Week 32

Things continue to go well. We had a sonogram today, both girls still looked good. We also got a picture of Baby A's hair:



Jenn's on what she likes to call "house arrest" at this point. She had a positive fetal fibronectin test last week, which they perform basically to see if you're not going into labor within 2 weeks (~95% chance of this if the test is negative). If it's positive it seems the test becomes less useful, as the prognosis becomes "Meh, you might go into labor within two weeks or you might not". She is not dialated at all though right now, so it's not like delivery is imminent.

We also had a little concern last weekend while getting a steroid shot, which helps babies lungs develop, a precaution due to the positive fetal fibronectin. Jenn was having pretty severe contractions, ones that were timing 3-6 minutes apart. Since we were at Wesley anyway we went to labor and delivery, they spent 2.5 hours trying to get both babies heart rates on the monitor at the same time for a 10 minute stretch, and finally a resident checked her over and cleared her to go home. Turns out these contractions were perhaps a result of her level of activity, so "Dr. Mike" put her on bed/couch rest, and contractions have been much more manageable since then.

The new goal is Week 34, two weeks from now, which the resident at Wesley this weekend said would probably be the cut-off point for when they would not try to delay labor. DePew today however talked like that they wouldn't try to delay if she went into labor tomorrwo. So basically it's just wait and see at this point: we want to go as long as possible but it could happen at any time.

In other news, work threw us a shower the other day as well. Of note are the cakes they got:





I've worked with Penni and Ruby, who threw the shower, for over 8 years now, apparently they know me pretty well.

Say hello to the Vogts Girls (maybe)

Jenn had another sonogram yesterday afternoon (Ruth went with her as I couldn't make it), and talked the doctor into taking a stab at finding the sex of the babies. And while he cautioned her "Don't start painting any rooms yet", he apparently did find some tell-tale signs of girls in one of the pictures.




The last picture in particular apparently shows the detail. Hard for me to see but that's why I'm not wearing a white coat right now I guess. Aside from this everything still looks fine, Jenn and Ruth got to see them moving and such, growth of both were still within expected and both are still growing at the same rate. Everything is right on track.

~13 weeks down

Which as I found out means that we are just now passing the first trimester, and not last week when I posted. Oh well.

Sonogram this past Tuesday. Was supposed to be this past Monday but our doctor was caught at the hospital delivering a baby. We were scheduled to go to his west side office, which I did, getting there a bit early, only to find a note on the door, "We've moved to some random address on 13th street". A quick call by Jenn confirmed that their new offices are in the old Albertson's on 13th and Tyler. So we made it just in time to wait 30 minutes in the waiting room.

But the appointment was good and got us these pictures:

- Baby A
- Baby B
- Baby A and B
- Baby A Heartrate
- Baby B Heartrate
We took video too which I have not uploaded from the camera yet, but will. It didn't turn out too well as the camera was having problems focusing on the sonogram monitor, the refresh rate was noticeable through the lens and the camera kept trying to refocus, but Jenn and Ruth watched it and apparently you can see some of it OK. The little ones were quite active at times.

Everything is progressing fine, both babies had heart rates in the 150's and measured around 13.5 weeks.

Jenn continues to have a "heaviness" in her abdomen, as she describes it, which the doc confirmed was just her uterus growing. She's very anxious to feel them move. She's also quite anxious to know if they are boys or girls, going so far as offering the doc a bribe if he'd try to find out, but he flat refused. He gave us a "maybe" at our next appointment which will be around the 16 week mark. Jenn seems to be past the worst of the tiredness, but still gets a bit nauseous if she's hungry and doesn't get something in her stomach pretty quickly.

We're also getting serious about picking names. Or at least I am, as Jenn has had a list several dozen long for quite some time now.

Long abandoned...

...it is time for this blog to have purpose again.