29 Weeks Pregnant with Twins

per whattoexpect.com

At 29 weeks pregnant, your baby weighs nearly three pounds now and measures about 17 inches. Though she’s getting pretty close to her birth length, she still has to chub out a bit. In fact, over the next 11 weeks, she’ll more than double — or even come close to tripling — her weight. As more fat is deposited under the skin surface, her wrinkled skin is smoothing out. This fat, called white fat, is different from the earlier brown fat that your developing fetus accumulated. Brown fat is necessary for body temperature regulation, while white fat (the fat you have, Mom) actually serves as an energy source.

Counting Baby’s Kicks
Since space in your baby’s living quarters is now at a premium, you’ll be feeling jabs and pokes from elbows and knees, mostly. And they’ll be more vigorous (and also less erratic) than before because your baby is stronger and excitedly responding to all sorts of stimuli — movement, sounds, light and that candy bar you ate half an hour ago. That means now’s a good time to start doing twice a day to make sure baby’s doing just fine (plus, it’s a good excuse for a rest).

Permanent Teeth Are Forming
One more exciting development this week: as you’ll recall, your baby’s baby-teeth buds formed weeks ago. But now, the buds for permanent teeth are forming in his or her gums!

Bump – 29w2d

How can this belly get any bigger?!?!  We will find out.  I’ve managed to avoid stretch  marks and the dreaded ugly brown line thus far.  And my belly button isn’t pushed out yet. But it’s still early.

10 weeks makes a HUGE difference!

 

Ultrasound – 29w0d

As soon as they popped on the screen I gasped…our babies are so big!  To think we went from this:

to this

to THIS!

omg, it’s so overwhelming.  (Sorry about the crappy picture quality…)

Butterbean – measuring 29w1d.  Heartrate 139 bpm.  3lbs1oz

Limabean – measuring 29w5d.  Heartrate 146 bpm.  2lbs14oz

Everything looks fabulous.  They are swimming in plenty of fluid.  The placentas are where they should be and doing their job.  Their growth is right on point.  And they are both still head down.

Apparently these little maniacs are fighting over who is gonna come out first.  Limabean is still at the starting gate but Butterbean is trying to head butt her out of the way so he can be the older sibling.  They have settled in kind of a wonky X, like this:

She’s on top of him, which is why I feel her little feet more often.

God I love these two little twinkies so much.  I don’t even mind that they keep head banging my bladder.

We have one more ultrasound at 33 weeks…”if we make it that long”  Challenge accepted.

How I’m feeling

I’m feeling like a woman of advanced maternal age in her third trimester, pregnant with twins.  Yes. I. Do.

Let’s see.  My knees still hurt every second of every day.  Even when I’m sprawled out on the couch.  I realized when temps almost hit 40 over the weekend, that it is not all due to my extra weight.  Cold temps = really painful knees #oldladyproblems.  We were “blessed” with several days of negative temps and I’m basically crippled.  Warmer days are ahead so let’s hope I get a little relief.  I’ve also noticed some increased pain in my hips.  It’s only noticeable when I move certain ways.  Feels like I was riding a horse for a couple of hours.

Guess what showed up this week?  Carpal Tunnel!  (click the link, Jerry…it’s a thing).  I had a feeling it was coming…my hands have been going numb when I sleep for weeks.  And I’ve had some swelling in my fingers (not terrible but noticeable). But I’m having all day tingling and numbness in the tips of my fingers so I imagine that’s what it is.

And remember that one time at band camp when I was freaking out that I wouldn’t recognize a contraction if I had one?  Well that little situation resolved itself.  Here is what I think they feel like.  Imagine your baby belly was a lime.  And someone with a giant hand was trying to make margaritas.  That squeezing sensation…that’s what it feels like.  Your belly gets tight and hard and it doesn’t really hurt, but it’s feels like something heavy is sitting on your chest.  Voila!  Braxton Hicks.

I’ve had random BH contractions over the last week.  I notice them a lot when I’m not drinking enough water or move too quickly after sitting a long time.  So I’m amping up my water intake and just moving more slowly these days (like a turtle, Jerry, just like a turtle).

I’m still taking it easy most evenings.  Thank goodness there is a lot of great TV on at the moment.  I do get pangs of guilt for not cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming the floor, making a decent dinner, etc.  And then I just remind myself that I have one job at the moment and that is cooking these babies as long as I can.  Everything else can wait.

Mood

Relaxed, content, happy most of the time. I had one really blah day where I was lethargic and pretty depressed.  Everything was getting on my nerves.  I think my 3 am wake up calls caught up with me so I went to bed at 7:30 that night.  I felt refreshed and fabulous after 10 hours of sleep!

Food

My girlfriend asked me what I gave up for Lent and I told her vegetables.  What is wrong with me??  I love vegetables. All of them.  I loved brussel sprouts way before they were trendy.  Veggies are just so blah at the moment.  I know I would eat them if there was a big plate of them in front of me but I think I just prefer other doughy options at the moment.  Or fruit.  At least I’m eating fruit!

Sleep

Jacob had some sort of gagging/throwing up situation one night around 3 am.  Jerry & I both got up to make sure he was ok and then Jerry took him outside in case he was sick (it was –4 degrees out.  Have I mentioned that my husband is a saint?).  I laid in bed and thought “It’s going to be fun when we have two puking kids and a diarrhea dog all at the same time!”  Divide and conquer I suppose.

Anyway, I was up after that and it just started a trend of early wake ups.  I sleep pretty hard from 9:30 – 3 and then I just kind of wake up and give in.  I think it’s going to be like this indefinitely.

Movement

There’s a party going on in there!  Jerry got to see them rockin’ from the outside…which is so weird but so super cool.  As soon as I rest my hands on my belly where their feet are, I get a poke.  And it’s so bizarre because I swear I feel little bones.  They are movin and groovin all day long.

To Do List

We went to IKEA and bought a few things for the nursery.  Blackout curtains, a table lamp and some picture ledges/book shelves.  And Jerry has primed the changing table with plans to paint this weekend.  I’ve washed all the baby clothes and it was the most fun I’ve ever had doing laundry!  We’re moving right along.

Random thoughts/observations/stuff

This is all I got.