26 weeks

As of tomorrow, I'm 26 weeks (6.5 months) along.  The twin thing makes me look further along though. A woman stopped me on the street yesterday to ask when I was due. I was surprised, mainly because I wouldn't initiate conversation with a stranger unless she was unaware she was about to be hit by a bus. I told Zach, and he was surprised too. Actually, his response was, "why does she want to know, is she going to clear her calendar for the day? None of her business." You can see how we get along so well. (Truth be told, I was friendly to the lady. She was nice, and while it puzzles me that strangers care about my pregnancy, I'm fine with it, so long as it doesn't seem like they're trying to steal my babies and sell them on the black market. I'm not going through this all of this for someone else to make a profit.  I'm not even making a profit. Also, I want my babies.)

So here's me last night when I got home from my walk:

At doctors' appointments this morning everything went well. (Except my OB mentioned that he "keeps forgetting there are two babies." Doc, as a heads up, that is not the kind of comment that instills confidence in you.)

I took the glucose screen, which wasn't bad. I went early to get that over with and then met Zach at the perinatologist's. I bragged about how I beat the other pregnant girls by drinking the sugar drink the fastest.
Z: Wait, you just had a drinking contest?
A: Yeah, and I won.
Z: Did anyone else know it was a contest?
A: The point is, I won.
I'm totally mature enough to raise children.

Babies are on track for growth. Right now A (boy) is about 1 lb 13 oz and B (girl) is 1 lb 14 oz, so little girl is pulling ahead on weight. Little boy has some hair, so we might have a mini-Zach. They spent the whole time wiggling and kicking each other. I'm sure they can feel each other's movements better than I can, so they're probably more "aware" of each other than they are of me.

Weight:  Gained 25 lbs. Holy crap! It's ok though, because that's mainly babies. Oh wait, the babies are less than 4 lbs total. I guess there's a lot of extra.... blood and fluid? Ewww.

Cravings:  Fruit, chocolate (even though I've never been a chocolate fan), sweets generally. I don't know if this is a hormone thing or just a determination to consume something bad for me even if it can't contain alcohol or caffeine.

Sleep:  Sleeping like a champ still.

Mood: Generally very happy. I have my hormonal moments though. This morning I started crying in the car thinking about this nature show I saw where a baby elephant had hurt his leg and couldn't keep up with the family, so his mom stayed behind with him, and they were trying to find a new family. I'm starting to get weepy again thinking about it, so let's move on.

Dreams:  Some stress dreams. The other night I dreamed I was in depositions all night long. They were realistic, with the same people I had actually had depositions with a few days before. Talk about an unimaginative subconscious. It's like it's not even trying.

Movement:  They move A LOT. Sometimes I see my belly move. Pretty frequently both babies are on my right side. It makes my belly lopsided, which totally weirds me out. For a while it seemed like I felt them mostly at night or first thing in the morning, but now it seems like it's sporadically throughout the day and night. So I guess they don't sleep much. Awesome. (I'm always glad to feel them though... if they're pummeling each other, I'm reassured that they're ok, even if they're being jerks.)

Husband:  He's doing a great job of being supportive and helpful.  Let's see how he reacts when I tell him I want him to accompany me to the breastfeeding class. (Honestly I don't even want to go to the breastfeeding class, but the whole thing is mystifying and terrifying to me, so a class can't hurt.)

Dog:  I don't know if he's trying to make me feel guilty about the upcoming changes in his life by being so cute and cuddly, but I do.  He loves our life the way it is. His favorite part of the day is 10pm when I scoop him up from the couch, take him to Zach for his goodnight kiss, and tuck him into his bed next to our bed.  I think this ritual will go out the window for a while after the twins' arrival. 

Things are getting a little more difficult, which is sometimes frustrating. There are more inconveniences. For example, every other morning drying myself post-shower, I inadvertently rip off the same scab on my knee because I can't see my legs very well.  The scab is from this weekend when I took a long walk. Know what freaks out the neighbors? Seeing a pregnant woman fall. I landed on my knees and hands, doing no harm to the babies but massive harm to my ego (and my knee and hand).

This has been a long post. Oops. The main point was this: the babies look healthy, and that makes me so so happy.

6 month update

Friday will mark 24 weeks of pregnancy, i.e. SIX MONTHS! That feels like an accomplishment for some reason. The second trimester is flying by.

I've never been so sane in my life. Seriously. I'm going to miss the pregnancy hormones that make me  rational human being. Example: This morning as I was getting onto the elevator at work, a woman saw me and said, "well aren't you just so cute?!" Normally I'd backhand someone who spoke to me in a tone that should be reserved for speaking to small children dressed in ridiculous outfits. But instead I smiled and said thank you, and I meant it. Genuinely. I didn't assume this woman was condescending and deserving of a punch to the throat. I don't even know who I am anymore.

Anyway, here's how I look now:

(Stop judging my 1970s era, messy master bathroom.)

Babies are moving around more in a way that I can feel them. It's pretty awesome because I remember that they're in there. (Otherwise I forget I'm pregnant and just feel like I've had a big lunch.) Zach had his ear against my belly the other evening (because he's sure they're conspiring against us, and he wanted to eavesdrop... totally normal) and one of them punched him. Not hard (they're less than 1.5 lbs each, after all), but enough that his suspicions were confirmed.

Oh, speaking of kids with attitudes, some movies NOT to watch while expecting: Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, and We Need to Talk About Kevin.  SPOILER ALERT re: We Need to Talk About Kevin: Kevin is a d*ck. Like a shoot-up-his-school  kind of a-hole. And it all started when he was an a-hole baby who wouldn't stop screaming. I sat in the theater terrified, rubbing my belly, silently willing my unborn children not to be a-holes. (I'm sorry for not typing the whole word, but this is a family blog, ok? You can say "a-hole" to kids, right? No? Damn. Darn.)

I totally got off-topic there, and I'm not sure what I even intended to post about when I started this, so I REALLY don't know how to end this post, so... THE END.