So… remember how I was feeling pretty happy that both babies were in a good position for birth and also feeling pretty happy about the fact that we were so far along that that fact was unlikely to change.  Guess what?  At our ultrasound appointment this week, we found out that not one, but BOTH of our babies had flipped positions. Baby B (our presenting twin) is now breech and Baby A is head down.  Which would be great if Baby A were first but as of now that is not the case.  Can you even believe it?

We’re very blessed in that we found a wonderful doctor who is very against c-sections if there is any way to avoid it.  Even she has said that if both babies stay where they currently are, she would advise delivering them by c-section.  The chance of neurological damage by delivering the first twin breech is too high for her to be able to recommend that. Especially in our situation because according to ultrasound, Baby B is larger than Baby A. She even went as far to say as there is no doctor in our hospital that would consider attempting a natural delivery given these conditions either.  It’s not like I disagree with her. Neurological damage is not something that I would mess around with given the choice either.

Sigh. I can’t even believe it.  Unfortunately with twins, we can’t attempt to manually turn the babies (ECV) because it’s too dangerous. You better believe that I have attempted and will continue to attempt all natural methods of turning babies that she recommended to me including twisting my body into strange positions!  You never know, right?  If they managed to turn themselves at this late date, they could turn themselves back?

So while I work on that…. I’m also soaking up all the time I can with these crazies!

We’re trying to prepare them for life with two newborns but truthfully we probably aren’t prepared ourselves either! Savoring these last weeks as a family of 4. Their extreme and utter excitement at the prospect of these two monkeys joining our family is so sweet and makes me excited too! I’m glad that they are such good friends and love to play together. They will have each other when things are crazy those first few weeks!

For now though, we play and laugh and use my giant twin belly for it’s true purpose. A car garage of course.

When I was pregnant with both of my boys, I had an incredibly vivid dream that I had given birth and was holding my brand new baby. In my dream, Caleb was a fair skinned blond haired baby. Which he turned out to be. In my dream of Eli, he was a dark haired, darker skinned baby. Which he was. This week I had another incredibly vivid dream that I was holding our first twin who had the sweetest, fair skin. In my dream my doctor handed the baby to me and said “we didn’t expect this, but the first twin weighs 8 pounds 8 ounces” (!!!). I woke up before giving birth to our second baby and the first thing I thought was that I never asked if the baby was a boy or a girl!  Pregnancy dreams are so crazy. I wonder if this one will prove partially true?  I also continue to dream that we have boy/girl twins and name them Jack and Lily. (Neither name is on our list.)

We also had another ultrasound at our appointment this week to check on the monkeys. After being close in weight this whole time, they have started to get further apart. Twin B who is now presenting is around 5 1/2 pounds and Twin A is around 5. Our OB has now changed her guess and thinks we have one of each but I’m not so sure.  The ultrasound went great otherwise.  Everybody is happy and healthy in there! Seeing them move on the monitor is still amazing and I can’t believe they still think they have so much room to do that…

We are 32 weeks today!  I am so, so grateful to be 32 weeks.   

Unfortunately, today I have spent the majority of the day fighting off contractions and trying not to freak out over the feelings of intense pressure I have.  Last night, we went to a minor league baseball game and while planning the evening I kind of forgot how pregnant I am.  We had a walk a pretty long way to the stadium and sitting in those stadium seats for so long really did me in.  Hopefully, my body is just making me pay for it today and I can rest and have these go away.  Needless to say, we are going to be taking it easy the next 3 weekends and trying to have end of summer fun for the boys in situations where I can sit in a chair.  I want to make it to 35 weeks SO badly for the babies- let’s be honest I’d rather make it to 37 but trying not to get too greedy in this moment. 

This week I got a lot of their clothes and things washed and worked on their room more.  I was folding and putting clothes away when all these contractions started this morning so you better believe they are still sitting in baskets for now.  Priorities indeed.  

When I was pregnant with Eli, I craved sweets toward the end like I never have in my life.  This time around I am craving WATERMELON.  Any time, anywhere.  I honestly can not get enough.  I’m hoping that the stores will continue to carry it even though we are nearing the end of watermelon season around here until these babies are born.  I mean there are definitely worse things to crave right?  

This weekend, we Josh just finished painting, redecorating, and rearranging our bedroom to make room for the babies to spend at least the first couple months in with us.  I’m hoping that they will be able to sleep in the pack and play newborn level together but we are prepared with two rock and play sleepers just in case.  Some how, some way we will need to attempt to get a bit of sleep because we have two other children.  I think ‘sleep when the babies sleep’ is certainly a thing of the past.  There is something about a newly organized bedroom that puts me in such a good mood!  

Hoping and praying to be back for a 33 week update.  (Please excuse the bathroom belly selfie- why doesn’t anyone else look so awkward when they do them?)

Given that as the days pass and I continue to get more and more uncomfortable, it’s so easy to try to wish these last 7 weeks away. I absolutely cannot wait to hold these babies and snuggle them on my chest. To nurse them and cuddle them and stare at their little tiny fingers and toes. And yet again, wonder at the miracle of life and the awesome power of God. However, it’s definitely not time yet and I’m going to do everything in my power to keep these monkeys baking as long as I can.

When they are born, I will absolutely miss feeling their kicks and having them all to myself.  I probably will also miss how quiet they are now (if we are being honest!) and how easy it is to keep them safe and secure!  However I’ll admit that carrying twins while working outside the home and caring for two other children is another beast. At 31 weeks there are definitely a multitude of things I absolutely will not miss. So I made a little countdown list.

5) I have about 8 articles of clothing that fit.  And four of them are my husbands clothing. Almost all of my maternity pants cut off my circulation and/or leave me with even less room than normal to breathe. I’ve left my normal wardrobe of maternity shirts behind (unless I want the bottom of my belly to stick out which is really attractive at this point believe me) and have had to scout out two super stretchy ones I found at Target.  Thank you Target for saving my life.

30 weeks gone. Holy bananas. We are so close and yet so far it feels like!  I keep telling Josh that I feel like my beloved Cubbies and I are both in the hunt for October this year. I would love to still have these babies in my tummy in October- while they are still playing baseball. 😉

29 weeks gone… 7 or 8 left to go. We hope.

We did it. We took the plunge and are now a minivan family.  We used to have a Ford Escape and when we thought we would need to have three car seats in it, we thought it may be tight but we could do it.  However, four car seats is a game changer.  Our oldest kiddos aren’t at a point right now where I feel comfortable letting them buckle themselves into their car seats safely so getting a large SUV where it would be difficult for a parent to climb back and buckle them was out of the question.  So… mini van it is.

We’ve been putting off looking for one for months because I didn’t really want to to deal.  To be honest, a big part of me was sad to be trading in our Escape.  It was the first new car Josh or I had ever had and the first thing we ever worked hard to pay off.  I felt like such an adult when we paid off that car loan ourselves! 

Everyone told me that when we got our mini van that I would LOVE it immediately.  And I mean… it’s fine.  I like it.  I’m pretty sure when we have two more children to put in it then I will totally get why large families love them.  Right now, getting a minivan is he coolest thing that our boys think they have ever experienced.  They love that they have their own air conditioning vents and that the doors open and close with the push of a button.  Our van came with built in sun shades which just delights my mommy heart so I don’t ever have to hear whining about ‘the sun is in my eyeesss’ anymore.

Regardless of my reservations, I’m absolutely pumped that this is the last big purchase we needed for the babies (the BIGGEST one) and that we can actually now drive home from the hospital together.  It’s the little things right?

Week 28 is drawing to a close and as usual I’m pretty pumped and proud to be moving on to the next week. On Thursday, we saw my OB and had another ultrasound. It’s amazing how big the babies are getting- not as easy to see  all the parts!  We successfully survived another ultrasound without accidentally finding out the gender of the babies and it’s starting to look like we may actually pull that part off! Our tech this time was so sweet and went out of her way to get us sweet pictures of one of the babies ears, profiles, and hair (!) on both their heads. They were both estimated at about 3 pounds each with only 2% discordance which is wonderful. The doctor thinks that may be a bit of an overestimate on weight since all my babies generally tend to have large heads which throws off the weight estimate at this point.

My doctor was slightly concerned about the contractions I have been having but we were all comforted in learning that no progress has been made toward labor which is great news. I had to drink the glucola for the gestational diabetes test which is always a good time but at least this new office we are at chills the drink for you. My last two pregnancies when we were at family practice made me drink it warm- way nastier. I haven’t heard from them about the results which hopefully is a good thing?  I’ve been warned that two babies makes you more prone to developing gestational diabetes so you just never know.

Turns out that Baby B has actually traded places with Baby A and is now head down and the presenting twin. Baby A has moved from transverse last month to feet down.  Ideally, that baby would flip around to head down also but they will still attempt a vaginal delivery with a breech extraction of Baby A if everything stays as it is now. Honestly, a breech extraction scares the crap out of me but then so does a c-section so there’s that.

Before we left the doctors, we scheduled out the rest of the appointments for the pregnancy which totally put it all in perspective for me. We have four more appointments and two more ultrasounds scheduled before the end. Bananas. That was a massive motivator!!

I hope to finish up shopping for the babies this weekend and start washing things/ getting their room ready!

So happy to finally officially be in the third trimester! Especially because I’ve felt like I’ve been in it for weeks now.

Babies are moving around like crazy more every day. It’s exciting for me that I’ve finally been able to distinguish Baby A’s movement from Baby B’s and I’m able to keep tabs on each of them individually. Movement is my favorite part of pregnancy and these babies do not disappoint!

For the last several weeks, I’ve been having some contractions off and on which are making me fairly nervous. It seems like when I have them, I have a bunch in a row and then they will subside. They always say if you have more than 4 in an hour to come in to labor and delivery to be monitored, which is slightly funny to me since that happens multiple times literally every day.  I probably wouldn’t think much of it if I hadn’t felt contractions exactly like this at the end with Eli that I assumed were Braxton Hicks, only to end up at the doctors office at 7 cm with absolutely no idea I was in labor. So needless to say, I’ve been trying to stay as close to the couch as possible these days when I can.

There is increasingly less room on my lap for this gargantuan belly of mine which makes it very difficult to get remotely comfortable in a sitting position at all. Especially at work since bringing a couch into my lab is slightly frowned upon.

In general, I’m sleeping better than I expected. I’m still up at least 4 times (or 7) during the night to pee but usually the actual moments I spend sleeping are restful. I refused to spend money on a new pregnancy pillow this time – I felt we had enough expenses this go round amiright??? – so I sleep with two pillows under my head, two under my tummy, and another boppy pregnancy pillow between my legs. Watching me attempt to maneuver all these pillows and actually get out of bed I would imagine is quite comical although at this point I sure fail to see the hilarity.

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!