It's week 27 and a lot of things have happened since my last post.
For one, the number of impending babies has multiplied from one to two. Imagine our surprise when we are happily scanning our developing fetus with my POCUS and Uram points in the corner of the screen and asks "What's that second thing?"
No. No way. Must be an artifact. I'm not great at POCUS anyways.
1 week later we look again and I definitely see a second cardiac flicker. Cue panicked texts to my co-resident and coworkers. Can you review this ultrasound? I'm hallucinating right? That's just one big thing, not two little things, RIGHT?
Finally, we had our second ultrasound with the midwife and I try to play it coy: "I think there might be twins. Call it a hunch". We see two distinct heads right when she slaps on the probe. Holy shit. It's one thing when you're looking at a grainy blob on your pocket ultrasound, but once confronted by the reality of the crystal clear image on the office ultrasound, we couldn't live in denial anymore. OK, change in plans, we're going to be a family of four.
Uram's first reaction when we found out we were going to have identical twin girls: "...three Abbys?"
Yeeeaaaah, boiiiii.
I don't have previous experience for comparison, but I have been told twin pregnancy is much worse than with a singleton. First trimester was no picnic in the park. 16 weeks of gagging and food aversion. I couldn't smell beef without feeling violently ill. I couldn't even tolerate chopping garlic. The potpourri hanging in the bathroom had me retching on the toilet. Poor Uram thought I had developed a vendetta against the food of his people. We were convinced the baby was going to Mexican or Indian because I was only eating plain quesadillas or tikka masala, nothing in between.
By week 17, things settled down a little bit. I could eat normal foods again (hallelujah!). I wasn't experiencing itchy hives on my hands or feet anymore. I wasn't quite showing yet. It was like I could forget I was pregnant. I would clutch my belly with every flutter wondering if it was the babies or gas (probably both).
But here we are at week 27 and pregnancy is once again showing that it is NOT cute. I knew I was going to be big as a house, but hot damn, it's one thing to imagine it and one thing to live it. Lying flat has me wheezing as my occupied uterus does its best to encroach into my thoracic cavity. Lying on my side leaves me with severe carpal tunnel symptoms. I wake up in the middle of the night 2-3 times to pee, sometimes discovering that I did not in fact need to pee, but instead someone's head has so rudely decided to settle on my bladder. Not to mention, my hands are swollen all the time. Have you ever been unable to rip toilet paper because you can't close your fingers together in a pincer grip? I have to spend the first minute of my morning flexing my fingers to restore my range of motion so that I can make a fist. I invested in a pack of compression stockings (and I learned the best way to convince patients to wear them is to show them that you're wearing them yourself!)
Uram and I had to have a whole discussion about what we would have to do if one day I became so expansive that I was unable to reach my own butt to wipe. He is surprisingly down to lend a hand (boop!), I guess that's true love right there. This launched a whole other discovery that I have been wiping my butt wrong my entire life. My sister and I have been living a lie because we both grew up reaching between the legs from the front but our parents both reach from the back. WHO TAUGHT US?WHO DID THIS TO US? Anyways, I have since started reaching from the back and wow what a gamechanger. Y'all been living like this?
OH AND THE HEMORRHOIDS. You know those mochi donuts? ...Yeah.
Me: "Waaaah! They're like grapes!"
Uram: "What kind of grapes?"
Me:" KYOHO."
Uram: "NO."
They say these are supposed to get better after pregnancy. THEY FUCKING BETTER. I can now feel my butthole touching the seat when I sit down and I could have gone my entire life without knowing this sensation.
We have one guest room that has just become dedicated baby storage. We are so grateful for the generosity of our friends and family. People have just arrived with bags of hand-me-downs and things that they found useful in pregnancy -- cribs, carriers, baby bouncers, strollers, clothes -- SO MUCH CLOTHES. I feel like we are at the point where we don't even know what we don't know, but we know that our village has our back.
So here I am, incubating two cauliflowers today. My OB says she would be thrilled if I make it to 37 weeks and that twins can come "whenever." (Triggering an Uram panic attack) So maybe we're a little more than halfway there, but man it feels like a lifetime.
I'm scared shitless but at the same time I feel like if I survived medical school and residency, there's not much that can faze me now. HUBRIS.
One thing is for sure -- when I look at Uram, I know there's no one else I would rather be setting off on this adventure with. He has been incredibly supportive this entire time. He has wordlessly taken over the dishwashing duties . When I was feeling sick, he made sure there was always something for me to eat or snack on. One time, I was so hungry in the middle of the night that I felt viscerally ill. He got up, went downstairs, heated me a plate of dino nuggets, and even included the dollop of BBQ he knows I love. Even now, he puts up with my tossing and turning all night without complaint. When I wake up with a cramp, he helps me stretch my leg and massages my calf while half-asleep. They say that stressors can put a strain on a relationship, but I am so lucky that, time and time again, experience has shown me that this man is one that can weather the storm. I couldn't ask for a better husband and I know our daughters will have the most loving and doting dad.
I figured I should update before the pregnancy brain fog fully kicks in; before the happy honeymoon period of the second trimester is fully over and I become a cranky inflated witch.
Is it time for the epidural yet?