29.5 weeks

So close... yet so far!!  There are times where this pregnancy feels like it has been flying and other times that it's crawling along.

I had my first iron infusion 3 weeks ago (tomorrow).  It's quite the experience.  I'm there for 2.5hrs. I get hooked up to an IV, hook up the iron and... wait.  Jon came with me the first time.  I was thankful to have him there.  I hate IVs.  I don't think I've ever met anyone who likes IVs.. but you know what I mean... they freak me out and they hurt!  Last week, I had a different nurse than the first time and he left me with a whopper of a bruise on my arm.  I go in tomorrow for another one... I hope I get a different nurse from last week :(

I saw Dr. D last week and she told me that she wanted to start having me come in every week instead of every 2 weeks.  The dr's office is switching over to a new electronic system... and it has been a bit of a nightmare to get scheduled.  Dr. D also wanted me to do another ultrasound (I do them every 4 wks).  I went in this past Monday and poor baby girl... she is SO squished under baby boy.  Every ultrasound tech has such a hard time seeing her.  Even whenever I've seen a specialist and when I went in for the echo!  To get to her, they have to go through baby boy.  Anyways, Darcy (my normal ultrasound tech) was doing her thing and everything was looking good.  The only odd thing was that baby girl's head is measuring small.  like.. 4 wks smaller.  But, one thing to consider- when she first got a leg measurement for baby girl- it measured small and then baby girl moved every so slightly and it measured on track.  So, I'm not really sure what to think.  I was in a little bit of a panic and then I tried to ignore it.

Fast forward a few days to today, Thursday.  I had my weekly Dr. appt.  Dr. D is out of town so I had to see someone else in the office, Dr. Lee.  I've never met her before.  Ashlyn came with me today.  The new electronic system was up and running today in the office.. so now every room has a computer.  Because it was a different doctor- it was a different nurse.  I love my dr's nurse, Abby.  She actually used to work at HFI when we were doing IVF with Alton and Ashlyn.  We have that connection and it makes it easy to talk to her.  This nurse was very cold.  Ashlyn even asked after she left- "Was she mad, mommy?"  nice.  My other nurse, Abby came in because she wanted to know why Dr. D wanted me to start coming in every week now.  I have no idea... that's just what she told me she wanted.  Normally the every week thing doesn't happen until 32 weeks... so I have like a red flag on me lol...  When Dr. Lee came in, she also asked what was up with coming in every week.  NO idea.  I don't want to drive down here that often!  I'm just doing what I'm told.

After that, she got down to business.  Went straight to the ultrasound and said "your baby's head is measuring small".  Has it been this way the whole pregnancy? No.  The next set of questions led to my panic... "Have you been out of the country- most importantly South America recently? Has your husband?  Are you sure?"  Am I sure?? I think I'd remember being on a gorgeous beach  lol   Then she started talking about Zika and how prevalent it is right now and started talking about small heads.  My head started to spin!  No, I don't have zika... but seriously, why are you bringing that up to a pregnant woman who doesn't have it??? I was beside myself.  Then she was all concerned that I wasn't seeing Dr. TamTam for growth ultrasounds.  Well, he told me that he didn't see a reason for me to keep coming to him and I could keep going to Dr. D if I wanted.  No brainer... TamTam = $40 ea time... Dr. D.. no copay.  So I told her that he said that I could continue seeing Dr. D and receive my ultrasounds in her office.  Then she said what I wish I could ignore- "You will be needing to go back to Dr. Tam Tam".  Great.  Then she said, "Well, any other problems today?" I said no.. and then she said, "Okay, I'll send for the ultrasound tech to come get you and get fetal tones".... um?  Dr. D gets heartbeats on her own with her little pocket doppler thing.  Poor Ashlyn was getting bored.   We waited about 20mins and then Darcy walked in with another ultrasound lady and we went to an ultrasound room just to get heart beats.  It was an ultrasound instead of just a doppler.  I was like, "so... do you think you could remeasure baby girl's head???" and they said, "we don't have orders to do that, sorry".  Rats.

I go back to see Dr. D next Friday early morning... only problem?  It's at 8:50am and then I have my iron infusion at 10:15am.  Looks like I'm spending a half day in willowbrook!! Now I need to find someone to watch Alton and Ashlyn who's okay with them running around all,day.long.  I'm also waiting to get the call from Dr. Tam Tam's office to see if that request was put in to see me... woo.

I'm just done with these weird road blocks.  I'm at the point where I just feel like "come and get me when it's over" lol...  I have a lot of fears and a lot of worry.  I'm trying to feel like everything is going to be okay.  It's just hard to do.  I talked to my dad this week and he likes to refer to my pregnancy as my "problem".  We'll be talking and then he'll be like, so, how's your "problem" going?  Um.. what problem?  "The having 2 more kids problem".  Thanks, Dad lol.  There are just times where I really need to talk to my mom.  It's hard not having her when I am feeling so scared.

On a lighter note- 9 wks or less to go :)

27.2wks :)

Just another update :)  Nothing super exciting.  Although, goal wise it's exciting.. 10-11more weeks if all goes according to plan!!

With my visit with Dr. Tam Tam that I talked about last post, I didn't mention that he told me that he is recommending that all his IVF mommies go in for an echocardiogram for the babies.  The nurse even asked me before he told me about it if I had gone in for my echo yet.  That was news to me.  They didn't make me do that with A&A.  Anyways, that was 2 weeks ago?  I went and my ultrasound tech was a guy (that's a first- minus my infertility specialist).  It was about a 3 hour appt.  Both babies look good.  The imaging on baby girl was really hard to see.  It looked really fuzzy and all the images with baby boy were very crisp and clear.  Looking at the girl they saw a "drop out" which means there could be a very small hole in her heart or an issue with the image.  After baby girl is born, we may have to get an echo on her just to make sure.  Oh- and as a side note- Since my visit I have heard from another IVF mommy who is also expecting twins who had to see Tam Tam... he mentioned NOTHING about going in for an echo to her... I think Tam Tam just didn't like me lol... oh well. 

Today I went in to a hematologist that Dr. DeSplinter referred me to due to low iron.  It was a bit of an interesting waiting room.  The price is right was on and I was surrounded by much older people who weren't in the best of health.  I definitely felt very out of place.  The doctor was running very late.  I got taken back and waited forever... I was getting a little bugged but then I heard a few conversations outside that gave me a big dose of humble pie.  The patient before me was having some very serious problems and she definitely needed all of the doctor's time.  Made me thankful that all I was there for was anemia.  

Anyways, so turns out that my iron levels were "barely detectable" lol... it came in at a 9 and the dr says she expects it to be in the hundreds.  So what does this mean?  Iron infusions.  I will start off with once a week visits to an infusion center. It might be increased to 2x a week, but we'll have to see how I'm responding. The first visit they require that someone come with me incase I have a reaction.  I know that this is necessary but I can't tell y'all how much I hate being a burden to other people.  Not only do I need to make sure my kids are looked after, but I need someone with me too!  The other part is that I will need to come after the babies are born to make sure my iron levels are doing okay because the babies will need iron.  

Blah.  

On the plus side- I did pass my glucose test with flying colors haha.. so one less thing to worry about!!  I'm really doing okay, just so much to keep track of and to worry about.  Jon is still traveling.  It is very possible that he will be able to be remote starting next week - fingers crossed!!!  He has been traveling straight for 19mo every week!  We are so ready to have our daddy back home.  

On a happy note, we had a wonderful 4th of July yesterday.  We took the kids to our in-law's pool and they loved it :)  Ashlyn pretended that she was a mermaid and Alton kept calling himself a great white shark and a humongous whale haha :)  Ashlyn would kick and try to paddle with her hands and then she'd ask to go back to "mermaid town" aka: the stairs.  

After naps, we went over to Jon's parent's house.  His sister, Leanna is in town from NYC so it was great to see her and to spend time with Jon's other sister, Beth and her family as well.  The kids had fun playing in a kiddie pool outside, hula hooping, walking on stilts and setting off some fireworks.