Of Henna and Bellies

At long last, I've had a chance to receive and take and upload some photos to share. Without further ado:

Henna (apologies for dad's photo) by sis

Henna belly, concentrating on tiny knit sts, and my niece Sara

Abi's henna (by me; quickly drawn on a ticklish belly at her insistence)

My belly at Saturday's picnic

My belly and new haircut

Sand angel...

Because you needed more ultrasound photos to oggle

Just in case you needed to oggle more ultrasound photos, I have some.  They're not the usual pictures either. This time the nurse printed off some fun and interesting ones.

Earb's profile - okay, that one's pretty normal.

 

Earb's lips/mouth in the middle, with her nose above. Imagine she's smooshing her face against a window for you.

Earb's leg and foot (this leads into the next set of pictures)

Iongantas' face half-hidden in the background, with Earb's foot in front.  You need to realize the foot is in front for the rest of the pictures.

Iongantas' face, but somewhat obscured by a foot! lol

 

Iongantas' profile - with a foot growing out of her forehead. lol.

What I'd like to know is how that foot got there... considering they are still both head-down and I would have a picture of the tops of their heads side by side if the machine hadn't run out of paper half-way through printing it.  As before, Earb is laying along my back, facing up and Iongantas is facing her / my right side.  Flexible kid.  (No, there is not a third child's foot!)

Ultrasound Update - yay

Much to my surprise and delight I have some photos to share from this afternoon's ultrasound.

 This one of Earb is quite funny and a little blurry. She is looking up, head on the left. Her mouth is open and her tongue is actually darting out.   See it now?  In the womb she is facing up.

 This one of Iongantas shows her face-on. Head on the left too (because both are head-down). You can see her chubby little cheeks and it almost looks like her eyes-sockets are actually her eyes with a little gleam in them.   From another angle we got to see peach fuzz on her head!  In the womb she is facing her sister (so, facing my right).

Both babies (and their amniotic fluids) are looking great. And their blood flow both measured close to the norm today rather than diverging, which was wonderful to hear.  I also inquired about sizes.  Earb is about 4 1/2 lbs while Iongantas is about 5 1/2 lbs.  They are both a good size and growing well.  However, from what my OB said at our last visit (and I see her again tomorrow), if Iongantas is more than a pound bigger, then I'll most likely have a c-section because she is the second in line for a vaginal delivery and is more likely to become stuck.  We'll see how things develop in the next few weeks.  Certainly there is no indication for an early delivery yet.

Last night my sister decorated my belly with henna.  I'll share photos as soon as I can get my dad to upload them from his camera (I don't know where it is).   This morning I had to decorate Abi's belly with some of the leftover henna so that she could match me.

Not Long Now

Not long now until Robin joins us.  A week and a bit.  Then our move will feel complete. (Okay, except for the not having our own home, etc.)
And not so long now until the twins join us. At least, I try to not focus on carrying these babies for several more weeks. Of course I want them to grow bigger in the womb, but it's a lot to carry around!  I recall with Abi I never had that feeling of "get this baby out of me" until I was ready to push.  This time around I'll be happy to have them out.

Let's focus on baby news, since there's not much new and exciting in my activity.

I met with my new OB last week and cried at the end - with joy. It was an amazing, positive experience.  I couldn't be happier.  It certainly further justified this move.  We spoke of options - such as drugs, including an epidural, being optional! And there are alternatives to lying on my back in stirrups. And I'll be able to move around within the room.  And while I'm not looking forward to the "birthday party" of people present in the room, I'll deal with it  There will be Robin and I, doctor, probably resident, anaesthiologist and possibly resident, a couple more people per baby, and a scrub nurse in case of emergency.  Oh, I suppose a nurse for me too.  My OB is aware that I had a natural homebirth with Abi and was very respectful of that and my desire to have something approaching that... within the boundaries of the high-risk birthing room of course.

I had my first ultrasound here yesterday and it was quite different from my experiences in Ontario.  There was nothing wrong with my fetal assessments back in Ontario, but I think I prefer them at this location (which is not necessarily the same across the city).  The only thing I miss is that you don't get free pictures here.  (I have plenty from Ontario already.)  However, you do get to watch the scanning during the entire ultrasound and your partner (and kid, etc) can also be in the room the entire time. Since Robin is not here, my mom was fortunate enough to be able to attend with me (and Abi).  Immediately following the U/S, the nurse reviewed the findings to make sure she got everything needed, and the doctor on site looked them over. Then they provide immediate feedback!  The doctor wanted to check on something further, so she came in herself and did the scan.  Then we talked about what she was looking for.
As before, there is concern over the growth difference between Earb (A, first in line for a vaginal birth, the smaller) and Iongantas.  Let me emphasize that both are doing very well right now!  However, the doctor is concerned over an atypical problem called "TAPS", which is somewhat like the TTTS.  Both babies have good amounts of amniotic fluid.  TAPS is a condition where one baby receives "thinner" blood (that would be Earb) and the other "thicker" blood, which can be determined by measuring the viscosity of the blood flow.  So, Earb is at risk of becoming anemic and Iongantas is at risk of... the opposite of anemia which has a fancy name I can't pronounce (polycythemia).  We'll be keeping a close eye on this - as I expected would happen with the more typical TTTS if it became an issue. I have another ultrasound this Thursday (and an OB appt on Friday).  As I've said before, the safety of the twins will be evaluated on a regular basis. At this point, we're past 32 weeks.  Every week and day hereafter that they can stay in the womb to grow is good, but they would do well, I'm sure, if they have to come out early. (I'm hoping Robin can get here first without having to hop on a plane.  Certainly it seems that will not be an issue at this point.  He'll be home soon.)

I've tried to find some info like "TAPS for dummies" equivalent to the common info one can find about TTTS, but all I've found are abstracts from medical journals.  The above is my own poor attempt at explaining it.

Eat, Sleep and...

Lately I spend my time either eating or sleeping/resting or, well, you know. (I'm rather like a baby with these babies inside.)  There's also the time playing games with Abi and the occassional walk - such as when I suggested she and I go out for pancake breakfast on my birthday before remembering we have no vehicle and have to walk to Perkins. I made it. Or the afternoon at the zoo when I managed to walk for a good 2 hours.  I was pretty impressed with myself.  (Sad, I know, but if I had a photo of myself to share right now I think you would better understand.)
And, of course, while resting awake I knit.  I've also been reading, but mostly I knit because knitting feels more productive.  Granted, I have had to take it slow since I only have the small amount of yarn for 3 projects (one finished) that I brought in the car.  I finished two mini alien/bug stuffies for the twins (knit with some Koigu orphans). I'm working on a baby blanket and my Sabbatical cardigan (which requires some serious tinking/frogging I don't want to think about!).  I neeeeeed my stash and my needles back! This evening when we unload the POD. (Photos when the camera arrives with Robin.)  I was hoping my Turkish spindles and fibre from ThreadsThruTime would arrive yesterday (birthday gift on my birthday - a novel idea), but alas, the mail carrier was not obliging. Perhaps today wil be my lucky day - at the very least I can retrieve my "old" stuff from the POD.

Resting is fairly easy to do since Abi is generally respectful of my need to rest, but also because I have few other responsibilities at this point - beyond growing babies.  All the flurry of activity to move across provinces has mostly come to an end, for now. (Until we buy a new house and have to move stuff a shorter ways, etc.)  Even Robin has little to do now but go to work and wait until he can drive out to join us at the end of the month. 
Because, WOOT!, our house is officially sold! As of yesterday following the buyer's house inspection and mortgage confirmation we had sold the house.  Of course, the days leading up to that were not so smooth. Poor Robin had a lot of clean up and last minute work to do before showings began (big thanks to our friend Denis for helping out all weekend!), and then an offer came in almost immediately and the negotiations began and then, on Good Friday (ie, a holiday), the water heater crashed.  Yes, of course it did.  Robin's been without hot water since then, although friends have kindly been offering their showers.  And, fortunately, ours was listed as a rental heater, so it's a relatively simple task to have it replaced.  Nevertheless, we were afraid the buyers might back out.

Me, I trusted it would all work out.  And it did.  Thus, while Robin was stressing I was resting and spending time with my immediate family.  Soon I'll start visiting with extended family, but given that I've now moved here permanently, I don't feel rushed and I've needed to rest.  Plus, there was Easter holidays and chocolate-filled children to deal with most recently.
Did you know that you can place a request for the Easter bunny to come by mid-day after all the kids have arrived? Yep, it's true.  Whoddathunk the Easter bunny doesn't have to come early morning while kids are asleep?

On the baby-front, all is good.  I have my first local OB appointment on Friday and I imagine that will lead to a busier regime of medical visits as I'm nearing the end.  I've quite enjoyed this little medical-break while between OBs.  No ultrasounds, no doctors since Mar 26, no non-stress tests (yet). Plenty of fetal movement (dancing babies!) and clearly growth.  I've been eating and sleeping a lot - I did mention that.  My poor tummy vividly shows growth; I've got some "angry" looking stretch marks as you might imagine.  Photos eventually, I promise.  For your imagination, consider my (former) belly button to be the center of a drawing of a sun with heavy red zig-zag lines emanating out.  It reminds me of an "angry" sun.
And gee, only another month of growth left... "only".
(You see, when I posted long ago about being "big", I wasn't really meaning I felt huge at the time, but it was the realization that I was big and yet there was still many, many weeks left of growth and I could not imagine getting bigger. I still can't.)
Oh, and eating, I can apparently still pack it in.  Honestly, I have no idea where the food goes when I'm eating, but I can eat more than the men... Plus the snacks throughout the day. Yep, eating and sleeping and... making room for more nutrients. That's my life.

Moved

It's official. I've moved to Winnipeg. And for those of you who think that's "bad" (why would you move to Winnipeg/Winterpeg?!!), to make it "worse", I've moved home with my parents!
I never expected that when I moved out 9 years ago (to Newfoundland for grad school) and then to KW after getting married.
Such is life.  This is a temporary home.  Our family has been (expectedly) wonderfully supportive of our move back to the Peg.  Living here temporarily allows us time to sell our house, find employment, and find a new house of our own (Abi's decided, however, that we should stay in Nana's house always... I think not. I love my parents, but...).
It's is all still rather surreal to me, despite having been planed for months.  Abi's transitioned wonderfully and is delighted to be living here, although she'd be much happier if we hadn't given her fish and the planted tank to a friend in KW. She was convinced she could carry it on her lap for the move. She is even delighted to have her own room and sleep in her own bed - with my old pink Laura Ashley comforter (some of my very oldest friends will remember that one). Yes, she's going straight to sleep. in. her. own. bed. It's awesome!  She had said she would, but I'd expected her to change her mind once we got here. Granted, that leaves me very alone in my own bed... At least it's my old familiar bedroom with the beautiful Celtic knotworkI painted in the corners.  None of my furniture, etc, of course, but that paint is comfortingly familiar.

As for the trip itself, I'd FB'd and Tweeted that it was uneventful - and in the big picture this is true - but there were some minor things.  There were a few desperate road-side pee stops for Abi (not me!) that by the end of day 2 made me wonder if she had a UTI, but she's been fine in the house.  To balance that, however, there was no puke!  I've learned from past trips (rather slowly we learned, but we did learn!) to use Gravol first thing when she awoke to avoid the puke.
We started out an hour later than planned on day 1 (my fault, I slept in until 5:30, which is when we'd planned to depart) and consequently hit rush hour traffic through TO, but it was flowing pretty well.  Later the 400 at Barrie was closed due to an accident on an overpass.  We never did figure out why the entire highway below had to be shut down, but it took us a good hour to travel 1km. I had a hearty laugh at all the cars that were continuing to move (slowly, but faster than us) in the left lane. Once we were finally at the overpass, we in the right lane could see the EDR signs and knew to go straight ahead in our lane. Everyone else was turning left - awa from the highway.  Now, maybe some of those folks wanted to travel that way, but I find it difficult to believe that only 3 of us wanted to continue straight down the 400. The road was empty before us and around us. Suckers! Those folks who thought they were 'beating' us would have had to figure out another way back to the 400.
We got as far as Wawa before checking into a hotel.  Almost half way home.
Next day we hit the road at 6:30 again, but encountered snow and slippery roads soon after.  So we pulled over for breakfast and let the temperatures rise a little.  Fortunately, an ice truck must have also made it's way down the hwy in front of us, so the roads were much better by the time we were back on them and we made good time again.
We were across Winnipeg and home before 9pm.
I also want to add that all the people we met en route were very friendly and our food stops were all tasty. All in all, it was a pleasant trip.
Oh, as expected by me, Abi and Darla were great travellers.  The cats were pretty good too - we'd only hear some meows from Fenwick in the morning and then silence from the boot.  I was amazed that I was able to get them back in the crates on day 2.
Everyone (pets included) made themselves quite at home once we arrived.  Even Fenwick only hid for a day. George, of course, announced he was 'here' just as he did when he arrived in our home in KW. By that I mean he doesn't hide or shy away. He immediately explores and takes charge of a space. Abi, as I mentioned, was delighted with her new room.

So far we've mostly been relaxing.  I was feeling rather stiff after 2 days in the car. (Yes, I took every opportunity to stretch and get my feet up - not at the same time.) Taking it easy. These babies are becoming an increasing source of discomfort.

Back in KW, Robin is busy cleaning, painting trim and just generally getting the house ready to start showing it. It will hit the market Monday.  He says he has a mini batchelor pad set up in our rom - with the TV and XBox and computer and mattress.  But it's an empty house.  All our stuff, otherwise, is gone as is his family.  I don't envy him having to go from that lonely setting to jumping into a houseful at his in-laws later this month.

I just realized I could probably have tried to throw in some April Fool's day joke here, but I won't.  I imagine I could have said I went into early labour. Or had to have an ultrasound yesterday after the trip and they found a third baby. Or simply added some outlandish tale to our trip. Damn, why didn't I think of that before.  We could have been attacked by Giant Geese in Wawa.  Or narrowly avoided a moose.  Or been pulled over at the Manitoba border with both vehicles turned inside out looking for drugs... (we were pulled over along with every other vehicle for a routine license and registration and insurance and seatbelt and what-not check - but that was uneventful).
Just pretend I added one of those elements to the story and we can all laugh at how I did or didn't fool you.

Baby Shower / Farewell

Presents

Last weekend we were honoured with a baby shower / farewell party with friends.  These are a few photos - taken by friends - to illustrate how fortunate we are. As you might imagine, given that a large percentage of my local friends are knitters, there were many gorgeous handknit items.  In addition to some adorable sweaters, soakers, dress, etc, there are these two amazing blankets.  I admit I was expecting a blanket because it's become a tradition for the UpTownKnitMob (as we call ourselves) to make a unique baby blanket for each new addition, but one never knows what we will come up with.  Clearly these ladies know me well - you can tell by the themes and colour choices.  (I should add that one husband also contributes by knitting part of a piece.)

UptownKnitMob Blankets

Tree Blanket - my friends are very talented

Apple Tree Blanket

It was pointed out to me that the (natural brown) yarn used for the bottom right (from your view) corner square comes from the animals at Waterloo Park.  There is a small "zoo" there, with llamas and alpacas (and rabbits and chickens, etc).  Each year someone shears the overburdened fiber animals and has it processed.  One of my friends was able to get her hands on some of that yarn.  Lucky me!

"I was planned" ; "I was a surprise"

It's so true!  That 10 week ultrasound sure was a surprise.  Everyone around here remembers me telling them where to go before that week when they would tease me about possible twins... and then the tweet/FB update where I once again told them all "screw you all!"go and wouldn't add anything more until I'd finished making my calls. But they knew, they just knew.

There's another twin pair of onesies my friend made - that both say "Identical (but not the same)".  I love it.

Abi waits patiently with her friends outside.

Special thanks to my dear friend Heather* for hosting this event. And, of course, to all who attended to celebrate with us.
Not shown is the delicious potluck. And the coolest blue punch ever - a duck pond of tastiness. And all the other fantastic gifts, such as 2 dozen Sandy's Bamboo diapers, and a Lug diaper bag, and adorable clothes, and wooden rattles, and amber bracelets, and... it's all been boxed up.

Thanks again to all our friends who have been such a wonderful support over the past few weeks (there's more help needed in the coming "last days")
and...
damn I'm getting a little wet in the eyes.
I'm going to miss you all so much. As much as I love those blankets, they are going to make me cry, a lot.

*Granted, she's kind of responsible for this whole mess... :-p

Womb Babies

Another ultrasound today (yes, so soon because of the recent findings... oh wait, I didn't blog about that.)

Okay, let me start back at Friday.
Friday morning I received a call from the OBS office asking me to come in that afternoon to see one of the OBS doctors on that day (not my usual) about Thursday's ultrasound findings.
Needless to say, I was a wee bit nervous for the rest of the day. Thankfully we'd just seen the babies, and their lovely heartbeats, and their frequent movement... and as Robin pointed out, they weren't asking me to meet the doctor at the hospital.
The findings were that Iongantas is now significantly larger than Earb - so that they are in very different growth percentiles.  Both have grown.  Both are doing well!  But this MAY be an early indicator of possible complications later.  The doctor wants me to see a specialist at Mt. Sinai this week (in Toronto), but I'm still waiting on an appointment.  In anticipation of that appointment, I had another ultrasound today, presumably to check for things not focused on in Thursday's short 'routine' scan.  They also had me go over to obs triage at the hospital for steroid shots (in my butt, how fun) to help the babies' lung development should they need to come out early.

UPDATE: No visit to Mt. Sinai for me.  Doctors there don't think it's necessary and yesterday's U/S results don't seem to necessitate it either. Plenty of time to see a specialist once I'm in Winnipeg.

In short, we're on top of this.  I amaze myself with how calmly I'm taking it all - this is nothing like my hoped-for second pregnancy. But probably you folks aren't surprised in the least.

This type of possible development is precisely the reason that we decided to move back to Winnipeg now, when we learned, at 20 weeks, about the twins being monochorionic.  I look forward to being home soon (and simultaneously hate leaving all my fabulous friends here - but I'll post about that tomorrow perhaps. We had a wonderful baby shower/farewell party on Sunday.)

Anyhow, the upside is more lovely pictures... (must look on bright side...)
And then the babies were dancing about (as usual) this evening while I was knitting with the camera near by, so I took a video for you to see their movement. Then combined that with a series of ultrasound pictures - just for you dear readers/family/friends.  Enjoy.

If you don't feel like watching the video, you can just skip to today's ultrasound pictures below.

Earb

Iongantas' beautiful smile

Iongantas

Babies, Again

Well that would explain why I thought Earb was being far more active/kicky than Iongantas... They're both head down (again) now.
I'll have details early next week, but in the meantime here are two new pictures.

Earb

Iongantas

Birthday on the Farm

We celebrated Abi's birthday with her friends at Steckle Heritage Farm.  It was a gorgeous day and the kids had a great time seeing the animals, playing games with an event coordinator (ie, we didn't have to do anything except serve cake, etc) and making a grass-head craft.
Abi was delighted to have her friends around.  Sadly, it's probably the last time she'll see many of them.

cute miniature horses

young cows. there were plenty more animals too - rabbits and chickens and sheep, etc

Crafting with her BFF (from daycare, who she never sees, but they both talk of the other frequently)

Abi's chosen party snacks - apple slices and strawberries.

Abi and I made this. Guess who put the sprinkles on.

Did I mention it was a beautiful day?  Most days around here have been grey, or raining, or snowing, or just snow on the ground. 
It was a great venue for a party.  We already knew it was a great wedding venue from a friend's wedding this past September.