The best birthday a girl could have!

OUR BOYS!!!!

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Wh-Wh-What??

• I'm 18 weeks today...this could quite possibly be 1/2 way!  Wow.  I mean...yeah.  Wow.


• I have a dresser being delivered.  It should arrive on Saturday.  It matches those two crib thingies I bought (which remain in the back of my vehicle).  Holy crap.


• I have repeatedly been told today how big I am.  Um...18 weeks with twins people, I'm not that big given the circumstances.


• I have repeatedly been told how huge I'm going to be by the time I give birth.  No shit Sherlock!


• Zantac has worked wonders with the heartburn.  It does seem a little odd that now that I've reduced my acid (get it...acid reducer) that my dinner has been sitting in my throat for a few hours now.  Whatever.  I'll compromise on this one and take longer to digest.


• When I told Mr. W that the heartburn had a lot to do with the fact that my stomach has less room to digest he felt it necessary to inform me that it will only get worse.  How sweet.  :-|


• Even Mr. W continues to remind me how huge I'm going to get.  Um...I'm quite aware of this.


• I've got to figure out where to get the dresser/changing table combo that matches the cribs and dresser.  Apparently it went out of stock after my order was placed.  Bummer.  But hopefully they'll release the money from my account ASAP and I can get one before they all go MIA. 


• Only 3 days until the big ultrasound!!!!

Signs of life and Hell's fires

Hell's fires (aka Bitching first):
OMG!!!!  The pain!  The agony!  The heartburn!!!!!  I guess this is the newest thing to live through.  It started waking me up night before last.  No problem, swallow some Tums, sit upright for a little while, and go back to sleep.  Last night it woke me up again...worse than the night before.  Again, choke down some Tums, sit up for a little while, add rock in pain and misery and try to not cry to the routine, and go back to sleep.  Mr. W picked up some Pepcid for me this morning, and I hoped it would help.  Not so much.  It's been an on and off misery all day.  I've tried the Pepcid, Tums, and warm milk with honey.  None of them have really lasted too long.  I'm still eating very bland foods (especially since the nausea came back from it's mini vacation) and not eating a lot at one sitting.  I'm open to any suggestions/advice/assvice!

Signs of life:
I FELT MOVEMENT!!!!  My cat was curled up on my legs with his haunches pressed against my lower abdomen and I felt the oddest tapping sensation against where he was.  At first I thought it was my heartbeat.  Then I thought it was something that the cat was doing.  Then it hit me that I'm pretty sure it was whatever little guy is hanging out in that area trying to get the cat away!  OMG!  I've felt it off and on all day.  It's still really hard to tell the difference between babies and stomach or intestines, but it's pretty cool. 

When I mentioned it to Mr. W he informed me that he had felt the same thing the night before while standing behind me with his hands on my lower abdomen.  He said he didn't tell me what he felt because he knew I hadn't felt anything, yet.  How does he feel them before me?  I must admit I'm a little jealous.  Of course when I thought I might have felt a movement a week or two ago Mr. W put his ear to the spot and swore he heard what sounded like something moving around in water.  Who knows, though. 

3 days and 12 hours and we'll hopefully know what we're expecting!!!!

She's six months pregnant...

That comment wasn't made about me, it was about some other woman.  Mr. W's co-worker asked him to come help repair his neighbor's a/c.  I asked Mr. W why he was helping his co-worker's neighbor (ie a perfect stranger of no connection to him*) with the a/c and his response was, "Because her husband's deployed and she's 6 months pregnant."  I'd definitely hope that someone would help me if I were in her shoes, which is always a possibility.

So Mr. W comes home last night telling me all about his adventure in a/c.  There was nothing he could do to help the woman, but between him and his buddy they figured out what was wrong and found a professional to cut her a seriously good deal to recharge the unit.  Then he goes on to tell me that he and the woman chatted a good deal.  It turns out she and her husband did IVF and she's now pregnant with twins.  She's not six months pregnant, though...she's a few weeks behind me.  And she's "not as big as you are, honey."  Apparantly his buddy had just been guessing at how far along she was due to her size.

Now I'm wondering...how far along do random people think I am.  It tripped me out the other day when a patient asked my boss if I would be delivering soon.  Needless to say everyone was laughing about that one.  Of course I know I'm only going to get bigger and completely expect people to make such remarks as, "You're HUGE!"  Bring it on!  ;-)

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Sorry for the blurriness of the pics.  That's what happens when you don't use the flash, it would seem.

* Mr. W is such a nice guy that he rarely says no to helping anyone.  This has begun to be an issue since he helped a random woman in our neighborhood (we'd all been introduced once a few years ago).  This woman has since proceded to give out Mr. W's cell number to other people in the neighborhood.  Now he gets all sorts of people calling him for help repairing one thing or another.  I'm all for him helping people, but it's getting a bit ridiculous!

What a day!

I'm still excited that I ate out at an actual restaurant Friday night.  There was one shining moment from the entire dinner, though.  I walked back to the table and saw Mr. W grinning from ear to ear.  The following is a picture of the fortune that he slid across the table to me.

Show & Tell

This weeks show and tell is food related...and I'm actually participating!  Shock!  Gasp!

Mr. W and I went out to eat last night for the first time in months.  I've been craving Chinese food for quite a while, and finally felt I could give in.  (for the record, it's super freaky having cravings while being so nauseous.  especially when the cravings make you even more sick to your stomach.)  Mr. W didn't even flinch when I told him what I wanted for dinner.  He pretty much hates Chinese food but jumped at the chance to see me eat and to go out.  Without missing a beat he told me which restaurant he was taking me to.  It actually caught me off guard that I didn't have to argue about the choice of cuisine.

So we both had the buffet and enjoyed it.  AND I KEPT IT DOWN!!!  YAY!!!

Now I didn't have my camera with me, but one Chinese buffet is pretty much the same as the other.  So here's a pic to represent my foray back into the world of almost normal dining.

OK, now everyone needs to head over to Mel's Show & Tell and see what everyone else has to show!

more bullets

• I'm over the GI bug (Thank God!!!)


• I can't eat yogurt anymore, but I can eat broth based soups.  And if I don't have my evening baked potato I can have a Butterfinger blast instead!


• I now own two cribs (no way in hell they're even coming out of the boxes for a couple of months).  We picked out these:  Simplicity Ellis - Cherry


• Mr. W's Dad and Grandad are paying for the cribs!!!


• I went ahead and bought the cribs before getting the money from the in-laws since they keep on going out of stock.  As soon as the check gets here we're ordering the matching dresser (as soon as it comes in stock) and dresser/changing table.


• Target was cheaper that BRU.  I saved $20 per crib!


• Mr. W is only a few weeks away from being ready to have carpet installed!!!!!


• The benefit of working for a physical therapist is getting free advice on stretches to help with hip and low back pain.


• I'm now showing enough that people who barely know me are asking if I'm pregnant.


• Scrubs can seriously hide a belly!


• I'm thinking these children will be on restriction until they're five at this point.  Firstly for keeping me so sick.  Secondly for not making their presence known, yet.  (I know it's still early.)  Just because each set of feet is pointed directly at a placenta...no excuses!  Get to being noticed!


• I'm trying to talk myself into ordering Chinese for dinner.  I really really really want it!  What's the worst thing that will happen?  I'll throw it back up?  Been there; done that.  The thought of it makes my stomach go all wonky, but the smell of it is heavenly...mmmmmmmmmmmm...


• DBTs are not fun.  Not.  At.  All.


• I've abandoned my mantra, "Next week will be better" as far as my nausea is concerned.  My new mantra is, "It will all be worth it in the end.  When I'm holding my babies in my arms."  I'll walk through fire if that's what it takes.


• This is truly how my thoughts run, now.  bullet.

Seriously??? (Whiny post)

I was planning on crib shopping today.  Instead I'm trying to remain comfortable and to hydrate.  The doctor thinks it's a GI infection.  WTF??  I thought I'd be OK today (with the hyperemesis).  But then my intestines and stomach decided to revolt on alternating schedules.  And the pain in my lower abdomen is just ridiculous!  (I can tell it's not my uterus, but it's still hard to tell exactly where the pain is coming from.)

Is there going to be any point in the pregnancy that I can feel like a somewhat normal pregnant woman and not worry about throwing up on someone?

I'm so pissed.

Planning a trip to that store where you do that shopping

In case the title wasn't enough of a hint, Mr. W and I are going to attempt to go to Babies R Us this weekend.  I've been once since becoming pregnant, but that was a quick in and out for a Snoogle.  I don't thnk I'm really emotionally ready to go...But it's either suck it up or keep procrastinating and end up tucking these kids into our sock drawers.  Plus, I'm a big girl and it's time to act like it.  Let's just hope that my stomach acts like a big girl too and allows me to leave my house this weekend!

We need to pick out furniture.  My FIL has been bugging (and bugging and bugging and bugging...as in almost daily asking) us about picking out cribs so he can get them for us.  I am beyond grateful that he wants to and is doing this for us.  I'm not doing any sort of registry though; not yet.  I've had some other family members nagging me about it, but they'll get over it.  After my big u/s I'll suck it up and do it.

So why am I so stupid about going and picking out cribs?  Because then someone is going to buy them for us.  Then we'll have cribs in the house.  Then we'll have a nursery instead of an office (or guest bedroom...depending on whether or not the office will hold all of the furniture).  Then if something goes wrong we'll have to board up a room in the house.  OK, so that was possibly a little melodramatic, but you know what I mean.  My Mom asked me today if I was afraid I was going to jinx it by picking out cribs.  It was right then that I realized that it wasn't a fear of "jinxing" anything, it was a fear of if something were to happen, what would I do.  I'd have cribs in my house with no babies to put in them... 

But why am I even thinking these things?  Yeah, I had an ectopic (of sorts) but what does that have to do with this pregnancy?  It took us longer than expected to get properly pregnant, but we managed a (so far) successful twin pregnancy on our first round of Clomid.  I know so many things that can go wrong, but there's no reason why it would happen to these babies; of course there's usually no reason that the bad things happen anyway.

At the very beginning of this pregnancy I decided that I wanted to get everything possible done during the second trimester.  I kept on saying that I was waiting for an u/s to make sure everything was OK before I started.  Then I was waiting to find out the sexes (which I'll have to wait a little longer so of course certain things have to wait).  Now I keep thinking, I'll feel more secure once I feel them move.  Um...HELLO????  I saw them moving around just 2 days ago.  If I keep putting this off for one more security or another I'm going to run out of prep-time!

Now...onto needed advice.  Cribs and furniture.  I'm giving myself through the weekend to have them absolutely picked out.  I'm probably going to get them from a store that I can walk into and see them at (do furniture stores do baby furnitre?).  What criteria are you supposed to use to pick out cribs, anyway?  I'm so clueless.  You'd think that with all the time I've had on my couch I'd have done a little research, but I haven't.

Anyway...once again I have no flow and I'm doing a jumpy post.  Oh well.  That's really all I had to write about for now.  I'm brewing a post in my head about the hyperemesis vs morning sickness and the public reaction to it.  But that's another post.

Thank you in advance for any input anyone has!

15 week OB appt (first real OB appt) ***updated*** with pics

I'll get what little bad news I have out of the way.

• I have Prothrombin 20210 (Factor II) Mutation Heterozygous (only one gene is mutated).  They're not very concerned about it but are allowing me to take a baby aspirin a day to ease my nerves.  They didn't see my father almost die from multiple blood clots thrown to both lungs, though.


• I am now supposed to now take 15 pills a day:  1 Premesis (prenatal supplement), 1 Flinstones Complete, 1 Baby Aspirin (my choice), 2 Zofran, 2 Colace, 2 Iron, 6 Magnesium/Zinc/Calcium pills.


• There is nothing more they can do for my constipation.  I can't take any more Colace and already drink a ton of water.  Ugh. 

Now on to the good news!

I did get an ultraound today (pics at the bottom)!  Woo-hoo!  Although they couldn't see the goods, we got to watch them for a few minutes.  Baby B would turn his/her back almost every time the doctor focused on him/her.  It was so funny.  Baby A was a little more cooperative, but did push back at the probe once or twice; I thought it was the cutest thing.   Their placentas are on opposite sides and not too close to the cervix.  Yay! 

I'm scheduled for the anatomy scan on July 31.  I've decided that since I'm getting the scan on my birthday that I have to be having a boy and a girl.  I mean, it's my birthday so of course I get what I want, right?  ;-)  Honestly, Mr. W and I will both be happy just knowing that they're healthy.

Speaking of healthy, we declined the quad screen.  After a quick discussion, we both agreed that the results wouldn't make any difference.

I love love love the new office!  They were attentive.  They answered all my numerous questions.  They were patient.  They laughed at my stupid jokes.  I'd have to say that it was completely worth the hassle to finally get there!  It's also great because I know I'm getting the best care for my babies that I possibly can.  I also know that all of my regular appointments will be on Thursdays because that's when they have the multiples clinic. 

OK...so this post was more all over the place than I meant to be.  But my phone has been ringing and Scrubs was on...I've got zero attention span.  I'll update with pics as soon as I get them scanned in.

Oh yeah!  Weight!  I was 162 pre-pregnancy.  At 7 1/2 weeks I was 153 (that was after a week of vomiting).  Today I weighed 157.  I'm happy that I've got some weight gain, even if it's not quite optimal.  Everything that I'm gaining is baby, though.  Everywhere other than my chest and belly are still shrinking, but I'm OK with that.  As long as the babies are getting what they need.

Now really, I'm outta here!

Braces, PG, and Happy 4th of July!

Before:
03/21/2008

After:
06/17/2008



It's amazing how much my teeth have moved even since this last picture.  Unfortunately since my upper two front teeth aren't overlapping anymore, a cavity has been revealed.  Right on the side of my right front tooth.  Yuk!  I guess after the babies are born I'll have to make a trip to the orthodontist to get the upper wire taken off, rush to the dentist to get the cavity filled, then run back to the orthodontist to get the wire put back on.  This is the second cavity I've ever had.  :-(  Boo!  I didn't have to even get any numbing medication for the first cavity because they caught it so early.  I can see how this new one is eating into the tooth, though.  Oh well!

Although the nausea is only increased by the braces, the braces seem to be helped by my pregnancy and nausea.  They say that your gums are softer during pregnancy and that could explain why my teeth have moved so much since June 17.  I'm talking I've got visible space between some of my teeth!  This is a completely new phenomenon for me.  It's crazy!  And since I'm still so sick to my stomach and anything that gets caught in my braces makes me vomit, I'm eating only soft foods.  This means there is zero pain from my braces (or from my loose teeth...'cause boy are they loose).  See, there really is a bright side to almost everything.

As far as pregnancy goes, all seems well.  I'm still very sick to my stomach and have even missed a day of work due to the vomiting.  I'm still taking my Zofran religiously and adding the Phenergan when truly necessary.  Oooh!  Oooh!  And if anyone who has taken (or is taking) Zofran can tell me how much colace they needed to get things...um...working again, I'd greatly appreciate it.  ;-)

I've got my first true OB appointment on Monday at the wonderful MUSC.  I'm getting a little nervous, now.  I'm always afraid that I'm going to go in and they're going to give me bad news.  I'm really grateful that I only feel this way a couple of days before my appointments.  And I have a feeling that this will go away once I'm being seen regularly (or at least once I'm truly being monitored instead of just being moved around).  I asked if they were planning on doing an u/s and there's a big possibility, but no guarantee.  I plan on doing my damnedest to get one, though.  I'd like to know that the babies are growing OK even though I'm not eating very much.  I'd also like to be taken off of pelvic rest, if possible.  I'm sure I'll update Monday evening!