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...

Things that Happened This Week

I do believe I had my first contractions. I was running around like crazy all weekend with Kevin trying to whittle away at our long to-do list and probably over did it. You know how everyone always tells you to drive safe right before you get ready to leave somewhere, and even though they say that, it probably doesn’t really affect how you’d drive either way? Well, people have been telling me to “take it easy” for weeks now. Did I listen? Nope, I just kept on going with stuff that had to get done. I mean, let’s face it: Just because you get pregnant, life doesn’t really let you just stand still and relax until the baby (or in this case, babies) comes.

I decided it would be a good idea to stay home from work on Monday and really rest and relax to make up for the hectic weekend and I don’t regret the decision at all. I was able to get one of my many craft projects done AND was able to sit all day, keeping my poor swollen feet/legs propped up to help with circulation and I drank so much water my pee was crystal clear. Woohoo!

"Hey, Toad! Want to get loaded on wacky tobacky and make
some crazy cool liquor this weekend? Then we can go fly kites!
Don't worry, if anything crazy happens, I know how to survive
in the wilderness."

I’ve been searching for the Frog and Toad book series to add to the nursery. I’m trying to get them relatively soon so we’ll have time to get the pictures ready. We found some cool frames at the D.I. over the weekend that we plan to spray paint a cream color so they’ll stand out from the darker walls.

While searching for the books on Ebay, I saw the “recommended products” near the bottom of the screen:

• Hookah Pipes
• Moonshine Recipes and Kits
• Wilderness Survival Kits

What in the world do these items have to do with these CHILDREN’S BOOKS? I do remember Frog being a little “chilled out”, but not to the extent of smoking the jonga and making booze in granny’s tub.

BRING ME FOOD. Oh, and don't forget my Hookah
pipe on the right.

In other news, I attended a baby shower over the weekend. When asked how far along I was, it was the first time in my entire pregnancy that I honestly didn’t know. The 20 something’s are starting to meld together, and I just couldn’t remember where I was at. All I knew was I was more than 24 weeks, and that’s what I said. People looked at me like I had three heads. What kind of pregnant lady doesn’t know TO THE DAY how far along they are? Well, me apparently. It probably didn’t help that I was starving and trying to politely eat my cute baby shower refreshments like a lady, when I really wanted to just shove everything in my mouth with a shovel and swallow because I was so hungry.

I was able to find a few cute things at the D.I. to add to my growing (literally) maternity wardrobe. Dresses and polyester are my BFF’s these days. I wish my skin had as much give as these polyester pants I’ve been wearing. If only my belly would snap back into place like they do! Ah, wishful thinking.

Sadly, I am not feeling babies kick as much now. But on the bright side, they seem to be setting up a routine so I know when and where to expect them. I think their 3 bedroom furnished condos are starting to turn into crowded studio apartments. I’m so glad they are growing! I feel pretty darn blessed to have gotten this far with relatively no complications or (severe) pain and discomfort.

The third trimester is just around the corner and there seems to be this ever so faint light at the end of the tunnel. I can’t wait to bring these little babies home and smooch their little lips!

Someone's Flown Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I mentioned in my last post that I learned how to crochet. My mom was patient enough to pass down this art of yarn looping and knotting to me last weekend. Although I’m still no where near talented enough to make something as cute as this:

I was able to make this little blue bird:

He is supposed to be a part of a bird mobile that has a big momma bird sitting on a log and two little baby birds floating underneath. I liked the idea of the little baby birds, but the momma bird was too big and I didn’t like the log. So I decided to try and make a baby bird mobile by myself for the crib! Huge undertaking? Maybe. Will I end up finishing it? Maybe not. All I know is I have acquired a new skill, one of which I hope I don’t forget how to do  (like I did with learning to knit).

Kevin made a wonderful suggestion for the nursery design last night. He suggested getting pictures of the book covers for the Frog and Toad books and enlarging them, then putting them in some nice frames for wall décor. Love it! I know he’s not too keen on having more browns/greens in the house since we have a lot of those colors already, but hopefully he’ll like the vision I have in mind.

I am usually a pretty easy going person. I tend to be pretty reasonable. However, I feel as though my normal pleasant personality has gone out the window in the last month. A few examples of what I’m talking about…

Exhibit A: My desk sits right underneath an A/C vent. It runs most of the day, especially during the hot summer months. It may have a screw or two lose because when it’s running, it rattles. A lot. It has NEVER bothered me until the last 3 weeks. Now all I hear is that stupid rattling. I turn on the heater under my desk just to mask the sound. It drives me bonkers!
 Exhibit B: Yesterday, I waited in line for 25 minutes at Walgreen’s  for this ONE lady to check out. She had her 5” 3 ring binder full of coupons and was going through, page by page, picking out the coupons, then the cashier would look at them and say she couldn’t use them for whatever reason. OMG! After waiting for 10 minutes, I finally asked her if there someone else who could ring me up. I literally had ONE ITEM. I just wanted some ice cream. That’s all. She said the other cashier was at lunch and wouldn’t be back for another 20 minutes. Seriously. Then, she finally gets done with her transaction, and she starts telling the cashier to start taking things off because the coupons didn’t work for those items so she doesn’t want them anymore. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! Normally I would have put the ice cream back and headed up to 7-11 for a slurpee instead. But no. I had to have my pregnancy ice cream.

Once she was done and got her receipt, the cashier told her she saved $4.47. I could have strangled her with her grocery bag. Bye bye, patience.

Exhibit C: Ok, so have you ever worn a lotion that smelled really good in the bottle, but then you wore it and the smell drove you nuts ALL day because it was too stinky, or smelled different than it was supposed to? I totally had that happen today. I made the mistake of first spraying on some body spray, but then forgot I had done it, and put on some smelly lotion. As soon as I rubbed it on my arms, I realized it was a mistake. Stink city. But I didn’t have time to wash it off or anything. So I thought maybe I could handle it. It has been driving me absolutely crazy all morning. So I went into the bathroom and took a sink bath on my arms, trying to scrub the stink smell off my arms with paper towels and water. It didn’t work!!!! I tried again a little while later, then rubbed some other lotion on thinking it would mask the smell, but that just made it even worse. So now I have these three very uncoordinated smells and I know I stink but I can’t get rid of the smell without taking a shower, probably. EWE. Pregnancy smells are a curse.

You see? I’m positively batty! I’ve lost my bananas! I have no patience or tolerance for anything anymore. So here is my apology to everyone I know and those I don’t. Sorry for being crazy. I’m hoping it’s only temporary.

3 Years and Counting...

Today is my 3 year anniversary with my darling husband. It’s so hard to believe it’s already been that long. On one of our first “dates”, I came to his house and he made me a turkey sandwich with a string cheese pulled apart to look like an octopus. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

I'm the white one with the little black eye. Kevin
is the one with the big black eye. What can I say,
I fight back. KIDDING! We don't really beat each
other. Much.

It’s been a long journey for us to get to where we are now. Although we’d discussed it numerous times and knew we wanted to have a child together, it seemed the odds were stacked against us. It was one of those “one day” things that you couldn’t believe would ever really happen. And yet, here we are: Expecting twins!

Kevin has been especially great to me during this pregnancy. During my first trimester when I was sick all the time, he made sure to help around the house, would make meals for me and the kids, and tried his best to make me feel better. Whenever I have aches and pains, he’s right there to rub them away. He tells me what a cute pregnant lady I am on a daily basis and always greets me with a smile when I come home from work. He asks me how I’m feeling and really listens to what I have to say when I talk about my fears, concerns, joys and triumphs. He even reads my blog, every day (no, that’s not why I’m saying such nice things about him). He’s been with me to almost all of my appointments so far, even the “boring” ones. We’ve shared lots of laughs, lots of tears and lots of hugs over the last few months with these little boys.

Kevin helped make my goal of becoming a mother a reality and I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d rather expand my family with than him. I’m so grateful he’s in my life and he’s already proven to be such a great dad and superb husband.

I can’t think of a better way to express how I feel than to use uber cheesy, super gaudy, extra cliché animated gifs! Happy Anniversary to us!

Precious. This little diddy just melts my heart. Bring on the emotional abuse!
I'm sure you can explain it away later! Bonus points for the spelling and grammatical errors.

 

Here I Am

I've been posting a lot of pictures of people who aren't me. I decided I should post one that was actually me.

My mom took this yesterday before I left her house. I am 24 weeks and 4 days here. Apparently, still pretty small for a twin pregnancy. The doctor said I am measuring at about 30 weeks for a singleton pregnancy. So, I guess at that rate, I will be looking full term in about a month. Awesome!

You probably aren't over-analyzing this picture like I am, but how about that puffy face? Ugh. This edema crap is SO AWESOME (insert sarcasm font here). But really. I can totally see my pregnancy glow. Or maybe that was just the sweat dripping from my brow. Meh.

How far along: 24 weeks, 5 days
Weight gain/loss:  2 lbs.
Maternity clothes:  My usual wardrobe is continuously shrinking. The shirt shown in the picture above, for example, will soon no longer fit over my belly. I ordered a support belt to hopefully help with my back aches. Should be arriving any day.
Stretch marks: Still none...but dreamt I had one long one that started at my boob and ended at my lady place.  Hoping I don't get any that look like that! My mom gave me some wheat germ oil that is suppoesd to help with the skins natural elasticity. Not sure if it works, but worth a shot, right?
Sleep: Back to peeing during the night. I can keep it at bay if I drink NOTHING after 6 p.m., but then I wake up feeling like I just swallowed a bucket of sand and had a flour chaser. The bump is starting to ache if I don't support it whilst sleeping. I use a little tootsie roll shaped pillow for this purpose, at least until my noodle pillow gets here.
Best moment this week:  Visiting my family!
Food cravings: I guess I really wanted a cinnamon roll last week. And I got it. And it was good, but it did not have enough cinnamon. I'm going to have to have another one soon.
Gender:  Same as last week...still boys

Belly button in or out?  Not out yet. Maybe I'll be like Lindy and it will just disappear and flatten out? I'm excited to find out.
Movement:  The kicks are getting much harder and seem to be more intentional. "Oh, hey mom, you say you want to relax after dinner? Hmm, me thinks not!" I quite enjoy their fury, though. Makes me feel confident they are growing and safe.
What I miss:  Not being out of breath all the time. It's hard to carry a conversation with anyone for more than 30 seconds without sounding like I just raced against Armstrong for the gold.
What I'm looking forward to: My baby showers!
Milestones:  My mom felt Baby A kicking, I learned how to crochet, babies are still measuring right on track and appear to be practically perfect in every way. Just like their momma!

Picking Names

Although we’ve tentatively decided on names for the boys, we haven’t solidified anything yet. I doubt we’d make changes this late in the game, but you never know. However, I’ve been referring to these names for a few weeks now when I talk to them.

I imagined myself calling out these names in different scenarios which got me thinking: You should have to do each of the following before deciding what you are going to name your child:

Also not me. But AAAAWE! Cute.

  -   Say the name while smiling. This is how it should sound when baby is first born and you get to see him for the first time.

  -   Repeat the name with pursed lips and squinty eyes. Does it still have a nice ring to it? This will probably be how it’s spoken during times of frustration or impatience.

  -   Try it again, but this time, go somewhere like a park and scream the name at the top of your lungs. This is good practice to hear how it will sound when you are, in a few years, calling him home for dinner or otherwise trying to locate your missing child. Or about to murder him because he's covered his entire room with spray paint, crayons, marker and baby powder.

  -   Ask the name in the form of a question, adding inflection at the end. You’ll need to know how this one sounds so you’ll be prepared when the principal calls you in to say your little cherub decided it would be fun to flush his teacher’s cell phone down the toilet (Hank? My little Hank did that?).

  -   Google it. Not even kidding. You need to know if there are existing whack-o’s out there with the name you intend to bestow upon your little one. I went to school with a Michael Jackson, Chris Krinkle and Holly Barry. Sometimes fame comes to those after you’ve already picked your name, but still, if you can avoid a casualty beforehand, that always helps.

You don't want your kid to be either of
these guys, but especially not the pooped-
his-pants red head.



-     Picture yourself as an 8 year old bully, running around the playground reciting clever little limericks. Are there any potential teases that could come out of the name? Remember to consider initials, too. Try to avoid these: I.C.P., P.P., B.J. (although this one might not be noticed until middle school or so), B.M., W.T.F., etc. You get the idea. As far as the clever rhymes: Just stay away from anything that rhymes with pee, poo, loser, lame, fat, dumb or fart (sorry, Bart).

-     Now imagine you are going to see your doctor, lawyer, or you’re reading an article about a successful physicist. Does the name make you feel comfortable or make you wonder if they got their degree from the earn-your-degree-from-home-in-your-pajamas kind of college? If so, you may want to reconsider the name. After all, we all want our little ones to grow up to be big successes so they can afford to keep our butts changed and mouths fed when we are residing at Shady Lakes Retirement Home.

Nursery Theme

I’ve decided on a theme for the nursery. I was having a hard time picturing what the “theme” was going to be, so I started thinking about all my favorite children’s books. There are a few obvious favorites such as Goodnight, Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and pretty much anything by Dr. Seuss.  But as I dug deeper into my memory, I remembered the book series Frog and Toad. I thought this would be a great choice for theme because

a)      I love frogs

b)      I am having two boys

c)       It wasn’t too “baby” (i.e. yellow rubber duckies, cartoonish turtles, ABC blocks, etc)

So, I’ve decided to use the color palette from the books as inspiration and I’m going with that. Therefore, it will be kind of a rustic, “old” look with lots of browns, greens, beige and little splashes of baby blue.

The characters themselves, Frog and Toad that is, are quite interesting as well. I wanted to incorporate them into the scheme not only because they’re fun, but because the books are bit nostalgic for both Kevin and I. I requested a custom order for a couple of stuffed frogs from The Moxie Owl store as they were already selling stuffed frogs and owls (which are SO adorable, btw) and asked them if they could do a Frog and Toad for me. They were happy to oblige and within just a few days, these precious darlings showed up at my door:

Frog is on the left. That's Toad on the right. Love the
sleepy eyes!

As soon as I took them out of the box, I knew they were perfect. The colors are great, the style is fun but not too “baby” and every time I look at them, they make me smile.