10 & 11 Weeks

Friday, July 21 - 10w, 1 d

Here you can see my day-to-day belly

Ten weeks, it's hard to believe. I feel like summer just began. I feel like we just went through IVF. It also means that we're just two weeks out from spilling the beans about you, little bean, and your cousin! Although, around town, I haven't really been hiding it physically. Some of our friends know, and the most important people will find out your sister's birthday party, so who cares if people in town know - who are they going to tell?

This picture is cuter, but makes me look bigger than I am

Third pregnancy + CF belly + previously pregnant with twins = Big belly already (especially since I'm still in my first trimester). I don't care anymore. I'm just embracing it. I'm hoping that'll make me realize that this is real. 

I decided to do our belly pictures in front of your room. Then throughout the progression of the pregnancy, we can also see the progression of your room coming together. As you can see, right now it's a HOT mess, but this was taken yesterday. Since then I've taken all of my school stuff to my classroom yesterday, and took all of our left over garage sale stuff to charity today, so it's already a little clearer. Daddy has a lot of work to do, but we've got time. :)

Monday, July 24 - 10w, 4d

I've been feeling really good over the last few days. There are still some things that don't smell or look appetizing sometimes, but if I remember correctly, that's going to happen for a while. Other than that, I've been doing well. I'm working on keeping my sugars in check, which sometimes I'm better about than others.

I think deciding to do the pictures in front of your room, plus Anna's upcoming birthday party, really has motivated Daddy to start working on your room. We're going to move my desk to the basement, my treatments into the living room, and the butcher block table to either the shed or the basement. Once we do that, we can focus on your room. We (and by we, I really mean Daddy) need to removed the popcorn from the ceiling and fix the bulge/crack. Then we're going to add the same type of ceiling that's in Anna's room (white-washed something, I can't remember what it's called - that's been happening a lot lately). Daddy will also have to drywall over where the doorway used to be to the kitchen. He also wants to add access to the attic through your room, but it'll be closed off for now. Then comes the painting, decorating and organizing. He'll be quite busy, but I'm excited to see it several months from now! :) 

Tuesday, July 25 - 10w, 5d
I am getting really sick of these progesterone shots! Daddy's been giving me one every night for exactly two months now. My skin has been super sensitive to everything since getting pregnant, so it gets really irritated if I leave a band-aid on for too long. My right side has been bleeding a lot after the last few times, and my left side is itchy and irritated. We're getting so close to being done, I hope. The fertility clinic said August 4th (next Friday!) would be my last one, but I'll be double checking with MFM on Monday.

Sunday, July 30 - 11w, 3d
My appointment is tomorrow afternoon and I'm getting nervous & excited. I know that you'll start to look slightly more baby-like and I'm excited for Anna to see you. I don't think the nerves before each appointment will ever go away.

Monday, July 31 - 11w, 4d
Just got back from my doctors appointment. We did not have an ultrasound today, but we (Anna and I) were able to hear your heart beat through the Doppler. It was a nice, strong 180bpm and the nurse said that you were moving around a lot. She had to keep searching for you - she'd get your heart beat and then you'd move! It was reassuring the hear your heart beat, twice, as well as the nurse telling me that everything sounded great. She could hear some little bumps that she said was from you moving around, too. I'm glad you're active and I can't wait until I can start feeling it myself.

Today, I also got my blood drawn to check for chromosomal abnormalities. This is also the test that will tell us your gender! I was really hoping we'd have the results by Saturday to add in with our pregnancy announcement, but the results take 7-10 days to get back, so we'll find out next week. That's still exciting and I can't wait to know.

I forgot to ask about when I can stop my progesterone, so luckily I have one of the doctor's cell phone numbers - I just texted her to ask. The fertility clinic told me August 4 (this Friday) would be my last day, but I wanted to double check with MFM.

She just texted me back & I can stop on Friday, woo hoo!! Daddy's going to be so excited, too. That means, he's done 70 progesterone injections (and I've done one) since May 25th!!

I go back to the doctor in a month, at 16 weeks, but from there they will check me every two weeks, from 16-24 weeks to make sure that nothing is happening with my cervix. She said that since I didn't make it to 20 weeks with the twins, it's technically considered a miscarriage, but they're going to treat it like a previous preterm labor because it basically was. So they're going to be extra cautious and check me every two weeks for a while to make sure my cervix doesn't show any signs of shortening or opening. If it does, then there are options, but hopefully we won't have any issues -- but it's nice to know that they're planning on seeing me a lot and they were so nice today about telling me to call WHENEVER and if I ever have questions or issues.

10 & 11 Weeks

December 1 - 10 weeks!

Not much difference between this and eight weeks - but still difficult to hide!!

I'm ten weeks today and there's just something exciting about entering double digits! I am dying to tell everyone about BOTH of you, but I can't spill the beans just yet....but we're getting closer!! We're within two weeks of everyone knowing! I am SO excited for my ultrasound on Monday afternoon. You two are about the size of a Lego person this week and your arms/legs/joints are starting to move and bend - which I can't wait to see on the ultrasound. You're going to be so much more baby-like and much less blob-like! :)

As long as everything goes well on Monday, then on Tuesday I'm planning on taping our Christmas card to the board in the lounge, at school, where we put all of our announcements. It's getting extremely hard to hide my belly, and I'm pretty sure everyone at work is suspicious, but too afraid to ask! I'm going to ask them to keep it off social media until we mail the ones out to all family and friends on the 10th. 

The Christmas cards came in yesterday (two days early!) and they look great! I'm very pleased with how they turned out. I would have liked the fireplace picture to be bigger, but Daddy likes that you have to look at it closely to actually figure it out. It'll be so exciting to hear everyone's reactions and to see who actually notices. We're bringing two to Linda & Roger this weekend and I cannot wait to see their reaction!

December 6 - 10+6
Linda and Roger were very surprised! We had to ask them to look at the fireplace again because they didn't notice at first. Linda said NO WAY! And Roger said, No shit?! Then later he said, "Shit, I can't spoil three of them! :) That's the Roger answer I was expecting! :)

I had another ultrasound yesterday and you're both still in there! It seems silly now to think that you wouldn't be, but I just get worried. Everything looked good. They actually moved your due date up one day and I'm officially due June 28th - even though twins never make it to their due date.

I met with a new nurse practitioner at the MFM office yesterday who was fantastic! She answered all of my questions and we talked about a lot of things. You two are "Di Di" twins which means you each have your own sack and your own placenta. The NP told me this is the best kind of twins to have because you're at a lot less risk. You don't share a blood flow, or a placenta. You're each growing individually of each other, which means we most likely won't have to deal with one twin being the "bigger/dominant" twin. That really helped put my mind at ease. She also informed me that the national average for twin delivery is between 35 and 36 weeks, although 37 weeks is considered full term. She said they'll closely monitor you guys and me, and obviously right now there's no telling how long you'll be in there.
With a twin pregnancy, I'm at a higher risk for pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure) and gestational diabetes (the CF puts me at high risk, then the two placentas - she said it's a "triple-whammy"). These are things that they will closely monitor me for and we'll adjust accordingly. If I delivered around 36 weeks, that puts me at the very end of May/beginning of June. I just hope I can make it through the end of the school year!

December 13 - 11+6
The word is spreading quickly!!! We dropped our Christmas cards in the mail on Friday evening and people received them very quickly (yesterday was Monday). Lots of messages and texts with surprised notes! It's been so fun! Grandma Dorothy is VERY EXCITED to watch two babies and she is definitely not bailing on us! :)

The day after my doctor appointment, I put our Christmas card up in the lounge at school. I made sure to get their early so most people would see it as they came in in the morning. All it took was for a couple people to notice before they were pulling other staff members in to see the announcement! Many people understood quickly that I was pregnant, but lots of "look closer" and "count the stockings" comments were made by each other to help them see the surprise! I wish I could have been recording everyone's faces when they went from thinking it was one, to realizing it was two! HA! Lots of open mouths, terrified-for-you looks, but also lots of happy, that's-so-amazing faces, too! Lots of hugs and even a few happy tears! :) It was so fun! It's also been SO nice to be able to wear my maternity clothes to work this last week because I've just been so much more comfortable. My belly looks 4-5 months pregnant, but most of that is still just weight gain & a growing belly during the day from eating/digesting. I think after winter break it'll actually be babies making that belly. 

10 Weeks

 

10 weeks - 1/17/14

Saturday, January 18, 2014
Yay, we've made into double digits! Currently, I'm ten weeks and one day, and feeling awesome still. Although I've noticed some big changes over the last few days. I've started growing a little belly and things are definitely not fitting the way they used to, and its a little tricky to hide. To most people, especially those that still don't know, I'm sure it just looks like its my usual CF belly, but this picture was taken on an very empty (starving) non-bloated belly...so I think its my growing uterus...which is apparently now the size of a grapefruit. I'll update much more after our ultrasound on Wednesday, but I wanted to share how excited I am about my tiny little baby bump and I can't wait to fully embrace it without having to hide it!


Thursday, 1/23/14
 I got to see and hear you yesterday and it was a huge sigh of relief for me! After barely having any symptoms for a month, I wanted to make sure everything is still going well in there. It is! You look like a real baby now! You were moving around like crazy during the ultrasound - moving your arms all around, kicking your tiny little legs, and moving your head up and down, it was fascinating! I can't wait to start feeling all of your movements everyday! Your heartbeat was also a nice, strong 175 beats per minute... which wives tales now say you're a girl... so who knows! In another ten weeks, we'll find out!

The doctor, a high-risk specialist, was wonderful! Everyone was extremely nice and the doctor was extremely knowledgeable about pregnancy and CF. She's had several other CF women as patients, and told me that I'm by far the healthiest she's seen...I've even gained 2lbs already! She's impressed with my lung function, which makes me proud because I've been working so hard over the last few years to be in the best shape possible for a pregnancy. Right now we're focusing on watching and maintaining my blood sugars to try to avoid gestational diabetes as long as possible. I'll go back in two weeks for an "intake" appointment with a nurse and to get some blood work. Then two weeks after that, I'll go back for the next ultrasound! I'm really hoping Tim isn't so busy at work then so he can see the next ultrasound because it's such an amazing experience.
After yesterday's great appointment, I decided it was time to keep spreading the news. I called my parents last night who were very surprised and excited! My mom kept saying, "This is so exciting!" I also emailed all of my mom's side of the family and have gotten very excited responses today. Hopefully by the end of next week, our news will be "Facebook public" so I can stop trying to hide being so happy & excited!!!

Here are some of the pictures from yesterday's ultrasound:

The best profile shot we could get without you moving too much!

Waving! 

This is my favorite picture from the day because
I've never seen an ultrasound picture like this before!
It's a view of your face!
(Don't worry, she said it looks normal! :) )