Bed Rest and Stretch Marks

Well, I guess they finally got me. The stretch marks, that is. I made it all the way to 32 weeks without any stretch marks, but that's where the streak ended. I found a few the first night, and a few more the next. Then, this last week, they just started multiplying like crazy. As it turns out, that's all related to the reason I had to go on bed rest as of today.

When I weighed myself this past Friday, I had gained 32lbs since my starting pregnancy weight. I weighed again on Monday and had gained 4 more pounds. I thought that was a lot, but then again I had been at 32lbs for a little while and I figured that it was just the weight gain catching up. But, I weighed this morning and had gained another 4lbs. That means I'm up to 40lbs of baby weight! Obviously that's why I had so many stretch marks all of a sudden.

On Tuesday my feet started swelling and have done so both Wednesday and today. I wasn't feeling all that great yesterday and this morning I was moving kind of slow. But, I thought that the swelling was just part of pregnancy and that not feeling good had something to do with how big my belly was getting. After our morning meeting the nurses I work with noticed that my feet were swollen and then my boss had me get my blood pressure taken. Turns out my BP was 153/100. They had me lay down with my feet elevated for 30 minutes and then they retook it. It was 143/94. So, I called my doctor. After going to his office and doing labs with a non-stress test, it turns out that I had some protein in my urine. Not enough protein to make them admit me, but enough to have to do a 24 hour urine test to determine whether it's increasing. They said I have pre-eclampsia and the weight gain, swelling, not feeling good, and blurry vision I've been having are all symptoms. I had no idea!

This afternoon the nurse called me and said most of my labs looked okay, except for the uric acid level. I don't really know what that means, but he told me that I need to come back to his office in the morning and bring a bag just in case they admit me to the hospital. Umph. I don't want to go into the hospital...

The good news is that even if we have the boys early, we aren't that early. And, we've already had a steroid shot so their lungs will be developed. The non-stress test today showed that they were moving very well, their heartbeats were strong, and their nervous system was developed. Don't ask me how they can tell all of that, but that's what the nurse said. So, all in all, we're still very fortunate that we've made it to 34 1/2 weeks before being faced with this. There are so many others we know that have had to be on bed rest for so many more weeks than this.

But, if you're wondering, yes...it's very boring!

33 Weeks

Pictures at 33 weeks don't look that much different than the ones from 28 weeks. I can tell a difference because my belly feels much rounder and harder, but I'm not sure you can see much of that in the pictures.





We went to the doctor at 30 weeks and the boys weighed 3lb 5oz and 3lb 9oz. When we went back on Thursday last week (32 1/2 weeks) they were 4lb 7oz each. They should grow about a half pound each week until they are born. Because they are getting pretty tight for room, they may not grow quite that much, but I'm still expecting pretty good sized babies. Even if they are only 6lbs each, that's 12 pounds of baby! We still don't know what day we're going to actually have them, but I think we will probably set a date at my next OB/GYN appointment on May 5th. I do have an appointment on Monday to do a non-stress test (NST), but they say that it's just routine. The NST keeps track of the babies heart beats, how often they move, and can record any contractions that may be happening.

Hail Storm

We had one HAIL of a storm yesterday. In West Texas we tend to get some severe weather this time of year, so a hail storm every now and then is really more of an expectation than a surprise. But, yesterday we had more hail than I can remember seeing before. It started about 4:00pm, and these pictures were taken after I got home about 6:30. It had already melted quite a bit, but you still get the idea of just how much hail there was. It looked like it snowed, but it was actually little round balls of ice covering the ground.