We now return to our regularly scheduled appointments...

We had 3 unscheduled appts this week - one with the gastro-intestinal specialist, one for blood work and yet a third for an ultrasound- just not of the babies. The pain below J's ribcage has not gone away and the Pep.cid AC Max Strength that our dr put her on isn't helping. (Side note - J has a high tolerance for pain - she once had major dental work done without novicane because she was in her tww.) For a little at home relief, we tried to put heat on the pain but that didn't work; J finds more relief with ice. Either way it is difficult treat because the area of pain is so close to Baby B along with J's ribcage. Our dr referred us to a specialist to make sure it wasn't J's kidneys or gallbladder or some other internal issue. Wednesday we went to the specialist where we should mention that we were the only people who didn't walk in with a cane. The dr said he didn't want to do much invasive testing because of the pregnancy so he started J with blood work and an ultrasound. Of course, they didn't have a ultrasound machine in the office and because of our insurance we had to go to a different place for the blood work. After the appointment, we made our way to the other clinic for J to give blood and then we made the ultrasound appt for the next morning (which was at the hospital). We are going to be able to drive to the hospital blindfolded when J goes into labor we are there so often. ;) In the waiting room for the ultrasound, we were again the youngest people by a good 50 years. They took an ultrasound of J's stomach, kidneys, gallbladder, liver and aorta. Still not sure why the aorta, but we're not the drs. We got a call Friday morning from the specialist saying that the ultrasound and blood work all came back normal. That's a relief, but we still don't know what the pain is. We are now assuming it is ligament/muscle stretching or maybe even something slightly torn as J's belly has grown insanely over the past 4 weeks. She looks at least 7 months pregnant (with a singleton) and we are only in our 5th month! We have our regularly scheduled appointment with our ob tomorrow afternoon so we'll see what she says about J's pain. She's also going to do the first cervix check which will be an indicator of whether J is at risk for preterm labor or not. YIKES! BE LONG, THICK AND CLOSED CERVIX!!

A few other pregnancy symptoms have begun in the past week or so. J's begun to leak very small amounts from her breasts. Nothing noticable, but J knows. Also, J can't believe how heavy her belly is. We wonder why we never hear pregnant people speak of this! Her balance is definitely off these days - M has had to save the day a few times so J didn't topple over ;) J's appetite has been good, but nothing exceptionally crazy like we thought it would be. And as for sleep, J is up every morning from approx 5am - 7am like clockwork. Luckily she works from home most of the time so that she can fall back to sleep for another hour or so at 7. Unfortunately, sometimes she accidentally wakes M up during this time, which leaves a very tired girl heading to work at 8. Our dr said that J would probably not be able to travel after 20 weeks due to discomfort more than anything else. At the time we were about 14 weeks and couldn't really comprehend what she meant but now that we are over 21 weeks and J did travel down to DC this week, we know where she was coming from. Between the early train ride down followed by 2 fully packed long days in the office and the late ride back, J was SPENT! Not to mentioned the pain under her ribs hurt her 10 fold because of all the extra movement and bags she has to carry on these trips. We think her traveling days are definitely numbered at this point.

In exciting news - M felt the babies kick for the first time yesterday!!! Actually, she felt them kick a LOT in the past 2 days - they must have been getting their workouts in. :) It is really awesome that we both get to share this pregnancy experience together! J definitely thinks the kicks are getting harder and feel more like kicks then butterflies in her stomach.

On Friday, we received a package from a really good friend. When we opened it, inside were two ADORABLE little baby girl onesies! It wasn't until then that we realized that we had not bought any gender specific baby clothes yet. These onesies were tiny and pink with ruffles on the sleeves and were definitely 100% Baby Girl! We preceeded to go on a bit of a shopping spree this weekend. Our nursery closet is now filled with adorable baby girl clothes. (We love Tar.get!) Let's hope tomorrow's appointment doesn't throw us for another gender surprise! (We'll hold onto the receipts for a while just in case) :)

Our respective sisters are each planning a baby shower, one in Scranton and one in DC. Last weekend we registered and were surprised at how exhausting it is! So much research, so many choices...! Between the 3 stores we registered at (we had to find stores that were in each location of our showers/family) we think we finally got everything we will need. Now we wait just a few short months for our daughters to arrive! (oh, and we need to set up the nursery too!)