...just a quick post from another computer.

The babies have surprised me with a major move: Baby A (boy) is breech and Baby B (girl) is vertex. She seems to be lying somewhat in front of and across him though (more at the front of my stomach while he's against my spine). They're growing practically per the textbook 1/2 pound per week as he's up 14oz to 6lb2oz (2790g) and she's up 1lb1oz to 5lb10oz (2547g). With two weeks to go, I'm looking at the possibility of babies just over and under 7lbs, which would be fantastic for 37.5w twins!

Labels: Pregnancy 5, Twins

That's how things are around here. There's no tension about the babies' birth, their health, my health, our preparedness for their arrival, or whatever. All remains status quo. The next growth scan is Wednesday afternoon.

I did go to a little party for my newest niece today. She's not quite eight weeks old and a big girl at well over 11lbs -- a stark contrast to her older sister, but then, she's a completely different baby: very relaxed and easygoing. I'm glad my brother and sister-in-law have it easy for a change. The thing I found interesting was that all of my sister-in-law's friends seem perpetually pregnant. Remember the older niece's birthday back in December? When all I could do was focus on the kids and avoid the fact that I felt like nearly everyone in the room was pregnant but me? Yah, well, many of those women were there today with little babies in their arms and those without infants had big bellies. Really, everytime there's a group of women in that house, half of them seem to be pregnant. My sister-in-law insists that it's just these past couple of years and that everyone is in the process of having their last child, so the bellies will be disappearing at future get-togethers. I guess we'll see. I'm certainly glad I had a belly of my own this time.

My computer has been crashing more-or-less randomly for about half a year now and after trying to fix it again this morning, I've decided to take it into the shop tomorrow. Hopefully I'm not without my computer for too long. I miss you guys when I'm away a while!

Labels: Pregnancy 5

Having gone through life as a somewhat larger-than-average-breasted woman, I've become accustomed to stares that are clearly not at my face. These days I'm noticing that they're not even directed at my breasts anymore. Clearly, I'm very, very pregnant.

I went to a sale hosted by the local multiples club last weekend. They had a separate lineup for people with less than ten items or pregnant women. Even this "express" lineup had 15 or 20 people ahead of me when I took my place. As I awaited my turn, I noticed a couple of women glancing at me repeatedly; I shrugged it off as simple curiosity, but was flattered and heartened when one of these women who was five or seven places ahead of me came back and offered to let me stand in front of her in line. I didn't take her up, but her offer alone made me feel better about the wait.

I had a quick check-in with my OB today and I think he is impressed. No, really. He seemed quite surprised and pleased that not only am I still pregnant, I'm still pregnant with such big babies. A few weeks ago when I asked him to humour me by telling me my fundal height, he added that from that point he would simply be writing "big". He reminded me of his mention that the biggest risk in a multiple pregnancy is premature birth, but said it in such a way as to suggest that he really didn't need to worry me with that at all. I suppose if I can make it past 10 weeks, my body does a pretty good job of holding onto a pregnancy. Little R did, after all, have to be induced at 41 weeks, and even then he refused to descend and the OB had to go in to get him out.

Regardless, I felt pretty good about my visit today because my OB (who I have since learned is the Chief of Obstetrics) is a busy guy and not easy to impress.

I must be really big.

Labels: Little R, Pregnancy 5

This edema is getting to me. It wasn't yet too bad (read: as awful as my last term pregnancy) when I posted that pic two weeks ago, but in the last week it has gotten to the point of physically hindering me. I don't want to move, and that includes getting up to pee all the liquid that I'm supposed to be taking in to control it. My fingers feel like overstuffed sausages, my ankles are almost nonexistent, and I have this accumulation of fluid at the bottom of my belly -- you know, right at the base of my bump -- that I refer to as my wattle because it now jiggles when I walk. It's horribly uncomfortable because the stretch marks from the pregnancy with my son have left no elasticity there and as a result they form little fluid ridges. It's really rather gross. And itchy. And sore.

What made me so antsy to have an induction when I went overdue with Little R was this same fluid retention. I had not imagined that a bit of accumulated water could make a person so uncomfortable and irritated. I was beginning to think that I had escaped it this time, but no such luck. I can only be thankful that I have three and a half weeks to go instead of the seven that I had in that last pregnancy.

Labels: Pregnancy 5, Rants and Shoot-Em-Up Stories

Something reminded me to check the moon phase for the date of my scheduled c-section. I suppose I'm looking for a guesstimate of how busy it could be in Labour and Delivery that day. We've all heard stories about full moons filling up emergency wards -- well there are similar stories for the maternity wards too. Fortunately, the last full moon before October 10th is September 26th. The new moon is on the 11th (the day after the surgery) and the next full moon is on the 26th of October. Things therefore shouldn't be too insane around my mid-morning appointment, right?

I hadn't realized that October 8th is Thanksgiving here in Canada. My kids like to pick holidays for birthdays it appears (my son's birthday landed on Easter Monday this year).

Labels: A Head Full of Trivia, Pregnancy 5

I had the latest biweekly ultrasound this afternoon and our little monkeys remain on track: the boy is still in the 90th percentile at 2387g (5lb4oz) and the girl is growing, moving up into the 75th percentile with 2072g (4lb9oz). They don't do transvaginal cervix checks after 32w, but mine still looks long and closed with the transabdominal scan. The kids are finally moving out of their perpetual transverse positions and are tending toward vertical (they're both mostly oblique right now with heads on my right side), though with the wrong end up -- they're shifting to breech! I'm glad that I didn't set my heart on a VBAC, that's for sure. So with all we saw today, it's looking good that I'll make that date with my OB in the surgical suite exactly four weeks from today.

The craziness with the percentiles continues. I asked the peri today about whether it is a singleton or twin chart that is referenced on the ultrasound reports and she said that it depends upon the doc. She uses a twin chart (usually) if it's handy, but she also works at another location where the twin chart is rarely to be found, so there, she'll quote singleton percentiles. She says she remarks on the report which chart is used. The percentiles for our kids today are for twins of the appropriate gender. For the boy it doesn't make a difference, as he is so very consistently 90th percentile whether the twin or singleton chart is used, but for the girl, it makes a difference, putting her in a range from the 50th/60th to the 75th. The reason that the percentiles are entered manually is because they use the growth statistics from my province. There are charts that can be used in the software, but they are specific to various other geographic regions. Really, the percentiles are nitpickiness because they aren't going to matter much once the kids are born, but what I do like about them is that they give me a point of reference to know that they are doing very well.

Labels: Pregnancy 5, Twins