A week or so before Halloween our family got the exciting, surprising, shocking, thrilling news that we were expecting another baby. You may remember my post (here) from December that I put on the blog once we finally hit the "safe" end of first trimester mark. So now that the baby is almost here I figured time to get on the ball and share our story, sonograms, and bump pics!
One evening Jason was working late and I was standing at the kitchen island cutting up some vegetables. The babies were hanging out in their activity bouncers in the kitchen and I remember suddenly feeling really dizzy to the point I had to grab the counter to keep from falling over. The thought "I'm pregnant" flashed through my head as this was one of the few early symptoms I had while pregnant with the twins. I immediately laughed the thought off....I mean let's be real. We tried for a year and a half and several, upon several, fertility treatments to get pregnant with the twins. The chance I was just randomly able to get pregnant was slim to none. But as I was cooking (don't laugh I really was in the kitchen being productive believe it or not) I couldn't shake the idea that something was up. I was not having periods (maybe like two randomly since the twins had been born) Sorry if that's TMI! This was because I had just stopped breastfeeding/pumping a little over a month or two prior.
I then remembered I had some pregnancy tests under the sink (which I figured where probably from when we were trying to conceive the twins and were probably expired) but at least I would stop thinking about it. I ran to the other room, did my thing, and to my surprise it immediately turned positive. You could have knocked me over with a feather. It just seemed not possible! I was in no way expecting it to show positive! I just sat there and started cracking up. I don't know why but I could not stop laughing!!! I knew Jason would be home in about 45 minutes. Obviously I grabbed the phone to call him, but I stopped myself. I kind of wanted to get his reaction in person. And I knew he probably wouldn't believe me. (Again it just didn't seem possible!) But I've never been one to keep my mouth shut well. I HAD to tell someone. So I called my friend Megan and told her the news. The even crazier part of this was about ten minutes prior her husband Nigel and her were talking about when they might have another baby and Nigel had said he had a dream that we were pregnant again. They had literally had that conversation ten minutes before I called. This sort of freaked us all out!
So with a few minutes to spare before Jason was coming home I thought I would snap a few pics of the babies with the positive pregnancy test. (I cleaned it off. Don't be disgusted. Ha!) As Jason walked in the door I sent the pics to his phone. The look on his face was beyond priceless. I filmed him as he looked at it. But lets just say he was so stunned a few vulgar words came out of his mouth. Probably not suitable for the blog, but nonetheless pretty darn funny. He kept saying, "No way." and "How?" Well honey, they should have taught you that back in high school health class. But to his credit this question of "How?" isn't a ridiculous question as the twins weren't exactly made the old fashioned way.
The next big question was how far along? To this we had absolutely NO IDEA. So after a trip to the doctor's office the next Monday for some bloodwork and an ultrasound we discovered I was about 6 weeks along with a due date in June 2014.
The following weekend we had to attend a Halloween costume party. I quietly filled my cup with rum and coke (of course secretly leaving out the rum) and we kept our little secret.
We also had pictures for the twins coming up in the next week or so. So we decided a great way to tell our family would be to take a picture with our news. So on Halloween as we went trick or treating we told most of my family by giving them a copy of our "new family picture." My dad and Jason's family were told the same way the following weekend when they came over for dinner.
The first trimester was a big change from my pregnancy with the twins. The only symptoms I had with the twins were occasional dizzyness, headaches, and of course I felt pretty drained. This time around in the first trimester I was blessed with the lovely morning sickness. Except mine was more like 1:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon sickness. Fun. Luckily, I only actually puked my guts up twice (or not so luckily as I think I would have felt better if I would have just puked and gotten it over with). That first trimester was by far the most challenging. The second and even now the third have been so much easier for me. It was hard feeling so extremely exhausted and keeping up with the twins. There were multiple nights I counted down the hours until Jason got home and I could escape to the other room for a nap!
The second trimester was a breeze in that I felt fine. However, this was when the nerves kicked in. I started to become more nervous about carrying this baby full term. As you know I delivered the twins at 27 weeks. So after lots of talks with my doctor we decided to start progesterone injections once a week to help keep this little baby put until it was time to deliver. I was supposed to start the injections at 18 weeks however we had a battle with my insurance company I didn't really start until 20 weeks. So every Monday night Jason gave me a nice little needle to the butt! I wasn't real fond of the idea of Jason giving these to me. With all the fertility treatments with the twins I gave myself the shots, sometimes 2-3 a day in my stomach. But these had to be given in low hip/butt. No choice but for Jason to do it for me. I can be a bit of a control freak (if you know me personally you all are laughing and saying YEP!) so this was hard for me to let Jason do. Of course he did just fine every week. He even put a little Dora the Explorer Bandaid over it every Monday :) I just stopped my last shot at 36 weeks. Goodbye needles!!!
The third trimester also hasn't been bad. Everyone has told me how awful the last month of pregnancy is. I really think it has gone ok. Am I little more tired? Sure. But sometimes I think that has more to do with keeping up with Mason and Madeline. I'm still able to do everything have been doing all along. Work three days a week, stay home with the twins the other four days, keep up with the small business my mom and I own. All has been good so far! Obviously it's not all sunshine and roses. I get up ten bagillion times a night to pee and I've been battling some issues with a little back pain. But overall I'm just happy I can still keep up with the twins and keep my normal routine. And now I just have two more weeks until C-section day!!! So crazy!
And now for all the usual pregnancy questions and info:
Cravings: As far as cravings go I have eaten a ton of fruit, specifically strawberries, pineapple, and cantaloupe. The only things that sounded good when I was nauseous the first trimester was cold fruit and ice cold water. Don't get me wrong I still ate everything else, but in the late afternoon when that queasy feeling kicked in I ate my fair share of fruit, fruit, and more fruit. I did have one freak out one night when Jason brought home the Buffalo Wild Wings I had called in. Let's just say he did not check the bag to make sure the order was right. When I opened it and saw it was completely wrong I freaked, burst into tears, grabbed my keys and drove the 15 minutes back to the restaurant myself to get exactly what I wanted. I think Jaosn and the manager their that night were a bit frightened by me. Did I overreact? Probably. Did I care? NOPE! I wanted my wings darn it!! And everyone knows to check the bag before leaving JASONNNNNN!
Weight gain: As of 36 weeks I have gained 38 pounds. I'm thinking by the time my c-section comes I will most likely be at about 44-45 pounds total as I seem to be gaining about two pounds a week now that I'm near the end. My doctor originally told me he'd like me to gain about 40 pounds. He said most doctors will say 35 but due to my height and starting off thin to begin with he thought 40 would be good. We asked him if it was terrible if I gained more than 40. His response was pretty funny. He said, "Oh no I know you are a health nut and so I'm sure whatever you gain will be perfectly fine." Jason almost choked and immediately told my doctor I am far from a health nut and I eat like a preschooler. Chicken nuggets, pizza, fries, snack cakes, peanut butter and jelly? Yep, Ashley's eating it. At first I thought about smacking Jason upside the head. But really, I can't even pretend that isn't true. I've always eaten that way. My doctor said, "Really? You guys struck me as a fit, healthy couple." Jason then reassured him that he, along with the twins, do eat healthy. Just not so much me. I then got a little lecture on maybe watching what I eat just a tad and to try and stay away from refined breads and pasta.
Yeah, ok doc. Whatever.....
At 36 weeks we had an ultrasound and they were able to estimate that the baby weighs around 7 pounds so far. We were told that by the time of the c-section at 39 weeks we will most likely have a 8 1/2 to 9 pound baby. Holy Moly!!! This isn't surprising really. I weighed over 8 pounds at birth and Jason was well over 9 pounds. Even the twins were considered big for their gestational age at birth. Yes it's odd to think that two pounds and a few ounces was big, but for 27 weeks it was. All I can say is thank God this baby is coming in the form of a C-section!! Ouch!
Gender: We decided to not find out the gender of this baby. This had been tough as we have had quite a few ultrasounds checking to make sure there were no signs of early labor. But not even the doctor or ultrasound tech know the gender of this baby! We decided it would be so much fun to be surprised at the birth. Besides, we literally have everything we need for this baby boy and girl wise. So why not leave it a surprise!
Names picked out?: Yes! Finally! We knew exactly what our girl name would be but could not decide on a middle name. The boy name was much trickier. Every name we liked it seemed like we heard of 10 other babies in our area being named that recently. So we decided to go back on the original boy name we first liked. We actually just made this final decision for our by name last week. Again we had a lot of trouble with the middle name. The two names we have picked we actually almost used for Madeline and Mason. So yes we have the names picked and no, I'm not telling you what they are ;)
18 Weeks Bump Pic
19 Weeks Sonogram
21 Weeks Bump Pic
Valentine's Day at about 23 Weeks
30 Weeks Bump Pic
35 Weeks Bump Pic
And a Few More Ultrasound Pics...
Evidently Jason and I make chubby cheeked big eyed babies!
So that's our story of Baby Rimini #3! C-section is scheduled for June 10th first thing in the morning. I'll keep you all posted! Wish us luck! With three kids under the age of two we may need it!
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