Our first (and hopefully last!) visit to the ER

Monday was awful. I woke up feeling really crampy and had a bad backache. Thanks to the pain, I couldn't keep anything down. Not even water. My body caught on to the Benadryl trick about a week-and-a-half ago, but I'd been doing really well and had only been sick a few times since. It's like my body saved it all up for Monday.

What really scared me was that every so often, I would get a sharp pain in my back that would radiate forward to my belly and cause severe cramping. I was so worried I was having contractions that I ended up calling Damon in the morning to come home. Fortunately, I happened to have a prenatal visit already scheduled for that afternoon. I had traces of protein in my urine, and my blood pressure was slightly elevated. Combined with the back pain, my doctor thought I might have a bladder infection. To be on the safe side, though, he had me schedule an ultrasound for the next day (his tech is only there Tuesdays and Thursdays) to check the length of my cervix. This is to check whether I'm in preterm labor. I also had to go to the lab to have blood drawn and my urine checked again.

I did pretty well after we got home. I managed to keep a little food and fluids down. Until bedtime. I felt so awful I went to bed to read at 6:30. About an hour later, I got diarrhea. This caused some major vomiting. When I felt a little better, I tried to eat and drink a little more. About an hour after the first incident, I suddenly felt even worse in bed. My right hand felt tingly and I was so hot and nauseous, so I got up to go to the bathroom again.

I made it to the small hallway that separates the bedroom and bathroom before I felt like I was going to faint. Now, I've had my share of fainting spells in the past, but I've never had it happen so quickly before. I managed to slide down the wall and sit. I vaguely remember asking Damon for some juice. He asked me what kind, and I said I didn't care. That's the last thing I remember. The next thing I know, I'm starting to come to and I feel myself shaking like crazy. That's what really made me panic. When I was Abby's age, I would get really high fevers and have seizures, but I can't remember ever fainting and shaking like that before. Damon was still downstairs getting juice when I woke up, so I know I wasn't even out for a minute but it felt like hours. As soon as I felt awake enough, I flew to the bathroom and got majorly sick again. I sipped the orange juice Damon brought me and called my doctor.

The fainting and the shaking is what ultimately had me calling my doctor's after-hours nurse hotline. After a bunch of questions, the nurse told me to go to the hospital to get checked out. The hospital my doctor is affiliated with is brand-new and only about 10 minutes from our house, so despite the circumstances, I was pretty excited to see inside. I couldn't believe how smoothly everything went! They didn't even give me a chance to sit down in the er waiting room before they were ushering me in. By the time we got there, I was feeling pretty good all things considered. They checked my vitals, then the nurse drew some blood and hooked an iv needle to my arm.

That's when everything went downhill again.

I'm a wimp when it comes to needles. Remember I mentioned I've been known to faint in the past? 90% of the time has been because of needles or procedures done at a doctor's office. Since she drew a few vials of blood and had to hook me up to the iv, it took a while. I could feel myself slipping while she worked. The on-call doctor came in shortly after that to ask me questions, and I barely remember maybe half of what was said. When he left, I told the nurse I really needed to vomit. I thought I was well enough to walk to the bathroom assisted. What a mistake! I made to the nurses' station a few feet outside my room when I had to stop and hold on. All I wanted todo was slump down and pass out, but the nurse wouldn't let me. A few more feet, and she had another nurse bring a wheeled desk chair over to get me back to my room.

I felt so much better once I did get to vomit. In a bag. Yuck! While I was getting sick, the nurse hooked me up to oxygen and the iv drip. After that, it was a waiting game. Waiting to get the fluid in me. Waiting for the blood results. I went through 2 bags of fluid, and my bloodwork came back normal. They decided that the fainting was caused by severe dehydration.

The best part of the night came at the end. Before they released me, they brought in a portable ultrasound machine to check on the babies. They were laying horizontally across my belly, touching feet. Their little feet weren't just touching, though, they were kicking each other like crazy. It was hilarious to watch! They were fighting for space in there. Baby B is definitely going to be a handful. He (or she) was the one starting it. He (or she) would pull back and wait for Baby A to stretch out, then would kick and shove like crazy. Baby A didn't put up with that and fought back! Sorry Rita, we didn't get to take any pictures home that time. We would've loved to have a video of that!

I was sent home with a prescription for Zofran (anti-nausea medication they give to chemo patients and pregnant women) and was told to fill it before we went home, so we went to a 24-hour Walgreens. I was starving by then, which was the first time I'd been hungry all day, so we stopped at McDonald's. Their cheeseburgers never tasted so good!

Yesterday morning, we went back to my doctor's office for the cervical ultrasound and were told everything looked fine. No preterm labor. Whew! We didn't get to see the babies, but it was a relief knowing everything's going to be fime.

I felt better than I have in months yesterday! I couldn't believe how great I felt after how horrible I felt the day before. I couldn't seem to get enough to eat and drink all day and I never once felt the least bit nauseous. I can't remember the last time that happened!

17 Weeks

I had a prenatal appointment yesterday. Everything looked good; babies' heartbeats were well within the normal range. I, on the other hand, had a really bad day that I'll go into more detail about later.

My doctor again measured my uterus and this time I measured at 25 weeks! I can't remember if I explained before, but basically that means that my uterus is currently 25 cm from pelvic bone to the top. In a woman who's pregnant with one baby, the number of cm should more or less correspond with the number of weeks pregnant she is, so I already look like I'm 25 weeks pregnant! Yeah. Obviously, that's not the case when carrying twins. What's really crazy about this is that at my last visit 4 weeks ago, I measured 15 weeks. In 4 weeks, my uterus almost doubled in size! I can't believe I grew a full 10 cm in 4 weeks. And only gained 3 pounds. No wonder I've been so sick!

The best thing about my appointment was that I found out that I'll now be going to a perinatologist for an ultrasound every 4 weeks in addition to seeing my ob regularly. Yay! A perinatologist is essentially a high risk ob, so they have better equipment than my regular ob. They should be calling me in the next day or so to schedule my first appointment. My ob wants me to see them as soon as they're available since it's been 4 weeks since my last ultrasound. He also said that they should be able to tell us what we're having at that first appointment, if the babies cooperate!

Thanks to my really awful day yesterday, I have to go back to my ob's office for an ultrasound to measure the length of my cervix. I'm fine now, but yesterday was a scary day. The babies are definitely doing really well too, so there's nothing for everyone to worry about.

Happy Birthday Rita

My mother in law, Rita, has been asking and asking for the ultrasound pictures from a few weeks ago. It finally dawned on me last night to take a picture of each with my camera since my scanner still isn't working. I can't believe I didn't think of that sooner! It just so happens that today is her birthday. Good timing! Happy birthday Rita!


Here's both of them together. Baby A is laying with his/her head by Baby B and the body going away from Baby B. Baby B is laying vertically in my belly with his/her head down by Baby A (that's why only the head shows up in this pic).

Birthday Party

I finally got around to posting the few pictures I took at Abby's birthday party to flickr. We had close to 20 kids here, so it was pretty chaotic! Unfortunately, that meant I didn't get to take too many pictures. Most of them are from before everyone got here, waiting with my mom and sisters.

Benadryl is my new best friend!

At a previous prenatal vist, my doctor gave me a list of safe over-the-counter medications and the illnesses they aid. Benadryl was listed under nausea. Huh? I had no idea! I was leary to try it because Benadryl puts me right to sleep. Finally, last week I couldn't take the constant vomiting anymore, so I bought some children's chewables. I decided I'd rather be sleepy constantly than sick, and really I'm tired all the time anyway so it hasn't made much difference. I have a hard time swallowing pills on a good day, let alone now, so I thought chewables was the way to go. Two chewables are the same as one adult pill, so I've been taking 2 chewables twice a day. What a difference! I haven't gotten sick once since I started taking Benadryl! I did get sick yesterday, but that was my own fault. I forgot to take it in the morning, so I decided to try a day without it to see how I felt. That lasted until about 3 o'clock, but by then the damage was done. I felt so awful that not even the Benadryl helped.

Here's a more current belly shot. I took this Saturday. Same top as before.


And since Abby's been neglected around here lately, here's a picture from her birthday party back in the beginning of January! I have a bunch of pictures I need to post to flickr now that I'm feeling better. Hopefully I'll get to them soon.