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.

Full Weekend

We have another ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow. We aren't going to our normal doctor, though. He referred us to the University where we will talk more in depth about twin pregnancies and be able to see the babies on a high tech ultrasound.

I've been feeling pretty good the last couple of weeks. My morning sickness still comes sometimes and I gag/dry heave a lot, but I haven't thrown up for a while now. Aaaah, so nice.

So it sounds like my dad and both my sisters are coming over Saturday for a BBQ. My sister-in-law Gina - the one who made me the uber cute peas in a pod necklace - will also be staying with us this weekend. My nieces birthday is on Friday, my birthday is on Saturday, and my step daughters birthday is on Tuesday. So we'll be celebratin' birthdays all over the place this weekend! Kevin also has family coming into town, so we're going to visit with them, too.

As you can see from my progressive photo clip, my belly is groooowing. However, when I compared it to other moms-of-twins-to-be, I still look tiny! I can even suck in my gut and look like I'm not really pregnant at all. Of course, I can only do so for about 3 seconds before I'm ready to explode. I'm just over 4 months. I'm still expecting the big growth spurt this month and expect to be in the full swing of this second trimester business straight away.

I can drink water again! Not just drink it, but I can guzzle it. It's so nice.

Happy Birthday!

Normally I would reserve my blog posts to the exclusivity of what’s happening with baby A and baby B, but since my birthday is coming up, I’m going to go off course a bit and tell you about my weekend. Because it was AWESOME!

Technically, my birthday isn’t until this Saturday, but with my brother and sister-in-law coming to stay with us, the family BBQ (at which we will finally announce the genders!) and celebrating my youngest step daughter’s birthday, it didn’t leave much room for anything else. So my darling husband said we would celebrate the weekend before.

Saturday started out usual enough. Kevin did his morning “computing” (this is a weekend ritual during which he checks his Facebook, e-mail, watches videos and generally just checks up on what’s going on in the world) while I ate breakfast, then he headed outside to mow and trim the lawn. I did my usual, too, and cleaned up the house and started some laundry. I know, I know. Maybe we’re filling the stereotypical gender roles, but I’m perfectly ok doing the inside chores while he works on the outside stuff. Besides…I think I’m better at it anyway. Just kidding, Kevin. Mostly.

After the chores were all done, we took a well-deserved nap. After finally waking up, we headed off to the local Arts Festival. Ah, the Arts Festival. We walked around and looked at all the artisan’s booths – everything from paintings made from human blood to functional airplanes made from old soda cans. There was so much to see! We watched a musical performance by some local kids playing on some improvised percussion instruments: Items like old paint buckets, glass casserole dish lids, metal pots and plastic bins. It was really cool and definitely took some talent! We watched a demonstration where an audience volunteer got to make a glass egg, then we got ourselves something to eat. After stuffing ourselves silly, we headed up to the stage and sat on the grass while the Cuban musicians played. There were some people dancing the salsa in front of us. One of the guys took his shoes off and left them off to the side. We REALLY wanted to steal his shoes and watch him look for them. But in the end, we just didn’t have the guts. We had a good laugh thinking about it, though.

The next day, we started the morning the lazy way. We slept in, hung around in our pajamas and cuddled on the couch. I went to the store and did some grocery shopping because we’ve been out of decent food for weeks. I loaded up on my fruits and even snuck in a few vegetables. After I got home, we put everything away and then got ready for the day (yep, I went grocery shopping without showering and I even sported a lazy ponytail…I’m already on my way to mom-hood!). Here is the part related to the pregnancy: It took me FOREVER to find something that fit! I was on the verge of tears because I was too fat for all my old, cute clothes but I was too little to wear all the cute maternity stuff I got from my sister in law. I finally found an outfit (after help from my husband) and we were able to leave the house.

This day was my “birthday surprise” date, so I didn’t know what we were doing until we got there. I’ve been wanting to go to our local aquarium for a long time, and was pleasantly surprised when that was where we ended up! We spent a couple of hours looking at all the creatures and had so much fun! I think my favorite part was the coral reef stuff. We even got to see the octopus out and about. It was awesome!

After the aquarium adventure, we stopped by the gas station to get ourselves something to drink, then headed to the park to hang out at the drum circle. If you don’t know what a drum circle is, imagine yourself travelling back in time to the early 70’s and hanging out with some hippies. That’s basically the drum circle. People from all walks of life gather together, some of them bring instruments like drums, bongos, guitars, shakers or whatever and just play. There are also people who bring these big hula hoop things and “dance” with them. A recent addition we noticed yesterday were baton throwers. They looked like the flame kind, but were not lit at the time. We did notice there were some fire trucks there, though, so maybe the flames came after dark…

The “people watching” at events like this is priceless. Your eyes are really opened to all kinds of people and events. If nothing else, it stirs interesting conversation.

We left the drum circle and headed to this restaurant I’ve been wanting to try for years: The Melting Pot. This place is a high-end fondue restaurant and is also snooty enough to require reservations in advance. Although this part of the date wasn’t exactly a surprise, I was still thrilled to be going. When we got there, I (of course) had to use the restroom. When I came out and they showed us to our table, there were 4 happy balloons on the table waiting for us! If you have known me for longer than 6 minutes, you know how much I love balloons. They are the ultimate happy maker. I believe world peace could be attained simply by giving bunches of balloons to all the world leaders. Instant peace and joy.

We started off with a most delicious cheddar fondue served with apples, bread and vegetables. Then, we had our house salad followed by the main course. We weren’t exactly sure how the “cooking style” worked, but soon figured it out. They provide a brothy-type sauce and a few fondue skewers. You stab the meats and veggies you want to eat (salmon, filet mignon, etc) and let them cook in the pot for a few minutes until they’re done. This seemed wildly unsafe to us, as they were putting the responsibility of cooking in our laps, but we got the hang of it pretty quickly.

After the main course, we were given a chocolate fondue menu to choose from for the dessert. OMG. So many awesome options. After much deliberation, we finally decided on the Yin & Yang: a combination of dark chocolate and white chocolate, brought in the shape of a Yin & Yang. We dipped Rice Krispie treats, cheesecake, brownies, marshmallows, strawberries and bananas and it was SOOO GOOOOOD. I wanted to keep eating and eating and eating, but alas, I was one bite away from exploding all over the room. A woman came by to take our picture and after a few minutes came back with the picture in a cute silver frame for us to take. Kevin had made “special arrangements” for the balloons and picture so he got lots and lots of points for this date.

While we were on our way back to the car, a group of people passed us and one of the gentlemen said, “Happy Birthday! …or something…” (I would imagine because I was carrying the balloons). I replied with a very loud and genuine, “Thank you!”.

I had so much fun with Kevin this weekend. He did a great job of making me feel special and it was so nice to spend some time with him. These babies sure do have a great dad!