Dr Appointment

I had two dr's appointments this week. The first one was Monday morning. He looked at the ultrasound and said that the babies are growing great. He agreed that it would probably be only 3 or 4 more weeks instead of June 10. Since I have been very congested, he said that he wanted to see me back on Friday to make sure everything was ok before the weekend.

The second appointment was on Friday morning. The first thing the dr told me was that I looked much more uncomfortable than I had previously. He also said that he thinks the babies have dropped lower and that is causing a lot of my hip pain. Another thing we talked about were the benefits and risks of having the babies now versus in a few weeks. He said that if the babies were born now, there is a 10% chance of them having breathing problems and being in the NICU. However, if we wait 3 more weeks, the chances of breathing problems and a longer hospital stay are almost 0%. On the other hand, I had a c-section with LilyAnn and there is a chance that the weight of the babies will cause the old scar to tear. He seemed to be a little worried about this. We talked about the signs that this is happening. He said that if I feel that something is wrong, I should get to the hospital immediately. He said that if he could predict the future and knew something was going to go wrong, he would deliver them today, but he feels that it's better to wait at least 2 or 3 more weeks.

I am getting very uncomfortable. It is hard to walk around once I get up from a chair. My hips just don't want to work right without pain. At night, I have to take some type of pain medication just to get a few hours of sleep. I'm very tired and doing basic chores seems to wear me out. However, I just don't feel that I'm ready to have them. I have laundry and dirty dishes and the carpets need to be vacuumed! Anyway, I just keep praying that God knows the right time for them to come so I'm trying to leave it up to him! Also, I keep thinking that next Saturday is a full moon! Maybe there is something to that that will help them come!

New 4D Ultrasound

So it's been 2 weeks since I posted last. Life has been crazy as usual. Last week, we implemented a new electronic medical record system at work, so we did training all week. This week has consisted of putting all of the patients into the system and trying to see patients while getting used to the new system. So I've been working longer hours than I had been the past few months.

We had a new ultrasound on Thursday. It was amazing! We got to go to a perinatologist in OKC to do a high level 4D ultrasound. Since I am considered high risk, my insurance approved this test. It was so awesome to see the babies again and measure how big they are. Right now, they are both head down. The boy is on my left side with his feet up under my ribs. The girl is on my right side, folded in half, with her feet above her head. The boy weighs approximately 4 pounds 2 ounces. The girl weighs about 3 pounds 13 ounces. The doctor said this is great for single babies at this stage of pregnancy. He said that they will each gain about a pound every 3 weeks from here on. My c-section is scheduled for June 10, so if I make it that long, they should weigh about 6 pounds each. I asked the doctor if he could convince my OB doctor not to make me wait until June 10 to deliver. He said that he thinks my body and the babies will convince him not to wait. He didn't think I would make it another 6 weeks. He thought I would probably make it another 3-4 weeks. By that time, the babies should be about 5 pounds each which usually means little to no time in the NICU. Another thing we saw on the ultrasound, was that the babies are practicing breathing. We could see their little tummies moving in and out. That was a really good sign that they are getting ready to breathe in the real world.

When we saw the 4D images of the babies, it surprised me that we could tell by the facial features which was the boy and which was the girl. The little girl looks just like LilyAnn. She has a round face and wide little nose. The little boy looked more like Josh to me. He has a narrower face and thinner nose. I'm so excited to be able to see them in real life!

More news! We will probably be moving in the next couple of weeks. Right now, we are renting a 2 bedroom house. Our landlord stopped by the other day and offered us a 3 bedroom house that she has available for the same price as what we are paying now. The living room and kitchen are smaller, but the extra bedroom will help out incredibly. So now, I have to start packing so that Josh can move us as soon as the current tenant moves out. I am excited to have a room for the babies, but also very nervous about the amount of work it will take to move so soon before my due date!

This week is going to be crammed full of stuff for us. My baby shower is tomorrow afternoon. Then LilyAnn's dance recital is next Saturday. In between, we have dance pictures, rehearsals, etc. to get ready. Also next weekend is a garage sale at mom and dad's so I'm going to try to get some stuff together to sell! Anyway, I will try to post ultrasound pictures later!

Life With a Three-Year-Old

I didn't realize life with a three-year-old would be so difficult! As I told the principal of the school she will attend next year (yes, she will start big girl school in August), my daughter is very independent, very persistent, and very assertive. I choose to use those words instead of saying bossy and stubborn! I think her personality will get her anything she wants in life, but we really struggle with her understanding that mommy and daddy know what's best for her right now! She's not old enough to be in charge of our family and make her own decisions. I just feel that there's a fine line between disciplining to get her to obey and breaking her spirit. Josh seems to want to break her so that she's a perfect, obedient child. I don't think that's possible. I think that we could beat her black and blue (not that we do!) and she would still be independent and assertive, she would just resent us for what we are doing to her. I want her to understand why she has to obey and why she can't do certain things.

Here's what happened this week: Josh read LilyAnn a story and we put her to bed. Josh and I went to bed to watch TV. All the sudden, I heard the bathtub water running. We went to see why the water was running and there is LilyAnn with dark red fingernail polish all over her feet, ankles, up her legs, on her stomach, fingers, and some on her chest. She said, "I can't get it off!" The first objective was to find the fingernail polish bottle and make sure it wasn't spilling all over the carpet or bed. After she realized we were pretty upset, she told us where she had hid the bottle and, thankfully, it was closed. We took her to the bathroom and set her on the counter to begin the process of removing all the polish. Josh was getting mad and asked her what would possess her to paint her own nails and body. She started crying and said, "I just wanted to be beautiful." We said, "Baby, you are beautiful without nail polish, or makeup, or anything!" She said, "No, I'm not!" It broke my heart! She's three and thinks she's not pretty enough!

So we took all the polish off. As we were finishing, I noticed she was breaking out in a rash all over her stomach and down her legs. So I gave her a little Benadryl and we put her back in bed. The next morning, I woke up to the sound of her in the bathroom again. I got up to see what she was doing. She had pulled out the drawers, climbed onto the counter top, gotten the Benadryl, and given herself some! First of all, I didn't think she could reach it all the way up by the sink. Second of all, I thought children's Benadryl would have a child-proof lid! It didn't! So I had to figure out how much she had given herself. She kept insisting that she had only given herself about 1 tsp. I asked her several times to show me on the measuring spoon how much she had taken and she always pointed to that spot. But then we had to explain why she can't just be giving herself medicine. Needless to say, after a teaspoon of Benadryl, she was very subdued all morning when we went down to see the Easter bunny at dad's bank!

Dr Appointment

Today I saw my doctor again. Of course, I complained a lot and told him that I'm miserable and that I can't sleep and it hurts to walk and my back hurts all the time. He told me that I am having a perfect pregnancy. No gestational diabetes, blood pressure looks awesome, gaining exactly the right weight each month, babies growing great, no preterm labor, still working full-time. So he doesn't see any reason to move my c-section date up. We're still on track for June 10. On one hand, I am happy because I know there could be a lot of complications and I could be on bedrest instead of working. I know that every week that they stay inside their odds of being in the NICU go down. But on the other hand, I want them out! I've never been so uncomfortable in my life! Anyway, enough complaining. Things look great. The babies should be about 3 pounds each. On April 23 we go to OKC to have a high level 3-D ultrasound done just to double check everything. They will especially look to see if I am starting to dialate and the level of amniotic fluid.

One thing that we discussed today is the amount of people that will be in the operating room with us. There will be Dr. Fey (my OB), Dr. Wendt (another OB) will be assisting with the surgery, Dr. Blakeburn (the babies' pediatrician, and the doctor I work for), a nurse to assist with the surgery, a nurse for each baby, the anesthesiologist, Josh, and of course ME. It's going to be crazy in there. I guess that will be the beginning of our crazy life! The other thing we talked about was the chance of uterine rupture because of my previous c-section. He told me what to watch out for and when to go immediately to the hospital. He said that he hoped the doctor that sewed me up last time did a good job. I just laughed because he's the one that did it.

So that's what's new for me. I will post again later this week!

First Blog!

Several people have asked me to start a blog so that they can keep up with the ever changing McCoy family, especially during this pregnancy. So here it is! I will try to keep up with it as best I can, especially after doctor's appointments and ultrasounds. Most of you basically know what it going on in our family, but for those of you who don't, I will give a brief introduction.

The members of our family right now are me (Melissa), Josh (my husband), and LilyAnn (our 3 1/2 year old daughter). We live in Weatherford, OK. I am currently working as the office manager at a doctor's office in Clinton. On December 1st, Josh got laid off from his job in the oil field. In February, he began working as a correctional officer at a prison in Hinton. LilyAnn attends daycare, which we call "school," in Clinton. At the beginning of October 2008, I found out that I was pregnant. In the middle of November 2008, we found out that we would be welcoming two babies into our family instead of just one. That began the journey of this "special" pregnancy.

LilyAnn seemed to know we were going to have twins before any of the rest of us. One night, she told me,"There's two babies, Mommy." At the time, my sister-in-law, Haley, was also pregnant. I told LilyAnn, "Yeah, Momma's gonna have one and Aunt Haley's gonna have one." She just pointed to my stomach and said,"No, Momma, there's TWO BABIES." I told her that I thought her Mimi had been putting ideas into her head. The next day, I had a kidney ultrasound for an unrelated problem, and the ultrasound tech asked if anyone had told me that there were two babies. I was shocked! When I got home, I told LilyAnn, "You were right, there are two babies!" She said, "I know, it's a boy and a girl." I believed her that time. Sure enough, a couple ultrasounds later, we found out we're have a boy and a girl. So then I asked LilyAnn, "Well, you were right about two babies, and you were right about a boy and a girl, so what are there names?" She said, "They are Hannah Montana and Jackson." I said, "Well, two out of three predictions isn't bad!" We actually decided to name them Ryder Joshua and Ryleigh Rose.

Tomorrow, I am 29 weeks and I have a doctor's appointment. At the last appointment, I was measuring 38 weeks and the babies were estimated to be 2 1/2 pounds each. At this point, my c-section is scheduled for June 10. I will be 38 weeks. Tomorrow, I will post about the doctor's appointment!