OK, so a quick recap (mostly for my baby-addled brain..) the last post encompassed the thrills and spills of Christmas and New Year, up to our 25wk midwife appointment in January. So whats been happening for the last 7 weeks I hear you cry? Read on....
The remainder of January passed in a blur of cold, bleak January greyness. The babies continued to be their usual wriggly, pokey selves, only with much more determination and a lot more energy behind the wallops. Heartburn and acid reflux is now becoming a major issue, I think I am consuming my body weight in Gaviscon (other heartburn remedies are available) every week! Thankfully its free otherwise it would be costing a fortune. Shame it doesnt taste very nice.. but it works. However, a well known brand of powdered milk flavouring works even better, and it does taste good! Pity you cant get that on prescription.
We found ourselves back at Burton on 4th Feb for the first of our scheduled growth scans, and to see the consultant again. For the first time this pregnancy I wasnt nervous about the scan; there had always been some element of uncertainty in all the previous scans but as this one was at 28wks, they were kicking and wriggling all the time (they were alive), my bump as huge (they were obviously growing) and we had been given the all clear at the 20wk anomaly scan so we knew they were perfect. What we were not expecting was the estimated weights the sonographer calculated from the babies' measurements.. From our online readings we knew the approximate weights for twins at 28wks was around 2 - 2.5lbs each, similar to that of a single baby. From the scan measurements however it was clear that nobody had informed our babies of this snippet of information: Twin A was approx 2lb 15oz, and Twin B was approx 3lb 1oz. Oh my. Both these weights were very approximate, they had error margins of +/- 1lb or so, but even then they still seemed fab weights for twins. The consultant, although not 'our' consultant, seemed pleased too. He didnt have time to answer many questions so we left with our huge list relatively unanswered. They still couldnt tell us anything about our birth choices which was a little disappointing, but at 28wks twins are still able to move into daft positions, so I guess its a bit silly to plan a natural birth only to find in a month the twins have gone from head down to transverse or diagonal (ours were head down, good babies). After we left the consultant I was sent for routine blood tests in a different part of the hospital (fortunately, on the ground floor and much nearer to the entrance). How I love being a pin cushion.
Two weeks later I received a letter from the hospital, my blood results had come back. Thankfully I was negative for obstetric choleostasis (I think thats how you spell it) which causes itching on the hands feet and bump but is an indicator of liver problems, but I was rather anaemic. No huge surprise there. So now I have the pleasure of swallowing vile brown tablets twice a day as the little monsters are glugging all my iron supplies.
I saw my midwife again towards the end of feb, I hadnt even walked into the room when she greeted me with 'growing well I see?' ! Everything was fine, blood pressure was normal etc. She listened to the heartbeats which was good. Both sounded very healthy, twin 1 (right hand side) was 135bpm and twin 2 was 145bpm. She didnt measure the huge expanse of bump as I would be off the scale! I think that was the polite way of saying I was rather big :-) She also booked me in for my 34wk appointment although she didnt think I would get that far...!! Slightly worried now....
Our second growth scan was on 4 March, at 32wks. We were very eager to find out how heavy the not so little wotsits were now measuring in at, and we were not disappointed! The sonographer used three different sets of measurements to get an approximate weight, head circumference, abdominal circumference and femur length. Twin 1/A was so low she couldnt see the head to get the measurement, which was slightly worrying in itself.. low babies could mean an early arrival date.. The other two measurements were recorded and a weight approximated.... 2343g. 2.3kg. 5lb 2oz. Blimey! Twin 2/B was more cooperative, and amazingly the weight calculated was also 2343g. Twin 1 therefore could actually be somewhat larger.. Both babies are huge, around 5lb 2oz each which for twins is big. Single babies are estimated to be around 5lb at this stage, twins are often estimated to be around 5lb when they are born. Oh My Goodness. I was so pleased when I was told I didnt have to have an epidural, now I think I may need one!
Again we saw the consultant after our scan, she was very pleased with how the babies are growing, and that they are both still head down. Thankfully she had revised the estimate of how far I would be allowed to go before any intervention from 40wks to 38wks, however she said if we get to 34wks she will be happy! Im hoping to get to 35-36wks but even that isnt that far away (end of march). Its all scarily close now.
We think we are ready for them if they should arrive in the next 2 weeks; the cot is up, the clothes are washed, the bag is packed... which probably means they wont arrive until mid april!
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