for the most part, the week had started off well and uneventful. i just sat or laid around the house just resting and making sure that the twins were as comfortable as could be. on thursday, i had an appointment i couldn't get out of and we really needed to get errands run and so mark and i ventured out to get things done - well, mark got things done, i sat in the car almost the whole time. i needed to get out of the house and get some fresh air and a change of scenery. it wasn't too spectacular, but it was well appreciated.
the next day, i got up and went downstairs to do some work in my office (at home of course) and spent most of the day in there. mark spent the day smoking our dinner for the night, so he was in and out of the house all day tending to that. the day seemed pretty uneventful until around 4 pm. i was just finishing up a project i had been working on for the twins' room when i started feeling this weird pulsating in my vaginal area. i thought it was just one of the twins moving around and he/she got a little too low. so i readjusted my sitting position to see if that would help. it didn't. this went on for almost half and hour. so i told mark and he suggested that i just go lay down for a bit and see if it would help. it helped for about 10-15 minutes but then started back up again. it was the weirdest feeling and it worried the hell out of me.
after laying there for about a half hour or so, i told mark that i needed to call the doctor to see what was going on. i was scared that they were already trying to make their debut and that possibly the Cerclage stitches had ripped or something to that extent. so i called the doctor's office and just my luck, they were closed for the weekend. so i had to call the emergency line and get a hold of the on-call doctor. i had to leave a message for him to get back to me. i swear that was the longest 10 minutes of my life.
so he called back and i explained to him the situation. he couldn't figure out what could be causing the weird pulsating so he suggested that we go in to see him. being that the office was closed for the day, he was at Shady Grove Hospital and we would have to go there to get things checked out. so, i waddled outside to tell mark what the doctor said. he got worried about 2 things: 1. the babies and i might be in danger. and 2. the meat he was smoking wasn't done yet and he'd have to leave it burning while we went to get checked out. he knew what the priority was, but we were both worried of burning the house down with the smoker still running while we were away. so, mark moved the smoker further away from the house and we prayed the house wouldn't burn down in our absence.
so, we headed out to the hospital. prior to getting to the hospital, mark asked me what the pulsating feeling felt like. so, i tapped his arm in a nonrhythmic pattern just like how it was feeling. he said, "so it's like Morse code?" YES! EXACTLY LIKE THAT!
so we got to the hospital and waited in the labor & delivery ward. we sat there watching women and their spouses come in and out; some were in full on labor and some were just in that "i'm pretty sure it's almost time; my water broke" mode. we sat next to a couple who were about to have their second child and her water had broken just before they got to the hospital. super nice couple who helped me to calm down while we talked. i wish i could tell you that the pulsating had stopped or subsided while we were waiting, but it didn't. i had to shift several times to alleviate the intensity of it all. at one point in our conversation, the woman asked how it was feeling and i told her just what mark described it as, Morse code. we all laughed and her husband said that maybe it's one of them trying to communicate with me already.
after a while, they took her and her husband in to get things rolling and we all wished each other luck. a few minutes later, the nurse came out and took us back to a bed. a nurse came in and did some preliminary checks of vitals, etc. again, i had to describe the feeling and again had to say Morse code. she laughed with us. the doctor came in not too long after. they checked the heartbeats of the babies as well as mine. everything looked normal. the doctor did a pelvic exam and checked the Cerclage stitches - all good. stitches were still in place properly. we stayed a little while longer to monitor the babies' heartbeats and to make sure i wasn't having any contractions. all good. so, the doctor said it's probably just the pressure and weight of the babies combined with them being extremely squirmy and active. also, they're getting bigger and i'm feeling their movements more prominently now as opposed to the little flutters i felt before. so, they sent us home and told me to seriously take it easy and to adhere to the bed rest. they were still pretty squirmy through the night and as a result, none of us got much sleep that night.
oh, and the house didn't burn down!!
saturday morning, we all awoke groggy and tired. mark made us some breakfast and then we followed with a long and much needed nap. when we woke up to eat lunch, the squirming started again and i took it as a sign that it was time for us to eat. mark fixed us some lunch of leftovers and we settled into bed to watch tv and eat our lunch. it turned out that it was Kentucky Derby day so we spent the day in and out of naps watching the races on tv till the big race started. one horse was named Danza, named after the tv star Tony Danza from the former hit show "Who's The Boss". i used to love watching that show when we were younger. mark and i joked about who the boss was in the house and he said it was me. that's when a little human in my belly squirmed and i said "i think when Reagan is born, she'll be the boss." we laughed and it seemed like she kicked in agreement.
later on that night, after dinner, i sat in mark's lap and he put his hands on my belly like he often does. this time was different. as we were talking and his hands were on my belly, he finally felt the babies move. it was a pretty spectacular moment for all of us. we were all finally feeling like a family. our little family of four. Yuen, party of 4.
