Finally, a Belly Pic!

This won't be a long belly update post, since I have waaaaay too much to do today.

We have 22 weeks on the left and 28 weeks on the right.



As you can see, my belly hasn't changed all that much--if at all. My 28 week belly pic with the twins is gigantic, and much bigger than I look now... Hopefully I'll remember to take another one for you guys when I hit 30 weeks. :-)

Pregnancy Updates

I know what you all really want... You really want to see pictures of Baby #3, right? Ok, well she finally gave us a decent profile shot at today's ultrasound, so here you go!

Now for the updates. The ultrasound went very well! Her heart rate is 150bpm, which is normal and the same as always. The baby is growing, but still measuring just about a week behind. The good thing is that she's actually picking up days, so she's really measuring less than a week behind now. Yay! My cervix is still awesome at around 3.25cm. This means that we'll have one more ultrasound in two weeks, and if my cervix and the baby both look good then, we don't get any more ultrasounds. (At least not unless they want to do one for another reason in the coming weeks.)

I had my 1 hour gestational diabetes test and passed with flying colors. Woo hoo!!! They like to see results under 140 mg/dl, but under 130 mg/dl is even better. My level? 115 mg/dl!!! Go me! And the orange drink really wasn't all that bad. They also tested me for anemia. My hemoglobin is 10.6 g/dL, and my hematocrit is 32.5%. Both levels are slightly lower than they were at the end of August, but still not so bad. I could probably make them better by actually remembering to take my prenatal vitamin... :-)

The twins are saying more words, so I really need to update their word pages. They're also climbing stairs now!!! (They can only go up so far, but that's awesome because it means we don't have to carry them up stairs.) Very exciting!!

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!!

Really Super Cool Story

My Human Growth and Development professor had been out for the first two weeks of class, so today was the first time I got to meet him. He's a good teacher, and we had a great class. People were participating in discussions, it was lively, etc. He's also Black, like many of the teachers and most of the students at my school, but I couldn't tell what country he was from or even whether he was from Africa or maybe India or something. Anyways, after class I needed to tell the professor that I wouldn't be in class on Friday due to the Jewish holiday. I figured I'd get a questioning look and "what holiday is this and why do you need to be out?" Here's how it really played out:

"Hi. I just wanted you to know that I won't be in class on Friday because of the Jewish holiday."

"Oh, you're Jewish?"

"Yep."

"Wow, so am I!"

That was SOOOOO not what I was expecting. My jaw dropped to the floor and I said, "Really??"

So he asks me, "Do you know what a Falasha is?"

I reply that I do (it's an Ethiopian Jew), and he tells me that his mom is a Falasha (meaning he is) even though he doesn't really practice Judaism now. But of course that it's ok for me to miss class because he understands.

Wow...just wow. Flabbergasted and floored doesn't even cover it. I've actually always been fascinated by Black Jews (and even more especially Falashas), so this was even cooler than just having a regular old Jewish professor. So flipping amazing, and so fantastic. That was the shocker of the day, folks. :-)

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...

Geepers!

I've been neglecting you guys...so sorry! The twins are finally talking a bit, and it's so cute. Well, mostly cute. Here are some words that they say:

Chana
apple
up
down
head (sounds like at)
hi (sounds like ha-yee)
yeah (she says this whenever you ask a question...)
no
yummy (she repeats this one like "ummynummynummy...")
more (sounds like mo)
oh-oh (for uh oh)

Dovid
apple
up
no (he says this CONSTANTLY)
don't (he says this a lot, too)
eyes
oh-oh (for uh oh)

Some of the words still aren't used at the "appropriate" times, but others (like apple) they are 100% sure of. It is SOOOO cute! Dovid saying "no" 24/7, however, is the epitome of un-cute. lol It drives me crazy, and a lot of the time I don't know if he really means no or if he's just saying it cuz he can. Chana just says "yeah" after every question...I could ask her if she was Dovid and she'd say "yeah". Her inflection when saying it is like a question (intonation going up), which is kind of strange. But I am SUPER proud of them saying "apple". We actually had a Chinese pear at one of our meals, which looks and even tastes a little bit like an apple. I cut her a piece and gave it to her. After she took a bite, I asked her how she liked it and she said "apple". *melt* She also makes the sign language sign for "more" (and even sometimes does it when she says "more"). That is super awesome, although I don't think she 100% knows what "more" means yet. We'll get there. In the mean time, I am over the moon delighted that they are using words. WOOOOO!!

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!