36 Weeks

I enjoyed pregnancy! In the early weeks it would be easy to "forget" for a few moments that there was new life within me. I loved the moments when it would hit me, and I would smile to myself. My symptoms were few; fatigue was the worst. Those first few weeks I was exhausted all the time - I would come home and take a nap, wake up for dinner, and go to bed by nine. I didn't have any morning sickness, which actually worried me and I celebrated every time I felt nauseous. The first trimester I worried over every cramp or backache; all I had seen were two tiny black circles, but I loved those circles so much already! My doctor's nurses probably memorized my number because I called so often. In between anxiety over the possibility of another miscarriage, I was mostly in awe. All I could think was how special it was to be pregnant with twins. I spent a lot of time in prayer; thankful and praising God, but also praying for a healthy pregnancy. I remember our 12.5 week visit - seeing them move on the screen, hearing both strong heartbeats - and mentally exhaling. I felt like we'd made it past the first big hurdle with no miscarriage or disappearing twin syndrome. Now there were just those next two trimesters to worry about!

Day we found out - twins!

As slow as the first trimester seemed, the next two felt like warp speed. I started showing pretty quickly in the second trimester. I loved going to the multiples classes at the hospital with other multiple moms and seeing that they were equally as large! I tried not to be too sensitive about it, but I was told early on by perfect strangers that I "looked like I was about to pop!" J would quickly rush to my defense and let them know it was twins. :) Eating was fun - the doctor told me I needed to increase my calorie intake by 600 per day. At first I thought, "What?! How?," but it was easier than I thought it would be. ;) I was always ravenous when I woke up in the morning and for snacks/lunch, but had to force myself to eat dinner. No real cravings, but everything tasted really, really good.

 

Overall, my pregnancy was awesome. My sonogram technicians always seemed so happy to tell us how great the babies looked! I was fortunate to not have any problems throughout. God is so good! At the very end I was really feeling the backache and some pressure, but it was nothing to complain over. My doctor did recommend "modified" bed rest the last couple of weeks due to my size and to avoid increased blood pressure, but I got to work from home and finish up the nursery. Speaking of that, my amazing sister came one weekend at the end to help me with washing and putting away, etc since it was difficult for me to move around much. More on my amazing sister later in this blog.

We got around to scheduling our pregnancy photo shoot a little later than I would have liked (somewhere around 32 weeks, I think) and I was bigger than I wanted to be. The upside was I got to buy a new maternity dress. Hah! Jesse and Rachel Leos (www.jesseleosphoto.com) live just down the street from us and are a fantastic photography duo - seriously, we could not have loved our photos more. I included a few below. 

We scheduled a c-section for 37 weeks. Exactly one week earlier, at 36 weeks, my water broke. It was on a Sunday, after Jonathan and I had gone to church, to lunch, and to Buy Buy Baby to finish up our registry. We had just finished dinner (yummy poppyseed chicken and broccoli, courtesy of my wonderful mother-in-law) and it happened. I was freaking out, but fortunately J maintained a cool head. And we went to the hospital to meet our babies! 36 weeks of wonderful, to culminate in the biggest little blessings ever.