24w6d and Three Hospital Visits in Three Days

I just realized that the title of the post may be just a tad too alarmist. Only one of the three visits was "emergency" related.

Up until last Sunday, I began feeling more frequent movement. Especially after eating or while sitting or laying down. But then between last Sunday to last Friday, the movements decreased significantly. I was pretty sure an entire day had passed without any action. Three times during the week, I broke out the Doppler and located the heartbeats, which provided some reassurance. But I could not shake the feeling that something could be wrong. On Friday, I called my OB amd the assistant said that Dopplers are not always reliable in general as my heartbeat could be mixed up with the baby's, and with twins even less so since I may be picking up the same twin rather than each one. Bottom line: there was a change in movement, therefore go immediately to the hospital. 

My husband and I went to Labor and Delivery and they strapped monitoring belts on me for about thirty minutes. Heartbeats were detected and were 151 and 143, respectively. My OB also wanted them to take ultrasounds, and I saw that while Baby B was still transverse facing the spine, Baby A was now transverse facing the front. Sizes only 11% different, with A at 1 pound 11 ounces and B at 1 pound 8 ounces. But both were moving around like crazy and since then seem to have resumed normal activity. Cervix was 3.1 so a bit shorter than a few weeks ago. (Trying to remember it can be a dynamic measurement.) Total visit was about three hours, but worth it of course. 

Saturday and Sunday we were back for a childbirth and labor class. It was quite helpful to get logistics of giving birth there and to learn about signs of abor and managing labor as well as possible. We also discussed how prevalent C sections were in South Florida (41%!!) and some ways we could possibly avoid them. Of course, with twins it will be more likely that my birth will be a C section, but I would like to attempt a vaginal delivery if possible. After the class, I feel more armed to discuss this at my next appointment on Wednesday. During the class, we watched videos of vaginal and C section births. Both beautiful and awkward at the same time. 

I think C and I leave all classes feeling empowered and overwhelmed. We are glad we attended but it is a lot of information. We are novices and there is just so much unknown territory still.

I think in general we are feeling more anxiety these days, anyways. Our house is filled with donated items and the nursery is not quite yet cleared out to begin storage, decorating, and painting. We never seem to have enough time to do things and my stamina is so much lower these days. During the week, I can barely summon enough strength to get thru the work day and go to the gym at lunch before coming home exhausted. C gets home at 8 so he cannot do much during the week. Weekends are filled with all our to-dos and now we are avoiding social events because there is just not enough time!

Physically, I am doing ok besides the increased fatigue and back tightness. Those are to be expected given I have gained 35 pounds. It is all boobs and belly, though. My skin has been a mess the last two weeks, with large pimples appearingon the lower half of my face. Otherwise, considering I am as large as a woman carrying an eight-month old singleton and moving into the humid Florida summer, I am doing pretty well. 

7w6d

I think I have started to feel nausea over the last few days. It's more of a persistent low-grade nausea that gets more pronounced in the evenings. It may be partially due to me not eating well and the tendency to try to eat larger dinners. 

I really can't eat big meals anymore. Makes me sick and very bloated after. The best approach has been to eat tiny snacks on an hourly basis and small meals over a 30 minute span. Animal crackers have been wonderful. I am in love with berries and red grapes. No aversions at this point.

On Friday at 7w3d, my Doppler arrived and of course I had to try it. C got immediately excited because he thought he heard the heartbeat. I had to explain it was the placenta because he was hearing a whooshing noise, like wind, not heartbeats which are like horses' hooves. We tried for about 10 minutes but couldn't find it. I wasn't really expecting anything so I wasn't disappointed. I may try again tonight, or just wait until after the ultrasound. 

I have not jumped into any aspect of embracing pregnancy yet - no joining of birth month groups, pinteresting nursery ideas, or starting a pregnancy journal. C was at a training this weekend and I guess because he was bored, started a list of baby names. Luckily it was short because I just did not want to discuss it at all. Why get into this idea now when it can still very easily be taken away from us? But I did not say that to C. He is much more optimistic now that we have surpassed our previous milestone of the first ultrasound. 

I cannot quite be that way yet. Obviously last time my body did not realize the baby was not alive inside me and still produced pregnancy symptoms, so that is not the most reassuring thing for me to feel all is going well. Plus, compared to others at my stage, I'm really not feeling much. And, I have heard more of tragedies at all stages of pregnancies. I just cannot be like him yet. 

Two more days. I will know in two days. In the meantime, I will just keep going to the gym, working a lot and doing deep breathing. And - maybe freaking out here and there.