Thursday, September 23, 2010

12 weeks. (and then some)

Thanks to a computer on the fritz, this is a little late, but a lot has happened!  Here are the highlights:
  • Had an appointment at 11w4 days, and got a unexpected peek at the babies. YAY! Everyone looks great-- it's incredible to see that they look like BABIES now instead of shrimp :)
  • Told Mr. M's parents. WONDERFUL!!  Apparently we did a good job of keeping things quiet and discrete on our vacation-- they didn't notice anything was up!
  • Told my siblings.  We were going to do all the siblings the same day, but my brother was over at my parents house, and then when you tell one you can't not tell the other... so we did :)
  • Went back and forth and back and forth again about the NT scan.  Couldn't make up our minds.  After lots of thought, we decided we wanted to do the u/s but not the bloodwork. (My insurance covered it, and who wouldn't want an extra-long u/s!)  I called to schedule it and they were pretty booked, but there was an opening that afternoon (Tuesday) so we rearranged our afternoons to make it.  Great pics of the babies, everything is right on mark, growing perfectly, arms, legs, fingers, perfect.  The u/s tech said they looked great, and then came right over to do the finger prick for the bloodwork.  It was so fast, I just did it, and Mr. M didn't stop me.  Afterwords we were worried a bit, but in the end we love these little guys already, and will love them no matter what.
  • Told Mr. M's siblings. :) SO fun to tell!
  • Told work.  I think people are in shock, but it's so nice to be "out."  I'm showing already, and have been having a hard time finding clothes that hide my growing tummy.  To be fair, I wasn't small to begin with, but my Dr. said that moms of twins measure 4-5 weeks ahead, so that makes me like a 16 or 17 week singleton mom.  So the fact that I've sworn off of regular pants is totally legit, right? ;)
  • Got a call today from the genetics specialist, and in the end we're glad we did the bloodwork-- 1/10,000 risk (the lowest risk they give on the test) for BOTH babies for all three issues. What a relief!
  • Counting the days to the weekend when we can tell more friends! and THIRTEEN weeks! woohoo!!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

11 weeks.

11 weeks. Wow.

I thought I would feel so much further along by now!  We have our next appointment this coming Thursday, and I was all excited about it... until I found out that the first trimester testing needs to be done between 11w and 13w6d.  I asked about it at our last appointment, and the NP said that my Dr. would talk to me about it at my next appointment.  I'm not so worried about the bloodwork- that's easy to get done while I'm there, but they don't have an ultrasound scheduled for us. Ugh.  I'm going to try to call tomorrow to see if they can schedule that while I'm there. 

Anyway (trying to move on from that frustration). 

This last week has been good-- nausea calmed down a bit, and I could actually ask Mr. M what he wanted for dinner!  I also managed to cook dinner and eat it a couple of nights last week. That's HUGE!  Unfortunately, it's back in full force today.  But hey, I'll gladly take any break these littles want to give me. :)  Other symptoms are still sticking around, which can be a little annoying, but I'm always glad for the reminders that there are babies growing inside me. :)

That's especially important when we're having shoddy luck with the doppler.  We tried again today, thinking we might get to hear both, but didn't end up finding any heartbeats.  I'm not freaking out, though, because the last few times we've heard the heartbeat on the doppler, it's been further up (not sure if we're just hearing one, or if sometimes we get one and sometimes we get the other).  This is more than I want to really share, but the further up they go, the more they're tucked behind some fat, and that probably makes them a little harder to hear... That's what I'm telling myself anyway.

I'm so ready (and so is Mr. M) to start telling people!  It's getting harder and harder to hide my growing tummy.  I read that with twins, your uterus is the same size as a woman with a singleton 6 weeks ahead.  So that means mine is about the same as a 17-weeker now. That would explain the growing.  Anyway, the plan was after hearing them this coming Thursday, we would tell immediate family, and then other friends and family when I'm 12w4d.  With all of the NT scan stuff not being scheduled, we may change our plan.  We'll have to wait and see how it all pans out. 

Thank God for Mr. M!  He's supportive and wonderful when I feel sick, tired, or cry over my lack of concealing clothing.  He goes to get me the craving of the moment, and picks up the load for me when I don't feel like I can get up.  BEST. HUSBAND. EVER.

Hoping this week brings good news, trying to chill out and rest, and not freak out. :)

Monday, September 6, 2010

heartbeat!

Labor day seems a fitting time to FINALLY FIND A HEARTBEAT WITH THE DOPPLER!!

Yes, I'm crazy.  Yes, I bought a doppler.  What?

It came in the mail when I was 8 weeks-ish, and the first many tries resulted in finding nothing other than my own heartbeat. :(  I know it's been (and still is) on the early end, but I was hoping that with two, and a bigger uterus, maybe they would have moved up enough.  We tried again last week, hoping to hear them before we told my parents, and no luck.

This morning I wake up and feel great.  It's been a long time since that happened!  I worked out, threw in a load of laundry, cooked eggs for breakfast and ate them (!), vacuumed the house, baked cookies... too good to be true... so I figured I would give the doppler another shot.

After a couple of minutes searching, Mr. M came out to join me in the hunt.  And a couple minutes later... WE FOUND ONE!!!!  :)  The doppler isn't super-awesome at locking in on one reading for a heartbeat, but it was 160-ish. :) We searched for a little while longer, and heard what sounded similar to the "fetal movement" sounds I heard online, so that might have been the other one... We'll give it a few more days and try again.

YAY!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

10 weeks.

Double digits, baby!  And Labor Day weekend. That's a winning combo!

The weekend got off to a good start, as we told my parents.  We wanted to wait to tell both sets of parents together, but decided to tell mine a little early since:
  1. They know about our IF struggles, so they are easily tipped off
  2. I swear my mom was starting to really worry and think I was clinically depressed, since every time I talked to her and she asked how I was doing, I told her I was tired and not feeling very well
  3. We had plans to spend all day Saturday with them at two sporting events.  The frequent eating, food not sounding good, and bathroom breaks would have tipped them off for sure.
SO, we decided rather than them guess, we would tell them.  And of course, they were thrilled.  My mom said she had known since last weekend because "you looked really happy at lunch."  Okay mom. :) They were funny too as they went through the stages of shock-- the same we did:  first it was "TWINS? Oh my gosh. Wow. Twins!"  Then it moved to "it will be okay.  It will all be fine.  You guys will figure it out."  Then it was finally excitement.  All day yesterday, my mom was wanting to talk about it.  It's killing her that she can't tell anyone.  Especially because my sister was home and with us all day yesterday. :) So cute.  I just kept saying "wait two more weeks and you can talk to whoever you want about it!"

A fun twist too-- when we told them, my mom mentioned that twins run in her family! That's the first I've heard of it!!  She said it crossed her mind when she got pregnant, but since she didn't have them, she never thought one of us would.  I'm relieved to be able to truthfully tell people that they run in my family-- that ought to curb some questions about what we went through to get pregnant, since that's not something I'm ready to share with everyone.  She called my grandpa today (and SWORE he had no idea and that she was totally natural in the conversation... RIGHT.) and confirmed that it's legit-- my great grandma's sisters had fraternal twins.  So there you go.  A surprise a minute, right?

I'm still having nausea and aversions/cravings.  Mr. M is picking up a hot roast beef for me right now.  I thought things were getting better earlier this week, but they're back in full swing.  I'm eating plenty of carbs/dairy and usually enough eggs. I typically fit meat in at dinner and try to at lunch as well.  Still totally grossed out by most veggies. That's not good, I know.  I"m trying.  And hoping that the second trimester brings energy and curbs the aversions to healthy food. :)