5th Month Bumpdate Twin Pregnancy

I'm wrapping up my fifth month being pregnant with twins. See how things have changed since my last update!

I feel like I just wrote my 4th month bumpdate but wouldn't you know, it's been a whole calendar month! At this time last month I was just heading in for my anatomy scan and about to learn the gender of the twins. This week, I'm headed in for the second part of the anatomy scan - there's one on the early side to make sure the body and brains are developing on track and then a month later there's one specifically to make sure the heart is developing correctly. Fingers crossed for healthy babies! If all is well at this scan, my regular OB can do all other ultrasounds for me (twin mamas have to go to a specialist for these two mega-important scans). Not only is it more convenient for my OB to do it (half the number of appointments!) but she also doesn't charge for parking like this specialist does... I don't mind paying for parking downtown, but they're not downtown. They also only charge about $2. So it's not the money, it's just annoying. I digress! Here's what the 5th month of being knocked up with twins is really like:

18 week post-fitness bump

Weeks gestation: 21 weeks on Thursday. Well over the halfway mark for twins (which is closer to 18 weeks)

Cravings: Y'all, I've turned into a cave woman. A Neanderthal. I'm eating meat at most meals! I normally only eat meat a few times a week. Gimme beef! All the beef! Dear planet, I am so sorry I'm participating in your destruction, but these babies are demanding the calories, protein and fat that comes from animals. I promise to return to a more responsible diet once they're out! But for now, I'm a borderline vampire with all this disgusting bloody meat... Twin moms are supposed to get 150g of protein and close to the daily maximum allowance of iron (45mg) a day. Beef enchiladas are sooooo good! I can put down a three egg omelet, no prob. Man, I can't wait to be a vegetarian again! I'm grossing myself out with this paragraph. Let's move on.

Aversions: Anything exceptionally salty. I gagged on a pretzel. When I switched to an all-organic diet several years ago, I noticed how salty conventional foods tasted. Now I can't even stomach conventional type foods! The sodium levels are disgusting. No wonder heart disease is the number one killer in the U.S. Animal fat and sodium, your personal passport straight to heart disease!

19 week post-fitness bump. Left barre class early this day, the workout was too hard!

Weight gain: 10 pounds. I'm underweight, as I am in all my pregnancies. I don't get how twin moms are supposed to gain all this weight! My stomach is the size of a ping pong ball from all this baby (well, babies), yet I'm supposed to find room to pack in an extra 600 calories a day? Like, HOW? Where is this food going to fit? I'm eating high calorie foods like beef and nuts and dried fruit. I'm drinking juice for extra calories. What the heck else can I do?!

Workouts: Right after my last bumpdate published, I started doing most - if not all - the modifications for yoga, barre and Pilates workouts. Now I leave classes early when they transition to ab series (doing ab work is too uncomfortable even though I *can* do it because I'd been doing it). I was trying to make it to 30 weeks before I transitioned to prenatal yoga classes, but that's a joke. That will be happening a whole lot sooner than I planned. Maybe even next week. Despite all my modifications and outright sitting some of the workout out, I also dropped the number of workouts I do a week. I was doing 4 (which is my non-pregnant minimum) but now I'm doing 3. Sometimes it's just a physical challenge taking care of two toddlers and doing housework and getting through the day consumes any energy I've got.

20 week bump and a rare hair-worn-down-day

I started seeing a Chiropractor at 16 weeks and it has made such. a. huge. difference! Night and day actually. I was having extreme sacrum pain, part due to a surgery I had at 13, and my three adjustments a week not only keep it manageable, most days I can walk around and sit completely pain free! It's amazing. It's something that has been nagging me since I was about 5 weeks pregnant and now it's under control.

That's been one of the biggest differences between a twin pregnancy and a singleton. With one, you get your energy back sometime early in the second trimester, and you feel great! I got it back for about a month, and then by week 18 I was back to feeling tired. Really tired. Babies have a growth spurt sometime between 16-18 weeks and having TWO babies have a growth spurt in you completely drains you. Size wise, I'm the same size at 21 weeks that I was at 36 weeks with a singleton, and adjusting to how big you get so quickly is draining. I have round ligament pain constantly, which I only experienced maybe a few times at the very end with Otto and never at all with Henry.

(Nearly) 21 week bump. I guess I wear all the same clothes in all my photos because so few fit!

Even though I just spent that whole paragraph being a Negative Nancy about my twin pregnancy, I have to say, things are still going well! I'm still getting to workout. My blood pressure is on the low end of healthy. I'm not swollen despite the insane summer Texas heat. Currently I have zero health issues and zero concern for issues to arise - I'm not "on the verge" of anything or "pre" anything. So despite being more tired than in any other pregnancy and it getting harder to move faster than I've ever experienced before, all is well and things are going smoothly! Honest to Pete, everything so far has been a "best case scenario" for a twin pregnancy, and I hope with all my might it stays that way and I stay pregnant to 37 weeks (full term for twins).