12w3d

Weight=177.1 (beginning was 184-185 lb)
Symptoms=Hair seems thicker, chest seems fuller, belly bulge, nausea and gagging

Yesterday afternoon, we met with the specialist again. I just saw the babies last week on my regular OB dinky ultrasound machine. Today was the specialist so we got to see the babies again and for longer periods of time. Man, we just saw them on the same machine two weeks ago and the difference is startling. They've only grown half an inch or so but on the screen they look so much bigger.

The identical twins look even more squished than usual. They have grown more in the same space.

Baby A (the squished identical) is measuring pretty good. He's definitely at the bottom of the uterus, the doc has to really push on the wand to get a glimpse of him. We use "him" just because it's easier...we're hoping for 2 girls and one boy. Baby A measures 11 weeks 5 days, just about 4 days behind and completely normal. His heartrate is in the 180's but the doc says that's normal. He didn't move too much but he looks beautiful.

Baby B (fattie identical) measures 12 weeks 5 days. See the difference. He's about 3 days ahead in growth and 6 cm long. He was jumping like crazy. sometimes you could get a glimpse of fingers by his face. The doc took NT measurements (couldn't for Baby A because he couldn't get a good view) and the doc must have measured it like 10 times. That didn't bode well for me. The doc finally told us at the end that it was high (I think I saw a 5 on the screen) but we can do nothing more than just watch. His heartrate was in the 150s. He would kick his legs and he would bounce in his sac, it totally made me laugh to watch. I promised myself I wouldn't google but a high NT measurement can indicate a chromosomal disorder or possible heart problems, but it's not definitive. I'm just not going to worry about it. I mostly worry about baby A keeping up in growth with the rest.

Baby C (the fraternal sitting up at the top of the uterus) is also measuring 12w5d and has a heartrate in the 150s. He was also very active and I could totally see a hand by the face. His NT measurements were normal and the doc says he's doing dandy.

And we totally got blessed with pictures. We didn't get pictures the last time we were there, but he printed out pics of all three...although the fraternal pic looks like a staticy tv and I can't see anything. I have a regular OB visit in less than a week and then we don't return to the specialist until two weeks after that.

He said that I need to plan to be out of work by at least 20 weeks and when I brought up my work trip to a class in Florida in a month (I'll be about 17 weeks then), he laughed and said "NO" so fast I thought he was joking. Apparently he's not joking and I'm landbound for the rest of this pregnancy.

The nausea is really there but really doable with the medicine and just the lessening as I march into 13 weeks. But the problem is forcing myself to eat. I never never feel hungry and I don't really like the taste of anything. Nothing gives me a sense of "Yum, that tastes good" and I definitely don't get any satisfaction. Instead it feels like a chore to try to get down enough food and it actually gets real tiring and I resent eating. Man, I know I struggle with overeating and being overweight because of the joy I get out of food, but God gives us that joy for a reason. If you get no joy out of eating, the last thing you want to go near is food. It's kind of depressing because I struggle every day just to find something to fill up my two meals a day...and I'm running out of ideas. I cannot wait ...I mean it...I cannot wait until I am starving and I can wolf down a meal. People keep telling me "Oh, you don't want that, i wasn't able to stop eating during my pregnancy" but I need to eat. I have to gain weight and keep these babies fed and I can't exist on grapes and chips for very long.