33 Weeks!

Something big is supposed to happen today.  The two adorable brothers below are supposed to get a baby brother or sister.  There is still time left in the day but their mom let me know she doesn't think it's going to happen.  Regardless, happy due date Michelle! We can't wait to meet our newest niece or nephew!

 

I had my 33-week appointment today and all is well!  Both babies are still head down, though Sloane is now facing my spine and refuses to pose for any pictures.  I am absolutely terrified of that girl.  Meanwhile her brother is still the poster child of manners and grace, giving us several great shots and remaining in the same position he's been in since day 1.

Hey Jude.

I also found out that as of next week my doctor will do nothing to stop the delivery if the babies decide to come early.  She is able to give steroid shots to help with lung maturity and something about magnesium to stop contractions, but she feels both procedures are unnecessary once I'm past 34 weeks and if my body thinks it's time, it is indeed time.  I'm ok with this because (as unnatural as a c-section is) I'd like this pregnancy to be as non-invasive as possible.  Regardless, we're still hoping they decide to stay put a bit longer.  :)

In other news, Michael's workplace threw us a wonderful shower last Friday.  The way they treated me and spoiled the babies made me realize how happy they are that Michael is a part of their team.  I know the feeling is mutual, which is fantastic for all involved.  His boss has twins so we're hoping he remembers the first few months of sleep deprivation in case Michael falls asleep at his desk (or walking down the hall).  :)

A neat thing happened today that I don't want to forget. As you've noticed from recent pictures, my stomach is HUGE.  I'm comfortable with it and have learned to accept the odd/rude/inappropriate comments from strangers.  The other day at Target I was waiting in line and the 80-year-old woman behind me was obviously staring.  I finally made eye contact with her and she said, "Honey, is that baby's due date TODAY?"  I laughed and told her there were two babies and she backed off.  Anywho, that was not the point of this paragraph.  After my appointment today I was leaving the hospital and a complete stranger smiled at me and said, "You have a beautiful belly!"  I broke into a huge grin.  I thanked her and walked (waddled) away feeling the best I have in weeks.  It was the sweetest compliment.  Regardless of how giant I am, this belly is housing two babies and to hear someone celebrate that fact is awesome.  I will definitely remember how good I felt at that moment and will pass on the comment to another woman who looks like her baby's due date is that day.  :)

And speaking of giant bellies, below are the latest pictures.  Let's say it together: GOOD LORD.  Each time I look at these pictures I burst out laughing.  I think I could be a circus act.

 33 weeks

 

Sidenote: I'm turning off the comments on this post.  You guys always write the sweetest things and I'm starting to feel a little awkward.  I don't post pictures with the intent of receiving comments (although they're lovely) and you deserve a much needed break from coming up with nice things to say about the circus act (and most recently the nursery)!  :)  Instead, I'd appreciate it if you said a quick prayer for my brother's family and their newest addition!

Jude & Sloane's Nursery

The nursery is officially DONE.

Well, I think it is.

Actually I'm not so sure.  I'd still like to add a curtain panel and possibly a big ampersand print between the crib artwork or above the closet.

But for all practical purposes, it's done.

I'm (per usual) frustrated with how my pictures turned out--colors are off and they're all a bit grainy.  There is one very small window in the nursery, which I know is great for sleeping--not so much for lighting.  

I'm rambling aren't I?

Ok, so before the "big reveal," a few things about the nursery.  Regardless of the genders we'd decided the twins would stay in the same room for the first few years.  Our home has three bedrooms and we'd prefer to have a guest bedroom as long as possible.  Now that we know we're having a boy and a girl we're going to keep them together until things get "weird."  I'm not sure when that typically happens but I'll keep you posted.  We knew immediately the room could not be too masculine or too feminine. 

The other thing you should know is we're not into themes.  There is nothing I love so much that I want an entire room to revolve around that particular item (manatees, ostriches, cheese, and Michael's face are way up there but that's about it).  At the same time, I didn't want it to be a smorgasbord of complete chaos.  With this in mind we decided to go for a clean nursery that had a beach house feel but did not scream, "OH MY GOD WE'RE ON A BEACH--WHERE IS MY PINA COLADA?" 

We painted the walls Amazing Gray (Sherwin Williams), and kept everything else pretty neutral with a bit o' turquoise for Jude and coral for Sloane.  We also opted not to get crib bumpers due to all of the safety hazards we've read recently so their bedding could not be more basic (it breaks my heart a little but we'll all sleep better at night so that wins over cuteness).

Alright, let's get this show on the road. 

Taken from the doorway...

 

Big ol' canvas

 

  

For Sloane...

For Jude...

Don't worry, I will fill the frames with pictures of our babies and not random babies.

(Hedgehog bookends--are you kidding me?!!!)

 

The silver poof was the very first nursery purchase.

You guys helped pick out this canvas last year!  (Thanks!)

 EEE!!!  Sloane and Jude are ready for Fall!

I would love for you to see it in person.  Just know if you visit you will likely get a baby and a bottle upon arrival. :)

32 Weeks!

We reached our first (mini) goal!  Yesterday was 32 weeks, which is something we've been praying for from the beginning.  Hooray!

We saw both doctors today and received some shocking news.  My weekly email says the average weight of a baby at 32 weeks is 3 lbs 12 oz.  Since Jude and Sloane have both been rather large from the beginning I was hoping they would each weigh a little over 4 lbs.  Michael decided to be bold and guessed they'd weigh around 4 lbs 6 oz.  I laughed at his silliness.

Well.

Our perinatologist checked the usual measurements of the babies (both head down--hooray Sloane!) and with each measurement he either laughed or murmured a quiet "wow."  Ready for their weights?

Sloane (our "petite" twin): 4 lbs 11 oz
Jude: 5 lbs

Folks, with almost 6 weeks to go our babies weigh just under 10 pounds.

I couldn't stop laughing.  Mostly because if I stopped I'd start crying.  Let's be honest, their weights are amazing and I couldn't be more ecstatic but my poor stomach is already begging for mercy and it has a LONG ways to go.  He checked everything else and I'm showing no signs of pre-term labor.  In fact, he told us he really wants me to make it to 38 weeks so we can set a new world record.

I think he was kidding.

The other thing to keep in mind is these are simply estimates (based on measurements of head, stomach, and femur).  I've had plenty of friends who were told their babies weighed a certain amount and came out weighing two pounds less--it's all uncertain until they're put on that scale.  And regardless of weight they still have a long ways to go.  Lung development is the very last thing that occurs so they're not ready to be out in the real world.  Not to mention I'm certain 3 pounds of Jude is his head. :)

Next was the OBGYN appointment, which was short and sweet.  She reviewed their stats and then told me about a set of twins who weighed 8 and 9 pounds at birth.  I'm still not sure if she was telling me this to make me feel better or to prepare me for a similar situation.

She was happy with my glucose numbers so I get to drop another test, which brings me down to two finger pricks a day.  I can handle that!

Weight gain and blood pressure look good.  No swelling and no need for bed rest.  Yahoo!

My parents were in town last weekend and my mom was nice enough to take some pictures of us (thank you mom)!  Most of you have already seen them on Facebook but for those who haven't, here are way too many pictures...

 A few days shy of 32 weeks...

When you look at this picture it's very easy to believe I'm carrying 10 pounds of babies!

My mom's idea.  I love it!

31 Weeks

Let's get this out of the way...

Hi, my name is Meredith Haynes, and I have gestational diabetes.

(Hi, Meredith.)

When I went to my 30-week appointment last Wednesday they shared the above news and told me I needed to meet with a dietitian.  At the same appointment I found out I hadn't gained any weight in two weeks (not terrible, but not what I wanted/expected to hear), Sloane had flipped and was head up (again), and due to my braxton hicks contractions they ran a Fetal Fibronectin test that would predict if I'd go into preterm labor in the next two weeks.  Unfortunately, I wouldn't get the results for two days.  I left feeling defeated.  I've been so lucky with all appointments thus far and just wasn't expecting an onslaught of possibly bad news. They checked my cervix (sorry--I went there) and everything looked great but I was still anxious to get the results.

Moving forward to Friday. I met with the dietitian and she gave me a new meal plan (in short: lay off the carbs) and taught me how to use the glucose tester thingy, which means I prick my finger four times a day to check my levels.  I also heard back from the nurse who told me the preterm labor test was negative, meaning there's a 98% chance I will NOT go into labor in the next two weeks (hooray)! 

The gestational diabetes thing has been frustrating for me because all of my numbers have been very low, which is good.  I have followed the diet pretty well but cheat at least once a day and even then the numbers are still low.  Because of this I've decided the glucose drink is a huge pile of crap and I am jealous I'm not eating donuts and sugar out the wazoo like all women in their third trimester should be doing.  :) In all seriousness, I am grateful my case has been so easy to manage and I know eating healthy foods can only benefit the kids. At the same time, if you are within 15 feet of me and carrying a cupcake be prepared to be mauled.

I had my 31-week appointment yesterday and it was wonderful.  I showed my doctor my glucose numbers and she told me I could drop one of the finger pricks (I can drop another one next week if numbers continue to look good).  The sonogram showed that Sloane is now head down (again) and we got some great profile shots of both kids.  They each scored a perfect on the biophysical profile, my cervix (sheesh, went there AGAIN) looks great, low blood pressure, no swelling, no mention of bed rest and I gained a pound.  It was such a relief to hear so much good news after last week!  And to top it all off, I received my first (ever) jury summons and my doctor wrote a note to get me out of it.  I will be 36 weeks on the day I'm required to show up--can you imagine?  Worst juror ever!

We will hit our first mini-goal next week! We'll definitely be celebrating though we're obviously hoping they stay put a little longer. :)

I've reached the point where I seriously don't know how it's possible for me to get any bigger but I know it's going to happen and that's a bit terrifying. I discovered Michael's boxer shorts this week and proclaim, "Where have you been all my life?!" to these glorious underpants at least twice a day. Add a large TU soccer shirt to the mix and this lady is looking HOT.

31 weeks, 2 days - 6.5 weeks to go!
(ps. I'm a brunette now.)

Comments from Dad

I asked Michael if he would write a blog post with some observations over the last eight months.  I thought it might be nice to hear his humorous perspective and something Sloane and Jude might enjoy reading one day.  

I remember in vivid detail the first visit with the doctor where we found out Meredith was pregnant with twins.  The detail isn't that impressive because once the nurse performing the sonogram said, "There are two babies," Meredith and I barely spoke the rest of the visit.  On my side there was a fair amount of staring at the ground, closing my eyes, then opening them again, just to make sure.  The doctor came in to speak with us wearing a smirk on his face.  He has twins of his own and the first year was fresh enough in his memory that our impending journey was more than humorous.

The next few weeks were pretty tame.  We did some broad scale planning and discussed various odds and ends related to the next few months.  We played the name game quite a bit and that generally consisted of Meredith throwing out somewhere between 10 and 15,000 names and me reacting with grunts and groans.  We loved the names Jude and Sloane but coming up with a second boy or girl name was hard.  Our most significant difference in opinion in this category fell under girl names.  Meredith loved boy names for girls and I did not.  Some people like it and that's fine, but I didn't want to have to introduce my son Jude and my daughter Joe Bob.  Names are also difficult because you've come across someone with just about every name you can think of at some stage in your life.  If you had a particularly bad experience with a Joe Bob, you probably don't want to name your son (or daughter) after them.  Anyway, I always won the name game.  There are no rules to the game and scoring is sketchy, but if you flip flop on names enough in a week, you win. 

I also distinctly remember registering.  Registering before a wedding made sense to me because you're starting a new life together and you'd rather not eat on plastic plates that make everything taste like hot pockets, and you want at least three glasses to look the same.  Registering for a baby, or babies, seems ridiculous.  I'm not saying it's unnecessary because that is completely wrong, but the number of options available and the blurred line between need and everything else is overwhelming.  Car seat A costs $150 and passes all the safety inspections.  Car seat B costs $250, has 8 air bags, a parachute, and emergency oxygen...and passes all the safety inspections with the exact same ratings as car seat A.  These options are available for everything!  Stroller A is good, Stroller B is marginally better and $200 more, but stroller C is used by celebrity X, can fit in the back of most SUVs the size of a Hummer or larger, and costs $1100 more than your first car.  

Meredith has been great throughout the process.  She was pretty tired in the beginning, but the last few months have been pretty normal.  I can count the number of times she came at me with a knife in a hormonal rage on one mutilated hand.  Now she's at a point where she's mildly uncomfortable in just about any position, but her non-pregnant husband thinks it's totally worth it.  One thing in particular has really surprised me and that's how people react to the sight of her and more so, what they say about it.  I expected females to be overly nice and guys to be completely awkward and free of logic and/or sense.  However, I must say the guys have fared better in this category.  Granted, there are far fewer guys in this survey but they conducted themselves really well.  The females are all over the board.  Friends and family are great, no worries there.  Randoms are the ones you need to worry about.  I never knew this, but apparently when a woman gives birth to her last child she loses all recollection of what it was like to hold another human in her body for 40 weeks.  Words like "huge" and phrases like "big girl" do not score well on the appreciation scale.  I know I've been caught giving some of these women looks that are similar to what I would give a guy trying to tighten a screw with a squirrel or a child starting in on their second tub of Elmer's paste.  

Overall, time has flown.  In one week we went from an empty room to a nearly complete nursery.  We've been filling in the odds and ends since.  The stroller is the last large purchase we have to make and that's happening this week.  We are so close and it feels like we just started.  I'm not nearly nervous enough yet but I'm very excited.  Actually I am a little nervous about the first poop.  I hear it's like black tar and all I can think of are those commercials where they're trying to wipe oil off of a seagull and it's not working at all.  I'm fairly confident the Lava soap that mechanics use isn't baby sensitive.  Some nerves also hit me about how I'll be on no sleep for 17,000 hours straight.  I'm afraid late night infomercials paired with the struggles of feeding two babies simultaneously will have me trying to MacGyver some sort of contraption that is not safe or useful.  I'm not nervous about Meredith though.  She's been a trooper throughout and I know she'll do great once the little ones arrive.  

Meredith has frowned on the idea of Halloween costumes on one-day-old babies, but I'm sneaky like that...

30 Weeks!

Ladies and very few Gentlemen--We've reached 30 weeks!  Can I tell you how GREAT it is to see that big ol' THREE in the very front?

More than that, can I tell you how great it is to have blog friends like you guys?  Your comments after last week's post were so wonderful and exactly what this less-than-confident girl needed to read.  I felt so much better this past week and I know it's because of what each of you said.  Thank you very, very much!

This week was pretty low-key.  I took the second glucose test on Friday, which was much better than I expected but still quite long and annoying.  I imagine I'll receive the results tomorrow at my doc appointment but I'm keeping my fingers crossed it takes longer.  :)

We spent much of the weekend in bed watching season 1 of The West Wing (I came down with a cold last Wednesday and Michael unfortunately accepted the invitation to the cold party this weekend).   The nursery is continuing to come together!  We organized the drawers and also separated kitchen items from bathroom items from nursery items, etc.  It's crazy (and awesome) how much stuff we have for these kiddos!

It was a very relaxing week and a great way to end my twenties... again.  :) 

There is a popular pregnancy quiz that has taken the blog-world by storm so I'm going to modify it a little for a bit o' record keeping.

How far along? 30 weeks

Total weight gain: Will find out tomorrow.  My guess is 28 pounds.

Maternity clothes? YES.  Although the outfit I'm sporting below includes a non-maternity shirt from Zara.  My guess is I have officially made it maternity as no material can stretch that much and go back to its natural state.  A chemical reaction if you will...  (Right, dad?)

Stretch marks?  None!
Sleep: Not good.  I wake up about 5 times a night to go to the bathroom and have consistently been awake between the hours of 4-6 am.

Best moment this week:  Eating the chocolate lava cake from Chili's.  We never go there but I've had a hankerin' for it the past week.  Michael politely obliged.

Miss Anything?  Sleep.  

Movement: Constant.  I adore it. 

Food cravings: Cottage cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, and Oreos

Anything making you queasy or sick:  The thought of not being able to eat Oreos

Labor Signs: These darn contractions (if they count).  Other than that, nothing.

Wedding rings on or off? Off.  They still fit but I'm so nervous my fingers will swell one day due to the heat so I'm too scared to wear them.  I've been wearing my grandmother's pear-shaped emerald ring that she gave me before Michael and I married.  I like to think it represents our two babes.  (Get it?  PEAR?  PAIR?!!  Yesssss!)

Happy or Moody most of the time: I think I'm pretty happy most of the time.  I have some moods but they're few and far between.
Looking forward to: Seeing Jude & Sloane (albeit briefly) tomorrow!

30 weeks and an awkward head tilt to boot!