33+3 Weeks

So, we are still in the hospital, but hanging in there. Plan seem to change so much from day to day. One day it seems like I could go to c-section any day, and the next day it seems like we could hold out a few more weeks. It's all a matter of looking at labs, my physical health & the babies physical health. So far, the babies look great & are moving around like crazy. Nicholas challenges every nurse, every day, with trying to record his fetal heart rate tracing. He wiggles and rolls around the whole time making it almost impossible. Victoria is my good little girl who stays in one place & lets us monitor her easily. Don't get me wrong though, when she kicks & moves I really feel it; she hurts. :)
Right now, my blood pressures are still running high and stay around 150/86, even on a blood pressure medication. Usually I can tell when the blood pressure is higher than that because I start getting a headache. The doctors are also watching my platelets because they sometimes run pretty low. They won't let them get much lower than 100, and they have dropped to as low as 111. Today they are back up to 118 so that bought us a little more time (hopefully). It changes from day to day though. The other lab they watch closely is my protein in my urine. Tuesday the protein was 283, and we are checking it again tomorrow. Also, overnight I lost 3 Lbs of fluid last night. :)
My nurse explained a few things to me on the trends of preeclamptic moms. The doctors call us "Watch Pots", meaning they are watching the pot to make sure it doesn't boil over. Now that my protein is almost 300, I'm not going anywhere. They will watch my swelling, protein, reflexes, b/p's, platelets, and weight to determine when it's time to deliver. She said it isn't a question of if I'll get sicker, it's a question of when. She said she has seen women with protein slowly climb to as high as 5000, but as long as it slowly creeps up, the doctors just watch it. But, If from one protein check to the next my numbers double, that would be a reason to deliver me. Or, if I wake up weighing 5 Lbs more than the day before, with a migraine, swollen face, high b/p, hyper reflexes, upper gastric pain, they would deliver me. If my b/p's won't come down or get super high they will deliver me. I could still hang in there a while. :) I am remaining optimistic...

32+2 Weeks today

So, a lot has changed since my last posting. I ended up in the hospital for high blood pressures. Working 12 hour shift started to really wear on my body, and yesterday morning at work I started seeing spots in front of my eyes. One of the nurses checked my blood pressure & it was 154/100. (High blood pressures & spots before your eyes are a sign of preeclampsia & if it gets too bad the only cure is delivery.) A doctor was notified & she said I had to go to the hospital right away. I went to Baptist Hospital & they admitted me to monitor my high blood pressures & to run labs. All though the evening my blood pressures were high, but through the night my blood pressures finally went down to almost their normal range. Speaking with my doctor, she is preparing me for the worst case scenario, but hoping for the best. Worst case scenario, we stay on hospital bed rest & monitor me frequently & babies end up being delivered soon. Best case scenario, I stop working & go home to partial or complete bed rest with frequent blood pressure & baby checks at the doctors or by home health. They are giving me injections of steroids to mature the babies lungs, for just in case. We will find out more today, after my ultrasound and all my test/labs come back. We sure didn't expect this, but at least the babies have made it past 32 weeks. If the babies were born today, they would more than likely do really well & be in the NICU for about 3-5 weeks. It will be hard, but in the future none of this will matter. So, maybe during this time off I can try to find a nanny, catch up on baby books & do some scrap-booking. Pray for us, and we will keep you posted!!

32 Weeks

Well, we have made it to 32 weeks!! The babies are really starting to roll around & kick a lot more. In the last few days I could actually push on a body part and feel it move out of the way or kick back :) I love this feeling and hope I can experience this for a little longer. I feel great for the most part, but these 12 hour shifts at work kill me. We were so busy last week that I just came home & started whining at how badly my body ached. Phil did everything he could to make me comfortable & he even gave me a nice foot massage. I feel like I can't do this much longer, but as long as everything except my swelling is normal, the doctors don't seem anxious to reduce my hours. Friday was our 32 week doctors appointment, and it was quite a disappointment. We expected to see a doctor, but instead was scheduled to see a midwife who didn't seem to know anything about my history or me. She didn't even introduce herself & kept her back to my husband almost the whole time. We were hoping for some answers as to plans for the c-section, but she didn't have any answers for us. We asked her about reducing my hours, but she didn't seem too eager to make any changes. I guess it will take having problems in order to get a little time off work, but I don't want that. Otherwise all is well for now & we will keep you posted.

30 Weeks & growing

I am starting to feel huge!! Last night, Phil said he thinks I grew over the course of the day, but of course tells me I am beautiful. :) I am still working almost full time & my legs are so swollen with fluid that they started weeping fluid last night a little. Getting around is definitely getting harder & I try and put my feet up as much as possible on my days off. The baby room is almost complete. The last thing we need to do is decorate the walls with wall art, decals or possibly have a muralist come in & paint. I am getting so stressed about getting everything done!! I am working on trying to get my second round of thank you notes out for the last baby shower, and the hospital is throwing me a baby shower on September 17th. I will need to send out more thank you notes for that, and then I need to work on preparing birth announcements. I have been pretty good about doing my blog, but I haven't filled out the baby books or done scrap booking in forever. I need to start those ASAP. I just wish I had some help! We only have about 5-6 weeks to finish everything. We aren't even sure what we are going to do about child care. We are thinking about hiring a nanny, but it is going to cost around $2,000.00 a month. That just sounds crazy!! We are also looking into Nanny Cams & Phil has an appointment with ADT security on Saturday to discuss cost. Kids are so expensive!! :) Well, other than that things are good. We have our next doctors appointment on Sept 17th, before the shower, and hopefully we will find out more about a possible c-section date. We will keep you posted.....

29 Weeks Pregnant!!

Friday night, we celebrated Phil's new Vice President position with other employees of Beaches Rehab. We went to a really nice restaurant at Jacksonville Beach called Roys. See picture: It was Anya (Phil's new partner), Phil & I, Joey (the office manager who has been with Beaches Rehab since it opened 7 years ago) & his girlfriend, and Anya's brother Eugiene & his wife. The dinner was wonderful & drinks & champagne toast went on for many hours. :) Phil's first official day at Beaches Rehab is on September 6, 2010. We are so excited!!
Today was my 29 week ultrasound. The babies are getting so big that it is hard to get good images of them. Most everything looks perfect with them. They both have plenty of amniotic fluid around them & they are growing just like they are supposed to. Nicholas is weighing at 3 Lbs & Victoria is weighing at 2 Lbs 10 ounces. Victoria is laying in the left side of my lower pelvis all curled up, and Nicholas is spread out across my abdomen & lying breech. So, no matter what we would have to have a c-section. He is going to come out mooning the world. :) Anyways, little Victoria is cramped for space & so it seems she is mostly entertained by kicking her brother. This is at least the 4th ultrasound where the doctors have commented on her kicking her brother in the head. In the 3D ultrasound pictures you will see Victoria's face & then you will see Nicholas covering his head to block Victoria's kicks. The last picture is Victoria's foot & Nicholas poor little head getting kicked. :)
As I mentioned, for the most part the babies look perfect, but they have detected one small problem with Victoria. She has a dilated left kidney which means that she may have a kinked kidney vessel (ureter). She is peeing fine though & in most cases this issue resolves at birth. They will do further testing when Victoria is born just to make sure all is well. If she still shows signs of problems, she may need to go home on antibiotics to prevent a kidney infections, and then return in 2 weeks for further testing. Other than that, all seems perfect.

28 Weeks and counting

On Saturday, August 21st, Phil's parents & sister threw me a surprise baby shower at Carrabba's. I had a feeling that they were planning on throwing me a baby shower, but had no idea when it was going to be. That day, Phil told me we had to meet our new accountant at Carrabba's, to discuss future finances. He played it off so well that I believed him. Well, when we walked into Carrabba's and everyone yelled surprise, I must have turned 5 shades of red. I had no idea!! The place was decorated so cute & the party favors were adorable. The theme was 2 peas in a pod. The turnout was great, and so many of my friends and family were there. Victoria & Nicholas were spoiled with all the great baby gifts. They got so many cute little outfits, a stroller, piggy banks, newborn Halloween Costumes, bouncies, mobiles, nursery decor-lamps, Texas baby plates, and so many other cute things. After the shower, a lot of people came back to our house & hung out for a while. Everyone did a champagne toast to the wonderful events going on in our life right now, from twins on the way to Phil becoming co-owner to Beaches Rehab. My friend Ale stayed the night, and in the morning we went shopping at Babies-R-Us. She bought the twins their bed mattresses & Phil and I bought their comforter sets with gift cards. The baby nursery is really starting to come together. :)
Monday, I had my first appointment with Dr Fox at Baptist Medical Center. She came into the room & hugged me right away. She reviewed my records and started to discuss a plan of care with me concerning the twins delivery. She discussed really wanting to do a c-section on me & would prefer to do it around 35-36 weeks of gestation. Dr Fox doesn't even want to take the chance of me going into labor because of all my scar tissue & she wants a very controlled environment for the c-section. She plans to have general surgeons awaiting standby just in case my surgery becomes unexpectedly difficult. She wants to perform an amniocentesis around 35 weeks to check for fetal lung maturity & go ahead with surgery if their lungs are mature. I will be 35 weeks pregnant on October 11th. That's kinda funny because my moms birthday is Oct 5th, my birthday is Oct 8th, and their birthday could be Oct 11th. Kinda strange.... We would have two little Libra's. :) Phil and I would really prefer to wait until they are 37 weeks gestation to deliver, if all is going well, but if the doctors feel it is best to deliver early then we will of course listen to them.

God placing people in our lives

So much has happened since my last posting. First of all, I want to mention how blessed we are & how god puts people in your/our lives when we really need them.
I joined a twins group in the past & it has really been an avenue for great resources. I had been thinking about transferring my prenatal care from Naval Hospital Jacksonville to Baptist Medical Center (a higher risk hospital). Baptist has a great NICU just in case the babies need one, plus it is attached to Wolfson's Childrens Hospital. Well, one of the ladies in my twins group had posted that she was selling bottles. I was interested & went to her house to pick them up. Wow, what a lot of bottles. As we got to talking, come to find out she has triplets (2 girls & 1 boy-see above picture of her.) that were natural- without invetro or any medications. Her husband is a fertility specialist & she is an OB Physician at Baptist & part of the only team of doctors that the Navy refers patients to at Baptist. I told Dr Fox that I was interested in transferring my care & she said that they usually don't accept patient transfers past 20 weeks, but she would wait for my consult & review my records with her team & make a decision. Well, 2 weeks later I got the call that I was accepted into Baptist!! Yea!!
On August 17th, I had a routine fetal echo done at Wolfson's Childrens Hospital to examine the babies hearts. Everything looked perfect with their little tickers. :)
Besides having twins on the way, another big event happening in our lives is Phil becoming VP & co-owner of beaches rehab. A few weeks back, I had gone to another girls house from my twins group who was giving away a stroller. Come to find out she is a lawyer who specializes in reviewing business contracts. Well, when it came time for Phil to have his business contract reviewed, Jen was our lady & she did a very thorough job. On Thursday, August 19th, Phil became co-owner of Beaches Rehabilitation. :)

27 Weeks today

The pictures start from 27 weeks & work down to 25 weeks.
Sorry it has taken me so long to post, we have been really busy getting the house ready for the babies & with work.
Well, not much is new except the lovely aches & pains of pregnancy. In the last couple of days, I feel like the babies must have grown. They are just sitting on my bladder & I can't seem to feel relief. As soon as I stand up from the toilet, I feel like I need to go again. :) I am definitely getting rounder/bigger & the babies kicks are getting a little more powerful. The kicks aren't really painful yet, but every once in a while I get a pretty painful squeeze, that only last a second, down low in my pelvis where Victoria's head is. I am not sure if it is a kick or a Braxton Hicks contraction. Also, my back is beginning to ache, especially when I am sitting too long in one position, but I can't complain too much.
Yesterday we went to Daytona Beach with Phil's parents. The ocean was so nice & calm & we saw dolphins jumping in the close distance. After we got home and had dinner, the twins started moving around like crazy. We were watching my belly move in waves as the babies were doing somersaults and kicking. :)
Phil and I took a child birthing class on Saturday morning and that was fun. We learned all kinds of good stuff about breathing & relaxing & the guys were given a lesson on massage. Of course us ladies were the willing bodies for them to practice on :) Phil didn't need any instructions, but I sure enjoyed it. Next week we have a few more classes planned. We are just trying to be as ready as possible before the twins are born. We are going to need all the help we can get. I posted a few pictures, and they are posted from most recent (27 weeks) to 25 weeks. Hope you enjoy.

24 weeks today!!

We are 24 weeks today!! So exciting!! Making it to 24 weeks has been my first goal, only because babies are viable at 24 weeks. My goal now is to make it to 37 weeks (Oct 24th), so I can deliver at my Naval hospital where I work. The babies have started moving up a storm. I feel little kicks all the time, especially after I have eaten something sweet. We had our 24 week ultrasound today, and it is still boy/girl, thank god! :) Baby A (Victoria) is head down & weighs 1 Lb 5 oz & is in the 39th percentile. Baby B (Nicholas) is breech right now, and weighs 1 Lb 7 oz & is in the 52nd percentile. They both look great, with no complications.

Last week, my parents threw me a baby shower in Texas. It was such an amazing baby shower & I was so excited to see all my family & friends. Who would have know... that I just had to get pregnant to see all the family together again. The twins got so many cute outfits! They got teddy bears & blankets with their names on them. We got blankets, diaper bags, play mats, picture frames, hand casts, bottles, diapers, wipes, tinkle blockers :) tons of other stuff. The games were great & my little Niece Alyssa was such a big help in organizing the games/shower. When we got home, Phil's parents came by, and his mom & sister saw the amount of baby clothes they have already. They threatened an intervention if I buy them any more clothes. :) They do have a lot of clothes, but only a few outfits in each size. I don't think you can ever have too many cute clothes & outfits. :)

Our big job right now has been getting the house ready. We just had the whole house painted, including the babies room & now we are working on putting a chair rail up in the room. We put lots of shelves up in the babies room & throughout the house & we are putting together the babies dressers. We are still exploring Nanny options & having nanny cams put up in the house. It is a lot of work, but so exciting! Well, until next week or so...

The first 2 pictures are from this week & the third picture is from last week.
Well, today I am 22 weeks. I can't believe I have already made it more than halfway, with twins, and still feel great! My ankles have now become cankles, but I try to elevate them as much as possible. I am still working full time and that won't change unless I start having complications, go Navy! :) I have joined a multiples group in Jacksonville and a lot of those mom's say that they worked full time until around 24-28 weeks then had to stop working due to preterm contractions. I hope that isn't the case for me because I really want to go full term with the babies, and can't imagine being stuck on bed rest; I will go stir crazy!
Wednesday was a really big day for me/us. I woke up in the early afternoon, after working all night the night before, and decided to explore a new beach with Rocco. The beach is 12 miles from the house in Ponte Vedra, and it is really nice and family oriented. The beach allows dogs, so Rocco had a blast chasing the kids in the water and fetching the ball. After that, I got cleaned up and met Phil and Anya at an Irish bar for dinner in Neptune Beach. Later that night, while lying in bed, Phil and I felt the babies kick for the first time together. I think it freaked him out a little bit at first, but he kept making them kick by pressing on my belly more. :) It's definitely fun to feel them kick and move around. That might change eventually, when my ribs are involved, but right now it's fun.

Thursday was another really big day for me. I had set up plans to meet a couple of women from my twins group. One had a snap-n-go stroller frame that she wanted to pass on to me, and the other mother had a couple boppies to pass on to me. The first mother I met had 8-month-old boy/girl twins. I spent about 2 hours at her house and watched some of her daily routines. The other lady I met had 1-year-old boy/boy twins and I spent about an hour or so with her. Just spending the little bit of time with their babies helped me realize some of what I am in for. The kids had so much energy and needed your constant attention, especially the 1 year olds who were more mobile. They got into something new every second! They were very cute though and the babies interacted so well with one another. I got a lot of really good ideas from the mom's on what to buy and ways to organize.
This week we are having the whole house painted, including the baby room, and Phil and I are working on shelves in the closets. Friday, Phil and I are flying to Texas for the weekend. My mom is throwing me a baby shower and my dad is taking the guys out on the boat fishing. My mom said she is making lots of good munchies for the shower, which I am really looking forward too. Yes, my appetite has definitely increased, but I am feeding twins so I have a good excuse. :) Well, until next time.....

19 wks 4 days

June, 24th 2010

Thursday, June 23rd, my parents flew in from Texas to witness my baby bump and to be with us for our gender ultrasound. It was so good to see my parents, and they brought me really cute maternity shirts & a few cute baby outfits. We coordinated meeting Phil's parents for breakfast the morning of the ultrasound, and we all drove to the appointment.
As we waited in the waiting room (for an hour), the anticipation was killing us. Finally a lady called my name & we were all lead down a small hallway to the ultrasound room. Surprisingly, she allowed us all to squeeze into the small ultrasound room & she placed the scanner on my belly. Within one minute she announced that she saw a girl. We all said, "wait, did you just say we were having a girl". :) Sure enough, Victoria Grace was chilling out on the bottom part of my belly. I had always thought that my little boy Buddha was chilling at the bottom, but Buddha was actually a girl. With this surprising discovery, I was sure the second baby must also be a girl & waited to hear this confirmation. At this point, the ultrasound tech started scanning the upper part of my belly to find the sex of the second baby. As she was scanning my belly I thought that I recognized boy parts and I stated in disbelief, "Is that boy parts?" She looked a second longer & then agreed that we had a little boy chilling on the top. So Feisty, who I thought was a girl was actually Nicholas Laurance! Everyone in the room clapped with excitement & took their turns kissing us and congratulating us on having girl/boy twins. Most of us kinda had a feeling (or hoped) they were boy/girl twins, but still couldn't believe that they actually were. My eyes filled up with tears in excitement!!
The rest of the ultrasound was just taking measurement & checking for any abnormal findings. All checked out completely perfect with the twins & they were moving around like crazy!!
After the ultrasound, the men & women split up. The men hung out around the house while the women went to Babies-R-Us & target for baby shopping & to fill out my baby registry. We had such a great time, and found so many cute outfits for the babies. We didn't buy them all, but we could have. :) At one point, while I was asking for advice from a sales clerk, the mom's got bored and stole my scanner gun. I finished up my conversation with the sales clerk & went and stole it back. :) It was really funny!! We decided to go with the Winnie the Pooh theme in the nursery because it is very neutral gendered. We were shopping for 5 hours & of course the men called a few times just to check up on us. This is the first babies born into the family in 9 years on my side & 17 years on Phil's side, so these babies are going to be spoiled by everyone.
The rest of the weekend flew by. On Saturday Phil and I took my parents to St Augustine for shopping & a great day at the beach. The time flew by & before I knew it they were on a plane back to Dallas. I was really sad to see them go, but knowing that I will see them in three weeks for my baby shower in Dallas, made it a little easier to say goodbye. What a great weekend!!

I am 18wks & 3 days today. Only 1 more week till my ultrasound to determine the babies sexes & my parents visit!! We are so excited!! Well, my pregnancy is going great. No more headaches, but my ankle swelling has gotten worse. My blood pressures are fine though, thank god. My appetite has definitely increased & I am eating way too many sweets. I am still eating tons of potatoes & can't stand the idea of eating red meat. What I really want/crave is my mom's chicken n' dumplings! :)

Tomorrow I will be 18 wks!! I can not believe that time has flown by so fast. Our pregnancy is 1/2 way over & where has the time gone. I am not sure if I am feeling the babies yet, but I occasionally feel a little flutter that might be them moving. I am dying to feel them kick & move around. Friday I was promoted to full Lieutenant in the US Navy. It means a lot more responsibility & leadership, and a pretty nice pay raise! Couldn't be better timing with two babies on the way. I had to buy a maternity uniform for the ceremony, because I have grown out of my regular uniform. :) The uniform is so so big right now, but it gives me a lot of room to grow.

Working on Labor & Delivery and being pregnant has a lot of perks. I am far enough along that the sexes could be determined by ultrasound, and I have had several doctors offer to do an ultrasound. It takes a lot of willpower to say no, but I want to wait till my scheduled appointment on June 25th. Our parents will be coming in for the ultrasound & we will all find out the babies sexes together. So exciting!!

Pontoon Boat Trip on St Johns River 29May2010 16 wks

Trip to New York for Kristin's Graduation 26May2010

Sorry that it has been so long since I wrote on my blog, but we have been so busy! The first belly shot, I am 16wks & 2 days. The second belly shot I am only 13 wks pregnant. The ultrasound picture is from their 12 wk ultrasound. In the pictures with Kristin and I together I am 15 wks pregnant. My how I have grown in the last few weeks!

In the last month the babies have gone to the zoo for their grandma's birthday, and even got to help feed the giraffe's. They have traveled on a plane for the first time & gone to New York City where they went to their first Broadway play "Wicked". They have gone on their first boat ride on the Hudson River around Manhattan, and their second boat ride on a Pontoon boat on The St Johns River. Along with all this fun, we have had two ultrasound pictures, where feisty & budu were practically kicking each other in the head. They are laying right next to each other, with only a very thin sack separating them. It looks like they could just kick or reach right through it.

Friday, before I went to New York, I could feel my belly growing a little more but it wasn't that obvious. Over the weekend though, my belly really popped out to a little pooch. Phil and Kristin were surprised at the change that happened over just a couple days. See the pictures of Kristin's graduation & being in New York.

On Wednesday, 26 May, 2010, we went for our 15 week OB appointment. The doctor told me that so far all the blood work & ultrasounds have looked awesome. We got to listen to the babies heartbeats with a Doppler, but they couldn't tell if they were getting both heartbeats, so they did an ultrasound. I asked the doctor if she could try and see the sexes of the babies, and she said I must have a lot of faith in her. The babies heartbeats were easy to see with the ultrasound, but seeing the sexes was almost impossible. Buda's cord was between his legs so it was impossible to tell with him, but Feisty just wasn't real clear to see. The doctor could not confirm or deny it being a girl, but no boy parts were seen. I already know/feel that she is a girl, but we will know for sure (hopefully) on June 25th, which is our gender ultrasound. Our parents are coming with us to that ultrasound, and I am hoping that after the ultrasound my mom & mother-in-law will go to babies-R-us with me to help me start/fill-up my registry. I have no idea what kinds of stuff to register for. We still have not bought one thing for the babies or started decorating the babies room. As much as we are so excited about these babies, I don't think we have grasped the realization of what is coming. :) We are a little nervous about becoming parents, but know that we will be great.

As far as how I am feeling, I would say that this has been a great pregnancy so far. I have been lucky. My only complaint is a nagging headache that starts around noon & after Tylenol it gets better until around 4 pm. Then it really doesn't want to go away. I mentioned it to the doctor & she said it may be Tylenol Withdraw Syndrome. She told me to switch over to caffeine, and if that doesn't work try Motrin (which is only ok during the 2nd trimester.) Caffeine does seem to be working, but now I will have to deal with caffeine withdraw again. It is a never ending cycle. :) Well, I promise to try and update this more often. Until next time....