Pregnancy with Multiples

I always hesitate to say anything about pregnancy.  I always think that I am not qualified to say anything definitive on the topic even though this pregnancy is my third.  Yes, I will soon be delivering my fifth and sixth child, but I still wonder if I have had enough "normal" pregnancy to say anything.  They say every pregnancy is different, but I have taken that to extremes.  I have been pregnant with a singleton, twins, and triplets.  I have either been pregnant with only boys or with only girls (apparently we don't do mixed multiples).  I have been overdue, induced, and C-sectioned, but I have also labored and delivered pre-term.  Having been pregnant with two sets of multiples, I do feel like I can at least comment there.

Congestion-  Although every pregnant mother increases her blood supply, women pregnant with multiples do it to the extreme.  With twins, the blood supply is doubled, and it goes up even more with other higher-order multiples.  This increased blood supply helps create congestion.  With the triplets, the congestion was annoying mostly.  I would need to blow my nose constantly during the first trimester.  I would get coughing in the morning in the shower so hard that I would get sick.  Most of these symptoms subsided by my second trimester which was good, because I had bigger issues to deal with by that point.  With the twins, the congestion has never really seemed to let up that much.  Twice, it has flared into a full-blown infection.  The first time took my about a month to fully get over, and at its worse, I was barely able to walk because my muscles were so overstretched from coughing.  This time, I have been dealing with it about two weeks now.  It seems to be getting better, but I have pulled a muscle in my side.  As long as a cough in a very specific hunched-over position, I am good.  I have been coughing so much lately that I should have great abs, but I looked down and that does not look anything like a six-pack.  I am just hoping that I will be done with the cough before I deliver.  I had a cold when I had my C-section with Gabriel.  Not fun.

Movement-  Singleton moms have it easy here.  Once you are feeling the baby move, you count your movements twice a day.  You can be relatively sure that the baby is doing okay.  With multiples, it is not so simple.  The babies unfortunately will not respond to a roll call.  I have tried to talk to them about the sensibility of this proposition, but they aren't buying in.  In some instances, it is very easy to determine who's who, but if they shift positions, it becomes impossible.  Then, you are left wondering if they are both okay. 

Size- Imagine on the day that you are due, that the doctor came in and told you that they were going to keep the baby inside fro another 8-10 weeks.  The baby would roughly double again in size.  When that time was over, it would be safe for you to come back and deliver.  This is how many moms of multiples feel.  I am currently measuring full term.  If you added up all the baby/placenta/fluid weight that I am carrying, it would match a singleton mom at full-term.  I still have 8 weeks at least for my babies to be born healthy from the start.

I don't want people to read this as if I am complaining.  I will go through anything I need to get to healthy babies.  I just thought I would give you some insight to pregnancy with multiples.