Growing boys!

These pictures are a week behind since we haven't taken my 28w photo yet.

Last weekend Andy and I enjoyed a date day on Saturday.  What is better than Mexican food and painting with the one you love?  Andy and I always try to follow one of Dr.Laura's main principles: Remain your husband/wife's girlfriend/boyfriend.  This means make sure you continue to focus on each other and don't let the relationship ease into comfort.  I'd like to think that I do a good job of this in general, but I know that this pregnancy has massively affected how well I do that.  I'm just not able to go out and do much and when at home I just want to lay around and do nothing.  See that belly up there?  I love our boys but they sure are making moving around difficult!

I know Andy understands and our relationship isn't always about us giving and getting equally.  Right now he's giving way more than he's getting but I hope in a few months I'll be able to reciprocate.  I keep trying to remember that right now I'm doing the hard stuff.  It might look like I'm just laying on the couch with my feet up, but my body is nourishing our boys and helping them to grow big.  In just a few short months our roles will change and Andy will be taking care of them while I work.  I know his job then will not be an easy one!  But I also know that we each cherish our respective roles and are really excited.

After our date day Andy and I curled up on the couch to rewatch Captain America.  We share a love of super hero movies and are both super excited to see the upcoming Avengers movie.  I really hope we'll be able to see it in the theater!  During the movie I started to have frequent braxton hicks contractions, about 6-8 minutes apart.  BHs don't hurt but they're not comfortable.  For me it's an intense tightening at the middle of my belly that lasts between 30 seconds and a minute.  So I did the normal drill:  Emptied my bladder, chugged some fluids, and laid down on my left side.  They were still coming frequently so I took a Benadryl.  It's something our MFM's nurse had recommended since it'll help relax the whole body (and my anxiety!).  The Benadryl helped but they were still continuing, more than 4 an hour so I finally gave in and called the OB.  A nurse called me back and said since I wasn't in pain and the Benadryl was helping to just continue what I was doing.

I was able to fall asleep but each time I got up in the middle of the night I noticed I would have another one.  When I got up in the morning they were right back to where they were so I took another Benadryl and continued to take it easy.  I ended up taking a two hour nap before I moved back to the couch.  I again called the OB and this time talked to a different OB in the practice.  She reconfirmed what the nurse had said the night before.  Thankfully that night they stopped in intensity.  I'm still getting them fairly frequently, usually at night after 8 hours of work, but nothing as frequent or as intense as last weekend.  Just a friendly reminder from my body to take it easy, I guess.

After all the BHs I was nervous for our appointments on Tuesday.  We were supposed to see our nurse, but she was out of the office so we only had a growth ultrasound.  Righty is measuring approximately 2lbs9oz which is the 60th percentile for a singleton, Lefty is measuring approximately 2lbs13oz which is the 70th percentile for a singleton.  Andy and I were both ecstatic when we heard how big they're growing!  I guess my fight with protein is paying off.  Since our nurse wasn't there the MFM measured my cervix by ultrasound.  This measurement is much more accurate and I was very relieved to find out it's measuring 4.3cm and closed.  That means that the BHs didn't cause any changes and we continue to be incredibly blessed with an "easy" twin pregnancy.  I seriously live for these ultrasounds right now, I'm already looking forward to our next one!

It's hard to believe that within 10 weeks the boys will be here.  I'm desperately hoping and praying to make it to at least 36w since the hospital won't automatically require any NICU time.  So far there is no indication we won't make it!  Coming up we have our friends and family shower this afternoon.  I have my glucose tolerance test on 3/26 and will be getting the rhogram shot too.  I'm not looking forward to either but I know they're necessary!  On Tuesday Andy will be taking the car and carseats in to be checked by a professional.  Can you believe by Tuesday we'll have carseats in our car?  The following week we have a church shower on the 1st, then we'll be meeting the pediatrician we hope to use, and celebrating Andy's birthday.  Busy busy busy!