Football season is back

I'm so glad that the 2011 football season has officially started, which means the nail is in the coffin on 2010's season. Technically the nail was in the coffin on Thanksgiving of 2010 when we didn't qualify for a bowl game, but the hangover lingered most of the offseason and there's no cure like getting back in the saddle (and winning some games!). Proudly, we are 2-0. Although one of those wins was over Rice, the other was over BYU, not a ranked team but still a worthy opponent and I was pleased with how our young team played.

That first paragraph was really a farce - my whole point in making this post about football is so that I could upload this really cute maternity tee that I saw on sale at the Co-Op. It's my first go at uploading a pic, but it's a skill I absolutely must master if I'm going to be a successful blogger. So....*deep breath*.....here goes.

32ish week sonogram

This sonogram was so boring, so I would skip this post if I were you. I just want a log of the event. We had the sonogram on September 13, 2011. I was at 31 weeks 5 days gestation at the time. It was our third sonogram at Dr. Gorski's office (to be distinguished from all of the ones I got at Dr. K's office during the first 12 weeks). Our first sonogram was around 23 weeks and it was fantastic. We loved seeing the babies and Forrest thinks he got a glimpse of their gender parts (although he has kept his opinions to himself). We did another sonogram at 28 weeks and were pretty underwhelmed by the footage. Don't get me wrong, it's so encouraging to see that the babies look good and are roughly the same size, but once it gets too crowded it's hard to really "see" anything meaningful. We found this to be true for the 32ish week sonogram too. I was actually pretty surprised that Forrest agreed to go with me to this one. I believe he will skip the next few ones. Anyways, Baby A (on my left side) is measuring about 3.25 pounds and a little under 31 weeks gestation. Baby B is measuring 3.75 pounds and a little over 31 weeks gestation.

Fast Forward to the Third Trimester

Third Trimester! It's here and it's (hopefully) not going anywhere any time soon. So much has happened since my last update (12 whole weeks ago). I went through a blissful stage of pregnancy in which I was relatively comfortable and at a "nice size" for most people's tastes. People treat pregnant ladies so well and it's something I'm really enjoying. I'm quickly growing to a size that is no longer "nice", as most people get a little squeamish once women get to a certain level of bigness. I might be there already and just in denial, but hopefully I'm still not stopping people in their tracks. The discomfort of the third trimester seems to be settling in. My biggest complaint is the back pain. The afternoons seem to be the worst for me if I'm in the office, as I've already been sitting for several hours. However, I"m now working half days, so I get to lie on the couch for those afternoon and evening hours. That does me a world of good. The doctor keeps threatening me with bedrest, but so far I'm still able to get out and about. Unfortunately at my 31 week appointment I got a positive result on the FFN test, which indicates that I'm at increased risk for preterm labor. As a precaution my doctor ordered two rounds of steroid injections, in order to expedite the babies' development. Although that was initially frightening to me, I've gotten a lot of peace about it since and am not overly worried that the babies will come early. If that happens then they will be fine. If it doesn't then they'll be even better. Both are good outcomes and I know it's in God's hands. He's provided for the babies this whole pregnancy and he's given me comfort that he intends to continue doing so. I keep telling him that the babies need me so I need to delay labor as long as possible, but he keeps reminding me that they need him and that he'll time their arrival appropriately. So, in the meantime I'm just trying to treat myself as well as I can and wait out the last remaining weeks of the pregnancy. I was blessed to have three baby showers. Yes - THREE. I am so spoiled and I can hardly stand it.....but I managed to find a way to enjoy this blessing (times 3!). The first shower was hosted by several hometown friends (Mollie McCune, Kristin Rodefeld, Sharon Hagen, Patty Froehlich, Patty Braselton, and Jan Elwell) and it was fantastic by anyone's standards (even Kim Kardashian would have been impressed with this shower). The decor blew me away, the food was excellent, and the guests were obscenely generous. The gifts filled our baby room and it has taken weeks to sort through them all and organize them (a task we're gladly performing - it's so much fun!). Sherri Henry and Susan Brown hosted a Sunday School class shower for me and it also far exceeded my expectations. About 15 women showed up and, again, spent way too much money on us. The most fun part of that shower was hearing all of the advice from the fellow mothers there. They are going to be such a huge support group for me once the babies come. They are my dear friends. Several ladies up at work through a group shower for Stephanie Toups, Bianca LeBlanc, Carolina Price, and me. We're all due this fall and we've had so much fun being pregnant together. They through a "storybook" shower and asked that the guests not bring gifts, but instead bring a children's book for us. The food and decor were also fantastic at this shower. Now we have about 30 children's books to start our collection. Like I said.....spoiled rotten!

20 weeks

I am 20 weeks and 3 days into the pregnancy, which means I have passed the halfway point. Presumably I won't carry Poppy and Pepe longer than 40 weeks (at least not without setting a new record).

Fortunately the morning sickness is gone! Unfortunately the back and rib pain is here and I suspect it's here to stay.

I'm not really slowing down yet, which is a positive. I did a lot of travel last week and I'm doing it this week too, but after that I don't have a lot on the calendar.

We had a fantastic vacation to Fort Morgan (Gulf Shores) Alabama. We spent a lot of time laying on the beach and being lazy. Oh, and I ate WAY too much fried shrimp. I need to start watching my diet before I blow up!

Lemon bars

We're headed over to Sherrie and Joe's tonight for a grill out (although I most certainly will be staying inside - HOT out there!). I am bringing dessert and I just made lemon bars. I talked to my mom this morning and told her I was going to make them, which she confirmed was a good idea for a summer dessert. Then I told her that I'd just grab a box mix for it, and she was adamant that I make them from scratch (she's that kind of mother, but in this case she was right). She said "make Judy Cox's recipe.....it's way better than the box mix and it's really easy. You'll find it in the church cookook."

The church cookbook is a pretty special thing. "The church" refers to the church I grew up in. It was the church's first effort at the cookbook and was compiled in the late 80's (with my mother being on the "Church Cookbok committee"). For the record, they have published newer editions since, but they aren't really new editions, they are entirely different cookbooks and they're not near as good as the original cookbook. It's pretty extensive and is the source of many of our favorite recipes. I received 3 as wedding gifts, which were all unnecessary because my mother had bought me one when I went off to college. Yes, our church still publishes and sells these relics and the "ladies" of the church all know how special and wonderful it is. Another reason it's important is that all of my mom's family recipes are in that book. Chances are if I ask her how to make her mother's cinnamon rolls, overnight salad, homemade bread, whatever.....she'll say "check the church cookbook."

So, it was no surprise to me when she said "make Judy Cox's recipe..." I knew what words would come next.

I made it and it was totally easy and fool proof, and sure enough they are wonderful. My mother is often right (more than I thought!).

End of First Trimester

Boy am I glad to see the first trimester end. Happy trails to you first trimester - I will not miss you. The subchorionic hematoma (the technical term for the blood clot) went away right at my 12 week ultrasound, so I graduated from my IVF doctor and was sent on my happy way to my OB. Also, with the death of the blood clot, I am free to resume life and enjoy this pregnancy (hardy har har) so I am back at work and I even travelled last week.

Speaking of enjoying the pregnancy (heehee), I sure don't like it. I know that I have wanted this for so long (no I haven't forgotten) and I should be eternally grateful for the opportunity to become a mother (and I am), but I can't say that pregnancy agrees with me.

My list of complaints starts and ends with morning sickness. I've had a couple of other pregnancy inconveniences, but they aren't worth complaining about, and without the morning sickness I think I could have had a complaint free first trimester. However, the morning sickness ruined my every day and I am desperate for it to be behind me for good. For the last week or two I have had some temporary respites from the sickness, but it always comes back. Today is a "comeback" day, a reminder that I am not out of the woods yet. For most (those who actually suffered from morning sickness, most women I know were miraculously spared from it), the nausea goes away by week 14, which means I'm just 1 week and 3 days away from spontaneous and total healing. Since I've noticed it easing up on some days, I am optimistic that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting bigger and brighter with every day that passes. I refuse to believe that I could be one of those cursed women who experience the morning sickness throughout the full 40 weeks.

I mentioned to one of my friends that pregnancy is similar to pledgeship. Morning sickness is just another act of hazing. When asked how I was feeling I replied with "Just beat me with an ax handle and get it over with."

To devote two whole paragraphs to complaining about the morning sickness might sound extreme, but I've devoted two whole months to complaining to my husband about it, so maybe you can count yourself lucky to be a reader and not a listener. You can skim down past this part, after all.

Today my pregnancy is aged 13 weeks and 3 days, which means I'm officially into the 2nd trimester and it's time to start getting things done to prepare for these bundles of joy. Our first task to prepare is to plan our last vacation together, pre-babies. We did some internet research on Friday but haven't made any decisions yet. We'll probably do a cruise or all-inclusive vacation somewhere. I anticipate I'll need access to food on a 24-hour basis so both those vacations will cater to me nicely. We're not sure how late into the pregnancy I'll be given the all clear for travel, so I'm hoping we can get in a vacation in June. Plus, Forrest deserves a vacation for putting up with me. He has been nothing short of an angel and I don't deserve him. He even got me flowers for Mother's Day. He deserves the Medal of Honor (and possibly even a purple heart - yikes!) for his efforts in keeping me happy.

Our second pregnancy task was registering, which I have started today. I put in about 6 hours of online registering and I'm pretty proud of the list I have so far. Of course, once Forrest and Liah get their hands on it I'm sure it'll get sliced and diced and will become unrecognizable from its original form. However, it's a start and it's a lot easier for them to edit an existing list than start from scratch, so my efforts today won't be in vain. I decided to forego the Babies R Us registries since that store is expensive. In lieu of the monopolistic retailer, I chose Amazon.com. They have everything that I will need and they seem to ask a little less for each item than BRUs, so hopefully I won't get any complaints that there's no actual brick and mortar store to shop at.

Scare

On Thursday I was in Andalulsia Alabama visiting with some customers. Right as our meeting was about to end, I felt a gush of warm liquid coming out of me (from down there). I got up and ran to the bathroom and I was soaked with blood. There was a woman in the bathroom and I told her the situation and she told me I should go to the ER. She also went out and got rid of my customers who were probably very concerned and confused at that point (I had blood running down my legs and it was all over the chair I had been sitting in).

I drove to the regional hospital and was quickly admitted to the ER. How lucky am I that no one was waiting? I called my doctor on the way and described what had happened. My doctor wasn't available but my nurse confirmed that I should go to the ER. Once I got settled in to the exam room, a nurse came in to tell me that a woman from Powersouth (the company I was visiting) was there to see me. She came in and it was the lady from the bathroom. Her name was Carol and she ended up staying with me for the whole time. She was a total angel.

The first thing they did was give me an ultrasound to check for a heartbeat. This was so incredibly scary because I knew that it was a pretty bad sign that I had bled as much as I did. The ultra sound tech took forever before she finally said anything, and I couldn't see the screen so I was incredibly nervous. Then I heard a heartbeat and I was so relieved. Then she moved to the other baby and I heard a heartbeat there too. The heartbeats were at 151 and 169 bpm, faster than last week which is a good sign because they are supposed to increase in speed. I was so stinking relieved!

Then I had to go back to the exam room to get a pelvic exam to make sure my cervix hadn't opened. I had to wait 2 hours before they did that, but fortunately they finally did the exam and everything was ok. My doctor called them and the ER attending physician wanted to speak to him before they released me. They spoke and determined everything was fine. Then I spoke to my doctor on the phone and he told me that the ER doctor was an idiot - knew nothing about obstetrics (which I had already concluded by this point). However, the ultra sound was great and that made him feel good.

He said that this is more common in twin pregnancies. He suspects what happens is that one of the embryos partially detached from the uterine wall which caused a lot of blood to be shed all at once. Since there were still heartbeats then likely everything is perfectly ok. However, he didn't want me flying home. So, Forrest flew out to Montgomery that night and he and I drove my rental car home (12 hours - OMG!!).

So that's my scary story. The angel who stayed at the hospital with me told my customers about what had happened the next day (I gave her permission). Of course they called me first thing to check on me and to tell me that they wished they had known at the time, but appreciated that it was highly awkward. Unfortunately I think they'll have to get rid of the chair I was sitting in. Isn't that every 12 year old girl's worst nightmare? That she's going to get her period and it's going to show? Well, this was more than a period....it was like someone poured 2-3 cups of blood out of me all at once. When we got home Forrest asked to see my pants, and of course the blood stain was all the way up the back of the butt almost to the waist band. He held me and said how sorry he was that I had to experience that.

It was one of the worst experiences of my life because I was so afraid that I had lost the babies. Poor Forrest and my family were all terribly upset also. It was good that Forrest could hop on a plane and get out there because I know he wouldn't have been able to just sit at home.

I have another sonogram scheduled for Tuesday with my IVF doctor and I'm crossing my fingers that everything is still ok.