filling in an empty nest

33 weeks and moving on

riceroni — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:23:09 +0000

Yes I’ve been a slacker lately and haven’t updated this blog. I started a new one for my friends and family who are far away and my focus has been on that one lately so I apologize. But that also makes me realize that it’s time to move on from this blog It’s been good to have all the support here going through infertility and I so appreciate everyone I’ve met here and everything I’ve learned from everyone. If you’d like to stay in touch, please email me at emptynestblog@gmail.com and I’ll send you the link to my new blog.

At 33 weeks, my babies are estimated to be 4lbs 4oz and 4lbs. I’ve been without any problems so far and I feel blessed and so very lucky. Baby A was breech until just last week when she finally flipped down to a head down position, making a vaginal birth a possibility. The doctor says that after 34 weeks she won’t stop me if I start going into labor which makes this all the more real. It’s an exciting and nerve racking time.

I hope to see you all somewhere in the blogosphere and I will keep up with all your progress as well. Best of luck and talk to you soon!

21 week ultrasound

riceroni — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:52:31 +0000

We had an anatomy scan yesterday and got some more amazing 3D images of the babies. Baby A (girl) is breech. Baby B (boy) is head down. The middle one is Baby B and the one on the right is Baby A. I can’t wait to meet them! Good news is they both have 10 fingers and 10 toes and everything looks good. The Dr. says that the boy has enlarged kidneys (just over normal) but that it’s pretty common in boys and may resolve itself. We will be keeping an eye on it as we progress.

Halfway

riceroni — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:03:07 +0000

I made it to 20 weeks this past Monday. Things are going well…I think. I feel pretty good, getting larger and just started feeling the babies moving around this week. There’s lots of movement on the right side (where the boy supposedly is) but I don’t feel much on the left side. i hope our girl is ok. Not much to update on really. We are having another scan this coming Monday to check anatomy. Here’s the latest baby gut.

And the genders of the twins are……

riceroni — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 04:14:51 +0000

I hit the 18 week mark today and had an ultrasound and got the INFO that I’ve been dying for. Yes. The genders. My bets were on two boys (secretly what I was hoping for). Husband said one of each. Well he was right. Baby A is a girl and Baby B is a boy. I think ultimately this is perfect. It’s the homerun pregnancy in that 1) I don’t have to be jealous that someone else has a baby of the other sex – i.e. no more yearning for further pregnancy hopefully! 2) I can ease my mind in that there is no more pressure for infertility treatments in the future. So we’re happy. Very happy. And see these ultrasound photos. There is some serious weener and flap action going on. It’s so amazing that you can see it like this!

More importantly though is that our risk assessment for midtrimester was low for both Down syndrome and Trisomy 18. Down risk was 1:5,100 and Trisomy was 1:10,000. I think we’re done with any further testing on this matter.

Spotting Update

riceroni — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:36:20 +0000

Today is the 15 week milestone. And…finally! After a weekend of talking to the triage lady every day, they let me come to the hospital for an ultrasound to make sure everything was ok!!! I went in this morning and both the kiddos were moving around with normal heartbeats. My cervix was closed and long and they did not see any reason why I would have been bleeding. So the reason remains unknown. I’m still having some brown spotting but I think it’s going away. I’ve been advised to take it easy and refrain from doing anything other than swimming in terms of exercise for the next two weeks. Gentle swimming. Huge relief that everybody in there is ok and now just hoping the spotting ends soon and that it doesn’t happen again.

p.s. I’m no ultrasound technician but I swear I saw a penis on Baby A.

More Spotting

riceroni — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 23:12:05 +0000

Ack. The spotting continues. Today there were what looked like tissue particles when I peed and more brownish blood on the toilet paper. The after hours medical triage lady doesn’t seem to think this is a big deal. Brown blood is old blood, she says. And the particles might not be tissue. They might just be blood clots. No cramps worth mentioning…maybe a little more pressure in the lower abdomen but that could also be my imagination. I’m on “pelvic rest” for now. I was sort of hoping she would send me to the OB/GYN emergency room but she just told me to call my doctor’s office first thing in the morning tomorrow. I hate this! It’s stressing me out! I’ll be 15 weeks tomorrow.

More Nosy People and Twins

riceroni — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 02:57:25 +0000

I’m trying to be ok with it but I am starting to lose my faith in humanity. OK fine, that’s an exaggeration but I seriously am done telling people that I’m having twins. I went to a party last night and I cannot believe the number of people that are dying to know HOW I got twins. It’s relentless. My original intent was to not lie about it but I might change my mind about this. And I think the worst part is that my close friends are telling people because they get asked about it from acquaintances. I was complaining to my friend about it and he said, you don’t care if people know do you? Um, do you want people to know when and how you masturbated last time??? It’s kind of private!!!! Judging from my own reaction, maybe I do care about whether people know or not, a lot more than I thought I did. Any more advice on how to handle this or just be ok with everyone knowing?

On another note, I am going through a little mini scare right now. I started spotting last night and it’s on and off. It’s very very light and there are no cramps but I’m as nervous as hell about it. I called the on-call doctor and she reassured me that it’s normal and that I should not be worried. If it doesn’t stop soon though I’m going to barge in and demand an examination!

Integrated Screening and 3D Ultrasounds

riceroni — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:16:19 +0000

Went in for an ultrasound today to get the first integrated screening test for Downs syndrome and Trisomy 18. Everything looks good so far. The babies both have strong heartbeats and are measuring right on target. The risk assessment for Down Syndrome they gave us was 1:7,200 and 1:72,000 for Trisomy 18. I won’t pursue any further genetic testing for now. We have the second follow up screening in about 4 weeks, where hopefully we will find out the sex of the babies!

Meanwhile, I got to see the babies in action and heard the heart beats for the first time today (I am at 13 weeks 0 days today). It was pretty crazy to see them moving around. And the 3D images! Amazing! We couldn’t get a good one of Baby B but here’s one of Baby A. We’re ecstatic about everything so far, although slightly mystified with Baby A’s right foot which appears to resemble the foot of an elf.

Baby A

Do twins run in your family?

riceroni — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:42:24 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
We are in Australia at the moment visiting family and friends. We’ve told everyone here our news since I’ll be 13 weeks in about 4 days. As expected we got a lot of questions about the twins.

1) Do twins run in your family? (Fair enough)
2) Did you get fertility treatments? (Can you believe people are this blatant?)

I am not ashamed that I got fertility treatments to get to this point. Some people are just not lucky enough for it to happen naturally and what’s wrong with getting a little help? I knew that we would be getting questions like this and I was prepared with answers.

Answer to #1: yes they do. My cousin has twins. (IVF twins but they don’t need to know that!)
Answer to #2: yes we had help (…followed by no further information unless pressed)

My thoughts on this are that yes, infertility is a private thing for some people and it’s certainly not information that I will necessarily voluntarily share with someone. However, if asked, I am not going to belittle or downplay the shit we had to go through to get here by lying. Also, I am conscious of the fact that there may be other couples out there that have problems and don’t know anyone else that have gone through treatment. I know I was one of them. If any of these people ever wanted to ask us questions then I would love to be there for these friends as support and to answer any questions. It’s something that I did not have because most people are so damn private.

Anyhow…while I’m more than ecstatic to be with twins, it would have been ok with me to have avoided all the intrusive questions (which I’m sure we’ll get from more people back home when we announce there) by having a singleton.

Celine – Part 2

riceroni — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:52:49 +0000

Yeah I know I said I might quit. But I haven’t figured it out yet and I’m still here. I hope you don’t mind.

I read yesterday in the tabloids that Celine Dion is no longer pregnant with her frozen embryos. The articles that came out about it were a reminder of how little people understand the hurt of infertility. Take Perez Hilton for example. His comments on it were:

“Maybe 3rd time’s a charm – or adopt!!!
We’re sure they’re some long-haired French Canadian kiddies in need of a good home!”

The last thing a woman with infertility issues needs, is to be told that they should ADOPT! So fucking insensitive! And what the fuck is the fertility doctor doing announcing Celine’s pregnancy and then announcing that it never took. He also announced that her and her husband would be traveling to NY this weekend to attempt another transfer. While on one hand, it’s about time that a celebrity owned up to having infertility treatments instead of being ashamed and lying about it, I sure hope that she gave the blabber mouth doctor permission to release this information because every woman also has the right to her privacy.