Relaxing Holidays

We had a wonderful, relaxing Christmas. We figure it may be our last for a long time...by next Christmas our babies (whom Craig named Cherry and Apple) will be scooting or crawling around and probably getting into everything. No complaints here. It sounds busy, but fun. Christmas with kids will be that much more magical!

I continue to feel really great!! I'm still pretty tired at the end of the day, but usually a 20-30 minute nap after work cures me. Still no cravings other than V8 at the beginning and no aversions other than eggs.

It will be a bit odd not to have an appointment tomorrow, as we have for several Mondays in a row. I wish there was a way to do an ultrasound at home so we could check on the babies whenever we wanted! Hmm...maybe I should invent one! :-)

I made a decision when we found out we were expecting, that I would not ski this winter. It's been so hard and it's only December! I really miss it already. My dad works for a ski resort, so he gives me constant updates on the ski and snow conditions...at least that way I can pretend I'm skiing. When I see ski commercials on TV, it makes me wish I was out there "swooshing" in the snow. Don't get me wrong....I would much rather be expecting babies than skiing, but it's been a bit of an adjustment for me.

Our first regular OB appointment is next week. I'm not sure if we will have an ultrasound, or what we should expect. I will definitely keep everyone posted though.

Happy 2010!! It's going to be a great year!

Two Babies!! *updated pictures*

We are still breathing a sigh of relief, or maybe more than one sigh. Our appointment yesterday went well except for having to say goodbye to the wonderful staff who have been helping us realize our dream of parenthood. Our nurse was especially hard for me to say goodbye to. She has been there for me every step of the way and even made a special phone call (from home) a few weeks after our miscarriage to find out how we were doing. She is an above and beyond nurse and a wonderful person!

My belly is expanding and I have officially started wearing maternity pants. I bought myself two pairs and so far I'm really loving how comfortable they are. However, I don't really feel pregnant yet...just a little overweight. :-)

Our twins are doing so well!! Yesterday we got to see one of them move around and hear both their little heartbeats. So neat! Here are their stats:

Baby A is measuring at 8 weeks 2 days (I was 8 weeks 5 days yesterday) and his/her heartbeat was 172.

Baby B is measuring at 8 weeks 3 days and his/her heartbeat is 176.

We were able to get a good profile picture of baby B although the pictures we were given don't show as much detail as we could see on the screen. We could clearly see the nose of baby B! Baby A's picture is pretty blurry, but don't worry...he/she is just as cute as baby B.

Above are pictures of baby B, one of them together, then baby A. In the one of them together, baby B is on the left and baby A is on the right.

We have our first OB appointment in two weeks...January 6. Stay tuned.

After 44 Days...

We are finally done with all our injections....forever! When I say 44 days, that only includes the progesterone, not the shots before that and not the 2 other rounds of IVF we've done. What a relief to be done!!!

Some of you may have noticed that I added a gadget (a picture of developing twins) on the right side of the blog. Thank you Jen for the idea. I really wanted the heading above them to say "Craig and Nicole's twins", but alas, the program wouldn't allow me to add such a long heading. So, they are just Nicole's twins. Have no fear though, Craig is planning to help me raise them! ;-)

I made my first OB appointment this week. It is scheduled for January 6, when I will be 11 weeks along. The doctor I wanted to use is retiring this summer and is no longer taking new patients. So I will be trying another doctor in his office (a female). I'm looking forward to meeting with her and seeing if she's right for me. The office opens early too, so I shouldn't have to miss any work for appointments, which is really nice.

Many people have been asking how I feel. I feel really great right now! Just like last week, I'm still pretty tired by the end of the day. I try to sneak in naps after work whenever I can. Unfortunately, preparations for Christmas have been interfering with that. I've also been waking up 1-2 times per night to go to the bathroom. I'm used to it now and can easily get back to sleep again. As far as cravings go, I haven't had any since the very beginning with the V8. I do however, have a few aversions. The biggest one is eggs. Yuck! Any form of eggs (unless in cookies, muffins, etc) gross me out. I've also been noticing that certain perfumes and scented lotions disgust me. Probably the most difficult one is that I cannot chew my regular flavor of gum. For some reason it just doesn't taste good to me at all. I'm a big gum chewer...some say I'm addicted, so this has been hard. I have found a flavor I can chew until I'm able to switch back to my regular flavor.

Craig and I are off and on having nervous feelings about our appointment on Monday. It's a big one since it's our last with our RE and like I said in the last blog, we didn't make it past this appointment last time. We are both a little worried that we will find out I've miscarried again. It's so hard not to think that way after going through such an awful experience.

I will update again on Monday night.....hopefully with good news about our babies!

Staying Positive

It's amazing how much longer it takes for our doctor to examine me this time. He spends a fair amount of time on each baby....measuring them, looking at them, checking their heartbeats. This morning we got the pleasure of hearing the heartbeats of two of the babies. This was Craig's first time hearing a baby heartbeat because he wasn't at my appointment with our last pregnancy when I heard it. The reason we only heard two hearbeats is because we lost our littlest baby. Before you get too sad for us, remember, we are still having twins and we feel completely blessed! On so many levels having twins sounds a lot more managable than having triplets. Craig and I both breathed a sigh of relief at two babies instead of three. Here are the advantages I can easily come up with: my pregnancy will likely be healthier, as I should be able to carry the twins to 36 weeks or so; we will be able to use a local OB instead of a high-risk OB in Spokane; I can still nurse; I may be able to have a vaginal delivery; it will be easier for us to do things as a family after the babies are born because we won't have three to tote around.

As for our twins, they are doing really well. Both are the exact same size (7weeks 4 days) and have the same heartbeat (158). I am 7 weeks 5 days pregnant, so they are right on schedule for size.

I am getting bigger and wearing Bella Bands everyday to hold my unbuttoned pants up. I'm beginning to wonder if we will be able to wait until 12 weeks to tell everyone, because I'm starting to look pretty pregnant. I was reading in the book, When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads: Proven Guidelines for a Healthy Multiple Pregnancy, that a twin mom is the same size as a singleton mom who is 6-8 weeks further along. So going by that, I guess I look like I'm 13-16 weeks pregnant. The morning sickness comes in waves now, and generally occurs when I haven't eaten for 2 or more hours. I know, I know, two hours isn't very long but my body is ALWAYS hungry! I've also continued to be very tired. All in all, I feel really great though! I'm enjoying pregnancy so far.

We only have one more appointment, next Monday, with our RE. We will then start seeing an OB and we will officially be like any other "normal" expecting parents. The next appointment was when we found out about our miscarriage last time, so we are both a little nervous because we've never made it past this point. We also found out today that we get to stop doing the progesterone injections this Thursday. This is a very big deal because we've been doing them everyday since November 4! I'm sure I will have to write a post about how happy I am later in the week. :)

Thank you all for your continued prayers, and support. It helps us get through all the ups and downs of this process.

Calling all Maternity Clothes!!!

If any of you ladies have maternity clothes and would like to LOAN them to me, I would really really appreciate it! I have a feeling I'm going to need them soon and will need a range of sizes from medium up. I will return them all to you when I'm done wearing them (or when I outgrow them).

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

A Little Peek Inside

I've just received 4 text messages asking how everything went, so I thought I should post this ASAP. :-) My blood work all came back great. Our beta is now over 300,000. That's a big number. My progesterone level is good and we get to drop that injection in half starting this Friday. I can't remember exactly how much longer we have to do it after that, but I know it's no more than a week. Yay!

We got to see THREE heartbeats on the ultrasound screen today too! Yep, our triplets are still doing well. The heartbeats look so neat too...like a quickly flashing light. Very amazing! Our doctor told us to be prepared for the possibility of more blood in the upcoming weeks, as apparently it's fairly common in the 1st trimester. Obviously we hope it doesn't happen again because frankly, it's very scary to know I'm pregnant and see blood.

Baby #1 is: 6.5mm long and his/her heartbeat is 120bpm
Baby #2 is: 4.5mm long and his/her heartbeat is 105bpm
Baby #3 is: 6.4mm long and his/her heartbeat is 120bpm

Our doctor said baby #2 is a bit on the small side, but the heartbeat is still in the normal range (he likes that number to be above 100 at this point in the pregnancy). We will continue to keep a close eye on that baby, and the others. However, for now, all is well. We are hoping to hear the heartbeats next time.

The ultrasound pictures were okay, but only showed baby #1 and baby #3. I may post them later. I better hurry up and get this posted for now before I get in trouble.

Are you Pregnant?

It's been a long 9 days since our last appointment. We are very anxious to see what's going on with the babies tomorrow at our ultrasound. I realize the morning sickness could return, but for now I'm enjoying feeling really great! I'm hungry ALL THE TIME and my breasts are still pretty sore, but I really can't complain. I do have a bit of a belly on me already. Much of this is due to the fact that I'm still doing progesterone injections (we should be done with those soon), but part of it is probably the fact I'm carrying 3 babies in there too. A girl at work, who doesn't know we were trying, actually had the nerve to ask me if I was pregnant a few days ago. Ah, what?! I was shocked, but managed to be a good liar (which I felt bad about). I'm not ready for everyone at work to know yet.

We did have something scary happen on Thursday night. I woke up at 12:30am and was bleeding and cramping. It was short lived, but we called our doctor anyway. Obviously, since we experienced a miscarriage, it was pretty frightening for us! Our doctor told me to rest and that the bleeding could be from a variety of things, so not to stress (easier said than done). I had convinced myself that we needed to have an ultrasound Friday, however, in talking to our nurse Friday morning, she said it could be one of two things. She said the bleeding is either from miscarrying one of the triplets, or from leftover blood in my uterus. I haven't had a regular period since September, and she said it's common to have blood in the uterus and even bleed a little bit in the first trimester. After talking to her, we decided to wait for our ultrasound tomorrow. Whatever is happening will happen regardless of if we got an earlier ultrasound. For now, we are just staying calm and knowing we will have more answers tomorrow morning. Since Thursday I have talked to several women who said the same thing happened to them, so that makes me feel a little bit better.

My dear friend, Jen, had an extra book about pregnancy with multiples and she gave it to me. It's very uncommon to find books specifically targeted at twin or triplet pregnancies. So far, it's been very informative. As I continue to read, I may share some of my bits of wisdom with you all.

I will update tomorrow, maybe with some ultrasound pictures.