Biggest!

Here I am at 37 weeks and 6 days and on the eve of meeting our twins. Today has felt like a dream, where I am just floating through a series of events, not fully engaged. My nerves are starting to kick in and I know there won't be much sleep going on in our house tonight! We've been doing our last bit of preparations to get our house ready to bring home two newborns, but of course it never feels like it's enough.

For about the last month my belly has measured at around 45 weeks and my weight has remained the same. The babies have continued in their growth, and if they are still on track then our girl should be about 7 pounds and our boy should be about 6 1/2 pounds. We'll see tomorrow what their actual weight is, and how much weight I'll lose just from giving birth!!

Here are my "biggest" pictures from this week and last week. I was expecting to get a bit bigger, but am happy that this is where I've topped out! My belly doesn't look all that big, but I sure feel it whenever it's time to move! Just this last week I was asked by another cashier if I knew someone who was having a baby when I purchased some infant pajamas. I just looked down at my belly and said, "Yeah, me."
So hopefully my next post will be a wonderful story of an easy and stress-free birth! Skip and I are certainly looking forward to meeting our babies and introducing them to their large and supportive group of family and friends!

And just for fun, here's a picture of what my view has been for the last month or so, bending forward slightly to see my swollen feet! Enjoy! :)

Still hanging in there!

This week I made it to an important milestone...full-term for twins! At 36 weeks my twins were considered full-term, so now their job is only to fatten up for their debut. With my three trips to the doctor's office this week, I've learned that they are still looking great on all of their monitoring, baby girl is still head down and weighing in at 6 1/2 pounds and baby boy has flipped back into a breech position and weighs in at a hefty 6 pounds, my belly is measuring at 45 weeks, AND I'm not dilated at all. I am starting to feel contractions and occasionally have one that is uncomfortable, but nothing consistent or ultra-painful. My doctor thinks I could go into labor at any time now, but if I make it to 38 weeks (in 9 days) then we can start talking about induction, which I'm all for because carrying around these two babies is getting quite uncomfortable and at some times painful. At this point it's all about the waiting and hoping that we are truly ready to bring these babies home.

It's been a while!

Working the last four weeks has certainly drained me of my energy, but now I'm on maternity leave and getting caught up!! This post is going to be short and sweet though because I just have to share my latest pics! My last two belly shots were taken a week apart, the first at 34 weeks 2 days and the second at 35 weeks 3 days. I was kind of in shock at the difference between last week and this week and can't wait to find out how big the babies are now! That will have to wait until my next ultrasound, which isn't for two more weeks...if the babies stay in that long. A week ago the girl was measuring 6 pounds and the boy was measuring 5 1/2 pounds, and they should be gaining about 1/2 pound a week.

Weekend Fun!

Last weekend we had a short but fun visit from our dear friend Staci and her daughter Katrina. After making our way through all of the awesome baby goodies they brought us, we started our time together by taking them out for lunch at Who Song and Larry's to celebrate Staci's birthday. Lunch was great, complete with some singing for the birthday girl!


After lunch we went to OMSI since Katrina is a big fan of science museums! She was so excited to see it all, and even swam with dolpins in the virtual ride machine. After spending a few hours exploring everything OMSI has to offer, we headed outside along the waterfront to watch the boats and get some fresh air.

The next morning Skip had to head off to work, so it was just us girls for a few hours. After Katrina's bath (at which time she wanted to play Hide-and-Seek, which we managed to do thanks to the shower curtain and liner) her and I played with Play-Doh. With a little bit of help from Aunt Sarah, Katrina made this masterpiece:



The visit was way too short, but it was so nice to see Staci and Katrina at least once before the babies are born! Hopefully they'll get back down in a few months to meet our little ones :)

Pass the oxygen please!

It has happened, I have run out of room for these babies to grow "up" and they must now do the rest of their growing "out". I can feel my baby girl's bum every time I lean forward, pushing against my lungs. It'll be slip-on shoes from here on out, although it's been over a month since I've worn shoes that required tying! I have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow and will get my belly measured, so we'll see how much I've grown in the last two weeks. I was measuring 35 weeks at 27 1/2 weeks, so we'll see where I'm at now at 29 1/2 weeks!!

On a good note, the babies have been quite active the past few days. Last night when I was laying in bed with my belly sticking up towards the ceiling they were both moving like crazy, and Skip saw my belly moving for the first time. I think it was little weird for him to think that it was our babies making my stomach move, but it was neat for him to see something so cool!

Big, Bigger....

As my second trimester comes to a close, there is ample evidence that these babies are growing well! At my appointment last Thursday, each baby was weighing in at just over 2 1/2 pounds. They both measured right at 27 weeks and 4 days, which is exactly where I was at that day, so they are each still growing as if they're the only baby in there! Oh, and I also found out that I'M measuring at 35 weeks, so I grew a whopping 3 weeks' worth in the two weeks between appointments. I'm now starting to get a little scared at what my "biggest" is going to be, but I will take it in order to have two healthy babies.

So here's my "bigger" belly at 27 weeks, 1 day:

Extra Room, Check!

With the babies coming in just a few short months, I gave Skip a project to work on during his vacation in July! With some help from our dear neighbor Monte, my dad and Skip's dad, our 10' x 12' shed is up and already getting filled up with our junk. It still needs paint, which should hopefully end up being a weekend project. Now we can clean out the nursery and start setting it up for our little ones!

Say that again doc...

I went in today for a quick doctor's appointment where they weigh me, measure me, and listen to the babies' heartbeats. I've been feeling good in my second trimester, despite the mad heartburn and the appearance of cankles. Oh, and getting winded just climbing a flight a stairs, that's a lot of fun too!

So back to my appointment...when my doctor came into the room and started looking at my chart, she said what I hear from a lot of people...that I don't look as far along as I am, especially for having twins. When it was time to climb onto the table and measure my belly though, I was shocked when she told me that I'm measuring at 32 weeks...that's almost 2 months farther along than I am!! I suppose I should consider myself lucky that I still have room to grow, which I'm going to be doing a lot of in the next few months. I can't wait for my next ultrasound to find out how big the babies are, considering they've been measuring big already.

I went ahead and took another goofy cell phone picture of my belly since Skip is standing on the roof of our new shed at the moment, putting on the roofing. Enjoy!!

25 weeks 4 days

Three Pounds of Babies

My growth ultrasound this morning was another great appointment! The purpose of today was to check the growth of each baby and make sure they are still doing well. Of course both of them were squirming around, making it difficult for the ultrasound tech to get her measurements! Both babies have also changed from being in a breech position heads down, but they each still have plenty of room to do their somersaults, which it feels like they are doing all the time!

Baby Girl (A) weighs 1 1/2 pounds and is in the 81st percentile for height and weight.

Baby Boy (B) weighs 1 1/2 pounds and is in the 86th percentile for height and weight.

I love my alien face babies! This one of the boy shows a front-face view with him laying on his left side with his left arm up to his face and his right arm out in front of his body.

Baby Kicks

After about 2 months of getting to feel the babies moving and kicking all by myself, Skip finally felt his first kick tonight. Our little guy was moving around quite a bit, and kicked his daddy square in the hand. Skip knew right away that he felt a baby kick, and it was so cool to see how excited he was to feel his baby! :)

The Belly is Here!

It seems that in the last few weeks I've gone from looking like I've had a few too many doughnuts to actually looking pregnant. So with that I'm going to give in and post some belly shots. I feel totally dumb taking pictures of myself in the bathroom, but I'm going to get over that because I'm ready to share my bump! So here's my baby belly at 21 weeks and 2 days. Our girl is on the left side of my belly and our boy is on the right side (for those of you visual folks!)

As for me I'm feeling good, especially now that school is out for the summer! The babies are practicing their kick-boxing every day and managing to kick my bladder several times a day, and I've felt a few of those kicks on the outside. Unfortunately, Skip is still waiting for his first greeting from the inside! It's been fun knowing that we're having a girl and a boy, and the question I get the most now is whether or not we've decided on names. We haven't even had a chance to think about names, and all the ones Skip mentions are ridiculous, but that's him! I don't know how many times I have to tell him that our son is NOT going to be named Clint Eastwood Stein! Luckily we still have some time to work on the names.

My next doctor's appointment is this Thursday, but it's just a quick visit to measure my belly and listen to the heart beats. My next ultrasound is in a few weeks and I can't wait to see our little ones again!

Another good appointment under my expanding belt!

I had my monthly doctor's appointment today, in which I was able to meet another one of the doctor's in the office. There are a total of four doctor's where I go, and they purposely schedule at least one appointment with each of the doctor's so that when d-day comes, there is no chance of a total stranger being the one to help deliver the babies. So today I met Dr. Gibbons, who is very quick and to the point, but also showed a sense of humor. I had my belly measured, which at this point seems to be growing by the hour! She also used the doplar to listen to each babies heartbeat, which was my absolutely most favorite part of the appointment!! Baby A must have been resting because it's heartbeat was in the 150's, rather than the 160 from last time. Baby B was right where it was at from the last appointment. I've gained a whopping three pounds, but at the rate the babies are growing I'm sure those numbers will be going up quickly!

Our next appointment is scheduled for June 6th, and that is when we'll find out the sex of each baby. We'll be having the anatomy scan done, so they'll be looking closely at all the little parts that make up each baby. From what the doctor has told me, we should expect the ultrasound for EACH baby to take at least an hour...holy cow! I hope they let me take bathroom breaks!

And I think I'm ready to make our first big purchase...carseats! Skip and I wandered over to Babies r Us last weekend and I found a carseat that I like, and it is gender neutral so there's no risk in buying them now. Just thinking about having to buy two of some of our big ticket items makes me want to start the shopping now so it's a bit easier on the checking account, plus it's so much fun!!

So no pictures this week...I still can't bring myself to post any pictures of me and my belly, so those of you who are far away, I apologize. Don't get me wrong, I love my belly, I just feel stupid taking a cell phone picture in the bathroom mirror! I'll get a pic up soon, or we'll just have to get together!

Life as we know it...

...is going to change. Come this October, Skip and I will be welcoming twins into our family! I am 15 weeks pregnant today and slowly starting to expand! My last ultrasound was just over a week ago and that was the first time that they looked like little people rather than little blobs. Both babies were measuring right on schedule and had wonderful heart rates (160 and 161). Skip and I are ecstatic to finally become parents, especially to twins! These are our miracle babies that came to us after our third embryo transfer with IVF. We'll find out if we're having boys or girls or one of each at my next ultrasound on June 6th, so stay tuned!

The babies already putting their heads together to see what kind of mischief they can get into!

Baby A

Baby B kept looking at the ultrasound, so we didn't get a great profile shot.

Baby A with their arm up to their head