Babies, Babies, Babies...

I am now 27 weeks, one week away from the next big milestone of 28 weeks and 7 weeks away from my goal of 34 weeks. Today I had another doctors appointment and he said that I am doing "remarkably well". This time I had a bigger ultrasound where they took more measurements on all the babies. They estimated the babies weights to be between 2 lbs 2 oz and 2 lbs 7 oz. If I add up all the babies weights, there is over 11 lbs of baby in there right now! Unfortunately, all the babies were facing towards my spine---not one of them wanted to turn and pose for a photo, so I don't have any to share. These babies are going to have to have to learn to cooperate for Kodak Moments, because their mom is definitely into taking pictures.

I also had another fibronectin test, but I don't know the results yet. I guess this was the week for tests because I also had blood drawn and did the one hour glucose test. For those not familiar with the glucose test, it basically entails drinking a really yucky orange drink, then waiting an hour and having blood drawn to determine your blood glucose level. If it is too high, the next step is to take a three-hour glucose test to determine if you have gestational diabetes. I technically failed the one-hour glucose test, but my level (143) was really close to the cutoff (140), so my doctor said he is not concerned and I do not have to take the three-hour test!!!! Hurray!!! With multiples it is very common to have elevated blood glucose levels, since the body is working harder to feed all those babies.

This week, on Monday, a set of sextuplets was born here in Phoenix. The mom, Jenny Masche, and all six of the babies are doing well so far. It was fascinating for me to watch the news reports on the birth, because I know that I will be there myself (minus one baby) in a few weeks. Jenny was 30.5 weeks when she delivered. Her babies weighed between 2 lbs 1 oz and 3 lbs. This means that, according to my ultrasound measurements, some of my babies are about the same size as some of her babies. It is interesting to look at the pictures of those tiny babies and think that that is what mine look like now. Here are a couple of links to the news stories about the sextuplet birth. The first one has a good article to read, and the second one has lots of links to videos of the birth and reactions to the birth (look on the right side of the page). Jenny and I have the same doctor, Dr. Elliott, who is also in some of the videos.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/0612sextuplets06121.html

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0612sextupletmom0612on.html


I also got a little press coverage myself this past week. The local paper did a follow-up story about me which was in Saturday's paper, before the big news of the sextuplets! Here is the link:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0608gr-newsmaker0608-ON.html

Babies, Babies, Babies...