We made it to 30 weeks guys!

Yesterday was my second biophysical profile and had it's highs and lows.

Both boys passed with all their points! The NST found them both to have great variability in their heart rates although it took a really long time to locate both babies. I mean, we knew they are obviously still in the general vicinity but neither wanted to get monitored. The nurse brought in a pocket ultrasound and I wish that was something they just hand out to high risk patients! How amazing would it be to just be able to peek at the boys whenever we felt like it? Unfortunately the boys have long limbs that are all sorts of smashed together so she still couldn't find a good spot to place the sensor to grab Cooper's heart strip. So she went to ask a sonographer (this word has been on the outskirts of my brain all these weeks and I couldn't get it to surface, my apologies to any sonographers out there (especially those I am related to and/or have known all my life) that may not have liked being called an ultrasound tech all this time. I don't always love being called a hair dresser and I imagine it might be similar in your field.) to come in and find those tricksy babes.

OMG! That little smirk! It just kills me dead. I swear if these boys have their dad's smile I do not stand a chance of ever disciplining them. Sometimes I could swear that I hear a little *ting* sound effect when he smiles. And the nose and cheeks are starting to look like their big sisters for sure. They all look very similar as babies but I think I see A here the most.

We also got to listen to one of the boys having hiccups during the whole NST so that was all kinds of adorable. Unfortunately it was pretty immediately obvious during the ultrasound portion of the show that Cooper is once again getting shrink wrapped in his amniotic sack so the warm fuzzies turned to fear rather quickly. The amnion kind of causes a blur on the screen when it's so close to his little face and it's like looking through a foggy window at him. The sonographer was able to measure his largest vertical pocket of fluid at around 2.24 cm. This is lower than the last two weeks and much more visibly obvious even to me. Then she measured Lincoln's fluid which is tipping the scales at around 9.5 cm. This means that Cooper's measurement is .25 cm away from officially putting us back into stage I TTTS. These numbers can change day to day and depend on the babies' positions but the continued downward trend is the most concerning. Thankfully Cooper still has an easily visible bladder, both boys have great blood flows, and they both moved plenty. Lincoln did awesome practice breathing and Cooper had the hiccups again, which counts as both movement and practice breathing. I'd love to see him do a little more practice breathing next time because he hasn't done as well as his big little brother but I suppose it's not a competition. Because they passed their test and haven't officially gone back into TTTS we're sticking with my next appointment on Tuesday unless something changes between now and then. So we get to grow and fatten up for another week!

On the brighter side, the boys were once again head down with Cooper's noggin lodged way waaaaay down into my pelvis and Lincoln's head on top of his. Cooper is so far down that the sonographer had to tilt the table backwards to get access to measure the blood flow to his brain, which added some extra blood blow to my brain and some baby butts in my lungs making it hard to breathe! Hard to breathe is a relative term though because allergies and babies mean it is never actually easy for me to breathe anymore but I'm pretty excited every time these guys have those little heads together in the right spot.

Bonus points if you can tell what anything in this photo might be. I can see Cooper's fist and his little face turned away. I think that might be Lincoln's head over on the left but I'm not certain.

It seems a lot more important the last few days for them to be in the right positions because I've started to have regular timeable contractions. Up until now I've had plenty of Braxton Hicks contractions and several real ones here and there when I push my body too much but nothing that ever formed a pattern or lasted longer than a couple squeezes. Tuesday I was awoken from a nap to a strong tightening. None of them have been painful but strong enough that I can feel as it spreads over my entire belly and tightens downwards. I was able to go back to sleep but woke up twice more from obvious contractions and decided it was time to start timing them. Over the next couple hours I timed them between 5 and 9 minutes apart lasting for 30-45 seconds each time. Just when I was about to call the hospital and potentially go in they spaced out to about 15 minutes apart and then went to closer to 30 minutes for the next 24 hours. Yesterday evening and today have been better by far. The contractions are lighter and further apart at 30-45 minutes apart when I could time them but I've been trying to ignore them a little unless they demand my attention.

Two little booties and some gigantic feet! Seriously! Look at those feet. I'm going to blame those giant feet for the constant pain in my ribs and the fact that I felt Lincoln kick on one side of my belly last night but saw Cooper's bum bump out on the other side of my belly at the same time.

I've decided that I need to get on top of packing my hospital bag and getting as much laundry done as possible while also physically not doing too much. Slowly but surely. Hopefully it will all be for naught and will sit around making my bedroom look messy for several weeks! I know I need to update a little about the baby shower and share some updated photos that show the belly but this post is long enough as is so you'll just have to wait. There's also a video of these babes but I haven't downloaded it yet to see if it's worth sharing here. I hope this week has been kind to you and may you be more comfortable at all times than I am. If you're the praying type please send one up that the babies' fluid will balance out again and that my contractions will just stop. I truly think my body doesn't want to stretch any more and is trying to hit eject so I'm hoping that I'll hit some point where my muscles give a little and then everything will calm down a little.