Nursery - before

Well... step one was the adoption of our futon which happened last tuesday. step two was receiving the bedding from the peltons for my birthday (which I suppose really means steps -1 etc were receiving the cribs, mattresses, etc from everyone at my CA shower). but... that was it! we decided it was time. here we were with a long weekend and the office / guest bedroom / work out room / piano room / everything else room must now become a nursery.

So, here's how it looked on Friday... more pictures to come as it transforms...

(imagine that the futon had a white cover on it for a true "before" look)

(oh the wires. probably not baby-safe)

(I think we'll look back on two desks very fondly... one moved into our room and the other will be craigslisted - unless you want it?!)

Work shower & birthday gifts!

Yesterday the church staff had a baby shower for me. We played Baby Bingo and everyone gave me advise (some of the best advise came from the guys in fact), and then they revealed gifts hidden by an umbrella (get it, shower, haha). And by gifts, I mean diapers. when we carried them all down to the car at the end they wouldn't all fit in the trunk, they had to do some overflow into the back seat! So I now own A LOT of diapers. but the amazing thing is how many diapers we've been told we'll go through each day. We've heard anywhere between 10-16 diapers per day per kid at the beginning. So per week that's... wait, what, say that again? oh yes, 140-224 diapers per week. oh my.

last night we also got together w/ blake's parents to celebrate my birthday a few days early. we went to sages, which I love, and I extra-love going in a group because then you can order a bit more! we had the bruchetta (yum yum) to share and then blake and I split a bowl of their tomato soup (this is no average tomato soup) and the "wife's favorite" pasta dish. so yummy. then we went back to our place and opened gifts - they gave me both sets of bedding!!!! (in future birthdays I might want things for me, but I've told anybody who asks that I'm 110% okay w/ baby gifts for this year!) blake hadn't seen both the bedding sets in person (just online) so it was super fun and super crazy! we're having two babies and this is what their cribs will look like! I'm very excited. So excited I called my family and said, okay, bring the cribs over! (now that the futon's gone we have room, and now that we have bedding they'll look cute!) we decided it would work better if they brought them on Sunday, but I was that excited. and I also received the Sneeches and other stories, which I read aloud immediately upon opening. (I mean, how could you just open the sneeches and put them aside?) I also read the stories about the 20-something Daves - remember that one? Later that night blake read the ones about the scary green pants and the north-going and south-going people who wouldn't move for each other when they met up and were in each others' ways.

I keep getting asked what I'm looking forward to about being a parent. Reading stories is definitely on the looking-forward-to list...

what I've been up to continued...

We also bought a new fan recently. it is so great. if you are thinking about getting a fan, go get the bionair one from costco. it is so quiet and so great. that's really just a side note because I just turned it on before starting this post, but it's mildly baby related because the rest of the world seems to think it's still cold, but I'm hot!

I shall not say too much about the bachelorette party because, well, it was a bachelorette party! We went canoeing at UW, wine tasting at two local wineries (right near Willows where Blake and I were married), and then the night's true festivities began. We slumber partied back at my place... probably the last slumber party I'll host for a very long time.

In fact, yesterday, Brianne and Danielle came over and adopted one of our futons. it had to go to make way for the cribs (and I'm so glad I didn't have to deal w/ craigslisting it) but it was also sad. once upon a time when blake lived with Caleb they would always have guests over (most often Anders) and they had NO furniture. as in, I think the only thing they had in their living room was the papasan (yes the same red one we currently have) that I'd given Blake. So I bought them a futon and they liked and used it so much that I bought myself the same one a little while later. So we've prob had those futons at least 6 years and they've been so great. Brianne has slept on one or the other many times (we live RIGHT near where she works so she visits us for naps, snowstorms, etc), Darren and Evan have both camped out on them numerous times, Jeff lived w/ us for a month or so... they've seen a lot of love. We did keep the red one, but it was still crazy to see the white one go...

In the realm of new furniture however - we ordered our chair! I will not tell you how much it cost, because it was ridiculous. but I fell in love with this chair in January and I have watched sales, and checked prices at so many locations (including on this last trip down, we checked prices in Oregon and CA) and finally we just ordered it. blake and I agreed it would be our one baby-splurge. It's very custom - and because of that it takes 12-14 weeks and we have less than 12 weeks now so we were getting a little like, oh, we'd better stop talking about this chair and actually buy it. SO, wonder of all wonders, I found an auction selling gift certificates for one of the local stores that sells this chair. they didn't have the cheapest price on the chair, but I called and yes they would price match, and yes, they would give us the twin discount on top of that. So I bid on the gift certificates, got both of them, and on Sunday blake and I went in and placed the order! my little gift certificate move plus the twin discount saved us about $350 so I feel much better about the price now! plus, the store we bought it from said that it was likely it would come in mid-July, and if it doesn't they would give us a loaner chair! so that's excellent.

what else to say... oh yes, my first stretch marks are here. my skin has been really itchy and tender in a few spots and now those spots have little stretch marks. so now I know, itchy and tender = stretch marks coming! which is really too bad, as a lot of my skin is becoming itchy and stretchy... my rings have also been stored safely away. I was going to try and wear them the whole time, but my finger was getting really uncomfortable so for a week I just wore the engagement ring and then I woke up one morning and my finger was all swollen and it was really hard to get off so it joined the wedding band in a box. so sad.

on the happy side however, I have another shower tomorrow morning! it's my work shower and I know there will be brunch type food, but that's pretty much all I know! I have taken the first step at answering the "will I keep working" question and I told the staff on Monday of this week, which is pretty crazy! Right now I have three jobs: 5 hrs/wk for the Communications Dept, 25 hrs/wk for HR, and 4-7 hrs of tutoring each week. I'm going to keep my communications hours, reduce my HR hours to 10 hrs/wk, and I'll keep all my current students except those who are graduating, which should leave me with 4 students for next year if they all come back! I am hoping this will give me lots of time w/ the babies, but also a little adult interaction (plus a very small paycheck). so that's the plan! it's subject to change because I know I can't know how I'll really feel until I'm feeling it, but that's the plan for now!

that's about it for now! my bday's on Monday and it's a holiday, so that's fun too! next ultrasound is a week from tomorrow. :)

what I've been up to while not posting

Alright, I realize it's been awhile since I've posted. sorry about that, I've been a little busy! So what have I been up to?

On Tuesday, May 18 we went to another twins class at the UW, this one was titled Labor Prep with Multiples. If we were taking the whole series in order, it would be the class before the one that we took last time. But, since I tutor on Tuesdays and Blake has class, we just go when we can! Last week blake's class was moved to Thursday and one of my kids cancelled, another I was able to reschedule, and the third... well, he's doing alright in math so I just cancelled on him! Anyways, the class was good. We learned about different stages of labor and how it differs slightly for twins. mostly it's a normal labor for twin A, and then twin B slips out (okay, there's still pushing, but it's supposed to be a breeze if twin B stays head down since you've already fit one baby out). Then placenta, placenta and voila! There's not much time between Baby A and Baby B (even less w/ a c-section obviously) but I think it would be neat if the first was right before midnight and the second right after so they'd have different bdays. :)

On Wednesday, I went in for my 1-hr glucose test. apparently gestational diabetes is more common for twin moms because it's the placenta that gets all confused and might make you diabetic, so if you've got two in there - more chance for confusion. So in I went. The test itself wasn't that bad, the juice was not carbonated and didn't taste nearly as bad as I'd heard it would. Later that evening I got the news: less than 140 is good, greater than 200 is bad, in between is go-take-another-test. my number was 159. awesome. and the other test? it's a nice 3 hour test, fasting beforehand, and 4 blood draws. cool.
so on Friday the lab opened up at 7:30 and I was there a few minutes later. I don't work on Wednesday mornings so that test hadn't been a problem, but it's a little rough to take 3 hours off of work on a Friday, so I brought a laptop with me. no internet, but I was able to get some other things done, even though I had to shut down, pack up, get my blood drawn, go find another plug and place to sit, and set everything up again several times. then I waited. I didn't hear results Friday evening so I had to wait all weekend! Perhaps I should have just been cool, but I had done some reading on gestational diabetes and decided I would pass thank you very much! Plus, I did not want to be told no brownies or ice cream right before my birthday!
Fortunately, Monday morning my results came in and I don't have it. My last reading after a night and 3 hours of fasting came in low and my doc told me to make sure I eat at least every 3 hours or my blood sugar will be too low. So ha! That really made my Monday.

The weekend was also quite full! We had Jackie's bachelorette party, I bought my chair, and I discovered my first stretch marks! oh the joys of life! but, you'll have to wait to hear about those bits of fun and about the babies some other time because Mom is here and we're off to run some errands.

25 week ultrasound

well, just a quick update since I'm at work now, but...

today's ultrasound and doc appt went well. The babies are in the same positions - both head down, with the girl still planning to come out first (ie she's still baby A). the boy is still slightly larger than the girl, he's 1 lb 13 oz, and she's 1 lb 10 oz, but apparently the girl's legs are longer. everything can still change of course, but all the trends are good at this point.

the doc says they're viable now, so while we're hoping to keep them in there a little longer, if they try to make their entrance into this world, the medical team would do everything they can to keep them alive. the doc also said I might need to start reducing my work hours at 28 weeks, which is in a little less than 3 weeks! It was more of a "just be ready because you might need to" type of thing, but still, 3 weeks is really soon. In 4-5 weeks school will be done though, which will reduce my tutoring, so that's a nice reduction in "work" that's already planned.

but if I've only got three weeks left I guess I'd better get some work done now, so...
happy friday to you all!

summary

well, I was hoping to be typing about how well my ultrasound went this morning but, long and frustrating story short, it got cancelled and is now rescheduled for friday. too bad I didn't know it was cancelled and woke up and went to blake's dentist appt w/ him all early this morning because it was right before the ultrasound and only a few blocks away and then ... no ultrasound. I was less than thrilled, but I'll spare you my venting.

anyways, it's been a while since I blogged but here's the summary.

Wednesday afternoon we left to start driving to CA for my baby shower and made it to portland that night. All was well until we woke up to my mom's cell phone ringing the next morning. We learned that my cousin Katherine, age 20, had suddenly and unexpectedly died early that morning of a pulmonary embolism. Obviously this was really upsetting and part of the upset was that there was nothing we could do about it. A lot of people get sick, and then you can try to make them feel better or send flowers or pray or this or that. But this was over before we knew it had started, so we decided the only thing to do was to keep driving towards CA to at least be there with other family, many of whom were closer to Katherine and grieving significantly more than we were.

So, we made it to CA Friday night and did end up having the shower Saturday morning (we had considered cancelling it under the circumstances). The shower was great, lots of fun, and I think it was really good to have a temporary break from focusing on grief. We had excellent salads and strawberries w/ whipped cream (yum!) and it was just so much fun. it was weird to see "it's a boy" and "it's a girl" banners and feel like, wow, this is really for me, I'm really, actually having a boy and a girl. how crazy! and there were little pink and blue m&ms that said "Blana Babies" and fun things and we played some good games. including a candy game, which I won thank you very much! I also received a lot of awesome presents including cribs (plural!), mattresses, a high chair, activity gym, blankets, toys, tons of very cute outfits and on and on. Still working on the thank you cards - but I promise, they're coming! (oh, plus - there was ice cream cake. YES!)

The rest of the week was a whirlwind. We extended our stay so that we could be there for the funeral and we saw more family than we anticipated as they flew in from all over the world (literally). It was such a heart-wrencher to see so many great people, but under such terrible circumstances. Blake and Dad flew down for the funeral as well and so we ended up having Mom and Dad fly back Friday morning and Blake and I began the drive back. We made it to Ashland on Friday and then we pushed through all the way home on Saturday so that we were able to see both mothers on mothers' day back at home in WA.

So much more reflection could happen about the last week plus, but I think I'll leave it at that.

Thank you to Aunt Kate and Grandma for a great, great shower. Yuhas family, we're still thinking of you and missing Katherine.