Week 33 belly pics

Five hours until 33 weeks

News of the day:

• Walk-through of new house to take place at noon, Friday.
• Closing to take place at 1pm.
• House is almost totally packed, thanks to family and friends. Jeff's on his way out now to get some white packing paper for the last of the dishes, glasses, etc.
• We're having takeout the rest of the week, due to tableware being packed. There are worse things.
• We had tornados, lightning, thunder, and gusting wind/rain all afternoon today. I love these spring storms but they are a little bit scary! Plus I didn't make it to the window to close it in time, and Jeff had another huge mess to clean up when he got home. Luckily we have a dehumidifier!
• I just discovered the wonders of lanolin. Primarily for sore nipples related to breastfeeding, it is a miracle product! Best lip balm ever.
• Casey the diaper lady (CNY Diaper Express) came over last night to give us a demo. Thankfully she made Jeff diaper the doll first, so I got to watch him do it. It's actually way easier than I had expected (maybe even easier than disposables), so I'm really excited about getting set up and using the cloth. We're going to sign up for a 10 week package so we won't have to deal with any diaper laundry for the first 2 1/2 months. After the 10 weeks we'll evaluate what we want to do from there--continue the service, buy our own cloth diapers, or switch to disposables.
  
• Babies still in belly. Two different people exclaimed yesterday that 32 weeks is great--only a few more weeks til we're out of the danger zone. After seriously contemplating the babies' birth at 24 weeks (and every day since), 32 weeks seems like a miracle. The "danger zone" to me was when they might not (or likely would not) survive if born then. From 30 weeks on, my friend Claire the OB-GYN says, it's all gravy. Not that the goal isn't still to keep them in for longer! I can almost feel May (which seemed like an eternity from February 28, when I was first admitted to the hospital in NYC), and June 3 (scheduled cesarean birth day) seems like not that far away. Though when I sent him a picture of my belly from about a week ago, my friend Severin said he'd never seen a more pregnant lady before in his life. And his mom gave birth to triplets!
• A friend with twins told me today that the great thing about having twins is having a free pass on all the things you're "supposed" to do with your single baby if you are a "good" mother: breastfeeding, cloth diapering, babywearing, vaginal birth. Honestly the cloth diapers seem easier than the disposables, at least in the short term (and WAY cheaper), and I am committed to breastfeeding as exclusively as possible. But the rest is triage! We'll do the best we can, and no one can give us (me) crap about it because hey, did YOU have twins? No? Then shut up. And if you did, then you're a champ and awesome and all of that and still, shut up.
  

Punjab and Habib it is!

Thanks to everyone for voting. We feel good now about our choice, knowing that our friends and family have given their approval! Get ready to welcome Punjab and Habib Genovese to the world!

32 weeks and 3 days today. At my OB appointment Thursday the sonographer estimated their sizes at 4 pounds, 1 ounce and 4 pounds, 7 ounces. They are both at about the 50th percentile for singletons, which is really amazing. Also amazing: I have 8.5 pounds of baby in my belly. Plus two five-pound placentas, plus a ton of amniotic fluid. Crazy! My belly also measures the size of a woman 41 weeks pregnant with a single baby.

If there had been any doubt about how the babies were going to enter the world, it was shredded when the sonographer reported that Baby A (the one closest to the cervix) is head up, with feet in frog-leg position down by my cervix. Therefore I will have a cesarean birth. It's good to know now so that I can plan for it. The latest possible date would be June 3, when my doctor has scheduled a cesarean, but she is not optimistic that we will make it that far. We'll see.

I've already told the babies that they are going to have to stay put until at least May 1, because we are moving next weekend! Closing is scheduled for Friday, April 29 in the afternoon, with walkthrough preceding and moving to take place on Saturday. We're hoping for better weather on move-in day than we have had this week--rain, snow, hail, wind, and cold.

We have been very grateful to have had lots of help this week from our parents, who have packed, cooked, grocery shopped, done laundry, and cleaned. Thank you!

Team Sickbo

Mama Lovebo: still on bedrest.
Daddy Lovebo: home in guest bed with flu.

Lovebo animals: happy to take turns sleeping with one and then the other of us.

We are a pathetic bunch!

Week 32 belly pics

First Team Lovebo Poll

Vote for your favorite twin names!

31 weeks, 1 day

Good news:

• Babies still in belly.
• Spring has sprung in Syracuse. Daffodils and crocuses have emerged, windows are intermittently open, and snow boots have disappeared from our front door.
• The week has flown by with visits from friends Sara on Tuesday, with her new cutie Preston, and Emily on Wednesday, with HER new cutie Eleanor. Friends plus babies is the best way to pass the time!
• Hemangioma is GONE! I developed a blood blister sometime while I was in the hospital in NYC 6 weeks ago that had morphed into something much more massive and disgusting. The dermatologist I saw yesterday (finally!) asked if it was a third fetus, it was so large. They cut the sucker off and stitched and burned and it is now gone! Hooray!
  

Bad news:

• OB canceled my appointment for tomorrow and I couldn't reschedule. Oh, well. I am just so sad to miss out on another opportunity to sit motionless on my back while a contraction monitor tells us all what I already know--my uterus contracts painlessly all the time! surprise! And to have the sonographer give me that disappointed, scolding look while she says my cervix is yet shorter, though a) there is nothing to be done to stop the shortening, and b) there is no reason to believe that the shortening will lead to preterm labor. So why do we do this test again? Because they own the ultrasound machine? And they measure the babies' heartbeats to confirm they are alive when, meanwhile, they are both visibly kicking out my belly. I'll see them again next week.
• House closing is most definitely not happening tomorrow, as scheduled in the contract. Which leads me to this piece of good/bad news: as much as Jeff and I do not know very much about real estate law, it appears that real estate attorneys do not know much about real estate law either. It seems to me that if the contract specifies April 15 as the closing date, that's the closing date. But I would be wrong. Our closing may be in 10 days, or may be May 1, or may be sometime after May 1. I appreciate that Jeff is handling the details of all of this, so I will let him give 'em hell for me.
• No real estate showings at our current home this week as yet. Someone wanted to come this morning at 8:00 a.m. and I told them no, that was not going to work. I think the realtor then tried to threaten me that these buyers would not be able to return at another time, thinking that I would care whether these buyers would be able to return. Little does she know that my incentive is to make it impossible for anyone to see the house, because I have to get up out of bed and dressed and then have strangers walk all around my house and peer into my closets while I watch. I have been very accommodating but 8:00 a.m.? No.
  

Chugging toward 31 weeks

Jeff spent the end of last week and most of the weekend with his family in Johnstown as his beloved grandfather passed. Definitely the patriarch of the family, he will be acutely missed. Jeff is grateful for the time he spent with family, reminiscing and laughing and crying. May John Genovese rest in peace.

In baby news, these guys just keep getting bigger. Someone had a foot or arm lodged under my ribcage all night, which made it very difficult to sleep. Thankfully he removed it so I could sit up and eat breakfast this morning. (It is good they are learning not to disrupt Mommy's eating--as Daddy knows, that is best for everyone.)

I heard through the Syracuse mothers of multiples group that a pair of twins was born to one of the members late last week at 31 weeks. The babies, though only 2 lbs, 12 oz and 3 lbs, 1 oz, are doing fine on ventilators and are expected to come out of the NICU in 5-6 weeks. This makes me very optimistic about our little fatties! We all hope they stay in for another month or so but if they were born early they might be out of the NICU by the end of May! The lungs develop most slowly, apparently, so even though they are fatties their lungs are not likely to be ready to breathe on their own yet. I guess they can stay inside for a little longer, then.

Quick update

For those of you who worry that when I don't post, it's because I'm in the hospital or the babies have been born or both: neither has happened. I am getting bigger and bigger and it is harder and harder for me to be upright enough to write emails or blog posts. I am very close to needing to eat most of my meals in liquid form through a straw so I can remain on my side.

But: at my doctor's appointment Friday everything looked good--blood pressure still very good, and no signs of gestational diabetes or preeclampsia. And I gained 4 pounds in the last week, all of which apparently went to my belly because whereas last week I measured 35 weeks (if carrying a singleton), this week I measured 38 weeks! My doctor thinks the babies are about 4 pounds each, which is above the 90th percentile for twins and above the 50th percentile for singletons at 30 weeks. All good! We are readjusting our expectations, however--my doctor does not believe I will go past 34 or 35 weeks based on how big the babies are already and the fact that my cervix is getting shorter. But we will see!

Some bad news

Jeff's grandfather had a fall last night and another this morning and experienced some bleeding in his brain. After brain surgery earlier today it is not clear when, how or whether he will recover. He has been very important to Jeff throughout his life and he is in our thoughts and prayers.

Of much lesser importance, we got some bad news today about the new house: the sellers are not going to be able to get out by the time specified in the contract, which leaves us in limbo about where we are going to go, since our lease is officially up at the end of April. We are still working out the details but it appears we will definitely NOT be moving before the end of April. We will keep you updated, especially those of you who have generously offered to help pack, move or clean.

30 weeks!

High fives all around for making it to 30 weeks! And making it past the anniversary of the loss of our baby girl last April 5. I'm feeling pretty much the same but getting more bored of counting the hours and days as they go by. I'm also increasingly uncomfortable and moving around is more difficult every day. Last week I was measuring 35 weeks (for a woman pregnant with one baby) and I imagine a lot of women don't get a lot bigger than I am now. But I certainly hope I continue to get bigger!

I had a great visit with my good friend from law school, Molly, who packed and cooked up a storm while she was here. That's probably why I'm extra bored now--her company made the time fly!

29 week photo

So far, all belly!

Great medical update

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday where we got only good news about everyone's health. Best news is that despite lots of contractions since being discharged from the hospital last week, my cervix has not only not gotten shorter, but has actually lengthened somewhat, with no dilation or effacement! It's a great sign to me that what I have been doing (being horizontal most of the day, being up and around very little) is working. No one has told me what physically I should or shouldn't be doing, but I have trusted how my body feels and adapted my activity to that, and it appears to be working. I'm excited about that. Also, there are no traces of sugar in my urine, which means that there are no indications of gestational diabetes. I don't know whether that's because I've been following a pretty strict diabetic diet or because I have no trace of gestational diabetes, but either way, it's great. My blood pressure was also great, 120/70, and I gained a pound from last week. I could have gained a pound and a half and I'm probably behind where I could be, but up is still good.

I really like the nurse-midwife I saw yesterday. One of the most amazing things she said is that she gained 120 pounds when she was pregnant with her now-5-month old boy. She showed me pictures and she looked like an oompa-loompa. So I'm glad that hasn't happened yet! And at this point I don't really think I have time (or stomach space) to gain 80 pounds in the next two months....