Keeping up with the Schultzes: 36 Weeks

Happy 36 Weeks!

Oh Gosh!! How long have we waited to say "Happy 36 Weeks?!" We have 1 more week until we are considered "full term" for a twin pregnancy, but are starting to feel very confident that our little girls will have no need for a NICU stay when born, even if we don't make it to our scheduled C-Section date of February 27th.

Experiencing no NICU time has ALWAYS been the ultimate goal for us and we feel so lucky to have made it this far.

How Far Along? 36 Weeks 5 Days

Stretch Marks? Nope! Just full belly button "outie" still! Thank you Mom for great genetics, because these girls have certainly worked hard at growing and stretching this skin!

Sleep? Sleep has become very sporadic & challenging. I start off in bed with a Hydrocodone to alleviate my SPD pain enough to go to sleep, prop up my body pillow & wedge other pillows under my back & usually fall asleep fast when ultimately comfortable. This initial sleep lasts usually 3-4 hours. I then need to turn & usually decide I need to move to the recliner in our living room, which wakes my brain up, then keeping me awake for an hour or so. I can usually pull another 3 hours in the recliner, but because I'm slightly upright, Baby A's head starts migrating under my ribcage & I start finding it very hard to breathe, which inevitably wakes me up. It will be much more rewarding waking up to my sweet child's face than a pain in my ribs.. and I so look forward to that in less than a week!

Best Moment of the Week? The best moment of this was graduating from our MFM appointment with Dr Berry saying how well we had done, over and over again. Trae and I left with our 36 week gold coin that we worked so hard for, hand-in-hand past the fertility clinic (that is located on the same floor as Dr Berry's office) that helped us have both Sawyer & Tristan and these baby girls and felt so grateful. We drove home in utter disbelief, tears in our eyes and a full heart commenting over and over again how we couldn't believe how lucky we were & how excited we are to be almost full term with healthy baby girls. We can hardly wait to meet them!!!

Our 36 Week Gold Coin "Award" given by Dr Berry!

Food Cravings: Pizza, lime water, fruit.. pretty much anything but meat.

Genders? Fraternal Twin Girls

Symptoms: The SPD pain has gotten worse this week. Walking is harder, sleeping is harder, shaving my legs has become something worthy of an Olympic medal, itself. I'm very thankful for the hydrocodone that helps me get to sleep through the pain, but this week has been a fairly sedentary one due to the pain.

I've had a few days of Braxton Hicks this week that required one or two Benadryl to knock out. Almost any movement around the house causes them to kick in, so I've been spending lots of time on my recliner binge watching Scandal & other TV shows while trying not to think about all the nesting I wish I could be doing. Thankfully Trae has been SO helpful in vacuuming when he knows it's driving me crazy several times a week, going to the grocery store & putting together anything I order for the nursery without complaint.

Weekly Dr. Appts:

Dr Reue: Dr Reue is officially back from vacation, so I feel better already... aside from being 36+ weeks and knowing our girls are likely safe from any NICU time. Dr Reue commended us for making it to 36 weeks, felt my belly and said "you sure aren't having small babies!" We all smiled, knowing this meant our babies were growing well & I was doing my job well. My strep B test came back negative, Blood Pressure is still low and everything looked "great" according to Dr Reue.

Trae asked if there would be any complications due to both girls being breech/transverse and Dr Reue assured us that the C-Section would be very routine (pending any unseen circumstances) and the babies' position wouldn't effect the difficulty or size of my incision at all.

We see Dr. Reue for our last prenatal appointment next Tuesday at 37 weeks, where we will make sure we're still on track for Thursday and learn all the fun facts about what's to come on Thursday morning!! We're so excited!!!

Dr Berry: Both girls passed their Bio Physical Profiles quickly proving that they were little movers & shakers and very healthy babies. Baby A's fluid had increased a little, but Dr Berry wasn't worried. He just said to be aware I could be a little more uncomfortable in the next week since she is taking up a little more room. While added discomfort is not an exciting thing to hear, I was just happy they were doing well & there were no indications that they would be here before our scheduled 2/27 C-Section date.

Dr Berry congratulated us for making it so far, gave us our well deserved 36 Week Gold Coin Medal and remarked how well we looked and were doing to be almost full term with very healthy-sized babies! We hugged Dr Berry and thanked him for everything he did to care for us and our family.

It had been almost a year, to the day to the first time we met with Dr Berry in his office to discuss our loss with Sawyer & Tristan. He took his time to listen to us, care for us and put a plan together when we were pregnant again. When we saw him pregnant with our 2nd set of twins, he put his game face on and said "let's do this! You can do this!" So to hug him and say "we did it"... it was a very special moment for us all.

Trae said "when do we see you next" out of habit and Dr Berry replied "next pregnancy, of course!!"

We all laughed and I said "I'll start with bringing the girls by to meet you soon."