I'm Losing It!

I think I may have officially lost my mind! I know, it's a pregnancy thing. But I didn't seem to gain many brain cells back after the last pregnancy. This could be a bad thing. Luckily, I have a calendar in my cell phone that remembers all of the important things for me. If it ever dies, I'm in big trouble!

Here's my latest example of my lack of brain power . . .
My sister-in-law's baby shower was this past Saturday in Utah. Of course, I couldn't be at the shower, but I did make a couple things to send to her. I am super excited for her to receive them, and had her gift completed in plenty of time to mail it for the shower. However, every single day last week, I forgot to go to the post office. How does that happen? Every night I would see the gift sitting in my living room and think about what point in the day I would go to the post office the next day. Then each day, I would not think about it one time. I finally mailed the packaged this Monday. I missed the shower!

I had a baby gift ready to send to a friend in Utah as well. So Monday, I finally could keep it in my head to get to the post office. I planned to use the priority mailing boxes at the post office to send the gifts. When I got there, I realized that I didn't bring any packing tape, and I didn't know if the post office would let me use some. The line was huge on Monday, so I started the wait to find out if they had tape. Then, I noticed some tape for sale with the other packaging items. Lucky me! So I went back to the little counter, packed up the two gifts in separate boxes, and taped them closed. Then I realized that I was still holding the cards. Duh! I taped one to the top of the box and shoved the other under the flap.

I waited in line again and finally made it to the window. The very kind post office employee told me that if I used a different box I could save a lot of money. I was so grateful! I got the boxes she suggested, and was actually glad to make the switch so I could put the cards inside this time. I switched the gifts to the new boxes, taped them closed, and realized that again, I failed to put the cards inside the boxes. Seriously?!?! Two times in a row? I will cut myself a bit of slack, since I was also trying to keep track of my two active four-year-olds. But really I should be a bit more together than this.

I will post pictures of the gifts and some other projects I recently finished, but I want to wait a couple more days. I don't want to spoil the surprise if one of these ladies reads my blog post before she receives her package. Let's just hope I got the addresses on the boxes correctly. My sister-in-law is having a boy and my friend had a girl. I will be so embarassed if I mixed up their gifts! (Girls, if I did mix it up, please let me know so we can arrange an exchange!)

In Other News . . .

Life is moving along at a regularly crazy pace. Peyton and Maryam are growing like weeds, as evidenced by Peyton's flooding pants. I bought him a couple new pair of jeans and a pair of church pants, but I refuse to buy any other pants until fall. This wouldn't really be a problem, except that the boy loves to wear his sweat pants. We are starting to get a lot of comments, even from strangers, about the length of his pants. I find it comical. Yes, I know my son's pants are too short. No, I'm not going to do anything about it right now. Thanks for being the fifth person to point it out today! :)

We are having lots of summer fun so far. We have two weekly park days, and next week I'm going to meet with some other moms to plan more fun activities. One that's high on my list is the tour of the Jelly Belly factory. I think Peyton and Maryam will really like it. I need to try to get that one on the schedule sooner than later, since it will mean a fair amount of walking and time on my feet. Other activities like going to the beach might be a bit less strenuous for a pregnant mama. Shoot, a day laying around in the sun sounds great! Our neighborhood pool has been a nice amenity too. My belly feels so much lighter in the water. Peyton is a regular fish, and loves jumping in, trying to dive for toys, swimming around with his friends, etc. Maryam doesn't really like to put her face in the water, but she LOVES the social aspect of the pool. This can cause me a bit of stress, since she sometimes wants to hang out with the local teenage girls who happen to be at the pool. Yikes! I'm really not ready for her to be a teenager yet.

I haven't figured out yet what to do about preschool in the fall. We've been doing a co-op style preschool for the last two years. I'd love to continue, but I'm not sure if it's realistic with a brand new set of twins due about the time school starts. I got a flyer about an in-home preschool nearby, and based on the price, I think I'm going to have to suck it up and be super woman with the co-0p style again. Paid preschool for twins is expensive!

Another Small Miracle

Two weeks ago I had another "big" ultrasound--these will occur every six weeks until the babies are born. The ultrasound is performed by a tech, who is not allowed to tell the patient anything important. She did get to tell us genders, though. (See my previous post) On the ultrasound, I noticed something abnormal in our little girl's brain. The tech didn't mention it, and I didn't ask her about it because I knew she couldn't say anything. The following Tuesday I got a call from the genetics department to inform us that our little girl had choroid plexus cysts in her brain. They offered us another more in-depth ultrasound, since this type of cysts can be related to a chromosomal defect called Trisomy 18. The geneticist said our little girl doesn't have any other indicators of Trisomy 18, so there wasn't much need for concern. But they wanted to do another ultrasound just to be cautious. This defect can usually be ruled out by the genetic blood test; but since I am pregnant with twins, it doesn't work for us. I agreed to the ultrasound, and we scheduled it for Monday of this week.

I was able to push this concerning information to the back of my mind most of the week. The kids and I had the flu over the weekend, so that helped too. Thankfully, I was feeling better on Monday morning and ready to get the next ultrasound done. Sadly, Monday morning is when Tobin came down with the flu. My fabulous sister-in-law, Kristyn, accompanied me to the Kaiser hospital in Oakland for the ultrasound. I was pretty anxious all night Sunday, and spent a lot of time praying for peace and strengthened faith. By Monday morning I was feeling much stronger. Kristyn and I had a lovely visit, chatting and laughing. An ultrasound tech performed basically the same ultrasound on both babies that had been done just 10 days before. I watched closely, and didn't see the cysts in our little girl's brain this time. Next, a doctor came in and did the same ultrasound again, slightly abbreviated. She was able to discuss her findings, and told us that both babies look normal. The cysts are, in fact, gone! The geneticist came in next and talked with us for a few minutes. She didn't have too much to discuss, since the risk of any problem is now incredibly low. What a miracle! I am so touched by the Lord's mercies.

Today was another appointment with my regular doctor. When you are pregnant with twins you get to see the doctor every two weeks! Phew! Good thing I like him. :) Tobin, Peyton, and Maryam all came with me today. This was the kids' first time to see the babies on an ultrasound. They were so cute! They asked Tobin and me a lot of questions about the colorful posters on the wall while we waited for the doctor--can you say female anatomy lesson! They were both totally attentive during the ultrasound and talkative with the doctor. After the exam was over, I asked a couple of questions I had for the doctor. Then, I asked the kids if they had any questions. Peyton raised his hand. I told him to go ahead and ask. He looked at the doctor and said, "How do they get out?" I started laughing, and the doctor looked at me and asked, "Can you handle this one?" I explained to him that we've actually had this talk before. Then I told Peyton again how babies get out of the mommy--the super short, one sentence answer. It was so cute.

My doctor said today that I need to start planning to tone down my activities going forward. He doesn't even want me carrying heavy laundry baskets anymore. I'm not on bed rest, and he wants to keep it that way. Honestly, so do I! So now, I'm going to have to start cracking the whip for my hubby! Tobin really is a great help. I'm just going to have to save some of the bigger household chores for him to help me with in the evenings. I'm sure that's not his favorite idea, but it sure beats having a wife who can't do anything at all.

Big Baby News

We had our "big" ultrasound this afternoon. (This is actually the first appointment that Tobin has been to for this pregnancy since we were released from the fertility clinic.) Both babies were very active and gave the ultrasound tech a bit of a run for her money. We were there for about an hour and a half to get all of the pictures and measurements that the doctors like to see. Whew! It's really neat to watch the babies on the screen and see all the different parts of their bodies and how big they are getting. We are really lucky to have twins again, since we get to have the big ultrasounds every six weeks until they are born. I don't know how women with just one baby get through a pregnancy with only a couple of ultrasounds. I feel so lucky to be able to see our babies at every doctor's appointment!

Baby A is measuring slightly smaller than Baby B -- by about 10 grams. That's not much of a difference at all. They are both about 12 oz right now. The technology for ultrasounds is amazing! I'm truly fascinated by it all.

But I'm sure this is not the news you came for today. Here's the announcement you've been waiting to hear . . . .

Baby A is . . . a BOY!

and

Baby B is . . . a GIRL!

That's right, folks. We must be the luckiest parents alive! We are having our second set of boy/girl twins! I was really hoping these babies would be a boy and a girl again, partly because I'm terrified of trying to tell two boys or two girls apart. Maryam has been telling us all along that we are having a boy and a girl, so she was really happy to be proven correct today. Peyton is holding out for two boys and two girls. Yes, he wants us to have FOUR more babies because he likes to have lots of friends to play with. What a cute couple of kids we already have! They were really excited to see the ultrasound pictures tonight. We took them to dinner to tell them the news and show them the pictures. It was a fun time for our family. We are all so excited and happy!

Half Way . . . plus a little

I am almost 20 weeks pregnant--it's official on Thursday. For a singleton pregnancy, this is the half way point. For me, 18-19 weeks is the half way point. Twins are considered full term at 36 weeks, and my doctor assured me today that if I have not had them by 38 weeks, he will induce me. Woo hoo! Time finally seems to be moving a bit faster.

The good news today is that both babies are looking great, and I actually gained some weight. In fact, I gained five pounds in the last two weeks. Yikes! (Though, I'm only up seven pounds overall.) The doctor said I don't need to go looking for extra calories now, just eat what sounds good and doesn't make me queasy. Morning sickness is improving all the time. I'm hoping it will be completely gone very soon. But I've been hoping that for a while . . . .

I started having Braxton Hicks contractions last week. My doctor told me today that it's normal to feel them earlier during a second or subsequent pregnancy because you recognize the feeling. I remember when I was pregnant with Peyton and Maryam the doctor asked me something about feeling Braxton Hicks contractions and I told him I hadn't felt any. He said, "You're having one right now." What a surprise!

This Friday is the big ultrasound where we (hopefully) will find out the babies' genders. I'm really excited! I'm such a planner! I really hope the babies cooperate so I can get going full swing on getting everything ready for them. I want to get clothes washed and ready, get cribs set up, decide if I need/want to make new quilts for them, make car seat cover things (so people can't just reach in to touch your baby), etc. Who knows how many projects I'll actually finish before they arrive. I'm working on some gifts for other moms/babies too. And of course there are the myriad non-baby-related projects that I have planned or started but never finished. I'm also toying with the idea of trying to get Peyton and Maryam's lives scrapped before the new babies are born. I have not scrapbooked one single picture of their lives yet. It's tragic and shameful, really. Oh well, what's a mom to do, right? Shoot, maybe I'll just wait a few more years on the scrapbooks and let them do it for themselves. :)

Stay tuned for exciting pictures later this week. I may have some completed projects to show you. And there will definitely be new ultrasound pictures in a few days!