Gettin' the Itch

When I was pregnant with my first, I always promised myself that I'd NEVER be hugely pregnant again in the summertime ever again. However, I'm not one of those lucky people that can plan when I get pregnant. I just have to take what I can get.

So here I am breaking a HUGE promise to myself: I'm hugely pregnant and due in July AND having twins. Lovely.

And when I get hot my stretching skin itches like crazy! We've barely hit the 70s here and I'm already itching like a mad woman. When I get hot I want to rip off my clothes and just itch like crazy. It is not fun being outside or in public when I get the itches. I have to ignore it and my belly is just screaming to be scratched!

Although I had to break the original promise to myself, I now vow a new promise: I will stay inside my air-conditioned house as much as possible for the entire summer!!!

Say What???

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. Again. I guess I need to start getting used to it because they are going to start happening two to four times a week soon. As of now, I just go weekly. But that will all change soon. I'll have my normal OB visit, my specialist visit, and two non-stress test appointments at the hospital every week. Can we say FUN?!? ;0)

The appointment went great. I am getting sick of the nurses not being able to find the heartbeats though. It really irritates me. That's always the worst part for me (since the devastating day we found out my firstborn son had passed away). I wish the nurses knew how horrible that is for me. Especially when they say, "Hmm . . . well I can't find them, maybe I'll go get another nurse to help me." My heart always skips a beat. NOT FUN. I wish they'd just stop searching for the heart tones and put me on the ultrasound machine to start with. Then there's no doubt that my babies are fine. *sigh* Oh well, c'est la vie. No worries though, we always find the heartbeats (eventually).

The doctor checked my cervix and it is completely closed and very tight. That's good! That's what we want to hear! He'll continue checking it every week from now until delivery. Super fun.

Then he measured the height of my uterus. For those who don't know, when you are pregnant with one baby, your uterus usually measures as many centimeters as you are weeks (example, if you are 35 weeks along then your uterus will measure 35 centimeters). Well here I was, 25 weeks pregnant and I was measuring 36 centimeters. AHH! With twins they expect you to measure about 8 weeks bigger. So even for a twin pregnancy, I am measuring a little big. Not a huge surprise though, I always measure a little bigger.

Then I nervously asked my doctor, "So when my uterus reaches 40 centimeters, will my body think it's time to deliver the babies?" He said, "Oh, no. You'll be surprised at what your body can do. You'll probably hit 44 cm before we're all said and done with."

Then the nurse said, "In fact, we measured a twin mom yesterday who was 50 centimeters and still hasn't delivered!"

SAY WHAT?!?!?! Wow. Well, at least I know that it's physically possible for a body to stretch that far.

So 50+ centimeters, here I come!

Throw Me A Bone

Yesterday was exhausting. It was picture day at the dance studio I work at. The picture part wasn't too stressful, surprisingly. The part that was difficult was all the comments I got from parents about my belly. Here are a few of them:

"Wow, look how big you are!"

"So you must only have a couple weeks left."

"Whoa, how do you carry that thing around?"

"You. Are. HUGE!"

"How does your back not break?!"

Etc. Etc. Etc. times a million!

Thank you everyone. Thank you for the over 50 comments I got about my huge belly. I feel like a beautiful princess now. Thank you. There are so many thoughtful people in the world. ;0)

Specialist Visit #2

We had another visit with the specialist last week. As much as I really hate driving 45 minutes to see a specialist, I enjoy the peace of mind I get from having another doctor check the babies. Everything looked great, but we did have one false-alarm scare.

The ultrasound tech took all the measurements and looked at all the anatomy. When the doctor came in the room he said, "There is one part of the anatomy that we aren't seeing." Apparently there was a part of the heart on Baby B (the girl) that the ultrasound tech couldn't find. However, when the doctor looked he realized that Baby B was clear over on my side. After he had me roll on my side, he was able to get a good look at the heart and see that everything was perfect. It was a stressful few minutes for me though!!!

Here are some ultrasound pics from my appointment:


The heads of my sweet babies


Hard to see (it's at the top, sideways), but a front shot of Baby Boy's face (you can basically just see the skeleton)


A profile shot of Baby Girl. She always seems to be more photogenic.

Again, a little hard to see, but this is a picture of the bottom of the girl's feet.

New Best Friend...

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...okay, not literally. I was just surprised to get in the car yesterday and have my pregnant belly touching the steering wheel. Crazy! Luckily, I can scoot my seat back a little and still (barely) reach the pedals. In another week or two I don't think I'll fit at all. Insane!

Flip-Floppers

These kiddos just love to switch their positions. Last week the boy was breech and the girl was vertex (head down). This week they were both breech! I will be having a repeat c-section anyway, so their positions really don't matter. Although it doesn't seem to hurt my pelvis as much when they're breech.

I guess they better get all the wiggling in that they can . . . because in a week or two, they'll probably be stuck for good!

Priceless Advice

Here's the advice I got from one of my pregnancy books regarding two separate pregnancy symptoms I've been having: night hunger and frequent bathroom trips at night

1) "If you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night due to hunger, try eating a small snack and having a small drink before bedtime."

2) "If frequent trips to the bathroom are waking you up at night, avoid drinking or eating anything before bedtime."

Thank you. Now my problems are completely over! That was some priceless advice. So pretty much I can't win. I'm glad the doctors who wrote the book spent so much time in college so they'd be educated enough to give such sound advice. ;0)

My advice? Choose which symptom of the two you'd rather have. As for me, I'll be visiting the bathroom several times each night. So much more convenient than waking up to eat!

Hello, Mr. Heartburn

A peek into my world: lately I've been singing this Dixie Chics song in my head. To make it more fitting, I changed the word "Mr. Heartache" to "Mr. Heartburn" so it would be more fitting to my current situation. I just think this song explains it so well. I only get heartburn when I'm pregnant and I hate it. Enjoy!

Hello Mr. Heartburn,
I've been expecting you
Come in and wear your welcome out
The way you always do
You never say if you're here to stay
Or only passin' through
So hello Mr. Heartburn,
I've been expecting you

When I don't feel like company
You make yourself at home
Even though you know
I'd rather be alone
Sleep walked out on me
And didn't even close the door
Next thing I know I'm starin'
At your shadow on the floor

I wish I could say it's nice
To see you back again
We're not exactly strangers
But we're not exactly friends
You know you're not invited but
You keep on comin' round
The last thing that I need is you
To kick me when I'm down

So, hello Mr. Heartburn,
I've been expecting you
Come in and wear your welcome out
The way you always do
You never say if you're here to stay
Or only passin' through
So hello Mr. Heartburn,
I've been expecting you

I've been expecting you
I've been expecting you
I've been expecting you

Ultrasound Pics

Here are some of the many ultrasound pics I've had done:

These first two pics are from the first time they looked at the genders. As you can see it says "Possible Boy" and "Possible Girl"

Here is a pic of their cute little heads! I still can't believe there are two in there!

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This is a blurry picture of baby boy's face.

This is the front of baby girl's face.

Baby Girl was more cooperative (or just in a better position) so we were able to get a profile shot of her.