28 weeks!

I'm 28 weeks!!!! Why is this significant? I'm in my last trimester now, and thanks to modern medicine, if something were to happen and the little ones had to come out, they would have a very good chance of surviving without major consequences.  But, as excited as I am to meet them, I do need them to cook a little longer.  At least 8 more weeks for my liking. (What is my belly going to look like in 8 weeks!!!!!!)

We got big babies!

Great news.  I went to the high-risk Maternal Fetal Medicine OB.  This lady was all business.  She reminded me of "The Nazi" on Grey's Anatomy, even looked like her, except her hair was longer.  She zipped and zoomed around my uterus taking a bunch of measurements and after she was done told me that my little girl had caught up to her big brother and their weights were 2lbs 5oz and 2lbs 6oz respectively (at 27 weeks).  These sizes are even large for singleton pregnancies!!!

I was thrilled.  All of this taking it easy has helped...even though I've been crazy stressed these past couple of weeks, I've forced myself to sit down and lie down as much as possible.  It's not easy, especially with so much going on.  But Jason and I have been through way too much for me to let my fast pace and emotional stress harm our little miracles.

I'm sick as a dog right now.  Took the day off from work to come home, ended up sleeping for hours.  Doctor called me in a Z-pack and I hope it kicks in soon.  It's a really bad cold/sinus infection, very gross, very green.  I haven't been sick this whole pregnancy so I guess something finally just gave in and wore me down.  Tomorrow is also the service for my grandmother who passed away so we have to travel to Comfort for the weekend.  My plan is to sleep as much as possible, try not to emotionally stress out too much and hope this virus just runs its course.  

I passed my longer glucose test (woohoo) and my iron absorption info came back within normal range, so the only thing left for me to do is just consume more iron, nothing is pointing to an absorption problem.  I'm going to up my daily dose and try and shake this anemia.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for our little girl...they worked!

Breaking up is hard to do

It's possible you're in a hurry and can't read all the details, so here's a quick summary

• Glucose re-test not fun
  
• Chatty Hispanic lady wouldn't shut up
  
• I have a new obstetrician now
  
• Babies' Shower on Saturday was a blast
  
• Nursery is almost done
  
• Bailey turned six years old
  
• We've got baby names!

If you have the time, here's the unabridged version

Health update.  I took my longer glucose tolerance test on Monday morning and had my blood taken for iron testing (why must they take 5 vials of blood from an anemic person!  Iron-y). 

Not too much fun.   

The Glucose test:  We had to go in a room that we couldn't leave, except to go to the bathroom.  The reason for this is liability purposes.  The testers need to keep an eye on you in case you faint or get very ill.  I thought this policy was stupid, I mean, it's just drinking a sugar drink and then sitting there for almost 4 hours.  How hard could this be?  

Well let me tell you, I had not eaten since 8pm the night before (per fasting instructions for the test) and just had a whole bunch of blood taken for my iron study.  After downing that drink, I understood the precaution. This time there were 100 grams of sugar in the drink not 50g like last time.  It was ultrasweet and gross.  Imagine having to chug a cup of cold-orange-flavored Mrs. Butterworths.  I instantly felt sick to my stomach and about 15 minutes into the test I got really really dizzy.

So then it was the waiting game.  I had to have my blood drawn every hour, so I have 4 needle marks in my arm and look like I have a substance abuse problem (the lady wasn't very good at sticking me so, they're pretty bruised).  

In the little room (which we are not allowed to leave) there were 5 of us women.  1 lady passed out and another lady threw up about an hour and a half into the test.  So, only 3 of us survived.  I survived, the older lady survived (she looked to be in her 50s), and Chatty Sally survived.  Sadly for those other two ladies who didn't make it, they have to return and repeat the whole process at a later date.  I wanted to throw up many times, but I just concentrated on keeping it down:  I did not want to come back.

Back to Chatty Sally, this lady saw this testing opportunity to try and make best friends for life.  She asked all of us multiple questions about what we did, where we lived, what type of movies we liked.  She passed out trashy celeb magazines and wanted us all to engage in conversations about the latest Hollywood drama.  I felt bad because she was very nice, but seriously, I was trying not to throw up my drink and to focus on a stationary object, in order to make the room stop spinning.  About 2.5 hours into the test, Chatty Sally's husband showed up and she proceeded to re-tell all of our stories about who we were, but in spanish, and very loud.  He just nodded his head and stared at each one of us as our lives were detailed south of the border style.

I'll find out tomorrow if I passed or not, and what the iron counts say.  ALSO...

I got a phone call this morning from my doctor.  She's breaking up with me.  She has referred me to a Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist (high risk doc), and I have an appointment with this new person tomorrow morning.  

I really liked my doctor, and now, without warning BAM! The, "it's not you, it's me" talk.   She feels that this new lady will be able to take better care of me since things are starting to not go so well.  Sigh...

Below are some pictures of the past couple of days' events.  Babies Shower #2 and Bailey's birthday

We had a baby shower at a family friend's house on Saturday and it was a lot of fun.  I have never seen so many presents in one room before in my life.  I sat down to start opening gifts and was just shell-shocked at the items in front of me.  One thing is for sure, these babies are so well loved and I think our family and friends can not wait until they arrive!...and neither can Jason and I.

On Sunday we started going through the gifts, sorting clothes and putting swings/bouncers together.  Such a harsh waiting game now!

More of the gifts from the shower that quickly filled up our closet

Bailey's 6th Birthday was tonight (Monday).  To celebrate I made her a cup cake composed of chicken breast and yogurt icing.  She was very excited

She didn't like the crinkly-crunchy sound of the  little cupcake cup so I ended up having to dump it out.  She enjoyed it thoroughly.

And now for Baby Names!  I know many of you have been dying to know so here they are...

Baby Girl

Lillian Davis Hawthorne

Baby Boy

Zane Gregory Hawthorne

I had really only two requirements, they had to be family names, and they had to look good on a resume.  No one wants to hire a Candi.

For those of you wondering (Jonathan) the names are derived as such

Lillian - Honoring Jason's Paternal Grandmother, Lillian Faye Hawthorne

Davis - A feminine take on the name David, honoring a name on both sides of our family

Zane - Honoring Jason's Maternal Grandfather and his brother Matthew Zane

Gregory - Honoring my father and my brother David Gregory

I know it's not as fun as Alpha and Bravo, but these have a tad more personality.  

The babies will be here soon, and I feel so unprepared.  The nursery is coming together, we have our baby classes all lined up, but time is just flying by!  I mean, today I'm 27 weeks, I feel like just last week I saw those little vibrating grains of rice on the ultrasound...and now they yawn, kick and swallow.

Why can't I study for these tests!

Doctors office called...failed my glucose screening (a lot of people do).

Still severely anemic.

Body is failing me!

For decoding what the heck I'm talking about...here is some educational material for you

Glucose Screening test (1hr)

Most healthcare practitioners routinely recommend a glucose screening test (also called a glucose challenge test or GCT) between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy to check for gestational diabetes, a high blood sugar condition that some women get during pregnancy.
When you arrive for the test, you'll be given a sugar solution that contains 50 grams of glucose. The stuff tastes like a very sweet soda pop, and you have to get all of it down in five minutes. Some centers keep it chilled or let you pour it over ice and drink it cold. An hour later, a blood sample is taken from your arm to check your blood sugar level.
The idea is to see how efficiently your body processes sugar. If the reading is abnormal (too high), which happens 15 to 23 percent of the time, your practitioner will have you come back for a three-hour glucose tolerance test to see if you really do have gestational diabetes.

Normal = Less than 120

My value = 148

HEMATOCRIT (HCT)
The word hematocrit means "to separate blood," a procedure which is followed following the blood draw through the proper use of a centrifuge. Hematocrit is the measurement of the percentage of red blood cells in whole blood. It is an important determinant of anemia (decreased), polycythemia (increased), dehydration (elevated), increased R.B.C. breakdown in the spleen (elevated), or possible overhydration (elevated).

Normal Adult Female Range: 37 - 47%

Optimal Adult Female Reading: 42%

My value = 26.5%

HEMOGLOBIN (HGB)
Hemoglobin is the main transport of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood. It is composed of globin a group of amino acids that form a protein and heme which contains iron atoms and the red pigment, porphyrin.

As with Hematocrit, it is an important determinant of anemia (decreased), dehydration (increased), polycythemia (increased), poor diet/nutrition, or possibly a malabsorption problem.

Normal Adult Female Range: 12 - 16%

Optimal Adult Female Reading: 14

My value = 9.0%

26 weeks

I mean really...is it ever going to stop?

April Showers!

This weekend my fantastic friends threw me a weekend to remember here in Houston.  

Friday night we had a late night girls hangout at my house.  The babies shower was Saturday morning and was a blast with great food and the most generous gifts you've ever seen.  

What a reunion it was!  Out-of-towners took time out of their busy schedules to come all the way in and in-towners played hostesses to them all.  

Here are the few pics I could get a hold of...

A few of us at Taco Milagro for Saturday night dinner (pic courtesy of Janelle)

Sunday Morning Brunch

Isn't Bailey precious modeling the dress her aunt Shelley gave her new baby sister (sorry Shelley, had to try it out)

I got a little choked up this weekend when talking about it all. I was just so overwhelmed realizing how fortunate I am to have all of these amazing ladies in my life. Sadly, I didn't take that many pictures because I was too busy enjoying every moment. Hopefully a few of the girls took a few so we can document the whole event! If you did, send 'em along!

25 and a half week doctors visit

We had another doctors visit yesterday and things are looking "ok". The doc is not happy with our little girl. Last visit they almost weighed the same but in this visit our boy weighed 1lb15oz and she weighed 1lb9oz. Doesn't seem like 6 oz is a big difference until you look at the scale of things. She's almost 20-25% smaller than he is. So, my behavior has to change. She actually told me she was taking me off work, but I can't leave work yet, so I negotiated "desk work only". As soon as I get home at night I'm to just lay around like a sac of potatoes. It will be hard for me but for her sake I need to slow down and start stuffing my face. Below are some videos and pics for you...enjoy!

Baby Girl Yawning

So this is what it is like inside my uterus. The video shows the boy head on the right and the girls legs on the upper left. Notice that after he stretches into her space, she retaliates...hard. If you wonder whether I feel this ongoing war or not...yes, yes I do, all day and all night.

But alas, here is a sweeter video. Here is a shot of both of their cute little four-chambered hearts beating together. awww.

Profile of Baby Boy

Profile shot of Baby Girl

Creepy 3D face picture of Baby Girl (first time ever captured), she finally came out of hiding

Next visit is in 3 weeks where they will take new measurements of our Baby girl...if things haven't picked up...it's bedrest for me.  I'm going to go eat a donut.

sorry.....

Sorry for the lack of posts guys.  Things have been really busy this past week.  But many entries are soon to come.  We have a doctors appointment on Thursday (more pictures and videos!) and I have a baby shower on Saturday.  Will be back to post very soon :)

24 Weeks, countdown will be starting soon

In full bloom, just like the azaleas. PS check out my arms, kinda skinny huh, I will never make fun of Angelina Jolie and her skinny veiny arms again.  I guess pregnancy just sucks the meat right off you.

Spring has sprung and so has my belly.  For some strange reason I thought that my tummy growth would be so incremental that I wouldn't notice it.  Yet each morning I wake up and say, my Lord, I've grown more overnight!  It's probably because at this point, the babies should be gaining 6 ounces per week...each.   That's pretty rapid.  

We have a doctors appointment next week so I'm anxious to see them again and see how much they've grown in just 4 short weeks.  I hope everyone had an Easter as wonderful as mine and more updates to come about my baby bunnies later.

Remodeling continued...

(Before)  PS this is how Jason solves problems..."hands on hips"

I hate sliding glass doors, they are such a large waste of space and are aesthetically very unappealing.  Unlike something nice (like French doors etc), your choices to cover them are limited.  Curtains (too dusty), mini-blinds (too apartmenty) or vertical blinds (eww).  I had an idea to put screen type door things to cover them and luckily Laura understood my vision and had seen something just perfect.  

Measure twice cut once!

This weekend, we spent most of Saturday building out a frame for the doors to hang from and support the weight.  It's almost done, all that's left now is to miter the trim around the frame, attach it with finishing nails and put a couple coats of paint on the whole frame/trim.

Bailey helping (this is also the new carpet we've put down on top of the stained concrete

After, with doors installed.  You can see the frame (2 2x4s together, anchored to the wall studs with L-brackets, built around the sliding glass door) but the frame has not been trimmed yet so don't judge entirely.  The white wood frame you see here will be completely covered with finishing trim.  You won't ever see this frame.

Panorama picture of the nursery in progress from the hall door

Panorama picture of the nursery in progress taken from the far left corner

Covered with babies

Even though I'm only having two, I have a feeling this is what I'm going to feel like...

My what a long cervix you have...

Here's your pregnancy anatomy lesson for the day...

When pregnant, you want your cervix to stay nice and "long".

At the beginning, I had no idea what the docs and books were talking about because it wasn't until I got pregnant that my cervix and I got properly introduced. I mean, it's sort of like one of those people that works down the hall from you:

...you know they're there, they know you're there, but you really don't talk to each other or associate. It's not until you are forced to be in a situation with them (like if you both got stuck in an elevator together) that you would truly acknowledge each others existence.

This was the relationship with my cervix. All I really knew was it got scraped once a year at my girly doctor's appointment and as long as nothing was abnormal we didn't have to associate again until next year.

Now that I'm pregnant, I'm constantly worried about my little southern anatomical part. Here is a picture to help explain.

So, as I was saying, you want your cervix to be long. Long refers to the vertical length of it. As you see in the left panel above the cervix has some height to it. In the panel to the right, when you are ready to go into labor the cervix "shortens" up (effacement) and starts opening (you know the movies, "she's 8 cm dialated!").

A good height during pregnancy is keeping it above 3cm. Right now my cervix is at a nice length of 4.2cm. Let's all just hope it keeps that way. If at my next appointment it starts shortening up (drops below 3cm), it could mean bedrest for me, in order to prevent pre-term labor. Sounds like a good time, but really, I couldn't handle laying in bed all day, I'd have to force myself to take up needlepoint or cross-stitch, and really, you don't want that, it could mean homemade Christmas presents for you.

Bringing the whales to see the whales

This weekend Jason and I travelled to San Antonio to visit our friends Dom & Michelle (who is 18 weeks preggo, ya now can you see how big I am for my preg age!) and to go to Sea World.

Sea World was just as I remember it as a kid, except now they have rollercoasters. It figures that now I am not allowed to ride the rollercoasters (I think the little ones would love it but hey, I guess those warnings are there for a reason).

We got to see lots of shows and also, get hit by lots of screaming children. Maybe I'm making this up but, I don't remember being allowed to run wild and push & plow through people with sticky cotton-candy hands without saying excuse me. Oh well, wouldn't want to stiffle little Johnny's expressivity. I did get to scope out all of the strollers and see which ones seem to work well and which ones seemed terribly hard to push.

As far as the shows, we saw the dolphins and manatees (in the Habitat for Huge Manatees), the ski jumper people (very impressive), the sea lions and otters (who went on strike half way though the show), and of course Shamu.

As just as CB said, Shamu and I did have a lot in common, we are both rotund and like fish. I however, can not kill sharks without any weapons. We had a great time, although I over did it a bit, just can't run around like I used to without afternoon naps.

We concluded the day at Sea World by going to see the Penguins, they're pretty cool little animals, they just stand around all day and look at each other. I was hoping to see some sliding or action, but I think they were as tired as I was.

What the heck has happened to my belly button!

I used to have a pretty belly button. I, in fact, loved my belly button. Not too big, not too wide, not too deep. However, things have now changed. My belly button has disappeared. Instead of a hole, its now a little slit and kind of looks like a pair of collagen injected lips. I am lucky though that it doesn't look like a popped out turkey thermometer, its rather flat.

Remember back in high school when you thought it was a good idea to get your belly button pierced? Well, its true, once you get pregnant you kind of regret it a bit. Why? because the underside hole is now visible and its all stretched. See my belly button above? (I put it in B&W b/c for some reason things are less gross when you take away the color) The two arrows represent my formally pierced belly button holes. The bottom hole there just migrates out as your belly button starts inverting. I wonder how high the two little holes will travel, it could be a new story all in itself.

RIP my formally pretty belly button...hope you come back someday

22 weeks

So...the belly is starting to look a little weird, it doesn't always look like this, normally its pretty smooth/round, but as the little ones move around in there my stomach changes shape.  This just so happens to be the shape right now.  Our little girl (she's at the top by my rib cage) will probably migrate a little more to the left so she won't stick out so much next time.

CRIB DRAMA

We went to Babies R Us a few weekends ago and picked up the cribs.  We opened up the first box and found this inside right away.  Please read with me "Assembly Instructions and Parts Enclosed"...however, all we found was hardware...no instructions.  So...we opened the second box, surely there should be some in there...nope, same story with that box.

I scoured the internet looking for the instructions (I figured someone had posted them, or they would be on the company website), but alas, I found nothing.  I angrily emailed the company and wanted to know why we had no instructions!

The company finally emailed me back and said that the instructions were attached to the box springs.  OF COURSE! That makes total sense...don't put it in the bag marked "Assembly Instructions Enclosed" attach it to the mattress springs!

So Jason opened up the mattress box that was within the big box...and...

THERE'S THE INSTRUCTIONS!  Annoyed that they're there, but happy to have them...so we stayed up late last night putting both cribs together.

Bailey tried to help as best as she could, which meant climbing all over things and using it as her new secret hide out

My hamster died

I got up this morning and ran downstairs to get something and I heard something I'm not used to hearing...silence.  Normally one or both of the hamsters are running in their wheel when I get up.  So I go over to their cages and Meng-Hong is asleep but Tongzhen is curled up in the corner of her cage all hunched over.  I take her out and she feels like a little hamster-sicle.  I tried to warm her up in my hands and I took her upstairs and set her on a heating pad.  She was breathing very shallow and her eyes were closed.  I got a syringe (without the needle attached) and tried to give her water but she wasn't responding to anything.  This went on for about 30 minutes and then she started rolling and seizing.  I just held her and tried to talk to her as she shook violently.  She then started taking deep breaths and was squeeking at each exhale (at this point is when I lost it and couldn't stop sobbing).   I've seen 100s of rodents die (because of my old research job), and I knew this was the point where her lungs were filling up with blood and she was drowning to death.  There's nothing you can do, so I just held her and talked to her.  She started vibrating as her muscles were dying and let out a last squeek, I knew she had died when the vibrating stopped and she was still in my hand.  I put her in a little box and when Jason got home from golf, we buried her in the front by our gate.  She was a good little hamster, loved her wheel and died suddenly without cause.  Poor little girl.

Oi! I gotta case of the sciatica

Yesterday the first really bad pregnancy symptom hit me. I was at work, and could feel my leg tingling...then it started to cramp. I tried to get up and walk it off but it just seemed to get worse and worse. The pain also started to radiate up my back and I feared it was my kidney saying hello. By the time I got home it hurt to walk and no matter how I sat/laid the pain would not go away. Jason pulled out the book and apparently...this is Sciatica. Sciatica is caused by pressure on your sciatic nerve. The pressure I have is either from Baby A's head being right on top of it, or my uterus pushing against it. There's really nothing you can do except get a support belt and do exercises. Today at work, I'm pacing around the office holding my hip. I feel like I look like a stereotypical pregnant lady, shuffling grabing my back with a slight pained look on my face. I miss my advil.

21 Week Doctors Visit

AHHHHHHHH  what a scary picture!  This is our son yawning but it also looks like the character from the movie Scream...Boo!

******

Got back from the doctors office today and everything is going along perfectly.  We got to see the babies, which is always the highlight of these doctor's visits.  Baby A is still a boy and Baby B is still a girl.  

Now for the stats...

Baby A is weighing in at 1 pound exactly and is now in a head down position.  So his head is right next to my bladder (explains all the late-night bathroom trips) and his body swings from straight up and down on my right side to straight across my lower abdomen.  He's quite the little show off and loves to have his picture taken.  We even got a smile out of him for one of the pictures.  I got to see a close up picture of his foot and it looks exactly like his daddy's foot.  I mean you think a foot's a foot but then when I saw it, I gasped and said, That's Jason's foot! Flat and broad with no arches.

Baby B is 14 oz and she is living up in my rib cage.  She is still laying in the transverse position (horizontal) and her head is on my left hand side.  I haven't been feeling her kicks as strong as her brother's because her placenta is at the top of my uterus, so it's cushioning all of her blows. I got to see her foot too, and it looked a little like mine, it was thin and long and had a really high arch.  She was quite camera shy today and would only allow a few glimpses of her face.  She kept putting her hands over her face and then turned over towards my spine, then refused to turn back over to have her picture taken.  Hopefully she won't be one of those babies that refuses to leave the house without her makeup on, but it looks like we're headed that way.  

Placentas are a good size and in the right places, and my belly is measuring 22.5 weeks along.  Doctor told me to go buy some Pepcid to help chill out my heartburn since the Tums I chew on a daily basis is probably not the best thing for my kidneys.  

Profile of our little boys face with a hint of a smile, probably because he just kicked my bladder

This is Baby A's thigh, leg and foot.  This innocent looking foot is what kicks the ever loving crud out of my insides.  My favorite is when this little man kicks with a 1-2 kick that actually shakes my stomach.  Jason loves to encourage him to "kick harder" to build up those muscles for all the future sports I'm sure he'll be involved in.

Make sure to tell our son when he gets older (perhaps when he's leaving for prom etc.) that you "remember when" you got to see the first pictures of his private parts on the internet.  During our last ultrasound the radiologist was pretty sure that Baby A was a boy, but said there is always a small chance that they are wrong at 17 weeks.  Well this time it was definitely a fact that he is a little man with little man parts.  This picture is looking up from the bottom of him through his legs (butt on the left, legs making a "less than" sign < ). 

This picture just assured us that Baby B is a girl.  The horizontal white lines are the definitive sign of little girl parts.  Oh, make sure to tell her too that you saw her labia in utero.  She'll love it, especially around age 15, when she's having a slumber party.

Profile of my little shy ones face, about the only shot we could get before she rolled over.

Videos:

Baby A in weird 3D ultrasound imaging.  Cute little face and he looks a bit like daddy, if you take your hands and squish daddy's face a little here and there...

Baby A in regular ultrasound.  He was a little grumpy here, in order to get a good picture of my cervix, the u/s tech had to push and push on him to get him to move.  He didn't like that so much.

And...here's Baby B's only good video of her wiggling around.  The thin white line that hovers above her face is the edge of the membrane sack that seperates her from her brother.  It kept falling on her face and she kept pushing it out of the way, I'm hoping she will move out from underneath my rib cage and find more comfortable conditions soon.