Friend shower

God seriously blessed me with the most amazing friends! Dari and Leslie put together such a fun shower for me. Since I was on bedrest at the time, I just sat on the couch while everybody served me. Dari and Leslie made the yummiest food for the shower too! Pasta salad, yummy green salad, fruit, cupcakes.... It goes on and on. Do I look like a green apple? Yes, yes I do. Thank you to you beautiful ladies for being by my side through all of this!

First hospital visit

When Ryan and I went into the hospital to get my first steroid shot, they made me gown up and everything. This is when they hooked me up to the monitors and noticed that I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes and I had no idea. After this is when things went totally crazy and I ended up being admitted to the hospital the next morning. I can't believe it has already been 2 weeks since this craziness ensued. Check out how swollen my legs were! Since being on bedrest, I can now see my ankles once again and I no longer have sausage toes. I actually have lost all of my water weight (totalling about 3 pounds). I even think my belly shrunk a little too. It's weird what bedrest does to you.

This is the most amazing husband in the world! He is always there to support me and make me laugh. He kept telling me I had a double chin while he was trying to take my picture. What would I do without him?

Showers 1 and 2

This post has been a long time waiting. I kind of spaced it and then the whole hospital thing. Anyway, here you go. My first shower was with my co-workers at the end of June. It's always so fun to get together with them since we don't work in an office together, we are all at home. We only get to see each other a few times a year if we are lucky. This was a good excuse to get together and laugh and enjoy each other. We had the most delicious fruit, bruschetta, cowboy caviar and cupcakes. It was fabulous! Thank you to my amazing co-workers for all of your support and for putting together such an amazing shower for me! I have pictures and if I get real ambitious, I will one day get them on here.

Shower #2 was given by my mother-in-law, Carolyn, for the people in our old ward. Again, we had absolutely delicious food (make your own trifle), and it was so good to see all of my friends that I miss so much from that ward. We got some much needed items for the baby and Carolyn even made the cutest blankets! I love them all! This baby girl truly has been so spoiled. I can't even begin to thank everybody for their love and support through all of this. It definitely makes my hard days a little more bearable. And here I am in all of my chubby glory.

Thursday Update

While at my non-stress test today, they tell me they aren't seeing what they want to see and that I needed to go to the hospital. I was ticked off. Those are not words you want to hear. On our way to the hospital I made Ryan stop and get some food and something sugary so I could try to wake girl baby up. We eventually made it to perinatology. They did what was called a biophysical profile on our little girl. They watched her "breathe" and move her arms and legs to make sure she was still reactive. They also measured her fluid, which was a little low. This is somewhat alarming, but we are going to keep a close eye on it. I get to go meet with Dr. S. on Monday where he will do a more thorough examination and measurements to make sure things are okay. I really hope we can keep these babies in for a few more weeks. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

What's going on?

So I know most of you are probably really curious as to what a day is like in our household now that I am on strict bedrest. Well, here it is. I wake up whenever I wake up, waddle to the bathroom, usually refill my water mug and then park it on the couch. I sit on the couch and watch all local news shows possible. Ask me anything going on locally and I could probably tell you all about it. It's really sad. I usually eat something while watching the news too. Sugar free pudding has been my BFF lately, but I'm out of it now, so no more pudding for me. I did make my mom buy me some pre-cooked bacon and I eat that a lot too. Probably not the best thing for my blood pressure, but I love bacon. If I can't have sugar, I have to have bacon. Then I usually sit here on the couch and watch my belly wiggle. Doesn't this sound exciting? Usually by now I'm ready for a nap, so I nap if I don't have to make my way to the doctor's office (which is at least twice a week at this point). By this point I'm ready to wake up Ryan so he can keep me company. This is a decision I usually regret within an hour or two once I realize how ornery and tired he is. That's when I proceed to tell him he needs his nap and make him go back to bed. By this point it's about 3 in the afternoon. There's nothing good on TV. I usually switch locations between the bed and the couch, but usually end up on the couch since our bedroom feels like a sauna. I realize by now that I'm starving and so I'll raid the fridge for the leftovers from the night before. Then I fall asleep. Usually I'll wake up to watch the news around 5 and then again at 6. I'm telling you, this is really exciting and fun. Every 4 hours during all of this excitement I have to take the medication that keeps my contractions away. It's a little evil capsule that gives me major headaches. I'm talking headaches that make me want to cry, bury my face, hide, etc. They HURT. Tylenol can only do so much to help. Thankfully they usually only last about an hour. I typically waddle to my bedroom around 10, brush my teeth and park it in the bed where I watch the news and anything else that is interesting. I usually fall asleep around 11:30 or so, but it doesn't last for too long. I'm awake within a few hours because I have a child bouncing on my bladder and if I don't get up, well, you know what would happen. I wake up, literally roll out of bed, waddle to the bathroom, waddle back to bed, get a drink, lay down, toss, turn, eventually fall back asleep only to wake up an hour later to take more meds. And then it starts all over again. There you have a typical day in my life. Oh, and of course the entire day I crave coconut snow cones and dirt. I'll even see dirt on TV and my mouth starts watering. It's really weird. This is thanks to my iron deficiency. Well, time for me to get ready for the doctor's office.

I'm home!

I'm home and it feels GREAT! I honestly didn't know if they were going to let me leave the hospital, but thankfully they did. I was miserable there. And who knew how puffy you could get just with the IV fluids they give you? I look pretty scary right now. I'm still waiting for all the water to leave my body so I can kind of look normal again. Things seem to be under control for now. I can't leave my bed/couch. I just have to lay here and do nothing. It's kind of hard to not do anything when I know so much needs to be done. I guess it will all be worth it in the end. Everyday we can get with these babies in my womb at this point is just bonus time. Once Ryan and I realized how close we are to having these babies, we kind of freaked out. Who knew it would come so soon? In probably just a few short weeks our lives will be forever changed. Exciting and scary!

Greetings from the hospital

It's currently 4:18 in the morning. I, of course, cannot sleep at this point because my back is killing me. These hospital beds are crap! This week has been quite the week. Tuesday I went in for the glucose test of course. Wednesday I went to the doctor and my blood pressure was still too high. They gave me a nonstress test there and everything seemed to be going well. They decided to send me to the hospital to get a shot of steroids to help mature the babies' lungs in preparation for early delivery. Here we are thinking all we have to do is go get a shot and we can go home. Well, 3 hours and a short admission later, we left with a shot of steroids in one hip and a shot of morphine in the other. Apparently I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes and didn't even know it. I was 1+ dilated and 60% effaced. Yikes! I had no idea this was going on. Thank goodness they ended up sending me home, on strict bedrest. I ended up having pretty bad contractions all afternoon. Thankfully getting in the bathtub slowed them down quite a bit.

Thursday morning I woke up feeling great. That lasted about 15 minutes. The contractions started right back up. They never hurt, they were just really annoying. I called the hospital and they told me to come right in. They checked me again and I was 2 cm and 80% effaced. The doctors immediately admitted me. So here I sit. I have been in this uncomfortable bed now for 20 hours just hoping we can get these contractions under control. They have been loading me full of drugs to stop them and it finally seems to be helping. I'm hoping that today they will send me home so I can sleep in my own bed with good cable and not the crappy hospital cable.

Ryan has been the best. He has been by my side all night long. Poor guy. See, just another reason he is so easy to love. I'll hopefully update more later. I guess I need to try and get some sleep.

Am I in hell?

Currently I am sitting in the waiting room at the hospital. I am completely sick to my stomach. I'm here doing my 3-hour glucose test, which I'm pretty sure is going to kill me. At least this time the drink was lemon-lime flavor instead of orange, but still disgusting no less. I've already made 2 trips to the bathroom thinking that I was going to throw it all up, but thankfully it has stayed down. I would hate to have to redo this test yet again.

I showed up at the hospital this morning around 7:40. There was only 1 person checking people in and I was about 3rd in line, so of course just to check in took about half an hour. Lame. Then, there were people ahead of me for the lab. Again, totally lame. I'm STARVING here people! Come on! (see what hunger does to me? It turns me into a grouch). Finally I get to the lab around 8:15 or so. They tell me I can't drink the stupid drink until my urine comes back normal. So I wait, and wait and wait. Finally at 9:00 they bring me the drink. Then I had to drink it and every hour for 3 hours I get to have my blood drawn. I also had to have my fasting blood drawn as well. If you are keeping count, that is 4 blood draws in 1 day. All I can say is at least they don't use the sticky tape on my arms. I'm so ready to go home and I still have to have my blood drawn 2 more times. My bed is calling my name. I just need to lie down for a while and rest. I feel like I'm swimming in my sugar coma.

Needless to say, I haven't eaten anything since about 7:00ish last night and I can't eat until after noon today. My babies are ticked off. They already had their little sugar rush with the drink, now if I can just feed them some protein we will be better.

I failed my tests....

I failed the stupid glucose test. Now I have to do the 3-hour glucose test, the one where they make a pregnant woman fast for 12+ hours. PURE TORTURE PEOPLE! How can they do that to a pregnant person? I shouldn't complain because I know lots of you have done it and lived through it. I'll be fine. We'll get through this.

Then, the doctor's office calls me back and tells me my protein is too high in my urine. This means I get to start my nonstress tests earlier than we had anticipated and I get to do the 24-hour urine test AGAIN. It's so fun. And really, there is nothing embarrassing about walking around the hospital with a jug full of urine. That's a priceless moment. If the protein is still high in my urine next week, then I have to be admitted and pumped full of steroids in anticipation for an early delivery. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that this all isn't real or that it will just magically disappear. A girl can dream right? Apparently I need to calm down. Breathe. Breathe. Everything is fine.

Don't get too jealous...

Today has been full of adventures and it's only 11:00 in the morning! Check me out! It all started bright and early with my drinking of the Glucola. Oh, cute little Glucola. It only made me slightly sick to my stomach. I guzzled it as fast as I could possible get it down. Just the thought of it sends chills down my spine. It tastes like the nasty orange drink from McDonald's that was at every ward function while growing up. Gag me.

I then traveled to the doctor's office, which is nice and brand new. Only since it's new, they were all completely lost. I'm pretty sure they had no idea what was going on, but at least all of their scrubs matched.

Now, I know with twin pregnancies there are a lot of complications. Thank goodness we have made it to 28 weeks without most of them. We have been quite blessed to have a fairly easy pregnancy thus far. Until today. They checked my blood pressure and unfortunately it was high. We were doing so well!!! What happened? What does this mean? Well, this is an early indication of preeclampsia, which is not a good thing. I now have my best friend, Orange Jug, with me for 24 hours. He will be collecting all urine for me. The gross part (beside the fact that its a jug full of urine)? I have to keep it in my fridge. Totally disgusting. I also get to have more blood drawn tomorrow to see what's going on there. Oh joy. The doctor even mentioned if we can't get this under control or if my tests are crazy, then here comes the bed rest and possibly admission to the hospital. NOOOO!!!! Again, we were doing so well. What happened?

Here's the hoping all my test results come back normal.

Maternal Fetal Medicine

Well, it has been 4 weeks since we last saw Dr. S. Can you believe it? Time is flying! Before you know it, these little ones will be here. It scares me to death. I loved our ultrasound technician today. She was very aware of our situation and was good to explain everything she was looking at. She even let me watch our little girl drink the amniotic fluid and stick her tongue out at us while I laughed and told Ryan, "Look, it's like she's real!" (Yes, I know she is real, but the more I see her, the more human she gets). She is getting so big too! She now weighs about 2 pounds 6 ounces. The little boy weighs 2 pounds even. He even looks way smaller than our daughter. He is still curled up into a little tiny ball in the bottom of my uterus. He's just chillin' out. According to the ultrasound, the due date for the girl is October 1st and the little boy is October 15th, so that just shows you he is about 2 weeks behind. We expect him to keep staying smaller than baby girl too. That's just what comes with trisomy 18.

We had a very good discussion today with Dr. S. I know I've mentioned it before, but he is absolutely amazing! I am so grateful to have such an amazing doctor taking care of us and our precious miracles. He even gave Ryan his wife's name and number so Ryan could call her and talk to her about being a nurse anesthetist. How many doctor's will do that for their patients?

Tomorrow I get to go see my regular OB and have the nasty glucose test done. Hopefully my blood sugar will be normal so I can continue my steady diet of sugar. I would go crazy if I ended up having gestational diabetes. Keep your fingers crossed that I don't have it.