Sunday 27 November 2011

35+2

Today is quite an important day, Sunday 27th November. It's the first sunday in Advent so I can officially start eating my own bodyweight in mince pies (and since having the Sprogs thats gone up quite considerably), I can also start the official countdown to being able to watch the Santa Clause films (always wait until after 1 Dec for those). But most importantly, at least to us, today Edward and Harriet are 35 weeks and 2 days old. Why is that important? Because they were born at 35 weeks and 2 days gestation, so today they have been outside for the same amount of time as they were inside! And I think thats important.

8 short months ago (short in some respects, tediously long in others) E&H came into our lives as bawling tiny pink and squidgy little creatures. Now they are huge bawling pink and podgy creatures. Both have fully mastered the art of sitting up unaided, although Harriet much prefers to lounge in her large V pillow and watch the world go by (she's going to be big in the sport of people watching I think). Edward has been desperately trying to crawl for about a month, he gets around rather quickly doing a caterpillar-meets-Action Man crawl, although as Im typing he is actually properly crawling across the floor to attack the changing bag!! Clever boy :-) No crawling signs from Harriet, we are fairly sure she will just train Edward up to fetch things for her. They are getting very talkative now as well; standard baby ramblings mostly, dadada, bababa, mumumumum (wow thats made my eyes go funny) but also the occasional waggawaggawagga and quackquack from Harriet. Maybe she was a duck in a former life?

At the moment we are gearing up for their first Christmas, not by going overboard on presents but with shiny sparkly lights and decorations! They were both mesmerised by the giant foil snowflakes in Sainsburys, even though a) the snowflakes were 3' wide and red and b) E&H have never seen a snowflake before. Maybe thats why they were so fascinated? Because of their reaction we have decided to get some foil decorations to hang around the place :-) Im hoping we will be going Christmas tree shopping in the next 10 days or so too, then we will have to construct the playpen to go around it.. Im looking forward to Christmas this year, not that I dont every year, but to have 2 little'uns around marvelling at everything and playing in mounds of paper, ignoring their presents will be great fun. And they will able to join us in sampling all the food goodies too, well most of them. Not sure how well Edward will do as he hasnt got any teeth yet, but there are still 4wks until the big day. Harriet on the other hand is busy perfecting her chewing skills with her pearly whites; the first came through on 11.11.11 and the second appeared rather aptly when we were at the BBC Good Food Show 13 days later. She's putting them to good use, her scrambled eggs didnt stand a chance this morning.

Right Im off to enjoy a rare moment of peace while they are napping and to make and drink a hot cup of tea. I know, outrageously rock and roll isnt it!

Sunday 25 September 2011

Autumnal Equinox

Friday 23rd September 2011, the autumnal equinox, the first day of autumn (although the MetOffice would have you believe that was 1st September). In our household friday 23rd September 2011 also marked another milestone in the year; Edward and Harriet were 26 weeks old. Today, 2 days later, they are properly 6 months old. I think we timed their arrival very well to have every 6 months marked by an equinox!

Both babies are now rolling, Edward more freely than Harriet. Although they arent crawling yet we can no longer put them on their mat to play and leave the room to put the kettle on, or answer the door, safe in the knowledge that when we come back they will be exactly where we left them... Edward likes to turn through 180 degrees, he can also travel backwards (not quite sure how) and he gets up on his hands and knees but thats as far as crawling goes at the moment. Im sure he practises in his sleep too as we are always finding him at the other end of the cot at an 180 degree angle from where we originally placed him!

Weaning is going remarkably well I think, they seem to like most things that are presented to them, and sometimes the food even makes it into their mouths. Now they are at the 6 month mark the dinner time repertoire can be substantially widened to include such delicacies as scrambled egg, toast, cheese and meat, and in a format that actually resembles the afore mentioned food stuffs and not a generic mush. Happy days. P made the mistake of bringing a yoghurt into their line of sight earlier, he didnt get much of it..

In the words of the cartoons they used to show on a sunday afternoon, that's all folks, at least until the babies are restrained somehow so it doesnt take 4 hours to write one post on here!

Saturday 13 August 2011

365 days

Exactly 365 days ago, 1 whole year to the day, I was sitting on the edge of the bath watching 2 little pink lines appearing on an inoccuous looking little white plastic stick. I had no idea what was to come, which was probably a good thing as P and myself were nervous enough at the prospect of becoming parents to 1 child let alone the duo we were actually going to get!

The babies are 20 weeks and 1 day old today :-) Edward likes to spend whatever time he has on the floor on his belly; he has learned how to roll but Im not sure whether he can control the rolling! Every time we put him down, be it to get him dressed or change his nappy he tries to roll over. He's also trying to crawl, so far he has travelled about 6 inches in an 'Action Man' style tummy crawl but I have a feeling it wont be long before he's off causing trouble at the opposite end of the flat! Harriet prefers to (try to) sit up and watch the world, she's got to perfect her balancing skills but she isnt far off sitting totally unaided. She wasnt interested in rolling until a few days ago, and I think she only does so now because she has discovered her feet/toes and grabs them when she's lying on her back, thus then rolling onto her side. She watches Edward a lot though, picking up tips and hints I reckon.....

Its quite difficult now to think back to when they were newborns, all wrinkled and tiny, let alone thinking back a year to when they were smaller still...

Wednesday 20 July 2011

A Right Royal Palaver

I rather stupidly thought that people would soon get used to seeing a double pushchair around town, as we are out in town most days plus the fact that there are at least 7 other sets of twins living in this city, and therefore the silly comments would soon stop... In the words of the wise Homer Simpson, D'oh! What was I thinking?! What on earth would the good folks of Lichfield do if they didnt have my offspring to gawp at and pass comment on?! However I have become rather good at just looking at the ground and ignoring anyone who attempts to get away with 'ooooh double trouble' or 'wow I dont envy you!' or possibly the best one yet, from a police officer no less, 'golly you didnt waste much time, there isnt much between them is there?'. Erm... 2 minutes... 'Oh are they twins then?' Wow I can see why you were chosen for the Forces of Crimefighting, not much gets past you! I can see the topic of stupid comments being one which runs forever..

OK rant over.

We started to notice that whenever we were eating we would have 2 pairs of eyes watching our every move, and two little pink tongues had started licking lips... So we decided to try them on some baby porridge. After a rather hestitant start and some very amusing faces by Edward and Harriet, Edward decided he quite liked porridge and lunged at the spoon. Ten minutes and 2 very messy babies later the porridge bowl was empty, and weaning had begun. This monumental moment was quickly followed by lots of debates on why weaning shouldnt have begun. Edward and Harriet are thriving though and surely that is the best set of guidelines to follow. They have banana porridge for breakfast every day and thoroughly enjoy eating it, wearing it, smearing it all over their hands and faces, their chairs...

I got rather excited about 2 weeks ago when they both received letters, my excitement was rather short lived however when I realised it was just notification of their 16 week jabs. Shame the only mail they get is to tell them they are getting needles jabbed in them :-( I need not have worried though as they were as good as gold, they cried (we all cried) when they were jabbed as they had to have 3 each but by the time we left the nurse's office Harriet was fast asleep and Edward was looking around and smiling at everyone, so definitely a much better experience than the 12 week jabs! I must say though I am rather pleased they dont have any more until next april.

The day after their jabs was an altogether more exciting day, not that they will remember it. The Queen came to the Cathedral for a military ceremony so there was much craziness in The Close (and the policeman who asked the daftest question so far). We didnt get very close although her car did drive past us as she left the Cathedral so we were able to get some pictures. Sadly Harriet didnt get to show off her new trick which is probably a good thing really as I didnt want to get put in the Tower for insulting the Queen.. (a few weeks a go in an effort to get Harriet to smile I stuck my tongue out at her. She laughed and then stuck hers out at me! Since then whenever she starts giggling her tongue appears along with a very cheeky look on her face. She's obviously a very fast learner so maybe I should start teaching her quantum physics or something similar?). As lovely as it was to have Her Majesty around it was also very nice to have The Close back to normal again, I have never seen so many police people in one place!

The next big milestone is on monday (right now its just about still wednesday) when the babies are officially 4 months old. Edward is on the verge of rolling over, he just needs to figure out where to put his arms! Harriet is sitting up almost totally unsupported. Both are dribbling and drooling for Britain and have little white specks lurking in their gums but so far are not showing any signs of cutting teeth just yet. I did wonder if Edward was cutting a fang the other day as he had 2 little pin pricks on his fist where he chews it but neither P nor I could feel anything coming through. Im sure it wont be long. They are growing so fast, they now sleep in separate cots as we had a headbutting incident one night last week. In the next few weeks we will be sorting out the study so it can become their room. Hope the rats wont mind too much about sharing. They are piling on the weight too, the day they had their jabs they were weighed for the first time in 4 weeks; Edward is now 15lb and Harriet 12lb 8oz. Both are following the middle centiles in their red books and gaining weight nice and steadily so we are obviously doing something right :-)


mmmm porridge!
look! Im tall!
no hands!
waiting to see the Queen
Her Majesty looking lovely in lavender!

Friday 17 June 2011

Three Months In..

Through the haze of sleep deprivation which has hung over the Lancaster household for quite some time I realised that the sproglets are 12 weeks old today, officially 8 more days and they will be 3 months old. Of course if I believed everything I read on the interwebs then they 'should' only be 7 weeks old. Apparently, because a) they are twins and b) they were 5 weeks premature we shouldnt be going by their actual age but by their adjusted age instead, which to us is absolutely ridiculous. They shouldnt be trying to roll over, or holding their heads up all the time, or grabbing their toys (or my hair) but they are. Are we going to tell them they shouldnt be doing what they are doing for another 5 weeks?? Of course not. Not that they would understand us anyway!

So what has been going in here in the last 12 weeks? Lots of tears and tantrums, but at least the babies have (mostly) behaved themselves. (and just as I typed that the synchronised screaming began..again). Most of the time the days pass in a blur of 'ooh its light' and 'oooh its dark again' so its quite hard to assign certain milestones to certain times, not that we've had any major milestones just yet, unless you count breaking through the 10lb barrier which both babies have now achieved. They are both piling on the pounds quite nicely, at 10 weeks old Edward was 12lb 4oz and Harriet was 10lb 2oz. I can confidently say they are both growing well! We had a few issues in the first 8 weeks with their formula, both babies were rather windy to the extent we considered setting up our own personal wind farm. Harriet was also diagnosed with reflux so was on infant gaviscon to help stop her projectile vomiting everywhere (mostly over the cot just after we had changed the sheets). We decided to change their milk from Aptamil to SMA, first milk for Edward and Staydown milk for Harriet, and suddenly the wind farm idea is a non starter. I think Edward definitely takes after Daddy and would be happy eating whatever is placed before him as his windiness is the only difference we have noticed but the biggest change is with Harriet; she was rather grouchy on the aptamil milk and we really had to work to get any smiles but within a few days of being on the new milk she was more settled, much more laid back, happier generally but most rewardingly is now extremely smiley!

Their first jabs at 8wks passed without incident, much to the annoyance of the other mums in the baby clinic waiting room when we came out with 2 peacefully sleeping babies and they were all trying to soothe squalling singletons. I somehow doubt we will have the same success in 4 days time when they have their 2nd set of jabs.

Every trip into town is an adventure, sometimes its fun (when nobody bats an eyelid at the babies) but most of the time we have to field remarkably stupid questions with very obvious answers from remarkably stupid members of the population. Ooooh are they twins? No I was just able to have 2 babies within 2 minutes of each other, a medical first you know. How do you cope with 2? How do you cope with 1? You just get on with it. Its also amazing how people cant tell the difference between them; what are their names? Edward and Harriet. Oh thats nice, 2 little boys. ?!?!?!?!? Yes because I really would name a boy 'Harriet' and dress 'him' in a peach denim dress with spotty tights. Or the other day when we were out, 'are they boy and a girl?' I thought that was obvious: Edward was wearing grey dungerees with Humphrey the elephant on and Harriet was in a blue dress with bright red tights... AAARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Also, for some bizarre reason, people seem to think that knowing how they were born is their business... What is that all about??

Anyway, the mini beasts have awoken from their slumber and in their own very subtle and delicate ways are letting me know that sometime within the next few nanoseconds they would like their bottles attaching to their mouths.. Such charming little creatures.

                                                                   On their new quilt

                                                          The elusive smiley Harriet :-)

                                                                       Happy Edward!

                                                            Post-bathtime fluffy Edward

                                            'Mum I'm hungry. Feed me. Now.' *nomnomnomnom*

Sunday 8 May 2011

Now We Are Four

Thankfully, since the babies were so, um, healthy at birth (read 'healthy' as fat little wotsits) they didnt need to spend any time in special care and were able to come with me up to the ward straight after birth. P came with us too, to see us settled into our private room (there was a perk to having a caesarian after all!) but had to leave in the early hours of saturday morning. The babies were sealed inside their first nappies (such a proud moment) and given back to me for their first feed. Everyone says that breastfeeding is the most natural thing in the world, well I beg to differ! Especially when you are trying to feed two babies at the same time, after being awake and in labour for two days, at 1am and just after being sliced and diced. Its amazing how much you really dont care about how you look or how much of your person is on display to perfect strangers when you've just had a sprog or two; one midwife passed the babies to me while another whipped out my boobs to attach said babies to. Did I care? At the time, no. Looking back, possibly. Lets just keep the fingers crossed that I never bump into anyone from the ward in Tesco's. Once their appetite was sated I think I had about 30mins until it needed sating again. Considering how teeny they were they didnt half have good appetites! They were feeding every 2hrs or so for an hour or more at a time. Im not sure why I bothered taking them off the breast in between feeds really. *insert eye-rolling smilie in here*

Aunties, Grandmas, Grandads and Great-grandmas arrived on saturday afternoon. The babies were about 16 hours old and very well behaved, no obvious pooping or puking :-) Good babies! Everybody had a cuddle (with the sprogs, not each other) and marvelled over how much hair the babies had between them, especially Edward. Much posing for many cameras was had, and then it was dinner time again. P returned from the last singsong before paternity leave kicked in just in time to help heave me off the bed and very very slowly crawl to the shower. Goodness me it was painful, but a necessary painful as from then on I was able to get out of bed, albeit slowly, and move around.

During a routine weigh in for the babies it was noticed that they were losing a lot of weight. Its normal for newborns to lose a little of their birthweight in the few days following birth, but these two were losing a little too much. Harriet lost 11 ounces and Edward about 8 ounces. This suggested that although they were being fed every 2 hours or so they were not getting enough food so a breast feeding support councillor was sent to see me to assess my technique. Now we return to the 'breastfeeding is the most natural thing in the world'. Everyone had an opinion on what was happening and they all went along the lines of me not attaching them correctly. 'Just try again', 'just try it this way', 'try putting baby in this position', dont do that, do this' was how many conversations started. Cue a mini breakdown which resulted in the babies spending 4 hours with a midwife while I attempted to sleep. A little dramatic perhaps but it did prompt one midwife to mention the dreaded 'f' word: formula. Did I want to give them formula? YES!!! If it meant they were getting food instead of getting increasingly frustrated and hungry then yes, give them as much formula as they will consume. All of a sudden the babies were content, with bellies full of milk which meant they were sleeping better, and in turn meant I was too. Nobody had mentioned any other ways of feeding, it was all 'breast is best' which Im sure fundamentally it is, but it doesn't work for everyone. A midwife told me they were not allowed (??) to ask mothers if they wanted to use formula as they had to promote breastfeeding which in my humble opinion is ridiculous. Surely if baby and/or mum is having problems then any other method which improves the situation is good? Apparently not. When I said I wanted to use formula all the time someone mentioned expressing. Why wasnt that mentioned before? I also found out that a caesarian section can delay milk production by several days as the body goes into some sort of shock after surgery, no-one told me that when I was struggling to feed and ended up producing more blood than milk. I felt so guilty for not breastfeeding, that somehow I was letting the babies down by not doing the best for them. I managed to express for 10 days so they did get the colostrum and first milk, and therefore all the antibodies and other goodies they should have had but I still felt awful.

In total we spent 4 days on the ward, and were released together on the tuesday evening. The babies were starting to put weight on again after losing so much, I was healing nicely so they couldnt keep us in any longer!

                                               Ready to go home!
                                          One of the first nights at home
                                                               Harriet
                                                              Edward
                                                    Group hug!

Tuesday 5 April 2011

All Hell Breaks Loose....

We had our last midwife appointment in mid march, at 34wks. Nothing spectacular occured, we learned twin 1 was very very low down, I think thats at least 1 'very' more than when we had the growth scan at 32wks. My body was starting to really ache and protest at every little thing, my hips felt as though they were dislocated most of the time, my knees had also joined in the aches and pains party even though they hadnt been invited and my feet looked like they had taken inspiration from Joseph Merrick (I think he was aka the Elephant Man... apologies if not..elephant feet are lovely, especially on elephants). I managed to wobble (Im certain it would have been easier, but not as graceful Im sure, to have been rolled a la Violet the blueberry from the proper version of Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory) from the doctors surgery to Costa-fortune coffee for a well deserved hot chocolate and choc donut (I wanted an almond croissant but they didnt have any. grrrrrrrrrr) and upon attempting to get out of my chair to leave got assaulted by well meaning people commenting on my rather small size, 'ooooh when are you due? tomorrow? last week?' erm no, 6wks time actually.... I love looking back and remembering the looks of horror cross peoples faces...

Monday 21st March was the day I first thought things might have been starting, nothing major mind just little niggles like feeling a little 'off', more pressure in my pelvis, more painful braxton hicks, that sort of thing. But nothing happened. I was quite pleased in some ways as I was still only 34wks (+ 5 days) and wanted to get as far as possible to reduce the time the babies would have to spend in neonatal but on the other hand I was desperate to get them out so I could have my body back! And meet them of course!

Nothing happened the day after either, I started to wonder whether I was wishing them out so much that I was seeing patterns/signs where there werent any. Wednesday night changed that completely. I got up off the settee aroud 8.30pm and waddled to the bathroom... En route I felt something 'pop' and then gush in a rather revolting fashion but thought 'ooooh waters have gone!!'. My joy and excitement were short lived; as I walked into the bathroom I noticed the pale lino accruing some large red droplets.. 20 seconds later my clothes were sodden. Not good. I will spare the details, but suffice to say panic was now rather firmly in control as I yelled to P to ring the ambulance.. All credit to them, the rapid response car arrived within 5 minutes with the ambulance 10 mins behind, and we were at Burton hospital by 9.20pm. I was examined by 'my' consultant who deemed the tsunami was my show (so much for small jelly-like mucous plug all the preggy websites harp on about) and I was 2cm dilated. So one type of panic started to reduce a little only for anothr type of panic to appear.... it had started.... Babies were coming!

I was kept in the delivery suite overnight for monitoring, thankfully P was allowed to stay too. A few more checks overnight showed we had advanced by 1cm (woooooo) and I was getting contractions rather than braxton hicks tightenings. Cue the steriod injections just in case; very painful I can tell you! Especially as they go in your bum... I think someone was attempting 'how many different body parts can we puncture?'. My hands were assaulted by 3 different people trying to get a canular into me, the first 2 attempts failed and sent my body into shock but finally someone was found who could get the blooming thing into a vein. I have a lovely blue bruise covering most of the back of my left hand now. In the morning it was decided that things werent going to progress that fast so I was moved to the labour ward for yet more monitoring. Its no fun being attached to so many cables that you cant move or get comfy. Nor is it fun when very wriggly babies manage to escape the range of the monitor so all the sticky things have to be moved around only for babies to move again 5 minutes later. The consultant come to see me/us and told us we were booked in for a scan in the morning to assess where the blood had come from although she was still sure it was just my show and nothing more serious. If the scan was clear we would be discharged until things picked up pace. Best laid plans and all that...

At just after midnight I was woken by what felt like severe period pains with bowel cramps thrown in for good measure. I hunted down some co-codamol, which would usually work quite fast, and went back to bed. Just over an hour later I was back at the midwife station being groped and assessed as having contractions, not braxtons. And they just didnt stop. In little over an hour I had gone from having a few tigntenings in several hours to having 3-4 contractions in 10 minutes. Hmmmmm, dont think I will be going home today somehow! More monitoring followed so now not only could I not move for all the cables but I also had contractions to contend with. The midwife said at one point 'oh we dont need the machine to tell when you're contracting, I can see the entire outlines of both your babies!'. At least she was happy. A shot of pethidine later (again, in the bum, ouch) and I was happier too! At 6am I was taken back to the delivery suite, and you've guessed it, hooked back up to the blooming monitor again. I had wanted to be active during labour so I could move around and get comfy(ish), not cabled to the bed. Such is the joy of being in premature labour with twins, and of course their safety was paramount to me and P but it would have been nice to have been a bit more comfy. Another assessment showed I was now 4cm dilated. Wow it was taking a while. Meanwhile that monitor was showing twin 2 was not happy about being monitored either, their heartbeat kept dipping quite low so I was advised to have an epidural just in case it dropped lower and a trip to theatre was necessary. Not that I needed any convincing, even though I had been adamant I wouldnt have anything stronger than gas and air. P arrived just as the epidural was being ordered, it was so nice to have someone I actually knew back in the room with me while I was being poked and groped. By 9am the epidural was in, it didnt totally take away the pain (it was a mobile epidural so some feeling was left) but my goodness what a relief. And then the midwife appeared with her crochet hook, twin 1's waters were ruptured and I was officially in labour according to the hospital. A bag of contraction stimulant stuff whose name has totally escaped me was attached to me via drip and we were left to it. The epidural was topped up a few times during the day and by 6pm we were told the joyous news that I was 10cm dilated and things should start happening..

A couple of hours (and several random people in blue scrubs who insisted on putting their hands where hands really shouldnt go) later revealed that twin 1 was malpresenting; rather than the top of the head coming out first it was the face that the doctors could feel, meaning baby was back to back with me, which explained why I was so uncomfy lying down, and they were effectively stuck. Twin 2's heartbeat was also still dropping below 100 beats per minute. When the doctor/registrar told us the only option was a caesarian I could have kissed her. Again I had put in my birth plan I didnt want one but by this point I was exhausted and the babies wanted out so the forms were signed and away to theatre we went.

Edward (twin 1) arrived first, covered in bruises from all the drs poking him, at 22.27 on friday 25 march 2011. He weighed an impressive 6lb 3.5oz :-). Harriet was born 2 minutes later weighing 6lb. Impressive because they were 5wks early so even by twin standards they were premature. Thankfully though they didnt need any time in neonatal care, all the aches and pains from being so vastly enormous in the final weeks were definitely worth it!

                                              Minutes old! Edward on the left, Harriet on the right

                                                                        Hours old :-)

                                                                  Harriet

                                                           Edward

Saturday 5 March 2011

Time Flies...

I woke up this morning to find its March 5th... I know February is short but I didnt think it would go that quickly!

OK, so a quick recap (mostly for my baby-addled brain..) the last post encompassed the thrills and spills of Christmas and New Year, up to our 25wk midwife appointment in January. So whats been happening for the last 7 weeks I hear you cry? Read on....

The remainder of January passed in a blur of cold, bleak January greyness. The babies continued to be their usual wriggly, pokey selves, only with much more determination and a lot more energy behind the wallops. Heartburn and acid reflux is now becoming a major issue, I think I am consuming my body weight in Gaviscon (other heartburn remedies are available) every week! Thankfully its free otherwise it would be costing a fortune. Shame it doesnt taste very nice.. but it works. However, a well known brand of powdered milk flavouring works even better, and it does taste good! Pity you cant get that on prescription.

We found ourselves back at Burton on 4th Feb for the first of our scheduled growth scans, and to see the consultant again. For the first time this pregnancy I wasnt nervous about the scan; there had always been some element of uncertainty in all the previous scans but as this one was at 28wks, they were kicking and wriggling all the time (they were alive), my bump as huge (they were obviously growing) and we had been given the all clear at the 20wk anomaly scan so we knew they were perfect. What we were not expecting was the estimated weights the sonographer calculated from the babies' measurements.. From our online readings we knew the approximate weights for twins at 28wks was around 2 - 2.5lbs each, similar to that of a single baby. From the scan measurements however it was clear that nobody had informed our babies of this snippet of information: Twin A was approx 2lb 15oz, and Twin B was approx 3lb 1oz. Oh my. Both these weights were very approximate, they had error margins of +/- 1lb or so, but even then they still seemed fab weights for twins. The consultant, although not 'our' consultant, seemed pleased too. He didnt have time to answer many questions so we left with our huge list relatively unanswered. They still couldnt tell us anything about our birth choices which was a little disappointing, but at 28wks twins are still able to move into daft positions, so I guess its a bit silly to plan a natural birth only to find in a month the twins have gone from head down to transverse or diagonal (ours were head down, good babies). After we left the consultant I was sent for routine blood tests in a different part of the hospital (fortunately, on the ground floor and much nearer to the entrance). How I love being a pin cushion.

Two weeks later I received a letter from the hospital, my blood results had come back. Thankfully I was negative for obstetric choleostasis (I think thats how you spell it) which causes itching on the hands feet and bump but is an indicator of liver problems, but I was rather anaemic. No huge surprise there. So now I have the pleasure of swallowing vile brown tablets twice a day as the little monsters are glugging all my iron supplies.

I saw my midwife again towards the end of feb, I hadnt even walked into the room when she greeted me with 'growing well I see?' ! Everything was fine, blood pressure was normal etc. She listened to the heartbeats which was good. Both sounded very healthy, twin 1 (right hand side) was 135bpm and twin 2 was 145bpm. She didnt measure the huge expanse of bump as I would be off the scale! I think that was the polite way of saying I was rather big :-) She also booked me in for my 34wk appointment although she didnt think I would get that far...!! Slightly worried now....

Our second growth scan was on 4 March, at 32wks. We were very eager to find out how heavy the not so little wotsits were now measuring in at, and we were not disappointed! The sonographer used three different sets of measurements to get an approximate weight, head circumference, abdominal circumference and femur length. Twin 1/A was so low she couldnt see the head to get the measurement, which was slightly worrying in itself.. low babies could mean an early arrival date.. The other two measurements were recorded and a weight approximated.... 2343g. 2.3kg. 5lb 2oz. Blimey! Twin 2/B was more cooperative, and amazingly the weight calculated was also 2343g. Twin 1 therefore could actually be somewhat larger.. Both babies are huge, around 5lb 2oz each which for twins is big. Single babies are estimated to be around 5lb at this stage, twins are often estimated to be around 5lb when they are born. Oh My Goodness. I was so pleased when I was told I didnt have to have an epidural, now I think I may need one!

Again we saw the consultant after our scan, she was very pleased with how the babies are growing, and that they are both still head down. Thankfully she had revised the estimate of how far I would be allowed to go before any intervention from 40wks to 38wks, however she said if we get to 34wks she will be happy! Im hoping to get to 35-36wks but even that isnt that far away (end of march). Its all scarily close now.

We think we are ready for them if they should arrive in the next 2 weeks; the cot is up, the clothes are washed, the bag is packed... which probably means they wont arrive until mid april!

                           Bump at 31wks, displayed in the only nice top I have which will accomodate it!    

Friday 28 January 2011

How Time Flies...

I've just consulted my calendar and realised it's been over a month since I last had the energy/found the time/could be bothered* (* delete as applicable ;-) ) to write. I can't believe how long ago Christmas now seems, or how much I have grown since then...

So here's a brief summary of what's been happening:

P and I celebrated our 1st anniversary on 22nd Dec. I can't for the life of me remember what, if anything, we did... I do seem to recall mince pies featuring somewhere....

Christmas was spent quietly at home, just the two of us with a little input now and again from the onboard passengers. P was working (the joy of your employer being a large Cathedral) so we couldn't really do anything much even if we were able to. Bump was starting to make its/their presence felt a little more, which was very reassuring as there wasnt much movement for a few days in the run up to Christmas, but by the time we had striped the turkey carcass (Christmas Day evening) both P and I had been on the receiving end of several well-aimed wallops.

Nothing happens at New Year, ever. So lets glide straight over to:

We managed to acquire ourselves an automobile (many thanks to P's mum for the loan of her vehicle!) and at great speed (or more accurately the speed limits imposed on the A38) made our way to visit Nan for her birthday, and to introduce Bump to Great-Nannie. I feel I should point out that our visit wasn't Nan's present, that accolade went to a large flowering pink plant in a pot, a Chrysanthemumumumumum I believe it was (is it any wonder they get labelled as 'Pot Mums'? Although that does invoke a rather amusing image...). We also popped in to see Mum (she wasn't in a pot) and her rather enthusiastic colleagues at work before heading off to Sainsburys (wooooo!). A visit to Sainsburys is a very rare occurence hence its mentioning here.

Wednesday 12 January 2011 (blimey!) we had our 25 week midwife appointment. The last time we had seen her was at our booking in back in September as all of our appointments since then had been at the hospital with a consultant. We nearly didnt get there as we kept meeting people we knew en route to the doctor's surgery. Most days you will see one or two people around the Close who you know, but the one day we didnt want to see anyone we met more people than we had done for weeks. Thankfully the surgery was running a little late (insert a little eyebrow raising smilie in here...) which meant I was able to find loads of useful leaflets while we were waiting, and use them to try and cool down a little. My vital signs were checked, I was rather pleased to hear that I had blood pressure, even if it was a little high (you try rushing up a steep hill at 6 months preggers with twins and then we'll see how high your BP is!!). I managed to keep hold of all of my blood (having it drained doesn't bother me but P always turns a funny colour, even though he insists he's fine) but I think its days are numbered, namely (numerically??) 4th February, when we have our next consultant appointment and scan. The most exciting part of this visit was hearing the heartbeats, which I hadnt realised we would. Im still not 100% certain the midwife heard both as they sounded exactly the same to my ear, but what we heard was good. However I can confirm there are definitely two very active aliens sharing my blood supply... Apparently I'm supposed to be able to tell when they are asleep and when they arent by now, hmmmmmmmm in that case I deduce they do not sleep at all! Jousting, yes. Boxing, yes. Kicking and punching, absolutely. Dancing on Mummy's bladder all night long, definitely! And if Daddy starts snoring in the night... its amazing how far their kicks can reach... ;-)

So now we have reached 27 weeks and 2 days, I am absolutely enormous and starting to resemble a beached whale. I have also discovered that stretchmarks have appeared, not that I am at all surprised! Given the amount of growing thats gone over the past two weeks I'm actually amazed my skin hasnt split. I guess there is still time though.. We have lots of appointments coming up now we are nearly in the home straight, so these random musings may appear slightly more frequently. Unless the babies arrive next week in which case tune in at Christmas!


                                       Bump at 26 weeks :-) No laughing at the sexy pyjamas..