Rough times for Jacob

Jacob has been going through a really hard time lately. For the last few weeks, when Jacob gets frustrated with something he hits his head either against the wall or the floor. We are pretty sure it is mainly because he still can't talk and we have a real communication barrier. So he doesn't know how else to let us know he is aggravated.

This past week hasn't helped. His mom who used to be his caregiver during the day can no longer care for him and no longer picks him up at all. He doesn't understand what is going on and he can't vocalize anything either.

Add in that he has some 2 year molars that are trying to come through and we have a very grouchy little guy here. A little guy who has been hitting his head against things a lot more often over the last week. From what I have read online, they say kids won't hit their head hard enough to really hurt themselves and that you just have to ignore it and they will stop.

Is this considered not really hurting himself?

Justin tried to put him down for a nap and instead of going to sleep he screamed. We didn't hear anything that sounded like he was hitting his head, but obviously he hit his head a number of times. After letting him not just cry but scream, Justin went to get him after 20 minutes and this is what he looked like.

Any suggestions on how to get our kid to stop hurting himself before he causes himself brain damage?

The Inevitable

32 weeks today!!!

As soon as we knew for sure we were really having twins this time, I knew that at some point in time I would be put on bed rest. I have quite a few friends who have had twins and most of them either spent time on bed rest (a lot of time on bed rest) or had their babies really early. I only know a couple people who carried twins full-term (at least 37 weeks) without bed rest.

At first I said that my goal was to make it through teaching last semester before I was put on bed rest, then I said that I hoped to get through 2010 without being on bed rest. For the last several doctor's visits I have had a bag packed just in case I wasn't sent home and was sent to the hospital instead.

Even though I was trying to be prepared for being put out of commission, the further that I got in the pregnancy the more I thought that maybe I would be one of those amazing stories of being pregnant with twins and never being on bed rest and carrying the twins to at least 37 weeks. I had after all been taking it easy almost the entire pregnancy as it is.

Yesterday, the day before I hit 32 weeks, that all changed. My back had been killing me all weekend and when I told my doctor she got a little concerned that I was experiencing some pre-term labor. Sure enough, I was dilated 1 cm. My doctor sent me over to the hospital to be put on a monitor for an hour to make sure I wasn't having frequent or strong contractions. After being on the monitor, the decision was made that I didn't need to be admitted to the hospital but I am on moderate bed rest. I can take a shower everyday and be up a bit, but I need to stay down as much as possible and no more lifting anything much over the weight of a gallon of milk.

This means that I can no longer take care of Jacob everyday. Luckily, Justin's step-mom is available to come stay with us for a while and help us out for now and then my mom will be able to come out as well.

My doctor told me it is only for 2 weeks and that she just wants to make sure I make it to 34 weeks for lung maturity. Even though Jacob didn't have to be on a breathing tube or anything like that, I still really want to make it further than 34 weeks but I don't think I am counting on 37 anymore.

31 week ramblings

Beware - this post is very long with my ramblings!!!!

On Monday I had a regularly scheduled appointment with my OB and an ultrasound. I had hoped to post the ultrasound pictures, but they turned out terrible. You can hardly make anything out on the pictures at all and the babies were in terrible positions, so even if the resolution had turned out ok, you can't tell what you are looking at at all. Baby Boy A was in a head down position and measured in to weigh about 3.7 pounds. Baby Boy B was pretty squirmy - starting out laying across the top portion of my belly and 5 minutes later was in a breach position. He measured in to weigh about 3.8 pounds. I know that these measurements come with a margin of error (I am a statistician, after all) but while the babies are still small that margin of error is small - as they get bigger, the error gets bigger and they say those measurements can be off by a pound (plus or minus) for a full-term baby.

I also received 2 steroid shots this week - the first on Monday and the second Tuesday. If you didn't know, steroid shots are given when they think you will have your baby (babies) prematurely, to help their lungs develop and help them accumulate fat faster (to keep them warm). So far, amazingly enough, I haven't shown any signs of pre-term labor so we are currently in the bast case scenario right now. It takes a few days of having the steroids in your system before they are really helping the babies so I am really glad to have gotten them even though it doesn't look like I need them. I know that the steroid shots helped Jacob when I suddenly started leaking amniotic fluid at 32.5 weeks and I'm glad that if the babies end up needing them, I got them - if I carry them to 37 weeks (what we are hoping for) the shots won't do them any harm.

This pregnancy has not been easy for me. In my What to Expect book, there is a chapter about expecting multiples and it gives a list of things that can be bigger problems when expecting twins or more. As I read through it the other night I was mentally checking everything off on the list: worse morning sickness - check; worse other digestive problems - check; worse exhaustion - check; worse other pains - check. There may have been more.

The thing that has been the most difficult to deal with is the exhaustion. In case you were wondering - I no longer clean my house, please don't drop by unannounced and expect it to look presentable. I guess part of cleaning the house is doing dishes - I don't do them anymore. Basically the more time I spend on my feet, the more likely I am to feel like I am going to fall over or pass out, and bending over to put things in the dishwasher with my big belly and chest kills my back, so I don't do it. I don't go grocery shopping - too much walking around is exhausting. Plus, it is just hard to deal with taking Jacob anywhere and getting him into and out of the vehicle. Pretty much we bum around the house all day.

The past month or so, I feel like I am just surviving the week. Once the weekend gets here I am so tired and sore, that I sit or lay around all weekend while Justin takes care of everything. By Sunday night I feel better and like I can tackle the week, but by Wednesday I am definitely ready for the weekend and Justin to be home to take care of Jacob. This week I have felt a little bit better - maybe the steroid shots have given me a bit more energy? I still know not to over-do it though and I make sure that I recognize those feelings of - if I don't sit or lay down now I may pass out.

By the way - Justin is amazing. It can't be easy to work full-time and then come home and have to take care of all of us. Everyday I think about how lucky I am to have Justin.

Here's to another 6 weeks before babies come!!!

30 weeks

This week I hit 30 weeks. I am huge.
As of 3 weeks ago, Baby Boy A is laying across the bottom and Baby Boy B is laying across the top of my belly.

Around 22 weeks, I was the size I was when I was admitted to the hospital when pregnant with Jacob (at 32.5 weeks). I camped out around that size for the next 4 weeks or so, but over the last 4 weeks my belly has exploded. Amazingly - I only weigh about 5 pounds more than I was at 32.5 weeks with Jacob.

Now for a little TMI.

I never took any belly pictures when pregnant with Jacob. I felt like I never looked pregnant - just fat with big boobs and I really didn't want to document that. I think in this picture, it is obvious that my belly is big, but it is also masked by how large my chest is. I have always been top-heavy and used to say that it would be nice to have a reduction one day. I now say that a reduction will be a necessity one day. Unlike most - my chest did not shrink when I stopped nursing Jacob. And even though I started this pregnancy the same weight I started the last one, my chest started 3 cup sizes bigger (I gained a cup size during my pregnancy with Jacob and another 2 cup sizes when my milk came in). Now I am 4 cup sizes bigger than before I was ever pregnant. I am pretty much terrified by what will happen when my milk comes in this time around.

December ups and downs

Our December was really like a roller coaster.

All the things we wish hadn't happened this past month:

• Jacob got sick and it rapidly turned from just a cold to worse. Luckily we caught it early so it was only a mild case of pneumonia. Jacob had about 4 really awful days before he really started improving so we are glad we caught it early so that he was feeling lots better by his birthday.
  
• I got sick and had a lot of trouble breathing in addition to feeling like I had the worst cold of my life. After 3 days of using an inhaler and still wheezing, my OB sent me to our general doctor where a nurse listened to me breathe and instructed me to go to the hospital. Luckily I started to dramatically improve while waiting to be seen - my wheezing stopped and a chest x-ray showed I didn't have pneumonia like Jacob did. Although very grateful to have such a sudden recovery - we know we won't be happy when we get the hospital bill.
• We were in a minor fender bender in our newest vehicle - the Seminole Van. It was really minor, the damage is hardly noticeable and luckily no one was hurt. The whole thing is mainly frustrating. The people in the other car were facing us and trying to turn left across our lane, but they pulled partway into our lane and just stopped. The speed limit on the road is pretty fast, so slamming on our brakes wasn't enough and we hit front license plates. Because we weren't at fault we filed a claim with their insurance and they will pay to fix the van - we just have to figure out when to take it in, arrange for a loaner vehicle, etc. Just a huge inconvenience when I am having enough trouble just functioning day to day due to complete exhaustion.

And to end on a happy note - the ups from this past month:

• At each of my doctor's appointments everything looked great with the babies.
• We had great family pictures taken before anyone got sick.
• My friends threw a nice little baby shower for me where there was great company, great food and cute baby stuff. Luckily the shower was before I got sick.
• We had a great Christmas and enjoyed Justin's time off work. He didn't take any vacation time, because we are saving it for the when the babies come.
• We found out that Justin has almost an entire 2 weeks of vacation that he saved to roll over to 2011 to use for the babies. So glad that his company lets him do that - I know lots of places have a "use it or lose it" policy.

Christmas 2010

It is a good thing that we had decided a few months ago that we weren't going anywhere for Christmas this year. At my doctor's appointment on the Tuesday before Christmas I was informed that being pregnant with twins and in the 3rd trimester meant I wasn't allowed to travel anywhere. So we had a pretty low-key Christmas at home.

Christmas morning it was just the 3 of us. Santa brought Jacob a basketball hoop that he immediately started playing with.

The horse was from Justin's aunt and uncle. We aren't sure how long it has been in the family, but we know that Justin's cousins kids played with it when they were smaller. Who knows - maybe Justin played on it when he was little too. At first Jacob wasn't so interested in the horse - he just wanted to play basketball. Then he warmed up to the idea.

It took some work, but we finally got Jacob to start pulling things out of his stocking. Santa brought him some bath toys and some cars in his stocking.

We gave Jacob a Thomas the Tank Engine play tent. Jacob loves to climb into his tent - especially when Colby goes in with him. For some reason he thinks it is particularly funny for Colby to be in the tent with him.

Justin's dad ordered things for us that he had shipped directly to us already gift-wrapped. Here was one of Justin's gifts and Justin saying that it is his.

Here is a close-up of the tag on the gift. Looks like Amazon got their tags a little messed up.

Somewhere out there, someone named Robin got a gift whose tag said "To Justin From Santa".

We had a great Christmas and we finally got a Wii. We have been wanting one for a while so Justin was pretty excited to see that we had gotten one (since I'm the one that bought it, it wasn't a surprise for me).

Here is Jacob watching one of us play something on the Wii. He is too little to play, but he really seems to enjoy watching.

My parents got to our house around 1 in the afternoon on Christmas Day. We are really grateful that they came because we had a great Christmas dinner thanks to them. I mainly sat around while others worked on dinner.

It was nice to just stay at home for Christmas this year, but we will be happy in the future when we are able to be with more of our family for Christmas.