34 weeks!

Yay - halfway to the goal of 36 weeks (from the last goal of 32 weeks)! Everything is still going well. It crazy to think that we will double our number of children in the next 2-6 weeks! The nurse called today to say that I passed the 3 hr glucose test and don't have gestational diabetes! I knew that though. I'm starting to get pregnancy face again - yuck

At the beginning of my pregnancy, I watched this video about full-term twin pregnancies and I remember crying during it because those women were so huge and were carrying so much weight in babies. I couldn't even imagine being in their shoes and now, here I am! My mom and I measured my waist today and its a whopping 45 inches!! Btw, the video is probably not something you want to take the time to watch unless you want to kill time or something.

The picture below is pretty similar to how the boys are hanging out in my belly. The bigger Baby A, is on the bottom.

Yesterday, Joe and I had a very productive day! He shampooed the carpets in the van, we bought an over-the-range microwave, picked up a free dresser, and put up with the girls' antics! Guess it was too much for me because I was rewarded with 3 hours of contractions that landed me in bed or on the couch. It was just a reminder to take it slower and keep those babies cooking.

Thinking outside the box?

See this kid? She's trouble!

Noelle and I were just having a conversation about second-born children and how they might be more likely to think outside the box and think independently because they don't receive as much one-on-one instruction as their older sibling. Well Maddie is definitely starting to show that she is her own person!

Joe put on quite a show with the dragon statue above - think Attack of the Komodo Dragon! So much so that Emily wouldn't go near the thing, but Maddie climbed right on for a picture.

Today in the car, Maddie found a new way to drink her water - she poured it from her cup into her Croc shoe and chugged. Yum!

I've mentioned before that Maddie has been using the potty off and on although we aren't trying to potty train her yet. Today the girls were in the bathroom together and Emily was encouraging Maddie to use the potty like her. All of a sudden there is lot of noise but we can't understand what they are saying. Since Joe and I don't feel that great, it took Joe awhile to actually get up and see what was going on. He starts laughing and then it quickly changes to loud disgust as he yells "I just stepped in poop!" Turns out Maddie did poop in the bathroom, just not in the toilet! Joe and Emily are now laughing and he sends Maddie out for me to wipe her. I wipe her rear and then notice that she has her hand in her mouth and a disgusted look on her face. Yep, her hands are covered in poop! Our best guess is she pooped on the floor and then tried to pick it up to put it away. She likes to clean up after herself...

Wow, I am really NOT a good story-teller. All of these incidents had us laughing and wondering who Maddie is going to be when she grows up. Now that I read my narrative, its just not that funny. Guess you had to be there??

Zoo with Daddy

On Saturday, Joe wanted to get the girls out of the house so I could rest, so he took them to the zoo! We'll just ignore the fact that the girls were sick and we probably just spread all our sick germs to San Antonio. In spite of the girls feeling bad, they had a great time!

Sweet (and stinky) sisters

Today on the way home from my mom's house, Emily tells me "we holding hands!". I look back and the girls are holding hands and smiling at each other. Very cute. I said "ahhhh sweet sisters and friends!" Emily replies that "we are friends Mommy". Touched my heart.

It didn't last long though. About 3 minutes later, Emily says her throat hurts and then projectile vomits all over the place. She starts crying and screaming and I guess Maddie was freaked out because she starts screaming too. Nice.

We are all in various stages of being sick over here - lots of runny noses and fevers. Hopefully its not the flu and it passes quickly!

33 week appointment

Joe and I spent a long morning at the OB office. I was scheduled for a 3 hr glucose test (again!), a growth ultrasound, and some time with my OB.

The growth ultrasound was interesting - I pray to God that these measurements are off. Its happened before, it could happen again right?? Baby A measured huge - 93 percentile at 6 lbs 9 oz. Baby B measured quite a bit smaller at 5 lbs 2 oz which is in the 52 percentile. I'll let you add that up yourself...

They like twins to be similar in size and I was afraid my dr would be sending us to the hospital to deliver. Thankfully she was calm and just sent me down the hall for an NST to check on Baby B. Both their heart rates were good, so no action was taken. Now I get to have an NST every week at my appointment. Its not so bad, I get to lay in a quiet place for a half hour with no one needing me!

The dr is convinced that I have gestational diabetes because of the size of the babies. Guess we'll see early next week. As for now, I'm going to be eating ice cream every night til I get the results - you may be wondering - and this is different from normal how?

Great weekend!

We have the best family and friends! Last weekend, a good amount of our family and friends came into town to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our two peas in a pod. We were also lucky enough to host Noelle, her mom, and Jackson for the weekend.

My pictures didn't turn out well, but Noelle posted some good ones here.

Dinner with Friends

On Thursday, the Truitt family was in town so we joined them, Shifi, Kate, and Matt for dinner. The girls had a great time playing with Jacob - he's grown up so much since we last saw him! Ben took some great pictures of the kids and already wrote something up, so I'll just be lazy and tell you to click here and here. Click on the pictures to see a few more from that day, including a crazy preggo profile shot. The first link has a picture of Maddie that reminds me of Joe - yes he has given me that look before!!

Emily - 35 months

This is Emily's last monthly post. She will be 3 next month!! I don't imagine myself having lots of time after the babies are born, so I am only committing to monthly updates til age 3. It will be a miracle if that happens for the other 3 kids!! Don't worry, I'll still put lots of pics up

Emily acting like a duck (ask my Dad!)

Looking cool on the way to swim with friends

Just solved her 26 piece alphabet puzzle from Sri Lanka!

32 weeks

Another milestone reached! 32 weeks is a good mark to reach but I'm hoping to meet the next milestone of 36 weeks. By then I think I'll be huge and unbearably uncomfortable and just barely hanging on. I had an appointment last week and I measured 39 weeks. Everything is looking good!

One more fake smile

Maddie - 18 months

Maddie is 18 months old today! I guess I can't call her my baby anymore. She is saying a lot more words and we are encouraging her to start putting two words together now. She says "pack-pack" (back pack) several time a day (???) and she is quick to reach up to you and ask for your hand. She loves to hold hands. We moved her and Emily's car seats together last weekend and now they ride in the car holding hands. The girls are becoming frenemies - they love or hate each other. Its so fun to watch when they are getting along though.

Maddie has perfected her awkward fake smile. As soon as she sees the camera, she tilts her head back, squints her eyes, and grits her teeth together. I think she learned it from Emily. You'll see it enough in the pictures below...

The girls after bathtime, sharing the desired duck towel rather than fighting over it!

Emily has been "teaching" Maddie how to do puzzles. Amazingly, Maddie is figuring them out anyway. I caught her by surprise here so she didn't have time to whip out the smile.

Maddie about to kiss my temporarily pointy belly. She loves her brothers... for now

With Daddy tonight, after bathtime

This cook is on strike

While waiting for Joe to get home this evening, we were killing time. I was watching Rachel Ray's 30-minute meals and the girls were playing with a tent-like dog house. Emily looked up at the TV and asked what I was watching. I told her I was watching a lady who was a good cook. She looked me in the eye and said -

"You are not a good cook"

I said "What did you say?!?!" and she repeated herself -

"You are not a good cook Mommy"

So I asked "Is Daddy a good cook?" "YES!" she says. "What about Grandma?" Another "YES!"

So there you have it. I'm not cooking anymore!

Playing with our food

I was inspired by Amanda to let the girls decorate cupcakes for a fun inside activity to break up our day. Amanda posted about this on her blog about 6 months ago and it has taken me this long to try something similar. I was much less ambitious and also didn't want to heat up the house, so we decorated graham crackers :) Emily thought it was really cool!

and after...

30 weeks

Here is a picture Noelle put together a little while ago that compares my belly from my pregnacy wth Emily to this current pregnancy. Quite a difference!!

So I've calmed down a little now. No more freaking out. Just taking it easy and trying to keep the boys in my belly.

Sorry the picture below is a little blurry but I couldn't resist posting it because Maddie is standing by the door behind me and is slamming it into me and laughing like a crazy kid. Emily got ahold of my camera and changed the settings so right now my camera is not taking very good pictures. Also, it might have something to do with me being a bad photographer...