14 Week Pictures

OK, starting off, here is my belly at 14 weeks. I need to start taking these pictures when we are going out somewhere or before work, instead of when I am drained at the end of the day...

Next are pictures of Baby A:

Baby A's heartbeat.

Baby A's hand waving "Hi mommy & daddy".

Baby A's profile.

And now Baby B:

Baby B's heartbeat

Baby B's foot

Baby B's hand & profile

And a rather bizarre picture- Baby B's face.

That's all we have for now. We'll learn what the babies are sometime around the first week of May. I'm on pins and needles until then. :)

Catching up here

It's been a while since I last posted, my world has been quite upside down lately.

I'll start with last Friday. The week ended pretty normal. I was rather tired, work was a little crazy, but nothing terrible. I was feeling the effect of the week and decided to plan ahead and take Monday off. Onto Saturday. We had a very productive day. We woke up early, got everything together, rented the van from Ikea, picked up our new stove and microwave from HH Gregg (I will post pictures... we LOVE it!), dropped them off at home, and made our way to Hebron. We then chatted with Brian's aunt Katie and picked up the two gorgeous cribs she has so awesomely given us! They are super nice! After that we stopped at the Gap Outlet and I found 3 maternity shirts amid the chaos of a Saturday in that place. Finally we stopped at Brian's other Aunt's house, chatted with his uncle Mark and packed up the fun looking Fischer Price stuff they gave us. Although we won't "need" if for another few years, we are incredibly lucky with the stuff his family has so generously handed down to us. Once we got home I crashed for a nap while Brian installed the new microwave and stove. Then we met Jeff and Charlotte at Uno's Pizzeria and enjoyed some lovely conversation and pizza. The night ended well and I slept like a log that night.

Now Sunday. The day started off good. We were both energetic and into getting stuff done around the house. Brian worked on his projects and I cleaned around the house. I finally got the bathroom cleaned and the laundry started. Then around the afternoon I started feeling "weak". I slowed down some, but didn't have pain or anything so just kept slowly working around the house. Suddenly I felt a "gush" and upon running to the bathroom found blood. I'd spotted before, so I didn't think much of it. Then later there was more, and more and more. It wasn't a "huge" amount, but it was more than I was accustomed to seeing and I pretty much panicked. Being Sunday I knew my options were limited. I called the doctor's emergency line and left a message. The midwife on duty called me back and explained that unless I were experiencing signs of hemorrhaging, that the ER couldn't do anything. So I just needed to remain on bed rest for the remainder of the day and schedule an ultrasound for Monday. Sunday was a long, long afternoon and evening. Brian and I pretty much just camped out on the couch the rest of the day and tried to keep positive. I think the worst was just NOT knowing. We've waited so long for these babies and we can't fathom the idea of something being wrong... we just can't! I didn't sleep much at all that night.

Onto Monday. I woke up Monday feeling numb. I didn't know whether the ultrasound was going to be good or bad. I didn't know what to do. Brian was awesome, as he always is in moments of crisis. We weren't able to get in for an ultrasound until the later afternoon, so we spent the day curled up just relaxing. And then the ultrasound. Everything was/is fine!! We breathed a huge sigh of relief when she said both heartbeats were very strong and all was good. Then we got to watch the babies on the screen. It was the best part of my day! We watched as Baby A squirmed all over the place. We watched as Baby B calmly floated there. Then we watched as Baby A rolled over, kicked at Baby B which caused Baby B to roll over and move further away from Baby A. It was awesome and we walked away reassured everything was great with the babies and with tons of pictures in our hands. Afterwards I had a follow-up appointment with my OB. It appears that one of the placenta may be lying very low on my cervix, which is most likely causing the bleeding. He did an exam and said everything looked OK and told me what to watch for, but that for now the bleeding was OK. Another sigh of relief and we were on our way home.

Tuesday morning I was feeling much more positive about everything, but I think from all the stress and lack of sleep (I didn't sleep much Monday night either) I was just mentally and physically exhausted. Brian returned to work, but I stayed home and slept a good portion of the day. I felt so refreshed and ready for the world by that afternoon. We even went for a walk with Wilma that evening and I just finally felt like all was right!

Wednesday and Thursday were chaotic days at work. I came back into the office with a huge mess of stuff and it just seemed like the world had come to an end while I was absent. I'd made a promise to myself and Brian that work was certainly not the most important thing going on in my life right now, but I just can't seem to let the stress not linger with me. Finally today I came in resolved that I'll do what needs to be done while at work, but I'm not bringing it home with me any longer. Additionally, I'm not taking the full brunt of the workload on alone any more. My direct supervisor is on vacation through next week, so this will be my time to finally show his supervisor what things are like. Fortunately today has already been drastically different, and things are looking much better. Plus, it is Friday!

I have pictures of the babies and a picture of my 14 week belly that I will post later today or tomorrow. For now, I think I'm officially caught up with the chaos that I feel has been our life lately.

13 weeks 3 days- 2nd Trimester!

I got a wonderful box in the mail to start off my Second Trimester on Monday. Mom and Dad sent me clothes, energy scented body items, prego pops, a calendar to track the pregnancy, a couple of books (one about TWINS which I needed) and these adorable little socks that I can't wait to see on little tiny feet! Today I'm wearing the pants and sweater they sent me. It is raining and kind of chilly, so the warm wrap sweater is perfect and cozy for today. Yesterday I started wearing full on maternity clothes. I couldn't squeeze into my pants comfortably with the bella band anymore. I was finding toward the end of the day my belly and back was starting to hurt and I'm much more comfortable (and less self conscious) in proper fitting clothes. I need to get some more shirts, but I do have 3 pairs of pants for work and a pair of jeans that along with the eventual capris I'll buy, should do me just fine throughout the next ~6 months.

Over the weekend I somewhat organized the kitchen, though it is still a disaster and WILL be cleaned and organized by the end of this week. Saturday Brian hung the electric boxes in both back bedrooms and re-wired for eventual ceiling fan/light units. The man I married has become so handy! I meant to do a lot around the house Saturday, as I was feeling such energy, but around noon I crashed and took a 2.5 hour nap with Wilma while Brian continued to work hard in the bedrooms.

Sunday we went shopping. By far the best purchase: our new stove/oven unit and over the range microwave...which we'll pick up this weekend!! I also got some clothes, we found some more tools for organizing the kitchen and bought two ceiling fan/light fixtures and a light fixture for the dining room/front room. My ever hard working hubby painted the ceiling of both rooms Monday and then hung the new fixtures in each room last night. They look great, allow for a light to turn on with the flip of a switch (genius!) and when summer hits the fans will be awesome for those two rooms. I plan to put the guest room back together tonight and then all we'll have left is to take the closet doors from our room and put them in the guest room, paint the bedroom door and change out the door hardware. Then...done! The babies' room we are waiting on painting and slowly I will clean out that closet, but I've got "some" time.

In addition to what we'd like to get through this weekend, we are also making a trip out to Brian's aunt's house to pick up two cribs in addition to whatever items they have set aside for us. We are renting a van from Ikea (so cheap and convenient) to pick up the new appliances, and then we'll head to Hebron for some baby stuff. We are so lucky to have family with hand me downs available! :)

Not too much else going on. Really we've (Brian more- I've been lazy, but I'm getting better) just been trying to work on our mental list of to-do's as much as we can before the babies come into our lives. We have an OB appointment tomorrow that I've been anxiously awaiting. :) I can't wait to see the two little peeps again!

12 weeks 4 days and a picture

I finally have an updated picture of what my belly is starting to look like. This shirt accentuates it with the tie back, baby doll look. Other shirts I wear it is still kind of hard to tell if I'm pregnant or just have a "belly". So...here it is: (note- this is me tired, after work, with a headache, and desperately desiring yoga pants...)

Brian hung our new pot rack last night, which was extremely exciting and I'm hoping I can now completely organize the cabinets this weekend. I need to try and get the layout of the kitchen better designed. Now that the pantry and last base cabinet are in, I'm going to try and figure out where I'll keep my baking stuff, cooking stuff, storage, Sam's buys, etc. In addition this weekend I hope to get to work on the closet situation. We moved everything to what is now the new guest room, and the only thing left in the future nursery is the stuff in the closet and this:

I set it up one night while Brian was at work. I smile every time I walk by and see it sitting there in the room. :)

Not much else "new" going on. I've started to have much more energy in the mornings, but by later afternoon I'm drained. I've also started getting these lovely headaches that simply do not go away. For now my goal is to teach myself to get more water down each day. It's not that I don't like water, I just find a hard time drinking it all day long.

12 Weeks

A look at the twins!

I'm starting to feel somewhat better. Mentally I think I'm just getting used to knowing how I'm going to feel during different parts of the day. We had a fun past weekend. Saturday we drove down to Lexington to Chad and Erin's new place and visited with them, Sarah & Chris, Nick, Angela & Collin, and Nick, Lauren & Elyse. It was fun playing with the babies and finally getting to see everyone. We'd not seen everyone since before Christmas, and we've been eagerly waiting to see them and tell them the news. We got to meet Lauren and Elyse for the first time, which was nice. And we got to see Collin walking- he will be a year old next month!! Since I still don't feel all that well at morning and night, we didn't stay over-night. I drove us home around 9pm and man I was tired, just wanting to get home and into bed. Sunday we slept in some and then did some shopping. Tonight we are going to try round 2 on ordering the counter tops for the kitchen. We went to Home Depot last night, but it was ridiculously crowded and we decided to go back after work when there will be less people in our way. :)

I'm definitely showing some now. I can still "hide" the bump with some clothes, but I've also gotten tired of standing up straight and "sucking" in my belly (getting harder and harder) so now I've just let the bump go. :) It is very noticeable when I wear yoga pants and a t-shirt. I'll try to post a picture tonight, since today is the BIG 12 weeks. :)

11 weeks 4 days- Maternity Clothes

My first effort at buying maternity clothes was pretty disappointing, although I did walk away with two nice bella bands which has helped me stay in all of my pants. Last night while Brian was at school (his last night- woo hoo!!) I decided to try out Motherhood Maternity because I'm starting to run out of long shirts that don't fit too tight and I didn't have anything else to do.

I walked in and was immediately kind of overwhelmed. The store isn't huge, but I just didn't even know where to begin. I was the only gal in there though... and the lady working there was really helpful. She explained my size and that I don't want to buy too much right now because I'll possibly/probably jump a size in just another 2-3 months. I browsed around in the clearance section and found a couple promising shirts. When I tried them on though- they fit the belly just fine- not the boobs! I didn't really think that my bust had increased all that much, but the lady explained that if I was already full chested I should go up a size to accommodate the increased "volume" breasts take on while pregnant. So I moved up to a medium and found 3 shirts to take home. I think I'm definitely going to prefer the traditional maternity clothes, rather than the trendy tight and revealing ones. I am excited for the warm weather to hit already and to get into some capris and sandals! Fortunately capris are all over the place in maternity fashion, so I won't have a problem there. :) So now I have 3 shirts, and perhaps I'll check out other stores in the next few weeks. Fortunately I'm still not in a rush, but I'm starting to notice things are definitely "tighter".

So Brian is done with school (for now)! Yipee, hooray, woo hoo, celebration all around. I'm certainly ready for the weekend. Saturday we are going down to Lexington to get together with some friends, which is always a good time. There will be one if not two babies there to play with and we'll get to share the news with the rest of our friends. Then Sunday we're going to order the counter tops for the kitchen and perhaps look at a new dishwasher...thrilling! Man I wish it were Friday and not Thursday. :)

10 Weeks 3 Days

I've been kind of lazy about getting on here and posting, we've had some different things going on and I've been tired quite often. Babies and are I are continuing to do well though.

I had been posting pictures of the size of the babies relative to a fruit or vegetable. Then I mistakenly decided to skip ahead and see what further along was related to...my mistake! The idea of cantaloupe and watermelon kind of freaked me out, so there is a new type of picture, which I actually think is more realistic. It is featured as a main item, to the left of my blog posts. I tried to find one that showed twins and talked about them weekly, but that was more difficult than it should have been.

I got a call from the doctor a couple of days ago to inform me that my blood work all came back good, except for results that I'm anemic. Upon further research, it appears that a mother carrying twins rarely goes through pregnancy without being anemic, so really I'm normal. :) I've now added iron pills to my daily round of prenatal vitamins and folic acid pills. I have to take the iron pills in the morning and the first morning was terrible, I felt sick all morning. This morning I took the pill with a glass of orange juice (I read folic acid helps the body absorb the iron) and it really did make quite the difference. I'm hoping now that I'll have some more iron in my body that my fatigue will slowly start to go away and I can get back to a bit normal of routine at home. The poor house has been so neglected, but Brian has been wonderful in taking care of me and the dishes. :)

This weekend we plan to make a BIG trip to Good Will to empty out the crowd of stuff in the basement and we also plan to get the last base cabinet for the kitchen and to order the counter tops. The base cabinet will need to be painted, which should go relatively quickly, since we've become painting pros lately. We'd both really like to see the kitchen at a level of complete by the end of this month. This past weekend we moved the guest bed into the smaller room, which is now the guest room. I'm happy because the bed fits perfectly, the room is already decorated and the bedding actually fits! Slowly we're going to clean the future nursery out entirely (we have a big closet situation to handle!) and then soon we'll get to paint and really decorate for the babies arrival. :)

Brian is almost done with school. Literally only 2 more weeks!!! I know he is ready for it to be over, as am I. :)