Twin Pregnancy: 35 Weeks!

Today, I am 35 weeks along in my pregnancy with the twinbies. I only have three weeks to go . . . sometimes that feels like a long time and on the other hand I think that's not long at all! 

Here is what the big ol' belly looks like these days. Still growing!

I knew I had photos of me wearing this same shirt when I was 35 weeks along with Brianna and Brenson, so I purposely wore it again for comparison. I was a little surprised it fit, ha! You can for sure see how much bigger I am this time around, but you can also see that the twinbies have taken everything out of me and I'm thinner everywhere else besides my belly this time, too.

I weighed this morning and have gained back the three pounds I lost while I was so sick. That puts my total weight gain back at 23 pounds for this pregnancy. Three pounds in one week seems like a lot to me, but my appetite was back full force this week. I was glad to have it back, so I'll take the weight gain! I'm still craving ice water, but this week I was also craving milk and Coke. I'm generally one to really enjoy a good, cold Coke, but since I've been pregnant it upsets my stomach too much to drink (which I know is not a bad thing!), so it hasn't even sounded good. I did have a couple small glasses of it this week, and it was super good! Something else that has sounded really good to me has been this certain chicken dish at Chili's. This is very random as I don't generally even like Chili's. We pretty much never eat there, but this dish is served with black beans and rice and is really good. One of my sweet friends brought it to me when I was sick, and I've been wanting it again ever since!

The beginning of this week was pretty rough. I was just still SO fatigued from being sick (and huge pregnant), but I did better at the end of the week. It has been extremely cold here, so we pretty much just stayed in all week. The kids weren't thrilled, but I'm still dealing with a bit of lingering cough and chest congestion, so I didn't want to take any risks. The mucus from the chest congestion has caused a return of the gagging episodes, but it only happens about once a day.

On Tuesday, I had an appointment with Dr. N at 34 weeks and 1 day along. It had been about two and half weeks since my last appointment, so I was ready to see the babies! My plan was to go by myself to the appointment, but Brianna asked to go with me, so Chris stayed home with Bren while Brianna and I went.

We were called back fairly quickly, and my blood pressure was 122 over 70. Once in the room, we didn't have to wait long for Dr. N to come in. I am always thankful for that! I got an extra-long ultrasound this time as he did weight measurements, but he used towels to prop me slightly on my side so I didn't have any issues with lightheadedness or nausea.

He measured Baby A first. Baby A is still head down, so we were happy to see that. He measured head circumference, abdominal circumference, and femur length, then estimated the weight to be 5 pounds and 8 ounces! He and I were both thrilled with that number!

Baby B's head was more toward the middle of my belly, with feet down and bottom over on my left side (like a sideways V shape). Baby B's weight was also estimated to be 5 pounds and 8 ounces, for a total of 11 pounds of baby so far! Now, I know that these weight estimates can be waaaaay off, so I asked Dr. N how accurate he thought they were. He said that the most important measurements that contributes to an accurate weight measurement is the abdominal circumference. It's also one of the more difficult measurements to get. However, he felt like he got good solid measurements on both babies and therefore the weight measurements are pretty accurate. We weren't able to get any good face shots, but I was thrilled with good weight measurements!

He asked me if I'd been having any unusual symptoms, and for the first time my answer was yes. I have been having what I guess are Braxton Hicks contractions. I've never experienced them before, so I wasn't sure. My belly just gets very tight right across the middle, and sometimes it takes my breath away. This last for about 30 to 45 seconds, but isn't painful at all (just uncomfortable). So, I told him about this and he laughed at me! He said I was acting like a first timer, but I've never had them before so I didn't know what they were! It's only happening 5 to 6 times a day, so he's not concerned at all. I've noticed that the more I get up and down, the more frequently I experience them.. Another sign that I need to be taking it easy right now!

I'll see Dr. N again tomorrow, and at least once a week until I deliver.

Chris and I are still working on crossing things off of our "to do before babies come" list. We did really well this weekend and completed five more items, I think. Truly, the only things left are things that don't really matter for actually bringing babies home. I'm talking about things like ordering the older B's birthday gifts so I'll have those on hand for the their February birthdays. I certainly want to have that done, but if I don't it will be fine.

One thing on the list was some shopping that I really needed to help with, so we decided to conquer that on Friday evening. It required a trip to Sam's Club and Walmart, and I knew that there was no way I'd be able to walk both stores. So, I broke down and got an electric cart (even though I said at the beginning of this pregnancy that I wouldn't do that!). Chris snapped this photo of me (and Bren), and I love how you can see TWO econo-sized bags of Doritos in my cart. We very rarely even eat chips in our house, so we'll just go ahead and blame that on pregnancy, ha!

When I looked at the photo, I said, "Hey my belly doesn't even look that big." I truly think pictures do not do it justice, and especially not this particular picture. Well, Chris replied with, "I think it's just the angle and what you're wearing because you are, ummmm, well, yeah." And he stopped. LOL. It made me laugh so hard. I am very big right now, so I wasn't offended, but I think the words were coming out of his mouth before he realized what he was saying :-).

I had great intentions to post several times last week and it didn't happen. Hopefully, I'll do better this week!