Really?? Where's my punch card??

I'm seriously wondering why the hosptial doesn't offer punch cards.... because I'm back in the hospital AGAIN. Reason?? Pre-Pre-Eclampsia.You read it right... pre pre-eclampsia. As in not pre-eclampsia, but potentially headed that direction.

Today started off normal. I had another NST this morning. Babies did great! B finished in about 7 min and A finished in around 15min! My blood pressure was fine and my swelling was much improved from yesterday.

I think I mentioned it in my last post, but I've had this lousy cold for a couple of weeks. While the cold symptoms seem to be getting better, my throat started feeling swollen yesterday and this morning I saw a couple white spots :( While I know that this does not automatically indicate strep, I figured I should get it checked out sooner than later.

So after my NST I called my OB's office and scheduled a nurse visit for this afternoon to have a strep test done. Simple, right? Of course not! This is me we're talking about after all :)
The nurse took my temp (said I did in fact have a fever), did the swab, I told her my symptoms, and said she'd be back in about 5 min. Well 10 min later, a different nurse comes and says she needs to get my vitals because I'm going to see my OB. I figured that must mean my strep test was positive. So I just went with the flow. We get into the exam room and the nurse asked me if I was told what my temp was... I said, "I think she said around 100." The girl responded, "no, it was actually 106."

Seriously??? 106? I'd be dead or at least having a seizure with a temp that high. So I just said, "oh, ok" Knowing it was wrong.

My blood pressure was 156/94 so of course I was told to immediately lay down on the table on my left side and the Dr. would be in shortly. She also said she wanted to recheck my temp (really? think that'd be a good idea??)  Second temp was 96.4... nope... i doubt it.... third time it was 98.5... ahhh that sounds better :)

Sadly, when the Dr. rechecked my BP it wasn't any better. That combined with the 10lb weight gain in less than 2 weeks and the continued swelling in my feet got me, once again, sent to the Labor & Delivery unit of the ER. (Oh, and the strep was negative... go figure).

After 2 hours in L&D, labs done, babies monitored, and BP checked every 5 minutes I was told everything was completely normal EXCEPT my blood pressure. It just would NOT go down.

So here I sit. I'm being kept overnight for observation. I also have the joy of doing a 24 hour urine collection to check for protein. They'll be checking my BP every 3-4 hours unless it continues to go up in which case it will be even more frequent.

Good news is both babies are doing 100% fine! They're active, their heart rates are normal, and I'm not showing any signs of pre-term labor.

Bad news:
1. If my blood pressure doesn't go down but urine is normal, I'll most likely be sent home tomorrow afternoon with BP pills to take.

2. If my blood pressure doesn't go down and/or urine shows moderate amount of protein. I'll be kept in the hospital... pretty much until the babies are born.

3. If my blood pressure doesn't go down and/or urine shows high levels of protein, they could potentially induce labor in a few days.

I understand the medical reasons surrounding all of these scenarios... however, I don't like it... not one bit. I think the hardest part to swollow, is that the babies are doing so well and they'd only need to induce because my body isn't working right. I just want them to be able to stay in and get as big as possible!! But for some, unknown, reason, my BP has decided to work against, not only me, but also my babies.

We would really appreciate your prayers as we really have no idea what's coming next or what's going to happen and the sooner the babies come, the more likely that they'll need more medical intervention and more time in NICU. There will be NO decisions made until tomorrow evening, but we'll try to keep everyone posted.

B&B

33 Week Bumpdate

How far along: 33 weeks
How far along am I measuring: 39-40 weeks
Weight Gain: 47. (I think, altho it's probably more than that now).
How Big are Babies: Should both be around 4lbs and 17in. Next ultrasound is in a week, so we'll have a better idea of their sizes then.
Major Achievement for Babies: They're losing their wrinkled look and their skeletons are hardening.
Maternity Clothes: Exclusively... and I'm running low on maternity clothes that fit now. Most of my pants no longer fit over my belly so I have to roll the panel down and wear it under my belly. Trouble is that my belly then hangs out from underneath my shirt.... so I've currently got a rather limited wardrobe.
Sleep: Bad. Between constantly having to go to the bathroom, heartburn, sore hips, and trouble breathing, sleep doesn't really happen, at least not in large doses.
Movement: All of the time! It's awesome! We're doing our bi-weekly NST's now and every time the nurses comment on how active the babies are :)
Food Cravings: French Fries and Burgers.
Food Aversions: healthy food... yuck!
Genders: Baby A - GIRL!!!! Baby B - GIRL!!!!!
Symptoms: Back pain, hip pain, frequent urination, heartburn/indigestion, edema, etc...
Best Moment(s) This Week: Both girls have continued to fly through their NST's. We've got a couple of stinkers here though. They DO NOT like have the monitors on and are constantly kicking at them and rolling out from underneath them so the last couple times I've had to hold the monitors and move them around to follow the babies.
What am I Looking Forward To: Baby shower and ultrasound next week!

Not sure if it's because I'm sick... again.... or if its because I'm just reaching the point of wanting to be done or a combination of everything, but I've also been extra hormonal this week. Everything is a big deal and almost everything makes me want to cry. I've also been exhausted for the last week! I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm not sleeping well at night, but I've taken a 2-3 hour nap everyday this week! I also feel like I can't get enough to eat... I'm not hungry, I just want to eat ALL OF THE TIME! Hopefully that means babies are going through another growth spurt!!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot...

4 weeks and 1 day until we get to hold our baby girls!!!!!!!!!!

32 Week Bumpdate

Sorry for the gap in updates. My computer is broken so I haven't had a chance to update my blog. I also don't have pictures of every week, but I'll post what I have.

                                                                 29 week Bump

 

31 weeks

 

32 week bump

How far along: 32 weeks
How far along am I measuring:  39-40 weeks - clearly getting bigger by the day
Weight Gain: 45 lbs - After a rather discouraging response from my perinatologist about my weight gain a few weeks ago (he basically said I was fat), I asked my OB and she said as long as I wasn't vomiting or intentionally restricting calorie intake, she was ok with my weight gain being so low! she was surprised I hadn't gained more!! :)
How Big are Babies: The ultrasound at 30 weeks showed Baby A was 2lbs 15 oz and Baby B was 3lb 2 oz. Dr. said they're growth is very good! The specialist said that he was surprised they're growth has continued following the same upward curve because I guess twins usually start to slow down around 29/30 weeks.  But they're both still right around the 40th percentile. Also, Dr's are very happy that they're growing at the same rate still. They said they want twins to be within 20% of each other in regards to size and our girls are within 6% of each other!  This week they're supposed to be about 3.75lbs each and almost 17 in long!
Major Achievement for Babies: They have hair now!!  From here on out they'll gain an average of .5lb per week (although twins usually gain less than that)
Maternity Clothes: Exclusively
Sleep: Last few days sleep has been pretty good.
Movement: Constantly! Its fun to feel how different their movements are. Baby A is very gentle; just rolls around and occasionally kicks or hits. Baby B flips around like crazy and kicks so hard my entire stomach moves.
Food Cravings: French Fries and Burgers.
Food Aversions: healthy food... yuck!
Genders: Baby A - GIRL!!!! Baby B - GIRL!!!!!
Symptoms: Back Pain, edema, fatigue, shortness of breath. And stretch marks... they finally revealed themselves right around 28 weeks, and have continued to grow and deepen. I'm 98% ok with having stretch marks... its part of being pregnant, but I had no idea they would HURT so much!!!
Best Moment(s) This Week: Baby Shower a few weeks ago was wonderful! I also had my first maternity massage.... hopefully will go once more right before the c-section. We also did our maternity photo shoot and we're so excited to get the pictures :) Oh yeah, and its finally flip-flop weather!! I am SO relieved to beable to finally wear flip-flops. My feet are so swollen, none of my other shoes fit. The girls also passed their first Non-Stress Test (NST) today with flying colors! It didn't even take the entire 20 minutes; I'm definitely a proud mama :)
What am I Looking Forward To: Next Baby Shower is in 3 weeks and I'm very excited! Next ultrasound is on the 23rd and I'm anxious to see them again!!


Couple of other things since my last update...

1. We ended up in the ER, again, last week. I was diagnosed with "preterm labor brought on by dehydration and GI spasms." Basically, I had a 24 hour stomach bug and all the vomiting and diarrhea caused me to have contractions. Fortunately, once my symptoms were under control, the contractions stopped.

Of course, it was, once again, a bad experience. Got another RN who didn't know what she was doing, but at least its over with and both girls are healthy.

2. How you can help us:

We've had a TON of people ask what they can do to help us and say they'd like to bring us a meal once the girls are born. Well, since you all insist on being so wonderful ;) our dear friend Beth helped us set up place for people to sign up to bring us meals. Its the a website called Take Them A Meal (I attached the link below).

http://www.takethemameal.com/index.php

If you follow the link, at the top of the web page is a spot that says, "Find a Meal Schedule." Just type in our last name, and then the password is "meals."

The nice thing with this website is that then people can pick a day that works for them and you can put what you're planning on bringing and see what other people are bringing... because, as much as we love lasagna, I have a feeling we'd get sick of it if everyone brought us lasagna for 3 months straight :)

We have ZERO expectations for people to sign up to do this; however, because we've had so many people offer to help, we wanted a central place to coordinate everything. So thank you in advance!!!!!!

3. Only 5 weeks from tomorrow and we'll be holding our precious daughters in our arms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!