Quick Update

Everything's been pretty quiet. On Saturday we ended up going to visit some friends and their 1-week old baby. I just laid on their couch, so it was pretty much just like being at home. All was well there until about 6:00 while we were playing Super Scrab.ble. (Love it!) Because I was sitting upright, gravity caused more of the clunking on my cervix, and soon enough I had a mad bout of contractions. They were coming fast and furious and were damn scary. I popped some terb and we hightailed it home. It took a while, but eventually they stopped. I called L&D anyway, and the nurse was so reassuring. She said that passing the f.fn was huge, and that I will be contracting a lot and should get used to it, and she ok'd me to take some terb before bed, even though my doc told me to take it with contractions. She also said NOT to take it if my pulse was over 110, which NO ONE else had told me, so that was certainly good information!

Since then, I've been ok. I did absolutely nothing yesterday except drink water and pee. We decided to skip our Newborn Care class just to be on the safe side. I'm at work today and so far things have been fine. No contractions (that I can feel, anyway). I was worried that sitting up at my desk would bring on more of the cervix stomping, but it's been very mild so far.

So, for now, a sigh of relief. I was convinced that I would show up to work and start contracting like crazy and then be doomed to my bed for the next 10 weeks. I know I could do it, and would do it for the sake of the W0nder Twins, but I'm sure it it goes without saying that I REALLY don't want to.

Some excitement I didn't need

Yesterday on my way to work I felt what seemed like the little lady trying to escape. Or at least she was trying to thump me some kind of message. It felt weird. Not painful, just weird. I swear when I went to the bathroom I though she and I might have a little tug-o-war with the tp. I had meetings all morning, but at around noon I called my OB. I continued to feel the escape antics, but didn't really feel anything else throughout the day. I got a call back at 5:10. (Just long enough for me to well and truly freak out, of course.)

He said the feeling was pretty normal and was probably due to fetal position. But he added that if I felt any contractions, peed more often or noted any discharge overnight that I should come in today for a check up. I could only feel the contractions if I had my hand on my stomach, but they did seem to be happening. I also went to the bathroom a lot more than normal overnight, but I think a lot of that had to do with my general nerves. I couldn't fall into a good sleep, so every time I woke up I figured, why not pee?

ANYway...this morning I went in to my OB at 11. He did a fetal fibr0nectin test, manually checked my cervix (closed, but slightly soft) and then sent me down to L&D for some monitoring. I ended up being there for about 4 hours. I had quite a few contractions while on the monitor, but when my lovely nurse gave me a shot of hellfire...uh, I mean terbutaline, they stopped pretty immediately. Seriously, though, I never feel it when nurses say a shot is going to burn or sting, but this one? Felt like she administered it with a flamethrower! Incredibly quick and encouraging results, though, and the burning stopped pretty soon.

Thank god I had a book with me. I might have died of boredom otherwise. I also had a chance to sample the hospital fare and I have to give my Tuscan Chicken sammie an enthusiastic thumbs up! Of course I would have enjoyed gnawing on a piece of cardboard by the time they brought it to me.

Finally the nurse let me know that the fFN was negative, which is great news. She also gave me a presciption for more hellfire, but I assume that taking it in pill form doesn't result in the same burning. I hope so anyway! I'm to take it if I feel more than 6 contractions in an hour. The nurse said she'd take one if she felt 3 in 30 minutes. I like her assertiveness! If they don't go away over the weekend then my doc wants to take me out of work for the duration. He asked me to take it easy this weekend, but said I could go to our Newborn Care class on Sunday. I've loaded myself up with trashy magazines, so I'm ready to couch surf for the rest of the time.

I had a little talk with the babes last night explaining that it's just not time for them yet and urging them to hang on for a few more weeks anyway. I hope the teary breakdown I had while I was talking to them sufficiently demonstrated my lack of readiness and discouraged them from any further escape attempts.

Boundaries? What boundaries?

While I get the general excitement that people seem to feel about OPP's (Other People's Pregnancies) I will just never understand why or how it leads them to become so incredibly inappropriate. Two examples from the last hour here at work:

1. I'm standing at my boss' desk. One of his peers, who is generally pretty funny but not particularly appropriate, comes up and says, "Hey (E's Boss), if you stand next to her (me), you don't see those extra pounds at all."

Ohhh...I get it. I'm pregnant, so I'm fat! Har dee fuckin' har. Shut it, chump. He tried to make up for it saying, "But I was trying to say that (your boss) is fat!" I guess he didn't realize that he implied that if my boss is fat, I'm Orca.

Fool.

2. I'm at my desk, surrounded by the two players from above, plus the Operations Manager for the entire West Region. We're talking babies (remember my boss' wife is having twins as well) and comparing weights and progress, etc. and my boss decides to ask me - in this group setting - "How's your cervix?"

Well, hopefully it's not shy! Jesus! It's good that at this point all of my reproductive organs have become mere tools to me. I actually keep them out in the garage in my handy Craftsman Cooter Container.

I know this dilemma will never be solved. People will rub bellies uninvited, ask about, point out, or greatly exaggerate weight gain, and turn genitals into everyday conversation fodder, as long as the subject is a pregnant lady. If only somewhere, sometime the "miracle of birth" will be accompanied by the "miracle of decorum." I'm not counting on it, though.

Holy Cheek

Great scan this morning. Man, I love these kids! The boy weighs 1 pound, 10 ounces and the girl is already hating her skinny brother - she’s a portly 1 lb, 12 oz. They're All Stars!

So, the little man was apparently having a bad hair day or something because he wasn’t into having his picture taken. Or maybe he’s waiting for the big “reveal” in May. Here’s a picture of him from the back.

The little lady was shy at first, too, but eventually she rolled over and gave us these two shots. Can ya stand it? She looks pretty peaceful for a Kung Fu master, no? But believe me, they both can kick and punch like nobody’s business.

I swear I've spent 95% of my workday looking at the picture on the right. Her cheek! I need to pinch it.

And here’s a great one of the two of them practicing their secret language.

Adorableness aside, the pregnancy continues to look really good! I’ve been so lucky. All the fluid levels are on track and my cervix measured at 4 cm so I don’t have to go back for another four weeks.

There is great debate at my work about whether or not I look big. According to people who’ve never had kids, like for instance the IT guy, I’m HUGE, but if you ask a mom they tend to say I’m not at all. I think I believe those with experience. Of course, I’d probably just believe whichever group thought I was smallest, right?

Quick question. Is this really happening to me? Do I really have two seemingly perfect babies? It is so insane. The invitation to the shower my SIL is having for me came last night and it made mention of my "son and daughter." Those are big words. "Baby" seems doable. Even "Babies" seems alright. Son and Daughter? Those throw me for a loop.

Woo to the Sugar Lovin' Hoo

I passed my glucose test "with flying colors," according to the nurse. Phew. I'm not a total sugar fiend, but over the weekend I did start to think about all the tasty things I'd miss. Like peanut butter cup ice cream. And chocolate chip ice cream. And m00se tracks ice cream... Ok, so anyway, it's a good thing.

We had a great weekend; well I did, anyway. W had to work on Saturday and then fly to Toronto on Sunday for work. But Bella and I took advantage of the great weather to go to the beach and enjoy the sunshine. I also ran a bajillion unnecessary errands because I wanted to drive the new car. I felt a little bad about wasting the gas, but I couldn't help myself. I'm chalking it up to learning the car, which actually isn't a bad idea, because it is a helluva lot bigger than our GTI. I found this crib bedding at Targ3t. It's really cute in person and the sheets are supersoft. It's been hard to find truly unisex bedding, so I was psyched to find this - and on sale even!

Luckily in W's scarce downtime we were able to go meet Watson, Be-Bop and their twins! Ok - babies first... They are so sweet! I don't know if she drugged them or what, but they were downright perfect while we were there. Of course that's always how it goes, right? I got to hold Parker and she's the pink-cheekiest lil lady I ever did see. As BeBop pointed out, Jax really looks like a boy and she about screams GRRRL! Even though just like her brother, she does burp like a frat boy. It's impressive, let me tell you.

Watson and BeBop are just so nice. We loved getting to know them. They had a whole pile of hand-me-downs for us including clothes, bf supplies and a huge shopping bag full of tiny diapers. It was so great. It's hard to believe that P & J are so big that they're growing out of stuff already! They (uh...not the babies) were both able to give us lots of advice, answering questions that W and I would never even have known to ask. I'm sure we'll be going back for more info from them very soon.

Two days til my ultrasound. I feel like it's been a long time since the last one - probably because they didn't give us any pictures. I'll be sure to be demanding them this time around. The babies seem good. They're kicking away like nobody's business. When W is around, I feel like I should tell him when they're kicking so he can feel it, so I have to admit I'm a little excited that he's gone for the next 2 nights so I can have them all to myself. Sorry honey!

Lame-O

First things first, I had an OB appointment this morning and all went well. I'm pushing 30lbs of weight gain right now, most of which appears to be in my thighs and the backs of my ankles. 30 seems downright shocking, but I'm not that (much) huge(r than normal) and I've been eating pretty healthily (nightly bowl of ice cream notwithstanding), so I'm trying not to worry about it too much. The babies were very cooperative and their heartbeats were audible right away. They're 148 and 154 , so within the normal range and different enough for my doctor to be sure that he got both bambinos.

I also had my 1 hour gluc0se screening today. The drink was so much more palatable than I thought it would be! Don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly hankering for another one, but it wasn't so horrible. It was cold, which made it way easier to get through. I won't get my results until Monday. Is it wrong to consider eating nothing but carbs and sugar until then? I know. It's wrong. And kind of gross. I won't do it, I promise.

U/S on the 13th - woo hoo! Can it really be true that on Sunday I will be 25 weeks pregnant? I am so very lucky.

So, yesterday Sticky Bun posted about the great news of her SIL's success on her first cl0mid/iui. Coincidentally, my very good friend is also pregnant from her first cl0mid/iui. Her betas are pretty sky high - 782 at 16dpo - and now she's almost 6 weeks along. Can you imagine if she got twins, too? I mean it does seem a bit likely, given that number. She kind of told me her day 18 number, saying it was in the 1400's but I didn't want to seem like a freak, so I didn't press her for the exact number. It was hard though! (Her first beta was taken in the afternoon and the 2nd was early in the morning, so especially without the 2nd number, I have no idea how to start calculating doubling times. She's damn close, though...) Anyway, however many babies there are in there, I think it's the most fabulous news ever.

But...

Would I feel even slightly happy for her if I wasn't pregnant myself? No. I know I wouldn't. I'd be spitting nails and would be posting a post full of venom and snark. It's probably dumb to be beating myself up for feelings I might have if things were different, but I feel like a jerk. To know that I probably wouldn't have been able to put aside my jealousy to be truly happy for my friend? That's kind of lame.

Our new addition

A couple of commenters asked about our car shopping, so I'll take that as an opportunity to show off my new ride! We had done some research online about cars and were a little all over the map with thoughts including the Pas$at wagon, a H0nda CR.V and possibly the new Nis$an R0gue. I'm not a huge car person and have gone long periods of time without a car in my life. 1994 - 2002 for instance. Then when we moved out here from NH in '06 we gave our Cher0kee to W's sister and have been doing just fine with one car since then.

ANYWAY...on New Year's Eve we went to the local H0nda dealership in search of a CR.V. For fun we decided to drive a Pil0t first. It was a beautiful color, slate blueish, and as a 2005, was a bit of a bargain. I effing loved it. It drove like a regular car, but there is a buttload of room and it seats 8. Then we drove a CR.V.

This is a lot like the time that I went in to buy our wedding bands. I was dead set on getting a plain platinum band for myself. I just knew I wasn't the type to want all kinds of bling on my fingers. Apparently the jewelery store man knew me a bit better than I knew myself. He tells me I've got to try on a band with diamonds first. "You need to be able to wear it alone," was his helpful advice. Of course I loved it. But, in my attempt to save money for margaritas on our honeymoon, I decided I should really look at the plain bands. When I put it on it just looked so sad. No sparkle. No shine. No contest. I went with the diamondy one.*

So, yeah, driving the CR.V after the Pil0t was a lot like that experience. I do think our decision was valid, though. The Pil0t will seat way more people, drives better and is a quieter ride.

Amazingly we didn't just buy it that day. We are total suckers for immediate gratification and have bought almost everything we own on trips to "Just Look." But somehow we resisted that day and it paid off! I was checking the dealer's website the other day and saw that the very same car had been priced to sell because of high inventory - Thank you shitty economy! We ended up getting it for below wholesale and at 3.9% financing. Rock on! Here it is right outside our house.



I should point out that we did consider the 0dyssey for a bit. Practically I can see the argument for it, but we're not ready yet. We just left the City for the 'burbs. We can't buy a minivan, too! No, that wasn't our (entire) basis for decision. And I'm sure it will be our next car. One major consideration was the lack of 4wd. Although we live in the Bay Area, we want to go to Tah0e as much as possible and the 4wd will be great to have. Hopefully we can keep the Pil0t forever and make it our Tah0e car.

*I was also charged with choosing W's wedding band that day. I saw this perfect one made of titanium, which I knew he'd love. It was only about $170, so I was a little worried that he'd think I was making him get a cheapo so that I could get my blinged out one, but he was so happy with his ring that he didn't seem to care. Woo hoo!

Gotta go vote! Go Huckabee!

Psych.