JK and I are travelling interstate tomorrow - it’s his sister’s wedding this weekend so we’re travelling to Adelaide and we’ll hang around for five days or so and have a family-reunion type get-together. We’re looking forward to seeing family and having a little holiday, although the eight or so hour drive to get their doesn’t exactly thrill me. When you drive that far in almost any direction in Australia it’s all pretty monotonous - flat, dry dusty landscape, small towns with strange names, nothing to keep the interest, believe me!

I’ve still been suffering terrible growling pains in my abdomen all week. I decided it probably wasn’t hunger pains as they often hung around even after I’d eaten, although sometimes eating eases the discomfort somewhat. For a while I figured it was really severe reflux and my doctor suspected the same, although this morning JK woke up with horrible growling pains - and just called me from work to say he still feels strange - so now I’m thinking it must be some kind of gastro bug. Dreading the thought that I’d better visit the doctor again - but when you consider I’ve been up half the night on more than one occasion with excruciating growling pains then maybe I’d better, eh?

Had one strange experience when I was at the doctor's. She asked if there was any history of multiple births in the family. I said yes, JK’s dad is a fraternal twin. I asked the doctor if that could affect me, as I’d always thought that twins could only be passed down through the female line. She said no, it could happen anyway (identical twins are random and nongenetic, while fraternals run in families, on the mother's side). I felt strange then. It was weird. For the first time in this pregnancy I felt something "click." It was as though something finally made sense and for the first time I felt "maternal" about the baby (dare I say, babies??) growing inside me. It’s weird but I feel quite moved when I think of two babies, and absolutely nothing when I think of one. I really doubt that this actually means anything. I don’t think it’s any kind of premonition or instinct this time - it’s too weird! It’s just some strange little fantasy I have about twins… Surely??? Although the fact that at eight weeks I can no longer get the top button done up on my Levi’s - sometimes not even the top TWO buttons - also concerns me a little. I thought I wasn’t supposed to balloon for quite a few weeks yet. I hope I’m not just ballooning with extra fat - all this extra eating could be taking its toll.

Anyway, after that first maternal fluttering I think my ambivalence is starting to wane. I’m feeling much more attached to this pregnancy and am even allowing myself to fantasise about the little baby that might appear at the end of it all. It’s slowly becoming "real" to me - although not real enough to want to tell anybody. I’ll be keeping my lips firmly sealed when we see family this weekend - even though I’m now eight weeks pregnant! Golly, time flies!

Anyway, enough for now.
Until next week,
Au revoir -

Eloise