Growing babies

I've now been pregnant for 32 weeks. Once a week, I go to the hospital for tests that measure the babies' activity levels and evaluates how they respond to contractions, and so far everything has looked great. The babies are both very active, have strong heart rates, and don't seem to notice when I have contractions (and at this point, that is a good thing!).

Reaching the 32-week-mark is notable in one other way: babies born between 28 and 32 weeks are considered "early preterm" and generally have much longer hospital stays and more health complications than babies born "late preterm" (between 32 and 36 weeks). My goal for the past several weeks has been to reach 32 weeks -- and now I'm aiming for at least 36 weeks (which is considered term for twins).

Of course, carrying two babies means that I look much more pregnant than the average 7-months-pregnant woman. In fact, I look like I'm about 9 1/2 months pregnant! Here are some recent pictures that illustrate how large I've gotten recently:

At 24 weeks:


At 28 weeks:


At 32 weeks (today):


Of course, that much-larger belly has come with a few (dozen) stretch marks. Adelaida discovered these stretch marks yesterday and decided to clean my belly so that they would go away. She got a tissue, climbed onto my lap, pulled my shirt up, and started scrubbing. Unfortunately, I have just as many stretch marks after that thorough scrubbing as I did before!