ADVENTURES IN PARENTHOOD: Adventures in a Twin Pregnancy

I never got to finish my pregnancy or birth story, so here it goes! Life with twins and a first grader definitely got in the way, but trying to slowly pick my blog back up. Life continues to be busy as I do work at home part time as a Disney Travel Agent as well and love it, but it does mean I am working during nap time, at night and on weekends a lot.

So we were ecstatic to find out we were having twins. Given our long struggle to even have one, we were thrilled. We knew it would mean a lot of work, but being older parents, we were in a good place financially etc. to provide and of course had lots of support from family and friends. And so my second pregnancy began at age 39. The age 39/40 sounds so old so I don't consider myself "old", but this second pregnancy x2 was rough. My first wasn't easy either.

Already showing in January!

I gained a LOT of weight, I got up well over 200lbs (5'8 tall). The babies were doing well each check up and I was able to see a fetal specialist due to my advanced maternal age and the fact I had twins. Not all women having twins see one, only folks with high risk pregnancies or older moms like me.

So I had a doctor for me and one for the babies which meant a lot of appointments. Thankfully I had a great boss and work environment that allowed me the flexibility I needed. I also got extremely sick again. While never throwing up constantly, I just had awful nausea all the time- 24/7 and wished I would throw up more. It's hard to describe and hard to people to understand how completely sick to your stomach you can feel. When you aren't puking everywhere, people just don't really know how bad you feel. But it was bad. Same as with William. I tried everything I did before and ended up on zofran and phenegran again. Zofran didn't help much, but phenegran did. Unfortunately phenengran made me extremely sleepy, which wasn't going to help while trying to work. So I'd take half a pill in the am to just make it through the day at 50%.

We officially announced to everyone in Feburary!

3D ultrasounds were a part of the package with a fetal doctor!

He’s giving us the finger.

By 20 weeks, I was huge already.

I was thrown a beautiful baby shower which was so nice. It had been 6 years since my last baby, so we definitely needed a lot for our dual Mickey nursery.

William attended a ‘big brother’ class at Presby Plano which he really enjoyed. They learned how to change diapers and care for their siblings.

I was able to negotiate working some reduced hours and partly from home which was a lifesaver. I had a laptop and could do conference calls etc from home no problem while on the couch. I was so thankful for that. Other than the morning sickness, my pregnancy was complication-free other than getting huge. By the end of the second trimester, i could barely make it up the stairs at work anymore. Walking anywhere wore me out. It was crazy how tired I got.

Finally by June at 30 weeks, I was just plain miserable. I could barely walk, function etc. My doctor wrote me out of work towards early June. I started off working from home, but eventually work and I just decided it was time for me to take my leave early and rest.

Poor William spent his first summer NOT in day care with me at home. But I was in bed or on the couch the majority of the time. I was so thankful he is independent and pretty self-sufficient. Bad mommy but he spent a lot of time playing the iPad and doing some workbooks.

Gigantic!

And then by July, I experienced the worst complication ever. I started itching all over and breaking out. Starting with my hands and feet. It was horrible. Sort of like chicken pox, itching uncontrollably. There were two possibilities for it- either PUPPS- which is a rare pregnancy rash that while miserable, is not harmful to the babies or me (except just the misery of the itching). OR cholestasis which is a dangerous liver condition in pregnancy where the blood isn’t cleansed properly and can cause the severe itching. Both conditions are rare, but more common in multiple pregnancies and third trimester. I was tested for the liver condition but it was negative. But fetal doctor was certain that is what I had, which is dangerous. My OB thought it was only PUPPS. But regardless, I was monitored, given oral steroids since it was so bad and even prescription creams. NOTHING helped. I googled for other tips to try- and Grandpa’s Pine Tar Soap helped with a cold shower (purchased in organic grocery stores), but only gave me like an hour or less of relief. I was literally scratching my skin off- bleeding. It was awful. I couldn’t sleep or rest. Delivery of the babies is the cure usually for most cases.

After more than 3 week of this misery, my OB said at 37 weeks we would do the c-section. The boys were large and she had planned to take them by 38 anyhow. I was grateful at that point given how horrible the whole complication was. Just in case it was the liver condition, she didn’t want to keep pushing it and the twins were a good size already, so it was decided. I don’t have many photos from June/July as I was literally so tired and itchy, I didn’t leave the house or do much. But you can see in this pic of the day I delivered, the bumps on my hands and scabs!