And the Doc Says...

Amanda is progressing perfectly. The doctor equated her cervix to an impenetrable wall of steel in that there is no appreciable thinning. How it is that such a tiny lady seems to be made to carry twins is well beyond my understanding. Far healthier, far taller women have struggled through their multiples pregnancies but somehow we've sailed through with no real bumps in the road. She's uncomfortable as heck these days, to be sure, but she's remarkably happy. I'm quite thankful for the ease, whatever the reason.

During our appointment on Thursday, the babies measured 4 lbs 10 oz (Raiden) and 4 lbs 12 oz (Timothy). They're right around the 50th percentile for growth if they were singletons, so everyone is quite happy about that. Consider, however: that's 9 lbs 6 oz of baby. To quote a certain great modern thespian, "Whoah..." In any case, the heartbeats are strong, the movements look great, and the time for them to emerge into this crazy world of ours is nearing ever closer.

An amusing thing happened during the ultrasound: Raiden flipped! After all that discussion of c-sections, traditional vaginal births and breech extractions, that little punk decided to be a gymnast and aim his head downward. Amanda contends that he must be my son given that he can't seem to make up his mind what he wants to do and wants to put off making the decision as long as possible. We had decided that we were going with a scheduled c-section, but this throws the decision into question.

The big (related) news is that the doctors wanted us to set a specific date for either induction or a c-section. We have gone with May 7th, my mother's birthday, as the date these boys will make their debut appearance. We don't know if it will be an induction or a c-section--that decision is up to Raiden, probably--but we do know it will be that day. We're supposed to be at the hospital starting around 10:00, so we'll just have to see what happens then.

Oh my...21 days. We're both emotionally ready and the house is very nearly ready, but I still have a strong feeling that we have no idea what we're getting ourselves into.