Today, 28 weeks marks the beginning of the 7th month of pregnancy. The glory and "ease" of the 2nd trimester have been slowly fading for the past week or so as my tummy begins to stretch. I actually think that part has been easy for me so far because, well, I used to be really fat and my tummy had already been stretched once. But now! Well, now it is beginning to stretch beyond the former fat me. I am more than ever aware of the tiny girls inside of me. Not just the kicks and the grabs, but also heads and bums and flipping around. Sometimes I think about how if I only had one baby in there, it would seem like she had lots and lots of room because I sense that my girls have very separate living arrangements in there. Rachel lives in the bottom tummy and Anya in the top. I know this isn't true, it is just their arms and legs that I am feeling in those places.

I am becoming more and more aware of the fact that soon my life is going to change completely and forever. That I will be entering this Henry Darger/Yoshitomo Nara world of tiny girls with their tiny eyes and tiny hands. Tiny girls who will be happy and sad and a million other things. That in a way, I will be entering *their* world rather than the other way around. And that my role in their world at the very beginning will be that of milk maid. And with all things with my passengers, I never ever thought I would be happy about this or look forward to this. But here I am.

I have gained about 45 pounds and my legs, whose bones and knoby parts were recently unearthed have begun to resemble tree trunks. Quite literally. I can't say that I am happy about that, but I can say that I am not blaming anyone at all and that I look forward to the unearthing process to begin again in a few months. I doubt that I would be so forgiving if I didn't know that weight loss was and is possible.

The realities of childbirth are now clearer than ever with me. Thank you, childbirth class. Some advice, if you ever find yourself pregnant with multiples, do not go to a normal childbirthing class. You will feel left out. This past weekend, I not only took a childbirth class that lead me to believe that I would more than likely be having a c-section to get my passengers out, but I also met a Mennonite woman with 1 year old identical twins girls. She was their aunt and told me that their mother didn't know she was having twins until she gave birth to them. Makes sense, no sonograms for the Mennonites. No c-sections, I would imagine, either. So in the span of two days I saw the present and the past of twin births. And I have to say I am not all together ready for either. What I am ready for is to have two healthy babies, so I am working on thinking only about that.

My world is rainy and I have been eating peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. I started to add the smallest bit of Nutella to them today, but don't tell. It makes the sandwich taste like candy.