24 Week Update

Doctor's appointment today went well. The following info will probably be really boring for a lot of you, but I want to continue to document the details for myself.

• Apple (girl) now weighs 1 pound 4 ounces and is measuring around 23w1d.  She is still head down and was pretty calm again today, her heart rate at 130.  We were told this is typical of Baby A because they are lower and have less room to move around.
• Banana (boy) now weighs 1 pound 3 ounces and is measuring around 23w3d.  At the beginning of the scan, he was also head down, but by the end had flipped all the way around and was breach, with his butt bumping up against Apple's face again.  He was squirmy and really active again, his heart rate at 148.  I suspect that is one of his body parts bumping up against my sternum tonight making it difficult to breathe.
• Since I'm at 23w4d today, they are happy with where both babies are measuring which is on track even for singletons.
• Both placentas still look good and both babies have normal amounts of fluid.
• My cervix is holding nice and long at 6.
• My blood pressure is still low at 124/64.
• My belly is measuring about 27.5 or 28cm now.
• No sugar in my urine or any sign of infection.

I now go in to see the OB every 2 weeks, but continue on the every 4 week schedule for ultrasounds.  At my next OB appointment in 2 weeks, they'll do the glucose screen (drink icky syrupy liquid and get blood drawn an hour later).  If I pass the screen, I'm in the clear for gestational diabetes.  If not, they'll have me do the big scary glucose tolerance test at the next appointment (fast, drink much more icky syrupy liquid and get blood drawn one, two and three hours later).  If that comes back with bad results, it's off to the dietitian.  Hopefully I'll pass the screen with flying colors and be able to mark that milestone off the list.

The OB we met with today mentioned that she prefers that all of her twin patients get epidurals even if attempting a vaginal delivery.  Her reasoning was that if they end up having to do an emergency c-section (usually because baby B isn't cooperating), you are all ready for it and they shouldn't have to knock you out for the c-section.  If I was on the fence at all (which I kind of was) about wanting to try natural versus getting an epidural, I think she may have just nudged me to one side and convinced me to get one.

The doc confirmed that I should get a flu shot (in case any of you were wondering).  She also confirmed that taking Tyl.enol pm EVERY single night is not a problem.  This is a good thing because it has really been helping.  Even just taking half the normal adult dosage is working for me.  I will also stay on the baby aspirin even through delivery as she said the dosage is too low to affect clotting, etc. during delivery.

So, the only real issue I seem to have now are the contractions/cramps I've been having.  They aren't real contractions because they are fairly localized (not the entire abdomen) and sometimes just brought on by the babies moving around.  But they are still disconcerting.  Half the time it will be just on one side.  I'll notice the muscle tightening and look down and my belly is all lopsided and rock hard on one side.  Freaky.  The doc did caution me that if I start noticing a pattern to them or if I notice more than 4 in an hour, to call them.

We also talked about the ECP (evil crotch pain) and back pain and she said if massage doesn't help, we can always try physical therapy.  She also mentioned that I might want to start thinking about cutting back my hours at work soon.  Given what is going on at work right now, I think I'll likely wait for a couple of weeks and see how I do.  I think my first step would be to approach my boss about working from home in the afternoons (maybe after 2pm each day).  We'll see.

So all is well on the baby front.  We did get some more ultrasound pictures today, but I'm too exhausted to hook my laptop up to the scanner right now, so I'll try to scan and post them later in the week.  Sorry to be a tease, but seriously, the scanner is like 10 feet away and my butt is PLANTED on the couch!