Please keep Rebecca in your thoughts.

Friends,

It is with great sadness that I ask you to keep Rebecca at The Road Less Traveled in your thoughts and prayers.  At 22 weeks and 6 days Rebecca and her husband gave birth and said goodbye to their beautiful daughter Lillian Grace.

Lord God, ever caring and gentle, we commit to Your love this little one, quickened to life for so short a time. Enfold him/her in eternal life. We pray for his/her parents who are saddened by the loss of their child. Give them courage and help them in their pain and grief. May they all meet one day in the joy and peace of Your kingdom. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

GTT Passed!

I passed my 1 hour glucose tolerance test.  Thank God.  I can't lie...I was worried just because of the propensity towards GD in PCOS'ers.  I guess taking my Metformin through this pregnancy has paid off!

Now if I could just figure out how to battle this unbelievable horrible back pain I would be a very happy camper.  So far pelvic tilts and chiropractor work have not helped.  Hopefully I'll find something that helps because there have been a few nights this week I've been on the cusp of crying it hurts so bad.  I can't even begin to imagine how much worse it is going to get over the next few weeks.

Nursery Progress

Boy....now that we have a majority of the furniture in place, this room is starting to look REALLY tiny.

Here are the latest pics:

25 week appointment

Today we had our 25 weeks sono and dr. appointment.  The sono went great.  The babies "semi" cooperated until the nurse came midway and gave me the glucola to drink for my glucose tolerance test (GTT). It was all down hill from there.

I never get tired seeing my babies on the monitor.  It is a magical moment every time I see their faces. It's hard to think that you can fall in love with someone you have never even met before.  So Baby A is still head down, but Baby B has flipped breach (well not quite breach....(s)he is kind of curled over with it's butt pressed up againsnt my right side.  The u/s tech said there really isn't a name for that position.  So anyways, we finally got to see a good side profile of baby A (we didn't get to last time because of position).  It was amazing.  The baby yawned while we were watching.  At that very same time we could see Baby B's foot coming in for the kill....it kicked baby A right in the face and we saw baby A's head bounce. Seriously...how can they not come out hating each other?

As a side note-DH and I both noted that the U/S tech dropped a gender describing word for Baby A twice.  We are going to keep it to ourselves though: )

All of the other measurements were good.  Baby A measured 1lb, 10 oz in the 45 percentile and Baby B measured 1lb, 12 oz in the 55th percentile.  The doctor that reviewed it said both were measuring perfectly in the middle which is what we want.  Always a relief.

Then I was directed to the blood draw area to have the blood for the glucose tolerance test drawn.  Still no word on the results.

Afterwards I had a horrible Doctors appointment with a new doc that had horrible bedside manner.  He pretty much came in, looked through my chart, said everything looks good, and kicked me out.  He completely disregarded my request for a cervix check or a fundal height check.  His rationale...."When your cervix starts to dilate you'll know it." How comforting....dick. Having a cousin that lost her son to premature labor, I am a little paranoid and it wouldn't have killed him to slap on a glove and make sure everything was ok.  Ok...enough ranting.

Other stats...BP was great at 111/70.  Weight (makes me want to vomit) but I have only gained 5lbs since my last appointment which is good putting my total weight gain for this pregnancy at 27lbs.  I am shooting for 40-45. My next appointment is in another 4 weeks when my family comes to town to host my baby shower: )

We didn't get very good pics,  but here is what we got:

Baby A-profile pic-you can kind of see the eyes, nose, and mouth:

24 weeks- Viability day!!

I can't believe we finally made it to 24 weeks.  That's 6 months pregnant.  That also means that there are only 14 weeks left!  The babies officially have a fighting chance if God forbid they are born early.  I'd post a pic, but my officialy belly photographer is out of the country: (

The belly is looking large....and stretched out.  I figured I'd get a few stretch marks during this process, but I never expected to get so many or get them so soon.  Some of them flat out hurt.  I can literally feel the skin tearing.  It feels an awful lot like a deep burn.

Now for the 24 week survey:

How far along: 24 weeks

Total Weight Gain: 23.5 lbs

Symptoms: Still really tired, emotional, and a really sore back

Stretch Marks: Yes-deep and painful

Sleep: I could always use more.  Bathroom breaks have increased to 3-4 times a night.

Best Moment Last Week: Feeling really strong big kicks and watching my belly move. Also getting the second crib in the nursery.

Movement: Yes...and I love it!

Food Cravings: Watermelon.

What I Miss: Being able to breathe and do normal activities without getting winded.

What am I looking forward to:  Our next u/s in one week.

Milestones: VIABILITY!!!

How is Daddy? Wonderful.  He's been rubbing my belly a lot and enjoying the kicks and movements as much as I am.

Not coping well

DH is out of the country until Saturday.  Business trips are no stranger to our relationship.  He has to travel often.  In fact...he moved to take his current job while I still lived in Miami and we lived apart for 6 months. I am usually just fine, but for some reason, this time, I am not holding it together very well.   Our house seems so eerie and lonely.  The dogs aren't much comfort either because they are being a bunch of lazy assess and sleeping since I got home from work.  I have realized how truly boring life is without him.

I just need to hold it together for another 96 hours. I am going to chalk my break downs over his absense on hormones.  Damn you hormones.

False alarm

So this Saturday morning was spent in Labor and Delivery at a local hospital.  I thought that I had lost part of my mucus plug which immediately sent me into a hysterical panic. DH and I decided that even if it was nothing it would be in our best interest to be seen.  So we went to the local hospital, I was put on the contraction monitor, and the doc did a cervical check. No contractions.  Cervix-long, tight, and closed. Whew.

False alarm.  The doc said that the plug is constantly changing and if I had lost any or part of it, I'd know it. She also lectured me about not coming to this particular hospital again unless the babies are literally coming out because they are not equipped to deal with high risk pregnancies and all they would be able to do is transfer me to the hospital we will be delivering at anyways.

I feel silly for panicking, but glad to know it was nothing.  Now if the babies would just keep calm while DH is out of the country through this week, I'll be a happy camper.  This Thursday marks viability!!  Such a huge milestone.  I am so thankful to have made it this far and am taking in every moment of this pregnancy.  While I can't wait to meet our babies, I want to soak up all of the memories I can of carrying these miracles in my belly: )

22 weeks

Survey time....

How far along: 22 weeks, 2 days

Total Weight Gain: 22 lbs

Symptoms: Tired (really tired), sore hips, stiff back.

Stretch Marks: Oh yes.  Bye bye belly.

Sleep: Pretty good...but I feel like I could use more than I get...no matter how much I get!

Best Moment Last Week: Feeling them move from the outside!!

Movement: They are much more active.  I love laying on the couch and watching my belly move!

Food Cravings: Watermelon.

What I Miss: Feeling rested

What am I looking forward to:  Getting our second crib next week (we ordered it online).

Milestones: Big movements and a great anatomy scan.

How is Daddy? Wonderful.  He's done such a great job helping me get the nursery ready.  He's been putting his hands on my belly a lot more and trying to feel them move.



Pics:

Eyes...won't...stay...open....

I am not a complainer.  Really, I'm not.  I haven't blogged about the stretch marks, the back pain, the hip pain, the sciatic nerves, nothing.... But this fatigue, I am going to complain about.

I woke up this morning, and my first thought was to cry.  Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy has the alarm gone off already.  I mean I went to bed at 10pm, made it all the way through the night without getting up to pee (which was a mistake), and the alarm went off 5am.  So why do I feel worse than all of those night in college where I pulled all nighters studying for organic chemistry (sorry I just vomited in my mouth thinking about it).

It seems to be getting progressively worse too.  A few weeks ago, I would simply feel a little bit more tired before bed. Now waking up is a chore.

I just can't believe that this is a normal feeling for 22 weeks pregnant.

Why men shouldn't play with baby things

Baby showers are great.  You get lots of "stuff" for your little addition(s).  Coincidently, husbands get lots of time to "test" these gifts.

Exhibit A:

You may remember this lovely gift from here:

But here is how it has been used:

Yes, that is DH testing the night vision and "Crying" to see how the sound works.

Just had to share because I died laughing when he did this.

Anatomy Scan and other updates

Sorry...I've been a shitty blogger lately.  My job is running me ragged and I just don’t seem to have the time or energy to do anything these days.   So I apologize.  Now to play catch up…

Anatomy Scan

We had our anatomy scan on Friday.  Besides the fact that this appointment kept us at the office for 4 hours (mind you the actual scan only took an hour), everything went well.

Baby A is head down right against my cervix on my left side.  It has all 10 fingers and 10 toes.  All vital organs are looking good.  Baby B is also head down on my right side…just a little higher up than baby A.  Both babies were measuring right around 1 pound each. Apparenlty neither baby would cooperate-so much so that the u/s tech asked if she could have the rights to spank them when they came out.  She asked us if we wanted to know what we were having and we told her no.  So she advised that we look away while she scanned the legs and did the sex determination.  She did ask if we wanted to know if anything was wrong…there wasn’t…so at least we know they aren’t hermaphrodites. It didn’t seem to take her long at all to determine the sex…which kind of makes me think they are boys.

Anyways, due to the lack of cooperation, she was not able to get all of the necessary measurements so we have to come back in 4 weeks to complete the anatomy scan.  We really only got a good profile pic of baby A, but just knowing they are healthy is enough for me. She also did a transvaginal to measure my cervix.  It went from 3.1 at my last scan to 3.8 this time.  That is apparently a GREAT measurement for this stage in the game. 

Then we met with the doc.  Fundal height puts me measuring at 28 weeks (which explains why I feel huge and my skin is staging a mass revolt in which fabulous purple stretch marks are claiming their territory across the bottom of my belly.  Yay.  I knew genetically I was screwed when I found out I was pregnant.  Everyone is my family has stretch marks. The doctor seemed quite pleased with my cervical measurements.  He said if we continue at this rate, barring no complications, it looks like we will be scheduling our c-section at 38 weeks! That puts us at September 23.  The later in September the better…because selfishly, I don’t want to go back to work before Christmas and I am taking 16 weeks maternity leave. So that is 114 more days…but who is counting: )

Here are the few pics we got from the anatomy scan (with and without captions):