Mumu City

Meet my mumus (that's what my husband likes to call them!) These are my new uniform. I simply cannot STAND anything with a waistband! First of all, the full panels make me itch like a dog with fleas, second of all, I already need to pee like every ten minutes, so even the slightest pressure on my belly makes it even worse, and third of all, I already feel like I can't breathe, and the feeling of anything around my legs makes it even worse!  Actually, the same goes for bras- HATE them! For them to be tight enough to fit properly/stay up, I feel like I can't breathe.  Luckily that is also solved with these dresses! No need for a bra! I guess it helps that I don't have huge boobs, although they are definitely MUCH bigger than they used to be.  My mother keeps telling me that if I don't wear a bra the girls are going to sag- but right now, all I care about is being able to breathe.  To be honest, at home I just lounge around in my PJ's, these are my "leaving the house"outfits! 

It's pretty funny, on the.. oh I don't know, maybe once a week occasion that I actually do leave the house and go somewhere with my husband I'll say "Honey, what color mumu would you like to see me in today?". BUT whenever I wear them, people constantly ask me where I got them, so I guess they're not so bad after all!

 

Outie!!!

Lost my Mojo

Well, it's been a while since my last post.  I guess you could say I've lost my mojo..
Seriously, I just don't want to do ANYTHING! It's pretty frustrating, because the only thing I feel like I have the energy (or motivation) to do is sit on my couch.  I was thinking that I need to go out and buy stuff for my hospital bag, like a nightgown, robe, nursing bras etc. but I'm contemplating just crossing my fingers about sizes and ordering them on amazon because I don't even want to think about going shopping! Unfortunately this isn't a new development. I've felt like this for most of the pregnancy- it's just that initially it was more of a mental thing, while now I also physically feel like I can't.

It's kind of sad because things that I always looked forward to doing once I was pregnant, I have completely lost all motivation to do. Things like belly casts, filling out a pregnancy journal, maternity pictures, and.... are you ready for this one?? A baby shower. Yes, I had my friend cancel my baby shower.  The more I thought about it, the more it was stressing me out, so I just asked her to cancel.  Now, my husband has a huge family in MN so they are throwing me a "Skype" baby shower in a couple weeks- meaning that essentially I don't need to leave my couch, which sounds perfect to me! I even did my registry on amazon, so it's been fun getting packages on my doorstep all the time.  Honestly, most of our "people" are in MN anyway.  We both went to college there, and my hubby is from there. Neither of us have any family here in California (which will be a bit of a bummer when the babies are here!).

I know I'm anemic, which could be the reason for my utter lack of energy, but even though I've been taking iron supplements, and recently doubled my dose, it's not helping.  Or, perhaps I feel like this because I haven't gotten a good nights sleep since... maybe December?  At this point I'm down to about 4 hours of very interrupted sleep per night- as in, waking up every hour to pee, then not being able to go back to sleep. I try to nap in the day, but that doesn't usually work very well either. I feel like I'm a hermit on self induced bed rest- If I stand for more than about 30 seconds I feel like I might pass out, so I'm very literally lying down most of the day.  If my doctor were to tell me tomorrow that I had to be on bed rest, my life would not be much different to the way it is now.

I'm so happy that we were ridiculously early in getting the nursery situation figured out. We've had cribs, and all of the furniture in the room for a couple months now.  All we have left to do is hang the art (which we also already have) on the walls. We received a massive amount of baby clothes early on (I mean enough for sextuplets at least!), and when my mom came to visit a month ago she washed, and helped me sort and put everything away. I'm really hoping that the nesting instinct will set in at some point, and give me motivation and energy to do... something... anything!  But for now... I'll just lay here on the couch.........

Confusion

I saw the Perinatologist on Friday, and then had another anatomy scan today. All I can say is that I'm pretty confused at this point. I'll try to summarize what I got from the two appointments. 

1. I was told by the Perinatologist that baby girl is smaller than baby boy by about a 10 days, and should be closely monitored. WHAT??  She has always only been 2-3 days behind, up until a week ago.  Today at the anatomy scan I was told that she was 4 days behind. She weighed 2lbs 3oz, while he weighed 2lbs 7oz. Who do I believe?

2. Baby girl has much less amniotic fluid around her.  She says that I shouldn't be concerned, as she's doing fine, and it has likely always been like this.  She also said that that is probably why I feel her moving much more than the boy.  Today at the anatomy scan when I asked, they confirmed that yes, she has quite a bit less fluid, and is in much tighter quarters than the boy. But, they said that it wasn't too little fluid, it was still a satisfactory amount and I shouldn't be concerned. They did say that since she was a bit squished she was harder to measure so the dates could be a little off...

3. On Friday she said that they are measuring in at the .... I don't really remember... 20 something and 30 something percentile. WHAT? Just a week ago I was told 55 and 47?? I don't understand how they could fall behind so much so fast.  Of course she said that this is a perfectly normal percentile for twins, but it doesn't make me happy.  Today, well, I don't know the percentiles yet- my doctor will tell me when I see her on Thursday. BUT they are both still measuring a few days earlier than their due dates, so you would think that that would put them in a percentile higher than 20-30 percent...

4.  I have a large ovarian cyst.  She was surprised that no one had told me about it before, and said that if it moves or twists etc. it could cause me severe pain and have to be removed.... surgically... or she said that it could otherwise be removed if I have a c-section. She said that it had obviously been there for some time, and could be the reason for my elevated WBC.  Luckily she also said that I was pretty big so hopefully it shouldn't be able to move and cause any problems... All I can say is that I hope it stays put.

5.  The good news is, that my cervix both Friday and today was measuring about 4.3 which makes me really happy!

Now I guess I just wait for Thursday, and hopefully my doctor can make sense out of all the discrepancies for me. Tomorrow I will go in for my glucose tolerance test. When I had my baseline one done in the first trimester I had no idea what I was in for. I was in complete shock when I was handed the bottle of stuff to drink, told to drink it, then sit down, and not walk around/ move at all for an hour till the blood draw. I was bored out of my mind! Tomorrow I will make sure I have a book or something to do.

Anyway, since today happens to be exactly 27 weeks, I guess I should put up a belly shot... All I can say is I feel HUGE! I cannot even imagine being any bigger! I've escaped the stretch marks so far, but I'm not sure how much longer this will be the case!

And.. my favorite outfits (pretty much the only matching ones)!! Love the little crabby butts!

Things that scare me

I finally got around to scheduling my classes at the hospital- 4 in total.  Unfortunately, they are only scheduling them for July at this point.  Essentially all the classes will be between the 5th and the 11th.  This kind of freaks me out, as I'll be 30-31 weeks by that point.  What if I end up on bed rest? What if I go into labor early and don't get to go to any of them?? I emailed my doctor about it, and she said that it would be pretty tough, but to do what I can.  Here's hoping it all works out!

The other thing that scares me- I have no idea who will be delivering my babies.  We switched health insurance at the beginning of last year to one with much better coverage for IF treatments.  While I have been happy with this so far, and I adore my doctor who I have seen every two weeks since the beginning of my pregnancy, when it comes to actual delivery it pretty much comes down to whoever is on call at the time.  The only thing that would increase my odds would be a scheduled c-section which I don't really want.  There are several other things that scare me right now, those are just at the top of my list for today!

On a happier note, look what we found on our doorstep! Early baby registry gift from my aunt :) I had to talk my husband out of putting them in the car already!

And.. The nursery- our attempt at a gender neutral color scheme (bedding all made by my MIL!). We do like pink and blue, we found out that we just don't really don't like them together, so this is the compromise!

Good, Bad, and Bizzare

We had a doctors appointment yesterday, and, I'm pleased to announce that I did not forget my underwear there (although I had considered going there commando just to make sure it didn't happen again!).

We got the detailed results from our follow up anatomy scan a couple weeks ago, and from my bloodwork last week. The good news is that the babies are doing great- they are in the 47th and 55th percentile, and are both a few days ahead of their due dates! The doctor said that she was actually surprised that they are so big, as usually twins are smaller than average. I am actually measuring at 30 weeks even though I am only 25! Plus, I'm only 5'5 so it makes me look even bigger. Funnily enough, if you saw me coming from the front, you may not realize at first that I'm pregnant at all, but from the side- WOW!  See for yourselves..

Funnily enough, I feel like whenever I leave the house I need to justify my size to people.  It's  been pretty obvious that I'm pregnant for a couple months now, but up until about 3 weeks ago, people's questions were pretty much "Do you know what you're having?" and "When are you due?". NOW, it's pretty much all comments like "Oh wow, any day now!" or "Wow, not much time left huh?"  I pretty much usually answer with something like, "Actually, no, I'm only ____ weeks".  At this point they get this look of shock and confusion on their faces, so I usually follow it up with "I'm having twins, that's why I'm so huge".  At this point it's like "OOH, ok, now that makes sense!" It actually doesn't bother me at all, I just think it's funny that I have to justify my size to everyone these days!

Anyway, the somewhat bad news from the doctors visit is that my white blood cell count is pretty elevated.  Normal range is between 4 and 11. Mine is 20. At my first trimester screening it was a bit elevated at 15, so it's going up. My doctor is pretty confused as she sees no sign of infection anywhere, so she is referring me to a Perinatologist. I guess I will now see both of them for the rest of the pregnancy. I already see my doctor every two weeks, so I guess I'll be spending lots of time in doctors offices!