On when they think the babies will come.
My dad thinks it will happen tomorrow (Thursday) because he's taking Noah to see the Cardinals. Not so sure what the connection is between labor and the Cardinals but that's his opinion.
My mom thinks it will happen on Friday because it's August 8th (8/8/08) and the number 8 is lucky in Asian cultures.
My colleagues thinks it will happen on Monday, August 11. Why? Because they "like" the date.
Right now I am feeling the same anxiety I felt when I was pregnant with Noah. Every week I would go to the doctor thinking labor was "imminent" because I was dilating and then I end up disappointed when nothing would happen. Mind you, I started dilating at 36 weeks and Noah was born 5 weeks later. Babies come when they want, not the other way around.
Every pain, every twinge, every muscle stretched. . .makes me think I could be going into labor. And I hate this feeling. The longer the babies are inside of me the better off they are. I know that. But I am ready to be done. I want to meet them, and move on.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Stick a fork in me
I am done. I am tired and cranky and ready to have these babies. I have NO social life whatsoever because it's too hot to go anywhere and too uncomfortable to make it worthwhile.
Monday, August 4, 2008
I *heart* Lifetime
There is NOTHING that I love more than a trashy Lifetime movie.
She Cried No. . . The one where the kid from the Wonder Years abuses and then kills the chick from Full House? Priceless.
Anything involving Meredith Baxter Birney. . . . heaven. Her work in A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story and the sequel Her Final Fury: Betty Broderick, the Last Chapter was Emmy worthy.
She's Too Young. . . about sexually active 14 year-olds and a syphilis outbreak. Riveting.
ANYTHING involving sorority hazing. . . in particular Dying to Belong starring Hillary Swank and Zach from Saved by the Bell.
But my new favorite Lifetime dreck movie. . . .Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal. You can't tell me this does not sound at least a little interesting:
"Five high school cheerleaders, including the daughter of the school principal, run amok -- and teachers, parents and administrators allow them to get away with a wide range of scandalous behavior. Know as the "fab five," the girls disregard school rules, drink alcohol and post suggestive pictures on the Internet. But when the new cheerleading coach attempts to discipline them, her superiors ask her to resign. The real version of the events took place in McKinney, Texas, a Dallas suburb, and received national media attention in 2006."
Basically, the girls a little b**ches and the adults let them get away with it.
She Cried No. . . The one where the kid from the Wonder Years abuses and then kills the chick from Full House? Priceless.
Anything involving Meredith Baxter Birney. . . . heaven. Her work in A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story and the sequel Her Final Fury: Betty Broderick, the Last Chapter was Emmy worthy.
She's Too Young. . . about sexually active 14 year-olds and a syphilis outbreak. Riveting.
ANYTHING involving sorority hazing. . . in particular Dying to Belong starring Hillary Swank and Zach from Saved by the Bell.
But my new favorite Lifetime dreck movie. . . .Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal. You can't tell me this does not sound at least a little interesting:
"Five high school cheerleaders, including the daughter of the school principal, run amok -- and teachers, parents and administrators allow them to get away with a wide range of scandalous behavior. Know as the "fab five," the girls disregard school rules, drink alcohol and post suggestive pictures on the Internet. But when the new cheerleading coach attempts to discipline them, her superiors ask her to resign. The real version of the events took place in McKinney, Texas, a Dallas suburb, and received national media attention in 2006."
Basically, the girls a little b**ches and the adults let them get away with it.
Where we are now
Since Friday I've been concerned that the babies haven't been as active as they should be. I could feel them move, but they weren't as vigorous as they usually are. By Sunday morning, I had enough so I called Dan at basketball and had him come home so we could go to labor & delivery instead. Long story short, everything was fine and as soon as the babies got on the monitor they starting fighting with each other and moving like crazy. What can I say. The one thing that did annoy me was that my OB's partner was on call and I never saw/met her. At one point she and my nurse were having a conversation in the room but the doctor was on the other side of the curtain from me. She never came over to introduce herself. Kind of annoyed me.
In other news, today I went to see Dr. Carter.
He did an internal exam (fun!) and I am 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. This is a good thing as it means my body is doing what it should be doing. Of course, the first words out of my mouth were, "but this doesn't necessarily mean labor is imminent." When I was pregnant with Noah I started dilated and effacing at 36 weeks. And I kept dilating and he was born a week late. The moral of the story is that dilation does not equal imminent labor. My blood pressure was high but since I don't have any other symptoms of pre-eclampsia they're not too worried. I asked when they thought I would deliver I was told "maybe in the next week" but when I pressed further I was told that prediction is based partly on statistic. If there is ONE thing I learned with Noah is that babies come when THEY want to come, not the other way around. Dr. Carter said that they would check me again next week, do another internal exam, and see if that gets things going.
My mom thinks the girls are coming Friday because 8/8/08 would be a cool birthday because it's a lucky number in Chinese. I think someone is watching a little too much pre-Olympic coverage.
The one thing that did tick me off (a bit) was when Dr. Carter asked "if I was awake a night thinking about delivery still." More than likely it was an innocent comment, but to a hot, tired pregnant woman I didn't appreciate the insinuation. My body. My baby. I will worry if I want.
What I did express was my concern about someone other than him delivering me. Especially since I don't know the other doctors in the practice (and the one didn't introduce herself yesterday). I told him that labor and delivery is personal and invasive and I was uncomfortable about having a stranger do it. His idea of reassuring me was to tell me that one thing they have that he doesn't is experience since they've been practicing longer. . . .
I have a sharp tongue. And I had to BITE IT HARD since my first instinct was to say, "yes, but I didn't choose them, I chose YOU." Followed by, "you're not inspiring a lot of confidence in your abilities by bragging that they have more experience." But I wanted to be a lady so I didn't speak my mind (first time for everything).
Plus I decided that pissing off the person who may be sticking his hands inside of me and extracting two babies would not be a prudent idea. Again, I was hot. I am physically tired. And I had to pee for about the 30th time since lunch. My patience is pretty much non-existent.
In other news, today I went to see Dr. Carter.
He did an internal exam (fun!) and I am 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. This is a good thing as it means my body is doing what it should be doing. Of course, the first words out of my mouth were, "but this doesn't necessarily mean labor is imminent." When I was pregnant with Noah I started dilated and effacing at 36 weeks. And I kept dilating and he was born a week late. The moral of the story is that dilation does not equal imminent labor. My blood pressure was high but since I don't have any other symptoms of pre-eclampsia they're not too worried. I asked when they thought I would deliver I was told "maybe in the next week" but when I pressed further I was told that prediction is based partly on statistic. If there is ONE thing I learned with Noah is that babies come when THEY want to come, not the other way around. Dr. Carter said that they would check me again next week, do another internal exam, and see if that gets things going.
My mom thinks the girls are coming Friday because 8/8/08 would be a cool birthday because it's a lucky number in Chinese. I think someone is watching a little too much pre-Olympic coverage.
The one thing that did tick me off (a bit) was when Dr. Carter asked "if I was awake a night thinking about delivery still." More than likely it was an innocent comment, but to a hot, tired pregnant woman I didn't appreciate the insinuation. My body. My baby. I will worry if I want.
What I did express was my concern about someone other than him delivering me. Especially since I don't know the other doctors in the practice (and the one didn't introduce herself yesterday). I told him that labor and delivery is personal and invasive and I was uncomfortable about having a stranger do it. His idea of reassuring me was to tell me that one thing they have that he doesn't is experience since they've been practicing longer. . . .
I have a sharp tongue. And I had to BITE IT HARD since my first instinct was to say, "yes, but I didn't choose them, I chose YOU." Followed by, "you're not inspiring a lot of confidence in your abilities by bragging that they have more experience." But I wanted to be a lady so I didn't speak my mind (first time for everything).
Plus I decided that pissing off the person who may be sticking his hands inside of me and extracting two babies would not be a prudent idea. Again, I was hot. I am physically tired. And I had to pee for about the 30th time since lunch. My patience is pretty much non-existent.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
A new pregnancy "symptom"
Let me preface this post by saying that I feel incredibly grateful to have had an easy twin pregnancy. No bleeding, no pre-term labor, I'm still working full-time, and everyone (myself included) is healthy. My blood pressure is a little wacky (high at the OB's office and low at the hospital) and I have a lot of swelling in my feet but in the big picture this is pretty minor.
That said, sleep has become a precious commodity. I can't get comfortable and I wake up every 2-3 hours to go to the bathroom, and then I have to try and go back to sleep. I've also developed a new pregnancy symptom/complication: carpal tunnel syndrome.
I had minor carpal tunnel when I was pregnant with Noah. My hands would "fall asleep" at night and I was advised to wear wrist braces, which really didn't do much to help. But in the last week I've started having problems again and it seems to be a lot worse than last time. My hands "fall asleep," are stiff, achy, and my fingers will get numb (they did this morning). They're also swollen. It's not bad, but bad enough that I notice and can feel the difference. So I did what every savvy pregnant woman does when a new symptom arises: I looked it up on the Internet.
According to www.Babycenter.com: "The carpal tunnel is a bony canal formed by the wrist bones on three sides and a ligament that runs across the wrist on the other. The swelling and fluid retention that's so common during pregnancy can increase the pressure in this relatively narrow and inflexible space, compressing the median nerve that runs through it.The median nerve gives sensation to the thumb and the index, middle, and half of the ring finger and is responsible for movement of a muscle at the base of the thumb. Pressure on this nerve is what causes the symptoms. Symptoms may include numbness, tingling, burning, pain, or a dull ache in the fingers, hand, wrist, and even up the arm to the shoulder. In severe chronic cases, your hand may feel clumsy or weak."
I HAVE to think this pregnancy is starting to wind down.
That said, sleep has become a precious commodity. I can't get comfortable and I wake up every 2-3 hours to go to the bathroom, and then I have to try and go back to sleep. I've also developed a new pregnancy symptom/complication: carpal tunnel syndrome.
I had minor carpal tunnel when I was pregnant with Noah. My hands would "fall asleep" at night and I was advised to wear wrist braces, which really didn't do much to help. But in the last week I've started having problems again and it seems to be a lot worse than last time. My hands "fall asleep," are stiff, achy, and my fingers will get numb (they did this morning). They're also swollen. It's not bad, but bad enough that I notice and can feel the difference. So I did what every savvy pregnant woman does when a new symptom arises: I looked it up on the Internet.
According to www.Babycenter.com: "The carpal tunnel is a bony canal formed by the wrist bones on three sides and a ligament that runs across the wrist on the other. The swelling and fluid retention that's so common during pregnancy can increase the pressure in this relatively narrow and inflexible space, compressing the median nerve that runs through it.The median nerve gives sensation to the thumb and the index, middle, and half of the ring finger and is responsible for movement of a muscle at the base of the thumb. Pressure on this nerve is what causes the symptoms. Symptoms may include numbness, tingling, burning, pain, or a dull ache in the fingers, hand, wrist, and even up the arm to the shoulder. In severe chronic cases, your hand may feel clumsy or weak."
I HAVE to think this pregnancy is starting to wind down.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Things I Learned About Twins (while at work today)
Accoring to Pregnancy at about.com:
- Average birth weights for twins are 5 lbs 5 oz.
- About 35% of twins will be born by week 35
- Labor will begin in the majority of twin pregnancies before 37 weeks with 50% of deliveries between 34 and 37 weeks.
- Most vaginal born twins are born within an hour of each other, though this can vary from one right after the other, to several hours. FYI, we're hoping for a vaginal delivery. Although my mom thinks that c-section babies are "prettier."
Another Milestone
I am 34 weeks pregnant today. Yeah me.
Since day one I had been told that if I go into labor before 34 weeks they will pump me with medicine and try to stop the labor. AFTER 34 weeks I was told that they would give me drugs to help the babies (steroids for lung development) but that they wouldn't stop my labor from progressing.
I guess this means any day now, right?
Since day one I had been told that if I go into labor before 34 weeks they will pump me with medicine and try to stop the labor. AFTER 34 weeks I was told that they would give me drugs to help the babies (steroids for lung development) but that they wouldn't stop my labor from progressing.
I guess this means any day now, right?
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