Holy Hiatus Batman!

So I totally didn't intend on taking a year long break from blogging, but well it happened.  Lately I keep saying to myself that I need to start blogging again.  So no more saying, here I am doing!

Over the past year we've moved into a bigger place (yay!) John just started working full time again (yay again!)  Owynn is completely potty trained and Oliver is almost there (super duper yay!)  And of course this little princess was born!

 

Alayna and Oliver Easter 2014

Pregnancy Update: Week 27

I finally had my big ultrasound a few weeks ago and we got some fantastic news.  Everything moved like it was supposed to, so hopefully we are a go for a vbac.  The baby looks perfect and healthy and normal.  Baby is still measuring 6 days ahead, which isn't a surprise.  It's been measuring exactly 6 days ahead my entire pregnancy, starting with my first ultrasound at 7 weeks.  Big babies run in both sides of my family.  If baby is born full term, then I fully expect baby to weigh at least 8lbs.  Although 9 and 10 lb babies are fairly normal for my family.  

We also found this out and we are beyond excited!

 

Everything else is going fairly normally.  Last Sunday and Monday nights I had this weird horrific pain.  It felt like all the muscles in the upper half of my abdomen got wicked tight, then every so often I would have what felt like a contraction (but it didn't radiate all the way down).  I still have no idea what caused it.  The on-call dr. sent me to the hospital Sunday night, but they didn't really find anything.  They ran a bunch of tests, but everything came back normal.  What ever the heck was going on though was strong enough to register on the contraction monitor.  The nurse called them "uterine disturbances"; and I seriously haven't felt that much pain since I was in labor with the boys.  It was beyond ridiculously painful.  Thankfully I have been feeling better.  It took several days for the ache to finally go away.  I saw the Dr. on Wednesday and he said it sounded like contractions (great).  Only 3 more months to go, let's hope we make it that far.  To say I have been a little paranoid about having preterm labor issues again would be an understatement.  Hopefully I will feel a bit better once I make it to 30 weeks. 

I had my hospital tour on Thursday, it went well.  It was loooong though, it lasted an hour and a half and was very educational.  The lady talked and talked and talked about all sorts of things.  John and I both wish a little bit that we could have the baby at the hospital I had the boys at, but it's an hour away and not an option.  Really my complaints are minor, the rooms aren't terribly big, and the family snack area is sorely lacking.  There are lots of things I do like though.  They have queen size beds in postpartum (awesome!).  Everything related to your pregnancy and birth is on the same floor, labor & delivery, postpartum, and the NICU.  In all the labor and delivery rooms they have giant jetted tubs, which look surprisingly inviting.  And I am a bit overly excited about this one, they include Dad's meals at no charge now.  So when I go to order my meals (which I can have brought up to my room whenever the kitchen is open and not at a set predetermined time), I order two, one for each of us.  

I'm getting really excited to meet our new baby.  February is only 3 months away, but sometimes it seems much longer than that.  We still have a lot to do to get ready, plus the upcoming holidays, and the boys' birthday in January.  I hope it goes by quickly!    

Pregnancy Exhaustion and Other Randomness

I was so excited early in my pregnancy that I would be able to blog all about my pregnancy.  Hah!  I had forgotten just how tired pregnancy makes me.  Although I have more energy than I did in my first trimester, it's still work, home, family time, dinner, bed.  I stayed up a week or two ago and watched the newest Star Trek with John and was all proud of my accomplishment.  I was like, high five!  I totally stayed awake the whole movie!  I'm lucky to get an hour of time with John after the boys go to bed before I start nodding off on the couch. 

Caffeine is now sadly my new friend.  I have never been much of a caffeine drinker, but most days now I find myself having some just to feel "normal" during the day.  Well that, and so hopefully I can try and find the energy to stay awake in the evenings and to try and get some extra stuff done on weekends.  

According to my Dr everything is going well, although he does want me on Progesterone.  Since I had a lot of issues with preterm labor with the boys, he thinks it's a really good idea.  I'm not overly thrilled, but if it will keep this baby baking longer, then that's a good thing.  I really don't want to have to deal with the complications, stress, and anxiety I had with the boys again this time.  The big ultrasound is scheduled for the 23 (finally!) I will be 22 weeks, and half-way done.  I'm a little nervous.  We will be finding out if my placenta has moved out of the way, if the baby is healthy so far, and the gender.  I'm really most concerned about the health of the baby.  Honestly I would be ok with waiting to find out the gender until baby is born, but John is anxious to know, and we can plan better this way.       

The boys are doing great, they constantly amaze me with how smart they are.  They seem to always be learning and picking up on stuff, both good and bad.  Potty training is going slowly, but smoothly.  They are much better about knowing when they need to pee in the potty, pooping though not so much.  But we'll get there, I'm very happy with the progress they've made so far.  They really encourage each other too, which I think is adorable.  When one goes in the potty the other gets sooo excited.  Oliver says a lot: "Yay Owy, you peed in da potty!" and starts jumping around.

They are getting excited for Halloween.  They have to point out all the pumpkins to us every time we see one.  I still haven't quite decided what their costumes should be.  I really need to get on that.  It looks like this weekend will finally feel like Fall, and I have some yummy baking planned.  Happy Fall, and here's to hoping I can find the energy to get back to blogging more!

Owynn and Oliver

      

all photos are property of doubleotwins.com

Placenta Previa or Why Can't I Have A Normal Pregnancy?

Warning: This may contain a bit of TMI.  You know, if you're uncomfortable with bodily functions.  Also, all the information I have here has been gathered from my doctor and nurse, John’s Google search, and my new favorite website, the Mayo Clinic.  I am by no means an expert.  


I was really really hoping that since we are going to be having just one baby this time around that I would have a normal, complication free pregnancy.  Apparently not.  At this point I don't think there is much "normal" about what my body decides to do.  (Seriously, I freakin' breastfed twins for 8 months and my body did not suppress ovulation.  In fact my cycle started back up almost immediately after giving birth.)


Everything with my pregnancy had been going fairly normally until 13 weeks.  I had had a really long day.  I started work at 7am, came home grabbed John and the boys, we all went to an appointment, stopped by John’s parents, then went to the grocery store.  By the time we got home in the evening it was about 8pm or so.  Right when we got home I started bleeding.  Which completely freaked me out, because really that’s not supposed to happen right?!  I called the on call dr which wasn’t much of a help, so we went off to the ER.  At this point we were both pretty terrified.  Thankfully though, other than the bleeding everything looked fine and the baby had a strong heartbeat.  I went in for an ultrasound the next day and the baby seemed fine.  I finally got to see my Dr. at the beginning of the following week.  Turns out I have partial placenta previa.  This means that the placenta attached very very low, and the bottom of it was covering the cervix.  When that happens it can cause bleeding; so I was instructed to try and “take it easy”, and to not really lift anything.  The Dr did say that this is actually fairly common, turns out that some women have it and it doesn’t affect them at all.  He said that as my pregnancy progresses my uterus will keep moving upward which should move the placenta away from the cervix and essentially things should go back to “normal”.   He is pushing my big ultrasound back to 22 weeks (boo!) in order to give everything enough time to move.  If it hasn’t moved then that would be surprising, and I would be forced to have another c-section.  If the placenta is over the cervix during a vaginal delivery it could cause serious hemorrhaging.  So here’s to hoping that things will look good here in a few weeks.

We're in Kansas City!

We are in Kansas City right now for John's Baseball Birthday weekend.  I have been super excited about our weekend away!  It will great to spend the weekend alone with John.  As much as I adore the boys, it's nice to be able to get away. 

After going out to lunch and spending the afternoon with the boys, we dropped them off with John's parents and headed down to KC.  We got to our hotel at about 10:30 last night, got settled, then went for a late dinner at Steak N Shake.  After our disaster at one on the way to NY last year I was a little hesitant, but pleasantly surprised that our experience there last night was very good.  The plan for today is to maybe check out the mall, get some awesome Zarda's BBQ, then head to Kauffman stadium to see the Royals play the Red Sox tonight!  We have tickets to tomorrow's game too, after which we are going to head back home.

I'm looking forward to an awesome night of baseball tonight!  Anyone else have fun plans for this weekend?