First Baby Shower

We had our first baby shower yesterday. It was lots of fun! My good friends Emily, Beth, and Amelia threw it for me. The theme was Noah's Ark - two by two (isn't that cute?). Emily made a diaper cake, that was filled with washclothes, onesies, rattles, and a boat on the side with sets of pigs, cows, horses, etc.... It was real cute. We got alot of fun things for the boys and alot of stuff that we needed. We got their tub, diaper bags (large one and small matching one), monitor, cloth diapers, really cute outfits, towels, the frog bath toy holder (mentioned in a previous post), etc.. We are very thankful! I am going to go through all of the boys stuff this week and try to begin to organize their clothes and other things and make a list of things we NEED before they are born. Hopefully then I will feel a bit more ready and organized. We are having another shower from our church on Feb. 16th and the goal is to be ready for the boys by February 28th - I will be 30 weeks by then and hopefull they won't come that early, but I need to be prepared. So if any of you moms can think of things that you needed for your babies and things you feel you couldn't have lived without it would be great if you could let me know!

I am 25 weeks now and it is insane to think that in 9 weeks (hopefully 11) I could have two boys here! Whew - I need to get on the ball. :)

24 week appointment

We went to the doctor today and got an ultrasound to check on the boy's growth. The boys are doing great, and as my doctor put it, they are obeying perfectly! (Let's hope they stay that way). Both of their heads are down and we hope they won't move - although the very well could. This would explain all the kicks up top, and why every time I feel a kick I feel a movement right over my bladder. They have been kicking up a storm. It is so sweet to feel them all the time and Mike is enjoying feeling them as well. It is hard to imagine that I have two little humans inside of me making their prescence known!
Michael's head is in my left side with his body going across my abdomen, on my right side, and his feet are right under my belly button. Jeremiah's head is right on top of Michael's and he is straight up and down. They both weight 1.45 pounds and they measure perfectly with where they should be! Praise the Lord! We are so thankful that we have had such a healthy and "normal" pregnancy so far (Normal for us!).
Here are some pictures of the boys:

The top of both of their heads. (Michael is on the right, Jeremiah on the Left)

Jeremiah's feet

Side profile of Jeremiah

Side profile of Michael

Jeremiah's hands and fingers

3-d of both boys. Michael is rubbing Jeremiah's head. It was great to watch!

3-d of the side of Michael


As far as me - I have gained 3 pounds in 2 weeks making my total weight gain so far at 10 pounds. She is not concerned, because the boys are growing fine - so I will not stress to gain more weight. Belly size I am measuring at 30 weeks. And everything else is right on target.
Here are some belly shots taken at 24w4d:




My back pain is MUCH better since we bought the snoogle pillow from Babies R Us. We had lot's of coupons and gift cards so we paid less then half for it. This pillow is A MUST HAVE for pregnant women with twins. It has done wonders for my back support while I sleep.



I went to get fitted for a bra from the lactation consultant and I will just say that the results were depressing! I will not give specifics except for the fact that all that weight gain might NOT have been the babies!!! AGH!!! Depressing... that's all I have to say on this subject... Depressing... Did I say, Depressing already?

On to more encouraging topics. We finally got our new bed and got the rooms all set up. Our bedroom is now the nursery/guest room and the nursery is now our bedroom. When we have family visiting after the twins are born they will just sleep in our room and we will sleep in the guest so we can get up with the twins. I plan on nursing the twins on that bed, so I won't have to worry about having a place to nurse when we have company. In order to put the rooms this way, we had to reorganize every closet in our apartment. Mike brought out EVERY tupperware, box, bucket from EVERY closet and put it in the living room and I consolidated a lot of stuff, and threw alot of stuff away - and somehow we managed to fit it all back in the closets. It was like a puzzle, but we did it!

The Guest Bed

Our Nursery Rug

The Crib - I am going to put their initials over it.

Changing Table

Sign that my sister-in-law gave us

Our New Bed

I am very sad! :(

I love Sudoku! I have been playing this puzzle for almost 2 years and have tried to make it more challenging as I go. I will do the puzzle different ways with different strategies. The past few months I have been timing myself to see how fast I can do it. Through all the "hard work" I have gotten down to a little under 5 minutes a puzzle. When my family came to visit I was showing them new strategies on the puzzle and showed them how fast I could do these puzzles. BIG MISTAKE. You know that saying, "Pride comes before the fall"? AGH! Since they left, I CAN'T figure out some of the puzzles and if I do, it takes me FOREVER! What has happened to me?

We are EXHAUSTED...

Because we just spent the past three hours out registering at Babies R Us. It was a very long and tiring process but I think we have everything on it - minus bottles. Laura if you could message me the type of bottles that are safe, that would be great. We couldn't remember the type of bottles to register for so we just skipped that part.

Here are several things that I learned from this long process today:

1. Babies really don't need anything! As we are registering for stuff, the thoughts go through, "Do we REALLY need this?" "Will I REALLY use this?" I am sure some of it will come in handy, and some of it I really need. But alot of it is just darn cute - so we registered for it.
2. My husband thinks anything that is NOT blue is girly! I could barely get close to anything that was green or yellow before I heard out of my husband's mouth "Our boys won't be sissy's!" I reply by saying "They are BABIES!" So - most of what we registered for is blue with "manly" things on it. (manly for babies = cars, trucks, dinosaurs, bugs, etc...) Our nursery is done in mostly green and yellow and blue with lambs and stars and after today I am wondering how he agreed to that. It was a miracle I think.
3. I don't have a third lesson, but two didn't seem enough for our long day.

All in all, we had fun looking at all the cute stuff and Mike was a real trooper. Here are a few of some "Fun" things that we registered for:

Diaper Bag - isn't it SOO manly - Mike will not feel whimpy carrying this.

Isn't this adorable!!! I saw it when I babysat some kids and thought it was precious. It is a frog that hangs on the bathroom wall to put toys in. Yes, it is green - but it is a frog (a bug) which equals Baby Manly. So we are good to go.


So - this one was COMPLETELY Mike's idea. He saw this and thought it was funny and great - so we registerd for two of them, The "Tinkle, Tinkle Little Star" and the "Lil Squirt". Here is the Item Description: "A must-have for the parents of baby boys, the Weeblock® Tinkle Tinkle Lil' Star from Sozo® is a wee-wee-absorbing sponge for use when changing diapers. Weeblock was invented by the parents of two boys who have developed a useful and fun solution to the inevitable "fountains of youth." Just cover the baby during changing with the Weeblock® and stay dry! Weeblock® is a machine washable sponge covered in soft cotton jersey." We'll see how much we use them.

We have our first baby shower on the 26th. Emily, my good friend from Knoxville, is throwing it for us along with a few of our neighbors here at the seminary. So, I figured I needed to finish our registry before then. If any of you "mom's" know of "must-haves" let me know so I can add it - because quite honestly - we have no clue!

Oh - one other exciting thing that happened today was that we got a really "nice" refund on our rug and lamp that goes with our nursery. Mike bought them for me for Christmas at full price - and now they are on clearance and I found a coupon for an EXTRA 40% off the clearance price. So, we took them our receipt and asked if they would credit us for the clearance price + 40% off and THEY DID!!! So we now got the rug and lamp for half of what Mike paid for it. NICE!

22 week doctors appointment

I went to the doctor today and had a good visit. The boys are doing fine and I gained FOUR pounds - woohoo! That makes a total of seven whole pounds. (which is only 20 pounds less then what I should have gained by now.) She says its ok and not too worried. I am also measuring 28 weeks now. I was confused, because at my 20 week appointment I was measuring 31 weeks, and now I am only measuring 28? She said it was because of the position of the boys - they must of changed and they are both now towards my left side so it is causing me to measure different.

I told her about all of the back pains and nerve pain I have been having and she said the babies are sitting on my sciatic (sp?) nerve. She said that as the babies grow higher into my abdomen they should not be pressing on the nerve any longer. If it continues throughout the pregnancy she will then just give me medicine to deal with the pain. Also, if I cannot "deal" with the back pains I can do physical therapy to help stregthen my muscles to deal with the extra weight and the pain.

Also, I told her about the fainting episodes I have had (I had lots of issues to deal with today). In the mornings I really feel it, especially if I am sitting down. I normally have to walk around and switch positions. She said it was the extra weight of the babies that when I sit down it cuts off circulation throughout my body. I just need to eat a bedtime snack and drink a lot of water in the morning - the more water I have the better the circulation. She said I feel more "faintish" in the morning because I have spent all night laying down without hydration. So, I will try that and see if I feel better.

I go back on the 21st for an ultrasound - so I will post pics then!

God truly provides for us... even in the small stuff!

Well - as you know from my last post, I have not been comfortable and Mike and I are not sleeping in the same bed. :( Well, since he has been sleeping on the futon couch matress on the floor (See previous post for pics), we both have gotten better sleep. And it has really helped both of us with our sickness and moods. As we were fixing his bed last night I told him that we needed to think about investing in a bigger bed, or see if someone is getting rid of a Queen size bed or something. The double just isn't cutting it!!! Well, not even an hour after that conversation, I check my email and a couple from our small group sent us an email with the subject as: "GIVING AWAY A BED" - the email was that they have a QUEEN size bed (matress, boxspring, frame, and headboard) that they do not need and wanted to know if anyone needed a bed or wanted one, and if so, then they could have it!!! Well I quickly emailed them back and told them about our bed situation and so, we are arranging on Sunday to pick it up!!!

God is so good!

Can't I be eight months pregnant yet?

Well - I am 22 weeks pregnant (on Friday) and within the past 3 days I feel like I am not going to be able to handle it!!! AGH!!! I am hoping that I feel this way partly because I have been sick and have probably slept a total of 5 hours the past 3 nights. Both Mike and I have been sick and have been trying to rest well in our DOUBLE size bed! We have come to the conclusion that this will not last much longer - the bed is too small for the four of us. Tonight this will be our sleeping arrangements. We both need a really good night's sleep:



Mike's Bed

My bed

So my back has been killing me - the only time I feel relief is when I take a bath, and I try not to take a long bath. Mike said I can go ahead and order a "Preggie" pillow to help support my back and stomach (which means that will make 5 of us in the bed!). It isn't like I am HUGE but I think it is because I have grown larger s quickly that it is taking a toll on my back. At 18 weeks I was measuring 24 weeks and then at 20 weeks I went to measuring 31 weeks!! And on top of it I have almost fainted 3 times within the past week, and today I actually blacked out at the Dentist office. Bless their hearts, they were so kind to me and gave me oxygen, crackers and bought me some orange juice. They are the best (Dental Works on Bardstown road if anyone out there in Louisville needs a dentist). My doctor said it is because the babies are pushing on an artery in my back that cuts off oxygen to the brain. She said it normally occurs in the third trimester, but because I am having twins it is happening now. It is not fun!

So... sorry for the complaining! I am hoping to feel better once I feel better from being sick. If not, I am going to have to just deal with it because I have 3 1/2 months to go! Mike was real sweet today - he knew I was real discouraged and upset and feeling horrible that he left me a precious letter encouraging me. Here is an exert from his note that I thought was precious:

"The labor pains before the “two” bundle of joys that we will hold one day. The gloomy backaches due to not sleeping and the weight of the babies in the womb, before the joyful backaches of picking up two little toddlers and not sleeping b/c one has a nightmare. "
I thought that was a sweet comparison.

Well - here are some pictures of my stomach at 21 weeks and 5 days.



and btw - yes I wear those pants 4 times a week because of lack of maternity clothes that fit - and I went shopping for some but was quite unsuccessful - but that is for another post - I have done enough complaining! :)

Thanks for listening to this pregnant woman!