This morning I had my hands on my belly at the exact right place and I could feel baby B (top baby) kicking! It was very light, a little bit harder than feeling your pulse. After awhile, I could feel both of them kicking and squirming around. But by the time Michael woke up, they decided to stop and play hide-and-seek with us. I could feel them moving around and stuff internally for a few weeks now, but this is the first time that I could feel something externally.

Baby A

Baby B

Here are their 21 week ultrasound pictures. Man, they are getting big! Everything is normal and they are looking good, about 1 pound each. The perinatologist needs to pay special attention to Baby B’s heart because of the increased nuchal fold (the test at 12 weeks), but so far it looks great. It was another fun appointment! I talked with the doctor about the UK, apparently he was there around the same time we were there, but he was in different areas. He said that Michael’s day trip to Wales is typically American. No Briton would take a 2 hour train, go on a big 20 mile hike, and then return home. They would instead turn it into a holiday and stay for 2 weeks. The thought of going somewhere so far(????) just for a day doesn’t seem like a sane thing to do. But here, we crazy Americans would travel 2 hours just for a good meal. He also said that a lot of people in Wales probably have never been to London. That was shocking!

I had my 20 week checkup today with the delivery doctor and everything is normal. I did manage to gain some weight this time, although I am still about 5 - 7 pounds behind. The doctor wasn’t available so the nurse midwife checked my cervix and it is nice and long. Nothing too exciting. I do get an ultrasound next week and will post pictures asap.

I just wanted to let y’all know what EVERYONE asks whenever they find out I’m pregnant w/twins (in this order):

1. Do you know the sexes?
2. When are you due?
3. Do twins run in your family?
4. Are you going to continue working?
5. How long is your leave of absense at MS?
6. (Mostly from women) Are you going to have a c-section?

I have yet to meet someone that doesn’t ask at least 3 of these questions! It’s not like I don’t appreciate people taking interest in my ever expanding belly, it just gets tiring sometimes to answer them over and over. I’m amazed at how consistent people are though. I like to have fun disappointing everyone in not telling the sexes. I don’t see what the big deal is. They’ll know in a few months anyway.

I went to my first eMOMs meeting (Eastside Mothers of Multiples), and it was quite informative. It was neat to be in a room with other parents of multiples, as well as those like me who are expecting them. They are all really nice people and the topic was “arranging for help after the babies arrive”. They went around the room and told what they went through with having help. It boils down to not being afraid to be rude and tell people to do what you want them to. Most women feel like people are there to see the babies, but really they should be there to do your chores so that you can be with your babies and/or sleep. They had some really good ideas, and they commended me for my decision to have no relatives around for the first 3 months. Almost everyone who has been through it says that that’s a good idea. Also, if one can afford it, to hire a post-partum doula. There are also a lot of people who didn’t have any help at all and they got through it. Then we went through a discussion of what stuff to look out for with twins, of course all of us pregnant women were freaking out. But most of what they said was manageable stuff, just make sure you have a good pediatrician who is experienced with multiples.

We signed up for private Bradley Method lessons. Since I need to get all of this stuff done by 28 weeks, we needed someone who could be flexible. Bradley classes are 12 weeks long and we don’t have enough time. Our teacher was able to condense it down for us into 4. We have a lot of homework to do though! It was a long class, about 3.5 hours!

I finally got my jeans altered at a place called Bloom’n Fashion. They did a fantastic job converting my existing jeans into maternity pants and I got them back in about a week! They even make extra big panels for those expecting multiples! I am planning to send the other maternity pants that I have to them whenever I get too big.