13 Weeks {4 Days} -- Second Trimester!

Mac N Cheese are almost three inches long now--about the size of a pea pod! I got someone really cute to give you a demonstration of just how big a pea pod is, against the growing human pea pod. The twins have fingerprints now, and if there's a girl in there she'll have about two million eggs in her ovaries. They should also each weigh about an ounce now. And, hooray, I hit the second trimester! Here's to some of that famed second tri energy making its way into my weary body. This toddler and preschooler are running me ragged. But just look at how cute the preschooler is! When I took these pictures we were busy having a picnic on Auntie and Uncle's back patio, and Rari couldn't be bothered to leave her grapes to hold a pea pod. So you just get my little man with his precious man hands. The kids have really loved eating out there since we've been here this week.  

I'll probably do my longer updates every other week or so for now, at least while things are uneventful. It's crazy to think that in about five and a half weeks I'll be halfway through this pregnancy. Something funny I've noticed lately is that my belly button is burning. It stayed in with Shane, but became flat with Azaria. I remember it burned and tugged for WEEKS until it felt like something gave way that was attaching it, after which it didn't really hurt any more. Now if I cough too hard, or if I twist a certain way, my belly button burns like it's getting ready again. I've already noticed it becoming a little shallower. It's crazy how quickly things are happening between it being twins and being my third pregnancy. And, in the most MOST exciting news, I felt movement! The first time I was 100% positive was Friday, then I felt it once again Saturday and a couple of times today. Woohoo!

With my first and second pregnancies I was pretty laid back and easygoing about the whole thing. Mac and Cheese are making me a lot more uptight! I spent every day from the time I found out there were two until I just saw their hearts beating at my last appointment worrying about losing one,  thinking about all of the bad things that can happen in multiple pregnancy that aren't as frequent in a single pregnancy. When I was pregnant with one baby, my mentality was "hey, this is what your body was meant to do. You're good at it. You are blessed to have healthy, relatively easy pregnancies. You got this" I think I need to spend more time telling myself that now. I have two healthy looking babies in two sacs with two placentas, which is the least likely to have problems of any kind of twin pregnancy. I have grown two healthy children with good weights and uneventful gestations. And, frankly, God gave me these babies and it is His job to decide what happens with them. I keep dwelling on all of the verses I know about worrying and how it profits nothing. Unfortunately, I am human too and the human side of me has a little too much head knowledge about the medical aspect of things. I believe that our minds are especially powerful in pregnancy, and so I keep telling myself that I can grow 5 pound babies, with wonderfully healthy lungs, and I can make it to 37 weeks. Anything beyond that is a bonus! Positive self talk, and the knowledge of plenty of monitoring to come, are putting my mind to rest. I'm also not nearly as concerned now that I've gotten through the first trimester unscathed, since that's when you are most likely to lost a pregnancy. Praise God for those flickering little heartbeats!