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Anyways, Rebecca how are you hanging in there?
To those ttc keep having hope it will happen!
Cari
Cari - We are in the same situation with a stubborn baby during ultrasounds! We are going back on Wednesday to attempt to complete our anatomy scan. Everything they saw looked great, but they wanted more views including a profile (which he has never given at any ultrasound) and more angles of the heart. Either way, I am excited to see him again! We got visual confirmation of his boyhood! He wasn't shy about that.
We have painted the nursery and have most of the furniture set up. My mom is making him a blanket, just like she did for my daughter. And we are putting in a closet organization system, hopefully this weekend. We hoped for the room to be finished in February, but it will be March instead.
Emmy is super excited! And keeps telling everyone that she is going to be the best Mommy! We remind her that she will be a sister...lol! Poor boy is going to have 3 moms! Hahaha!
As for me, I am showing much earlier this time and am enjoying feeling him with me all the time!
Julie - I am so glad to hear that all is going well with the girls! It's hard to believe how fast 27 weeks has gone!
And to all of those still walking the path on your journey toward motherhood, have faith that there is a bigger plan and that in the end, everything will work out. I understand the frustration! I never thought we would need 18 months and IVF treatments to add to our family. But in the end, I realize how much more grateful I am for every moment of my pregnancy (constant heartburn and all) and for the family we are creating! Stay positive! Be hopeful! Have faith! And remember, you are not alone!
Baby dust to all,
Rebecca
Any updates, Rebecca and Julie?
We are doing well here. It's been a busy week for us. We had a repeat anatomy scan on Monday as baby D wasn't cooperative in the first one. Got the views which was a relief. No problems! Everything is healthy. The nursery is coming along nicely. It is bright and colorful and very much both of our personalities in there. We toured the birthing suite last night and met all the midwives. There are 10 in our practice so it was nice to do a meet and greet. We have no clue who we will have so I am glad we got a name and face with everyone. We are meeting with doulas on Monday. Looking forward to choosing a doula that will help during the birth. So things are coming together. Our family and friends are throwing us showers over the next couple of months. Super sweet of them. So lots to look forward to. We signed up for a birthing class and newborn care class. We will probably do a breastfeeding class near when baby is due. So lots and lots going on. I think I felt my first kick! Abby feels them all the time but a felt a little something last night. Pretty low key pregnancy thankfully. Hoping for another 17 weeks of health and stability.
Cari
We started buying things which is very cute but you have no idea how much harder it is to find a good double stroller than a single!!
I hope everything is going well for you Rebecca, so happy to hear that everything is good for you Cari and Abby, this whole pregnancy thing is really just going by so fast!
Faith, I wish you all the best with your journey, I found that the clearblue ovulation kits worked well for me and over the time we tried I got to know more and more when i was ovulating. I didn't have any fertility issues but I think I had a really short window after the positive kit. (I didn't like the advanced ones which flash in the days before the smiley face, just the basic smiley face ones - sorry if that sounds confusing but once you look at them you will know what I mean!)
Good luck with your Dr appointment, hopefully he or she will give you lots of good information and you will have a plan in place and be pregnant in no time!
Thinking of you ladies and everyone on these boards! Couldn't have gone through the ttc without the support of others.
Cari
Cari, I hope Abby gets the birth she wants too. We have a very good friend who is a doula so we are thinking we might consult with her, although right now I am thinking maybe we will go with pumping so that we can both feed equally in the beginning and my wife can really feel like she is bonding with the babies.
It's funny how you can see their personalities before they are born, these two definitely already have very different personalities going on, it is so cute! We get tons of ultrasounds of course which is lovely, we are on a 4 week cycle for them right now and may end up more frequent closer to the time to check their positions.
I'm not even sure what my ideal birth idea is, obviously I would prefer vaginal but I'm kinda scared of ending up with a double whammy with a vaginal birth for A then ending up with a section for B anyway which would be double the recovery. I guess we will just take it as it comes and wait and see for now.
I am obviously in some kind of nesting mode as I am obsessed with getting rid of our old sofas and getting everything new and clean before the babies come, its a small apartment so working out the logistics is weirdly harder than I originally thought! I'm in the middle of doing some major donating of surplus stuff, but the bump does get in the way and I get tired fast so there's more resting than packing going on!!
The nurse called back yesterday evening and confirmed!!! 14dpiui beta was 186! I'm going back in tomorrow to make sure the number is growing and then we'll schedule my first ultrasound.
Hi! What donor did you use on your successful cycle? I think I was looking at 1 or 2 of the same donors.
Thanks
-M
Good luck
Julie and Rebecca how are you guys doing with everything?
Cari
We still need a stroller and car seats which we are not doing a great job of deciding on! Twin strollers are expensive and we want to get car seats compatible with the one we go with but of course those are all the most expensive too!! Double everything starts to add up! We are avoiding buying anything we won't need right away as we are looking at moving about a month after the babies are born - nothing like adding some stress to the mix!
We had our 32 week ultrasound on Friday, baby A is 3lb 6oz and baby B is 4lb! No wonder I feel big - I guess this would be full term with a single baby! We are hoping to keep them cooking for at least another 6 weeks and avoid any NICU time, my doctor and my wife are both on my back about not overdoing it, problem is apparently EVERYTHING is overdoing it in their opinion! Taking it easy and eating protein is my job these days, I should just make the most of it!
I'm so excited to find you the gender of your baby too - I don't know how you have had the self control to not find out! The third trimester will just fly by, I hope Abby isn
t feeling too uncomfortable, I am now at the stage that it is hard to sleep and the heartburn is pretty bad at night.
Rebecca - I hope all is well with you! Let us know how you are doing when you get a chance!
Julie
congrats, my heart swelled when i read you were pregnant.
As for me, I am feeling well...although my bump seems to be huge this time! Lol! With my first, I plumped up all over...this time I am all belly, so far. But the baby is measuring and developing right on schedule. At our last growth ultrasound, he was estimated to be about 2 pounds - which was perfect for 26 weeks.
As for being ready, we have the nursery set up and have everything we need...except diapers. For our first, everyone brought diapers to our shower for raffle tickets and we literally didn't buy diapers for over 10 months...this is going to be a lot different.
I am so excited that everyone is doing so well along their journey! It won't be long for any of us now! Julie - you are doing amazing growing those baby girls! Keep it up and take it easy! And Cari - you must be so thrilled to find out the gender. We didn't know with our first, and it was so exciting...especially once we got to the hospital!
The only thing we are really stuck on right now is a name. We struggled before too...but boy names are super hard for us. How are you each doing with name selections?
My sister in law had a baby boy 4 weeks ago and her daughter is 4, I'm not sure what they did to prepare her other than make her feel involved, but she is besotted with the baby (most of the time!) and she enjoys "helping" with him.
We had our car seats delivered at the weekend - this just got real! We don't really know what to do about diapers, people want to buy us stuff and are asking for our registry details, my wife suggested putting diapers and wipes on there since we've done most of the big purchases ourselves (as much as we want anyway since we are going to be moving) but I don't know how many of each size to ask for!! It's not exciting, but maybe we'd be better with gift cards for Target so we can get what we need when they're here!
Do any of you ladies intend using formula? If so do you have a preferred brand? Just another thing I am researching and coming up with so many more things to worry about!! I am hoping to breast fead/pump for the first eight weeks or so but I imagine with twins we might need to supplement and we may move to all formula when they are old enough to go to part time day care.
Rebecca, we thought we would struggle with names, but when we found out about the girls my wife suggested Charlotte Luisa and Isabella Mary (middle names for our mothers) and they just seemed to fit! Unless somehting drastic happens to change our minds in the next few weeks, I think the names are settled! What kind of style do you like? When I was at my appointment at the hospital last week there was a family leaving with their newborn Ashton, going home to their 2 year old Grayson. Oh and our new nephew is called Leo Alexander. I used to look at baby center at the name boards but the ladies there can be pretty brutal!!
We are doing pretty good. We had our showers which were wonderful. We got most of what baby needed except our actual cloth diapers. Yes we are cloth diapering. Abby talked me into it. I have no clue what we are getting ourself into!!! It was so nice to see how loved our child is despite how he/she was created.
As the days go by Abby is getting bigger and bigger. She is measuring big and since we know the exact date the embryo was put in her we are being sent for a growth scan to see just how big our baby is. This will be ultrasound number 6. So many chances to know the gender and Abby still says no but I am dying to find out. We have a good stock of gender neutral stuff. Our nursery would be the same whether we had a boy or a girl. Muted primary colors and zoo animals. So it's not like anything would be different in our lives knowing. She thinks it will be the extra motivation in labor. She wants to do everything all natural. We hired a doula to help in the labor process. I think i will be really thankful for the doula in our birth process. Hoping nothing is wrong and she continues to remain without pre-eclampsia. We've known too many couples lately having to deliver early because of it. As for names we have a boy name picked. We are debating on girl names. We have three we like I just don't know which I like the best and I want it to be a girl. So there's that. Abby and I are still debating circumcision and whatnot. So having a little boy will be a new experience for us. I guess I feel I'll better be able to relate to a girl. But that is my own issue. The gender has long been decided.
Tomorrow we go to a labor intensive child birth class. Oy! I am a bit nervous. I am thankful to my wife everyday for enduring everything to make our family. Very soon we will all be meeting out little ones!!
Cari
Life here is good. Just preparing for baby to arrive. My wife is a teacher and her principal may be leaving the school which would mean my wife wouldn't want to stay in Chicago anymore. We may be moving 3 hours away to Michigan with a teeny tiny small baby. It all happened quickly. Our childcare was dependent on this principal allowing moms from the school to nanny the teachers children in the parent room. It is happening so fast. I think I will be spending my maternity leave applying and looking for jobs as I will need to find a job to make this happen. We need to maybe start looking into other childcare arrangements such as a nanny. Centers are way to expensive and everything has super long waiting lists which if we got on we probably wouldn't have anything lined up by mid october when my wife will need to go back to work. So many changes. I am worried and don't really want to move with a teeny tiny baby. But life sometimes throws some curve balls.
Anyways other then that pregnancy is going well. Growth scan turned out well. Baby is in 62nd percentile for weight. Everything else is measuring a few days ahead. Due date is the same. I didn't think that would change as it is an IVF baby. Due date is pretty damn accurate.
We are still stuck on girls names. We think we figured out circumcision. So things are coming along. We did a breast feeding class last night which was helpful. Hoping Abby does well with breast feeding. I am pretty bummed I wont get to feed for awhile as to not create difficulties with the breast feeding process. I will have to bond through diaper changes. LOL!
It's getting close!
Cari
So, as for me: It has been a tricky pregnancy. I ended up with gestational diabetes this time, which has presented obstacles with a new diet, regimented meal times, and lots of finger pricking. Overall, I have done well with the diagnosis...and really took it seriously, so that the baby doesn't end up with issues after he is born.
Then just over 3 weeks ago (around 33 weeks), I started showing very high levels of protein in my urine - this is an indicator of preeclampsia (which I also had with my daughter). After a 24 hour collection, I was immediately put on bedrest, in order to help my kidneys try to function better and to stop my blood pressure from elevating too quickly. So far, so good. I still have Proteinuria, and my blood pressure has been on the rise (but nothing to severe at this point).
My c-section is now only 12 days away on June 13th! I will be 37 weeks and 1 day pregnant. I am doing my best to keep him in there until then, as it is the best place for him right now. At our growth scan last Thursday he was estimated to weight 5lbs 7oz, which is awesome! We are hoping he will be healthy and we will be able to bring him home, with no need for NICU time.
So, how are you all doing? I hope well and am looking forward to hearing from you!
That has become a complicated pregnancy. I hope that all continues to remain well. Did you know gestational diabetes is more likely in IVF pregnancies? Yeah we learned that in this process. June 13 seems like an excellent day to be born. I hope he stays put until then. Do you have a name picked out?
As for us we have the nursery basically put together. We have everything we need. We have arranged for the doulas to be at the birth. Saw the midwife this morning and Abby is measuring three weeks ahead. So we will have another growth scan on Thursday. Next midwife appointment is next Friday. All is well and baby is healthy. We have held out on not finding out the gender. We have our names picked out but keeping them a secret for now. Ironically both have the exact same initials. So that is fun. Abby is ready to not be pregnant anymore. But we have exciting things planned in the next week like her birthday and seeing Hamilton. So it's all good. I failed and her birthday presents wont be arriving on time. Some will but three things will not. Grrr.
Anyways, feeling more and more ready for the little one to arrive. We even found daycare which is depressing because we haven't even met he or she. But it seems like our basis are covered.
Anyways, I am wishing you some more time Rebecca. Julie how are you hanging in there. It's got to be about time for those girls to come out.
Cari
It was a dramatic start though as my wife was working out of town and had to rush back! Her sister was an absolute star and picked me up from our apartment in a taxi and was a rock in the hospital as we waited for my wife to arrive. It's nice though as she felt part of it all and she is one of our Godparents.
The babies could not be more different from one another, they are both so tiny and gorgeous, they needed no nicu time and came home with us after 2 nights. They just turned one month old and are getting so big already! I don't know if it is possible to post a picture on here, but if not maybe we can set something up on facebook as I definitely want to keep up with you and your babies!
Rebecca, good luck with the section, you must be SO excited to meet baby boy!
Cari, not long now! We are likely in the same boat as you guys re moving with littles, our NYC lease ends in September and we have decided to head to Florida for a while to save money and have more space. I REALLY don't want to go, I love it here and would willingly live in a closet to stay but it's not about me anymore and I know the babies will love the weather and the pool. We are thinking of driving down as we will have a ton of stuff plus flying with infant twins kinda fills me with horror right now!
Can't wait to hear how you are all doing and see those gorgeous babies, we have all been on a long journey to make and meet these beautiful little people.
Julie xx