Photos of the babies

I've finally found a few of the Ultrasound photos from a previous appointment (meaning months ago) to the doctor's office. This was during our first trimester official US, Nov 17th of last year, with a praticed photographer (though we do get them every visit from my doc due to the fact that there are 2 of them and they can't tell their heart beats apart any other way). These were the best pictures we got of the babies' profile's, since it seems (at least to me) that the boys have gotten too big and squished to fit each individual nicely into the photo window. I'll try and post some pics from the second trimester Growth Scan and you'll see what I mean.

This first pic is Baby A, so labeled at our very first visit because, if we do have them the traditional way (ie vaginally vs a cesarean), he will be the one coming out first.
The second photo, is, obviously, Baby B.

I would post the front face shots that we got of each of them during that visit as well, but they look a little like aliens in those pictures (a look they have since - I hope - grown out of).

What Energy Boost?

I was asked by someone the other day if the "second trimester energy boost" had hit yet. Well, I just moved into week 26 and I've seen no sign of it. I'm still holding out hope, but I'm not holding my breath.

Speaking of breathing, there's something they don't talk about much with pregnancy (though I'm sure I get all these symotoms a little more pronounced since I'm growing two at a time). I have never considered myself the athletic type, but I did drag my lazy butt into the gym a few times a week before these boys took residence. Heck, I even have for a few weeks in a row during their stay. (Maybe that was my energy boost.) But lately, the whole breathing thing has made things difficult on a whole new level. It's not just working out...that doesn't happen anymore. It's walking up the stairs. One way. I pant like I've just sprinted 100 yards. Even chewing food has become a task - I have to take "breathers" in between a big bite. (I try to avoid doing that since it's not so pretty to see a half chewed mouthful of food just hanging out in my mouth while I gulp breaths around it.)

Aside from that (and a few other not so neat side effects that I wont mention here), this pregnancy is going well. The boys seem to be healthy and happy (or as happy as they can be all squished up in there), so I count that as a plus. Yesterday morning, I had thought they were starting to run out of room to rear back and clock me, since there hadn't been much of that going on lately. Just rolling around and little squirms like I had fish living in my belly. (Big fish, of course.) I mentioned my theory to my mother and I think they heard. They spent the rest of the day proving me wrong by hitting harder than ever. They've definitely figured out how to drop elbows...I don't know how they get the leverage, but as Evan and I were watching my stomach move last night - and I'm not kidding - it rose at least 1/2" in one little circle (more than once). Considering all the layers they have to reach through, I though it was very impressive. I actually spent the entire time I was brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed in a perma-sway to try and rock them to sleep since I was starting to feel bruised. It worked for about 20 minutes, but they started in on me again once I laid down. They're usually calmer in the morning, but they've already started up again (it's almost 9 am).

Most of the elbow dropping is actually coming from baby A, but B has his moves too. Instead of hitting mommy like his brother, he's decided that all he needs to do is scoot his little bum right out her side and up next to her ribs. Though it doesn't hurt yet (he hasn't figured how to get up into my rib cage yet), the pressure of it still feels pretty wierd. And that's nothing compared to the huge lump he makes off the side of my stomach when I look down to see what the heck he's doing. Both boys are really trying hard to make sure I know they're there (or else they're just tired of their roommate and are trying to work out ways they can get their own space).

Not quite time to get a place of your own yet boys. Soon enough.

A visit to the doctor's and class

Alright, it is now time for me to prove to the world that I am, in fact, a repeat blogger (two entries counts, right?). I can’t guarantee that this entry will be long, since the day has only given me a brief break between church in the morning and other events in the afternoon, but I’ll try to cover all of the important things.

We went to the doctor’s office on Friday for our monthly checkup (which, starting on next month’s visit, will become a twice monthly visit) and all seemed well. One thing that I was concerned about was my weight gain (or lack there of). I have been keeping track of my weight on a little graph on the bathroom wall (where I mark my weight every Wed and Sat morning), and though I’ve gained about 15 pounds total, I hadn’t really gained more than 2 pounds in the last month. This was putting me further and further under the “recommended weight gain” line on my chart (of course, based on the average recommended pounds per trimester for twin pregnancies, I’d calculated the slope and plotted it on my little bathroom chart as a base line-nerdy, I know, but I’m ok with that – currently I’m about 6 pounds under. No big deal, right? Well…lately my mom has decided that I wasn’t gaining enough weight. I have to admit that I was a little worried too, since the babies are supposed to be gaining almost ½ pound each per week, and how can they be getting bigger if I’m not? I wasn’t as freaked out as her, but it was starting to make me wonder.

She read some where that the leading cause of twin deaths is underweight babies, so of course she’s determined to pack pounds on me. I think she figures that the more weight on my butt, the better chance the babies have. She’s started buying me 2 % milk (since I refused to switch from skim to whole) and brings me home donuts more and more often. She probably would be ecstatic if I started eating spoonfuls for butter for snacks.

Luckily, the doc doesn’t seem to think there is a problem at all. As far as he’s concerned, most of what I gain is genetically determined anyway and the babies are going to take what they need from my body whether I gain 100 pounds or 10. He said they’re still growing like they should be (though at the next visit we’ll have an official ultrasound to do growth measurements again).

Their little heartbeats were strong, and though it’s hard to see the whole of them now that they’re getting so big, each little body part we saw on the ultrasound looked good. No pictures unfortunately, but since we beg for them every time I thought it was ok to go without asking this once – plus I just forgot to ask. No big surprise there, since me memory has lately been getting worse and worse. (For those that didn’t know, since there are twins they do a mini ultrasound each visit since there is no other way to check both heartbeats and tell which is which – it’s usually a very brief glimpse).

We signed up for a taking care of multiples class through a hospital just north of the one we’re delivering at (ours doesn’t offer one for doubles but we’re taking the child birthing class there in a few weeks) - it’s a two day-er and we had the first 4 hour session yesterday. It’s taught by a doula, but she also specializes in multiples and (not sure if this is the doula side of her job or something else) works in people’s homes to help them out. She seems to have a ton of experience and I am already SUPER glad that we’re taking it. We covered things that I thought I totally had down (like diaper changing and swaddling) and turns out there are a lot of things I’ve yet to learn. I’m just glad that there are going to be fewer things I’ll have to learn through trial and error now! I’m not sure if Evan took as much from it as I did, or if I’ll remember all that I took away from it tomorrow (though I did take a TON of notes), but I am glad we’re doing it regardless.

Turns out I will be feeding babies (since we are going to try and breastfeed them) for 8-16 hours a day. That doesn’t count pumping, diapering or any of that. Holy milk cow! Today we’ll be covering breastfeeding techniques with two, and going over pumps and stuff like that. I know Evan can’t wait. ;)

Well, that’s about all I have for now…it’s off to the afternoon errands, then more class.

Creation Post

My name is Brianne, I'm 28 years old and I am pregnant for the first time with fraternal twin boys. The pregnancy was planned, the twins were not (nor were they expected). The purpose of this blog is for me to document my pregnancy (or what's left of it, since I just past the 6 month mark a few days ago) and the growth of my family. I'm hoping that this will be a good way for me to do that, but who knows. I've never been very good at "journaling."

When I was a kid I had one of those cutesy little diary with the little lock on the side, a page for each day and beautifully gilded pages. I would fall behind and, feeling guilty for not writing in it for all those days, would scroll "VACATION" or "Gone To Disneyland" across the entire page to "explain" why I hadn't written. I took a lot of "vacations" according to more than one diary.

The thing is, I am a terrible procrastinator, selectively obsessive compulsive and have a terrible concentration level (just writing this entry will most likely take me hours since I will get distracted, come back to it, get distracted again...my husband calls it "shiny object syndrome" but we all know that it doesn't have to be shiny to get me off track). Just to prove the last point, I'm starting this at 10:21 am. We'll just see when it gets posted.

Here is a little about my life "as is" at this moment. My husband is Evan, and we have been married for what will be 3 years in March. We are very happily married, but we haven't quite "made it" financially like we thought we would have. Oh well...we like ramen noodles and Target, so it works out ok.

Both of our parents are remarried, so there are a lot of grandparents for the boys...good thing there will be two of them for all to share! We truly are blessed with the family that we have (and boy did I luck out with all my in-laws!). My parents (my mom and step dad, who I grew up with) live about 20 minutes away, Evan's dad and step mom live 40 minutes away, and his mom and step dad live 4 hours away (and are very willing roadtrippers). All of them say they'll babysit (at least now). The only long distance grandparents are my father and stepmother, who live in Vegas, but I guess 3 out of 4 isn't bad. I wont even go in to siblings, since we've got a lot. Maybe in another post.

Well, that's all I've got for now...I'm sure there was more I wanted to say, but I've forgotten...it's incredible what pregnancy does to an already distracted and forgetful person.

Until later,
Brianne