Baby x 2 = Update

Today I had my third prenatal checkup. I am 17 weeks and 5 days along (almost 4 ½ months). Matthew had to work so I took my mom along for my visit since I knew the doctor was going to do a sonogram.

The babies are so much bigger now that he can no longer get their entire body in the picture. They both look great and very healthy. Their spines are straight. We even saw their ribs and diaphragm. It was amazing to see how much more developed they are in three short weeks.

Both babies have a strong heartbeat. I got to hear this for the first time today. It was fast and loud! I am so thankful that they are growing and developing as they should.

I go in for my Level 2 sonogram on Tuesday, October 14. This sonogram will go over all the health aspects of the babies. We will know then for sure what we are having. In the meantime, the doctor looked between legs today and didn’t see any little pickles. He is 80% sure that both babies are girls.

Right after I found out I was pregnant I had a dream that I was pregnant with twins and that they were both girls. Maybe my intuition was right after all. Kinda freaky to think about!

Anyhow, my cervix is holding up, but the babies are putting pressure on it. The doctor has decreased my workout activity to a quarter of a mile. He said that is like walking once around the block. He said I can no longer bend and lift anything. I’ve gained three pounds. He sees me again in three weeks.

He also told me ideally it would be best in November if I only worked part time. Not sure what’s going to happen yet, but it looks like I could end up on bed rest a lot sooner than expected. I’m going to talk to my principal and see if my mom can volunteer in my room and do my walking back and forth to the office for me. That might prolong my chance to stay working longer.

The main thing is keeping these babies in as long as possible. I’ll do whatever it takes to give them the best chance and start to life in the outside world.

Bug Guts!

The last couple of days have been spent driving down the road trying to find a clean place on my windshield to see out. My windshield was loaded with smeared bug guts and no washer fluid under the hood to clean them off with! Unfortunately, driving past the local feed yard on my way home every day lends itself to bug suicide on your windshield and grill. I'm not kidding when I say I bet on a calm day I can kill a hundred or more bugs in the two minutes it takes to drive past the stink yard. (I've never thought about this until now, but apparently bugs like poop, or they can't smell!)

So today as I was leaving work, I noticed that I didn't really need to put the sun shade in my car this morning. I seriously had enough guts to block out all UVA/UVB rays. I also noticed that my car is flat out the filthiest int he parking lot! I decide to take it through the car wash. I pull into Quick Quack and get my car all aligned in the the runners that pull you through. Three guys surround my car and start the process of debugging. One of these guys in particular made me laugh so hard. He stared at the windshield and grill of my blazer with monumental disgust. If I could have read his mind, he would have been thinking something like..."Geez, when is the last time this girl washed her car? Does she drive around looking for bugs to murder?" He was appalled and it was written all over his face.

It took these guys three tries with the bug juice (the stuff that's supposed to take the bugs off your windshield when they are dried and baked on) and three go overs with the scrub brush before they finally hit the switch to let me continue on with the rest of my car cleansing process. I laughed the whole way through the car wash!

Baby Names and Cribs, Oh My!

For those of you that have never named a baby, it's a lot harder than it looks! If you think it's hard coming up with a first and middle name for one baby, try two names for two babies! This increases your names when you don't yet know the sex of the babies to eight names!

When we found out I was pregnant, we began looking at names almost immediately. We started a list and realized that agreeing on a name was going to be difficult pretty quickly. We even purchased a baby naming book that claimed it had over 50,000 names. (It was overrated. Unless you're into really weird names!) The list of boys and girls names got placed aside and we slept on it...a lot!

Once in a while over the last four months I would look at the list of names and cross some off. They no longer sounded as appealing for whatever reason. That's okay though, it was narrowing our list of 40+ names down a bit. I think the job of naming our babies was especially difficult for me because I've taught school for 5 years. You can't help but think of some little hellion from they past! Unfortunately, lots of names go down the crapper when you're a teacher!

Saturday night we finally decided to get serious and lock in some names. Surprisingly enough, we narrowed down boys names quickly. Girls names on the other hand took some time. We were patient with each other, even when my husband decided to spout of every decidedly ethnic-sounding name and my quick retort was NO! With that being said here are the names we picked for our little ones...

Carter Grant (first choice for a boy if we have a boy and a girl)

Daniel Ellis

Addilyn Kate (first choice for a girl if we have a boy and a girl)

Ella Grace

Oh, and in other news, I was informed that cribs take 16-20 weeks to get in. Matthew and I ordered one of our cribs this weekend from JCPenney. It is back ordered until October 25. I assume it will ship after that. We can hope anyway. We will order the other crib next month. If we do have a girl, it's definitely going to be a girly piece of furniture! In the meantime, if the second crib isn't in on time, the babies will be small enough that they can share until it does come in. Now, we just need to paint and install the new floors in the nurseries!

Our Furry Felines

Ahh, the joys of cats! I'm not being biased when I say that we have very smart and sneaky cats. Matthew and I both suffer from allergies, but he is especially allergic to our kitties. To help keep cat hair off the beds we put the kitties in the utility room at night with the dogs. (Not to mention they are HUGE bed hogs!) Needless to say, Chloe and Grace are less than thrilled to be trapped in a small room with the dogs, They are less than thrilled about the dogs period!

It didn't take our girls long to catch on to my bedtime routine. I get my school stuff all together and put it on the table, iron clothes for the next day, put on pajamas and finish getting ready for bed. In the short time this take me, the cats disappear. They know I am about to let the dogs inside and put them in their kennels for the night. They know they are next! The search begins! At first I could pull out the catnip and my little stoners would come running out from their hiding places. Now, not a chance. They are wedged under a bed somewhere and you practically have to force yourself under the bed and pry them out. This is getting much harder to do with my growing belly.

I've wised up to their tactics. Before I even begin my bedtime routine, I shut all the bedroom doors. The girls are usually in the living room with me in the evenings. Chloe, our little black and white fur ball, made me laugh so hard one night as she tried to find a new hiding place in the living room. She flattened out her tubby body (don't ask me how) and scooted under the track on the treadmill. We probably wouldn't have seen her if she had remembered to pull her tail under as well! Tonight Grace attempted to to the same thing!

Grace has been needy lately. She follows me around from room to room like a dog and talks to me. This is her way of telling me she needs loves. She won't stop until I stop what I'm doing and pick her up. If I don't love on her long enough, the process of chasing me around the house will start all over again. Chloe is Chloe. She perches on the coffee table and stares at you while you watch TV. About the only time she doesn't stare is if you get a fuzzy blanket to cover up with, or bring something home from school that needs to be cut out. The blanket means she wants to lay on you and school stuff means she wants to lay on it! She will walk slowly around the cushions on the sofa and wait for you to tell her no. She's silly!

Fall Foliage

This summer I faithfully nurtured my garden that my parents painstakingly helped me start the previous summer. Finally, after all that hard work, most of the flowers are blooming at the same time. My cannas are taller than me and my mums have a circumference of at least four feet. Apparently I've got a green thumb! It makes me sad that in a very short time the colors will disappear and be replaced by dead, brown sticks. I desperately want to take a drive through the mountains and see the changing leaves. I love autumn this year.

16 Weeks

Matthew took a picture of me this morning. I am 16 weeks today. Only 12 more days until we hopefully (*fingers-crossed*) find out what we are having!

Second Prenatal Visit Update

Today I saw my doctor for my second visit. He did another sonogram, but didn't share pictures with me. Everything looks good. The babies look healthy and on track with their growth. We should find out the sex of the babies in three weeks on my next visit. It's going to be a long three weeks! The suspense is killing us, not to mention my mother who has been sewing up a storm.

The babies gave me a laugh as the doctor and I watched them through the sonogram. They are already your typical siblings. I wondered when the fighting would begin between the two and found my worst fears confirmed today. Fighting starts in the womb! Baby A, the one on my right side, was kicking baby B. Baby B in return, punched Baby A back! It was comical to watch, but even more amazing to see that life inside of you move so freely. Since the babies are in two separate sacks it's not even possible for them to touch each other.

I am 14 weeks and 4 days. I officially entered my second trimester 4 days ago. Matthew took a picture of my growing belly at 13 weeks, so I will post that picture since I have no sonogram pictures to post! I will keep everyone updated on how things are going!