Weekly Info

I realized I have been following this woman's blog, but I don't remember signing up for it. It must have been one of those "in passing" decisions I forgot all about. Anyway, I got caught up on her most recent posts and was excited to discover (or perhaps re-discover?) that we are due around the same time. I also have two friends who are expecting right now, too (congrats, Raquel and Laura!).

Anyway, this blog had a really cool pregnancy journaling thing that I quite like. Mostly because I've talked about all of these things already, but it will be nice to one day come back and read about what I was experiencing and when in an easier to read format. So I'll be posting this once a week along with my belly pic - for the sake of posterity.

How far along: 21 weeks, 2 days

Weight gain/loss:  So far, 22 lbs (from the beginning) and 2 lbs (since last week)

Maternity clothes:  I dread wearing pants. It's not so much of a problem on the weekends when I can wear comfy's or jeans, but work pants? Fuggetaboutit. Lots of dresses and skirts, and just invested in some belly bands - loving these!

Stretch marks: None yet, but I have noticed some icky blue veins sprouting on my sides.
Sleep: Not too bad - yet. I wake up at least once a night to pee. I roll into Kevin if I don't have something like a pillow or blankets smooshed behind me.

Best moment this week:  Seeing the boys on the ultrasound with Emilee!

Food cravings: None that I've noticed, but things that are watery like fruit or popsicles tend to get my taste buds going. I can't get enough water these days!

Gender:  Two little boys, lucky us!

Belly button in or out?  Still, in, but definitely shallow.

Movement:  Lots! Baby A likes to stretch out and kick my bladder giving me sudden urges to pee. Baby B tends to be more relaxed, but I have felt him jab me in the ribs a few times.

What I miss:  Clothes that fit. I have invested in a few pieces that I'll be able to wear during and after pregnancy, but I miss my larger wardrobe selection.

What I'm looking forward to: Visiting my mom in a few weeks. She's been working on the babies' afghans, and I'm excited to see them.

Milestones:  Lots more movement, Emilee seeing the "aliens", baby A is head down

Worry Wart

It has been a strange week. I feel like a lot of the things I’ve been feeling and experiencing are reverting back to previous weeks. For example, I’ve started having irrational fears about something happening to the babies. I was petrified by “what if’s” prior to my appointment yesterday. Kevin and I went out last weekend where a lot of people were smoking. Even though it was in the open and I know it wasn’t a big deal, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was stunting their growth or affecting them in some way. Or, maybe not now, but what if that day they were developing their brain power and now they’ll be shorted later in life?

I haven’t had to take any medication for over 3 weeks. It has been so nice not to feel sick ALL the time! Sometimes I still have a little nausea after I eat breakfast, but it usually goes away with my next snack. But, last night, I was gagging and dry heaving again. I took one of those magic pills and voila: Sickness was gone. However, since I haven’t taken them in so long, I forgot how sleepy they make me. By 8:00, I could barely keep my eyes open.

Sleeping has become less than comfortable. I’ve been doing my best to sleep on my left side, as recommended. This is usually fine until I have to get up around 1:00 to pee, then when I go back to bed, I would rather lie on my back. But I know I’m not supposed to lie on my back, so I settle for the right side instead. But then, my body rolls into Kevin’s body and my head stays on my pillow, so then I wake up with a huge headache because my position is all out of wack.  The pillow between the legs has helped some. It definitely makes side sleeping easier. I used to be a stomach sleeper which isn’t good for anything, so maybe this will force me to learn to sleep a different way.

The babies are very active now. Usually I can feel them kicking, punching, flipping and spinning a few minutes after I eat and before bed. Baby A is much more active than Baby B. Many of the movements now feel like what you’d expect a drop of water running down the side of a glass to feel like. Sometimes it’s tickly, other times it’s like a big gas bubble moving around in your belly, like you’ll have explosive diarrhea in about 5 minutes. There are a lot of different kinds of movements and feelings, but they are all very cool.

Yesterday, I took my youngest step-daughter, Emilee, to my appointment. She got to see the babies on the ultrasound and see their tiny little hearts beating. Baby B looked as though he was trying to suck his thumb but just couldn’t quite get it. The doc said he doesn’t think babies REALLY suck their thumb in utero because they don’t really do it when they are first born. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but either way, it looked cute. Both of them measured right on track, exactly 21 weeks. Baby A has his head down right now (right on top of my bladder, might I add) which is good news. We hope it stays that way so we’ll have a good chance at a vaginal birth instead of having to do a c-section.  I asked Emilee what she thought of the babies and she said, “Aliens”. I laughed, because that’s what I said, too!

I also had my second pregnancy-related wardrobe malfunction yesterday. My first pregnancy-related wardrobe malfunction was a few weeks ago. I decided to wear a skirt without any stretch to it at all. First mistake. I had to hike it above it my belly so I could get it zipped up all the way. Second mistake. I wore a shirt that wasn’t very long so as to accent my cute belly. Third mistake. I went out to lunch that day and as soon as I sat down to eat, I heard the dreaded “RRRRRIP” sound tear through the back of my skirt. I knew immediately I had a huge, gaping hole and there wasn’t much I could do about it. The bathroom was too far away for me to run to. The door to leave was too far away to exit without being seen. So, I ate my lunch and pondered what I was going to do. I ended up pulling my skirt up as much as I could and looked like I was walking around in a tiny little mini skirt (so not flattering) and casually walked out the door and to my car. Then I had to call my boss and tell her I was headed home to change. She laughed. I probably would have, too, if it wasn’t me.

 Since the first mishap, I’ve learned my lesson about wearing tight clothing. I generally wear stretchy skirts or flowy dresses now in lieu of pants just to be safe. Since I have to pee EVERY 10 minutes now, I am in the bathroom a lot. Yesterday was no exception. Near the end of the day, I was able to get the bathroom stall door closed just before I felt I was going to pee all over. I hurried and haphazardly threw the seat cover on and plopped down to relieve myself. But, just as I was finishing, I realized I was in too much of a hurry and had PEED ALL OVER MY SKIRT. Yep, that’s right. Little miss pee pee pants now had a urine-soaked spot on the back of her britches. I soaked most of it of using the toilet paper method and was thankful it was black so it wasn’t as noticeable. But it was close enough to the end of the day that I couldn’t leave work to change. So I had to wait. So gross.

I think I might have to start wearing adult diapers soon. Maybe I could get a discount if I buy them with the babies' diapers?

50% Complete!

Today is officially “halfway”. Although I think since I’m having twins, I hit halfway a couple of weeks ago. Still, it’s a big day!

This is the picture that came up when I Googled "50%". I guess it's a good
image to reflect my pregnancy is halfway over.

Some days I feel my belly is going to pop right out of my skin. It seems enormous! But then other days, like today, it doesn’t feel big at all. Just a little gassy, perhaps. I’m sure there’s a lot of variables that go into it. For example, when I wake up in the morning and weigh myself, I always weigh less than when I weigh myself in the afternoon or at night (or at the doctor’s office, for that matter). So I’m sure with water retention, food, water, etc it just builds up during the day. Not that it’s a big deal. I guess I just notice it.

The last two days, I have really struggled to keep my energy up. I am more tired now than I’ve been at all during the pregnancy so far. I’m sure some of it is the heat, but there are times at work I just can’t seem to keep my eyes open and head upright.

The babies are kicking a lot harder now. Every time I have to get up from laying down, one of them jabs me pretty good. Now that I’m 20 weeks, they’ll be measured from head to toe instead of head to rump. So normal baby size would be about the length of a banana.

I wonder if they are both that big now, or if they’re a little smaller since there isn’t as much room? At our appointment last week, the doc measured their heads and they were both exactly 19 weeks (which was on track, since that was last week).also took my preliminary gestational diabetes test. They had me drink the orange stuff which wasn’t that bad, then drew my blood while I was waiting to see the doc. He said he wants to test again in a few weeks, maybe next month. He also said if I didn’t hear anything, no news was good news. I still haven’t heard anything, so I’m really hoping my numbers were ok and I’m still in the clear. Who has two thumbs and doesn’t want diabetes? This guy.

I signed up for a couple of classes at the hospital where I’ll be delivering. I’m still not sure how long this pregnancy will go, so I scheduled them both for early in my third trimester. One of them is a breastfeeding class and the other is a labor class. I never realized breastfeeding was such a “task” until I got pregnant. I thought it was just as simple as deciding whether or not you wanted to. If you decided you want to, you’d just plop the boob in the mouth and nature would do the rest. I had no idea there were classes and practice and potential inverted nipples and all those kinds of obstacles. Hopefully I don’t have a problem, because I definitely want to throw down some breast milk with these babies. We’ll probably use a combo of formula and breast milk. I have heard of this thing called “nipple confusion” that can happen when you use bottles and boob, but quite frankly, these babies are just going to have to be flexible because there will more than probably be times when mommas knockers just aren’t available.

Let the Emotions Flow

It's getting harder to breath now. I can't eat too much otherwise I get light headed because I can't catch my breath. This hasn't stopped me from eating, though. I'm so hungry ALL THE TIME. Between yesterday and today, I've eaten an entire bag of grapes - and those are just my snacks. It's difficult to stay on track with healthy foods. I've now gained about 19 pounds since I first got pregnant. Eek.

My belly button is slowly disappearing. It's kinda fun to watch it start protruding. I saw a woman at the store yesterday who had to have been ready to pop at any second...she totally had the poke-out belly button going on. AND she was wearing heels. AND she had two toddlers in her cart already. AND her husband/boyfriend/partner/personal assistant (I probably shouldn't assume the relation) looked like a hipster. But I didn't hold that one against her. My heart went out to her. It made me grateful that I won't need to worry about taking care of other young kids while trying to sort out how to take care of these little ones.

We have another ultrasound tomorrow. I'm still nervous about the gestational diabetes test. I haven't read any of my pregnancy books in the last few weeks. I think subconsciously it's because I'm afraid to hear about all the things that could go wrong at this point. Next week will be a big milestone - halfway - and now that I've passed the scary first trimester worries, I'm nervous to hear about the potential problems forthwith.

You know what's funny about being pregnant? You get pitied all the time. See? I even did it to the lady at the store with the hipster. I may have my moments of aches, pains and other discomforts, but I'm SO EXCITED and HAPPY to be pregnant! I know it's going to destroy my body. I know I'll probably never be able to eat saltine crackers or peppermint again (not a big loss, really). I know my life will forever be changed with this event. But I love it! It's pretty much what I've wanted and have been looking forward to most of my life, so the fact that it's finally happening and that it is, in and of itself, a miracle - I couldn't be more jubilant. I am so blessed to be squishing my DNA with that of my totally awesome husband and making some little goobers. I even get an added bonus of having two at once. I love that our families are so supportive.

So, no need for pity! And just as a side note to everyone who keeps telling me how huge I am going to be...I know.

Aliens - Proof!

As I've mentioned, we had our anatomy scan last Friday. They gave us some new ultrasound pictures of a few of the parts and pieces. We were able to get a really good profile of Baby B:

...but Baby A would not turn around for us:

We did get some cool pictures of his hand and leg, though:

I am finally able to wear the super cute red dress I got from my sister in law. I realized after I got to work, though, that's it's a little short. I think next time I'll wear some leggings with it so I don't feel like preggy mcslutty pants.

I can feel the babies doing acrobatics now. It doesn't feel the same as the kicks I've felt already, but more like someone is drawing circles inside my belly. It's pretty cool.

I refilled my Phenegran and am feeling good again! Oddly enough, I'm peeing more now, too. I didn't have hardly any increase during my first trimester, even though everything I read said I should be. But now, I get up around 1:00 a.m. for my nightly pee. I don't mind it, not yet anyway. It could get annoying if it increases more than once, though.

My visiting teachers came to visit me last night and brought chocolate covered strawberries for a b-day present. So awesome! I also found out that the Relief Society president also has a set of twins herself, and there are about 3 or 4 other couples in our neighborhood with twins. They were so nice and were already offering to help out when the babies come, bringing dinners and helping out with the babies.

Show Me the Cake Pops!

I just posted on my other blog about the cake pops I made for the party over the weekend. I thought about posting it here, too, but figured a link would be just as nice. Here it is: The Kissing Frog. I even posted a few pictures - and I know how much we all like pictures.

Love you guys!

Little Boy(s) Blue

We went to our ultrasound on Friday and got lots of good news. The babies are almost exactly the same size and they have all their parts and pieces - that they could see, at least. AND, they confirmed what we thought at the other appointment: We are having two little boys! They were still on the small side for some of the anatomy, so we're going to have them checked again in the coming weeks. But so far, so good!

We had a lot of family here to visit over the weekend and there was a lot going on. I didn't have a lot of down time, so I haven't noticed much kicking. I did get a couple of new maternity outfits for myself for my birthday and my sister in law took a few pictures of me and my fun bump. She is so awesomely talented!

I'm out of my magic pills. I thought I was well enough I didn't need them anymore. Just kidding. I still need them. BUT. Still no barf for weeks. So nice! Now that I'm just about halfway there, I'm getting antsy to meet these little boys of mine. I can't wait to kiss their little faces.