A picture of (twin) pregnancy

Here are a few (and only) pictures recording my twin pregnancy. The ultrasound is how Jeff and I found out we were having twins. We were totally shell shocked (not that Andrew(5) and AnnaLisa(7) didn't already try to warn us). We sat in the lobby of the OB's office with wide eyes and just kept repeating, our car isn't going to be big enough, our house is not going to be big enough...

Another one is a recent side shot of me. It is hard to tell where my hips and belly use to be, but basically follow the front of my pants straight up and subtract a few inches.

Going clockwise, the next shot is a current picture of me and the kids. (Andrew-6, me, MaggieMae-2, JJ-4, AnnaLisa-7)

Proof that my belly really is as big as Andrew is tall - 49 inches. At least 5 inches bigger than I was with MaggieMae. Strangely enough I am only about 6 pounds heavier for that added circumference.

Lastly, the outpouring of gifts we have received for the twins (which keep coming). This is back of my mini-van on my trip home from a fabulous babyshower that has provided many clothes and very many diapers, and other needed items! We are so loved and well taken care of by our family and friends!!

It started out as all good birthday should...

 

It started out as all good birthdays should (or at least good birthday's according to MaggieMae)...with a trip to Dunkin' Donuts. She got her very own free "Birthday Donut" which she got in her very own bag for and got to carry it home on her lap. She was thrilled with that. For Maggie the two requirements for a birthday are donuts for breakfast and cake.
She got her cake and ice cream at an afternoon party that we enjoyed with a few friends and relatives. Maggie received sand for the old sandbox from mom and dad as well as a cute shirt that she saw at the store that morning. Dad paused to look at the shirts and pulled out a couple to look at. Maggie decided to take matters into her own hands by telling daddy, "that one" pointing to a purple on that dad had not picked up.

She received a bath-time doll from Aunt Rebecca (and family), that she likes giving baths to and occasionally big sister has been seen snuggling up with it at night in bed. She got sand toys from Adriana (friend and babysitter), Becky got her a book and Minnie Mouse shirt (which she also loves), Aunt Kathy (and family) got her a couple of coloring books, Grandma and Grandpa Williams gave her some money and Aunt Danika (and family) gave her a great Princess blow up chair - which Maggie loves and unfortunately so did her big brothers. It has a whole in it and we are starting to look for sturdy foam which we could cut or mold into the cover so that she can continue to use it. All in all, very fun day and she really enjoyed it.

It is so fun to see her enjoy a birthday. She likes telling people she is two. For me this is a new experience for a child of mine, so young, to be able to understand and actually request things for her birthday. I never could understand why other parents did so much for their children's birthdays at such a young age. MaggieMae talked about her birthday (well, mostly donuts and cake) for several weeks before it came. My other kids, it was more of a "Who is the cake for?" at best. More pictures below!

Two final notes - Maggie is getting her favorite lunch - Top Ramen that she has opened with a pair of scissors. And finally, the lovely outfit she has on is one of her favorites - pink pants with Snowmen and presents on it to go with her hooded, short sleeved knit shirt that has a print of cherries on it. What a fashion statement!

We do donuts.

 
There are sometimes that you have to understand the importance of some item in the history of a family before you can truly appreciate a comment by one of it's members. This is such a time. Doughnuts are such an item.

For some crazy reason Dunkin' Donuts has a history with me. Probably started out when I would get up at some crazy time on a Saturday morning to help my mom deliver around 200 newspapers. We would stop off at DD after picking up the newspapers and get a donut (this was my payment for getting out of bed at around 4:00 am on a Saturday). I don't know how much faster I made the job, but I know my mom was always willing to buy me a donut for it. That was one of my big dissapointments when I moved out west - No Dunkin Donuts.

Well, moving to Arizona we found they had a few, which were far away and we would go to occasionally, usually to send home to a brother when my parents were visiting. Then about a year ago they opened a store a mere 2 miles from our house (Baseline and Stapley). They opened a week before MaggieMae's first birthday. We picked some up at the opening (yes we waited in line for close to an hour). The kids liked them so much that for Maggie's birthday the following week, we bought some for her birthday (you are allowed to pick whatever you want to eat for your birthday). My older three at that time really did not have the cognitive skills (yet) to handle those types of decisions, so I would just pick meals I knew they liked. Maggie definitely had her own voice on this matter. She let me know that she wanted doughnuts. So this is a picture of Maggie on her first birthday eatting donuts.

So fast forward to last night. Jeff, Maggie and I are in my bedroom and Maggie is talking about the baby stuff in our room. She is two and has not slept in the crib for about 3 months now. We have been working on her getting the idea that she is going to have babies (brother and sister) in that crib soon, so she can't sleep in it. She turns to us and says, "William (her soon to be here brother) eat a donut and go to sleep in the crib". Well, I guess she has it figured out - as far as the crib goes. As for a doughnut for William? Yes, I'd love a Boston Cream!.

"uhh umm...your attention please"

 
Here is a picture of my big boy JJ. This week he gave his first talk in Primary (Sunday School for 3-11 year olds). He gave a talk about the Creation. This is how it went.

JJ climbs up on to the stool so he can reach the microphone at the podium. He checks it to see if it is on, "Uhh Umm...your attention please". And he is ready to start. Daddy is holding up pictures of the creation. JJ has his talk written out, and knows most of the words (he and Daddy worked on that earlier in the day). JJ is more interested in talking into the microphone than reading his talk. So he waits until Dad prompts him on everything. Daddy is dutifully going through the pictures. JJ explains, "God made the Earth, and stars, and he made the water. He also make the lakes, rivers, streams, and waterfalls (waterfalls was a requirement for the talk as far as JJ was concerned). He also made the animals and then he made men and women.

JJ did a great job although he sounded like he was trying to beat-box and made it real difficult to hear a lot of his words. Daddy did a great job helping and being an easel. Where was mom in all of this? I was sitting in the back of the room, next to our Bishop who chuckled good naturedly at a 4 year old being a 4 year old.

I guess before his next talk we are going to need to work on some microphone ettiquette.

Current stats

Dilated to a loose 3, and 50% effaced. 35 1/2 weeks along. I have never "walked around" being this far along (3, 50%). In the past I was having a baby within hours of this type of news, which usually came in triage at the hospital, never the doctor's office.

Gained 5 pounds this last week (for a total of 30 pounds) - I have just been voracious. Andrew felt left out when I told him that last night I ate three dinners. Dad told him when Andrew had two babies in his tummy that he could eat three dinners too.

Told the kids at dinnertime tonight that the babies may be here sooner than we had planned. Told them the babies could come as early as tonight. Andrew was slightly distressed. He said that he wanted the babies to wait because he does not want them born "too early". There is my little 'nervous Nelly' of the family. He is so concerned about his youngest siblings - if only we could get him to use this concern for his younger brother JJ.

So, not sure when this will happen, but if you see our van drive by and us toss out the kids, we are probably on our way to the hospital.

How much is a bandaid going to cost now?

OK, maybe this is too simple of a question that very well could reflect my lack of understanding on this issue, but why not instead of making a "new solution" to an existing problem, why don't we look at our old solution and see if there is a better fix? I will admit I don't know the in's and out's of the health care reform (other than the fact that our health care system has some definite issues), but rather than add taxes, penalties, mandates, etc. - why not reverse what we did that we thought was such a good solution? Stop letting companies get tax credits for supplying insurance to their employees?

Now, I know this would hurt those of us who have really great health insurance (which my family pays a lot for out of our own pockets), but what I think it would do is change the motivation for insurance companies. Right now who are their customers? HR departments in companies. They don't take me out to lunch and try to get me to start using their companies - that is the HR person who gets that perk.

Like I said, maybe I don't understand all the intricacies of this problem, but why can't health insurance be like car insurance? I know there will be some issues to still work out, but after reading a few articles that raise questions like: fat tax, death panels, health care run like DMV, etc. I have to reflect, are we trying to fix health care or are we trying to fix what we did not fix so well the first time...or is this the second time - uh, no I think this is the third time that government has tried to fix health care. Hmm- maybe there is something that is being missed.

Is it "We the people?" instead of the government?

These are my friends who threw the shower for me - Danika (my Sister-in-law), Sara (mom of twins herself and kids piano teacher), me, Becky (close friend and second mom to my kids, especially MaggieMae)

Me modeling a couple of the outfits that we received at the shower. Notice that the boy clothes are on the left and girl is on the right. That is the way they are inside too!

Momma's big ol' belly

33 weeks pregnant (with twins) - People tell me I look tiny, especially when they hear that I am pregnant with twins. This picture is not real good at showing it, but you can see I am "out there". While I am still "lighter than my last pregnancy", my belly is about 2-3 inches bigger (47 inches) and my measurement from top to bottom of my tummy is 9 centimeters longer (49 cm) than any of my other pregnancies.

With other pregnancies I have never had a feeling of my inside being larger than my outside and my outside having to grow to cover it. Think of "After Thanksgiving dinner on steroids". There have been about 5 different weeks that I have literally added an inch to my waist. It is amazing how my body is growing.

My mom also had twins around my age. I remember as a 10 year old kid seeing my mom's lap disappear. I recall her only having a couple of inches left on her lap to her knees. While I still have a good 5 inches or so, I have noticed that my daughter can not sit on my lap when I am sitting "Indian style" anymore, which is the only way I can sit upright without falling forward.

Time clock just keeps ticking...

I admit it, I totally stole this photo off a website! It was just too cute. So no, they are not mine.

Hopefully I have 3-4 more weeks until "my matched set" come. Went to the doctor today, all of us are healthy. The Ultrasound tech. is impressed with my ability to read the ultra sounds and extract knowledge from it (for example according to the Ultrasound, the babies are 5 lbs, 11 oz and 6 lbs and 1 oz) and I explained all the markers they are looking for: head circumferance, heart beat, amount of amniotic fluid, femur length, position (head down or not) etc.

So both babies are still breach and have their heads nestled in together (this is the way they have always appeared in all of their ultrasounds). Jeff thinks they are plotting something. I think, "I have four other kids, I don't need two that plot together. And what could you be plotting that takes 5 months?"

If the babies stay breach, then I will have a c-section on 9/9/9. Is that great? I will be 38 weeks along. I am sort of hoping for this option in some ways (because even if you deliver the first baby normally, you can end up having a c-section for the second and why go through both?). It will also make things much more convenient (which is the opposite of children by definition) as mom is planning on coming there abouts.

So I remain on modified bed rest. I have survived 5 weeks of bed rest(and have read a ton of books) and hope that after two more I can have a slightly productive last two weeks before the kiddos come. My sanity is so-so. The kids are dealing well with it, MaggieMae just comes and snuggles in next to me (usually after she climbs over me) and we read books or sing songs. She loves mom singing songs to her (a sure sign that she is tone deaf).

AnnaLisa's Meet the teacher night

 
AnnaLisa got to go back to her last year's teacher and say hello and give her a hug (which AnnaLisa talked about for the last couple of days), but after 10 minutes on her old stomping grounds, she decided it was time to move on to 2nd grade. Daddy took the kids and headed on over to her new teacher while I chatted with Andrew's current teacher (the same one AnnaLisa had last year). When I walked into the new teacher's room, I felt like I was in Disneyland, well ok, more like a Mickey Mouse museum. There were dolls, chairs, lamps, drop cloths, etc that were all Mickey Mouse. Evidentally there was a Minnie Mouse section, but I did not notice it.

I headed over to who I assumed was the teacher, (she was the only other adult in the room that I was not married to) and introduced myself. AnnaLisa was not far away and was reading some of the information that had been left on her desk for us to take. Her teacher chatted with me, slightly distracted by AnnaLisa's reading. "She is good at reading", her teacher comments to me. I smile (I try not to brag to people about my kids academic levels, but they all tend to be high), and told her that AnnaLisa reads well and was in the highest reading level last year.

AnnaLisa's teacher directs AnnaLisa to a few activities she has had the kids take part in. AnnaLisa enjoys them, but it is obvious that the novelty of these activities is a challenge for her to figure out - unfortunately she struggles with the same disease her father has where they can't often see what is right infront of them, especially if it is not the designated place for such an object.

As we left her new classroom, AnnaLisa announced, "I have a math book in my desk. A whole book about math!" We commented that sounded like it would be fun. Then she said, "My teacher will tell us to get our math books out and to turn to a certain page and then we will do math!" Jeff and I giggled. The thought that came to me was, if a 2nd grade math book thrills you, wait until you get into Calculus. You got so much math to learn you may regret this math book excitement.

All in all, AnnaLisa had lots of fun tonight as well and when her brother started wishing it was Sunday night, she just started wishing that school started tomorrow, regardless of what day it was.

JJ's Meet the Teacher night

 
OK, maybe this picture shows a little of JJ's mischevious side (bonus points for using a "Word Girl" vocabulary word of the day!) You have to know that JJ is holding a "Spider-man dart wrist strap" in one hand while casually wearing Daddy's Graduation hat, before Graduation on G-day, but it gets better.

Tonight we met JJ's new teacher and checked out his new school and classroom. He was shy when we first got there)those that know JJ well will have a tough time believing that JJ is shy when meeting new people and new environments). He started moving around the room while I chatted with the teacher and filled out paperwork. He was having fun investigating different areas while his sister sat down at a table and started coloring. I had just finished the paperwork to look up and see JJ struggling with a "fun mirror", one of those mirrors that is rippled to make you look like you are in a "Fun house". Thankfully it had a sturdy frame, and I was able to cue Daddy to jump across the room and help out his son. They quickly got it back on the wall, when I heard JJ mutter, "Good thing (my new) teacher did not see that!"

Mom had a different view and realized that this teacher is going to be a real good match for JJ because she did see the whole thing and calmly waited for JJ to fix the situation.

On the way out to the car, which was parked in the apartment complex next to the school, JJ was complaining about how far away the car was parked. He turned to me and said, "Where's the car? I am long thirsty and my feet hurt."

You can't blame the kid, 106 degrees outside and I think anyone would be long (very) thirsty too!

Mom, I wish is were Sunday night...

 
Andrew was bouncing off the walls tonight. We had "Meet the Teacher" night and he was inthralled to get back to school. He was very excited about getting AnnaLisa's 1st grade teacher, he got his picture taken tonight and just bounced around the room. If I did not know Andrew as well as I did, I would think this was crazy. No, simply my boy telling his family that he could not wait until Monday morning. So when we were headed out to the car, it did not surprise me at all when he said, "I wish this were Sunday night. I wish school started tomorrow.

And for this mom, who had gone to three "Meet the Teacher" events, I was wishing that school started tomorrow too.