4/30/06 - 30 weeks 3 days

Ooops.. it’s been a while since my last post.. sorry to all my adoring fans! Ha ha did anyone even notice?

I have to tell everyone what a wonderful husband I have! J So going to the grocery store is quite the challenge for me. I’m back in the nauseous phase and thinking about food is no fun. The last time I went I came home w/ $77 worth of food and realized as soon as I unloaded it at home that I hadn’t gotten anything but snack foods that sounded appealing to me. We got by for a few days and then finally needed to go back. I asked Tom if we could go after he got home from work. He said, “sure, just make up a meal plan.” I said I would… I didn’t. I started, but 1) I got bored and 2) as I mentioned before thinking about food is no fun these days.

So my darling husband comes home to me in my sweats still w/ no meal plan feeling like crap. So he finished the half ass meal plan I had started then asked me if I would rather stay home… which of course I did! .. he went to the grocery store… prepared dinner and all I could do was bitch that he hadn’t gotten any ice cream! (I mean do I – the pregnant wife – REALLY have to remind him to get ice cream?) I realized my lunacy and apologized for complaining! Ha! I’m so lucky to have such an accommodating husband! Would you believe that he didn’t even complain.. not once! J Wow, I’m a lucky girl.

I did tell him that I will try my hardest to remember all of the great things he did for me while I was in late pregnancy after the babies are here.. to not ride him too much about not helping in ways that I may want him to, but that I wasn’t promising anything! J He just rolled his eyes and laughed.

I’ve managed to not have to sleep on the couch again since my last post.. again, Tom gets up to let Phoebe out now.. damn I’m lucky! J I generally get back to sleep pretty easily after my many trips to the bathroom AND Phoebe’s bathroom break.

I’m on weekly appointments now w/ a cervical check.. starting on Monday – I guess this is when you know you are getting close. The doc said that 50% of twin moms go into preterm labor during this phase of pregnancy so they want to monitor me closely. I have to signs of it thusfar.

All is well – we still just wait! Mom and dad are getting here in about 4 weeks.. so these babies have my permission to come any time after that, so long as they are healthy and ready!

I’m working on our birth plan.. is the ultimate control move on the nurses/docs or is it just me that feels that way!? I’m hoping that it’s mostly helpful for Tom … so that he doesn’t remember the things that I wanted when I’m in labor and in pain and he just wants to focus on getting our babies here safely. I trust his judgment 100%! (Am I indicating that I don’t by working on the birth plan? Well he’s helping w/ it!)

That’s all for now!

4/19/06 - 29 weeks

The babies heartrates are a bit closer together again.. I'm not sure why they change, but baby boy's heart rate was 157 and baby girl's was 161. :) Mom has officially gained 40lbs. GEEZ! It's sure going to be fun to watch it all melt away! At the chiro yesterday she told me my face was looking fuller - Isn't that just GREAT news! I should have said, "Oh yeah, you think that looks fuller you should get a load of my legs!" ha ha

My dad is currently doing some "Life changes" to his diet and exercise program and is dropping LBs about as fast as I'm picking them up. At last count he was at 205 and loosing so we are narrowing the gap - I'm 184 (gained 3 lbs last WEEK!). We'll have to be sure to get a photo of us at the end of the pregnancy.. the one and ONLY time I will weigh more than you dad! :) ha ha

And on that note... I'm officially feeling HUGE! For real this time.. though I'm sure I'll look back on today and say, "Geez, I wasn't that big.. NOW I'm big!" ha ha I said I had entered the uncomfortable zone before, but I think I was lying and didn't know it.. I'm now uncomfortable.. I've taken to spending a couple of hours a night on the couch... after Phoebe gets up at some ungodly hour to go to the bathroom I can't fall back to sleep.. I usually lay there for about 2 hours before I give up and go lay on the couch.. I sleep there until Tom is about to get up and I go back to bed for about 3 more hours.. At least I'm sleeping I guess.

I just took a bath and much to my disappointment I BARELY fit in there now. There's no use in even bothering now.. When I try to roll over onto my stomach to take pressure off my back my belly hits the bottom of the tub... not comfortable! HA!

We've gotten through two of our 6 birthing/child bringing home.. or whatever classes. I can't remember what they actually call it, but the first three days focuses on birth and the second three days focuses on what to do w/ the baby(ies) when you get it(them) home. :) So far we both feel like some of it has been helpful and other parts are kind of "duh" moments! :) The first day we saw a birth video and it was an "oh these babies have to come out" moment, but the lady's labor was pretty standard.. no drugs and she was fine. :) Yesterday we saw more video of the three stages of labor... we saw the placenta come out.. damn that thing is HUGE and I have TWO.. no wonder I got so big so fast! ha ha I've heard that sometimes twin placentas fuse together.. that should be interesting! :) We also learned and practiced some coping techniques. For those of you that watch a Baby Story or any of those and you see where the couple is kind of slow dancing w/ the woman putting her weight on hubby, well I'm here to tell ya that when you are the same height and super pregnant.. that DOES NOT work! ha We got a good laugh out of that one! Our instructor was teaching us how to breathe through contractions.. I'm now calling her Meg Ryan.. I was almost embarrassed to be in the same room w/ her! She wanted us to practice and I looked at Tom and said, "I AM NOT doing that right now!" ha ha If I was passing in the hallway and didn't know what the class was I would have thought it was a masterbation class not a birth class. I think I'll just wing it when I get there and concentrate on breathing and let it come out sounding however it sounds. HA We also talked about meds in the class and I think I'm more afraid of someone putting a catheter - or whatever - in my spine than I am going through labor - TWICE! I'm pretty sure we are going to opt to use a Spinal if we have to do a C-section after I've labored for a while... I'm hoping to stick to my guns and remember that the pain is temporary (IF baby boy turns and I'm able to labor) and get through it naturally if I can... my main concern w/ not using and epidural was if I had to have an emergency C section I didn't want to have to be knocked out for it. Well, w/ a spinal it's an injection - YES, into your spine - and it's almost immediate. As soon as they give it to you they lay you on the table and get those babies out.. so there is also less chance of the drugs getting to the babies before they are pulled from my body!

Still being flexible about the birth and just going to do whatever is best for the little ones, but it was interesting hearing all the med options.. and watching Tom's face as they described how the epidural works.. he wasn't excited about the whole spinal tap thing either!

Oh, another neat little tid bit of info - the hospital that I'm delivering in uses cloth diapers! I thought that was pretty cool! So the first 3 to 4 days is on them! They wash them.. yippee! :)

Today is 29 weeks.. the weeks are still slipping by though each day seems a bit longer. It's hard to believe that they say 32 weeks is GOOD and anything after that is icing... well geez.. I'm hoping for a good bit of icing then! I'd only be 3 weeks away if I had them at 32 weeks.. that's just NUTS! So I guess technically it could be any day now... though I'm still aiming for June 15th!

We haven't decided how this whole thing is going to go down in respect to contacting everyone.. I suppose it will just depend on how quickly things progress. YOU WILL get a call don't worry... and pictures will be forthcoming.. remember that IF I have a C section I will be in the hospital for 4 days at least.

Keep your fingers crossed that these babies come out healthy and ready to go home. Just say NO to the NICU!

4/14/06 - 28 weeks 1 day

Happy THIRD TRIMESTER to me! :) YEAH! This is a great milestone. Now the babies have a 90% chance of long term health if born at any minute... though I'm sure I have a ways to go! :)

I passed my 1 hour glucose test.. YEAH!! No 3 hour test and I can still eat ice cream.. PHEW! I don't know what I would have done if I had to give up the ice cream! ha ha They said my iron is low so I'm taking an extra supplement now. That must be why I've been craving ice so much and I've been feeling a bit run down during the day! :)

I added photos of my 28 week belly! HERE

It's supposed to be 80 degrees here today.. YEAH!!!! :)

4/12/06 - 27 weeks 6 days

I had an OB appointment today. Drank the sweet sunkist tasting Glucose drink and gave them my blood... I think it will be about a week before I hear whether or not I passed.. I think I did. I also got my Rhogam injection b/c I'm A- (if you are negative they give you a rhogam injection at 28 weeks in case your blood and babies blood mixes during delivery - or something like that).

The doc measured me and I'm measuring at 36 weeks, I've now hit 181lbs for a total weight gain of 37 lbs! Wowza.. and I've still got a ways to go. I told the lady that when she parks the big weight at 200lbs I'll be upset, but until then it's kind of fun to watch the scale go up! ha ha

The doc told me that baby boy is in the 43 percentile - I asked him what this meant and he said that IF I go to term he would weigh around 7lbs or more and that Lily would be around 6lbs 10oz. or so. He said he's predicting that I will go into labor all on my own between 36 and 37 weeks. I'm not convinced... they seem pretty content in there, but we'll just have to wait and see. He said if I got too uncomfortable after that point and wasn't going into labor on my own he would induce me if I WANTED it, but that as long as we are all healthy he's happy to let me go as far as I wish. :) We'll see what happens when/if June 15th comes and goes! He also said that there is no reason to schedule a C-section even if baby boy stays in the position he is in. He said he could turn during labor and that they would do an ultrasound when I showed up at the hospital to see how things were going. I'm happy to hear that. I plan to just play it by ear and won't make any decisions about C-section until I get that ultrasound at the hospital after labor has already started. Of course I reserve the right to change my mind should I hit 38 weeks and am miserable. I'm flexible man! ha ha

So all is well and we are still cooking some healthy, strong, growing babies! :) Now we just need to name that boy and we're good to go!

We start our birth classes tonight (so I guess that's really the last piece) - they are every Wednesday from 6:30 - 9pm (which cuts right into my ice cream time.. :( ) and go for 6 or 8 weeks! AFTER that we'll be READY or as ready as we're going to be! :)

4/11/06 - 27 weeks 5 days

We had our 28 week ultrasound today. It was great to have Tom there with me this time... even though it wasn't as much fun. Last time I got to see the 3D/4D of the babies w/ their heads together. This time we didn't get a 3D/4D and I was feeling too nauseous to even ask! They were moving quite a bit - as usual - so maybe that's why he didn't do it... or maybe it was b/c he seemed nervous that I wasn't feeling well and might pass out on him! ha! :) I did lay on my side most of the time to prevent the nausea, but laying on my back is NO GOOD!

Baby Boy (to be named later) has moved. He is no longer head down! BUMMER! He's got some time to move back so let's hope he does. Right now he has his head over on my left side and his feet over on my right.. known as TRANSVERSE. UGH! If he stays this way I am guaranteed a C-section. I guess the good news is we could just go ahead and schedule it. (though I REALLY want to go into labor naturally and have a vaginal birth) Baby Girl (we're currently practicing calling her Lily to see how that sits.. so far so good) has stayed head down and her feet swing around so she can kick her brother in the face... which she seems to enjoy! :)

Baby Boy is measuring 2lb8oz. and Lily is measuring 2lb6oz. The doc - who has 5 year old twins - said that they are measuring and growing on schedule as if they were singletons. As she said this she had a pained look on her face. I said, "good for them, not so good for me." This just means I could have normally sized babies and thus be huge and miserably uncomfortable as we near the end - provided they stay in there! She also said that I have a "beautiful cervix"... um thanks, and I'm sure you are all glad I shared that info. That means that my body - so far - is perfectly happy to keep those babies inside... this is good news. (ask me again if this is good news when I hit 37 weeks and have NORMAL sized babIES in there!)

The scans didn't come out as clear and nice as they have in the past.. not sure if it was the tech or the different machine. I'll try to get some decent shots of them and post them in the ultrasound folder in "My Photos", but no guarantees.

As I mentioned earlier in the post we are trying "Lily" on for size. We're pretty sure the little girl's name will be Lillian Payton Mount, but the boy's name is eluding us! The latest name we are trying out is Isaac and I don't think either one of us is really attached to it yet.. we'll see. We want his middle name to be Everett after my great Uncle so we're looking for something that works with that. Tom likes the name Everett and I think he would name him Everett, but I'm not excited about calling my child Everett... it works for my 80-something Uncle, but I have a hard time calling a child that.. I don't know.. we'll see where this takes us. Thomas is always an option! Ha Ha Just kidding! Tom has vetoed any Jr's and I think it's time for me to put the name Tom to rest for my family! ha!

4/8/06 - HAPPY SPRING!

Ah.. the plants are budding if not bluming.. the grass is green again and sometimes the sun even shines! Here are some pics of Phoebe and us on the porch enjoying some Vitamin D from the sun along w/ a funny pic of my belly... hmm.. looks like my face might be a bit puffy huh? ha ha

4/6/06 - 27 weeks

THREE MONTHS UNTIL MY DUE DATE! AHHH!

I've officially entered the "uncomfortable zone"... I was feeling so big and uncomfortable last night. No matter how I sat/ layed I just couldn't get comfortable. It took me about 30 mins (that's pretty quick for me these days) to fall asleep. Then I woke up at 4am to let the dog out.. went back to bed.. got hungry/nauseous, got back up to eat something and go to the bathroom, couldn't get comfy and was still kinda nauseous .. got up AGAIN for some water thinking maybe that was the problem. Went back to bed still unable to get comfortable and the babies were moving around like crazy. I think I finally got back to sleep around 6am. Then woke up at 8:30am when Tom left for work and felt naseous/hungry again and had to get up to eat again. This is all after having had a bowl of cereal at 10pm to try to avoid the hunger in the middle of the night. Guess I need to eat more during the day.. these kids are obviously going through a growth spurt. UGH! I can always feel baby lumps now and their kicks/punches/rolls reverberate through my abdomen. I swear the boy kicked yesterday and rocked the bed! ha This could go on for another 10 to 13 weeks.. EEE GADS!

This might explain why I feel so ENORMOUS!


I added some photos of the house... to show mom's work! I still have a bit of work to do upstairs before I'll be ready to post pics of the bedrooms and office, but I'll get there! :) You can view the photos by clicking HERE.

4/5/06 - 26 weeks 6 days

Okay.. I dropped mom off at the airport yesterday and she made it home safely. All I can say is THANK GOD she came. We... I mean to say SHE.. got so much done while she was here. The nursery is complete - you can view photos by clicking HERE. It looks fabulous. I had no idea what we were going to do when she first got here then we were at Home Depot on one of the first days and were looking at paint. I picked a green and a blue that I liked... held them together and said, "how about stripes w/ a white stipe in between?" and a day later it was done! WOW! Now that's efficient! We shopped till we dropped - both at the Moms of Multiples sale and various other locations like Target, WalMart, Baby Depot and SAMs. I think we have all that we need to be prepared for the babies arrival!

Mom also finished painting our living room and dining room and took all the old door knobs off upstairs and polished them - I can't believe how much they sparkle now. I'll post pictures of that AFTER I clean up all of MY crap - not to be confused w/ any of Tom's crap because most, if not all, of it is mine! UGH! I'm a very messy marvin!

I'm still feeling pretty good and was able to take breaks as I needed them. We have another ultrasound next Tuesday and I've been changed to OB appts every two weeks - I feel like this post is moderately redundant.. if it is.. my apologies! I'll update again after my ultrasound next week! :)