30 Weeks!!

I can't believe how close I am to the end here. We finally settled on a room for the nursery and the cribs are set up and have mattresses, protectors, and sheets on them. I bought a dresser that's super cute and I'm excited to put stuff in it.

That's the extent of our nursery at the moment. The recliner should come around the time the babies are born if not after...hopefully not after. 

The babies are doing great. I made a visit to Maternal Fetal Medicine at Sacred Heart back at the beginning of the month so they could check on our little girl and make sure she's doing alright. She is super small, but they said that she's still developing alright and she'll grow really well once she's out of my belly. They want to keep checking up on her and I have another appointment with them in a week. 

I've been having a hard time lately with heartburn. It's hard to explain and people tell me "Oh, I had heartburn when I was pregnant too," which is followed by, "you should take TUMS."

I'm not offended as I know they're just trying to be nice and helpful. My heartburn is awful though, I seriously wonder sometimes if I'm being punished for something I did in my past life. A couple nights ago, I woke up with really bad heartburn - it's deep in my chest where my sternum is and it's so painful and at it's worse, it's difficult to breathe. It was also causing contractions. 

I went through the drill, I took TUMS, Ranitidine, Maalox, diluted apple cider vinegar - I didn't think they would work but took them for the sake of trying everything. I didn't make it long before I threw all of this up. It took several rounds of puking to get it all out. The babies were really stressed and were kicking really hard. 

I didn't want to head all the way to Sacred Heart and figured if I could just go to the Valley and get a GI cocktail (it's a mixture of Maalox and lidocaine that helps numb your esophagus so you can't feel the pain), then I'd be alright. 

Cam would have been more than willing to take me, but I didn't want to wake him - especially since we've been through this so many times before and I'd rather he stay home and watch the dogs. So I snuck out and went to the Valley Hospital. 

There was one person ahead of me, but as soon as I said that I had heartburn, they didn't think it was very serious and let everyone to follow me go ahead of me. I was in excruciating pain and even though I knew the babies were just fine (again, we've been through this before many times), I was having a lot of painful contractions. 

I was finally seen and they gave me a GI cocktail. The pain eventually went away and I was able to return home, happy that I was no longer in pain. I was excited to go to church and hopped in the shower to get ready. When I got out, I tried to get ready but the pain was coming back even stronger than before. The GI cocktail always works so I was even more stressed and feeling helpless. 

The contractions were getting worse as well and finally I gave up and Cam took me to Sacred Heart. I've become a regular at their maternity triage and luckily, my specific OB was on call there. I felt pretty embarrassed and childish as I was crying and whining uncontrollably. 

I threw up a couple more times and then they strapped me to the monitor where they monitored the babies heartbeats and contractions. They were fine, just stressed out which was to be expected. They gave me another GI cocktail, but I threw it up shortly after drinking it. 

They drew blood and my liver enzymes were high. They took an ultra sound of my liver and everything looked normal, and they figured the enzymes were high because of all the throwing up.

They gave me more meds which tasted similar to apple cider vinegar - the nurse said that it tasted like sour gummy bears, but the woman lied! I threw up the first half and was able to finish the second half by taking small sips. That mixture didn't work, so they also gave me another pill that was supposed to be the strongest but safest pill on the market.

I was feeling helpless and exhausted. My entire body hurt so bad and all I could think about was being put down in some way....I think there was a point where I even asked my doctor to put me down. Cam called his father Mark, who came in and they gave me a blessing. Shortly after the pain just went away almost automatically. It was nothing short of a miracle. My heartburn had lasted for a total of 12 hours - quite the record!

I left soon after with a prescription to that pill. Cam stopped at McDonalds where I just ordered a plain cheeseburger. The heartburn started to come back and I couldn't even finish that. When I got home I crawled in bed and slept for only an hour, but when I woke up the pain was completely gone and has stayed that way since. 

That was a lot of information, I know. Cam's mom, sister, and sister-in-law brought us food last night which was very much appreciated - I don't think watermelon has ever tasted so good! Jon was amazing and came and took care of the dogs while we were gone yesterday - We are super blessed. 

I haven't been sleeping at all this month and both Cam and I were super exhausted last night. The dogs were great this morning and snuggled with us in bed as we slept in. I know it's small, but I was extremely grateful for that. 

Our New Home

The paint color is actually grey, but in some light it looks more blue.

I love our living room, I can't wait for winter nights snuggled up by the fire.

This is our family room upstairs, I have to fight the dogs for the spot on the Lovesac every night. 

Master bath.

Master Sink

Baby Cribs

Cam's parents came over tonight to help build the baby cribs. Don't worry, I paid them with chicken enchiladas and Caesar salad. I have to give props to our neighbor boy who helped Cam carry the cribs upstairs - he's an awesome kid who came and helped despite hating dogs =/.

I was worried the cribs would clash with the trim of the room, but I think they'll work - I think with everything in place, they'll look really good. Plus, I got a pretty sweet deal on them so I can't complain too much.

I really like them! I ordered some mattresses which should be here in a couple days and as for big things, I still need to get a changing table/dresser thing and I'd like to get a chair. We'll see though. Right now I'm torn as to whether I should get a rocker/glider or a stationary chair with an ottoman...who knows?

Bed Rest & Baby Kicks

Last week we moved into our new home - finally!! It was a very stressful week as you can imagine. I was scrambling to pack up our house while taking care of the dogs. On Wednesday of last week, I got the bulk of the work done - I was actually surprised with how much I did get done. There was a lot of heavy lifting involved and a 4 hour final walk-through of our house on top of it all. Needless to say, by the end of the day I was beat!

I was still proud of myself for getting all that accomplished and had planned another big day of packing the following day. Our babies had a different plan though and at around 11am Thursday morning I started having really strong contractions. This was my first time having contractions and I didn't know if they were even that. They weren't consistent. Sometimes they'd be after 10 minutes, sometimes 15, sometimes 5. I was also having really sharp pains in my sides and my lower back was throbbing!

I tried to stick it out for a while as I kept telling myself it was all probably normal. After an hour and a half though, I decided it wouldn't hurt to call my OB. The nurse asked me a bunch of questions over the phone that I had no idea the answers to. Were they Braxton Hicks?? H*LL if I know... Was I going into labor?? Again, you tell me!

She had me come in and I was really scared. My mind was wandering and thinking of all the possible outcomes - what if I was going into labor? What if my babies were born early? It's too early! My doctor wasn't in that day, so I had to see a nurse practitioner. She checked my cervix and said that it was too soft - what does that mean? Then she had me get an ultra sound to make sure that the babies were ok and to check my cervical length.

Luckily the babies were doing well and kicking lots and my cervical length was good too. The doctor then put me on light bed rest. I could walk around some and do light tasks but I couldn't lift anything, I couldn't pack, and I needed to avoid going up and down the stairs too much.

I have a really, REALLY hard time asking for help, it was seriously really hard. So Cam being the stand-up guy that he is called in the troops for me. I was extremely grateful and humbled by all the support and help that we got. They did a great job of packing and were far more efficient at it than I ever could be. Cam hired several boys from the ward to move our stuff to the new house - they were so sweet and helpful. This one boy was so skinny and small and was dead set on moving all the big stuff. I was seriously concerned for his safety, but they all did such a great job!

I hated just standing there doing nothing and felt pretty useless. I was able to tell them where to put everything at least which gave me something to do. The missionaries were confused about the time (which was ok, we had plenty of help) and showed up just at the end. One of them asked how far along I was and when I said "25", he asked very seriously, "months?" It was so funny but I couldn't help but think of the horror of being 25 months pregnant.

I didn't sleep that night and everything hurt. Since then though, the pains have mostly subsided.

Yesterday I had my 26 week appointment and ultra sound with my doctor. Our boy is doing super well and is continuing to grow. Our girl is still really small and not developing at the same rate as her brother. Parts of her look to be underdeveloped and they're concerned. They made another appointment for me to see Maternal Fetal Medicine so that they can do another anatomy ultra sound. My doctor said that it could be nothing and that the ultra sound tech at the office might not have been able to get a good read, however, if it is something then I'll most likely have to be put on full bed rest.

I'm so stressed. I'm trying not to be, but my mind seems to be racing all the time thinking of everything that could go wrong. I'm trying to find ways to relax but feel like I'm getting nowhere at times. This morning when I woke up I couldn't help but just lay there and cry.

The babies started kicking and I could see their little kicks when I looked at my belly. Cam and I just lay there for a while watching them kick.