35 weeks!!!!

I am so proud of our lil ladies for staying put this long - perhaps they are feeling guilty about scaring the crap out of us 2.5 weeks ago and I think they are enjoying the amazing foods I have been eating the past weeks...I'll keep eating as long as they keep gaining!
Having 2 strong, healthy, 6 pound babies would be AMAZING.
Here's to hoping!!

35 weeks!

Pardon the repetition of my wardrobe the past weeks...I am pretty much limited to maternity tank tops, yoga pants, and a few sun dresses - for those fancy days where we actually GO OUT for ice cream or to Wegmans for dinner.

All has been calm the past few days....NST results yesterday were perfect...both girls look strong! OB appt was great...Doc does not want us to move up our scheduled c-section date just yet (schedule for 8/22) even though she highly doubts we will make it that long. She thinks the girls will come sometime next week....she says to be ready at anytime and just hope for the best.

One of my main worries is that both babies won't be strong enough to come home with us from the hospital....the thought of that happening is upsetting but at least they will be getting the best care imaginable in the NICU. 
Doc seems to think that if they were to come this week, they probs would need a week or 2 in the NICU due to not being able to regulate their body temps and probably would need feeding tubes as mastering the suck-swallow-breathe eating technique is tough for lil ones.
BUT if they arrive next week - she says she can almost guarantee us that they will come home with us...soooooo - since I have complete control over when they come - I have decided the girls will come next week...any day is fine with me...but Wednesday or Thursday would be nice so we could get to 36.5 weeks which is only days shy of full term for twins. 

Outside of baby watch 2013 - I am barely sleeping but thanks to Orange is the New Black on Netflix - being up all night is not too bad...if you have not seen this show, it's time to jump on the bandwagon as it is addicting. I promised Erin I would wait for her to watch the finale but she has chosen to sleep at night instead of staying up and watching 6 episodes a night so I am a solid 4 episodes ahead of her...she best catch up.

Also, being at Mom's house means stumbling across many pics from my childhood...including this stellar pic of Sawyer's god-mom from back in the 90's

Also, getting in some quality time w/ Tyson Ferdinand before his life is turned upside-down by our two lil ladies

and loving visits from our favorite ladies....

Also, cannot forget my lil minions who are amazing :)

Here's to hoping our lil ladies can wait until at least 36 weeks to show up!!

NST @ 34 weeks 4 days

A great report this morning at our NST! 

Erin and I were not the most optimistic as we both for some reason thought something was going to be wrong or that today was going to be THEE day. First, I was SO tired this morning...like painful-first-trimester-tired and did not want to move out of bed so I was rushing around minutes before we had to leave and THEN the cafeteria at the hospital was closed so Er couldn't get her morning coffee and THEN the tech we had was the same one that I had 2 weeks ago when I got sent up to L&D for monitoring aka freaking scared as all hell. 
It is not the tech's fault that this happened but throughout my 30 minutes of monitoring that day she kept saying "all is good" "just a bit longer" then BAM as she was taking the monitors off of me she said that I had to go over for an u/s as baby B's heart rate kept dropping. I had already texted Erin to say all was good and I was heading out....maybe it's her people skills I didn't care for but anywho - we thought something was going to happen today...

BUT our lil nuggets decided to behave and all was perfect :) 

Peyton and Sawyer both had stellar accelerations and perfect baseline rates. A few small contractions were detected but nothing to be concerned about.

So - twin girl baby watch 2013 continues! and we continue to be thankful for each day that our lil ladies stay cookin and hoping that we have another week or two to go.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who has been so amazing to us by visiting and feeding us and keep us all sane....esp Madre for her hospitality to us and the pup. 

I'm off to eat some dinner...again. It's the baby girls that want a non-stop and never ending smorgasbord of so many delic foods so I am just doing what my baby girls want...I'll worry about love handles later...
or never thanks to spanx and tankinis.

Love!

It's double the giggles and double the grins, and double the trouble if you're blessed with twins.  

34 weeks 2 days - U/S, OB appt, and some other news

I do not think this morning could have been any more perfect. After a sleepless night thanks to a pup who has developed a new fear of thunderstorms, I woke up feeling crappy...back was aching and just overall feeling shitty..but things quickly turned around...

We are so beyond lucky, this all does not feel real. 

We started the day w/ an OB appt and all was great....I am measuring 45 weeks prego and doc is optimistic that our babies are doing great and has faith that we have some more cookin time. He is concerned that another abruption could occur but is confident that our girls will be okay even if they arrived today.

He explained further how he considers 37 weeks to be full term w/ twins so do all we can to make it to 37 weeks. So of course I ask, what can we do?? 
Basically, nothing. Water, feet up, keep the pressure off my cervix and just hope for the best. 
He also considers 35 weeks to be a milestone so praying we can make it until at least then!

Off we went down to the Perinatal Testing Center for our u/s...both girls look FANTASTIC!

Baby A is weighing in at 5 pounds 8 ounces
and Baby B weighing in at 5 pounds 4 ounces

They are on track perfectly for their due date. 
Both HB's are perfect
and all bone/organ/head/stomach measurements are right on track and they are within centimeters of each other. 

2 weeks ago we were looking at a 14% difference between the two girls but thanks to our lil Sawyer, the difference is now down to around 4%...way to go lil soybean!!!!  Keep on growing baby girl

The u/s doc said he thinks we have another 3 weeks max before these girls arrive which is okay by us as the u/s tech commented on how strong our girls look. Their lungs look so strong and looking at their weights, they are two strong lil ladies! Praying lots!!!!

Here we are at 34 weeks 1 day...

Also, in other news - and in typical Erin and Mel style - we have decided to shake things up a bit and we have some news. For months now, we have been calling our lil ladies by their names...after much discussion and debating, we have changed baby A's name. While Charlotte is a beautiful name that we both love, we felt drawn to another name.....

Baby A....

Baby B....

Our lil Peyton and Sawyer...We are so in love already. 

I am in awe at how strong these little ladies already are. Peyton is growing like a champ and Sawyer is doing a stellar job of keeping up with her big sister. 

Keep the prayers coming for our lil ladies - We are doing great but still need prayers and positive thoughts to help our lil ladies get even stronger! 

NST @ 34 weeks 1 day

Well, Erin and I are happier than Tyson on steak night as we had a successful NST appt today!!!

We were hooked up for about 30 mins - no detectable contractions - and both girls had perfect accelerations and baseline heart rates. 

Obvi, we are still camped out at Mom's which has been great thanks to our amazing hostess and amazing guests who keep us sane and bring delic foods and esp two lil pint sized visitors who I tend to squeeeeeeze nonstop.  

So all is calm and good - other than mentally obsessing over the dust that is accumulating at my house....luckily, in a few weeks I won't notice dust bunnies as I will be too busy snuggling my two perfect lil daughters. Let's hope we have another full week before the lil ladies debut.

Big day tomorrow...I am already updating my Netflix queue so that I can stay somewhat sane for the next 15 hours as I know sleep will be elusive. Send any recommendations my way! (I have to wait for Erin to watch Orange is the new Black and she refuses to stay up all night w/ me..how rude ;)

Tomorrow is an OB appt followed by an u/s for a fluid and growth check. and thankfully my fav Greek OB is back in town. I should say he is my fav c-section OB....He was not an advocate of my choice for a vaginal twin delivery but now due to the partial placenta abruption - it looks like we are having a c-section no matter what. Not my preference but totes okay with it if it means our lil ladies coming safely.  

I really think one of the two above factors (fluid and growth) will be reason enough for our docs to say that it's go time. 

I  have given up my hopes of making it to 38 weeks....I would love to make it to 36...and desperately want to make it to 35 soooo....praying that tomorrow gives us a good report and we get the green light to come back home and keep on obsessing 24/7 relaxing.

Granted, each day I have been saying that today is the day so perhaps its a mix of mother's intuition as well as my neurotic type A self pretending that I actually have some control over this situation - most likely more of the latter. 

Keep on sending the prayers and I'll hopefully be home tomorrow after OB and u/s to send an update on our lil ladies who WILL remain cookin just a bit longer. 

33 weeks 6 days

Well, we're still here...and our lil ladies are still cookin!!! 

Talk about drama queens...they pull their shit once 2 weeks ago and then again last Friday night...and then they both spend the next 7 days sleeping and causing NO drama of any kind yet, we are on our toes and on edge that any movement or twinge could be the beginning of labor progressing or another abruption. 
THANK BABY JEEBUS we have not experienced any of the above and even though I know I am a broken record - we are realllllly reallllllllllllly praying to make it to 35 - at least.

My incessant and obsessive casual and occasional reading of every a few articles online about preemie babies is important as it is giving me a realistic view of the challenges our lil ladies may face - but there is always the chance that our lil over-achievers may not need any of the possible intervention services that many preemie babies need. On the flip side, it gives me a scary as eff view of how tiny and weak our lil ladies still are. 
Luckily, our hospital is teamed with a kick ass NICU group as well as an amazing support group of friends and fam to keep us sane throughout these times of so many unknowns. 

Our days have been thrilling...lots of snuggles w/ the pup as well as probs 10 episodes of 16 and pregnant (totally acceptable to pass the time rolling our eyes at these unprepared and idiotic 16 year olds, right?) 
I also am eating like a freakin horse. Seriously, probs gaining a pound a day over here. 
I'll work my ass off to lose the extra weight later but my reasoning is that weeks 32-40 of pregnancy are there to help the babies gain weight...well, since our lil ladies seem to be on the fast track to meet you all, we have no idea how long we actually have to beef these lil girls up so I am doing my part as best I can to help bring two impressive sized twin babies into the world. 
Today for lunch was THREE slices of pizza...and some cookies..yesterday was made up of fried pickles, a chicken finger wrap, a blizzard, a breakfast sandwich..and I am sure a slew of other baby-fat-building foods that I am forgetting. 

So come on, beanie and squishy - eat up.
Because we all know I am on a strict feeding schedule that is causing some killer love handles but is oh so delic at the same time.

NST @ 33 weeks 4 days

Since the beginning of our fertility journey, I have commented on what a roller-coaster ride we anticipated it to be and as we moved through the steps of failed IUI's, IVF, OHSS etc - I realized what an actual roller-coaster ride it is. Well I had no effin clue what an actual emotional/physical roller-coaster ride it would become in these last few weeks. 

Today, we went over to the hospital for a our twice weekly NST and we got perfect results!  Our tech said they have textbook healthy heartbeats and showed perfect accelerations. She wished that she would have had a student there to see such a perfect display of an NST. 

Listen up, my two lil drama queen daughters, not that I don't GREATLY appreciate a stellar NST performance, but can we at least try and not have any major scares over the next 2 weeks? Because even though your Mama and I try to keep our heads on straight, getting a stellar review from the doc at an NST does cause us to get our hopes up a bit that we in fact do have more time before your much anticipated arrival. So lay low, enjoy all the delic food I am feeding you, and just chill for the next 2 weeks - simple as that! You can kick me all you want. Keep that lil foot of yours wedged under my ribs as it has been if that makes things more comfy for you. Just stay healthy and stay put!!!! 

We have a break from doc appts for the next few days - back again Monday for another NST - Tuesday for u/s (AFI check and growth check - BIG deal here! Praying!!) and OB appt Tuesday as well.

We are PRAYING and HOPING nonstop that each day and night go by without any hardships and that these two lil ladies keep on behaving! 

35 weeks would be an amazing milestone to make it to and it GREATLY increases our chances that our lil ladies will be born with minimal NICU time needed, and be able to nurse, and come home with us a few days after they are born. 

Praying nonstop!!