24 Weeks

This past week was a very busy and exciting week. Sunday, August 24th, I was thrown a surprise shower. Boy, was it a surprise! One of my friends flew in and Nick’s Mom and Sister both flew in just for the shower. I had a great time, not to mention all of the wonderful gifts I received. During the shower, I felt lots of tightness in my belly and decided to call the doctor on Monday morning. When I called, I was told to go right to the hospital. I was very scared. While I was there, I was put on a contraction monitoring device and they took a look at the babies. It turned out that everything was fine! The tightness I was feeling was just irritability. The babies are irritable because they are fighting for space. On the ultrasound, you could see them kicking and punching up a storm. I then started to actually feel them kicking. It feels more like someone is poking me very lightly.
On Tuesday, a nurse was sent out to my house and brought me a home contraction monitoring kit and a terbutaline pump. I have to monitor myself 2x a day for an hour on the contraction kit, after which I send the info via wireless connection to a nurse in Philadelphia or Tampa who then calls me to tell me how many or if I had any contractions. I am allowed to have up to 4 an hour, any more than that and I have to re-monitor for another hour. So far it has worked well. It feels good to know that if I am feeling contractions or even if I just am not sure of what I am feeling I can just monitor and the nurses will call to tell me if everything is ok. So far I have had a maximum of 4 contractions (only the first time I used it), but every other time it has been one contraction or none at all! I think the terbutaline pump has really helped in that department. It is to keep you from having contractions. It is a little pump that I have to wear 24/7; it will give me a constant dose of medication through a little tube in my leg. I do have to change the site every five days. The amount of medication can also be adjusted if I need it.
I had a doctor’s appt. on Wednesday. Everything is still going wonderful. The babies are all doing well. Baby Girl A is measuring 1 lb.4 oz., Baby Boy B is measuring 1 lb. 7 oz., Baby Girl C is measuring 1 lb. 4 oz., and Baby Girl D is measuring the smallest at 1 lb. 3 oz. The doctor said that their sizes are good and he told me to continue working, if you can believe it. I am exhausted! I am very swollen all over as you can see in the pictures. It is very hard to smile, because honestly, I am very uncomfortable. Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t change anything. I am very excited to have these babies, but the weight and discomfort are really taking their toll on me as you can see in the latest pictures of me. I just have to take it one day at a time. Everyone here has been a great help giving me hand, feet, and back massages. It helps to push the water around because it tends to settle in those places. Overall, everything is good. I’ll be back in 2 weeks for an update because my next appt. is on Sept. 10th, unless something happens in between.

Kelly