This has been another busy week. The insurance company deemed my Accord totaled. Luckily, J had already been hard at work trying to find us a replacement vehicle. We decided to go ahead and get a minivan, specifically a Honda Odyssey. He found us a really, really good deal on a 2008 EX-L in the blue color I wanted. We were planning on getting a minivan at some point via trading in the 4Runner but it made more financial sense to take the insurance buy-out and get it now.
We spent Saturday and Sunday Christmas shopping at the local mall. J was still getting over a persistant cold, so combined with me, we were quite a pair. I ended up needing to sit and rest every 30 min or so. I think in the end we both over-exerted ourselves. I've been worn out ever since.
The battle of the vitamins apparently isn't over. I took my iron one last night about 15 min before bed. It made me sick and I threw up pretty much everything I had eaten since dinner. I was frustrated and disheartened, to say the least. I'm getting frequent restless leg attacks due to lower-than-desired iron levels but I just can't seem to keep the darn things down. I was hoping that morning sickness would be easing up by now, but the frequency that I get sick is higher than ever.
Neither of my doctors seems to be much help, either. One basically freaks out if I'm not taking vitamins while the other says don't even bother taking them. The issue is I know my iron levels are lower than my body needs because of this leg thing. It takes FOREVER (1-2hrs) to fall asleep with my leg jerking. Some nights it's so bad both legs are restless.
It hasn't been all misery, though. I got some pillows at Target yesterday, which freed up my old one to act as a support between my knees. This has helped ease the hip pain I've just started experiencing. Naturally my shoulder started hurting immediately but whatever... If I'm feeling like this now, I'm scared to see what 30 weeks is like.
12.23.2008
12.17.2008
0
Week 12
This week has been tough. On Saturday a guy ran a red light and took the corner off my Accord. Other than a pretty big bruise on my left arm, everyone was ok. Luckily we already had a MFS appointment on Monday or I would have made one to be sure the babies were ok.
They are 100% fine and seem to be doing well. Their hearbeats were in the 150-160 range, their sizes were good, and they didn't have any signs of Down's Syndrome (excess fluid on the neck and lack of nose bones). In fact, we could see their little arms and legs waving around. Both had their hands near their faces. Very cute! You could also see their profiles.
Up until now I've sort of distanced myself from the idea of twins, mostly because I've read so much stuff about people loosing one or both before the 12 week mark. Sure, there are plenty of people that lost them later, too, but the 1st trimester seems to be the big turning point. I feel like I can really be happy about them now without as much worrying. There's zero things that have pointed towards there being any issues, which to me means we'll probably end up with 2 little bundles when it's all said and done. :D
My symptoms this week have been harder than most. Dealing with rental cars, insurance people, and missing my frequent snacks like normal resulted in me decorating the lawn outside of a pizza place. I've also been having headaches, with today's being fairly bad. Tylenol won't stay down, so I'm just sucking it up.
One thing that's helped me a lot when I start to feel sick is trying to visualize something to get my mind off it. Obviously it doesn't have a 100% success rate, but I'd put it in the 75% range. What I do is try to visualize a strawberry. I'm talking down to the smallest detail, like the reflection of light off the area around the seeds and the roughness of the leaves. I'll also try to dig up a scent memory so I can sort of smell the fruit.
Here's a picture of Baby A from Monday.
They are 100% fine and seem to be doing well. Their hearbeats were in the 150-160 range, their sizes were good, and they didn't have any signs of Down's Syndrome (excess fluid on the neck and lack of nose bones). In fact, we could see their little arms and legs waving around. Both had their hands near their faces. Very cute! You could also see their profiles.
Up until now I've sort of distanced myself from the idea of twins, mostly because I've read so much stuff about people loosing one or both before the 12 week mark. Sure, there are plenty of people that lost them later, too, but the 1st trimester seems to be the big turning point. I feel like I can really be happy about them now without as much worrying. There's zero things that have pointed towards there being any issues, which to me means we'll probably end up with 2 little bundles when it's all said and done. :D
My symptoms this week have been harder than most. Dealing with rental cars, insurance people, and missing my frequent snacks like normal resulted in me decorating the lawn outside of a pizza place. I've also been having headaches, with today's being fairly bad. Tylenol won't stay down, so I'm just sucking it up.
One thing that's helped me a lot when I start to feel sick is trying to visualize something to get my mind off it. Obviously it doesn't have a 100% success rate, but I'd put it in the 75% range. What I do is try to visualize a strawberry. I'm talking down to the smallest detail, like the reflection of light off the area around the seeds and the roughness of the leaves. I'll also try to dig up a scent memory so I can sort of smell the fruit.
Here's a picture of Baby A from Monday.
Here's Baby B. S/he is such a ham! We have like 8 pictures of him/her and only one good one of A! lol 
Here's a top-down view of their heads. A is positioned down closer to the exit than B.
12.11.2008
0
Week 11
(I'm going to update based on by due date, not by MLP, so this will be 1 week behind the ticker.)
So far I've gained 5lbs since pre-pregnancy. The What to Expect with Twins, Triplets, and Quads book by Dr. Luke says I should be at 10-15lbs by now. A quick survey of the Twinstuff forums seem to indicate that I'm pretty normal and that the 20lbs by 20 weeks will probably still happen.
The biggest issue so far besides being very tired all the time is my prenatal vitamins have started to make me sick. From what I can find, it's probably the iron. My original OB had me taking both of the pills together. I'm hoping actually taking the AM one in the morning and the PM one at night will help. Tonight is the first test.
We had a checkup Tuesday this week. Here's a copy/paste of my response to a friend when he asked how it went.
Our MFS's next appointment is on Monday at 8am. This will be a u/s to determine things like Downs Syndrome and other abnormalities. I also am secretly wanting verification both twins are still doing ok (Vanishing Twin ftl).
We toured Greenville Hospital last night. It was ok but the maternity ward seemed kind of cramped. The rooms were small and the ceilings were low. J and I laughed at how everyone else were expecting within a month. Two were expecting next week! We felt like oddballs since everyone else was obviously pregnant. I'm juuust beginning to show, although maternicty pants have been required for about a week. Before that I was sporting pants a size bigger than I used to wear. That lasted a few weeks. lol
So far I've gained 5lbs since pre-pregnancy. The What to Expect with Twins, Triplets, and Quads book by Dr. Luke says I should be at 10-15lbs by now. A quick survey of the Twinstuff forums seem to indicate that I'm pretty normal and that the 20lbs by 20 weeks will probably still happen.
The biggest issue so far besides being very tired all the time is my prenatal vitamins have started to make me sick. From what I can find, it's probably the iron. My original OB had me taking both of the pills together. I'm hoping actually taking the AM one in the morning and the PM one at night will help. Tonight is the first test.
We had a checkup Tuesday this week. Here's a copy/paste of my response to a friend when he asked how it went.
The appointment was fairly pointless. My regular doctor was out so we had this other guy. Basically he only wanted to talk to J. My only interaction was when he doplered me for baby heartbeats. Naturally he could only find one (this is very typical). He said I was fat ("You look like 14 weeks!" (I'm only 11)) and left. Waste of time, imo.
Our MFS's next appointment is on Monday at 8am. This will be a u/s to determine things like Downs Syndrome and other abnormalities. I also am secretly wanting verification both twins are still doing ok (Vanishing Twin ftl).
We toured Greenville Hospital last night. It was ok but the maternity ward seemed kind of cramped. The rooms were small and the ceilings were low. J and I laughed at how everyone else were expecting within a month. Two were expecting next week! We felt like oddballs since everyone else was obviously pregnant. I'm juuust beginning to show, although maternicty pants have been required for about a week. Before that I was sporting pants a size bigger than I used to wear. That lasted a few weeks. lol
0
Catching Up
I went back and forth on the blog thing. It seems like online is more convienent than writing in a journal. I'm not sure I want to ultimately keep a pregnancy book but that's a decision I can make later. :)
So at this point I'm 11 or 12 weeks along with twins. The first number is based off their actual size. The second is calculated from my LMP. The ticker at the left prefers the 11 weeks for the "You have this many days left until June 28th, sucker!" and the 12 for the "This is how long you've been exhausted." I'm not sure why this ended up being so complicated. lol
We've had two ultrasounds so far. The first was around 8 weeks. I was on the table, holding J's hand as we waited for our first glimpses of the baby. The u/s tech spent what I considered extra long looking at the screen before turning it so we could see. Once she did let us in on the fun, she said "So this is Baby B." Uh... J and I looked at each other. This was not the plan. I immediately blamed him. Both baby A and B had strong heartbeats, in the 140-150 range.
Four days later on November 11th we went to the Maternal-Fetal Specialist to have them determine if they were mono (sharing one bubble) or di (each have their own). It seemed pretty clear to the tech that they were di-bubbled. We were relieved. One book I read said that mono's had around a 50% chance of not making it. Di's also are a decent indicator of fraternal twins but there's a small chance they could be identical. The two bubbles also mean that they won't share a placenta or tangle up their umbilical cords, both serious issues that mono's face.
The MFS also talked to us about Vanishing Twin, a situation were one twin stops growing and gets reabsorbed. It was the first thing we came across when researching twins online and we were really, really worried about it. Some sources were saying there's a 30% chance of this happening! Others say it's lower, like 20%. No one really knows for sure because a lot of people don't get a u/s until much later after and vanishing would have happened (normally before week 12).
I still think about it sometimes, since I'm not out of the woods yet. It's really hard mentally when you plan and think about having one baby, then find out it's two, but that you could still end up with one. Part of you feels excited about twins, but there's a tiny little voice that would be very happy with only one. Add in guilt and general worry, and you've recreated how I feel. hehe
I think we're still coming to terms with having twins, at least in an abstract sense. I'm sure the reality won't sink in until they're born. There's also this feeling that most people don't understand how high risk they are, even being di-bubbled. I'm not going to have them until 40 weeks. Most mom's are induced at 36-38 weeks if they don't appear before then. Bedrest starting around week 25 is a high possibiliy. An NICU stay for the bebes is also something we've had to learn about, including all sorts of premie issues like jaundice, feeding tubes, apnea monitors, and underdeveloped lungs. It's hard to not be perpetually freaked out.
So at this point I'm 11 or 12 weeks along with twins. The first number is based off their actual size. The second is calculated from my LMP. The ticker at the left prefers the 11 weeks for the "You have this many days left until June 28th, sucker!" and the 12 for the "This is how long you've been exhausted." I'm not sure why this ended up being so complicated. lol
We've had two ultrasounds so far. The first was around 8 weeks. I was on the table, holding J's hand as we waited for our first glimpses of the baby. The u/s tech spent what I considered extra long looking at the screen before turning it so we could see. Once she did let us in on the fun, she said "So this is Baby B." Uh... J and I looked at each other. This was not the plan. I immediately blamed him. Both baby A and B had strong heartbeats, in the 140-150 range.
Four days later on November 11th we went to the Maternal-Fetal Specialist to have them determine if they were mono (sharing one bubble) or di (each have their own). It seemed pretty clear to the tech that they were di-bubbled. We were relieved. One book I read said that mono's had around a 50% chance of not making it. Di's also are a decent indicator of fraternal twins but there's a small chance they could be identical. The two bubbles also mean that they won't share a placenta or tangle up their umbilical cords, both serious issues that mono's face.
The MFS also talked to us about Vanishing Twin, a situation were one twin stops growing and gets reabsorbed. It was the first thing we came across when researching twins online and we were really, really worried about it. Some sources were saying there's a 30% chance of this happening! Others say it's lower, like 20%. No one really knows for sure because a lot of people don't get a u/s until much later after and vanishing would have happened (normally before week 12).
I still think about it sometimes, since I'm not out of the woods yet. It's really hard mentally when you plan and think about having one baby, then find out it's two, but that you could still end up with one. Part of you feels excited about twins, but there's a tiny little voice that would be very happy with only one. Add in guilt and general worry, and you've recreated how I feel. hehe
I think we're still coming to terms with having twins, at least in an abstract sense. I'm sure the reality won't sink in until they're born. There's also this feeling that most people don't understand how high risk they are, even being di-bubbled. I'm not going to have them until 40 weeks. Most mom's are induced at 36-38 weeks if they don't appear before then. Bedrest starting around week 25 is a high possibiliy. An NICU stay for the bebes is also something we've had to learn about, including all sorts of premie issues like jaundice, feeding tubes, apnea monitors, and underdeveloped lungs. It's hard to not be perpetually freaked out.
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