Half-Baked

If you should wonder whether you ought to speculate on how early a pregnant chick is going to "pop," having her babies come before their due date, and look at her because she's getting fairly large and your own realm of experience is completely outside of that arena, then take it from me.

• I don't care how uncomfortable I look.
• I don't care how "big as a house" I get.
• Yes, my feet are swollen.
• Yes, I weigh much more than my husband.

BUT

• I still sincerely and with all my heart wish for my babies to be born as close to their due date as possible. That is not today.
• I do not wish away a single day of the close to a month that I have left till they are "done."
• I am prepared to suffer any and all discomforts that will come my way as a result.
• I don't wish they'd come now. In fact, if they were born on my due date exactly, I would be fine with that.

BECAUSE

• They are not done "baking" yet.
• The longer they stay in, the better their health will be.
• Babies born prematurely have more respiratory distress, possible ADD issues, problems nursing, more childhood illnesses. Etc. It is better they stay in there longer.
• Depending on how "early" they are, they will have to stay in the hospital, in a NICU unit where I cannot have them with me and hold them and love them every day for up to the amount of time "left" till my due date.
• It is not "good news" to me that it's possible they will come early. Seriously.

I know I've said in the past that it's possible they will come early. Yes, that is certainly possible. On average, twins come about 3.5 weeks early. HOWEVER I do NOT wish for this to happen.

Please don't wish it on me, or give me "that look" when I say I would prefer they stay in there. Or say "Oh yeah, of course, but...." My power of positive thinking is working hard, here. I believe in fairies, (clap clap clap) and the ability of my wide-child-bearing-hips to hang on as long as necessary.

I hope very much that my babies "bake" as long as possible. They are still "gooey" in the center, like cookies taken out too soon. They would mature fine, and they would do fine if born now. But I don't want that to happen, at all.

It is entirely possible for twins to go "to term"-- all the way to their due date. So if you were wondering how I feel about these particular questions, now you know.

Not to be grumpy about it, but while I don't mind talking about my pregnancy, and don't care if you want to touch my belly and will encourage you to if they're being active and you could feel something fun, I am getting fed up with everyone and their uncle offering me advice about how I should "be careful, twins tend to come early" (as the random waiter at the restaurant said to me last night, as I was walking by on the way to the bathroom). Duh! I had no idea! Really? It's a good thing you told me that, Random Stranger who I didn't even initiate a conversation with, cause my doctors and/or I really had not reviewed the literature on prematurity and twins, and if I hadn't have chosen to eat here tonight, it would have been a surprise. (Okay. Sorry. That's getting a little too sarcastic. But really!)

So far I haven't been grumpy about most of the well-meaning people who have asked me questions which were not really their business, after all. But this is, just to set the record straight, how I feel about them "coming any day now." I'm glad to wait. They. will. be. worth. every. minute.