Wow, twin pregnancy is no joke

[persa]

Kudos to all you ladies (and triple kudos to the triplet moms). I wasn't mentally prepared for the exponential growth at this stage (late 2nd tri/early first tri). In a matter of a couple weeks I went from cute spry pregnant lady to uncomfortable waddling, short of breath, easily fatigued pregnant lady. And I'm only 27 weeks! I mean, I got winded at Target the other day.

I've cut back at work in the sense of I'm not doing the long 12 hr, overnight or super busy shifts but I'm still technically working full time.

Anyway, no point to this other than to say "good on ya" to all of you, both in the midst of it and on the other side

Feel free to share your experience.

[linz]

Girl I am right there with you! I'm 31 weeks and this last month I swear each day my belly is bigger. It's like all of a sudden I exploded. I've been fortunate to not have bed rest but am planning to stop working at 36 weeks. The downside is sleeping is the hardest thing of all. I get the worst hot flashes anytime I have to get groceries. And this last week stretch marks finally made their appearance on my belly  I knew they were coming but still hate seeing them. I'm on track for weight gain though which I'm proud of myself for.

[demandypants]

Ahhh, pretending I didn't read this! hahaha.... I am 4 weeks behind you and already started my waddle, and was sitting here feeling short of breath. Just sitting. I have restless legs at night too. Drives me bonkers!

[persa]

Sept 29, 2014 9:24:27 GMT -5 demandypants said:

Ahhh, pretending I didn't read this! hahaha.... I am 4 weeks behind you and already started my waddle, and was sitting here feeling short of breath. Just sitting. I have restless legs at night too. Drives me bonkers!

My restless legs is out of control too! Mine triggers from my feet and ankles and I find that having a king size pillow between my legs but placed down lower, from my feet on up, seems to help it a little.

[demandypants]

Sept 29, 2014 9:30:12 GMT -5 persa said:

Sept 29, 2014 9:24:27 GMT -5 demandypants said:

Ahhh, pretending I didn't read this! hahaha.... I am 4 weeks behind you and already started my waddle, and was sitting here feeling short of breath. Just sitting. I have restless legs at night too. Drives me bonkers!

My restless legs is out of control too! Mine triggers from my feet and ankles and I find that having a king size pillow between my legs but placed down lower, from my feet on up, seems to help it a little.

Thanks for the tip!  Mine bother me most when we are laying on the couch watching tv (and I don't have all my bedroom pillow tricks in full use).  I will have to see if it helps me too!

[UnderProtest]

Yeah, late twin pregnancy is no joke. I had the horrible PUPPS rash so bad that it had me in tears the last week. But the weirdest thing is that my ribs now kind of flare out at the bottom instead of being straight down. I suppose because I'm so short, the babies were so pushed up in my ribs that it expanded the bottom couple. I know my whole rib cage expanded, but that went away after awhile. The bottom part is still weird and the kids are almost three.

[persa]

Yesterday I actually felt pretty good but today I'm super easily winded and fatigued. I also didn't sleep well last night and had to wake up early to get DD and myself ready and get to work before 8 (H is out of town) so I'm sure that contributes.

These are the days I end up hardly eating anything at dinnertime due to extreme fatigue.

[macchiatto]

It was 6 years ago for me but I remember that well. It was rough! Hang in there, mama!

[Narwhal]

Yep, it's rough. I was in so, so much pain by about 28 weeks. My hips ached and one of my boys was up in my ribs all the damn time! I also had horrible liver pain from HELLP that I didn't know about until 29 weeks. Hang in there- I imagine it only gets more uncomfortable!

[persa]

There's a giant music festival here this weekend and I naively bought tickets months ago, thinking I would be OK at 27 weeks to go. Ha! Maybe 27 weeks with a singleton. Not so much with two of them.
At least I was able to sell the wristband for what I paid for it.

[Deleted]

I knew it would be more "difficult" than my singleton but it was a lot more difficult!! I started having contractions at 16w and was often having to get into the tub to stop them. I'm sure chasing my 1yo didn't help. I also had horrible pubic symohasis pain from about 12 weeks on. I carried straight out in front too, it was weird. I carried my son like that but I expected it to be different with two.

I also couldn't walk and became winded so easily from pretty early on. It was very weird for me because with my son I worked out until about 34 weeks or so.

I had ptl at 32w6d that continued with regular contractions at the rate of about 4 an hour 24 hrs a day until I delivered at 36w4d. It was rough!! But, as hard as it was I was very grateful to make it as long as I did and to deliver two 6lb14oz girls. I do remember getting to 36w though and telling my husband I was done and it was ok for the babies to come now lol. Before that I was adamant they stay put lol.

[persa]

@awinter, did you have to go on bedrest?

[Deleted]

Oct 3, 2014 8:12:52 GMT -5 persa said:

@awinter, did you have to go on bedrest?

Not exactly. The first week I was in the hospital on bedrest. Normally, someone would not continue contracting the way I did and not deliver. So they kept me there because each day they expected I would turn back over into active labor and deliver. I went in on a Sunday and by Friday they asked if I wanted to go home because it appeared I was a freak that was just going to be in labor like that for a while. I very happily accepted. I was advised to take it easy but no strict bedrest.

The recommendations on bedrest are changing. New research has shown that it doesn't actually prevent labor. So my MFM and OB team didn't put me on bedrest. However, walking around made my contractions much more painful and I was already having to use a heating pad, rock back and forth, and breathe through the contractions as it was. So I pretty much stayed in bed for the next week or so. I worked from home and didn't lift my 1yo.

Then I slowly started walking around more because twin b that had moved from head down to transverse when the labor started moved back to head down relieving the back labor. This made the contractions more manageable. Then once I hit 35.5 weeks I had a lot of Dr appointments etc so I was naturally up a lot more. But I was also enormous and just couldn't move around well anyways.

Sooooo, the short answer is no, I didn't have to go on bedrest lol. But, I basically ended up in bed most of that time anyways.

[nikki25]

Ugh.....yes, yes, yes...and sorry, sorry, sorry It is extremely difficult and I only went to 33 weeks with almost 2 months of hospital bedrest ;but, it is so hard. Just the weight of your stomach, the difficultly to breathe, and everything else. I had such a hard time breathing as baby B was literally in my ribs but when he was delivered and pulled out of my ribs, I remember gasping as I would seriously breathe! Hang in there. It is so hard and at least to me a hell of a lot harder than with my DD.

[miesl]

Yeah, the change between "feeling ok" and "OMG, I CAN'T BREATHE/WALK/ANYTHING" was fast and unpleasant. That's about the point where I started to use the 'cart-of-shame' at Target because I just could not walk that much. I would have contractions and my hips would just hurt too much to even consider it.

[persa]

Thanks nikki25 and miesl!

So apparently my boys are 3lbs each at 28wks! That's above 50th percentile for a singleton! Holy cow, no wonder I'm so big and my back is so achy.

But I'm so happy they're so nice and healthy so far and they've stayed in my belly. Each week my anxiety decreases a tiny bit. If I can make it to 34 weeks, I'll feel a lot better emotionally too.