To all of you out there who still check my blog, I want to apologize for not updating it since the babies were born. Life with twins is crazy. I’m not sure when, but I’m hoping to sometime soon have time to update the blog about how my regular ob-gyn appt. on May 15th turned into 6 days in the hospital and the birth of our baby girls at 36 1/2 weeks gestation on May 18th. We have a ton of pictures that I have yet to download onto our computer. But once we do that, I’ll be sure to also update the blog with some of our favorite pictures. Thanks to all of you who have been so supportive, those of you who came to visit us in the hospital, and those of you who have been praying for our family. More to come…just can’t promise when.
Archive for May, 2009
36 weeks (9 months)
Your pregnancy: 36 weeks
How your baby’s growing:
Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She’s shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.
At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.)
Updated nursery pics
Mother’s Day was a very nice day. Although I’m not technically a mother yet, Doug surprised me with a very thoughtful mother’s day card. We went to church and then took my mom out for lunch. After lunch, Doug wanted to go buy some shelving for the nursery. He spent the whole afternoon painting, installing, and decorating the shelves and hanging the valance. He is totally nesting…it’s cute. I can’t say enough about how amazing he’s been lately. He is going to be a fabulous father, and the girls are going to love him!
More nursery pics
Doug and I worked on the nursery again this weekend. We placed another decal on the wall…and actually we ordered another one. I guess we’re decal-crazy. We ordered a family of birds that we’re going to place on two of the walls. You can also see what the inside of the closet looks like with all the diapers. There’s actually more that you can’t see in the picture and a ton more stored on the side of one of the cribs. Next weekend we’re going to buy some shelving to put up on the walls, and I’m still waiting on our maternity pictures to come back so we can frame a couple of those. Other than that, the nursery is pretty much done and ready for little girls to occupy it. Not too much longer now.
Per my mom’s request…
here is the picture I spoke about in my previous post. It’s quite shocking to see my belly from this view. It looks enoromous. You can also see my small patch of stretch marks…boo hoo.
No…no…no
Do you remember the picture of my belly that I posted that Doug took on his knees (a straight head on shot of my belly)? Well, he took another one last night, and holy canoli! I’m still debating whether to post it or not. It’s quite shocking. After looking at it on my camera, I noticed a small stretch mark or two. I rushed to the bathroom to check it out. Yep…there it was…three small stretch marks. NO! They’re not bad…yet! They’re barely noticeable. But I still may have 3 even 4 more weeks, depending on when the doc schedules my c-section.
I know it sometimes comes with the territory and the chances of me getting stretch marks are greater since I’m carrying twins, but I was just really hoping that I would get lucky and salvage my belly skin. I know in retrospect, having these girls is so much more than the changes my body is going through. I’m still going to continue to SLATHER my belly in cocoa butter, which I do every night. Crossing my fingers that they don’t get too bad.
35 weeks
The weights on these updates are now incorrect. Last Friday, Abby weighed 3 lbs, 14 ou., and Izzy weighed 4 lbs, 8 ou. They should gain a half a pound a week from here on out.
Your pregnancy: 35 weeks
How your baby’s growing:
Your baby doesn’t have much room to maneuver now that he’s over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it’s so snug in your womb, he isn’t likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he’ll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.
Doctors’ appts.
This post is a little late. My doctors’ appointments last Friday went well. My ob-gyn was out so I saw the other doctor in his practice. The good news that made me so happy is that I only gained ONE POUND in two weeks. Yay! I’ve gained 48 lbs total. I’m hoping I don’t go too much over 50 lbs. She listened to the babies’ heartbeats, and everything seemed fine.
Later that afternoon, I had my full sonogram at the high risk specialists’ office. The girls are growing as they should. Abby is now 3 lbs, 14 ou., and Izzy is 4 lbs, 8 ou. I’m pretty sure they’re supposed to gain a half a pound each week from here on out. They are both head down, and the sonographer said that their heads were really low in my pelvis. She didn’t have to tell me that, I could feel them.
Again, no date has been set for my c-section. I go back to my ob-gyn in two weeks. I’ll be 36 weeks then so I’m pretty certain he’ll schedule it at that point. I can’t believe I’ll be 35 weeks on Thursday. Doug and I are going to have our daughters this month…wow!
Double the blessings 