NICU Keeps Us Moving

Well This is my third go at this post because the new blog app doesn't save... Annoying! But we'll give it another try. I apologize for any redundancy as it has been so long since my last post. 

So, as was mentioned, little Evan was zipped off to the NICU as soon as he came out. Despite a top rated apgar his sugar was low and they knew he would need an incubator to help maintain his temperature. He was a scrawny little guy, with little body fat. Tiny little limbs and neck with wrinkly old man skin. Despite being mostly to term he still needed to stabalize and gain some weight before he was able to come home. After spending time in the recovery room I was wheeled over to the NICU for a quick visit with my little man. Still holding Alice on my chest I got to see the little guy oh so breifly and hold his little hand. I wish I had been able to cuddle him and take him with us, but unfortunatley that was all I would see of him until I was mobile the next afternoon. Although it was easier to care for only one baby that first night in my post op drugged up state I felt sad and guilty that I was not able to be with both of them. 

So almost 24 hours after his birth I finally got to go see and hold my guy. Day one when we saw him in the NICU he was still in his incubator, but stable enough to take out and hold. Cradling the little guy he barely stretched from palm to elbow and compared to Alice seemed so tiny. He was small to us, but when compared to the other babies in the ward, not so much. He technically wasn't a preemie because at 36 wks and 5 days he was practically considered full term. Still, I had to remind myself that on the grand scale of babies they were both still considered small for their age and Evan barely fit on the percentile graph. Luckily, because he was full term his organs were all developed and normal and he just needed some time to catch up to his sister. The only other intervention was that he had a gavage tube down his nose as he needed to take a certain volume of food to keep his sugar levels up and he couldnt manage an entire bottle (1 TBSP) just yet. There was some brief talk of IVs, but they decide to wait and see how he did overnight. I really was praying for no IVs.

Right from the get-go he was interested in his surroundings, alert and looking around, wondering if there might be a boobie for him even though he'd hadn't seen one yet. Despite the difficult breast feeding with Alice and the recovery nurses being a pain in the butt I found Evan knew exactly what to do and I just felt so relaxed and confident with him; no crazy nurses here to man handle us. He sucked really well for about half an hour getting out the NORMAL fractions of a milliliter of colostrum. We also fed him by bottle some donated breast milk and gavaged the rest of the meal when he couldn't finish it. After eating we could cuddle. I loved cuddling him in the first few days. He would nuzzle up to my chest and just pass out like he belonged there, his NICU onesies hanging like a sleeping bag around him because he was just that small. This was where having two babies was hard. Deciding where to be, who to spend your time with, who to feed... It was a little emotionally taxing but I did feel better knowing that either Matt or Nana was with the other one. I could not have done it without their help. So we spent this day back and forth between the two babies, feeding, cuddling, and doing general mommy stuff. 

Day two in the NICU and Evan hadn't improved much. He was still needing the gavage and the incubator, but he also hadn't declined and needed an IV placed during the night. I'll take that news any day of the week. He was still being a breast feeding super star for most of his feedings and taking most of the bottle just fine when I wasn't around. Though he had to go 24 hours without needing the gavage before they removed it. During the night they had used it so we were  back to square one with that. Here it was hard to aceept that I couldn't be present for every feeding, had to look after my little girl too! A small part of me felt that if I had just been around to feed him then he wouldn't have needed assistance that night. It was hard to accept my limitations. The thing that made it easier now was that Alice and I were getting discharged. We were finally able to get the babies together. I know I've said it before but it was crazy! Two babies! 

The rest of the day we spent in the NICU cuddling both of them, managing to feed both of them, and enjoying having the family together for the first time. But it had been a long day and eventually we had to leave to go home. Our poor little guy, all alone. It seemed so unfair. The next day I had to admit to myself that I needed to finally get some sleep and take it easy. It was a very hard decision to make and even though it made sense I felt very bad for not going. I was sore from the c-section and not hopped up on drugs yet and my breast were engorged and painful as well. There was myself to take care of AND Alice who was just settling in at home. Again, super Dad to the rescue and he went back to the hospital to hang out with Evan. I was feeling particularly blessed to have a husband who had taken so strongly and wonderfully to parenthood as Matt had. 

That was my only day of rest. I started pumping milk out like crazy to give to Evan, to anyone who would take it up to him, bless them. I also started drugging myself up with a tylenol/ibuprofen concoction so we could pack little Alice up in the car, go up to visit Evan and get in as many feedings as possible, come home to grandparent dinners, and throw in all the pain in the butt Alice doctor appointments and public health visits to boot. I could have done without those at the time. It was hard but we were doing it somehow, all the while still feeding Alice at home throughout the nights. I envied, just a bit, the other NICU moms who got to leave their babies in the capable nurses hands and go home and rest. Though I'm sure they would have given anything to have their babies at home. A part of me wonders if it was easier to settle one baby in at home first and then bring home baby number two... Or would it have been better to just have them both at home from the get go and not have to head up to the hospital everyday... We shall never know. 

Anyway, Evan started doing great and after the first 48 hours really improved quickly. He was out of the incubator and the next day without his gavage tube and eating well. His jaudice became questionable but because he was eating enough he was able to flush the bilirubin out on his own and forewent light therapy which would have pushed his stay to another day. We were trying not to be too optimistic on his projected home date. I was hoping for the weekend or at the latest the next Monday, but when we went for our Tuesday visit they told us to bring our car seat to see if his SpO2 level would remain stable while he sat in it and if all was well we would get him on Thursday morning! Well, that was just the best news ever! My heart goes out to the moms who have babies there for months, it must be so hard. So Thursday afternoon we brought little Evan home at just over 4 lbs. Finally our family was together and still we had TWO!! 

Hospitals Are Not My Cup of Tea

So I was pretty out of it the first couple hours after the c section. I know there were grandparents there gooing over Alice, who was in the room with me. But my gosh, it was pretty much impossible to keep my eyes open. And I totally don't remember being sick and everyone looking for something for me to puke in, or what medicines I took, or even some of the conversations I apparently had! Love you, drugs!

Then around eleven pm, when I was feeling much more lucid, everyone, including Matt, had to leave. So I was on my own, immobile in the bed, with Alice beside me. It was mostly impossible to reach her, but I was suppose to be watching her and bonding, and feeding her every 3 hours. Well, that was easier said than done. And it was "feed her" meaning have her suck on my boobs to get a couple drops of colostrum. She's not having it though because her blood sugar was low so she has already had a couple bottles and now she knows that the booby sucking isn't worth her time. The nurses are man handling my breasts trying to get her to latch and squeeze something worth while out of them. Some of them are really bad and uber annoying/persistent! At no point does anyone tell me that she isn't suppose to be getting anything other than colostrum until my milk comes in and the few dribbles I'm producing are totally normal. Thanks for making me feel like a mommy failure already. Yes, I get that with her low blood sugar they have to get some substance into her to help stabilize that, but it's the lack of communication and knowledge sharing that I resent. It wasn't until days after the hospital that I realized that everything with my boobs was normal.

Also, I'm just gonna throw it out there that between seeing two lactation consultants, not only did they not tell me that colostrum is just minor dribbles, but that when your milk comes in, it comes in with a furious vengeance. Thanks for sending me on my merry way and totally not preparing me for a night of painful engorgement and fever. Not thinking it would come in on day 2.5 we didn't have a pump and in the middle of the night I wake up with mega painful boobs; huge and solid as rocks. Alice cant even get a handle on them they are so swollen. The swelling has even travelled down into my arms and they too are feeling hot and bruised. It was crazy. Luckily the public health nurse called just as I was consulting Dr Google and said take some ibuprofen, massage them in the shower, and pump out. Ok daddy, make a run, get the drugs and the pump, and sure enough the relief after pumping was amazing. I was sure to keep on top of emptying them after that.

Anyway, big digression. So night one was sleepless. Between, blood glucose checks and feedings every three hours and my own vitals every four hours there was maybe 15 to 30 minutes of dozing. Also, I was really itchy, but I kind of thought that was still rash related so what could they do? Should have said something and got some anti itch drugs, because apparently the itch was from the hospital meds. Also, they had these pumps on my legs to keep them from swelling and they were the worst things ever! Super itchy themselves and sweaty and noisy and super uncomfortable. Everything else was fine, I just wanted those damn pumps off. Besides, they did nothing for the swelling anyway. Needless to say, despite not having to share a room, the night was sleepless and long.

Alice, on the other hand, was great through it all and already I could tell that she's a smart cookie. She caught on so quickly to what everything meant. When someone started playing with her foot she would frown and cry knowing that it meant she was going to get poked. And being unswaddled she immediately started sucking knowing it meant she was going to eat. And also knowing that sucking on dribbly boobs wasn't half as satisfying as the 15 cc bottles of formula. My clever little girl!

So, now its 6 in the morning and finally I feel like I'm maybe able to get an hour of sleep, but then breakfast comes and they are polishing the floors and sleep is not gonna happen. The good thing about this day is that Alice's sugar stabilizes even though the breast feeding thing still is not really happening. They get me up and about and although I feel like I'm 100 years old and basically have to shuffle to get about it's surprisingly doable. They pull all my catheters and take off the stupid itchy leg pumps! Thank god! And all of a sudden the itchiness and nausea is gone and I can eat and drink and get out of bed all on my own. So, the whole c-section part of this doesn't seem so bad. And the best part of feeling better is being able to go and see Evan, finally!! I have felt super guilty about the poor little guy over in the NICU and all I've been able to do is look after Alice. Luckily, Matt was super dad from the get go and spent most of yesterday with the little guy while I was bed ridden. So Nana shows up and looks after Alice and Matt helps me trundle down to the NICU. (Long walk for post surgery but we were smart and brought a wheel chair for the way back)

Oh, our little guy... So tiny looking in his incubator. Luckily, Matt knew the ways of the NICU and easily changed the little guy, managing all his monitor wires, and then I finally got to hold him! Finally! In comparison, Alice was a monster baby! Anyway I will save Evan's story for another post.

Day two is full of going back and forth between babies to feed them when I can, peeing like a race horse on steroids AND diuretics, eating my fruit bouquet (yum) and some of the hospital food (yuck) because all of a sudden I'm so hungry, and taking drugs. Being hopped up on things makes functioning way easier. I walk around a lot, try to nap a little, and we take Alice for her first bath and weigh her. Right now her sugar is good, her weight is good, and if things go well she can go home tomorrow! I get the same prognosis. Good, because night two is just as bad and we have a room mate whose baby cries at inopportune times. Too baby her and Alice were not in sync. I think only the babies slept during this night. It's around four am, after feeding Alice, I decide to be a selfish mother and ask the nurses to watch her for the next 3 hours so I can try to get some sleep. And I do manage about two hours. So, considering I had barely slept the night before coming in because I was still itchy with pupps and nervous/excited I now know I can go 72 hours with sleeping for like 6 hours here and there. Good to know for the months ahead!

Day three and we are ready to be discharged around noonish. Still we hang out all day to visit with Evan and stay around for his late feeding. I will be so glad to finally sleep in my own bed even if it means jumping out of it to feed Alice throughout the night. So, finally, we leave the ward with Alice and are only then able to take her to visit her brother for the first time since their birth. It really hits me once the two of them are together that they are both ours, two of them, to take home forever. Cuddling with them at the same time was my favorite hospital memory. Seriously, still blows my mind sometimes that we have two!

September 12 - Day of Destiny! AKA: Babies Arrive

So we are going to give birth! No waiting for labour, no contractions, no vaginal delivery. Is it even fair to delivery in such a way? Am i a lesser woman for not going through labour? I don't know, but I do know a c section isnt a walk in the park either, there are down sides to it too. Even so, I cant believe I was so worried about it in the first place.

At 10am we go into the hospital, basically to hang out until they are ready for us. We were kind of squished in that day so we had to really wait for our turn. Maybe 2 or 3 pm the OB said. So we wait and I nap and Matt hangs out with his iphone... And then very suddenly it's go time.

It must have been shortly after two that we trundled down to the OR. Matt goes to get gowned up and I go in to get my spinal and be prepped. Holy crap, the anesthesiologist wasn't joking when he said the spinal was fast. My toes went numb in seconds and it very quickly spread up my body. Could barely feel the scrub and the catheter and, very suddenly, they were opening and I couldnt feel a thing! Good! Matt barely gets into the OR before we hear the Drs welcoming our first little one and her first little cries. It's 2:21! Matt and I look at each other in disbelief and wonder. And then, before the minute was up baby boy is here and healthy and crying! Then I'm crying and it's just unbelievable to have them here after months of fretting and wondering how it all would go. And so, on a beautiful, sunny September afternoon we welcome Alice Marie and Evan Robert into the world! Babies are here!

It's so exciting and the rest of the day goes by in a blissful, euphoric, drug enhanced way. I think I saw both of them in the OR, at least briefly. Alice is perfect and has no problems at all.

Evan has to go straight to the NICU, even though he is completely healthy and Apgar is perfect too, he is tiny and his sugar is low. Matt follows with Alice in his arms and all of a sudden the nurses are missing a baby! They have to go track Matt down and bring Alice back to me. Closing doesn't seem to take too long, which I thought it might and then we are in recovery. I get to hold Alice for the first time!
We hang out in recovery and I know I cant see Evan until we get out of here. My hands are just a little numb from the spinal and its the strangest sensation to see and be aware of your feet and just not be able to move them. Weird! But shortly I begin to wiggle my toes. Alice has found my breast and is sucking away even though she is getting nothing as I didn't go through labour so my body is like... What! Babies now! Whoa we are not ready yet! It'll get there. I dont think we were in recovery for very long, maybe half an hour? Soon I am getting wheeled down the hall, Alice asleep on my chest, and we stop in at the NICU to see Evan who is looking very tiny and naked, hooked up to all the monitors, but he looks ok really. It's a short visit and then we are finally taken to our room to rest.

Grandparents, brothers, and sisters are called. Linda and Val visited us shortly before the birth and come up to see us after, as do Mom and Dad. They all coo over little Alice but, true to form, the oxytocin has kicked in and I can barely keep my eyes open. The rest of the day is even more blurry but it has felt wonderful. The c section itself (not considering 6 weeks of recovering here) really was a breeze. And we finally have our two little babies out in the world. What a relief, what a joy, what a September 12th to remember!

Weights Evan 4.5lbs Alice 5.3lbs

Week 36.5: Incoming Babies in T Minus 1.5 Days

The babies are coming! Ok yes, they were always coming but now it's pretty much a set date. Here's the bounce around on dates story: so last we thought it was the 11th. At the OB on Friday she comes in and tells us we are bumped. The new Seton hospital has just opened their baby ward with no new staff, so they are taking staff from the other hospitals and telling them to cut down their daily surgeries by 20%! Since we are low risk and not even at 37 weeks we got bumped to the 17th. Alright, so now we are back to a 10 days count down but I feel like we can do it. Tuesday comes and it's our last ultrasound. There's nothing too remarkable except that baby boy has really, really slowed in growth. While baby girl is about 5.5 lbs, baby boy is still sitting under 5 lbs (at 4.7 lbs). Boo!

So the docs decide that we should deliver before the week is out, so now we are back to dates around the 11th. The OB even asks if we are cool with that night!! Eek! No! That's way too soon and I am not ready! But really we are ready so, sure, doc, whatever date you pick. The hospital can fit us in on the 12th which is good cuz that's not terrorism day or Friday the 13th! So as long as we don't go into labour in the next day we are scheduled for the c-section on Thursday morning. It looks like I will never know what labour contractions feel like... Well, this whole pregnancy was nothing like I had anticipated, but as long as the babies are healthy I really don't care how they come out.

So, I will have officially logged 12 days of actual maternity leave before the babies. Yeah, it was a decent amount of time to take it easy. I've been out and about most days because that feels healthier anyway. A little last minute bra shopping, returns, random supplies, groceries, dog visiting, popping into work at Canyon Meadows or Alpine to make sure everything is more or less under control, getting a new phone to replace the one I inexplicably lost... And napping! Lots of napping! Now that I can sleep in I have mixed up my schedule in the evenings and morning to rotate between sleeping, eating, and tar soap showers. It feels more productive than tossing and turning and waiting to go to work which I suppose is the point. Letting go of work worries has been hard though as I am super emotionally invested in my job. I will strongly recommend to my children not to get emotionally involved in your job, it makes things rough. But, either way, it will sort itself out without me and over time I may start to care less. So I must come to terms with that.

In a nutshell, other than the big decisions that were made today, it has been pretty normal, if not quiet. Physically, things feel like they are getting tolerable again. I find with pregnancy eventually the problems/worries/discomforts sort themselves out only to be replaced by something different as soon as one has adjusted. I feel like I have adjusted so we might as well changes things up and get this pregnancy over with. I will admit the reality of it is a little nerve wracking, but we are so ready to be parents, and so ready to meet these little guys. I really want to have something to look at and hold that will make this real for me. I still am having a hard time thinking beyond the day to day pregnancy thing and actually visualizing the babies at the end of this tunnel. But having it so close... Getting more and more excited to see these little people we have made! It's hard to remember where we started from and that this was the end goal, yet here we are. So again I will say Eek! with a little bit of nerves and a lot of excitement behind it.

The next time I post something our family will have doubled in size and our house will forever be completely different! Eek!

PS My Pregnancy Summary
Have officially gained 44lbs and now outweigh my husband :( His shirts make great maternity wear though. I can still pick things up off the ground and touch my toes. I have a lot of stretch marks but no more rash. Unfortunately, fighting the rash put stretch mark fighting on the back burner for me. My belly has remained a reasonable size and never felt like it was getting too out of hand. No back aches or mobility issues for me! You should have seen me jump away from a ninja spider the other day!
My boobs only started to grow in the second trimester and it has been a very slow growth but I did go from an A cup to a C and they are looking quite nice right now. Wait until the babies ravage them.
I did not nest or crave things, though white meat became a big turn off. I did not suffer from too much pregnancy brain, just a couple of episodes, and a small handful of emotional breakdowns, though I have been overly paranoid the whole time, and went through a couple months of complete grouchiness.
My fingers and toes are only mildly fat thanks to a lot of sitting around this week, but there were times when bending my wrists and ankles was hard due to all the edema. I did not glow or get long flowing locks, but maintained my regular pimply complexion and had to cut my nails a lot! Other than excessive mucus and snots, pregnancy sneezing, tension headaches, 36 weeks of morning sickness, and a few weeks of mild PUPPP rash we have had an ok run carrying these twins. However, I will not be sad to be done with it...!

Week 35: The Final Countdown

As of right now the OB wants to do a c-section on September 11th. This means we give birth in 10 days. I have a couple problems with this.
1. Is this too early? If everything is going well wouldn't it be better to wait between 37 and 38 weeks? I would really like to avoid too much NICU time and the longer they are in doesn't that mean they are more developed and healthy?? The OB has left this concern to be addressed closer to the date.
2. I still feel like if we go into natural labour that the little boy may push his head into the front and we might be able to deliver natural. I don't know if this is my preference or not, i cant decide, but i feel like natural may be a better recovery... Again, the OB didn't really have a stance to take on this matter.
3. September 11th is kind of terrorism day. I mean, yeah we're not in the states, but we are still aware of such things. So, even though we are counting, we are not counting on it. We will see... The next OB appointment is Friday.

Other than that, things are good. I feel like I have been winning this week. Of course I am winning now that the end is so close! The rash is mostly gone. Some spots still remain on my feet, armpits and groin and the itch really bounces around each night. Sometimes I still have to bath with my soap 2 or 3 times, and sometimes I can get away with some local hot water treatments on just my arms or feet. I've done some reading that the rash is related to liver toxins, however detoxing is not healthy for the babies right now. So the best thing seems to be to avoid high fat foods as this seems to aggravate things. (Science is Fun: the liver produces bile acids which help digests fats. Unhappy liver = less bile acids = residual fats in the body = rash causing toxins. In case you guys wondered.) My hands and feet are super fat and flare up at night but I am hoping that the next few days of rest will reduce that. The headaches have been gone since my last physio, so yah! for that. Still have random morning sickness despite 4 diclectin a day but I swallow so much mucus during the night it sometimes is nice to get rid of it. It's a quick morning purge and then I usually am ok to eat breakfast. The braxton hicks can be a little long and uncomfortable these days, but nothing too crazy really. Usually if i get up and move around they go away pretty quickly. If I get 5 hours of sleep despite needing to pee or getting woken up by contractions or itchiness it has been a good night!

Ewww, here are my fat feet with superman colors!

Physically, I have felt pretty good. Other than being uber tired all the time I don't really mind the belly and my joints/back/knees have held up just fine. I am going to attribute this to all my pre-pregnancy working out and core strength training. Just should have done a couple more plies (PS that's how you pick things up!) So, in summary, despite my complaining through all this there really have been lots of blessings.

Anyway... As of Friday I am officially done working. Still have some loose ends to take care of, and there will be book keeping things over this next year off, but yeah... Officially don't have to go in every morning. It will be strange. I have been going into that clinic almost everyday for the last 14 years. Looking forward to the break, but I will still miss a lot of it... like coworkers and the clients and the patients and doing the tech stuff. Yes, I know, I will be too busy to miss it... Perhaps. Still going to get out everyday to let the dogs out and do errands as needed so I'm not going to be too bored I hope. Even so, 10 - 14 days alone seems like a long time!

The babies have also been very good these last few days. Most of the time the are moving enough that I dont worry. Sometimes they can really get moving and they bounce whatever is resting on my pregnancy table (also another cool benefit of pregnancy). Ice water and ice cream seem to do the trick most of the time... I don't think they like the cold! They looked very good on their ultrasound. Much better growth than last time. They are now 4.5 ish lbs which makes me feel better to have them early if that happens. Baby girl is again bigger, but they are so close it doesnt really matter. They still have enough fluid and room to grow a bit so this is why I feel we can push the delivery date. FYI, normal babies are honeydew melons at this stage and about 5.5 to 6 lbs. Ha ha already I am referring to the babies as not normal! Poor babies!

PS My innie is only now turning to an outie :( and we almost made it all the way!

Week 34: The Itch, The Rash, The Devil's PUPPP

This week I learned that it doesn't matter how late in your pregnancy it is, the hormones can still mess with you. Most things have been going well so I'm thinking, ok we can make it to the end. Then wham! The pregnancy rash really begins to rage. The belly itch was nothing. Next my wrists begin to get bumpy and red, my knuckles flare up with angry papules. It climbs up my arms, elbows get bad, and creeps into my armpits. from the belly is slinks down into my groin and around my sides, hips, and back. here it is not as rashy and bumpy as my arms and is probably the least of the itch. Also,, shortly after my OB appointment where she says, "no big deal you whiner, its only your arms," it getsbetween my  toes, backs of my ankles, and up to my knees and knee pits. The bumps begin to merge into red raised itchy plaques over the worst parts. I look like a leper, itch ALL the time, and things get worse at night so you can't sleep. All you wanna do is scratch but as soon as you take one relieving scratch you cant stop and the whole area gets raw and inflammed. Its an evil, horrible, unrelievable cycle.

What's a girl to do... A whole lot of research. So I spent this week tired as hell and miserable, looking up and trying so many creams and baths and natural remedies for rashes that I couldn't even list them all. Nothing really helped much and this peaked over the weekend so the rash consumed me completely, all of my energies and tolerance went into suffering this thing. Maybe I was being a baby through it all, but I was ready to be induced just to get rid of the itching on Sunday night.

Then I found some longer term relief rather then reapplying creams and bathing every 2-3 hours. Its not perfect but it helps a bit... Scalding hot water treatments. Yeap, after spending all that money it's as simple as letting hot water run over your itch for 30 secs to a minute that provides the longest relief, just hot enough that you can almost not stand it. Its a fine line and one has to be careful, but boy does it work. Lucky my worst itching was on my extremities. In case you wondered, the theory is that it opens your vessels/cells and the slow release antihistamines come to the surface all at once and you get them out of your system for a bit. Sound science to me. In the meantime, I also ordered Grandpas Pine Tar Soap from the states as the internet consensus is that its one of the only things that makes the rash go away. Oh yeah, and staying dry in all those moist crevices is very important to not propagate the rash. I use baby powder, a lot of it, so the bathroom looks snow covered when I'm done. Who says it's just for babies! So between the soap and the hot water and the baby powder the rash has more or less cleared up, though some patches remain, and it is now tolerable. Still am in the shower/bath two to three times a day and usually around 2 am at night, but it is better. Even so, I will be glad to be rid of it.

The babies are happy, dancing small cantaloupes. Am curious to see their growth at next weeks ultrasound! On the fun side, here are the fully decorated cribs and library...

Week 33: My Week In Doctor Appointments

I did have this all written but lost it before saving it so this will be a quick retrospective summary. If I can remember two weeks back I think it was my tummy that was driving me nuts, and that was all. Apply some itch cream and would sit with a cool wash cloth on it and this would alleviate most problems. I did pop into the store for some oatmeal bath soaks and did that a bit as well. Looking back it was tolerable and not so bad. I think PUPPP was not even know to me at that point. I just figured it was itchy stretch marks.

What else went down? Had another ultrasound and had to go up to Foothills for it, got lost and arrived late but the staff were all cool... except I ended up with a student doctor who did it. She was super nice but took soooo long. Now I'm trying to smoosh this in a lunch hour and in addition to driving across the city for it I have to be patient with this well meaning student. Oh well, at least she seemed to be having fun with the challenge of scanning twins. Baby girl was definitely much more uncooperative then her brother with being in the right positions... do we have a trouble maker coming? Luckily, the results were mostly good. Their movement is great and still normal, everybody looks healthy, however their growth definitely has slowed down. They are still under 4lbs and now both in the 20th percentile for single babies. Baby boy has finally outgrown his sister. We will see how this trends out at the next scan.

Also, actually saw our actual OB. She's very nice and seemed a little more on top of things than the fill in guy, which I guess makes sense. She decided to book a tentative c-section because baby girl is still first and feet down. It is for September 11th but nobody's hanging their hat on that date. Anything could happen between now and then with growth and position and preterm labour chances.

Went to the physio as well. Yes I squished 3 appointments in a week! She did her magical massage, acupuncture, shock thing on my neck and jaw. Other than a little neck bruise I have been headache and jaw pain free. I don't know... I might like this whole acupuncture things for my jaw in the long run. Ha! Like I'll have time for such things in the future.

This week the babies are (not exactly) cabbages. They are starting to act, or I should say react to light and dark. Yes, I can tell they are not too please but the flash of light during the midnight bathroom runs. Hey, that's kind of your fault babies. Ever since our hospital run they have been moving much more consistently. Sometimes, it's actually tummy shaking jumps, and I thought they said the movements would be LESS noticeable. They are not too fond of the cold wash cloth treatments or cold ice drinks. Also, they have taken to "complaining" whenever I sleep on their side and they feel too squished. I am trying to be fair and even this out as best I can. Soon babies you will have all the room you want.

Week 32: Showered with Love

Compared to last week we had events coming out of our yin yang this week. And that was in spite of the fact that Monday was a holiday and it was a short week. At work it has been crazy trying to get everything together for this clinic sale. I wish it would just go through already! And we were busy with appointments on top of that anyway. Three more weeks... count downs are the worst.

Sleeping has been getting harder and harder. Had a nasty headache for 24+ hours that Tylenol was not helping much so there was two nights of not sleeping right there. Also my uterus has these episodes of getting really hard and uncomfortable for what seems like hours during the night; contractions or something else? I don’t know but it is very hard to find a sleepable position in such states. I am going back to physio next week for headache and jaw acupuncture as it seemed it was more helpful than not and then hopefully I can have better nights for the last six weeks. We’ll see.

Oh yeah and I forgot on top of that all I am becoming emotionally unstable. Forget the pregnant grouchiness... now I am paranoid. Not that this is new because I usually was having at least one paranoid episode a month, but as it gets closer I am getting more and more worried that something is going to go wrong. Why? Why would I think this? Well hopefully it is because pregnancy hormones make you crazy and hopefully it will go away. Or maybe I’ll just be a paranoid high-strung mother for the rest of my life! Poor babies, they won’t have any fun as bubble children.  Anyway, we had a really quiet day on Thursday as far as kicks go. Well the night had been quiet too. At first it was the boy’s side. Usually when I flip at night, whoever’s side I flip onto protests a bit as they have now become the squished instead of the squisher. Little boy was not doing this, at least that I could tell and all morning I didn’t really feel him move. At lunch it was quiet on both fronts which was also not the norm. Usually when I eat my peanut butter and honey sandwich they both get going for a bit. Not today. So I call the OB after lunch who basically tells me I’m on my own, go to the hospital. Thanks OB office... sorry what are you good for again? I miss Dr. Wong who would have had me come in pronto or set up an emergency ultrasound or something to that extent.  So then I called the health line and that nurse said I should count at least 6 kicks in 2 hours. Ok, maybe I am freaking out, I will try that. So I plunked myself down to do some book keeping and kept a tally of kicks. A little over two hours later I have 6 kicks on the boy side, 2 on the girl’s and 1 from no-mans-land. Great, now little girl is down! Yeesh, should I freak out? Yup! Up to the hospital we go... To their credit it was a really good experience and it was kind of like a dry run for us. PS... We were not ready to be coming home with babies, so as of Saturday afternoon we now are.

Anyway we were relieved to find everyone was normal and fine, moving fine. In fact, once we got to the hospital it was downright pandemonium in my womb with full belly jarring kicks and punches. Thanks kiddies for making me crazy all day long. Also learned that the placentas are at the front of the uterus and as they get bigger they act like a big air bag between me and the babies so things might get even quieter. This is very good to know. So, there you go. First hospital visit = not so bad. (That’s not counting the two seconds where the nurse couldn’t find baby girl’s heartbeat = wholly shite)

Well that was the week and then this weekend I worked on Saturday, then we cleaned out the car, put in the baby seats, threw in the hospital bag, went grocery shopping, and didn’t allow for nap time for me. Boo! Sunday we got up a little later than usual, gardened a bit, then headed over for our baby shower at Nana’s! Yeah! Matt put it best, as it is truly humbling to find out all the people who show up, and send gifts from afar, and plan, and organize, and do all these amazing things just for you. It was truly wonderful and we really are very blessed. Also, I am very glad we did not do much shopping because everyone was ridiculously generous with giving the babies presents. Our front foyer currently looks like a baby store. And it was good food (as always cuz Nana is the best at organizing food for parties) and fun games and good chats with everyone. It made for a long, but enjoyable day. Regardless, it was a crazy busy weekend. We have not even had the energy to sort through everything once we got it home. I need a nap or, better yet, a really fantastic sleep.  

The babies are honeydew melons this week. And now they actually may be slowing down a bit. Last ultrasound they were still both normal size for single babies but the doc says this is where they start to run out of room. We will see at the ultrasound next week. You know some mom’s only get 1 or 2 ultrasounds... I guess it’s nice that we are monitored, especially when I am so freaked out about losing them. I can’t be the only one right? Well, I hope not anyway. At least there’s only 4-6 more weeks or worrying of this sort to go. Then you’ll find me standing over the crib at all hours of the night making sure they are breathing. Yup, that might be me.

Week 31: Eight Navel Oranges

Well, it's been a pretty normal good week from this end. No major unexpected problems or griefs. No major headaches, mostly ok sleeps (riddled with much too vivid, weird dreams and numerous bathroom trips), and some minor vomiting. Back to taking 4 pills a day of diclectin... By the way, that stuff must be made of gold. If we didn't have health insurances we would have spent $600 on that drug alone! Instead it just costs us a trip to the pharmacy, yeah health care! I think having twins in the USA must suck for all the extra care you're suppose to get... I think probably you have to pay for all the extra ultrasounds and doc visits. I love Canada!

Things were very productive as well. Getting schtuff done feels great! Found and hired my work replacement, though my coworkers didn't seem very enthused. Things are kind of moving along on the clinic sale, more or less. Got all my papers, books, records in beautiful order. Pretty much finished all we can in the garden without starting new projects Mulched the beds finally, with the help of dad getting us some beautiful mulch and delivering it to our door. Man I hope we are even just half as awesome as our parents are... Goal number one! Oops goal number one is getting the babies out alive and healthy!

Had a successful ultrasound on Tuesday where we learned that the babies are still right in the middle of the growth curve for single babies. Baby girl still trumps the boy a bit, just by a bit. Boy is weighing 3.0 lbs and girl is at 3.2 lbs. I am thinking maybe we won't have 4lbs babies after all... Oh well, at least our car seats still look cool even if we didn't need the extra low weight range. Besides Murphy's Law states that if we hadn't got the smaller weight range seats then we would have needed them and I would much rather have bigger babies at the end of the day! The healthier they are, the sooner they come home, the happier I am.

The babies this week are (weight for it!) four navel oranges... Uh ok... Lame! And basically they are just getting fatter and pinker. Well I like the sound of that. But with carrying twins they are most definitely getting cramped for space. It's harder for the tech to get good ultrasound pictures of specific things and everybody is all up in each other business. Get use to it sis and bro! I am glad we got disks of the first couple ultrasounds! The pictures are suppose to be their faces but it's a little hard to discern, especially little girls as she was facing backwards so this is the view from inside her skull!

Also went to the second OB appointment. Not exactly impressed with them. Still cant see the doc we were actually referred to as she is still on her own mat leave. They still didn't really have our file and info all straight. They don't check or say anything that my other doctor wasn't doing. And they said our info wouldn't even be at the hospital anyway if we went into early labor... Even though they have a member of their OB group at the hospital always on call. Well, what good is being referred to this group then?  I might as well just carry my own medical records around. I am just hoping they can deliver babies because at the end of the day I guess thats all that matters. I wish I could have just seen my regular doc up until delivery, boo! Oh well, at least she's our pediatrician. Useless OB group. Hopefully I'll get to change my tune on delivery day.

Week 30: Happy Anniversary

It’s now Monday, July 29^th, and officially Matt and I have been married for 2 years. Well it’s a good time to get on with having kids I guess. It’s kind of the norm, give or take a year here or there. Look at the royal couple Will and Kate... married a couple months before us and now they just gave birth to Prince George. Guess we can’t call the baby boy George. I am not heartbroken.  We didn’t really celebrate too much as per our usual. We did head out to Banff and went to the fondue house! Yum! Mom and Dad treated us, and Dave and Lindsay (married 7 years on Aug 6), to an anniversary dinner because thy are awesome! It was awesome; I love that place. Had Duck and Beef and Ostrich... oh yeah and chocolate fondue too! Except we were really out in Banff to see Kevin so the fondue thing was just a fortunate side trip. The band was pretty good; hopefully they’ll be able to get their sound out a little more and perhaps tour out west more and maybe even play in Calgary on a night when we can stay for the whole show.

Things have been fine on the pregnancy front. No new developments. The babies are coming in 6 weeks or so... eek. Sometimes I can even envision that we’re going to actually have two more little people in the house. It’s been very hard for me to look too far beyond the day we are living. Maybe this is for the better, maybe not. I am starting to feel excited for our day of birth though... whenever that may be. And I feel that just holding these little guys at the end of it all will make it feel so much more real and worth it. Though apparently September is a big important month for shows in Calgary so I’m a little disappointed that we won’t be making it to our Oct 5th singleton birth date because I really wanted to see War Horse and 50 Shades... Yes, woe is me... lament!

In the meantime the nausea is more under control with more pills and less vitamins and bagels in the morning. Had too many incidences of rushing into the clinic and barely making it to a sink before breakfast bagels were jumping back out of my stomach. Bleck! At least when I don't make it into the clinic and am sick in the parking lot the crows have a nice snack for the day.

At work I managed to interview 1 tech of the 3 resumes I got. She was nice but I can’t find her registered with the Alberta Tech Assoc and that could be a problem. I am waiting to her back from her about this. My other interview poo poo’d the position and the other resume lives in NS so I don’t think she’s going to be too keen to come out here. It’s unfortunately and not easy and we are running out of time. I may work a little in September as well. Either way the sale of Chaparral will keep me a little occupied for some time anyway.

The babies have been good though all this. Most days they move an average amount, some days they never settle down, and some days they are pretty quite; too quiet for someone who is supposed to be monitoring and counting their movements. Especially hard when most of the movements are in the neutral zone and at the end of the day one is not really sure if it’s boy punches or girl kicks. It gets you paranoid on those quiet days but I am trying to remind myself not to get too worked up about such things. Everything has been so normal and fine that there really is no reason to worry. Still, that’s hard to tell your 2am brain such things and make it go to sleep. 

The vegetable of the week is a head of lettuce... that’s pretty variable. I feel like there is probably a better way to gauge these things instead of vegetables... oh well. Their main job now is to grow, grow, grow. All organs are functioning and mostly ready to go at this stage. They are busy bouncing around in my tummy making faces, hiccupping, swallowing, breathing, sucking their thumbs and peddling their arms and feet. That is when they are not sleeping. At this point I have put on 14 kg (31.5 lbs) which I guess is average. I still feel a little small for 2 babies, but they were normal on the growth curve 2 weeks ago and we have another ultrasound tomorrow which I am anxious to see that we are still normal. I like being normal for such things! Well, that's all for now. Luv luv!

Week 29: Return of the Morning Sickness! Yeah!

What the heck is going on? I am back to being sick every morning and nauseous until around noon. Lame! And the headaches are back... maybe I should go see physio again? Heck I don’t know, kind of a tough call. Also so very very tired again, lunch time naps please! And peeing ALL the time, almost every hour, because my bladder doesn't have any more room. I guess nobody said the 3^rd trimester was gonna be easy. At least I’ve been able to take it really easy and my feet are back to their normal size, at least for today! Just in time for pedicures, which I am in desperate need of. Nobody mentioned what a pain it is to scrub your feet, trim your toe nails, shave your legs, or landscape the bush, and it’s just gonna get worse. Ha, that’s kinda been my motto lately anyway. Not that it's worse as in ‘wholly crap I’m never gonna make it’. More like worse as in bigger and harder to do things. Such is the way right? At least I’ve gotten used to the uterine contractions so most of the time I’m barely aware they have come and gone... most of the time, not every time. Boy, don't I look pleased in this picture!

Otherwise, things have been mostly business as usual, other than trying to take care of things at work. I have to replace myself on a couple of levels. It is a pain and I really wish I could just split in two and one of us keep working and one of us do the kid thing. Multiplicity eh? I will interview techs next week and I have started setting up the girl at the other clinic to do the book keeping at least for Douglas. Chaparral is suppose to be getting sold... ugh I wish it would just go already but still so much to do until that happens. Well, technically I have over a month right? 

At least worrying about work means less worrying about other things. Jen pointed out that it was strange that I was so paranoid about loosing the babies but have no concerns at all about delivering prematurely. This is true. I feel like we can make it to the end of this one. Even so, as time goes by I feel less and less like we might lose the babies. Things have been so uneventful on that front. We had our ultrasound on Tuesday. Was able to take Daddy AND Nana. Like I said, very uneventful... babies fine, good, growing normal, moving normal (maybe too much for the US technician). Physically, all the things that put one at risk for preterm labour I’m not even on the verge of. So yeah, I feel justified in thinking we’re gonna make it to September no prob! The biggest question then is... Who will plant my fall bulbs!

Speaking of... The garden has fallen off my radar. I really need to get out to it. Matt is doing a great job of watering things, but I have roses to plant, other roses to prune, weeding to do, and the mulch will probably not go down this year. We will see if the rock garden even gets done. Might have to put the rock babies in the bed where the patio is suppose to go as this will probably not happen his year either. Well, what can you do? We tried.

This week the veggie is butternut squash... However our ultrasound says the babies are like 1.5 lbs and the app says it's more like 3 lbs. So we are maybe more twin sized now. I am curious to see what the next ultrasound says about growth. We are going to go every 2 weeks now which is nice for the whole reassurance thing. The brain is developing wrinkles this week and the bone marrow is taking over red blood cell production. Another step to being healthier if they come out early. Also, hormones should start being produced soon. Maybe that testosterone will grow our baby boy a little bigger than his sister by the end of this!

Week 28: Let the Contractions Begin

I am officially feeling very full with babies these days. The tummy is quite taut now and is probably going to actually start stretching beyond my days-of-fatness-passed. Still no popping belly button, but it’s very shallow, could go any day. So you think you’re tummy’s feeling pretty tight and then, whoa, it suddenly gets tighter and fuller and harder. I felt this once a couple weeks ago and just thought the babies were moving strangely. Then it started happening more and more often and I really didn’t know what to think until it was described in my twin book. Yup, around this time those Braxton Hicks contractions will start up. I guess I didn’t really know what to expect of these contractions but the tummy hardening thing wasn’t really it. But that’s what it is, your uterus practicing to expel those babies. But the OB says, hey, don’t worry about it now, they are just going to get harder and more painful... grrrreeeaaat. I wish I could tell my body that all that fuss is unnecessary. Hey utuerus, don’t you know we’re probably going to have a c-section so take it easy would ya. Haven’t seen our true OB yet so they have yet to give us a plan for delivery, but the kicks tell me that little girl has yet to spin around and I really doubt she will. I am back to being ok with the whole delivery thing. You know it’s just better to not over think such things. It’s gonna happen either way, so don’t worry about it. 

Other than feeling like an ever expanding pumpkin I am starting to feel like my pelvic/groin muscles/tendons have gone through some super intense work out regime and have fallen apart overnight. I am forced into an awkward waddle for most of the morning until everything down there decides that they have to hold it together so we can get through the day. So my pelvis in general is pretty sore... Oh well.

I have been babysitting the puppies this week and I’m pretty sure I am the least fun person in the world right now. I told Ty he couldn’t climb on top of me anymore (don’t need a 70 lbs fur beast on my tummy). And I told them that sleep was so important I was going to sleep with the door closed and ear plugs in. Well, at least they haven’t been getting me up at 5am. Also, the walks are less and slower when they do happen. Poor puppies. I have been trying to compensate with extra treats. Might be the last time I babysit them anyway. We’ll have to see how life is once babies come.

The babies this week are cabbages. They are storing more fat, developing better taste buds and since 'space' is at a premium they are moving lots. Things are just gonna get tighter over the next few months so appreciate while you can babies. Had a couple people try to feel the babies but they are not really wanting to move when people want to feel. Besides most of the movement is down in my groin area and ain't nobody gonna get a feel down there! Sometimes baby girl kicks so hard I wonder if she'll kick her way out and I'll find a little foot sticking out of me. Matt says this is unlikely to happen. That's good, still have 6 weeks of work to get through!

Week 27: Stay Gold, Ponyboy... Nope, Not Happening

Well I am starting to feel a little emotionally drained this week. I have never worried so much in my life and it is starting to get old! Now the doc wants us to count kicks throughout the day... And when they aren't kicking... Gah! Time to freak out, right? No, keep it together girl! Things are fine! So that's been a restless night here and there and a couple mornings where I rushed to the clinic to get my stethoscope and check for heartbeats. Thinking I should just start toting that thing around with me. If only I had myself an ultrasound machine. Guess we'll save that purchase for the next pregnancy. We see the obstetrician next week so maybe they can help calm my nerves.

So sleeping is getting less fun. Need a pillow that keeps my neck at the right angle to prevent the heachaches. Need a pillow to keep my arms straight so my hands don't go numb. Need a small pillow under my belly for support. Need a pillow behind my back to prop me up a bit. Then the baby on that side gets fidgety so one has to sit up, flip sides, readjust pillows, decide that everythingis probably still ok, fall back to sleep... Repeat as needed. Then this cycle gets interrupted by the need to pee at least twice a night. Poor kittens, they dont know what my problem is. At least my pukey pills knock me out a bit.

My saving grace is that the finish line is in sight! Hopefully not too on sight though. We want to carry these babies through to September! Someone in our class had their babies at 31 weeks this week. If that was us it would be the first weekend of August. Egads! Let's not go there. I'll sleep restlessly and worry for a bit longer thank you very much. That news gave me a "holy crap, we're going to have babies in less than 3 months, wait we're going to have babies period!" moment. Yup, this is actually going to happen when this is all said and done. Crazy thoughts.

But we are getting ready for it. Nursery done and set up, with both cribs, book collection, drawers ready to stock with baby gear, rocker for nursing, zoo pictures on the way... We have our stroller. We just got the car seats. Got most of the registry organized for the shower that Nana is doing a great job of organizing. Yup, getting ready for this to really happen. At least the nursery is kitten approved! This is most important.

Oh yeah, and I cut my hair to get ready as well; almost 4 inches and nobody has noticed. You know you're hair is too long when... Yeah, I decided that it was too hot and also going to be yanked a lot and get in the way of breast feeding. It feels good. And I didn't even do it myself, got a groupon and went to a professional. First time since before the wedding! Go me!

The babies this week are cauliflowers. Or as another website pointed out, the size of small chihuahuas, hopefully not as furry! Their brains are becoming more active and may even be dreaming at this point. They are practicing blinking, sucking, coughing, and their lungs are more or less mature at the end of this week. Good news if they plan to come early. Well, time to get these babies to bed, wont get much easier than it is right now! 

Week 26: Melting My Way Through Summer

Holy schnikey! It is hot out; so hot! 30 + degrees is not something we see a lot in Calgary. I can't say being pregnant makes it worse or less tolerable, because I am bad with heat on my best days. And so far we have been surviving it ok. Stay out of the sun, lounge in the shade, keep windows open and fans on, sleep or hide in the nice cool basement or the air conditioned clinic on work days. Yes, we will survive the summer just fine. Feet are fat most days now, fingers fat too. Might have to keep the wedding ring off for the next few months so it doesn't get to the point where it has to be cut off... My poor usually lanky fingers. Woe is me! Also my pregnant tumor is driving me crazy! Its this ugly red bump on my neck that looks like a blood blister that should be popped. It is an angioma (growth of blood vessels) so it just bleeds like a mother if you do pop it. Once of that is enough, but it's still ugly. Also, had one episode of numb leg... Because baby girl was sitting on a nerve? And the lower back pain hits now and then so I have taken to toting a pillow around the house depending on where I sit. Poor Matt. I must be driving him crazy with all these idiosyncrasies. He's been so good with helping out and letting me just sit around. It can drive a person crazy; the restricted physical abilities that come when you're carrying babies. Ugh... No boat rides, no wine, no late nights, no heavy lifting, no bending over to pick up all the things you constantly drop due to some strange pregnant lady clumsiness... Well, I'm just saying prepare to do a whole lot of sitting around for 3 to 4 months.

Put the rest of the nursery furniture together this week and switched the cribs into the bigger room, and the grandma guest room into the smaller room. We have decided it looks fine and will require no painting, yeah! Just have to get my act together and order my zoo animal pictures. If I could do it this week I'll save 70% so I better get on it. Other than that, nothing too crazy has gone down. Worked the week away, had a whole weekend day of being down and out due to headache, went to Les Mis to culture the babies... The baby girl liked the first act, and baby boy liked the second act more. Also, gardened a bit, helped Matt with some house repairs, drank lots of lemonade, and finished up our greek olive oil for afternoon snack. All in all, life is good for us. Feeling lucky to be worried about watering plants and fixing recliners and awnings when others have to worry about finding somewhere to live and replacing a lifelong of belongings. It's still very sad.

The babies are now hothouse cucumbers... I do not know what this is so I'll just envision regular cucumbers. And my uterus is at least the size of a basketball, though probably a little bigger with two. The ears and eyes are developing keener senses so they can see dark and light and distinguish sounds and voice. Good timing to hear their first live musical! So we are less than 100 days to meeting them and it's starting to feel really real. Though most of my nerves have calmed down... For today at least. Step by step... Oooh baby!

Week 25: Water Water Everywhere, but Kings Stay High and Dry

Although it’s been a pretty uneventful week for us, Alberta will always remember this week as the great flood of 2013. It was bad anywhere near the river. The saddledome and stampede grounds were flooded so the Stampede this year might be a little different. Downtown was shut down. People living by the rivers lost their homes. High River town is mostly gone... (that’s what comes of naming a place High River). Canmore was flooded, bridges down, they had to close the highway around there, plus numerous roads and bridges in Calgary.  It’s very sad, but we feel so displaced from it all. Totally not affected, don’t really know of anyone personally who was affected... So on the weekend after the flood we stayed at home and gardened... I don’t know, what else can one do?

Our lives, luckily, have gone on as usual. The babies continue to twist and kick each day. Daddy even got to feel little girl going at it the other night. Even though most of the rest of the time they stop kicking when he tries to feel things. Had a minor spotting scare after a bumpy little boat ride or Dave’s new boat. Who knew that that was going to be a problem? Bah! You can’t do anything fun when you’re pregnant. However, it was just two little spots and the ultrasound doc thought it was strange I was even worried. Apparently it happens all the time, just a little bit a rubbing on the cervix can cause it (or some jostling in a boat). Either way, I was due for my routine ultrasound on Wednesday anyway, so they bumped it up to Monday just to check on things. Sadly, it already feels rather routine, but it’s still is nice to see them moving around, hearts beating strongly, on the right growth curve, etc.

Right now they are almost identical in size. The boy is just slightly smaller than the girl... poor little runt boy. And here’s a fun breakfast time thought: If you hold a bag and a half of bagels, that’s how much they each weigh right now. They are apparently still eggplants or perhaps rutabagas depending on which app one chooses to look at. Right now they are just growing and filling in with fat, and perhaps growing more hair. Good job babies! Keep it up so you don’t look like unhealthy wrinkly rats when you come out.

Also this week we assembled the crib one day and then the change table on another day. They look pretty good. However, after putting together said crib together we are now thinking that the chosen nursery room is going to be too small for two cribs. Although we don’t need a second crib until about month four we still thought we might move things around now. Still haven’t decided, but we will need to disassemble the crib to get it through the door frames and into the other room. Aw nuts! And Matt wants to paint that room because it doesn’t really match the furniture color as well. This we will wait and see about, as well.

PS I forgot to mention that my ankles have started to swell. It actually started about a month ago and goes up or down depending on the weather, my activity, my salt intake... yadda yadda yadda. But I have been watching these things more closely and have managed to keep the worst of the swelling down for the past two weeks. Still swollen feet do not look like your own, they are ugly fat feet!

Week 24: We've Got A Live One

Oh my gosh, travesty, I missed a week! Sorry guys but regardless of my best intentions I just never got around to it. I suppose it may happen now and then. Anyway, not much really changed over the last few weeks. In fact, I can’t think of anything too new to complain about... same old same old, right. The funny thing is that ever since I went to see the doc and she told me soon I would be feeling movement a lot, I have been feeling movement a lot. Maybe it’s just that I’ve finally nailed down the sensation and know when it’s the baby’s and when it’s just me. Maybe the babies just heard the doctor and decided to ‘kick’ it up a notch. Either way I am enjoying it. It seems to me that most of the time it is from the girl kicking down into my pelvic/bladder area, or perhaps trying to kick little bro in the head. And the other day, when we were waiting in line to check out of the dump, the boy was really going at it on my right side to the point where it could be felt on the outside - Must have been the noxious fumes. Unfortunately, every time Matt takes a feel they stop. Oh well, I’m sure he’ll get to feeling them soon enough. They are only going to get bigger from here on out.

What else? Well the furniture came but we haven’t had a chance to get it out of the boxes yet; besides Grandpa wants to help assemble it. Though we did move the old furniture out of the room so at least it’s kind of ready to be set up. And the bed’s in the basement ready for when the nights start getting really hot. I know they will, last year I spent a couple sleeps down there on the futon so at least with a bed it’ll be a little more comfortable. Man, I am so not a hot weather person.

Matt also put together the stroller and then we played with the various seat configurations for half an hour. In other words, bad-babies positions and good-babies positions depending on if they want to look at each other or not. It’s a pretty slick stroller, so far I am impressed.

Also, in the last two weeks I officially became freaked out over the whole delivery process. I know I said it didn’t really worry me and now I feel like the less you know the better. The more info I get the more one thinks and then the more one worries. Yes, yes, I know it will be fine, everything will be fine... yeah trying telling a hormone infused mom-to-be that. Anyway, I know I will manage just fine once the time comes.

Last week the babies were corn cobs and this week they are eggplants. Their skin is turning from translucent to pink as all the little blood vessels fill in. Nostrils are opening up and the lungs are becoming a little more developed so they can practice breathing fluid shortly. Good, this all sounds good. Hopefully we can keep these babies inside until their lungs are fully capable of breathing air. Here’s hoping for no premature things to happen because I plan to work until the end of August... BAHAHA. Well maybe I can, we will see!

Week 22: We Are Golden

Without a doubt, I now feel like I look mostly pregnant. Had a couple strangers ask me now so you know it must look fairly obvious. You better be pretty darn sure that someone is pregnant before you go and ask them. Years and years ago someone asked if I was expecting and I was totally clueless and said “expecting what?” OH! So that was when I knew it was time to join Jenny Craig. ANYWAY, this time at least the weight gain isn’t all me. I have put on 10kg so far and the doc says my uterus/tummy is exactly the right size for a singleton mom. Good, still not getting overly huge. Still, on the agenda for this weekend is finally some maternity shopping. Can’t live in pjs all the time and I am down to 5 scrubs that still mostly hide things and aren’t tearing at the side seams. The other good news during this golden stage: my plight of the week is simply that I’m losing my belly button. Now, I have always consider my belly button to be rather deep so to think that it will become an outie shortly I’m a little put off. Seriously, an outie! Eww.  But really it’s expected right? I know I know, stop complaining. 

In baby class this week we learned about natural twin deliveries. In fact, and I was surprised by this, but 40% of twin deliveries are natural. Well there ya go... Labor... ugh, but oddly the whole idea of labour or delivery has never worried or daunted me. I feel physically and mentally up to it. It’s only a couple of hours, right? I know you are thinking I will probably change my tune. Well, yeah, I probably will when it’s the heat of the moment. Until then, I’m pretty much just worried about ALL the stuff to take care of afterwards! And there’s a lot of stuff!

We are slowly making our way through our baby shopping list; ticking off some of the bigger items first. This week we bought our double stroller. Went with a sleek one-in-front-of-the-other baby jogger, because the side-by-side ones just look massive and probably won’t fit through doors. I think I would like to be able to go through doors. We also decided, after much shopping around, on the cribs. Went through an online site in BC that seemed to have reasonable prices, reasonable selection, and reasonable shipping times. Most of the stores we asked about ordering cribs were telling us 3 months! Really? So yeah that’s why we needed to get aboard that train. Anyway, mom and dad are helping out with furnishing the babies’ room. (When I say helping out I really mean “being amazing!!”) and they ordered everything for us and it will come next week... or perhaps the week after if things are a little slower! That’s pretty awesome. In fact I’m pretty excited to start setting up the nursery. I mean I’m no interior designer but I think we can pull something pretty cute off, but not too cute, if you what I mean. We’ll see. Either way, it’ll feel great to get it done. And with every little thing we do or get things are starting to feel more and more real. I know pregnancy is no new happening... haha obviously! But it’s pretty new to me and the thought of carrying living things in your tummy is weird! Now I have definitely felt some obvious movements; just random things here and there, but its kind of cool/strange. I like feeling them move because it alleviates some of the worry that things could be going wrong. My doc says they’ll just get to be more and more in the weeks to come. Good. We went to the Star Trek movie on the weekend and boy did they start moving then! All the loud explosions had them flipping and kicking almost for the whole movie. Probably a better mom wouldn’t have subjected their children to such loud noises. Oh well, I could be doing worse things I suppose, and besides my fat must be some sort of decent sound muffler, one would think.

This week the babies are papayas! They are really going to start growing now, and so am I! The babies' weights could double over the next 4 weeks. Gulp. Guess we'll see how that goes.

PS: still sick with phlegminess on the occasional morning. But the headaches have become much less (probably because I am starting to not be so uptight) and also because girls in my baby class say they take Tylenol all the time. So I am not waiting so long to resort to the drug once or twice a week instead of letting things fester and get bad. It is a big help.

Week 21: No Rest For The Wicked

They say this is the golden time of pregnancy. I'm going to call it tolerable. For the most part things are feeling mostly comfortable still... Not so sick, can eat things normally... But I am having a heck of a  time  with activity. Now I'm no Jillian Michaels but I can usually hold my own, especially when it comes to lifting, walking, crouching, climbing the stairs in the house, etc. Yes, even this little exertion gets my heart thumping in my ears and me panting for breath. Sad but true and something I am not used to. I do  not like being physically incapable but I will tolerate it for the next few months. I suppose its only going to get worse. Had to stop kick boxing a few weeks ago mostly due to time restrictions but I'm going to be honest and admit that I will not be back for a long time. Still am proud I kept at it until the 19 week mark. I think I might join pregnant people yoga once all these courses settle down... Ha, if  that happens. Things are not looking any lighter for the next month. I will have to cool it eventually, but for now still have a pregnancy course, photo course, dnd, various friend visits, work, gardening... Its tough making life and living life at the same time.
Well here I am looking a little more pregnant. And yes I know I have a keen sense of style!

So on Thursday night, mostly due to exhaustion, I had my 4th emotional breakdown since this all started. They are pretty funny, retrospectively of course. Sometimes its uncontrollable crying over sad movies, if not, then irrational worries and laments. Its tough being full of hormones. Proudly though, I've only had 2 baby brain episodes. Once I packed my cell phone away with my dice in Jen's cupboard, where luckily she thought to look, otherwise it would have been a week until I found it. Second, I ended up wearing Matt's sandals in to work instead of mine and didn't notice until I got there, too late and far away to change them. Again, things I can only assume will get worse. Oh well, at least they are funny.

On Saturday we tried another shopping escapade. There was suppose to be a 50% sale at Babies R Us but it was super lame and we just ended up buying sheets, cuz nothing else was on sale. Then we went up to the baby store for the richer than us crowd. Checked the prices and left. So checking things off the list has been a little slow, needless to say. Either way, I feel we will be better at getting things after the baby course. No rush right now... Yet...
Today, we gardened and finally bought a compromise of a patio set. It looks better than expected and at least I can lounge the summer away in some comfort. It was another long day and I am pooped and will probably be sore tomorrow. Once I'm done this blog its early to bed or me!

This week the baby size veggie is... Spaghetti squash... Ooookay. They are developing better eye sensors, their hand gripping abilities, and sprouting more hair this week. Considering we are going to have curly haired hobbity babies they better start growing that hair now! One the plus side I am almost 95% sure I felt some distinct kicks from baby girl the other night. Still hard to tell what a lot of the sensations are but those ones felt fairly obvious. Hopefully, more to come soon. In honor of the  babies I colored my nails accordingly at my pedicure! Dorky... Yes! Fun.. Also yes!

Alright, this was a along one. Time to sleep now. Kittens say "about time."
PS Although my feet do not look swollen in this picture it has begun depending on my salt/water intake and activity. I will try to keep it at bay because swollen feet really suck.