Dawn, I swelled really bad with my first pg and I have NO idea if it will work, but have you considered using mortons' lite salt (half the sodium) or takign potassium for the swelling? I know it works in regular folks with swelling, but I'm not sure if it will effect a pregnant person the same way since the cause is probably different..

Oh, I am a little miffed at one of my male friends. His wife has always wanted twins really badly and he told me she was jealous. I was like "don't worry...being pregnant with twins is not so glamourous." He then replied "well, her stance is that twins are really best for a first pregnancy, not later ones." I wanted to go off. Is that hormones or do y'all see my point? How dare you have a "stance" on when people should have multiples. I didn't really have a choice of what came first. It happened naturally, and I'm not God. I just told him "it must be really nice to have a 'stance' on when people should or shouldn't have kids and what types they should be...too bad I learned God doesn't care about our 'stance.' I hope that wasn't too witchy. His wife has started to grate on me ever since she made fun of my aunt who just died of Alzheimers. My value of her opinion wasn't always that high, but she just thinks she is above life's obstacles I guess. Life has a way of educating people like that, though.

I think you were perfectly justified in going off. It sounds like he needed to be set in his place. People can be so stupid when it comes to pregnancy. I used to want twins and my two at 13 months apart are twins enough for me.

You were totally right in saying something to those people. I hate it when people open their big mouths like that. You can't help having twins-it isn't like you were doing fertility drugs and had 17 embryos implanted, you know? It just HAPPENED.

On the same "you can't help it" note-I was fired/let go from my job when I was about 5 months pregnant with my daughter. I was a hard worker, always on time...the whole drill. You know why myboss fired me? Because his wife had a miscarriage. She became pregnant shortly before I...and I found out I was pg a month or two after. She had her miscarriage at around 5 months-I was probably about 3...and after that she stopped coming in to the office. I was let go a few weeks later. The thing is-he never even talked to me about it. I came in, and found another woman AT MY DESK. I went into his office-and he tried giving me the whole "everything I am doing wrong" schpeal...and actually wanted me to stay that day to TRAIN this lady.

I called him out on it-and basically found out that his wife felt that it wasn't fair that they lost THEIR baby-because they had been trying for months to get pregnant, etc. and were married, etc. and at the time-my pregnancy had been a surprise, and Jason and I were not yet married. So-basically, I was let go because of HER feelings of how unfair it all was...not because of anything I could help. So...it was completely "fair" I guess to get rid of me during the time where I probably needed money/benefits THE MOST. I mean, who is going to hire you when you are VISIBLY pregnant? Luckily...we were able to make ends meet at that time with Jason's pay.

(On a side note...we got married when Jasmine was a year old. Our stance on that was not to get married "just because of the baby". Both of our mothers/fathers did just that...and both ended up at some point divorced. We decided upon finding out about the pregancy, that two wrongs don't make a right...and if/when we got married, it would be because we loved each other enough to make that committment-NOT just because of a child. I am glad that we waited-because I know that we made the right decision.)

Funny, my stance on twins is that total idiots should not be reproducing.

Speaking of that-a friend just emailed me about a onesie that I need to buy. It says "Proof that geeks get it on".

Love the onesie.

My inlaws are really excited about this pregnancy, I think. I feel almost slighted for my son (whom they have come here to see one time in over 2 years). They are joking about a caravan for seeing the twins arrive and have upped their offer to help from one week to two. They only stayed long enough for DS to get out of the NICU...we weren't even discharged I'm really excited because it is double the babies and a new experience, but a twin isn't any more special than my first baby. I wish they saw it that way.

Everyone: thanks for the discussion a few weeks ago on c-sections. I thought I was being out of line about crying every time I thought about the fact that I had an unplanned c-section, but now I know my feelings were really normal.

Dairy Fairy: Wow about your surprise twins!

Aphil: my DF and I were engaged when we found out I was pregnant, but decided against rushing to get married since I was tired and stressed out enough with the pregnancy and work and didn't want to add the stress of planning a wedding.

Cheers!

Ali

Aphil - The way you got fired was SO illegal. Did you ever look into it, or was it not worth it at that point? That must have been so frustrating! -- How are you feeling? Are you getting excited?

Well I went into L&D last night and I did not much care for the nurse on duty. I started having pains on my upper belly on Wednesday night when I would stand up or sit down. They went away when I was laying down. When I got up yesterday morning it was back, but it didn't hurt as bad so I went on to work. Again they came and went throughout the day. I had a couple where I had to hold onto something to keep me from falling down. I figured I would head home, put my feet up, enjoy more ice water and see if they went away. On my drive home I noticed they were hitting every 4-5 minutes. The pain only lasted a few seconds and I didn't notice my uterus hardening during this time. I tried the laying down for 30 minutes and the pains were still hitting me so I called L&D and was told to come in. I live an hour away from the hospital. Got the kids rounded up and headed out. Stopped at McD's to get them some supper and dropped them off at mom's and went on. I drink water throughout the day but drank a whole lot more on the drive over. When I peed in the cup it was almost clear.
The nurse started taking my vitals, etc. and I told her he was breech. She treated me like an idiot and rather than put the baby monitor toward the top of my belly where I told her they found his HB yesterday she stuck it at the bottom and had me press down on it to get the HB. Then she said 33 weeks was a bit early to hear the HB on that. HUH? I about smarted off to her that I've had 3 NSTs and the day people don't have problems finding his HB but I know this nurse will more than likely be working when I do deliver and didn't want to piss her off. Then she sticks the ctx monitor right in the middle of my belly, almost in my belly button. I don't remember anyone ever putting it there. My BP was 133/87, she said was fine but I told her I'd been running in the 100s-110s/60s-70s. She didn't seem concerned. So I lay there. I had 2 ctx that I saw on the thing. One was the hill curve and the other was a spikey one. I also noticed that whenever I had those upper pains, it would put a very small spike on the thing. After being there for more than an hour, I was told to take regular tylenol for pain and it was more than likely round ligament pain. She even told me round ligament pain starts about your belly button region. WTF. That's not what I'd been told about it and I even looked it up this morning to make sure and this is what I found.

Yes I did start getting them when I stood up but they weren't going away when I was sitting down doing nothing or laying down and not changing positions. And they are at the very top of my belly, almost under my breasts. Instead I took Tylenol PM last night so I could get some sleep and the pains are a lot duller today. I'm just going to keep a watch on them and see if they get worse.

Good thing it is the weekend...you won't have to go to work and you can stay in and make your husband do all the work and take care of you. I can't imagine being pregnant with kids and a job...you must be exhausted!

Dawnyal-

You are experiencing the strong Braxton Hicks contractions-just as I have been. Those are NOT ligament pains. Those are much more around the groin area, and the lower region of the belly-like where your legs connect to your torso. That nurse sounds like such a moron.

They told me to drink a lot of water, and to lie on my left side when the contractions start up...and to come in if I start having MORE than 4 an hour. They usually don't do a whole lot-but they CAN start effacing/thinning your cervix out some if you start having too many of them. They have been doing cervical checks on me at my visits to see if I am doing anything major as far as effacement or dilation due to them...because it CAN happen, and send you into labor early.

I have noticed that there are times where the contractions are stronger than others-and my positioning has a lot to do with it. Sitting straight up for long periods of time tends to "set them off" like driving in the car/riding in the car or being at the movies...when I sit straight up like that for long time periods-the contractions really start happening. Not sure why...

Please take care, and take it easy as I am trying to do. Besides..."ligament pains" do not show up on the monitors like contractions do.

Sara-no, I didn't look into the legal part of it. I called my boss out on it, and he KNEW he was in the wrong. It just wasn't "worth it" to pursue at that point, you know? If it would have been a large corporation, though-with lots of money...you bet I would have.

When did you guys start to lose your morning morning sickness? I am 9 weeks and have been experiencing it every 3-4 days for all day, then no real nausea in between. I still have heartburn really bad and breast tenderness. After the last pregnancy (ended in miscarriage) didn't have any morning sickness, I'm starting to WISH I felt sick so I could be reassured. I almost feel it is abnormal not to feel more nausea, esp. with two babies in there. Do you think it is possible at 9 weeks that the worst is just over as far as m/s? I apparently am a textbook ideal candidate for a healthy twin pregnancy (no hx of preterm labor, family hx of twins, nice even sacs), but all my calls from perinatologists and my insurance company about high risk prevention are making me worry...esp when I read those articles on "vanishing twins." I worry that I will go into the doctor on the 24 and one or both will be gone I guess I have no real reason, but my doctor's precautions (even though she says this is her standard twin procedure) are freakin' me out.

Oh, sometimes the medical establishment drives me nuts! If you are an ideal candidate to have twins, if you have all these signals of health, there's no real reason to label you high risk simply because you're carrying twins! I know that's the standard thing to do these days, but geez! There are plenty of women out there who go through their whole twin pregnancy without a day's worth of bedrest and even, gasp, give birth to them vaginally. (Not that I'm sayin' you have to, just that it's quite possible.)

I will never understand why so many folks treat pregnant women as accidents waiting to happen. I am sorry they're stressing you out.

Morning sickness is one of those things that is so variable, I don't think there's any sort of a norm. From the standpoint of someone who had very bad, all day long morning sickness up to week 16 last time around (and it came back in the final trimester), you seem very lucky! Of course, when I was pregnant with Esther, I worried when I didn't spot, like I had the first two times.