36 Weeks Brings 2 Little Joys :)

Originally this post should have been posted on Feb 21... but due to the birth of the twins, it had been delayed. Sorry to all my readers!

This post will not describe the birthing process...it will be about the stuff that happened during the week, leading up to the babies being born!  Look for my next post for the story explaining how our two little babies were delivered!

Doctors appointment: I had my cervix checked at this appointment. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as the 3 cervix checks I had several weeks ago. My doctor said that I was barely 1 cm dilated, so I was still pretty closed off which was good. Baby A was head down but Baby B was breach, which was the opposite of what it was last week. These babies just can't sit still it seems. We decided to wait until my growth scan came back to see how the babies were growing before we decided on an official date for the delivery, but we were still aiming for Feb 28.

Baby Monitoring: My blood pressure was somewhat high so they checked me for pre-eclampsia, which I really didn't want. Thankfully, the blood and urine tests came back fine but they told me if I had any blurred vision, headaches, major swelling, etc, that I needed to come back in. They sent me home from this appointment, but I still came back to the hospital later because I had my growth scan.

Growth scan: I was told that Baby A was 6lbs 4oz and Baby B was 5lbs 12oz. I went to tell my doctor the scan and he ordered another blood pressure test to see how I was doing since it was several hours after my baby monitoring appointment. It was still high. It measured at about 142/94 and it was really concerning my OB. He was really worried and wanted to deliver that day but I had eaten not too long before the appointment so the earliest I'd be able to have my c-section would be 10pm which they didn't want. So, instead, they scheduled my c-section for the following morning (friday).

He did ask to make sure I wanted the C-section instead of a vaginal birth. He stated that he didn't think I'd be a good candidate for a vaginal birth because I still wasn't dilated very much (and a few other reasons) and there was only about a 60% chance that inducing me would be successful. He also said that I would still have a high chance of a vaginal delivery in the future if I decided to have any more kids. Since inductions aren't always predictable and can take a really long time, he also wouldn't be able to guarantee he'd be the doctor to deliver my babies. With it being the military, their doctors don't exactly rush into the hospital to deliver patients' babies if they aren't actually working that day. I really wanted him to deliver the twins since he had been the only person who seemed to know what was appropriate and going on with my twin pregnancy. Plus, I really liked him. So, I opted for the C-section.

So, on Feb 21, Kyle and I went into the hospital first thing in the morning to finally meet our baby twins!

Symptoms:

• Weight gain: 3.5lbs at the beginning of this week. 
• Contractions - some of these are just downright painful and make me hunch over.
• Lots of back pain/cramping
• Stretch Marks -started appearing
• Constipation - still causing problems
• Crazy baby movement from the baby on my left side. Sometimes they push so hard against my stomach it becomes really uncomfortable and I want to push them back in! 

Here is the last picture of my belly progress I took before giving birth! We are so glad that we made it to 36 weeks (almost 37)!