I'm so boring

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I haven't done anything *so* interesting in the last few days. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday--I gained 7 pounds in the last 3 weeks ICK! I think it was due to the Jewish holidays and rediculous amounts of unhealthy, fattening food. But, what can you do. I just have to watch myself to gain weight, but not go overboard. My fundal height is 20cm, which is equivalent to about 20 weeks in a singleton pregnancy and is perfect for where I am in my twin pregnancy (15 weeks). The babies heartbeats are going strong, and I can definitely feel them moving around in there. It's kinda creepy, actually. lol

I also got a flu shot. If you are pregnant or TTC, PLEASE go get a flu shot!! Some doctors don't want you to get one during 1st trimester, which is why I suggest it to my TTCers as well. If you have some time to go before you hit 2nd tri, definitely ask the doc what you should do. The flu is NOT FUN and isn't good for your baby either. And the immunization is safe!!

This past Sunday I spent all day with my friend Melanie--first playing an awesome computer game and then watching "Iron Man" with her and her family. Movie was ok, but I would rather have spent those 2 1/2 hours playing more of the computer game. lol I'm such a NERD!

Grosgrain Mini Store

While wandering around blog-land, I discovered Grosgrain Mini Store. This person does giveaways and is opening an online clothing store for children. Best part is, her stuff is tznius (modest) and could be worn (in a few years) if I have a daughter!!! I LOVE IT! Go check them out!

Ultrasound

The ultrasound today went very well. They didn't take CRL measurements because the ultrasound was mainly to check my cervix, but I did get good pictures of the twins. :-)

This is a picture of Baby A


This is one of Baby B's profile


Here you can see Baby A from a side view--check out that arm! (You can even see the little one's right ear if you look closely!)


Here baby A is covering his/her ear with his/her hand


Here you can see Baby A sucking his/her thumb


Here's a front shot of Baby B...his hand is near his mouth, or maybe wiping his nose haha


And here you can also see Baby B sucking his thumb


In case you didn't notice my captions, we did find out that Baby B is a boy!! The jury is still out about Baby A, but I personally think it's a girl--because we just didn't see the same...errr...appendage on Baby A. :-)

14 weeks!

Sorry that I've been so out of touch, but there were more Jewish holidays! From Monday night to Tuesday night was Shmini Atzeres and Tuesday night to Wednesday night was Simchas Torah. I won't go into details, but it basically meant I couldn't post updates. :-) In any case, I did just update my belly pic and tomorrow I have another ultrasound, so hopefully I'll get pictures from that to post as well.

One thing I forgot to tell you about my ultrasound from last Friday is that they found that Baby A's placenta is previa. Only the very edge of it is covering the cervix, which means that as the babies and my uterus grows, Baby A's placenta should move up higher in the uterus and not be covering the cervix at all by the time they are ready to be born.

I have definitely been feeling the twins the last few days (which shows me that I am right in saying I've been feeling them since 12 weeks, because it's the same feeling except more often and with other feelings as well). One of them was dancing around last night while I was at synagogue watching the men dance and sing, so I guess that baby felt a bit left out and wanted to dance. This morning they were both active during the Torah reading, which was very cute. :-)

2nd Trimester

The most conservative opinion as to when 2nd trimester begins is 13w 4d (today). So, I am now 100% officially in 2nd trimester (even though I've been assuming 2nd trimester status since 12 weeks lol)!!! WOO HOO!

I had an impromptu ultrasound yesterday, because I felt some pressure on my cervix and wanted to get it checked out pronto. Because it was impromptu, I didn't get any pictures or official measurements. All I can say is that my cervix is beautiful--not thinning nor opening and the babies are growing beautifully. Baby A is measuring a day behind (as he/she has been pretty much the whole time, so no surprise there) and Baby B is measuring 5 days ahead (yeesh). I've decided that Baby A has my genes and Baby B has my hubby's...I'm only 4'11", so the baby who's measuring ahead can't possibly be taking after me. lol

And the funny comment of the day was made by me during my ultrasound yesterday. I was looking at the screen and wondering why there was this HUGE bulge that seemed to be squishing one of the twins. So I nervously asked the ultrasound tech what on earth was bulging in my uterus, fearing there was something horrible in there...her answer? The baby's placenta. :-) Heh whoops! Guess I'd better stick to my day job.

Give Some Love

Please head over and give my friend Blue some love. She just found out that one of her twins stopped growing around 11 weeks (she's now about 13 weeks). Thank G-d the other twin is healthy, but it is still a loss and still very sad.

In other news, I think I'm starting to feel the twins bouncing around in there. Every few days (starting around 12 weeks) I feel this buzzing or vibrating sensation inside my belly/pelvis. I wasn't sure the first few times, but after asking women who've been pregnant before (and of course the fact that it's now happened at least 4 times...), I'm pretty sure it must be the babies. :-)

Belly Pics

I finally found the cable for my digital camera, so I uploaded my 12 week picture. You can see it under the baby widgets on the right-hand side of this page. If you click on the picture, it will take you to a webpage with progressive pictures--although right now it only has the one picture. :-) Enjoy!!!

P.S. Thank you to Margelina for specifically requesting this. It got me off of my tush to go looking for the cable this morning.

Ultrasound Pics

I actually got my scanner to work!!! So here are the pictures of Peanut Butter and Jelly for all to see...

First is a picture of Baby A's measurement (perfect for 12 weeks)


Next is, of course, Baby B's measurement (measuring ahead at 12w 4d)


This is a cute 3D picture of Baby A. You can see the head towards the middle of the picture and a hand right below it.


This is an even better 3D picture of Baby B. You can see the whole face, although it's covered by his/her hands! :-)


Here I am speculating about Baby A's gender. Baby A is the one on the right, and I believe it's looking right at the butt with his/her legs in the air. If so, I don't see any evidence of "boy parts" in between this baby's legs...


And now we can speculate about Baby B's privates. :-) Baby B is the one on the bottom. And you can clearly see this baby's face, so we know we're looking right between the legs. Do you see what I see??? Baby B has something that Baby A doesn't... Possibly "boy parts"??


In other news, my mom, her boyfriend and I went to Babies R Us to start registering for stuff for the twins, so I'll add a link to the registry on the right side of the page. More (less expensive) stuff will be added soon, but we concentrated on the "big stuff" today.

My mom also had the strangest thing happen, that I really must relate to you all. There is an amazing woman that lives in Rochester. Her husband is Rabbi H, one of the teachers at Hebrew School I went to and I always LOVED his classes. Mrs. H says tehillim (Psalms) every day for people who are sick, looking for a spouse, trying to have children, etc. She also is know to have a direct connection to G-d. Now I always thought this was a bit of a joke, but I'm convinced of it now. She knew that we had been trying to get pregnant and she had been saying tehillim for me for a while. She left my mother a message on her answering machine the other day that basically said "Elana's going to get pregnant and she's going to have twins". Now, there is no way that she would have gotten this information from any human...she doesn't have much contact with anyone except G-d! And you have to be really, really positive to leave that kind of message for someone. My mother called her back and basically said "Well, Mrs. H, you're right!" lol How spooky?!?!

Yom Kippur

Today was Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Repentance. It's a day when people generally spend the entirety of it at the synagogue praying for forgiveness and promising full repentance for all of their sins. Besides this, you are required to fast for the entire day...25 hours total. This isn't something that I can do even when I'm not pregnant, and especially not now that I am pregnant. So I asked the Rabbi what to do--seeing as my doctor basically told me that I'm not allowed to fast, but the punishment from G-d for not fasting the whole day is basically death. Now, there are allowances for people who are sick--because G-d really doesn't want you to die from fasting. If you seriously think you will die, you are allowed to eat without punishment from G-d. But most of the time, people do not become deathly ill from fasting for 25 hours. Women who have recently given birth (from beginning of labor until a week after the baby is born) are completely excused from the fast. Pregnant women, however, generally aren't. In any case, there are ways to get around the Jewish definition of "eating" (provided you have permission from your Rabbi to do this...). If you eat less than 1 oz. of food at least 9 minutes apart, you technically didn't eat. If you drink less than half a mouthful of liquid at least 9 minutes apart, you technically didn't drink anything. You can do this all day (as I did), never get hungry or thirsty and make sure that the babies are well nourished. I still got a headache, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, and I don't have to worry that I was starving the twins. :-) So, I stayed home all day instead of going to the synagogue, and my husband did the praying. According to the Rabbis, fasting on Yom Kippur is way more important than going to synagogue and praying, so the fact that I could make it through the whole day without technically eating or drinking, meant that I did the right thing. Had I tried to fast, gone to synagogue, and then had to break it in the middle, that would have been much, much less preferable. I made it!!

Ultrasound

I had my neuchal translucency today and they also took blood for a sequential screen. Baby A measured 5.32cm (12w 0d), had a heart rate of 161bpm and the neuchal fold measured .84mm. Baby B measured 5.99cm (12w 4d), had a heart rate of 143bpm and the neuchal fold measured .78mm. All measurements are normal (including the neuchal folds), and baby B is even measuring a few days ahead! No idea about gender yet...and I can't put pictures up because the USB cable to my scanner decided to die. So I ordered a wireless card for the printer so I don't have to deal with my idiotic USB ports any longer. I will post the pics when the wireless card arrives.

As for the ultrasound, baby A didn't move around too much, but baby B was really having a good time. He/she was bouncing around and even looked like he/she was sucking his/her thumb! Very, very cute! Baby B has a bigger nose than baby A...that was kinda neat to see. And they have all the parts they're supposed to (and no extras lol)!

Update

The doctor's appointment went well. She found the heartbeats and said my uterus is almost all the way up to my belly button and measuring for 16 weeks (which is about right since a 16 week baby is about 5-6 inches and my babies are about 2.5 inches each). My blood pressure was bad when the tech took it, but good when the doc took it. So the doc will probably always be the one to take my blood pressure from now on. And I made my next appointment for 3 weeks from now. Tomorrow's the ultrasound and I'm REALLY excited for it!

I had a TON of fun at King Richard's Faire yesterday with my best friend. We got to see all sorts of acts (The "Mud" Show, a juggler/fire eater, a magician, a joust, etc.) and peruse the various booths. I even bought a puzzle ring which comes apart and is a puzzle to put back together. I had one almost identical to it in high school but lost it, so I'm glad to have a new one!

Today I also had a great conversation with someone in the benefits office for Citizens Bank. I will qualify for short-term disability when I go on bed rest, and that also continues for about 6-8 weeks after the babies are born because recovery from birth counts even after you're discharged. Secondly, even though I don’t qualify for the federal FMLA leave (because I won’t have been working at Citizens for a year prior to needing it), I do qualify for Massachusetts’ FMLA leave. In MA, you get 8 weeks leave PER CHILD starting when they're born (making 16 weeks for me). While I’m out on short-term disability and then FMLA, my time with the bank still accrues, so in June it will seem as if I’ve been working there for a full 12 months, even if I go out on leave several months prior. Once that happens, federal FMLA kicks in, MA FMLA kicks out, and I get 12 weeks starting from that date. Unfortunately, I don’t get paid except for the first 6-8 weeks after the babies are born, but at least I have job security and enough time to spend breastfeeding that it won’t be a big deal when I do go back to work. Man, I love this state!

Response

I wanted to respond to someone's comment on my Thursday post. I did not mean that everyone needs to do something or not do something in particular in order to merit this type of blessing--or any blessing, for that matter. I just meant that for me, I think that is where the merit came from. In Judaism we talk about "having the merit" for many, many things--finding a spouse, having children, building a home. For example, when someone gets married we always say "May you have the merit to build a house of belief in Israel" (not the country; the saying is referring to the Jewish people as an entity). In Judaism we also recognize that ALL of the fore-mothers and some other noteable Bibilical women (Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Hannah to name a few) all suffered from infertility...and these were THE most holy women EVER. How could anyone imagine that they needed to do anything to merit children? But G-d wanted to hear their prayers and, at least in the case of Rachel, she did do something to merit having children. My husband actually told me this story just a few days ago and I would like to relate it. Basically, it was supposed to be Rachel's fate to not have any children--that was just G-d's will. But when she found out that she was being replaced by Leah when she was supposed to be marrying Jacob, she did the most selfless thing she could. She gave Leah the signals that she was planning to use so Jacob would know (ie think) it was her on the wedding night. Rachel didn't know that Jacob would work another 7 years and then eventually marry her, so by giving up what she thought would be her only chance at having children and marrying the man that she loved, she actually gained the merit for G-d to overturn her fate and give her children. She did struggle for many, many years to have children even after she was married, but she did, in the end, have two boys. Again, I'm not saying that people should go looking for something to do so that G-d will grant them children. Not everyone needs that. But I hope it will give someone hope that G-d can change his decrees, that merit comes in all different ways, and that even the most holy and pure of women still struggled to bear children--so we are all in very, very good company on that front.

P.S. And I definitely hope I didn't offend anyone by my Thursday post or by this post.

Readers?

What in the universe happened to my readers? I've had one comment in the last week (thank you, Nancy), and I post a very commentable post on Thursday and it's as if no one's read it. Did all my readers up and leave? I know my posts aren't SO interesting, but there are some bloggers who get 20+ comments on EVERY post...so it hurts to see a big fat zero. I like to know I have readers that care and even though I definitely don't post comments on every post of every blog that I read, I definitely comment when there's something to say--and to make sure that person knows I still read and still care. Is there anyone else out there in blog world?? Any requests on more things you'd like me to talk about so that my readers feel engaged and want to post? Any tips on getting more readers?

In other news, I'm going to King Richard's Faire tomorrow with my best friend and I'm really psyched. Will definitely post about that tomorrow. I do have a doctor's appointment on Monday and my neuchal translucency is on Tuesday, so I will also update about those on their respective days.

Unconditionally Happy

I finally figured out how I had the zechus (merit) to get pregnant with these miracle babies. There is a very lovely couple in my community who tried for many, many years to get pregnant and eventually did have two boys (not twins). Those boys are now grown up and living out of town. One of their two boys has three children B"H, but the other has had trouble conceiving ever since he was married several years ago. I felt so deeply about this couple because they had to watch his brother have child after child without being blessed themselves--and of course I knew how they felt in terms of not being able to get pregnant. I don't know exacly what their journey entailed, but I do know that surgery was involved. In any case, I found out that they were pregnant right when I was starting my IVF cycle BCPs. When his mother told me, I was so happy that I stood there and started to cry. For the first time, I was honestly 100% truly happy for someone who had become pregnant. I also found out that they had gotten pregnant right after I had back in January, so I basically told myself that if I needed to miscarry in order for them to become pregnant, then so be it. And THAT is how I believe I had the zechus (merit) for G-d to give me these miracles. B"H This couple had a beautiful (full-term) baby boy today!!!

Happy New Year!

The past two days I've been celebrating the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana. For those of you who do not know what this is, I'll give you a overview. The Jewish New Year begins on the 1st of the month of Tishrei, which is generally sometime in September or October. Because Jewish months follow a lunar calendar, a leap month is added every few years to make sure that the holidays stay in their proper season and the dates only line up to the same "secular" date about every 19 years. (e.g. My birthday is the 29th of Av in the Hebrew calendar and August 8th in the secular calendar but they only line up about every 19 years) In any case, Rosh Hashana is a BIG DEAL in terms of holidays. Even though Yom Kippur (which is next week) is thought of as the "Day of Judgement," Rosh Hashana is also a day of judgement as well--perhaps even moreso. So, we spend two days praying (services went from 7:30am to 2:00pm both yesterday and today, and that was only the morning services...) and hope that we end up with a good verdict.