10 Weeks - Update

It's been a while since I've posted so I thought I'd write an update.  Things have been going pretty well in the last week and a half.  I bought a book on pregnancy with multiples and learned some interesting things about desired weight gain during the first and second trimesters.  The concept is that since almost all multiples are born preterm, the goal should be to get the birth weight of the babies up as much as possible before birth.  Because of the rise in multiples with IVF, doctors now have enough data to study pregnancy weight gain and it's effect on babies' ultimate birth weights.

The authors of the book maintain that the weight you gain in the first trimester is the most important to your babies ultimate weight and health, followed by second trimester weight gain (third trimester weight gain does little for the babies, according to them).  They also say that you need to gain a lot more weight than was previously recommended - like 40 - 56 lbs, instead of the 25 - 35 lbs that is recommended with a singleton.  Their view is that because multiple pregnancies used to be much rarer, the medical community didn't really have enough data to give appropriate recommendations in the past.

The general concepts in the book definitely make sense to me, although I am finding them daunting.  By 20 weeks I am supposed to have gained 20 lbs!  That seems pretty crazy to me, and I'm not sure given how small I am that I will get there.  But I am going to shoot for at least 15 lbs, as opposed to the 10 - 12 lbs that I was going for before.  I am trying to eat more substantial meals, with a higher amount of protein and fat than I was eating before.  And I think that in addition to making me fatter (which it definitely is!) I am also feeling less nauseous when I eat more.  Maybe some of the really bad nausea I had at 7 - 8 weeks was due to not eating enough substantial food?

In other news, I had an ultrasound this morning.  I was going to wait until the NT Scan, but I decided that I wanted one more before I went home and announced the news to my family.  Would be terrible to tell them and then find out something had gone wrong.  Because my OB's office only does monthly u/s, I did this one at a radiology lab.  It took forever, but we finally got the great news that both babies are doing well - very relieved, I had some lingering fears about Baby B.  Also exciting was the fact that they did the u/s on the belly for the first time!  No more vag cam for me!

I am also weaning pretty quickly off the meds - am down to one estrogen patch every other day and have stopped progesterone.  If my blood test results from today are good, hopefully I'll be able to stop everything.  I think getting off the progesterone has also helped with my fatigue and nausea somewhat - it didn't help me very much in that department.

I'm leaving on Wednesday for my trip home - am so excited to tell my family, it's going to make everything seem so much more real.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week and that there is nothing but good news while I'm gone.  Off to eat dinner!