Pregnancy Month 5: Over Half Way There!

Hello friends! Thank you for joining me on this journey through pregnancy. It truly has been such a wonderful experience, while riddled with typical pregnancy challenges, a blessing. I am so privileged to carry these two souls. At 19 weeks, we came to the half way point. We're officially closer to meeting these babes than we are from the point we saw that faint second line. I can hardly believe how rapidly time has passed, a bit overwhelmed with all the preparation to do yet, and completely excited to finally hold our littles in my arms. This pregnancy has taught me more about trusting the Lord these last 5 months than I have learned in my entire life. Any pregnancy worries a mama to her core, but a twin pregnancy during a pandemic seems to be on a new level (though I have nothing to compare it to, I may be just as worried if we were having one baby during a normal year of life). Every day I wake up and remind myself to be thankful to be carrying these babies TODAY, and not fear what tomorrow brings.

Our little loves are healthy, bouncy, and growing so fast. Every time I catch a glimpse of this baby bump, I am in disbelief that it is actually ME. My belly is constantly stretching, and every few days I wake up to a significantly larger belly. Feeling these tiny humans roll and move around is something else. Josh finally felt their little kicks, and it was super special. Every time I felt them move and called him over, they immediately stopped, so him finally feeling them was super special! I know soon they will be kicking my painfully hard, but until then I'm going to enjoy it. While I love pregnancy, and am in no way actually ready for their arrival (we need cribs, double bassinet, car seats, double stroller, clothes, blankets, diapers...and more), I long for the day I am holding them in my arms! A friend gave birth to her little boy this weekend and I was wishing I was holding my loves, knowing what their little faces looked like, how much hair they had, and feeling their soft heads. As I laid in bed though, I was completely grateful I wasn't in labor, haha!

It's so fun/scary to imagine their arrival. Will they come on their own, surprising us with an easy delivery? Will they wait until the last moment, and we purposefully wake up one morning to go meet them via c-section? Will they come early, and scare us? I don't know, but I am excited. Lately I day dream constantly of playing Christmas music, holding our little loves as it snows, dressing them in the cutest Christmas outfits, and sitting next to the Christmas tree, lit and sparkling, as we love on

our best Christmas presents ever. It will be the best Christmas of my life, I'm sure of it.

This month (August) we will finally find out the genders of our twins! I am so incredibly excited to find out, so we can figure out names, buy more things, and make them feel even more real (it still feels like a dream most days, that we get to have two beautiful children). We have our names picked out if we have a boy and a girl, but second boy names and second girl names are hard to figure out. I'm hoping that we don't even have to worry about it, and we get the best of both worlds.

Symptoms Weeks 16-20

This month I really haven't noticed any new symptoms, thankfully! It felt like month four bombarded me with different symptoms, so I'm thankful for the lack of new ones this month! I know there will be a myriad of new symptoms as time goes on.

I would say that my symptoms have somewhat intensified. Heartburn definitely has. I read over and over again, "Watch what you eat to see what triggers it, don't eat too soon before bed, blah blah blah" but it really doesn't matter what I eat! These two banana sized children I'm carrying trigger the heart burn haha. I'm hoping the old wives tale comes true, and it means they have a lot of hair!

My energy levels are definitely significantly higher this trimester, however I still have good and bad days. Some days I feel super energetic and get a lot done, other days I can barely make myself get up. It will be interesting to see how I feel when I go back to work (whenever that is, don't even get me started). I know it will be a challenge, but it will only be a few months, and then I can stay home with my sweet babies.

One other thing that has intensified/become more frequent is shortness of breath. Probably because I have two little ones putting pressure on my diaphragm. The only time I really feel it is when I'm having a conversation or walking (masks don't help much).

Other than that, I feel the same as last month. I can't believe we are in month 6 now. Time really does fly.

Thanks for reading, next time will hopefully be a gender reveal!