Free At Last!

Two more days until our next appointment and we can see how the twins are doing. They are very active lately and at times give their mother some crazy discomfort. The last few nights have not been great for sleep. I'm exhausted but my legs are so restless and I just can't slow down and relax. My guess is that I'm just overloaded with those wonderful pregnancy hormones. :) Originally I had my appointment scheduled for Friday afternoon but I found out during class yesterday that on Friday in the afternoon I have required clinical time that I would have to reschedule if I missed...

At this point in the pregnancy I don't want to miss a thing that I have to reschedule because the more I get done now... the better! So I called the office and had them reschedule to Thursday. (I don't mind seeing my babies a day earlier!) I'll see Dr H first at 1:45 and we'll do the awesome glucose test that I hope I pass with flying colors. (Yay for orange nasty drink!) Then I'll head up for the ultrasound and appointment with Dr. B. And finally my favorite part... more blood draws. We are going to check my thyroid levels again to see how they are doing.

I'm probably going to bring up to Dr H that I'm experiencing the troubles with breathing again. It's definitely not shortness of breath because I get that alot and know what that feels like. This is different and I'm pretty sure it's related to my allergies. I thought I was going to be able to control it with Claritin or Benedryl but that doesnt seem to be the case as I'm having more of them again. They are awful... your chest gets tight and burns and it just feels like you are suffocating. Myself I'm not so worried about, I just want to make sure it's not affecting the girls in any way. So I'll let you know what she thinks after I talk with her.

I have officialy started to 'outgrow' some of my maternity clothes (now isn't that a scary thought) Just the shirts thankfully and not the pants. A few of my tops just aren't long enough to cover the protruding lump that is now my midsection. My belly button has also popped out more and Abby loves to poke it and say 'Ow? Ow?' It's pretty cute.

Speaking of Abby she is doing much better, has gotten in two more teeth on top of all the other stuff she had to go through and we are going out for the first time in over a week! I am so excited for a grocery run (how pathetic is that) Our house is extremely low on food things and supplies and with company coming this weekend it's not a good feeling. I might also look into getting some of those magnetic locks to put on a few of the drawers in the kitchen to keep Abby out. We've also been working on a new routine for Abby, ONE NAP during the day and bedtime at 8... we've had THREE successful days of this and I hope to make it a habit. It gives me time to study at night before I go to bed and it means less fighting with her over falling asleep because she is just exhausted by the time I let her sleep. It's not easy though because it usually means I have to find things to keep her busy so she doesnt cry around or fall asleep on her own lol.

I have class twice more this week and possibly a play date with one of Abby's friend's from church (and her mommy :) ) on Thursday. I still have to figure out how to do that around our appointment. So this week will fly by quickly (yay!)

Oh and one last side note: I am so happy. Because we were working off of a budget it just didn't allow Tom to pick up anything for me for our 2nd anniversary this last June. But waiting has paid off! He purchased an external hard drive (that I have dubbed Cricket) so that I can put all of my millions of videos and pictures of Abby onto it... and have tons of room for all of our upcoming pictures of the twins! It's absolutely perfect because as most of you know... I'm a tad obsessed with taking pictures of my kids... or anything really :)

Till Thursday.... :)

TwEnTy FiVe WeEks

TwEnTy FiVe WeEks!!!!!Apparantly my babies each rivals the average rutabaga in weight -- about 1 1/2 pounds. (hahahaha) I can just picture them ganging up on rutabagas (and of course winning because they are Dose babies!) By the way, rutabagas (the picture I posted...) aren't attractive veggies.

But here is my happy dance for making it one more week, one step closer to getting these babies here safely and without NICU time or lingering health issues. TEN weeks... thats it guys... The countdown is beginning! They could be here within 9-12 weeks... I don't know why I have a feeling they are coming in at 35 weeks, maybe that is just hopeful thinking lol.

Abs is 'dancing' with her daddy in front of the TV to a "Silly Song with Larry" from Veggie Tales. I know it sounds like we watch a lot of tv whenever I post but that is mostly due to the fact that it's the ONLY time she allows me to sit down and type. I have a feeling that once I finish my 'must have' morning coffee we will be pondering a walk around town. We might have to wait a little while just because it is so cool outside this morning! Can you believe how quickly the weather turned??? Yesterday gave me the much needed break I well... needed. It was great to have other people to pitch in and help with her. My mom can't remember any of her kids that got the chickenpox this bad... but imagine that... Abby does something none of us expects? lol

But I'm feeling much better if a ... little worried that we are spending another day at home. (My family is moving my brother Michael to college today) We can't run around too many places because all of her spots havent yet 'scabbed' over. This means we probably won't be going to church tomorrow, I think we've exposed them enough as it is. It will be ok though, Abby and I will just have to find things to do. Our neighbor is home so if we get too bored we can always go talk with her.

If you are keeping up on how are babies are developing here are the latest goings on at this point in their gestational age:

How your baby's growing

Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. Her weight — a pound and a half — isn't much more than an average rutabaga, but she's beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she'll start to look more and more like a newborn. She's also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you'd now be able to discern its color and texture.

The network of nerves in your baby's ears is better developed and more sensitive than before. She may now be able to hear both your voice and your partner's as you chat with each other. She's inhaling and exhaling small amounts of amniotic fluid, which is essential for the development of her lungs. These so-called breathing movements are also good practice for when she's born and takes that first gulp of air.
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Well... that's it for now. Hope everyone is having a great Saturday and has fun things planned for the weekend!

We're still here...

I'm tired... so I appologize if it sounds like lately all I update you on is how crazy things are around here. The beginning of this entry is probably going to sound like a vent... and thats probably because it is. This chickenpox has turned out to be a more worthy foe that I had dreamed it would be. Yesterday turned out to be awful. Abby was awful and we were stuck at home. Today I wouldn't be surprised if we headed into Beresford before even her first nap... I'm just that stretched thin and I really need someone to help me with her.

The itchies have kicked in hard core. I should be thankful that at least it took this long but frankly trying to keep Abby from doing ANYTHING is hard. She also started pulling out her hair like crazy so I am losing that battle too... :( I tried taking her outside around 4pm yesterday but she threw temper tantrums and screamed and was just not happy so we went back in. Later I realized her eyes might have just been sensitive. Too bad she won't leave sunglasses or a hat on at all. I think I couldve handled it better but she took one nap, one all day... and then she didn't even go to bed till 11pm and she fought me tooth and nail. I ended up getting pretty frazzled at one point and I'm sure if anyone had come into our house they wouldve turned right back around. She was crying, so I was crying and then she poked me in the eyes because she saw my tears so I cried harder and then she was bawling... I'm sure it would've been hilarious if I hadn't been so exhausted and Abby hadn't been so miserable.

Oh the things I will have to tell her when she gets older! Abby can't just do anything... she has to do everything to the extreme! I guess life is never dull but I will be glad when this stuff is done... The babies are doing good as far as I can tell, I've been dealing with off again on again morning nausea... though a lot of that could be due to how crazy this last week has been.

I did start putting Abby's antiviral medication into her bottle. The fight of shoving a tsp down her throat (we use the syringe) four times a day on top of some of the other things she has to take was getting to be too much. The ever enlarging stomach is turning out to be a slight disability when it comes to dealing with Abby's not feeling good.

This morning she is sitting next to me in the chair with her blanket watching her cartoons on PBS. At least she is for the moment. We've already had a few struggles this morning, she didnt wake up happy and I heard her crying at least twice last night. I'm sure something is bothering her but I don't know how to make her feel better. It's a little funny that through all of this she's become attached to her blanket. She holds it for naps now, and just carries it around a lot. (She never used to do this)

Well my house is a mess, my daughter looks like she lost a huge battle with mosquitos and I haven't showered in two days... With luck today will be better but at least I can be thankful that I 'have' to put up with all of this. There are so many people who would give anything to have a little girl.... even if she has to get chickenpox for a week... or two...

(by the way I chose the picture of cows because Abby likes the 'moos')

Perhaps headway at last?

This morning she is running only a slight temp, 100-101? Difficult to tell because she keeps pulling the thermometer out before I can get an accurate reading... which is great because yesterday she was so out of it she wouldnt even do that? Perhaps our aresenal of medications is beginning to put a dent in this nasty pox! But she's up and picking at some bacon and a pancake and watching Super Readers (one of her favorite shows because they do the alphabet and letters and she loves them)

I didn't have the heart to post last night after everything that was going on. I had wiped after using the bathroom and got some bright red blood... thankfully just a little but it freaked me out and as stressed out and exhausted as I was it was the last thing I needed. After some real debating I finally decided I had better call the doctor, fully expecting that I was going to have to have my mom drive up to Worthing to watch Abs, drive up to Sioux Falls and head into the hospital to get checked out... aka an even longer night to add to a long day

THANKFULLY, they just told me to keep an eye on it... if I bled more or started having symptoms (aka contractions) to come up. So I laid down, tried to relax as much as I could with Abby until Tom came home. He made the bacon and pancakes that we are eating this morning and the two of us tried to survive until Abby fell asleep around 11. I finally convinced myself that A) I wasn't going into labor and that B) the babies were doing ok... and I slept REALLY hard. In fact I woke up at 2 thinking it was the morning. I'm still tempted to put in a call to the doctor to ask her to check out the babies and reassure me that it's not all in my head and that the babies are ok. But Abby is done with breakfast and I could use my morning coffee life blood... will update more later if there is more to report.

Chickenpox 1- Us 0

It has been an incredibly long day so far. If you hadn't already heard I had to run Abby up to the doctor's office today because she was running temps in excess of 102 and I wasn't able to control them with Tylenol. They wanted to see her right away so we drove up to see Dr. L She just wasn't acting right, couldnt stay awake... shaking really bad and just didn't look good. Yesterday was so good it really threw me off! She never ran a temp at all yesterday and outside of a little bit of discomfort with the pox she was fine! At first I was going to just let it go thinking it was just how the chickenpox were... but my Mom said to give the pediatrician a call. I shook all the way up to the dr I was so worried.

By the time we got to the doctor's office her temp was over 103. She fell asleep three times in my arms. They looked her over good and said that it certainly looks like the chickenpox. Her chances of getting it from the vaccine were 1-2% of all kids who get this thing... and even then normally when kids get it from the vaccine it is just a slight-mild case. Perhaps I should go buy a lottery ticket because she beat both odds. Not only that but her diaper rash is a yeasty type and now she is on Niastatin for that too. My poor little girl!

It was an interesting visit because there was a point that I thought I might be having contractions and that terrified me more because that is all I would need... to go into labor on top of all of this! So I took some deep breaths, said a little prayer and they went away. It must have been Braxton Hicks or perhaps some jealous babies pushing on their sister who was sleeping on my stomach. Thankfully we are ok there.

They put her on an antiviral, Benedryl and Tylenol... so between these 4 medications hopefully she will start to feel better. The doctor told me that if she in any way seems to be getting worse that I needed to call them immediatly so that they could see her again. So now we wait and see. When we came home she was shaking so bad she could hardly stand but now she is sleeping on the couch as I try to keep the pesky flies from her face so that she stays asleep. Thank you for all of your prayers, we appreciate them! It sounds like she will be contagious for the next week or so... keep me in your prayers also in that I don't go crazy stuck at home. Loves!

Chickenpox Mayhem

Well that fever turned into... you guessed it... the chickenpox. How wonderful. I thought that was the point of getting the vaccine? So much for that working!! On the positive side at least we won't have to deal with it when the babies come and she can have mommy's undivided attention all week before I go back to school... the negative side? It's my last week before the craziness begins... and it would've been fun to get out and about.

But Abby is handling it as well as can be expected, her little bottom also has a mean diaper rash (that has been getting worse every day for about a week) the doctor prescribed some 'poop goop' that we need to put on every time we change her so hopefully that will clear this stuff up. It's an antibiotic, anti-fungal, anti-yeast, skin protector stuff that the pediatricians made up that is supposed to be awesome. I enjoyed the name of the stuff though :)

I've been quite a bit more tired today than I have been in awhile... I mean just dragging. The twins on the otherhand have been quiet active! This afternoon they were going crazy and it felt like I had a school of rather large goldfish having a party. Thankfully I was able to go down to Beresford this afternoon and mom gave me some help with Abby... and I got a nap!!! :) (and a shower thankfully) That helped some but I'm sure I will want to go to bed not long after Abby is sleeping. Other than that not much else to report, things are still going good even if I'm a little tired and sore and still getting up to go to the bathroom 4x a night... *sigh*

Moooonday!

Poor Abby woke up with a fever this morning. I dont know if it's related to her teeth... as I saw a special little one popping through on the bottom (yay finally more than 2 teeth on the bottom!) or if she picked up a bug somewhere. I had suspected she wasn't feeling very good when she was SUPER cranky yesterday and not much fun to be around.

We were supposed to go out with my grandma to have lunch but I can't decide if we should go our not. Tom is home for the day so I could make him stay home with her... but then thats kinda mean since eating out with grandma is a lot of fun and I think he wanted a chance to get out of the house again.

I've decided that this week I'm not going to work since I start school next week... just so I can enjoy the rest of my time off, get ready for school and do fun things with Tom and Abby. It's too bad Abby is sick today... I hope it's just teeth fever! Now that I think about it she did have the chicken pox shot last week... and she does have a few bumps, maybe I should look her over a little more carefully and make sure she isn't having a reaction to that.

As far as the babies everything is going great. We have now met with two people at our church who either a) lost a twin to a birth defect or b) have twin girls. Both families were extremely supportive and told us to give them a holler if we needed anything at all. The family whom lost a twin boy 2 years ago had written us a very nice card earlier that I still have, how great God has been in placing people into our lives at just the right time. I think I have figured out what my breathing problem is... allergies. I think I'm having allergic reactions to something (my allergies have just been horrific this fall) So I'm going to give a call to the doctor to see if there is something I should be taking since the Benedryl isnt really cutting it... thats it for now!

Losing my ability to breathe... already

I knew at some point that this was going to happen... had been hoping it might be awhile before the breathlessness came in but these babies had other ideas. Last night I had several episodes where my chest was heavy and burning and no matter how much I tried it seemed like I wasnt getting enough oxygen. Not a great feeling believe me. And the funny thing is that I was having these while sitting or laying down. So I checked and no, my fingers or lips werent turning blue, my capillary refill was fine... heart rate was a little up but that could be related to the 'smothered fish feeling'

But they went away so I brushed them off. My chest still feels tired this morning and I'm SOB (short of breath) when I get up to do normal tasks around the house. These babies must be pushing up hard against my diaphragm. So don't worry about me, I'll keep an eye on it and the babies are moving a lot so they aren't too bothered by it. Everything I've read online says this happens but it's abnormal for me because I never had it with Abby. We went on a walk yesterday afternoon and it didnt bother me much then, and I tend to feel better when I'm standing up... so maybe it's my posture?

24 weeks today! yay!!!! Our twins are the size of the picture I posted on here. (Just imagine one of the baby's head up instead of down. Here is what is currently going on with them:

"How your baby's growing:
Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts her at just over a pound. Since she's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), she cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but her body is filling out proportionally and she'll soon start to plump up. Her brain is also growing quickly now, and her taste buds are continuing to develop. Her lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help her air sacs inflate once she hits the outside world. Her skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon."

Well it's time for me to get Abby down for a nap so that my Mom and I can head up to Sioux Falls today and pick out some paint for her new room... things are slowly coming together. No painting for me tho :(

23w 5d Appointment Update

Sorry I didnt get this out there right away, Abby and I spent some time running around Sioux Falls and then we went out to eat with my mom and my brother Andrew. The good news is the babies are still doing wonderfully. Baby A is 1lb 6oz and Baby B is 1lb 5oz and as my OB pointed out they have reached the point where they can survive outside the womb if something happens and they come too early. (yay!!!!) Though we want them to stay in at LEAST another 4 weeks because their health will only get better. ZERO signs of Twin Twin Transfusion once again and my cervix has thinned a little but still looking good so we are now past the point of cervical incompetence issues and move onto the point of watching out for preterm labor.

I've started spotting again (sigh) but because the babies, the cervix and the placenta look so good they arent overly concerned about it and are just going to keep an eye on it. (Still very annoying and slightly scary for me) I had a feeling that Baby B flipped... and I was right. Instead of laying across the top of my abdomen she is now breech on my left side and Baby A still remains head down on my right side. It's amazing how strong they are and how hard they can kick! I just figure B got tired of playing footsie with a slightly more active sister.

I have another appointment the week after next... and I'll be back at school! (yikes!) We will be doing the glucose check (yay for orange drink stuff) and then another ultrasound and Peri appt and OB appt... the fun never ends I tell you. Dr H said that if I was having twins with 2 placentas I would be going in 4 weeks from now but because of the one placenta we go in more often. She explained that it's just hard to really know how the babies are doing without an ultrasound because kick counts are really difficult and there is no way to measure to see if the babies are growing right outside of an ultrasound. So... looks like I'll be giving you guys appointment updates here for awhile. Did I mention my blood pressure was amazing once again? 92/60?? All that walking and Abby running must be keeping me in shape... and I hadnt gained as much weight as I thought I had so we're ok there too... Dr says I still look fit and trim and she'd never guess by looking at me that I was 24 weeks with twins. (I'm measuring 31 weeks now across the abdomen)

Ok better go lay down for a nap while Abby is sleeping... this day has completely worn me out! More to come and thank you Lord for another happy report and a good day :)

Oh! and if you are wondering why there is only a picture of B... A decided she was not going to get her picture taken, her face was pressed up against my back and she never flipped... so perhaps next time we'll trick her into getting her picture taken! B took some coaxing herself and we could only get her to move her hand/arm a little to get a sneak peak of her face... little stinkers!

A quick update...

I'm starving and Abby is napping ... so writing on this blog PROBABLY shouldnt be the first thing I do. But it's quiet, the weather is gorgeous and I just wanted to write before we decided to do other things today and I didnt get back to my computer. The twins are making me uncomfortable! I'm pretty sure A (or B i guess) moved or shifted or did something because she is digging into some muscle or nerve or tendon on my left side. Normally I only feel them on the right, since they have been hanging out their so long. I guess we'll find out tomorrow when we have the ultrasound to see where they are.

Ahhh tomorrow... our ALMOST 24 week appointment. I'm so excited to see how they are doing! I wonder if they will continue scheduling the ultrasounds every other week? It's just comforting to see that everything is doing ok... by the end of the 2 weeks I'm anxious to see my babies. (how spoiled I am!) They've been a little quiet today so I'm watching that a little... can you tell I'm getting paranoid? I'm STARVING all of the time now, I swear I want to eat almost every 2-4 hours... though thats probably because I only eat a bit at a time since my stomach is starting to get squished a little lol. I'm a little worried about my weight gain since I've been gaining really fast these last few weeks. Considering how hard it was to gain in my first trimester this second has been a breeze... almost too easy. I think I've gained almost 30 pounds now! I should be happy about that because it means babies are growing good... I'm just starting to swell a little and I'm hoping it's not a sign of things to come. I want to avoid bedrest and high blood pressure at all costs. In the last 2 weeks I think Ive gained 6-8 pounds... doesnt that seem like a lot? We walk a lot and I'm just as active as always... don't eat a ton... but am still really gaining... I'll ask Dr Hermanson about that tomorrow.

Well thats it for now! Time for lunch!!!! (PS arent my pictures fun!!! I'll post more later but you can see more of them on Facebook. It was hard to do them myself but I think I got some good ones. I cant wait till the twins come! I'm going to have a blast!)