Growing Belly

As of today, I have been pregnant for 35 weeks and 3 days.  On average, twins come at 35 weeks, so they could arrive any day now. I've been blessed with an easy pregnancy -- only minor nausea in the first trimester.  My one more-serious problem hit me on my brother's graduation day from Ole Miss, when I was 13 weeks along.  It may have been a stomach bug, but whatever it was, I ended up spending the night in the hospital in Jackson to keep from getting too dehydrated.  After that horrid 24 hours, I haven't felt sick for the rest of the pregnancy. The craziest thing (and what makes me think it's not a stomach bug) is that my mom had the same experience with all three of her babies: sick first trimester, sick as a dog one day resulting in night in the hospital, and then smooth sailing until delivery.

At 30 weeks, we moved from Jackson to Atlanta. Even though Michael and the rest of his family strongly encouraged me to not do so much packing and unpacking, I could not resist.  That resulted in 2 weeks of bed rest to make sure I made it to 34 weeks.  I must say bed rest wasn't so bad.  Michael cooked, cleaned, laundered, grocery shopped- basically did everything around the house and told me to get back to the couch whenever I started to help.  I also had sweet visitors bearing lunch and their babies to entertain me and answer my many questions about raising blueberries.  Thanks friends!

All twin pregnancies are considered "high-risk," which means we've gotten lots of ultrasounds and continuing confirmation that both girls are healthy.  Baby B is a little bit bigger and she likes to do more flips.  Baby A has been a good girl and stayed head down for the last month or more.  We hope that Baby B stays head down like she seems to be now so that I can attempt a normal delivery.  Today I'm 1 cm dilated, which means they could come tonight or in 2 weeks....it's a waiting game.  I am ready to meet them and be done with this huge belly, but want to fatten them up a bit more before they come, too.

See how my belly has grown:

At 17 weeks.

At 23 weeks, I'm pretty proud of that baby bump.

At 35 weeks and yes, the shirt is becoming a crop top. I officially outweigh Michael.  All for a good cause...