25th Jan nearly 32 weeks

As soon as I was off bed rest I signed us up to the next multiples class at the Foothills hospital. We had to wait a while for this to start but last night was our first night Everyone in the class is having twins, there are no triplet or quad parents which is a shame as I would like to know some for when twin newborns are hard, triplets or quads would make me feel better in comparison, like a fatter friend does (joke!). It would be like me compared to my singleton baby friends.

So, we all had to introduce ourselves and say how preggo ‘we’ were. We were by far the most preggo. Most mums are around the 20 week mark...and they have bellies the same size as me!! If I didn’t know that the juniors were weighing in just fine I would be worried.

I asked the other women if any one has had ‘really bad morning sickness’. One other woman was having morning sickness and I was eager to have a chat with her about it until she said “I have been on diclectin since week 6”. So not an HG mum. Still, having morning sickness is still pants.

All the bed rest reading and early warning knowledge seems to of paid off as nothing that I did not know came up! I am more there to meet other people and eat cookies.

24th Jan Uh Ooooh!

I was lying down upstairs today when I started having painful contractions about every 20 mins. Bug came up about the 5th cramp and could feel my belly clenching like a fist and solid.

We drove up to get checked out at our hospital’s L&D (you have to go there with any complications once you are 20 weeks preggo or the general ER staff throw a fit). I was not panicking as we are in a good week and doctors could always stop an early labour.

They carried out a fetal stress test on the juniors and measured my contractions. The sound of the juniors own heart beats made them physically bonkers and their heart rates were good at approx. 155 bpm, this is good, bradycardia with babies is a nono. The fetal activity was very positive, the worry is if they do not move as it indicates stress or worse. My cramp pains had of course stopped! However, they were concerned that I was still contracting every 10 minutes and the peak of the contraction was hitting the top of the graph. They were very surprised that I was in no pain but concluded that the machines are calibrated for women with a bit more fat over their uterus and the machine was picking up mine straight from the muscle. Rah! I have no fat on my belly heheh.

Anyway. After 3 hours on the machine and a cervix re-check (soft but closed) I came home.

I noticed something else at L&D. this is the second time I have been in for these reasons and the triage wards are always full but BUG is the only man who seems to accompany his woman. The others all have other women or are on their own. I am lucky, BUG sits there, holds my hand and reads his book. His eye brows raise a bit when he over hears women talking about ‘discharge’ ‘leaking vaginas’ and screaming like a dying animal (labour).

18th Jan, best weekend ever!

I had been planning something for me and BUG and was keeping it a secret...we eloped over the weekend and got married in Banff!

It was a fabulous long weekend. We stayed at the buffalo mountain lodge on tunnel mountain and it was just right. They have lots of lodges instead of a large impersonal hotel. You check in and then drive or walk to your lodge room in a separate building. Our room had an open log fire, and space to ourselves :-)

I thought that I had forgotten to pack my anti sick drugs and contemplated driving home in the middle of the night to get them..then I remembered I had them in the car PHEW! Without them the nausea and vomiting comes back very fast and would of shadowed our weekend like a big, wet green cloud.

We tied the knot on Norquay meadow, a snowy mountain meadow that overlooks Banff townsite. My flowers were silk due to the minus temperature and the great florist in Banff had made the bouquet at very short notice!

“We can certainly help you with a bouquet, when are you getting married”

“In an hour”

I loved this weekend, it was just us two, our own time, schedule and plans. It was still seriously emotional exchanging vows and the ceremony and did feel very important a moment despite our outfits and lack of crowd.

Norquay is the bald patch of grass (or snow) on the mountain slightly to the left on the Sulphur Mountain Web Cam. I used to look at this view all the tine when we lived in London, I cannot believe that we now live here and got hitched here too :-)

PS - If camera is black then that means it is NIGHT TIME.

19th Jan nearly 31 weeks

One of the best things about growing twins is the amount of scans that you get. We have had so many I loose count. Currently we are having the ‘normal’ twin amount of every 2 weeks. When they were worried about my cervix it was every week!

Seeing the juniors so often is an exciting event for both of us. We have both seen then grow since week 8 and it is amazing how fast they ‘build up’ and mature. It is great to see them every fortnight and see how they have grown, chart their weight, see their faces. Apparently they like it in there, tangled around each other in a tight noisy space (apparently there is 70 decibels of noise in my tummy! gurgling and wind mostly).

We decided at 31 weeks to get another CD of them, as they get larger it is harder to work out which bit is which but here are a couple of good ones.

They are each weighing in at 3 pounds each and hope to be about 4 pounds in 2 weeks time, (both those weights are on the average scale for singleton babies at the same gestation). That is what I weighed when I was born so it will feel like a milestone.

This is why bed rest is good

oops

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/dec/15/olympic-weightlifting-baby-elizabeth-poblete

My life as a blob!

I am still on bed rest. That is a good thing as the alternative is daily trips to the NICU which I do not want to do until I am at least 32 weeks...so in the meantime bed rest is a good word.

However. Bed rest is even more boring to read about than it is to do. I think!

I have ordered in lots of reading books and I am going to take up knitting so have ordered a pattern book of my favourite knitable celebrities. Amy Winehouse is first! (No point knitting baby clothes when they only cost about $5)

In a couple of days I will be 26 weeks and my next goal from that is to get to 28 weeks. It is strange looking ahead at the days on the calender and completely forgetting that Christmas will fall in there somewhere.

The last scan on my cervix showed that it was still at 1.8 - so still crap but no worse and they are checking me every week with warnings of any preterm labour signs to go straight back into the labour and delivery ward.

As long as I stay lying down and off my feet it feels ok.

I am actually going out tonight to BUGS work Christmas party. I am being dropped off right outside the door and will sit down for dinner straight away and then come straight home to bed again. Any pain and I will leave asap! It is -36 outside so I do not want to hang around.

This week I met our future Doula for the first time and was very impressed by her. I was feeling a bit middle class and wimpy hiring a doula but we are having twins with no family or help on this side of the world so I can justify it! BUGS mum found her online when we were back in the UK. I did not have my laptop and we were having a discussion about care in Canada and the next thing I know is she has found 2 people in Calgary and got their life history from them ahaaaa...she also puts to them that she is concerned we do not have a clue about what to expect from a new baby, let alone 2 babies which has got us peeved. Who really does have a clue until their own arrive? You can guess, read every book and talk to your mum, friends etc but until it happens I bet we have no idea! - and I don't mind that. I fully expect it to be hard, funny, stressful etc etc

Anyhoo, the doula has looked after a lot of twins and some of them have been premmie babies, she stated that her insight is not medical but was still very reassuring about premmie babies. The twins she is off to look after from now until March were born at 27 weeks and are coming home all OK - a big relief as I only have just over a week until I am 27 weeks. She has lent me a book called The Multiple Pregnancy Sourcebook which is a joy to read for the very reason that it has no blooming fruit and veg comparisons in it. Nor does it hector or 'fluffy up' any copy. It is an insightful, factual read about multiple pregnancy so includes a lot of pre term labour and premmie births.

Bug is being a genius around the house cooking, shopping and cleaning (kind of!). He is feeding me and the juniors up on super foods like spinach soup (at least a bag of spinach per bowl), stews and porridge. I am getting pretty round shaped though despite no pigging out and being super healthy. I think my body is storing any fat it gets for the juniors.

The hyperemesis is back under control, I had dipped a bit on the diclectin as I didn't really think it did anything and I take 8 a day of those, 2 - 3 of zofran and 2 of ranitidine. However, I can report that diclectin does have an impact as after 2 days without it and just on zofran alone I puked in the taxi on the way to the doctors and was so sick again...oops! It took a few days of being back on all 3 pills to nub away the green feeling and I feel pretty normal again now which is good as I am looking forwards to turkey tonight (the bird variety!)

Bored!

Bed rest is so boring especially to write about in a blog...

As I said when I started this blog '9.99% of blogs are irrelevant crap and mine is no exception"

Well, I want to share a blog that IS the exception..if you like the outdoors and fitness.

http://banfftrailtrash.blogspot.com

I no longer need to read Runners World, this is as good as it gets in running, the adventures that this women has and the group she runs with around the trails in Banff national park and beyond are simply amazing and I can only hope that the juniors take to the outdoors so I can run some of these one day too (athough NOT that 100 miler yikes!).