Go Twins!

I've got bad baseball fever...can't wait for the Twins to start playing!  Baseball means all things summer: sun, warmth, vacation, weddings and to me, pure happiness.  I've been following preseason games online and am just itching to see it on TV and live at Target Field!  But this summer...when I say "Go Twins", it has an even more special meaning..."Go MY twins!!!!"  And...I found a Twins maternity shirt this weekend!!!!! 

Anyway, we had our 10 week checkup last Monday and it was AWESOME!  Thank the good Lord, the ultrasound showed the babies in separate sacs which we were praying for.  If twins are in the same sac, it is a much more dangerous pregnancy with a 50% chance of harm to either baby due to cord entanglement.  So, we counted our blessings that the tech immediately found them nesting in their own sacs! :-)  Then came the next shock...their size!  Wow, they looked WAY different than just 3 weeks before.  We could clearly see their heads, leg and arm buds and heart beats (which were both great-164 and 168)!!!  And were they ever wiggle worms!  I described it as "it looks like they are moving, dancing, even boxing!"  Baby A (which medically is the baby closest to the cervix) was literally kicking Baby B in the butt!  One of the photos shows this...it's hilarious!  The only thing that we didn't find out at the appointment was if they will have 1 or 2 placentas.  Ideally, they would have 2...but it was too early to tell.  I go back in another 2 weeks to find this out.  If their is only 1 placenta, the babes will have to be monitored more closely to catch if TTS is occuring (Twin to Twin Transfusion).  That means one baby could start taking more than its share of nutrients.  The doc said it isn't nearly as serious as if they were in 1 sac, but it still would be watched very closely.  Then the doc reminded me that I'll be having a lot more appointments than if I were pregnant with 1 since carrying twins is always a higher risk pregnancy.  It comforts me to know that they will be watched closely.

Today, 1 week after our 10 week appointment, the babes are the size of LIMES!  When I told Pete this last night he seemed shocked.  It is crazy how fast they are starting to grow.  My belly seems to me that its slightly starting to "pop" but Pete says he doesn't really notice anything yet.  I'm ready to start showing...because that means I'm getting further along and...almost out of the first trimester!!! 

Since I'm also using this blog as a way to record moments in my pregnancy, I must touch for a moment on how I've been feeling.  SICK AND TIRED.  I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.  But...thankful to be feeling this way.  I just need to gripe and I feel better.  The doc says that often times pregnancy symptoms are exaggerated when carrying twins.  I'm still puking occasionally and worse, feeling nauseous almost all day everyday.  Even worse yet, I'm absolutley driven to gag whenever I smell or even THINK about certain things...such as:
-Perfume/cologne
-Meat cooking
-Asian food (dang you Big Bowl across from Pottery Barn), actually the entire smell of the mall I work at
-Car exhaust
-My beloved Aveda shampoo of all things
-Peppermint gum
-Toothpaste (this has been interesting...Sensodyne makes a mild paste that hardly has any flavor thankfully)
-Ginger (odd I know, its supposed to soothe nausea but  this is one of the worst triggers for me and people recommend it to me all the time which makes it awful)
-The smell of our dish soap...I just bought unscented the other day and Pete, bless his heart cleaned the kitchen tonight and used the old stuff...I didn't have it in me to tell him how nauseous that makes me.
-Any and all alcohol...if you've been drinking, I will NOT be near you.  I can tell the second I approach someone if they've had anything to drink.  I'm interested in this one because I thought I would miss drinking a little bit but I feel quite the opposite!
And without a doubt...first place goes to...
-The smell of fridges/freezers...
Today I forced myself to go through and purge anything that made me nauseous and it was one of the hardest things I've ever done, no joke.  I had a scarf wrapped around my face and was gagging about every other second.  It sounded as though I had taken a large dose of syrup of ipecac.  Once I was done, I was so glad I did it, because now I'm not as afraid to open the fridge. 

Man, it feels so good to verbalize how icky I've been feeling...like giving a confession or something.  Sorry its a bit much, but as you know, I tend to be just a wee bit dramatic.

This weekend my friends Lissa, Nici and Patti (Lissa's mom) went shopping at the Albertville outlet mall.  To my surprise, there was a Motherhood Maternity outlet!  The ladies helped me get a good start on my new maternity wardrobe...it was fun.  I tried to faux belly on and everything, which was amusing and a bit sobering to realize that that's just what it looks like to be preggo with one!  :-) It will totally be worth it. 

Thanks for reading.  I will soon scan our ultrasound pictures and post them on here as well!
-Beck

Double trouble!!!

So, I went to the doctor last Monday for my 10 week checkup...doc couldn't find the heartbeat so she suggested an ultrasound.  Dr. Mattson said she'd see me back in her office after.  The ultrasound tech found the heartbeat and then proceeded to ask me if I was on fertility.  Thinking nothing of it, I replied no thinking of it as a routine question.  When the tech told me to empty my bladder and that she was going to do an internal ultrasound I was a bit alarmed.  She said she and the doc would be back in a minute.  15 minutes that felt like an hour later, the two of them came in and pulled up the baby on the screen.  The tech said to the doc, "Here's that membrane I was talking about".  Of course, I panicked and started thinking of the worst...tumor, cyst, etc... Finally I said, "What are you guys talking about!?!" Dr. Mattson tapped me on the leg and said..."Looks like there's going to be two!"  Oh my gosh was I surprised.  I joked with Pete the night before "what would you do if they found twins?...haha".  So of course, when I called to tell him, he didn't believe me.  I specifically asked the tech to label both babies so I would have proof on the picture.  The babies measured earlier than we had originally thought...baby 1 measured  7 weeks with a heartbeat of 126 and baby 2 measured 7 weeks 1 day with a heartbeat of 149.  My dad was a fraternal twin and I am named after her (sadly, Becky Jo died when she was 3 due to a brain tumor).  We feel so incredibly blessed! 

The first trimester symptoms have been giving me a run for my money, but I am more than happy to endure them.  I'm more tired than I have ever been in my entire life...I get up several times a night to pee andI'm constantly nauseous and hardly ever hungry (which is not like me).  When I am hungry, all I want is mashed potatoes, popsicles, ice cream and milkshakes.  Occasionally I want chili, a hamburger or hotdog...but only sometimes, other times the thought of them makes me sick.  When I first found out I was pregnant on my own, I stocked up at Whole Foods on lots of healthy options.  That was before nothing sounded good to me.  I wish healthier food sounded better to me, but for now I'm just focusing on getting anything in my belly!  Honestly, the thought of any other vegetables other than classic iceberg lettuce with ranch makes me gag.  Which bums me out because usually I love vegetables!  I never thought that the rumors about pregnancy food cravings/aversions were actually real...but now I am a firm believer and am very curious as to why I crave certain things and am repulsed by others. 

Although I've been gagging constantly, I never thought I would actually throw up (I kind of thought that was just a pregnancy myth) but when I threw up on myself out of the blue when I was getting ready for work I was stunned! Then later that night I got out of bed and started puking again (I really regretted having a hot dog a few hours earlier)!  And the next morning at work where I showed up pale faced and shaking, I wasn't too surprised when I puked up my breakfast in the public restroom.  How embarassing...there were people in there and by the end of my episode I had mascara running down my cheeks. 

Overall, I'm feeling pretty good and am praising the Lord for his great gift to us.  Being pregnant has really reconnected me with my faith.  So often I worry and want to know the answer to everything...this is a situation where I've learned I have to trust that God is in control and all I can do is pray.  Otherwise, I end up driving myself crazy worrying about every little thing.  I'm thankful that this pregnancy has helped me to realize this.  A sweet coworker showed me this wonderful Catholic prayer booklet she constantly uses called "The Mother's Manual".  I went and picked one up at a Catholic bookstore and am using it constantly.  There are a lot of prayers for expectant mothers and I'm so thankful she showed me this great resource. 

I've got my 10 week check up in a little over a week...praying for the health of the precious angels!