Twenty-three weeks down! Fifteen to go.

My pregnancy app keeps mentioning the possibility of my belly button transitioning to “outie” status, but I just laugh and laugh and laugh. That flat spot on the front of my bump? That’s where my belly button is. It’s so deep it actually changes the shape of my belly. I doubt it will change any time soon.

The Babies are the Size of: Two bunches of grapes. This is the vaguest, least informative fruit size the pregnancy app has come up with so far. My other, secondary app (the one I only keep on my phone so I can have an alternative fruit/vegetable for sizing purposes)(because the app is terrible, which is a topic for another time) says they’re the size of grapefruits. That seems significantly smaller than bunches of grapes (and corn, which is what they were last week). I don’t know why I CARE about these comparisons, exactly. I just want them to be consistent and to mean something.

How I’m Doing: I’m doing much better after this morning’s doctor appointment and ultrasound. The Braxton Hicks contractions I’ve been having every time I walk around, combined with the fact that Baby A is kicking me so low down it feels like she’s halfway out already, were making me fear that my cervix might be shortening. I consulted Dr. Google (not very reassuring at all) and Dr. Twitter (much more comforting and encouraging) but I wasn’t going to feel better until I got today’s cervical measurement: 4.5 cm. Same as two weeks ago. My doctor said it’s much longer than the average woman at this stage of pregnancy with a singleton. VERY reassuring. I also talked to her and got some specific guidelines on when to worry that contractions might actually be progressing toward early labor: only worry if there’s a distinct pattern of 6 or more an hour. The “pattern” I’m seeing now (several BH when walking/being active, but almost none when resting) is normal and nothing to be concerned about. Phew.

In terms of symptoms, I still count myself very lucky that I hardly have any troublesome discomforts at this point. My husband has people asking him about me at work and such, saying things like, “Oh, your wife must be so hot and miserable and uncomfortable and [yada yada],” and he’s always like, “Nope, she’s great.” Which is correct. I am great. Also, MYOB, ya negative, nosy Nellies.

Movement: As I mentioned above, Baby A is busily kicking my nether regions all the livelong day. She and her brother are both feet down, but hers are the low feet. They’re both quite active, especially after I eat or drink, and their movements can be felt from the outside now. I’m curious whether they’ll stay feet down, or whether they’ll flip head down later when it’s closer to their arrival date. We’ll see.

Nursery Progress: CW finished painting the walls and last weekend we hung up some tree decals, which were a giant pain in the butt, but they look fantastic, so we’re happy. We’ve got the futon set up with a new cover and pillows and the big 4×4 Ikea shelf has its colored bins for clothing storage in half the squares — we’ll be using the other half of the squares for toys and books). Still to do: assemble cribs, wash crib sheets, make mobiles, buy blanket for futon, buy blackout curtains, re-paint old changing table.

Ultrasound: Behold, the creepy frontal views of my children’s faces!

During the ultrasound, we saw them both head-to-head, kind of touching and shoving each other from either side of the membrane that separates them. At one point, Baby B was caught yawning on camera, and both of them had their hands up by their faces, apparently sucking their thumbs. It was super cute. But instead of cute pictures of that stuff, you get the ghost faces. Sorry!

Other News: My OB brought up the issue of choosing a pediatrician before giving birth, which certainly is one of those things that makes this all seem more real. The context of the conversation, though, was that we would need to have the pediatrician on record in case they needed to be there at the birth or to treat the babies shortly thereafter, if they come early. We also learned that if they come before 34 weeks, we will ideally deliver in a bigger hospital 2.5 hours away, where the NICU is. Apparently our local hospital doesn’t have the level of neonatal care that would be needed if that happens. So…that’s interesting. But then my doctor was all, “But we don’t need to worry about that because clearly you have a cervix of steel so that’s not going to happen.” RIGHT.