Wednesday, July 16, 2008

22 weeks and first Labor and Delivery visit!


Monday morning I had my monthly OB/GYN appt, and all was well. The doctor says my ankles will get worse and that it's more of a discomfort for me then anything to be concerned about. I do, however, just need to make sure my blood pressure is staying put and to put my feet up every day and drink plenty of water.

Monday night I started feeling a lot more uncomfortable. When I woke up Christian and I both noticed that my belly was rock hard. The day before, we could feel exactly where the kiddos where... that morning it was all hard. Almost everyone told me it was normal and not a concern, but I won't take any chances with these kids. I called the doctor and she sent me into labor and delivery. I was pretty calm until I got there and she couldn't find their heartbeats right away. Once ultrasound came in, they found both heartbeats and both babies look great. They are both head down right now, but that could change a million times from now until October/November. What I thought was Baby B's head, is apparently his/her feet! No wonder my ribcage feels bruised :) My cervix was also nice and closed so they sent me home. I told the triage nurse I hoped to not see her again for 12 or more weeks and she got a grin on her face and said, "honey, you are having twins." Guess that means us MOM's (mothers of multiples) visit the L&D a little more frequently than the average pregnancy. The most interesting thing was that the doctor says that while I am 22 weeks, I'm measuring 29 weeks because I'm carrying two! That's why I'm already starting to feel uncomfortable, have trouble getting out of bed, rolling over, etc.!

Enough of me... here's what the kids are up to now at 22 weeks:
They are about the length of a spaghetti squash and may weigh almost a pound each. The lips, eyelids and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and they are even developing tiny tooth buds beneath their gums. Though the eyes are formed, the irises still lack pigment. Right now they are covered with fine hair (lanugo). The pancreas is steadily developing. Their noses are taking on a more defined shape as cartilage (the soft bone) appears. The babies now have a full complement of neurons in the brain and are learning about their body and surroundings through touch. Touch is one of the first senses to mature and the babies may stroke their face or feel their arms and legs.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Our Trip


Our baby moon was great! We didn't necessarily relax, but we didn't over do it either. There was so much to do and see.

We left for Niagara Falls Sunday morning. When we got in, we ate some lunch and walked down to the falls. It was a beautiful day, though a little hot. I realized just how pregnant I really was after all our walking. It's amazing how hard it is to lug around an extra 30lbs! Then we went back to the room, took a nap and ordered in.

The next morning we had to catch our train at 6:30am. We took a 2 hour train ride to Toronto and then switched trains and took a 5 hour train to Montreal. The 5 hour ride was a little long, but nice. We were able to walk to our Bed and Breakfast from the train station. The Bed and Breakfast, Bons Matins, was very cool. Very eclectic. The only downfall was our room had an open concept bathroom. Yep, that means no door on the toilet! And, unfortunately only an open hot tub... which meant I needed help getting in and out of it for my shower everyday. We tried to switch rooms, but they were fully booked. In the end it worked out fine.


While in Montreal we visited the Biodome, Botanical Gardens, Archeology Museum, Science Center, Olympic Park, Old Montreal, and the Old Port. It was very interesting to be in a city whose main language is French. Most of the signs were in French. The architecture in Old Montreal was amazing. It's a great city and there was definitely more we could have done if were there a day or so longer and if I wasn't pregnant. While I don't know that we'll necessarily make an effort to go back... if you've never been, it's definitely worth seeing. We had lunch at the infamous St. Viateur Bagel shop, and had some pretty tasty bagel sandwiches!





We then headed back to Niagara for the day. We had dinner and went to the Ripley's Believe it or Not! Museum.

It was nice to get away and we had a really good time. The best part was that the babies were happy and kicked away the whole time. Christian had so many chances to feel them. He was so sweet the whole time because we was so worried about everything I did or didn't do and especially worried about the crowds. He made sure no one came near our precious cargo :)

Click here to view more pictures from our trip!

On Sunday, we spent the day in the ER. Christian has 2 kidneys stones... one of which is 3mm! I've never seen him in so much pain!