Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The Second Second Trimester- relief!

Once again, too much time has passed.

The first 14 weeks of this twin pregnancy were HORRENDOUS…..That’s what I get for thinking this second pregnancy would proceed much like my first, wonderfully. I had my head in the toilet for most of the 14 weeks and they went by so fast, in part, because I was either in the bathroom or asleep the whole time.

Hormones, man…what the hec! No, what THE HELL! I just wish men and others who don’t have children could experience that for a day, then they could stop telling their pregnant friends to get over it or, “it’s not that bad..” For the record, no one said that to me- that would be deadly….My husband did, however, ask that I stop wasting our food..hahaha.

Anyway, here I sit, 18 weeks pregnant with twins…2 heartbeats beating strong. June 4th we find out the sexes! We think they are fraternal because there are 2 placentas, so I have 3 possibilities…..boy/boy, girl/girl (ah!), and boy/girl. I ASSUME it’s boy/girl because that’s what statistics lead me to believe…but I also was statistically in the small group of women who are sick the ENTIRE first trimester, so we shall see.

Diet…….
You always hear pregnant women discussing cravings, eating too much, eating too little, whatever. Counter that with what the AMA says is reasonable, an extra 300 calories a day, and you have confusion. IT makes perfect sense that if one is taking their vitamins and eating off the food pyramid first, 300 calories is good- it’s a tiny person-you need NUTRIENTS over calories.

But what do you do with twins? It is not as simple as 600 more calories a day. If you were dieting before you were pregnant you’ll need more, etc. So I decided to go to the nutritionist with a referral from my midwife. I gained 60, yes 60, pounds with Quinn and still had about 30 of it on me before this pregnancy. “Luckily” I only gained about 3-5 pounds in the first trimester (if that) due to the whole “head in the toilet” thing.

The nutritionist told me lots of things. She said to aim to gain 35 pounds and do that by gaining about 1.5 pounds from here on out and eating THREE THOUSAND calories a day! A DAY!! At first this seemed to be a very promising proposition. Eat 12 servings of whole grains, ungodly amounts of fruits & veggies, and good protein, dairy, etc….

So, on Monday I decided to write down every morsel of food that passed my lips, count the calories and the exchange (grain, fruit, etc.). Even after forcing a yogurt and an apple down my throat at 9pm I came up with 2250 calories. I really don’t think I could have eaten more (that included ice cream!) So, I’m just going to keep it around there for a while and see what my weight does.

Next Thursday we find out how healthy they are and hopefully what sex they are!