Archive for the ‘First Trimester’ Category

photo credit: NickStenning

*NOT OUR DOCTOR’S PARKING SPOT – A MERE REPRESENTATION*

Well on July 8th we saw our general practitioner for the first time for this pregnancy.
The “prenatal visit” they tell me.

I don’t really remember all that poking, prodding and depressing conversation when we were there for our first child.
It seemed besides the initial excitement felt on our end and our continuing worry about managing a house with twins and an older brother, we have a truckload of bigger things to worry about.

Most importantly is the first 12 weeks. If the twins survive to 12 weeks inside the womb, their chances of survival make a huuuuge jump. If you were talking with your hands, you go from “weeeee chances” before 12 weeks to “yay chances” after 12 weeks.
So rather than convincing Julie to take a complete bedrest and avoid work altogether, our doctor put it out there that regular life and activities can continue but to put EATING, DRINKING FLUIDS and REST at the top of the list of things to do today, and tomorrow and for the next 4 weeks.

What I also thought was a pretty cool thing to say, our doctor made the comment that the prenatal vitamin CAUSES NASEUA, so in this case, since Julie has already been to the ER for dehydration and a nice little “HEY YOU’RE HAVING TWINS” moment, fluids and foods outweigh the necessity for the prenatal horsepills. So if you have to choose between pukey pukey and yummy yummy slurp slurp, go for the yummy slurps and foresake the pukey.

In addition to some simple counseling about the safety of our unborn twins and encouraging Julie to take the Zofran in case of emergency, we were also informed that we would no longer be seeing our general practice doctor for the remainder of the pregnancy. “I do singletons.” The doctor told us.

In a bizarre and morbidly blunt tone he said: “If you happen to lose one, then you’ll come back and see me.”

Coming from a family where the law of attraction and the belief that positive thinking is quite powerful, I don’t care to harbor such negative ideas, but I appreciate the sentiment.

The doctor continued to tell us that he WILL be in the delivery room, but not as quaterback as he was during our son’s birth.

So we learned a few things:

• Our due date is now February 16th, 2009
• We will be seeing a team of OBs (three to be exact) so on the day of delivery we will have an OB that knows all about Julie’s vajayjay and the state of our twins’ health
• This pregnancy is considered High Risk, so we will be going back to see our High Risk doctor from Julie’s last pregnancy on a regular basis

p.s. I always wanted to use vajayjay as a post tag! HAHAHAH!

photo credit: Evil Erin

One of the things Julie has been suffering with consistently since week 4 is morning sickness. Morning, day and night sickness, that is.

In Julie’s case, the mornings and evenings are normally the worst, with the afternoon being generally acceptable, although mildly at best. We’ve been told that extra B6 (30mg minimum) is a great place to start to help treat the nausea, but what do you do when you can’t even bring yourself to LOOK at the water you would need to swallow the tablet?

When Julie left work the second time she called her doctor and he gave her a script (IMAGINE THAT!) for a drug called Zofran.
Of course, on the RX label it says “DO NOT TAKE IF YOU ARE PREGNANT.” Julie read that and was afraid of the potential side effects on the baby (we got the drug before we knew about the twins), but in the ER the nurse practitioner said that the FDA had categorized it as a Type B and that it was generally safe and no one would test the drug on pregnant ladies, but in those that HAD used it their weren’t any complications or negative effects on the fetus.

Julie has taken it twice since we found out about the two newbies, but only after prolonged periods of nausea and hunger did she break down to use it. It definitely helped, but any alternative to using drugs has to be better than taking something that isn’t documented as NOT hurting unborn children.

MORNING SICKNESS FREEDOM!

While looking for more information on the subject we came across Morning Sickness Freedom. In this book we read about a set of pressure points that work immediately, a method for avoiding chemicals in the foods you eat that can increase the chances of feeling sick to your stomach, breaking down the contents of the prenatal vitamins that pregnant women take that could be the source for some of the vomiting, and also some exercises that cut down on reflux and increase bloodflow.

A lot of the books we found on Amazon didn’t seem to focus on the specific 6-12 week period during the first trimester where things seem insusrmountable, but Mary Kinsey focuses JUST on the timeframe where morning sickness is most profound.

This summer she is selling the book for about 30 bucks, but I’m told it will go back up to 50 bucks sometime soon.

I’ve learned so much on a subject I was not at all comfortable researching for my wife initially, but when your partner in life is puking her guts out morning, noon and night, you gotta step up and find some stuff out as soon as possible. Three lives depend on it.

photo credit: Dylan Luder
Let the hating commence!

Updated list of the things wifey hates today!

1. ANYONE’s breath, still
2. Our garage. Period.
3. Fresh cut grass
4. Infant poop
5. Bonfires within range
6. MSG, Aspartame & High Fructose Corn Syrup, still. (Read about MSG here!!)
7. Roadkill
8. The smell of fresh tar on pavement
9. Water, still.
10. Max & Ruby on Noggin.

Join us next time as I jot down the things that wifey hilariously hates while preggers with my two new babies.

For the past few weeks Julie has been fighting naeusa, fatigue and hormonal swings way up and way down.

Now that we KNOW what is causing it it’s a little less scary because there isn’t some underlying reason why life just sucks right now.

Granted, there isn’t much that I can do as a husband besides cater to her needs and let her get her rest. It just blows ass with this being a holiday weekend and plans with family and friends already set up that she has to stay on the couch or in bed all weekend.

We all know “This too shall pass” but right now, I wish there was a hell of a lot more than gatorade and hugs I could offer.

I just wanted to jot down the things she hates right now:

1. ANYONE’s breath
2. The smell of our garage (lawnmower & gasoline)
3. Food she isn’t eating
4. The smell of our son after having spaghetti at daycare
5. The smell of me after work (I smell like a vitamin)
6. MSG, Aspartame & High Fructose Corn Syrup
7. Banana popsicles
8. Popsicles that aren’t Root Beer flavored
9. Water
10. Food
11. Her prenatal vitamin
12. Food Commercials on TV all day long
13. Poop

I’m sure this list will continue to grow, and I look foward to her reading it once she’s normal again.

photo credit: Mr.Thomas

SHE WILL BE NORMAL AGAIN WONT SHE?

When we first read “SUBCHORIONIC HEMATOMA” on the sheet that told us we were having twins, we disregarded it as nonsensical information that didn’t concern us.

We weren’t totally off, but there isn’t anything that either of us could have done to prevent it, and there isn’t much you can do about them besides taking it easy.

What is it?

“A SCH or Subchorionic Hematoma is a gathering of blood between the membranes of the placenta and the uterus. A more technical name is the chorion. Some doctors will also just refer to it as a blood clot.”

SURE! WHATEVER!

Our regular doctor described it as the two eggs that are implanted pulling from the uterine wall. It doesn’t sound pretty or healthy for that matter, but all we can do is educate ourselves on the matter.

We found a great article at www.justmommies.com. Read it HERE.