The ‘Joys’ of Twin Pregnancy
Thursday was a gloomy day full of rain. This March weather is killing me. It’s either a great temperature, 62 degrees today, and raining like crazy with flood warnings, or cold and sunny. I suppose it’s for the best because instead of going outside and playing all day, I can fill my orders that are pouring in. While I am waiting for the kids to be ready for a late lunch and nap, I decided I would write about my twin pregnancy. I haven’t really had the time to sit and think about it, so this will be therapeutic for me and give me the chance to decide if it I really hated it as much as I think I did.
The pregnancy was purposeful. I woke up one day and decided I was ready. I’m told that’s what happens. My husband and I mulled over whether we were equipped or not and with an excited and scared YES, we proceeded. I’ll skip those details. It took us about five months of happy, stress free practice and then early one morning when I just felt different, we had our first positive test! Jaime was sleeping and when I told him he was skeptical. He had it set in his head that we couldn’t get pregnant because we never had any close calls, but I knew better.
At our first checkup I was a little worried because I had been having some things happen that didn’t seem normal. We found out within minutes that it was because it wasn’t a normal pregnancy, it was a twin pregnancy. I remember everyone looking at me like I was nuts because I burst into nervous laughter and started cracking insane jokes that made no sense with tears in my eyes. If I hadn’t been lying down, I might have passed out. Would you believe they put us back into the waiting room before shuffling us over to see the Nurse Practitioner!? Luckily no one was there because we were acting insane.
The first thing I did when I got home was purchase the highest rated books I could find about twin pregnancy. My favorite was ‘When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads.’ I learned very quickly that a multiple pregnancy had to be handled completely different from a singleton pregnancy. I was forced to eat constantly, was only aloud to walk for exercise and had to load up on an assortment of protein shakes and vitamins for extra weight gain and immune support. I actually had nightmares about gagging down protein shakes by my second trimester. I might not have minded sitting around and eating all day if I could have eaten what I wanted; no mayonnaise, no soft cheeses, no Caesar salads, undercooked meats, too much seafood; that is everything I like to eat.
I would have to say most of my pregnancy was sickness free and a breeze. My only problems were not sleeping well, running to the restroom every five minutes and a general feeling of discomfort. The third trimester is what kicked me. I was hot all the time, sweaty, totally uncomfortable, my feet hurt, my back hurt, I would get dizzy all the time, especially in the morning, WE MOVED, every bump in the road felt like someone shot me in the gut and I was soooooooooo tired.
I shot up to a whopping 190 pounds before finally balancing out. I actually carried too long and was set to be induced. The night of my induction I spontaneously went into labor when I was just dozing off for the billionth nap of the day. Within minutes I went right into the last stages of labor. Because I was expecting time to wean into the pain based on what the books say, I couldn’t get on top of my pain; Lamaze was failing me. My contractions were only a minute or so apart so I was wheeled into surgery for an emergency C-section because of a breach Baby B.
I remember when they said Baby A was out and I first heard his cry. I could actually feel my life change in that exact moment; all of my stress and excitement instantly smoothed into comfort and relief. New baby cries are so soft and sweet and they made my heart flutter. Baby B came out just minutes behind his brother with a little cry. They were so adorable and so tiny.
Overall I would say the pregnancy was okay, but I don’t ever want to do it again and hubby agrees. The end result has been wonderful and I never get sick of being around the kids; I start to miss them when they’ve been in bed for more than two hours. What I will focus on going into the future is that third trimester. I don’t want to be tricked by the end result and end up having fifty children. I’m thinking life is good and I’ll relive little tastes of pregnancy and the new baby experience via my sister in a few years.
