Week 32 Doctors Appointment

A few days after our visit to labor and delivery we went to see the doctor to follow up.  My blood pressure was still a little higher than the he would have liked, so he wants me to monitor it twice a day now.  Thus the purchase of a handy digital blood pressure cuff.  Yeah!  The doctor listened to the girls and checked me out.  He doesn't seem worried about my cervix any longer since we've been able to make it this far.  What he is worried about is my blood pressure and any swelling that might indicate signs of pre-eclampsia.

At this time his recomendation is that I go on home rest so that I can minimize the amount of time that I am up on my feet.  He's fine with me working from home so I have made arrangements with my firm to do so part time so that we can put off going on short term disability for a bit longer. 

I'm heading back to the doctor after one week so that they can do another sonogram of the girls (a bpp - biophysical profile).  They'll do lots of measurements on the girls and make sure they aren't under any stress.  Until then all I can do is make sure I do take it easy until then.  Everyone keep their fingers crossed for us until we verify that they aren't under any stress.  I'll get up another update after our appointment.  Hopefully we'll get some more pictures of them too. :-)

Week 31 Doctors Appointment

Sonogram:
Can you believe the girls are still changing locations!  Baby A has shifted to a breech position with her feet constantly dancing on my bladder and her noggin is angled to my left side. Baby B is oblique transverse and is folded in half with her head angled toward my lower right side and bootey around my belly button.  The girls had lots of fluid in their sacs still, but are definitely cramped for space.  It was really hard to get a decent picture of them since they are so smushed, but we were able to see little A berry kick little B berry in the noggin.  The sibling rivalry is back in full swing!

Sibling Rivalry pic

Baby A Face

HB 135
Weight 3 lbs 14 oz

Baby B Face

HB 153
Weight 3 lbs 8 oz

Visiting with the Dr.:
The doctor was quite pleased with the way things are looking.  My cervical length hasn't changed since he last saw us, which is great news!  We were a little worried since the past week had been pretty busy.  He said that now that we're past 31 weeks he'll still be checking the length, but we're past the point he was really concerned about :-D  He was happy with the weight gain and my blood pressure.  We talked to him about the braxton hicks contractions I've been having.  They happen several times a day, but nothing's been painful (just uncomfortable).  He told us what to look for that might indicate something more and told us to give him a call if any of those things happen.  All in all things are great.  Momma berry is a little more tired each day, but she gets two more weeks of going to work (which means I get two more weeks with the girls after their born - so yippee!!!)

Next appointment is June 7th at 3:30pm (one month from D-day) :-D

Week 29 Doctors Appointment:

Sonogram:
So the girls keep shifting around - not quite sure how since they don't have a ton of room.  They're still looking great.  Baby A had a heart beat of  136bpm and Baby B had a heartbeat of 145bmp.  We managed to get a couple of pictures of them and got to see our little Berry B give us the biggest cutest yawn in 3d.  Too bad we couldn't have recorded that!  It was beyond adorable.  The girls are kind of oblique at this point with their heads down on my left side and their feet up by my upper right rib.  No wonder I'm getting lots of punches in the bladder and kicks in the ribs (boy are my ribs sore)!

Baby A Profile

Baby B Yawny girl

Meeting with the Dr.:
Basically he said I narrowly missed being put on bed rest.  So I bought myself two more weeks before another appointment.  My cervical length had dropped 1 millimeter, but he was confident that if we could keep it to that for each week we'd be fine carrying the girls to the date we want to.  I am to continue on the restricted activity that I was on this past week that essentially means I can go to work, but I need to be laying down on my side when I am home.  We can go out on occasion, but I'm not to do a lot of walking around while we're out.

He suggest that if I have any of the symptoms that might indicate that I might be headed into premature labor that I should call him and let him know.  He suggested we have an 'itchy trigger finger' when it came to anything like that.

So for now - Yeah for two more weeks!  Now I can go to Revit training at work and we should be able to go to our breastfeeding and cesarean section class at the hospital :-D  We have opted to miss our last two operas (Madame Butterfly and Moby Dick) since it won't really allow me the opportunity to at least put my feet up.  It's a small price to pay though to keep the girls 'cookin'.

Our next Drs. appointment is Monday May 24th.

49 more days till the 7th of July!

Week 28 Doctors Appointment:

Sonogram:
Our little berries aren't quite berries any more, or at least they are the biggest berries I've ever seen!  Baby A measured at about 2 lbs 14 oz with a heart beat of 143 (puts her in the 53 percentile) and Baby B measured at about 2 lbs 10 oz with a heart beat of 136 (puts her in the 36th percentile - that's up from 28th percentile).  They both have plenty of fluid in their sacs and seem to be quite happy.  Man are they wiggly too, despite their cramped quarters :-D  It's definitely harder to get good pictures of them since they don't have as much room, but we managed to capture a few pictures.  The Dr. said he was very pleased with their development, especially since their size discrepancy had gone down from 9% to 8%, which he said is fantastic (anything below 15% for twins he said was good).

Baby A 3D - Snugly little girl

Baby B - Smiley little girl :-D

Meeting with the Dr.:
So after the Dr. said how pleased he was with the girls he moved on to a different subject.  Something I noticed during the sonogram, but didn't quite realize how much had changed.  Apparently my cervix has shortened to a point where he wants me to come back in a week for him to check it.  If the rate that it is shortening continues he will put me on bed rest starting next week - boo!

To give you an idea of the change - we started out around 16 weeks with a measurement in the 50's.  By week 24 it was down to 37.  By week 28 it's down to 24.  The Dr. said that there are two camps of doctors when it comes to cervical length, one camp that will call for bed rest at 25 and one at 20.  I'm fortunate that he belongs to the 20 camp - although, he said with the twins he was really teetering on the edge of going ahead and putting me on bed rest...

So at this point, bed rest isn't necessarily a matter of if - it's more a matter of when (and where since he wouldn't speculate whether or not it would be home or hospital bed rest).  I guess it all depends on how I measure next week.  For now my activities have been limited, so no more walking, weights, yoga, or swimming for me.  I can go to work, but I need to keep my feet propped up and when I'm at home I need to spend the majority of my time laying down on my side.  In the meantime I am talking to HR at work and trying to get things set up for my absence (which is a little earlier than I was anticipating).  I don't know at this point if I will be able to work from home or not, they said they would tackle that hurdle when we get there.

So that's what's new with us.  As surprising as this development is, ultimately we're just happy to have two happy and healthy little girls.  We'll do whatever we can to keep them that way.  I may just get to spend more time knitting soon.

As far as our date is concerned, we talked to the doctor about July 7th and he said we shouldn't have any issues making that work :-D  Hopefully we can keep the little girls in for that long.  I'm feeling pretty positive about it.  I just need to relax for three now and enjoy my little wiggle worms while I get to have them close.