A unique thing happened to me today while sitting at the doctor’s office. I felt Baby A moving, so I put my hand on my belly and then was surprised to see Baby A kick so hard that my hand moved! Then later, at a meeting, one of my coworkers asked me “What is going on with your stomach today??” Wild and crazy kiddos!
Yes, I know I said I’d post a 22 week picture, but I’m a little bit behind… sooo, here’s the 21 week pic.
Compared to 19 weeks:
First of all, I’ve been craving CRAVING beer. Obviously I can’t drink it, but I found a cheesy substitute that gives me enough beer flavor to keep me satisfied for at least 3 days. Maybe 4.
From Tasty Kitchen (The one, the only: Pioneer Woman’s Cooking website – love it!)
Place bread cubes in a single layer in an ungreased 15-in x 10-in x 1-in pan. Bake at 450F for 5-7 minutes or until lightly crisp, stirring twice.
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, saute onion and garlic in butter until tender. Stir in beer. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low.
Toss cheese and flour; stir into saucepan until melted. Stir in 2 tbsp. half and half.
Transfer to a small ceramic fondue pot or slow cooker; keep warm.
Add additional half and half if fondue thickens. Served with toasted bread crumbs. Yield: 3 cups.
Nom nom nom nom. (that’s me eating a lot of melty cheese)
**NOTE: I boiled the beer a little bit longer than probably needed just to be sure I cooked off the alcohol… but I’m sure it’s not a big deal! I’m not drinking the cheese… or am I?… **
I was a little preoccupied with the holidays and work, and just realized that I hadn’t done a babies update in almost three weeks. Woops!
What’s new with the babies: We had our anatomy ultrasound last week on Tuesday. Just before the ultrasound, I almost decided to find out what we were having – but then Frank told me how excited he was about being surprised and how much he was looking forward to introducing the babies to me, and my heart just melted. How could I say no to such a heartfelt request to keep it a surprise for both of us?? The babies looked great on the ultrasound. Baby A is head-down, weighs in at 1 lb and had a healthy heart rate of about 149. Baby B is breach and was VERY active that day. Since Baby B is breach, his feet are next to Baby A’s head. During the ultrasound of Baby A’s head, we kept seeing Baby B’s feet jabbing into the picture. Poor Baby A! Good thing there is a nice membrane separating the two of them. Baby B measured at 1 lb 1 oz and with a heart rate of 152. All of the checks they do for the screening looked great, too!
The babies are getting more and more active. I feel them moving around pretty regularly. Times of day haven’t been super consistent for movement, but there are definitely times that the two of them go to town!
How I feel: I feel great! I am tired, but managing to keep my napping to a minimum. It is hard to work full-time and not come home at night and go to sleep at 7:30 p.m. Fortunately, even though I am tired, I am also stubborn and determined to stay awake! I am definitely showing (a 22 week picture will be posted tomorrow) now. I also think the babies have shifted and moved further north, giving me a touch of indigestion. I am sure that will only get more interesting as the pregnancy continues.
Other thoughts: I am super prone to stretch marks. Like, epically prone to them. I have them everywhere, just from growing quickly and being heavier when I was younger. With that in mind, I embarked on a daily routine of using Vitamin E oil and the Mary Kay Toning Lotion during this pregnancy. The Vitamin E is great at repairing injuries (ie. healing scars, etc) and is a major component of a lot of the Mary Kay products that I use. The second item I use, the MK lotion, has Vitamin E, but is also meant to increase skin elasticity and reduce cellulite. The result? I am 22 weeks and measuring at about 27-28 weeks (thanks to the twins), and I haven’t had a single new stretch mark so far! I’ve actually even seen an improvement in the ones that I already had! This is HUGE for me considering how prone I am to the ugly red stretch marks!!
I was reminded this week of the story of Ruth in the Bible. I like the story of Ruth. I like Ruth’s faithfulness to her mother-in-law, even after her husband passes away. I like her guts – traveling to a foreign country to start over. I like how she wasn’t afraid to just work hard – she spent hours each day picking up the left-overs during harvest time so that she and her mother-in-law could have enough to eat. And I love that how she maintained her dignity and integrity through it all.
I admire Ruth because she had strength of character and commitment even when it would be easily understood if she just simply walked away. The story of Ruth, to me, is a story of how God works in tragedy and in the small everyday-type things for good. Yes, it was terrible that Ruth lost her husband and her mother-in-law Naomi lost her husband. It was probably incredibly hard for Ruth to move to a new country and start over. And I’m sure there were days when she was picking up scraps of food in the fields that she thought, “man, this is NOT how I pictured my life turning out.” But in doing the seemingly small things – working hard, staying loyal to Naomi and focusing on the task at hand, Ruth was greatly rewarded. God ultimately blessed her with a new, godly husband and stability.
Sometimes it is SO hard to stay focused on the small, everyday things. For example, I am not a fan of cleaning our toilets. I don’t even think that there is a godly reward for cleaning our toilet, except that it’s not embarrassing to have people over; I don’t have to tell guests, “Never you mind that brown ring in the toilet – it was a stain from the previous owner!”
But I think that staying focused on the small things is what builds the mental muscle to stay focused on the big things. I am terrible at this – anyone who knows me well knows that a flashing light in Colorado can become a fascinating distraction for me and completely derail my train of thought. ::blink, blink, blink::
I digress.
Which I suppose was the point.
It’s hard to stay on task daily. It’s hard to not get distracted by other, more interesting (yet less rewarding) things.
Some of you know that I had a recent addiction to the game Bejeweled Blitz. I may, or may not, have mentioned said addiction on this very blog. This addiction resulted in me sort of mentally checking out to play this game on a very regular basis. I could easily pass an hour on this game while watching horrid TV (I love you, Kendra!) or talking on the phone.
So I decided to cut out the game and instead fold some laundry, put away some dishes and sort through mail while I chatted on the phone or watched TV. I also got back into regularly checking my favorite blogs.
It also freed up time to read, prepare some things for the baby and get my life more organized. I was able to flex my mundane-stuff muscle, which is good, because I’m getting more and more convinced that if I can develop that into a stronger muscle, I’ll be better able to appreciate and enjoy the less mundane blessings in life.
OK, it’s taken me a while to post a belly picture, but more because I’ve been busy with other things (the usual culprits: work, the holidays, sleeping…). This picture is already out of date, but I figured it would be good to give some context. The below picture is from 19 weeks:
Frank and I are so blessed and this Thanksgiving I wanted to spend some time reflecting on three big blessings
Thing 1: Family
My family – immediate and extended – is such a huge blessing. My family is a collection of vibrant, fun, interesting people with very distinct personalities. This means that life is always interesting! Even between Frank and I, we are both very different people, but we really enjoy each other greatly. We are both so excited to add two new little personalities to our family! I can’t wait to see the little people they are and how they fit into our already personality-filled family 🙂
Thing 2: Friends
Frank and I have been so fortunate to have wonderful friends. We have friends that are close by in geographic proximity and we have friends all around the country, but thanks to technology, we never seem to be far apart.
Thing 3: The Tough Stuff
For the past few years, I’ve realized how grateful I am for the difficult times. Even though it’s rough, I’ve noticed that my faith is strengthened, my marriage grows and my friends become closer as we go through challenges. I have a hard time expressing myself sometimes about how I’m feeling, so having this blog as an outlet as well as close friends to talk to about the things we’ve experienced has made it all the easier. But without the difficult times, I wouldn’t appreciate the good times as much, either.
Today I am 30.
On November 16, 1980 at 8:55 p.m. after 24 hours of labor, I was finally born. My mom was quite happy to be done with the whole ordeal and to have a little baby girl.
I really don’t recall how I felt about the whole ordeal. Probably annoyed. I mean, I had a direct source of food, it was warm and I had never experienced having a dirty diaper.
And here I am, finally 30.
I don’t think most people say “finally 30”. I think most people are like, “crap, I’m 30. Best years, gone!”
But I think I was kind of born 30 ish. I was a lame teenager. I wore elastic waistband jeans and played the cello. In college, I went to ALL of my classes and it wasn’t until I graduated that I realized that maybe I could’ve slept in a few more mornings. Frank and I were married when he was 23 and I was 22. We built our first house when we were 25.
Becoming 30 sort of justifies all of my middle-aged behavior and interests.
And I love it.
Hello 30, I love you.
Since twins are not generally allowed to go past 38 weeks, the 19 week point is technically halfway to our due date (March 28th, 2011)! This is both very exciting and very surreal. It feels like time has flown since we found out that we were pregnant until now, and with the holidays coming up, I know time will continue to fly by and the twins will be here before we know it. This means that we have to really consider all the details about the babies’ room, what we need, etc. And there are so many options! It’s overwhelming!
What’s new with the babies: According to our friends at Babycenter.com, our babies are quickly developing their senses and may even be able to hear our voices! The development calendars indicate that we should be feeling the babies move around now, which we have felt them move a few times, but nothing consistently. The babies are each the size of a large heirloom tomato.
How I feel: I am still feeling pretty good. I am starting to show (will post a belly picture later) and have gained a little bit of weight. I am still tired a lot, taking naps when I can. I manage to make it through the week without napping at work, but the weekends are ALL about sleep. The tiredness makes Fridays the hardest day of the week for me – I really want to do something fun, BUT I am SO tired, I’d really rather eat some soup and go to bed. I am enjoying as much sleep as possible now because I hear from other parents that there is not much sleep to be had later on.
Other thoughts: Sometimes it is very hard for me to emotionally and mentally grasp that I am pregnant, much less with twins. There is a part of me that is still wondering, “is this really happening??” I think I have normal fears that most expectant moms have, but sometimes I know that I am “spiraling” into a bad round of thoughts and probably need to take a nap.
Also, I found out that there was a set of twins born weighing a combined 27 lbs. Yes, that’s right – a 14 lb and 13 lb baby. So, it appears we have a new goal to pursue here. I think that if we can hit the 20 lb mark, that will probably still be pretty news-worthy around here. What do you all think??
What’s new with the babies: The babies are now about 5 inches long and their skeletal structures are hardening from a soft cartilage into bone. I think that I’ve felt them both move, but I can’t be 100% sure. The books and the websites all say that you should feel the babies move between 16 and 20 weeks, but I have to say that I’ve known quite a few moms that did not feel the babies move until they were past 20 weeks.
I had an appointment with my CNM last week Thursday. They finished my NT scan blood work data (checking for trisomy 18, Downs Syndrome, etc) and checked for the heartbeats with a fetal doppler. Baby A (I think it’s a girl) was moving so much that she had a hard time tracking “her” down, but we did find it. Baby A’s heartrate came in at 162 bpm. Baby B (perhaps a boy?) is much more chill and the CNM found “his” heartbeat right away (150 bpm).
How I feel: Still feeling tired, but it’s manageable. We went out for dinner last Friday with friends and I had chorizo and experienced my first case of HORRIFIC heartburn. Like, epically bad. I will not relay to you the subsequent events of the evening – just know that it was not pretty. I am definitely showing at this point, but maternity shirts are still (as expected) quite baggy on me.
Other thoughts: We are in the early stages of trying to figure out what to register for and what we are going to need. I look at the list and research a few things, then put it away and watch TV. So yeah, it’s going to take us a while to figure it all out…. But that’s ok, we still have 21 weeks to go!
emmy kay and co. 