Starting the stash

This morning, my mom and I went over to the Plano Area Moms of Multiples Sale. My friend Stacy told me about it a few weeks ago and I have been SO excited to go!! I'm actualy joining the organization as well, so it was fun to get to see some of the ladies.

 

They had SOO much stuff for amazing prices!! The most exciting thing (besides that everything was cheap!) was that there was almost always 2 of everything :) I was getting so giddy as my mom and I were swiping up clothes off the tables or taking multiple loads of goodies out to the car! My mom also got tons of great stuff for her house as well.

 

It was really fun looking for little ruffles and leggings :)

I LOVE snagging great deals, so this was right up my alley!

 

Here are some of the awesome things I got!! (I'm seriously so excited!!)

 

 

All of the clothes were $1 or $2. There are 2 of several outfits, I just stacked them on top of eachother

 

2 brown minky bumpers, $10 each!

 

life jackets, $5 each

 

a swanky pack n play (which is actually kinda nicer than the one we had for B) $30 --no picture yet

 

and the best thing...the double stroller i was looking for!! I was talking the lady for a long ime before I bought it and we realized we had quite a bit in common and she kept going down on the cost of stroller just while I was talking to her! Even better!!

 

The funniest thing was when I got home to show Michael and Bryson all the adorable clothes, Bryson took it upon himself to try on one of the girl's jackets! He thought it was so funny that he was wearing "baby clothes"

 

Then he even went as far as to try on the 6-9 month zipper jammies!! I was laughing so hard :)

 

Anyway, did I tell you that I was excited about all the awesome stuff yet? Well, I'm pretty darn excited!! ;)

State Fair

We took a trip to the State Fair of Texas last weekend and had SO much fun!

The weather was amazing, we actually had to bring sweaters and jackets for the first part of the morning because it was so chilly.

 

Michael really wanted to stop at iHop for breakfast, but I had every intention on splurging on all the delicious fried food at the fair, so Bryson and I shared a little breakfast.

 

We got to the fair shortly after it opened and walked around quite a bit.

 

We go to the fair every year, but there was something on the schedule this year that I had never noticed before. The pee-wee stampede. Its a little arena set up for 3-6 year olds to be "real cowboys" with real tasks for them to complete. I was squeeling with excitement just thinking about him doing it.

 

Fortunately, after we mentioned the idea to Bryson, he was thrilled about it. He almost couldn't even stand to wait in line; he kept trying to run to the front and open the gate before it was time. :)

Unfortunately, he tried to grab my camera so I would "not forget to take a picture of him" so the lens was kinda blury.

 

As soon as all the kids got their bib, horse and their hat, the kids paraded around the arena

 

 

 

then sat them on hay bales to wait for their turn to "compete"

 

Bryson was in the 3yr group and their job was to run through the gate and knock over the "bull" as fast as they could. It was SO cute to hear his name called over the loud speaker :)

 

 

After everyone got to compete, they paraded around again.

 

 

He even got a blue ribbon, which he was very proud of!!

 

For the next 2 hours every.single.person. he saw walking by, he had to tell them that he was a real cowboy and he ran through the gate and knocked over a cow. He told us over and over he wanted to go back and be a real cowboy again :) It was precous!

 

Afterwards, we walked around and saw several shows. We bumped into several friends around the fair, too, which was fun. But with all the walking, I had gotten way too worn out and was not hungry in the slighest for fair food. I was SO bummed. I went to the state fair and all I ate were nachos. What kind of crazy person does that!?? Michael and Bryson were normal fair-goers and consumed plenty of fried food :)

 

After more walking and playing, we told Bryson he could pick a ride to go on. We warned him that it he would have to go all by himself and we could only watch and he was all for it.  He chose to be a race car driver :)

 

Michael gave him the tickets. Bryson stood in line (for about 2 minutes) all by himself, gave the lady his tickets, ran to find a car, buckled himself in and was ready to race! I can't believe what a big, independent boy we have. I'm so proud of him!

 

Needless to say, he LOVED his first "real big boy ride"....and the independence that came with it.

 

Then, we came back home and Bryson and I crashed for several hours. It was so much fun, but this preggo could barely handle the exhausting trip. We had plans to go back again before it closed, but I bailed out. :)

 

I can't believe next year, we'll be taking THREE kids!! Ahh!

 

Sister Sister

Ever since we were little, Jen and I always talked about being pregnant together. Something we always hoped for, but also something we could never actually plan.

 

I am so blessed to be able to go through this pregnancy with her. It is so much fun to compare symptoms, tell gross pregnancy stories, and oooh and aaah about the little girls in our bellies.

 

She is due in the middle of July, so technically 7 weeks ahead of me. I'm "due" around March 9th, but my doctor has already said that the latest he will let me go, most likely, is 37 weeks. So there is a huge chance these 3 little cousins will be a month apart. Crazy!!

 

The other crazy part? I'm dangerously close to passing her up in belly size :) eeeek!!

My mom is kinda obsesed with taking pictures of us together every Sunday. I'm glad she's been insisting on taking them because it's really fun to go back and look at them! and see how fast my belly has grown in just a few short weeks.

 

Look at these baby girls grow!!

 

16 weeks, 23 weeks

 

 

17 weeks, 24 weeks

 

19 weeks, 26 weeks

 

I can't wait to compare more pictures and see our little girls together :)

17 weeks

I've really "popped" this week! So much so, that all my little kindergardeners noticed my belly this week.

 

One of my little boys stopped in his tracks on the way in the classroom and looked at my belly and asked if "there is a newborn baby in there??" :) It was really cute! After several of my kids started asking, I told them all that there was indeed a baby in there...in fact, there are TWO! They were SO excited :)They've been drawing pictures for the girls all week long!

 

It's been another busy week, but fortunately, I've felt really good :) I've had plenty of energy to get me through the day, but then crash when I get home. I have to be up at school this weekend AGAIN to move the rest of the 30 carts into our wing from the storage trailer. oh joy.

 

As far as the weight gaining goes...there is NO problem there! I can't stop eating! I'm not exacly sure how much I've gained yet; I will when I go to the doctor next week.

 

I've been feeling the girls move and wiggle a lot more this week. It's so fun :) That was by far my favorite part of pregnancy with Bryson and same with the girls. I've tried to get Michael to feel them a few times, but the kicks aren't strong enough yet. Whenever I sit on the sofa or lay down, I naturally rest my hand on my belly. If for some reason I don't have it there, Bryson runs over and picks up my hand and lays it on my tummy and tells me to "not forget to touch his baby sisters" :) He really is excited about the twins right now.

 

I've been trying to wear maternity pants for the last couple weeks. They're still big and fall down a little (ha!) but as long as I roll down the little stretchy part, they're so much more comfortable than regular pants. I really hate anything pushing on my uterus, it hurts a lot more than I remember with B.

 

I have been craaaaving sushi lately. During the school year, Michael goes to a Bible Study every Monday night, so usually Bryson and I have our weekly Monday night sushi. Since I've been pregnant, it has sounded totally awful to me until the last couple weeks. I know sushi is supposed to be "off limits" but, just like eating turkey, it's fine when it's realy fresh and in moderation! SO Bryson and I went to a delicious sushi restaurant on Monday and it totally hit the spot!! Yumm!! I love that Bryson loves sushi as much as I do :)

I'm growing so much and so fast that I had to take 2 pictures this week. I took One on Saturday when I turned 17 weeks and one on Thursday and the difference in just a few days is amazing! I think I'm going to start taking at least 2 pictures a week to see the difference :)

 

17 weeks beginning and end of the week :)

 

16 Weeks

I think I'm definitely starting to feel better! I had almost a whole week with no Zofran! :) That is exciting news.

 

We had a really fun a busy week!

 

We celebrated Michael's birthday. My mom picked up B from school Friday night to spend time with him after being in Hawaii for a week (lucky!) and also gave Michael and I a chance to have a nice birthday dinner date together :)

 

We also celebrated Michael's birthday at my parent's house after church on Sunday. We decided to tell both families we were having girls this weekend, so we found a couple little girlie onesies and wrapped them up as Michael's birthday present. He opened them up and everyone was thrilled and excited!! We never told anyone that we found out the sex of the babies, but my dad, being a doctor and my sister, being a nurse, pretty much knew we had to know so they were secretly expecting an announcement. It was still really fun :)  It is going to be SOO fun for our girls to grow up with Jen and Brandon's little girl. They're only going to be a couple months apart and without a doubt the best of friends ;) I'm already thrilled for their relationship!

 

We also went over to Michael's family's house that evening for a joint birthday dinner for Michael and Melony. We gave her the same little onesies as her birthday gift and surprised them, too :)

Before they even found out, John kept talking about the twins as if they were girls because he wanted them to be girls so badly. And he was right!

(I have really cute bithday pictures, but need to find my camera cord first)

 

This week at school is super busy; even more than normal. We get to move into ou new Kindergarten wing this weekend, so we've been busy packing everything us, getting stuff off the walls and all that jazz. I'm not really looking forward to being up at school in my classroom all weekend, but I am SO excited about our new huge rooms. They are so nice!!

I highly doubt I will get a 17 week picture on  Saturday...but maybe it will happen at some point during the week ;)

 

For now, my ever growing 16 week twin belly!!

 

15 Weeks

I finaly started feeling a little better this week!! I even had a few Zofran-free days :) What a relief!

 

Wednesday, we went to the Perinatal Doctor. I woke up at  4AM; I was so so nervous.

I was, however, excited about the hour long sonogram!!

 

The nurse doing the sonogram was whipping the wand all over my belly telling us the different parts of the babies that she was measuring and monitoring. We had absolutely no clue what we were looking at half of the time!! It was so weird! Thankfully, she knew what she was doing:)

 

Then, halfway through, she casually asked if we were going to find of the sex of the babies. We said yes, of course, we have to plan nurseries, etc, for 2 babies. Then she went on showing us the different lobes of the brain, the kidneys, the femurs, etc. She measured the blood flow between the placenta and the ambilical cords. She told us that they were identical and that they were sharing a placenta. From all the research I had done, I knew that was one of the most high risk ways to carry twins :/

 

But then, out of no where, she said, "Well, you're having identical twin GIRLS!!"

 

We were totally shocked! We had NO CLUE we could find out the sex this early!! Neither of had previously really given a whole whole lot of thought as to the sex of the babies. We knew we would have identical twins because the only way we would get fraternal is if they run in the family of we were doing IVF, and neither of those were the case. But we both kinda had a slight feeling they were both going to be boys...so we were really thrown for a loop!!

 

When the doctor came in to go over everything, he informed us of several things:

 -I was really 15 weeks and 4 days along (i thought I was 15 weeks exactly) so my due date got  moved UP!! {YAY!}

-I'm at a super high risk for twin twin transfusion because they share a placenta. It's when one baby starts hogging all the blood and nutrients, leaving the other one at a deficit and  he needs me to come back ever 2 weeks to monitor it. {Super Scary}

-I have a cyst on one of my ovaries, but is "normal" according to him. {still scary}

-They're healthy, growing and doing great! {praise the Lord!}

-I need to gain weight. STAT. He was not a happy camper that I had only gained a few pounds (because I had been sick for the past 14 weeks). He repeated multiple time that I must gain 50+ pounds for the safety of the girls. {No problem. I gaind that with Bryson! haha. But still...I'm going to get f.a.t.!}

 

We left the doctor thrilled, yet scared. I had heard to "expect the worst" with the Specialist, so I was really thankful I already had an apointment scheduled with my regular OB the following day.

 

-----

Right afterwards, I went to pick up B from school to take him to the doctor. The last time he went to the dr was at his 2 yr appointment, and I know for certain he didn't remember going, but for some crazy reason, he was SO SOO excited to go see Dr. Burton. I mean, giddy, laughing, and so excited to see him!! When the nurse called him back, he jumped up and ran through the door with her and never even looked back to see if I was coming with him!

It took a while for Dr. Burton to get to our room, so every 5 minutes or so, he would move up his chair closer to the door so "Dr. Burt would see {him} by the door and not leave"  :)

 

He finally got to our room and Bryson talked up a storm with him, sang him a couple songs, counted to 20 in Spanish and spelled him name multiple times all without being prompted. It was hilarious! He was kinda sad to see him leave. Now, he makes up things that hurt so we can go back to see him ;) At least he loves the Doctor...for now ;)

 

-----

 

Thursday, I had my regular OB appointment and thankgoodness for him. He put all my fears from the day before at ease when he told me that twin twin transfusion, TTT, is very rare and it is nothing to worry about at all.

 

And also that the cyst will go away on it's own and not effect a single thing.

 

PHEW!!!

 

So anyway... we have 4 girl names to pick out!! :)

 

 



14 weeks

Hello 2nd Trimester!!

I am so ready for all the great and wonderful things that come with the 2nd trimester!! Relief from morning/all day sickness, energy, everything!

But until then... Zofran is my dear dear friend and goes with me everywhere :)

On the plus side, I have felt the twins move around several times this week :)

I aslo had a random craving for fried pickles this week. Thankfully, we have a Razzoos right next to our house, so B and I made a quick trip over there. YUM!!

I left school early for a spur of the moment doctor appointment on Mondy to check on something. Michael's mom randomly texted and asked if she could pick up B early from school and keep him for the night and then drop him back off late afternoon the next day. She took a few days off to spend time with him and it could not have come at a more perfect time. I needed to rest and sleep so badly, which is so hard to do with an overactive toddler :) It was so so nice to just to have the quiet house to myself all night. And They had a blast! She took him to Toys R Us on Monday and then to the Indoor Safari Park on Tuesday. He loved it!!

I've been really busy at school for the last month or so. We had to move into temporary rooms until our brand new amazing Kindergarten wing is finished at the end of September. I come home pretty much down right exhausted every single day. There have been several days where I just go lay down in bed and fall asleed before 8:00 at night and Bryson and Daddy get a little one on one time before his bed time.

Michael has seriously been amazing. I don't know what I would do without him. He has been so patient and understanding with all of the new pregnancy symptoms that I never had with Bryson. He pulls both of our weight around the house because doing the dishes or laundry or pretty much anything makes me nauseous. I truly appreciate everything he has done and is constantly doing for our family.

We also have our Perinatal Dr (High Risk) appointment next week. I'm excited but nervous at the same time....  :)

The belly is getting bigger!

1st Trimester

Holy smokes, this pregnancy has been SO SOO different than with Bryson. Besides the obvious...twins... pretty much every single thing that could happen has happened. And I mean everything!! From cramps, to morning sickness, to pure and total exhaustion, to round ligament pain(already..ugh), to food aversions, and *ahem* needing a little lot of extra fiber. Phew. It's been a long 3 months!

The goood news is yesterday marks 14 weeks for me and I am technically out of the 1st trimester!! I've been begging for the first trimester to be over, with some tiny hope that it will bring relief. I'm not totally there yet (Zofran is my best friend!) but I think I am starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Hooray!!

As soon as I found out we were having twins, at 7 weeks, I started reading everything I could about them. The first thing I found out was that almost every single person said they started showing quite significantly by 8 or 9 weeks. That was just totally bizarre to me considering I didn't really start showing until 4ish months with Bryson. So, I think I'm the only person ever to start documenting weekly pictures at 7 weeks. Ha!!

I started skipping pictures because it was kind of at a stand sill and the pictures were boring. Ha! Wait...maybe I shouln't say that out loud.... ;)

 

7 weeks

sono and belly

 



 

10 weeks

belly

 

11 weeks

sono and babies!

Michael couldn't make it to this appointment, so my mom came with me. It was just supposed to be a regular appointment to listen to the heart beats, but my doctor is fantastic and rolled in their old sono machine so we could see them again!! :) They haven't labeled them "Baby A, Baby B" yet, but the one on the left was laying horizonally and bouncing up and down and moving the entire time while the other one was chill and mello and just wiggled off and on :)

 

13 weeks

belly

We made a last minute appointment to check a few things out on Monday (technically 14 weeks, but oh well) and we had another quick sono. The same exact thing happened with the babies! The one on the left was movin' and groovin' and the one on the right must have been asleep because there was a strong heart beat, but only a few wiggles. It's funny to see their personalities already :)

 

Also, I know it's early, but I'm quite certain that I have felt them kick a few times!! It's really exciting!! :)

 

 

Hello 2nd Trimester!!

The pure fact that I'm having twins has put me in the "high risk" category (another thing that scares me...those 2 words :/ )

I'll be seeing a high risk doctor along side my regular Ob. My first appoinment is on the 19th and apparently it's going to be an hour long indepth sonogram. I'm kinda excited and kinda scared about it. I've heard from a couple people that they'll tell you everything that you don't need to know that will scare you to death. I'm trying to prepare myself for it, but it's hard.

 

The upside to being "high risk" is that we'll have mare opportunities to see our little miracles as opposed to the 3 sonograms we had with Bryson. Ha! I've already had 3 sonos in the 1st trimester this time around!! :)

 

I'll start real weekly posts soon because I definitely have a little pouch now! :)

 

Uh Oh Spaghetti Sauce!

A while back, Bryson heard my mom say, "uh oh spaghetti-o!" and  few days later he was racking his brain trying to say what Mimi had said, but instead said, "uh oh spagheti noodles." It was the cutest thing!

 

Flashback to early morning on July 4th, we were all thrilled to see this:

 

Bryson had NO clue why he was holding this plastic stick, but he was thrilled because he could tell we were so excited :) We couldn't tell him what it meant yet because he is a HUGE talker and would spill the beans within hours. So Michael and I kept it as a fun special secret for the next several weeks. We were ready to add to our family, so we were excited it happened so quickly!

 

The next day, we went down to the lake for our Fun Fourth Family weekend and had to keep it a secret from everyone.

 

We had planned on keeping it a secret well past the first trimester, just for the fact that Jen was pregnant too, and as much as we've always wanted to be pregnant together, I also wanted her to have "her time" being pregnant.

 

I went to the first Dr appointment on July 8th after we got back from the lake and they took a blood sample and talked about the "official"stuff and gave me a due date of March 9th. :) All was well and we continued on our merry little life.

 

We went to Possum Kingdom Lake with Michael's side of the family in late July and had to continue the secret. Pregnancy brain already kicked in because I totally forgot my camera.

 

We had our actual dr visit and sonogram when I was 7 and a half weeks, on July 26. We were SO excited to go make sure everything was OK and see the litle heart beat. I told mom I had a dentist appointment, so she was watching Bryson for the morning.

 

{Before}

 

My doctor came in, we talked a little and then he started the sonogram. Michael made small talk as I anxiously awaited to see the heart beat. We finally got a good view of the babe and I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I giggled about how it looked like a seahorse :)

 

 

My doctor is usually very chatty, and after a minute or so after we saw the baby, his demeanor totally changed. He got quite, still and had a quizzical look on his face. Immediately, I began to panic. I felt like my heart stopped as I glanced at Michael and then back at my doctor. I asked him what happened and if something was wrong. It took him a second to find an answer. Then, he said, "well, no, everyhing is fine, but look down here...there's another one!"

 

I waited for him to laugh as if he was playing a joke on us....twins!? SURELY he was kidding!

 

Then I realized he was serious and my heart stopped again. Michael almost fell flat out of the chair on the ground and all I could say is, "no! no way! you're kidding right? what?! no way!"

 

He continued talking but for the life of me, I can't remember a single word he uttered. My body was frozen on the table and all I could think about was TWO BABIES.

 

After a while, he left the room and as soon as the door closed, I lost it. I couldn't control my tears as I hugged Michael. Two babies was not in our plan. We were ready for one. Prepared emotionally and finacially for one. But two!? It's not that I was upset by anymeans, I just had an overwhelming waterfall of emotions that I wasn't ready for. Our life was changing more than we thought or planned.

 

After a few minutes, I looked at Michael through red puffy eyes and realized that we had been so diligent in planning for our family and our future and told him that God has basically just said 'Stop planning this life. It's not yours, it's Mine and I know what you need.' And I completely believe that.

 

Then more emotions came. How can my body carry two babies? How can I grow them big enough to be ready to face the world in a few short months? Then guilt. Guilt for being sick for the previous weeks and not being able to eat enough calories for me, let alone two babies. How will they grow if I'm just eating saltine crackers and water?? All I could do was pray.

 

Before we left the parking lot, Michael hugged me tight and I cried more. He had the most perfect words to calm my heart. I squeezed him again and then he drove off to work. I prayed and cried and prayed and cried the whole way down to my parent's house to pick up B. I drove past Chick-Fil-A and forced myself to stop and get and a breakfast meal just to get calories in me. I hated so much that I hadn't been able to eat. And of course, this time was no different. I took a few sips of my orange juice and I was done eating. I sat in the parking lot trying to think about the future of our family. I cried and prayed so much, I can't even tell you.

 

Amazingly enough, Michael and I had already planned a date weekend at a bed and breakfast for the following day. It was the most perfect timing and the most perfect time for us to try to digest what was happening. We prayed a lot together. We prayed that God would hold them tight and grow them big and strong. We prayed that it would be a good pregnancy. We prayed for Bryson adjusting to be a big brother. We prayed.

I didn't know a single thing about twin pregnancy or birth, so I researched it a lot over the weekend. Then, I scared myself silly with too much research. There is some seriously scary stuff out there.

 

Fast forward to early August. We decided that we couldn't wait until after the 1st trimester anymore. For one, who cn keep TWINS a secret for 3 o 4 more weeks!? An two, I was tol by everyone that I would be showing quite noticeably by 8 weeks, so our window was closing in without them noticing first. We told Bryson about the two babies in mommy's tummy and he was thrilled!! It was so funny, but he immediately said he is going to have sisters :) We recorded us telling him; I'll post the video soon, as well as telling our families.....

 

 

But for now...Uh Oh Spaghetti Sauce!!! There are TWO babies!!