So let's see.....I had my ultrasound on Thursday and everything looks great. Baby A is measuring 9 days ahead and 2 lbs 13 ozs, puts her in the 61st percentile. Baby B is measuring 5 days ahead and 2 lbs 9 ozs, puts her in the 51st percentile. I asked the doctor about the difference in days being a concern and she said no, it's perfectly normal. I also asked about the cords since they looked at blood flow through them and she said nothing new was noted, which was also good news. She said that normally if there was a change there would be something noted....so all good there. As for the monitoring, they have been looking great. They each had a really high acceleration that I notiec yesterday and that is a really good sign....shows there central nervous systems are working exactly as they should! No more scares so far!
I made it to the 1st milestone as far as greater chance of survival and growth, 28 weeks. WOO HOO girls, way to behave in there....for the most part anyway :)! Now my sights are set on 32 weeks. Apparently once they hit 32 weeks the survival rate sky rockets and we are obviously looking at much shorter NICU stay. Although, it is comforting to know that now that I am past 28 weeks, we have a much better chance than we did before. This pregnancy has been full of goals....1st was 24, then 28, now 32 and then 34....we can do this!
I have been confined to my room since Friday evening. Apparently one of the moms on the unit has the flu and I was exposed at the pool. I am assuming she didn't know she had it, and I heard that she is doing ok. It's a MAJOR BUMMER to be stuck in my room though. I am not even allowed to walk to the kitchen to fill my water up anymore. When people come to visit they have to wear masks to protect themselves; and all the nurses are wearing them when they come in. Some of the nurses, and even doctors, think they are taking this to the extreme. We could be exposed by anyone bringing it in and making everyone wear masks is a little over the top. They prescribed anyone who was exposed Tamiflu as a preventitive. I first heard we were stuck for 7 days but now heard it is actually 10....so I hope it flies by!
Barrett and Louis spent the night last night. I didn't get much sleep because Louis slept in my bed with me the first half of the night and Bear slept with me the 2nd half....but it's totally worth every second of no sleep :). The best part of them spending the night is waking up and seeing his smiley face saying "hi mommy!" I know it is not the most comfortable sleeping arrangement for Louis...but it means more to me than I think he really knows.
So for now, that's the news on this home front. I will keep you posted as this week and next pass. I have a follow up ultrasound next Thursday so hopefully they continue growing like they have been and I won't have any scary situations to report. As always, thanks for the love and support :).
Monday, September 28, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
ROUGH day yesterday...better today
So yesterday was a very stressful day. Monday night I was feeling a little uncomfortable but didn't think too much of it. When I woke up yesterday morning I wasn't feeling as much movement as I would like and got on the monitor right away. Within 10 minutes Baby B's hear rate drop to 80's-90's and stayed there for longer than I liked. A nurse came in and had me move side to side and the heart rate started to go up to the 110-1teens. She called for my nurse to come with the ultrasound machine and started me on oxygen. My nurse showed up with a nurse practioner and another nurse. They scanned the babies and started an IV. It took about 15-20 minutes (I think...it seemed like forever to me) to get her heart rate back into the 120's-130's. Both babies baselines run about 140-150 so I knew she was having a tough time still. They kept me on oxygen for a bit and eventually her heart rate came back up to her normal hear rate. Because of this they wanted to monitor me for about 3-4 hours. During that time both babies heart rates had a few dip down into the 1teens but only for a beat and would bounce right back up. After about 4 hours they came in to let me off the monitor and Baby A decided it would be her turn to give mommy a scare. Her heart rate dropped and they put me back on oxygen. Thankfully hers rose a lot faster than Baby B's did earlier and after about 2 hours they let me come off to shower. I was on the monitor from 9-5:30...so it was a long and stressful day. They monitored me again at my normal time at night, about 8-8:30 and they looked much better. Because of the day though, they wanted to monitor me in the middle of the night so at my 4 am procardia time they had me monitor for about 45 minutes. And again, they looked better. It was a night of tossing and turning, but today they are doing MUCH better. There have only been very few dips to the 1teens and they bounce right back (which that is considered normal). There is really no change in plans as far as how things are handled from here on out. It's just a case by case basis during each monitoring session. If they look good, I monitor for an hour and get off. If they don't I will stay on longer. I did add a monitoring session to each day so now I am monitoring 4 times instead of 3. They are looking for continuous drops like I had yesterday and they would take them out. So I'm glad they are doing better today and hope that was just a bad day that won't happen again any time soon. My nurse from yesterday did come to see me today even though I'm not her patient today, and she did tell me that fortunately yesterday was somewhat mild to what she has seen before....so she hoped that eased my mind. It reaffirmed my decision to come in to the hospital when I did. I am definitely in the right place! If I had waited until 28 weeks like some momo moms do I wouldn't have seen that happening and something terrible could have happened. But I am here, and as much as it gets lonely and I want to go home, it's where I need to be for my little angels to be safe. My first milestone for their health is to get to 28 weeks and then I need to shoot for 32.....only 3 more days until 28....So keep us in your prayers! And I will keep you posted. Ultrasound tomorrow morning....can't wait to see if they are still meauring ahead and what they weigh.
Monday, September 21, 2009
27 weeks, 2 days
OK.....so I know I said last post I was going to try and blog more than once a week so I didn't babble...but no such luck. Louis needed the computer this week, so I was S.O.L. Not too much to report though. Babies are still doing well. They are having some decelerations that are scaring me, but the doctors have reassured me that all looks great. The heartbeats haven't dipped below 110 or so and when they do dip they go right back up for the most part....so I guess that is considered normal. What they are looking for is dips below 90 that stay down and don't go back up; or dips that are frequent throughout each monitoring session. I have another growth ultrasound on Thursday so I am looking forward to seeing how much they weigh and if they are still measuring a week ahead. I feel like they have grown, that's for sure :)!
Barrett came down with a viral infection and has been breaking out in random rashes. The doc said it's his body's way of fighting off the virus. For the first couple of days after his doctor's appointment he wasn't allowed to come to the hospital though :(. It was tough not seeing him or Louis. The viral infection isn't contagious but the doc just recommended better to be safe than sorry. I think he's settling back into somewhat of a schedule a bit. Louis and he came to visit on Saturday and he laid down to take a nap much easier than he has in the past.....so maybe he's getting a little more comfortable? I sure hope so!
I think my frustration with the nurse's response time was read by a few of my nurses and the charge nurse went around room to room the other day to get all of the patients feed back. She apologized about the break down of communication and said that it will not be tolerated. Since then things have gotten a bit better....so things are good on that front.
The supervisor from the cafeteria also paid me a visit for feed back and she said she would work on the issues of my orders being wrong too. So all in all, things have been getting better. I am still over the food, but at least they are bringing me what I order :).
Weekends are still my toughest time here. I just want to be home or out doing whatever Louis and Barrett are doing.....but it's hard for all of the moms. We commiserate in the pool and that really helps each of us get out of our heads. I don't know what I would do without that!
So that about wraps up my week in a nutshell without totally babbling! I will try to post again Thursday after my ultrasound. Hope everyone is doing well. As always, thanks for your love and support.
Barrett came down with a viral infection and has been breaking out in random rashes. The doc said it's his body's way of fighting off the virus. For the first couple of days after his doctor's appointment he wasn't allowed to come to the hospital though :(. It was tough not seeing him or Louis. The viral infection isn't contagious but the doc just recommended better to be safe than sorry. I think he's settling back into somewhat of a schedule a bit. Louis and he came to visit on Saturday and he laid down to take a nap much easier than he has in the past.....so maybe he's getting a little more comfortable? I sure hope so!
I think my frustration with the nurse's response time was read by a few of my nurses and the charge nurse went around room to room the other day to get all of the patients feed back. She apologized about the break down of communication and said that it will not be tolerated. Since then things have gotten a bit better....so things are good on that front.
The supervisor from the cafeteria also paid me a visit for feed back and she said she would work on the issues of my orders being wrong too. So all in all, things have been getting better. I am still over the food, but at least they are bringing me what I order :).
Weekends are still my toughest time here. I just want to be home or out doing whatever Louis and Barrett are doing.....but it's hard for all of the moms. We commiserate in the pool and that really helps each of us get out of our heads. I don't know what I would do without that!
So that about wraps up my week in a nutshell without totally babbling! I will try to post again Thursday after my ultrasound. Hope everyone is doing well. As always, thanks for your love and support.
Monday, September 14, 2009
2 weeks inpatient down!
So I haven't blogged in over a week....so that makes me 26 weeks and 2 days. Babies are doing great! I had an ultrasound this past week. They are measuring almost exactly the same, 1 week ahead and 2 lbs a piece. Wonderful news! With twins there is a concern for Twin to Twin Transfer Syndrom (TTTS) which is when one twin takes more of the nutrition from the other....but as of now things are looking like that isn't a concern for us....so YAHOO! They also did an ultrasound of the cords to determine if there were any big knots in the cords. The cords are tangled as to be expected, but the blood flow through them (which they measured the frequency and waves....some medical terms I wasn't 100% on) was great so as for now there is some reassurance that the cords are doing well. I also had a more detailed conversation with one of the doctor's about plan of care. He went over the studies that have been on momo twins, which I know some of you are still trying to figure out what that means and I will explain in a sec, and when we would be looking at a c-section depending on those studies. From the sounds of things, 32 weeks is sort of a magical week for me to get to as far as babies development and less chance for problems.....so 6 more weeks to hit that milestone....we can do it girls :)! At that time I would have a booster shot of steroids to help with lung development. Then at 34 weeks they would do an amniocentisis (the big needle they stick into my belly) to determine lung maturity. At that time if everything is a-ok they schedule the csection for ASAP. If not, they wait a week and schedule the csection for that week. Some docs in this practice will push for a 36 week delivery, but most will do 34-35. The reason is as long as development is up to par, they are safer out than in because of the threat of cord compression. The good news is, in the study that was done nationwide that my practice was involved in (the Heayborne study), they had 100% survival rate, meaning no fetal deaths. He didn't touch on deaths that may have happened after birth, and I didn't think to ask until now....so I will try to remember to ask that question.
As for those of you who still wonder, why did Em call her blog the Mullen MoMos. It is because my girls are in 1 sac with 1 placenta, monoamniotic monochorionic, nicknamed momo twins. Only 1% of twin pregnancies are this type. It is a very stressful pregnancy because from conception-24 weeks there is nothing that can be done to avoid cord entanglement or strangulation. I went in for weekly appointments that I would always have a lot of anxiety about because I wasn't sure what I was going to see on the screen, heartbeat or none? Thankfully I saw 2 heartbeats every appointment. To make matters a little more stressful, my placenta is an anterior placenta which means it is on the outside basically in between the babies and my skin. So when the babies first starting kicking and moving I couldn't really feel it because of the cushion.....so just added stress wondering if they were ok. I felt, and still feel, that the doctor's practice that I have been going to has been providing me with excellent care and I feel very comfortable with them. There is a study done on MoMo twins called the Heyborne study where they studied momo pregnancies nationwide. Basically the study shows the benefits of moms going inpatient as opposed to staying outpatient. Some women from other countries take the studyto their doctors to push for inpatient monitoring. I had read about the study as soon as I was confirmed momo. Come to find out, Dr. Heyborne is a doctor in the practice who is taking care of me....so I was very confident when I made that connection. So as I said, from conception-24 weeks nothing can be done to improve chance of survival. At 24-26 weeks women are admitted into the hospital until delivery to monitor the babies. I personally chose 24 because if something went wrong between that time and I wasn't in the hospital doing everything I could to improve the chance of getting my girls here safely, I would never forgive myself. At 24 weeks babies are considered viable; however, the survival rate of a 24 week old baby outside of the womb is not that great. That is why I got the steroid shots when I first got here. To help their lungs if they needed to come out. So from here on out, I monitor their heart rates 3 times a day for an hour at a time. They are watching for good accelerations and possible low deccelerations. So far I've had the good and not the bad. I also will be doing ultrasound every other week to measure growth. And all I can do is continue to pray and leave it up to the Big Man upstairs (as I have since I have known about these miracles) that they will be healthy.
As for the monitoring, they have for the most part done really well. I normally get them on within 5 minutes or so and they stay on for the hour. There have been a few VERY frustrating sessions where I continue to try, call for help, and the nurses don't respond very quickly so I feel like I am doing it all on my own. I don't think it's the nurses fault, I think it is whoever answers the call button at the nurses station. I don't think she is good about giving the nurses the messages. Saturday for example I spent about 30 minutes trying on my own and called for a nurse. She came in about 10 minutes later, tried for about 10 minutes and told me she needed to go check another patient and left me to keep trying. I finally after an hour and some odd minutes called the nurse again and said "I have been at this for an hour by myself for the most part and am getting very frustrated. Can someone please come help me?" In the meantime I realized the kitchen had screwed up my breakfast, so when the nurse walked in she was all cheery and asked if I was ok. I had a little melt down :). I said that I had been trying for an hour, the kitchen is always screwing up my food and I just want to go home....and started to cry! Being here is hard enough....being here expected to do the nurses job is even harder.....being here expected to the nurses job and apparently now the kitchen's....I can't handle it :)! Tonight started to get a little frustrating, but I voiced that frustration when the nurse told me to call out after 10 minutes of trying. I said I did and that I had to call back a 2nd time after waiting 15 minutes because no one came. She said she never got the message. I know it's not their fault...but something needs to be done about response time. This hospital is known for the NICU and that's why I am here. But it would be nice if the stay leading up to that was as pleasant as possible with nurses who respond quickly.
Let's see.....Bear and Louis have spent the night twice I think since my last blog. The first time it took quite a while to get him to go to sleep....but I think it's because I monitored a little later than normal and that was distracting to him. Last time he fell asleep with me in my bed for a bit and then we moved him to the pack n play. It was nice to lay with him for a bit :). He also woke up pretty early the next morning having a bad dream I think, and he called out for me.....it was nice to be able to be here for him and put him in bed with me. He's doing great with Louis and the bond they are going to have when this is all said and done is going to be so strong....but I think he is still adjusting to mommy being gone. His sleep schedule is a mess and because of that he won't go to sleep unless daddy is laying in his bed with him. Before I came in, he would get into his big boy bed, one of us would read him a book, we would both then say night night to him and he would go to sleep with no problems.....that hasn't happened since I've been here. So I am feeling some guilt about that. It makes me sad that his little world is turned half way upside down and there is nothing I can do about it.....but I have to keep telling myself it will all be worth it. He has begun to say bye bye to his sisters when he leaves to go home from his visits. It's cute. We also saw a newborn baby in the nursery over the weekend and he seemed very intrigued. When he saw her he said "baby" all soft and quiet and when we were walking away he said "night night baby". It was too cute! He's going to make a great big brother.
So other than that, my niece/God daughter turned 3 on September 6th and they had her bday party over the weekend. I wish I could have been there...but Louis and Barrett went so that made me happy. Erin, my sister-in-law, brought me down some yummy cake to enjoy.....she's so sweet! I have had visitors every day so that makes the days a little bit easier. And I am still going to the pool....but no more bearded lady. She made it to 36 weeks so they sent her home to WY for delivery. I went to BINGO last week...won some mouth wash. I know, I know....Look out! Missed it this week because I had visitors. And I attempted to do some knitting tonight but didn't know how to end a row and start a new one. My mom said I just knit it like the rest of the row...but something seemed wrong and I didn't want to keep starting over so I will wait until she can give me another lesson. I have watched lots of TV.....glad football season has started!, a few movies and read 2.5 books so far....oh and I can't forget the magazines my friends Jamie and Amanda got me....Tiger Beat and the Enquirer just to name a few :). OOHHH...and one other big "freedom", I am allowed to be wheeled out of my room and outside for 30-45 minutes. It was nice the 1st time I got fresh air again after staring out my window at the mountains and sunshine for a week! And it also gives me the flexibility of going down to the Cafeteria with visitors instead of sitting in my room and eating.....so that has been really nice.
So each week I get a little bit more excited about seeing what these identical girls are going to look like!!!! Hopefully we see an equal amount of both mommy and daddy. And we are still tossing around names. We thought we had Kaia and Kolbie pinned down for awhile. But after my husband's uncle pointed out, after I had already done so numerous times but Louis didn't agree, that identical twins should have different, separate names instead of sounding the same or starting with the same letter, Louis agreed! Why are men like that??? I say something, he doesn't listen. Another man says the same thing and he listens.....oh well! At least my original thought of not wanting their names to start with the same letter has seemed to come to fruition. Now I have to try and get him away from using the same middle name for both of them. But in some ways I guess that's not as bad because people don't really know other people's middle names.....and I have to let him have his say too on this. I named Barrett, he was supposed to name the next one....so since we get the 2fer deal we are going to compromise on some things......so names will come in time. You may not know them until they are here :).
Ok, well I surprisingly took Ambien an hour ago when I started this and my words are now finally starting to run together. I think it's time for me to stop babbling and go to bed. I will try to post more frequently.....over a week leads to a really long post and probably bored half of you to death. So off to sleepy sleep.....thanks for all your love and support. Night night!
As for those of you who still wonder, why did Em call her blog the Mullen MoMos. It is because my girls are in 1 sac with 1 placenta, monoamniotic monochorionic, nicknamed momo twins. Only 1% of twin pregnancies are this type. It is a very stressful pregnancy because from conception-24 weeks there is nothing that can be done to avoid cord entanglement or strangulation. I went in for weekly appointments that I would always have a lot of anxiety about because I wasn't sure what I was going to see on the screen, heartbeat or none? Thankfully I saw 2 heartbeats every appointment. To make matters a little more stressful, my placenta is an anterior placenta which means it is on the outside basically in between the babies and my skin. So when the babies first starting kicking and moving I couldn't really feel it because of the cushion.....so just added stress wondering if they were ok. I felt, and still feel, that the doctor's practice that I have been going to has been providing me with excellent care and I feel very comfortable with them. There is a study done on MoMo twins called the Heyborne study where they studied momo pregnancies nationwide. Basically the study shows the benefits of moms going inpatient as opposed to staying outpatient. Some women from other countries take the studyto their doctors to push for inpatient monitoring. I had read about the study as soon as I was confirmed momo. Come to find out, Dr. Heyborne is a doctor in the practice who is taking care of me....so I was very confident when I made that connection. So as I said, from conception-24 weeks nothing can be done to improve chance of survival. At 24-26 weeks women are admitted into the hospital until delivery to monitor the babies. I personally chose 24 because if something went wrong between that time and I wasn't in the hospital doing everything I could to improve the chance of getting my girls here safely, I would never forgive myself. At 24 weeks babies are considered viable; however, the survival rate of a 24 week old baby outside of the womb is not that great. That is why I got the steroid shots when I first got here. To help their lungs if they needed to come out. So from here on out, I monitor their heart rates 3 times a day for an hour at a time. They are watching for good accelerations and possible low deccelerations. So far I've had the good and not the bad. I also will be doing ultrasound every other week to measure growth. And all I can do is continue to pray and leave it up to the Big Man upstairs (as I have since I have known about these miracles) that they will be healthy.
As for the monitoring, they have for the most part done really well. I normally get them on within 5 minutes or so and they stay on for the hour. There have been a few VERY frustrating sessions where I continue to try, call for help, and the nurses don't respond very quickly so I feel like I am doing it all on my own. I don't think it's the nurses fault, I think it is whoever answers the call button at the nurses station. I don't think she is good about giving the nurses the messages. Saturday for example I spent about 30 minutes trying on my own and called for a nurse. She came in about 10 minutes later, tried for about 10 minutes and told me she needed to go check another patient and left me to keep trying. I finally after an hour and some odd minutes called the nurse again and said "I have been at this for an hour by myself for the most part and am getting very frustrated. Can someone please come help me?" In the meantime I realized the kitchen had screwed up my breakfast, so when the nurse walked in she was all cheery and asked if I was ok. I had a little melt down :). I said that I had been trying for an hour, the kitchen is always screwing up my food and I just want to go home....and started to cry! Being here is hard enough....being here expected to do the nurses job is even harder.....being here expected to the nurses job and apparently now the kitchen's....I can't handle it :)! Tonight started to get a little frustrating, but I voiced that frustration when the nurse told me to call out after 10 minutes of trying. I said I did and that I had to call back a 2nd time after waiting 15 minutes because no one came. She said she never got the message. I know it's not their fault...but something needs to be done about response time. This hospital is known for the NICU and that's why I am here. But it would be nice if the stay leading up to that was as pleasant as possible with nurses who respond quickly.
Let's see.....Bear and Louis have spent the night twice I think since my last blog. The first time it took quite a while to get him to go to sleep....but I think it's because I monitored a little later than normal and that was distracting to him. Last time he fell asleep with me in my bed for a bit and then we moved him to the pack n play. It was nice to lay with him for a bit :). He also woke up pretty early the next morning having a bad dream I think, and he called out for me.....it was nice to be able to be here for him and put him in bed with me. He's doing great with Louis and the bond they are going to have when this is all said and done is going to be so strong....but I think he is still adjusting to mommy being gone. His sleep schedule is a mess and because of that he won't go to sleep unless daddy is laying in his bed with him. Before I came in, he would get into his big boy bed, one of us would read him a book, we would both then say night night to him and he would go to sleep with no problems.....that hasn't happened since I've been here. So I am feeling some guilt about that. It makes me sad that his little world is turned half way upside down and there is nothing I can do about it.....but I have to keep telling myself it will all be worth it. He has begun to say bye bye to his sisters when he leaves to go home from his visits. It's cute. We also saw a newborn baby in the nursery over the weekend and he seemed very intrigued. When he saw her he said "baby" all soft and quiet and when we were walking away he said "night night baby". It was too cute! He's going to make a great big brother.
So other than that, my niece/God daughter turned 3 on September 6th and they had her bday party over the weekend. I wish I could have been there...but Louis and Barrett went so that made me happy. Erin, my sister-in-law, brought me down some yummy cake to enjoy.....she's so sweet! I have had visitors every day so that makes the days a little bit easier. And I am still going to the pool....but no more bearded lady. She made it to 36 weeks so they sent her home to WY for delivery. I went to BINGO last week...won some mouth wash. I know, I know....Look out! Missed it this week because I had visitors. And I attempted to do some knitting tonight but didn't know how to end a row and start a new one. My mom said I just knit it like the rest of the row...but something seemed wrong and I didn't want to keep starting over so I will wait until she can give me another lesson. I have watched lots of TV.....glad football season has started!, a few movies and read 2.5 books so far....oh and I can't forget the magazines my friends Jamie and Amanda got me....Tiger Beat and the Enquirer just to name a few :). OOHHH...and one other big "freedom", I am allowed to be wheeled out of my room and outside for 30-45 minutes. It was nice the 1st time I got fresh air again after staring out my window at the mountains and sunshine for a week! And it also gives me the flexibility of going down to the Cafeteria with visitors instead of sitting in my room and eating.....so that has been really nice.
So each week I get a little bit more excited about seeing what these identical girls are going to look like!!!! Hopefully we see an equal amount of both mommy and daddy. And we are still tossing around names. We thought we had Kaia and Kolbie pinned down for awhile. But after my husband's uncle pointed out, after I had already done so numerous times but Louis didn't agree, that identical twins should have different, separate names instead of sounding the same or starting with the same letter, Louis agreed! Why are men like that??? I say something, he doesn't listen. Another man says the same thing and he listens.....oh well! At least my original thought of not wanting their names to start with the same letter has seemed to come to fruition. Now I have to try and get him away from using the same middle name for both of them. But in some ways I guess that's not as bad because people don't really know other people's middle names.....and I have to let him have his say too on this. I named Barrett, he was supposed to name the next one....so since we get the 2fer deal we are going to compromise on some things......so names will come in time. You may not know them until they are here :).
Ok, well I surprisingly took Ambien an hour ago when I started this and my words are now finally starting to run together. I think it's time for me to stop babbling and go to bed. I will try to post more frequently.....over a week leads to a really long post and probably bored half of you to death. So off to sleepy sleep.....thanks for all your love and support. Night night!
Saturday, September 5, 2009
25 weeks today
Well I am 25 weeks today and have made it through 5 days so far. I have been a little emotional here and there, but everyone keeps telling me the first week is the hardest. I have seen Barrett every day and Louis every day but one. It gets lonely during the day, but I look forward to my evening visitors. Louis brought me a dozen of the most beautiful light purple roses I have ever seen last night to brighten up my room....he can be so sweet when he wants to :). We attempted to get Barrett to lay down and spend the night last night, but he wouldn't settle. There are just too many things for him to get into :). And with me monitoring on top of it and the sounds of the little heartbeats, he was just too intrigued. I think we are going to try again tomorrow night with his pack n play and see if keeping him contained in that helps. I miss sleeping next to Louis too.....7 years is a long time to have someone next to you every night. Hopefully tomorrow night works out!
The babies are doing great. I have started to do the monitoring on my own, which has impressed some of my nurses since I haven't even been here a week. I monitor 3 times a day for an hour at a time. For the most part, they are staying on the monitors rather well. There have been one or 2 times where it has taken 2 hours to monitor because they are just SO active. It's fun to watch my belly move all around when I am monitoring. There were some good heart accelerations today that the nurse said is a really good sign for this early....so that makes me feel good. Hopefully they just keep cooperating and don't get themselves tangled in there! I had to start procardia today. It is a drug that helps with contractions. I didn't even realize I was having them really, but the monitor showed I am so we need to keep that under control so they don't progress. It's apparently pretty common in a multiples pregnancy.
Other than that, nothing new to really report. The pool is a nice break in the middle of the day and I have finished a book and a half already! I am planning on starting my knitting tomorrow. I was going to start today, but Barrett is coming down shortly with Sophie. I'm looking forward to seeing them. I will report in a couple of days. Thanks for the love and support!
The babies are doing great. I have started to do the monitoring on my own, which has impressed some of my nurses since I haven't even been here a week. I monitor 3 times a day for an hour at a time. For the most part, they are staying on the monitors rather well. There have been one or 2 times where it has taken 2 hours to monitor because they are just SO active. It's fun to watch my belly move all around when I am monitoring. There were some good heart accelerations today that the nurse said is a really good sign for this early....so that makes me feel good. Hopefully they just keep cooperating and don't get themselves tangled in there! I had to start procardia today. It is a drug that helps with contractions. I didn't even realize I was having them really, but the monitor showed I am so we need to keep that under control so they don't progress. It's apparently pretty common in a multiples pregnancy.
Other than that, nothing new to really report. The pool is a nice break in the middle of the day and I have finished a book and a half already! I am planning on starting my knitting tomorrow. I was going to start today, but Barrett is coming down shortly with Sophie. I'm looking forward to seeing them. I will report in a couple of days. Thanks for the love and support!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
And so the journey begins
Well day 1 has come and gone and day 2 is more than half way over.....only something like 69 more days.....well, let's not get too technical :). Anyhow, my amazing husband threw me a little "going away" party Sunday night which was very thoughtful and generous of him. I didn't sleep a wink Sunday night and started to get an upset stomach. I started the morning yesterday not feeling well at all. Louis blamed it on nerves, but I thought it was something more. I couldn't eat anything even as much as my mind knew I needed to.....so I just paced around the house for awhile making sure I had everything I needed.
After dropping Barrett off at daycare and saying my goodbyes to him, which I have to say was probably the hardest thing I have had to do as a mommy, we headed to the hospital. I checked in yesterday morning at about 10:30ish at 24 weeks and 2 days. When I arrived up to my floor the nurses announced "the momo mom is here!"....it's like I am a celebrity :). My room is nice and big and I would have a view of the mountains if there weren't a haze over Colorado from the California fires. But better to be here then there I guess. Once I got settled in a bit, I managed to eat some cereal since I hadn't eaten anything yet and the nurse got me hooked up to the monitors. At this point in pregnancy the babies are still moving quite a bit and it can be difficult to monitor them....but the girls showed off and stayed on the monitors with no troubles for an hour...the nurse was impressed. Shortly after that, the stress and no sleep caught up to me and I dozed off for a bit. After waking up from my nap I still didn't feel very well....see, I knew Louis was wrong ;). I got my first round of steroids to help with the lung development of the babies.....the shot wasn't as bad as I thought, but can't understand why some people shoot themselves in their ass daily! Anyhow, didn't do very much else the whole day.
Louis and Barrett came to visit me last night. I ordered some dinner and managed to eat a little bit...Bear ate most of it. After they left they monitored the babies again...this time they weren't as cooperative, but did ok. As for Bear, it's going to be difficult for him to be here for much longer than an hour. Louis will need to bring some toys and books and leave them here for him to play with. I think he is confused but that's understandable. Louis said that when he picked him up from daycare yesterday he said "do you want to go see mommy?" Bear said "yes" and Louis said "at the hospital" and Bear said "babies"...so maybe he understands more than we think. But bedtime was confusing for him last night...I guess he wondered where mommy was.....I am looking forward to seeing him tonight!
This morning I woke up STARVING and knew that my stomach bug was just a 24 hour deal...Thank God :)! I ate breakfast and was then monitored. These girls are ACTIVE! Keeping them on the monitors was difficult, but we managed to get a pretty good hour. I read some after that, watched some tv, ate some lunch and was monitored again. This time they were not behaving well at all...beating each other up I think ;), and moving around like you wouldn't believe. We got about 30 good minutes in. I then went to the pool for an hour with other pregnant moms. Met another mom who is having twins, but not momos. She is 30 weeks and went into preterm labor so she's here to stop that. Also met a bearded lady....maybe it was the steroids....YIKES....LOL....just kidding. She was nice and friendly so I am not trying to be mean....I just know some of you enjoyed my little joke. Found out that on Thursday nights there is BINGO night, Sunday night is ice cream night (WOOHOO) and apparently there is an arts and crafts lady who comes around......I feel like I am in a nursing home! Ooooo and one great perk, massages once a week....can't wait for that on Thursday morning. And here I am now. The volume on my TV went out earlier so hopefully they come fix that soon...or hopefully my parents get here soon with Bear :). The plan for the evening is to hang out, eat some dinner, get monitored again and go to sleep....I know, exciting huh :). I can't say that this blog will keep you guys very interested in these beginning days, but I will keep posting to keep everyone informed. Thank you for all of your love and support.
After dropping Barrett off at daycare and saying my goodbyes to him, which I have to say was probably the hardest thing I have had to do as a mommy, we headed to the hospital. I checked in yesterday morning at about 10:30ish at 24 weeks and 2 days. When I arrived up to my floor the nurses announced "the momo mom is here!"....it's like I am a celebrity :). My room is nice and big and I would have a view of the mountains if there weren't a haze over Colorado from the California fires. But better to be here then there I guess. Once I got settled in a bit, I managed to eat some cereal since I hadn't eaten anything yet and the nurse got me hooked up to the monitors. At this point in pregnancy the babies are still moving quite a bit and it can be difficult to monitor them....but the girls showed off and stayed on the monitors with no troubles for an hour...the nurse was impressed. Shortly after that, the stress and no sleep caught up to me and I dozed off for a bit. After waking up from my nap I still didn't feel very well....see, I knew Louis was wrong ;). I got my first round of steroids to help with the lung development of the babies.....the shot wasn't as bad as I thought, but can't understand why some people shoot themselves in their ass daily! Anyhow, didn't do very much else the whole day.
Louis and Barrett came to visit me last night. I ordered some dinner and managed to eat a little bit...Bear ate most of it. After they left they monitored the babies again...this time they weren't as cooperative, but did ok. As for Bear, it's going to be difficult for him to be here for much longer than an hour. Louis will need to bring some toys and books and leave them here for him to play with. I think he is confused but that's understandable. Louis said that when he picked him up from daycare yesterday he said "do you want to go see mommy?" Bear said "yes" and Louis said "at the hospital" and Bear said "babies"...so maybe he understands more than we think. But bedtime was confusing for him last night...I guess he wondered where mommy was.....I am looking forward to seeing him tonight!
This morning I woke up STARVING and knew that my stomach bug was just a 24 hour deal...Thank God :)! I ate breakfast and was then monitored. These girls are ACTIVE! Keeping them on the monitors was difficult, but we managed to get a pretty good hour. I read some after that, watched some tv, ate some lunch and was monitored again. This time they were not behaving well at all...beating each other up I think ;), and moving around like you wouldn't believe. We got about 30 good minutes in. I then went to the pool for an hour with other pregnant moms. Met another mom who is having twins, but not momos. She is 30 weeks and went into preterm labor so she's here to stop that. Also met a bearded lady....maybe it was the steroids....YIKES....LOL....just kidding. She was nice and friendly so I am not trying to be mean....I just know some of you enjoyed my little joke. Found out that on Thursday nights there is BINGO night, Sunday night is ice cream night (WOOHOO) and apparently there is an arts and crafts lady who comes around......I feel like I am in a nursing home! Ooooo and one great perk, massages once a week....can't wait for that on Thursday morning. And here I am now. The volume on my TV went out earlier so hopefully they come fix that soon...or hopefully my parents get here soon with Bear :). The plan for the evening is to hang out, eat some dinner, get monitored again and go to sleep....I know, exciting huh :). I can't say that this blog will keep you guys very interested in these beginning days, but I will keep posting to keep everyone informed. Thank you for all of your love and support.
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