14 & 15 Weeks

Saturday, August 26 - 15w, 2d
Little brother, I already feel like you've got the "second child syndrome" where we're forgetting about you....don't worry, I think about you every single day! But finding time to write to you during the first couple weeks of school has been really hard! That picture above is already over a week old and I feel like I've grown a little more since then. You're about 4 inches long now, according to my app, and can bend your arms and legs now.

I swear I have felt you move a couple times over the last week, especially last night. I could have sworn you were flailing your arms & legs temper-tantrum style for a couple seconds yesterday evening. Either that, or it was just a ton of gas bubbles at once (doubt it). It's mostly been tiny little flickers here and there which I'm not 100% sure are from you, but I tell myself they are because it's reassuring to me.

I am really looking forward to seeing you on the ultrasound next week! I haven't been able to see you since you were eight weeks along (and you looked like a blob), so I'm very excited to see how developed you are and to see your little face! I'll now be going every two weeks from 16-24 weeks so the doctors can monitor my cervix. I'm very glad that I haven't been having any weird or strange feelings/symptoms. We're approaching that time in my pregnancy where it started happening with the twins, so I'll definitely be on high alert over the next month or so! I can definitely tell you're growing though because my belly is finally starting to get hard (it's been a CF belly for a while) and I've been experiencing stretching and groin pain from my expanding uterus. I know these are good things, but I worry about having the discomfort so low again. It just brings back lots of memories from this past winter. I'm guessing I just carry my babies low - which is good for my lungs, but makes me nervous that you're too low....not quite yet, but as you grow bigger and start putting pressure down there.

In other news, I've been feeling pretty good. I'm getting ready to start Cayston back up again next week which should help give my lungs a boost for my appointment at the end of September. School is overwhelming at this time of the year, but it always is. I'm also beginning my Master's degree (something I never thought I'd do), so that's putting some added stress on my plate. But, I've got a great local support system and when it's over, it'll be an amazing feeling of accomplishment.

14 & 15 Weeks

December 28th - 14 weeks! Hello second trimester!

Note: This one was taken in the evening - all others were in the morning.

December 29 - 14w, 1d
You're definitely growing! Look at that belly already! I've been having lots of stretching pains over the last week or so and according to my apps, you're both about 3.4 inches long and about 1.5oz. That's about 7 inches and 3oz of baby + placentas + your sacs....I guess that belly makes sense! Looking back at my pregnancy with Anna - this belly is about the same size as I was when I was about 23/24 weeks along with her!

Just got a call back from MFM! You are both very low risk for any chromosomal abnormalities! We also found out some gender news - so I immediately called Daddy!!! :)

December 31st - 14w, 3d
Daddy and I are going to get a new (used) car today. We're trading in our beloved Mazda 3 which we bought together a month before we got married. Its been with us for six years, four moves, a wedding, a baby and over 157,000 miles!
Even though we're planning on sending Anna to preschool in the fall, and Daddy will just be taking the two of you to Grandma's, there's no way we'd comfortably be able to fit both of your car seats in our "blue car". The plan is to upgrade to a Mazda 6 wagon, and I hope everything goes smoothly.

January 2 - 14w, 5d
Happy New Year! Thankfully everything went very smooth on Saturday, and Daddy and I came home with a new car. :) It has the right amount of space for our growing family and gets decent gas mileage for Daddy's commute to/from work. We are really liking the fact that it's a used vehicle (2005) because it's already broken in and we don't have to worry about trying to keep it fresh and new with soon to be three kids.

Pregnancy-wise, I've been feeling alright. I'm still having lots of stretching/pain in my low, low abdomen and groin area, but I know that's normal, it's just annoying. I notice it the most when I've been sitting a while and then get up, and also if I've been standing for a long time. With all of the stretching I've been feeling my body doing, and watching my belly grow by the day, I cannot wait to see you two at our ultrasound on Thursday! Daddy's thinking about coming with too in case they're able to confirm your genders. Let's hope you're both cooperating, otherwise we'll have to wait another 4 weeks!
I've also been experiencing some head aches on and off over the last couple days. I'm wondering if it's because I'm not drinking enough water. We bough a 40-pack of water bottles today at Sam's, so hopefully that'll help me, especially with going back to work tomorrow.

Unfortunately, winter break has come to an end. Luckily tomorrow is just Teacher Work Day, so it'll be a nice ease back into the week. I'm looking forward to getting back onto a schedule & routine, but will definitely miss sleeping in and having some lazy days. It's hard to believe this school year is already half way over. It's also hard to believe that I may not finish this school year! On the last day of school, I'll be exactly 35 weeks, so we'll see how my body holds up! I plan to get in contact with a couple of my favorite subs to see if they'd be interested in covering me at the end of the school year, if need be. I'd really like to make it to the end of the year, but I know there are so many unknowns with twin pregnancies as I've written about before.
Well, better get to bed! 4:45 will come way too soon!

January 6 - 15w, 2d
We know your genders!!! I had an ultrasound yesterday and you were both very cooperative and we were able to confirm your genders. Daddy and I are very excited!! We're not sharing just yet because I'm having some things made to help make the reveal a little more fun. Nothing over the top, but something cute. Hopefully they'll be done by next Thursday so we can share our news Friday.

I couldn't believe how big you both looked on the ultrasound yesterday, although the tech said you're probably about a pound a piece (so still very tiny). They didn't measure you at all because you're still so small, but will start measuring next appointment, which will also be our big anatomy scan. With all of the stretching and pain I've been having down low, I thought for sure the ultrasound would be really low yesterday, too. It wasn't. She was looking at you both up higher than expected and she said the top of my uterus is probably just above my belly button - wow! So I guess this belly is babies already :) You were both sideways, each of your heads facing a different direction. I got to see you moving all around, kicking legs and and bending arms. I asked how they determine who's baby A and baby B -- baby A is the one closest to the exit, basically. So the twin on the bottom is baby A, and the one on top is baby B. I'm assuming you'll stay in those positions most of the pregnancy until (hopefully!) you start turning head down to make your exit.

Surprisingly I've only gained 2lbs so far, which made me a little worried, but the NP didn't seem to think it was an issue. They really want me to keep a close watch on my sugars to help avoid gestational diabetes. My blood pressure was totally normal. And all of the blood work I had done around 11-12 weeks came back normal. Even my A1C was 4.6!! Woo hoo! That's within normal-people (aka: non-CF) range! I hope that I'm able to control my sugars with diet and not insulin this pregnancy. So far I've been doing pretty good, just struggling with dinner being a bit on the high end after two hours. Hopefully I can get/keep them under control to avoid further issues.

For now Daddy and I are keep our lips sealed so we don't give your genders away yet. It's was really hard at work today, but I'm going to try my best not to say anything. I'm glad that Daddy and I can settle on names and start coming up with nursery ideas. :-)

Clinic & 15 Week Update

Today I had my first CF clinic appointment since becoming pregnant. And to be completely honest, I've been feeling like total crap the past few weeks. Thanks to my stupid insurance change, I was supposed to start Tobi a week or two ago, but it's still being approved, ugh! So since I haven't started the antibiotics yet, I knew my PFTs were going to be pretty low today.

It started a few weeks ago, when I felt like my lungs became flooded with mucus over night. It came on so suddenly and not like a typical CF chest infection, that I was thrown off. I had an increased cough and increased mucus production, but it wasn't really a different color, just so much more. Of course I tried to fight it myself, but it got to the point where it was interrupting my sleep and making me completely exhausted, so I called in the "big guns" aka: Tobi. Now, I haven't been on a full month of Tobi since August, so I really thought it would help clean me out... but insurance decided to get in the way of that...thanks insurance! Then on top of it, I started developing some crazy sinus infection which has clogged my sinuses so bad that it started coming out of my eyes yesterday morning, I know, lovely! So I've been doing two sinus rinses a day for about a week which temporarily help, but it wasn't enough. All I have to say is... thank goodness I had my appointment today!

Anyway, so my PFTs were down, as I expected. My FEV1 was 69% - I've never seen numbers that low, but I can't say that I was surprised. My doctor didn't seem as concerned as I thought she would and she said that my PFT graph looks symmetrical and looks much better than how I'm feeling, so that relieved me a bit. She also wasn't too concerned because thankfully, I have plenty of options right now. I'm starting my Kalydeco back up tonight after being off of it for nine weeks - I'm glad that I was able to stay off of it during the critical development period of my pregnancy. I'm also going to start Tobi whenever my insurance decides to cooperate. As for my sinuses, I'm going to continue my sinus rinses followed up with some Nasonex. I'm hoping that the combination of these things will get my lungs back to normal soon before Baby starts squishing them.

As far as my pregnancy goes, everything is going very well, today is the last day of my fifteenth week. As I said before, I'm proud of myself for not exposing Baby to Kalydeco, or any antibiotics, during its first trimester. This week I've been pretty exhausted...I feel like I'm feeling more like I should have first trimester now in my second... but I think I'm finally on the right path to feeling better. This week, the baby was the size of a naval orange and could sense light shined into the belly even though its eyes are still fused shut, and can now move all of its limbs and joints now. I can't wait to feel Baby move soon!