Thank you!

I would like to kiss the person who invented Tums. And they're tasty too which I think is an added bonus.

I look ridiculous.

So here I am at 32 weeks:

I don't even look like a real person anymore. I look like I have stuffed a huge pillow under my shirt and am pretending to be pregnant. But everyone knows I'm really not because you can't get THAT big. Right? It looks like there's no way I should still be standing up.

My sweet husband brought me flowers today. Because, as he said, "Its hard being pregnant." It is.

Our rocking chair for the nursery came yesterday. Everything is finally here. You know, except the babies.

I almost made Steve take me to the hospital last night. I dreamed that my water broke and when I woke up I thought it was real. Then I finally figured out that my water couldn't have broken because I wasn't wet. Nice.

31 weeks +2 days

We are all healthy but at least one of us is very uncomfortable! The doctor said that the babies look great and they are both head-down!!! Hopefully that will keep us out of c-section land but we'll see. I couldn't remember how much I weighed last time and I forgot to ask so I'm not sure how much weight I gained. Not much I don't think. The girls are getting big. They are gaining up to a half a pound per week at this point. Which makes for chunky babies! I'm hoping for 6 pounds each when they're born but that means carrying around 12 pounds of baby until then.

Today I went to the store after my doctor's appt. and a lady walking past me said "You look like you're ready to have that baby!" I just smiled and said "Any day now" and kept walking. White lies...

This is what I look like today. As my doctor says "You are 31 weeks with twins. That's very pregnant."

Don't Kill Me, Jen.

I was looking at some old photos (to remind myself that I used to be skinny and will be again) and came across a few worth sharing.

This is the day (almost 4 years ago) when Steve graduated from Basic Training. Isn't he the cutest soldier you've ever seen?

This is my sister-in-law, Jenny. She doesn't normally dress like this- I totally made her. She's going to kill me for putting this on here but she is one of my favorite people. She will dress up like this for you if you need to smile. She's a brand-new nurse and I hope her patients know how lucky they are!

Now for some new photos! More nursery photos actually. There are several I can't post yet because they show the girls' names but they're coming just as soon as the little angels are born.

This is the left-hand side of the nursery. I made the curtains and my mom helped re-cover the seat of the chair. It matches the middle fabric on the pillow.

This actually isn't in the nursery- its the hall right outside. My mom stitched these family-trees for the girls. I love that they have something special that they can keep forever. I was going to add a close-up picture but then I got paranoid that someone would use the info to steal my identity or something. So please don't do that!

Aside from all the growing and kicking, the girls aren't doing much right now. I told Steve that the pregnancy books used to say stuff like "This week, your baby is developing eyes" or "This week, your baby's heart has started to beat." Now they just say stuff like "This week your baby weighs a half pound more than last week." Woo. Hoo. I mean, I'm glad they're growing, there's just nothing to report. We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow. I'm sure everything is just fine but its always nice to get a good report.

Nursery Pics

So here are some pictures of the nursery so far. Its almost done. Just need a hamper and to get the shelf finished so it can be hung.

These Japanese lanterns are in the corner kind-of above the babies' crib. My dad thought they were balloons and asked me if I actually thought they were going to stay blown-up for months.

We were given these Willow Tree figurines at our shower. They are going to go on the aforementioned shelf when its installed but for right now they're on the windowsill. They are just like our family- two parents and two babies!

And lastly is this bolster pillow I made. Its going to go in the rocking chair whenever it gets here. Right now its sitting on the changing table. The curtains are also made out of the dot fabric and the little chair and the lamp shade are covered in the apples and pears fabric. More pictures of those to come.

I am feeling really conflicted just now. I don't want the babies to come early AT ALL. Our goal is 38 weeks (7 weeks from now) but I am SO ready to not be pregnant anymore! It is really getting to be hard on me. We went to Wal-Mart tonight to pick up a few things and I'm exhausted. I had the hardest time walking around the store (and I'm pretty sure Steve was tired of me walking so. slow.) and I had to sit on the bench while Steve paid. I told him I think I'm just not going to be going out in public for the next 7 weeks. Which will be worth it if we can get the babies here as healthy as possible.

I'm hoping I'll be able to go to the beach with the family for Labor Day weekend but at this point, I just don't know. That's still 3 weeks away and at 34 weeks pregnant with twins, I'm not sure I'm going to feel like it. Its not that long of a car ride, we live pretty close to the beach but still... Then there's the whole issue of family photos at the beach! I don't want to be memorialized in formal family photos looking like this!

Sigh.

It is a certainty that as soon as you brag about not really having any stretch marks, you will start to get some. Good-bye beautiful skin. I'll miss you more than you know.

Oh the humanity!

It is getting VIOLENT in my belly! I wish I could take a video but my kids don't perform on demand. I can't imagine what it will be like in a few weeks but I have never seen this much activity out of my tummy before! And its kind of weird. Although really cool. Steve always seems to miss it although he said one of the babies punched him really hard the other day. At the baby shower, my sister-in-law said she was watching my tummy because she was hoping to see it move. I wish she could see this. I don't know how it compares to one baby but its pretty amazing.

69 days or less to be pregnant! I'm looking forward to being able to get up off of the floor again. To taking baths without being stuck in the bathtub until Steve comes and gets me out. To not having to answer endless rounds of "When are you due? Oh my god!" (although I'm sure that will be replaced with "Oh my God! Are they twins? How old are they? Are they identical or fraternal?"). To being able to drink soda again. To un-swollen hands. To a back that doesn't hurt (or at least hurts less, I will be holding 2 babies all day). To being able to roll over in bed at night. And best of all, to my babies! If we make it to 38 weeks, that's only 55 more days! Yay!

My goal for this week is to get all my sewing finished and then put my sewing machine away for awhile. It is too too hard for me now. I finished the nursery curtains today and my back was absolutely killing me by the time I was done. Actually, I had to take a break and come back. Yesterday I sewed 4 hooded towels with the girls' initials on them. They turned out so cute! I wish I could post pictures but that would be clues to the names so that's a no-go. Tomorrow I have to sew the other crib skirt (I already have all the pieces cut out) and a pillow for the rocking chair and then I am done! I'll post some pictures next week. My parents are coming this weekend to help wash baby clothes and organize the nursery. Its a disaster since the shower!

Baby Shower!

Our baby shower was this past Saturday and my friend Joanie (along with some help) did a FABULOUS job! Everything was so beautiful and we got lots of presents. My dad said he counted about 26 or 27 people which is pretty good since we invited 30. Steve and I feel lucky to have so many people who love us and love the babies already. Photos!

This, obviously, is me with some of the food. It was all so yummy! The shower was at Joanie's church and it was really cool the way they had it set up with this little serving area. That way we didn't have to try to arrange more tables for the food.

One of the cupcake-cakes. They were so so delicious and very cute! I ate like 3 cupcakes!

Check out that belly! Where is 8 more weeks of growth going to go?????

My best friend lives in Japan and she sent these super-cute kimonos for the babies. They won't fit for awhile but they are going to be adorable when they do.

Just an overview of the party.

One of the beautiful quilts that my mom made for the girls. She made them too many things to show pictures of them all. Some of my favorites were these pink quilts, the needlework family trees, the TINY little gold baby bracelets (she didn't make those but they were adorable) and the tiny little matching dresses. I think if she has her way, we are going to have two incredibly spoiled girls on our hands!

Some of the other things we got include: high chairs from my in-laws, books and music cd's, gift cards, a bouncer, bottles, a bathtub and lots of pink clothes! There were toys for the girls, a bumbo seat, thermometers, monitors and all kinds of other stuff. We got such a great variety of things! Thank you to everyone who came and made our day special!

Yet Another Doctor's Visit

Today I had yet another doctor's visit. I am getting really tired of making that drive. It was just a quick check-up today-
weight- up 2 pounds
blood pressure- 120/70- awesome
temperature- perfect
heartbeats- great
belly- size of someone 36 weeks pregnant with one baby

The doctor said that he read the report from the MFM doc last week and that everything looked awesome. He said that its really rare to see someone pregnant with twins that is doing this well. Actually he said I was "an A+ patient." In saying that, he also said "watch, now that I've said it, I've jinxed you." I still only have to go every two weeks for a bit longer.

We also went and took a tour of the L&D while we were at the hospital. It is really quite nice. All of the rooms have a shower and a separate whirlpool tub (!!!) and the rooms are huge. I don't know how much this actually effects us because I was told that since I'm having twins I have to deliver in an OR. They wouldn't actually let us see an OR (I guess we weren't clean enough LOL) but we were able to see the hallway where they are. I think they only have 2 ORs and there probably isn't much to see.

Tomorrow Steve and I are going to Georgia to visit our next duty station. He's supposed to be going for a class activity but its really for aviators so he doesn't have anything to do while he's there. So we are hoping to be able to check out the housing and get reacquainted with the community. Its been awhile since we've been there.

And then on Saturday, the thing I'm most excited about- the BABY SHOWER! Yay! I can't wait to see what Joanie et al. have in store for us. I'm excited to see some old friends and relatives that I haven't seen in awhile. Plus (dear to a pregnant woman's heart)- food! Can't. Wait.

First Birth Class

Yesterday we had our doula, Ashley, come and teach our first birth class. I do a LOT of reading now that I'm not working anymore so it wasn't much new information for me but I think Steve learned some things. We did a quick review of the anatomy and physiology of childbirth and then Ashley talked about what our roles were- especially hers and Steve's. I think we all know what my role is. She talked to Steve a little bit about how to be a good support person- I actually think he's going to be great. He almost always knows what to do for me when I'm sick or upset so hopefully this won't be any different. Ashley also gave us some homework as far as relaxation exercises and exercises to help move the babies into their ideal birth positions. Mostly that involves getting on the floor and doing cat stretches before bed. We also talked about nutrition and some other boring stuff. Anyway, here is the requisite belly-picture for the week-

As you can see, sometimes I trade in my purple pregnancy flip-flops for black flip-flops. Yay for shoes you can put on and take off by yourself!