Electric Carts, Wheel Chairs & Contractions... OH MY!

 

Well, I have embarked into the third trimester and the latest level of frustration.  Don't get me wrong- I am so proud to be carrying two tiny miracles but I have been so independent and active for years and staying in bed so much and staying inactive is hard.  Mostly mentally but also physically.  I easily pull muscles in my neck just due to sleeping or laying wrong.  I do see a chiropractor a few times a week but this far along, I am being lazy and going less.  I don't wanna get ready to go.  Ugh.  I am whining.  I know.

I am now 34 1/2 weeks along and the twins are doing great.  They are beautiful as ever.  It is amazing that a year ago we tripped into fertility treatments and went down the following road:

• trying to conceive 8, 9, 10 years
• attempting to adopt outside of using an expensive agency to only come out of it with horror stories
• being told we could not have children together due to my husband shooting blanks (azoospermia)
• finding out he had sperm after all, just needed a biopsy to get them out
• planning our IVF and succeeding after 1 vigorous round
• finding out we were expecting, not only expecting but having Boy/Girl Twins!

So, here we are.  Ready for our family to grow by 4 beautiful, cute, little feetsies!  We have gotten the nursery ready, had our unisex baby shower and had a few uneventful visits to the Labor & Delivery department at Methodist Women's Hospital.  We have decided to have the twins together in one room for the time being to help them feel most comfortable since they have been 'womb-mates' for their fist 9 months in-utero. 

I have been experiencing those fun Braxton Hicks contractions for a few months now.  They have gotten stronger this week.  Well, so strong on Monday night that they became consistent for the first time and I actually thought I was going in labor.  I had a perinatal and OB appointment earlier that day finding out that my cervix was soft, 38" so measuring 38 weeks for a singleton mama, no dilation, Sebastian way head down and Mila is booty down.  When I went to Labor and Delivery that evening I had contractions consistently for 2 hours (ended up being a total of 3 hours), going from 8 min 55 sec down to 5 min 56 seconds apart.  I get hooked up to the monitor and they were just done.  Ugh. Seriously.  Am I losing my mind.  So, I have come to the conclusion they are just more of the Braxton Hicks contractions beings they stopped and were pain free- just very hard and tight.  It was just frustrating.  I thought I might actually have a little excitement but ended up feeling a little silly.  The pain between my legs is insanely painful at times - my pelvis.  Sometimes I cannot walk much till there is a little change in the babies position or a little time passes.  I have graduated into the situation of riding in wheel chairs (thanks for pushing me around Hobby Lobby, Mom!) and electric carts at grocery stores.

(scar from open DS weight loss surgery)

So, here I am two days later chilling out in bed with Kanye West filling my bedroom with tunes and Young & the Restless playing quietly in the background.  My two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels watching my every move.  Yep, this is my life right now.  I am so fortunate to be home and carrying two precious miracles that I truly never believed I would ever be lucky enough to carry myself.  I already love my babies so much that I am a little impatient to meet them.

So that leads us to our birth plan.  On November 27th, 2012 at 1:30pm we will go ahead and do a quick amniocentesis (wish me luck) to see if the lungs are mature enough to do a cesarean section the next day at noon.  Yep, we are on the books ladies and gentlemen. I am told that we will only do one poke and in Sebastian's sac to see if he is ready since boys lungs normally mature slower.  I am excited yet scared.  I have made the decision with my perinatal specialist to do a c-section.  Not only because I am a high risk mama with these twins but also because of my previous surgery- Duodenal Switch weight loss surgery done 9/4/09.  We don't know if there is extensive scar tissue or bowels adhered to my scars so... Dr. Robertson will take his time as he is the one assisting my ob Dr. Berryman.

Our back up plan if their lungs are not ready at week 36 will be to do a cs the week of 12-10-12.  We originally had 12-12-12 scheduled but since we are gonna attempt week 36 with the amniocentesis, the surgery scheduler had to remove my 2nd date since it's 'illegal' in the office to be scheduled twice.  BOO!  I really would love the date of 12-12-12- it's just sweet.  LOL- don't judge :)

Now, these plans only will take place if I do not go into labor on my own.  Which I really may not.  It sure doesn't seem as if I will ever really know what a real contraction pain is- which is probably a great thing.  Pregnancy is just crazy.  It has been hard as a heck for me, however, it's not uncommon to find me rubbing my belly (massaging a baby one at a time) while smiling.  The sensations of each baby are so unique with their movements.  Mila is very gentile and docile.  Sometimes hardly moving or just lightly tickling me with her toes.  Where Sebastian (baby a) is my little break dancer, lol.  He lets me rub his knees and feet as he slowly slides them across the palm of my hand.  He moves a ton and he is very strong.  He is certainly a mover and a shaker.  When on monitor at the dr and l&d, we often have to turn down his monitor cause his movement makes so much loud noise as if he is saying "look at me, look at me!"  It's really cute.  (smiling mommy right here).  Every time that I try to video record what I call an alien movement, they stop.  Oh well, I have locked the memories in my brain.

Now, back to waiting for the calendar to progress forward.

We have the Christmas trees up and ready for them and their first Christmas! :)

Visual Documentation is the Best

Little This & a Little of That (a recap & more)

I find it amazing that I have embarked on the third trimester.  It's been a crazy journey this year.  From traveling to 18 cities in 2 months for work holding back our IVF process to injections, severe all day morning sickness, at home health coming to give me an IV, a lot of time in bed and several appointments-- I now see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I am 27 1/2 weeks along with di/di boy girl twins and proud as any mama can be.  We are both so proud.  Nathan and I wanted children since getting together over ten years ago.  Last October 2011 we started the fertility journey after nightmares in the adoption process were reoccurring.  The last being a local girl pretending to be pregnant with another girls child that she would adopt to us.  We had it.  No more.  Last October we were told that Nathan had no sperm.  We were told that we could not have children together.  THEN we went to Dr. Maud Doherty and our lives changed.

Nathan did a testes biopsy and we found out within 15 minutes that there was hope and swimmers! Yay! Best news ever!  Insurance doesn't cover donor sperm. Boo!  But we no longer had to take that route.  So... our journey began and here we are now.  Just a few short months away from delivering our beautiful twins: Sebastian Marcus and Mila Lorren (me-la lor-ren).  We couldn't be happier.

4D Ultrasounds!

I was so disappointed when I found out my chosen OB had a crappy ultrasound machine.  She even mentioned it wasn't very good.  Sure she ended up sharing me with a perinatal doctor but I wanted amazing pictures of my twins.  We aren't planning on having more children after this so I needed to soak it up and enjoy and document as much as possible.

At 23 weeks, I contacted Stork Vision in Omaha Nebraska for a second time.  This time for the 4D ultrasound appointment.  Last time we were there was July 10th, 2012 for gender determination and it was such an amazing experience where Nate's dad, grandparents, my brother and my great friend Alisa joined us on finding out the sexes of our twins.  Boy and Girl!  (tears of joy)

We went into Stork Vision and was surprised by Alisa.  I was so happy that she had come to surprise me.  I needed it since I didn't have my mom or sister at my appointments.  :)  So on the table I laid and we started the ultrasounds.  At this time both babies were head down and as beautiful as ever.  I managed to get a ton of pics and also on a dvd/cd.

I highly recommend the Stork Vision experience.  A private and beautiful room with couches and a large screen display of the ultrasound.  You invite your friends and family if you want and it's truly a memorable experience.

to see more of my Twins pics find me on facebook under Rita Lucero in Omaha, NE

Meeting Braxton Hicks

I find contractions to be super confusing.  So many things are different than explained by doctors, other pregnant women or mothers.  I was under the assumption that contractions in general always hurt.  Not true.

A few weeks ago I found myself realizing that the odd and uncomfortable feeling I had occasionally had over the last month of so sporadically were contractions and not my babies stretching out.  Well, suddenly I was getting them every single time I bent over, stood up, got out of bed, out of a vehicle, walking- all those things would trigger them.  They didn't hurt but was more of an uncomfortable and very tight feeling.  That's when I realized I had officially met Braxton Hicks.

I did end up in Labor and Delivery and while walking in I told my mom that they probably won't happen while laying in the hospital bed.... and they didn't.  They never happen when laying on my back.  They had happened while on my side but not at the hospital.  They sent me home a hour later with physical restrictions.  I increased my water intake yet again.  (it's so hard to get so much water in me since my DS weight loss surgery)  So, here I am nearly two weeks after that little visit to L&D and they still occur but not as much.  I have to do much less walking and physical activity to control them.  Confusing.  Glad I understand what they are now!

RLS is Ridiculous!

I've had bouts of RLS (restless leg syndrome) off and on for the last ten years but nothing like I experience while pregnant.  OMG! Shoot me!  I went to my OB.  I went to my Perinatal doctor.  I went to an Urgent Care clinic and quickly each time the door to the conversation of my needing help for RLS was slammed shut.  I started posting on facebook and researching like mad on google and various medical pages.  The best response I found was that I could be lacking iron and/or I'm anemic.  I had already tried heatpad, socks, pants, calf lifts, stretches, massages from my husband, warm baths for my legs only,  a herbal supplement, magnesium (500mg/day), expensive compression hose.  Nothing was giving me relief and I was feeling like the RLS was so severe that I was going to lose my mind.

So, I had my Perinatal doctor check my iron level but in the meantime I started iron supplements.  It drastically reduced by about 90-95%.  That is huge!  I started with 2 iron pills (65mg each) plus then at night taking my RX prenatal vitamin that gave me about another 30 mg of iron.  My levels came back low but increasing, slight case of anemia.  Sure, I had been anemic before but why am I having to find the cause and treat myself when I have all these doctors.  Especially since I had the Duodenal Switch (DS) weight loss surgery three years ago?  That surgery was all about creating a absorption.  Ahhh! I wanted to just scream at my OB the most. 

Now, I am not anemic and I take 3 iron pills per day with calcium and at night my RX prenatal vitamin that I have been taking since my DS weight loss surgery.  I still have bouts of the RLS but in no way is it nearly as severe as it was a few months ago.  So, those of you seeking help for your insane RLS- check your iron and possibly increase it!  I would shout it from the rooftops if I could.  All I wanted was some help and it seemed impossible for it.  I would take Tylenol PM sometimes to get super tired but I still would have trouble sleeping because my legs would kick and jolt in my sleep.  Sometimes my leg muscles were so sore and exhausted the next day.  That's how bad it was.  Restless Leg Syndrome can get worse with pregnancy and I had no idea.  None.  Ahh. So glad to have my sanity back! Lack of sleep and uncontrollable leg movements are a terrible combo!

Exciting & Late Updates

We are expecting BOY GIRL di/di Twins! I have a lot of catching up to do so here is just a little bit until I have a chance to get my notes together and update you!

We are 18 weeks pregnant with twins.  We found out on April 30th- our seventh wedding anniversary that we were indeed pregnant with twins.  We found out on July 10th at Stork Vision that they are boy and girl.

Baby A (being delivered first) is a boy and Baby B is a girl.  They are very active- especially the boy.

It is very exciting and it has been a challenging journey but I will update you all very, very soon!