I didn't have this blog last year when I was pregnant. I wish now that I had. I did have a pregnancy journal though that I wrote in from time to time. Since the twins are turning one in a couple of weeks, I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you all a little about my pregnancy.
We decided that December would be a good month to start trying for a family. I would graduate in May and take the bar in July. It takes until November to find out whether or not you passed so it would be perfect timing to have a baby. We were so fortunate that we got pregnant the first month that we tried!
I didn't have my first real doctor's appointment until I was 12 weeks along or the end of February. The doctor got out the little doppler thingy to listen to the baby's heart beat, but she couldn't find it. She said that we would do a quick ultrasound just to make sure that there wasn't any problems. I was nervous! Just a couple of minutes later, we saw a little baby moving around up on the monitor. The nurse got really quiet. She said, "I don't want to freak you guys out." I asked if anything was wrong, but then saw that she was smiling. I asked if she could already tell theh sex of the baby and she just held up two fingers. All I could do was squeal and laugh. Brandon was squeezing my hand very tightly, but I couldn't take my eyes off of the screen to look at him.
Here is the picture we got of the babies that day. I carried it to work and school with me for the next week so that everyone could see my twins.
It is kinda hard to tell, but one baby's head is on the right and the other baby's head is on the left.
I was referred to a specialist, but didn't have my first appointment until 16 weeks, or almost a month later. It was at the first appointment that we found out that we were having two girls and that it appeared that they shared a placenta, which means that they are identical.
A shared placenta made my pregnancy a little higher risk. Twins who share a placenta can develope Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. This is where the blood and nutrients are shared unevenly between the twins. It can be very dangerous for the twin who is not getting enough nutrition. My doctor decided that I would have an ultrasound every two weeks in order to watch for this condition in my babies. He was very hopeful that we would not have this problem because of the umbilical cord placement in the placenta.
It was about this time that I started getting very sick. I vomitted most mornings and sometimes during the day too. If I didn't vomit during the day, I still was nauseous. Sometimes in the morning there would be traces of blood in the vomit. The doctor said this was because some capilaries in my throat were probably broken due to all the vomitting. They prescribed me some medicine. Unfortunately, I stayed sick until I was six months or so along.
I don't really have much more to report about my pregnancy. It went really well. All my doctors were really impressed. No gestational diabetes, no high blood pressure. I did have a couple of bouts of preterm labor, but that is normal with a twin pregnancy. I think I went to the hospital twice, where they would give me fluids and Terbutaline, a drug that stops contractions. Then they would send me home.
Here I am at about 32 weeks along.
I was so busy studying for the bar. Looking back, I'm not quite sure how I did it. A twin pregnancy is a big deal. Taking the bar exam is also a very big deal. I did them simultaneouly. Whew! I get tired just thinking about it. There at the end, I was going to the doctor's office three times per week for Non Stress Tests. These are where they hook you up to monitors and watch the babies. They are for multiple and other high risk pregnancies.
Just like any pregnancy toward the end I got very uncomfortable. I can't say that it was worse than a singleton pregnancy, because I've never carried just one baby! I just know that it was very uncomfortable. If I stood for more than about 15-20 minutes I could barely stand the next day, because I would be so sore. Sleeping was bad too. It was so difficult to roll from one side to the other because my belly was so heavy and hard to move. I'm not sure about the very end, but I know that at 36 weeks, my uterus measured the size of a woman who was 3 weeks overdue!
Stay tuned for an entry about the day the babies were born!
