart rate. HUGE sigh of relief! (She also said my blood pressure was "good" and did not need to be rechecked.)

They left me on the monitor for about 15 minutes then ordered an ultrasound to check for fetal movement and amniotic fluid levels. I don't remember what this type of ultrasound is actually referred to as, but with a standard ultrasound they're checking blood flow and size and development of the baby. With this one they were going to give each baby 30 minutes to perform a variety of movements that they should be able to do at this gestation. We were told it would take about 1 hour and 15 minutes for the entire thing. We were done in 20 minutes!! Both babies were so active that they only needed a few minutes to record all of the movements necessary! The ultrasound tech was shocked at how much they were moving.

I was so relieved... and yet felt so stupid! I couldn't feel half the movement we could see on the ultrasound and was told it was probably because of how Baby B was laying at the time.

Baby B is sitting extremely high and is still transverse with both legs fully extended. With Baby A is actually head down now... so far down that she's literally using my bladder as a pillow :) Which explains why I have to run to the bathroom all of the time. She's still curled into a tight little ball though.

Anyways, there's my long, drawn out explanation of why were in the ER yesterday. We're very thankful that everything looks good!!

B&B

27 week bumpdate

How far along: 27 weeks
How far along am I measuring: as of last week, 33.5 weeks.... but I think I look significantly bigger than last week.
Weight Gain/Loss: 30lbs as of last week.
How Big are Babies: both should be around 2lbs this week; approximately the size of a head of cauliflower
Major Achievement for Babies: They are now waking and sleeping at regular intervals. They are also opening and closing their eyes and sucking on their fingers :) Oh, and now they're showing brain activity!!
Maternity Clothes: YUP!
Sleep: Not very good.  We ordered our new recliner a few weeks ago, and I'm so excited for it to come in! Hopefully I'll be able to sleep a little better in the chair than I do in my bed. I've also had a cold this week which isn't helping my sleep any.
Movement: All of the time! I had my hand resting on my belly yesterday and all of the sudden felt Baby B rolling over from the outside! I've felt them both move and kick, but that's the first time I've felt one of them slowly rolling over; its kind of a crazy sensation. Also, I think Baby A has been trying to turn to lay on her side. Sometimes when she moves it feels like her little elbow is protruding out! I LOVE just watching my belly bounce around! :)
Food Cravings: Pizza and Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.
Food Aversions: Eggs, Fruit, Vegetables.... pretty much anything healthy sounds awful.
Genders: Baby A - GIRL!!!! Baby B - GIRL!!!!!
Symptoms: heartburn/indigestion, congestion, back pain. I've started wearing a support band to help my back and carry some of the extra weight.

Braxton Hicks are becoming more and more frequent. I actually called my Dr. this week because I started having them every 16 min for over an hour. They weren't painful, but I was concerned about how consistent they were becoming. She said unless I had more than 6 in an hour or they were painful, not to worry. She did say they may need to put my on bed rest eventually... which would be a bummer, but I've anticipated it all along; however, for now just keep doing what I'm doing.

Also, I now have cankles.... that's right cankles. I no longer have knee, calf, ankle, foot... it just goes from calf to foot. My wonderful husband has been giving me leg/foot rubs every night to help with the swelling :)

Best Moment(s) This Week: Bob feeling and seeing them move more and more.  

What am I Looking Forward To: My first Baby Shower is next week!! Also we're trying to pin down a date for our maternity pictures!! I know its still early, but I'm concerned about waiting too long and being a big swollen blob :) Our wonderful friend is taking them for us, and I'm so excited because I absolutely LOVE her work!! You can check her out on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Erin-Alies-Photography/131477813324

I also signed up for our hospital tour and pre-registered for delivery. We're still debating about whether or not we want to take any of the classes offered through the hospital. I know we don't want to take the "Having a Baby Class," I think my 12 years of babysitting experience have taught me tha basics of what I'd learn in that class... We are debating about taking the "C-Section Preparation" class and the "Twins, Triplets, and More" class. I've been doing a lot of independent research on both so don't know how much additional information they'll provide and each of them are two series classes so we'd have to come up with 4 different nights that the hospital is offering them and that Bob isn't working. We'll see what happens :)
Next OB appointment is next week (they're now every 2 weeks) and next ultrasound is at the end of the month (30 weeks) at which point I'll be scheduling my first, of many, non-stress tests, for 32 weeks.

B&B