I had intentions to blog my entire pregnancy once we found out we were having twins, so I kept notes on the big pregnancy events during the second trimester. Weekly updates didn’t happen until 27 weeks but here are the highlights after we found out there were two at 12 weeks!
13 weeks– When I was about 13.5 weeks along, the boys got a terrible stomach virus which spread to me unlike anything before. I was down for days and couldn’t keep anything down. Finally after almost passing out in the shower (and being instructed by my doctor’s office), I had to go to the emergency room to be rehydrated and check on the babies. Thankfully, they were happy as can be- it was just me feeling like total crap. A couple days later I started feeling back to normal and definitely enjoyed getting to eat again. Pretty sure I gained back all the weight I lost while sick and then some with mass amounts of Jimmy Johns veggie sandwiches.
16 weeks– We waited for a long time to tell our boys. I wasn’t sure when the right time was. I certainly wanted to share our excitement with them but also knew it was a long time to wait until these babies were born which can be confusing at 2 and 4 years old. One morning, I walked into the kitchen to give morning hugs wearing a tank top and Caleb said “Mommy? Why are you sticking your tummy out like that? What’s in your belly?” And we knew we couldn’t wait much longer! When we told them that weekend that we were expecting two babies to join our family, Caleb was so wonderfully excited. I won’t ever forget that. Eli clapped and went back to his playing. 😉 We went out for pizza and ice cream and celebrated our news. Thus began the next weeks of a million questions about how the babies got in there, how they were going to get out and why they just couldn’t come out now!
20 weeks– Around 20 weeks, we started contemplating switching doctors. My last two babies were delivered by my regular family practice doctor (who is also an OB) and we absolutely loved her. She was on call for whenever I went into labor and we loved the one-on-one care we received. She recently left the area and I have been seeing one of her partners since then. When we found out we were pregnant I assumed I would just stay with her but when we found out it was twins and could possibly have additional complications we wondered if we should switch over to an OB practice. The new practice agreed as they said a pregnancy with multiples is “by definition, high risk” and we needed someone with a lot of experience in that area.
We had heard wonderful things about a couple doctors at the new practice but also heard that since they were so awesome, they were always full and hard to get into to. By pure luck, I was able to get into our top choice and we have never looked back. She is AMAZING. She has a ton of experience in delivering twins and is able to offer very knowledgeable advice about every aspect. Being from a scientific background myself, she knows how to explain possible complications to me without making them sound scary. She is also really anti c-section which I completely appreciate and feel reassured that she has our best interests in mind. Is it weird that I will be sad when this pregnancy is over because I won’t get to see her anymore?
21 weeks– We had our anatomy scan this week. Our babies looked wonderful and it was so amazing to see how much they grew from the last time we saw them. I asked the tech if she could get both of them in the same picture but it was pretty difficult because they were so big! Such a huge change since the ultrasound at 12 weeks!
We decided when we thought there was only one baby that we wanted to keep the gender a secret until their birth day. We found out with both of our boys and since this pregnancy was likely our last, I wanted to experience it both ways. That idea was definitely thrown for a loop when we found out there was two little babies! Everyone thinks we are crazy, but we decided to stay strong and keep it a secret. Besides, I could really use a motivation to get through this twin pregnancy and birth!
24 weeks– Right at 24 weeks, after work on Friday I started getting this terrible headache. Which slowly got worse over the next day until it turned into the worst migraine of my whole life. I get migraines from time to time in regular life, but usually during pregnancy my hormones are regulated enough that I am spared from them. Not this time. After a horrible Saturday night that I was pretty sure my head was going to explode and wouldn’t stop pounding so I could get a moment of sleep, I finally called my OB. I waited so long because I was hoping I could deal with it on my own. I personally hate taking any sort of medication when I am pregnant but this was on a whole other level. She prescribed me a migraine medication (safe for the babies) that just totally knocked me out. I think I slept from 11AM on Sunday until 6AM on Monday and finally got the pain under control.
The only good thing about whole ordeal is that my doctor advised that I should start drinking a small cup of coffee every morning for the rest of the pregnancy to try to avoid another experience like that. Apparently coffee is a vasodilator which can prevent headaches. She said that any caution of drinking a cup of coffee a day is definitely overruled if I had to take that medication all the time. I didn’t argue because that meant… COFFEE!!
26 weeks– At 26 weeks, my aunt and sister threw the babies and I a beautiful baby shower. It was wonderful and everyone was so unbelievably generous in getting things for the babies. We are the proud new owners of new car seats and an awesome double stroller. They went out of their way to have food that I loved and it was the perfect day to celebrate our sweet babies. We had the shower early to make sure we avoided any possible bed rest and so I wouldn’t be big enough yet to be really uncomfortable. It was a great day. Such a great day in fact that no one took ANY pictures. Fail.
That’s the big stuff I missed! To catch the rest of my twin pregnancy weekly posts click here!