Changed my Ticker

Since I will not be going to a traditional 40 week term with this pregnancy, I changed my ticker to represent the actual goal of carrying the girls to 38 weeks where I will be induced or have a c-section. There was some confusion in the family about how many weeks/days I had left. So the days you see on the side will represent me getting to the 38 weeks rather than a full term 40 weeks.

I hope that helps you all know when the magic day will be. I really hope we can get close to that day because the twins will have a better chance of going home with us if they can get as close to 38 weeks as possible.

The bed rest is taking its toll today. I just want to be active again and be able to see the world. I want to go shopping and finish up buying things for the girls. I want to be social with people rather than living in cyber or phone world with most people. Hopefully I will start feeling better soon.

24 week OB appointment

I saw my OB today. The girls were looking good on the ultrasound and they were kicking me like crazy in the waiting room. My belly was bouncing all around. They kicked all the way through the appointment.

My Dr was a little concerned about the contractions I was having this week so she did a FFN test to see if I am likely to go into labor in the next 2 weeks. Basically she will repeat the test every 2 weeks until I deliver. A negative test is more reliable than the positive test because it shows you probably won't go into labor during that 2 week period. She said she will call me with the results if they are positive.

I am going to 2 week appointments now obviously and next appointment is my glucose test. I have the drink waiting for me in the fridge for March 10th. I hope I pass the test and get through downing the drink.

When she measured me I was measuring at 32 weeks if I was only having one baby. My belly is really getting big and I love every minute of it.

Progress on the Nursery

I've been a little MIA on my blog so here is the latest update:

So Jesse finally finished the painting of the room this last weekend. We went with a light brown with a purple undertone and when it was on the wall it looked like a light purple. Sara helped start the painting the weekend before but Jesse put the 2nd coat on this weekend and we were ready to move on to the furniture.

My best friend Brea came over today and she was able to put both cribs together. We are still waiting for one crib mattress to be shipped to our house. It should be here any day. Now the debate on how to set the room up begins. The nursery has two blank walls I wall with a window and the last wall has the closet. It is really hard to set both cribs up with our changing table and find room to put a dresser in the room. I did take some pictures but I probably won't add them to this post until tomorrow.

I do feel like we are closer to getting things done for these girls. We have most of the big items purchased now including the two car seats, Double Snap n' Go stroller, side by side double stroller for after they are out of the infant car seats, and all the nursery furniture. We have tons of matching outfits and blankets and many toys and books. We feel blessed with help our families have given us. We also used craigslist to purchase the Snap n' Go, brand new in a box along with the next double stroller, hardly used.

Once we figure out the positioning of the furniture in the nursery, we will be just about ready for the girls to come home once they are healthy and able to enter into this world.

Last Cervicial Length Check and Growth Scan

Today was my last cervical length check. I seem to be holding steady; the length was a little lower 1.3 but no funneling or dilating. I don't have to go back for anymore checks now. My OB will need to do pelvic exams to check how soft my cervix is and see if I am dilating.

I'm a little nervous to not get an update each week but my ultrasound tech reminded me that I have been holding steady for so long that they don't think I will have any issues for a while.

We also did an ultrasound to check the growth of each girl. Each girl's fluid level was still looking good. We saw the girls kicking and punching each other. It is so neat to see how thin the membrane is that separates them so they can feel each other. They like to be real close to one another.

Addison is weighing 1 pound 4 ounces and Riley is our big girl at 1 pound 6 ounces. This week is another big growth week so they should put on some more weight here soon. I will try to take some pictures of the ultrasound pictures because I don't have a working scanner and get them posted.

I'm very happy to hit the first milestone of 24 weeks where babies have the first chance at viability. Of course I want to go another 10 to 12 weeks at least and 14 weeks to make to my scheduled induction.

Updates

I will start with the fluid levels of the girls.

Both girls had a level of about 2.0 cm of fluid on my appointment on Tuesday and today Addison's level went up to a 5.0 and Riley's was about 4.3. So each girl more than doubled her fluid level. They were actually surprised at how much the levels increased in just three days. I can say the extra water intake has helped tremendously. I told the tech that the girls were kicking like crazy last night and see said "Of course they are, they are happy now with all that fluid".

I'm so glad all the water and peeing paid off. LMAO

Now to Matti's news:

The test for the valley fever came back negative so he either has an injury or it is bone cancer. The Dr. sent the radiographs over to a radiologist to review further and they still see a suspicious area on his leg but it isn't defined yet. The plan now is to wait 4 weeks and take another radiograph and see if there are any changes. The also sent me home with some pain and anti inflammatory medications to keep Matti comfortable. So for now we don't know very much but we are going to spoil Matti in the meantime just in case.

Finally

Daddy finally got to feel one of his girls kicking. For the last two weeks the girls have been very active and I have been trying to get Jesse over here to feel the girls but each time he puts his hand on my belly, they stop kicking. He has been frustrated to the point of not wanting to feel my belly. Tonight I could tell they were getting into their active time and I had Jesse feel right where Riley's feet were and he got a nice big kick! Addison was sitting so low that he couldn't feel her moving but Riley's movements are obvious and my belly moves when she kicks. I hope that is a good sign that all is well in there and I am praying for better fluid levels tomorrow at my appointment.

On a side note...I also noticed I don't have much of a belly button left. When I sit my belly button looks like an outie now. It is wild how much my belly is growing. The girls should be close to 1.5 pounds each by the end of next week. So far I have gained around 9-10 pounds total. I am pretty happy with that.

Fetal Echo Cardiogram

Today I went in for a fetal Echo Cardiogram on Addison's heart. During my 18 week growth scan they saw a small hole in her heart called a VSD. I was then referred to a pediatric cardiologist to take a closer look at her heart. Normally small VSD's close by the 24th week of pregnancy.

The appointment was 2 hours long and they ended up looking at both Addison's and Riley's hearts. On Addison, they found no VSD or holes present in her heart at all. Anything that was present before is now closed! They took a closer look at Riley's heart and there may be a possible small hole but the Dr. only saw it once during the scan and didn't see it again. That leads him to believe that there probably isn't a hole and if there is, there shouldn't be any problems with the small hole. The girls will be tested for heart murmurs after birth just to make sure everything is okay.

So I feel as though another hurdle is passed but I am working on increasing the fluid levels for the girls. I am drinking extra water and taking extra trips to the bathroom in hopes of seeing better levels on Friday.

On a side note, as I am writing this post, both girls are kicking like crazy. They probably liked my dinner or the extra water I am feeding them. :)

Cervical Length Appointment

Well , I think my cervix is more of a trooper than any of the doctors thought. My measurement last week was a 1.5 and today it was a 1.7 The doctors are more and more convinced that I will get close to term or all the way. They are even given me a little more freedom. They want me to do some pregnancy yoga and I can get up and walk around more.

The bad news about the appointment is the amniotic fluid levels were very low on both girls. They have me on a Motrin regiment of 600mg every 6 hours to control my contractions but the downside of taking Motrin is decreased amniotic fluid levels. So they have taken me off the Motrin and I have to go back on Friday and have the fluid levels measured again. They anticipate the levels to go back up to what they are supposed to be by then.

Since I will be off the Motrin, I really have to watch my contractions and look for indications of pre-term labor. Basically it is a give and take with trying to keep me from contracting and giving the girls enough fluid to be healthy. Hopefully things will look better on Friday.

Update on Matti

Matti went in first thing this morning and they sedated him so they could get him on the x-ray table. They took 3 x-rays and the doctor isn't really sure what is going on with him. His chest x-ray was clear. There were no masses in his chest so that is good news. The other two x-rays were of his leg and they see that something is happening to his bone but it isn't presenting like bone cancer would. Normally it would look like a starburst pattern and all you could see is something going on around the bone.

The doctor is still waiting for the test results of valley fever that they may get back by Thursday. He is also going to send the x-rays to a radiologist for further review. Lastly, they may have to do a biopsy of his leg if they can't determine what is wrong.Thanks for thinking of my big guy and sending your prayers. Jesse and I feel a little bit better today but we still aren't sure if we will have him around for a while or not.

Bad News

Well after being on cloud 9 yesterday where my family sprung me from the house and let me used my dad's motorized scooter to do some shopping, we have got some bad news about our fur baby Matti. Our 170 pound Great Dane took a visit to the vet today because he developed a growth on his front paw. We thought something had bit him outside or that he hurt himself jumping up on our 6 foot wall fences in the back yard. He loves to jump up and scare the neighbors but I always worried he would get hurt.

So daddy took him to the vet to get his front paw checked out and we got some news we were not expecting. The growth on his front paw is most likely bone cancer. Great Danes have a shorter life expectancy at somewhere around 8 years. Our boy is 5. At this age Danes start having health problems and bone cancer is one of them.

Tomorrow Matti will go back to the vet where they will sedate him and then take some x-rays of his paw. They will be able to tell for sure if he has bone cancer. Another diagnosis would be valley fever but the vet said it looked more like bone cancer.

My husband is devastated and doesn't take bad news well at all. His mother passed a couple of years back from cancer and my husband is very sensitive when it comes to that subject. We love our dog like he is a member of our family. He has been our child during the time we couldn't have children. I just can't explain how sad I am at this point. We won't know what his treatment will be if he does have cancer or if we can even afford to do anything for him.

Please pray for our baby and I will update with more news tomorrow.

Shower Fun!

Yesterday we all had fun at the shower for our girls. I had a lot of fun with the family playing games and visiting. That was way more excitement and activity than I have had in a while so I was very tired at the end.

Brea, Sara, and Linda did a fantastic job taking care of everything. The decorations were beautiful, Brea's cake was very creative, and Sara helped with the games and presents. It felt weird to just sit back and let them take care of everything. I still feel like I need to get up and do something, but they made sure I stayed on the couch.

The girls got a bunch of nice items like blankets, and diapers, clothes, onsies, receiving blankets, socks, hats, and many many books. I can tell how loved our girls are before they are even here.

We are now looking at the big items we still need like car seats, strollers, and bottle and breast feeding accessories. We did get a few gift cards we may use to go pick up some of the other needed items. I'm just thankful that we have so many diapers and we may not need to purchase any for a long time.

Sara is Coming Today

I'm so excited to see my little sister. She is coming out to stay for a week to help with the baby shower. She lives in Fort Collins, CO. She will be moving down next month to live with us and help with the babies when they arrive. She will probably stay with us for a few of the days while she is here and maybe she can help Jesse with the painting in the nursery. I know she wanted to help with the nursery and we can use all the help we can get.

Yesterday was a painful day for me. My stomach was very tight for most of the day. I feel a lot of pulling around my belly button and I was also having contractions off and on during the day. I hope that the contractions are doing any damage. I also had some pain real low in my pelvis. Since I don't know what is normal in pregnancy or twin pregnancy, I have trouble understanding if what I am going through is normal or something to be worried about.

Today I am feeling much better so I am inclined to think that everything is okay, but I will be able to know more at my next appointment on Tuesday.

Nursery Construction

So after talking to some girls on SK, we started posting pictures of our nursery aka junk disaster rooms. Right now we are waiting for Jesse to to buy the paint for the walls. Once the painting is done, he can start working on putting the cribs together. We are still trying to decide if we have enough room for a dresser in the room or if we need to find a small one to put in the closet. I won't know about that until both cribs are put together and placed with the changing table.

The room will be even more of a mess after the shower on Saturday where piles of stuff will be thrown in there. I hate that I can't do anything to help and Jesse is pretty worn out on the weekends. Maybe we will get somewhere after this upcoming 3 day weekend.

Monday Update

I am doing my happy dance right now...well I'm not really dancing, but I am super excited. We got another perfect report today. There was no change in my cervical length, I am not funneling or dilating at all. All looks well with my cervix and the doctors are pleased and surprised once again!!!!

They checked the fluid levels of each girl and they seem to be doing just fine with their fluid levels. I got to see Addison opening her mouth and drinking some of that beautiful amniotic fluid. She had her hands up by her face and she was actually moving her eyes. It was really neat to see that on the ultrasound. She seems to be the show off during the appointments. Riley has moved to a head down position and she appears to have a little less room than her sister. She wasn't moving around like her silly sister but she has plenty of fluid to keep her healthy.

So it looks as though I will make it to my baby shower and the threat of going into the hospital gets smaller and smaller each week as things stay consistent. I have been having some contractions this week and was a little worried, but the contractions don't seem to be doing anything to the cervix so all is well. I need to get some new pictures of the girls; hopefully I will get some good quality pictures at my next growth scan.

Thanks for reading my happy news. :)

Productive Sunday

I feel a sense of relief now that I have my first week of homework finished. 1 week down 5 more to go. I spent 4 more hours on the week 1 work with the help of Steven looking over my shoulder and helping me to understand the formulas. I thought we would get done faster but he was here for 3 hours and then I spent another hour by myself going over stuff to wrap up the week and to get ready for next week.

I think the girls already hate math as well. They were giving me some good kicks and pushing on my bladder the whole time. I think I went pee 4 times during the 3 hour marathon of math. I don't blame my girls; they may have to get some help from Uncle Steven when they get older because mommy will not be able to help them for long.

I'm still trying to get Jesse to feel the girls kicking. I was feeling some good thumps when we were lying on the couch together but every time he would put his hand on my stomach, they would quiet down. Hopefully it won't be long because I can tell Jesse is really excited to finally feel them.

Tomorrow is another cervical length check. Dad will drive me down there and I just pray we get a good result because I am not going into the hospital 5 days before my baby shower. Wish me luck!

Another Day with Friends and Family

On Saturday we had our good friends Bryce and Bethany and their daughter Kirstin over. Bryce helped Jesse do the yard work to get ready for the baby shower next week. We are having the shower outside, provided the weather cooperates. It has been really warm lately, but I woke up to rain this morning. I will have to keep checking the weather channel to see if we can keep it outdoors.

Little Kirstin is about 5 months old and so cute. She is very aware of her surroundings and loves to be tickled and played with. She was screaming with laughs all day. I just love having the babies around. Bethany said she could tell I was ready to have my own girls in my arms. I can't wait, but I just want them to be healthy before they come out to visit. 14 more weeks to go until their lungs are in the safe zone.

In the evening my parents came over to play games and have pizza. It is neat how we have to modify our game playing to fit me on the couch. We have a coffee table that opens up and we use that to play on. It works good enough to let us play together and keep me on the couch.

Today Steven is coming over to help me with the math homework. Hopefully we can get a lot done and I can really understand what the heck I am doing. We are so lucky to have Steven and his math expertise around. I think we have all used his skills a time or two and appreciate him!!!

Some Normalcy

I had a fun day on Friday. Brea stopped by for a visit with her sons Braedon and baby Cohen. So instead of spending my day watching TV, I had some contact with the outside world. Brea's visit ended up lasting all day. We talked about the kids and the baby shower next week. It looks like Brea and my mom are getting all the details taken care of. We are just waiting for the rest of the guests to RSVP. I can't believe the shower is only 1 week away. We planned it early because we thought I would be back in the hospital at 24 weeks, but since everything is holding steady, I can stay home unless something changes. When the day was over, Jesse came home from work and he had been out shopping earlier in the day. He came home with two sets of outfits for the girls. The first set was a sleeper that was pink and it said "I love Mommy" and "I love Daddy" all over. Jesse is not too fond of all the pink so I was surprised he picked a pink outfit. He said he knew I would like it. Then he bought the girls little summer dresses. One was pink and one was turquoise. Jesse likes the idea of dressing them in similar outfits, just different colors. Jesse did a great job picking out clothes. I just wish I could go do a little shopping for them. I haven't bought my girls one thing from me. I purchased the swings, bassinets, and clothes used, but I haven't been to the store to by them something from mommy yet. Hopefully I can do that before they arrive.

Sick Day

Yesterday was a stay at home sick day for the Prather family. I had a small stomach bug but Jesse was really sick. He really had a rotten day and we both didn't get any sleep the night before. Jesse is in training for a new position at work and he couldn't even make it to work yesterday. Today he had to go in even though he wasn't all the way better. I hope the worst of it is over.

I got more sleep last night and I feel better today. Over the last couple of days, the girls have been very active and I think it is so fun to feel them moving around like crazy. They are night owls and like to get crazy about 10pm - 12pm. I hope that isn't a sign of how they will be when they are here, keeping mommy and daddy up at night all the time.

Steven is going to come over and help me with the MBA class this weekend sometime and I spend 6 hours working on some formulas and I seem to be getting some of it, but I'm still not sure since I don't have an instructor to bounce ideas off of. I wish I could be at the ground campus where I can learn more, but I have to do what is best for the babies. I may not get an A in the class, but I think I will pass it and move on.

Starting Another MBA Class

Today I started my first day of one of my most dreaded online courses for my MBA. Let me ask you if Quantitative Reasoning for Business sounds like fun to you, because it makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it? Come to think of it, my stomach has been hurting all day. I don't know if I caught a bug or ate something my body didn't like but I haven't felt well at all today.

I wanted to get a head start on the class so I read the chapters today and the week 1 notes. I was feeling good in the beginning and then I realized I had to complete several financial and economic formulas. That is when I started to freak out. Me and math have never gotten along with one another and now I am taking this class online because of the bed rest instead of taking it at the ground campus where I have an instructor to help me understand.

I have a feeling this is going to be a long 6 weeks to finish this accelerated course. I sent my brother an email to see if he can help me out. My brother Steven is a math wiz, but I wonder how much he understands business formulas. So far he hasn't responded but I hope I can get a little help rather than trying to teach myself out of the text books. Wish me luck! At least I have hours to devote to school while I am on bed rest when before I was working full time and going to school full time.

I talked to my sister Sara today. She is coming down to Phoenix next Wednesday to be here for the shower. She wants to stay at our house for a few nights and see how big I have grown since she saw me last. I feel like my belly can't stretch any further, but the truth is, I will probably get 2-3 times the size I am now. Can we say "Hello stretch marks"? I have none yet but I'm sure I will get some in due time.

Monday Update

We had another good appointment today. My cervix is still measuring the same and is not dilating or funneling. Although my length is much shorter than the average women, the doctors feel as though my length is normal for my body and there are no changes that would cause any concern.

I will go back for 3 more weeks on Mondays and then I won’t need to go back for any more cervical length checks. At 24 weeks we reach the potential viability range even though the goal is to get to at least 36 weeks. I will continue to have growth scans to check on the twins and have my regular OB appointments to monitor my cervix internally.

I have an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist on February 16th to perform an echocardiogram on Addison’s heart to make sure the small hole is closing in her heart. It is fairly common and in most cases the hole closes by around 23-24 weeks and doesn’t cause any problems for concern.

Here is my appointment schedule for the month of February:

Monday 2/9 Cervical length check at PPA @ 1:45
Saturday 2/14 Baby Shower @ 12:30
Tuesday 2/17 Cervical length check at PPA @ 1:45
Wednesday 2/18 Echocardiogram for Addison’s heart @ 2:00
Monday 2/23 Last Cervical length check at PPA @ 1:45
Thursday 2/26 Regular OB appointment with Dr. Carillo @ 11:50

Weekend Fun

I finally got to participate in a typical Saturday night. We normally have my parents over for dinner and games of Phase 10. We had some pizza and then played a game of Phase 10 at the coffee table so I could stay on the couch. I had a good time playing cards and talking with dad and mom.

Earlier in the day I went for a prenatal massage to help with my hips and back. That was really relaxing and my body felt better afterwards. I figured that I would be lying down the entire time so I didn’t need to cancel the appointment because of the bed rest. The massage place is just around the corner from our house as well.

We are still working on the ideas for the nursery paint but I seem to be leaning towards doing a tan color on the wall and adding splashes of color through pictures and décor rather than painting the walls purple and having too much purple in the room. I want to put the girls’ names above their cribs and the quote “I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always. As long as I'm living, my babies you'll be”

Today we will be rooting on the Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl. Go Cards!!!!