Ultrasound and Appointment

The fetal echo went wonderfully!  According to the technician both boys' hearts look "beautiful".  Hooray!  They're each measuring a day ahead and weigh approximately 1 lb 2 oz.  They fought almost the entire time so it was amazing she could even get the shots she needed.  She was about to get a great shot of Baby B when suddenly a forearm came across his head quickly followed by an elbow.  Hahaha!

My cervix is holding up like a champ!  It measured an average of 5.3 cm in length.  That made me as happy as knowing how great the boys are doing.  :-)

Now about my weight.  Ugh.  The nurse seriously thought she had the wrong chart when I stepped on the scale.  I gained 10 lbs in 2 weeks.  WTF???  I guess it's all those potato chips, mashed potatoes, and Chex mix I've been eating.  They told me to cut back on the crap and add more protein.  Of course I'm still nauseous and meat is just about my biggest turn-off.  Once again they told me to drink Carnation Instant Breakfast.  I think I'll stick with my Zone bars.  130 calories and 5 grams of protein for the Carnation or 220 calories and 14 grams of protein for the Zone bars.  The bars make more sense to me!

Then the doctor told me that I need to wean off of the Zofran.  Umm...why?  He figures (and this is the first time I've seen this guy) that since I'm gaining weight, there's no  need for the medicine.  Um...I'm gaining because snacking on salty foods non-stop keeps the nausea at bay!  I'm gaining because the Zofran keeps me from vomitting!  I told him I'd work on it.  He asked if I'd ever skipped a dose and I informed that I'd done it by accident once or twice and regretted it.  He still wants me to give it up.  Luckily the other guy there (for all of the seasons of Grey's Anatomy that I've watched I can't remember what this guy's position is...he's still learning, but he's a doctor)(googled it and figured it out...he was a "fellow".  there was also a resident in the room.) wrote me another prescription with two refills.  Yay for the good doc!  Boo bad doc (who, by the way, needs to lay off of the carbs himself). 

The one good thing the doctor told me was that with my excellent cervical length my chances of delivering earlier than desired are down to 1-2%.  I said, "My cervix rocks!" and all three of the doctors in my exam room looked at me like I was crazy.  Seriously...my cervix does rock.  ;-)

 

So now I've got some funny pregnancy things to share. 

• My hair & eyebrows have gotten redder


• My eyelashes have gotten lighter


• The hair on my legs is growing slower and not as thick

Thank you all so much for all the support on my last post!!!  <3

 

I'll close this post with a picture of the boys plotting:

this whole fetal echo is haunting my thoughts, now. damnit. and it's probably just routine. and i'm too much of a chicken shit to call and find out. damnit damnit damnit. we'll find out in a little over a week. damnit.

Quick Update

At my OB appointment this morning:

• My weight is up by almost 7 pounds.  In two weeks.  Shock.  Gasp.  They're pleased with the gain, though.  For the record, I blame the gain on the protein bars...not the doughnuts, muffins, or biscuits I'm been eating.  ;-)  I'm still on the Zofran and the nausea seems to have leveled out at a not-so-miserable place.


• The boys look great.  They couldn't get an exact reading on the heartbeats with the crappy kiddy-computer-style ultrasound machine they had, but it sounded good and they looked good.  Baby A is not laying transverse in the bottom of my ute kicking the crap out of his brother (he literally kicked the entire time she was looking at him).  Baby B is laying with his head tucked not-so-nicely into the right side of my pelvic bone with his body and feet going up the right side of my ute.  He is the one to blame for my discomfort in the afternoons.  But who can blame him when his brother spends his days kicking him in the head!


• My iron looks good so I don't have to take the iron supplements the other doc pushed on me a while back.  I told the midwife at my last appointment that I just didn't take them and saw no need to if I hadn't tested as having a low level.  She agreed and tested to make sure we were clear.  Hooray for being clear.  (i've got enough stomach/bowel issues without adding 2 iron supplements to the mix.)


• I go back in 2 weeks for the fetal echo, cervical check, and growth scan.  Does everyone get a fetal echo @ 22 weeks?

In unrelated news, expect a house related post within a week.  We tore up the carpet in the living room.  Has anyone else ever seen what forms under carpet after a decade of wear?  All I can say is OMG...

What's for dinner?

NOTHING!  EVER AGAIN!

Not really, but wow.  I cleaned out my fridge like I'd wanted to for months.  All I'm left with are a few potatoes, some sliced cheese, and condiments.  I'm not kidding.  I even had to throw away unopened items because they'd expired sometime last month (or earlier).  Mr. W's going to scrub it all down now that I've throw everything out.  I knew it had been a while since we'd really bought groceries and since I'd really cooked a meal, but this is crazy!  I haven't really cooked a meal since the end of April.  :-o

Speaking of cleaning, Mr. W emptied all of the cabinets in the kitchen so he could paint the insides.  It's something we've needed to do since moving in (we painted the outsides a long time ago), but just never got around to.  Now we've been cleaning everything before putting it back in...talk about fun.  I just finished going through (and wiping down) all of my spices.  Holy cow I've got a ton of spices!  I need to figure out a way to catalog them so I know what I have.  I found three opened bottles of rosemary.  THREE BOTTLES!  There were quite a few other spices that I had two bottles of, most of them both opened already.  I think I'll try to do a spreadsheet so I can just check my sheet to see if I have a spice before emptying the whole cabinet or running to the store to buy another bottle.  I mean, who out there knows if they have a bottle of tarragon or coriander seeds or fennel off of the top of their head?

Speaking of my spices, I opened quite a few bottles just to smell them.  Although one or two turned my stomach, the rest just made me realize how much I miss cooking.  I love to cook!  I may not be the best cook, but it's something I truly enjoy.  I'm pretty much a recipe person so I'm not very inventive, but I'll try just about anything.  I love all of the different spices and oils and such.  (Mr. W also teases me about the various oils, vinegars, and cooking wines that I have.)  I already have a couple of meals in mind for the moment my stomach decides to behave (which I've accepted should be some time around birth).

Oh yay!  My stomach will definitely be better in time to make a nice chuck roast in the crock pot!  Mmmmmmm....add a little Marsala...yummy!

Haunted High School? (w/haunted prison)

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/08/08/legrand.haunted.school.wspa

Follow the link to see CNN's story on the ghost at Asheville High School.

This is where I went to high school.  How freaky!  But I'm pretty skeptical as far as ghosts go.  And as far as that school goes...that would be the last place I'd expect to see a ghost in that school.  It has the creepiest old gym (they call it the girls gym if I remember correctly) that's original to the school.  The most recent incarnation of the school was built in 1929 and is quite a beautiful school (in my opinion).  Of course there have been numerous additions over the decades, but it's still a pretty cool school as far as high schools go.

 

Here's another link to some interesting information about the school's past.  http://www.asheville.k12.nc.us/sites/ahs/Welcome/History%20of%20Asheville%20High.aspx

 

 Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the high school and the local prison were designed by the same guy.  Can't you tell!

 

The rest of the visit

• Everything looks wonderful with the boys.  The doctors still have my due date as 12/27 (instead of 12/27) so that would mean that Baby A is measuring a couple of days ahead and Baby B is measuring right on time.  Baby A weighs approximately 9 ounces and Baby B weighs approximately 8 ounces.  :-)


• My cervix looks really good.  They said anything over 3 is good and mine is measuring "well over 4". 


• I saw a midwife for this visit and will see her a lot during the rest of the pregnancy.  She was wonderful and answered all of my (and Mr. W's) questions. 


• My fundal height is 29 cm.  It amused me to watch the midwife take the measurement.  She laid the tape down, moved it up a little, moved it up a little more, moved it up a little more, then said "Oh.  29 cm.  You don't look that big!  You must have a lot of room in there."  I'm not growing outwards quite as much as I"m growing upwards at the moment.  Which completely explains why I feel the little buggers' feet right below my ribcage at the moment. 


• They're being nice and using my lowest pregnancy weight as my starting weight.  (My lowest documented weight is 153 lbs, 9 lbs down from my starting weight.  Mr. W and I are sure that I lost more weight than that since I wasn't weighed again for 7 1/2 weeks.)  This still means that I'm behind on weight gain, though.  The practice did a study (based on someone else's study) and found that mother's of twins that gain 40 - 50 lbs have the healthiest pregnancies with the healthiest babies.  By 24 weeks I should have gained a total of 24 lbs.  At this last appointment, right over 18 weeks, I had only gained 8 1/2 lbs.  I have been asked to do my best to gain around 2 lbs a week for a little while.  This is a really hard thing for me right now due to my continuing nausea and also due to history of anorexia.  The thought of purposely gaining weight is just daunting.  I'm supposed to try protein shakes, smoothies with protein powder added in, and carnation instant breakfast with fruit and stuff added in.  She said my fairly high carb diet is OK, but that I've really got to try and get more protein in.  I think I'm going to buy a scale to help me keep track.


• I've been told that I'm not really on any restrictions per se, but they don't want me doing any more walking than I normally do throughout the day.  There goes my idea of going on walks with Mr. W if the nausea would ever calm down.  (Getting even slightly heated up makes the nausea much worse.)  I've also been told that I'm not allowed to vaccuum.  Something about the repetitive motion or something.  She told me to rest during the day (suuuureeee...my job would love that).  I explained that I usually come home from work and plant my ass on the couch because I'm wiped out.  She said that was fine.


• I got them to test my iron level to see if I need the supplements that they gave me.  I haven't been taking them because of the issues with my stomach and intestines and would like to continue not taking them unless they're necessary.  The midwife said she agreed and that if the test said I was fine then I didn't need to concern myself.  She seemed a little curious as to why I was on them in the first place since my original blood work was completely normal.  She also said they'd test me later on in the pregnancy, also.


• I'll be going in every two weeks with ultrasounds to check growth every 4 weeks.  At my next ultrasound they'll also do a more detailed heart scan on both of the boys since they'll be able to see better.

I'm really beginning to get excited!  I know that is probably hard to understand for a lot of people (that I haven't been really excited until now), but as miserably sick as I've been for so long...it gets really hard.  I have found myself sobbing on more than one occasion due to the nausea and vomiting.  But with furniture arriving, and the house getting finished, and seeing my boys on the screen...even the nausea can't take away those joys.  :-)