21 weeks + bed rest + strong love

so here we are... 21 weeks! this week, other than the emergency surgery, was pretty uneventful really. i suppose it's due to the fact that i've been stuck in bed on bed rest.

it has been an emotionally draining week though. with the news of having to get the surgery and the twins being in danger of early delivery and possible loss, my emotions went haywire. i was, as any parent would be, worried out of my mind. i found myself crying and panicking more than usual and couldn't control it at all. i was like a ticking time bomb of tears. again, as usual, i was scared that my depression was about to take over and win again. i was glad that towards the end of this week, mark and i had a long talk (after a really uncontrollable bout of crying) and he reassured me that it was normal to be this worried... what parent would be right?

i say it over and over again, but i am so extremely thankful for mark. he has been my rock and my light in the darkness. through all the ups and downs, he has remained by my side and never wavered. the things we have gone through are the things that are usually designed to tear couples apart. how lucky, fortunate, and blessed are we that those things have only made our relationship and love stronger than i could have ever imagined!? God truly blessed us beyond our expectations.

my post-op follow-up appointment with dr. matia is tomorrow morning. please, please, please pray for us that i am healing well and that the twins are still doing well too.

till next time... have a great week y'all!

a sonogram + a big change in plans

so we went in on monday for our 20 week anatomy sonogram and scan. it was a long appointment. we got to see the twins squirming all over the place and got to see their faces via 3D ultrasound. it was amazing!

we're thinking that lincoln looks more like mark and that reagan looks more like me... at least from what we got to see. you be the judge.

lincoln jude

reagan elizabeth

so the sonographer took a ton of photos throughout the exam. like i said, it was a long appointment. then, my high risk obgyn, dr. pamela matia, came in to discuss the results and photos.

first, we discussed the twins. they were measuring really well and were looking great. lincoln was weighing in at approximately 1 lb and reagan was weighing in at about 12 ounces. as i just typed that, regan just head-butted me pretty hard! haha! they were both super squirmy during the whole exam and at one point towards the end of the sonogram, lincoln did a full on somersault and just flipped completely! it was so funny and amazing to see it happen!

next, we discussed me. this is where it got serious. according to the vaginal ultrasound prior to the sonogram, my cervix was shorter than my last appointment. this was not good. if this continued, my cervix could open up and push me into preterm labor and delivery and we could lose the twins. i think my heart dropped about 500 feet below sea level at that point. all i could hear was "could lose the babies" over and over again in my head. you ever get punched in the gut when you really really really have to pee? that's how i felt.

we were given 2 options: 1. bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy or 2. surgery to close up my cervix to prevent the preterm labor - a McDonald Cerclage.

option 1 would have been a hail mary type approach - hope for the best, prepare for the worst. but there was no guarantee that the babies would survive. i didn't like those odds at all. option 2 would get us to at least 36 weeks gestation. i'd have to modify all my activities to basically nothing unless absolutely necessary, but the odds of the babies surviving would be significantly greater than option 1. it was a no-brainer: we were going with option 2.

so what did this mean...
1. all plans we had were cancelled until further notice. we had to cancel our babymoon/friends' wedding trip to the caymans that we were scheduled to leave for next week. we had to cancel all our baby-prep classes that were all scheduled to start this week. i had to cancel my attendance for aforementioned friend's bridal shower brunch scheduled for this coming saturday.
2. surgery was scheduled A.S.A.P. dr. matia put me on the surgical schedule for the next morning (tuesday, 11:15am)
3. bed rest until further notice. after surgery, i would get to go home the same day, but would be put on strict bed rest until my follow up appointment next week. i would only be able to get up to go to the bathroom. if i wanted to bathe or shower, it'd have to be super short. otherwise, i'm stuck in bed.

so where are we now...
2 days post-op and doing well - as far as i know. not much bleeding and discharge but there's some cramping pain and my back is sore from the spinal tap because they can't put me fully under 'cause of the pregnancy. the twins are still squirmy so i'm glad and not worried about them right now.

mark's relieved and been the best dr./nurse husband. i'm sure he's still worried inside, but he never really shows it - at least not to me. i really could not have been more blessed with such a caring and loving life partner.

so for now, we're (me and the twins) are just resting and recovering. i'm getting restless and bored, but i know i have to stay put and take care of myself and the twins. c'est la vie! now, just praying that this week goes by fast and that my follow up appointment next week goes well. wish us luck!

20 weeks + Easter

"oooooh we're halfway there!"

 

 so this past week was hectic. the weather got cold again and i had to stuff myself back into my winter coat... literally STUFF! i felt like the meaty part of the sausage getting shoved into a casing! what an ordeal! that, on top of my my sinuses going haywire cause of the change in temperature, made for an uncomfortable week. 

i finally got started with the acupuncture treatment for my carpal tunnel. it really helped a lot. i still have to go back for further treatments, but at least now i know what the real problem is. the doctor said that i'm retaining too much water and that my muscles in my upper back and arms are really tight and i need to massage them out in between treatments. just another thing to add to my long to-do list!

we celebrated Easter Sunday at my uncle edmund and aunt julie's house. our ninang (godmother) may and uncle eric joined us as well. we also got to meet aunt julie's mom, sandy, as she was in town for the weekend as well. it was nice and intimate with just us and we had a ton of bbq and food to go around. aunt julie and uncle edmund even gave the twins their first easter basket!

other than that, the past week was kind of uneventful really. i'll update tomorrow how this week has started and the things that have been happening. for now, have a great wednesday everyone!

19 weeks + and a lot of food!

19 weeks already! time is flying by fast and the twins are growing like crazy!

so how did last week go....
i made dinner for another one of the twins' ninangs' birthday, Cynthia. it was just her, me and mark. it was my first time (i think) making braised beef ribs in the slow cooker. i served it with a side of roasted garlic mashed potatoes and a mixed green salad with a mango balsamic vinaigrette. it was really tasty!

my very small but filling portion

i had to visit the endocrinologist again this past week. to see how my thryroid is doing. it's been acting up and they've been monitoring it. i got the call today saying that my TSH level was still a little low and that i'd have to schedule a follow-up in 4 weeks. i had been taking medicine for it before to bring it up, but then the medication must have worked too well and made my TSH level too high. i hope they get it right soon. it's stressing me out!

i finally got to go eat crawfish! of course, i ate much less than i normally would... but it was so delicious and totally satisfied my craving... for now! ;) (i was way too hungry to take pics)

when i posted about it on facebook though, so many people gave me their unsolicited advice and comments. it was annoying. i could understand if it were a doctor or medical professional or an established mother who gave these comments. but more than 50% of them weren't. the comments that annoyed me were the ones from people telling me that eating seafood was bad for pregnant women and things like that. after careful thought, i responded by telling them, "the other day i asked my docs if i could eat a bunch of crabs and crawfish and 3 of them said "can i come too?" if they don't oppose my seafood intake why the hell should i?" BAM! leave me and my delicious seafood alone please!

i just "LOVE" people's unwanted advice and comments about my body and my pregnancy... said NO PREGNANT WOMAN EVER!

on saturday, we went to a baby bazaar flea market. i thought it'd be a lot bigger though. we did get some cute clothes for reagan and adorable nike shoes for lincoln... all used of course so they were nice and cheap! one of the dresses we got reagan was a cute little green Ralph Lauren dress for only $5!! we also got some hooded bath towels and burp cloths for $1 each! it was amazing! but they're all in the wash right now to get out that flea market smell. i'll have to take pics of them once they're nice and clean. 

sunday, (yesterday) we went to several cemeteries where mark's family members were buried. it's an annual thing that his family (and most chinese families) do to pay their respects. it was a perfect day for it too. it started to get a little hot right before lunch and at the last cemetery though. i was getting hungry and irritable! but thankfully, the visits were all very short and we were able to eat lunch soon enough. so after the cemetery visits, we, mark's dad, mom and sister (Stephanie) and her husband (Chris) and kids, and also Chris's parents and aunt, and mark's Uncle Don, Aunt Jeanne, and Uncle Joe headed to get dim sum. we ate so much and i was so full that i was definitely waddling out of there! 

after a nice long nap, we went to church for Palm Sunday mass. i don't know why, but i hadn't noticed how much our church congregation had grown. years ago when we first started going to mass there, the late day mass that we sometimes attended, if we missed our morning service, wasn't full enough so that people had to stand. yesterday, there were so many people that they even filled up some of the room outside of the main area. it was really nice to see. hopefully it's not because it was a holy day of obligation and that it was because people really were wanting to become part of the church. i guess we'll find out after Easter has passed!

after mass, we went to eat mexican food at one of our old favorites Mi Rancho. we ordered the fajita combo (beef and chicken) and stuffed ourselves to the gills! it had been a long time since we last went there and it was just as delicious as we remembered it. and after dinner, we went home, cleaned up the house a bit and then settled in for the night. 

it was a busy but nice week/weekend. hope everyone else's week/weekend was just as nice as ours!

18 weeks + "just like his mommy"

this was a pretty exciting week for us... i finally got to feel the babies move! unfortunately, it's still too early for mark to be able to feel them. the night before my sonogram, i didn't sleep well at all because i kept feeling this sharp stabbing pain near my belly button. it wouldn't go away unless i rubbed the spot. but as i would start to fall asleep and stopped rubbing, the pain came back. and then there was this little twitching feeling on the other side that didn't really bother me too much, it just felt weird. i can describe it as a feeling similar to when your eye twitches when it's tired. it was a rough night to say the least. i was worried the next morning as i was telling mark what happened all night. i attributed it to gas, but it stayed in that same spot, so i was more concerned. i was so glad to have our appointment that next morning.

we went to the sonogram and saw the babies on the screen. there they were, squirming around. thank God. i had told the doctor about the stabbing and constant pain. she placed the sonogram wand right where the pain was and told me to look at the screen. there he was, on the screen, bobbing his little head up and down and rubbing right at the spot where the pain was... out little lincoln jude. so it turned out it was just him... probably wanting some affection from mommy to help him sleep according to the doctor! mark said, "just like his mommy." apparently, according to mark, i've had a tendency to want lots of hugs and affection right before i fall asleep and want mark to rub my back to help me sleep better. and the little twitching feeling... our little reagan elizabeth. as usual, she was calm and only seemed to nudge her brother when he'd get into her space... calm, just like her daddy.

unfortunately, the carpal tunnel has gotten worse. i ordered some wrist supports that were supposed to help alleviate the pain and numbness, but they did nothing but make my hands all swollen. so i returned them and ordered another pair. i hope the new ones help. it's been difficult staying asleep because my hands just get completely numb, fall asleep and are just so painful! just this morning, i woke up with both hands numb, asleep and almost impossible to move; i couldn't even grip the blankets to get them off me! it took almost half a hour before i could ball my hand into a fist. even then, it was painful.it was a rough start to my morning to say the very least.

mark, the twins, and i also had brunch with one of their ninangs this week. ninang is the filipino word for Godmother. it had been a while since we had seen Sera cause we had all been so busy lately. we had a great time and brunch was delicious. we went to Maple Ave in Virginia. you definitely have to make reservations to dine there cause there are only 8-10 tables, but it's totally worth it!

mark's beer... it smelled delicious. wish i could've tasted a bit!

crème fraiche wings

steamed PEI mussels

shrimp & grits

seared scallops and risotto

pork belly sandwich

us with sera

again!

that seems to be all i can remember for now... if i think of anything else that was eventful, i'll do a few mini-updates. have a great week everyone!