A Day In The Life Of Raising Twins and a Singleton (and keeping sane along the way!)

Monday, August 17, 2009

14 weeks and 4 days

Hello everyone! Well, today was my 14 week check up at the ob's office and everything is going fantastically! The baby is very active according to the dr and is measuring at 8 (either inches or cm, I can't remember which he said.) But that it was on target. I will officially be delivering at Barnes again. I am not thrilled about it, but if it's the only hospital that will let me do a waterbirth so I will just have to deal with the subpar post pardem care. I have officially hired a doula, though it was a hard decision. I will be following the hypnobabies course and she has had many clients including herself use it. What hypnobabies is..is what a person might use to go under surgery with instead of anesthesia, which is called hypno-anesthesia. It is self hypnosis. It is supposed to be a pain free and short labor and birthing time, which all sounds great to me! I have seen videos of actual births of mothers using either hypnobabies or hypnobirthing methods and it's absolutely amazing! You wouldn't even think they were giving birth naturally. I will try to find the link to it and if you wish you can watch for yourself. Also the doula seems very in tune with all of my needs and that was a major selling point. So, we have been selling some of the girls items that they have either grown out of or just not using on craigslist to help fund our doula. When I birthed the twins Barnes provided them free of charge which was fantastic but they no longer have the program because the clientele that typically comes in are very young mothers who were wanting drugs (stadol, epidural, etc) and they were no longer in high demand there. If this is my last pregnancy or I have another I will never go without a doula. They are truly awesome and a necessity for me. What exactly is a doula, do you ask? Labor/birth support doulas are trained and experienced labor support persons (always female) who attend to the emotional and physical comfort needs of the laboring woman to smooth the labor process. In addition to emotional, physical and informational support, doulas work as advocates of their client's wishes and may assist in communicating with medical staff to obtain information for the client to make informed decisions regarding medical procedures.

I am almost done with the nausea, it is definitely getting better, but the exhaustion and fatigue are still in high force. The OB asked me if I wanted to find out the sex of the baby today, but I said as tempting as it is, we are going to let it be a surprise. I do and don't want to know. So, I am going to be patient and wait until "THE DAY." Here's a pic of the u/s done today. Also here is the link to the hypnobirthing...FYI it is all G rated! No body parts are shown. The mom has a sports bra/swimming suit top and an open swim skirt. It is amazing!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSsaJ0Zno9s (this is my fav)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qriqhDFo088

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Saturday, July 25, 2009

April 11 weeks pregnant with #3

I took pictures each week or every other with the twins so I must carry on the tradition although a little late. Better late than never. We we go....watch my belly grow!

11 weeks baby#3

Friday, July 24, 2009

Ultrasound Pic 10 weeks 3 days

Here is the 10 week 3 days U/S we had done on Monday. Today I am 11 weeks!!! I am also super excited because tonight I am going to see the band ColdPlay at Verizon aka Riverport with Jeff's brother's girlfriend, Amanda. We're going to have so much fun!!!!

Monday, July 20, 2009

4th of July, Grants Farm, and pregnancy updates!

Hello everyone! We celebrated our third July as a family with kids in tow. We celebrated with friends from our twin playgroup. Even though it rained, the girls still had fun and we had a great time! Good food, good conversation, and good friends make for a fabulous celebration! We then ventured to watch the fireworks at the Civic Center and warned the girls it would be loud but there would be pretty colors in the sky. We thought it might be a toss up between cries of terror and excitement filled cheers. We were fortunate it was the latter. Cameryn would say, "That's a big one!" They both said their oooohs and ahhhs as they heard from others around us. They enjoyed naming the colors as they saw them. It was a late night but worth it!

We also got some great news about my mom. Her cancer is officially in remission. She will get scans every 3 months and possibly get what they call preventative brain radiation. The only problem with that is..is that it can cause paranoia and loss of brain function and memory which from her brain surgeries in the past she already lost quite a big of brain function and memory. It is her decision, so we will have to wait to see what she decides.

I am 10 weeks and 3 days pregnant today and saw my ob today and got to see the baby growing on the u/s machine. A heart rate of 160 was so nice to hear. I still have a very strong feeling it's a boy. I am feeling pretty good, although fatigued and experiencing some nausea but nothing compared to when I was pregnant with the twins. I am definitely showing already, which is crazy to me. My ob said it's totally normal with a second pregnancy and also since having twins essentially destroyed my stomach muscles. I have two hospitals who have okay ed my waterbirth and still waiting on a third hospital. I am in the process of interviewing doulas right now, which I think is going to be a tough decision. Jeff and I are in debate over circumcision (if we have a boy). I am totally against it and Jeff has not made up his mind about it. Our pediatrician is 100% against it because there are no real medical benefits to having it done and says that only 59% of boys are having it done in this region so peer teasing should not be a problem. I think it's brutal and it's genital mutilation. We would never do this do a girl because other girls have it done and so we should not do this to boys. Would you chop off a finger because everyone else is? I have also researched that while boys don't remember it later in life but the pain is actually greater than having it done as a child/teen/adult because their central nervous systems are not fully developed yet. I have also read that after the procedure when they "sleep" they are actually in shock and shut down. Jeff and I watched one done on a video and the baby's scream was like no other that I heard. It was heart wrenching and made me sick to my stomach. And lastly, I don't feel like I should be making that decision for someone else. If he wants it done later in life, it's his decision. To me, God made every single detail of our bodies for a reason and a purpose and who I am to change what God made perfect. I know this may be against what you believe to be true, but I wanted to make my official statement on this. It is my hope that if you are pregnant you will research any procedure and educate yourself on all aspects and make an informed decision. Now...on to the pictures! There are many since this is nearing the end of July. Enjoy!