There wasn’t really much to write about for 29 weeks. We were away for the long Easter weekend, down with Tom’s parents in Devon. It was good to get away, and I’m glad all is going well with the pregnancy so far, which meant that we were able to go that far, even if sitting in the car wasn’t that comfortable – we had an extra stop compared to normal.
The last time I blogged I had just had my 28 week growth scan and blood tests, including one to check for ICP (intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy). I didn’t hear anything back about this, which means it must have been negative, so I’m pleased about that. The tingling/itching hasn’t got any worse, and if anything I noticed it even less when we were away.
However, when we got back home, I opened a letter from the hospital which said that my blood test for iron level showed that I am anaemic. This isn’t hugely surprising for a twin pregnancy, as lots of mums expecting multiples find their iron stores are depleted more quickly from growing two or more babies. I don’t particularly feel any different from how I have all pregnancy in terms of tiredness – one of the major symptoms. I don’t get that out of breath, though I can feel it’s starting to become harder work walking and going up stairs, for example, with the extra weight I’m carrying. When I looked up anaemia on the NHS website it did say that one of the less common symptoms is itching/tingling though, which is interesting. After a short delay in my GP receiving the letter from the hospital due to the bank holidays, I got some iron tablets and have just started taking them. I’m slightly apprehensive about the potential side effects of nausea and constipation that are common with iron tablets, but I’ll have to see how it goes.
We’ve also started to get organised this week with preparations for the twins’ arrival. I have packed my hospital bag except for a couple of additions that I need to buy (snacks and drinks). It’s been so long since I did it that I had to remind myself what we need in the bag! We were in the birth centre for less than 12 hours last time, so hardly needed anything that I’d packed. I expect we will be in for longer with twins, even if they get to term (37 weeks), because they are likely to be quite small compared to the boys, which may cause issues with starting feeding, for example. And of course this time we need double of all the baby bits. If I need a c-section, I personally will also need to be in longer than after a vaginal delivery. We don’t live very far at all from the hospital, so I’m sure we can top up with anything that we don’t have enough of pretty easily between Tom and other visitors such as our parents.
We have very kindly been given this week plenty of tiny newborn baby clothes, as we didn’t have any smaller than 0-3m ones for the boys who were born average weight for singletons. So we’ve put most of these into the drawers in the boys’ room and some have gone into the hospital bag. We’ve moved all the feeding equipment into the kitchen and found a place for it – steriliser, several SNS (supplemental nursing systems – made from bottles and thin NG tubing) and formula.
I’m sure there are a few more bits and bobs to sort out, but I feel like we are pretty prepared for them to arrive whenever (well, as much as one can ever be prepared for the arrival of twins!) Even if they were born in the next few weeks, we wouldn’t be home straight away as they’d need time in special care, so there’s still time to sort out anything here that needs doing.