Pregnancy: Week 16

I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Thank. The. Good. Lord. This week has been pretty darn good. I was up another 3 pounds at my doctors appontment. I tried to convince him that I didn't need the PICC linre and TPN anymore but he doesn't think I am eating enough yet. He is probably right and I am feeling so much better that I really think the TPN is helping. I asked how much weight I had to gain and he said its not about weight gain but caloric intake. Apparently an apple does not count as a meal.

The babies look great. They are the size of an avocado this week. They are 4.5 inches from head to bottom and weigh about 3.5 ounces.

Here is a sneak peak of them in utero... it is getting hard to fit them both on the ultrasound screen.

Baby A is head up and on my right side. Baby B is head down and on my left side. Baby A is the mover and shaker and gives Dr. P a heck of a time when he is trying to locate both heatbeats on the doppler. Baby B's heart is always easy to locate and she waits patiently while we wrestle with her sister. A glimse at their personalities perhaps??

Pregnancy: Week 15

BOYS OR GIRLS??

It has been a good week. I am finally starting to feel a little better. At my doctors appointment on Tuesday I was up 4 pounds!! In a week!!! Dr. P would like to keep the PICC line with TPN for at least another week. I was like, dude, I have gained 4 pounds in a week what else do you want. I am still not eating enough though and according to him "I have some catching up to do". Maybe next week I will get rid of this stupid thing.

I am measuring almost 20 weeks. 20 weeks!!! My uterus is almost up to my belly button. Dr. P told me a week ago it is normal to measure about 4 weeks ahead for twins. This would be almost 6 weeks ahead. I commented on this and he said that it was normal. I am in such trouble, 5 months to go and only so far up for that uterus to go....

The big question this week was boys or girls. I thought they were girls up until about 10 weeks and then I decided they were boys from then on. I figured I had this weird feeling that they were twins so I was probably right about their gender too. I was totally stressing over boys names.

My gender poll was split pretty much 50-50 between blog readers.

We went in on Friday night with Grace for LeeAnn to take a look at those baby private parts. We told Grace she was going to see the babies on a TV screen. She wasn't really impressed. I think she thought we were going to see actual babies.

So the results are in and the twins are.........

2 more girls!! Mama is wrong again, lol. We are thrilled with two more girls and just feel so incredibly blessed. I believe this is Baby B showing us her parts. She is laying down head away from us, that is her butt on the bottom with her legs up in the air.

The babies are the size of apples this week and have grown a whole ounce and now weigh 2.5 ounces! They are about 4 inches long from head to bottom.

Gender Poll

LeeAnn should be able to tell what these little bugs in my belly are soon. So, place your vote here! Some things to keep in mind:

*Identical girls are more common than boys
*I think they are boys (but I thought Grace was a boy too, lol)

Please leave a comment so I know your guess.


There is also an ExpectNet poll on the top right of my page that will be there until the babies are born. Click here to guess not only gender, but birthdate and size. There will be a prize for the closest guess!!

Pregnancy: Week 14

ADMITTED AGAIN

A new development with this pregnancy. My mom came over to take to me an accupuncture appointment (hey I will try anything at this point) and I had an episode where I couldn't breathe. All of a sudden I had this terrible burning in my chest and then I literally couldn't breathe and was gasping for air. I ended up on the floor throwing up. Thank God my mom was there becasue she took me in to Dr. P's office who sent me directly to the ER. It only lasted about 30 minutes but was very scary. There is nothing worse than feeling like you can't breathe.

They decided to do a VQ scan in the ER becasue I am allergic to Iodine and they didn't want to do a CT scan. They explained the procedure and I was in the room when I decided the risk of radiation to the babies was too high and refused to do the test. After waiting for 2.5 hours for the dang test. I just had this overwhelming mommy moment where I felt like I had fight for these babies because really who else was going to? They had to rule out a blood clot in my lung so they decided to do a CT scan and treat me with steroids before the test because of my allergy. The CT scan came back clear for the blood clot but showed Atelectasis. Atelectasis is when the tiny air pockets in your lungs kind of fold in on themselves. They think it is from throwing up so much and it changing the pressure in my chest cavity. You can read more here.

The next day (Thursday) it happened again. I called Dr. P's office and told them and they really didn't know what to tell me. Really people?? I can't breathe and we don't see this as a problem?!? I decided to make an appointment with my family doctor Rosenberg on Friday.

As usual Dr. Rosenberg made shit happen. He saw me and decided that this was unacceptable and he was going to admit to the hospital. He wasn't convinced that it was the Atelectasis causing the acute breathing episodes.  So once again I spent my weekend at lovely Allegiance Health. I got every test under the sun: EKG, arterial blood sample, ECHO, and a chest x-ray. The pulmonary doctor decided that it was probably acid reflux. My esophagus was so irritated from all the throwing up that the acid was coming up and my esophagus was clamping down so I couldn't breathe. They put me on protonics hoping that would solve the problem and so far so good.

So I am now out of the hospital and laying low. I am actually starting to feel a little better in terms of the hyperemesis and I am hoping to God that I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Lets take a look at how big the babies are this week:

They are the size of lemons, about 3.5 inches long from head to bottom and weighing about an ounce in a half.

How about how big I am this week :)

Funny Girl

2 is such a fun, amazing, crazy, frustrating, insane age. Miss G makes us laugh everyday. The way I have been feeling lately, some days she is the only thing that makes me laugh.

Exhibit A: She has a baby Stella doll and Lori asked her what her baby's name was and she came right back with, "Baby Jesus"

Exhibit B: She has decided on names for the twins. Hannah and Hannah. I said well we can name one Hannah but what about the other one? She says, "Hannah too". Alrighty then :)

This week she decided they were boys apparently. We asked her what we should name the twins and she said, "Moses and Baby Jesus". BWAHAHAHAHAH. Big names to live up to :)

Exhibit C: She went to Beckie's house this week for a couple of days and finger painted with her cousin Noah. She would use one finger, dip the tip in the paint, put in on the paper and then wipe it off with a wipe. Are you kidding me? What kid finger paints like that?!

And this video of her "doing gymnastics". She did all of this with almost an entire chicken nugget in her mouth. I swear we have not taught her any of this. She hasn't even been to a meet in a year. Must be in-born :)

Pregnancy: Week 13

LISTEN TO ME!

It has been a rough week for me. My PICC line was really hurting my arm. Went to my doctors appointment on Tuesday and Dr. P doesn'r seem to really be grasping how much it hurt. I knew something is just not right. I am so tired of people not listening to me. He is so concerned about getting the TPN in me that I don't think he really cares about anything else.

Spent another night in the ER Monday night. My home nurse came to my house to start the TPN and as soon as she started it I has this awful pain in my upper right chest. SO, off to the ER we go AGAIN. They really didn't do anything, told me my potassium was low and gave me some pottassium. Didn't want to do another chest xray to verify the placement of the PICC because there just did it a couple of days ago. Told me to follow up with Dr. P the next day.

I feel like I am going to die. I am so sick of feeling sick. I just feel nauseous and exhausted all the time. In addition, I am in pain with this stupid PICC. I can't sleep because it hurts so bad. On Friday I called my mom to come over because I felt like I was going to pass out. I called P's office again and talked to the nurse midwife who once again just wasn't getting it. She wanted my home health nurse to come out to the house to look at it. When the home health people called I finally said, "I am not going to do this anymore. There is something wrong with this PICC and if they want to continue with the TPN they are going to pull it and put a new one in my left arm." Apparently this message was finally heard and the nurse midwife sent me to the hospital to get it pulled. Standard procedure is doing an ultrasound to check for blood clots before pulling it. After waiting for what seemed like forever laying down on the waiting room couch, results came back that I indeed had a blood clot in that arm. What do ya know!? Seriously people?? Apparently I am not dramatic enough. They decided to admit to treat the blood clot and try and get the hyperemesis under control since I had lost even more weight and was severely dehydrated from not having the TPN running for 24 hours.

So I got to spend my weekend in the post partum wing of the hospital. I saw a hematologist, hospitalist, and OB in my short stay. It was actually the best thing that could probably happen to me because I got fluids/vitamins and was forced to stay in bed except to go to the bathroom. My right arm feels better but it still pretty sore. My left arm feels great, how the PICC is supposed to feel!

My new PICC line in my left arm

Funny thing that happens everytime I am in the hospital. I come across a nurse or other medical professional taking care of me that has twins. It is so crazy! I have recieved a lot of advice and words of comfort that I will indeed survive :)

The babies are the size of medium shrimp, hahah. About 3 inches long and weighing about an ounce each.

Pregnancy: Week 12

TO THE HOSPITAL WE GO

I have been off week now since the 21st. This week has been quite the adventure. They decided to start a PICC line on Tuesday after my 2nd IV was on its way out. I went to my normal IV Center appt and told them I felt worse yesterday even with the IV Zophran (for nausea). Not sure if one had to do with the other or I was just having a crappy day. This led to a them calling Dr. P who told them to send me down to see them. I saw the nurse midwife and she and Dr. P decided to put in the PICC. A PICC is a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter. The advantages of a PICC over IV is that it can be in for an extended period of time and I can be given nutrition through this. While the fluids help the fact that I am not eating or drinking is not good for me or the babies. It is to the point where I am keeping nothing down. Dr. P said the IV fluids keep me from getting dehydrated and gives me a little bit of sugar but I need to be getting some sort of nutrition and vitamins. It is an outpatient procedure where they feed a catheter from vein in the bend of my elbow all the way up my arm and the tip sits an inch or two from your heart (or the superior vena cava). It was surprisingly painless besides the poke in the arm. Well, that is until i got home and it felt like my heart was fluttering. I thought, well maybe this is normal. I laid down for about and hour and when I woke up it was worse. Back to the hospital I went where they pulled back on the catheter about 2 inches which relieved the fluttering. I tell, can I catch a break?

They also set me up with a home health agency. I have a nurse that is going to come once a week. They set me up with my very own IV pole and Zophran pump. I stick this little catheter in my leg which is attached to a syringe in a pump that administers Zophran 24 hours a day. They are working on getting me TPN (Total Parental Nutrition) by Monday. TPN is what they give coma patients or post stomach or GI surgical patients that can't eat. It has all the nutrition you need.

I name for this lovely condition is "Hyperemesis Gravidarum". Basically is it uncontrollable throwing up during pregnancy. You can read more about here.

New Years Eve we decided to go to the Barzcak party despite how sick I have been and being attached to an IV pole 24 hours a day. I was the really cool one who had their very own IV pole at the party complete with a cocktail of fluids and Zophran. Do I know how to party or what? We had fun anyway and it was good to get out of the house. On the way home, however, I noticed that there was blood in my PICC line. I was also having pain in my upper right chest that was getting worse. When we got home I disconnected the line and called my home nurse. They told me to flush it which I tried but couldn't push it through. The blood had clotted already. So how did we spend the very earliest part of 2010? In the ER with all the drunks. It was actually pretty entertaining but a 5 hour trip to the ER in the middle of the night is never a good time. They couldn't find the source of the pain and said it was probably just irritation from he PICC. After a couple of tries they were able to clear the line of the clot and we got about about 6 am.

So, after more trips to the hospital than I have experienced in my whole life I am 12 weeks. Lets Take a look at that belly:


The babies are about the size of a lime, each about 3.5 inches long and weigh 1/2 an ounce.