Nursery Work

Last weekend we worked on getting the nursery ready. Although it's still not totally complete, it's just about there.

This is the room before.

 I know some of you are going to think, "Oh, are you sure that's not the after? Look how cute those jungle animals are! And orange? Genius!" But alas. Those were not my thoughts. I have always disliked this design, but Emilee liked it so I kept my mouth shut. However, she is now in the pink room, so it was time to say bye bye to the electric animal gathering.

We worked feverishly through the morning to get the much needed primer coat on (I can't even start to take credit for this step; this was all Kevin).

Kevin seemed to enjoy murdering the monkey with the paint roller.

We also had to mud and sand the walls where the chalkboard used to hang. Ugh, PAIN! The previous owners (or whoever they had install it, anyway) used liquid nails on the wall to adhere the boards, so when we took them off, it also removed the paint and part of the drywall. Also pictured are the crib pads we got when we purchased our second crib. Cute!

Here is a picture of me, VERY hard at work. I was a great director. My feet were swollen and I had been having some Braxton Hicks contractions, so I was taking it easy while I watched Kevin and Justine paint feverishly into the night.

We painted the bottom of the walls a chocolate brown, then did a light cream color on the top.

Kevin LOVES to paint! It's his very most favorite! ...No, no
he does not.

Such a good sport. Working so hard to make all my nursery
dreams come true.

 Once we had the top and bottom ready to go, we added the blue stripe.

Check out those crisp, clean lines! Way to go, babe!

Once the painting was done, we took a well deserved break. The following night, I washed all the baby clothes we've received so far and put them in the dresser. They look so organized! I figure it's the only time they will look that way, so I'm proud that they were so neat at least once. Kevin also put the cribs together and we have just about all the furniture in place. Unfortunately, two cribs tend to demand a lot of space, so the layout of the room isn't the most aesthetically pleasing, but it's functional nonetheless.

We set up the glider chair and ottoman and got the curtains hung. Now we just need to finish up the wall decor, and I think we're pretty well set! The frames for the pictures have all been spray painted and are ready to go; I just need to get the book covers of the Frog & Toad books scanned and printed for the frames. I plan to hang them with 2" green ribbon to break up some of the mute colors and tie in the Frog & Toad theme with the blue stripe. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do for the other wall, but I have a few ideas. I'll be sure to post pictures once it's all finished.

Now for the weekly stats update!

How far along: 29 Weeks
Weight gain/loss:  4 pounds
Maternity clothes:  Dresses, dresses dresses! I am now wearing Kevin's t-shirts to bed, but they are tight against my belly so that won't last much longer. 
Stretch marks: Nothing noticeable yet.
Sleep: Missing sleep. Normal sleep. Uninterrupted sleep. Sleep without peeing. Sleep without rolling over and squishing cat. Sleep without aching hips. Sleep without nightmares involving a flaming throat and ultimately waking up to terrible heartburn. Yep. Missing sleep.
Best moment this week:  Working on the nursery and having a big long "holy crap, this is reality" chat with Kevin about the babies.
Food cravings: None, really. Food doesn't sound that awesome these days because EVERYTHING gives me heartburn. Even water. No room in the Inn.
Gender:  Same as last week...still boys

Belly button in or out?  Can't make up its mind. I have a little half moon where my piercing was that keeps getting bigger and bigger. But the belly button itself is still hiding. Also, I find it's very fun to play with. I constantly have my finger in it, even when I don't realize it.
Movement:  Baby B has a fun little game he likes to play called hide and seek behind mom's ribs. Baby A has just as much fun using my bladder as a bouncy castle and the both have set patterns now. Baby B is almost always awake before A.
What I miss:  Normal conversations. Every time someone speaks to me these days, it's to ask how I'm doing, how much longer I have in my pregnancy, what's going on with the babies, etc. I love discussing it, but I definitely miss talking about anything else.
What I'm looking forward to: My baby shower this Saturday!
Milestones:  Getting the nursery prepared, having my "come to Jesus" moment that the boys will be here in less than a couple of months, fitting into all the maternity clothes I stared at 4 months ago thinking, "omagosh, these will never fit me, I'm not an elephant". Becoming an elephant. 

Firsties!!!



So. Cute.

Oh my gosh! I just felt my first bout of baby hiccups! That was the coolest thing ever. I'm pretty sure it was Baby A that had them, but they have been moving around a lot, so I'm not sure which little guy is where at the moment.

A woman I work with gave me the cutest card today. She hadnmakes these things - it's incredible!

My swelling has been pretty bad over the last couple of days. I'm pretty sure it'll go away if I would just stop eating so much dang sodium. I also haven't been sleeping too well the last few nights. Many unsettling dreams as well as aching hips. I'm hoping to get caught up on some rest over the weekend, but we still have lots of projects to do and we're running out of time to get them done.

BUT! We get to cross something off tonight: Purchase car seat/stroller combo. Yippee! So excited to get these babies - er, car seats.

The beauty of these babies is the car seats clip in and out of the stroller, so need to wake the babies in order to transport them. And as an added bonus, when they grow out of their infant car seats, we can still use the stroller as a regular stroller! More joy! They should be here next week sometime. I can't wait to play with them.

Happy News!

Just had to share: The results of the glucose test came back normal, so no gestational diabetes for me! I'm going to celebrate by eating some ice cream.

Moving Right Along

We’ve successfully emptied the room we’ll be using for the nursery! We moved Angel to the basement and her room transformation is almost complete. The walls are painted, the dresser is finished, the chandelier is hung and the TV is hooked up (the most important part, really). We just have to get the headboard hung up and it’ll be all done. I’m going to have to make her a new bedspread to match because right now, the only king size blanket we have is dark brown. Nice and all, but not a match.

Emilee is now in the pink room. She loves it. But, she’s already talking about how excited she is to get Angel’s new room downstairs. The grass is always greener!

Riley is being a trooper about the whole thing. I guess at least he’s getting two brothers in return for his patience.

I still haven’t heard back from the doctor’s office about my glucose test, so I’m assuming the “no news is good news” is still in effect. Hooray!

I went to my labor class on Saturday. Although I knew a lot of the information already, I was so glad to be able to take a tour of the hospital. It made me feel at least a little more prepared. I even saw my doc at the nurse’s station while we were walking around. They had a few different people come in to talk about various parts of the labor and delivery process including an anesthesiologist who discussed epidurals and spinals, a pediatrician who talked about the transition from OB/GYN to pediatrician care after birth and someone from the health department who gave us the skinny on car seat installation and safety. Everyone else in the class already had their car seats. We do not. I suppose we should get them soon. Especially since that’s really the only requirement we have to meet to take them home.

The babies started blinking this week! My belly hasn’t felt like it’s grown a ton lately (which I’m ok with), but man these kids are kicking up a storm during their waking hours. I found a way to rock them to sleep already. When they are getting a little too rambunctious, I can get them to settle down just by swaying for a few minutes. I have also tried “the washing machine” technique, which is where I sit in a chair and gently rotate from side to side.

I think I missed the weekly stats update last week…so I guess I’ll have to cover the last two weeks with this one.

How far along: 27 Weeks, 6 Days
Weight gain/loss:  Shoot, I don’t remember my weight from two weeks ago…but total, I’ve gained 38 pounds since the beginning. Scary!
Maternity clothes:  Getting really bored of wearing dresses, skirts and flat shoes. It’s starting to get cooler outside, so I’ve been able to add a couple of sweaters into my rotation. And they are SO comfy.
Stretch marks: None. But I’m not naïve. They’ll be here soon.
Sleep: Up a lot during the night for potty trips. Almost peed on the toilet lid last night because I was too tired to remember to lift the seat. Thankfully the fuzzy toilet cover was a good indication that something wasn’t right and I woke up enough to figure it out before it was too late.
Best moment this week:  Seeing the excitement from all the kids and Kevin about the babies imminent arrival
Food cravings: Really loving frozeny things right now. Ice cream, popsicles, slushes, etc.
Gender:  Same as last week...still boys

Belly button in or out?  *Sigh* Still in. I don’t think it will be popping out. No turkey timer for me!
Movement:  I know the difference between a kick, a punch and a roll now. I also found out Baby A has moved from his head down position into a transverse position. No big deal, because he still has lots of time to move back. But he better be moving back!
What I miss:  Being able to move freely. Getting up from a sitting or lying position is next to impossible without help.
What I'm looking forward to: My baby shower coming up in less than two weeks! Also, working on the nursery and starting to see the visual reality that these babies really are going to be living in our house soon.
Milestones: Kevin has felt the babies kick a lot this week. It’s the only time since he felt them the first time. It makes me happy to have him get to feel them, too. We finalized colors for the nursery.

Paranoia

I’m feeling a lot of love for my boys today. I find myself frequently having thoughts of screaming babies, mountains of diapers and an unkempt house. But today, I have a sense of peace and joy looking forward to the arrival of my two little dudes.

I’m thinking a lot about the delivery. From the beginning, I’ve known I have preferred to go through the love tunnel (or more technically named, “the vagina”), but after a conversation with the doctor on Wednesday, I’m second guessing it. Obviously I want what is best for both me and babies, but I really am not looking forward to the possibility of having to recuperate from both vaginal birth and major surgery with a c-section. I would think one or the other would be preferable. I guess it’s just something I’ll have to let go how it goes. I don’t have a ton of control over the situation so there’s no sense in losing myself in the anxiety.

Speaking of the doctor, the appointment went really well. He took some measurements and said the babies are measuring about a week behind, but that is expected (since they’re low on space) and preferable (since we don’t want them to come too early) for twins. So sounds like we’re still on track. He has moved me to two week appointments, so I’ll be seeing him again near the end of the month, right before my baby shower. Although he tried to get some good ultrasound pictures for me, they just didn’t turn out very great. He said he saw one with its arm or wrist in its mouth, but I couldn’t see the screen so I didn’t get to see it.

I’ve become paranoid about strangers. I don’t really like walking around in public at the moment because I feel as if everyone is looking at me. It’s probably because I’m pregnant, but I can’t help but think it’s because of any combination of the following:

• I walk like I’m the 2011 limbo contest champion
• My legs are so white they’d make Ray Charles squint from the brightness
• I’m not wearing my wedding rings so they pity me because I’m “so brave” to do it on my own
• They first assume I’m just big boned or hefty until they see me from the side and realize how disproportionate all the extra weight is, THEN they figure out I’m pregnant
• I’m eating at a fast food restaurant and they wonder why anyone would want to poison their unborn baby with such toxic choices
• My outfit doesn’t match and/or I’m out of fashion because I had to throw a top and bottom together that still fits (or at least I can breathe in), resulting in pants that are too long, shirts that squeeze my boobs , shoes that are too small or some other item that makes me look like a large umbrella
• They can hear my grunts, heavy breathing and other uncontrollable noises that come with the inevitable task of walking, standing, sitting or bending
• They see me trying to bend over to pick something up and are amused at my obvious struggle (look at that fat lady who can’t even pick up that bottle of lotion she dropped! Let’s not offer to help her while we watch her struggle…and let’s tape it and put it on YouTube!)

See? Most of these are irrational reasons why people would glance at me (although, the glance feels like a 10 minute stare down), but I can’t help but wonder what people think. I know I’ve been guilty of a few of those thoughts listed above from time to time, so why wouldn’t others occasionally think that about me?

The Bedroom Shuffle

Lots going on these days, friends. We had a very busy weekend full of chores, more “to-do’s”, and finally making some headway on this whole rearrange-your-life-for-the-new-babies thing.

First, let me start off saying how TOTALLY AWESOME Kevin is. I don’t know what I would do without him. He is a genius at the handyman kind of stuff. I think he could run circles around that Ty guy from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Not only is he able to make my visions come to life, but he’s had some pretty intense patience with the pregnant version of me. So kudos to him.

Before we can start of the nursery, we get to play musical rooms. I kind of imagine the rabbit at the tea party from Alice in Wonderland as he sings, “Move down, move down, move down MOVE DOWN!” because that’s kind of what we’re in the process of doing. Angel is moving down to the basement, Emilee will be moving in to Angel’s room, and Emilee’s room will then become the nursery. Unfortunately, this leaves Riley without his own space for the next few months until he ships out for basic training.

Kevin and I have been working feverishly on getting the basement room ready for Angel so we can start the nursery hopefully this coming weekend. The room right now really doesn’t have much of a design to it at all, so it’s taken some creative brainstorming to come up with what to do. The final plan is to paint the walls a light lavender color (which we’ll hopefully have done tomorrow), make a custom headboard for the bed, install a new chandelier light fixture, and refinish and repair the existing black dresser to an off white with an antique finish. Most of these things are already done, so it’ll just be a matter of putting everything together once the room is painted. My favorite part so far is the headboard. It turned out SO AWESOME. Kevin is a genius (as I previously mentioned) and helped me come up with a great plan for the buttons. Although it was a lot of work, I think it’s going to match the room perfectly and add some much needed pizzazz to the room.

Headboard before. We had to cut the particle board at the
store so it would fit in the back of Kevin's car - hence the
fancy brackets.

Here are the leftover materials from the project.
Lots of work, as you can see.

Headboard after. It's a dark lavender satin fabric covered with
the cream lace on top. The buttons aren't attached yet, but it's
going to be freakin' sweet.

As for the nursery, we picked out our color swatches and have decided to do a dark brown on the bottom 1/3 of the room with a 5” baby blue faux chair rail and beige/cream on the top 2/3 of the walls. I found some curtains we weren’t using that match the rocker and ottoman we have and also some light green chiffon curtains, so I’m going to hem them to match the height of the window sill and hang them on the window. We purchased a new rug for the room that has all the colors: dark/light brown, tiny bits of green and tiny bits of blue. Perfect to cover up all the inevitable poop squirts from diaper changing!

Kevin finished getting the cribs all ready, so we now have two fully functional cribs that should house the babes in relative safety and comfort. We bought a couple of mattresses and some light blue and green crib sheets.

I will be meeting with the doctor again tonight (27 weeks today, yeah!) and they’ll be doing another blood glucose test. Although I’m still nervous about having Gestational Diabetes, I’m relieved that I’m in the home stretch of this pregnancy, so at least if I do have it, I won’t have it as long and it hopefully won’t affect me or the babies as much as if I’d had it earlier at 19 weeks.

I’m confident the babies are doing well. I have been feeling their kicks get progressively stronger, and I know for a fact they’re growing. Just about every gizzard and gut can attest to that. I’m hoping they’re both still in the right position like they’ve been so far.

As far as aches and pains go, I have occasional heartburn, but can usually abate it by eating dairy or, worst case scenario, a TUMS. My hips have started to hurt enough to wake me up at night. When they do, it’s too painful to sleep on my side, so I usually use my <3 Noodle Pillow <3 to hold me at an angled position so I’m not on my back, but not on my side. It’s working so far. I can’t stay on my feet for more than a couple of hours, tops. Not only does it make the swelling terrible, my feet, legs and hips just start to ache from all the added weight. My hands are constantly swollen and I’ve had to remove my wedding rings so my finger doesn’t turn purple (now I wonder if people see me and wonder if I’m a single white female whose baby daddy ran off on her).

Having said all of that, I still consider this to be an easy pregnancy so far. I’m so happy everything is going as well as it is and the babies are doing well.

Weekly Stats

How far along: 26 Weeks, 2 Days
Weight gain/loss:  1 lbs.
Maternity clothes:  UGH. I hate getting dressed in the morning. Nothing fits anymore (already!). I really like the support brace I got, but it gives me some terrible heartburn, so I only wear it for a few hours at a time. I'm feeling more and more giant every day. I can tell my hips are much wider which makes my bum look even bigger. I think I might have to add a "wide load" banner to my wardrobe soon. 
Stretch marks: None...that I can SEE! I am getting more of the gross veins on my belly. They are right around the area I feel the most kicking, so I've decided they are bruises from the boys. I'm going to take some photo's and blackmail them later for abusing their mom in utero.
Sleep: I LOVE MY NOODLE PILLOW. Love it, love it love it! I get excited to see it when it's time for bed. It's made sleeping SO much easier and pleasant. I will be using it well after birth, too. Still getting up once or twice a night to pee, but used to it now.
Best moment this week:  Taking the day off of work to stay home and relax. 
Food cravings: No bake cookies. So glad I found the recipe online, because I couldn't find one anywhere. So delicious.
Gender:  Same as last week...still boys

Belly button in or out?  Can't make up its mind. I have a little half moon where my piercing was that keeps getting bigger and bigger. But the belly button itself is still hiding. Also, I find it's very fun to play with. I constantly have my finger in it, even when I don't realize it. 
Movement:  Less common now. The babies are starting to get their routine down. Lots of kicking after breakfast, usually around 9:30. The lower one, Baby A, usually has an afternoon fit around 1, and both of them are kicking anytime between 5 and 7 at night. They also tend to kick a lot if I get an adrenaline rush (while driving, for example - people are nuts on the road!).
What I miss:  Energy. I have a jillion things to do over the next 2 months and I don't feel like I have the energy to do them. I can go for a good hour or so, but then I feel completely wiped out. And then I feel guilty like a big fat whiner! I intend to take some naps soon. With my noodle pillow. Mmmm. :)
What I'm looking forward to: Visiting my sister tomorrow, working on some projects with Kevin the rest of the weekend and not going to work on Monday, woohoo!
Milestones:  Received my first flu shot EVER yesterday in preparation for the babes. Kevin got his first, too. Hopefully they don't discover the vaccine causes horrible birth defects or anything in the next few years...