Twin Pregnancy Update: 34 Weeks Pregnant With Twins

This week was one of the last milestones for our twins! I’m thrilled to have reached this point because if the girls were born now they’d have a great chance of spending little to no time in the NICU. This is also a significant week because if I were to go into labor now, the doctors would not try to stop it. The next big milestone will be 37 weeks which is considered “full term” for twins. Once I get to that point, I’ll be ready to meet our girls!

This week my comfort level took a turn for the worse and I’m officially feeling very pregnant. I never got to this point with Siena – I felt pretty good right until the end. Despite starting out even stronger for this pregnancy and doing more weight lifting this time, I’m finding that even my moderate workouts are starting to feel a lot harder. With Siena, I did a barre class at nearly 41 weeks pregnant and kept up just fine! Now I can’t really imagine doing a full hour barre class. But I guess that’s to be expected carrying twins (Siena was born at 41 weeks 2 days and weighed 7 pounds 11 oz).

How Many Weeks: This covers 34 weeks pregnant with twins.

Babies Update: I had my routine growth ultrasound with the specialist yesterday and the great news is that our babies look GREAT! Baby A weighs approximately 4 pound 14 ounces and Baby B weighs 5 pounds 2 ounces. Combined they are 10 pounds! No wonder I’m starting to slow down…

They’re both facing head down still (have been for weeks) which is great news because I’m aiming for a vaginal birth. Fluid levels looked great and at this point their lungs are developed enough that they likely wouldn’t need any support after they’re born. The doctor said that twins have their own growth chart after 28 weeks but that both babies are measuring right on track with a singleton, so that is fantastic news!

Frequency of Doctor Appointments: Every 4 weeks with the specialist, every 2 weeks with my OB. At this point no talk of regularly scheduled stress tests, even though women in my twin online pregnancy group have mentioned having them now. Generally my doctor is very low key and doesn’t seem to treat me like a high risk patient, besides the extra ultrasounds. I feel like this is appropriate given how well everything has gone so far and that besides the fact that I’m carrying spontaneous di-di (fraternal) twins, I have no other risk factors. Di-Di twins are the least risky type of twins as they each have their own sac and their own placenta.

Labor Signs: I’ve been having Braxton Hicks contractions for quite some time now but last Sunday evening I had about 1.5 hours of real feeling contractions (i.e. painful but not that bad) consistently. After about 45-60 min I went downstairs and drank about 25 oz of water and ate a piece of toast and then got back in bed. Eventually they stopped so clearly they weren’t real labor. With Siena, I didn’t have any contractions (including BH) til after 40 weeks. I mentioned this to the specialist at my appointment yesterday and she didn’t seem worried – she basically said, “If they went away it wasn’t labor!”

Weight Gain: Somehow I gained 3 pounds in a week and I’m up to 41 pounds! I don’t seem to have any swelling (yay!), which is often the cause of a higher than normal amount of weight gain. For reference, I gained 42 pounds with Siena (I thought for some reason it was 45, but when I read this blog post realized I was wrong!).

Movement: All the time! Sometimes when I’m sitting down it feels like one of the babies is kicking me in the ribs telling me to sit up straight so they have more room.

Symptoms: I felt VERY pregnant this week and third trimester morning sickness is officially a thing. I’ve felt on and off nauseous over the last week, though it’s nothing compared to the first trimester (this also resulted in me eating a lot of junk and not so many vegetables which doesn’t help me feel any better). It’s difficult to bend over to get things off the ground, hard to roll over in bed, and I need to sit down a lot more often (even though sitting isn’t always comfortable). I feel winded doing every day activities. I’ve also started to have some zingers in my lower pelvic area. Oh, I forgot to mention this wonderful fact before but my gums are super sensitive and bleed every time I brush my teeth (and sometimes when I eat). Oh hormones, you’re so sexy! So far I have no swelling, not much back pain, pelvic pain and no stretch marks but all of the above could show up at any moment!

Cravings/Food Aversions: Food generally isn’t sounding or tasting that great to me, though I’m not letting that stop me from eating!

Purchasing/Borrowing: I go some not exciting things like some paper plates for us to use in the early days when we don’t have time to do a lot of dishes. I also got Siena’s Easter basket all ready in case they come before then so that she won’t miss out! I’m proud of myself for this because I’ve procrastinated with every other holiday.

Maternity Clothes: Growing out of more and more of them each week – luckily I have quite the collection that I’ve borrowed from various friends so I’ll be able to make due. I just really wish the weather would get warmer so I can live in dresses and workout clothes and never wear a pair of maternity jeans again. They’re just SO uncomfortable – when I wear the band up it rides down and presses on my stomach and when I fold it down my pants fall off.

Exercise: Slowing down on this front. For the first time in as long as I can remember I took 3 full days off exercise (not even a long walk any of the days). I did, however do 2 prenatal yoga sessions, a 3.5 mile walk and 1 Beachbody on Demand prenatal strength workout over the last week. Our prenatal yoga instructor was actually pregnant and is now on leave and we have a new teacher (who was actually my favorite instructor back when I used to go when I was pregnant with Siena) and her class was MUCH harder!!! I was having a hard time keeping up with the sun salutations because we were getting up and down so much (not easy with 10 pounds of baby in you). We also did a 1 minute wall squat to simulate the length of a contraction. Yippee!

Interesting Moments:  I was very humbled when walking around the Safari Park on Wednesday – it felt like a pretty significant task to just get my body around the park! I’m so used to having so much energy that it’s pretty foreign for me to feel this way. I don’t like it!

Mike was out of town at a wedding in Florida for three days over the weekend. My mom stayed with us for two nights (usually she comes one night a week) and my friend Bree stayed with me on the last night so I was never alone. When we found out about the twins I was disappointed to know that I wouldn’t be able to fly to Florida to attend and at the same day we knew with twins there was an off chance I could go into labor or have a scare while he was gone! Thankfully we made it through and Mike will be in town and ready from here on out!

Best Moments: On Wednesday Mike and I took Siena to the Safari Park and we had a blast. It was such a wonderful, laid back morning as a family of three. Soaking up these last moments before our family becomes FIVE!

Missing: Feeling good. Feeling generally blah is now my norm.

Looking Forward To: Meeting these babies! At this point I want them to stay in because they need to get bigger but I’m getting more and more excited to meet them and learn more about their individual personalities. And of course I’m looking forward to double the baby cuddles!

In all seriousness, though I do generally feel kind of crappy at this point in my pregnancy, I’m thankful that I don’t feel that bad. It could definitely be a lot worse and I’m super thankful to be as active and rested as I am at this point in my twin pregnancy. I’m not on bed rest, my babies are still in my stomach and are big and healthy. Any discomfort is worth them sticking around for a while longer to get even healthier. In an ideal world we’ll get to take them home from the hospital immediately following a vaginal birth, but really in the end all I want is babies who are going to live long healthy lives.

See my Twin Pregnancy page for previous updates!

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