It's a girl! And another girl!

Today we had our 20 week ultrasound and found out we are having twin girls! Both babies are 13 oz., which is fantastic! According to babycenter.com, 20 week fetuses are supposed to be about 10.5 oz., so they’re both a little big. But, this is a very good thing because they’re twins and twins tend to arrive early—we want them as big and developed as possible. No abnormalities have been found in either baby. They appear to have all their little precious parts. And boy were they movin’ and groovin’ those parts! Both were extremely active during the ultrasound. (This could have been the result of the green tea and Jolly Ranchers Jess drank/ate before the ultrasound to “wake them up”!). They were rolling and turning, even kicking at each other through the membrane separating them. It was so weird to watch the membrane move and give and take with their movements towards each other. At one point, Jess and I asked if they could possibly break the membrane being so aggressive, but the tech said, “no, it is completely normal. They’re just vying for space.” There is no chance they could open the membrane with these antics. Whew!

As you can see from the pictures, they no longer look like Skeletor and Pumpkinhead. They finally look like cute little babies! So, we’ve decided to give them more appropriate names. Baby A is Sophia Louise and baby B is Alice Inez. Better huh? Their middle names are the first names of both of our mothers.

I have to admit that I’m thrilled they are both girls (so is Jess). We would have been just fine with two boys or a boy/girl combo, but from personal experience, I know there is nothing like sisters. And, I already have a wonderful step-son, so I was ready for some girls.

I’m really happy we got to learn their sexes today because it was very important to me. I have a lot of students, friends, and colleagues that think my strong desire to know the babies’ sexes is a bit strange for a feminist, Women’s Studies scholar. I think the assumption is that I should be “over the gender thing” with my level of gender awareness. However, it is just the opposite for me. I am not an advocate of abolishing gender. Making it more flexible, sure, but I don’t think doing away with gender is possible or desirable. Gender plays a significant factor in one’s sense of self. In other words, most people do not, cannot, think of themselves without thinking of themselves as gendered beings. This doesn’t mean that all girls feel the same. On the contrary! Jess and I are very different kinds of women, but being female is equally essential to our identities. Thus, knowing our babies’ sexes makes them “more real” to me. They are no longer abstract blobs. And, I’m thrilled that they will have two mommies to model two different ways of being a girl for them. I’m fine with whatever type of girl each decides to become (even if one or both decides to become a boy); I just like having a starting place.