Seeing Double?

A colleague of Court's recently called and asked how I was doing. Court responded by telling him that I had been experiencing severe morning sickness since April and that although I was now 17 weeks into the pregnancy, I was still experiencing morning sickness...at night. "Interesting" the friend responded. When my daughter was pregnant, she had terrible morning sickness the first trimester and then had morning sickness symptoms in the evening during the second trimester...she ended up having twins!!"

Immediately, I raced to the "bible" - What to Expect When You're Expecting - every pregnant woman's resource on the do's and don'ts during pregnancy. What are the signs that a woman might be carrying twins you ask?

• A relatively large abdomen. Check. No wonder everyone has been commenting on how big I am, right? (FYI - this is not me on the right. This is what I could look like at 36 weeks. gulp.)
• Exaggerated pregnancy symptoms (i.e. morning sickness, indigestion, edema, etc.)
  Check. I have been house-bound for months because I have felt so miserable.
• More than one heartbeat.
  Negative ghostrider. Only one heartbeat at the last visit but I have another visit tomorrow and the "bible" says that depending on the position of the babies, only one heartbeat may be detectable.
• Predisposition - twins run in the mother's family.
  Check. Twins run in my family! My dad was a twin - unfortunately, the twin did not live long after birth.
  
  The book says that if one or more of these factors leads the practitioner to the conclusion that there's a possibility of more than one fetus, an ultrasound will be ordered. I am not scheduled to have an ultrasound for another month!! ahhhh!! Where is Tom Cruise when I need him? He had an ultrasound machine set up in his home so that he and Katie Holmes could ultrasound the baby whenever they felt like it...and they only had one bambino up in there.
  
  So there you have it! I must be pregnant with twins. It is the only thing that could possibly explain 1. why I have felt like crap for so long, and 2. why I am scared to death, right? (If not following why I might be feeling scared to death, please review the pictures in this entry more closely.)

NOTE: The book also says that some women just have bad morning sickness the entire nine months and that some just gain more weight than they should - so I could just be an unlucky Doritos eater and not a twin carrier.