18 weeks tomorrow
Weight gained: 22 lbs (goal: 25 lbs by 20 weeks)
BP: 132/84 at the doctor's office on Friday
CL*: 4.5 cm
So yesterday I had another ultrasound and visit with the perinatologist. Babies look great, they were both sitting breech in there. I'm not sure why that even matters at this point, since they are likely to change positions 1,000 times between now and when they decide to make their debut.
The peri went over the results of the amnio with me in more detail. She showed me the chromosome patterns (yes, they are definitely boys. there goes my last hope for a girl. *sniff*). When she pointed at the 23rd pair, she said "Do you see how much shorter the Y chromosome is than the X chromosome?" I told her yes, and she said "That's why men are missing so much stuff ... like how to ask for directions, how to say 'I'm sorry' ..." I like her a lot.
All kidding aside, our little boys are genetically perfect and they ruled out spina bifida as a bonus. Being that I'm carrying twins, they can't do the usual serum screening test for that, because it's not accurate, so this was just more good news.
She also looked over the rash that has managed to overtake all of my extremities this week. She confirmed that it is not any of the scary pregancy rashes, but probably just contact dermatitis. If you've ever gotten this diagnosis, it basically means "you have a rash from something, and we don't know what." She advised me to take oatmeal baths at night and Benedryl before bed for a few nights to try to get the itching to stop, since the scratching releases more histamines, which makes it worse. I did both of these last night and got a blissful night's sleep, though I've been groggy all day today.
We also discussed another clinical trial they are conducting that they wanted me to consider. This one is to test the efficacy of taking progesterone shots between 18-25ish weeks of pregnancy to see if it reduces the risk of preterm labor. I had considered it, but a quick Medline search showed me that a couple of studies were just published in the New England Journal of Medicine (which is one of the most reputable journals in existence) in January that basically showed no benefit of 17P administration in either twin or triplet pregnancies. I asked if there was any difference in the study design, and the peri said she didn't think so, and that the study was being run by their corporate offices (Obstetrix, a national high-risk OB consortium), so she wasn't all that familiar with it. I politely declined further participation in that study - I see no reason to bombard myself with even more hormones at this point, especially for no proven benefit.
Next up on the pregnancy parade is another detailed anatomy scan at 20 weeks. Yay, two hours of ultrasound. After that, they are going to let me go a whopping three weeks without seeing me. What a vacation. Whatever will I do with all my free time?
Aside from all that nonsense, I am actually feeling pretty good. I'm still traveling for work quite a bit, trying to get in the last things I need to do before I go on leave. I do get tired out more quickly than normal, and I don't move as fast as I'd like to, but I think I'm doing pretty well. I am relieved that the morning sickness has abated completely, and so have the headaches I was getting every single day. They always say the second trimester is the golden period of pregnancy, but I never felt it until this one.
*CL = cervical length. This now gets measured about every two weeks until I'm around 30 weeks, when they'll check it weekly. They like to keep a close watch on it since a shortening cervix can indicate preterm labor is coming on. This is particularly important to watch with twins. The real fun of the whole thing is getting reacquainted with the fondly-named "dildocam" since abdominal ultrasounds aren't accurate enough to measure cervical length. Aren't you glad you read these updates?
BP: 132/84 at the doctor's office on Friday
CL*: 4.5 cm
So yesterday I had another ultrasound and visit with the perinatologist. Babies look great, they were both sitting breech in there. I'm not sure why that even matters at this point, since they are likely to change positions 1,000 times between now and when they decide to make their debut.
The peri went over the results of the amnio with me in more detail. She showed me the chromosome patterns (yes, they are definitely boys. there goes my last hope for a girl. *sniff*). When she pointed at the 23rd pair, she said "Do you see how much shorter the Y chromosome is than the X chromosome?" I told her yes, and she said "That's why men are missing so much stuff ... like how to ask for directions, how to say 'I'm sorry' ..." I like her a lot.
All kidding aside, our little boys are genetically perfect and they ruled out spina bifida as a bonus. Being that I'm carrying twins, they can't do the usual serum screening test for that, because it's not accurate, so this was just more good news.
She also looked over the rash that has managed to overtake all of my extremities this week. She confirmed that it is not any of the scary pregancy rashes, but probably just contact dermatitis. If you've ever gotten this diagnosis, it basically means "you have a rash from something, and we don't know what." She advised me to take oatmeal baths at night and Benedryl before bed for a few nights to try to get the itching to stop, since the scratching releases more histamines, which makes it worse. I did both of these last night and got a blissful night's sleep, though I've been groggy all day today.
We also discussed another clinical trial they are conducting that they wanted me to consider. This one is to test the efficacy of taking progesterone shots between 18-25ish weeks of pregnancy to see if it reduces the risk of preterm labor. I had considered it, but a quick Medline search showed me that a couple of studies were just published in the New England Journal of Medicine (which is one of the most reputable journals in existence) in January that basically showed no benefit of 17P administration in either twin or triplet pregnancies. I asked if there was any difference in the study design, and the peri said she didn't think so, and that the study was being run by their corporate offices (Obstetrix, a national high-risk OB consortium), so she wasn't all that familiar with it. I politely declined further participation in that study - I see no reason to bombard myself with even more hormones at this point, especially for no proven benefit.
Next up on the pregnancy parade is another detailed anatomy scan at 20 weeks. Yay, two hours of ultrasound. After that, they are going to let me go a whopping three weeks without seeing me. What a vacation. Whatever will I do with all my free time?
Aside from all that nonsense, I am actually feeling pretty good. I'm still traveling for work quite a bit, trying to get in the last things I need to do before I go on leave. I do get tired out more quickly than normal, and I don't move as fast as I'd like to, but I think I'm doing pretty well. I am relieved that the morning sickness has abated completely, and so have the headaches I was getting every single day. They always say the second trimester is the golden period of pregnancy, but I never felt it until this one.
*CL = cervical length. This now gets measured about every two weeks until I'm around 30 weeks, when they'll check it weekly. They like to keep a close watch on it since a shortening cervix can indicate preterm labor is coming on. This is particularly important to watch with twins. The real fun of the whole thing is getting reacquainted with the fondly-named "dildocam" since abdominal ultrasounds aren't accurate enough to measure cervical length. Aren't you glad you read these updates?