Keeping up with the Schultzes: 35 Weeks

Happy 35 Weeks to us!

This Valentine's Day week we celebrate all our LOVES and our official 2 week baby countdown has officially begun!!

I am laying pretty low these days, only getting out of the house for quick errands that include Trae and little walking, so we knew our Valentine's Day would be a special, low key day for us both. Trae brought me home red roses, a beautiful card and (my favorite) breakfast tacos from work mid morning on Friday. It was a wonderful surprise for this sleepy, hungry mama! Friday night we went to one of our favorite Austin pizza places, Saccones to share a pizza & salad before getting me home to fall asleep in my recliner by 10:30.

It was a long weekend for Trae, as he had off today for President's Day. We were able to spend some time with good friends over dinner, finish some additional details in the girls' nursery and spend some quality time together watching the winter Olympics.

We are enjoying our last moments running quick errands & enjoying quiet moments just the 2 of us here at the house as we know they will be a thing of the past in less than 2 weeks with our two little girls finally home with us. The countdown is on!!!!!

How Far Along? 35 Weeks 6 days

Stretch Marks? No! But the Belly Button has been a FULL outie for many weeks now.

Sleep? Sleep was starting to get more interrupted between the girls moving & waking me up and my pelvic pain which would force me to move to my recliner after 3-4 hours in bed. Dr Berry prescribed me Hydrocodone to alleviate my pelvic pain and it has helped me sleep 5-6 hours in bed now before I have to move out to the recliner! I have been good about resting & taking a mid day nap, which helps keep me rested, as well.

Best Moment of the Week? Trae and I made major advancements to our home organization & preparation for babies to arrive, with the help of a trip from my Mom. Nana Young (my mom) helped do several loads of baby laundry, put together bouncy seats, helped finish organizing our kitchen to include spots for baby items where Trae had moved some of our cocktail glasses into the bar and helped organize and stock our changing table downstairs, where the girls will spend most thier time for the first several weeks.
Aside from some small decor additions to the nursery, we are feeling as prepared as we can and looking forward to meeting our baby girls soon!

Food Cravings? Avocado, Fruit Juice

Genders? Fraternal Twin Girls!

Symptoms: I still wake up with numb fingers and sore joints, but it gets a little better throughout the day. For 10+ weeks my only main concern has been hip/pelvic pain that my Drs thought could be round ligament pain. After talking to my sister in law, Mandy about this pain, she suggested I look into a condition called symphysis pubis dysfunction (SPD). I was so grateful to learn that others had experienced similar pains and agreed this was EXACTLY what I was suffering from. Dr Berry agreed this was likely what I had, suggested I wear my pregnancy support belt 24/7 to help alleviate pain and start taking Hydrocodone at night to help ease the pain throughout the night enough to help me sleep.

The Symphysys pubis is a stiff joint that connects the two halves of your pelvis. This joint is stregthened by a dense network of tough, flexible tissues (ligaments). Your body produces a hormone called relaxin, which softens your ligaments in order to help your baby pass through your pelvis. Your pelvic joints move more during and just after pregnancy. This can cause inflammation and pain, and may lead to the condition symphysis pubis dysfunction (SPD).

Weekly Dr. Appt: We had appointments with both Dr. Reue and Dr. Berry this week! We are nearing the end of the pregnancy, so more monitoring is being done to keep everyone safe, which we are grateful for!

Dr Reue: Our appointment with Dr Reue was good! I've lost weight little by little every week for the past 4 weeks, but Dr. Reue isn't worried about it at all since the girls are growing well. We think the girls are just leaving little room for food to go in my stomach, which has me trying to eat several small meals throughout the day when I get hungry. We measured my cervix via ultrasound and it is still remarkably long- almost 5 cm thanks to my abdominal cerclage we had surgically placed in April. We left the appointment feeling good, except that Dr. Reue is out of town until next Tuesday- so if the girls decided to come early, it wouldn't be our favorite OB delivering them. I was given instructions to go home and rest/put my feet up for a week to ensure we can get at least another week out of this pregnancy.

Dr. Berry: Every week we go in to have bio physical profile (BPP) exams on the girls, which involves an ultrasound that measures several health checkpoints on the girls. Each baby has to prove that she is practicing her breathing, move her arms & legs several times showing good movement and have good, healthy heartbeats. The ultrasound technician gives 30 minutes for the babies to pass their test before hooking me up to a Non Stress Test (NST) to check the babies' heartbeats more closely. Usually our girls pass their test very quickly, but on Tuesday Baby B must have been very sleepy- she was all curled up in a ball and despite several pokes and prodes by myself and the ultrasound tech, she didn't move around much or show proof that she was practicing her breathing. I was hooked up to the NST and while her heartrate proved to be strong and consistent, it didn't vary much- which meant we had to retest her on Wednesday.
Our Wednesday appointment was completely smooth- both babies passed thier BPP test quickly, making Trae and me very happy (and relieved.)
We walked out celebrating that we only had 1 more appointment with Dr Berry, where we would earn our GOLD medal for making it to our 36th week!