OB appointment 31 weeks 5 days

Yesterday I had an appointment with the other OB in the office. An hour before my appointment another ultrasound machine had been delivered, still old, but newer than the one Dr. Eddy used last week. The doc called me back and then excused herself to go 'review my chart'. When she came back she chuckled and said it was a good thing she checked it. I guess Dr. Eddy hadn't filled her in on our surrogacy status. She had some questions about why someone would want to carry for someone else, but I have to wonder why someone would want to go to school for so long and see patients all day. Everyone fits somewhere.

Anyhow, I typically get weighed in the mornings and today it was an afternoon appointment. I gained .3 lbs in 5 days-I can live with that. Blood pressure was at a decent 122/80, but my pulse was racing. This did not surprise me. We've had a bit of a HOT streak this week and I was in winter clothes (pants that covered my knees). I was also explaining to the nurse all of my woes-hotter than heck, cold that's miserable and I still have to pee into those teeny tiny little cups. If I can just remember to bring something bigger with me to pee into first, I could stop peeing all over myself in the public restroom!

OK, ultrasound! Again, this was just a quick peek to verify both babies heartbeats. And in fact, we are still expecting two babies. They were both hanging out in the same positions as last week. Little boy is transverse with his head on my right and little girl is still head down.

So then of course it's the doc's duty to talk with me about the VBAC risks. She is actually a proponent of VBAC, but is still required to talk to me about the 'increased' risks of VBAC-ing twins. She basically tells me/STE to make sure we do our research and decide what kind of a birth we are wanting. We're getting far enough along, that we need to know what we want should I go into labor. Well, until the visit, we did know what we wanted. Now I've got all kinds of fears and worries again about what the right choice is. I'd been under the impression that if the babies are delivered vaginally, they have a better chance of not having breathing issues (that whole chest being squeezed on the trip through the birth canal). Doc says that as long as they are 'term' (37 weeks) than it shouldn't really make a difference and that honestly a VBAC is in my best interest-not the babies. Well, I think we all know that I'm more concerned with the babies' best interest over my own-so I'm back to doubting the VBAC. There's obviously pros and cons for both, but I really do feel this ultimately is STE & S's decision to make.

If we just plan a c-section, it might make it easier to plan when they should come down. But at the same time, I don't want to take them too much earlier than they would come out on their own. I figure in 2 weeks when I see Dr. Eddy again I'll talk with him about what dates are available with him for a c-section and what the hospital would really do in regards to baby B once baby A is born vaginally. What's our game plan for getting B out if he's still transverse and how much time will we give the little guy to come out before we do a c-section anyhow. I think the answers are different for different dr.'s and hospitals.

Here's an interesting tidbit I found when researching VBAC-ing twins:
Neonatal outcomes were similar by birth order, except that second-born twins of cases had significantly longer NICU stays than controls.
Basically they are saying that little boy could end up with a longer NICU stay as a result of a VBAC vs. a c-section. Now that's not encouraging. It was however a small study. Most results show a very low risk. OY! What to do!

The cold is still here and the hubby has picked it up pretty good as well. Even the dogs have become sick. Our older dog spent all of yesterday lying around, throwing up and spending large amounts of time squatting outside. Our younger dog, had some bowel issues at 4am this morning in his kennel-not what I had hoped for. They both seem to be doing just fine now though.

The kids are both starting their second semester at school. This means Logan now has to do all of his writing in cursive. I don't really feel like they 'worked up' to this and Logan was a bit overwhelmed. He also has a report due this week that must be entirely written in cursive. The poor kid spend at least 2 hours last night writing his 1st paragraph in cursive-nearly 3/4 of the page. It's written very neatly though and anytime he wasn't sure how to combine the letters, he practiced first on a separate paper. They have minimum days on Thursday and Friday, so we will have a lot of work being done at home this week-thankfully we all feel healthy!

I was able to return Ciera's defective shoes and they are sending a replacement, should be here in 5 days. Unfortunately, it seems that all of her other shoes are either 'ugly' or too small. She's chosen to squeeze her feet into shoes that are too small rather than wear perfectly acceptable athletic shoes to school (shoes that she wore all the time last year I guess just don't go with Skinny Jeans).

For those of you unaware, the new season of American Idol started last night. Now, this show holds no interest for me, but Ciera loves it and Logan was enthralled the entire 2 hours-making us all late for bed last night. I think Ciera will watch it faithfully, not so sure it will continue to hold Logan's interest once they are through with the initial auditions. It was fun to hear them both laughing so hard though.

We had another successful dinner. I think the most enjoyable part is that we all know we'll be eating at the table and everyone laughs so much. We don't really talk about much of anything, but there is certainly a lot of laughter. And there's been some considerate 'drink getting' by everyone. I think we really will make it through our menu for the week. The days have been mixed up, but we're still eating what was planned.

Tomorrow is the big 32 week ultrasound!! I have to be all the way downtown by 9am, which means being up and showered before dropping the kids off early. Hopefully we all can go to sleep a little early tonight.

The babes are consistently active, but not causing a great amount of discomfort. I can't wait to see how big they are measuring!