Final Ultrasound

I made it! We had our last ultrasound today and everything looks perfect. The baby is measuring exactly 3 lbs, which is about 5 days behind schedule. My cervix is also fantastic, still measuring over 3.5cm. WOO HOO!!!! My cervix is officially competent. Here's our final ultrasound picture...it's a profile shot.  You can see her nose around the middle of the screen with her lips just below.  And her hand is to the left of that.

Hello Again

Hi all! So sorry I've completely neglected you for the past few weeks, but with the Jewish holidays all falling on Thursday and Friday, it's been very hectic. Things here are doing well, though. We've all had colds this past week, which was not fun, but noses are slowly becoming unstuffed and tissue usage has gone down significantly. :-)

The twins are saying new words almost every day, and I'm making pages specifically to document what things they're saying and when they started (sort of). Here are the links to them for your viewing pleasure:

Chana's Word Page
Dovid's Word Page

Dovid is also now climbing all over everything: on the musical table, into a child's shopping cart, onto adult chairs, up stairs, etc. Chana is still terrified of stairs and won't climb up. *sigh*

Baby #3 is also doing well, growing and squirming around. At our last ultrasound (Wednesday) she was measuring still about a week behind schedule and around 1 1/2 lbs. My cervix is still hanging in at around 3.5 cm! But this is where I start to get nervous, because the twins were each just under a pound when my cervix started opening the last time. So if something bad is going to happen with my cervix, it's going to probably happen now. This next ultrasound (in a week and a half) will be the most important yet. After that, it should be smooooth sailing until delivery IY"H.

I totally missed the 25 week update on chances of complications, but here is the one for 26 weeks:

Survival: 75% (way up from 40% two weeks ago)
Respiratory Distress Syndrome: 93%
Intraventricular Hemorrhage: 30%
Sepsis: 30%
Necrotizing Enterocolitis: 11%
Intact, long-term survival: 60% (waaaay up from 5% two weeks ago)

Now don't forget, for both of the survival statistics that's the percentage that will survive. For the other complications it's the percentage that will NOT have that particular complication.

So everything is looking good!!

Ultrasound Update

The ultrasound yesterday went really well. My cervix is holding out at 3.15cm with no funneling, which is fantastic. Yippee!!! The baby is still measuring about a week behind, but at least she hasn't lost any more days of growth. She's measuring in the 28th percentile, and as long as she stays on her curve then the doctors aren't worried. I actually *really* like the MFM doctor I saw yesterday...so much better than the other two. He was smiling, he explained everything and then suggested I come back in 2 weeks for another check without me asking for it. Finally, someone who will keep checking me without thinking I'm nuts!! :-) Sorry that there aren't any pictures, but the baby is breech with her face towards my back...so the only pics we got were of her feet (legs crossed like a lady) and the back of her head.

I used this chart (at the middle of the page) that shows the survival rates, among other things, for preterm babies during my last pregnancy, so I figured I would post again during this one. Now of course there's no reason why I'm not 100% confident that this baby will be born full term (unlike with the twins where I had no idea when I was going to deliver and knew I'd never make it to 37 weeks), but it's fun for me to see every week just how much better of a chance my baby has of coming home healthy.

So, without further ado...at 24 weeks a baby born has the following chances of complications:

Survival: 40%
Respiratory Distress Syndrome: 70%
Intraventricular Hemorrhage: 25%
Sepsis: 25%
Necrotizing Enterocolitis: 8%
Intact, long-term survival: 5%

So yeah, 24 weeks is not the best time to be born...obviously. Even though the survival rate is ok, the intact long-term survival rate is abysmal. Also, since my little girl is measuring a week behind it means that she'd be smaller than the average 24 weeker. Good thing I'm not planning to deliver for at least another 13 weeks!! (And more preferably 14 weeks since I need to get through finals first...)

I'll make sure to post my belly pic later...

Newest Belly Pic

This won't be a long belly update post, since I don't think it's really changed much in the last two weeks.

We have 20 weeks on the left and 22 weeks on the right.



If anything, I think I shrunk a teensy bit! lol What can you do...at least maybe now I'll take some time to catch up with my twin pregnant self.

In other news, Dovid is sick again...fever, vomiting, the works. Poor little dude! And I had a great appointment with the midwife. She agrees with the MFM doctor that my cervix length is normal and that every baby grows differently, but she agrees with me that we need to keep watching it just to make sure everything really is 100% ok. Honestly, I hope this midwife (Lila) delivers me, because I love her!!!! She's even supportive of me doing placenta encapsulation. In fact, she was excited that I'm doing it. Honestly, my old OB would have probably vomited on the floor and here's my midwife doing jumping jacks because I'm doing this. Awesomeness!!!! My next appt will be with the OB again because the last appt with the OB got cut short, and I'll also have my GD test as well. Fun times!

Today's Ultrasound

I had an interesting ultrasound today. My cervix is shorter than it has been in previous weeks, now holding out at around 3cm (when it was previously 4cm). But, it's not funneling and the MFM doctor isn't worried. I personally want to keep watching it even though the doctor isn't concerned. I mean, it changed a lot in 10 days, and it's better to be safe than sorry, you know? I'm hoping it's nothing, because I really can't afford to go on bed rest, and I REALLY don't want to get another cerclage.

The baby is doing great, but still measuring behind (and even lost another day of growth). She's about 7-8 days behind due date at this point, which is up from being 6 days behind at our last scan. Honestly, I can't even imagine why she's not growing fast enough because I'm sure eating for two. lol The twins never measured this far behind...ever. Very bizarre, but again the MFM doctor isn't concerned. I'm not really pleased about this as I'd much rather prefer an MFM doctor who investigates when things aren't quite right. She's been losing growth at every scan, so why is he ignoring this fact?

Anyways, I have an appointment with the midwife on Thursday, so I'll talk to her about it and see what she thinks about both my cervix and the growth of the baby. Wish me luck!

(Sorry, no pictures...they didn't print me any.)

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.

Pediatrician

The twins had their 4 month checkup today. Chana is a little chunker and gained about 4.25 lbs in 2 months. Dovid gained 3.5 lbs in the same 2 months. What's even funnier, is that when they weighed in at one point in June, Dovid was 9.5 oz larger than Chana. Heh oops! So, they took Chana off of the preemie formula (so she doesn't get *too* fat), but they want Dovid to concentrate more preemie formula powder per oz of water, because he doesn't like to drink more than 18 oz per day. Chana is also a half inch taller than Dovid. They're actually doing perfectly in terms of weight gain and growing taller.

Chana is now in the 34th percentile for weight, 45th percentile for height (which is amazing, seeing as how she was a preemie and she's MY daughter...I was like in the negative percentile for height my whole life...still am!), and 8th percentile for head circumference. Dovid is in the 4th percentile for weight, 8th percentile for height, and less than 3rd percentile for head circumference. He's my little boy... :-) But, he's always been in the low percentiles and hopefully with adding more powder to his formula he'll start to grow better. He doesn't look malnourished or teeny!!!

They also got their 4 month shots....ouchies! Even though I gave them some infant tylenol over a 1/2 hour before the shots, they still screamed as if I had cut their legs off. Sheesh! It's not *that* bad, is it?

Update: I forgot to add that Dovid learned how to roll from his front to back!!! Last night I knew he was sleeping on his tummy, as always, and then later on I went to check on him and he was on his back!!! Go Dovid! You may be small, but developmentally you are right on!

Babies are Funny

My daughter likes to grab her pacifier while she is sucking on it. It's very cute and I'm convinced she's now doing it on purpose (because I've caught her doing it numerous times). The problem is that she doesn't have such good coordination (being a baby and all), so when she pulls her hand away, there goes the paci. Whoops! Unfortunately she also doesn't know how to put it back in so Mommy has to rescue the paci and put it back in.

My son did something completely by accident that was equally as funny. My husband heard him crying and went in to see what he needed. When my husband reached my son, he heard the mobile over the vibrating seat playing a song. Dovid had accidentally pulled the ring that makes the music play. tee hee

Baby Burps

Anyone who ever told you that babies are unable to burp on their own (which is why you need to burp after every feeding) is totally mistaken. My twins have been known to burp while on the breast! It's a bit strange to be watching them suckling and then all of a sudden--BRAAAAP. hehe Half the time you sit them up right after a feeding and they'll let one fly before you've even touched their back. I dunno...maybe they're just baby geniuses. lol

We also discovered that my daughter is holding her head up. Don't ask me how, seeing as she's only 3 1/2 weeks old, but maybe it's because her head doesn't weigh too much yet. :-)

I started taking fenugreek to increase my milk supply. Because I don't do night feedings (my mother, mother-in-law and sister-in-law are SAINTS), I can go 10 hours without feeding them...and I think it was affecting my supply. For the last few days they would take over an hour to feed, still be hungry when we tried to put them down and then would be hungry an hour later. Today they eat for 20 mins, fall right to sleep and aren't hungry for 2 hours. Maybe they were just having a growth spurt, but I'm hoping it was a milk supply issue that is now resolved. :-)