In Like Twin

The nerves were starting to kick in as my third trimester was finally here. This was the end of such a long journey and the beginning of something so special. The two of us were doing our best to get prepared to be the parents to twins, whether it meant we were packing the hospital bags or setting up our plan for when I were to go into labor, we had so much to figure out. I had officially spent two full trimesters emotionally preparing for this, the final stretch. I was getting so tired physically and emotionally and just extremely uncomfortable. Was I ready to be the mother to two? Is Oakley ready to be the father to two and more importantly, does he even know how to change a diaper? Reality was crashing in on me. It was time to get things in order.

Oakley and I had been working on the nursery for months now, which was quite the challenge in itself. It was so hard to put a color scheme together that would work for a boy/girl nursery, so we decided to go with something quite simple like grey and white with a splash of color for each baby to keep it somewhat neutral. I remeber going in the nursery multiple times to go through everything we had for the babies. Sometimes I would just sit in their room and go through their things over and over again. From the tiny socks to the cozy pajamas. I was trying to absorb and understand the reality that I am about to have two babies. Sitting in the middle of their nursery floor and packing their little hospital bag filled me with so much joy and gave me butterflies like I had never felt before. The feeling I had being surrounded by all of their things made it seem so surreal and emotional. I knew things were getting real and in such a short amount of time, I was going to be a mother.

My body was was changing so much at this point. My skin was stretching to its max and the stretch marks began to really show on my stomach and breasts. As much as seeing them glaring back at me in the mirror bothered me, feeling my son and daughter move around inside of me reminded me of what is truly important. To make the stretch marks matter worse, I had developed a skin condition called PUPPS on my stomach. PUPPS is an itchy bumping rash that occurs when you have excessive weight gain. The more my skin stretched, the more it itched. Let me tell you, I was MISERABLE. I felt so uncomfortable all the time, I never had a break.

I was gaining so much weight and retaining so much water my body was blowing up. My 5’2 frame was filling up, or I should say nearly overflowing at this point. I was embarrassed to go anywhere because everyone would just stare at me. I was carrying so much weight I had a hard time walking, sleeping, and even sitting comfortably. To top that off, nothing would fit me. All of my clothes, pants and shoes were way too small. My feet were so swollen, my mom and Oakley took me to the store to buy new shoes, which was not a fun experience. Every pair of shoes I tried on suffocated my poor puffy foot. I ended up going with a pair of Birkenstock sandals with adjustable straps that were actually a size up from what I would usually wear. Needless to say, the challenges I were facing now were more due to my body being at full capacity. Looking back at pictures, by the beginning of the third trimester I looked like a full term singleton pregnant woman. I knew the next 5-7 weeks were going to be absolute hell in so many ways.

One of the final steps of this whole thing was finding a car that was going to fit our new life. We were about to be parents to two babies, and a 110lbs German Shepherd, named Max, my first baby. Our tiny little hatchback wasn’t going to work anymore. It was time to go full blown parent mode, it was mini van time! Which was something I knew was coming at some point in my life, but Oakley was not so excited about driving a mini van at 23. I remember us driving home with our new Honda Odyssey and thinking about how real this all was getting, I mean, we were driving a darn mini van. We got the car seats situated in the van and loaded it up with our hospital bags and once that was done, we felt so much more prepared. The parent life was really starting to set in.

My doctors appointments changed to every two weeks to ensure the health of the babies and myself. I was told at the time that I shouldn’t be surprised if the twins make their appearance early, as its common with multiples. I felt so many emotions in this trimester. I felt so anxious about the labor and delivery. Will I have a C-section? Will I have the babies natural? We all weren’t sure just yet. At the time, one of the babies were head down, and the other was standing straight up in my tummy. I found it very hard for me to feel comfort at that time. I was so worried at any given moment my babies would make their appearance. Around the time of my thirty week mark I started experiencing contractions. My belly would tighten up so much it felt like I was flexing my ab muscles. As weeks went on this continued to happen often. Everyday I was having contractions. They would come and go, and last for at least two minutes and as long as five minutes. We recorded them in our notes to keep track.

Oakley and I began to worry that maybe I should go get checked out to make sure I wasn’t going into labor. The last thing we wanted was to be stuck an hour away from the hospital when I began to dialate. I was 32 weeks at this time, which was way too early for me to feel comfortable about delivering. When we arrived to the hospital I was put in a room, and was instructed to put a gown on and the nurse would come in to put the monitors on my belly. I was indeed having contractions, but not strong enough to put me into labor just yet. My cervix was also checked and I was dilated to a two, which wasn’t enough to alarm them. They explained to me more symptoms of going into labor and what to watch for and then they sent us home. The contractions became more and more common when we got home. Over the next few weeks, there were multiple times we thought I was going into labor because of the amount of contractions I was having. Oakley would leave school and come pick me up and run me to the hospital just to be sure. I was getting so nervous.

Throughout the third trimester, I began to grow so fast, especially towards the end. I felt like my skin was going to rip open. I was retaining so much fluid I looked like a different person. I couldn’t walk much, I couldn’t sit still long, and I definitely was not sleeping well. I knew the end was near, and I was ready for it to be over with.

May 9th was my last doctors appointment. I was asked if anything had changed and it was only a few days earlier I had lost my mucus plug. At that time my doctor said, “Lets schedule you for a C-section.” My doctor began to explain what I should expect as far as the procedure and preparation goes. I could feel my stomach drop and my anxiety heighten as things were starting to get so real. May 13th was the day I would meet my beautiful babies, I just couldn’t stop thinking about how my delivery was going to go. The uncertainty made me nervous. Oakley nor I really knew what to expect, but at least we had a date! We are both planners and that gave us some comfort. Little did we know, it was not about to go exactly to plan.

It was 6:30 AM on May 11th and I woke up to pee. I remember sitting on the toilet and thinking about the possibility that I could be having my babies today. I had wondered if the past few days and even few weeks would’ve been the day as well. I went back to bed and was going to try to sleep in as it were a Saturday morning and we had nothing to do. At 7:30, I was woken up to an odd sound. The only way I can think to explain the sound is if you were to pop a water balloon. I was instantly soaked. Oakley sat up in bed at the same time and I looked at him and said, “My water just broke!”

-Annalissa<3