18w3d HALFWAY DONE!!! And babies hit a growth spurt!

I'm officially halfway done today. Of course I've probably already passed the halfway mark awhile ago, but 20 weeks from today I will have two baby girls on the outside. It feels like this pregnancy is flying by, but then again it also feels like its dragging. I wish a twin pregnancy meant that the twins actually grew faster. I keep forgetting that even though I'm halfway, viability won't come any sooner and full term won't come any sooner. My OB is just taking the babies sooner, and I am getting bigger sooner. Sigh, grow babies grow!!!

How I'm Feeling
I feel about 34 weeks pregnant. Yay me. Yesterday at work a woman came in that I haven't seen since I was almost full term with Mason. It was good to see her again. As the Dr was talking to her she mentioned that she was expecting. She didn't look pregnant at all! I asked her how far along and she told me that she was 25 weeks!!!! Yikes! I was double her size. I am twice as big as a 25 weeks pregnant woman and I'm only 18 1/2 weeks. So that should explain how I'm feeling. My pelvic region is very sore from holding up two babies all day, work is getting painful because I'm up and down all day. Picking up things off the floor is something I dread. I don't fit into some of my scrubs anymore. Whenever I stand with my weight on one leg or the other I pinch a nerve and then I end up not being able to walk for a few minutes. I think I'm starting to get SPD (Symphysis pubis dysfunction)  because I will get a pain that extends down my legs. My eyesight has also gotten very bad. I can't even read the huge quicktrip signs on the highway that tells how much gas costs. I probably shouldn't be driving...I think I will go get my eyes checked and get a different prescription on my glasses. I know pregnancy ruins your eyesight, and I guess the twins is the reason it's extremely bad this time, but I can't wait until the twins are here to be able to see again. These symptoms would be exciting because it would indicate I was almost done, but not this time. This time it's kinda intimidating cause if I already feel like I've reached 3rd trimester, how will I feel at 3rd trimester?!?! I'm very thankful for all of this though because that means that the babies are growing big and strong. Not sure how long I can work though, I can tell this pregnancy is going to wear me down very quickly.

Belly Pictures
 I would love to make a photo album to track my progress, but I can't figure out how to do it on here.

37 w with Mason

18 w with twins

I posted the last belly pic I took on my phone to compare my belly with my full term belly last pregnancy. I'm obviously carrying differently since my uterus isn't as high as it was with a full term baby, but I'm getting close to my full term size. Oh and check out that little cutie in the background of my twin pic. :) Isn't he adorable.

This is him telling me that I'm silly. He thinks it's so funny when I tell him that he is a silly boy. We haven't figured out a way to tell him that he is going to have two little sisters. How do you tell a 16 month old that he will have sisters when he doesn't know what a baby is? I'm thinking about buying him a baby doll so that he can have a baby of his own. Maybe get him a build a bear and dress it up like a baby? Not sure yet, I guess I need to figure that one out.

Monday is our next ultrasound. I will be able to update specifics on the twins at that time. Today was our first small milestone, the halfway mark. Our next small milestone is June 10th when we hit 20 weeks and I will no longer have a diagnosis of "threatened miscarriage" if i have anymore complications. I will be able to go to labor and delivery. I have received 4 "threatened miscarriage" diagnosis this pregnancy so it's a big deal to me to know that doctors will take things more seriously starting at 20 weeks. My first BIG BIG BIG milestone is 24 week. VIABILITY BABY!  5 weeks 3 days till viability.

Burnt spaghetti, bloody salad, and runny crumble cake

Oh boy, with a title like that you should already start cringing. In my last post I mentioned I feel really good, so I decided to make a big meal for when Jared got home. This is the first time I have cooked a meal since I got pregnant cause I couldn't stomach cooking before. My craving has been Italian lately so I made Spaghetti Bolognese with Italian Salad and Cinnamon Streusel muffins.

Things were going pretty good at first and I was cooking and cleaning the kitchen while listening to my 90's work out music and feeling pretty much like supermom. Things started going downhill quickly.

I started chopping the salad and halfway through my knife slipped and I sliced my finger. No big deal, I just grabbed a paper towel and applied pressure to stop the bleeding and went and got a band aid. The whole time thinking how bad this was going to hurt later in the shower. I went back to chopping, thought long and hard about throwing out what I was chopping cause I didn't know if blood got on the cabbage. Nah, it's just Jared and I, no reason to throw out a perfectly good piece of cabbage.

So then I started on the spaghetti. The sauce went flawless, what could go wrong with spaghetti? The water started boiling and I poured some oil in, only I poured way to much oil in. Oh well, it won't hurt anything right? So I started boiling the spaghetti, I turn my back for 1 second and when I turn back the pot is boiling over. I go to turn down the burner when the entire stove top erupts into flames. Well now I know what happens when you put too much oil in the pot of spaghetti. I drop the milk jug that's in my hand and run around like crazy trying to figure out how to put out this fire. Now I have started a LOT of grease fires in my day, and I have learned that you can't throw water on them. Luckily I remembered this little bit of information so I just basically ran around the kitchen screaming and did nothing to put the fire out. Oh but I did knock over an entire open box of cheeze-its onto the floor and make a big mess. The grease burned off and the fire went out. PHEW!!! That was close.

So I started on the muffins. They came from a Betty Crocker box for goodness sake, what could I do wrong?!?!? Well anyone that knows me well knows that I don't read instructions, I just look at the ingredients and then assume I know what I'm doing. So I put everything together and mix. The mixture looked smooth and the box said it should look lumpy. Hmmmm. So I start to put the mix into the muffin tins and then I see something about "crumble". Crumble?! How do I crumble this silky smooth mixture?! That's when I read the instructions. Apparently I was supposed to mix two of the ingredients together and set aside to crumble on the top of the muffins. Oops. So I backtrack and grab the cinnamon and get out more butter and start cutting the butter into the cinnamon sugar mixture. The mixture didn't look right, it wasn't mixing together, it was all....crumbly. So I got the bright idea of adding more and more butter until the mixture would actually mix together. I look at the very last instruction on the box (the only one I failed to read, I mean the last instruction is just cooking instructions right?) It said to take the mixture and "sprinkle" onto the top of the muffin batter. I look at my mixture, yeah that's not gonna sprinkle very well. My batter was already very runny due to all the added ingredients from my first mistake. I "plopped" the mixture on top of the muffins and threw them in the oven.

It looks so easy

FAIL!!

17 weeks and a belly pic

We had a perinatology appointment yesterday. Everything went great! This was a semi big appointment because 16 and 17 week ultrasounds CAN determine how a modi pregnancy will go. Of course there are always things that can come up quickly, but early ultrasounds are able to predict possible future complications. Between 16 and 17 weeks, if the largest vertical pocket of fluid in both twins has a difference of 4cm, the chance of TTTS skyrockets to dangerously high levels. Twins won't necessarily be diagnosed with it at that time, but it is a big indicator that it will come up later in the pregnancy. Normal fluid levels are between 2cm and 8cm and you want to see the fluid levels close to the same level. At my appointment the fluid were both 6 cm!!!! Identical fluid levels are the absolute best case scenario! The twins were moving like crazy and my MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist) said that he couldn't ask for any better looking modi twins! Their membrane is very thin and he did comment on that. That is very normal in a modi pregnancy, it just indicates that they had a late split. They are definitely Normans, Jared and I are always late to everything, we should have known that our embryo would make the decision to split late.

The doctor also checked the genders again. Still girls. He showed us the three lines on both girls. We have now had 3 different doctors tell us girls and so we are going to start registering since we know that there is no way these babies are going to turn into boys. I've been having a lot of fun looking at girls stuff, but I think I'm one of the weird women that think that boys things are cuter for infants. I hate boys clothes once they get out of infant clothes though, they just want to turn little boys into little men way to fast. Jared cringes whenever I put Mason in adorable pastel overalls, but I think it makes him look more like my little boy and less like my little man.  Speaking of Mason, here is a pic of my sweet baby doing what he does best, getting into things he shouldn't. :) Oh he also spilled milk to go along with his cereal on the floor and now that area smells bad, guess I have to find a good carpet cleaner. ;)

Finally at 17 weeks I feel like I've hit 2nd trimester! I have a little more energy and I'm not running to the bathroom every few minutes. Most twin moms I've talked to said that this phase should last till 22 weeks and then I will hit a brick wall and things will go downhill until delivery. I have already had to buy a maternity belt because the girls think my cervix is a dance floor and kick it as much as they can. For anyone that hasn't felt that before, it HURTS!!! I've also had extreme back pain. Basically I feel like I am 28 weeks because I have the energy of 2nd trimester, but all the aches and pains of 3rd trimester. I'm also starting to get the nesting bug, which is good because I don't have much time to get everything ready before I won't feel like moving out of my chair. I wasn't going to decorate the nursery, but now I realize that it would be sad if these are the only girls I have and I miss my chance to decorate a girls nursery.

From now until 27 weeks my prenatal care will include high risk ultrasounds every two weeks and OB appointments every 4 weeks. At 27 weeks things get fun, I will start having testing done at labor and delivery biweekly. (I'm sure other twins mom's know what this is for, I don't remember what the doctor said). And once a week I will be seeing my high risk doctor for an ultrasound. So 3 appointments a week until delivery. That should make my pregnancy fly by!

Here are the girls.

Hand to her mouth

See that line over Baby B? That's the membrane. 

In case you couldn't tell, that weird thing above baby B is baby A's spine.

Here is my belly pic

17w

Frugal Momma

Mason is so nice and shared his cold with me so I've been down for the past few days, but I was able to get out for awhile yesterday to attend a city wide garage sale. There was no way a cold was going to keep me away from some good deals. :) I also went to the Kids Closet Connection sale and I'm a member of a moms swap shop on facebook where I can get some great deals. Since Jared is in school and I work part time I want to be as frugal as possible while also getting good quality items for the kids.

My first big find was a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag that retails for $170. Reviews say that it's great for twins and I was determined to buy it, but I had a silent dream funeral when I went to Buy Buy Baby and realized it was WAY out of my price range. A woman posted it on the moms swap shop for $70! Savings of $100.

Next was a double stroller. I need two strollers, one is a double stroller that I can use with a twin and Mason while I wear another twin. The single stroller I have right now is a Britax and the seat can move to face out or face me and also has an adaptor for me to just use it with a carseat. It was perfect. Sadly double strollers that have those features cost a fortune. I found this one on the moms swap shop for $70. I looked up reviews and new it would have cost me $250. That's a savings of $180!

After my last csection I realized I needed a cosleeper because it was so painful to have to sit up and lift a baby out of a bassinet. At the time I decided I would live with my bassinet and buy a cosleeper for my next child. Cosleepers cost more than some cribs and so I started looking at used ones. Every used one I came across cost $70. Not bad, but I was determined to find one cheaper. I went to the Kids Closet Sale and found this beauty for $45!!!! New they cost $150. That's a savings of $100!

My last big find was while I was at garage sales. I drove past this house and saw a nursing pillow and I think I almost caused an accident when I slammed on my breaks and quickly found a place to park. I crossed my fingers as I ran over to the house. The pillow looked huge, but I didn't want to get my hopes up that it was actually a twin nursing pillow. I grabbed it and looked. YES!!! Twin nursing pillow for $10!! I did a little happy dance inside. It looked practically new and was in it's original package. New these retail for $70, that's a savings of $60!

So this weekend I have saved myself $440!!!!! How's that for frugal mommy!! I have a LOT more shopping to do, once we reach 24 weeks I will be on full blown lookout for swings and a crib. I don't want to fill my house too full right now with baby things because I have 20 weeks left and I don't know where I will put everything. Honestly I don't know where I will put everything even when the twins are here. Our big project this summer is to gut the nursery closet and completely redo it so we have enough room for all the toys and clothes for 3 kids.

Quick update on the twins. At 16w 3d I started feeling outside movement. Baby B kicked my hands quite a bit. Today at 16w 6d baby A has started kicking my hands. Most moms start feeling slight movement at 16 weeks so for these babies to be able to kick hard enough that I can easily feel it on the outside means that they are pretty strong. I have my next ultrasound on Tuesday so we will find out how big they are at that appointment as well as know their fluid levels. I'm praying for equal fluid levels so I can rest easy for the next 2 weeks and not have to worry about TTTS. We appreciate the prayers. We feel very blessed right now and I'm feeling a lot less stressed. I have tried to surround myself with positive people and positive information so I won't stress myself out over things that I can't control. I appreciate that my doctor is such a positive person and although he doesn't think I will make it to 37 weeks, he also laughed when I said I want to make it to 20 weeks so I can go to labor and delivery to get help if something goes wrong. He told me that everything is looking great and I should have no problem getting these twins here alive.

I will be writing a blog post soon about all the research I've done on TTTS for modi parents. I know it can be very scary, but I hate that some people try to scare modi moms and give false info and false statistics. I want to provide accurate information that won't scare a mom to death.  I will be working on that post and hopefully get it up soon.

16 week update

I had my OB visit today and for the first time this pregnancy I didn't have an ultrasound. I have one scheduled next week though so I won't have long before I see my babies again. I need to buy a scrapbook to keep all these ultrasound pictures in because I've gotten a pile of them.

The OB visit was uneventful. My Dr. was not happy when I told him that I wanted a vbac, but he did say he would let me try IF my pregnancy is uneventful. I will schedule a csection at 37 weeks and I'm completely comfortable with that. I need to get the twins out by 37 weeks and I don't want pitocin since it will weaken my uterus. Basically I have to go into labor on my own and the twins can't be in any distress whatsoever, which I think is fair. Dr Hall doesn't think I will make it to 37 weeks though, he is pretty confident that something will happen that will cause us to need to get the twins out sooner. I know most people would roll their eyes at this, but I know he is right. I know my pregnancy is high risk and I realize I am a small person and have already had complications so I am fully prepared to go into any appointment after 30 weeks and be told that we are having babies that day. But then again, I'm not in control this pregnancy and neither is Dr. Hall. God gave me these babies and he will get them here whenever and however he chooses.

On Mother's day I went to church and heard part of a great Sermon. (I payed more attention to Mason). The speaker started talking about his mom's pregnancies. He said that she had 3 pregnancies, but gave birth to a stillborn. He said that before she gave birth to her first child she was administered to and her baby lived, the second pregnancy she did not get administered to at delivery and her child died, and her third pregnancy she was administered to again at delivery and her child lived. She knew that her children lived due to the administration. When he said that I was completely flooded with God's comforting Spirit. I have been administered to three times already. I knew God was telling me that he was blessing me and would continue to bless me because of the administration and my babies would be okay. I needed that so bad because I have had a very hard week emotionally. 

I really need to take an updated belly pic. I will post that next time.

I have started making baby purchases. I'm pretty proud about this because I didn't want to purchase anything until after 24 weeks, but I'm making myself treat this pregnancy as if I'm not high risk. I have bought a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag, possibly a double stroller (purchase pending), and we are a few weeks away from buying a new car. I really shouldn't feel so comfortable in this pregnancy but I really am very calm about the whole thing. Every once in awhile it will hit me that I'm high risk and I will freak out a little, but for the most part I feel calm. I don't think the fact that I'm going to have two newborns in a little over 20 weeks has really sunk in yet.

GENDER REVEAL!!! And a 15 week update.

                      Part 1: Gender Reveal

I was going to delay my gender reveal awhile because at 15 weeks its hard to be sure of the gender, but I went to a high risk Dr and he has some of the best equipment money can buy. He wasn't sure on Baby A and then after he easily found Baby B's gender, he went back and confirmed Baby A. So it's official. How we did the gender reveal was we bought coming home outfits and then gave those to our parents as our way of revealing the genders to them.

   Mason is proud to announce he is having two baby..........

                              SISTERS!!!!

 Here are pictures of us announcing the genders to our families. 

 
 And here are their coming home outfits. 

So there is the big gender reveal. Jared and I will be having two identical GIRLS!! I guess all the old wives tales were right for me.

                     Part 2: 15 Week Update

Today I had my first appointment with my high risk doctor. I was very nervous because this was the first time I would be measuring the twins fluid levels and fluid levels are how they diagnose TTTS. The twins both have 3 vessel cords which is excellent! All their organs look perfect. Baby A is measuring 15w1d and is 4oz. Baby B is measuring 15w2d and is 5oz. There is only a 5 gram difference between the two. Normal fluid levels for twins is between 2 and 8. Anything higher or lower than that indicates ttts. One twin has a fluid level of 5.something and the other one is 4.something. They look absolutely perfect!! I go back every 2 weeks for fluid checks. My cervix has also lengthened another cm and is now measuring 4.8!! I am so happy. :) The high risk dr told me I still have a 15% chance of ttts, but so far there is no indication that will happen and there is nothing we can do to prevent it except practice good nutrition. He also told me we will deliver the twins before 37 weeks. My sch is gone but I do have placenta previa so as soon as that resolves I should be in the clear as far as any dangers from bleeding. I guess I have already mentioned this but we confirmed today that they are 100% sure that the twins are in fact identical.

I'm feeling good this week. I'm starting to get some energy back. The twins are also moving like crazy. I'm starting to be able to rely on movement instead of listening to the heartbeats on my doppler. I have decided I'm going to start buying things for the twins. I wanted to wait until 24 weeks so that if something happened I wouldn't have a bunch of little reminders. The further along I get though I am realizing that God is protecting this pregnancy and I need to show him that I have faith that he will take care of us. I guess the best way to show that is to start acting like this is a normal, low risk pregnancy, and prepare for the twins. I can't tell God I trust him and then say I don't trust him enough to actually pick out names or buy things for the babies because what if he lets me down. He has kept me calm during every complication I've had and I just know these babies are his plan for Jared and I. Funny timing God, but you know best. :)

The other day Mason started pointing at my belly, I think he is noticing that mommy is getting fat. lol. I can't figure out a way to tell him that his life is going to change drastically in 5 months.
 

Was this a God thing?

I'm getting ready for my first ultrasound at my high risk doctor so this will (hopefully) be short and then I will return this afternoon with a 15 week update and cross my fingers and toes I will announce a date and time I will do my blog gender reveal!!

Over a week ago I wrote a blog post titled "This is MY birth". You didn't see it because I didn't post it. Something stopped me. In that post I was ranting because some hippie told me I should give birth naturally to my babies and that I need a different doctor that was more natural birth friendly. I was very angry because this is MY birth. My decision, my babies, my life. I didn't want a natural birth (I still don't). I wanted a csection. Why? Because I had gotten false information from a group of women on facebook called Modi Twins. In case you all forgot, Modi twins is what I'm carrying. The ladies drug one woman through the dirt because she wanted to try a vbac with her modi twins and was looking for positive stories. The women on the group told her that she was going to kill her babies and that Acute TTTS is very common during vaginal delivery. I bought into that without even asking for sources or doing my own research.

I was at work last week and Jared started messaging me all these pubmed research articles on why vaginal is just as dangerous as csection for modi twins and actually vaginal may be better in some cases because modi twins need to be born before 37 weeks and vaginal will help their lungs so they won't have to spend as much or any time in the nicu. I was floored when I saw his research. I was sure that these ladies were right and that csection was best. I did my own research and couldn't find a single article that said csection was best. In fact all i found was a bunch of articles saying that vaginal should be attempted in an uncomplicated twin pregnancy.

So I went to the group and asked for their sources on why vaginal is bad for modi twins. I wanted to research everything and make an informed decision. What happened?? They couldn't find a single research article. They told me that such articles don't exist because of a government conspiracy to stop csections because of the rising cost of healthcare. Then one of the admins gave me this message :

OK Megan Norman, A "Research Study on PubMed that says Vaginal is Better..." Does Not Exist for MoDi. You can have your Husband the Med Student Holla to me with a PM for a Concise Explanation of what the Shared Placenta implies during birth... Again, please don't Misunderstand us here, We do not say that VBirth is Impossible in MoDi, We do say that in the Majority of cases it is in fact Ill Advised due to Unique Safety Issues involving Shared Placentation. There is a Study Recently released from SMFM that is Touted by many self-styled "NCB Advocates" as saying "VBirth for Twins is AS SAFE as Csec..." Which is a Distortion involving the Dropped Word PLANNED... What this study Really Says is PLANNING VBirth is as safe as PLANNING CSec. I'll post the Abstract of that one here this morning, it's a Hoot, in that Among Other Things, in the Fine Print, it mentions that a Teensie Tiny Itsy Bitsy Very Small Forty Two Percent (42%) of these PLANNED Vbirths end up Converting to CSection... That is for Both Twinz btw. None of the "NCB peeps" mention this Minor Detail. ALSO, Their Definition of a Successful Vaginal Birth? ONE baby through the Birth Canal, & you are One of the Lucky Winners! EVEN of the Other Twin needs to be Taken by CSection... What they might want to say, so as Not to Mislead, is something like "Mothers of Twins, Go Plan Your Spiritually Powerful Vaginal Birth. You Probably Will Not Get It, your odds of Actually giving VBirth to your twins are roughly equal to about 20%. The rest of you will get a CSection...."

Um can you say offensive?!?!?!?! I wasn't thinking of a vaginal birth because it's "spiritual" I was thinking about it because I want more kids and csections put my future babies at risk. They also put me at risk of eventually losing my uterus, especially if I keep having twins (oh please no more twins!). 

I know I'm not a good candidate for a vbac. Modi twins, my csection site has been sore, and I'm small. But maybe God is trying to tell me to try. This admin told me I have a 20% chance of a successful vbac. My doctor told me I have a 14% chance (although he is willing to attempt one if I want one), but if God wants me to have one then I have a 100% chance. There has to be a reason I wrote that big long blog post and then felt so uneasy about posting it that it's just been sitting as a draft for awhile. 

Maybe it was a God thing. 

Old Wives Gender Predictions

I may or may not find out the genders on Monday. Before I find out I wanted to do all the Old Wives Tales and see which ones were right and which ones were wrong. Let me just say I don't believe in Old wives tales, this is just for fun. :)

1. Chinese Gender Calendar
Result: Girl

2. Ring test (Hold a ring over belly, if it goes in a circle its a girl, line its a boy)
Result: This one was hard cause it just kinda sat their, finally it gave me a Girl result and then it kinda turned into a Boy result. Boy/Girl

3. Ring test (hold a ring over your wrist, it will predict all the genders of your children)
Result: It gave me a boy result first (Mason) and then gave me 3 Girls. Result is Girl/Girl

4. Baking Soda test (pee in a cup with baking soda in it, fizz=boy no fizz=girl
Result: Girl

5. Heart rate (above 140=girl below 140=boy)
Result: Both babies are in the 160's Girl/Girl

6. How am I carrying (High=girl low=boy)
Result: Hard to know for sure because babies are so small, but when I sit down my stomach is all up in my chest so this would be Girl.

7. Where are you carrying? ( front like a basketball=boy, middle like a watermelon-girl)
Result: Too soon to tell. I think I'm carrying out front though. Boy

8. Cravings (salty and meat=boy, sweats and fruit=girl)
Result: I get sick when I eat meat and I love sugar so girl, but I also crave mexican and spaghetti so boy. Result is Girl/Boy

9. Morning sickness (none=boy, a lot=girl)
Result: Girl But I'm also pregnant with twins so I'm going to have morning sickness no matter what the gender.

10. Hands (rough=boy, soft=girl)
Result: Girl

11. Hair on legs (grows faster=boy, grows at same rate=girl)
Result: It's growing slower. Girl 

12. Addition (add the month you conceived to your age. even=boy, odd=girl)
Result: Girl

13. Skin on face (normal=boy, more breakouts=girl)
Result: Girl

14. Attitude (same=boy, moodier=girl)
Result: Girl

15. Previous childs first word (dada=boy, mama=girl)
Result: Boy

16. Ramzi method (placenta on right=boy, placenta on left=girl
Result: Boy/Girl

16 Momma's intuition
Result: Baby A Girl, Baby B Boy

17 Momma's Guess (Since the twins are identical and won't be boy/girl)
Result: Girls

Official count is 12 GIRL 2 BOY and 3 BOY/GIRL

Guess we will see what happens on Monday. If they aren't able to tell us Monday then we should know by 17 weeks which is 2 weeks away. Whatever happens I just want them to be healthy with good fluid levels!!