Guest Post from Puck:

This week we hit week number 11 which puts us very close to finishing our 12 week sprint.

Wifewatch 2010

Food

Why does this saber tooth tiger look so sad?

Mary’s hunger pangs have calmed down and we’ve moved from large feast-meals into a sort of mellow all day grazing.  Lately she has been into oatmeal and cereal.  (I got her started on Total which is heavily fortified.)  She also got a good protein hit with a healthy meal of steak and eggs this weekend as well.

We did encounter a queasiness patch yesterday but I suspect this is more of an increased blood flow issue.  Because Mary’s total blood volume has increased and a good bit of that is spent running errands for the twins, when she stands up too quickly she can get dizzy which is what happened last night.  It wasn’t feinting or anything but a gross feeling and this symptom is entirely predictable based on what we are reading.

I got her a cold washcloth for her forehead and then read her the riot-act about standing up too quickly.  (The last thing we need is her to bonk her head feinting because she stood up too fast.)  According to one of the twin books we are reading, the late night trips to pee are particularly troublesome because a pregnant mom tends to be too sleepy to remember she should stand up slowly.

Like anything else, knowing what is going on and having a plan in place should help.  Afterwards we took a slow walk with the dog and the cool air cleared her head pretty well.  The next morning, she was very good about getting out of bed slowly.  (Of course, I also fuss at her about it which she tolerates with great magnanimity and dignity.)

Mood

She’s still pretty jumpy and her startle reflex is easily triggered.  Even sudden motion that she’s entirely aware of can get the surprise reaction.  I have to suspect that this and her super sense of smell provide her with an evolutionary advantage of some kind.

Here’s one scenario I can imagine:

A pregnant-lady at the dawn of time is happily skipping through a field of wildflowers when a saber-tooth tiger begins to stalk her as prey.  Immediately the pregnant lady can smell the tiger and she prepares a defensive strategy.

When the saber-tooth jumps out from hiding the pregnant lady shrieks and then violently vomits into the tiger’s face.  Highly offended and covered with up-chuck, the tiger decides that there are easier and less messy ways to get a meal.

The pregnant lady resumes skipping.

Sleep

Mary has started sleeping on her left side and experimenting with a multi-pillow sleeping solution.  Sleeping on the left side increases blood flow for the twins and as she gets bigger, sleeping on her back isn’t a good plan because it puts pressure on all sorts of things in unhappy ways.  With that in mind she’s doing a bit of early training to get ready.  Right now she is up to 5 pillows.

• 1-2 under her head
• 1 behind her back
• 1 between her legs
• 1 held between her arms

Think of it like the Winter Olympics except that instead of sports it involves pregnant women sleeping.   So far, that’s working pretty well.

Babies Countdown – The Double Header

• Thursday, February 18, is Twin Week number 11 and also the day of Mary’s appointment for blood tests.
• Thursday, February 25 and our 5 week sprint ends which gets us to 12 weeks.
• Friday, February 26 Mary will have an appointment with Dr. Hershey the Baby-Ninja.
• Wednesday, March 3 is Mary’s Birthday which gets us to the second trimester.  At this point, we unlock the veil of secrecy and get to tell everyone.  (Unless her tummy outs her earlier than that.)
• Thursday, May 7 and the twins become viable as early as 22 weeks.
• Thursday, May 20 and 90% of twins born at 24 weeks survive and that number only gets better from here on out.
• Thursday, August 12 and we hit our goal of 36 weeks minimum.  From here on the twins could come at any time.