I'm packed! it's 11:43 and I'm all packed; suitcase, pillow, and oxygen are ready by the door. i'm tutoring from noon to 2:15, mom shows up at 2:30 and then we're off! looking forward to seeing all of you wonderful CA folks real soon and extra extra thanks to grandma hallenbeck and aunt kate for hosting this shower! I'll be back next wednesday (w/ an ultrasound scheduled for thursday).
hurrah!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
weeks 21 and 22
alrighty! here's the over-due week 21 post:
21 weeks
- 7 inches crown to rump, 10.5 head to heal. haha, just think, little 3.5 inch legs! carrot sized apparently but I have seen a lot of carrot-size variation so I'm not sure that's actually helpful.
- 10-11 oz (although at the 20 week ultrasound they were 11 and 13 oz each so... they should really be slightly more than that)
- heartbeats are getting stronger and might be able to be heard w/ a regular stethoscope
- bone marrow has started making blood cells
- intestines are extracting sugars from the amniotic fluid the babies have been swallowing
- eyebrows and eyelids are present now!
- supposedly I might be seeing varicose veins and spider veins about now but I haven't noticed any (might be because it's mostly still pants weather and looking at my legs takes more effort now!)
22 weeks - tomorrow!
- 11 inches head to heal - almost a full foot! no more crown to rump measurements given!
- almost one pound or already a full pound depending on which website you check!
- tiny tooth buds are beginning to form
- eyes have formed but are still colorless. side note here: in my mind, the girl is a little me w/ brown hair and the boy is a little blake w/ blond hair (SO cute!) but I just thought, oooh, what if one of them has little green eyes like blake? not like me when I got a pair of trial green contact lenses! blake's eyes aren't super green but wouldn't green eyes be neat?
- babies are using their hands and might be tugging their umbilical cords.
- babies have white hair (weird, didn't know that).
- babies have taste buds and might be able to taste strong flavors that I eat.
- supposedly this is stretch mark week. so far, so good. my friend gave me some anti-stretch mark lotion which I have been using. if it prevents stretch marks, hurrah, if not, oh well, but regardless it smells nice and is a good lotion and my skin enjoys the pampering. my belly button is still technically in, but it is also less in than usual which has been crazy to observe.
- feet swelling - this I have noticed. not visibly, but my shoes are tighter and I'm preferring the flip flops and chacos. haven't loosened the straps on my chacos yet, but I am excited about the fact that I can! added links to my watch weeks and weeks ago and then I lost it at the triathlon. I keep considering buying one w/ a velcro band or something temporary, but haven't done so yet. rings are tighter but still on (I don't actually plan to take them off unless there are circulatory issues!)
alrighty well, time to tutor again so I gtg, but... looking forward to seeing some of you soon! mom and I will leave directly after I tutor next Wednesday to start the drive down to CA. hmmm, which means I do need to coordinate that oxygen delivery. so much to do!
21 weeks
- 7 inches crown to rump, 10.5 head to heal. haha, just think, little 3.5 inch legs! carrot sized apparently but I have seen a lot of carrot-size variation so I'm not sure that's actually helpful.
- 10-11 oz (although at the 20 week ultrasound they were 11 and 13 oz each so... they should really be slightly more than that)
- heartbeats are getting stronger and might be able to be heard w/ a regular stethoscope
- bone marrow has started making blood cells
- intestines are extracting sugars from the amniotic fluid the babies have been swallowing
- eyebrows and eyelids are present now!
- supposedly I might be seeing varicose veins and spider veins about now but I haven't noticed any (might be because it's mostly still pants weather and looking at my legs takes more effort now!)
22 weeks - tomorrow!
- 11 inches head to heal - almost a full foot! no more crown to rump measurements given!
- almost one pound or already a full pound depending on which website you check!
- tiny tooth buds are beginning to form
- eyes have formed but are still colorless. side note here: in my mind, the girl is a little me w/ brown hair and the boy is a little blake w/ blond hair (SO cute!) but I just thought, oooh, what if one of them has little green eyes like blake? not like me when I got a pair of trial green contact lenses! blake's eyes aren't super green but wouldn't green eyes be neat?
- babies are using their hands and might be tugging their umbilical cords.
- babies have white hair (weird, didn't know that).
- babies have taste buds and might be able to taste strong flavors that I eat.
- supposedly this is stretch mark week. so far, so good. my friend gave me some anti-stretch mark lotion which I have been using. if it prevents stretch marks, hurrah, if not, oh well, but regardless it smells nice and is a good lotion and my skin enjoys the pampering. my belly button is still technically in, but it is also less in than usual which has been crazy to observe.
- feet swelling - this I have noticed. not visibly, but my shoes are tighter and I'm preferring the flip flops and chacos. haven't loosened the straps on my chacos yet, but I am excited about the fact that I can! added links to my watch weeks and weeks ago and then I lost it at the triathlon. I keep considering buying one w/ a velcro band or something temporary, but haven't done so yet. rings are tighter but still on (I don't actually plan to take them off unless there are circulatory issues!)
alrighty well, time to tutor again so I gtg, but... looking forward to seeing some of you soon! mom and I will leave directly after I tutor next Wednesday to start the drive down to CA. hmmm, which means I do need to coordinate that oxygen delivery. so much to do!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
so many things!
well, this last week has been very baby-busy. I keep on thinking about full blogs I could write but then I am too busy doing the next baby thing to write them! so here's the bullet-point version...
EMOMS sale (last friday) was great.
EMOMS sale (last friday) was great.
- hoped to find matching cribs. there was a set, but even though I was there the moment they opened (because I was volunteering for 4 hours beforehand!) and walked directly to the cribs, a lady took one of the cribs I liked just as I walked up to it. oh well. only one other pair of cribs and... didn't like 'em.
- did find a double snap and go stroller! they had at least 5 there, so I took the $20 one - yay - for 80% off!
- also got a hiking backpack-style baby carrier. they had 10+ different ones there, so blake got to try them all on and see which one fit him best. $100 off the reg price for that, although it's missing the shade, but some reviews (I called mom and had her internet research it for us before we snagged it) didn't like the shade part anyways.
- other things we bought: 2 boppy pillows w/ covers, a bottle warmer, 4 maternity tops, a maternity swim suit (yes!), a diaper bag (never used), 9 girl outfits, 8 gender-neutral outfits, and 22 boy outfits. yah. I did the shopping for the girl outfits and then sent blake to find some boy outfits. he found several packs that were 5 for $1 so... now we have several! they're mostly onesies but hey, we'll need a lot. all in all (including stroller and hiking backpack) we only spent $123 so we're feeling awesome about that. too bad they didn't have cribs or any co-sleepers, those would have been awesome things to snag.
Saturday we spent registering (well, and yoga-ing, birthday party-ing, napping, cleaning etc). We have about 6 different lists of things to register for from other twin moms, so we did a lot of product research to see what (we think) we really need. plus a lot of reading of the book Baby Bargains which has good value/quality/safety recommendations on baby products. Despite the fact that every shower I've ever been to has included someone mentioning the difficulty they had at BabiesRUs, we registered there because there isn't really another baby chain store option. but we also made a universal registry at amazon and listed all the things that are not available at BabiesRUs or that are cheaper elsewhere on the amazon registry!
Sunday was church, a play (Fences at the ACT) with my parents and then... well dinner and then sleep!
Monday was the EMOMs meeting. They had a guest speaker who is a perinatologist (high risk prego doc) at Eastside Maternal and Fetal Medicine. She was really great. Gave us lots of good info on how to eat with twins, delivery stats, and answered tons of questions. plus there were lots of other twin moms (or moms/dads-t0-be) and so we heard lots of real experiences and such. the most amusing part was people talking about trying to get enough protein in their diets and one mom pulled out chicken that she had in a little plastic baggy in her purse. some of the moms were like "wow, that's so great!" and some were like, "ewww, gross, I used to love chicken but now I can't stand it!!"
Tuesday was our appt with Dr. Aryal. Except it ended up being w/ Dr. Lavin. See, way back when, pre-pregnancy, I met with Dr. Chang at UW Medical Center. She's a perinatologist who specializes in moms with lung diseases. She said she could be my OB, or that I could meet with Dr. Aryal who works at Group Health Bellevue (much closer to home and work) because Dr Aryal had studied under her and could escalate my care when appropriate. But then, when I went to make an appt w/ Dr. Aryal, they said she was on maternity leave herself! So I set up an appt with whomever (which ended up being Dr Lavin) and every appt I've asked if Dr. Aryal was back and if I could see her instead. So finally I have an appt with her and then when I get there the check-in person says, well we saw that Dr. Lavin was also free during this time and that you've seen her before, so we switched you! I was like AHAHAAHHAH!!!! but it seemed super awkward to walk back there and avoid Dr Lavin so I said "sure." Not that Dr. Lavin is so bad (I really don't love her, but I think she's a decent doc) but I just wanted to see Dr Aryal finally. oh well, my next appt is also scheduled to be w/ Dr Aryal so perhaps that will work out. Anyways, it ended up being a very short appt - both babies are good and healthy according to the ultrasound so there wasn't much to say.
On Wednesday (see, I told you we've been doing a lot of baby stuff this week!) mom and I went bridesmaid dress shopping so that I'll have something to wear to Jackie and Dave's wedding in late August. Apparently a number of designers make maternity bridesmaids dresses (the wedding will be after I give birth but apparently you still look 5-7 months prego right afterwards so we figured shopping when I was actually 5 months prego would be a good idea) BUT, nobody carries those dresses in the stores. they just say yes, we can order that for you. So, we found a dress (Jackie is letting us pick our dresses) that has an empire waist and lots of gathers in the non-maternity version (which was in both stores we went to) and we just hope the maternity version isn't much different! I can't order the non-maternity version even if I wanted because my waist (ie tummy) size is off the size charts!
and finally, today is 21 weeks. but... it is now past my bedtime, so I think I'll write that post tomorrow. life is good, but quite busy, and seems to require a lot of sleeping these days. but I figure if my body wants to sleep that much, I should probably let it, so...
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz :)
Friday, April 9, 2010
one little girl, one little boy!!!
Our appt started a little late, but other than that, all went really well.
there was an intern watching, her name was Dana, and the tech's birthday was the same as mine. i decided that was a good start.
So... she poured goo all over me and started looking around. two babies in there for sure! we looked at Baby A for awhile, measured leg bones and arm bones, checked out stomach, spine, umbilical cord, heart, measured head, saw the brain... and then she told us baby A was a girl!!! we were so excited. it's silly because we would have been just as excited for a boy, but how fun to know! later we found out that Baby A is measuring at about 19.5 weeks (today is 20.2 ish weeks).
then we checked out Baby B. did all the same measurements except Baby B was spine out / facing in, so we couldn't get a clear pic of the heart. The tech wasn't concerned because they can hear the heartbeat at every appt, and then a little later we got a look at one part of the heart, so it's roughly looking good, but they don't know as much as they do about Baby A's heart. She had me roll to my side and such, but the baby didn't turn so she said they'll look for it at the next ultrasound, which should be at 24 weeks. Then she showed us Baby B and was like, can you tell if it's a girl or a boy? we'd learned with baby A that a girl has three lines but... we were like, well, we don't see 3 lines, but there's just a lot of gray fuzz... and then she told us it was a boy. How fun. It was so weird knowing for 20 minutes that we had one girl and one unknown! now we knew: one of each. She also told us Baby B seemed larger than Baby A, but she'd have to go enter some numbers in another room for a bit to get their exact sizes. Oh, also, both babies are vertex / head down, which is great. they can certainly still move, but it's good that they're head down now.
So, the tech left and intern Dana looked around some more for a little while. then the tech came back and told us that Baby B was measuring at 21.something weeks.
usually, you would have your ultrasound and then your doc appt right after or at least the same day. but the scheduling didn't work out for us, so we don't meet with the doc until Tuesday morning. My read from the tech is that all is well with our babies, but I think she'd rather that they were a little closer in size. doesn't seem much off to me, but what do I know? anyways, that seems like a non-major concern so I'm not going to worry about it for now. besides, what would I do anyways? She did say that if she had found something very wrong with either baby that I would have seen a doc right away following the ultrasound. So we can rule out all drastic things.
so that's the scoop! blake and I are both so excited. we love our little babies. :)
we're currently at the Peltons' (even though they're not home now) so that we can borrow a car in case when we go to the emoms sale in a few hours if we find cribs or other large things, we can actually get them home! we might just happen to buy one very cute dress and one very cute boy-outfit while we're there!
it is so weird (and great!) to know the genders. we can start to imagine our little family with just a little more detail now...
there was an intern watching, her name was Dana, and the tech's birthday was the same as mine. i decided that was a good start.
So... she poured goo all over me and started looking around. two babies in there for sure! we looked at Baby A for awhile, measured leg bones and arm bones, checked out stomach, spine, umbilical cord, heart, measured head, saw the brain... and then she told us baby A was a girl!!! we were so excited. it's silly because we would have been just as excited for a boy, but how fun to know! later we found out that Baby A is measuring at about 19.5 weeks (today is 20.2 ish weeks).
then we checked out Baby B. did all the same measurements except Baby B was spine out / facing in, so we couldn't get a clear pic of the heart. The tech wasn't concerned because they can hear the heartbeat at every appt, and then a little later we got a look at one part of the heart, so it's roughly looking good, but they don't know as much as they do about Baby A's heart. She had me roll to my side and such, but the baby didn't turn so she said they'll look for it at the next ultrasound, which should be at 24 weeks. Then she showed us Baby B and was like, can you tell if it's a girl or a boy? we'd learned with baby A that a girl has three lines but... we were like, well, we don't see 3 lines, but there's just a lot of gray fuzz... and then she told us it was a boy. How fun. It was so weird knowing for 20 minutes that we had one girl and one unknown! now we knew: one of each. She also told us Baby B seemed larger than Baby A, but she'd have to go enter some numbers in another room for a bit to get their exact sizes. Oh, also, both babies are vertex / head down, which is great. they can certainly still move, but it's good that they're head down now.
So, the tech left and intern Dana looked around some more for a little while. then the tech came back and told us that Baby B was measuring at 21.something weeks.
usually, you would have your ultrasound and then your doc appt right after or at least the same day. but the scheduling didn't work out for us, so we don't meet with the doc until Tuesday morning. My read from the tech is that all is well with our babies, but I think she'd rather that they were a little closer in size. doesn't seem much off to me, but what do I know? anyways, that seems like a non-major concern so I'm not going to worry about it for now. besides, what would I do anyways? She did say that if she had found something very wrong with either baby that I would have seen a doc right away following the ultrasound. So we can rule out all drastic things.
so that's the scoop! blake and I are both so excited. we love our little babies. :)
we're currently at the Peltons' (even though they're not home now) so that we can borrow a car in case when we go to the emoms sale in a few hours if we find cribs or other large things, we can actually get them home! we might just happen to buy one very cute dress and one very cute boy-outfit while we're there!
it is so weird (and great!) to know the genders. we can start to imagine our little family with just a little more detail now...
Thursday, April 8, 2010
20 weeks
Tomorrow is the big day, but here are today's 20-week stats (and picture!):
- 6.5 inches long head to rump, 10 inches head to heel! the 10 inches is banana-sized! from here on babies are measured head to heel!
-10.5 oz
- half way! I mean HALF WAY, HURRAH!!!
- the babies should be establishing sleep patterns. from here on out there's apparently not a lot new, just growin', growin', growin'
- 6.5 inches long head to rump, 10 inches head to heel! the 10 inches is banana-sized! from here on babies are measured head to heel!
-10.5 oz
- half way! I mean HALF WAY, HURRAH!!!
- the babies should be establishing sleep patterns. from here on out there's apparently not a lot new, just growin', growin', growin'
Monday, April 5, 2010
take my poll!
look, I added a poll! (left column) here's your chance to predict what the ultrasound tech will tell us on Friday!
:)
:)
Saturday, April 3, 2010
updates and stuff
do you know what my fantastic husband is doing? he's recording songs on the piano for our babies. and one of the babies has an opinion (hopefully it's a positive opinion) because there's some kicking going on. :) you see, I am all about singing to our babies at night, but singing is not so much blake's thing. awhile back, blake recorded some songs for me, but one one fateful hard drive-erasing day, those songs got deleted. so I told him that when I was pregnant he had to record some more for our babies (ha, at the time I thought it would be baby!). so tonight he got it all set up and started. i love blake, he is so sweet.
other reasons blake is sweet: I took mediocre care of him while he was sick last week. he woke up sick saturday morning and stayed sick for several days. finally, thursday he was actually better and we both went to work feeling pretty awesome that I hadn't caught his cold. friday morning we discovered we were wrong, as I was definitely sick. bummer. and, besides feeling sick I have to mix in a little guilt because he is taking great care of me... far better care than I took of him and it is definitely the exact same cold, so we were pretty much feeling the same way!
so, how am I feeling? well, having a cold when you're pregnant is really a bummer because there's not a lot you can take for it. and having a runny/stuffy nose while also having oxygen tubing in your nose is... undesirable. I've been compromising w/ oxygen at night but not during the day. (my lungs seem okay with this plan, which is good. no more bubbles or back pain.) i am allowed to take benadryl which I'm taking mostly to make me sleep and, joy of all joys, I am now the owner of a netty pot. what's a netty pot, you ask? you stick salt water in it and poor it in your nose until it comes out the other nostril. awesome!! actually, I've tried it a couple times and my nose has been too stuffed for it to work. but blake gave it a go to make sure we were doing it right and if your nose isn't completely blocked it apparently does work. I pretty much hate water up my nose so it hasn't been a great experience but when it's your only option, well, it's your only option.
today I was supposed to do the holy yoga in the morning and then go check out wedding venues w/ Ev (he's home for easter) but I had to bail on both. which was a bummer, but I am feeling much better than yesterday, so hopefully I'll be all healthy for Easter tomorrow. it's a little optimistic considering blake's recovery time, but... that's my plan.
ah, yes, and... thursday was 19 weeks. the only real excitment there is that the babies are each 6 inches long - and that means that I have a foot of baby in me! ha! today I ate a really small strawberry and I was like, look at this baby strawberry! and blake was like, it is bigger than our babies. then we paused and both said, in fact, our babies are bigger than all these strawberries! to think they used to be the size of a poppy seed! ah! they grow so fast!
well that's all for now. upcoming excitement: we'll find out genders on friday!!
other reasons blake is sweet: I took mediocre care of him while he was sick last week. he woke up sick saturday morning and stayed sick for several days. finally, thursday he was actually better and we both went to work feeling pretty awesome that I hadn't caught his cold. friday morning we discovered we were wrong, as I was definitely sick. bummer. and, besides feeling sick I have to mix in a little guilt because he is taking great care of me... far better care than I took of him and it is definitely the exact same cold, so we were pretty much feeling the same way!
so, how am I feeling? well, having a cold when you're pregnant is really a bummer because there's not a lot you can take for it. and having a runny/stuffy nose while also having oxygen tubing in your nose is... undesirable. I've been compromising w/ oxygen at night but not during the day. (my lungs seem okay with this plan, which is good. no more bubbles or back pain.) i am allowed to take benadryl which I'm taking mostly to make me sleep and, joy of all joys, I am now the owner of a netty pot. what's a netty pot, you ask? you stick salt water in it and poor it in your nose until it comes out the other nostril. awesome!! actually, I've tried it a couple times and my nose has been too stuffed for it to work. but blake gave it a go to make sure we were doing it right and if your nose isn't completely blocked it apparently does work. I pretty much hate water up my nose so it hasn't been a great experience but when it's your only option, well, it's your only option.
today I was supposed to do the holy yoga in the morning and then go check out wedding venues w/ Ev (he's home for easter) but I had to bail on both. which was a bummer, but I am feeling much better than yesterday, so hopefully I'll be all healthy for Easter tomorrow. it's a little optimistic considering blake's recovery time, but... that's my plan.
ah, yes, and... thursday was 19 weeks. the only real excitment there is that the babies are each 6 inches long - and that means that I have a foot of baby in me! ha! today I ate a really small strawberry and I was like, look at this baby strawberry! and blake was like, it is bigger than our babies. then we paused and both said, in fact, our babies are bigger than all these strawberries! to think they used to be the size of a poppy seed! ah! they grow so fast!
well that's all for now. upcoming excitement: we'll find out genders on friday!!
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