The last 5 weeks

You would think that sitting alone in hospital for 7 weeks straight I would've had plenty of time to write several updates. However I am slacker and haven't felt like it lol. I've sewn bears for the kids, made knitted hats, and have been working on crocheting blankets for them. Facebook and pinterest also killed a lot of time for me. I even did a little reading! Most importantly I've been busy keeping the babies on the heart rate monitors, which has been very time consuming!

Things were very quiet and uneventful for the most part weeks 26-30. The biggest thing that happened was trying to take the Gestational Diabetes test. The first time I drank the glucola - orange soda like syrup, I started throwing up about 30 mins after finishing it. The doctors said that if I got Brachs Classic Jelly Beans, I could take the test after eating 28 of them, no black ones. I had several people shopping for these stupid jelly beans that apparently are only available at Easter! >< Needless to say they said let's go with the glucola again after about a week and a half of unsuccessful jell bean searching. (27w) They gave me zophran(sp?), an anti nausea med, before I drank it and I was able to keep it down. Unfortunately, I failed and had to take the long version of the test.. failed again. So I've been getting my fingers pricked 4 times a day to check my sugar ever since! There was a little miscommunication to the dietary people and I was put on an overweight person diabetic diet - no fat or sodium and limited carbs. Even though I questioned it daily, it wasn't resolved until my BP dropped so low I almost passed out and was given IV fluids 2 days in a row. The actual GD diet isn't too bad and my sugars only went crazy when I got a couple rounds of the steroids for the babies' lungs, betamethatsone, the medicine is known to spike sugars.

When I was first admitted, the nurses and doctors told me that as we got farther along and the the babies got bigger, it would be much easier to find them and keep them on the monitors. Bullcrap! Some days they cooperated very well, but I've seen these kids on the ultrasound many times simply because we couldn't find them with the monitors!

I started having a lot of contractions around 30w3d. At first they were chalked up to Braxton Hicks and no one worried about them. I got anxious if I had more than a couple in an hour because I'd read about preterm labor and how it's not painful for a lot of women. I am in very good hands here at Shands. When the contractions got to less than 10 mins apart, they put on a TOCO, another monitor to measure contractions. At first, it was still Braxton Hicks.. no real rhythm or pain to the contractions. But we started magnesium anyway for the babies' neurological development and did the betamethatsone shots. While on the magnesium, I got the real deal contractions that were painful and close together, so they upped it to the highest dose. It was a miserable 2 days! Magnesium makes you feel heavy, like really strong pain killers on top of being drunk. Luckily I had great nurses who took great care of me! I only dilated to 1.5cm and the contractions almost stopped so I was able to get off of it and felt normal again after a few hours. From my hips down was extremely swollen and a little tender from not moving mixed with the magnesium but after about a week it's now gone down a lot, close to normal!

Well now I think we're up to date. I spoke with Dr. Gregg today. He's been my main doctor since 14w and is head of Maternal & Fetal Medicine at Shands. He will be doing the surgery for us on Thursday - less than 48 hours from now I will meet my babies!!! He also said that I'll be on a low dose of magnesium again for a few hours before the surgury to benefit the babies' brains... not really looking foreward to that lol!!

Amanda

Back logging...

Since I'm a slacker and didn't start this until the very end of my pregnancy, I'm going to pull a cheater move and copy/paste the update emails I sent to my coworkers, family and friends. Unfortuneately, I only have access to the ones in my personal email right now, so I guess I'll be editing it later with the rest of the update emails I sent. I'm not sure if I can copy paste the u/s pic explanation documents in here but I'll try in another post...

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Friday, June 22, 2012 (20w)

The plan was to be admitted at 24 weeks, my official date is July 16 as long as there are no complications before then. :)

I haven't sent an update in a while because everything has been going well and I've had no news. :) I did get 2 ultrasounds done last week and wanted to share the pics, they are in the attached document. The ultrasound tech said that the babies are growing as they should be and all their organs are good, too! At 20w, babies are typically about 10" head to heel.. they didn't tell me the babies measurements for that so I assume they are average lol. They measure the arm and leg bones to estimate their current weight: A= 12 oz, B = 11 oz and C = 10 oz. They said the slight difference in size is fine.

I've done a weekly photo with fruits/veggies the size of babies, I attached that also. It's pretty crazy how much I grow in just a week! It shows weeks 8-20: blackberries, grapes, pecans, strawberries, kiwis, roma tomatoes, lemons, apples, avocados, mangos, potatoes, squash, and bananas.

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes! God is definitely keeping and eye on us and we appreciate it greatly!!
Amanda


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Friday, July 6, 2012 (23w)

Everything is going better than I expected it to be at this point! Still no complications and everyone is growing and looking great! Yesterday was 23 weeks, I've gained 32 lbs and measure 34 weeks for a regular pregnancy (the size of my belly). I see the doctor again on Tuesday and hope to be getting another 3d ultrasound afterwards!
Amanda


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Friday, July 27, 2012 (26w)

I just thought I'd send a quick note to let y'all know I'm still alive lol. The hospital stay is not what I was expecting... I guess I thought I'd just be hanging out and getting put on a monitor a couple hours a day and I'm actually stuck on them around the clock. I get a break to take a shower and potty breaks, but aside from that I'm in my bed or chair with fetal heart rate monitors (the same ones used to monitor the baby during labor) belted to my belly like in the picture - the boy is so low that his is tucked under the top of my pants lol. Rooster brought the ipod and some headphones for me to play some piano music for the babies. :) I've learned how to reposition them to "find" the babies, but they are doing very well and move around A LOT so it's a pretty steady job just making sure all 3 are on the monitors haha. The nurses have been great and haven't gotten mad at me for needing help with it constantly. It stinks but the girls are at risk have having an emergency at any moment so it's worth the torture now. :) I get a quick ultrasound to check movement, practice breathing and position of the babies 2 times a week, but no pics to share. Yesterday was a big milestone - 26 weeks! They babies have a pretty good outlook if there is an emergency delivery. According to averages, they should be about 14" and 1.6 lbs

Hope everyone is doing great, miss y'all!!!

Amanda