Toxic Shock

I went to Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago to check out some baby books and ended up buying "The Complete Organic Pregnancy". I had flipped through some of the pages at the store and had a feeling I was getting into something intense, so on my way home, I stopped by the nail salon. I had glanced over the part about toxins in nail polish, so I wanted to make sure my feet were pedicured one last time before I really got into it. Hey... it's sandal season! I gots to make sure my toes are pretty!!!

As I read deeper into the book, I started to get more and more horrified. I looked around my house and all I saw were toxins - toxins seeping out from the carpet. Toxins floating in the stagnant air. Toxins penetrating into my skin from all of the chemicals I willingly apply each and every day. Toxins oozing from a plastic cup into the water I was drinking. Toxins engrossing the food that I eat - pesticides in the vegetables, growth hormones in the meat. I wanted to scrub myself in the shower, but what about the chemicals I use to clean my tub? What about the chemicals in my soap and shampoo? It was useless. I felt overwhelmed and beaten.

So I grabbed up my canvas bags and hightailed to Whole Foods. Over $250 later, I emerged feeling a little cleaner and a little more hopeful. My organic milk may not taste as good as regular milk, my organic cleaners may not get all the grime off the counter, my organic face lotion may not help reduce fine lines like my other face lotion and my pocketbook may not be as full as it used to be, but buying organic gives me peace of mind that I am doing what I can to limit the toxic intake to my babies. And that, my friends, is priceless.

15 Week Check-up

Last Thursday we went in for our third appointment. Since twins/multiples are considered a high-risk pregnancy, we get the pleasure of seeing our babies each time we visit. Now, Damon is really good at seeing all of the little body parts, facial features and can distinguish baby A from baby B by which one is closest to my cervix - huh?

Me? I'm not so good. I can see clearly recognizable parts like an arm or a spine (so cool to see!!!) or a little beating heart (again, SO cool to see!!!), but when I look at their faces, it's just a bunch of shadows and sometimes I can't tell the butt from the head. Maybe she moves it around too fast for me or maybe my attention is distracted by their oh-so-cute jerky movements. Yeah... we'll blame it on one of those.

So, for the update... babies are doing fine. They are growing and developing normally. She still can't tell if they are identical or fraternal. But boy, do those little ones make us laugh already!!! For starters, one of the twins had it's "behind" placed on the other's head, and that one kept jerking it's arms and hitting itself in the head! I'm sure you can understand it's frustration! :)

Mama's doing fine too. I've gained 5 pounds total which is good for the first trimester. Now I'm supposed to gain 1 1/2 to 2 pounds per week during the second trimester!!! Don't worry, I slow down the weight gain in the third. Throughout my pregnancy I'm supposed to gain a total of 40-50 pounds. Can I order another fudgesicle please!?

Time for a belly picture... As you can see, I've grown quite a bit in my lower abdomen... and on the other side...

Daddy's hole in one

My husband and I have talked about having kids and being parents since we first started dating over 10 years ago. We've always wanted children but wanted to wait until it "felt right" for us. Well, a little over a year after we got married, it started to feel like we were missing something in our lives and we started to feel like the time was right. So, we began to seriously discuss adding a child to the mix.

Well, I guess a lot of my friends were having the same discussion, because all of a sudden, it seemed like everyone started getting pregnant!!! After 10 pregnancy announcements and a weekend vacation with our friends, Jenna and Ben, who were expecting, we decided that it was indeed, time.

It was the beginning of March and we were ready! In preparation for getting pregnant, I started back in January taking pre-natal vitamins and marking my cycle. I had drawn hearts on each day of the calendar in March - beginning day 10 and ending day 16 . If you don't know why, go ask your Mom. We were nervous, yet excited, but definitely ready!

Then, on day 8, Damon got into an accident and totalled his truck. We had already looked at our finances for the rest of the year and knew we could add in a car payment for when we replaced my 1996 Honda Civic, but adding two new car payments was going to be tough. It put a wrench in our plans to say the least, and we decided that it would be best for us to wait a few months before we started trying.

Then, on day 14, Damon cooked a nice dinner, we split a bottle of wine and ended up... "trying".

Two weeks later, I wrote my first blog.

Bring on the bump!

My babies turn 13 weeks tomorrow and to celebrate I am posting the first official bump pictures! The first is when I thought I had a bump going, at 10 weeks. But then my babies said, "You aint seen nothin' yet!" So, they doubled in size in two weeks. The second picture is me at 12 weeks. Again... please remember there are TWO in there!