26 weeks

It's been a busy week for us. On Saturday, we did a tour of the maternity ward of the hospital we plan to deliver at. After a long wait, we got to see the labor and delivery rooms as well as the postpartum rooms. They described how a typical delivery goes and what we can expect. It was very much geared towards singletons and not twins, but it was still nice to see and hear what to expect that day. We saw the NICU area, which we hopefully won't need.

Sunday, we went down to Fort Worth for a preparing for multiples class. I wanted to take a few classes to help prepare us for what to expect, but wasn't sure how much I'd get out of a traditional class. That's why I was so excited to see this one, geared towards twin parents. It's a two part class, so we go again next weekend too. The first class was mostly an intro to labor and delivery. We watched alot of videos on different ways to give birth and then did a few exercises to help deal with the pain of labor. Spencer and I felt the class was a little judgy toward any birth besides a natural labor. The way the video and teacher explained the epidural process and even the c-section process seemed like they were looking down on those women who use them. Maybe we read too much into it, but I felt a tad bit of shame for going straight for a c-section and not even trying attempting a vaginal delivery. I'm gonna do like I usually do and brush it off; I'll do what I want and ignore everyone else. Next week is supposed to be more about after delivery, so we shall see what that's like. I'm trying to decide whether to cancel the class on baby care basics or attend and see if there aren't a few morsels of good, new info.

And the last big baby related event this week was our second scan with the specialist to check on Elizabeth's growth. Good news is that she grew, bad news is that it wasn't as much as we wanted and she slipped into the less than 10th percentile. Owen is still measuring big; he's just over two pounds right now and measuring a week ahead. Elizabeth was one pound nine ounces and measuring a week behind. I keep telling Owen he needs to share with his sister.

The doctor has finally seen all of the structures she needs to see on Elizabeth and thinks everything looks great. Blood flow, heart, and brain structures look normal. She is just proportionally small right now. The doctor gave us some reasons why, but doesn't really know anything yet. It could be the placenta didn't attach as well attach Owen's and she doesn't get ad much nutrients. There could be an infection, which would just be good for the pediatrician to know after she's here. Could be chromosomal issues, particularly a few trisomy possibilities; she doesn't have any of the soft markers for down syndrome. Or they could just be two different people and Wolf girls run small (alot of her female Wolf relatives are on the petite side). Basically, we don't know and just have to wait. I had some blood drawn to run tests for infection and chromosomes, but neither test may be 100% accurate because they are twins. Those results should take a week or two.

The doctor has moved up the due date a week, so I will not go past 36/37 weeks now. That translates to a July 12-19th delivery. We are also now going to the specialist weekly for a scan. She said that normal bedrest wouldn't necessarily be helpful to helping Elizabeth grow, but there is a small chance I could go on hospital bed rest for the extra monitoring. She made it seem like if we came in for a scan and she saw something concerning, she'd give it one more week to see an improvement and if not I go straight to the hospital until I deliver. So hopefully if it comes to that, I'll have about a week to prepare and settle everything at home and work.

In the mean time, we see both doctors again next week. I get to do my glucose tolerance test in the morning and we get to see the twins again in the afternoon. I'm working on applying for FMLA leave at work and trying to finish up some large projects before I go out. I'm finishing up our registry and starting to get a few baby showers planned.  We are also trying to get the house cleaned up, organized, and unnecessary items thrown out/donated.  It's crazy to think we have 10-11 weeks left (at the most).