Twin Pregnancy: 34 Weeks!

I can hardly believe it, but today marks 34 weeks along in our pregnancy with the twinbies. When did this happen?!?

After almost two weeks of being down and out (more on this below), I am finally back among the land of the living. Here is what the belly is looking like these days:

I pretty much feel huge, and that's probably because I am, ha! Here is what my Brenson belly looked like (on the left) compared with the twinbies belly (on the right):

Last week, I wrote quite a bit about how I had been sick, and I am just now feeling better. Being 8 months pregnant with twins and having the flu is NO JOKE. I have never been so miserable sick in my life. I spent four solid days in bed . . . only getting up to use the bathroom and take a shower. Chris and I both tried to think of a time when I have been that sick before, and neither one of us could. I just don't get sick much. I mean, I get a cold or a headache every now and then, but I may go to bed early one night and then I'm pretty much better. I don't really take medicine (like cough syrup or cold meds), and I very rarely run a fever. The last time I had a fever was two years ago! So, for me to spend two days laying around, four days in bed, then the next 3 days laying around some more was pretty crazy! My body just had a very hard time fighting the flu while being pregnant with twins. I had terrible chest congestion that made breathing very difficult. I wheezed and coughed so much (on top of the tremendous pressure that's already on my ribs from the babies) that I felt like my ribs were breaking. I still have a bit of a lingering cough and runny nose, but for the most part I am better! Thankfully!!! That's not something I ever want to go through again. 

I got out yesterday for the first time since Christmas Eve (except for my trip to Urgent Care a week ago). I went to church and was so thankful to be able to get up and around, although I was exhausted after we got home. We normally go out to eat after church, but we came home yesterday and I went to bed. I feel like if I'm on my feet for more than five minutes, I have to rest. My stamina was already really lacking, and now it's terrible. I hope to recover a bit from this, but I may not until I deliver. We'll see. 

While I did feel very nauseated while I was sick, I never threw up. However, my appetite was severely lacking, so I ended up losing 3 pounds this week. That puts my total weight gain back at 20 pounds for this pregnancy. I was careful to make myself eat several times a day even if I didn't feel like it, and I for sure drank TONS of water. I did not want to get dehydrated, so I drank around 160 ounces a day. Despite this, I still worried about the babies. Every day I would be sure to do kick counts, and they were always moving well which was reassuring. I took these hilarious photos at 33 weeks and 1 day:

Baby A (the one sticking up in the photos) tends to be pretty wild and crazy, while Baby B seems a bit calmer. I'm anxious to see if this is how they'll be when they come out!

New Year's Eve was the first day that I actually got out of bed and sat in the living room some. Of course, I didn't feel like doing anything, but Chris and the kids went to a song service and game night at church that evening. He said he wasn't going to stay long, but lost track of time and didn't end up getting home until about 11:40pm. At that point, we decided to just keep the kids up until midnight and let them ring in the New Year!

Chris had taken them to storytime earlier that day where they made these fun hats.

Brenson was being kind of crazy . . . sleep deprivation does that to the best of us :-).

Haha!

Happy 2015!

Of course, we were all in bed at approximately 12:02am, but it was fun to ring in the New Year together! 

Chris was off work from Christmas Eve all the way through New Years Day. He could have been off on the 2nd as well, but chose to go back because he didn't want to use a vacation day for no reason (we're going to need those later on!). We had both been looking forward to him being off for such a span and getting things done around the house and just spending time together as a family of four. And then, I got sick and was sick the entire time he was off. While that was good timing in a way (because he was home to care for the kids), it was also very, very disappointing. We didn't get the family time we wanted, and I just ended up being so sad about it. When he went back to work on Friday, I had a pretty hard time as I was still not feeling well but taking care of the kids by myself. I think it wore me out a little too much because I felt really bad again Saturday morning. I ended up staying in bed all morning while Chris had solo dad duty again. At one point, the kids kept coming in the bedroom to see me, and Chris came in and said, "They miss you so much, babe." Well, that was all it took for the water works to begin. I laid there and just cried and cried. I was just so tired of being sick and of not being able to be the wife and mother that I want to be. I admit that I was probably being a little dramatic as I know people are dealing with much bigger things than being pregnant with the flu, but I was just so sad with how everything had turned out. I ended up taking a good nap that afternoon and feeling much better that evening.

So, because I was feeling better, we decided to be a little productive and set up a few baby things. We washed and set up our baby swing, two bouncy seats, and got the car seats all ready to go. We also finished packing hospital bags. The diaper bag was already packed, but Chris and I packed a bag for us and a bag for Brianna and Brenson. Depending on how everything plays out, they may be spending a night or two at my sister's house, so we wanted to be prepared for that. While we were doing this, the kids were acting NUTS. I couldn't believe how crazy they were being. I don't know if it was excitement or anxiety or what, but I was pretty shocked. I hope they are getting some of this out of their system before the babies arrive!

New Years Day was the two year anniversary of the day we lost B3 at 13 weeks gestation. That is the last time I had really been sick (although no where near what I was this time), and the timing was the source of some anxiety for me. I'm just so thankful that the babies are big enough that I can feel them move! We have an appointment with Dr. N tomorrow, and I'm definitely ready to see that they are ok (and get a good weight estimate!) My cousin who was also pregnant with twins had her babies this past week, and they weighed over 14 pounds combined! She is significantly shorter/smaller than I am, so that made me think that if she can do it, so can I!

Just four weeks to go!