7 weeks too soon: the twins' birth story - part 1

sorry this has taken me forever to post! let's begin...

july 19, 2014
i was 33 weeks and HUGE. mark and i were getting ready for our friends' wedding in baltimore. the day started off like any other, eat breakfast, take a shower, try my best to get dressed on my own, fail at getting dressed on my own, yell for mark to help me. a little time passed and we ate some lunch then headed out to the wedding. mark actually had to DJ as well.

45 minutes or so later, we get to the venue, The Walters Art Museum, and as mark was setting up, i was eating a chicken teriyaki sandwich from the museum cafe to tide me over till the reception. i ate most of it, but for some reason just couldn't finish it all. i thought i was so hungry i could eat a cow, but i just couldn't seem to finish my sandwich. so i gave some to the bride and the rest to mark.

mmm... chicken teriyaki!

the ceremony went off without a hitch. during cocktail hour my stomach started feeling funny... like i had to poop. so, my friend took me to the ladies' room to take care of business. nothing happened. so i wrote it off as just bad gas and we proceeded to the reception dinner. intros began and my stomach felt yucky and crampy again... like i had to poop even more. another trip to the bathroom. no dice. back to the table and the salads were served. i ate a little and then again... stomach yuck and a trip to the bathroom. again... nada. this went on several times throughout dinner. at one point, i felt bad that my friend kept having to wheel me to the ladies' room and made mark wheel me. as he was wheeling me past the tables to the ladies' room, people must have thought it was Go Time and started clapping and cheering! it was pretty funny when we rolled back in and were like "false alarm!" little did we know, i was actually having contractions and not just funky gas problems!

side notes: with every trip to the bathroom and every grunt from my stomach pains, the ladies at our table all kept telling me that they had similar pains when they started having contractions. i didn't think they were contractions and just thought i had really bad gas or that the chicken teriyaki sandwich must have been bad! 

throughout the rest of the night, i kept having the stomach pains and kept trying to poop. i even got so frustrated with the wheelchair business that i just got up and walked to the bathroom. it actually alleviated the pain from time to time when i would walk. needless to say, i was counting down the minutes till the end of the reception so i could go back to our hotel room and attempt to poop or just lay down and rest for the night. i was feeling so crappy that i didn't even get to take any decent photos that night. this is one of the very very few that doesn't even have mark in it... at least the bride is though!

rita, jemi (the bride) and me

july 20, 2014
we got back to the hotel around 1am-ish after mark packed up his equipment. i got into my pajamas and was getting ready to settle in and rest for the night while mark was getting into more comfortable clothes to go to the after-party in the bride and groom's suite. mark kissed me goodbye for now and off he went to enjoy himself as i started getting into bed. i kept feeling the stomach pains more and more and kept trying to poop, but for some reason just couldn't get anything out. at that point, i actually vomitted; which is why i thought i got food poisoning from something at dinner. the stomach pains kept getting stronger and more frequent, so i texted mark to come back cause i just was not feeling well and i needed him near me just in case it got really bad.  if it was food poisoning, i would have to have him go out to get me some ginger ale or whatever was safe to take while pregnant and sick.

around 2:30/3 am, i just couldn't take it. poor mark was intoxicated and resting in the bed while i kept going back and forth to the bathroom to try to poop it out. at one point, i was faced down butt up on the bed trying to alleviate the pain. and then it hit me... AM I IN LABOR!?!? ARE THESE CONTRACTIONS!?!? BUT IT'S TOO SOON! WE HAVE 7 MORE WEEKS!

duh. duh. duh.

sure enough, i was in labor. i started timing the contractions and they were about 12-15 minutes apart. i look over to see mark passed out and snoring his head off. so i shook him and told him what was going on. he was in as much disbelief as i was that i was actually in labor. he was in denial and wouldn't get up; i think mostly cause he was too intoxicated to fully function. after about a half our of screaming at him to get up, he got up, took a quick wake up shower to get him going, and we started packing things up to head out to the hospital... which was at least 45 minutes away!

stay tuned for the next part!

for now... happy halloween from our little chilipino miracles! (they're already 3 months old!)

16 weeks, ugly socks and a wedding

it was a scary week. we went to the OBGYN for an emergency sonogram because my stomach pains weren't going away no matter what i did. i called the doctor to schedule the appointment to make sure everything was okay. turns out that i just pulled a muscle pretty bad when i slipped. tylenol, rest and slip-proof socks is what the doctor ordered. fyi, slip-proof socks for kiddos are adorable. slip-proof socks for adults are not.

this saturday, March 22, 2014, we attended our first wedding sporting my babies bump! i hadn't really realized how many of our friends are either pregnant now, on their second or third pregnancy, are trying to get pregnant or have all the kids they want. it was nice to see all the new families and families-to-be around us. the food was a typical chinese banquet style with about 10 courses that consisted of mostly seafood. it was so hard to limit myself with all that delicious food in front of me. i love seafood so much, but during pregnancy you're supposed to eat it in moderation - some docotrs say no more than 12 ounces a week! such torture!

we stayed until about 11pm-ish and i was exhausted. this morning, mark and i laughed about how we couldn't even make it to midnight! not too long ago, we would have stayed till the lights were turning on and the DJ was packing up. we would have been congregating with those that were left standing and wondering where the after party was to drink and party until our bodies just couldn't take it anymore. my how times have changed.

i finally got a good night's rest last night as well. i hadn't been sleeping well because i haven't been able to get comfortable because now that i have to sleep on my side, my hands get numb. i'm usually a back sleeper. from time to time, i'll end up on my back in the middle of the night but then wake up suddenly because i can't breathe - the twins are apparently putting pressure on my diaphragm and lungs. so i went on a search for a solution and found the Leachco Back N Shape Adjustable Maternity Pillow Set. it's a 2 pillow set where 1 pillow in the shape of a wedge supports my belly and the other pillow supports my back and prevents me from slipping back onto my back in the middle of the night. the 2 pillows can detach and adjust as my belly grows and when the babies are born, the back pillow part can be used like a boppy feeding pillow.

i'm still getting used to using it and my hand still gets numb from time to time, but so far so good. i'll have to talk to the doctor tomorrow at our next visit about the numbness. i'm hoping it's not carpel tunnel as i've read on many forums about this same problem!