According to my Instagram account, I?m having the perfect pregnancy. I?m living a carefree life, wearing adorable clothes, doing exciting things, while I just happen to have two babies growing inside of me. I regret to inform you that this is a lie. A boldfaced internet façade that I have carefully crafted so as to fit nicely into to our societal expectations of what a normal, healthy, ?Instagram-friendly? pregnancy looks like.
I could have stayed the course. I could have stuck it out for a few more weeks?posting cute pics with fun captions until my babies are born and I?m a blissful #NewMom. But I?m going to go out on a limb and guess that I?m not the only one who hasn?t had a perfect pregnancy. So in solidarity with all the other brave women who have been through any kind of prenatal strife, I?d like to come clean. Photo: Courtesy of Jessi Cruickshank
In reality, my pregnancy has been anything but carefree and adorable. In fact, it?s nothing short of a miracle that I am still pregnant and writing about it. I?m carrying rare and high-risk Monochorionic identical twins. This means that instead of developing in two separately functioning amniotic sacs with individual placentas, my two babies share one sac divided by a thin membrane and one single placenta. Imagine two people living in a tiny apartment, having to share space and food and? blood supply. So the metaphor is a little off, but you get the picture. It can be dangerous.
Early on, we were told that because of this...