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.