**February 2011 Babies**

[purpleFish]

julia - my back is killing me. If I am on my feet for a half hour or so, it just hurts so bad. I got a bumpy massage ball for my husband to rub on my back and that has really been helping me. I am so sorry about your house, I know how stressful it can be. We had a leak the past two days from our roof. Water is running off from a problem in the roof and down the wall and underneath our new floor.... grr! If you can make it through a twin pregnancy without stretchmarks I would be amazed. I tried the cream the first time around and my belly just stretched so far there was no hope. I have them across my belly, thighs, and hips. I also have them across my breasts, they stretched so much from nursing. As much as I stretched last time I still have new stretchmarks across my belly. They do change color, my old ones are flesh colored now and just bumpy.

jenice - aww a loose tooth is so cute! yay for a negative glucose test! I am sorry about swelling! Ugh... no fun. I had the same problem last time. This time though I only have minor swelling. Try to get your feet up a bit if you can and drink plenty of water. You could also have your husband hide the salt shaker. And your reflux just sound horrible, you poor dear!

afm - as of tomorrow my doctor considers me full term... woo-hoo. I have been having some good contractions the past two days, but nothing regular. The end is in sight though!

[PA_FA]

julia- last I was told she was in the 57th percentile. My in-laws don't think I will even make it to Feb. Hmmm who knows. DH has the last week of January off so I guess that would be ok. I'm so sorry you woke up to a flood and got your first stretch marks for Christmas. Is that kind of like coal from Santa?

purple- contractions already???? EEKK!! What does it feel like? My OB keeps asking me if I have had any BH and I just don't know. I'm guessing I have. Sometimes I feel like I have a period cramp for like 30 seconds. My some people say you feel your stomach muscles tighten...I don't know if I have felt that. Sometimes I think I do but then I realize it's just the baby moving her butt across my tummy. She really is out of space, poor thing.

Jenice- I am in the Easton, PA area. Where are you? Did DD lose her tooth?

AFM- DH still does not know when he will go to training. He is hoping to go in the end of March. I don't really have any friends here because all of my friends are flight attendants. They live all over and commute to NJ for work. I am hoping that some of them can take a few days off and come help. The problem would be having to drive back and forth to Newark, NJ (over an hour) to pick them up from the airport....then take them back. I know my MIL wants to come up to help. I may end up more stressed though. She has VERY specific ideas of what to do with a baby and not many of them agree with what me and DH want to do. I really don't want to get into an arguement with her while DH is not here. LOL
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

[mev0630]

Happy New Year Everyone! I can'y believe today is 1/1/11! This is a big year for us all!

PurpleFish -I can't believe you're at full term for twins! Time flies!!!!How long is your doctor going to let you go? My OB sais she won't let me go past Week 38 but I'm just trying to get to Week 36 - more on that later.

Julia_78 - I am so sorry to hear about the flooding in your home! How awful! I hope you don't stress or overexert yourself. Please take care of yourself!

PA_FA - Such a big healthy baby you got in there. At our last ultrasound on Dec 15th, each twin was 4 lbs. We go back on Wednesday and I'm pretty sure they'll each be over 5 lbs. My belly is so heavy. I started wearing a belly brace a month ago whenever I know I'm going to be on my feet or walking for a long period of time.

Franca - I guess I've been having cramping/ BH contractions for the last week or two, but Ive been so distracted by the rib pain I didn't realize how frequent they were. I started going in for non-stress testing last week and that was when the nurse showed me my contractions!

kitty_mom - Sorry to hear about some of the problems/discomfort you've been having. Over the past week I too have had some issues. But we can do it. Just need to get a little over 2 weeks for our twins!

AFM - These past couple of weeks have been uncomfortable, especially since most of pregnancy has been so great! I started routine non-stress tests (NST) last week, which includes an ultrasound every time so its been nice to hear and see the babies. However this past week, my BP was elevated. prepregnancy I am 110/70, this past month 120/80m this week 135/85 so they wanted to rule out pre-eclampsia. Had me monitoring for signs & symptoms, regular monitoring of my BP, and I had to do a 24-hour urine collectiout n to check for protein. Happy to say that everything is fine. My BP has gone down and protein was negligible.

However, starting Thurs night I started spotting and by Friday morning I was bleeding. Of course, m regular OB was on vacation but luckily our high-risk OB who's ben doing our US and NST said we could always call him. We met him at the hospital. My cervix is still closed, but Baby Boy is vertex and very low and probably pushing down & causing the bleeding. Baby Girl is transverse sof I go into labor now it'll be a c-section. They kept me for a few hours to monitor bleeding (which stopped), monitor BP (they gave me IV fluids and my BP dropped to 130/80, and monitor contractions (which were 5-7 mins apart but short and they too dissipated) All in all an eventful New Years Eve Day!
I'm glad I got to go home, plust scared me that we're not quite ready so I'm finishing my suitcase tomorrow and we're also putting in the car seats tomorrow too. I'm on self-imposed bedrest until I see my OB on Tues so trying to take it easy.

Question: My RE had me on low-dose (81mg) aspirin during IVF, he told my OB to keep me on it throughout pregnancy. Anyone else on aspirin. For most of my pregnancy I've just been on prenatal vitamins, folic acid, Tums with calcium, and the aspirin. Just wondering.

Lastly, as requested I'm sharing just a couple photos with fashion editor and author, Amy Tara Koch. Enjoy!

[mev0630]

BTW - My apologies for all the typos. Since I'm on bedrest I was doing all my typing with one hand. I did pretty good, but you can see it started to get pretty bad towards the end !

[kitty_mom]

Hello ladies

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday and a very happy New Year! I havent posted recently but I have been reading up on everyone.

Purple-You must be so excited to be at full term! Any day now. How exciting

PA_FA-Sorry to hear that you will be on your own for that long while DH is away training. How stressfuly. I hear you about the MIL coming. I'd have a melt down if any of my in-laws came around (my DH is not in contact with his mom or siblings so if they did show up it would be quite a shocker!) I hope that some of your friends can find a way to come by and help out. Also, I cant beleive how big your little girl is! Over 5 lbs! WOW. Cant wait to see what her birth weight is.

Julia-So happy to hear you passed your glucose test. Trust me the holidays are not nearly as enjoyable when you cant have any fantastic desserts But I was good I didnt over indulge and kept my GD under control. Sorry to hear about your flooding. What a pain to have to deal with. I hope that the clean up is swift and the ins co doesnt give you any problems.

Mev- My prego twin, you look great in your pictures!!! We seem to have had a very similar week last week. Sorry that you had to go through that but we are almost there I was never on any baby asprin. Just the Pre-Natal, Iron supplements and the GD meds.

AFM-Little baby A is still in a rush to get out!!! I have NST every week and starting this week and ultra sound every week as well. So I'll be at the docs 2x per week from here on out. Durnig the NST Baby A (my stubborn little boy) didnt want to behave. He kept kicking away from the monitor everytime they started to track him, I was there forever. Finally he behaved and they got what they needed. But while I was on the monitor I was having so many contractions the nurses started to make me nervous that I was in actual labor. I started my AF like cramps again so they were going to keep my, but I convinced them to let me go to my OB appt first (same bulding) and then I'd come back down so they could monitor me some more to see if everything calmed down. Went to the OB and my BP was a little elevated and I had protein in my urine! UGH! So he sent me to the lab for blood work and then back to the MFM dept to be monitored. Only had 1 contraction so they let me go home on Bed rest. I had to pee in a container for 24 hours (gross I know) and had to return the next day. I assume all is well cause I didnt hear from them all weekend and my BP was fine as well. I go back tomorrow to see my little babies growth I havent seen them for 3 weeks! I hope that they have packed on the pounds!

Need some advise. My brothers wife (I hate even calling her my SIL!) and I dont get along. She has done and said some things over the years that I just cant tolerate. More importantly she is super disrespectful to my parents. They have 2 sons. When she was preggers with her second the US tech told her at 18 weeks they thought she was having a girl when she went back at 20 weeks they changed their minds and said 100% its a boy. She was devistated! You would have thought she lost the baby the way she acted. So now she is so jealous that we are having one of each that she is saying horrible things to my nephews. "Your not going to be the baby anymore" , "Grammie and Grampie cant wait to have a girl in the family" stuff like that to a 5 and 2 year old. So on Christmas she says in front of a bumch of mixed company "I saw these onsies I was going to buy for the twins they read 'we are IVF Twins'. I couldnt beleive she said it. Im not ashamed that we went through IVF I just didnt know some of the people that were in the room very well and I was just shocked she said it. Then she kept talking about IVF and how everyone she knows that did IVF has twins. She even said it was "Like a shortcut" to having a family! (I know she sucks shortcut my ass!!!!!!) She went on for over a half hour and my brother said nothing. Finally I snapped and grabbed my brother and basically dragged him in the other room adn told him to shut her up before I said something to her. And he said "They are IVF babies whats the big secret?" I walked away and he went in the other room grabbed her and they all left. Havent heard from him (or her) since then. Was I wrong? My DH and my aunt who was there dont think I was and they think once again she was out of line. Any thoughts???????

Hope everyone is well!
Kitty

[purpleFish]

kitty - first a big gold star for keeping your GD under control during the holidays! I am sure that was so hard to do! Great Job! I hope those babies can stay in a bit longer for you. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they can stay in a few more weeks for you. I know every day that they stay in a better, but just remember even if they were born today they would do great! Your SIL makes me want to smack her. First I cannot believe that she would say things like that to her own kids, especially ones so little. It must hurt them so much. I don't think you were wrong to talk to your brother. I think she is acting very immature because she is jealous you are having a girl. I don't think you were wrong to talk to your brother, the other thing to keep in mind is other people don't really get how hard infertility and IVF can be so they don't understand how it could bother you. I can't believe she said it was like a shortcut to having a family, I think at that point I would have went on a rant about how much work IVF is. I think you were pretty discreet about how you went about things. Maybe next time you could take over the conversation=) Talk about how special the babies are because it was so much work to have them, and then move it into a different conversation. Don't you stress about your brother and his wife, you just focus on you and your twins. Lots of hugs for you and those beautiful babies.

mev - your photos looks amazing! you are carrying those babies well! My doctor will let me go to the end of 38weeks. I really can't imagine going that long, but only time will tell! A belly brace sounds good, I probably should have gotten one, but at this point I figure I can wait it out. I was on low dose aspirin, but only for the first trimester. I am so sorry about about your New years... I am sure it was pretty scary. I am glad that everything is looking better for you though. You take it easy and keep those babies in a bit longer! Do you have everything you need for your bag?

PA - 57th percentile is great! I am sure you can manage a big baby. Also remember there is some margin for error in the ultrasound. I think at my last ultrasound the tech said it could have been off as much as 10oz. Don't stress if you can't feel contractions. Last pregnancy I wet in for an NST and apparently I had four or five big contractions. The doctor was amazed that I didn't feel anything. I think I feel it this time because the boy baby has a foot sticking out, and I can feel the skin stretching across it. It feels like a a muscle tightening, but don't stress not everyone has or feels them=) I would skip your MIL coming up, I think it would be more stress than it was worth. If you can't have help come to you, is there anywhere you could go and stay for part of the time? Or would that be too much for you?

[jenice]

PA - I'm in Chester county. I would definitely have some help lined up. I felt overwhelmed with my DD, and my DH was home with me for a week. My MIL offered and we turned her down the first time. This time making DH take off 2 weeks, I know I'm having another c-section and you are not supposed to drive for 2 weeks and my DD had DR appts during that time. I think there are services where nurses can come out and stay with you, heard they are expensive but priceless

Kitty - Your SIL seems like an ass, I just had to say it You should tell her if she wants a girl soooo bad why doesn't she try for another ? You should put her life story out there like she is trying to do to you. The more she meddles in your business meddle back. That should shut her up. My pregnancy hormones are raging I tell you I really do feel for you, people can be sooo annoying.

AFM - My feet and legs are really swelling up. I go to the DR tomorrow and have NST and US on thursday. I want to try to schedule my date for the c-section I hope. When I was preggo with my DD I never had braxton hicks. I did go into labor on my own and ladies trust me you will definitely know or @ least I did. Worst cramps you ever had and you cannot talk even when I was trying to yell @ my DH going to the hospital.

[purpleFish]

So I went in for an ultrasound and everything looks great. Baby girl is 5lbs 15oz and Baby boy is 7lbs even. They are so squished in there! The girl is in the perfect position head down facing in. The boy has somehow flipped himself around to be head-up. So apparently they can flip even after 34 weeks. So now I have a choice to make. I can either schedule a c-section or I can try a VBAC. My doctor says they have about a 50% success rate turing the second baby, but if the second baby doesn't turn I could end up with an emergency c-section on top of a vaginal birth. They will not deliver breech babies vaginally at my hospital. I am having a tough time deciding what to do. I wanted to see what everyone else would do?

[julia_78]

happy near year everyone!

mev - what a scare! so glad the bleeding stopped and your bp is back to normal! those babies still have a little bit longer to snuggle w/ you before they are ready! take it SUPER easy!! self-imposed bed rest sounds like a good plan for the weeks to come... your pictures of that show look amazing, you look beautiful on these shots!

kitty - i can't believe what a b$#(#ch your brother's wife is... first of all it's none of her business to share with others that you went thru ivf. IVF a treatment for a very private medical condition, it is so inappropriate for HER to decide to tell people!! she should feel privileged that you trusted her enough to share that with her on the first place. WTF!! we have been open about having to go thru IVF, but it's our decision to tell people, i would be so P-O if someone else took it upon themselves to spread it, especially when being so negative about it. instant family, seriously? for some of us it takes 10-15 years to start a family when dealing with infertility, there is nothing instant about it!! but on top of that, she is acting so selfish and childish about bringing her kids into it and making them feel like they won't matter to their grandparents. come on! i think you were completely in your right to set your brother straight, and if he can't see it now, he'll get it later. this is the happiest of times for you and she is making it uncomfortable and stressful, it's just plain wrong. some people are just so small minded... wow i can already picture her deadline w/ her daughter in laws in 20 years, that won't be pretty
but glad you checked out fine on your medical exams despite the elevated BP etc. did you have the growth u/s yet? how are the babies looking?

purple - OMG, you are carrying 13 lbs of baby around!! that's a lot of baby i bet they are squished!! i still can't believe you are full term... for some reason i feel like time is flying for you but standing still for me, how does that work sorry your little boy is head-up, you would not think they can still turn being so tight in there... i think i'd let the OB recommend VBAC or c-section. i know that some OBs will choose c-section b/c it's easier on them and they can stay in control, but i also trust that most doctors will recommend what's best based on their experience. they do deliver so many babies they must have a good instinct about what's best for you and for your babies. i imagine that recovering from a vaginal birth of 2 babies is not a walk in the park either.

jenice - sorry to hear you are swelling up... how early will they let you schedule a c-section? i tried to find out during my OB apt yesterday and we had jokster OB this time, and he kept telling me not to worry, that we'd have plenty of time. i could not get a straight answer from him. argh!! is your little girl getting excited about her baby brother?

pa-fa - yay for baby girl growing!! your in-laws may be right that you won't make it til feb, 74 percentile is a huge jump from your last apt!!

afm - well the house is still a mess and we are meeting the remodelling company on fri to look at options/ timelines to get everything back in order (it's mostly cosmetic work really, so it's not super inconvinient that it's not done yet). at least our walls and ceilings are dry. the only part i am dreading is the work they have to do on our ceiling, which will make a lot of dust, no doubt about it. oh the joys of home ownership we are having a busy baby week ahead otherwise.. i had an OB apt yesterday (all went fine, very uneventful which is great!), our first expecting parent class last night (we got to watch the vaginal birth video... DH kept telling me "are you sure you'd prefer this to a c-section" and i kept telling him "well let's wait til we see the c-section video nxt week before we make a call" in our last u/s both babies were transverse, but from what purple is saying, they have plenty of time to move so who knows what options i'll have. OMG a good third of the expectant moms in the class were teenage girls w/ their moms as their coach. it must be so scary to think about childbirth at that age... anyway... we have our 3-d u/s on thu (can't wait to see our little ones' faces for the first time!!) and our baby shower on sat. pretty exciting week!! i am feeling pretty good, except for the sleeping part... i can't stop myself from turning onto my back at night, which in turns wakes me up b/c i can't breathe really well and my back kills me in that position. i can do it 10 times a night, i feel like homer simpson last night i tried to build a fortress of pillows to hold my body on the side and that worked until 3 am, by when my big ol' bump had pushed all the pillows out of the way and i was back on my back. it would be almost funny if i did not feel that exhausted during the day... but i guess it's good practice for the sleep depravation that's ahead, and if all i can complaint about is back-aches i am in pretty good shape

take care everyone!
julia

[kitty_mom]

Hi ladies
Sorry no personals doing this from my phone. My Doc has me in the hospital. My protein was very high in my urine after 2 different 24 hour collections and my bp is no raised. More concerning is my little baby girl (baby b) isn't growing as much as she should. She slipped under the 10th percentile. They may do a c section.in the next few days after they.monitor their movement and her growth. Pretty scary she's only 3lbs 10oz. He's 4lb 13 oz. Will know more tomorrow. I'll keep you updated. Thanks so much for the support. Sorry for ant typos.....oooppps

[purpleFish]

Kitty - I am so sorry sweetie. I am praying for you and those precious babies. Just a little inspiration for you. My friend Sarah had her water with her twin boys break at 28weeks. The babies were just over 2lbs each when they were born, they spend about two months in the NICU, but had no long term health problems (now 5 years later they are two very happy boys_. I know it is hard, but even your babies are born at 34weeks, they will do great! Having said that I am hoping for you that they will stay in just a bit longer. If you can let us know how it is going. I will be thinking of you and hoping great things for you and your little ones!

[julia_78]

kitty - i am so sorry!! as purple said, your little ones are at the stage when they will be fine if they can't let them bake any longer. keep us updated, and we'll be thinking of you and your twins...

[jenice]

Kitty - I'm so sorry to hear about you possibly getting a c-section soon. My MIL @ 7 months had pre-eclampsia and had a c-section. My SIL is an adult now and perfectly fine, she was in the NICU a long time though. I'll say a prayer for you and your babies, hugs

Julia - My Dr said they would only take me a week in advance. Unfortunately she isn't available that week. My due date is March 3rd but I am now scheduled for March 1st for my section.I was supposed to go in February. I could schedule surgery with another DR but I've been trying to see the same DR this time. If anything happens like if I go into labor on my own then I guess it will be a february baby and a different DR. Will remain a mystery I guess.

Purple - I would go with what the DR thinks. I had 16 hours of labor then a c-section. I would have loved to give birth naturally but it just wasn't inthe cards for me.My DD was stuck coming out neck first. It was exhausting having to do both, trying for the vaginal only to be wheeled into the OR. This time I'm having a c-section, @ least in like 30 minutes I'll be seeing my little guy. I won't say I wasn't dissapointed cause it was upsetting to go through labor for so long and I was fully dilated and they could see her head but it became a safety issue @ that point. My pelvic bones don't spread apart enough so it will probably happen again. Good luck with your decision

AFM - I have an US and NST tomorrow. I have hypertension so I will start NST 2 x week plus DR every 2 weeks. Some weeks I'll be @ the DR 3 x week. Trying to rest up after the holidays, I was soooo tired.

[mev0630]

Kitty_mom - I am sending all my thoughts and prayers for you and your babies. As my OB told me last week, if I were to have the babies now, they would be just fine. One thing I forgot to mention during my hospital visit last week was they gave me two consecutive shots (24 hrs apart) of steroids to help with lung development in the event that I go into labor.
I'm sure the medical staff is doing everything for you and your babies. Please know that you have my love and support.

[kitty_mom]

Hi
Nothing too new to report. Still in hospital they are going to check her again in the morning and make some more decisions based on that. Thanks for all your support. Kitty