32 week OB appointment & BPP

Posted on September 19, 2010 by Laurie Blundell

We had our biophysical profile (BPP) at the perinatologist’s office and 32 week OB appointment this past Friday. The BPP was quick and easy, well for me…poor Baby A had to be “tasered”, as I call it. He didn’t want to move much and was being a bit lazy so the sonographer had to buzz him with her buzzer. It’s just a little handheld vibrator with a buzzer on it and it wakes them up. The poor baby got scared and jumped like crazy…It was pretty amusing actually. Everything looked good though, both babies amniotic fluid level, the cord blood flow, their heart rates, movement and such were all good. Baby A (Hayden) is still head down and ready to go, while Baby B (Ian) is breech again and curled up in a little ball up by my ribcage with his legs up by his head…he’s going to be my gymnast. Baby A had one or more of his fingers in his mouth when they were doing the sonogram so he may be our thumb/finger sucker. I will go back to the perinatologist this coming Friday for another BPP and our monthly growth scan.

As far as my OB visit went, all was good as well. My cervix has shortened a little bit but still nothing to cause me to go into labor yet. Baby A was actually cooperating for my OB when she did the sonogram and you could actually see him “breathing” and Baby B had the hiccups.

We did talk about when we may do a c-section (assuming I make it to a scheduled date). Twins are considered full term at 37 weeks and because of that, in the past she said we would schedule a c-section at 37 weeks. Well apparently Baylor, not my OB (she just delivers at Baylor), has a rule that you can’t schedule a c-section until 39 weeks…ya, 39 weeks, that’s just crazy. She has argued and gone back and forth with them about it but she said she was going to talk to the head of L&D again this weekend. She said the way to get around their rule is to have an amnio done to get lung maturity of the babies and if they are mature (which they should be by then) we can schedule the c-section. So if I make it to 37 weeks then she will probably have the perinatologist do the amnio. We’ll just have to wait and see and we may not even have to worry about it because 60% of twins come at 37 weeks or before. Since I am seeing the perinatologist this week, I’ll wait and see her again the following week, at 34 weeks, and then I”ll start seeing her weekly and she will be doing the BPP each week, then the growth scan every 3 weeks with the peri until they arrive.

Baby Shower #2

Posted on September 13, 2010 by Laurie Blundell

This past weekend my family and friends hosted a couples baby shower for us and the boys. We were going to have it at a friends house but after I was put on bed rest and the closer I am to delivering, we decided to have it at our house instead. So my family/friends came over and helped clean our house, decorate and get it all ready for the shower…it looked great, they did an awesome job!

We feel extremely blessed with the outpouring of love by our family and friends and not only to us but our boys are already loved so much. I can’t even come close to expressing how thankful we are for everyone who was a part of the shower and how much we love each of you! “The hosts” surprised us with our stroller and one of our car seats!!! The stroller is like pushing a suburban as Tami said…and boy was she right. Jonathan’s parents, sister and brother-in-law surprised us with the other car seat!

you can take the seats off the stroller and there is an attachment to hook the car seats in.

Our friend Meredith made us an awesome diaper cake, I love those things…not only are they cute but they are functional! That’s my kind of gift. I’m going to have to get either her or my friend Evie who made the one at our last shower to show me how to make them. Those make perfect shower gifts.

I think we can say that we are set and pretty much have everything we need for when the boys arrive. There are a few little things that we need…and I say need, they are things that would just make our lives easier when they get here. So luckily we have gift cards that we can use to get some of those little things that are left on the registry. Again, I can’t express enough gratitude to everyone who has helped us get ready to welcome these two little blessings into the world and we feel sooo loved and know how much our boys are and will be loved!

Thank you again to Vicki, Tami, Michael, Ty, Rosanne, Brad, Jen, Brian, Stephanie and my mom for everything – we love you all very much!

My biggest fear…

Posted on September 10, 2010 by Laurie Blundell

Since we found out we were having fraternal twins my fear (and I use the term fear lightly) has always been that they will be soo different they won’t even look like siblings, much less twins. Once we found out they were both boys, that fear doubled. If you have ever seen me and my husband, you know there is a Vast height difference between us – 15 inches to be exact, he’s 6’5 and I’m 5’2 on a good day. So in reality it’s not that I’m worried about the boys not looking like siblings, that would just help create their individuality. Its the fact that I’m worried they will end up like this…

I think I would feel horrible if we had one boy that took after Jonathan and one that took after me, like the above image. Can you imagine how that would effect their lives. Introducing them as twins and people laugh or chuckle and say “they can’t possibly be twins.” Now a couple of inches in their height difference would be ok, that’s typical between siblings.

All kidding aside, if my boys end up looking like the two in the picture above, I would be just fine…because no matter how tall or short they are, they are my boys and they are how God created them!

30 week belly picture and questionaire

Posted on September 2, 2010 by Laurie Blundell

Here is the same questionaire I filled out last month and I’m sure not much has changed so I’ll do a modified questionaire. Here is another belly shot, I forgot to post it yesterday when I posted the 30 week update.

30 weeks with twins...can you see the sleepiness in my eyes?!

How Far Along: 30 weeks

Total Weight Gained/Loss: 22 pounds

Sleep: Me and sleep don’t get along right now. I’m up a lot throughout the night either going to the bathroom or just awake. I toss and turn all night just to get comfortable and I’m sure I keep Jonathan awake more than he would like.

Best Moment of the Week: Getting to see a 3D/4D image of our Baby A…too bad Baby B wouldn’t cooperate. I’m hoping we will get a chance to see Baby B in 3D/4D but it just depends on the sonographer.

Movement: They have slowed down in their movement, but are still active. They don’t do as many kicks and jabs but more rolling over and just moving.

Food Craving: Ocean Waters from Sonic.

Labor Signs: I still have contractions all throughout the day but not nearly as many as when I was working. Laying on the couch the majority of the day has definitely helped. They are the same in frequency as they have been the last month or so but are getting stronger in intensity (still not “hurting” really though) Other than that no signs of labor – thankfully!

Belly Button: Ya, I guess I can say I have an outie now

Stretch Marks: So far so good, no stretch marks, hopefully it will stay that way!

Wedding rings: It is getting a little tight every once in a while, just depends on the day.

What I miss: clothes that fit and feel comfortable and being able to just run to the store if I want to.

What I’m looking forward to: getting to see the boys again in 2 weeks and my shower next Saturday

Other NEW news this week: They boys are roughly 3 pounds each!! I’ve got 6 pounds of baby in me, that’s crazy.

Perinatologist Appointment – 30 weeks

Posted on September 1, 2010 by Laurie Blundell

We had our 30 week high risk sonogram to get the boys’ weights and make sure everything is good with them and their growth. They checked my cervix and it was the same as it was when I had it checked last so that’s great news. The boys were a little sleepy this morning so they didn’t really cooperate much and were both hiding their faces. But eventually Baby A (Hayden) turned over and we were able to get a profile shot. He did move a little bit so his nose and forehead are a little elongated.

Baby A profile

He actually cooperated enough at one point that the technician decided to grab the other transducer out and got a 4D picture for us! You can see part of Baby B (Ian) to the left of Baby A’s head. It will be interesting to see how much this picture actually looks like him when he’s born.

Baby A 4D

Of course Baby B (Ian) wouldn’t cooperate as well so we couldn’t get a good 4D picture of him. We kind of got a shot of his face but nothing remotely close to what we got on A.

Baby B face

Now on to the other stuff. The boys looked great, they are both growing like crazy. Baby A is estimated at 3 pounds and 4 ounces and Baby B is 2 lbs 12 ounces. Their amniotic fluid levels and heart rates were good. A is still head down and B is transverse again – completely sideways! Baby A has hair, so he takes after me (I had A LOT of hair when I was born) and Baby B has none…poor thing, I guess he takes after his daddy since he didn’t have much hair when he was born (so I’ve been told).

Now I will be getting biophysical profiles (I talked about what these were in an earlier post) every two weeks starting at 32 weeks and then sonograms every week. My life is going to be full of doctors appointments starting in a few weeks. I sure hope Jonathan has a lot of sick time at work to use since I’m not driving and need him to take me. It’s getting so much closer to the arrival of these little boys and I CAN’T WAIT!! Seeing the 4D image of Hayden just makes it even harder to wait.

Fun trip to maternity observation – 29 weeks

Posted on August 28, 2010 by Laurie Blundell

The boys are already giving me gray hairs! Really, you should see all the gray hairs on my head…I think I’ll have to go visit Valerie after they are born for a color change. Anyway, here’s what the boys have been doing lately.

H-diddy and I-diddy are always VERY active little boogers and are moving constantly, day and night. On Monday they were moving so much they were having a territory struggle in my belly and you could see it on the outside (more on the struggle going on later-I’ll announce the winner). Well on Tuesday they were still pretty active and kicking me all day long. Wednesday they weren’t as active and I though maybe they were just tired from moving like crazy the couple days before. I-diddy is still active throughout this whole time, he moves a lot! He’s the one that is in a different position every sonogram we have. Anyway, H-diddy was the quiet one. He is normally pretty active too, he’s been the one taking over the all the space up until this point, he had basically shoved I-diddy over in to a corner and took the rest of the room. So when I didn’t feel him move as much it was weird. I decided to give him another day or so to see if he was just sleepy. By Thursday evening he still wasn’t doing a whole lot. Don’t worry, I had felt him move the entire time, just very infrequently. I tried everything they say to do, drink something cold, sweet, lay down..all of it and nothing made him move more. Friday morning when I woke up I ate a sweet bowl of cereal and waited for them to move (which is their most active time of the day) and not much happened so that’s when I decided to cal my OB. I figured she wouldn’t be in yet (she usually does surgery on Friday mornings) so I talked to the nurse and expected her to say I’ll call you back after my Dr. got in. She said to go ahead and go down to the maternity observation so they could monitor me and just check everything out. She called down there and they were expecting me.

Since Jonathan was at work in Dallas already I had my mom drive me up to the hospital (since I don’t drive due the fact that I could pass out at any minute) and Jonathan met us there. They hooked me up to the monitor to monitor the boys’ heart rates and any contractions I was having. The boys’ heart rates were good but the nurse said they were still a little too young to tell some of the other things they look at in the heart rates, etc (not sure what else they look for). She came in the room and asked “Are you feeling those contractions your having?” – HA “Yes I do, well I feel most of them, it depends on how many you are seeing.” So after all that she called my doctor to tell her about everything they had found out while monitoring me and I could here her tell my Dr. “She’s having contractions every 4 minutes. do you want me to give her a shot of terbutaline?” I heard that and was in the room saying “NO” and as soon as I could say that I heard the nurse say “oh ya we don’t want to give that to her then.” My Dr kindly reminder her I have a history of SVT and other heart arrhythmias. if you have a history of those you don’t want to give them Terbutaline because the side effects are all cardiac side effects.

Remember that fetal fibronectin test (the “glue” test) that I had done about 5 weeks ago, well my Dr. had them do that again and then do a sonogram (a BPP biophysical profile). A biophysical profile is a simple, painless test used during pregnancy to assess your baby’s well-being — specifically, whether he’s getting enough oxygen in the womb. It’s typically done if you’ve gone past your due date, or sometime in your third trimester if you’re having a high-risk pregnancy. Its a detailed ultrasound to observe your baby’s body movements, muscle tone (flexing of the arms and legs), and breathing movements (the baby’s ability to move his chest muscles and diaphragm), and the amount of amniotic fluid surrounding him.

Everything with both tests turned out ok, the fetal fibronectin test was negative again and the BPP was good. The resident doing the sonogram did find out that more than likely the reason I’m not feeling Baby A move as much is because he is basically stuffed down into the corner of my belly while Baby B is taking up most of the room. Baby B is a lot lower than he as been too so it’s not like they two babies are running out of room yet, there’s plenty of room up top, they are just choosing not to use it. B is kind of sitting like a pretzel, he’s all curled up with his butt in the middle right below my belly button and he head is over on my side while his feet are up by his head – crazy! So I-diddy is finally taking back his space and pushing H-diddy out of the way now -payback! Both boys were being kind of lazy and still weren’t moving as much as they normally do on the sonogram but since they look ok they said it would be alright. As they get bigger and I get further along I’m expecting them to run out of room and not feel them as much.

I will have another sonogram on Wednesday at my perinatologist appointment so we’ll find out their weights and see how much more they’ve grown, and what new position I-diddy has gotten himself into!

So there you have it, my very very long explanation of events from yesterday. 8 more weeks!! But whose counting?

Babies

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Laurie Blundell

Twins at 28 weeks

I know I just gave you guys an update on the babies and our appointment but here is more of a general update.

I am at 28 weeks and 5 days now and at this point I have finally made it into the 3rd trimester – WAHOO!!

As far as the babies go, at this point their eyes are no longer fused shut and are beginning to open and blink. They have started to have REM (rapid eye movement) as they also have more regular wake/sleep cycles. Luckily the boys have seemed to keep the same wake/sleep cycles. They tend to be quiet and calm at the same time and tend to move at the same time now. I can only assume it’s because of the limited real estate they have rented and when one stretches or moves, it wakes the other…In my mind, its just getting them ready for when they are here and hopefully they will be so used to the jabs and kicks from one another that it won’t even phase them when they are sleeping in their king sized beds (AKA their cribs). Let’s hope that’s the case!

Their eyes now have color and while babies usually have a blue or gray color to them when they are born, it takes up to 6-9 months after birth for their “real” eye color to change if it is going to. I would be totally fine if they both had blue eyes like me!

The babies are down right chubby compared to a few weeks ago, but still look like little wrinkled old men and need more fat to fit under that extra skin.

They are starting to hiccup and I can feel it sometimes…it just feels like slight rhythmic taps.

Their kicks have turned into more of just movements now, they don’t have as much room to pull back 3 or 4 inches and slug me in the side anymore. I can feel a knee, elbow, leg or arm (I couldn’t tell you what’s what by feeling) by just putting my hand on my stomach. It’s funny because when they have a leg or arm pressed up against my stomach and I push on it, they immediately pull back like they are thinking, “wow, what was that?” But I think they are getting used to it by now, because it doesn’t seem to phase them really anymore. Jonathan keeps telling me to quit poking his boys!

As far as how I’m feeling…each week gets a little more uncomfortable. My ribs are hurting from my stomach pressing up on them, I get full really fast and don’t eat a whole lot. I can’t stand for that long without feeling lightheaded and even sitting up makes me feel that way sometimes. The bigger they get the more its’ going to happen because they will be pressing on my main vein more. Sleeping is horrible! Not only do I get up 3 times a night to go to the bathroom, but when I get up I usually can’t go back to sleep. By the morning when Jonathan leaves (about 630) I’m awake and can’t go back to sleep because my hips and shoulders hurt from sleeping on my sides. I did get some Ambien to help me sleep but I can only take it a couple nights a week…those nights I definitely get sleep. In fact the last night I took it I didn’t move at for like 8 hours! It felt great to get some actual sleep but by the morning my hip hurt really bad…but I’ll live with it for the sleep I got! I am still having contractions all throughout the day and that’s why I am still on bed rest. They don’t really hurt but are very uncomfortable and when you have them all throughout the day it wears you out.

I know my uncomfortableness is just going to get worse as time goes on but it will all be worth it in the end and CAN’T wait to meet our little boys! If all goes as planned, we have roughly 60 more days to go!!

28 week OB appointment

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Laurie Blundell

I had my 28 week OB appointment on Friday and it went well. I got to drink the horrible tasting, super sweet, pure glucose drink for my gestational diabetes screening and then had my blood drawn an hour later. I don’t anticipate hearing about the results until my appointment next month, unless of course I failed the test. If I failed then I’ll have to drink even more and do a 3 hour glucose tolerance test. I also got to get a shot at this visit. I’m about to get medical on you so bear with me…..But, apparently I am Rh Negative so I got a Rhogam shot…or Rho(D) Immune Globulin which is a solution of IgG anti-D (anti-RhD) antibodies that bind to, and lead to the destruction of, fetal Rh D positive red blood cells that have passed from the fetal circulation to the maternal circulation. Therefore, in an Rh negative mother it can prevent sensitization of the maternal immune system to Rh D antigens, which can cause rhesus disease (Rh incompatibility) in the current or in subsequent pregnancies.

My Dr. did a sonogram and the boys still look good, the heartbeats were good, fluid levels were good and they are measuring like they should. We’ll get the more accurate measurements with weights, etc on Sep 1 when we go see the perinatologist. Baby A (Hayden) is still head down and Baby B (Ian) has turned breech again, the last four sonograms he has been in a different position, I think he likes breech the best since he’s in that one the most. We talked about delivery and have decided to go ahead and do a c-section for sure. We’ll wait to schedule it until I get further along..if I make it, it will be scheduled at 37 weeks. We just both agreed that it would be best for me to have a c-section instead of try a vaginal delivery. She said with twins, usually what happens is when baby A is head down (like ours is) he/she will deliver vaginally just fine but then baby B will usually get into trouble of some sort so they end up with a c-section. That combined with my heart, we decided it would be best. I also had her promise me she would deliver our boys. I don’t want anyone else delivering them!

As far as my cervical length and bed rest goes, nothing has changed. My cervix is about the length it was when I saw her last and I’m still on bed rest. I do have permission to go to the pool but a long as I only float, which is all I do anyway. When I’m in the pool I don’t have one contraction so when I told her that, she said “sure you can go…just no swimming laps or anything” I can also go out to eat every once in a while, but other than that I’m supposed to stay on the couch/bed with “minimal” activity. No cleaning, working, etc.

Since I see the perinatologist once a month as well, that appointment and my monthly OB appointment end up being every 2 weeks. So my Ob said as long as someone is seeing me every two weeks then I don’t need to see her every 2 weeks yet. At about 32 weeks (my next appointment with her) she said she will probably start seeing me weekly.

So there you have it, we’ll have another appointment update in a few weeks from our perinatologist appointment but until then, here is another belly shot for you. I realized after I took the picture that I was wearing the same outfit as the last picture I posted. What can I say, I don’t have many clothes that fit anymore and I’m not exactly allowed to go shopping!

28 weeks with twins

There’s not much difference in the size of my belly in the pictures but I can definitely tell a difference!

Baby Shower #1

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Laurie Blundell

We had a baby shower this past weekend for me and the boys and I can honestly say I have never felt so loved! The gifts and “blessings” we received from everyone was amazing and will help us tremendously with the boys. There is so much a baby needs and we have that times TWO…two cribs, two car seats, a double stroller, two bouncy seats, two adorable little butts to diaper, two mouths to feed, etc. It can get a little expensive so every little bit helps!!

I want to thank Jen, Kara, Evie, my aunt Linda and aunt Gwen for giving us the baby shower, I can’t begin to express my gratitude to you guys and how much Jonathan and I both appreciate your hard work – Love you guys!

Here’s a picture of me with the wonderful hosts:

All the tasty food they prepared:

And even a diaper cake made by Evie, which included something like 190 diapers – that’ll last us about what 10 days?!

Jen also put together this “blessings tree” where people could write down some advice or a prayer for us. I’ve enjoyed looking over some of them and will finish looking at the rest soon. Thanks Jen, it was a great idea.

We have another shower coming up in a few weeks and then I think we should be all set! Then we just have to wait for the boys appearance. Hopefully not too soon though. If all goes as planned and I make it to 37 weeks we have roughly 9 weeks left!! Crazy isn’t it.

Now, I’m off to write some thank you notes.

Category Archives: Twins