A Little Visit to L&D

I had a bit of a scare a few days ago.
It started late in the evening, at around 9:00 pm with an hour left of work. I started having Braxton Hicks, which is not out of the ordinary for me. I usually have around 5-10 a day, and they are typically after walking up stairs, lifting things, or walking long distances.
For some reason this evening they started happening more frequently, and they even continued when I was sitting down, or put my feet up. I figured that once I got home and laid on the couch with a big glass a water they might calm down.
I got home, had a nice big glass of water and reclined on my left side. After an hour, they were still continuing to happen about every 15 minutes.
Now it was around midnight and at this point they seemed to get more painful, and the time between them was 10 minutes.I drank another two glasses of water and continued to monitor myself. I noticed more pressure in my abdomen.
I started to get really nervous, so I grabbed out my pregnancy books to look up some information.
Everything kept telling me that you need to contact your doctor if you begin to have more than 5 contractions, even if they aren't that painful, in an hour. I had already gone three hours of at least five contractions per hour.
I decided that what I really needed to do was go to bed, because staying up counting BH's was just freaking me out.
I headed up to bed and tried to get comfortable, Joel was fast asleep beside me. Unfortunately, every time I seemed to roll over or get settled another one would come on, so I kept looking at the clock. Now they were happening every 7 to 8 minutes.
I had two choices: Attempt to go to sleep and just call my doctor in the morning, but risk something being terribly wrong and having me do nothing about it OR call the on-call doctor and ask what to do.
I decided to try the second option.
I spoke with the doctor around 1:30 am and after hearing what had been happening he told me to head to Labor and Delivery.
I woke up Joel, who was slightly confused, and explained the situation. He threw on some clothes and we headed out the door.
He was the picture of calm, cool and collected.
We drove to the hospital and arrived shortly after 2am.
The nurse took my vitals. Would you believe that my pulse was 102!? My b/p was fine, temperature was normal, and urine test came back normal.
Next they sent me for an u/s to check my cervix, and assess the boys' heartbeats.
My cervix was long (4.9) and closed, and the babies heart-rates were normal- both in the 140's. At this point we knew that the contractions were doing nothing to my cervix, so no pre-term labor. I had also only had 1 or 2 contractions since arriving at the hospital.
I was then hooked up to a monitor to see if we could monitor the contractions. By this point they had completely stopped. So we hung out in one of the triage rooms for an hour, watching Little Women while I was being monitored for the no longer existent contractions.
Since everything came back normal, and more importantly, since my cervix looked good, we were discharged and sent home.
I had a follow-up appointment today with my doctor. There is no concern since everything has been normal since. I will return next week for another u/s and check-up.
Although we had quite a scare that night, we did get a treat when they did the u/s on the babies. They gave us a disk of their pictures. The quality is pretty bad since they were just looking at the h/b. I am hoping that we get some good ones at the next appointment so I can scan them for everyone to see.

Kicks and Craigslist

The boys are kicking! I started feeling them for the first time last week.
At first I was thinking it was a muscle twitch. Then common sense set in and I realized that it was no muscle twitch, it was Baby A making his presence known.
I felt Baby B's kicks two days later. They are pretty amazing feelings. I would much rather experience their kicks, than their somersaults.
The flips and twists usually send me off to the bathroom, or give me some major braxton hicks contractions. I can't imagine how bad they will get as they get bigger.
Yesterday I was staring at my tummy while "B" was kicking and I actually saw my belly move.
Joel was able to feel "A" kicking this morning. They like to wake me up in the morning with kicks.

Physical therapy has been going well. My back pain has been improving. I have some major "kinks", and a ridiculous amount of muscle tightness and knots. The stretching and exercises I am doing seem to help. Right now we are trying to ease my mid and upper back pain, while strengthening my abs and lower back so I am able to support these boys while they grow.

Joel and I had a great weekend. We got a double travel system stroller off of Craigslist for $100!! It's in perfect shape. They usually cost around $500 to $600 new, so this was an amazing deal.
We also found a brand new Medela breastpump for $80, again courtesy of Craigslist. We have turned into real bargain shoppers.
Pricing items for two babies was extremely overwhelming at first, but after finding these couple of items for such a great deal we can breathe a little easier.

19 weeks

We just got back from another excellent visit at the Ob.

We started out with an u/s. The boys are looking excellent, and yes, they still appear to be boys.
She measured different areas in their brains. All appears to be normal. No increased chance of Down Syndrome. Their spinal cords are closed, so no Spina Bifida. Thank you folic acid!
Both have a strong beating, 4 chambered heart. Their fluid levels appear great. They each have ten fingers and ten toes.
They are continuing to measure a few days ahead, which is great for twins.
Baby A is very far down in my pelvis. This explains the intense need to pee every time he moves. Baby B is up high at the very top of my uterus. They both have their head near the other one's butt. It made for some great photo opportunities. You would see a nice shot of ones head, and a baby butt would suddenly come into view.
We have some beautiful profile shots. Both of them held their hand up near their face to pose for the picture. I am trying to compare them. Their profiles look the same, but perhaps all baby profile pictures look the same at this point.

The visit with my Ob was short and sweet. I got a referral to Physical Therapy for my back pain. It has been severe and constant, and it's not a back ache, it's pain. I have my first appointment tomorrow. I hope that they can get me some relief because nothing else seems to help. Other than the back pain, I am feeling great.

17 Week Belly

Here's latest belly picture taken. My belly button is disappearing, along with my waist.
The boys are beginning to be quite active. I still haven't noticed any kicks, just the position changes. Baby B, our troublemaker, does most of the moving. He is the little guy who is higher up.
I will occasionally feel Baby A squirming around, but I think that he's typically quite content with where he is.
We have our next appointment and u/s on the 6th. I can't wait to see them in action again. I am hoping for some clearer pictures this time. I couldn't post the last ones because they were so fuzzy.
Wishing you all a fun and warm summer!