Some hilarity...

I'm astounded at the number of people at my school who are just now connecting the dots that I'm pregnant. During my internship class yesterday (the 3 hour painful class that it was) I became the topic of conversation on several occasions. First, my friend Eddy, admitted that he was a little embarrassed that he hadn't noticed before, but he responded more appropriately than almost anyone else I've encountered and just said congratulations (what a novel concept to actually congratulate someone on their pregnancy this has not been the normal reaction around here). When I followed up that it was twins he just said, "no sh*t" hilarious.

This then led to Kevin the guy sitting next to Eddy to whisper for confirmation that I was indeed pregnant, to which Eddy and I just laughed. Then Kevin wanted to know if I was aware that I was pregnant when we all traveled to Florida (I was 15 weeks) which prompted more laughter on my part when I explained to Kevin that I had know since October, to which one of my instructors responded, "She probably knew when it happened." There were a few more follow up questions such as why I hadn't told any of them in Florida, and I just explained that it never came up, and nobody asked haha. To which Kevin offered the helpful response, "maybe you didn't want to jinx the baby". Um... sure I'll go with that.

Eventually, class attention shift away from me and we got back to discussing community organizing... that is until I yawned and my supervisor (Who is also one of the instructors) mentioned that I was yawning for three, so it was allowable. Which disrupted the entire class again with this new revelation that I was having twins (only 2 people in the class knew prior that it was twins). Then the questions started again, and included the following... with my responses.

"Was your mom a twin, they skip a generation right?" - That's a myth but I do have twin sisters.
"Are they identical or fraternal." - Fraternal...
"oh so a boy and a girl" - Yes but you can have fraternal twins of the same sex too.
"You're lucky now you can be done having kids." - yes I suppose I could be
"So you've had an ultrasound" - Yes I've had 15 or 16 ultrasounds.
"Why" - I'm high risk
"Why are you high risk" - Um we probably don't need to talk about my medical history.
My favorite from Kevin (he's very interesting) - "That must be why you're only 6 months but you look huge." (and then he used his arms to illustrate just how large I am) --umm.. thanks Kevin that's kind of you (which made my supervisor laugh)
"Actually, I think you look pretty good for carrying two babies." - Thanks
Kevin again, "Can you feel them move yet?" - Yes

Finally, sensing the combination of my annoyance, embarrassment, and amusement my supervisor re-engaged the class stating that now that we know all of Sadie's medical history let's move on. So, so random and kind of amusing too.

Sometimes for attending a school full of intelligent people I'm a little surprised by some of their comments.

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After class was over I needed to stop by the library to get a few books for the ridiculous paper that I should be writing at this very second (but I'm not) and I only had a few minutes before the library closed. In the basement I found the book I needed but it was on the top shelf, which is normally pretty difficult for me to reach, but somehow with a large belly the task was impossible. Every attempt to grab the book just pushed it further and further away.

Moving into problem solving mode I decided to try and locate a tall person. Unfortunately, because it was 4:40 on a friday the library was deserted. My next plan of action was to drag a chair into the row and reach it that way, but honestly the chairs looked heavy, and the thought of climbing up on a chair seemed like a lot of work. I was going to give up but as I headed out of the library I discovered a stool. So with my arms full of my coat, bag, and books, I somehow hoisted the stool up and made it back to the appropriate location. Of course then as I reached for the book I needed I ended up knocking a few books off the shelf, which I needed to then bend down and retrieve (not an easy task at this point).

At this point my friend Sara who works at the library was making the rounds to let everyone know the library was closing, and when she saw me she just started laughing, and asked if I needed help. But at that point it was too late, I had successfully (and awkwardly) obtained the book in question...

It never occurred to me that the library could be a hazard when pregnant.

I'm trying not to cry...

I'm in so much pain. The walking is and sitting is getting to be too much. I still have a three hour class to sit through and I don't know how I'm going to do it. My back is broken or something. In other news three more people today noticed and commented on my pregnancy. It's hilarious to me that some people who I spend time with and sit next to in class haven't noticed up until this point. It's pretty obvious. One lady asked if we did IVF, and then brought up the octuplets, what is it with people seriously.

Okay, I must find the energy and strength to move. I love my sweet babies but they sure do make me hurt, and this pain is a whole new level. I'm used to hurting and aching. That's my everyday existence even when I'm not pregnant, but wow this is really not good. I'm scared for the next few months although more than anything I want the babies to stay in and grow so I'll take whatever I have to in exchange for big healthy babies in June (hopefully).

26 Weeks

Not a whole lot to report this week since all of it has already been updated below, with the baby shower, hospital visit, and doctor's appointments. I went back to school this week and I have to admit that finishing this semester is going to be a really big challenge. Sitting in the desks for class is beyond painful. Especially Tuesdays when I have 5 hours of class pretty much all in a row. Walking to and from my school although it's a really short distance also causes me a great deal of pain. It's a slight uphill walk and the pain in my back shoots down my leg and up my spine, and it literally brings tears to my eyes. I have to walk so slow and force myself to keep taking steps.

I also have no energy. This week I had a mid-term and a paper due and next week I have two more papers and all I want to do when I'm not in class is nap. I'm exhausted from growing these little babies. Oh well. Somehow everything will get done it always does. I just want the babies to stay in as long as possible so I'll take the temporary pain and discomfort if it means they'll be born full term at healthy weights.

And now my ever expanding belly. I don't have any stretch marks yet, but my scar from my appendectomy is not liking the stretching. It actually kind of hurts, so it should be interesting to see what happens with the scar as I get bigger.

Test Results

My glucose testing was normal yay! That's happy news, but apparently my blood count (hematocrit) is low at 31. I'm suppose to take extra iron (which I've already been doing) but this could explain why I often feel dizzy and lightheaded. Yesterday, during a meeting I felt like I was going to pass out. I was soliciting food donations from everyone to see if that would help.

Growth Scan #2 and OB Appointment

For once we have nothing new or remarkable to report. The MFM people didn't repeat the fFN since I had it done on Saturday and it was negative. The babies are growing well. The baby boy weights 1 lb 11 oz and the girl 1 lb 10 oz, so the gap between the two of them is closing. My cervix remains unchanged since the hospital visit as well (Which is good since it's only been two days). Right after this first appointment we had another boring OB appointment.

Met a new doctor, did the glucose test which wasn't too bad although the drink wasn't so good towards the end and made me feel a little nauseous and gave me a headache. I'm assuming someone will let me know those results soon. Since my last appointment I've gained 4 lbs so I'm still gaining about 2 a week and have gained a total of 27lbs this pregnancy. Which avg. to about a pound a week over the entire pregnancy and the doctor seems satisfied with that.

And the most shocking measurement my uterus is now measuring 34w and I'm only 25w5d. Holy crap I'm going to be huge. I liked the doctor I saw today, maybe he'll be the one to deliver the babies. Although he did over explain things to us, at this point we know all about the fFN test and things like that but he doesn't know that and he was really nice. He also gave me some things to try to see if it helps manage some of the pain.

So that's all nothing remarkable thank goodness. All will be repeated in 2 weeks. Now off to class.

Labor & Delivery Visit #1

First, everything is okay. But last night around 8:30 I started having some really intense cramping in my lower uterus and my lower back. Like the good little pregnant person I am I knew that the first thing any doctor will tell you is to drink water and lay on your side to see if they get better. So that's what I did for two hours, and it still wasn't better. At 10:30 I decided to try a bath to see if that would help and that too was a no go.

Then I decided I should just try to sleep but because of the pain this also wasn't working and at this point Marcus was worried and wanted me to call a doctor. So at 11:00 I called urgent care, and the on call doctor called me back around 11:30 and asked me all the standard questions. Duration, frequency, pain rate, any other problems with this pregnancy (I mentioned the short cervix and the negative fFN test from a few weeks ago etc.) After all of this he decides that I should probably come into the hospital and be hooked up to some machines to see if everything is okay.

Great. First, I had no idea where the L&D part of the hospital is. The hospital here is huge and it seems like it's all over the city. Oddly enough when I gave Marcus the name of the streets and the entrance we needed to use he knew exactly where it was apparently he's much more observant of our surroundings than I am. The second issue is parking. The valet parking wasn't in use since it was after midnight on a weekend and parking downtown is a nightmare anyways. I told Marcus that in the coming months we're probably going to need to re-evaluate the parking situation. There must be somewhere to park that we were missing. We parked probably illegally in some random hospital round about thing.

Some lady in a suit basically met us at the door and already had a bracelet printed out for me and she took us up to the L&D floor. Once there they just had me get into a bed and hooked up monitors to check the babies and to see if I was contracting or not. So I laid there for about an hour with all of that on. Then they did another fFN test and checked my cervix which has shortened just a little bit again. Last check it was between 2.1 and 2.4 it's now between 2.1 and 2.2. Then they did a quick ultrasound of the babies and we learned that our boy had completely switched positions. For the last few weeks he's been head down right next to my cervix, and he is now completely breach and he and his sister are both head up with their feet and knees on my bladder (which explains the added kicks I've been feeling).

After a few hours of monitoring they told me I could go and the doctor would get back to me with the results of the fFN test and things sometime in the morning. Marcus was freaking out, poor guy. I honestly felt like all of this was a little unnecessary and I felt a little stupid for even going in, but I suppose it's better to be safe than sorry and have everything checked out and I did call first and the doctor told me to come in so... I have no idea what was causing the cramping, I'm not really sure if the doctors do either but for now all is well, and I'm still just waiting on the doctor to call with the test results. I wish there was some way to know what's "normal" and what's not. I hate second guessing myself. I don't want to be a hypochondriac (and I did wait about 3 hours last night before I called) but I also don't want to ignore something that could potentially be problematic.

And now for some real hilarity I had Marcus take a picture of me with the monitors hooked up (because what else were we going to do for an hour) and I look horrible. I was exhausted and super uncomfortable since laying on my back makes it really difficult to breath and the nurse had lowered the bed too much, my arm is hanging over the bed like I'm dying or something and I'm kind of laying on the remote for the bed. We got home around 2am and now I'm trying to find some energy to study for my NT mid-term tomorrow.

So here it is my death like picture so not cute (but they did color coordinate the monitors for the babies, pink for the girl and blue for the boy). I also must confess that the nurse asked if they had names, I said yes and she wanted to know what they were and I figured she wouldn't tell anyone, her reception of them was a little odd, so now I feel even more affirmed that we will not be telling anyone else until they're here. I don't want odd reactions to our baby names because they are literally the only two names in existence that Marcus and I both agree on.

Baby Shower Part I

I'm saying part I because I'm still collecting pictures from a variety of cameras, but I'll share what I have at this point. My baby shower was fun, it was co-ed with my closest friends from school and mostly we just ate and then we decorated a million onesies. Marcus wasn't able to go because of work which sucked but it was a nice afternoon with friends. I feel so blessed to have such a great support system here and they all really want to baby-sit for me. I told them they better watch what they say because odds are I'm going to have to take them up on that offer depending on Marcus and my school schedules.