6 1/2 Month Appointment

Yesterday we had our 6 1/2 month appointment. We went over the results from our 25 week ultrasound and the babies look great. Baby A is transverse which means he is lying across the lower half of my belly and Baby B is breech and is curled up on my left side, but Dr. Berg says they still have time to move into the right position for delivery. If they stay put then I will have to have a c-section, which I have pretty much prepared myself for.

The other good news is that I did not gain any weight since our last appointment. I was pretty excited. Although my weight gain has been within the average of 6-8 lbs per month, it's still a little sad to step on the scale and watch it leap its way up. The bad news is that my blood pressure was high again. It was 148/100 which was the same as last time but since it has been consistently high these last couple of visits I have earned the diagnosis of Pregnancy Induced Hypertension.

According to one of my pregnancy books, the more babies you are carrying, the more placenta you've got (you can 1 or 2 placentas with twins; in my case I have 2). The added amount of placenta (along with the added hormones that come with two babies) can sometimes lead to high blood pressure, which may in turn may progress to preeclampsia. Preeclampsia affects one in four mothers of twins. It is described as high blood pressure and protein in the urine.

Fortunately, all of my urine dips have been "perfect" which means there has been no protein. Unfortunately, my blood pressure issue has also earned me some limitations. I am now restricted to less than or equal to 8 hour shifts at work. Dr. Berg wanted to restrict me to 6 hours but with some negotiation I was able to get her to agree to eights. Our schedules at work are a mixture of 8 or 12 hour shifts and I was afraid 6 hours would make it too hard to schedule. In order to get her to agree to 8 hour shifts I had to agree to spot check my blood pressure at work and rest on my days off. This means no housework like vacuuming, mopping, sweeping, etc. I have to spend the majority of my time off lying around rotating between lying on my left and right side. She has decided to let me try this before taking me off work completely and as long as my blood pressure stays the same I can continue to work. If it increases to 160/110 I'm "done," as they put it. So, I am keeping my fingers crossed and doing as I am told. We have another appointment in two weeks.

Back on a positive note, the babies are really active now and I can tell who is who when they are moving, except when they are kicking each other. They have grown so much that during some of the ultrasounds it is difficult to tell who's limbs belong to who even though they are in separate sacks. Their movements have gotten so big, not only can you feel them from the outside you can see them now too. They are also reacting to touch and sound. If I push quickly on my belly they kick/hit back and if I put headphones with music on my belly they move around and kick. Lying on the couch and feeling or watching the babies move has turned into one of our favorite past times.