Twenty-one weeks down, just 17 more to go. That seems like a lot and a little time left, simultaneously.

Would someone remind me to clean this mirror already?! I only think of it when I’m putting these posts together. There’s a huge smudge right across my face today, for the love. Clean the mirror!

The Babies are the Size of: Bok Choy, according to my trusty Ovia app. Thinking back, I think I’ve only ever bought/cooked baby bok choy in the past, so I’m not really able to concretely picture the size of regular bok choy. It’s 10.5 inches long, though, says the app.

How I’m Doing: I feel large and getting larger. I have grown out of the maternity skinny jeans I bought at the beginning of this pregnancy and have ordered a pair two sizes larger, which is a size I haven’t seen in quite a while. I sincerely hope that’s big enough, because damn.

Now that all the faculty are back on campus for the fall, I’m running into a lot of people I didn’t see all summer and everyone wants to know how I’m feeling. How are you FEELING? I don’t know, good? Fine? Pregnant? I feel mostly unremarkable at the moment, for which I am thankful. Even the symptoms I do have (frequent trips to the bathroom, acne, less room in my stomach, very occasional heartburn) are very minor and occasional. Mostly I feel quite normal, aside from my size and shape.

Eating: I am so sick of chicken, y’all. The thought of it makes me feel both sad and barfy. From the plate pictured above, I only managed to eat about 40% of that serving of chicken (but did eat the rest of the meal). I’m really just sick of meat in general. The only meat that sounds good to me right now would be some pulled pork BBQ. Maybe I’ll make a move to get some of that soon. Otherwise, please keep your meat, thank you very much. As you may know, I almost never eat meat in normal life, but I have been doing so during pregnancy purely to help me hit the daily protein intake recommended when you’re pregnant with twins. My husband is enjoying the more plentiful meat in our meals, but I am…not. I’m really looking forward to going back to vegetarian when the babies are external.

On another note, I may or may not have bought a bag of “fun-sized” Snickers to put in my desk at work. Didn’t fun-sized bars used to be bigger, by the way, or am I just looking through the lens of childhood Halloween nostalgia? My recommendation: for maximum fun, eat more than one.

Movement: Lots. I feel like perhaps the babies could be felt from the outside by now, as some of those kicks and turns are getting really strong, but when I or my husband presses a hand to my belly, they seem to stop moving. Stop trying to thwart your parents, kiddos!

Ultrasound: Today’s ultrasound was really great – we got lots of clear images of both babies and confirmed that my cervix is holding tight, all the anatomy is developing correctly, fluid levels are even, and both twins are an estimated 15 ounces. That’s almost a pound each! Most fun of all was this little moment:

That’s Baby B’s leg you see on the right, and what is he doing? Kicking his sister in the knee. Repeatedly. It was completely hilarious to watch. Yup, they’re definitely siblings.