HOLY BIG BABIES, BATMAN!

Hello everyone. Well, I am 35 weeks pregnant today. Holy cow! I had a Non Stress Test (NST) on Monday to check fluid levels and heartbeats. Both were fine for both babies. Both babies were still breech at that time.

Yesterday I had an ultrasound. Well, bowl me over with a feather, both babies are now head down and ready to go! WHAT? After two months of planning on a scheduled C-Section, we might have the possibility of doing this the old-fashioned way! Can you believe it? I have emailed my OB to find out what the plan is from here. The previous plan was to have an amnio to check for lung maturity. If the lungs were fine, then we were going to schedule the C-Section. Now, maybe we will be scheduling an induction. I am so ready to have these babies and am ready to go when she gives me the go-ahead.

At the ultrasound, we also found out that I am growing some big ol' babies! Now, the ultrasound measurements can be up to a pound off, but this is what we found out yesterday. Baby Girl Taylor (A) is measuring about 6 lbs. Taylor is growing right on schedule and is an appropriate weight for her gestational age. Baby Boy Jordan (B) is measuring a whopping 8 lbs! He is a bruiser and is measuring a few weeks ahead. So, if these measurements are to be believed, I am carrying around approximately 14 pounds of baby! Now that's a lot of baby!

That's all our news for now. We will keep you updated. I am hoping that we have babies in the next week or so. I could probably stand to wait for two more weeks, but that would be about it! I am pretty uncomfortable already! Ciao!

The belly...and an update

So, this is what a 34 week pregnant-with-twins belly looks like. And check out my cute monkey pajamas! Take a close look, folks, as the next time you will see a belly like this will likely be when you are at the circus side show! Holy cow, right? LOL! I have only gained 24 pounds so far, and the OB is just thrilled with that. Given that I was an *ahem* "ample" woman to begin with, I was not expected to gain tons and tons. It will be interesting to see how fast the weight comes off, as most of that is probably actual babies, placentas, and other good junk that will all come out at once. Thank goodness for small favors, right?

Anyway, the belly is doing well, but it sure makes it tough for mama to sleep and get around. As you can imagine, any shoes that do not require tying are now my favorites!

In other baby news, the babies are both still breech, as they have been for the past month or so. This means that, unless they turn head down in the next few weeks (which is unlikely), I will be having a planned and scheduled C-Section. In some ways this might be good: I will get two extra weeks of paid time off through state disability, I will not have to exhaust myself with 30 hours of labor, and the babies will come out looking lovely and without cone-heads, like I had and that my dad made fun of when he saw me. Mom wanted to kick his ass, apparently!

Next week I have a non-stress test (NST) to measure the babies' heart rates and also an ultrasound for growth. If the babies are nice and meaty, like we think they are, then I will have an amnio to check for lung maturity. If the lungs are mature, then we will schedule a C-Section for the following week, when I will be about 36 weeks pregnant. This is considered full-term for twins.

So, that's all the news. Hope you have enjoyed the pictures and the updates. Watch this space, as more fun is to come, for sure! Thanks to everyone who is leaving supportive comments, emailing, and calling to check in on us. It is nice to know that you all are out there and thinking about us and our babies. We can't wait to meet them, either!

The gear...

Last weekend, Jean and Aimee came over to help with gear assembly. Well, mostly Penny and Jean put stuff together (since they are so super BUTCH!) and Aimee and I socialized and played with baby Garett. Thanks to Aimee and Jean for a lovely day of friends, eating, gear assembly, baby practicing, and board game playing. We had tons of fun! Above is the full-size swing we bought with some of the generous Babies R Us gift cards that people gave us. Love the pattern. It is such a nice color green, too!
Above is the table-top bouncy seat from my Uncle Rob and Aunt Cecilia. It is super soft and we have to constantly battle the cats to stay the hell off of it! We have all the gear in the back/guest/baby room, and it is all protected with big waterproof pads to keep dust and cat hair off of the nice clean surfaces. Thanks Uncle Rob and Cecilia!
This is the super soft travel swing that Jess and Chris bought us. It will be put up on a table to be off the floor. We love it because the toys on the mobile are super cute, and the swing folds up very compactly when not in use. Great for storage in a small house and even better to keep kitty paws and butts out of the swing! Thanks, guys!
Above is the twin Pack-and-Play that Bill and Michelle bought for us. It has two basinetts on top, where the bambinos will sleep, until they reach a combined weight of 30 lbs. It is a great height next to our bed and we keep looking at it and not being able to believe that there will be two babies in there in just a few more weeks. Holy cow! Thanks Bill and Michelle! We love it!

The other big gear that we have, but have not yet put together, is the twin stroller and the two infant car seats that snap into the stroller. Many thanks to Mom and Grandma for these generous gifts. We are gonna assemble the stroller soon. The car seats will be installed once we have an appointment with the California Highway Patrol car seat technicians.

Happy Spring!

Hello all! I know we are a bit into Spring already, but Happy Spring to you all! And Happy Easter (yesterday) to those who celebrate. All is well here in pregnancy land, except for the normal fun of exhaustion, not being able to sleep through the night, frequent peeing, and the inability to tie my own shoes with ease. Good times!

I am in my 33rd week of pregnancy now. At our appointment with the OB last week, she told us that once we pass the 34 week mark, they will not stop labor once it starts! Holy crap! That's in less than two weeks. Wow! At our last ultrasound on 3/21, the babies were growing well and all appeared to be continuing as expected. Taylor weighed in at 3 lbs, 3 ounces. This puts her in the 50th percentile. Jordan weighed in at a whoppping 4 lbs, 11 ounces! This puts him in the 75th percentile! He is gonna be our big boy and she is gonnd be our delicate little girl, it seems! Funny stuff. The docs are not concerned about a difference in size, unless one being bigger is making the smaller one fall off of their own growth curve. With Taylor still being in the 50th percentile, she is clearly still growing fine and holding her own. Ultrasound measurements can be off, so the kids might each be slightly smaller or larger than predicted. Only time will tell.

I have been having pretty frequent contractions (just the practice ones - Braxton Hicks), but they are mostly just tightening feelings, without much pain. At this point, the OB is predicting that the babies will make an appearance sometime around 35-37 weeks. So, that puts us with another 2-4 weeks of waiting. Seems like a long time!

This is my last week of work and I am so thankful for that! I worked part-time last week (just 3 days) and am working just three days this week, too. I am at work today, Monday, and then I have Tuesday and Wednesday off. Thursday I have my last Cystic Fibrosis Clinic, and then Friday will be a lovely final day of getting ready to be gone for about 3-4 months. I can hardly believe this week is finally here.

That's about it for now, I guess. We need to take some more pictures and put them up. Penny has been working hard on the former guest room, turned baby room. The babies will sleep in our room in a twin bassinett, but the other room has the changing table, dresser, rocker and mucho storage of baby stuff. Who knew they needed so much? We have a lot of gear to put together (bouncy seat, swings, stroller, bassinet, etc) and we are planning on working on that next weekend. And, we are making an appointment soon to have the carseats installed at one of the local car seat clinics at California Highway Patrol. Love that CA has certified carseat techs to make sure that you have installed your carseats safely and correctly. And it's a free service!

Will try to be better about more posting over the next few weeks. Watch this space for all the up and coming excitement, news, and pics!