I can't believe I will be 18 weeks pregnant on Friday! Finally around 3 weeks ago I got some energy back and have been feeling good most of the time. My insane hunger has lessened as well, which is nice. I look and feel like I'm growing by the day, and I have gained a total of 9 pounds so far. This is pretty much in line with my singleton first pregnancy. Although the doctor never said anything, I believe I gained way too much last pregnancy (my craving for bread didn't help that), so I'm hoping to keep my twin weight gain this time in last with my last one. My belly definitely looks much bigger than the first time around. Here is a belly picture of me, at 17 weeks, 5 days:
My belly has now exceeded my non-pregnant personal space bubble, and I find myself pulling my chair in too close to tables, bumping my stomach up against the copy machine at work, etc. Now I need to make an effort to stay a little bit farther away from everything to accommodate my new size. I remember this cycle happened to me twice during my last pregnancy. I shudder to think about how many times it's going to happen with twins!
My appointment last week was uneventful. I just got weighed, peed in a cup, had my blood pressure checked, and met the new doctor. He was able to find two nice strong heart beats, and he sent me on my way. Since it was just an OB appointment, my IPs didn't make the 5 hour drive to attend. I took the opportunity to let the new doctor know about our situation and inform him that my IPs are really hoping to find a doctor who will be sympathetic to their situation and include them in the appointments as much as possible. He informed me that he and his wife are also struggling with infertility, so he believes he will be able to form a bond with them. So I'm hoping that this will be a good match for us. He did tell me he has a vacation planned for July, which makes me a bit nervous. I'm not due until the end of August, but with twins you just never know when complications will arise, and it would be rough to not even have my doctor around to help me through any sort of problems that might happen in the 31-35 week time period. I need to remember to ask him exactly when in July his vacation is scheduled.
Next Wednesday, April 3, is our anatomy scan. My IPs will be coming down, and we are all so excited to get another sneak peak at the babies. Of course the priority is making sure that both of them are healthy and thriving, but we are also looking forward to finding out the sex of the babies as well. My husband and I did not find out the sex of our own child in advance, so it's kind of exciting to get to know early this time around...that way I can get a head start on spoiling them with cute stuff! It will be interesting to see if the tech's guess of two boys at the 12 week ultrasound was correct.
In other news, next weekend I am going up to Chicago for a surrogate get-together organized by my agency! I think there are about 10-15 girls going, all in various stages from just starting their journeys, to being pregnant, to already having delivered their surro babies. We have all gotten to know each other a bit with the agency's facebook group, but it will be so nice to meet other surrogates in person. There is another girl who is also pregnant with twins and about 4 weeks ahead of me, so it will be fun to compare bellies and symptoms!
