Week 12
Let’s take a look at the twins at the end of the first trimester from the inside and the outside, shall we? Here’s what the little critters look like now:
And here’s what Rachel looks like now:
Starting to look like there’s some babies in there, huh? She’s been feeling pretty awful for the last few days, but I’m hoping it’s related to the low barometric pressure… or something.
Filed under Pregnancy | Tags: pictures, Pregnancy, ultrasound | Comment (1)Reaction
It’s important to know your own foibles and faults. It helps to be aware of them to try to minimize them and their negative impact or impression on others. It also helps to exploit them for their humor value, especially if you’re looking for a way to introduce a short piece of non-fiction writing.
Here’s one of mine: I like attention. Well, I like the good kind of attention. I definitely dread public embarrassment, but public successes are the fuel that powers my engine. (Apparently, I also like clunky metaphors. And I’d rather undermine my own writing with disclaimers than edit.)
Anyway, there are very few opportunities for an attention-lover that are as gratifying as announcing that you’re having a baby. I admit it: I love watching people’s eyes widen and their mouths start to form expectant Os when I say, “Actually, I have some exciting news…” So far the reactions have been entirely gratifying.
It sucks, a little, to think about telling people my wife is pregnant as a performance (see above re: foibles and faults) but from a performance point of view, there are few pauses as delicious as the pause between, “Rachel’s pregnant…” and, “… with twins.” Can you think of anything that could be better? Even, “I bought a lottery ticket…” and, “… I won,” can’t compete, because even the greenest rube has to see it coming. (No one tells a story about losing the lottery.) Seriously try it out now on your own:
Rachel’s pregnant.
…
With twins!
Feel that? You’ve got one of the best one-two punches ever. The first one is pretty amazing. Everyone loves to hear that a friend is pregnant. They’re so excited! They’re surprised! They’re so happy for you! They have so many questions! And then, just as it’s sinking in, just as the waveform starts to curve over the top and start to fall off—BAM. Twins, sucka.
With at most one or two exceptions, nearly everyone has said something on the order of, “No. You’re kidding.” (Which kind of makes me wish I were. That would be hilarious.) Our friends seem as knocked on their asses by the news as we were. We almost always get a big hug after “pregnant” and slack-jawed shock after “twins.”
I think I’ll be a little sad when we run out of people to tell.
Filed under Pregnancy | Tags: friends, Pregnancy, twins! | Comment (0)A Passover Feast
I admit that we haven’t been blogging much recently. On the one hand, it’s because we’ve been very busy buying a new house and trying to get ours on the market quickly. On the other hand, it’s because there hasn’t been much to say about the pregnancy, assuming you don’t want to read post after post saying “My stomach doesn’t feel good,” “Wow, I still feel nauseated,” and “Ugh, nothing sounds good to eat but not eating makes me feel sick.”
We told Matt’s siblings the news last weekend, which was a lot of fun. They were in town for Passover, and I think this photo from the seder illustrates my current feelings about food. Can you guess which plate is mine?
And I didn’t even finish my portion.
Filed under Pregnancy | Tags: food, Pregnancy | Comments (2)Week 10
I know that looks like a good bit of progress since Week 8, but I think it’s more about the vast quantities of food I’ve been eating and less about Lorem and Ipsum. For the past two weeks I’ve realized that I need to eat something every two hours at least in order to keep from feeling sick. Some of those things have been carrots and celery and grapes, but some of them have been cheese and crackers, grilled cheese, and macaroni and cheese. And a veeeerrry small number of those things have been McDonald’s cheeseburgers. The really sad thing is that not much of the food tastes particularly good to me. Frankly, I am entirely sick of food in general, but I need to keep eating lots and lots of it or I feel miserable.
Fortunately, Matt has been nothing short of amazing, coming up with new food ideas and cooking me every last thing I could ever want. (This week he’s making me individual homemade chicken pot pies to take to work to reheat at lunch!) And all this food really is a good thing, because weight gain in the first trimester supposedly correlates to a decreased risk of preterm labor with twins. Of course, that might only hold true for people who gained all their weight with lentils and fruit and skim milk; I’m not sure what the science says about processed cheese food.
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