nine days later

So it's been nine days since the ultrasound -- I feel a bit like "May 22nd, the Day We Found Out We were having Twins" will be forever indelibly etched in my mind.  Probably not really, though, as I'm pretty sure once they are here there will be a whole lot of stuff that gets wiped out, either due to sleep deprivation or simply not having enough time/energy to bother thinking about it. 

After three nights of rotten sleep, I started to calm down enough to get to bed at a more reasonable hour and sleep longer.  This morning I woke up early enough to do a prenatal yoga workout before the kids were up (though Sprout came down and chilled with me for a while). 

I read online that during a twin pregnancy, 100 grams of protein/day is recommended, so I've been working to do that.  Eating that much protein makes me FEEL VERY FULL!  This highly recommended book came yesterday, and in it they actually recommend even MORE protein than that -- 175-219 grams!  And 3,500 Calories per day, at least through the second trimester.  Crikey!  At the ultrasound, both of the babies were on track for growth, so I am grateful that even without having followed these guidelines prior to now (as I thought it was just one baby), they seem to be growing just fine.  But I am trying to eat healthy, eat frequently, and eat lots.  It's just kind of hard when your stomach is all squished up!

A big thing with twins (and other multiples) is that they typically don't get as long to "cook" in the uterus and therefore their growth starts to taper off sooner than a single baby's growth would.  Full term for twins is considered 36 weeks 4 days or 37 weeks as opposed to the full 40 weeks.  My sister said that she took some herbs from her midwife at 38 weeks and started labor a few hours later, with the babies born that night.  I'm really hopeful that I can carry these two sufficiently long, though I know it is going to be insanely uncomfortable near the end.  I told my sister-in-law a few days ago that it looked highly unlikely that I would be able to do her wedding photography on August 18th, as even if I'm still pregnant (which I'm fairly likely to be), I am going to be HUGE and not so keen on moving around or being in charge of anything. 

P.S. If anybody wants to be in charge of getting me some sweet Thing 1 and Thing 2 costumes/onesies, that would be awesome! 

23 weeks

with the twins. 

Dizzy, new lyrics!

Well, here's what happens when you wake up at 4:45 and can't fall back asleep.   Scroll down, start the video in the last post, and sing along! (You know you want to!)

Dizzy, I'm so dizzy my head is spinning
Like a whirlpool it never ends
And it's you babies makin' it spin
You're making me dizzy

First time that I saw you kids, I knew just that my life was gonna change
And I have to say the thought of you two, it still feels really really really strange
I'm glad to have you on the way, but this thing I have to say
I'm going round in circles all the time

Dizzy, I'm so dizzy my head is spinning
Like a whirlpool it never ends
And it's you babies makin' it spin
You're making me dizzy

When I thought there was just one of you it seemed I had it all under control
 But now between the two of you, you've captured more than a small part of my soul
My brain's so wired, I can't sleep, even though you don't make a peep
A good night's rest is now an elusive goal*

Dizzy, I'm so dizzy my head is spinning
Like a whirlpool it never ends
And it's you babies makin' it spin
You're making me dizzy
my head is spinning
Like a whirlpool it never ends
And it's you babies making it spin
You're making me dizzy
you're making me dizzy


*I don't particularly like the way this line works, so if you have any suggestions.... :o)  You know, if you're up early/late sometime and need something to ponder on.  Hey, I'm a giver, what can I say?  

Also, do you think "you babes" would be better than "you kids"?  Pressing issues, these.

*Edited to add, I agreed with Melissa and changed it to "you babies".  :o)

my head is spinning

For the past 36 hours (ever since the ultrasound), my mind has been racing.  I think I've probably cried almost a dozen times.  I'm excited and terrified.  I feel deep down a peace, but it is hard to feel as everything swirls through my brain. 

Last night I was reading a discussion thread in a twins forum about "What items have you found most helpful in caring for twins?"  As I read through people mentioning special nursing pillows, double strollers, having two swings, two bouncers, et cetera, I realized that when I was just having one baby, I felt like an expert.  Been there, done that, whether it was a boy or a girl.  I'm a bit of a minimalist when it comes to baby gear, preferring breastfeeding to bottles, babywearing to strollers, holding in arms to bouncers or swings.  That all works pretty well when you only have one baby.  Now that there will be two, I feel like a first time mom all over again.

 I saw a thread on one of the twins forum  about "How do you get your twins in and out of the car?"  What?  That's a question worth discussing?!  And of course as I thought about it, it does require some planning.  You can do the two "bucket seat" thing so you can set one down while you get the other one in, and that seems to be very popular.  Which makes me think, I've never used an infant carrier seat because I didn't like the idea of the baby spending so much time in a "bucket".  But is it even remotely practical to try and figure out a workaround?  Thankfully I have older kids who can hold and carry babies, but not for extended periods (I'd be too nervous having Noodle carry an infant all around the grocery store, for example.)  If not, then I have to buy TWO infant bucket seats?!  Yikes!  And what about a stroller?  Between our umbrella stroller and our baby jogger we've done fine for the past three kids, but now it's a whole new ball game.  It just seems crazy to be buying new baby gear for the last ones. 

So, I'm probably going to be blogging a lot more.  I don't pretend this will be of much interest to anyone (though maybe other twin mamas), but it'll be a nice way for me to journal and maybe stop my brain from spinning endlessly in circles. 

I think I could rewrite the lyrics to the above song and make it relevant to my current state of mind with the twins.  :o)

Oh, the irony!

After Sprout was born, I felt like there was probably one more child that was supposed to come join our family. This was an odd feeling, as after both Noodle and Spud's births, I was so overwhelmed that I felt very comfortable NOT thinking about any additional children for quite some time.

 We weren't in any rush to conceive #4, and as it turned out, it happened about 10 months ahead of what I'd decided was a good time. David had requested that I finish up with pregnancy by the time I was 35 as a safeguard to my long-term health, and I thought that was wise. We both felt good about the addition of a fourth child and the timing seemed pretty good, even though it wasn't according to our tentative plan. At my 17 week appointment, my midwife's assistant measured my uterus and the fundal height was measuring about 4 cm ahead. After having birthed 10+ pound boys, this didn't seem that unusual to me. I remembered having growth spurts during past pregnancies. And, in all honesty, as it wasn't my midwife doing the measuring, I felt there was some room for error as I didn't know how skilled the assistant was with that sort of thing.

Last Thursday I went to have my next appointment, and was 21 weeks 3 days along. The fundal height measured 34 centimeters! And I'd gained 20 pounds (which I knew from tracking at home). I was really frustrated as I've been diligently making an effort to eat healthfully and not an excessive amount of calories. Plus I have been exercising quite regularly. I had some thyroid issues likely caused by too much weight gained when I was pregnant with Sprout, so I am hoping to avoid that this time around. My midwife suggested that I might want to consider having an ultrasound to check things out.

Tuesday evening we went in for the ultrasound. As soon as the tech put the device on my belly, we saw two bums and knew what we were in for. It was surreal. I can't even accurately describe the variety of feelings that washed over me. There was excitement, relief at it being two and not one with any problems, gratitude, and I think around the edges of every emotion there was a bit of panic. David and I grabbed hands and held on for the rest of the ultrasound, which takes a fair amount of time when there are two babies to inspect!

They call the baby closest to the cervix Baby A as it will be born first, and the other baby is Baby B. When she told us (and showed us) that Baby A is a girl we were delighted. We had been hoping for a girl to help balance out the ratio of boys and girls around here. About 20 minutes later we got around to Baby B (we had to take a break in there as the reclined on my back position makes me feel light-headed after a while). And Baby B is a boy! Both babies are growing on track and look healthy. Baby B is actually about a week ahead in size.

Well, here's where the irony comes in. David and I have long agreed (ever since my sister had twins almost 11 years ago) that "Twins are God's way of saying you can stop." Since we've been very clear about this being our final child, it was obvious that it was our plan to stop at four. I guess this means God approves of this being our last pregnancy, but he didn't agree with us stopping at four. I guess we should have said we were going to have six, then pulled a fast one and stopped at four!

In all earnestness, though, we are excited to have both of these little ones join our family in a few months and are feeling pretty amazingly blessed. But still overwhelmed! I finally was able to fall asleep at 3:30 this morning, only to be wide awake again shortly after 6. I feel like I'm wired on an insane amount of caffeine, but it's just my brain going into overdrive trying to process everything.

So, yeah. Good times, noodle salad.