Beached whale starts maternity leave

Yesterday was my last day in the office. Next week I'll work a little bit, but mostly from home, with a small smattering of short meetings nearby. Its a good thing because walking from my car to my office is quite an undertaking, and requires water and rest. Seriously. This coming from a girl who hiked in Alaska for 4 weeks straight, ran a triathlon 2 summers ago, played ultimate for ten years... and now, a 4 minute walk just does me in.

So now I have beached myself on our lounge chair on our screened porch, and here I shall remain for the next 3 weeks or so. Looking out at the fuchsia and white azaleas, the pink cherry trees, the green green everything else, I think I'll be OK. I can relate to those tree. I feel like an aging flower. I'll be 35 weeks pregnant on Monday, but I'm measuring 42" from the top to the bottom of my uterus. If I were carrying a singleton, that would be like saying I'm 42 weeks pregnant, or 2 weeks past due, or ten months pregnant. Twins are considered to be term at 38 weeks, so that's the week of May 24. So those of you seeking action, I think that week should be pretty active. Three weeks to go.

Dear old college (and beyond) friends just came to visit. For those of you who know them (and many of you do), Addie and Whitney convened in Providence and took me out to dinner at the Cav (Whitney loves that restaurant so much she called to make reservations from England). Whitney lives in Bishop's Stotford (near Cambridge, England) now, and Addie lives in North Carolina but commutes to Boston (!!) every other week for work. Its funny how seeing old friends is like looking in a mirror (who coined that?). Makes me realize on a different level that yes, I am pregnant, and this is a big deal.

While Addie doesn't have kids (yet), she stated something that I will do my best to remember... "kids need to be raised by *people*, not by *rabid parents*". We talked about the idea of incorporating the girls into our lives, instead of rebuilding our lives around them. I like this idea. Yes, yes, I know many of you are shaking your heads saying "just wait, and you're going to lose all kinds of sleep and you're going to forget who you are...." but I say, I'm a person first and will be a mom TOO. *You* just wait. :)

So the pictures... the first one is Eric figuring out how the car seats work. We now have installed both of them in the new car, so we'll be ready when the time comes. The second one is me, yesterday, beached. You can see how my stomach is kind of at an angle... this is Baby B pushing her head up. It was a circus in my abdomen yesterday (they love it when I sit on an incline), so I tried to capture it on film. Hard to explain- at one point my stomach really looked like someone laying on her side, with head, shoulders and hip under a thick blanket. Amazing to think they're just right there, below the surface, and that if something happened and they needed to come out, they'd be OK.

The last shot is me at the Trinity Rep theater... we attempted to see the Odd Couple, but my legs were too antsy and I was just too uncomfortable to sit still for that long. So we left during intermission. We got the jist of it, anyway (kind of out-dated humor). We have season's tickets, and one more show to go. I wonder if we'll make it.

Last thing of note: I officially have old lady feet. They puff out through my sandles. And I can't wear my rings anymore! Gah!