The Payez Family

Well we had our first appointment with Dr. Hembree today and we love her.  She is extremely friendly and outgoing and I am super excited.  We did get a quick ultrasound on an older machine just to see their heartbeats since it is hard to find twins with the doppler.  We didn’t get any pics but it was so incredibly cute!  Baby A was moving around like a crazy and hitting and kicking his or her twin because Baby B was sleeping and A wanted to play!!  They just look like little babies now!  We go back for a checkup in a month and scheduled our “big” ultrasound for April 16th to see if they are boys or girls or both!!  YAY!  7 weeks and we will know!

I am back from Florida and the trip was wonderful!  I met me baby nephew for the first time–he is 6 weeks old and so incredibly precious!  I was in the ER again the morning that I left for Florida after being up for 18 hrs unable to hold down even a sip of water.  I was dehydrated so they prescribed me something else for the nausea since the phenergran didn’t do anything and it works beautifully.  I can now eat food, though very very small portions.  I have lost a lot of weight since July (64 lbs) and have lost 12 since being pregnant which obviously is the reverse of what is supposed to be happening.  My doctor says the babies are fine and are being nourished enough for the time being.  I go to my new OB Monday and hopefully we will get another ultrasound then.  I will update then!  Here is a pic of “Auntie M” and Ethan from the trip! Sorry it is so huge…Justin got me a new computer for Valentine’s Day and it doesn’t have photoshop yet.

Well as of midnight tonight, I will be 11 weeks along!  I am officially uncomfortable in my regular jeans now and while maternity jeans don’t exactly fit either, they are WAY more comfy, so I opt for those most days.  I am still sick as ever, but still grateful.  Tomorrow I will be leaving for Florida for the next 10 days, but I may still be online from time to time as I will be at my parents’ house in Palm Beach for most of the trip. This will probably be my last getaway until the babies arrive and while I will miss Justin like CRAZY, getting away and escaping the cold and snow will do me and the babies wonders I am sure.  When I return I will be days away from the second trimester and I am SOO excited about that.  I also have my first appointment with my new OB the week after I come back.  So that is about it for now…nothing too much right now.  See ya next week!!  :)

We ordered a fetal heart doppler…well we rented it, in hopes that it would help ease the anxiety of always wondering if everything was going well with the pregnancy.  Well we got it in the mail last week and I have been making myself crazy because I have only been able to hear my own arterial bloodflow….but alas, today I heard at least one of them!!!  I am pretty sure it was Baby B because he or she generally doesn’t wiggle around too much, and I was able to count 180 beats per minute. They were so fast, it was hard to keep up but I am SOOOO thrilled that I heard it.  I then believe that I briefly caught Baby A but couldn’t keep it long enough to count.  I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to hear it…it is SO UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S.  I told you guys I would post more!!!  :)

For the past 5 weeks I have been feeling queasy almost all day long, and have not been able to eat a thing.  But now, when I thought that was bad, I can’t keep anything down!  What a horrible feeling!  I know it is a good thing and morning sickness (or all day sickness in my case) is a sign that everything is going well and for that I am grateful, but just let me tell you how incredibly hungry I am all the time!  I mean it is no secret that I like to eat…I wouldn’t exactly classify myself as a pig, but I do enjoy food!  Who doesn’t?  Well that is not the case anymore.  I WANT FOOD!!!!!! But at the same time, thinking about eating makes me run for the bathroom.  ARGH!  Anyway, I am bored and just wanted to vent….vent over!  ;o)

Well I made it to 9 weeks, but not without a HUGE scare.  Yesterday afternoon I started bleeding heavily and I really thought I was losing the babies. I called Dr. McGinnis who told me to go to the ER at Ruby.  I went, they got an IV started, discovered I was dehydrated, did an ultrasound and amazingly found one heart beat.  The ER doc, who obviously didn’t know anything about Obstetrics said the other heartbeat could be there but the equipment wasn’t the greatest so there was no way to tell for sure.  I was there for about 6 hours then went and stayed with my parents since Justin had to work last night and no one wanted me to be alone, just in case.  I went to see Dr. McGinnis this morning and incredibly, and by the grace of God, both babies were moving around and had very strong heartbeats.  He said there wasn’t anything physically wrong and that I am no more at risk now than I was before, which is good news.  He called it a “threatened miscarriage” but since it didn’t actually happen, he is very relieved and feels that everything will be fine.  I literally came home this morning and passed out for like 6 hours…we are so relieved.  Here are the latest pics of “Walker” and “Texas Ranger” as my dad calls them from Talladega Nights.  The names fit for now…they are my little fighters!!!!

It is really hard to tell from the picture but they now have arms and legs and were waving them around like crazy!  In these pics you can see the amniotic sac and in Baby A’s sac, the white thing is part of the umbilical cord, you can follow it to the edge!  THANK YOU GOD!!!!!

We officially graduated from Dr. McGinnis today and I am very sad.  Although, because of the twins, I will being seeing a clan of OB’s in Morgantown and delivering at Ruby where the NICU is excellent and close-by.  The risks are obviously higher with twins and I don’t want there to be anything left to fate.  SO Dr. McGinnis recommended a few of his colleagues and I have heard great things about them and will have my first appointment with them on the 31st.  A good thing about this situation is that Dr. McGinnis could potentially deliver them if he is the doctor on call at the time, which would be incredible!  We really owe him so much–he is an amazing doctor and just a nice person and without him, I wouldn’t have my babies and I am so incredibly grateful to him for helping create our family (actually our instant family)!  AND BACK TO THE TWINS!  They have grown so much in just 10 days it is amazing!  Baby A looked like a little shrimp all curled up and kept moving around making it difficult for them to pin-point the heart so we could hear it beat…but we did hear it briefly though we could really see it pumping pretty easily.  He or she ( I think she) had a very very strong heart rate of 170 beats per minute!  Baby B was laying towards my back so all we could see was his (yes I think baby B is a He) back and butt and head, but he was content where he was and we heard his heart beating just like I had my ear to his chest…I teared up when I heard that perfect little thump thump thump. He also had 170 bpm.  Both measured perfectly and Dr. McGinnis feels very confident that all is well with my babies. As for me, at around 7 weeks I was in bed most of the time and didn’t want to think about food at all and Justin had to literally force me to eat, but then it just kind of went away and I am back to where I was…I am starving most of the time, but nothing at all sounds remotely appetizing and I just force myself to swallow.  I am still soooo thirsty and I slept a grand total of 12 hours last night!  AND my pants don’t fit anymore!  I squeeze into them but I feel like I am hurting the babies so I really don’t like to.  I can fit into my “fat” jeans but they are just not attractive at all.  It is time to start considering moving onto maternity jeans. By 12 weeks, I definitely won’t be able to fit so I guess I might as well be comfortable now as well.  Well I think that is it for now. I promise I will keep updating from now on (Kat)!

Well it has been a while since we have updated and a LOT has happened!  We found out at the first ultrasound that we are having fraternal twins (non-identical).  I was in SHOCK big time!  There was a resident doing the ultrasound (as usual) but Dr. McGinnis was right there too and some nurses.  We immediately saw baby A and his or her little heart thumping away.  They were measuring the baby for a while and looking around to make sure my ovaries were OK after all the swelling from the surgery when all of a sudden baby B appears and there they both were on the screen.  Dr. McGinnis’s eyes lit up and everyone was just amazed since at this point we were pretty sure there was only one.  It was incredible…I couldn’t put that feeling into words ever in my lifetime.  Baby B was also healthy with his or her heart beating also.  They are in their own gestational sac which is excellent news and were measuring right on track for 6 weeks.  At this point they really just looked like two little beans…very cute little beans!  I was in shock for most of that day I think.  We called our parents and told them and then went home and went back to sleep (because now I seriously sleep at least 10 hours a night)!!  I have had some minor nausea off and on, though it is mostly just food aversions so the babies are being pretty nice to Mom so far. The biggest thing I notice is how thirsty I am and how much I sleep.