False Alarm

**DISCLAIMER: everything is fine**

Well we were really shocked that we had made it this far with a twin pregnancy without a SINGLE problem. So before 2013 left she had to give us a shake. 

Today we decided we needed to get on it and get a rocking chair. We went out to three different stores and did quite a bit of walking and not enough drinking water or resting. 

Around 6pm tonight Wife started having contractions.   I knew they probably were Braxton-Hicks contractions or "false labor". I started pushing Wife to drink lots of water after an hour I contacted a doc friend of mine. We agreed to monitor and wait an hour.  After two hours of contractions all three of us got nervous enough that we decided it was time to go to the hospital. As soon as we made that decision, the contractions stopped, for about 40 minutes. Then she had one last one while walking down the hospital hallway. 

Wife got checked and she continued to have no contractions. we were in and out in under 3 hours, so that pleased us. 

Plan tonight is more water and bed rest for the next 24 hours. 

Lessons learned: we are not Ready. Not physically or emotionally. I was freaked out. I was scared, until I got to the hospital, then I felt better. Also, now we have a bug-out bag. I packed in under ten minutes thanks to having just done the laundry!

I have a fire lit under me. I need to get everything ready, including working out with the NY OB what the hell is going on. 

I was joking that I had told the girls they couldn't be born in 2013 but 5 minutes into 2014 isn't exactly what I meant!!

Happy new year!!

Pics as promised!!

Ok so maybe a day late.  I was at work so late yesterday all I did when I came home was go straight to bed and fell asleep!  

But they are worth the wait!! (And I'd like to wait another month ok girls? )

Baby A, despite spening the last 4 months or so head down (vertex), she apparently flipped over in the last 2 weeks and is now but down (breech)  this resulted in some very cute head-to-head shots.  Apparently the girls wanted to talk to each other.  Unfortunately, if she does not flip around, this makes our chances of delivering vaginally about 0%.  This is something Wife really wants to do, but we realize the safety of the girls is paramount and we will do whatever is needed.  It might, actually, make the OB in NY feel better if he can plan a c-section.  Who knows

Baby A

Baby B is flexing for the camera with her beefy arms!

Baby A "please no more pictures"

Baby A smiled for us while in 4D mode!! so awesome to watch that face scrunch up!!

Baby B, you can see Baby A's head next to her head

Baby B's very cute ear if I do say so myself

More excitement means more posting!

Also, got up early this morning before our morning appointment and added a few more items to the nursery that we picked up yesterday.   Yesterday at WalMart we picked up some hardware to hang up a wet bag on the changing table/dresser.  A wet bag is a waterproof bag that holds soiled diapers and keeps the stink and any "wet" in the bag.

We also picked up some cute jumbo clips to hand diapers on the wall.  No I'm not going to use the extra diapers for decoration.  We are planning on 'rotating' at least two diaper covers a day with the girls (more if they get soiled).  This way there is always a completely ready clean diaper available for changes, just remove the old diaper and put on a new diaper like you would a disposable.  Important to stream line the process when there are twice as many bumps involved!  The clips will allow for the two (one for each girl) diapers to be stuffed and ready and "airing out" if needed and in easy reach from the table.

Great Ultrasound Appointment!

31w4d today and we went in for another growth Ultrasound.

Man are they ever growing!!  2.5 weeks ago when we had our last growth ultrasound the girls were measuring at about 2lbs 13 oz and 3lbs 2 oz.  Today they measured 4lbs 3oz and 4lbs 6oz! Wow!  Not only have they both gained over a pound but Baby B has started beefing up even more and is closing the gap.  The babies are officially big enough that they could fit in our car seats if they were born today!

Obviously we are not hoping for any babies any time soon!  We are starting to make preparations to pack up around the 35 week mark.  I have not yet heard from the OB in NY to hear if he still has cold feet, and/or when he wants us/Wife out there.   Wife's cervix is still closed shut like a trap door and long like it should be so no signs of impending labor.  She has not had a single contraction and the babies have tons of room still (i.e plenty of fluid),

We got lots of very cute pics of the girls which I will upload as soon as I get home.

Busy busy day!

Lots of excitement and very busy day!

First off we are 31 1/2 weeks!

Yesterday we treated ourselves to a really nice day. We went and saw Trans Siberian orchestra in the afternoon which was phenomenal. On the way back home we stopped at a Christmas store and got our yearly personalized ornament. This one was the best yet!!

Then went to a hole in the way tavern for some of the best pizza!

Got up early today and cleaned up the house quite a bit because a friend came over to take pregnancy pictures!!  

She is the same photographer that took our wedding pictures and she's awesome!! As usual we had more fun than is strictly necessary but we got lots of good shots. I can't wait to see the final product!  Hopefully in a week or two I can post a few!

After photos I spent several hours doing laundry and organizing (again) the kids room. We had amassed a large bag of clothes and diaper covers so I decided it was worth running a load. I spent about an hour cutting tags off! Wtf?! One hooded towel/washcloth st had OVER 20 plastic whoozits holding it together!! Some one was really worried about that thing getting undone!  I then spent quite some time putting clothes away. This entailed reorganizing the nursery over and over since I can't truly decide where anything goes till we have all the stuff!!

Currently the nursery looks a bit like this:

Tomorrow is yet another day off! (We haven't had two days off in a row together in almost 3 months since she just finished school and I've been working tons of overtime so we can make ends meet when I take time off for the babies and travel.). On the list is: nothing!!

I'm not crazy (well maybe a little)

Spoke with one of the family law lawyers again yesterday. Discussed the (very few) changes that have happened in the state and any help (or not) recent cases might be. 

The lawyer did say that he thought if worst came to worst, he would be able to get us both parental rights. It sounds like he has done this once before for a lesbian couple in our EXACT scenario. However, he did say that legally we would have more rights if we went to NY and got parent-parent birth certificates. If he were us he said he would go to NY. 

SO. We wait to hear from the OB an hope that he will take us on as late-term patients.  He is currently reviewing the chart. I hope to hear from him after the holiday maybe Friday or Monday. 

If he says no, we may be back to square one. Or back to showing up at a hospital in labor x.x

The End is in Sight and Losing Faith

30 weeks today!  

Can't believe how smoothly things have gone. Lots of stressing every day on my part, but Wife is apparently a fantastic baby baker!

At our 29 week appointment we had a great US report and a long closed cervix. Babies both 3 lbs and growing, only 10% different in size. Signed off for an appt in 3 weeks!

Wife's sister threw us a baby shower today. She put a lot of work in to it!

Unfortunately, almost everyone who RSVP'd, no-showed, but the handful of us had fun and ate too much junk!

Guess the candy in the diaper

Unfortunately, as we get closer to our Estimated Due Date the stress level about all the unknowns go up. I emailed the OB who agreed to deliver us in NY and now he sounds less than thrilled about the prospect, which also makes me nervous.   We talked again about whether we still want to leave the state to have the girls. It's obviously a safer choice and more convenient to stay in out home state.  I'm having second thoughts. Wife still wants to go, she doesn't like the idea of me having no legal right to our children, to my biological children, and I don't like it either but I want everyone to be safe more.   I'm going to recontact some lawyers I was speaking to early in in this planning. Maybe with the way marriage equality is moving in our state things might change to allow me to adopt my own children sooner rather than later.  Our state had a case brought before it's superior court a few months ago, the case is now postponed til Feb but I'm not sure when. Most likely it won't help us before they are born, but maybe soon after?  Or we keep talking about moving, maybe we just need to move to a state where we can both be their parents? I don't know. It seems like no answer is the right one. 

29 and counting!!

Short post tonight. 

Today brings us to 29 weeks. Each passing week makes me feel better and better about the health and safety of our beautiful girls. As the both surpass the 3 lb mark it makes me happy. 

Wife is feeling big, but otherwise very healthy and happy. 

Wife says Baby B has my ears :-)

We are so excited to meet the girls!! I am am in nesting overdrive mode. I cleaned up and organized two rooms that have been disasters for a year. We also went shopping and got outdoor Christmas lights which we've never had. Also we bought a little artificial Christmas tree. I've never actually owned or been around one so that was interesting to put up. They have come quite a long way. We decided wth everything being in flux and stressful, we aren't going to do Christmas except with ourselves. We also are saving money so not really getting anythig for each other and focusing on babies. We decided to get a small artificial tree and then we will do real trees in future years which is what I grew up with. Maybe the little fake tree will get reused in the kids room or the basement living room. 

We only own two ornaments (soon to be three) so the rest is lights and candy canes :-) :-)

G'night!!

Graduated from high-risk!!

Today was our follow-up appointment with the high-risk OB, and it turned out to be our last too!!

Everything is going super super well and we are really pleased. This was primarily a growth ultrasound and a follow up anatomy scan now that the babies are bigger.  

Baby B is the one with the two-vessel cord. Concerns with that are first and foremost, decreased growth, smaller baby and suddenly stopping growth. Other, much smaller risks are increased risk of Down's Syndrome and various other genetic conditions. All of these come with a myriad of physical and anatomical findings including abnormal heart, skeletal and renal anatomy. Our first anatomy scan 3 months ago was all mostly normal, but babes were tiny and not all the anatomy could clearly be seen. 

Well I'm glad to say the scan went famously!!  The babes are measuring at or past their dates which they have been the whole time. They are only 10% different in size which is basically to say they are no different at all considering the margin of error for these measurements are at least that much!  Baby A is measuring in at around 29 weeks and a few days and weighs about 3lbs 2oz and Baby B is measuring in at just a day or two past 28 weeks and 2lbs 13 oz!! Which is great considering we are just entering into the period of time where they start putting on weight. Babies gain the most weight in the last 4-5 weeks so the longer the better!! 

Anatomy scan was also perfect. Baby A has all her pieces and parts and all her fingers and toes.  Baby B is identically perfect and special note was made of a normal brain, heart and kidneys. Cervix was >5cm so those babies are locked in!

The best news was the doc said no reason to come back. He's super sweet and we love him, but he says we have a great doc and the babies look perfect and he sees no reason to come back!  Yay!

We don't get a lot of pics from these appointments but we did get one!  I think she has my ears!!

28 weeks!!

Another week down and everything is going really well!

We had an OB appt on Monday and everything was good. No signs of any problems with wife and babies are good as well. In fact, Baby B was so active the doc was having a hard time finding her heartbeat cuz she kept doing cartwheels!  Don't worry it was great when he found it. 

Tomorrow is our second detailed anatomy scan at the high risk doc. We are excited to see the babies again!  This scan is partially because they are twins and partially because of Baby B's two-vessel cord. We want to make sure that the babies are growing at roughly the same speed. I am really very glad that Baby B is the one that has the two vessel cord because she is such a crazy active baby!!  We feel her dancing multiple times every day and that is very reassuring. 

Very interesting thing happened this week.  A student at Wife's university approached her about doing a multimedia journalism piece on our relationship and pregnancy.  At first we (especially myself) were very skeptical about the intent and direction behind the piece. I didn't want us to merely be an object of morbid curiosity. However, after reading the prospectus, we were reassured that the students doing this project felt that this was an important topic and they felt this was a story that needed to be shared to educate the public. 

I spent the last two days doing all kinds of chores including washing and sorting about 7 loads of kids laundry, going grocery shopping and cleaning the house for said interview. 

The whole process was very enjoyable. The couple of (students? Kids? Geez I'm getting old they were >10 years younger than me lol!) were very respectful, interested and we had more fun than either of us thought we would talking about everything from our marriage to the pregnancy to the discrimination we face in our own community. 

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product. If it's not totally terrifying I'll link to it hehehe. 

Well, until tomorrow!  Hopefully lots of good baby pics!!

27 weeks!

We are cooking right along!  Thursday brought about the end of week 27. The belly is a growin!

This week also brought lots of baby goodies!

A friend of a friend who had previously given us some maternity clothes, have us three large plastic containers of girls baby/toddler clothes! One of them contained all new with tags baby outfits!!

I've been doing lots of research in the past 6 months about everything baby. One of the MANY things that I have heavily researched into has been the arena of cloth diapering. Without going too much into detail at the moment, they are not your mommas cloth diapers!!  One of the forums I am member of provides opportunities for advise as well as buying selling and trading diapers. So I recently procured a box of cloth diapers and supplies. They are so cute!!

So, in addition to working almost every day this month, I have done about 13 loads of laundry the past week. 

Prepping the diaper inserts. 

Tomorrow I have about 13 loads of laundry to sort through and put away in the kids room which is very exciting. 

Friday we go for our high-risk anatomy scan follow up! So excited for more pics of the babies!!

Baby kicks

While for whatever reason, I could not sleep at all this Thanksgiving Eve. But, as a result I got to experience the coolest thing this far in the pregnancy. My sleeping wife curled up and was being my big spoon when I felt one of the babies wake up and start rolling all around. Each little movement went straight to my back because she had her belly pressed up against me!  I felt the babies limbs as they moved around! So cool! Closest thing to being pregnant I think!

Stay safe this Thanksgiving!

We found an OB!!!

Well, maybe, if we like him I suppose.  The good news is we found one that was recommended by a high risk OB and he has agreed to take us on as a new pt. At least that's one huge stressor down!!  Next week I will have our OB contact him and start sending him the medical records. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

More pics!!

Another OB appointment come and gone!

We are 25w4d today and doing very well!    We had an OB appointment and ultrasound today.  The ultrasound was primarily to check for cervical length.  This is done because the cervix is essentially the "plug" that keeps the babies inside and baking.  A "good" cervical length is anything > 3cm.  We will check it quite frequently as time goes on as this is an early indicator of preterm labor.  Today cervical length was 3.8cm so yay!!

We talked a little more about what the plan of delivery was.  We feel so bad because we really REALLY like our OB and he specializes in twin deliveries, specifically he specializes in twin VAGINAL deliveries, which we are really interested.  So it sucks that we know we pretty much wont be delivering with him, but it is nice to know if something goes wrong that we would know the babies are in good hands.  He even said that whoever delivers us should call him! So sweet!

Our first plan of hospitals in New York does not seem like it is going to pan out (I know go figure).  The hospital is a teaching hospital and all the attending physicians have clinic in the resident clinic.  Apparently BCBS wont pay for a resident clinic, so we cannot go to the hospital we planned on as I think it is irresponsible to merely show up at a hospital in labor where no one is familiar with us.

We are looking at hospitals now.  I want to go to a hospital that is well known for its management of multiple births and preterm infants, my family wants me closer to them at a mostly Unknown hospital.  I have a lot of research to do.

Pictures!  

Even though we only went for a cervical length check, the ultrasound tech did take time to look at our "too cute" kids!  She even got a bunch of 3D pics for us!!

Baby A Profile

Profile A heart rate 

Baby A lower leg and foot

Baby A foot

 Baby B heart rate (she was doing calisthenics!)

Baby B foot

3D Pics (Because they are simultaneously adorable and creepy as hell!)

Baby A

her right hand is up by her forehead and her left arm is bent with her hand behind her neck

 Baby A again

Baby B

she is chin to chest, you can see the depression in between her chest muscles

 Ok, Baby B is literally cut in half in these pictures which is creepy as hell, but if you just focus on the top have she's soooo cute!

Baby B Disembodied head in her little sac...wow, creepy

Baby B one of my favorites, you can see her face chest and arm and part of her umbilical cord.  She is facing the membrane between the two babies which is clearly seen in this picture.  Just to the right of the membrane is Baby A her butt is at the bottom of the screen and then you can see her leg tucking around Baby B's head

My favorite!  You can see Baby B smiling and Baby A's butt and leg!

25 Week Belly!!

Another OB appointment in 2 weeks, High Risk ultrasound in 3.  In the mean time I guess I have more work to do regarding finding an OB!!

Good Pics FINALLY!

So we got another official ultrasound today at the OB office and today we got a CD of pictures!!! yay!!

The girls are growing so well.  They are at or ahead of their dates.  Baby A is about 1lb 10oz and Baby B is about 1lb 7 oz!!  We got to see some really awesome 3D shots!!