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