28 Weeks (7 months) Update

28 weeks with twins

Yesterday was my 28 week appointment, and I'm happy to say that without any complaints from me (and boy, was I prepared), the appointment went more smoothly than I could have dreamed. I had a sonogram -- which is fun, of course, but when you get nauseous on your back and there are two babies to checkout... both of which who are backed in there so tightly it's hard to see what's an arm and what's a stomach and what belongs to who -- the sonograms get less and less fun. But it does relieve stress considerably when you can see what they are doing in there.

After the sonogram came the glucose test and then the regular exam. Then, because I asked her about what actually constitutes a "kick" from the little girl, who is perfectly fine but a little less active than her brother and also turned in a way that makes it difficult for me to feel all the time, they put me on the monitor to check out her movements. All of this took less time than some other appointments that I have had where we did less.

I'm thinking my doctor realized she almost screwed up with the events last week, because even though all of their exams revealed I'm doing fine (just need to be in bed "more" - as if that's possible - and continue drinking massive amounts of water because of low fluid on both babies), she is sending me to the perinatal specialist for an overall exam because, as she put it, "she doesn't want to miss anything."

Also, the time has come for total bed rest, and my last day of work was Monday. It was a bittersweet day, and I am bored... but I'm reminding myself that once the babies come I will never again be bored in my life. And the time had truly come - even sitting up in bed with a laptop, I could only function without having a contraction or getting nauseous for about 30 minutes at a time.

But enough about me.

My weight gain is something that is constantly plaguing me since women who are pregnant with twins are advised to try and gain between 35 and 45 pounds, while I've reached only an 18 pound gain so far. And in the last month, I had only gained 3 pounds. But apparently every ounce of that was baby, and they are getting all the nutrients they need to grow.

Our little girl is 2 pounds, 12 ounces and is measuring a week ahead of time. Our little guy is just barely pulling ahead at 2 pounds, 14 ounces and is a week and one day ahead. But apparently they are still impressively symmetrical despite the 2 ounce difference. I'm carrying around nearly 6 pounds of pure baby and I still have two and a half months left... and that just baffles me.

Additionally, Baby Girl was originally deemed Baby A from the beginning, meaning that she would have been born first. Well, our little guy apparently gave it about 7 months of thought and decided he didn't want to be the baby of the family, so he inched his way into "Baby A" position. This is almost unheard of, and the sonogram technician was completely baffled. SOMEHOW, little guy was able to get his head below baby girl's bottom, so now she is nearly sitting on his head with her feet and heels in his face, and it would be almost amazing at this point, with how big they are, if they were to switch back. So now Baby A is Baby B and vice versa, but they won't change their labels because it will obviously confuse all the data they gathered so far. I'm apparently growing some pretty competitive babies.

Our little guy from head to toe still looks great. Our little girl's kidneys are still dilated and continue to be more dilated with each appointment (slight increases everytime). The truth is, this could be really scary or it could be completely nothing... and the state of her kidney won't cause them to make me deliver early, as she's better off inside as long as she possibly can stay there. But my doctor gave us the name of a pediatric urologist so we can become acquainted in case this doesn't resolve itself after birth. (After birth, they will do an ultrasound on her kidney to see how dilated it is and what the next course of action might be. We haven't set up the appointment yet, but will probably talk to them after my appointment with the perinatal specialist on Monday.

I wish I had pictures of the babies but truthfully they are so tightly packed in there that most of the pictures I got were a mess of heads and toes... and our little girl is so tightly curled into a ball, in a breach position, and facing her brother that there were almost literally no pictures of her. I have slight hopes that maybe next time (2 weeks from now) I may get to see more, but I'm pretty sure we won't get really good looks until their birthdays... and we're still aiming for July. :)