6 months tomorrow and placed on bed rest

i spent a few relaxing days with my best girl friends at the beach and ended up coming home with a nasty bug that may have been a blessing in disguise. matt and i went to see doc mag yesterday morning after i was up sick to my stomach all night. she admitted me to the hospital in west point for fluids and observation due to dehydration. i actually felt human again this morning, which was great. she also scheduled an ultrasound this morning to check on the babies, assuring us she felt all would be fine.

the ultrasound showed two healthy energetic babies weighing in at 1.9 lbs and 1.6 lbs, about a week ahead of schedule. the u/s also confirmed they are in fact both boys. this time instead of head to head, they were laying head to feet. one baby kept putting his foot in the other one's face.

everything with the babies looked good, it was my cervix that created an issue. my cervix is dilated 1cm internally. an external examination showed no sign of dilation, which is good. however, without this unplanned u/s we wouldn't have known about the internal dilation, so i guess we are fortunate.

doc mag told us that the greatest risk to twin births is prematurity and that she nor we could really do anything about premature labor other than rest at this point. so, i had a choice: go home and rest or be admitted to the hospital for them to make sure i rested. i can get up for the bathroom and a shower or a cup of coffee but that's it until our next doctors appointment which is june 7th. i'm terrified. both of being stuck to the bed and of the potential for premature birth.

the nurse said that babies are not considered viable before 26 weeks. we are 24 weeks, though they're fortunately measuring 25 weeks. she also said that babies born between 26-31 weeks would have to go to jackson. babies 31-34 weeks go to tupelo, and beyond that can be delivered and kept in west point. i'm praying for 12 more weeks in the womb. that's three whole months!! the nurse did say there was a chance that the cervix could close back up and my bed rest sentence relieved a bit. one of the boys kicks me square in the cervix a lot, and she said that could actually be what has thinned that area. hopefully now that he's growing larger, he'll shift upwards and stop poking in that spot. he has already moved up some. this was the first time we could get a look at him. every other time he was so low in my pelvis that we couldn't see or hear him very well.

prayers requested! 12 weeks please. no less than 10. love you all. here are a couple more pictures from this morning's u/s:
this one is of a leg/foot extended

this one is a profile picture with the other baby's foot positioned directly above this one's nose

22 weeks 3 days

We went to the doctor again today. Initially, Doc Magnussen was proud, "ONLY TWO POUNDS this time! that's good." Then she measured me and made a "whoa" face.... i measured 30 weeks. To me that made sense seeing as I measured 28 weeks 2 weeks ago... but apparently that was cause for a "whoa" face. Awesome.

My goals now are to continue to stroll the three miles at the Riverwalk at least every other day as I can, continue to rest between activities, and to learn to eat a higher fiber diet. 25-30 grams is what is recommended/day. The diet change conversation has actually caused me to fuss and cry and become very angry (poor Matt). Yes, really. There are so many things that you try to do for yourself and your growing babies while you're pregnant with twins (or just pregnant in general), and feeling like you've been doing it wrong all this time can be defeating. Or worse, feeling like the food choices you've made for the last 22 weeks are something to be scolded for.... ANYHOW, I've made a chart and am slowly beginning to feel empowered rather than defeated by 'one more thing I must do now.'

I somehow forgot to get permission from her for my beach trip this weekend, but I'm going dagnabbit. I need some RnR with my girlfriends. I've lost the ability to think/react based solely on logic or reason and am completely emotionally driven these days, so Matt could use the reinforcement they will bring me.

Nap time....

belly: 22 weeks

big Phat... (madi and ivey know this tune)

Our doctor's appointment on the 3rd went well. Two rhythmic heartbeats. A rounding belly for me. I measured in at 28 weeks... mind you, I was only 20 weeks 2 days at the time of the visit. Doc Magnussen was not concerned and told us my measurement was perfectly ok at this stage of our twin pregnancy. ((my lord)). She told us it was time for me to hang up working and pick up napping and eating more iron rich foods. So, this is my last week at school.

We have movement! I can feel them moving around progressively more and more as the days go by.  I love feeling them wiggling about. Sometimes the tightness is overwhelming, and sometimes "baby b" (or perhaps both of them?) pushes on my cervix which does not feel especially wonderful. Still, overall, feeling the movement is comforting and makes me so happy. I'm ready for Matt and Madison to be able to see or feel them too.

Nursery time! I'm going to take pictures along the way. First: cribs and curtains...