27w

I think my belly looks SO odd this week. Difference in how they are sitting, perhaps?

Today was such a busy day. The highlight-a shower was thrown for us by a friend who works with Patrick! It was a complete blast and I feel so blessed, special, overwhelmed with gratitude...

There, of course, were SOOO many pictures just on our camera alone... so I'll just pick some favorites! Patrick was quite the trooper and played games too :)

This one was funny-guess how big around I am via toilet paper squares. It was interesting seeing everyone's methods! (Haha and when I play I just guess and usually am way off... oops!)

She made the CUTEST favors! Maya loved them too and had to shake every one :)

And then the diaper cakes... wow! I'm NEVER going to want to take them apart!

Amazingly, we got tons of diapers. One pack was a preemie pack, and I just HAD to see how bitty they were, so I opened it up to see...

All the lovely ladies, minus one of the Ashleys!

Maya kept wanting to sneak a bite of cake.

What a day... I'm pooped! I'll have more pictures of details tomorrow!

26w6d

Kind of funny, kind of gross. We bought a mattress pad today! My water broke with Maya when I was sleeping (it was about 5:30 in the morning... I thought I had wet the bed, I was so ashamed thinking I was losing bladder control and wondering how in the heck I was going to explain that one to Patrick... it took about 4 times of that happening till I realized hey, this might be my water breaking!!) ...so just in case that's what happens this time (does lightning strike the same place twice?) we got a mattress pad since I would NOT want that happening on our brand new pillowtop.

26w5d

Glucose test was today-boy am I glad that's over! I never tolerate them well in the first place. This one was a different flavor drink than I've ever had before-lemon lime instead of the awful orange syrup! I think it was easier to get down than the other ones. We'll find out next week how it went!

Feeling a little icky today overall-I think it's because of the test this morning and the storms going through today. Just achy, headachy and ready for bed, even though I crashed this afternoon for an unknown amount of time. Thankfully the other day I got medicine for Horrible Problem and that's a TON better, the biggest woe of the moment is my back pain, which has been around since high school but I can't exactly take a muscle relaxer like I typically do! I'm so glad I have a husband who gives me a backrub pretty much every night to at least release some of the pressure. Insane that in a couple of days I can say "10 weeks at the latest" AND even crazier, "maybe next month" ...wow!

26w1d

Happy Easter!

I definitely think the babes are going through a growth spurt-but I guess I should start with this morning.

Last night was a rough one-had to get up a few times to use the bathroom (no matter how I try and regulate my water intake in the evening I'm doomed regardless, as of late), Patrick whaled me a couple of times when he turned over, he was sleeping pretty restlessly-we went to bed late and got up early this morning for Easter service.

Church and breakfast was enough to exhaust me. I've definitely hit my first wall in this pregnancy. We came home, did our Easter shenanigans with Maya, and then I took a two hour nap while she played with daddy. I got up, ate a massive lunch (oh yeah-I ate two breakfasts today too. One at about 6 because I was starving when I woke up, one at church at 7:45), sat around for awhile because Patrick designated today as a must-rest day for me and then went back to sleep for another two hours while Maya napped. Then I got up and we had a massive Pancake dinner. So-I think between the unbelievable appetite and my snoozing for four hours during the day today the kiddos are using all of my energy and nutrients, for sure. Grow babies, grow-get as big as you can!

Horrible Problem still hasn't gone away or gotten any better. That coupled with my sciatic nerve being awful right now (I've been getting stuck on the couch-I remember doing this with Maya and just crying on the couch till Patrick could come home from work and help me up) is making interesting times. I know I'll miss this someday though, so I'm trying to focus on the kicks and the movement and being excited about what's ahead!

25w6d

I can quite honestly say that today has been my most miserable day yet. A certain horrible, horrible pregnancy side effect has come up... and thankfully it's not one that will last (or I hope not or I will put myself on bedrest for it!) but it's SO BAD right now. I was miserable tonight running errands but unfortunately they were necessary ones... and Patrick headed to a friend's house without me tonight to help install flooring (I was only planning on sitting around anyway, but there's no way I could try to sit/lie down while trying to get Maya to not be the "busy" little girl she is, especially when there is a lot around that she really shouldn't be getting into... such as flooring installation supplies!) so we're camped here at home watching Lion King. As soon as she goes to bed I'll be able to do the same, and I'm definitely looking forward to it. I'm REALLY hoping its better quick... especially with it being Easter weekend and having a decent amount of things planned (Easter egg hunt, church on Sunday, Patrick has Monday off) but I guess we'll see. If this is God forcing me to rest then so be it.

I'm glad that my motto this pregnancy is "this too shall pass". It will. It better! :)

25w4d

Today's appointment was a good one. I had my appointment with the fourth provider, so now I've met all who might deliver the babies (unless of course I go into preterm labor-in that case they'll send me down to Savannah where they can better care for them). Now I get to be choosy though and stick with my two favorites (and hope and pray that they are on duty when the day comes!)

Heartbeats were both in the 140-150 range (she told me but was going really fast) and he is mostly head down (their heads were together like they were at the first Perinatologist scan) but his body is sort of transverse still. He still has plenty of room to move around, and I hope that in the next few weeks he'll go completely head down and just stay there. I'm measuring at 33cm (like a singleton at 33w), following consistently with how I've been growing. Weight gain is at 23lbs-I honestly can't believe it's not more! They were kicking and jabbing at each other while the doctor was scanning, just like they did last time. They have been super active lately!

As far as my contraction concerns go, the doctor said that this is the time when we really need to start being careful when they start. If I drink water and lie down and they don't go away I have to start going in to be monitored for a couple of hours... just to see if they are BH or real, and if they are changing my cervix in any way. She measured my cervix and it was around 4cm, which is still really good, so today there was nothing to worry about. I still am going to have to start going in every two weeks though for checkups (so every 2 weeks at Naval and every 4 weeks in Savannah... so many appointments!) just because we're getting close. Next week I go back in for my glucose test (oh fantastic)-I'll just be glad to get it over with.

25w3d

Tomorrow is a doc appointment-definitely looking forward to it.

I've been having a lot more BH lately (reeeeeally antsy for them to confirm that that's all they are)-the combination of me getting bigger and further along with it getting far hotter here (88 tomorrow) is making things crazy. This morning I woke up with my stomach rock hard and hurting quite a bit, and when I rolled over to make my way toward the bathroom the pelvic pressure was pretty intense. I warned Patrick just in case it didn't get better (he has Maya's car seat in the Civic right now and we don't have our plate for the van yet (thus no base decal) so he'd have to come get us if anything happened) but thankfully it did after I chugged some water. I am REALLY going to have to watch my hydration levels from here on out. Babies are super super super active lately-but I'm just going to be glad for the confirmation that everything is just fine. Sometimes two weeks between appointments feels like an eternity!

I'm mentally nesting. Bad. As in I made our spring cleaning list and am insisting it gets done in the next two weeks (poor Patrick!) just so we can maintain the house through May and June. I feel like I'm nesting more with the house than the babies' room-since we got their furniture put together and laundry washed I've been fine with their stuff-wondering when that will change!

25w

Here's today's belly shot... there was a growth spurt this past week (I could tell mid-week when my t-shirts I usually lounge around in every day and my maternity tank tops stopped fitting) ...I jumped 1 1/2 inches (which is kind of accurate, kind of not because I filled in a lot belly height-wise too) and you can tell when you compare the last few weeks' pictures to this one. I don't feel too much bigger though thankfully, he's changed positions and has been hanging out a little lower so I've been able to actually breathe the past couple of days! Still having a lot of BH, definitely looking forward to the confirmation on Wednesday that that's all they are.

24w5d

Well, I think I'll be glad to be going in for my doc appointment next week... yesterday and today (worse last night) I've been having what I think (and hope) are Braxton Hicks. I could tell a couple of months ago that that's all they were when I was having them because they were pretty irregular and didn't last long, but now that I'm getting this far of course I worry, and they make my belly tighter, and I have more of them. I downed so much water before bed last night to try and ward them off that I was REALLY irritated at how many times I had to wake up for the bathroom in the middle of the night! If it wasn't such an ordeal getting in and out of bed...

24w2d

I love the look I get when someone asks "How much further do you have?" and I answer with "3 months". :)

Also, I am unbelievably overwhelmed by the generosity that has been shown to us. From people we don't even know to an old friend I haven't seen since (I think?) the sixth grade... maybe it's just the company that we keep, but I don't believe it for a second when people say that kindness is gone from today's world. If you don't believe me, get pregnant with multiples. We are so thankful.

24w

Today has been just one of those days. Glad it's almost over! I woke up feeling great-I slept for like 6 hours before my first bathroom break, which has to be a record!-and we had a delicious pancake breakfast. We started to slowly get around for the day and loosely started to make plans when I all of a sudden started to feel awful.

I was headed for the shower when I got a horrible pain on my left side. It made for a miserable shower and when I was out I just curled up in Maya's bed for awhile (she and Patrick were in there playing) and decided to just not do anything today. I'm sure it was ligaments stretching or something, because it was fine after I rested, but boy did that hurt! After that I was just really tired and headache-y so I sent Patrick and Maya off to the commissary without me. Sadly, I think that's just going to be the nature of the beast now-they do grocery shopping and errands together while I am at home resting, because the quiet and not having to chase/take Maya to the potty (she can't do everything by herself yet... though she tries!) is really nice. I'm glad they are two peas in a pod-Maya sure loves her daddy, and she behaves very well for him when they are out (go figure. But I think our behavior issues toward me are more her being mad and acting out because I have limitations now).

So I was just pretty lazy all afternoon. I'd rather miss out on some gorgeous weather (sniff sniff) than land myself in the hospital for observation. I plan on helping myself to a bowl of ice cream in a few and continuing the laziness-hopefully that's all I need to rest myself up for a nice Sunday!

Also-Patrick has run into my belly twice today, once with the dishwasher door (ouch) and once with his hand (he was turning or something so there was a bit of force!) ...it just kind of gets in the way now!

23w5d

Had a good scan this morning! No drama this time, which was good :) We were Maya-free for about 5 hours which was strange to me-but made for a nice lunch just the two of us.

The ultrasound tech went faster this time than the other one did last time... kind of left poor Patrick wondering what in the world was going on. I know enough to have been able to keep up but he couldn't. We got a lot of pictures though!

We'll start with Baby A... here's her heartbeat. 146BPM at the time.

She was being a little stinker and had her head down most of the time. We had to go on to him and then come back to her to get her head measurements, because they couldn't do it (at first) at the angle she was looking. Here's a head down ear shot though!

Cute little face, once she decided to grace us with some movement...

This one she's sitting all funky-her head is tilted to the side. How uncomfortable!
And here he is, Baby B. His heartbeat was 140BPM.
This one is crazy, but really neat. Tilt your head to the right-a lot. Where the arrow is is right about at his nostrils-if you look closely you can see his nose and mouth and an eye. Click on the picture to zoom in if you need to. It's super neat! (The big circular mass on the left of the picture is his abdomen, and you can see an arm there too, if that helps!)
Blurrier picture of pretty much the same thing, but you can see the lenses in his eyes.
This one cracks me up. It shows how wacky they are positioned right now... she's head down, mostly vertical but leaning a tiny bit toward my left side. He's completely transverse but has his head a little more down than up too. You can see his face and hand and her abdomen and knees.
Sweet little feet!

They are measuring pretty spot on-he's estimated at 1lb6oz and she's at 1lb4oz (they were both 10oz 4 weeks ago) ...which is ok, they are measuring in the 29th percentile, which is small, but on the smaller end of normal-nothing to worry about yet. Her abdomen is measuring about 6 days smaller than the rest of her body (which is what makes her weigh less right now) so at my next scan in 4 weeks they will check that again and if she's still measuring small they will order some kind of blood study something or other (I should have asked for details because now, of course, I forget what she said). Nothing at all to worry about yet but of course they are staying on top of things. Regardless, now there's definite reason why people comment on how I "look so small for being pregnant with twins"-well, my babies are smaller. I hope they pork up just for their health's sake!

I'm feeling overwhelmingly tired today. I came home from the appointment and tried to sleep but Maya battled me on that... so it was an interesting afternoon. I'm going to bed super soon. I'm having a difficult-ish time breathing this evening, someone is pushing on my lungs or something... I'm having a hard time getting a deep breath. I've had to keep trying to make myself yawn to get a good one, but sometimes that doesn't even work. Move please, babies!

(Forgot to add: cervix looks great, and fluid levels on both babies are just what they are supposed to be!)

23w4d

We have all of the furniture pieces put together! Honestly between getting that done and having the van bought I feel like the huge things are out of the way and if something happened-if they came early, if I was put on bedrest, if we were just plain super lazy for the remainder of this pregnancy-things would be just fine. Everything else is details. I still have to pick up some crib sheets and a mattress for the new crib, but that's nothing I'm rushing on-they'll sleep together at first anyway so it's not a big deal. Maya picked whose crib is whose-her sister is getting hers, and her brother is getting the new one!

Here are a couple of pictures of how everything is placed. It's pretty awkward, I think-the only other option would have been to put the one crib directly next to the window and the other one mirroring it, but this way gives us more space in the room. We have no other choices so we're just going to make do with what we have!

The lighting is horrible because it was just getting dark so the light was on, and I have to use my point & shoot camera so it gives a wider view of the room-but the dresser (blasted dresser that took us 5-6 hours to assemble... can't wait to write the review on that one) is the same color as the cribs. It's miraculous. And while it's cheap it does the job and simply won't follow us to our next home, whenever that may be. (Also-directly to my right is the changing table. It'll stay in there-it fits fine and it has the best storage. I'm SUPER bummed we won't have room for a rocker... I've wanted one since I was pregnant with Maya. There's just no room for one.)

Now we decorate, tiny bits at a time. We have a general idea of what we want to do but we're going to take our time and find deals and not go too overboard at once. I'll of course post pictures as we add things!

(Today I've rested a lot, by the way... putting the dresser together wasn't hard, since I just sat on the floor to do it. Definitely sore but it's the first day I've slowed down since the weekend. Tomorrow is another growth scan at the Perinatology office... mixed feelings because I'm super excited to see the babies and how much they have grown over the past four weeks but I don't want to step foot in their office ever again, honestly. So. Stay tuned for pictures tomorrow-hopefully we'll get some great ones!)

23w3d

So, since Saturday, I've been saying "tomorrow I'll take it easier". I really need to do that. Tomorrow. I swear. I've run myself so hard the past couple of days. Gotta slow down.

Babies haven't been moving as much today. I'm not sure if I should be the relief for the lack of abuse on my insides or a little worried. He's moving right now ironically, so I'm sure they are fine. If they aren't moving tons tomorrow maybe I'll call and see when I should be concerned. I still think its too early to worry about it though.

Sunday we went and picked up the other crib in Savannah. I still am shocked that we found the same exact one and it ended up being IN the store... so we just took the van back down and got it. Patrick and I put together Maya's crib yesterday and the new one today... and all 6 of the dresser drawers (which took us almost FOUR hours... oh my word. We have to put together the "body" of it tomorrow once the replacement piece arrives). We sort of maybe have an idea of how the room is going to be arranged, but we'll see for sure once the dresser is completely put together and in... that room is going to be so cramped. Why we didn't get a 4 bedroom house is beyond me-ahh! We'll look back and have fond memories of being all squeezed in, I'm sure :)

Time to relax. My back is wailing at me!

23w

It's 6:38pm. I'm completely wiped. I'm seriously counting down till 8 when Maya goes to bed-though she's a little ball of energy right this moment. I can't keep up with her. Of course I'd get pregnant with twins when she is 2 and doesn't stop moving/climbing/tantruming/being so high strung/etc!

Today we did our MS walk in Savannah. I was a teensy bit nervous about it, as it's more walking than I've done (at once) since our initial 7w bleeding scare when we found out about the twins. It was a cool morning at a really pretty park, and it was nice to really get out and move again-I miss my morning walks but am not planning on starting them again till I'm trying to encourage the babies out-I did one loop around the pond which was a mile and a half but sat out the second loop just in case. I didn't want to push it, and I'm glad I didn't, I'm exhausted enough as it is but managed to not give myself any BH from it. Woohoo!

Since we were in Savannah we decided to pop over to Babies R Us and see about ordering the second crib, since when we got the first one (Maya's) it was one of those "it could take up to 12 weeks to get to the store" things and 12 weeks from today I'll be considered full term. Thankfully it's not going to take as long this time-then again it's not a brand new line anymore either. We picked one that looks pretty similar to the one we have for Maya, ordered it, and they kindly gave us their multiples discount on it... when we were just about to leave Patrick mentioned something about "wasn't our other crib the Manhattan" ...she starts typing, and long story short we were pretty sure that Maya's crib was clearanced in their system (not online anymore) but still available-for a way cheaper price! So I got our receipt out when we got home and sure enough... I'm pretty sure it's the same one. I have to call her first thing in the morning and double check the numbers on it and she will switch our order. We'll end up with a crib that's about $200 less than what we were anticipating-woohoo-and they'll completely match! So here's hoping.

I'm at the 18lb mark as far as weight gain goes. About where I hoped to be-on the upper side, really-since the goal was 15-20lbs by 24w. Last checkup the doctor said I'd likely gain 50-60lbs this time-which seems like SO much but honestly I could see that happening with how it's progressing now. Fine with me... I can always lose the weight. The babies need it so they are nice and big whenever they decide they want a birthday.

Speaking of birthdays... this point begins the chances of survival if the unthinkable happens. Of course I plan on keeping them in for awhile yet-yes, even when little man is shoved up so high I can't breathe-but it's an encouraging thought. (Dear babies-please don't get any ideas!)

Hormones have now kicked in too-I've been super emotional lately. Which brings on migraines because I tense up, which aggravates the twisted vertebrae in my neck... and I haven't slept well either. 52 minutes till bedtime... time to go fill up my belly one last time, get my jammies on, and be ready for it! Woohoo!