Half-way there!

Today I am officially 20 weeks - we have hit the half-way mark! The babies celebrated by letting Daddy feel them move for the first time! It was pretty cool.

So, here are a couple thoughts about being pregnant so far...

Things I love about being pregnant:
1. The attention. Seriously, I can't get enough. What can I say, I'm a leo.
2. The belly touching. I know, weird. But I love it when people touch my belly because I feel like they are sending love to my babies. They better do it now, because I don't think I'm going to like strangers touching my babies. I'd rather them do it while they are protected by my belly.
3. Feeling the babies move. It's just so incredible and makes me smile every time.
4. Fudgesicles. Enough said.

Things I dislike about being pregnant:
1. The gas. It's bad. No, really. I'm like a 13-year old boy.
2. Feeling my boobs rest on my stomach when I slouch. Especially when I get out of the shower. It's just unnatural and makes me cringe. At least it reminds me to sit up straight.

That's about it. I gotta say, the whole experience has been pretty cool so far...

The Waiting Game

One thing I have learned about pregnancy from both my own experience and the dozens of my friends that are either pregnant or have recently had a child, is that there is a lot of waiting during a pregnancy. Waiting for the plus sign, waiting for the first doctor's appointment, waiting to feel movement, waiting to give birth, waiting to have another drink...

While I am enjoying (almost) every minute of being pregnant, I feel as though we are doing a lot of waiting. Right now, everything feels like it's on hold until we find out the sexes of the babies. Our 3D ultrasound is scheduled for next Tuesday, so it's not too much longer, but I wanna know now! :)

Daddy and I have a strong feeling about what we are going to have, but we can't wait to know for sure! Any guesses?

Tomorrow we'll be 20 weeks along, so here's a belly pic to celebrate. The picture was taken last week and I swear it's grown an inch or so since. I'll start measuring...

Premonitions or Mother's Instinct?

Three days before that little stick changed my life, I had a really weird dream. It was the regular type of dream where I floated in and out of scenes, but one scene in particular was very vivid...

I was at a party with the wife of my company's IT manager. We were hungry, so we had snuck away from the folks we came with and found the buffet table. I remember being thrilled to be standing in front of this huge pile of fresh, delicious foods with her and we giggled like school girls. Then we saw it... A do-it-yourself fried banana pudding bar!

Now, I don't think I've ever tasted banana pudding before and I'm not the biggest fan of bananas. I do enjoy fried foods but more so the salty variety. But in my dream, I L-O-V-E-D fried banana pudding and we were in heaven in front of that bar.

Well, when I woke up, that part of the dream stuck in my head so when I got to work, I told the IT manager. He laughed it off. The next day, he told me that he told his wife (and mother of two) about the dream and she immediately said it was a "pregnant dream". The day after that I found out I was pregnant.

My mom came to visit me when I was 8 weeks pregnant - one week before my first appointment and before I knew there was more than one little baby growing inside of me. She was thrilled I was pregnant so she brought down an antique cradle that has been used in our family for three generations. I was thrilled it was being passed down to me and as we were unloading it from the car, I looked at it closely and said, "Oh, I can fit two babies in there."

Weird. (cue music from the twighlight zone)

Don't lend me your ears...

Ever since I learned that my babies were able to hear my voice in the womb (beginning a few weeks ago), I've been trying to sing to them as much as possible. Now, I'm not sure if that's such a good thing... For those who haven't heard me sing, count your blessings. I was never blessed with any musical talents. That's my husband's area of expertise.

But it is possible for me to teach them bad musical habits? Could they actually learn how to sing out of tune? Or do they just put their little hands over their ears and pray for mama to stop?

Hopefully Daddy can fix all my wrong doings when the babies are born. For now, they're going to have to enjoy off key melodies! La la LAAA!

(An official sonogram image of one of the twins in the womb
while mama is crooning)

If I could marry maternity pants, I would.

I have to give props to the bella bands - those little stretchy things have been a life-saver these past two months, but my belly has quickly outgrown them. For the past week or so it's been getting harder and harder for me to get dressed. Stretchy dresses are my favorite but I only have a few that I can wear to work (the rest are boobalicious - which I love - but totally not work appropriate).

So last weekend I crammed my fupa (google it) into a pair of capris, pulled the bella band over it and headed to the mall. I entered the Motherhood store and must have looked like a little lost puppy because the sales lady quickly took me under her wing. For the next 30 minutes, she taught me all about the various maternity pants - "now and laters", "full-panel", "roll panel"... who knew!?

I picked out a pair of full panel capri jeans and a pair of "now and later" black capris and entered the dressing room. I was actually excited to try on my first pair of maternity pants! It doesn't bother me that my belly is growing - that's what it is supposed to do during pregnancy! It means my little babies are growing big and strong in there and that makes me happy. If I end up gaining 80 pounds or more during this pregnancy, it will be worth it. I'll worry about the extra weight after I have two happy, healthy babies in my arms.

So, I breathed a sigh of relief when I peeled the bella band and those pre-maternity capris off of me. I think I actually heard a "bloop" as my belly poured out. I grabbed the capri jeans and pulled them over my hips... hmm... no tightness. I rolled the full panel around and up over my belly. And then... the gates of heavens opened and angels emerged to sing and throw flowers at me! "LAAAAAA"!

Oh, it felt so wonderful. So comfortable. Like changing into pajama pants after work - no - like being able to wear pajama pants to work! It was a good day.

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...