Jen, Deneb, Owen, and I had to get together one last time for a ‘glamorous’ photo shoot before we become parents.

This is a silly photo that we took for our thank you notes and another of me at 32 weeks. I’m trying to capture the girth of my stomach, but I don’t think I’m succeeding. It’s simply huge! I’m starting to get some stretch marks. At weigh-in today, I discovered that I’ve still only gained 15 pounds. Not bad. The doctor said that is fine since my bones are petite. During the non-stress test today, both babies looked great. They are starting to move and squirm a lot more now.

Mario captured me walking to work.

It was discouraging when the female security guard at my building said to me this morning “you’re almost there!”

Eek! No.. I’m not.

I am suddenly very big. It almost feels as if it happened overnight. My official due date is February 28, 2008, but the doctor says I probably wouldn’t go past February 6, 2008 because the uterus can only stretch so much. So I have my sights on early February as the goal, which is less than 3 months away! Having twins puts me at very high risk for pre-term labor. Starting October 28, I was put on a strict regiment of only light walking, no travel, and no sex. I am also supposed to be stress-free and spend my time relaxing. Oh yeah, and I am not supposed to worry about getting too big, which could increase the risk. Of course, being an American woman, my legal maternity benefits dictate that I must work as long as possible, so it’s really impossible to avoid all stress and work (If I was French, for example, I could have stopped working weeks ago because of the twins. But then I could also opt to stay at home for 3 years after they’re born and still have a job, and I’d also get free health care and subsidized day care. Ok, don’t get me started on American “family values”… . However, because working makes me have to walk over 2 miles a day, it is keeping me healthy.

This may feel inappropriate to some (I apologize!), but we had to incorporate my pregnancy into our costume, and we just saw Rosemary’s Baby at the Castro Theatre.

Our friend Jen is also pregnant, due a few weeks earlier.

Even though I was suffering from severe fibroid pain, I didn’t want to miss Radiohead and Beck, which was a good thing, because all that walking and standing ameliorated the pain even though the doctor prescribed bed rest.

Almost 6 weeks and not showing. Finding out I was pregnant was exciting of course. This is before I knew there were two on the way.