As I said in the previous post we found out that we were expecting twins at our 12 week ultrasound back in March 2008. At the time Ollie was 16 months old.
I found my pregnancy with the twins much harder than Oliver's pregnancy. I think it was the combination of growing two babies and looking after an active toddler. My mum who is a great help to me was also quite sick during the first 20 or so weeks of the pregnancy which made things a little harder too.
After finding out that we were having twins I decided to change from what is called "Shared Care" where I was under the care of a GP (who would see me at the beginning, middle and end of the pregnancy) and a team of midwives (who would see me for the other appointments) to the care of a Obstetrician. I wanted to see an Obs in case I needed to have a c-section so then I would "know" the person who was doing surgery on me. We saw the Obs for the first time at 16 weeks. I was disappointed with the visit. I heard that he had ultrasound machines in his rooms and I had been having visions of going and getting to see the babies again and make sure they were still OK in there. Or at least getting to hear the babies' heart beats. Instead he wrote me a referral to get an ultrasound done at 20 weeks in his rooms with a sonographer as he didn't actually do them. He explained that I needed to make it to 34 weeks or otherwise he would not be able to deliver the babies at the hospital we were booked in to as it isn't equipped to care for babies born earlier than 34 weeks. He also told us that he can only deliver babies at that hospital so he wouldn't be able to deliver them at all. So from that moment my goal was to make it to 34 weeks so I could deliver at the hospital we had chosen and use the Obs we were about to pay big bucks to.
Belly pic at 19w6dI grew steadily and started to feel the twins move as we approached our 20 week ultrasound. We were all waiting in anticipation to find out what the sexes of the babies were. I prayed and prayed that there was at least one baby girl in there because the thought of three boys under two scared the living daylights out of me! Finally the day arrived and we excitedly went off to the rooms to get the scan done. The lady that did it was so nice, she had a little look to find out for us right at the start. I'll always remember the moment that she looked at twin 1 and announced we were having a little girl and then the complete and utter excitement when we were told that twin 2 was a girl two. I couldn't believe it, we were going to have twin daughters! During the scan it was discovered that there was only one placenta and that the membrane between the girls was very thin which led the sonographer to believe that the girls were in fact identical and not fraternal as they told us at the first ultrasound. The girls were measuring a few days behind but everything looked good.
We had another ultrasound at 24 weeks to check on the growth of the babies. They were both measuring a few days behind their dates but both growing perfectly. And they were both still girls! It was around this time that I started getting lots of Braxton Hicks contractions. I seemed to get them most when bending down to pick up Ollie or toys on the floor.
At 26 weeks we had a bit of a scare. One Saturday morning when Jared was at work I had some spotting followed by lots of Braxton Hicks contractions. When he got home we decided to go to the hospital to get it checked out, so we left Ollie with my parents and off we went. After a few uncomfortable procedures to check on things "down there" it was decided to keep me in overnight to keep an eye on things. I was almost out the door the next day when I had some more spotting and had to spend another night. The rest did me a lot of good as I had been busily looking after an active toddler but I did find the hospital visit hard as it was the first time I had ever been away from Ollie. The best part of being in the hospital was getting to hear the babies' heart beats every morning and night. It was then that I was really able to work out where each girl was sitting in my belly. Being in the maternity ward made me very excited to have my own babies and I spent a lot of time day dreaming of what it would be like when I came back to deliver the girls. After 2 nights in the hospital everything settled down and I was able to go home under strict orders not to do much or lift anything heavy, a very hard task for a mummy with 18 month old! I had another ultrasound that week to check everything, luckily it was all normal and it was put down to me trying to do too much.
After my hospital stay we upgraded Ollie to a big boy bed so I wouldn't have to lift him in and out of the cot. We also got him a mini table and chairs so I wouldn't have to put him in the high chair. My belly continued to grow at an alarming rate and every day activities got increasinly hard to do. My stomach was so stetched and the girls had limbs poking everywhere!
Belly pic at 29w1dI had another ultrasound at 30 weeks to check on growth and also the position of the babies. I really wanted to deliver the girls naturally so the position of the babies was very important. Twin 1 (Lilly) needed to be head down. As I had an uncomplicated delivery with Ollie it didn't matter what position Twin 2 was in as long as Twin 1 was head down. I was very releaved at the ultrasound when it showed that Twin 1 had moved from the breech position she was in 4 weeks prior to head down. Twin 2 was still in the same postion as she had been since 20 weeks, transverse laying across the top of my belly getting all the kicks from her sister! It was such a relief to find out that everything looked good for a normal delivery. All I had to do for everything to be perfect was make it another month to 34 weeks so I could have them delivered by my Obs at our chosen hospital.
I counted down the days to 34 weeks. I had a feeling that I was going to go early with the babies but just wanted them to hold on long enough to make it to the magical 34 week mark. On the day I made it 33 weeks I was so happy, only one more week, 7 more days. I could do that. Easy! I even had enough energy that day to take Ollie along to our Church Mother's group to get him out of the house and have some fun and tire him out. That night I went to bed thinking it would be like any other night and telling myself that I really needed to get the hospital bag sorted out. After about an hour I woke up to find my waters had started leaking! I couldn't believe it, one week short and it looked like the babies were on their way!.....
Last belly shot at 32w5d
To be continued......
I counted down the days to 34 weeks. I had a feeling that I was going to go early with the babies but just wanted them to hold on long enough to make it to the magical 34 week mark. On the day I made it 33 weeks I was so happy, only one more week, 7 more days. I could do that. Easy! I even had enough energy that day to take Ollie along to our Church Mother's group to get him out of the house and have some fun and tire him out. That night I went to bed thinking it would be like any other night and telling myself that I really needed to get the hospital bag sorted out. After about an hour I woke up to find my waters had started leaking! I couldn't believe it, one week short and it looked like the babies were on their way!.....
Last belly shot at 32w5dTo be continued......
