Sunday, December 27, 2009

Merry Xmas!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

We had some immediate family over for Christmas Eve Chili and Shrimp (a tradition) and it was a really nice excuse to get the house cleaned up somewhat. It really gave us an idea of what it will feel like once everything is done and we can move in all the way.

We had a great Christmas day; my step-sister-in-law had her baby on Christmas Eve (which I totally called... she was due on the 19th and wanted her to come earlier to hopefully not have her birthday so close to Christmas... and I said, well, she'll probably be born on Christmas Eve - ha! I love being right...).

We spent time with my family and had a great lunch and got lots of baby stuff. Our family normally does a white elephant gift exchange, but since both my little sister and I are pregnant, everyone chipped in and gave up their own gifts to give us baby gifts - it was a total shock. It was like my little sister and I had a surprise, joint baby shower on Christmas day! I couldn't believe the generosity of everyone to forfeit receiving anything so we could get baby stuff. And we got some good stuff too... a ton of clothes and the swing, a diaper genie, a play mat, and diapers, among other things. All very badly needed items.

We are also getting closer to the baby shower - it feels a lot closer as opposed to some far off thing that will happen in the future. It's now just a little over a month away! And, as much as I hate attention focused on me, I'm getting excited about it and just hope people come. I'm editing the registry and trying to make sure I have everything I need; we seem to be in good shape, thanks to very generous friends of ours who have a three year old and want to give us, well, everything. They don't plan on having more children and so far plan on giving us a full bedroom set (crib, dresser and changing table) play-yard, two convertible car seats and an infant car seat, toys, clothes, sheets, blankets, towels, a single stroller, a baby carrier, a Medela breast pump, bottles, cups, silverware... basically, just about everything we could possibly want. These are super close friends of ours (she's throwing us the shower as well) and so we feel comfortable with this stuff (like the crib and car seat) because we know they haven't been in a car accident and that they take care of their stuff. (Although we plan on buying two infant car seats just so we don't have to screw around with the different car seat bases.) There's still stuff we want/need, but they are really setting us up. We have the greatest friends ever.

I am feeling... heavier. My joints still hurt and I feel swoll in my hands a lot. And have had some issues this past week with the digestive process. Specifically, the end of that process. I haven't been able to poop! And it's been bad... and painful. There might have been an over-flowing toilet and the plunger has gotten a work out this past week. I started incorporating more fiber into my diet, when I noticed the problem - to no avail. I finally added some stool softeners to help things along. M is in charge of making sure I go at least once a day (which is difficult for me - I was never that regular even before). So that's my new goal. And hopefully the end of my problem there as I still have a long way to go.

The house is coming along. Painters started painting TODAY (!!!!) and so it really feels like we'll soon be able to get things set up and actually unpack everything and make the house really feel like home.

Friday, December 18, 2009

One Year Ago Today

One year ago I was in the hospital having a D&C. Finishing the end of the worst week of my life. The worst month.


This year is so much better. And I couldn't be more grateful.



And I hope everyone gets their turn.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Quick Update - 24w!

I went to the doctor today and everything is going well! The babies heartbeats were good. I had blood taken to recheck my white count, but everything seemed good. The joint pain and swelling is normal and after looking at the u/s results from the hospital visit this weekend, the doctor said everything looked good. I am measuring at 29 weeks (I love knowing how big I am compared to a singleton pregnancy) and have gained 5 pounds since my last visit 4 weeks ago, which the doctor said was good. She said I should expect to gain about 20 more pounds (yikes!).

I have my next appointment in two weeks for the dreaded glucose test, a growth scan and a regular appointment. Fun times!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

23w5d

We had an exciting weekend. I had my first official freak out. And it was really nothing. And I feel really dumb about it.

Since early Friday afternoon I had been having this sharp stabby pain in my lower left belly area - kinda next to my hip - and after chilling on the couch with water for several hours (like 5 or 6) it hadn't gone away and was coming regularly... so I'm all freaked and call my doctor's office after hours (which is really the emergency line) and talk to a doctor who tells me to go to the hospital. Well, they couldn't really figure out what was causing the pain - no contractions after monitoring me for about an hour, cervix long and closed, babies were doing fine, u/s showed nothing except a slightly enlarged kidney. The only other thing was that I was (TMI) slightly constipated (so embarrassing) and after going felt better even though the pain didn't go away entirely, it slacked off in intensity and occurrence.

The nurse thought it was just round ligament pains, which is probably all it was. Combined with the poop thing. M keeps telling me my poop at the hospital was the most expensive poop taken. We'll see when the bill comes in. I came home that night after finding out there wasn't anything wrong and begging to be let go so I could sleep in my own bed (they wanted to keep me overnight - yuck). I felt better the rest of the weekend, no pain or anything, just a mild case of embarrassment.

I still can't decide if it was the smart thing to do because what if something really had been wrong, or if I just over- reacted. I feel slightly dumb and dramatic about it all. And betrayed by my own body, cause I couldn't tell what was happening and if something was seriously wrong or not. But I'm glad the babies are ok.

So other than that, I've been doing pretty well. The babies seem pretty active. The weather is totally screwing with my allergies and making me feel like I'm constantly fighting something off, which isn't fun. I've been sleeping a lot and eating a lot. And have been hormonal - crying easily (I'm such a cliche); yesterday while unpacking the master bath I started crying listening to Christmas music. It was Amy Grant's Mary's Song. Oh, and I can't believe I almost left this very important aspect out - when I was in the hospital, the ultrasound tech told us we were having two girls. WHAT?!??!? We kindly asked her to revisit things and double check and she said that one of the could be a boy, but that we won't know for sure until around 30 weeks or so. Um... ok? So now I'm officially on hiatus from buying anything.

The house is slowly coming together. I ordered the furniture we want, the repairs are under way so soon we can get the house painted, which I'm looking forward to. I really think it'll freshen things up and make the house look new. THEN we can get all our stuff from storage... and finish the unpacking.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Big Week for Us - 23w

So we moved.

And had my little sister's baby shower.

And, yeah. It's been a long week. We were unsure we were going to be closing Friday until... um Thursday night. And if we weren't going to be able to close Friday, we would have been homeless. Because we were to be out of our townhouse by Sunday midnight. So... yeah. It was stressful. But we moved. And we're here. Thank fucking god.

As far as moving while pregnant (with twins anyway)... I strongly advise against it. My feet. My back. I didn't lift more than a couple of (light!) boxes and was worn out. My fingers and feet are still swollen. My body has just ached every night. My feet haven't hurt so badly since... well, probably since I started waiting tables and worked a double. And I'm SO glad we had as much help as we did. My MIL and her husband came into town, my parents and my SIL (for a couple of hours) all helped out so I could go to the shower and could do as little as possible as far as lifting boxes and over doing it. My next appointment is next week - no u/s, just a regular check up, but with my swelling and back pains and all the exerting of myself (and there was something else I wanted to talk to her about, but for the life of me can't remember - oh! Two hours later I remember! My joints... I swear it feels like I've started getting arthritis.) I'm curious if she'll give me one anyway. I've also noticed what feels like a lack of movement. I swear they were moving around a lot more (or I was feeling them a lot more) last week. So that has me considerably worried, as you can imagine. But, I just keep telling myself that it's normal not to feel a lot right now and that the movement I do feel can vary. Of course, once next week's appointment is over and I know everything is good, I'll feel a ton better. (Did I even need to say that? Isn't that kinda a no duh kinda thing? lol)

There's still so much work to do. We have repairs a contractor will be doing (sometime, if he ever calls...grrr...) and then a painter will be painting almost the entire house - so we're half unpacked and unable to hang things or unpack decor. And we have furniture I want to buy from San Antonio (I need to order it)... the furniture we're getting is a living room set - so our TV is sitting on the floor. And our electronics are just kinda... laying around. It's so fun. AND on top of all that, we still have a 10x10 storage unit filled to the brim (seriously; wall to wall, floor to ceiling) that still needs to come over. So. Yeah. Whew. We have a ton to get done.

My sister's shower was in the middle of the big move Saturday, so I got to take a three hour break and go have some fun. See the pic below for me and my sister, belly to belly.

She is right about 10 weeks ahead of me, with one. And I was 22w3d. Which put her at around 33 weeks. So yeah. Apparently, I am big or she is small, or a little bit of each; for our respective dates. She IS a lot smaller than me, normally, not pregnant. Like, a lot. So that is also a part of it, I'm sure. And, the outfit I was planning on wearing was packed in with the movers, so this is a non-maternity, wore it the day before, shirt, which was a hell of a lot nicer than the shirt I was wearing that day (a long sleeved Green Bay packer grey tee). So I love seeing how the bottom of my shirt was... pulling up. Cuz I kept pulling it down, for all the good it did lol.

So I'm exhausted. And trying to chillax for the rest of the week and get a little bit done every day.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

22w1d

Craziness. That is what I am feeling.

My already over-analytical nature kicks into overdrive analyzing everything to do with pregnancy. And you'd think I was able to relax more... not the case. What's making me crazy is the differences. The amount and type (thick or thin) of cervical discharge I experience in a day either has me running for the bathroom or wondering where it went. The amount of movement I feel varies from day to day and has me constantly repeating to myself "this is normal, they don't even ask for movement monitoring until much later, some people are just starting to feel things" on a day when I don't feel much. A day like today. And yesterday.

It all makes me want to.. I don't know, but I do know I'm driving myself crazy. And there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it.