A Reflection After 6 Months

The twins were 6 months last week, which is still totally unbelievable to me. It seems like just yesterday I found out I was pregnant, and so, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on the last year or so, and really just the parts when I was pregnant, since you can read all about the rest of it in my other posts.

A year ago, I was sick as a dog…pulling over on my way to work to, how shall we put this…”get rid of breakfast,” realizing what it meant to not be able to button my pants (I’ve had some small weight fluctuation in my life, but I’ve ALWAYS been able to button my pants), and trying my very hardest to keep the fact that I was pregnant a big, fat, secret. I am terrible at keeping secrets, so that last part was particularly difficult for me. I’d miscarried before, so I didn’t want to tell too many people, just in case things didn’t go as planned.

Not too long after I got pregnant, another twin mom and friend recommended I buy a book called, “When You’re Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads: Proven Guidelines for a Healthy Multiple Pregnancy.” I absolutely lived by that book. The first few chapters scared the crap out of me and I thought it must be an exaggeration when it recommended I gain around 50 lbs.! I couldn’t imagine gaining that much weight and had no idea where it was all going to go. A few weeks later, I went to the doctor and she recommended the same amount of weight gain, and from there on out, my mission in life was to gain 50 lbs. The book recommended gaining as much weight in the first trimester as possible, which was almost impossible for me, considering I lost my breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a daily.  But, I did everything I could.

I would get up every morning and eat a bowl of full fat yogurt with fruit and oatmeal in it, then I’d get ready for work. Then I’d have breakfast which usually consisted of two eggs, fruit, a piece of toast, and tea. Then I’d make myself a smoothie that included tofu, pasteurized egg whites, the nastiest high calorie shake on the market, fruit, full fat yogurt, coconut oil, oatmeal, OJ, and milk. This was all before 9:00 a.m.. I’d have a snack around 10:30 and then lunch at noon, and another snack at 2:30, snack at 5:30 when I arrived home, and then dinner. Then a bedtime snack…and when I’d wake up in the middle of the night I’d have a giant glass of milk (yuck, that sounds awful now), and go back to bed. This is all while also consuming just shy of a gallon of water each day. No joke. I was an eating machine, with no room for storage.

Seriously, what is that thing? It looks like a torpedo is shooting out of my body! That was me, at 27 weeks, one month before I delivered. 

By the time I delivered at 31 weeks (so…technically, 9 weeks to go in my quest for 50 lbs.), I had gained 40 lbs. I was HUGE. I was uncomfortable. I had to pee every 5 minutes. I felt absolutely ridiculous about 90% of the time. But, in the end it was totally worth it because my babies were “big” according to some of the NICU nurses. I cannot imagine what would have happened to our babies if I hadn’t consumed every single calorie I just described to you. It could have been disastrous and tragic.

There are a few other key moments that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. My parents had a trip to Madagascar planned for basically the month of July, and would be back at the beginning of my second trimester. We planned to wait to tell them until they returned but we just couldn’t keep it a secret. I’ll NEVER forget the look on my mom’s face when we told her, and the tears of joy squirting out of my dad’s eyes were really quite incredible. They took a card with ultrasound photos with them to give to my younger brother who is a Peace Corps Volunteer in Madagascar. They were so excited to tell him and I’m so thankful that we told them before they left!

My niece was 5 and my nephew was 3 when we told them I was having twins and one of the things that made my huge belly  bearable was how they would kiss it and talk to the babies and I’d have them guess if it was two girls, two boys, or a boy and a girl each time I’d see them (before we got the ultrasound telling us we’d have one of each). They were so sweet and cute and were also really great when the kiddos were in the NICU (a story for another post).

I told Patrick yesterday that I keep thinking of all the “what ifs?” And we talked a bit about it and realized that there’s no reason to spend energy wonder what might have happened. What happened was that things got a little crazy around the time of delivery, the babies showed up a little early, and now we’re all just fine! And they’re CUTE.

Not that anyone’s asking, but I recommend that anyone who is expecting multiples, gain that weight, drink that water, forget what anyone says about staying active…do what’s comfortable because you are not going to be comfortable doing much of anything at all. Do your best not to compare yourself and your pregnancy to your friends who are only expecting one. It’s different, way different. And magical. Having twins is awesome and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Here, this video of Rylan eating Neala’s face will prove how magical it really is (I know, I know, I need to turn my phone the other way so the video is not so small…it was early in the morning, give me a break).