Appointments & More Appointments

This week has been a busy one for appointments. We had our second twins & triplets prenatal class on Tuesday night, where we learned a bit about labour and birth and learned the answers to some questions we had wanted to know. Things like: If my water breaks is it both? The answer is: No, its not both. Baby A's (in our case our daughter's) water would break and she would be born. Then Baby B's (our son's) water would break and he would be born. After that both placentas would be delivered. Who knew it worked like that in twins? We also learned when to go to the hospital, as it's different for twins and singleton births. So far prenatal classes have been very interesting. The class ended with the Dads learning massage techniques for the Moms' labour.

Then Wednesday we had our second OB appointment. I got the results from my glucose screen blood test, to check for gestational diabetes, and learned that I passed the 1 hour test, so I will not have to do the 3 hour test. Yay! I'm healthy. The nurse weighed me, and I didn't look this time. I've decided that as long as we're all healthy I don't really care what I weigh. That'll be a challenge I'll deal with in the spring/summer next year at the gym. My BP was 120/70, so right on normal this time rather than low as it has been. Baby Girl's heartbeat was 150 and Baby Boy's was 146. They both appear to be doing great. We're also into week 28 now and their survival rate if born early (which they will not be) is now 90%. I like those odds. I keep on telling them to "keep growing big and strong", to "keep their hearts beating", to "protect each other" and "stay away from their cords as they're not toys". They've been good listeners so far.

Thursday we had another class in the evening. This one was for Infant CPR, which hopefully we will never need to use, but good information to have none the less. We basically did a refresher on how to give CPR to babies and what to do if they were to choke. The instructor also went over how to safety proof your home. The course was held at the Children's Hospital ans while it was very nicely decorated and friendly, we hope to never need to go there again.

This morning (Friday) we had another routine ultrasound appointment and visit with the perinatologist. The drive there was pretty scary as it was the first snowfall of the season and the roads were like ice skating rinks in places. Traffic was crazy and there were accidents on almost every road we went down. Our appointment time was for 9am and we left the house at a quarter to 8, thinking over an hour to do a 30 minute drive would be good. We were still 10 minutes late for our appointment, but I'd called ahead to let them know we were on our way.

The ultrasound went very well and was quite quick this time around. We got to see the babies' umbilical cords for the first time and had the technician do a gender check for us. (We realized we'd never actually had a gender check from a medical ultrasound but rather from the 3D ones only.) The tech determined that Baby A is in fact a girl (she was head down & hopefully will remain that way) but couldn't see Baby B as he was breech, but we're pretty certain he's a boy from the 3D photos..

Both babies gained about a pound since our last ultrasound three weeks ago. Baby girl now weighs 1160g or 2lbs 9 oz & Baby boy weighs 1251g or 2lbs 12oz. Their heart rates were normal and my BP was again normal at 110/64. My cervix measured 4.1cm this time (0.6cm shorter than last time) and was still completely closed. The perinatologist (who is a really nice doctor - but I don't remember his name) said that they worry if it's less than 2cm, so we're double that length and doing well. He also told us that the babies have the right amount of amniotic fluid and that also is looking good. We go back again for another ultrasound check up in two more weeks, November 18th. The photos we got are not the best, but it's gotten more difficult to get good quality photos since the cubs are getting bigger. Here are the best two pictures from this morning.

Baby Girl's Face (Top of her head to the right)

Baby Boy's Face (Top of his head to the left)

Saturday, I am going for a nice relaxing pregnancy massage! While I am working on helping blood flow to nourish our cubs, Phil will be at home working on the electrical wiring for our basement reno! I look forward to getting the project moving along and dry-walled soon. I can't wait to see defined spaces and actual walls! We have some nice wood/lam flooring to install and plan to paint the basement in browns with white trim to match the rest of our house. We've already bought the light fixtures as well. We're hoping to celebrate Christmas in our new rumpus room (as my grandparents called it) with our family. Hopefully it is nearing completion by that time. It's going to be beautiful.

I now am feeling the babies move at all times of the day and with more force than previously. They still don't "kick" as much as "wiggle". They both seem to be night owls (like me!) and are active almost everyday like clockwork at 11:30pm. I also notice them moving around a bit in the mornings around 6am and around 5pm. Phil can now feel movements on his hand quite easily. Sometimes we can actually see my belly moving, which is so very neat! Pregnancy at times seems to fly by so quickly. I'm doing everything I can to just enjoy the experience.

28th Week (27w5d)

This week our doctor took me off of work so I can get some much needed rest. I entered the third trimester and basically hit a wall with eating and sleeping. Up until now, I'd been able to eat normal sized meals, eat whatever I felt like and sleep the entire night through. All of a sudden, I noticed I can barely eat anything without feeling full right away and I've learned that some foods are just plain mean. I also am now waking up at least once per night to to go pee. I don't mind any of this as it just means we're doing well. I am very thankful to the doctor for giving me the time to rest and prepare for our cubs' arrival. We know that twins average birth around week 35-36 (which would put us right around Christmas/NYE), but hopefully our cubs will keep warm in their den for another 8-10 weeks and into week 37-38 in January 2012!