4/19/06 - 29 weeks

The babies heartrates are a bit closer together again.. I'm not sure why they change, but baby boy's heart rate was 157 and baby girl's was 161. :) Mom has officially gained 40lbs. GEEZ! It's sure going to be fun to watch it all melt away! At the chiro yesterday she told me my face was looking fuller - Isn't that just GREAT news! I should have said, "Oh yeah, you think that looks fuller you should get a load of my legs!" ha ha

My dad is currently doing some "Life changes" to his diet and exercise program and is dropping LBs about as fast as I'm picking them up. At last count he was at 205 and loosing so we are narrowing the gap - I'm 184 (gained 3 lbs last WEEK!). We'll have to be sure to get a photo of us at the end of the pregnancy.. the one and ONLY time I will weigh more than you dad! :) ha ha

And on that note... I'm officially feeling HUGE! For real this time.. though I'm sure I'll look back on today and say, "Geez, I wasn't that big.. NOW I'm big!" ha ha I said I had entered the uncomfortable zone before, but I think I was lying and didn't know it.. I'm now uncomfortable.. I've taken to spending a couple of hours a night on the couch... after Phoebe gets up at some ungodly hour to go to the bathroom I can't fall back to sleep.. I usually lay there for about 2 hours before I give up and go lay on the couch.. I sleep there until Tom is about to get up and I go back to bed for about 3 more hours.. At least I'm sleeping I guess.

I just took a bath and much to my disappointment I BARELY fit in there now. There's no use in even bothering now.. When I try to roll over onto my stomach to take pressure off my back my belly hits the bottom of the tub... not comfortable! HA!

We've gotten through two of our 6 birthing/child bringing home.. or whatever classes. I can't remember what they actually call it, but the first three days focuses on birth and the second three days focuses on what to do w/ the baby(ies) when you get it(them) home. :) So far we both feel like some of it has been helpful and other parts are kind of "duh" moments! :) The first day we saw a birth video and it was an "oh these babies have to come out" moment, but the lady's labor was pretty standard.. no drugs and she was fine. :) Yesterday we saw more video of the three stages of labor... we saw the placenta come out.. damn that thing is HUGE and I have TWO.. no wonder I got so big so fast! ha ha I've heard that sometimes twin placentas fuse together.. that should be interesting! :) We also learned and practiced some coping techniques. For those of you that watch a Baby Story or any of those and you see where the couple is kind of slow dancing w/ the woman putting her weight on hubby, well I'm here to tell ya that when you are the same height and super pregnant.. that DOES NOT work! ha We got a good laugh out of that one! Our instructor was teaching us how to breathe through contractions.. I'm now calling her Meg Ryan.. I was almost embarrassed to be in the same room w/ her! She wanted us to practice and I looked at Tom and said, "I AM NOT doing that right now!" ha ha If I was passing in the hallway and didn't know what the class was I would have thought it was a masterbation class not a birth class. I think I'll just wing it when I get there and concentrate on breathing and let it come out sounding however it sounds. HA We also talked about meds in the class and I think I'm more afraid of someone putting a catheter - or whatever - in my spine than I am going through labor - TWICE! I'm pretty sure we are going to opt to use a Spinal if we have to do a C-section after I've labored for a while... I'm hoping to stick to my guns and remember that the pain is temporary (IF baby boy turns and I'm able to labor) and get through it naturally if I can... my main concern w/ not using and epidural was if I had to have an emergency C section I didn't want to have to be knocked out for it. Well, w/ a spinal it's an injection - YES, into your spine - and it's almost immediate. As soon as they give it to you they lay you on the table and get those babies out.. so there is also less chance of the drugs getting to the babies before they are pulled from my body!

Still being flexible about the birth and just going to do whatever is best for the little ones, but it was interesting hearing all the med options.. and watching Tom's face as they described how the epidural works.. he wasn't excited about the whole spinal tap thing either!

Oh, another neat little tid bit of info - the hospital that I'm delivering in uses cloth diapers! I thought that was pretty cool! So the first 3 to 4 days is on them! They wash them.. yippee! :)

Today is 29 weeks.. the weeks are still slipping by though each day seems a bit longer. It's hard to believe that they say 32 weeks is GOOD and anything after that is icing... well geez.. I'm hoping for a good bit of icing then! I'd only be 3 weeks away if I had them at 32 weeks.. that's just NUTS! So I guess technically it could be any day now... though I'm still aiming for June 15th!

We haven't decided how this whole thing is going to go down in respect to contacting everyone.. I suppose it will just depend on how quickly things progress. YOU WILL get a call don't worry... and pictures will be forthcoming.. remember that IF I have a C section I will be in the hospital for 4 days at least.

Keep your fingers crossed that these babies come out healthy and ready to go home. Just say NO to the NICU!