I read this pregnancy article (click here) and just had to share a few thoughts:
Agreed, completely agreed, well kinda...
In the past I have somehow managed to continue my routine and semblance of life, well kinda....
My pregnancy mantra has always been "I'm not broken, I'm just pregnant."
Well this time around, as I get closer to the end - with a double whammy of unexpected spontaneous twins, I have decided that maybe I am just a little broken.
There are some things that I just cannot do, like reach the floor or tie my own shoes. And I haven't been able to for months. And when I would sit at my desk in my office with a door and a personal printer (which I didn't have before) I would sometimes get too uncomfortable to sit any longer, and walking around was also somehow painful - either from the extra pregnancy weight or from the shard of glass in my continually strained right foot.

With my first child, I had a high risk pregnancy in which my blood pressure sky-rocketed and I was hospitalized 3 different times. It wasn't such a big deal for me as I didn't have a child at home to contend with and my teaching hours had been cut way back.
Then I contracted an infection which most people have an immunity to by the time they are 3 years old, but somehow I caught it in my first trimester, which of course is the most critical in passing it and the possibility of myriad birth defects and disorders along to the fetus.
But in my heart of hearts, I knew he was ok and despite all the tests that indicated that he did indeed have the disease in the amniotic fluid, and was likely to be born with it. In any case, I didn't need the tests to know that all was going to be ok.
Then he had IUGR either because of the CMV or my high BP, wherein the uterus was no longer the best place for him to grow so the drs decided to induce me. I had always joked that I would drive myself to the hospital and indeed in this case I did!
The induction was at 36 weeks and it was incredibly slow. The first part didn't proceed at all and the pitocin was administered incorrectly, so when they finally got the show on the road, it was unbearable.
As I was still screaming my head off while the young blonde Russian night nurse was calmly telling me that she had seen other martyrs and could put in the order to end the suffering right now or wait until I was good and ready. Finally, the epidural anaesthesiologist arrived and then he was taking his sweet time plodding on about his business and explaining things to me that I couldn't care less about or comprehend at that point. I had no intention of getting the epidural in the first place so he should have been quick about it so I wouldn't change my mind, but I capitualted in the end and couldn't sign the form fast enough!

I was exhilarated when pregnant with my girl child. I had tons of energy for the most part, I even endured a month or so of contractions at my desk and a really oppressive personality conflict at the office to boot, as well as a corporate merger and a twice hospitalized child during that pregnancy. And to top it all off, I worked up until the day she was born. Just woke up that morning knowing something was different and lo and behold, within 3 hours I was holding my perfect princess. I crowed to the world that I LOVED being pregnant and it was really true.

This time around, not so much.
This time I had been blessed with spontaneous twins, plus my advanced maternal age (I am only on the cusp at 35, but it generally requires closer watching) and was at least 30 lbs heavier than I would have liked to be when we found out. Plus I was a massive hormonal mess and fought a lot with everyone, including my in-laws who can only rarely make a visit, but an extended one nonetheless.
And then I had strange discharge from one breast and had to have 3 extra checks for that (and a follow-up after the babes are born).
And then, every test I did I failed and had to redo.
Failed the early 1 hr glucose tolerance screen so I had to do the 3 hour test - and then do it again at the normally scheduled time of the pregnancy. In Israel, I don't remember ever doing a 1 hr screen, they just sent me straight for the 3 hr test, which turned out fine. With my daughter, I just refused to do it altogether. And the dr tried and tried, time and again to get me to do it, I was just a little overwhelmed and couldn't imagine spending 3 hours at the clinic for hourly blood draws.
Failed the blood draw for the chromosomal screen so had to undergo amniocentesis, done by a specialist. Turns out twins often give off false positives for this screen. Had undergone amnio with my first-born for quite another reason altogether (in-utero CMV), but at the time, my outlook was so positive and my faith was so strong (that I would just KNOW if anything was wrong) that I only agreed to all the extra tests to pacify my freaked out husband and the teams of drs.
This time, I had a scary bleeding episode after a late-night freak rainstorm (when my mother and father were out of pocket of course) and ended up in the hospital for observation.
Nurse at that time noticed a contraction that I didn't even realize was a contraction, I just chalked it up to extra strong fetal movements. Then she charted 3 more contractions in a 20 minute non-stress test strip. And they still sent me home for the holiday weekend with instructions to see my dr at the first possible opportunity. Also sent me home on antibiotics (due to leukocytes in my urine sample) and I wonder if either a UTI or bladder infection didn't trigger the bleeding episode to begin with.
In any case, a few days later in quite a dramatic fashion, I had a bloody show that was quite impressive (since I never had such a thing before). Of course, my 3-yr old daughter chose that particular moment to barge into the bathroom on me. She caught me with a look of horror plastered on my face and a big mess on my hands, and I had to think on the fly, while flustered myself, that she would only understand that I had had some kind of dramatic BM.

My dr keeps seeing me weekly now and asks every time if I live close to the hospital. I assure her I can be there in less than 20 minutes which is usually the case. I am not as advanced as I was with my daughter at this stage, but then I was also not ordered home to put my feet up and to do as little as possible, which has undoubtedly made all the difference. Even my blood pressures are lower, which is inconceivable for me and my brain to handle.