Thank you all for your words of support over the last couple days. It means a lot to us to have so many people rooting for these twins to be healthy! Here is a funny (and somewhat relevant) forward I got from my sister to lighten up the mood a little.
~Spaghetti~
For several years, a man was having an affair with an Italian woman. One night, she confided in him that she was pregnant. Not wanting to ruin his reputation or his marriage, he said he would pay her a large sum of money if she would go to Italy to secretly have the child. If she stayed in Italy & raised the child, he would also provide child support until the child turned 18. She agreed, but asked how he would know when the baby was born. To keep it discrete, he told her to simply mail him a postcard, and write "Spaghetti" on the back. He would then arrange for the child support payments to begin.
One day, about 9 months later, he came home to his confused wife. "Honey," she said, "you received a very strange postcard today."
"Oh, just give it to me and I'll explain it later," he said. His wife obeyed and watched as her husband read the card, turned white, and fainted.
On the card was written: "Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti. Three with meatballs, two without. Send extra sauce!!!!"
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Scary news at the doctor's
Yesterday I had my first doctor's appointment since getting diagnosed with placenta previa. Since finding out about it, I've been following the doctor's orders, staying off my feet, resting on the couch all day, working from home on our laptop, and avoiding any kind of activity. Despite that, the bleeding has still continued on and off, and yesterday it happened to flare up again before my appointment.
Dr. Nason seemed very unhappy to hear that I was still experiencing bleeding. She told me she had to be honest with me, that there is a chance we could lose the affected baby because of this placenta previa. Of course I was shocked to hear this--I had somehow thought that it wasn't that serious, and as long as I did what I was supposed to do, everything would be all right. I hadn't considered that the bleeding could be directly and negatively affecting one of the babies--I didn't realize it was the baby's placenta that was bleeding. Dr. Nason listened to their heartbeats, found them both right away again, and they sounded nice and strong. But then she took the Doppler off my belly, and every moment since then, I have to wonder if the babies are still okay.
Needless to say, Jeff and I are scared and worried. It's so hard to hear that one of your babies possibly may not make it, and that you're already doing everything you can do to help. I scrutinize my every motion--will rolling over in bed at night hurt the baby, make its placenta bleed more, deprive it of nourishment? It's amazing how these little beings have only been in existence and part of our lives for about three months, but we would do anything to ensure their health and safety.
This has not been an easy pregnancy for us so far; we've already had a few complications along the way even before this. So we know these babies are strong, and they are fighters. It's hard watching and waiting every day, hoping it gets better and hoping with all our hearts that the babies are both doing okay, and not really knowing. But we're doing our best to take it one day, hour, minute at a time, and believe that it will all turn out all right.
Dr. Nason seemed very unhappy to hear that I was still experiencing bleeding. She told me she had to be honest with me, that there is a chance we could lose the affected baby because of this placenta previa. Of course I was shocked to hear this--I had somehow thought that it wasn't that serious, and as long as I did what I was supposed to do, everything would be all right. I hadn't considered that the bleeding could be directly and negatively affecting one of the babies--I didn't realize it was the baby's placenta that was bleeding. Dr. Nason listened to their heartbeats, found them both right away again, and they sounded nice and strong. But then she took the Doppler off my belly, and every moment since then, I have to wonder if the babies are still okay.
Needless to say, Jeff and I are scared and worried. It's so hard to hear that one of your babies possibly may not make it, and that you're already doing everything you can do to help. I scrutinize my every motion--will rolling over in bed at night hurt the baby, make its placenta bleed more, deprive it of nourishment? It's amazing how these little beings have only been in existence and part of our lives for about three months, but we would do anything to ensure their health and safety.
This has not been an easy pregnancy for us so far; we've already had a few complications along the way even before this. So we know these babies are strong, and they are fighters. It's hard watching and waiting every day, hoping it gets better and hoping with all our hearts that the babies are both doing okay, and not really knowing. But we're doing our best to take it one day, hour, minute at a time, and believe that it will all turn out all right.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Belly beats
Yesterday the Doppler we rented from Belly Beats arrived in the mail. I was so excited to try it out--it took all my willpower to wait till Jeff came home from work so we could listen together. Then as it got closer to when we were going to try it out, we started to get a little nervous. We know the twins are fine, but we could imagine how scary it would be to put the probe on my belly and not hear anything, even though we would know that it was just our inexperience at finding fetal heartbeats.
But all went well and we think we heard both of them--which is pretty impressive for us! We read the instructions and the manual and did what we saw Dr. Nason do at our last appointment. We found one heartbeat pretty much right away, then we moved the probe around my belly a little bit till we were pretty sure we found a second heartbeat. It was kind of hard to tell the difference--one sounded a little faster than the other, and we tried to count the beats but aren't sure we counted correctly. At one point we caught the beat in someone's placenta--my heartbeat--which was really easy to distinguish. All in all, we had a very fun newbie experience with the Doppler, and hopefully we'll only get better at it with time.
But all went well and we think we heard both of them--which is pretty impressive for us! We read the instructions and the manual and did what we saw Dr. Nason do at our last appointment. We found one heartbeat pretty much right away, then we moved the probe around my belly a little bit till we were pretty sure we found a second heartbeat. It was kind of hard to tell the difference--one sounded a little faster than the other, and we tried to count the beats but aren't sure we counted correctly. At one point we caught the beat in someone's placenta--my heartbeat--which was really easy to distinguish. All in all, we had a very fun newbie experience with the Doppler, and hopefully we'll only get better at it with time.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Happy almost 30th
As promised, here is a much nicer picture--it even has both me and Jeff in it, and you can see what I look like "dressed up." Last night we went out to dinner with my parents, Jeff's parents, and my sister to O'Connor's, my favorite Irish restaurant. My birthday isn't actually till tomorrow. I can't believe I will be 30!
And here's another picture from last night, of me and my sister Margie. Margie is also pregnant and she is about 5 weeks ahead of me. Our little belly bumps look very similar in size, though--unfortunately this picture doesn't show them off really well. But we're really cute in real life!
And here's another picture from last night, of me and my sister Margie. Margie is also pregnant and she is about 5 weeks ahead of me. Our little belly bumps look very similar in size, though--unfortunately this picture doesn't show them off really well. But we're really cute in real life!
Friday, March 21, 2008
The Continuing Adventures of the Little Bump
Here is a new picture of me from last night (after I had finally taken a shower and changed my pj's). I should have more (and better) pictures tomorrow when my family comes over to celebrate my birthday.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
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!
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!
Saturday, March 8, 2008
New pics and new hobbies
Today there are less than 200 days left until the twins' due date. Neat!
On Wednesday I wore the same sweater I wore when I took my first pictures of my little belly bump, so I took some more pictures. I don't think I look that different in the pictures, but in real life I'm a bit bigger. Not noticeably, but I now can't button any of my pants, including my work pants which used to be baggy. I'm wearing a big elastic wrap called a Bella Band to keep my pants up without buttoning them.
Old Hobbies
On Wednesday I wore the same sweater I wore when I took my first pictures of my little belly bump, so I took some more pictures. I don't think I look that different in the pictures, but in real life I'm a bit bigger. Not noticeably, but I now can't button any of my pants, including my work pants which used to be baggy. I'm wearing a big elastic wrap called a Bella Band to keep my pants up without buttoning them.
Even though I haven't been pregnant for that long, a lot in my life has already changed! I thought it would be fun to look at how my hobbies are different now...
Old Hobbies
Playing LOTRO (computer game Jeff works on)
Cooking dinners and desserts
Reading long fantasy series
Bedtime was 11pm-1am
Going out to dinner and the movies
Picking up the cats (they don't like that)
Doing laundry and tidying up
Visiting friends and family
Wondering if we would ever have kids
New Hobbies
Researching baby items online
Eating snacks high in protein and fiber
Reading pregnancy and baby books
Bedtime is 8:30pm-10:30pm
Renting movies from Netflix
Avoiding feeding the cats (their food smells)
Hounding Jeff to do all the chores
Taking long naps
Worrying about whether the twins are okay!
I'm sure my hobbies and pastimes will continue to change as the twins (and I) continue to grow!
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