Pregnancy: 24 Weeks

The news this week was some lovely contractions on Thursday night. I woke up about 1 am with them and they were pretty uncomfortable (enough to keep me awake) and radiating down my legs. The radiating down my legs was what scared me, along with them being 5 minutes apart for an hour. I got up and sat in the lazy boy for a while and they got less intense and then less consistent. I thought for sure I was going to end up getting checked out in L&D.

I went to see Dr. P the next morning just to make sure everything was okay.  He ended up seeing me for a full appointment so I didn't have to go back the following Tuesday. He physically checked me and I was not dilated and no signs of preterm labor. HUGE sigh of relief. It really put my mind at ease. I am not sure how many pounds I gained but I think it was 2 or 3. I am measuring 32 weeks! Dr. P told me I have to keep in mind that everything I am feeling is what I would feel as a woman 32 weeks pregnant. I do forget that sometimes. That means at about 30-32 weeks I will be essentially carrying around a full term pregnancy. Yikes.

24 weeks is the first big milestone for twins. If they were born right now they most likely would be okay. They would have some serious NICU time and possibly long term developmental issues but they would probably be okay. Obviously we pray to God that they stay in as long as possible but I can breathe a teeny tiny sigh of relief I have taken care of them inside of there so far.

Baby A is still head down but Miss B is now head up. It will be interesting to see how much they switch. So far A has stayed pretty consistently head down. Keep it up baby!! LeeAnn did some measurements and she estimates that they each weigh 1lb 7oz right now. 

They are the size of an ear of corn, almost a foot long from head to heel and have gained almost a 1/4 pound since last week.

Maelyn Erin McDonald

One of my best friends Meredith gave birth to a sweet baby girl last Thursday. Adam and I drove 2.5 hours after work to see her and got home at 3 in the morning but I am so glad I was there.

There is just just something about births. Each and every one is an absolute miracle and I am so glad I got to be a little part of this one. On my way home from work I was talking to Nicole about going to see Meredith that night. She told me to bring my camera and try to get some pictures. I am no Nicole Barczak but I gave it my best shot.

I have always loved telling a story. That is why I love to take pictures, scrapbook, and blog. I love to tell the story with pictures. Photojournalism was my thing before I even knew it was a thing. I absolutely treasure the pictures that were taken on the day Grace was born. They may not be perfect and they aren't that many but they capture such an amazing moment in life. People talk about the death bed, what about the birthing bed? Relationships are solidified, things are said that will never be forgotten, and lives are changed forever.

To my surprise we were met at the door by Mike who said Mere was dilated to a 10 and ready to push. Even more surprising Mere wanted us to come in for a minute. She had received an epidural but it was wearing off and she was feeling some pretty major pain and pressure. We were sent to the hall while she pushed but got to come back in as soon as Miss Maelyn Erin entered the world.

Here is a few of my favorites and a link to a slideshow at my phanfare sight. Click on "Start Slideshow" to view a full screen slide show of her birth.

"What happens at the cottage...

....stays at the cottage".

Ahhhhhh, girlfriends. I am just so blessed and lucky to have found this group of girls. They "fill my bucket" hahahah- that was for you Nic.

This past weekend we held our annual girls weekend at Duck Lake. This turned out to be the perfect location/retreat for everyone. I did take some teasing about "holding out on them" in terms of access to this big, beautiful lake house but I took it like a champ like I ALWAYS do :) We had a big, long table with a lake view to do all our scrapbooking, we cooked our own meals, talked, laughed (a lot), enjoyed some spirits (except big preggo here), went out to dinner in EL, and just enjoyed being together.

Best friends a girl could ask for. The kind of friends that:

*can take it as well as they dish it out
*love to laugh and have FUN
*self deprecating and don't take themselves too seriously
*are always there to lend a helping hand and will move heaven and earth to do so
*aware of eachother strengths and weaknesses and embrace each of them
*aren't jealous or catty but rejoice together in happiness and grieve together in saddness
*know sometimes it sucks being a mommy but ultimately it is the best thing that ever happened to us
*can be our true, authentic selves (underwear or not, who's with me?) hahaha

And most importantly they laugh at my jokes and think I am kind of funny. I guess that makes up for the fact that they use me for my free gas and lake house.......

KIDDING!!

This is really a rare thing and I hope each one of you know how much you mean to me. Now, if you would like to read more about the weekend head over to these blogs:

Katie's Bullet Point list

Nicole's Recap

Leslie's Top 10

LeeAnn's Ladies Night

Jessica's Girls Weekend

Pregnancy: Week 23

No big updates here. Unfortunately, I don't have a belly pic or an ultrasound. I have not seen the little bugs since my 20 week survey!! That seems like an eternity to me :) My belly continues to grow at an astounding rate. Although, people do tell me I am "all belly". This make me feel good and I do appreciate the compliment. People usually do say really nice things to a pregnant woman. But, what I am thinking in my head is, I am only 6 months and I am going to be fat everywhere in no time. While I think my belly is kinda cute (albiet large) right now I think they are kind of crazy anyway because take a gander up north at the pornstar boobs. My butt may look smaller but it is just an optical illusion in comparison to the giant belly.

People also say, "You are small for carrying twins". This makes me wonder what people expect to see of a woman pregnant with twins. Do they have this crazy clown picture in their head of this belly that is as big as a house? Then I think well maybe they mean my actual physical stature being that I am only 5'2". Like, holy crap, you are small and you are in big trouble lady. News flash, right?

Speaking of things people say (wow this post is getting waaaayyyy off topic) I also always get asked if I concieved these twins naturally or through fertility. Like they are less special if they were concieved using medical intervention? That must really annoy people who have used fertility treatments. Isn't that kind of a personal question for some stranger to be asking of someone? I need to come up with a good retort to to this one, like "Nope, we did it the good ol fashioned way!". Not to mention I just got done telling you they were identical. Don't even get me started down THAT road :) I usually just say it was an act of God or something like that. That seems to satisfy them.

Well, the babes are the size of mangos. About 11 inches long and just over a pound.

Ohhhhhh, and take a guess at the twin birthday and size poll on the right side of my page. I only have 12 guesses (6 people). Only 14 weeks left!!

When You Wish Upon a Star

Disney was AMAZING. We has a blast. I have to admit that it was kind of a dumb idea. Take your 2.5 year old who doesn't even like to visit Santa to Disney World of all places. Oh yeah and 5 months pregnant with twins to boot!

We were supposed to go in January but it just wasn't in the cards because I was soooo sick. Thank goodness we waited and went the end of February instead. Leslie put us in contact with her wonderfully sweet aunt Janette who got us into the parks for free because she works for the Disney cruise lines. Perfect strangers and she gave us the gift of being able to do everything we wanted to on our vacation. Kindness and generocity must run in Leslie's family :)

We got there on a Wednesday, leaving behind a awful snow storm that we drove through on the way to the airport. Orlando was raining and kind of cold so we decided to go to Downtown Disney instead of Sea World as originally planned. Good thing becasue that was the night that the killer whale killed his trainer. Which we had no clue of until people started texting us thinking we were there.

We decided to go to Sea World the next day anyway. Only the whale show was canceled and I had already purchased tickets online before we left. Grace loved the dolphins and penguins. We even got an up close and personal view of a dolphin feeding and a dolphin nursery. The Dolphin show was really cool, it gave me goosebumps there was so much going on.

The next day we went to Magic Kingdom. A little princesses paradise. (notice the Minnie Mouse dress that my dear friend Lori gave her, she wanted to wear it every day after this and since)

Grace loved Dumbo. While waiting in line for dumbo we were surrounded by 4 sets of twins, 3 of them being identical! Can't be that hard if they are bringing them to Disney, right? lol.

This was just a magical day from start to finish. Grace pretty much loved every minute except the dark scary rides like Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan. We just happened to get caught in the center of the afternoon street parade and had a 360 degree view of the festivities. This is where the floats stop and the characters dance and sing and the audience is encouraged to participate. G danced in front of Minnie and Minnie came over and shook her hand. You should have seen her face, pure joy. I actually got teary eyed it was so special. Pregnancy hormones or not, it was a moment and I will never forget it.

From that moment on Minnie was pretty much her favorite. She really liked the princess show and anything having to do with the castle too. Adam is pretty much the best daddy to little girls ever. He totally embraced all the girly Disney things and got into it as much as G did. There is just something about seeing my very masculine, strong husband love his little princess. Absolutely melts my heart.

That night we ate dinner in the park and stayed for the fireworks. She was amazed by Tinkerbell flying out of the castle but was a little concerned as to where she went and if she was going to come back to the castle to sleep. We had to field Tinkerbell questions all the way back to our hotel.

The next day we went to Epcot. It was rainy and cold so it was a good day to do all the inside Epcot things. The first thing we did (and probably the highlight) was meet Daisy. You can just see in her face how thrilled she is. (and I thought she would be terrified- shows how much I know).

Grace liked most of the 3D shows too. Not sure if the actual show or the glasses were the best part for her.

On Sunday we went to Animal Kindom. This was Adam and I's favorite park from when we went in 2005. We ended up having a beautiful sunny day for it too. G really liked the dinosaur ride (just like dumbo). Daddy is riding in the back.

She also liked the play area with the dino bone dig. The safari rife is always fun. We saw all of the animals pretty up close and personal. Grace really liked the baby elephant. Daddy bought her some Sleeping Beauty shades to keep the sun out of her eyes. Finding Nemo the Musical was also really neat and new since we had been last. BUT a dark autotorium and no nap and G was out cold about half way through. Adam and I enjoyed it anyway.

The highlight for Grace was once again meeting Minnie. This is my favorite picture from the trip. She is the happiest little girl in the world.

We ended our day at AK with another really cool parade. G waved to all the characters. It was pretty much the cutest thing ever and they must have thought so too because a few (like Pluto) came over to give her some love too.

The next day we sadly departed for Michigan. We wished we had just a litlle more time in this fantasyland. Grace was just such a joy the whole week and it was so fun for us to see her enjoy it so much. It was a perfect last vacation as just the 3 of us :)

Poop, Pee, Potties, and Panties

Potty training oh potty training. I was pretty sure Grace was going to be the 5 year old at kindergarden wearing diapers. She has this stubborn streak and if she doesn't want to do something there is no changing her mind. Anytime we even mentioned the potty she said "No potty!" and "I NOT a big girl, I'm a baby".

Not that we tried that hard. I attempted to do the one day potty training method last summer and it was a disaster. She obviously wasn't ready. I decided to give it another 6 months.

There was always something, I said, "after the holidays" then "after Disney". I was just too sick in December and January and then just too tired to bother. BUT I knew if I waited any longer I was going to be too pregnant and too big and there was a chance she would regress when the twins were born. So I decided this was the weekend. We were going to go cold turkey. No more diapers, panties only. Knowing my daughter, she would be very upset to make a mess in her pants and on the floor and I hoped to God that would motivate her. I started prepping her on Monday, telling her that after her diapers were gone, there were no more. That all the teeny tiny babies needed diapers and she was a big girl who goes pee-pee and poo-poo on the potty and wears panties.

Well, all that prep must have worked because on Wednesday at Nana's house she decided she wanted to wear Cinderella panties. Papa told her if she was going to wear big girl pants she had to go on the potty. She was finally ready! My mom sat with her and coaxed her and cheered her on for hours. She finally did it and was so proud. We all continued to work with her and our biggest obstacle was that she could hold it and hold it for hours. On Saturday, she finally turned it on instead of waiting until it fell out of her. We even took her to the mall and she went on a big potty. HUGE success!! She still won't tell us when she has to go, we just see her kind of dancing around or we just set her on the potty and she goes if she has to. Poop is a whole other story but she has gone in the potty multiple times after a lot of crying and drama. BUT for all intensive purposes Miss G is potty trained! Woo-hoo!!!

She gets a Hershey Kiss and gets to put a sticker on her potty chart when she goes in the potty. She is so proud of herself!!

My big girl ...*sniff* *sniff*

I am trying not to think about the next time we go through this it will be x2.......

...or the fact that we get a whole 4 months diaper free? lol

Pregnancy: Week 22

I knew I was going to screw myself. Put it out there in the the blogosphere and it will come back and bite you in the ass. I was feeling all honkey dory there for a few weeks and then I started growing at an astounding rate. Feeling uncomfortable, having trouble sleeping, feeling like I can't breathe, getting fatigued doing simple every day tasks. Ugh, guess the honeymoon is over.

We have been potty training Grace. She was upstairs and started yelling she needed to poop. In order to catch her in time I ran and then took the stairs 2 at a time to get to her. I thought I was going to have a stroke. 22 weeks people! Have I mentioned I am 5'2"?! Oh yeah, carrying 2 humans?

I went maternity shopping yesterday because yes, thats right, I am already growing out of my maternity clothes. In order to fit my big belly shirts are giant in the shoulders, arms, and everywhere else. I look like a ridiculous freaking tent. Meanwhile, I have Miss 18-Weeks-First-Time-Preggo next to me in the dressing room who barely has a freaking bump. She is all happy and excited and bubbling over with anticipation. I wanted to punch her in the face. Yup, cause I am a really good person like that.

Anywho, I am going to try and be a better person. I am blessed to be carrying 2 babies. I know that. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. But good GOD it's hard sometimes!! And scary...and gives me anxiety. Nothing a few bags of Hershey Kisses won't fix.

The babies are the size of spaghetti squash this week. They are 11 inches from head to heel and weigh about a pound each.

Grace's Front Rolls

Our little tumbler in the making:

Pregnancy: Week 21

I almost am afraid to write this. Afraid I will jinx myself. But I feel good. Really good in fact. My energy level is not too bad, I am contantly hungry, and I am not too uncomfotable yet. All I think about is food: what I am going to eat, when I am going to eat it. It is crazy to think a month ago I couldn't eat anything. I could eat my weight in sushi, mexican, and chocolate. Ahhhh, the sweet honeymoon period of pregnancy :)

This week was my "official" 20 week survey ultrasound. Usually people find out what they are having during this ultrasound but lucky me I have my girl LeeAnn who told me weeks ago we were expecting 2 more little girls :) They measured my cervix and checked my placenta, measured each of the babies to track their development. Everything looked good. The babies were measuring right on schedule and while baby B was a little smaller it wasn't by much. They worry about twin to twin transfusion syndrome with identical twins sharing the same placenta. It is diagnosed by more that a 20 percent difference in size/weight. My placenta also appeared to be somewhat close to the opening of my cervix but they determined it was nothing to worry about right now. It is pretty common for it to move farther up in the uterus as the uterus grows. The twins were both head down and they are still having trouble determining baby A and baby B. Baby A is labeled such because in theory she is closest to the opening of the cervix and will be the first one out. The issue is that they keep switching places! Sometimes A's head is farther down, sometimes B's head is farther down. For now we are sticking with A being on my right side and B being on my left side.

My doctors appointment went well. I gained 4 pounds in 2 weeks making my total weight gain thus far 14 pounds. WOW! Nothing like vacation to pack on the pounds. I was measuring about the same as 2 weeks ago which I found interesting. 27 cm which if I were having a singleton would put me at about 27 weeks or 7 weeks ahead. They measure your uterus from pelvic bone to fundus (the top of the uterus). For singleton pregnancies every cm coresponds to another week. So, in essence I should be carrying what will feel like a full term baby here in a month or so!! Dr. P told me that as long as baby A continues to be head down he will let me deliver them naturally. I would really like to avaid a c-section but we shall see what these little ones have in store for me. Lots of time and room to move still.

The babies are about the size of carrots. 10.5 onches from head to heel and weighing about 3/4 of a pound.

In other news, I took a little tumble down the basement stairs today. I was fine and so were the babies but I bought myself 4 hours in L&D to monitor the babies.  I am still struggling with my sciatic nerve and sometimes my hip/leg just gives out so down I tumbled. I have a nice bruise on my butt but everyone is fine otherwise, thank God.