A week or two ago, I was chatting with a co-worker and she expressed sympathy for how difficult this pregnancy is going. Which made me realize, I really need to do an update! Mostly because the pregnancy is actually going fine now. And thank goodness, because I have really hit a wall with tiredness (although that may be partly the move).

I have been taking 5mg of prednisone everyday, and that had essentially halted the itching. After a couple weeks of adjustment, the migraines seem to be gone. However, now I have developed two itchy patches about the size of my palm on either side of my belly. So I upped my dose of prednisone to 7.5mg (one and a half tablets), with my midwives’ blessing. At the end of the day, my pubic bone aches a lot, but it mostly doesn’t hurt during the day at this point, so I’m scoring that a win.

My weight has leveled off – I’ve only gained 2 pounds since week 27 (about 8 weeks). That’s fine, because I’m still in the normal range for my starting weight. Prednisone can cause weight gain because it makes you feel really hungry, but so far I haven’t had that side effect (possibly because it’s such a low dose). Quite the opposite, in fact – I snack all day, otherwise I start to feel really nauseated, but I don’t have much of an appetite.

The baby is kicking a lot and swimming around pretty competitively. He’s now about 4 and 3/4 pounds and the size of a canteloupe, so it’s enough shifting around to change my balance occasionally. Yesterday, when I was at a part with the twins, Henry came over to hold his hand on my belly. He patiently waited, then looked at me with his eyes shining and told me he’d felt the baby move (…he hadn’t, but I agreed he had), and he was so excited to be part of the whole thing. Ele has a list of things she’s going to teach the baby, including (but not limited to): Talking, walking, dancing, singing, taking a tub, summersaulting, jumping.

In June, we’re going to class at the hospital we’re delivering at, that includes a sibling class for the twins and a tour of the facility. It’ll be nice to see everything and get a sense of the place. The more time I spend in my bi-weekly classes at the midwife office, I’m realizing that my last birth experience actually took place like 20 years ago – extremely outdated processes (completely nice people, however). I’m looking forward to comparing this experience (especially the fact that there will be only one baby!) One thing I for sure want to do this time is get a photo of the placenta. My placentas last time fused and were a huge awesome messy mass, and I don’t have any photos – I have actual regret over this.

Since I’ve been working from the new house, our nanny has been coming in the mornings, and I’ve been spending as much of my afternoons around the kids (while trying to work – it’s going … ok. I end up spending evenings working, too, to get everything done) so that we can have time together before the baby arrives. Henry has been thrilled, and has been joining in on my video calls and just hanging out with me:

It’s nice to have an assistant, although he is just terrible at filing. Fortunately, I have nothing to file.