We are finally getting some decent weather here in Minnesota. Yes! Terry and I have been going on walks almost daily while Kaleb rides his bike. It is good exercise for me and therapeutic with this heat (I LOVE the heat and even welcome the extreme humidity).
I'm not sure if it's due to the added heat, or the fact that I don't typically have a chance to get off my feet until I crawl into bed at night, but my ankles are already swelling a little. Lately, when I'm planning on a busy day, I use the term "I'm going to plan it by cankles" :).
I'm feeling the babies move more and more every day, which is a good feeling. Baby A is definitely not head down anymore, unless he has ape-like arms and the freakish ability to reach over his head to punch my cervix, I'm willing to bet it's the pitter-patter of little dancing feet on my cervix that I feel. I had an appointment with my OB over the past week and a half and T&Y were able to join in via phone to "meet" the doctor. They mentioned the difference in the babies' sizes and how Baby A didn't appear to be as active as his sister. I was sure to let them know that Baby A IS very active lately and that I could feel him on my cervix and they were happy to hear that and wondered if it was a "nice feeling" or uncomfortable. I told them it was a weird feeling, but not at all painful....yet. Baby B is still tucked transverse breech across the top of my uterus. She moves quite a bit, too, mostly kicking me in various places, which proves that she is still finding room to do her somersaults. It is very odd to feel 4 sets of limbs instead of just 2.
I have been looking into the "Spinning Babies" theory online for a while now because I want to be sure that I do everything possible to help the babies remain head down for a vaginal birth (well, Baby A at the very least). It's an interesting concept and I'll admit I'm still skeptical. There is an exercise where a pregnant woman inverts herself into a forward position, with the bottom half of her body propped and elevated (on the couch) and her upper body bracing herself on the floor (almost like a supported headstand), to allow stretching of the uterine ligaments, giving the baby/babies more room to move and allow gravity to take it's course to help them into the vertex (head down) position. I figured I'd give it a shot last week. You invert yourself for 30 seconds, or 3 breaths, and then you're done. No big deal, right? Ha! It warned women who were at risk for a stroke, not to do this exercise. Now, I am not at risk of having a stroke, that I'm aware of, but after that exercise......I might be! The amount of blood that immediately rushed to my head was horrendous. Thankfully it's only 30 seconds. I'll try to keep it up once every day. I'm interested to see if it works, or at least helps. So far I feel like it has "lifted" my uterus out of my pelvis a bit more, which is nice for all 3 of us.
At my last appointment I had put on a total of 7 lbs. Now, 7 lbs. isn't a lot, I know, but more than half of it had been gained over the course of just 3 weeks. Whoa! And I'm still steadily gaining. I've tried to keep myself from doing the math because I know it will just freak me out. I kept thinking "at this rate......" but I know that things change constantly throughout pregnancy. I already have, what seems like, an insatiable appetite and the babies will take more and more from me so things should even out, right?! At week 20 I was really starting to show and I think I passed the "is she fat? or...?" stage. But THIS week......holy shit is all I can say. Again, at this rate......really freaks me out. Everyone seems eager to point it out to me, too. I keep getting comments from people like "whoa, you're belly sure has grown!" and this is coming from people I see EVERY day. I've been taking pictures every week to share with T&Y, but I swear the camera makes me look MUCH smaller than I am. I know I'm not big yet, but when I look down, I see belly......lots and lots of belly. I definitely feel the stretching in my muscles in my back and it's pretty uncomfortable already. I totally dismissed the thought of needing a chiropractor at the beginning of this and now I totally get it when surrogates insist on putting chiropractic care in their contracts. I missed that train by a long shot. I will need a chiropractor if I'm going to survive this pregnancy. I totally underestimated what it would feel like to have this rapid growth. I'm now the size I was when I gave birth to my son.
Because of the winter weather we were having up until the past few weeks (hard to believe we had a snow storm just last month?!), I had a hard time gauging what to buy for maternity clothing. I'm not sure if I mentioned this in a previous post or not, but any type of shopping causes a strange anxiety for me. I don't like shopping. I constantly second, no wait, quadruple guess everything I put in my cart, or put back, or take back and put back in my cart, or purchase, or return, or buy again.........I shop alone. Most store employees probably assume I'm casing the place or have some neurotic OCD issue (which I kind of do, too :). Maternity clothes shopping........oh man. Now, not only do I have to make a decision on whether or not to buy it because "will I wear it enough to make it worth it?", now add in the "will this fit me in a few weeks?" "is this practical?" "will I find it cheaper somewhere else?", etc. One word.....Goodwill. I will never bash that place again. I've been a Goodwill stalker for the past year and am KICKING myself for all the wasted purchases of brand new things (mostly Kaleb's clothes) when I could have saved and been more practical. Well, I made the mistake of shopping at the mall last Saturday, with the assumption that I'd finally find the maternity capris that I so badly needed. I battled with and finally began to accept the fact that pretty much every store that had maternity capris was charging $50 for a pair of pants that I didn't even like. We shopped for hours. I bought a couple of shirts, a couple of dresses, but did not find the much needed capris. I learned right away during this pregnancy that maternity sections are scarce and we're lucky to find more than one rack of clothing to choose from. The selections are moo-moo or non-moo-moo? XXXL, or XXS/invisible? Hmmmmm. I went home discouraged, stressed (I'm serious, this is how bad I am with shopping, I despise what it does to me). I spent about 2 hours on the computer looking for capris on craigslist, ebay, other stores online. Nothing (well, I FOUND them, but then it's "will they fit?"). I decided to hit up the local Goodwill the next morning. I promised Terry I'd be about 5 minutes because I'd most likely leave empty handed. Boy was I wrong! I spent an hour and left sweaty, smiling, and with a bag chalk full of the solution to my massive irrational problem. I bought a pair of white maternity pants, maternity jeans, maternity shorts, maternity CAPRIS, a jean jacket to go with the dresses that I bought the day before, and a couple more dresses! I'm still so incredibly giddy over that trip. I wore my new white pants and a shirt today. Loved it! Would you believe I'm already battling with what to do with the maternity clothes when this is all over? I could stand to never maternity shop again :)
20 weeks....--->
and 21 weeks 1 day....--->
Ok, so now that I see them side by side, it doesn't look much different........maybe next week.
Last week I received a voicemail from my OB that said "I want to talk to you about your last test results." Uh-oh. He was referring to the 2nd part of the 1st trimester screening/Nuchal Transcluceny. I've heard SO many surrogates who have carried twins, have this happen, and everything turns out just fine. The blood test is not nearly as accurate for twin pregnancies. I WAS frustrated, I'll admit that. I felt that it only caused more unnecessary fear, stress, and concern for all of us and I seriously just want things to go smoothly from here on out. Poor T&Y and all the worry this pregnancy has caused. Those guys are amazing at keeping their sh*t together...I've lost mine so many times and we're just half-way through! Thank God these babies are genetically related to them, ha ha!
The next step was to schedule an ultrasound with the perinatologist (specialist) and determine whether abnormalities were present or not. If abnormalities were found, further testing.....ahem...amniocentesis, would be preformed. For those of you who do not know what an amniocentesis is, or what my thoughts and feelings are regarding the amnio....read on. First, the pure thought of an amniocentesis scares the sh*t out of me. There's my thoughts on that. An amniocentesis is a test that requires the insertion of a somewhat larger gauged needle through the abdomen to collect and test amniotic fluid and possibly other tissues from the fetuses. Although I've never had one, I understand that they are NOT pleasant and quite painful and there is argument that they can be very risky for the pregnancy (here in the U.S we think they are somewhat risky, in other countries they would disagree). When matching with T&Y, one of the topics we discussed was what my feeling were regarding amniocentesis. In Israel, testing, multiple ultrasounds, etc., are preformed WAY more during pregnancy than we do here in the U.S. Here in the U.S we are relatively hands-off. An amnio in Israel is typical and considered minor and normal, a lot of intended parents don't think much of them and can sometimes expect a surrogate to just agree to have one preformed, even when there is no test result to indicate a need for one. I said that I would only allow an amnio to be preformed if there was a significant need for it. Of course I would never reject further testing that is needed to determine abnormalities. But I wasn't agreeing to an amnio "just because". T&Y were ok with this when we matched and I really hoped they wouldn't push me to have one if the ultrasound revealed "healthy babies". I was seriously more worried that they'd want an amnio for no good reason, than I was worried about there being something wrong with the babies, because again, I really felt that everything would be ok.
Yesterday I went in for our ultrasound appointment and asked the technician to keep the sexes a surprise and to place them in an envelope for me to reveal as a surprise to T&Y via Skype after the appointment. The tech. put the wand on my abdomen and I was immediately relieved to see that, yep, there were still two babies in there. She measured both babies and we watched them as they did their little dances. Baby B has always been the active one while Baby A seems lazy and laid back. It's amazing how much they've grown over the past few weeks. Over the past week I have felt movement more consistently and it's much more noticeable from the inside and out, which I am really enjoying and can't wait until it's noticeable enough to catch on video for T&Y. They really love hearing the updates and that I'm feeling movement now. They're so excited!
After the appointment, the tech. left the room to have the specialist come in and wrap everything up. I wondered the whole time if the tech. would have a different expression, like maybe a more concerned expression, if something severe had been found. The specialist came in and announced that the babies look great. Baby A is head down (although I know that can change by the minute!) and Baby B is transverse/breech. There were some minor concerns to watch for. Baby A is measuring 1 week ahead and at 11 oz., which is perfectly fine, but his/her belly was a little bigger than "normal" for his/her size, and they want to keep an eye on that. Baby B's cord inserts at a weird part of the placenta (the side, I think?) instead of in the front. While this CAN potentially hinder nourishment and cause Baby B to lack in growth, Baby B was measuring right on for dates and at 9 oz., they didn't seem overly concerned. Because it's a twin pregnancy, I'll be monitored more closely anyways, but these minor concerns are also something they will keep a watchful eye on while I go in for more regular ultrasounds. I was also dying to know what the sexes were and I knew T&Y were anxiously awaiting my Skype, so I hurried out of there and made it back to work to let them know how everything went. I was happy to share that the babies look great, I talked about the minor concerns, but that everything really looked great, and then they asked about the sexes. I opened the envelopes to reveal that Baby A is a BOY and Baby B is a GIRL! Completely the opposite of what I was originally guessing. They are SOOOOO happy! They of course just want healthy babies, but to have one of each is an extra added bonus and just what they would have wished for. I'm so excited for them! They are going to start thinking of names and they'd like to hear me say them in English, I thought that was really sweet :)
My OB called later to tell me that he received the report and that there weren't any concerns. I have my next appointment on June 14th for my regular OB appointment and another ultrasound on July 16th for another growth ultrasound. Over the past week I have really popped in my belly area. The picture I've included is from 18 weeks and I'm so serious when I say I've grown so much more since then! Even my co-workers have commented on my sudden growth. If I can grow this much in 3-4 days......I don't even want to THINK about what will happen the rest of the pregnancy!
I'm still very tired, all of the time. Like I said last time, I'm almost completely at peace with knowing this will probably only get worse as I get bigger. I know that a single small cup of coffee makes a world of difference, so I don't allow myself to feel guilty for having one every once in a while. My boobs still lactate/leak on a very regular basis, which is just fine. I'm actually already uncomfortable sleeping on my side at night (my hips mostly), and I'm a side sleeper anyways.......I remember this happening with Kaleb. When I wasn't "allowed" to sleep on my stomach or back, I wanted to, even though I've always been a side sleeper. I sleep wrapped around a body pillow and another pillow wedged behind me to keep me from rolling onto my back. Last night I had a contraction that was so strong it woke me from a dead sleep and basically caused me to leap out of bed to figure out what the hell was happening. As soon as I stood up, it went away. That was a little scary. I get up to pee about 3 times each night on average. I have been able to avoid heartburn at night for the most part by eating a very small dinner and then limiting myself to a little fruit, or half a watermelon sometimes (hey, I can't help myself) at night. I force myself to drink at least 64 oz. of water throughout the day and, no,even after doing this for about a year now, my body still hasn't adjusted to it and I spend, what seems like, half the day in the bathroom and the other half contemplating how long I can hold out before I go back to the bathroom. I am still pretty good about watching what I eat. I don't want to gain more than necessary, but I'll admit it is SO hard because I really want sweets, doughnuts, chocolate, candy, and as I sit here I realize I've been obsessing about Perkin's strawberry pie for over a month and ALMOST went to get some tonight. If I hadn't had CherryBerry with Kaleb for his last-day-of-school treat, I seriously would have driven to Perkin's for just one slice. Tomorrow......
All in all, I'd say we're smooth sailin' right now and I'm really happy about it! I feel good, the babies are healthy, T&Y are ecstatic.......I couldn't ask for more!
