Heartbeats

Last week we heard the twins' heartbeats for the first time! (And then we got to hear them again yesterday, but I'll tell more about that later.) We had a doctor's appointment on Thursday morning. It was early in the morning, so Jeff got to come with me and meet Dr. Nason. He seemed to really like her as well. She was concerned that I was still experiencing some spotting and told me to stay off my feet as much as possible, only going to work and coming home, and sitting on the couch not doing anything else. She also told me to drink more water, which I figured she would. Because I'm still nauseous a lot of the time, water tastes really bad to me, so I don't drink nearly enough.

After we talked a little and she answered my questions, she got the Doppler out and put the cold gel on my belly. We heard the first baby's heartbeat (Baby B) almost right away, she just moved the probe a little to the left. We listened to it for a little bit and then she moved it down, where we just heard funny swishing noises. Then below that, we heard the second baby's heartbeat (Baby A), which sounded a little faster than the first baby's. I feel very silly for saying that I for some reason didn't quite believe that was the babies' heartbeats at the time! I didn't know what they would sound like, but that isn't how I expected them to sound. They were very fast and sounded like giant hearts in a washing machine. As the day went on and I realized that of course the doctor knows what is and isn't the babies' hearbeats, I got more excited that we had heard them.

For the rest of the week, and all weekend (we went to New Hampshire to visit Whitney and Frank), I was very good about sitting down and resting a lot. Admittedly it's hard to stay off your feet when you're visiting a friend (and we also had her baby shower while we were there), so maybe I wasn't as good as I thought I was.

Either way, on Monday morning, I started bleeding again. I called the doctor and they had me rest in bed for the day. But Tuesday morning the bleeding was even heavier, so they had me come in for an ultrasound. Jeff and I were getting a little worried--it's hard not to worry when you bleed while you're pregnant, I guess. So it was a huge relief to see the twins on the ultrasound screen, moving around and doing just fine. We got to see and hear both of their heartbeats--163 and 152, I think--and this time I was happy because I knew what to expect their heartbeats to sound like. Both babies are measuring ahead of my due date--Baby A measured 13 weeks, 6 days, and Baby B measured 14 weeks (I was 13 weeks exactly that day). This was the first time Jeff actually saw them on the screen since our very first ultrasound, when they were just two tiny blobs (now they are big blobs!), so he was really excited to see them moving all around. The ultrasound tech showed us their heads, hands, feet, and all that good stuff.

They think the cause of the bleeding is that Baby A's placenta is very close to my cervix (2cm away). They called it low-lying placenta or placenta previa. They said I need to stay off my feet till the bleeding stops (which it hasn't yet) and after that, continue to take it extremely easy. So I've been being very good and just resting all day long, all week. I only get up to go to the bathroom or get food. I've been trying to drink more, too.

Here are the ultrasound pictures from yesterday. The babies have gotten too big to fit both of them into one picture.



I promise to take some new belly pictures soon. I have gotten several requests for them, and I love requests! I just haven't taken a shower or gotten out of my pj's in a while, so I'm not quite picture-perfect lately. I'll try to take pictures tomorrow!