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!!

 

Pics update

The biggest news this week is... I got to feel them kick!!  Omg! It is the coolest thing ever!  I've never had any family or friends close to me who have been pregnant so I've never, ever felt a baby kick. So cool!!

Brought wife to work early two days ago to ultrasound the babies.  Being as Baby B has a two vessel cord I have been even more cautious and wanting to keep an eye on her growth. The good news is, they are both growing like weeds!!  At or ahead of their dates and about equal in size! Thank goodness! And of course, moving like crazy!!

The US was performed at 23 weeks exactly. 

Baby A belly circumference: 23w4d

Baby A head diameter: 24w2d

Baby A heart rate 144bpm

Baby B femur (thigh) length: 23w4d

Baby B belly circumference: 23w1d

Baby B heart rate: 148bpm

Momma! 23 weeks!!

Last week

Like every blogger I will now lament how I have no time for blogging as I am so busy. I'll try to sum up the last week. 

We are currently almost 23 weeks pregnant. Last week I was noticing that Wife has been perpetually cranky and uncomfortable and in general acting like most women I know in their 9th month.  This by itself is enough to strike fear in my heart. We're only a little more than halfway there!! But I was also noticing that she's starting to LOOK almost 9 months pregnant! And it prompted me to measure her belly. It's been about a month since our last OB visit so she's dropped quite a bit since then.

Survey says: 34cm which equals 34 weeks! Holy smokes!! No wonder she feels uncomfortable she's basically 7.5-8months pregnant in size!  

I'm so screwed..

Last week I was also able to sneak Wife into work and get a few more pics. Mainly we measure heads and bellies to make sure everyone is growing at the same speed and they are looking good!!

I've been spending a few minutes here and there working on the nursery. It looks so freaking AWESOME!! If I do say so myself!  

Here is the progress so far:

It's a really cool room. I know. 

Yes we have picked out baby names. We've actually had them picked out for some time. But, like everything else I want to wait and Wife wants to tell the world. 

I'm just used to finding out baby names, even family names, when the baby is born, or on the birth announcement. It seems like everything else these days. Nothing is private. Everyone wants to know EVERY little detail about your private life. I've had people asking me for MONTHS already if we've picked names and I just wonder. "I don't even know you that well, why do I need to tell you right now". Also no one is ever happy with what you pick. We've told about 5 people and almost every single one of them has been like,

"Oh" crest fallen face 

To which I ponder..."were you expecting your name perhaps?"

Or "I thought you were having girls?"

To which I respond "you haven't known girls with names X &Y?" To which they respond 

"Well, ya"

So what's the problem?!

And besides THEY ARE MY FUCKING KIDS!! Don't ask if you can't even pretend to like them. I don't care if you like them, Wife doesn't care. We aren't naming them "Sparkle" or "Cinnamon" or even "Infiniti" to just list a few names of people I met last week!

I don't know. I'm sure I'm way too uptight about it but I seriously don't get people some times. I'm not going to let it bother me because let's be honest. Our kids are going to have two moms, no dads, and they are going to go to school in a tutu and a hard hat if they want to. If I want to name my boy Sue and my girl Peter people are just going to have to get in line to give me shit about it. 

Seriously though. We picked the best names ever. 

We have been joking that our slowly aging dog have been preparing us for the incoming twins.

We have two small boy dogs, one is a 14 1/2 Shih Tsu and is in reasonably good health. However, he requires a very special diet to prevent formation of kidney stones. He also has GERD or something similar and is prone to random vomiting attacks. Imagine, blissfully sleeping in your bed when from the depths of the blankets you hear an erking noise. ::erk::erk::: Your pregnant wife whips back the covers and grabs the small furry, retching monster and holding him against her chest, sits up. Or tries to. She is now beached on the bed like a turtle on its shell with a heaving dog on her chest. After several attempts, involving all eight limbs waving frantically, she finally managed to get up and thrust him in the bathtub before he vomits. Repeat this any time, day or night. So we try to give him Pepcid a few times a week and this seems to help. He also has allergies and we often find him chewing on his feet, so he also gets Benadryl.  He's also a crier. He will start screaming, crying, howling, what-have-you, for no apparent reason at any given time; even the middle of the night, while snuggled up to my ear!

Our other guy is a 13 1/2  PomChi and has quite a few issues. He's got COPD and CHF (basically old man asthma and heart failure). For this he gets to take 3-5 meds 2-3 times a day depending on how he's feeling. He gets up, on average, 3 times a night. Either because he has to get up to pee, needs water, or wakes himself up coughing.  He now has stress incontinence from coughing and has to wear a diaper at night to keep him from wetting the bed. Nothing like waking up and realize you are laying in a puddle of pee, and it's not yours!  We've also learned we have to close the bedroom door if he's going to wear the diaper. Or else, he runs out the dog door and tries to pee on every bush he can find.... And thoroughly fills his diaper!

All this also involves coaxing a couple of very stubborn old dogs into taking pills 1-4 times a day. And let me tell you it is no fun!  We were just putting them in the PomChi's food bowl for a while. He always eats like it's his last meal so he usually scarfs it down... This worked for about a year. Recently he started spitting the pills out in his bowl, on the floor, or even UNDER his placemat!! Now he has even gotten to the point where he won't even eat all his kibble and leaves a few pieces mixed in with the pills!  He won't eat cheese anymore because we were using that to give him the pills. We can't get him to eat lunch meat anymore, or ketchup!  

The latest attempt to get him to take his pills involved making homemade dog treats. We subscribe to a subscription service, BarkBox (https://barkbox.com/r/VEBCT3QBKQ) They sent us a treat mix so I tried it! It made 1 tsp sized meatballs for the small dogs and they LOVED them. 

Which brings us to the next "training-for-babies" adventure. It's 4am, PomChi wakes us up coughing. I decide he needs an extra lasix pill.  The two of us go to the kitchen and I stuff one in a meatball and give it to him and start walking to the bathroom. (I've learned to pee while I can, multitasking ftw!). As I make my way about halfway across the house I hear a coughgagsnort noise that I have never hear Mr. PomChi make before and go running back into the kitchen. He is standing in the middle of the kitchen sort of retching but making no noise and looking terrified. I run across the kitchen and briefly think "can you Heimlich a dog?" As I wrap my hands around his belly and forcefully and quickly squeeze. "Tthhbbbt" says one end and out pops a complete slobbery meatball from the other! "Omg I just squeezed my dog till he farted!" I tuck this away as I comfort my dog and make sure he's ok. He proceeds to pay down, spread-eagle in his "trying to hold on to the world" position for the next 20 minutes. No amount of pets or cooing could make him budge. "NO MORE MEATBALLS FOR THE DOGS!!" I yell across the house.  Once it was clear he was fine I started giggling.

 "What?" Wife wanted to know. 

 "I squeezed him till he farted!"

More giggling. And I start thinking. Hmm you know how your not supposed to give peanuts and hotdogs and other round things to young toddlers or they... Choke... Ya   Meatballs should be on that list too!  

More prepping us for babies...

New frontier of blogging

Since releasing my blog on Facebook I have had an overwhelming response. My page views went from about 65 total (mostly all me and probably a few spyders) to over 1500 in 24 hours!  I'm awed and glad. Part of the reason for me releasing it was to answer questions that everyone has even if they don't know it. I am happy to see people sharing my blog on their wall but it's also kinda terrifying!  Thankfully all the responses on the blog and FB have been very favorable and that has definitely made the decision to share easier. However, a part of me feels as if I have lost my black hole of privacy to scream obscenities into.  Because of that I have debated about today's post. About if I should talk about what has been running around my head and how much I should share. Needless to say there are some aspects of my life, orientation and identity that are still very private and so I struggle with which to share now and which to withhold, despite my desire to educate.  So a different experience all together. 

We'll see how far we get. 

Breastfeeding. Normal pregnancy topic no?  Clearly as a medical provider I am very pro-breastfeeding.  I mean, it's free, it's a weight loss program, it comes in awesome packages and it's a perfect compound of nutrition and antibodies! What's not to love?!  

Normally a mother has two boobs, one baby. This lends to the thought process that two babies would need four boobs. Hey look! We've got four boobs. Problem is, most healthy women can't spontaneously lactate on command. So I jumped on the internet and look for solutions for "inducing lactation without being pregnant". Would you believe there is a huge void of medical knowledge regarding this topic. In fact, it's not really considered kosher for any kind of medically induced lactation. What there IS a huge amount of information about is in the....umm... Special interest community?  I shit you not a majority of the websites that come up have nothing to do with babies but are how-to guides for "couples lactation"...  And, as it turns out, they were exceedingly helpful. 

Unfortunately, after quite a bit of research an some soul searching, it turns out I am NOT ok with the idea of breastfeeding.  I think it stems from the same part of me that has NO desire to be pregnant even though I want progeny. So after a serious conversation with Wife, of which she was fantastically supportive, we've decided each child will have to do with their own personal, singular boob.  Hopefully both boobs will be up to the task because if not I'm going to feel like a shitty mom if I can't step up to the plate. 

In other news OB appt today went well! No US :-( but we got to hear both heart beats. 144 and 132 for baby A and B! Never get tired of that!!  Maybe if work goes well Wife can come to work and we can get some pictures!! :-). Otherwise I have the weekend off and we might find a way.