It's been a hard day's night

It has been some time since my last post and I apologize. We left off at 20 weeks and half way. Wow, lots of things have changed.


-I am now 31 weeks and huge.
-I am the not so proud owner of gestational diabetes
-My kids feel the need to kick and move during the night now
-I can no longer wear my wedding band. : ( Swelling of the hands.
-I can barely tie my shoes
-I keep getting mistaken for someone having a Christmas baby
-I have become extremely good at cooking eggs in a stainless steel pan
-I work retail, so the holidays have prevented me from providing a more consistent posting schedule.


Ok, so 31 weeks pregnant. I had an ultrasound at 29 weeks, the twins were measuring just fine. TA is head down like a proper baby should be. TB has a mind of its' own. Head is up, and body curves like a crescent moon with the feet towards my left side. So I get the benefit of a head popping up looking like a cone, AND getting kicked on the side of the ribs. TA likes to push it's little bottom up and then push its' feet against my stomach and ribs. I like to lay on the couch, pull my shirt up and watch the show. Andy finds it to be totally weird as do I. It's strange how I am not grossed out by this. I mean imagine, you are just minding your own business, watching TV and you feel some strange movements in your stomach. Wouldn't you normally call the hospital or think you have some sort of parasite inside you?

Gestation Diabetes: I was pretty upset when I failed the 1 hour glucose test, imagine how I felt when I found out I failed the 3 hour test. I got all hormonal and poor Andy was left standing there holding me while I cursed myself for drinking Juicy Juice Boxes for lunch EVERYDAY for the past 5 MONTHS! Obviously that didn't cause the diabetes, but I felt like it at the time. (It's 100% Juice, I thought I was doing something good!) I met with a nutritionist/dietitian lady twice. Disliked her wholly and have quit going to the program. I know I am not a doctor, but neither was she. Telling me things that just stressed me out. So I am now in control of my own health. And am doing VERY well. I have to be under 90 while fasting over night. And since I stopped going to the program, I have been. I eat animal protein (steak, hamburger, chicken etc) about 1/2 to an hour before I go to bed. That usually helps. Apparently the diabetes is because of the hormonal changes of my body and the placentas are taking all the good stuff and my pancreas can't keep up with the production of insulin so glucose can't be properly digested and hangs out instead. At least I think that is how it works. Either way, I don't eat any simple carbs (cookies, cakes, candy, chips, french fries, junk food). Now my meals consist of MEAT and vegetables, and small amount of some complex carbs. Nothing like eating a hamburger patty at 10 at night with some mustard. The other part of this that I like is that I am eating more consistently. Breakfast is always the same. A piece of double fiber bread toasted and plain. A slice of Pepper Jack Cheese, and 1 or 2 hard friend eggs on top, then a little salsa. Followed with a glass of milk. I always have a healthy snack 2-3 hours later (string cheese or mandarin orange or granny smith apple) then a good lunch. Then afternoon snack of yogurt, apple or mandarin or peanuts. Then dinner, then a night snack of MEAT.

Ahh to have ice cream and cookies.

The kids are moving like crazy. It's fun and strange. We are getting excited to find out what they are. Each week it changes. This week I am convinced it is 2 girls. For the past few months I thought it was B and G. Andy is hoping for B and G, but thinks they are Boys. I think deep down they are boys, but I am hoping for at least 1 girl to drive Andy crazy as a father. : )

Swelling is not too bad. My fingers are swollen when I get up in the morning and for a few hours. I have tried forcing on my wedding band, but it's like a squeezing a sausage into a casing. I have given up and instead wear this ring I got in Venice, Italy. I bought it and Andy and I pretended to be engaged when we were in Germany with our day camp group because apparently the year before the 2 counselors the had actually did get engaged. Hmmm, funny how that worked out for us.

Working retail is not that bad. I like working with the public, even though 30% of them are crazy. The only problem is it is very busy and I keep getting asked "When are you due?" "Looks like a Christmas baby!" "You look ready to pop." I have started responding with yes, it is a Christmas baby, yes I am ready to pop. But I am more forthcoming to those who ask when I am do. I say February, watch them squirm and then say with Twins. I have been getting lots of "Good Luck" and "Wow!" from those folks.

I now go to the doctor every other week. I should also mention that with this new diabetes diet I have lost some weight. I was concerned, but the doctor said not to be worried. 1. I was obviously eating some not so healthy stuff before. 2. Since I am carrying twins, and came into the pregnancy with a little extra stuffing, I should only gain 25-35 pounds. With that, counting the loss from my last appointment which was last week Thursday, I have only gained 17 pounds. The doctor is pleased with this and said that because I work retail and walk to much (3-4 miles a day) He is ok with this weight.

But this is what the weight that I am carrying is from.
Babies: 6.5 pounds
Placentas: 4-5 pounds
Amniotic Fluid: 4-5 pounds
Blood Supply: 2-3 pounds
Fat stores(?)- 5-8 pounds
Uterus: 4-6 pounds

I think that I am burning off MY weight, and not the weight that is for the babies. In my head that is what I think. I keep getting told my face looks thinner, and have had several people be behind me at stores or customers at work be behind me, and I turn around and they are like "I didn't know you were pregnant, you don't look it from behind" This could be taken several ways but take I take it as a major compliment. I am ALL BABY BUMP. And my belly button I think is going to pop soon. I really want it to so I can give it a spa treatment.

I will update as information changes. I hope you have a healthy and happy Christmas and New Years!

Half Way

Sorry for not doing this post on time. I had my 20 week ultrasound and appointment a few weeks back. Let's start with the appointment.

Heard both heart beats, and gained 7 pounds from my 16 week appointment, which brings the grand total to 14 pounds gained since I became pregnant. I wasn't sure if this was enough weight. I hear about all these other women gaining 50-70 to pounds. My dr. was not worried at all. He said, that for twins this is fine because most of the weight is baby goo (my words not his). Placentas, blood, sac's, all the things that babies need to live inside me, but will disperse once they are here. Ideally, he said I should only gain 35-45 pounds. Sounds fine by me. I measured perfect for how far along I am as well.

Now for the fun. The ultrasound was great. My dear husband got to come and see them for the first time. He did "see" them at the 8 week ultrasound when we found out it was twins, but let's be honest, at that early stage they were just grayish blobs. Our tech started on my right side and immediately found TA (Twin A). As from my last ultrasound,TA was a moving and a shaking while the tech was attempting to measure him/her. We saw the diaphragm, kidneys, bladder, and 4 chambers of the heart. It was very cool. We let her know that we did NOT want to know the sexes and if she could let us know when she went south to measure the legs.

TB (Twin B) was next. TB was giving us perfect profile the entire time. Saw the diaphragm, kidneys, bladder and 4 chambers of the heart. We also so on both kids, their cerebellums. Our tech was so nice enough to take 3D pics of the kids. She got a great one of TB, and then moved over to TA. TA was not having it. But now we know why TA is always moving. TB uses TA's head as a pillow!! In the ultrasound, the tech showed us how TB keeps laying it's head on TA!! Poor little TA. The Tech got 2 pictures of TA, but TB's head is in both pictures. Apparently, their sac's are only separated by 1mm of thickness. Crazy!

I will post pics at the end. I finally felt them kick yesterday. Since everyone feels kicking at different stages I wasn't too worried. I could feel them moving (drink a bunch of water on an empty stomach then go jogging, that sloshing feeling is what it feels like). We were watching football yesterday, and out of no where, kick, then kick, I told husband to put his hand on my belly, and he felt a kick too! I have been waiting for this for awhile now. My dr. said twins are funny like that. Some will kick early because there isn't much room, but some times, they like to wait a bit longer. I don't mind one bit.







Twin B has both hands brought up to the mouth.
If you look closely, Twin A has a frown, and is holding a fist up to the left cheek. We call this pouty face.
Twin A with Twin B's head on the left.

I am 16 going on...............

So I had my 16 week appt a few weeks back. (I was on vacation and too busy packing to write). My regular dr. had to perform some sort of surgery. So another dr. from the practice did my check up. She was so sweet. Did the usual "how you feeling, what are you eating, are you exercising", my annswers "fine, everything, but vegetables, and I walk lots". So then she got out this little machine that has a speaker on one end, and a prober type item on the other to hear the heartbeat(s). I say singular because last time my dr. said it would be difficult to tell them apart since they are twins, yada yada. This sub dr said " We can try and hear them both, you never know".

So she started on my right side, and Twin A was a beating away. Then I heard this SWOOSH sound. She said it was movement. Like a dolphin swishing it's tail in the sea, sonar picks up that sound. Similar, but Twin A is in a much smaller sea. Twin A was moving like crazy, but still to early for me to feel anything.

She moved over to my left side. Twin B's heartbeat was CRAZY fast!! Not abnormal she said, but much faster then Twin A. But B wasn't really moving at all.

Now this leads me to my 12 week ultrasound. Andy and I decided to take part in California's Pre Natal Screening. The tests are genetic testing of my blood and the kids. All of the results are given to the State Dept of Health for research. If this can help researchers than we were on board. So my 12 week ultrasound was about measuring the neck of the kids to make sure that it wasn't too thick. Apparently this is how you can tell if a fetus has spinia bifida, down syndrome, and a few other disabilities. When the tech was doing the ultrasounds, Twin A would NOT hold still. Kept moving all over the place and she wasn't able to get a measurement for some time. Finally A cooperated. Twin B on the other hand was having a siesta. Lying perfectly in a left profile position.

My mom has taken this to mean that Twin A is me,and Twin B is Andy. And now they both think I am having one boy and one girl. Hmmmmm.

I have my next ultrasound appt in a few weeks. We have to make sure and tell the tech that we do NOT want to know what we are having. We are enjoying not finding out what we are having. I find myself saying "him,he" sometimes, but I don't think anything of it. I would like 2 girls only to watch Andy go weak at the knees and be so out of his element. The though of 2 boys is overwhelming to me, but I know that I could hose em' off outside instead of giving them a bath if they are dirty. As for one of each, all I can think of is puberty. One of each, going through puberty. I would die. Andy would die. Each of them crushing on the other's friend or something? Oh man. I am so not ready for puberty.

I'm what?!?!?!

Finding out you are pregnant is not an easy thing to describe. It's different for everyone. I have made a list of what I would compare it to for everyone.
Finding out your pregnant is like:
*winning the big ticket item at a raffle you never thought you'd get
*your favorite college football player going #1 in the draft to your favorite team
*coming home from work and seeing your favorite dish all prepared
*going to the grocery store and seeing all ice cream is on sale
*getting a bill in the mail that says you over paid and don't have to pay this month
*going to the dentist and being told "your teeth look great keep it up"
*sitting on an airplane in the window seat and the person in the middle seat doesn't show up, letting you have a little extra space.

Now finding out you are pregnant with twins is something I CAN describe. Since I was a little girl and first saw "The Parent Trap" I have wanted twins. My entire life, I just thought it would be so fun to have twins. My family thought I was crazy as did most of my friends. When I told Andy this he thought I was out of my mind. I used to day dream about having twins. This is how much I have always wanted twins. When we went in for our first appointment, 8 weeks, the Dr. went through all the regular pregnancy stuff, eat healthy, exercise, this is your due date. I wanted to get to the Ultrasound. He told us we may not see a heart beat since it was a bit early. We got lucky. He found a sac with a heart beat. We both sorta tuned him out at the point and were just happy that the sac had a heartbeat. But then the Dr, kept moving around the wand to see more. I wasn't sure what was going on. Then he says this "Oh, and here we have a second sac with a heart beat, you are having twins"

EXCUSE ME?!?!?!? I sat up, looked at him and said "Your kidding me?" He said, I wouldn't kid about this. Andy went blank and silent, I asked a bazillion questions, (what are the chances, are they conjoined, are you sure) He took us back to the exam room, went through some "Twin" facts, (born early, smaller weight) told us congrats and left us. I looked at Andy and just cried. From shock. You see, Andy had kidded me for years he did NOT want twins. I felt crushed, probably from the hormones and asked Andy "Are you mad at me, is this ok?" Of course he wasn't mad, of course he was ok, he was just in shock he told me. This explained why I was getting larger so early. I spent the better part of the morning freaking out and crying. The poor nurse where I had to have blood work done was the first victim of my crying freaking out. She was so nice.

But the reason for this post is this, how can I describe what it's like to find out your having twins? Like this. Finding out I was having twins was like the time I wished for a pet pig and got it.

I had asked for a pet pig for my birthday every year since I can remember. For my 17th birthday I got one. I was in such shock that I got what I had always wanted. That's how I can describe having twins.

What's in a name?

I have decided to start a blog. Since we are back in California, and further away from my family, and Andy's family is spread around we (I) thought it would be a great idea. But the most stressful part of a blog is naming it! You want something fun, but not cutesy, hip, but not lame. So I had to turn back the clock to when Andy and I first met. And see if there was something there that would give me inspiration.

We met in Grafenwoehr, Germany June 10th, 2001. We were exhausted and getting our room assignments. Andy and I were the last two to receive our assignments. Our director said to head to Burger King for breakfast(lunch). I headed over to BK with another girl, Melissa, and we got our meals and sat down. Andy and another guy sat down with us. I made some comment about how the pop tasted so good. Andy then commented it's called soda in California. I told him I am from Washington and everyone calls it pop. This has been the only thing we disagree upon every single day since we got married.

I say pop, Andy says soda. I love going to Oregon and Washington where in the grocery stores, signs hang above the aisle that say "Pop, Chips, Cookies" to show him he is wrong. And likewise, in California, signs hang above the aisle here that say "Soda,Chips, Cookies". This is what sets us apart. I am a resident of California, but I refuse to say Soda. It doesn't feel right coming out of my mouth. Sure I get made fun of, but I am being true to me. I have "accidentally" said soda a few times, but no harm no foul. Andy has said pop a few times, but only when we are in Washington, or at home he has said it so he can get the point across to me of what he wants. "Syd,put some pop in the fridge" otherwise, I wouldn't do it if he said soda.

So this fun exchange between us nearly every day is how I decided to name the blog. Although, this blog won't be sent out to anyone for at least 4 more weeks. So until then, it's just us.