Baby and Incubator Status

Steve and I have been busily wrapping up loose ends in preparation for the boys' arrival. We met recently with our selected pediatrician to be sure she'll be a good fit, and she seems absolutely fantastic. Great attitude, answered all our silly first-time parent questions. Our petsitter is lined up and ready to look after the rabbits while we're in the hospital. Steve has been cleaning the house, getting on top of the gardening, working on lots of little projects, and helping me do things like make room in kitchen drawers for the kids' bottles and stuff.

This past week was my first week on maternity leave. It was definitely time to stop working given my difficulty walking, general discomfort and inability to sleep more than two to three hours at a time. I think my job duties have been successfully transitioned to the very bright and nice summer intern my boss hired. She's a quick learner and I was able to work with her for a month and a half before going out on leave. I haven't had any frantic texts, phone calls or e-mails, so they must be managing without me.

I'm glad my boss was willing to take the transition seriously, and put up the money to pay both me and the intern at the same time to really allow plenty of time to get things figured out. My boss and the intern have planned for her to stay on for awhile after my return as well, which will hopefully make that transition as stress-free as my departure has been. Oh, and before I left, my boss gave me a bonus and thanked me for all the good work I've done during these challenging months. I am very lucky to have the job (and, more importantly, the boss) that I do.

Since some people have asked (weirdly more than one... I guess there's an endless fascination out there with disturbingly distended abdomens), an updated progression picture of my increasingly ridiculous condition (newest picture on the right is from last Wednesday):

(I'm trying to smile, I swear.)

I am, as one might expect from looking at me, very very uncomfortable. I can stand for about 5 minutes before I have to put my feet up to bring down the swelling and deal with the joint pain. The boys move around a lot. Baby A is still more active than Baby B, but both of them stretch and shift frequently. I empathize with them, though; I too stretch and shift frequently in attempts to find the most comfortable position possible. Can't feel good for them to be squished in there together like that. Certainly doesn't for me.

(Did I do it, am I smiling now?)

At the last ultrasound (back on the 15th), the boys looked healthy. We could see them practicing their breathing, which was crazy and amazing. Baby A was estimated at 4 lb 6 oz and Baby B was estimated at a whopping 4 lb 14 oz. Now, ultrasound weight estimates are far from exact, but if they're at all close, I'm lugging around over 9 lbs of baby plus the extra fluids and such the two of them require. And I'm certainly feeling every ounce. I've gained 35 pounds total, am now 44" around, and my poor stretched uterus is the size one would expect from a post-date single pregnancy (equivalent of week 41 - 6 weeks ahead of my actual 35 weeks).

I really hope they decide to come out the second they're ready. I want the best for them but, man, they are heavy.

For now, I go into the doctor twice weekly for non-stress tests (where they strap two monitors to my torso to measure the boys' heart rates and a third monitor to make sure I'm not having contractions). And... we wait.