The Growing Bump

With all of the hyperemesis, I hadn't gained much weight at all. In fact, April 24 was the first time I had any "documented" weight gain. Up until then it was "down three pounds, down seven pounds, down 10 pounds..." at least now I had officially put on some baby weight.

Here is a collage of my bump up until this point:

I was officially 22 weeks pregnant at this point, and went in for my check-up at Mother Joseph Plaza, where the Perinatology department was located.

First things first, they have me watch this "educational" video about Preterm labor and the signs to look for, etc. First of all, the movie was made in like 1980… and set in the NICU. They show you babies that are SUPER small, barely breathing, and hooked up to all sorts of machines. Stuff I have seen before, yes, but not stuff I want to look at while I'm carrying twins. Especially knowing that twins have a higher risk of being born premature. The Dr in the movie, if he even is a real dr, just throws out there that premature babies can DIE. Yes, another thing I know, but still… hello? You're showing this video to a PREGNANT woman… to pregnant women, in fact, since apparently they show it at all 20 week appointments. (Or close, since I'm 22 weeks.)

After suffering through the 8 minutes of the DVD, Dr Gesteland comes in and talks to me for a bit and decides its probably a good idea to do an ultrasound since Salem Hospital didn't even bother to check on the babies the night before. (I had gone in because I felt like I was leaking fluid.) No heartbeat check, nothing. She wants to make sure there is plenty of fluid in each sac and that my cervix is still nice and long. 

During the ultrasound, this little boy was nice and cooperative and we got a couple cute profile pictures of him. Baby girl, however, stubborn as usual. She was transverse and spine up so it was impossible to see her face. We could however see that her butt was literally right on top of her brother's head. Sibling rivalry at it's best. 

My cervix was nice and long, at like 4.3 CM. Nothing to worry about there, and there was plenty of fluid in each sac. Thank goodness!

Dr said to continue to drink lots of water, rest and no work at least until my next appointment (May 9th). I was beginning to feel like I'd never get sent back to work, because something was always happening with this pregnancy. Leaking of what seemed like fluid, dehydration... weird pain, etc. I felt like by the time they would tell me it was safe to work, it would be too close to delivery anyway and I'd just end up staying off work until the babies were born. We would see I guess!