19 Weeks

So we've made it past the half way point for twins. It's gone very slowly from my perspective..... I've hit my milestone weight gain of 25lbs a week early (yes, greedy pig) and I'm really happy about it. I'm following Dr Barbara Luke's recommendations for weight gain in twin pregnancies and its correlation with length of gestation. In a not entirely unrelated development, I've adopted the inevitable waddle walk, much as I try to walk normally. My tummy has taken over the lion's share of the surface area of my body, closely followed by my bum, which hasn't been this large since I was at university and eating chips (french fries) at 3am most mornings. I'm still working on the ideal sleep accessories - currently shoving a pillow under my tummy seems to be working, otherwise I feel like it's falling to the side. I bought one of those wedge pillows, but it's rock hard and not working for me.

Very excitingly, I can now feel the babies tapping and rolling. Even J the Elder was able to feel a big kick the other evening. I can't quite work out which one's which, but on a couple of occasions I've felt kicks almost simultaneously on different sides of my belly, so it must be both of them, probably engaged in a territorial dispute. We recently watched the National Geographic DVD on multiples in the womb and they get into some good fisticuffs in there. I only hope they come out even and neither of them is bullying the other.

We also have a new ride since I last posted. We ended up going for the sensible option of the VW Passat estate (station wagon). Despite the loss of coolness factor, we actually really love it so far. It has a huge amount of space. For some reason, however, I'm not getting nearly as much attention in it as I did in the Audi TT. Hmmm.

We attended a weekend of multiples classes - really interesting, if a little overwhelming. The main take-away was basically that we're going to be BUSY for the next few years.

My sickness is still hanging in there. This week's been a bit of a rough one again, for some unknown reason. The backache is also still around and, if anything, worse than before. I'm going to ask about it again at the next appointment. It's always the same spot under my left ribcage and I'm having to lie down for a few minutes to take the pressure off every hour or so. Bone idle, I hear you thinking.

Our big 20 week anatomy scan is next Wednesday and it can't get here soon enough. We're still on a schedule of ultrasounds every four weeks, which on the one hand is a good sign that no-one's worried about anything, but on the other, it's a long time to go without seeing our little ones. I'm trying and mostly succeeding to keep my cool - any anxiety I do have is increasingly about whether my body can pull this off. I have no idea how another four months of growth is going to work at this point. But I'm sure it'll work somehow. I can't imagine having triplets or even quads and my hat goes off to anyone who's achieved that.