Thursday, March 16, 2017

(27) Two buns in my oven


Good news:  My “original” doctor (Dr. Winkler) has moved into a new office, located closer to my home, yay!  So I am looking forward to less traffic and shorter drive times, yet I will miss all of the other doctors and nurses I was getting to know, especially Dr. Merrill.  Fortunately, I will still see some familiar faces when I go to the new office.  I’m really happy that I get to start seeing Dr. Winkler again, I guess since he was the one who approved me to start this special project.  It’s seems only fitting that he sees this through to the end, right?

The new office grand opening is perfect timing.  Driving is becoming increasingly more difficult and uncomfortable.  Since I drive a Mini Cooper with a manual transmission let’s just say, when you have a big belly and have to shift a lot because of traffic it gets old, real fast!  Luckily, we also have a Dodge Ram so I’ve started to drive it more.  Although I have to pull myself up into it, which is no small feat, I at least have more room for my growing belly.  Plus, it’s an automatic.  It’s the small things, or in my case the bigger things.  Bigger vehicle, plus shorter travel distance makes for a happy gestational carrier and cargo.

Over the weekend, Darren and Holly host another gathering with some of our old LensCrafters co-workers.  Sadly, Olga couldn’t make it, but we got to hang out with Lily and her husband Serge.  Lily is also pregnant, so it was a little crazy seeing my larger belly compared to hers.  She is 5 or 6 weeks further along than I am.  But just looking at our bellies you would never guess that, unless you knew I was carrying twins.  At one point in the evening, Darren and I have fun trying on a ‘pregnancy’ Halloween costume that Holly and Darren bought the year before.  It’s a little awkward doing this, but Holly is the one who suggested it.  I know deep in her heart she will always ache with the loss of Jude and Brinly, but seeing my belly grow with her two little boys suppresses that ache.  We pose for a few pictures of me wearing the oven costume and Darren being the baker.  I guess in a way the costume still works.  After all, I am just the oven! 


Lily ~34wks with singleton, Darren, Me ~29wks with twins

Darren feeling Noah kick



At my second appt. at the new location I had to see another new doctor.  Bummer!  How dare Dr. Winkler take a vacation!!!   Dr. Buckmaster orders a full blood panel to check for pre-eclampsia.  This is a routine test for high risk pregnancies.  They also inform me that next week (week 31) I’ll be starting a two day per week appointment schedule, oh yay.  I just got out of not having to check my cervix weekly!  But I can’t complain.  They are making sure everything is going well with twins in this crucial pregnancy period.  It’s actually rare these days to allow twins to go full term.  Usually, twins enter the world at week 38 (or before) instead of 40 weeks.  Next week, my first visit will start with an extensive ultrasound to check the babies for signs of stress.  Then two days later, I’ll go back to have a 30 minute HR test.  They’ll attach leads to me and my belly, and monitor all of our heart beats.  More medical fun!

The swelling is starting, goodbye feet