Pregnancy in a Recap

I know I'm going to forget what it's like to be pregnant with these twins, probably much sooner than later.  I remember when William and Ryan were about 8 months telling a friend it really wasn't that bad being pregnant with twins, then I became pregnant with twins again.  I was wrong.  So here is a reminder what it's been like.

I can still wear my maternity pants (something I couldn't do with William and Ryan) but I only have 2 shirts that are long enough to cover my massive stomach while wearing them though.  Other than that I have a pair of maternity lounging pants that go up high enough on my stomach that I'm not completely exposing my belly.  For the most part of my pregnancy, once I got fairly big, I've mainly wore large undershirts and sweaters and that has been nice and been able to cover my growing belly, until now.  Now it's a challenge to be modest.  For the past 3 months or so if I'm not in public I'm either in those lounging pants or some sweats.  If I'm going out of the house I will put on my jeans, but the minute I'm home I'll change into something more comfortable.

Last weekend I noticed that instead of the round orange shape my belly used to be it is now more of a lemon shape with a bulge at the bottom.  I was worried about what it could be until I went to my doctor who informed me he sees it often.  Apparently my stomach can retain fluid like my feet or hands do and it collects and pushes it out into a bulge.  Weird and gross. And with each passing day it seems to hurt more and more as it gets bumped and hit by counters, children, and yep even my legs...it's pretty low and big.

My stomach has gotten to be so big that I only have to lean slightly forward and my stomach touches the chair, or whatever I'm sitting on.  This makes picking something up off the floor that William and Ryan drop during meals extra hard.

Sleeping is hard, true I'm not nearly as bad as others and can usually go back to sleep when I wake up every hour or two to go to the bathroom.  But with every roll over, and with every step into the bathroom there's some sort of pain.  My doctor tells me it's just because those muscles haven't been used for a while and so when you do, it hurts.  Luckily I only have 5 more sleeps, including naps!  I sleep with 2 or 3 pillows under my head, one extra large pillow between my legs, and one for my back.  I'm pretty sure when I was pregnant with William and Ryan I had at least 2 others in there, so at least is getting better.

Getting up and down off the floor and couch, well it's a wonder I can do it.  There's pain and discomfort that has grown exponentially the past couple of weeks.

I love to feel them move.  People ask how it feels to have two move inside, the truth?  Not that much different.  Normally they only move a little bit and taking turns, there's really not that much room to do flips.  The only problem is when they both stretch and I can feel a jab way down low and one way up top; that doesn't feel too great.

My children's head go to either the middle or bottom of my stomach.  That's all they can see.  There is usually loving smudges and food around this area, and we'll just pretend it's all from the kids.  (It's not.  It's hard to eat over your plate when there's a big ball shape stopping you)  And yes, it hurts when they use my stomach to lean on or climb over.

It's getting harder and harder to bend over and clean up the floor, but luckily I have little boys to bribe.  Most nights if they pick up all the toys, garbage, and dishes off the floor they get to watch a short show, or read extra books and eat a treat.  It works most of the time.  It's amazing how well they can clean if they are motivated to do so.

Morning sickness was bad.  That time is even now like a blur, a very hard blur we came through.

Jacob and I joke that with twins there was never a point were you feel good, like normal second trimesters in regular pregnancy.  You are sick, then are so big you feel like you're in your third trimester, and then you get to your third trimester and it's that much harder.  Luckily I did have a month or so when I actually felt fairly good, not great but because I knew what was coming I knew to enjoy that time.

I've had 5 ultrasounds and 7 non-stress tests on top of my regular doctor visits with this pregnancy.

But none the less, I would do over and over again for the result of having two adorable children to cuddle.  Speaking of cuddling, here are their blankets.  I designed them and cut the fabric, mom sewed (my stomach's too big), we had someone else quilt them, and I hand sewed the binding.

 I just realized I never wrote their names in the blog, and now it seems like I should just wait until they are born, but here's a clue with their first initial.