32 Weeks: Stats

We now most likely have 2-4 weeks until the babies are here!!! 

Since my 31 week pictures were taken a couple of days ago, there is probably not much change. 

Here's the belly:

 

Zeus has moved way up and now has his head over my rib cage.  This picture sort of shows what I mean. (I can not explain why I'm sitting in a sports bra on a random Wednesday evening.  This is why it is important to tell us ahead of time if you plan to stop by!)  That giant bump where my belly meets my chest is Zeus's head.  It feels like this giant hard ball.  I very accurately drew out how I imagine him using paint.  If you are wondering why he looks so weird, I gave him boxing gloves and shorts. 

 



How far along? 32 weeks !!!

Baby's size?  2 squashes!  (They are each about 16.7 inches and about 3.75 lbs on average)

Total weight gain:  26 pounds (8 pounds over the last 2 weeks) 

Wow!  That seems like a lot.  It is probably a lot of water.  That explains my Vienna Sausage toes.

Belly circumference:   At the belly button:   47.5” At the maximum:   47.75"

Belly Button Status: It is as out as it will ever be.  Apparently I have almost no belly button, it mostly just looks swollen and puffy.  At least it doesn’t show through my shirt I guess!

What I’m Wearing:   I bought some super cool men’s long sleeve t-shirts in way bigger sizes than I’d normally wear.  I won’t look very good, but at least they will cover the bottom of my belly when I‘m  wearing them.  Cody can wear them when I’m done if he wants, but I doubt he will.  One is a Nebraska Cornhuskers shirt and one is a Wisconsin Badgers shirt.  I’m pretty sure he will not support another team on purpose.

Symptoms:  The back pain is getting worse and it occasionally feels like the bottom of my belly is going to rip open and spill out all my insides…. But otherwise I’ve been pretty good.  I do have some funny looking swelling in my feet.  My toes look like little Vienna sausages.   

Baby Movement:  They are back in an extreme movement stage.  There is no room for kicking or punching, so it feels like I have two snakes swimming around under my skin.  It is really creepy and exhausting.  They both like to push their entire bodies out on opposite sides of my stomach at the same time.  That definitely hurts.  I know there are a lot of movements I can’t feel because we watched them move a lot at the appointment yesterday and I didn’t feel anything.  They also have started up their night time dance parties again.  Silly boys! 

Cody was feeling my belly a couple of days ago and one of the boys was pushing back against his hand when Cody would poke him.  So Cody would poke the baby and then the baby would poke Cody back.  That was a lot of fun.  The babies are also starting to get the hiccups, I think.  It is some sort of rhythmic thumping that lasts for a while at least.  Cody got to feel that a few days ago.

How I'm Sleeping:  If I manage to not have to get up to go to the restroom, if the baby that is on the bottom is not pushing out causing pain while I lay on my side, if I get all of the pillows set up just right, and if the temperature stays really cool….. I sleep okay. 

Cody has started waging war on the body pillow that I try to sleep with.   Our bed is too small for the pillow, Cody, and me every night, but I’ll try to sneak it in when my back and hips really hurt.  Cody seems to take offense that the pillow gets to sleep between us.  He whines, but in the middle of the night I sometimes have to kick his legs off of it because he is using it. 

Things I miss:  I miss walking at a normal speed and a normal posture.  I definitely have the pregnant belly push out posture and I have to walk super slowly.  I’m sorry general public…. I’m doing the best I can!

Best moment this week:  We had a nice Thanksgiving.  Amy and Andre invited us to join them and their family.  Amy is a super good hostess and so we had a much more grown up Thanksgiving than I would have put on for us if we had stayed home.  Andre’s family was in town, so we got to meet them.  Cody spilled a glass of homemade wine on Amy's grandma's real silver serving tray.... the usual Thanksgiving stuff.

Upcoming Appointments:  I will be up there every Tuesday and Friday (at least) until delivery.  Friday is another appointment like the one I just went to.  Next Tuesday is another one of those appointments plus a growth scan to make sure they are still growing okay and that their growth discordance is still acceptable.  I might have another appointment with a doctor then as well.

What I'm Looking Forward To:  We made it to 32 weeks!  Now I’m looking forward to making it to 35 weeks as the next milestone week. 

I’m now buying things from our registry that we still need.  It is always fun to get those packages in the mail.  We have pretty much everything I can think of that we will need immediately.  I’d still like to buy some swaddle blankets (the kind that you just Velcro, not the kind that you have to wrap yourself) and finish up the newborn cloth diaper supplies.  

I decided that it would be a good idea to get some embroidered hats with the name of each baby to make it easier for us and family to tell them apart quickly and/or from a distance.  I definitely cheaped out after seeing how much it would cost to have someone make them for us.  Sorry boys, your mommy doesn’t like to spend that much money on infant caps.  I’ve been exploring other options now.  It is probably going to be hilarious and end up costing more than just getting the hats made… but whatever.  Cody and I get a kick out of me and my crazy ideas.  I did suggest just using a Sharpie to write the names on the hats…. Maybe duct tape?  “Hi, my name is” stickers?  Those iron on transfers for making weird t-shirts using your regular ink jet printer?  I’m really excited to work this out.

 

32 Weeks: First Biophysical Profile (BPP)

I had my first fetal monitoring appointment today. Cody went with me so he could see the first one, but the lady that did the test was not particularly friendly or talkative. She didn't really explain anything that was happening. At least he got to see a general idea of what is going to happen. I'll have to go twice per week, so he will definitely miss some of these appointments.

The boys are doing well. They scored an 8/8 on the test. Since I am technically 31weeks 6 days (not quite 32 weeks), they didn't hook me up to the monitor to do the nonstress test. The test today was just a quick ultrasound. My poor boys are going through SO many ultrasounds. Here is a chart that explains what the test is looking at:

Biophysical profile

Measurement	Normal (2 points)	Abnormal (0 points)
Nonstress test	2 or more heart rate increases of 15 beats per minute or more are seen with movement.	Only 1 heart rate increase is seen, or the heart rate does not increase by more than 15 beats with movement.
Breathing movement	1 or more breathing movements last at least 30 seconds.	Breathing movement lasts less than 30 seconds, or no breathing is seen.
Body movement	3 or more movements of the arms, legs, or body	Less than 3 movements of the arms, legs, or body
Muscle tone	Arms and legs are usually flexed and the head rests on the chest. 1 or more extensions and return to flexion are seen, such as the opening and closing of a hand.	The fetus extends slowly and only returns partway to a normal position. The fetus extends but does not return to a normal position. The arms, legs, or spine are extended, or a hand is open.
Amniotic fluid volume (amniotic fluid index)	At least one pocket of amniotic fluid of at least 2 cm (0.8 in.) is seen in the uterine cavity.	Not enough amniotic fluid is seen in the uterine cavity.

This chart and more information can be found here:  http://www.webmd.com/baby/biophysical-profile-bpp?page=3

The full test is scored on a scale of 10.  Each normal observation gets 2 points and each abnormal observation gets 0 points.  Today they looked at breathing movement, body movement, muscle tone, and amniotic fluid volume.  Because everything looked normal, the boys got an 8/8.  They were moving around like crazy, but I couldn't feel them move at all. 

The entire thing took less than 10 minutes.  They will probably charge insurance an obscene amount of money, and it was a big waste of a day... but I guess if they found abnormal results I would be really glad they were doing the monitoring.  I'll be up there again Friday to do this again.

My Belly's Progress

Here is my belly as it grew.  The first picture is 25 weeks, the second picture is 28 weeks, and the final picture is 31 weeks.

 

 

 

 

It may have grown a lot, but we've still got a long way to go hopefully!

 

Here is my side profile from 20 weeks, 24 weeks, 28 weeks, and 31 weeks. 

 

It looks like it is not a lot bigger in the middle, but it sure is getting bigger at the top and bottom.

31 Weeks: Stats

We are one week closer to babies!  Because of Thanksgiving, we are late on pictures and the update.  These pictures were taken at 31.5 weeks.  I'd like to say that the half week didn't make a big difference, but I'm pretty sure I made a lot of belly progress yesterday.  It is definitely getting pretty painful. 

Here's the Belly:

 

 

 

How far along? 31 weeks !!!

Baby's size? 2 pineapples! (They are each about 16 inches.  Leonidas is about 3 lb 8 oz and Zeus is about 3 lb)

Belly Button Status: We get an occasional rounding out of the belly button, but it is not sticking out like other people get.  Cody doesn’t seem to think it is nearly as exciting as he had built it up to be.

What I’m Wearing:  RIP my favorite maternity shirt from last week’s post.  I guess wearing it on Thanksgiving finally did it in.  There are a few round stains on the belly that have now been through the dryer.  Poor shirt.  Other maternity shirts are now officially too short.  I have to wear extra long maternity tank tops under them.  I bought a few long sleeve t-shirts from the men’s section to round out my wardrobe.  I figure Cody can wear them after I am finished with them.  They are so far long enough, but they might end up being too tight if the belly gets much bigger.

Symptoms:  The pain has started.  My belly feels like it is ripping apart, both the skin and the muscles.  My back is pretty much shot after I walk more than a few minutes.  This makes shopping very difficult.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to start riding the motorized carts at stores.  Thankfully, my belly is starting to look so big that people probably wouldn’t say anything.   Other than that, I’m still doing okay.

Baby Movement:   Cody got rough with the boys/my belly one night; I’m pretty sure he moved them.  It feels like one baby is laying across the top of my stomach and one is somewhere on the bottom.  I haven’t really been able to tell exactly based on movements, but the baby laying across the top likes to basically rip my sides apart.  His head is on one side and butt is on the other, so when he stretches out, it rips apart my sides and ribs.  The baby on the bottom is giving me no less hassle.  He manages to kick and punch all of my vital internal organs. 

How I'm Sleeping: Ugh.  :(

Things I miss:  Pretty much everything.

Best moment this week:   We spent a lot of quality time together working on the nursery.  The walls are painted and the furniture is mostly in place.  The blue we used actually turned out way nicer than I expected.  We argued quite a bit while we were doing it (Cody seems to think I should have painted before I because incapable of movement), but when we were finished we were pretty happy.  I still need to decide how to decorate, or if I will even decorate.   I know we definitely won’t be putting their names over their cribs.  There is only one crib put together and no names yet.

Upcoming Appointments: I will have appointments every Tuesday and Friday until these babies are delivered.  Sometimes I will have one appointment per day, sometimes more, but I will be up there at least twice per week.  I have fetal nonstress tests twice per week, an OB appointment every 1-2 weeks, and a growth scan at least every 2 weeks.

What I'm Looking Forward To: I’m going to start opening baby packages and washing clothes in preparation for the arrival of the babies.  I’m looking forward to getting things settled.  We’re going to start buying all the last odds and ends that we didn’t get at the showers. 

I’m also looking forward to reaching 32 weeks.  It is another one of those milestone weeks that doesn’t really mean anything in particular, but it is generally used as a guideline where risk goes down again.  When I was still planning on having the babies at Bellevue Med, the OB I was working with said that I could have the babies there as long as they made it to 32 weeks.   

31 Weeks: Growth Scan + MFM appt

Well, it is that time again.  We got another growth scan.  The boys still look good.  Leonidas is 3.5 lbs and Zeus is 3 lbs.  That seems like a big difference, but it is only 14%.  They don't start to worry until the difference is more like 20-25%.  They are still growing on track with gigantic heads and short legs.  Cody could not make it to this appointment, but that's okay.  I'm going to be there a lot more often.

 

The ultrasound tech had a student with her today, so I got a super long ultrasound.  She tried to get good 3d/4d images of the boys for like 15 minutes.  The images on the printouts are not nearly as good as they looked on her screen.  I tried scanning them with a higher resolution, but that just made all the dust show up on the pictures.  There are a lot of baby pieces everywhere, so I just outlined the most important parts.  As usual, Leonidas is blue and Zeus is red.

 

Here are the pictures:

 

They are still positioned the same as they were at the last ultrasound.  Their heads are together at about my belly button and they face each other.  Zeus is still breech, so his legs go down and around my belly.  Leonidas is head down, so his body comes up and around the top of my stomach/my ribs.  In this picture you can see their heads together.

 

 

This picture really demonstrates how smushed in there they are.  On the left is Leonidas.  You can see his arms and legs bent up by his face.  The red circle on the right is Zeus's head right by Leonidas's butt.

 

Here is a profile of Leonidas.  Some of these pictures are better than others.  The 3d/4d technology kind of distorts the images a bit, so you have to look at all the pictures and piece together a really good image in your head.  Zeus is somewhere in the mess to the right.

 

Leonidas again.

 

Zeus's profile.  Leonidas is somewhere in the mess to the right.

 

I thought this image was hilarious.  This is Zeus from straight on his face.  He looks like a little piggy.  You can see a weird ball nose, a funny puckered mouth, and weird round chin.  It is face only a mother can love.  That is caused by the distortion.  His face doesn't really look that pig-like.

 

Zeus's profile.  He looks like he is making a sad face.  He was

 pretty tired of being scanned by then I bet.

 

Zeus's profile.

 

Leonidas old school style.  He looks like a little pillsbury dough boy.

Zeus in 2d.  

 

 

 

After my appointment, I met with the Nurse Practitioner again.  My original appointment was scheduled with an hour in between the scan and the appointment, so they squeezed me in with the nurse without waiting.  It was very nice of them to get me in and I do really like the nurse.  I like and trust the doctor I had an appointment with originally, but it is way less comfortable to discuss some pregnancy things with an old man in a fancy suit. 

 

During the appointment, the nurse asked how my mood has been and if I'd had any thoughts of hurting myself.  I laughed and said my mood has been surprisingly good.  I'm more likely to want to strangle my husband than hurt myself. She laughed and said that is normal.  Sorry monkey, pregnancy is hard! 

 

Everything is normal and okay.  My belly is measuring near full term.  They scheduled me to start going in for twice weekly non-stress tests next week.  The test involves monitors on my belly that measure the baby's heart rate and any contractions.  Basically, they are looking to see that the baby's heart rate increases with his movement.  This is a round about way of making sure they get enough oxygen and checking placenta and umbilical cord function.   If you want to read more about it, you can go here: http://www.americanpregnancy.org/prenataltesting/non-stresstest.html

 

That is all the new information I have.  Since the student was scanning me after the ultrasound, I didn't get to see the actual baby measurements.  I guess that's okay; I'll be up there again next Tuesday.  We're getting awfully close to the end!

30 Weeks: Stats

Since Cody was away on business, this post is a little late.  I had to take pictures of myself in the mirror like the teenage girls on facebook.  If you could see my face, you'd know I was doing the duckface so common in this type of photo.  I took pictures before, but then saw how dirty my mirror was.  Yuck.  After cleaning the mirror, I did a second round of photos.  I'm pretty sure I've gotten bigger this week.  I didn't feel very good and needed a lot of sleep.  I'm thinking the boys or my body or both had a growth spurt.  Anyway, here's the belly:

 

 

 

 

How far along? 30 weeks !!!

Baby's size?  2 heads of cabbage!  (They are each about 16 inches and about 3 lbs on average)

Total weight gain:  18 pounds (2 this week)

Belly circumference:   At the belly button:   46.5” At the maximum:   47”

 I actually didn't measure very carefully, so I basically made these numbers up.  They are fairly close though. 

Belly Button Status:  The belly button is about as flat as it can be.  I’m pretty sure that it will never poke out.  My belly button is just too short!

What I’m Wearing:   I’m having issues with my favorite maternity shirt.  Every single time I wear it, I drop food down the front of it.  I am not really exaggerating.  After each wear, I have to wash it with spray and wash, and then hang it in the bathroom to dry so the dryer doesn’t bake in any stains.  After it dries and I see there are no permanent stains, I have to wash it again because it is stiff and the neck is stretched out.  I almost never get to wear the shirt because it is always in some stage of being washed.  When I finally get it, I drop food on it and the process begins again.  This stupid belly really catches everything I drop.

Symptoms:  I am having some heartburn/acid reflux at night.  My ankles are apparently swelling.  Sleeping is uncomfortable.  My shoes were a little snug last time I wore non-flip-flops.  It will be absolutely horrible if my feet stretch out.  I know it is a common symptom of pregnancy, but I already have huge feet.  I have Peggy Hill from King of the Hill feet.  I’ll have to start buying my shoes from online retailers that market to men that dress as women.  Hopefully my shoes weren’t really snug.  Cody had to help me put them on, so maybe he just made a bigger show of having problems shoving my giant feet in tiny shoes.

Baby Movement:  I’m pretty sure the boys don’t really have much more room to move.  I almost feel no punches and kicks anymore.  I feel more body wiggles and maybe shoulder shrugs.  It is a really really weird feeling.  It is like in all the Scifi movies when there is some creature that wiggles through someone’s belly before it comes exploding out of them.  They aren’t keeping me up at night with their moving as often now.  The movements are a lot smaller, but they feel a lot weirder.

How I'm Sleeping:  I’m sleeping okay considering I’m 30 weeks pregnant with twins.  Sometimes it feels like it is impossible to roll over. 

Things I miss:  I miss being able to move for more than 15 or so minutes before I need to sit down.  I miss being able to ride in a car.  I can barely ride up to Bellevue now before I start feeling sore and tired.  You would think just sitting would not be difficult.

Best moment this week:  Cody and I made some real progress on cleaning up the basement.  I used to call it box hell, but we’re down to just a small corner of boxes.   Cody forced me to part with nearly all of my treasures, but his treasures are too precious to consider getting rid of.  Some of his treasures include: the boots he stole from the killing floor of one of his animal slaughter classes (yes, they have classes that teach you how to slaughter animals in college), every winter coat he has owned since he was 12, and every single book and binder from his 8 years of college classes.  To be fair, my treasures were not quite treasures either.  Things he made me get rid of: the wood burning kit made for kids that I got last year and promptly burned myself the first time I used it, the canned snow I bought to decorate wreaths with, and my emergency ration stash of expired cans of pumpkin I bought the year the news emphasized a terrible pumpkin shortage.  No matter what, it is really nice to have the basement in a condition where we can go down there and visitors can stay down there.  I imagine we will have more visitors in the coming months; visitors that will probably appreciate some space away from the 2 crying, screaming poo machines living upstairs…. And the babies too (hahahahaha.. I really couldn’t help it). 

We also got the nursery half painted.  I think it will look really nice when it is all the way painted eventually.

Upcoming Appointments:  I have a day of appointments next week.  I’ll meet with the MFM and get a growth scan.  Hopefully the boys are doing well.  I should probably start taking a hospital bag to these appointments.  It wouldn’t be unheard of to end up with an emergency c-section based on the appointments. 

 

 What I'm Looking Forward To:  I’m looking forward to Cody coming home.  He has been on a business trip this week.  I miss having someone to pick up things off the floor for me and having someone that can help me roll over in bed.  Also, the baby shower at his work has been rescheduled for Monday.  I’m looking forward to meeting some of the people he works with.  I still feel guilty about people maybe buying us gifts, but it really is nice of them to go to the effort of planning something  for us.   I’ll be happy if people just swing by to say hi and give me that pity-filled look when they see how gigantic I am. 

29 Weeks: Stats

We've made it another week!  I feel absolutely huge now.  The doctor says I'm measuring in at 36 weeks.  I can't imagine how I will look if I actually do make it to 36 weeks.  I'm starting to get the looks of pity when I go out in public.  Almost everyone makes a comment about it.  I still haven't had anyone try to inappropriately grope my belly without permission.  I'm actually kind of disappointed because I'm fully prepared to rub their stomachs right back.  Thank you rural Nebraskans for being respectful of my belly boundary bubble.

Here is the belly:

How far along? 29 weeks !!!

Baby's size?  2 butternut squashes!!!  They are about 2.5 lbs and 15 inches each (Leonidas is 2lbs 10 oz and Zeus is 2 lbs 5 oz)

Total weight gain:  16 pounds (3 this week)

Belly circumference:   At the belly button:   45.5"  At the maximum:   46.5"

Belly Button Status:  No progress on the belly button front.

What I’m Wearing:   I’ve noticed that more of my shirts are not fully covering the stretchy panel at the top of my pants.  I’m going to have to start wearing the really long maternity tank tops under everything.  Luckily, it is starting to get cold so layering is not bad.  It is starting to get colder, so my lack of a coat will be more of an issue. Maybe I’ll wear a Snuggie on the front and use one of Cody’s old coats around my back.  If worse comes to worse I can wear some of my pre pregnancy stuff.  I really haven’t gained that much weight.  The weight I have gained is pretty much all babies.  I just can’t zip or button any of my old stuff.  I could cut a belly hole in my old stuff.  The belly is usually incredibly hot anyway.  That may be the best solution.

Symptoms:  I’ve had some very nice acid reflux issues.  The leg cramps are still hitting me at night sometimes.  The boys have mostly stayed away from my lungs, so I do breathe a lot better.  At this point, I can’t really stand for more than a few minutes.  I can stay up if I’m walking, but I can’t do that very long either.  I’m also getting a lot more nosebleeds.  I probably need to break out the humidifier.                                                                                                      

Baby Movement:  The boys were really quiet over the weekend.  I think they were just growing.  Starting Monday, they have been moving like crazy.  Cody and I have gotten to feel them move and wiggle a lot more instead of just random kicks.  I still don’t get the big kicks on the outside, but it appears that is because they are facing each other.   Leonidas’s butt is up at the top of my stomach near my ribs.  Every once in a while it will come to the surface as a hard spot.  It is a lot of fun to feel that.  They start moving around midnight every night and don’t stop until 3-4 am.  It has been keeping me awake.  It is just too hard to fall asleep with 2 sets of arms/legs with nowhere to go.  Every time I get close to falling asleep, one of them kicks something important and it feels really weird.  I do enjoy feeling them wiggle around, but I find it odd that they are more nocturnal than I am.

How I'm Sleeping:  Overall, I’m sleeping okay.  Once I manage to fall asleep I’m usually okay.  I can’t roll over without a battle though, so I do have to wake up if I get uncomfortable.  Occasionally I have to grab Cody while he is sleeping and use him as a pushing off post.  Sometimes he wakes up to ask if I’m okay and sometimes he keeps sleeping.  I would like to note that even if I answer “No” to him asking if I’m okay, he still stays asleep.  I do give him credit for asking in his sleep though. 

Things I Miss:  I miss rolling over without having to grab Cody in the middle of the night.  I miss being able to put my own socks on reliably.  I need to clean off my old toe nail polish and put new polish on, but I definitely can’t do that.  I can ask Cody to do it, but he thinks toe nail polish is stupid and fights me about it.  He does eventually help me, usually, but he does make me work for it. 

Best moment this week:  Cody and I went to the store and spent a small fortune on warm preemie sleepers after our tour of labor and delivery at the hospital.  The nurse said they really only have t-shirts made for bigger babies, so the small babies sometimes get really cold.  Looking at the little preemie clothes was really cute.  Hopefully they will be too big to need the sleepers, but if they are really little they will be warm and adorable.  What made it nice was Cody actually paid attention and chose some of the little outfits himself.

Upcoming Appointments:  I, hopefully, will not have any appointments for 2 weeks.  The Tuesday after next is another round of MFM appointment and Growth Scan.  I imagine after those appointments they will start scheduling my appointments closer together.  Luckily I’ve gotten out of some of the additional monitoring because the boys have been doing so well. 

What I'm Looking Forward To:  I’m looking forward to having a 70 degree day on Saturday.  Hopefully Cody can make some good progress on finishing the house.  We’re so close to being pretty much sealed up for the winter.  It is starting to look like a real house again!

Also, I got a shower invitation from a lady at Cody's work for a shower for us later this month.  It was absolutely hilarious.  She stressed that these babies will be Huskers fans and babies do not look good in purple.   It is so nice of them to put a shower together for us.  I'm sure Cody doesn't participate in the showers/giving occasions for other people at his work.  I look forward to going down and meeting some of the people he works with. 

29 Weeks: Growth Scan

 

We got to see the babies again today!  They are getting so big and crowded, we didn't really see the boys... we saw more slices and chunks of the boys.  At the end, the ultrasound tech did kindly give us a quick 3d/4d peak at them.  You can see even less in these images than the last scan, but it is still pretty neat.  They are getting a lot fatter! 

 

 

To start, I made this nifty diagram so you can better understand how they are in there.  Note: this is not to scale.  I'm still not super great at making things using Paint, so we are all stick figures.  In real life, they are curled up a lot more.  Leonidas's butt is in my ribcage for example, not so much his legs.  Anyway, here is the baby positions:

 

Leonidas is in blue and Zeus is in red.  You can see how their heads are pretty close in the middle and their legs are over the other's head.  It is kind of like a giant ball of babies in there.  They are facing each other and curled around each other.  I definitely won't feel guilty about putting them in bunk beds when they are born. 

Here are the boys:

 

Here is Leonidas.  In real life, he is upside down.  You can see how he is curled into a ball.  His butt is in the area where my ribs meet in the middle.  I had been feeling something hard there for about a week.  I assumed it was Zeus's head, but I was wrong.  I've been rubbing my boy's butt all week instead of petting a head.  Ooops.  You can see his legs curled up to his chest and his arm over his head.  Zeus's face is at the top.  I did give him eyelashes, eyebrows, and a nipple for frame of reference.

 

Here is an angle that better shows them curled up around each other.  Leonidas is on the right upside down and Zeus is on the left right side up.  This reminds me of the scene in the Spiderman movie where he kisses the girl upside down.  They do have a membrane between them, but it looks like they are getting some valuable cuddle time.  I think the stuff across the time is Leonidas's body, but I wasn't positive.  You can see Zeus's arm in really good detail.

Here is another with both the boys.  You can see Leonidas's knee above and around Zeus's head.  Zeus's lower body and legs are wrapped over and around Leonidas's head.  Zeus has a random red line draw on his head.  That was a tracing mistake on my part.  I was not trying to highlight anything important.  Again, the best details of this picture is the clarity of Zeus's arm.  They do look cute curled up in there together though. 

A final image of the boys together.  The ultrasound tech labelled this one for you.  Zeus's hand and arm are really clear in this one.  If you look back at old images, you can really see how much he has filled out. 

That is all we got this week.  As you can see, there was no way to get a clear shot of their faces.  They are too close together and facing each other.  That is okay, we will be able to see their faces all we want in 5-7 weeks!!! 

 

 

Their measurements are all fine.  They are still within 11% of each other.  With my type of twins, one of the biggest concerns is making sure they stay a similar size to each other.  11% is well within the acceptable range.  Leonidas is 2 lbs 10 oz and Zeus is 2 lbs 5 oz.  That means I have about 5 lbs of baby wiggling around in there.  As huge as I feel, I just really don't understand where all of the baby is.  It seems like I should be way bigger.  

Fun Appointment Fact: The doctor kept calling me Ruby and asked Cody how work is going at ConAgra.  I guess he was pretty close.  It seems a little bit particular for me to expect my doctor to know my first name.  That's what I get for having 2 names that are common as both first names and last names.  Cody and I just laughed each time and didn't correct him.

Cody jokingly said something to the doctor about me being whiny about being uncomfortable sitting, standing, etc.  The doctor said that he was going to give me a left handed compliment and said that after 5 minutes with some of the pregnant women he comes across, you wouldn't want to ask them on a date.  I, on the other hand, am relatively low maintenance.  So there you go, the specialist in high risk women's pregnancy believes that I am relatively low maintenance.  The exchange was a little odd coming from a doctor with a daughter older than me.... but whatever.  I'm pregnant so people get to say weird things I guess.  As long as the babies come out healthy and happy, I'll take odd exchanges with doctors. 

My next appointment is in 2 weeks.  I will probably start non-stress tests around then as well.  They are just an additional layer of monitoring to make sure we are not in distress and are still developing properly.  It just involves getting hooked up to monitors and laying there for a while.  Until then, hopefully no more appointments and hopefully no problems. 

29 weeks MFM appointment

Today was a mostly uneventful appointment.  The appointment was actually with the nurse practitioner.  She is the last of the professionals in the group that I hadn't met.  She was very nice, but she was a lot more forward about looking at my pieces for problems.  For instance, she squeezed my chubby ankles and asked if I'm having other symptoms that go with chubby ankles.  Most of the other doctors keep their distance and focus on the babies.  She measured my belly and said I'm measuring 36 weeks!!!!????!!!!!  That is 7 weeks ahead of where I am.  That is one month shy of delivery for the average singleton mom.  That explains why I can no longer roll over in bed, stand up without help or a battle, or wear my maternity shirts with confidence that they will cover the belly fully.

They did give me the results of my gestational diabetes test.  I passed with flying colors.  Since I "accidentally" drank the full bottle instead of the actual dose of half a bottle, she said I passed with super flying colors.  I may not be able to stand for more than a few minutes at a time, but I sure can process my glucose. 

I did get my flu shot and my tetanus/pertussis shot at the end of the appointment.  I'm pretty pumped for the tetanus booster.  There have been a few times during this house remodelling project that made me hope for no tetanus infection.  I had to tell Cody to watch me for symptoms of lock jaw.  I can now confidently walk around the outside of our house with no worry of the sizable number of rusty nails hiding in our grass.  We would appreciate it if anyone that plans to spend time with the babies gets the flu shot and the pertussis shot.  We will have probable preemies born during flu season.  They will need all the help they can get.

After the appointment, they called over to labor and delivery and got us a tour.  They couldn't really give us any definitive answers because with the twins we have to do whatever is medically necessary at the time.  We got to see all the different rooms.  It was a lot quieter than I thought it would be.  Nobody was running around or screaming.  There was no family milling around in the hallways.  Since I have twins, I have to deliver in an OR.  We didn't get to see one of those.  The nurse did say that if I get a c-section Cody is allowed to look over the curtain if he wants.  He offered to help deliver of course.  He does have sooooo much experience with birthing mammals.  It looks like a fine place to bring my two humans into the world. 

Overall, everything with me and the babies is fine.  My next appointments are in 2 weeks.  I'll be 31 weeks then.  28 weeks is a milestone in terms of fetal okayness if they are delivered.  The next milestone week is 32.  Of course every week is important, but at 32 the risks go way down again.  They just gave me some preterm labor symptoms to watch out for and sent me on my way.  I can't believe how close we are getting to the end!