Thoughts From the Underbelly

I had to laugh at myself today. My belly is so big right now that everything seems to be a struggle. I can't really shave my legs, I can barely sit in a chair without crushing my lungs, and my own mother is disgusted by the looks of my belly button (which is rocking out in full force.) When I was first pregnant, I named the twins The Hornets Nest because they were making me so sick, but now it feels like the Hornets Nest has morphed into a small school bus. My maternity shirts have turned into midrifts and my yoga pants are begging for reprieve. I actually tripped over my dog getting out of the shower last week because I honestly couldn't see him on the ground. That's how I knew I was really in trouble.

Speaking of rude awakenings, I also think I discovered the beginnings of my first stretch mark this week. I can't confirm it at this time because anything past my belly button is unchartered territory these days and I don't think Eddie even knows what a stretch mark looks like. However, after some detective work and a hand mirror, I'm pretty sure that I identified a shiny silver line right underneath my belly button. %&$#! I have been fairly religious with moisturizing the Hornets Nest, so I'm really confused! All of my books say you don't have to use cocoa butter (which seems to be everyone's recommendation, but the smell of it, unfortunately, makes me want to vomit) so I just got into a regular rotation of using Burt's Bees Belly Balm, Vaseline Cocoa Butter Oil, and just plain ol' Lubriderm. Well, wouldn't you know my plan worked right up until 34 weeks when I caught a flash of that pesky little thing in the mirror. Maybe it will go away quietly. Hopefully, he doesn't have anymore friends that plan on making their debut on the Hornets Nest. Needless to say, I'm already stockpiling Strivectin and researching laser surgery.

In other news, my mom has been here since my baby shower last week and has been an absolute Godsend. She has scrubbed my house from top to bottom (it's MOM clean, and I love that), grocery shopped, and helped me get the nursery in working order. I am so thankful for her!

The Countdown Begins...

This week was a crazy one! It started with my weekly appointment with my OB, Dr. H. These appointments are usually pretty par for the course...in fact, I take care of most of it before the nurse even calls me back. I've got the routine down: pee in a cup, weigh yourself (yikes!), the nurse takes your blood pressure, the doc measures your belly, listens to the heartbeats, and checks your cervix. You're in and out in no time. But this week was a little different. When Dr. H. was doing his normal exam, he said he could feel Baby A's head and that I had started to efface. Holy cow! I couldn't believe it. I knew with twins that they would probably come early, but I guess I wasn't expecting it to happen this soon.

The doc ordered me to strict bed rest to help Baby A stay in place, rather than continue to put pressure on her, which could possibly lead to a pre-term labor. Dr. H wants to try and get us to at least 35 weeks so that the girls are further developed - especially their lungs. So that means that we have three more weeks (I'm 32 weeks on Monday) before we can let Baby A get her party started. This is officially her first lesson in "hurry up and wait."

The other part of this story is that being on strict bed rest (actually just the mere thought of being on strict bed rest) has made me even more neurotic than I was before. I was feeling a little bit of panic. I still had so much to do - get car seats, crib mattresses, finish the nursery, clean the house - and that was just at home! I've also been working on a few projects at work that I needed to finish and I just wasn't sure how all of this was going to get done without being able to do it myself. (Control problems? Who me?) Luckily, Eddie is my polar opposite and he was able to think clearly through the mud. I made him a list of exactly what we needed for the nursery and the girls, and it literally took him two hours on Saturday to get everything done. He's amazing!

So now, the journey really begins. My mom and grandma arrive for my baby shower this week, and they'll help me put the finishing touches on everything to make sure that we are ready. And then, once everyone goes home after the weekend, we'll wait. Wait to welcome these sweet girls into the world.

Tales from an Insomniac

One of the great (read: sarcasm) things about being pregnant is you don't really get much sleep. I wonder if it's foreshadowing for things to come, but regardless, I spend a lot of sleepless nights pondering the 1,000,000 RANDOM thoughts that come across my brain. Because I have no other way to get them out of my head other than to spit them back out, I thought I'd share them with you. Otherwise, I play them in my head over and over again. (And while I've actually tried that as a means to get myself to fall back asleep, it doesn't work.)

Here's a sample playlist of last night/this morning's randomness. To provide you with the full effect, I'm listing them in the same order that they played out in my head tonight:

• I sure am glad I registered for all those bed pillows at JCPenney when I got married, otherwise I wouldn't be able to log the few hours of sleep each night that I am able to get. I mean, I've been staring a dozen pillows in my linen closet for 5 1/2 years now, thinking that I should really give some of them to Goodwill or something. Well, imagine that. Eddie has built me a classic Army bunker of my feathered-filled friends so that I can wedge my barbecue grill of a belly in bed each night. Bless his heart.

• I hope Eddie is enjoying his new position at Ferguson. Is he feeling tremendous bouts of stress about his new job? Is he nervous about succeeding now that we have a family on the way? Is he worried about me being pregnant? Is he scared to be a dad to twins in less than 60 days? If he is, why doesn't he act like it? Doesn't he want to talk about it? Oh, and that new Breathe Right strip that he is trying to help with his jacked-up sinuses is really a miracle worker. He looks crazy as hell, but he seems to be breathing without any trouble. In fact, I can barely hear him. He is breathing, right? (Leans over a minimum of five times to check. We're good.)

• Hmmm...I haven't felt Maisen move in awhile. I hope everything is ok. (Insert kick from Maisen...shoulder roll from Laiten) Check - check.

• There are a few things that I really couldn't survive without at this stage of my pregnancy: my Boppy wedge pillow (one of the many from the pillow fort), Aveda Rosemary Mint lotion, my Health Journey - Having a Successful Childbirth meditation CD (thanks Luch), and the Internet. Dear God, what did pregnant women do before the new millennium?

• I'm so glad that I got a few big things checked off my list yesterday...bought the girls' car seats (thanks Grandma Roth) and a glider/rocker for the nursery. I actually found the glider/rocker on Craig's List and that was the first time I've ever done anything like that! I have been so anti-consignment, but when it came down to it, I really wanted that $1,000 rocker and seeing as though we've already spent the $1,000,000 we had saved up for the babies (read: more sarcasm) I thought, hell, why not get the expensive rocker that I really want for way less from the nice couple selling theirs in East Cobb. Now, I fully intend to get it steam-cleaned of course, but what if they had bed bugs or fleas, or worse yet, their kids had lice or something? No wonder Eddie thinks I need to be medicated. (I'm still having it sanitized, though.)

So, there you have it. All of the randomness that I battle during those sleepless hours. It's a wonder I have any teeth left from the grinding I must put myself through during the sleeping hours. Hopefully I'm not passing along this neurotic behavior to my girls in-utero.

Shame on Me!

I'm so ashamed of myself and not keeping up with my blog since we found out we were pregnant. I was totally into documenting this entire process from the moment we knew we were pregnant to when we delivered....and every waking moment in between. I made a few posts in the very early days (check them out under the 2009 archives if you need a good laugh) but other than that, I've been a real slacker.

We are expecting twins in the next six or seven weeks - two little girls - Laiten Ann and Maisen Lane. It has been an incredible ride so far...being pregnant allows you to look a life through a completely new lens. I can't wait for their arrival!

So, this is my New Year's resolution (for the record, I usually think making resolutions are ridiculous and just another way to disappoint yourself, but it seems fitting considering the time of year): To keep up with this blog and let all of our family and friends know how we are doing as we turn the page on another new chapter of our lives. Stay tuned!