Welcome to the world Lucas and Harrison

That's right-I actually have a reasonable excuse this time for my delay in blogging: my babies are here!!!!!! They arrived the day after my last post. Exactly 35 weeks-you guys are so smart as I look over at my poll!!

I think I'll break the birth story down into a couple of blog entries, but I'll just start off with the brief info everyone wants to know. On Sunday, July 12th, 2009, Lucas Edgar (Baby A) was born at 8:30pm and weighed 5 lbs 9 oz and he was 18 inches long. Harrison Paul (Baby B) was born at 8:32pm and weighed 6 lbs 4 oz and was also 18 inches long. I had them via C-section as I had developed pre-eclampsia and the docs decided not to wait any further to deliver them.

Baby Luke has the fullest head of black hair and most beautiful little face.



Baby Harry has lighter brown hair and has the best smiles and roaming blue eyes.

I think they have similar facial features. Suffice it to say, we are just completely in love with both of them.

Both boys are doing fantastic. We all left the hospital together on July 16. It's just absolutely amazing to be a new Mother to these precious boys. I'm learning how to be their Mother better each and every day. We are even tandem breastfeeding. :-)

Love to all and thanks for all the support. I'll write my birth story as soon as I get a chance, but haven't had a moment since delivery to even put this post up! Sleeping is critical these days!!

Still pregnant...

Just wanted to pop on here and let everyone know that I'm still pregnant. Will be 35 weeks tomorrow! Yippee!

Had a pretty good appt yesterday. NST was good and both babies were reactive with good accelerations and good heartrates. My BP was high again, but not 140/90, so no one ever seems to care about it. Pitting edema still present in feet and am beginning to swell significantly again in my feet and only slightly in my hands. Ctx present as always, but not greater than 5/hour. Had labwork drawn again: my liver enzymes are still elevated (but not much changed from before) and my platelets had dropped again to 140,000. Cervical check did not go well. She couldn't tell how dilated I was?? Tried twice but she said it was too far back, so no result and that was sheer agony and pain for me. Did a cervical u/s and cervix still thick at 2.8 cm. Told her other OB in group measured me 2.5 weeks ago and I was 1cm, so wtf?

Started having PMS-like cramps after the cervical check that lasted until about 9pm. Took some Tylenol and got into the bathtub to help relieve them. I've been told that they don't like to do cervical checks for this reason-easy to bring on labor. I've been having some painful ctx today, and have been counting anywhere from 4-7/hour. Had a weird experience early this morning while waking up for my hourly bathroom ritual: trickled fluid that I don't think was urine, so maybe was amniotic fluid? Wasn't a gush of water, so would be doubtful that my water has broken, but who knows. Getting ready to call OB here in a minute. Fear the phone call will usher in our 5th admission. Here I go again...

Here is the 35th week (hope I'm not being premature in posting a 35 week update!) info from BabyCenter: "Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight."

Also, didn't post the twins in the womb pic from 32 weeks, so here it is very belated:



Finally, got a updated 3D image of Baby Luke this week, so thought I'd pass it along too. Of course there is the placenta and some feet in his way, but still a face picture. Can't wait to see if these images are pretty accurate!!

Hospital Admission: Take Four........And Action!

Sorry for my posting delay. Again. I just don't seem to be able to keep up very well. I'm always astonished that I ever get comments since I'm so inconsistent. So for those of you who hang in there with me, thanks. For the others, I totally understand: BORING!

Okay, I'll get to the story of my 4th hospital admission. After my previous post, I had an OB appt on the next day. I weighed a scary 14 lbs heavier than the week before. Somehow, this was not alarming to my OB?? She originally brushed it off as "normal." I had already decided that it definitely wasn't normal. The alarming factor for her: my shortness of breath and by that time I had also completely lost my voice. I was admitted following the appt for these latest developments.

I was admitted to rule out cardiomyopathy, pulmonary edema, pre-eclampsia, or a bad reaction to my dose of Procardia 20mg every 4 hours. I had an echocardiogram that revealed mitral valve prolapse (which I already had from several years ago) and a new tricuspid valve regurgitation, but I was informed that this is common in pregnancies-especially multiples. So, good news was no cardiomyopathy. As for the pulmonary edema, I also didn't have this by definition.

I was taken off all Procardia at the OB appt and therefore didn't have any more of the blood pressure med once I was admitted to the hospital. With the pre-eclampsia potential diagnosis, my blood pressure never really shot up out of control after going off the meds, so that was really comforting. I also did a 24 hour urine to check for protein, which came back normal. Some of my labwork was of concern, particularly my liver enzymes and platelets. The liver enzymes were elevated, which can occur with pre-e, and my platelets dropped 60,000 from the time I was admitted until the day I was discharged (yes, I really got discharged). I'm still concerned about them because if platelets drop too low, it can mean lots of things, but particular to my condition, would preclude me from getting a spinal or epidural due to the fact that my blood would have trouble clotting. Therefore, I would get general anesthesia for my C-section. That would really sadden me as I would feel cheated in my birth experience. Finally, I have this great fear about bleeding out (and dying) on the OR table following the incisions into my abdomen and uterus if my platelets are too low. Yes, highly unlikely, but a fear just the same. Much more likely would be that I get platelet transfusions to get them back to reasonable level.

Over 3 days, I lost all 14 lbs. I felt like a new woman. Granted I went to the bathroom every hour and was able to donate between 300-500 cc each time! It definitely was the easiest weight loss I've ever achieved. Would love to figure out how to do this in the post-partum. Anyway, after shedding the ridiculous swelling (hard to call it a weight gain) and high blood pressure and protein in the urine never making their appearance, I was discharged. Also, I was able to avoid mag sulfate by keeping my contractions between 4-8/hr. So, I'm officially not on any meds to stop my labor.

And that brings me up-to-date. I still have ctx, but not painful, so I'm not calling the OB until I have regular, painful ctx that are close together (ie, in true labor with progressing dilation) or my water breaks. Of course, if I start exhibiting any signs of pre-eclampsia, then that would send me to delivery. But otherwise, I'm in it for the long haul.

They did growth scans on the babies today: Harry (our future NFL lineman) weighs 5 lbs 14 oz and Luke was 4 lbs 13 oz. No one (other than Steve and me) seems bothered at all by their weight discrepancies. Peri and OB both said they are fraternal and it's therefore like two separate pregnancies. They have both been scoring 8/8 on their biophysical profiles, so that's great! And, my cervix is still hanging in there at 2.8cm. So to sum it all up, we are all doing okay. I thought for sure I would deliver them last week, but I'm feeling and doing much better now, so maybe we're going all the way to 38 weeks. Who knows anymore!