Happy viability week to you all!! 24 weeks is a very special milestone for twin pregnancies. It marks the point that if you were to go into labour and give birth, the hospital would automatically do everything they could to save the babies. Every intervention possible would be used, because at this point the babies lungs have probably matured enough to breathe with assistance. Of course this same milestone holds true for singleton pregnancies, but since twins tend to be born early (more than 50% are born by 36 weeks), pre-term labour is a very real possibility and any signs of it are taken extra seriously.

I should say though, my OB is not at all worried about it. Thankfully we already know that I can carry a single baby all the way to 41 weeks without any signs of labour (Luna wasn’t considered to be in a safe position for delivery, so my c-section was hastily scheduled before my water could break), and since I haven’t had any complications or interventions so far, all signs point toward me being able to carry these babies long enough for a good outcome. What a detached, cold way to talk about it all… I guess using more specific or human terms would seem a bit morbid and jarring though.

The next big milestone will be 28 weeks, which has a much higher survival rate, then 32 weeks. At that point I could safely deliver in Peterborough, instead of being sent to Toronto, and while the babies would undoubtedly have a long NICU stay, at least we’d be close to home. My ultimate goal is to make it to 38 weeks, which is considered full term for twins. Heck, if I can make it to 39 weeks I’ll be the unicorn of twin pregnancy. If I can make it that far, and these babies have red hair? Psh, that would be like finding a magical field of four leaf clovers, while riding a unicorn. Except in my previous analogy, I was the unicorn… the babies are officially eating my brain cells. Whatever. You know what I mean.

We had an ultrasound last week to check on the babies’ growth, and they’re doing great! Baby A was measuring at 22 weeks 4 days and 1.2 lbs, and Baby B at 23 weeks 6 days and 1.6 lbs. All perfectly average and on track with their growth charts. Their combined length is almost a full 2 feet, and they should be gaining up to a 1/2 pound a week until they’re born… at which point they’ll explode from my belly like the creatures in the Alien movies. I mean, probably not. But it does feel like my stomach couldn’t possibly stretch much bigger. They’re laying in a ying-yang formation; A is head down, B is breech, and they’re facing each other. During the scan Baby B was pretty intent in getting all up in Baby A’s personal space, so it will be interesting to see if that’s a common theme once they’re born. The ultrasound tech said that the membrane between them is so thin that it would feel like touching someone through a plastic bag. So I guess I wasn’t that far off when I said it felt like they were having a dance party the other night, they really can feel one another and are interacting already. Freaking amaze-balls. My body is indeed a wonderland.

And speaking of my body, holy hell is it being pushed to it’s limits right now. Last week I was having some sudden, sharp pain, and ended up spending the night in the hospital for monitoring (everything was alright in the end, except for getting a really horrible night’s sleep and losing a day of work). I’ve had a cold for what feels like two months now, and since my ligaments are already so stretched out from everything progressing so quickly, every time I coughed I was essentially pulling a muscle. Ouch. Very, very ouch. So I’m really looking forward to having some time off over Christmas and then reduced hours in January. No more moving gymnastics equipment or lifting limp-spaghetti-limbed 5 year olds for me.

Because!! This is my last week of full time work!! After the holidays I’ll keep my regular hours at the store and the dance studio, but I’ll only be coaching my competitive classes at the gym, which gives me three extra days to sleep in!! I can’t seem to fall into a deep sleep until after 3-4am, so I’m hoping that a few extra hours of sleep in the mornings will do good things for my mental health and my immune system. All the props to Adam to getting Luna ready for school and on the bus 4 days a week, because I have a hard time falling back asleep after getting up. He on the other hand has recently mastered the art of the early afternoon nap. That and he’s just way better at getting her up and going than I am. His school lunches are the perfect balance of healthy foods and homemade treats (made by him of course, I do not bake), and his little girl hairdos are almost as good as mine now. If men were able to get pregnant, I have no doubt he’d excel at that too; the man is just so naturally good at every aspect of fatherhood and being a partner. Last night after his soccer practice he went to two different drive throughs to bring me the perfect snack (jr. bacon cheeseburger from Wendy’s, and fries + McChicken sauce from McDonald’s, obviously), and I didn’t even ask him to. If that’s not true love, I don’t know what is.