Last night it was hard to sleep, mainly from my left hip hurting. I don’t know what the deal is with the left side of my body! My left lymph gland is swollen and hurting, my left cheek hurts to the touch, my left sinuses are sore, and now my left hip hurts when I sleep. Geez! And to top it off, I have a huge zit inside my left nostril that is soooo painful, especially when I have to blow my nose since I’m still recovering from being sick! I am pretty miserable right now, and a lot of it not having to do with pregnancy at all (except the hip thing). This morning, when I was putting my clothes on, I completely forgot I was pregnant for a second! It was a weird feeling. I guess I’m getting used to the big basketball belly. I went to work and surprisingly got a call from the doctor’s office with the results back from the diabetes test and it came back normal! YAY! One less thing to worry about! See, this whole telling myself I have no sugar in my bloodstream worked! ;) Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I measured 35cm yesterday, 4cms in 2 weeks! The doctor said that I would probably top out at 40 or 45, which is only 10cm’s more than I am now. Not too bad.

We also had our second Bradley class tonight. Another couple from Bainbridge Island joined us, they were really nice. We did a 20 minute guided relaxation and I fell asleep several times! It was embarrassing! I think the pressures of the birth are bearing down on Michael as he got really irritable after dinner (mmm….sushi). I’m a little worried now. I kept telling him that this is a perfect example of what it is going to be like (tired, tense, hungry, everyone telling us different stuff), and we should work on it so that when the time comes, we’ll know how to communicate with each other with the least amount of stress. What works for him is to just be alone and not talk to anyone. The good thing is that I’m a pretty laid back person and can relax easily, so when the time comes, I’ll be able to do it myself if I need to!

Last night my temperature went up to about 100, and I decided to give the doctor a call. I was worried that something was wrong with the amnio. They have warnings for only a 24 hour period, and it’s been about 72, but I didn’t want to take any chances. Dr. Wall was really nice and didn’t think it had anything to do with the amnio since there was no other symptoms. He said to call him back if my temp went up to 100.5, which it never did. I took a nice hot shower and that seemed to help a lot, at least it made me feel better. My lymph node under my jaw was swollen and hurting still. At least I slept very well. This morning, I was kicking myself for not making my doctor’s appointment in the morning, since I have to not eat any sugar until the diabetes test. My appointment was at 2:15pm! I survived on milk and a atkins bar all morning. Then I drank the super sweet drink (fruit punch flavor), which tasted like a really, really, really sweet Gatorade. I thought it would taste worse, so I was pleasantly surprised. I miscalculated when I was supposed to drink it, so when I went to my appointment, I got the usual - weighed, blood pressure test, pee test (for anemia) and heartbeat test done, then went to get the blood draw, then went back to talk to the doctor. Before doing the blood draw, I thought positive thoughts told myself that I have no sugar in my bloodstream! I won’t get the results back until Thursday at the earliest. Michael was with me this time and finally met Dr. Hamilton. She just got the paperwork from Dr. Walker about the heart problem. She is a little concerned and is now leaning towards a c-section, which was disappointing to me. I think she doesn’t want to promise anything, because she doesn’t know exactly what this means as far as the baby’s health. I think it will come down to what the cardiologist says. If there is a good reason for a c-section, I will be for it and not put up a fuss. But saying “we want a more controlled environment” is not good enough for me.

The earliest appointment we could get with the cardiologist is next week Monday. It’s frustrating to have to wait so long, but as it’s not an emergency, we’ll have to be put in the queue. Tomorrow I’m doing the diabetes test, hopefully that will turn out well and not complicate issues even further!

It was just torture waiting all day for the call about results. I wasn’t sure if the doctor had my cell phone number, and I did NOT want to miss this call. So, I called Dr. Rutherford (the on call perinatologist) and gave her my number and chatted a little bit. She didn’t think that I’d get the results today, and was almost sure that I would get it next week or the week after. About an hour later, I got a call back from the doctor, and she did indeed get results back and relayed the news that the “short test” of the chromosomes came back normal (test for trisomy 18 and 21), but the full cariotype (sp?) will take about 1.5 weeks to get back, and will most likely be the same as the CVS test, which is also normal. But the biggest news that I got was that the screen for DiGeorges came back false, or normal. I was surprised to get this bit of information, as Dr. Walker told me yesterday that the DiGeorges screen would take a week. At least now, it is looking more and more like this is an isolated heart defect. Man, it’s really tough going through this emotional rollercoaster they call parenthood, and we’re not quite parents yet!

I am still coming off of a cold today, but that didn’t stop me from going to my ultrasound appointment! Being sick while pregnant is the worst since you can’t take anything for it. I loooove taking Nyquil and passing out. I am on the “recovery” end of the sickness so I don’t think I would infect anyone. There was some kind of mix up with my chart, and for some reason, they thought I had already delivered, so they put someone else in my spot, so that made Dr. Walker way behind. I waited for about an hour before he came in and explained what was going on. The babies are both almost 2 lbs now, right where they should be, this is double the weight since 4 weeks ago! He saw something troubling with the heart on baby B (the one with the large nuchal fold all those weeks ago) and had to have another doctor look at it to confirm. It turns out that baby B has a transposition of the great arteries, or dextrocardia. This is a rare heart condition, and will have to be corrected with surgery sometime after birth (2 or 3 months). So now in addition to the increased appointments with my existing two doctors, I’ll have to add a pediatric cardiologist to the mix. I had to get an amniocentesis to recheck the chromosomes and also to screen for DiGeorges syndrome, which is even more serious of concern. The previous CVS test doesn’t ususally screen for that disease, since it is pretty rare. The most likely outcome will be that this is an isolated heart defect, and we will just have to deal with the surgery after birth. We’ll know more details next week after we meet with the cardiologist and get back the results from the amnio. In total, I was in the office about 2.5 hours, and in light of this new development, I didn’t ask for pictures this time. I took the news pretty well at the doctor’s office, but it hit hard whenever I told Michael about it. Keep your fingers crossed!!!!

This morning, Michael and I met with Marcella from NSP doula services. She was really nice and we are so excited to have a doula come and help us during the first month or so of parenthood. She asked us some basic questions and got a general idea of what we are expecting from a doula. She is going to take that information and see if there’s someone in her network closer to us (at least on the eastside) who is available during December/January timeframe. We will then meet with that person to make sure that we are compatible. We’re planning to have someone come 5 days a week for the first 2 weeks, then 3 days a week for the next 6 weeks. It’s adjustable, depending on how we’re handling the situation. It will be great to have a network of really knowledgeable people (multiples, breastfeeding, etc) supporting us. It’ll get us off to a really good start!

I had a good appointment today with Dr. Hamilton (delivery doctor). She put me more at ease with what’s going to happen. I was worried that I would have to get an epidural since I have to deliver in the operating room, but she said that I don’t and that if a c-section is needed, there will be a doctor there that can administer the drugs on the spot. It is similar to the epidural (spinal), but doesn’t last as long. She said the most likely outcome is that both babies will be heads down (Baby A will have to be in order to avoid a c-section) and everything will be normal. It is unfortunate that I will not have a “home environment”, but I can deal with that. I will also have some appointments with other doctors so that I get to meet them as well, but since I have twins, Dr. Hamilton likes to be there, even if she’s not on call. I also asked about not getting any back pain yet and when should I expect it, and she said that it’s a really good sign that I don’t have any pain so far, I could go through my whole pregnancy without it! That would be perfect! I will do the diabetes test next time at 26 weeks, so keep your fingers crossed! BTW, my weight is still lagging behind, but not so much. I’m only about 5 lbs behind, so that’s good. I also measured a whopping 31cms today!

Michael and I went to an eMOMs meeting after work today. There were tons of people there, almost double from last time. It was very informative and talked about the toys and togs sale going on next month. We’re hoping to get a whole bunch of stuff there. If you work during the sale, you get to buy stuff during the “preview” and get first pick. Everyone talks about what a madhouse it is and how packed it gets so it would be nice to go beforehand. I think maybe we’ll make a little movie that we can put on the web or something so that people know what to expect. During the meeting, we sat behind a woman that had a really cute baby girl (maybe 4 or 5 months old?) and she was so interested in us. Whenever we made faces at her she would give us this big toothless smile! The meeting was really informative, parents brought in stuff that they just couldn’t live without. A lot of people spoke really highly about the Maclaren stroller! Why am I so obsessed with strollers? I have no idea. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t want one anymore since that means I would have to make a decision. They also warned us about the infant carriers and their expiration dates and recalls. My cousin was nice enough to give us their carriers, but unfortunately, one of them expires this year and the other has been recalled. So, we’ll have to get those too. Although they aren’t as hard to choose as the strollers!

Today we went to the store to check out the Mountain Buggy Terrain Double (MBTD) and the Urban Double (MBUD). I loved these strollers, they are very durable and seems like it can handle anything. The only problem is that it didn’t fit in our car! Of course! No stroller is perfect. So, we’ve put off buying a stroller once again. The sales guy really got my goat and made me swear not to ever shop there again when he suggested that I get a minivan. A MINIVAN! Who does he think I am? He could’ve said “bigger car”, but no, he had to go right for the insult! Another thing that peeves me is the return policy of these baby places. I mean for things like strollers, you should be able to try them out and return it if you don’t like it. How are you supposed to know if you’ll like it 2 months before the babies are born? Most places do not accept returns at all (hence, internet purchasing being more popular). Some places have a 30 day return policy and everything has to be in brand new condition. Even a big huge store like Babies R Us has a 90 day return policy but if it’s used, then you can’t return it. I guess I’ll try to get most stuff from Target or REI.

Today Michael and I met Mary, one of the nurses at Evergreen, to give us a personal tour of the antepartum unit. This is where the special care nursery is as well as women with complications. Some of them are there 8 weeks! I don’t know if I could stand being in a hospital that long. I might go crazy. We first went into the normal delivery suites, which are very nice. Mary was very friendly and chatty and she told us the history of the hospital and how Evergreen was so progressive. Both of us found it very interesting talking about how the nurses and doctors had to change to have a more “family unit” style of birthing. I was disappointed to learn that I will have to deliver in the operating room because I have twins. I was told differently before. Oh well, you win some and lose some. We then went up to the 4th floor to see the more restricted areas and everything was pretty much the same but less traffic and quiet. I hope I never see this floor during my stay at the hospital. We did run into Dr. Walker (my perinatologist) and said hello. I had no idea that there are only like 20 perinatologists in Washington! I thought they were all over the place. All in all it was a good tour, and Mary gave us a lot of good information.