These last few weeks of my pregnancy are getting kinda hard. If I'm on my feet very long, I hurt. If I sit in a chair very long, I hurt. The only two comfortable positions are sitting with my legs inclined or lying on my side. Last week (30 wks) my midwife measured me and I was 36 cm- or nearly full-term size for a singleton. The biggest I've ever gotten is 39 cm and I'm almost there- probably will be by the time I see my midwife again next week. So, my body is feeling pretty done.
On a bright note, the twins are SO active! I love feeling them. Sometimes I can't believe two, tiny people can move around so much! The family can see my stomach shift and bulge from across the room. It's crazy! I am praying they'll keep growing healthy and be ready to come out by early August. I can't imagine having them stay until their due date of August 26. But, they might.
The girls had a track meet last Thursday and I told Mark it was my last one for the season. I just can't sit for that long. I was plenty cool in the shade, but the sitting exhausted me. Then, yesterday at church I had the same problem. After 2 & 1/2 hrs, I couldn't sit any more. I had to get up and find a new place to sit where I could stretch my legs out. When I got home I felt completely drained. So, I think I'm going to just do 2 hrs. of church till the babies come.
It seems ridiculous to get so exhausted from doing nothing. Sitting really shouldn't be such a difficult task for me, but it is.
The midwife has me drinking 1/2 my weight in ounces of water each day. I won't divulge my poundage, but suffice it to say that that is a LOT of water! I'm also consuming a min. of 2000 mg. of calcium, 80 gm of protein, and water with electrolytes. When I don't get enough of the calcium, I wake up with charlie horses in my calves. SO much goes into growing these babies. I never realized how vital nutrition really is for a healthy pregnancy.
The girls and I have had a fun summer thus far. I had so many plans for them, but as the summer progresses, I'm finding less and less energy for them. It makes me feel kind of sad. I always want their summers to be super exciting, but it's getting to be too hard for me. {sigh}
So, today I guess I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. Nothing big, just the difficulties of trying to balance motherhood (of those in and outside the womb), homemaking (cooking, cleaning), and every day living. I have a really great life, I do. And I'll make it through these next few weeks, but I think I need to lower my expectations and figure out some indoor, recliner-friendly activities for me and the girls. Hmm. Maybe cards? Thumb wrestling? Movies and popcorn? Ahh, and reading. There's always reading. That's a good thing. :)
Poor Mark. He loves, loves, LOVES his girls, but I realized this weekend how much he'd enjoy having a son. My sister Kelly's oldest son, Eli (almost 10) stayed with us while she ran in the Ragnar Relay race. She was gone for 2 days. During that time, Mark really took to Eli. When Mark went downstairs to work out, he invited Eli to join him. He taught Eli how to do some pretty complicated push-ups from P90X and he taught him how to punch the punching bag. Mark invites the girls to join him when he works out, and sometimes they do for a few minutes, but Eli really liked doing this "man's work" with Mark. The girls usually fizzle out pretty quickly and have no interest in the punching bag. Eli stayed the whole time.
Mark also showed Eli his cool new knife he got for Father's Day. Mark picked it out himself- it's a knife Bear Grylls would be proud of and Mark is pretty stoked about it. Eli oohed and aaahed at all the right times. He was genuinely interested in it. Such a contrast from the girls' reactions: "Why'd you get that?" "Hmm. Nice." and "That could be dangerous."
I remember a couple years ago when I got home after a morning shopping garage sales and I happened to mention that one sale had a bunch of the Barbie-doll sized G.I. Joe figures for sale. He insisted we get in the car right then and go and buy them. I was shocked! He said he'd much rather see his girls' Barbie dolls date "real men", like the G.I. Joe guys rather than the effeminate Ken dolls he hated. And, secretly I think he just wanted an excuse to buy some boy toys.
So, Mark told me today that he really would enjoy having a son to share all of his guy things with. Girls just don't really care about guy things. I told him maybe we could adopt one, because I'm pretty sure my first ultra sound left no doubt that I'm carrying two more girls. But, I do have another ultra sound coming up, and I'll have to take another peek, just to make sure. It's more likely that Mark will have to make do with his daughters and one day hopefully their boyfriends and later, husbands will be interested in punching bags and knives. Until then, he'll be the lone man in a house FULL of women. :)
Mark also showed Eli his cool new knife he got for Father's Day. Mark picked it out himself- it's a knife Bear Grylls would be proud of and Mark is pretty stoked about it. Eli oohed and aaahed at all the right times. He was genuinely interested in it. Such a contrast from the girls' reactions: "Why'd you get that?" "Hmm. Nice." and "That could be dangerous."
I remember a couple years ago when I got home after a morning shopping garage sales and I happened to mention that one sale had a bunch of the Barbie-doll sized G.I. Joe figures for sale. He insisted we get in the car right then and go and buy them. I was shocked! He said he'd much rather see his girls' Barbie dolls date "real men", like the G.I. Joe guys rather than the effeminate Ken dolls he hated. And, secretly I think he just wanted an excuse to buy some boy toys.
So, Mark told me today that he really would enjoy having a son to share all of his guy things with. Girls just don't really care about guy things. I told him maybe we could adopt one, because I'm pretty sure my first ultra sound left no doubt that I'm carrying two more girls. But, I do have another ultra sound coming up, and I'll have to take another peek, just to make sure. It's more likely that Mark will have to make do with his daughters and one day hopefully their boyfriends and later, husbands will be interested in punching bags and knives. Until then, he'll be the lone man in a house FULL of women. :)
My midwife wants me eating 80 grams of protein a day! She emphasized the importance of protein during this last trimester-- it is really one of the main building blocks for the twins. Well, 80 grams is a TON of protein. So, I've been trying to figure out creative ways to get more of it. And because of that, I've seriously perfected the protein smoothie. Here's my new and improved recipe:
8 oz milk (9 g protein)
1 scoop Syntha-6 vanilla ice cream protein powder (23 g protein)
1/8-1/4 cup lemonade concentrate
2 cups frozen fruit (strawberries or cherries are my favs!)
Blend until smooth.
The lemonade gives it a little zing and extra sweetness. It is sooooo good and I'm getting 31 grams of protein! Almost half of what I need! Plus, this is whey protein instead of soy. I get soy protein in my breakfast cereal (Kashi) and I really don't want to overdo on the soy.
My midwife has also encouraged me to drink water with electrolytes added because the electrolytes help with kidney function. Since I have two babies whose waste is filtering through my kidneys, it's important to keep my kidneys working well. So, I've been drinking Smart Water and now the water from the tap tastes BLECH to me! I LOOOOVVVEEE my Smart Water. It's not cheap, so I'm going to have to get back to drinking regular water once the twins arrive. :(
This has really been a different experience so far! I'm so happy we have two babies on the way!
8 oz milk (9 g protein)
1 scoop Syntha-6 vanilla ice cream protein powder (23 g protein)
1/8-1/4 cup lemonade concentrate
2 cups frozen fruit (strawberries or cherries are my favs!)
Blend until smooth.
The lemonade gives it a little zing and extra sweetness. It is sooooo good and I'm getting 31 grams of protein! Almost half of what I need! Plus, this is whey protein instead of soy. I get soy protein in my breakfast cereal (Kashi) and I really don't want to overdo on the soy.
My midwife has also encouraged me to drink water with electrolytes added because the electrolytes help with kidney function. Since I have two babies whose waste is filtering through my kidneys, it's important to keep my kidneys working well. So, I've been drinking Smart Water and now the water from the tap tastes BLECH to me! I LOOOOVVVEEE my Smart Water. It's not cheap, so I'm going to have to get back to drinking regular water once the twins arrive. :(
This has really been a different experience so far! I'm so happy we have two babies on the way!
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