Flurry of Excitement

The past 4 days have been a whirlwind of excitement and gifts and craziness. We have had 3 Christmases (Christmas Eve with Ellis's family, Christmas morning here, and Christmas day and evening at my parents with Uncle Steve & Aunt Mary), and a birthday celebration (my boy is 3!!!). And Mommy is EXHAUSTED. I have many fun Christmas pictures to share and a 3-year update about Will who enjoyed his first movie in a theater today ... but they will be coming in a little while. After my head stops spinning.

:-)

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas with an almost 3-year old is so much fun this year. It brings back the magic of this time of year. This is the first year Will really "gets" it, and he is so excited. He talks a lot about Santa coming down our chimney. What does he want for Christmas? A big Buzz and Woody and candy canes in his stocking. I think Santa might make his wishes come true on that! .... and then some.

Today, we head upstate to have Christmas with Ellis's family. Then, we'll drive back home tonight to leave milk and cookies for Santa and have Christmas morning here. Bapa, Grandma, Uncle Steve and Aunt Mary are braving an early morning to be here at 7am to enjoy the festivities with Will and have a Christmas breakfast. Then, we'll head over to Bapa and Grandma's in the aftenoon for Christmas there with Christmas dinner. Its going to be a whole lot of excitement for Will - I just hope he gets a little bit of sleep in there once in a while.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!!!

Will's Christmas Program

Last week, Will's day care had its Christmas program. I am happy to report that this time Will had the same pants on I dressed him in that morning and his fly was not down for the entire performance. He also behaved very well. He was all smiles that morning, getting SUPER excited when he saw Mommy, Daddy, Grandma and Bapa in the audience watching him.

Here he is when he first walked into the gym and spotted all of us sitting there with cameras and video cameras rolling.

"Look, there is MY mommy." (seriously, the kids in his class say that to each other all the time. they excitedly point out who THEIR mommy, daddy, grandma, etc is when we drop them off, when we pick them up and when we come to their performances)

Now, true to form, Will did feel the need to do some acrobatic crazy moves during the program. He. Does. Not. Sit Still.

(Luckily, Bapa caught his moves on film.)

But, 3 year olds constantly remind you how much you love them and why. Just when you want to pull your hair out and ask them to PLEASE sit still - they go and do this ....

Sweetest picture ever of my boy. I absolutely love it. The minister said a prayer after the program and Will dashed on to his knees, folded his hands, and bowed his head. And I think I got a lump in my throat.

Model Railroads

Bapa has introduced Will to his love of model railroads - and Will just loves them. Will likes to tell you all about the trains they have seen lately (Dad took him to a model railroad show and a place near our house that has them at Christmas). I have fond memories of my dad working on his model railroad when I was a child. I love that he and my son have found yet another thing to bond even closer with. Will is inseparable from his Bapa!

Twin Girls!

We are going to have two little girls!

I had my 20 week ultrasound today, and this time I was just so anxious to see that everything was okay with both of them. And everything was great - they measured great, my blood test for common genetic problems came back great, both placentas looked healthy and delivering the right blood supply to both babies - I am so relieved.

Baby A is 10 oz and Baby B is 9 oz so they are looking good as far as the difference in weight at this stage. A singleton birth can be around 10-12 oz at this time of the pregnancy - I have 19 oz in me, so about 1 1/2 pounds of baby! :-) It was so funny because at the end of the screening, Baby A was hitting Baby B in the head and Baby B put up her hands to fend off the punches and then started kicking back. It was funny now, but I did say that they better not think of fighting like that when they came out! :-)

I got a little stressed afterwards in making my next appointment and subsequent appointments. They don't have a slot for me again right now until I am almost 26 weeks, and no appointments to see my regular OB until I am well past 30 weeks. And she is the one who told me I might have to cut back on time, etc around 26-28 weeks. I'm too much of a planning ahead person to have that kind of uncertainty. But, I will call the OB nurse later today and see if I can put myself more at ease.

I will scan in some ultrasound pix later this week. Yay for girls!! (Time to start going through all of Will's boy stuff ... change the nursery bedding and decorations ... much to do!!)

Breakfast With Santa

This year, Will's day care sponsored a "Breakfast with Santa" event at the church. Will had SO much fun, and I was thrilled to see his reaction when Santa entered the room. He was so excited! He wasn't the least bit afraid of Santa. He ran right up to him when it was his turn and talked up a storm about how he wanted "big Buzz [Lightyear]" and "Slinky" and "Woody." Then, he jumped up in his lap for a picture. After we were done, we made a picture frame to put his picture in, sang carols, heard Christmas stories, and got a snowman tatoo on his hand.

Then, Will started to fret because he did not get a chance to give Santa a hug. But the group of folks was small enough that I was able to get him back up to see Santa before we left and Will ran up to him, gave him a huge squeeze, and then was ready to go.

I am LOVING Christmas with an almost 3 year old. He understands everything for the first time and is so excited by everything. He loves to point on the Christmas lights when we drive home each day, he loves finding his magic elf, Markle, who visits Santa each night and hides out in a new place in our house each morning for Will to find, he loves the tree, and the Christmas carols....I can't wait for Christmas morning. I know he is going to flip out. :-)

Christmas Tree

Will has been very good about not touching the ornaments on the tree. I probably could have put a few more ornaments on it. But I loaded it with lights! :-) My dad taught me what is likely the most ridiculously annoying way to string lights on the tree, but, to me, its the only way a Christmas tree looks right. You have to put a string of white lights up and down the trunk to light up the tree from the inside. Then, each string goes up and down and around each branch so you don't have any green wire sticking out. There are probably well over 500 lights on our not-so-big-tree, but it looks pretty. (Picture doesn't do it justice.) As Will said "its beautiful!"

Baby Pokes (finally!)

Last Friday night, when I was 18 1/2 weeks, I finally finally finally felt the babies. I was starting to get really nervous about the fact that I had not felt them since I was this far along in my second pregnancy. But I was laying on the couch watching a movie with Ellis when, for the last half of the movie, I kept feeling the little bubbles in my tummy. I was so happy to finally feel them! The babies have poked at me a couple other times since then. I swear Baby A (the baby on the "bottom" closer to my cervix) was just pushing with all his/her might on my bladder for most of the day.

I love these feelings when being pregnant. It was what I loved most about being pregnant with Will. I would be having a rough day at work and suddenly his head would bump up toward me. It just stops me and makes me smile everytime I feel them. But, Will was breeched for my entire pregnancy so I never dealt with him kicking me in the ribs or anything ... I am probably in for a different ride this time with 4 legs and 4 arms to get at me.

Today, I am 19 weeks and I must say I am feeling LOADS better than I did from about 12-15 weeks. That was a rough period. But now, I have a lot more energy, I have not had a migraine in at least 2 weeks, I do not get dizzy and I can even take my hot showers in the morning again. Thank goodness for the second trimester!

Getting Ready for Twins: Step One

This weekend, Ellis and I bought a new car - a minivan! Yes, I have joined the minivan club and I don't mind one little bit. I have a brand new Honda Odyssey and I LOVE it. Since I was 16, I have driven a little Neon and then a Honda Accord, so I was wondering how well I would be able to drive a big minivan. But its been no problem for me and I love all the space in it. I can put Will in and out of it with ease.

Once the twins come, I have no doubt this big car will suddenly get a lot smaller but at least we have the space now!

Will's Thanksgiving Day Program

A week before Thanksgiving, Will's day care had its Thanksgiving day program. All of the kids sing a series of songs for the parents and grandparents, etc while we oo and ah and snap a hundred photos. Bapa sent me some good ones and Will was quite the performer, so it is worth noting on the blog for his "baby book."

First, little man spilled milk on his pants that morning and I forgot to have an extra pair of pants in his bag that week. So, he was wearing some oversized kind of girly jeans that would not stay zipped. That's right - his zipper was down the entire performance. And that would not have been a problem, except that he liked to stand up a lot and perform to the crowd. Did I ever mention my son is absolutely NOT afraid of strangers? Well, he isn't afraid of performing in front of them either.

Excited to see Mommy, Daddy, Bapa and Grandma in the front row.

He started off sitting and singing with the hand motions and such with his class.

And then he got up (and stayed up) and decided to sing and do the hand motions to everyone - and generally run around.

The HILARIOUS part is that, at the end, the proud parents and family applauded and Will stood up in front of everyone and did this huge grand bow!

This face says it all...
Silly Daddy with Will
CHEESE!

First Dentist Appointment

Yesterday morning I took Will for his first dentist appointment at my dentist's office. He brought his stuffed Pluto along to get his teeth checked to. Will did really well - I was very proud of him. Once we got there, he kept saying he didn't want a shot so I continuously had to keep promising him that the dentist doesn't give shots and this would be nothing but fun. He sat in my lap in the dentist chair with Pluto and we went up and down in the chair. The dental hygenist showed him all her tools (Mr. Straw who sucks up water and Mr. Wind who dries our teeth). He opened his mouth wide so she could show him how to brush his teeth.

He did so well that we decided to try and polish his teeth with the "spin brush." But he quickly decided against that, burying his head in my chest. He did let her do it for a second on one tooth but that was it. I made the mistake of saying "just give it a shot, Will." And, he thought I meant it was a shot - OOPS!

But that's okay. This was meant to be a happy visit where he just got used to the dentist office. I'm thinking it might take one more time, but when he is 4, I will start to insist he clean his teeth.

The dentist came in and Will opened his mouth for him to look at all his teeth and count them. Then, Will happily jumped off the chair to enjoy his prizes of dentist pencils and coloring paper.

Another milestone has passed for him! :-) Next stop - POTTY TRAINING! (I am so not looking forward to this at all.)

Mortified

That is how I felt at church today. Extremely embarrassed to the point of being completely mortified.

We have slowly been trying to get Will used to being in church with us rather than going to the nursery because he will be 3 soon when he will be heading to children's church anyway. Well, this morning he was a bit out of sorts - not listening to anything we said. Then, the service was particularly long today so, instead of children's moments being at 11:15 or so, it was at 11:30. I should have read the signs that Will was not going to listen and be quiet, but he made it until children's moments, so I was determined to have him go up there before I took him to the nursery.

He gathers around the children's moments volunteer at the head of the church like all the other kids. And then starts quietly sneaking toward the altar area. I give him a good "you better not!" mommy stare, then I try ignoring it to see if he will stop. And then I watch him leap through the gate area just as I made a dash off the pew to grab him - and missed him. My son starts tearing around the altar with all kinds of glee and hysteria that this must be the best game ever. And there I am, standing in front of the entire congregation turning what must have been the reddest of reds my face could possibly turn. It took both preachers and me to corral Will and then Reverend Cathy handed him to me, as she tells the congregation that we are expecting twins soon too.

As I'm quickly heading up the aisle with my child in toe, face looking like a tomato, I hear the children's moment's volunteer saying that the kids should add our family to the prayer list. I turned back and said "Thank you!" But I probably should have said "AMEN!"

(Everyone thought it was hilarious and half the church came and spoke to me afterwards. My face continued to turn crimson every time I talked about it. Ah! This is one to remember for a long long time.)

Its a Girl and a ________!!!

Baby B is a girl!! I am ecstatic that we will have a girl! Hooray!

It was quite a morning. Although at every other appointment I have seen the ultrasound tech, this time they did not plan on me seeing her. The nurse told me that I would not be finding out the gender and then took my blood pressure which she said was slightly elevated - I wonder why!!? :-) But my OB (I really love her) understood how anxious I was and scheduled me to see the tech. And the tech looked for probably like 40 minutes at these two kids. They would NOT open their legs for us. Baby A was particularly stubborn and no matter how much we poked at him/her, the baby would not move its foot out of the way.

It looked like we would not know for sure on either one but Baby B moved out of the way for us towards the end and clearly had girl parts!

The tech thinks the other is a girl, but my OB thinks its a boy. We'll have to wait until December to find out for sure. And I am not moving things around or buying lots of girl stuff ... just in case. I don't want to jinx myself and come back in 4 weeks only to discover that it really is two boys.

Will-isms

Every once in a while I try to talk to Will about what it will be like when the babies come. He knows there are two babies and will point to my stomach if you ask him where they are. He knows they will get bigger and bigger ... but past that, I'm not so sure he understands. But we are reading lots of "when the baby comes" books to try to prepare him. (I do wish the books had more than one baby coming home in them....)

Anyway, the other night, Will and I were talking about the babies and he suddenly, very assertively, talked about what they would NOT get:

Will: "When the babies come they will NOT get my lovey."

Me: (laughing) "No, they won't. Because you know what, they will need their own lovey and you will have to help me find the perfect one for each of them."

Will: "And they will NOT play with my Buzz!" (I got him a little miniature Buzz figurine the other day which he takes with him everywhere.)

Me: "No they won't. In fact, you will have to make sure they don't play with Buzz because he is too small and they might put him in their mouth and get hurt."


So - we're learning. Although perhaps the big brother, "that's mine!" side of him is coming out a little too early?

Friday!!

Friday is my 16 week check-up, and we should be able to find out the sex of the babies as long as the cooperate and don't "hide the goods." I plan on drinking caffeine for breakfast and jumping up and down if they refuse to move for the ultrasound tech. I feel like I cannot start getting ready for them until I know what their sexes are.

Truth be told, yes, I would prefer a boy and a girl. I had a vivid dream the other night that they were both girls, and yet, deep down, I have a feeling that I am going to be the mother of 3 boys.

Anyway, I am SO excited to find out. SO excited.

What do you think they will be?? :-)



Okay - y'all keep those "one of each" vibes coming my way!

15 weeks

This week marked my 15th week of my pregnancy with twins - 7 weeks that we have known there were twins coming. A lot of people have asked me how I'm doing and, although I really try not to be a complainer, I have honestly replied "doing okay today" or something like that.

I have certainly discovered that being pregnant with twins is different than a singleton birth. Perhaps I was spoiled when I was pregnant with Will and it gave me a warped point of view of being pregnant - I had it easy. I had hardly any symptoms the first 12 weeks and felt great the rest of the pregnancy until literally the last couple days until Will was born when I felt every bit 9 months pregnant. But I loved being pregnant, I really did.

This time around has been a bit different. I felt fine in the beginning but, as a couple posts below alluded to, I have quickly learned that my body cannot handle a lot of excitement. Its not that I have to be doing a lot of vigorous activity or moving around - just going places and not resting at home can be taxing on me. And that is just plain WIERD to me.

My 13th week of pregnancy was really hard. Everything about me felt off, and I had these terrible headaches 3-4 times a day and felt really dizzy. I would get up in the morning, take a shower to get ready for work, and then out of nowhere feel extremely dizzy, a little nauseated and my head would pound. And then the rest of the day I would be sluggish. So, I headed to the doctor on Friday of that week to make sure all was okay.

At that appointment, I met with my regular OB (my practice makes you rotate around to the different OBs), and I was so glad to talk with her about this pregnancy. She is very straightforward, thorough and lets me know what to expect. She put me on an extra prenatal vitamin to take at night (a vitamin for each baby), and I think that has made a big difference. She also sat down and talked to me about what to expect with a multiple pregnancy. She explained that she asks most of her patients pregnant with multiples to go part time by 25 weeks. Yea...thats like mid-January for me. I started to cry a little bit, freaking out about what this might mean work-wise. She asked me if I had any trials coming up or big cases and encouraged me to tell folks I work for not to give me any new, big cases but to finish up what I have and ride it out a little.

I left that appointment both relieved to get a little perspective and honesty about what to expect, and also scared of what this might mean for me. The 13th week was a wake up call to me about what it really meant to have a high risk pregnancy.

I also have since realized that the headaches I am suffering from must be migraines. If I do too much (not physical exertion but just not enough rest at home), it usually triggers one. And the migraine can wake me up in the middle of the night and keep me awake for hours while it pounds away, and then my head is pretty sore for the rest of the next day. I have never had migraines, and they suck.

But things are going much better this week. I am recognizing my need to put my feet up sometimes and knowing what the headaches are helps me deal with them better. I have changed my routine so that I take showers and dry my hair the night before so I do not have a chance to drop my blood pressure so much in the mrning that I get really dizzy before I head to work. I have talked with the people I work most closely with about what I learned at my appointment. They were all especially nice about it all. I realized that working from home would likely be more than possible for me and will hopefully prevent me having to cut back my hours too much. The partner I worked for told me that he was already prepared for the fact that I may have to cut back soon and just continued to tell me not to worry about it.

So things have been getting a lot better, and I'm hoping the headaches and real fatigue might wear off a little as I get further into my pregnancy. And, hey, many women with twins just reduce their days to maybe 3 days of work a week and make it to 37 weeks, so I could very well be that person. I just know that I need to be prepared should things change for me and the little ones. For the next 6 months or so, this body is theirs, and I need to take care of it for them.

On a funny note (or maybe its not too funny??) - here is my belly shot at 14 weeks. I'm already full into maternity clothes - none of my regular clothes fit anymore.

HA! Compare that to me pregnant with Will at 20 weeks ... okay - yes, you have my permission to laugh your head off at me. Did I mention I am going to be HUGE!

Birthday Fun

Saturday, we traveled for Cate's 2nd birthday party. Will had so much fun - he got to ride a pony, go on a hayride, cook hotdogs over a campfire, and play with all his "upstate" friends. Ellis and I were glad to be able to help celebrate Jennifer and Travis' youngest turn 2. Can't believe she is 2 already!

I also met one of Jennifer's friends whose 2 year old twins were there. She already had some great tips for me - like having a chart for the twins arrive to check-off who ate when and how much, who was changed, who slept, etc to keep track of them. I know I will be e-mailing her in the near future for any more advice she can give!

"Cowboy Will" (as he called himself)

The Cowboys (Charlie, Will and Alex)

The birthday girl!

Entertainment

What happens around here on a cold, rainy Sunday when there is not too much to do?

I find Will laying in my tupperware cupboard, in his Buzz costume, singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and a random selection of other songs.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

We are moments away from turning Will into Buzz Lightyear to go trick-o-treating. I am pretty excited this year because its the first year Will really "gets" Halloween. He is so hyper right now in anticipation of it getting dark enough to head out. Hope you all have a happy Halloween!

Boo at the Zoo

Last Sunday, Bapa and Grandma met up with us at the zoo to take Will to Boo at the Zoo. You put Will in his Buzz Lightyear costume and he just lights up with excitement. He loves it! He told me a while ago that he wanted to be Buzz for Halloween and I could not find one that was either not too expensive or not just a piece of painted fabric. Then, I went on Ebay and found on for $21! I must say I am really proud of my costume hunting this year. When Will puts on his costume, he shouts all of Buzz's sayings ("To infinity and beyond." and "I come in peace.") He shoots his pretend laser and flies around. Its hysterical.

The State Fair

We took Will to the State Fair Friday night. He had so much fun! Daddy rode on the rides with Will (we couldn't get him to ride any of them by himself). I was super jealous because I do love to ride rides (even the kiddie ones), but I stayed off those things this year. I promised Will that next year I would ride them with him.

He turned out to be quite the thrill-seeker. There was one ride called the submarine that is like that rainbow ride for adults. You sit in it and it goes around in a big circle, making your stomach drop as it comes down. Will was dying to go on the submarine as his second ride, and so Ellis took him. He came off of it talking fast to me about how scary the ride was, how it went up and down, and made his tummy hurt. And then, as we walked away, he begged to go on again (and he did).

We also saw all the animals (Will got within 5 feet of a huge elephant and was mesmerized), ate yummy fair food (he loved funnel cake like his mama), and walked around at night to see all the lights and play some fair games.

Here he is on his very first fair ride.
(We had the hardest time tearing him away from the water sliding chicks. He would laugh and jump up and down every time they slid down that slide.

After it got dark, Will sat on Ellis' shoulders and we walked toward all the games and adult rides. Will was absolutely fascinated by all the lights and sounds.
I won him a Curious George stuffed animal at the water gun game (almost always a sure-win). He also won himself a duck with one of those duck games (where you pull them out of the water and it tells you on the bottom if you won a small, medium or large). He slept with both of them last night and tonight. :-)

Will had a lot of fun on the "Rockin' Tug" ride. I loved to watch him laugh and squeal when it would rock back and forth. (You probably have to double-click on the pictures to be able to see Ellis & Will.)

I went in a fun house with him. I am always disappointed by those things - 2 tickets admission for about 5 seconds of fun house. But Will seemed to love it and I was glad to do something with him.

The last ride Will did was this race car ride. The cars are on an oval track, and when they come to the corner, they whip around really fast. Will loved this ride so much. I smiled and laughed so hard watching him that my smile muscles hurt when the ride ended. I would go back to the fair just so he could ride that one again and again and again.

We left about 9:00, and Will really held up well at that hour. We only had a minor breakdown when he realized he was not going on any more rides, but I took care of that by bribing him with cotton candy as we walked back to the car.

The day after the fair has actually been a really hard day for me - lots and lots of headaches and dizzy spells. I have been suffering from those a bit in the last week or two and they have been really bad today. I think last night was harder on me than I thought. I'm coming to terms with the fact that being pregnant with twins will be different than my last pregnancy and I need to acknowledge my limits. Still - its hard when you have a 2 year old and want to do lots of fun things with him!