14 Weeks

Thank you all so much for your kind words of encouragement! We really appreciate it. After we let it sink in for a few days, we started to get over the shock and got more and more excited. Going to the bookstore and buying a couple books on being pregnant with twins really set us at ease. Now, we are thrilled!

I'm just so tired of puking! So far, there's no end in sight. I'd hoped it would all go away now that I'm out of the first trimester, but no such luck. I went an entire day last week without getting sick! That's been the only day all month so far. My body paid me back by not letting me keep one bite down for several days after. Since I haven't been able to keep much food down, I didn't gain any weight between doctor's visits. That means that I now need to gain a good 10-15 pounds in the next 6 weeks! It's pretty hard to do right now, but I'm trying.

Last week, I went in for a nuchal translucency screen. Basically, they measure something in the babies' neck and compare the results to my blood test. It's to test for things like Downs Syndrome, but it doesn't tell us whether the babies have it, just whether there's a risk. You can read more about it here. I'm not really concerned with the results since it doesn't really tell us anything definitive. I just agreed to it for the extra ultrasound! I'll happily take an ultrasound whenever it's offered. I'll post pictures once I can figure out what's wrong with my printer/scanner/copier all-in-one thingamabob. For now, I can't scan them.

The babies looked good and measured where they're supposed at this age. Twin A was 6.9 cm long (about 2.7 inches) and Twin B was 7.5 cm long (just a hair under 3 inches). They were moving around like crazy, but I didn't feel a thing yet. Twin A stayed in pretty much the same position, but we did see her/him squirm around. Twin B was all over the place! At the start of the ultrasound, Twin A was laying horizontally across my belly, while Twin B was vertical along my right side feet down. The tech took some measurements of each then went back to Twin A to give us some pictures to take home. By then, Twin B was in the same spot but head down so their heads from the corner of an L. I had my prenatal visit with my doctor after going to the lab to get blood drawn (we waited over an hour for what only took a minute!). When my doctor used the doppler to find their heartbeats, he found them pretty much on top of each other.

At my prenatal visit, my doctor also measured my uterus. That measurement should correspond pretty well with how many weeks pregnant a woman is when carrying one child. At 13 weeks, I measured 15 weeks. So I'm as big as I would be at 15 weeks if I was only pregnant with one. It sounds like I'll be measuring even bigger than that as I progress in this prenancy.

I took a picture of the belly a couple weeks ago, at 12 weeks, that I'm finally getting around to post. I've definitely grown more since then!

10%

That's how much Clomid increases the likelihood of twins. 10 measly percent.

Guess what I'm having.



I was only on Clomid for 2 months, and on the lowest dosage both times! One thing none of us took into account was the fact that my sisters are twins, so I'm already genetically predisposed to them. My mother-in-law also mentioned that her grandparents had twins, so it's Damon too. Whoever said it skips a generation lied!

I'm a little freaked out by it right now. How am I ever going to go to the grocery store with 2 infants and a preschooler? What if one, or God forbid BOTH, has colic like Abby did? That was a nightmare when I didn't have anyone else to take care of. My mom didn't sleep for 2 years because one would wake up, then the other would wake up right after the first went back to sleep. TWO babies! I know it will all work out, and it'll be a blast when they're older. I just hope we can all survive the infant stage.

I've only known I'm pregnant for a little over a week, but already it's so much different than the first time around. I know I'll be showing earlier since my body "remembers" what to do, but I hadn't expected how completely different everything would be.

I had a pretty easy pregnancy with Abby. I was naseous for about a month total, and only really got sick for about a week. After that, I felt great. One of the first things I remember happening was around 6 or 7 weeks my jeans being way too uncomfortable, especially when I sat. At the time, I had a desk job working for my grandpa Ed, so it was grueling until I bought a couple pairs that were about 3 sizes too big. I wore those until about 4-ish months when I switced to maternity jeans. This time, I felt uncomfortable in my jeans the day after I found out! They're not too tight yet, just painful when I sit down because they put pressure right where I'm feeling crampy and bloated. I already bought a pair of maternity pants on clearance at Target because I'm nowhere near ready for my old jeans with the big panel.

It's not just my clothes that already don't feel right. For the most part, I feel pretty good but not as good as I did the first time. I'm living with constant heartburn, sometimes it's worse than others, but it's always there. When my in-laws were here, I was constantly having to stop and sit for a bit while cooking or cleaning because the crampiness and heartburn gets worse when I moved around too much. I have to take a break after showering and drying my hair! I even got sick one afternoon already while they were here. We'd just eaten, and my mother in-law and I were cleaning up the kitchen. All the bending and squatting while putting things away really got to me.

And the cravings! With Abby, the only thing I really had to have was fruit punch Powerade. I had to be Powerade, and it had to be fruit punch. We bought that stuff by the case every week! And I normally really don't like those types of drinks. This time, the biggest thing is that I'm not really interested in sweets. Everyone who knows me "in real life" just dropped dead from shock. I normally don't have just a sweet tooth, I have an entire sweet mouth. I would happily live on dessert if I could. Now, nothing dessert sounds good at all. We have a house full of cakes and candy, and I've hardly touched it. For awhile, I was craving salads and healthy food. I only ever eat salads if it comes with my meal at a restaurant, and I've never ordered just a salad ever. Right now, the baby's crying for pizza from this local restaurant. I must have it now!

My brain has already left me too. I'd heard of pregnancy brain, but it wasn't something I really experienced before. This time, I feel like I'm going crazy! Before our company came, I tore apart every closet looking for the bath towels that match the hand towels in the guest bathroom. It wasn't until the next day that I remembered that I never actually bought the towels! It was one of those things I meant to pick up, but moved on to something else and forgot about. I was certain they were somewhere in the house, though. I'm constantly setting things down and completely forgetting where I put them 2 minutes later. The other day, I put some potatoes in the oven to bake, and forgot all about them. My mother in-law happened to ask me about them a couple hours later. Oops!

Birthday and Christmas with Damon's Parents

Since they weren't here for Abby's birthday the week before, we bought her a birthday cake and celebrated her birthday with Damon's parents over the weekend. Abby's loving having a December birthday because she'll have celebrated 4 times (including Thanksgiving in Iowa) by the time we're done!

Merry (few days after) Christmas!

Abby was awesome with Santa this year. She went right up to him and started talking while I paid for the picture. She had no problem sitting on his lap to take the picture. I had no idea that I could bring my own camera and take a picture myself! Definitely next year. When she was done, she asked if it was time to go home and open presents now since she already saw Santa.

Big News!

Happy Birthday Abby!

I can't believe my baby's 3 already!



Birthday breakfast.