Surprise!

I didn’t give you the full story from ultrasound #1. We had a few people we wanted to surprise and since they read this blog, I had to keep a few details to myself.

So let’s go back to Tuesday last week. I was nervous, but fairly confident we would see something (there had to be some explanation for my non-stop nausea!). Dr. L came in and said “I’m just as anxious as you are. Let’s see what we have.” After a few seconds she said, “it looks good!” and turned the screen so A and I could see the black blob in my uterus. She pointed out the fetus and the yolk sac and then the heartbeat. It was a tiny little flutter, but it was definitely there.

She shifted the ultrasound probe to get a look at the entire sac, back and forth, back and forth, and said “do you see what I see?” And I did see what she was looking at–a second sac. She quickly pointed out a second embryo, a second yolk sac and a second heartbeat. It was twins!!! One was measuring a few days behind, but both had perfect heartbeats.

The Beans at 6 Weeks

She took a bunch of pictures, and a bunch of measurements and stepped out of the room to get some paperwork. When she came back, the entire clinic was with her: Dr. Z, nurse E and S, and they all had these huge smiles on their faces. I know I’ve said before that I love my clinic, but I really really do. I love that they all know me and I know all of them and they are truly excited for us. It is wonderful.

Ultrasound #2 was Friday. I was a nervous wreck, because I just feel off. I don’t know if I have been feeling off because this is my new normal, and this is how you feel when you are growing people inside of you. Or if I felt off because something was wrong. So it was a great relief when Dr. L took one look at the ultrasound screen and said “everything looks beautiful.” We have two babies, one still 2 days behind the other but both totally in the normal range. Both with strong beautiful heartbeats. One standing on its head, the other hanging out up-right.

The Beans at 8 Weeks

Yesterday, I graduated from the RE clinic, which is so bittersweet. I love them all there. They are such wonderful people and so caring. I can only hope the OB is as good at dealing with my neuroses. We will find out next week with my first appointment. I decided to stay at the university. There is a hospital near our house with a midwife service, but with twins and being old, I would feel better being with an OB, so the U is probably a better choice. Plus it will be convenient for work, since I will just be next door. And it shares clinic space with my RE, so I can always sneak back over to say to everyone when I feel the need for a little extra love.

Relief is setting in, as I realize everything is finally going perfectly. But the panic is starting to creep in as well because holy crap. We are going to have two babies. AT THE SAME TIME!! It’s a crazy place to be right now. But exciting. Life is going to be so much more fun in about 8 months…

Boring

Boring is good, but doesn’t give me much to write about. We another 4 days before US #2 (Friday). There’s nothing I can do in between to ensure that everything is going well. If morning sickness is any indication of a healthy pregnancy, then we are doing just fine. Although I would like to point out that morning sickness is a misnomer. Twenty-four hour nausea would be a more apt description. I feel fine as long as I’m eating (mostly), but if I go more than an hour without putting something in my mouth I feel that queasiness that I have previously only associated with a hangover. Some things work better to allay the nausea (Greek yogurt, milk, melon, peanut butter, cheese), some things seem to make it worse (crackers, carrots, apples). It’s a constant experiment. By the evening I usually just don’t feel like eating at all.Last night I have about 3 bites of dinner, then ate some ice cream and cheese. Calcium, it’s healthy, right?

I’m exhausted, but feeling like I want to start exercising again. I took Wylie for a walk the other morning, and my heart rate stayed a pretty consistent 120-130. While walking. Geez. Running is definitely out of the question. I get short of breath walking up stairs now. I do need to get back to the gym though. I’m turning into flab. And without running, I’m not doing much to improve my muscle tone. We do finally have consistently nice weather though, so I’m back to biking to work.

That’s really all that has been going on. I’m very hopeful that things will look good on our ultrasound on Friday, but I’m nervous as well. You spend enough time in the company of women trying to get pregnant, and you know all the things that can go wrong along the way. Everything looked perfect last week, so I’m believing everything will look perfect on Friday and I’m trying my best not to worry. It’s hard though, after everything we’ve been through to get to this point to believe that this is actually happening. It’s surreal.

 

It Really Worked

The ultrasound was beautiful. Everything measuring where it should. Heart beating at 122 bpm. Beautiful. We have one more ultrasound next week with the RE before she kicks me out and makes me go see a regular OB. Hopefully everything will still look good then, and maybe then I will accept that this really worked. Because now I still feel like I’m teetering on a narrow rail waiting to fall one way or another, but hoping I actually make it safely to the other end.

6 weeks

We are still waiting to see what is going on in that uterus of mine. Hopefully good things. I’ve been strangely calm waiting for the ultrasound. We had to skip the early ultrasound since I had to leave town unexpectedly last week. Instead our ultrasound will be this week and hopefully late enough for us to see the heartbeat. Until then, we continue waiting. I keep looking for signs that things are still progressing. I’m still exhausted but the cramps have stopped. As of 5w5d, I’ve been nauseated pretty much all day. Not bad, just like a mild hangover. I’m taking that as a good sign.

I feel like I need to be doing something, but there’s really nothing to do but wait. I did take a golf lesson today. That was fun and a nice distraction. I have been completely unable to work though. My mind just isn’t in it. Anyway, I apologize for the lack of information, but for now we will continue to believe that no news is good news. And hopefully we will have good news to share soon.

South Bound

I’m on my way to San Diego for a last minute trip to see the family. We will return to our regularly scheduled ramblings when I return on Monday.

Baby Gifts

I finally finished item #1 on my to do list. I think it turned out quite nice, although it is clearly homemade. I think the errors make it special, right? Unfortunately, I can’t share it with you because the recipient may be reading this, and I’d hate to ruin the surprise. I also attempted to make the shade for the kitchen, but it turns out having an 80 year old house with 80 year old windows means the windows are not a standard size. So I can’t find a blind that fits in the window. I guess that one is a fail.

After finishing the baby gift this morning, I realized just how many baby gifts I have made over the years. I love making baby gifts. They are fun, quick and you can get away with things for babies that you just can’t do for adults.

I’ve made hats:

I knit/crochet blankets:

And I knit sweaters, baby shoes and the occasional lamb:

I even made a quilt once:

I have a few more gifts for friends to figure out. And then maybe one day I’ll feel ready to make something that we’ll get to keep. I’m not there yet though… hopefully soon.

Good Things

Not a lot of news for the next few weeks… just a lot of waiting. It’s just me and the dog this weekend, hopefully we will be able to keep ourselves entertained. And because it is Friday, and because I have nothing else to talk about, my three favorite things from today:

1. Dry Soda Wild Lime. It makes me think I’m drinking a margarita, when really I’m just drinking soda water. Their Juniper Berry makes you think you drinking a gin and tonic, but I can never find that flavor anywhere.

2. Lululemon yoga pants. Seriously. The best $90 I have ever spent. I can’t believe I didn’t give in and get a pair of these sooner!

3. My goofy dog who in the 15 minutes since I’ve been home has brought me a red tug of war toy, a squeaky bear, a ring toy, a skunk carcass and is now lying in the middle of the floor quietly whining because I won’t play with him until I finish my work.

This weekend I hope to finish the to do list. However, if it is sunny, I have no intention of staying inside, so don’t hold your breath. Happy Friday!