32 Weeks

Baby’s energy is surging, thanks to the formation of white fat deposits beneath the skin. (Have those kicks and jabs to the ribs tipped you off yet?) Baby is also settling into sleep and waking cycles, though -- as you’ve also probably noticed -- they don’t necessarily coincide with your own. Also this month, all five senses are finally functional, and the brain and nervous system are going through major developments.

This morning I am 32 weeks and 2 days pregnant with the twins, and am up in the middle of the night, giving me a chance to update the blog! Pregnancy insomnia has been a real problem for me lately. I find many nights during the week I'm up at some point for several hours. I don't remember having this at all with Lily. But then again, I didn't have this horrible heart burn with Lily either (maybe one of the babies actually has hair!!). The heart burn has been one of the key factors keeping me up. At least this night it is!

Things just aren't as easy once you get to this stage with twins. I'm starting to set into panic mode about getting everything done, considering I've only got a few weeks left. The average twins are born at 35 weeks....that's only 3 weeks away! Hopefully with my history of going over due with Lily, I'll be able to keep these babies in until at least 37 weeks, but there are no guaranties. It's hard to prepare for them though when any sort of shopping or cleaning for to long makes my whole body scream at me in pain for being on my feet for to long! It's come to the point where if we go out, we have to limit it to one or two stores...or I'll be paying for it the next day in the form of a achy back, belly and legs, all with tons of contractions to boot!

It's not all bad though. I still really enjoy being pregnant, and love feeling the babies move around. Their movements are so big now it makes my whole belly shake when the move. It's funny to watch. I can often identify knees and elbows moving about now. These are my favorite movements.

Last week I had 2 appointments. The first, my regular OB appointment, went really well. I told her about losing my plug a couple weeks ago, so she checked me, and all is good! My cervix is long, closed and soft! Very relieved to hear that I wasn't dilating! I'm now measuring 34.5 weeks, which is smaller than my last appointment, when I measured 35 weeks. More confirmation that I've dropped some. Everything else was pretty standard. It's a good thing that these appointments have stayed a bit boring so far!

My second appointment last week was my monthly u/s to check on the babies growth, which didn't go a great. (Not horrible, just not great) Baby A is doing great, as always. Heart beat was 153bpm, and is now weighting in at 3lbs 12 oz. A whole pound gain since last month! Unfortunately baby A is now Breech. Hopefully there is still time to turn. Baby B hopefully seems to be doing great too. Heart beat was 144bpm, and is now weighing in at 3lbs 1 oz. Another one pound gain! B is still transverse, with the head to the left, right next to A's head. They're plotting their escape! Now the not so good news is that baby B is measuring a little behind. There is a 22% size discordance between both babies. They like to see nothing more than 20%, so the doctor seems concerned. It was particularly the belly measurement that had fallen off it's own curve for baby B. Baby B has always been the smaller of the two, so I'm hoping it's just the natural growth rate for that baby, but it still worries you as a mother to hear that one of your babies may not be doing as great as it should. They want to see me again in 2 weeks to check on B, as opposed to the regular 4 weeks. Please cross your figures for us that it was just a case of the baby being to smooshed to be able to get accurate measurements. I'm trying not to worry about it until then, and hopefully we'll see that B is still growing at a great rate.
Other than that I should be starting twice a week non-stress tests as early as next week. (this is not related to the growth difference at all. All twin moms to be at my doctors office start twice weekly NST's between 32-34 weeks) I'm really hoping my contractions register on those monitors, because they've been picking up again lately, and are getting more painful (I've had several painful ones while writing this blog tonight!) I'm hoping we can get to the bottom of why I get them so often, and that I can be reassured they are doing nothing to change my cervix!
In the mean time I'll be running around trying to get as many things done as possible to prepare ourselves for the babies arrivals. This next weeks tasks that I'm tackling- cooking lots of food to freeze for after the babies are here, and ordering a crib!

I've been so bad about taking consistant belly pictures. Here's a picture of me at 30 weeks 4 days:


And the one picture I got from the last u/s, of the tops of both their heads. Picture of the print out, so not that great, sorry: