How Are You Feeling?

So, I really am looking pregnant these days.  The kind of pregnant where strangers ask when you are due.  My due date is not until the end of March.  I then feel the need to qualify that I am having twins and that the babies can be considered full term at the end of February.  Yikes, February seems like it is right around the corner.

I am also being asked fairly often, "How are you feeling?" I appreciate the concern but the early months of carrying these babies were much rougher than it is now at 27 weeks.  I think because the pregnancy is now so visually obvious it prompts people to ask.  At this point I am actually really enjoying being pregnant.  Despite some people's comments that I must be sick of being pregnant at this stage, I have not felt that way at all.  In fact if all 40 weeks were like it is right now then I would say "what's the big deal?" But alas, those early months were a little difficult.  The morning sickness that lasts all day, the crazy break outs, headaches that evolved into migraines, pregnancy congestion, cold sores from a really active immune system, constant bathroom trips, and sciatica--all thanks to a surge of hormones my body was not used to.  Then when the boys got bigger (15-20 weeks) it was having both of them breech with a little head directly under my floating rib.  That rib felt like it had been punched repeatedly and whenever I laughed I had to put pressure on it to keep from feeling it pop out.  It was at this point of chronic pain that I told Eric I doubted my ability to keep doing this.  Every woman knows she can and must keep trudging on but the reality was I was miserable and felt guilty I was not enjoying the miracle of life. 

Somewhere I turned a corner around 24-25 weeks and my belly really popped out giving the kids the room they needed and me a sigh of relief.  I also found out that baby A turned back to the vertex position and baby B was transverse thus making me a whole lot more comfortable. I have been able to sleep more and get up to go to the bathroom less.  I have been blessed to have a complication free pregnancy thus far.  The only concern was a low hematocrit level (totally normal for twins) and my glucose was a little high on my one hour test.  I am going to go in this week for the three hour test.  The boys' last scan indicated that they were both in 48-50th percentile for a singleton and they had only a 5% variance.  I see and feel my belly move all the time which is really awesome (in true definition of the word, i.e. inspiring awe).  What I find even more amazing is having a sense of these boys' personalities.  Baby A seems to be more laid back.  If he moves, there seems to be motivation for it.  Baby B seems a lot more spunky and seems to move because he can. We'll see if those projections come true. I can feel them moving in tandem at times so they are already wrestling like little boys like to do!

Next week we start our childbirth education class.  We have not really started on the babies' room (sheepish look) but we have accumulated a lot of the essentials we will need for babies when they get here.  I am honestly trying to take it week by week because who knows what could happen?  Fortunately I have not been threatened with bed rest and I am even working still but I realize I have to be mentally prepared for those possibilities.

26 weeks