Weeks 17 & 18: Baby Olympics?

So here I am in the middle of week 18 and I think I may be glowing! I feel like my baby bump has really begun to show this week and that is so exciting! What isn’t exciting is going through every shirt in my closet trying to find one that covers this growing belly! The problem is the shirts just aren’t long enough! I guess I will be hitting the maternity stores soon.

The biggest update for weeks 17 and 18 is that the babies are moving all the time and they can be felt from the outside! My husband and my mom both have felt them kick (I guess that is what they are doing) several times now! Baby Olympics maybe? They normally are active when I lay down in bed, but lately they have been really moving in the afternoons. I read that drinking ice cold water can make them move, and yes, it does seem to work. Something about the coldness stimulating your digestive system which they can hear now!

I have taken to reading Proverbs aloud to them each day because science says they can now hear. I know they don’t understand English yet, but hey, they are learning my voice and I believe it can nourish their spirits. My husband has begun to play the guitar for them. Science also says that babies in the womb often respond more to low pitched noise (such as a man’s voice) and vibrations. Hopefully they will come out as musical prodigies!

Physically I am doing great! My doctor gave me a medication that is for chronic GERD and it seems to help with the constant acid reflux, however, if I eat too much I can still get it pretty bad. I am getting some lovely pregnancy pimples and dry skin, but I would choose those over nausea or constipation any day! I am also finding that I am out of breath a lot, or just have trouble catching it. I also wake up with a bloodied nose (thanks to all the extra blood I am pumping now). Oh and strangely enough, my leg hair seems to be growing back more slowly; go figure! That one I will not complain about.

So in a couple of weeks I will hit the 5 month mark and we will get another amazing ultrasound. I cannot wait to see how much the twins weigh now because my weight seems to be skyrocketing! I swear I gained 3 pounds in 3 days! I know that at the last ultrasound they were heavier than singleton babies so I will not be surprised if they are pretty large now. Big twins would make me very happy though in the chance that they come early.

I did go ahead and register us for child birthing classes even though they do not begin until November. But as far as I know we are not expecting Thanksgiving babies so I think it will all work out. Registering for those classes was another one of those reality milestones for me; like, whoa, this is real.