32w2d -- Less than a month to go!

Sunday marked 32 weeks! Where have the last 8 months gone? I can't believe I have less than a month left until I meet my little boys! I'm anxious, excited, scared, stressed, and happy all rolled into one beachball sized belly.

Yesterday (Monday) I had their weekly NST monitoring. Again, one baby wouldn't cooperate. Ronin decided he didn't want to wake up and get his butt moving. Orion passed within the first few minutes because he was feeling rather rowdy. When one of them fails we have to do the BPP. Again, Orion passed this in just over 3 minutes (they have 30 minutes to complete this test). Ronin did not pass. In a BPP they check for movement, muscle tone, breathing motions, and amniotic fluid amounts around each baby. Ronin did not pass the breathing motion portion. This meant that I had to go back to the doctor today and have the BPP ran again. Orion passed in less than 3 minutes today. He was moving and shaking and Ronin passed as well within about 10 minutes. I do admit, I sugared them up before the test and I ate about an hour before hand to hopefully make sure they were awake in there.

Also, on Monday Ronin was breech. I was in a lot of pain last night, especially my ribs and it felt like my skin was beyond stretched. I *knew* that Ronin had flipped around again. It was confirmed today during the BPP ultrasound. He is now flipped vertex again. Now the little turkey just needs to stay that way 1. so he doesn't cause me so much pain and 2. so I can deliver vaginally! It would be super nice to be able to have them the good old fashioned way (except with an epidural) than to have a c-section and deal with the recovery from that on top of trying to learn how to breastfeed and juggle two newborns.

On a side note, Thayer's mom gets in town tonight from Guam. We haven't seen her since our wedding in June 2009 and that was the only time I've even met her. It shall be interesting! I'm trying not to stress. The house is spotless and there are groceries in the cupboard. Not sure what more I could do.

32 weeks!

Clingy dogs... They definitely know something big is about to happen!

31 weeks - T-minus 35 days!

Well another week of pregnancy is complete. I am now at the 31 weeks mark and still going strong. I'm still not on mandatory bed rest, though I have decided it is in my best interest to take things easy. The babies are getting bigger. I'm not certain by how much, but next week is my growth scan.

Last Thursday I had an appointment with my regular OB (after my NST and fluid check). I see him every 2 weeks at this point and the MFM every week. They did the doppler and answered my questions. They measured my fundal height. I was 30w4d, but my uterus was measuring at 38 weeks. He said now that I'm measuring at full term I needed to have my hospital packed and in the car at all times. My body will essentially go into autopilot when it senses my uterus getting too big. Also, if anything happens to be found during the NSTs or growth scans that is cause for concern they will admit me either A) for more observation or B) to deliver the babies if it is bad enough. He just wants us to be prepared for these little boys to come at any time now. My induction/c-section is scheduled for July 8th. That is 35 days away. That's a little daunting to say the least
Today I had another appointment at the MFM office for an NST and fluid check. Both babies were being persnickety. For the first 10 minutes or so they did absolutely nothing. Guess they thought it was snooze time after waking me up at 5am. So the RN came in and buzzed them both. This got Orion moving, but all it did for Ronin was adjust his baseline heart rate. He just didn't want to wiggle. It was funny though, during the NST both babies ended up getting the hiccups so you could hear this little "hic, hic" tapping on the monitors along with the heartbeats. So after being monitored for 45 minutes and Ronin still not cooperating it was deemed that he failed the NST. When this happens they have to do a Bio-physical profile (BPP) on both of the babies. During this they look for the babies to both have practice breathing motions and to have a certain number of observable movements through ultrasound. Ronin was able to complete the entire test in just a few minutes. He decided it might be time to wake up. Then they went to check out Orion. He showed his practice breathing right away, but he thought it was still time to sleep and didn't want to move. He almost hit the time limit on the BPP before the tech was able to get enough observable movements out of him. I had to roll around on the US table from side to side, sit up, lay down all the way (which is incredibly uncomfortable) to try and get him to do something. If it's not one baby, it's the other! I do have good news, however. As of today, both babies are cephalic (head down). If they stay this way until July 8th then I will be able to have a vaginal delivery instead of a c-section!

I fear that Thayer are going to have our hands very full when these little boys arrive in a month because they are already very stubborn. (They get that from Thayer... lol).

School is now out, so I have the opportunity to take it easy. I've been trying to "nest" but it's difficult because most of the baby stuff is all packed away because we are going to be moving into our new house around July 1st. The ladies at work also through me a mini-baby shower. It was great! Everyone was so nice. I can't wait to go back in the fall and show off the babies.

Thayer and I are also preparing for the arrival of his mom. Her flight from Guam gets in June 11th. It's a little nerve-wracking because I've only met her once. I haven't seen her since I lost all the weight, and now I'm huge and pregnant. She's going to stay with us for a couple of days then drive out to the east coast to see the rest of the family and come back in time to see the babies before heading back overseas.

31 weeks!

The Doctor Wasn't Kidding

My OB really wasn't kidding when said a twin pregnancy would be difficult for me to carry because of my stature. I'm a shorty (5'1") so that means short legs and short torso... that also means less room for the babies. I've had babies clear up to almost the bottom of my sternum for a couple of weeks now. I've had heads and arms in my ribs since they are both breech... but yesterday afternoon and night was the first time I really felt lost for breath. Every time I would have a braxton hicks contraction (which I have A LOT of) it feels like someone is sitting on my chest. It is almost akin to an asthma attack. I'm certain it is caused by the position of the boys (most of the mass being up high in my uterus). They are infringing on my organs and pushing my diaphragm up making it more difficult to breathe, especially when everything tightens up so hard in there. Sometimes I wonder how in the world my body is going to survive another 5 1/2 weeks of baby growth. I already have the equivalent of a full term baby in there. Why couldn't I have been taller?

I do have to say that I'm proud of my husband. In the last few weeks he's started picking up more and more of the slack. Last night when I was miserable he took really good care of me as well. He's starting to see the toll it is all taking on my body. I also tell him little anecdotes about other twin moms on my birth board who have already give birth to preemie babies. Or I tell them how most of them are on at least modified bed rest at this point (but I'm such a rock star little incubator that I'm not yet). Things like that really get him thinking. I've even showed him a picture of a set of the preemie babies (tubes and all) so he knows just how important it is for me to keep these little boys in there as long as possible. Some may say I was using scare tactics, but I prefer to think of it as a reality check.

Last night when the boys started hammering away at my ribcage I decided to try getting on all 4s to see if gravity would help get them out of my ribs. (Head and chest laying on the couch, knees on the floor). It worked for the most part! Thayer even came and rubbed my back. I'm know I've been pretty grumpy off and on lately because of how I'm feeling... but he's being pretty patient with me and all of my moodiness.

So... 40 days left until I meet my little boys. :)