34 Weeks!

Thank you all for the kind words and encouragement in response to my last post. This great community of support has meant so much to me.

I'm thrilled to be at 34 weeks today, and I'm also scared. According to my docs, these babies will most likely be here within the next 2-3 weeks. They won't let me go past 38 weeks (which would be May 15), and my OB thinks my body might only make it to 36 (which would be May 1). I'm still shooting for May 7. Let's see how well these boys listen to their mom.

I'm still in a lot of pain, but my fear that I won't know what to do once the babies actually arrive seems to take my mind off of it. H and I have never been around newborns. We've never changed a diaper, other than on the baby dolls provided to us in our infant care class. I know the whole world is going to change for us in a few weeks, and that after a short time everything will become second nature, but I'm terrified of those first two weeks at home.

So, let's go back to focusing on the pain. My trip to the OB and peri on Friday could be compared to the graphic torture scenes J.ack B.auer conducts on 24...at least that's how they felt to me. I once eagerly anticipated these appointments to see the babies and ensure that my cervix was shut (even if that part hurt a little). Friday's examinations truly felt like cruel and unusual punishment. First, being on my back for as long as it took to get ultrasound measurements almost made me pass out because I couldn't breathe. Then, the ultrasound tech kept pushing so hard into my belly that my skin felt like it was going to rip open or burst into flames. The babies were highly active during the appointments, which also made everything very painful as I was pummeled both inside and out. Even though the peri did a thorough ultrasound, my OB wanted to take her own look at the babies when I got to her office, so I got to go through the whole thing twice. She was a little more gentle, thank goodness, until it came time to shake hands with my cervix, which is still closed up tight.

The good news is that the babies are doing really well. They each weigh about 5 1/2 pounds (that's 11 pounds of baby in me!), which surprised the peri and the OB. Evidently they are in the 50th percentile for singleton babies and are very large for twins at 34 weeks. The most interesting part is that despite their large size, they still have room to be extremely active. In fact, I got to watch sadly during the first ultrasound as Baby A, who has been head down and ready to go this whole pregnancy, scooted himself out of position and joined his head up against Baby B's. It looked like they were whispering to each other, conspiring for me to have a C-section rather than a vaginal delivery. The peri and OB were very surprised that my uterus is large enough to allow them to move at all this late in the game. We're hopeful that Baby A will go back to his head down position, but now the word C-section is starting to be thrown around a lot more. It doesn't really matter, but they've been talking vaginal delivery for so long now based on Baby A that I'd been mentally preparing myself for that route.

I asked the peri if it was a problem that the babies still have so much room to move, and he said everything was perfectly fine with them. It's just unusual. Evidently my uterus is providing these guys with a 2-bedroom suite when they should be sharing a 1-bedroom efficiency. What can I say? I'm a good hostess.

I shared my latest symptoms with my OB--the itchy back, the underbelly pain, the hemorroids, the occasional cramps and nausea--and she said that I'm just showing the signs of a woman who would be considered past her due date with a singleton baby. She had a lot of pity in her eyes. As long as everything is okay, I can handle the pain a little longer.

I just wonder--when I have these babies, will my body feel better at all, or will the postpartum pains be just as bad or worse? Will I be able to get out of bed without my knees buckling from the weight? I understand that I will have some serious soreness in whatever area these babies decide to exit from, but will I at least be able to move again within a week or two? I feel like I'll be able to handle the sleep deprivation if I can just have most of my mobility back. Despite my fears, I can't wait to care for these babies. I want to make sure my beat-up body can handle it.