Birthday Present

I've been sooo bad about posting. Sorry about that! The twins had an evaluation with speech and audiology. The audiologist says that both of them hear perfectly. The speech person says that they're both at a 9-10 month level of cognition/understanding language, so of course they can't talk. You can't talk about things you don't understand, and you understand a lot more than you can talk about. Think of it like this, when you learn a second language it's a lot easier to understand what someone is saying than to actually speak, right? It's the same with babies. She said that we need to have Early Intervention come for an hour of therapy once a week for EACH of the twins. (So that's really two hours a week) That's the minimum...she'd love for more. She also wants to see Dovid in two weeks for a feeding evaluation because he's a skinny boy that hates eating. That should be fun. :-)

Now then, today is Auntie Beh's birthday! I'm not going to tell you how old she is today because she'd probably kill me. Anyway, in honor of Auntie Beh's birthday, I present to you a video I like to call "Dovid and the Mailbox". This was taped today! He received the mailbox from Grandma Peggy (that's my mom) as a present the last time she was in town a few weeks ago, and he *just* learned how to use it this week. This was a huge fine motor skill success. Enjoy!

Belly!!!

New belly pic is up, and I want to do another comparison for you guys. (14 weeks on the left, 16 weeks on the right)


I think I only got a smidgen bigger, if at all. Well, I know I got a tiny bit bigger because I measured...but only a little bit. Yay, it's slowing down!

Here's a comparison with the last pregnancy. (18 weeks last preg on the left, 16 weeks this preg in the middle, 20 weeks last preg on the right)

I think I definitely look like my 18 week picture from last time, and I think the 20 week picture is even smaller than 18 weeks if that's possible. lol But anyway, it does seem to be slowing down since at 14 weeks I looked just about the same (as we can see.) Baby is growing perfectly, so no worries there!

Happy Blogoversary to Me!!

Wow, can you believe it's been two years since I started this blog? And what a two years it has been. When I first started the blog I was in the midst of my first IVF cycle which gave me my twins. This year, I'm in the midst of a pregnancy that's a miracle I thought never would happen. Thank G-d that this pregnancy is going so well...I have been so spoiled, and I am grateful every day. Check out my previous post for ultrasound updates.

Ultrasound!

I had my first cervix check ultrasound today, and everything looks great. My cervix is holding at 4cm (woo hoo), and the baby is growing, too. The baby seems to be measuring on target or maybe a day or two behind, which isn't a problem. He/she already weighs about 4oz and had a heart beat today of 151bpm. So far, so good! And, without further ado, the pictures.

Cute, eh? Silly baby's foot was hiding "the goods," so no idea about sex yet. *sigh* Well, at least I'll be back there in 2 1/2 weeks for the "big" ultrasound. Maybe baby just wanted Daddy to be there when we find out.

So Sick

I have a cold. My nose is partially stuffed, I'm coughing up phlegm (yum) and I am PRAYING that I don't also catch what my boss is now out with. That's right. My boss (poor sweetie) called in sick to work today because she's out with what sounds like the stomach flu (fever, vomiting, aches, ack!) As long as what I have remains a cold, I will be just fine. But my whole house is sick--except the twins so far. Shmuel has this cold, Ziva has it, and I have it. But if we all came down with what my boss has, oh goodness it would be really really bad. Just what we need is the whole house fighting for toilets and no one to take care of the twins. So yeah, send me some healthy vibes and a few extra white blood cells too. lol

Bad Dreams

I had the most awful, terrifying, horrible nightmare ever last night. You know how pregnancy can make dreams more intense? And you know how dreams play on your subconscious feelings and fears? Yeah, well this nightmare was a nightmare to end ALL nightmares! Thank G-d it was just a "dream". Ok, I know you're all curious now, so I'll tell you, but first I'm saying a big "pooh pooh" that this should never, ever happen (G-d forbid a million times over) and just because I dreamed it doesn't mean anything.

It took place in a hospital. I noticed that I was bleeding, like heavy, and I was quite freaked out. I kept wandering the hospital going from place to place as the doctors were trying to figure out where I would have an ultrasound. (You know how dreams go...they don't make much sense.) Anyways, I got in for the ultrasound and you could see the baby floating around in there. There was no heart beat (pooh pooh!!!) but for some reason it looked to me to still be moving (bouncing around, flailing arms, etc.) In my dream I was screaming "NO! NO! NO!" And then I woke up. You know how sometimes you wake up all of a sudden and you feel like you fell into the bed? It was like that...and I was in a cold sweat. I knew it wasn't real, but I was still pretty freaked out. I went to the bathroom (not actually to check for bleeding...it's because my bladder was full!) and then went back to bed. I did have a "part 2" of the dream where I was back in the hospital, but I can't really remember anything from that one.

In any case, even though I knew all was ok, I still checked the baby's heartbeat when I got back from school. And there it was, beating away like usual at 153bpm. I know that the miscarriage risk for someone at almost 15 weeks is pretty low, but I guess deep down the fear is always there, especially when you have a history of cervical issues. Thank goodness I have an ultrasound next week so we can start checking up on that. Wow, does that bring back memories... :-)

Good Golly, It's Actually Bigger!

I thought for sure my belly wouldn't have changed as much from 12 weeks to now, but for goodness sake it has!! Look at this (12 weeks on left, 14 weeks on right):



I mean really, people...if I continue like this then I'm going to look BIGGER than I did with the twins when I hit 40 weeks, and that's just not possible. lol I'm sure this has to slow down sometime, right? At 12 and 14 weeks with the twins, I was so much smaller. Look! (12 weeks on left, 14 weeks on right)



I started off looking like between my 14 or 16 week picture from last time. Check it out (14 weeks with twins on left, 12 weeks this pregnancy in middle, 16 weeks with twins on right):



I think I currently more resemble my 18 week picture from the twins. (18 weeks with twins on left, 14 weeks this pregnancy on right)


Geepers, I'm gonna be huge, and I'm still in awe that my belly is actually growing. It's so hard to see from day to day that it's getting bigger, but the pictures totally prove it. I'm growing something!! lol

Midwife Appointment

I saw the midwife today, and it was awesome! My hubby got to come along, too, which was cool. I talked to the midwife about doing a VBAC. She had read the surgical notes and 100% agreed with me that VBAC was the way to go. (Yipee!) She said that the prior C-Section was totally fine and that the placental abruption was probably a "twin thing". (That's what I thought too.) She also assured me that we would do ultrasound cervical checks for as long as I wanted to, since we don't have a clear idea of whether or not my cervix is truly incompetent and when it might start to funnel (if at all). This way we will catch something if it happens early. Luckily, I don't have any history of pre-mature labor, since I didn't even really go into labor with the twins...although I might have been at 35 weeks, it doesn't count since that's in the normal range for twins. Also, the fact that I had no cervical change from 33 - 35 weeks with the twins (while holding out at 2 cm dilated) is a great sign. We also got to hear the baby's heart beat, which was a perfect 155bpm. All in all it was a fantastic appointment, and I am *so* glad that I'm switching over to the midwife practice.

Update from The Doc

I talked to the C-Section OB today. He was SO nice when he called, and talked to me for several minutes about my questions. Here's the scoop:

My C-Section incision is 100% normal. It's just like any other low transverse scar, and it doesn't extend outside of the normal range for that type of incision. So in terms of uterine rupture, my risk is no higher than any other woman doing a VBAC.

The vein that "sprung a leak" was not the uterine artery (hence it being a vein), and it was on the entire opposite side of the uterus from the incision. So that had nothing to do with my incision, and could've come from any number of places...he couldn't give me a straight answer because he had no idea where the "leak" came from, he just fixed it. :-)

Having had a placental abruption puts me at a higher risk for having another one, but I don't have any risk factors for abruptions with this pregnancy. In my last pregnancy the only risk factor I had was being pregnant with twins. I don't have that risk factor now, so I think my risk would be lower than any other woman who had a placental abruption with a singleton. The studies say the rate of recurrence is 10%, but mine is probably lower than that because I don't have any risk factors now (except of course the prior abruption). There is a higher risk of it happening during labor, since the uterus is contracting and all, but I would already be in the hospital and on monitors. I know what it felt like the last time, and with everyone watching me like a hawk they would probably catch it VERY quick. So, that's really the least of my worries.

Now that I have all of this info, I think VBAC is the best choice. Having a C-Section comes with its own bag of possible complications, especially when you have multiple C-Sections. Since I want to have a lot of kids, having several C-Sections would be *much* riskier than attempting (and hopefully being successful at) a VBAC. My risk for uterine rupture is as low as anyone else's, and that was my biggest worry. So with that gone, there's really nothing saying I shouldn't try it. I think you guys probably agree, right? :-)