Sleeping

So this week I have finally figured out to sleep. I have been so uncomfortable at night that I have been waking up around 1:00-2:00 with back and kidney pain. (I recently found that I have fluid back up into my kidneys due to compression from my uterus.) So then I get up and have to move around only to lay back down and still be uncomfortable. So I remembered Rachael telling me that when she is pregnant she has to sleep in her LoveSac. At first I tried sleeping in the recliner, which was OK, but I would prefer to sleep in bed. So I experimented with pillows and have come up with a semi recumbant position with my pillows that takes pressure off my back and allow gravity to work better for my kidneys. It was amazing, I have actually slept most of the night and don't wake up with back pain. Yeah! I suppose all of these things take time to figure out.

A couple of things I forgot to mention in my post the other day. While we were at my doctors she was saying that all of the twins she has delivered in the past year were girls, so apparently we are right in that trend. Also here are some pictures of Marc with his father's day present which appears to be a normal bag and demonstrating the wipes access. 

Yesterday I had my 20 week doctor's appointment and ultrasound. At the doctor's appointment, nothing was really interesting except that I was dehydrated. But other than that things are going well. I was happy to hear that I am no longer measuring 7 weeks ahead, only about 5-6. So I can deal with that. The ultrasound was another story. We got there right on time at 3:00 and didn't get in for about 45 minutes. Since this is the major ultrasound checking anatomy and structures and all that, it took forever. I shouldn't have been surprised though. When I scan just one baby it takes about 20 minutes, so a 40 minute one for two is right in line. But about 30 minutes into it I started having a really difficult time. Let me preface this with saying that I have difficulty laying on my back since it cause my lower back to ache, and I also can't have anything compressing my stomach (I have a hard time even wearing maternity pants because the elastic compresses me and I feel like I am going to pass out.) So after 30 minutes I started to get hot and light headed so I had to sit up and have a drink of water and take some deep breaths before I let her finish scanning me. When the tech was done we had to wait another 20-30 minutes for the Perinatologist to come in and finish up (I wasn't as annoyed at this point because I could lay on my side and gear up for more ultrasound). I really like the guy that we have been seeing, Marc Jackson. He is friendly and informative. Most of the time he was telling me about another girl that he had just seen (the reason it took him so long). When she got pregnant, her diabetes was way out of control and now her baby was suffering from an encepholocele. That is when there is a hole in the skull and the brain is protruding out. There is really nothing they can do for the babies and the vast majority of the time they die in utero or shortly after birth. I think they must like having someone like me come through where I am healthy and my babies are healthy, there just happens to be two of them.
On another note, we celebrated our first (kind of) father's day. I bought Marc a manly diaper bag. I will try and post a picture of it tomorrow. It is pretty cool. If you want to see a demo of it you can go to http://www.dadgear.com/gear_main.cfm?ID=10#. It is kind of fun and Marc is pretty excited about it. Speaking of which, when I was checking out and scheduling my next ultrasound the receptionist asked us if that is OK that we were having twins. We both looked at her funny because it has to be OK. That is what we are getting. I just thought it was the weirdest comment to make. People are strange.

Family and school

My sister and her family were in town this week for a surprise birthday party for her mother in law. I was fun to see her and get to hang out for a bit. She had a BBQ on Monday and invited some friends over we don't see often. All of the girls were either pregnant, just had a baby, or trying to get pregnant. I guess that is how it goes when a bunch of Mormon girls in their late 20s get together. Rachael was very nice and brought me some of Jenna's clothes that she has outgrown. It was also nice to talk to her about her baby experiences and what books she liked and all of that.
On another note, I just started my last semester of Ultrasound school. Yeah! This is just a short 8 week course that reviews everything we have learned and prepares us to take the registry (which I am not elegible to take for at least another year, probably longer since I will not be working for as long as I can after the girls are born). But I am glad to be in the home stretch. My doctor has told me that I will need to try and cut back my activity and hours at work if I can in August. Well that will be conviently easy for me. I will still work full time at the sleep lab until I am put on disability, but not being in school will feel like a vacation to me.