28, 29, & 30 weeks

Sooo, I'm a tad behind ;)

 I feel like I've been pregnant for years, yet at the same time, I can't believe I'm in the home stretch! I am so thankful every time a make it to the next week without anything major happening. So so many moms of twins I have talked to have gone into preterm labor around this time and that scares me so much. I'm praying hard that I can keep these girls cooking at least another month :)

But, with that being said, I really am ready to be done with this pregnancy. It's been amazing seeing what my body is capable of and feeling our girls constantly move inside my belly, but I'm not going to lie...It's been hard. It hasn't been anything at all like the first one. From day one of finding out we were having twins, my prayer has always been for God to hold our girls tightly in his hands and grow them big, strong and healthy. I didn't care a single bit about what happened to my body, I just wanted them safe. My body is really starting to feel the weight of two babies now. My stomach muscles ache constantly, and the girls' kicks are so strong that when they kick my muscles, I want to cry. It feels like I have a terrible sunburn across my stomach with my skin stretching so much. It's hard to breathe no matter what position I'm in. Sleep is nonexistent unless I take Tylenol PM, and even then  I'm lucky if I get 4 or 5 hours of sleep. If something falls on the floor, it will most definitely stay there because, well, bending down just ain't happenin' for this lady. :)

It's been hard. But I know it is SO worth it! I can't even describe how neat it is to feel 2 little babes roll around inside of you! Or two babies that have hiccups at the same time. Or when Bryson gets a paper towel roll to megaphone his voice into my belly while he talks and sings to his sisters. Or to think about the forever bond and friendship they will have :) While it's been rough (I told you I'm not going to lie! ha!) I really feel so blessed to be carrying our amazing little twin girls.

I had my Ob appointment last week. Everything still looks good with me and the girls. 

--I had a HUGE case of pregnancy brain and accidentally wore my slippers to the appointment!! THEN, halfway in, I realized I was wearing 2 watches! Haha who does that!??--

 

My blood pressure was still good (118/78)

I didn't gain any weight since the last appointment 2 weeks ago (eek)

the girls' heartbeats were good and strong (144 &155- Madelynn has been SO active the last few weeks, I wasn't really surprised at her heart rate)

I passed my gestational diabetes test (i have NO idea how-I have such a sweet tooth!!) 

and all my muscle aches and braxton hicks are normal (too bad there isn't a magic pill for it)

Madelynn moves all.the.time. and makes big rolls constantly. My stomach looks like this quite often, it's so crazy looking!! (she's on the right side...doing some sort of gymnastics...)

I had my specialist appointment earlier this week. We decided to take Bryson since he isn't in school right now for Christmas break. We prepared him the day before about everything he was going to see and that I had to lay on the table so the doctor could take pictures of Emily and Madelynn with a special wand, and that we would get to see them on the TV and so on. He was THRILLED to go with us. He couldn't stop talking about it!! 

He was THE sweetest thing at the appointment. He kept telling me to lay really still and making sure I was ok. He held my hand through quite a bit of the sonogram :)  He was paying such close attention to where the wand was on my stomach that he knew which girl was up on the screen and would talk to each of them. I LOVE seeing how sweet and loving he is with his sisters already. He has the kindest heart and is going to be the BEST big brother to his sisters!!

We did find out that Emily has flipped, so she's breech now. Blah. There's still time for her to flip though. 

The girls are growing great and are now 3lb 10oz and 3lb 11oz--the first time they haven't been the exact same weight :) We got to see them in 3D again, which is always so neat!!

Michael put the 2nd crib together this week! It's so crazy to see 2 of everything in their room. 

Their room in sloooooowly but surely coming together :)

 

We were supposed to go to the lake for New Years with my family, but since I had been having so much pain, we decided that I would stay home and relax and Michael was going to take Bryson for the weekend. I was so bummed to miss going to the lake, but it was really nice to just lay on the sofa all day long and not have to worry about bending over to pick up toys or bend down to play or pick him up and what not. I was a total lazy bum and it was lovely. Everyone else had a blast at the lake though!!

Praying for an easy week back at school next week. I'm already nervous about it! I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I can't nap everyday during Bryson's nap. Maybe during my lunch break... ;)

Growing growing!!

Family Reunion 2011

This past weekend, we headed to Possum Kingdom Lake for the annual family reunion. It's always special to spend a whole weekend with family you love. :)

We  had to make a little stop to take a few pictures in a special little town ;)

Bryson had such a blast at the lake! He would have been in the "wa wa" all day, every day if it wasn't a billion degrees outside. We did swim a whole lot, though!

While we all sat outside catching up on life, Bryson played in the dirt. And since it wasn't time to swim in the water, he decided to swim in the dirt :)

Uncle Beau and Carter spent a long loooong time throwing rocks in the lake with Bryson. He was in heaven!

Mammaw and Pop brought Bryson a stuffed frog that moves his head and mouth and sings "What a wonderful world." It's really cute, but after the Rainforest Cafe, he was a little apprehensive about it at first. After about 3 songs, Bryson loved him and even tried to share his water with him a few times :)

Grandma got a big yummy yogurt kiss!

Family picture time...

Mammaw and Pop and Bryson

Four Generations! :)

It was a really fun weekend, but holy moly it was SO exhausting. I was on Mommy duty times 10. There was a bunk bed in the cabin and I'm not even kidding when I say Bryson climbed up the ladder about 50 times. Also, about 20 feet from the front door was a 10 ft drop straitght down to a bed of rocks. Bryson was constantly trying to sneak out the door to go outside. I was so tired on Saturday night that I ended up going to sleep with Bryson super early! Uncle Beau was a super hero on Sunday morning and swooped up Bryson as soon as he woke up so Michael and I could get a few extra minutes of sleep. :)

We always look forward to our fun reunion! We already can't wait until next year!! :)

4th of July at the Lake!!

What do you get when 17 family members get together at the lake house for three days with car loads of food, arms full of fishing poles, one 18month ball of energy, bags full of fireworks and lots of silly stories and jokes??

LOTS OF FUN!!! 

And, with that, A LOT of (family) PICTURES!!!

Every year for the 4th of July weekend, my Mom's side of the family comes up from Houston and we all spend the long weekend together at the lake. It's always so much fun hanging out together.

There was A LOT of fishing...and a lot of fish caught!!

A lot of Bryson wearing his life jacket

(He would put it on first thing in the morning and wouldn't let anyone take it off. We literally had to hold him down to take it off for nap time or to cool him off. He knew that with having the life jacket on, there was always a chance to go on the boat...which is now his absolute favorite thing in the world. He said that word no less than 500 (no joke) times a day!!)

A lot of playing washers

A lot of wakeboarding and boating

A lot of Fireworks (and poppers for B)
 The guys did fireworks for well over an hour, but I didn't really get any good pictures :(

(To say Bryson loved fireworks would be the understatement of the year. He LOVED them!! He kept yelling, "wow woooooow wooooow wooooow!!" with a look of pure amazement. The second they stopped, he popped up and adamently requested, "mo mo mo mo" until he saw them again. I really wish I captured his awestruck reaction on video.)

A lot of family time

 

We're already looking forward to next year!!

...if by some chance you actually made all the way through this crazy heavy picture post, you are a champ! :)