Getting Bigger

I posted my 30 week belly pic! At my sister's request, I'll start posting new pics every week. :-)

Speaking of 30 weeks, here are the updated survival rates & complications statistics:

Survival: 93%
Respiratory Distress Syndrome: 55%
Intraventricular Hemorrhage: 2%
Sepsis: 11%
Necrotizing Enterocolitis: 15%
Intact, long-term survival: 90%

This was my OB's short term goal, so I'm pretty ecstatic to have made it this far. Now if we can just get to 37 weeks!

M*A*S*H

I don't have cable, so my TV programming is pretty limited. But since I got a vcr/dvd player with a digital tuner, I can watch all of the free digital channels! More choices, but not all great. Apparently, however, there's a channel called the "Ion" network which airs M*A*S*H sometimes, and tonight it was on for about 6 hours straight. Oh it was a beautiful thing to behold. I wish there was a 24 hour M*A*S*H channel... I'd never sleep! :-) Best.Show.Ever.

P.S. M*A*S*H went off the air 6 months before I was born, so I didn't see any of it the first time around.

P.P.S. I would rather watch M*A*S*H than do nearly anything else.

P.P.P.S. Everyone go send a BIG congrats to The Captain's Wife who had her baby girl today!!! (At 41 weeks...urgh)

Bathroom

When my father A"H was sick, he used to track on a piece of paper every time he went to the bathroom. He had bladder cancer along with kidney issues, so he used the bathroom quite frequently. Last night I woke up to use the bathroom at least 3 or 4 times, so it reminded me of this. And when I'm awake, with Baby A pressing on my bladder, I have to go every time I stand up. I guess my body is just prepping me for feeding every two hours once the babies arrive. Now I know how my mother felt searching for a bathroom at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier 30+ years ago. I think I'd freak out if I went somewhere and they didn't have a "public" bathroom. Good thing I'm on bed rest where there's always a bathroom nearby!

I think I forgot to update you all on my cervix check. It's actually looking better than it has since I got the cerclage in--measuring between 1.9 and 2 cm. And that's even after decreasing my progesterone supplement by half (on doctors orders, of course). Go me! If it wasn't so slippery outside, I'd ask the doctor for permission to go out and do something fun, but I'm not taking any chances with snow and ice. It's good to have an excuse not to brave the cold.

Big, Fat Babies!

Well, maybe they're not *so* big and fat, but it's good enough for me. Their measurements are a day or so behind (meaning they're measuring for 29w 1d and 29w 0d instead of 29w 2d), but that's totally fine. They are twins, after all. But their measurements are nearly equal, and they both are estimated to weigh 2lbs 15oz--which is actually more than I was expecting. The funny thing is that of all the parts of their body that were measured, the only ones that are measuring larger than average are their femurs (leg bones)...and for anyone that knows me, that's pretty shocking. Even better is that Baby A (the girl) has a slightly longer femur than Baby B (the boy). hehe Hopefully they'll take after their Daddy and not be ridiculously short!! Honestly, though, the best part is the fact that they are measuring so closely to one another. One of the big fears with twins is that one will grow much larger than the other (or even steal nutrients from the other). I am sooooooo lucky!

Sorry to Keep Bringing This Up

I know the octuplet mom is the only thing I've talked about in the last week, but I just have to tell you what I heard on the news this morning. Her publicist said something that made me go "you obviously have no idea what you're talking about". She basically said that with IVF you can't control how many babies you get. I was like "errr, IVF is the BEST way to control how many babies you get. Put in two embryos, and your chances of having more than two is slim to none." It made me so mad, because anyone who does not have experience with IVF might actually think the publicist knew what she was talking about and now thinks the risks of having crazy numbers of multiples with IVF is very high. *sigh* When will these people learn?

In other news, I have my next prenatal appointment and ultrasound tomorrow! They should do measurements, so we should be able to see how much the twins have grown and approximately how much they weigh. Should be close to 3lbs now! It feels like my belly weighs 20lbs, though. I'm also not worried about the weigh-in tomorrow, because so far I've been right on track this week. Woooo!

Octuplet Mom Needs Help

Thanks to my mom for finding this article. As it turns out, the mother of the octuplets needs some major psychiatric help. (And apparently, so does her doctor.) I honestly can't believe it. Here's the article: CLICK ME

1 Year

That's right, folks. It's been exactly one year since my miscarriage. Since I had about 4 days prior notice, by the time Feb 1 rolled around I was actually relieved to be bleeding. I was afraid it might not happen on its own and I'd need a D&C. B"H Everything happened on its own, and because I was so early (5w 5d) it really was just like a slightly heavier regular period...with small uterine contractions. Had I not known about the pregnancy, I could totally imagine not realizing it was a miscarriage.

I actually "got over" the fact that I had miscarried rather quickly. Although I was completely and utterly devastated, I eventually realized that it was not meant to be. I was also told varying things about Judaism's thoughts on miscarriage, and they were all so helpful. I was so glad that I had finally gotten pregnant, but then I worried that it was just a fluke...that I might not get pregnant again, or that I'd just keep miscarrying. B"H Neither of those thoughts were correct.

So, here I am. 1 year later. At this point last year, I never could have imagined I'd be in my 3rd trimester with twins. And had you told me, I would've laughed in your face. :-)