HEALTH CHECK-UP

So this post will be kind of long as K attempts to totally update on all health related stuff that has been going on. So if you love details, continue reading. If not, here is summary: K is doing fine and A&B are growing well.

• Contractions: well it turns out that K has been having periodic contractions for a couple of months now. She thought it was just the babies balling up. In retrospect it does seem odd that they would always do it at exactly the same time and that they would stay that way for exactly the same amount of time. (as our OB said " well they were balling up, but that was because the uterus was contracting in on them"). The frequency of these had greatly increased and so we went to the hospital for some monitoring (they have a whole little clinic for monitoring labor and delivery people). Turns out these were happening about every 5 minutes and this is more than the Docs like to see. So got some shots there to reduce the contractions which was effective. Since K responded well, she was sent home with some oral medication (which is actually med for asthma!) and instructions to rest (so no more work), drink lots of water (can't even explain to you how much water they want K to drink), go to the bathroom frequently (as if that was even an option), and take the meds. The difference has been AMAZING!! K is only having around 10 a day and can now feel the babies moving so much more (and these are actually them moving!).

• OB: Had an appointment on Wednesday. K is still going to keep taking meds to keep the contractions away. K goes back to see him in 2 weeks. The plan is to keep resting, drinking water, and taking meds. They want to keep the contractions away at least until 32 weeks (currently 29 weeks), so I will keep on the med until then. After that, they may ween K off them. (guess they don't want to block them forever, and the lungs are supposedly pretty well developed by then in twins.) And then the longest they are going to let K carry them is 36 1/2 to 37 weeks. So we are narrowing down the arrival time--pretty much the month of November up through Thanksgiving...weeks 32 - 37!!

• ULTRASOUND: everything looks good here too! again K is unable to recognize pretty much anything-- But they are moving well and developing well. In a confusing turn of events, Brooke who we've been calling Baby B (on my left) is now actually Baby A because she is lower. So it is confusing when the doctor is talking about Baby A and he means Brooke and I think Audrey...but we got it all straight (I think!) So I will refer to them by name to ease confusion. Brooke is on the left side and is head-up. She is still the bigger girl and is estimated to weigh 3 lbs 4 oz which is in the 68th percentile for singleton babies. Audrey is on the right side and has moved up a bit (thus the rib pain) and is ready to go with her head down. She is estimated to weigh 2 lbs and 13 oz which is in the 48th percentile for singletons. So they are both growing well (hard to believe that there is 6 lbs of baby in K!!) We go back for one more ultrasound (around 32 weeks) and the Dr. will make his recommendation for type of birth. If nothing changes it will be a C section.