8 weeks

First things first-- here's me not showing at 8 weeks.  If I look thick, well, that's my normal thickness.  My clothes are all fitting fine.  And if I look short it's because the person that took this picture is really-super-tall.  I'm actually 5'9".

 

 

And just because I feel like I should start taking note of such things, on my scale this morning, I was 159 lbs.  I never actually lost all of the baby weight last time, so this is a few pounds down from where I started the pregnancy which was... 163? 165?  Something like that.  Food aversions and nausea have taken their toll, but not too badly.

 

I think the weight gain goal is 36 lbs. by 24 weeks for best outcomes.  Um, yikes.  24 weeks for me is August 2.  And adding 36 lbs. to my current weight would bring me to 195.  Oof.

 

I have started trying to count protein grams and make sure that even on my lighter eating days I'm getting 80g or so.  My goal is to get up to more like 150g per day, but I need to be able to eat to hit that.  Hopefully in a few more weeks.

 

Here's what babycenter has to say about the babies today:

 

How your baby's growing:

New this week: Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from your baby's hands and feet, his eyelids practically cover his eyes, breathing tubes extend from his throat to the branches of his developing lungs, and his "tail" is just about gone. In his brain, nerve cells are branching out to connect with one another, forming primitive neural pathways. You may be daydreaming about your baby as one sex or the other, but the external genitals still haven't developed enough to reveal whether you're having a boy or a girl. Either way, your baby — about the size of a kidney bean — is constantly moving and shifting, though you still can't feel it.

http://www.babycenter.com/6_your-pregnancy-8-weeks_1097.bc

This has actually been an eventful past couple of days.  On Wednesday, we had our consultation with Dr. Carpenter.  It was exceptionally helpful-- but I think I'll give it its own post.

Dr. Carpenter recommended that I see Dr. Marco Uribe here in Austin as my OB.  I called Wednesday afternoon to make the appointment, and it turns out they had a cancellation for the next morning at 10:00, so I had my first OB appointment yesterday.

To set the stage, I've delivered all of my babies with midwives.  I (strongly) prefer midwives, because of the level of personal care they provide.  So while I know a midwife is not an option with this pregnancy, there's definitely some sense of disappointment in having to "go mainstream."

So yesterday, I walked into the waiting room before my appointment and it is ENORMOUS.  Seriously like a cattle call-- women everywhere-- I'd say at least 40 of us waiting.  Holy moly!  And boy, did we wait.  I was in the waiting room for about an hour before I was called back.  Then the nurse took my medical history, weight, and blood pressure (low) and I waited about another hour to see Dr. Uribe-- maybe even a little more that that.

When he did come in, he was very nice.  He did a full physical, including a pap smear.  He did a quick ultrasound.  The babies all had heartrates in the 140s and two measured 7w5d, while the other measured 7w6d.  Good that they continue to be about the same size-- that's something they will continue to monitor closely throughout the pregnancy, to be sure they're sharing space well.  He also measured my cervix, which is 3.5 cm, which he said was normal (now that I'm googling, I think it's on the low end of normal... hmmm....).  After the appointment, I had a blood draw-- 4 vials, which left me feeling a little woozy, since at this point it had been nearly 3.5 hours with nothing to eat or drink (not ideal for me right now).

It looks like the plan will be to see Dr. Uribe and the MFM, Dr. Sina Haeri, in Austin until I'm 20-something weeks, at which point, I will transfer care to Dr. Carpenter and a Houston OB.  My preferred OB in Houston would be Dr. Damla Dryden, because she has experience delivering full term triplets vaginally-- which would be amazing (I'd love to avoid having a c-section, if there's a good alternative).

Oh-- also worth noting about yesterday's appointment-- the nurse was pretty flustered (they have a new computer system), but at one point she asked me if all three babies were for the surrogacy, or if we were keeping any of them.  Oh my goodness!  I had to laugh and I think (hope) she realized the ridiculousness of the question after it left her mouth!

Our next appointments are on May 2, at 10w6d.  At 9am, I have an appointment with Dr. Haeri to do the first trimester ultrasound, which will measure the babies' nuchal folds and get an idea of placenta placement-- that's important because I think N and M want to do CVS testing, and we need to know if we will have access to all of the placentas.  Then at noon, I'll go up a floor to Dr. Uribe's office for my regular OB appointment.  Hopefully that one will be quick, since I'll have already done the ultrasound that morning.