Tomorrow Is Another Day...

38 Weeks

(right) Charlotte Cecilia born on November 3 at 12:17 am
5 lbs 12.9 oz, 18.7 in long 

(left) Annabelle Claire born on November 3 at 12:22 am
5 lbs 15 oz, 19.1 in long

It's hard to believe that it has been almost a week since my beautiful daughters made their entrance into the world.  I have so many stories to tell, and I feel like my world has been turned entirely upside down.  We are in love, we are exhausted, we are overwhelmed, we are amazed by every little thing they do.  I don't have a dramatic birth story to share.  The girls are completely healthy.  Breastfeeding is hard, but going well.  The nights have been long, but we're finding what works for us and getting far more sleep than we were a few days ago.

Every time I look at their faces, I think about how difficult it was to create them.  How each day of my pregnancy felt so surreal, as though I were living in a wonderful dream and had only to wake up to lose it all.  But now they're here.  With their six-day-old, already incredibly distinct personalities, and I'm falling so in love.  

And now I know for sure that what I said all along held true--it was so worth the wait.

37 Weeks

Well, one way or another, this will be my last weekly pregnancy update.  Not that I was ever that great about updating weekly, but the point being, whether I'm induced tomorrow or next Wednesday, I won't be making it to 38 weeks.
It is such a surreal feeling, being 37 weeks pregnant.  Knowing that within a few days, I'll have two babies to take care of, to raise, to eventually set loose on the world.  There were so many months where I really thought this day might never come.  To think that almost two years ago to the day, we embarked upon this journey, so blithely optimistic that we would have a baby in a few months.  And we're finally reaching the end of one journey and beginning another that I can't even begin to imagine.

I've learned so much about myself over the past two years.  I've learned a new level of patience.  I've learned the importance of optimism, perseverance, and being my own advocate.  I've learned how strong and amazing my body is--even with a defunct reproductive system!  I never, ever thought that I would be able to carry two babies to term and beyond.  That I would still be able to make a grocery shopping trip at this point in my pregnancy.  And I know that this next chapter of my life will teach me so much more about who I am and what I'm capable of.

I've grown closer to my husband.  A man who has always supported me when I felt I couldn't go on.  When I had moments of despair and hopelessness.  A man who shared this dream with me and was willing to go to any length to make it happen.  A man who talks to his babies, kisses my stomach and has loved our girls since we first saw them as microscopic six-cell embryos.

Our last appointment went well, and the ultrasound tech seemed optimistic that the girls were in a good position for delivery.  But the way they move around constantly, there's no telling how they'll be positioned tomorrow.  I'm cycling through so many different emotions right now--excitement to finally meet my babies, fear about the labor and delivery process, anxiety that we'll be sent back home to wait a few more days before inducing, anxiety that we WON'T be sent back home until we have two babies that we're wholly responsible for.

I'm spending today trying to fit in all the last minute items on my list--vitally important things like painting the video monitor wires grey so that they blend in with the walls, and trying to decide on a cloth diapering organization system.  Anything to keep me busy and my mind off of all of the uncertainty that tomorrow holds.

The past 37 weeks have been full of so many ups and downs, and as nervous as I am about the future, I'm so, so ready to begin the next chapter of our lives.

Dive Into the Baby Pool

So, I've decided that since these babies want to play games and be all crazy unpredictable, I'm at least going to have some fun with it while they're in there.  So, I'm starting a baby birthday pool!

Here's what you should know before you make a guess:

1) I've been having irregular contractions for 2 weeks and was 2-3 cm dilated a week and a half ago.

2) Induction is scheduled for Friday, November 2, but if the babies aren't positioned properly, they'll send me back home to wait a few more days.  I also have no idea what time I'll be going in and won't know until about 7:30-8:00 am Central European Time.

3) If we don't induce on the 2nd, I'll go back in a few days later--probably on November 7th, though it hasn't been scheduled yet.

4) There can be some correlation between how long your mother was in labor and how long you'll be in labor.  My mom was in active labor with both my sister and I for around 27 hours each time.

So, even though I'm scheduled for an induction, there are a lot of variables that make the date of their birth unpredictable!  Here are the rules for making a guess in the pool:

1) Since there are two babies being born, you'll get two guesses and two chances to win!  So, pick a date and time of birth for each baby.  You can keep both guesses in the same comment, but be sure to be specific about which baby goes with which date and time.  Example: Baby A November 4th at 8:00 am, Baby B November 4th at 8:15 am.

2) You must place your guesses in the comments section of this blog post.  That will make it a million times easier for me when I'm finding the winner than having to search through comments here, and on Facebook, and Twitter.

3) All guesses must be in by midnight CET on Thursday November 1st, which with the time zone and our recent time change, I believe is 7 pm EST and 4 pm PST. (Time zones are so confusing!)  If by some chance I go into labor before then, all of the guesses up until I make a birth announcement will be valid--I don't plan on letting the world know when I'm heading into the hospital.

4) We're using Price is Right rules, so the winner will be the person who gets the closest without going over!  So, there is a good chance there will be two winners (unless you're a super awesome, amazing guesser that happens to get them both right).

And what will the winner get?  Why a delicious assortment of German treats!  I can't promise I'll get it in the mail the next day or anything, but eventually you'll get a package filled with German chocolates, gummis and other yummy local deliciousness!

There's a pretty good chance I'm missing some important point or rule--I just woke up from a nap and I've never created a baby betting pool before.  But let me know if you have any questions and I'll answer you in the comments so everyone can see the answer.

Happy guessing!

Let it Snow...

I cannot wait to hold it over my girls' heads some day that I was essentially in early labor with them for WEEKS.  Last night, I ugly cried for a while because I seriously don't know how many more days of contractions and pain I can handle.  Angela from 9 months ago would have loved to have found a way to jump into the future and bitch slap present me.  Oh well, evidently I suck at making babies, but I am truly amazing at baking them.  I'm probably the one multiple mom on the planet who would probably make it past my due date if it weren't for an induction.

But, enough of that.  At this point, I'm sure I'll be posting a 37 week update, so we'll probably be revisiting this in just a few more days.
In crazier news, we had our first snow this weekend.  SNOW.  In OCTOBER!  The ground wasn't cold enough for it to start accumulating until right at the end, and then it all melted pretty quickly, but since then it has been freeeeeezing cold outside.  I'm pretty sad that we only got about a month of fall before winter started weaseling its way in, but I must admit that the snow was really beautiful from inside.

So, I lit my pine scented candle and turned on my Christmas music.  If I have to put up with winter coming two months early, I'm going to at least start enjoying the only parts of winter I actually enjoy!
 

36 Weeks

Well, I'm still pregnant.

I have extremely mixed feelings about this.  On the one hand, I am so happy that the girls are still cooking and getting more and more ready for life on the outside each day.  The last thing I want is to see my teeny babies in the NICU with monitors and breathing assistance, so I'm very happy to know that they're in there practicing their little breathing movements and playing soccer with my ribs and pelvis.  That's obviously the most important hand.  But the other, more selfish hand is miiiiiiserabllllllle.  I cannot tell you how wearing it is to hear that you'll probably be going into active labor in a matter of days, and a almost a week later, still be dealing with painful, irregular contractions and over 11 pounds of ridiculously active babies going to town on your insides.

Getting dressed is exhausting.  Trying to run errands for a couple of hours is exhausting.  Going to the hospital for check ups is exhausting.  Even sleeping is exhausting--I was up three times between 11 and 1 last night to go to the bathroom and rolling over or getting out of bed takes Herculean effort.  The swelling in my legs, ankles and feet by the end of each day is revolting.  And the pain, not just from the contractions and in my back, but I never expected this awful pelvic pain.  There are times where I actually have trouble standing and walking because the weight on my pelvis is so incredibly painful.  I really hate that I'm complaining about this, because I wanted to be pregnant for so long, and every time I think about what a miracle it is that we've been blessed with two seemingly healthy girls, I just want to shut right the heck up.  But really, I've been carrying the equivalent of a full term baby since about 29 weeks.  I'm worn out.
But.  Enough moaning.  If we make it to 37 weeks or beyond, I should count myself lucky and just suck it up.  I signed up for this, so here we are.  My 36 week appointment was great.  The girls jumped from being around the 54th percentile in weight last week to the 45th, measuring at 5 pounds 10 ounces each.  This far along in my pregnancy, the weight estimates can be off by as much as 1-2 pounds just because it gets harder and harder to measure all of the limbs and organs since they're so squished in there.  But that's a great number to hear, and even if the estimate was high, if they gain a half pound each week like my pregnancy email said and I make it to my induction date, I would think they'll be at least 5-6 pounds at birth.  Much higher than we were expecting!

And speaking of an induction date--we have one set!  One week from today, Friday, November 2nd, should be the big day.  There is a variable though--unfortunately, Charlotte, who has always been perfectly positioned head down at my pelvis throughout the last half of my pregnancy, decided to scooch over just a bit to the right so that her neck was at my pelvis at Wednesday's appointment.  If that's still how she's presenting on Friday, we'll have to postpone and schedule a c-section for the following week.  Evidently, the stress of a vaginal birth can help the baby's lungs develop, so my doctor would feel comfortable delivering that way at 37 weeks.  But if it's looking like it will be a c-section, he'd want to give their lungs a few more days to develop and get closer to 38 weeks.

So, basically the waiting is on.  It could be tonight.  It could be next Friday.  It could be in two weeks.  This past Tuesday, I started doing two Non-Stress Tests a week, and at my second one this morning, the ladies were still looking good, so we're all just hanging around, waiting to meet each other at some point!  My next appointment is following my NST on Tuesday, and then after that it's just the countdown to the big day.

Until then, head down vibes would be GREATLY appreciated!!

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Well, as of midnight last night, I had no idea if I would be preparing to write my 35 week update or a birth story today.  We had yet another exciting, contraction-filled evening, this time worrying us enough to end up in a late night/early morning visit to Labor & Delivery.

I've been noticing more and more contractions over the past week.  Some come with a menstrual cramp-like feeling, some are just the painless Braxton-Hicks.  I didn't think too much of it until last night when a couple of them took my breath away.  They started getting more frequent while we were all sitting down watching our back-log of Hulu shows, and I finally decided to start keeping track around 10:30.  Between 10:30 and 11:30, I'd had seven contractions--some with the crampy feeling, some not.  But we decided to call L&D and see what they recommended since my doctor had told me to come in if I had more than six in an hour.
Unfortunately, when I called, the nurse on the phone told me that he couldn't triage over the phone, but if I felt concerned enough to call in, he'd recommend I go ahead and come in for a check up.  At this point, it was close to midnight, and I hemmed and hawed over whether everyone needed to get loaded into the car for what was probably nothing.  But Colby was pretty adamant that he was in favor of going in, so I went to wake my mom and let her know that the baby bus might be leaving soon if she'd like to get on board.  I had packed most of my hospital bag last weekend after Scare #1, so I just had a few last minute things to round up and throw in, and by 12:05 we were on our way to the hospital.

We made it through the gates after a short stop for a random vehicle inspection (of course!) and got settled into one of the labor rooms.  They strapped on two monitors to keep track of the babies' heartrates and another one to measure my contractions.  It was simultaneously fascinating and wearing to watch the monitor over the next 30 minutes.  Every time I had a contraction, we could watch it climb to the peak and then fall again, and there was a definite difference on the screen between the painful and painless ones.  I also got anxious every time one of the girls' heartrates would suddenly drop off, though it was just due to their movement.  I can't imagine laying in that incredibly uncomfortable bed with the itchy straps on my stomach for hours on end, listening to and obsessing over all of the monitoring.  Ugh.

After my 20 minutes of monitoring, they on-call doctor came in to do a quick ultrasound and cervical check.  One of the girls is head down or "vertex" still, but the other one has flipped back up to transverse after being head down at my last two ultrasounds.  This led to a short conversation that has me very worried that I'll end up with a C-section if transverse baby (we're pretty sure it's Annabelle, although he didn't refer to either one as Baby A or Baby B during his check) doesn't flip back down for go time.

He did tell me that I'm 2-3 centimeters dilated, 50% effaced and that the vertex baby is already at a -1 station.  She was so low, he couldn't find her head on the ultrasound monitor.  In case that is all gibberish to you, which it would have been to me a few months ago, 2-3 cm is how wide my cervix has opened--a woman who's ready to push out a baby will be 10 cm.  50% effaced refers to the thinning of my cervix as the baby begins to drop and essentially stretches out the muscle.  And the stations are just markers for where baby is positioned in relation to the pelvis.  It's measured from -5 to +5.  A 0-5 station is a baby whose head is engaged in the pelvis and +5 is when the baby is crowning.

So, while I've known lots of girls who stayed 2-3 centimeters dilated for days or weeks on end, the combination of factors seemed to make my doctor think that things were definitely brewing.  He sent us back home and told me that I could continue with normal activity as I felt comfortable, but said that he'd expect things to progress over the next couple of days.  I woke up through the night with a couple of contractions, and have had plenty of Braxton-Hicks this morning, but so far nothing that's making me overly anxious for the short-term.
We're heading out to run some errands today, and I'm planning to get the nursery as organized as possible this afternoon, but hopefully they'll give us a little more time to get ready, and themselves a little more time to develop.  I have two Non-Stress Tests this week, one on Tuesday and one on Friday, and I have my next growth scan with my MFM on Wednesday, so we'll see how far we make it!

The Final Hurrah

As I mentioned in my previous post, this past weekend one of my very sweet friends hosted a beautiful shower for me.  It was a very special day as my mom was able to attend and meet many of my new friends, and we all got to take part in a fun crafting activity while we ate and gabbed!
The hostess had the very creative idea of inviting a local artist over to lead us in cutting, gluing and painting to make absolutely precious wooden blocks for Charlotte and Annabelle.  Each block has one of the letters from the girls' names, a picture from a German children's dictionary that represents each letter, a number with the spelling in German and English, and brightly decorated sides featuring flowers, birds and butterflies.  They are so stunningly beautiful, and extra special because they were handmade by my sweet friends.  I'm going to have a very tough time allowing the girls to touch the blocks, let alone play with them!  It'll have to be highly supervised play, I think.

I was thrilled to receive a large number of items that I'd been panicking about not having already on hand when I thought there was a chance I might be going into labor the night before.  There was the perfect balance of fun, adorable gifts and practical items that we really need.  From diapers, wipes and snot-suckers, to precious sweater dresses, tights and little booties, I felt so spoiled and lucky to have such a generous group of girls who seem almost as excited about the girls as we are!
I think that'll probably be it for me as far as big outings go.  Just getting dressed was absolutely exhausting, and by the time I got home and into my comfy laying-around-the-house clothes, I had horribly swollen legs and feet and my blood pressure seemed really high.  I have a feeling that if I actually make it to my induction, these last couple of weeks are going to be preeeeetty ugly.  But I'll save the moaning about that for another blog post, and instead end this one with a cute picture of me and my pretty momsie!

The Storm Before the Storm

Well, we certainly had an eventful weekend around here.  We spent Saturday afternoon running around trying to find a replacement for my mom's computer that had decided to die on her a few days ago.  In a frustrating turn of events, a few months ago, a new regulation was put in place that lithium batteries can no longer be shipped to APO (overseas American military) addresses.  And pretty much EVERYTHING electronic has a lithium battery.  That means that we are basically restricted to what we can find in a store on base or on the economy.  Unfortunately, unless you want an iPad, there are about four options for tablet computers in the stores, and as hard as it is for me to accept, my parents just aren't Apple people.

Just as we were giving up hope, I remembered my old standby--German Amazon.  I did a quick search and lo and behold, they had the tablet she wanted and the docking station in stock--unfortunately, for a lot more than most American stores thanks to the exchange rate, but we aren't in much of a bargaining position.  So, we made the order and all was well.

Except, all day I'd been feeling a little off.  Achy.  Tired.  Crampy.  Lots of Braxton Hicks.  So, when we got home, I put my feet up and tried to relax for the rest of the evening.  Then, just as I was getting ready to go to bed, I felt something new.  An intense cramping feeling low in my stomach combined with the feeling of my uterus tightening up.  I brushed it off, but about 15 minutes later, the same thing happened.  So, I hesitantly told Colby that I miiiiight be having real contractions.  Over the next 3 hours, the contractions continued, some with the achy, cramping feeling, and others that didn't hurt.  I went into panic mode around midnight and decided that we needed to do ALL OF THE LAUNDRY so that I could pack my hospital bag.

At 2:30, Colby convinced me to go to bed, and I was woken up twice with the painful contractions, but I had my last one around 4:30 in the morning on Sunday.  Since then, I've had a fair amount of Braxton Hicks, but fortunately, nothing painful.  It did light a fire under me to start knocking out those final "to-dos" on my Get This Done Before Babies list, but it seems like for now, the ladies are pretty content staying inside for a bit longer.

Happily, this also meant that I was able to attend my shower on Sunday where I had a great time eating yummy snacks, doing a fun craft and opening prezzies!  Last night, I made a massive Amazon and BabiesRUs order, using up all of my gift cards, and at this point, everything that we're going to "need" when the babies arrive is either in the house or on its way.  So, I'll feel a lot better once everything arrives, but I feel good knowing that at least we know we'll be getting it shortly.  

And in the meantime, I'll just keep reminding Charlotte and Annabelle that they are much more comfy and cozy swimming around in amniotic fluid than they will be out in this big, crazy world.  No need to make an entrance too soon!

33 1/2 Weeks

Y'all.  I am seriously sucking at blogging regularly lately.  I can't even say that I've been going out and doing such exciting things.  Colby has been gone for a week now, and my mom and I have been working like crazy on the nursery.  Really, I have to blame nesting for my extended absences.  I feel like the only time I sit down is when we eat and when we crash in front of our television shows for the evening.

But panic has well and truly set in because one month from today is the LATEST that the little ladies will arrive.  ONE MONTH!!!!!  And I still have nothing hung on the walls in the nursery, no hospital bag packed, I haven't even begun to think about a birth plan (Have babies.  Can that be my plan?), I only have one package of diapers and I still have a pile of books to read that I'm CERTAIN will teach me all I need to know about taking care of two babies (ha) (HAHA).
As absolutely not ready as I am to bring these babies home yet (We haven't even decided where we want them to sleep!), I AM ready for them to get the heck out of my uterus.  The last two weeks have been rough.  And I don't foresee it getting any easier over the next month.  My pelvis is so sore--I constantly feel like I've just gotten off a horse after a looooong trail ride.  My hips ache.  My feet and legs are almost always swollen.  I get winded and exhausted after the slightest exertion--just taking a shower and getting dressed wipes me out.  My stomach feels so heavy and Charlotte is just bouncing along on my cervix while Annabelle kicks me in the ribs.

That said, I honestly thought I would be a lot worse off at almost 34 weeks pregnant.  I'm still mobile, I've been sleeping a little better than I was a few weeks ago (probably due to sheer exhaustion from all the NESTING) (and a shoutout to my new best friend Tylenol PM), no gestational diabetes, no signs of preterm labor or preeclampsia.  I really do feel incredibly lucky.  I know an awful lot of singleton moms who've had far more difficult pregnancies than mine has been, so I do feel a little bratty complaining about the normal aches and pains that come with the territory.
I had my 32 week appointment last week and it went very well. My mom came with me, and it was nice to be able to introduce her to my doctor and ultrasound tech. The girls were both head down (HOORAY!!!!!), and are getting so big! Annabelle was 4 pounds 13 ounces, and we could see her hair wafting in the amniotic fluid and little fat rolls along her sides! Charlotte was just slightly smaller at 4 pounds 6 ounces, and she's so ready to come bursting into the world that they had trouble checking my cervix because she was right on top of it and not budging. Both of their heartbeats were a bit fast at the beginning--in the low 170s/high 160s range--but they slowed down toward the end, so the u/s tech thought they were probably just annoyed at being woken up by the jabby ultrasound wand!

I think I forgot to mention in my last update, but Annabelle's placenta has a small cyst on it which evidently could be a problem if it were bigger, but it's quite small and hadn't grown between appointments, so no one seemed very concerned. Unfortunately, once more, no good pictures. Both girls kept facing toward my back and didn't seem too interested in performing for us. We'll just all get to be surprised when we see them for the first time!
My next appointment is on the 19th with a regular OB as opposed to the high risk doctor I've been seeing. They want me to meet another doctor since there's always the possiblity that mine won't be able to be there for my delivery, and we'll just be doing a quick check up instead of the hour to hour and a half long growth scan. Then, assuming the babies are still in utero, we'll go in the next week for another growth scan and do a Non-stress Test. I think that's also when we'll officially schedule the induction, though my doctor told me it would probably be some time between November 5-7th since that's when he'll be available.

So, that's about all the news that's fit to print this go round. I can't believe I'm staring down the barrel of labor and delivery already. I feel like I was just writing my big announcement post, and here we are, all these months later, gone by in the blink of an eye.

Fall Has... Fallen?

I cannot wrap my head around the fact that today is the first day of October.  It is officially fall.  One of my all time favorite seasons, made all the more special by the fact that it is the season in which MY BABIES WILL ARRIVE!!!  It's so unbelievable.  And so wonderful.  And so terrifying...

Last week was pretty hectic with trying to get the house in decent shape for my mom's arrival.  I've gotten to the point where just running the vacuum cleaner on one floor just about does me in, so I've been majorly slacking in the "cleaning house" department.  I've got to get serious about finding a cleaning lady.  I try to keep up with the dog hair tumble weeds, run a dust rag around every week or so, and wipe the bathrooms down with a Lysol wipe when they start getting scary, but this place definitely needs a deep clean before I bring the girls home.  But happily, my mom made it in safe and sound and is firmly ensconced in the basement.  We're not going to let her leave for a very long time... and I promise the basement is actually very nice!

The first couple of days she was here were pretty yuck, but fortunately the sun decided to grace us with its presence starting over the weekend, and we've had some beautiful days since.  Friday, we had some friends over for dinner.  Then on Saturday we enjoyed the beautiful, crisp weather at the Gartenschau Pumpkin Festival in Kaiserslautern.  We walked around the park, admiring the award winning pumpkins, beautiful flowers, pumpkin sculptures and, of course, the food!  I had to try the pumpkin soup, and my mom and Colby each had a wurst and there was flammkuchen for all.

The theme was "Under the Sea" and all of the sculptures were made out of a vast assortment of pumpkins and gourds, with accents of rocks, wood and wicker.  At one point, while we were walking around I was "accused" of trying to smuggle a pumpkin out under my shirt... oh, people are just hilarious!

Sunday was more of a bummer, as we had to drop Colby off at the base to leave for an eleven day trip.  We're very happy that due to some scheduling changes, he won't be gone a full two weeks like we'd originally thought, but I'm still not thrilled about him leaving so late in the pregnancy.  I'm sure there's still plenty of time before there are any signs of imminent arrival, but he installed the carseats before he left, and we've been giving my mom driving lessons, just in case we need to head to the hospital before he gets back home.  But hopefully they'll stay in there baking for a few more weeks!

Sunday Social

I've been seeing this little blog hop posted on a few of the blogs I read, and I always enjoy the questions and answers.  I finally decided to give it a try myself!  If you'd like to play along as well, you can link up here.

1. What is something you have wanted to do but are afraid of?
Hot air balloon ride!  I am absolutely terrified of heights, but still, the thought of soaring over the earth with the wind in my face is incredibly appealing.  I figure it's one of those things I would either love or hate, but I'm dying to try it out someday. 

2. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
This is a tough one because our lives are so unpredictable.  Heck, I don't even know for sure where we'll be a year from now!  We'll be living some place new, probably back in the States and hopefully close to our families for the first time in years.  We'll have two almost five-year-old daughters (!!) and, in my fantasy world, a two-year-old.

3. What are you looking forward to before the end of 2012?
This has to be the most obvious answer EVER.

4. What are your hopes for your blog?
I don't think of my blog like a business, so I just hope that I continue writing here fairly regularly after the girls arrive so that I'll have those memories captured in words to look back on in years to come, when the early newborn days are just a hazy memory. 

5. Do you always see yourself living in your current town/city?
Definitely not.  Germany is an amazing place to call home for a few years, but I know we'll land back in the good old US of A eventually! 

6. What is your morning routine?
I don't have much of a routine right now.  If I don't have any plans for the day, I'll usually roll out of bed around 8, put on some comfy clothes, make a cup of tea and some cereal and catch up on email, Facebook, Twitter and blogs for a while. If I do have plans, I sleep in for as long as possible, spend about an hour getting ready, and try to squeeze in some breakfast or grab a cereal bar on the way out the door.

30 Weeks (+4 Days!)

Well, last week just plumb got away from me.  Life is getting busier and busier as the due date gets closer and closer.  We're trying to get all of our baby-prep done before Colby leaves for two weeks at the end of this month and squeezing as much fun into our days as we can before life changes FOREVER!  Last week, I got most of their clothes washed and put away--still have another load with some bedding and clothes that I've more recently aquired, but I'm also waiting on more hangers since I grossly underestimated on my first order.  These girls will definitely be well dressed!

I spent a lot of time figuring out how I wanted to organize everything, and I think I've got a system down.  I decided to put all their little sleepers, socks, hats, and Baby Legs in their clothing dresser, the diaper changing table (which is just a three drawer Hemnes dresser from Ikea) will hold all the disposable newborn and cloth diapers plus accessories, and I think their blankets and Halo blankets will fit in the bottom drawer.  In their wardrobe, I'm hanging all of their "outfits" including onesies, and toys, books and baby carriers are going on the wardrobe side shelf.  I'll post pictures once everything is put away, but I think it'll work out, and despite Germany's aversion to closets, so far it seems that we have plenty of storage space.
Even Colby went a little nuts with the nesting!  I went to a baby shower on Tuesday night, and when I got home, he was hard at work in the basement putting together the strollers and the Pack n' Play!  Our plan is to use a Double Snap n' Go with their carseats for the first few months, then transition to the Baby Jogger City Select when they're a little older.  So I gently explained that we could probably leave the Jogger in its box since we won't be needing it for another five months, but what can I say, the boy was on a roll!  And I confess, I do kind of love seeing all of the gear assembled!  We've still got the swing and Rock n' Play in boxes, but I'm sure he'll be on to those next!

We also went to our birth class at the hospital weekend before last.  I felt pretty well versed on how this is all going to go down before we went, but I mostly wanted the hospital tour.  And I did learn a few things--namely that since I'm a "high risk" pregnancy, I'll have to remain on the wired monitors rather than the wireless and that while I'll be allowed to labor in the laboring rooms (assuming we don't have to do a c-section), I'll have to actually deliver in the OR so that there's enough room for two warmers and two baby teams, and in case there's a complication we'll be ready to go.  Neither thing is a huge deal, but definitely good to know ahead of time.
The big news since my last update is that I am officially gestational diabetes FREE!!!  The three-hour test was absolutely awful.  I had to fast for eight hours before the test, so I ate dinner, then had a snack before I went to bed around 11 pm.  I showed up for the test thinking I would be done a little after noon, but come to find out the THREE HOUR glucose test, actually takes FOUR HOURS.  Uuuugggggh.  So, I went 14 hours without eating, had nothing but a bottle of insanely sugary liquid in my stomach, had to give 12 vials of blood because my doctor decided I needed a prenatal panel as well, and nearly passed out standing in line waiting for my Subway sandwich.  It was a dreadful experience, but at least it's another milestone down.  I think after my next appointment at 32 weeks on September 27th, I'll start doing the Fetal Non-Stress Tests (NST) and a Group B Strep test will probably happen sometime soon as well.

The last week, everything seems to have gotten really difficult.  Sleeping is more of a trial than ever.  I carefully position myself on my left side with a pillow between my knees to try and alleviate the constant hip and back pain, but I always wake up on my back and freak out because OH MAH GAH, I'm killing my babies.  I wake up on average every hour and a half to two hours to go to the bathroom, which is a Herculean effort in of itself as it typically takes about three attempts to haul myself out of bed.  And the girls have gotten big enough that all that precious movement is now absolute torture--Annabelle in particular, I think because she's transverse along the top of my stomach.  It seems to happen especially in the evenings, but the rib pain is extraordinary, and all I can do is lift my arms to try to raise my rib cage and breathe through it.  The Braxton Hicks are also coming on much more frequently and are way more uncomfortable now.  Seven and a half more weeks!  Awesome!
One funny thing is that I've finally noticed how much hotter I'm running, temperature wise.  We were outside quite a bit this weekend, and while Colby was bundled up in a long sleeve shirt and sweatshirt, I was wearing a light sweater and pushing up the sleeves.  I'm typically freezing cold when the temps are in the low 70s, so this is a very noticeable change!  I'm usually hanging on to Colby to warm up, but it's definitely the opposite now!

I still haven't put on any more weight, but that definitely doesn't mean I'm not getting bigger.  My arms and face seem to have gained the most obvious roundness, and my hips are getting wider--I assume this is part of what is causing the hip pain as all my joints loosen up.  My belly has grown about an inch just in the past week, and by my estimates (using the handy Ikea measuring tape that I've now outgrown), I'm about 40 inches around.  Most annoyingly, I thought I was all set on maternity clothes through the end of this pregnancy, but now a bunch of my fall/winter shirts are getting too short.  My Motherhood Maternity shirts are particularly guilty of this transgression, which is surprising since their whole schtick is maternity wear!  It doesn't help that I already have a very long torso, so the combination of long torso and massive belly is pretty difficult to keep covered.

PHEW!  That was a long one!  But thanks for sticking with me, and my next update will come following my 32 week appointment.  Almost to 32 weeks already!  How is that possible???

29 Weeks

I've decided to start doing my pregnancy update weekly because things are starting to happen faster and faster, and I'm really having trouble remembering what's happening from one week to the next!  Sadly, I haven't been able to do my fruit/veggie picture yet, both because I forgot to buy it when I was at the grocery store and because my personal paparazzi is out of town this week.  But rest assured, I will have it up in next week's update!  

Instead, I'll share with you this little sneak peek of the nursery.  Colby and I had a real come to Jesus moment after our appointment last week--thinking about our little beans arriving in 6-10 weeks freaked us both out, especially when faced with the state of our nursery.  I should have taken a before picture, but it was that awful blue grey, it was packed with carseat, swing, Rock n' Play, crib and stroller boxes that weren't yet unpacked.  Buckets of clothes and diapers were piled up in the middle of the room along with miscellaneous furniture and clothes that didn't even belong in the nursery.  It wasn't good.  So, Saturday, we made our Ikea pilgrimage, and though there were a couple of times that tears threatened, we bought all of our nursery furniture and got it all assembled by the end of the day on Sunday with minimal drama.  It was like nursery boot camp.  So, we still have a ways to go in terms of decorating, but we're pretty close to having all of the necessary basics.
I mentioned in my last update that I had my one-hour glucose test on last Thursday, and my doctor warned me that I would probably fail since I'm carrying twins.  So, I was all excited when no one called to tell me I had failed, and assumed since I was told no news was good news that I had passed.  Except that my doctor called me yesterday--that would be almost a week later--to tell me that I had failed by 9 points.  Cue sad trombone.  So, I'm going in again tomorrow for the 3 hour test, this time with the added bonus of fasting for at least 8 hours beforehand.  Le sigh.  I guess if this is the worst that I have to deal with, I shouldn't complain.

I still can't get over what a strange process pregnancy is.  There's the obvious weirdness--you're growing a human (or humans!) inside your stomach.  That's just... nuts.  Then there are the strange ways that it changes you.  I was expecting my cup size to go up and my hair to get thicker--instead, I just barely went up a cup size and the only difference I've noticed in my hair is that it's much dryer.  It used to be that if I didn't wash it daily, I was a greasy mess, but now if I'm not trying to look cute, I could easily go three days and my hair is still not oily--it's not pretty, but it's dry!  My skin has also given me the treat of being clearer than it's been in years.  My adult-onset acne issue is a thing of the past, and I haven't had a zit aside from one cystic acne spot on my chest that cleared up around 14 weeks.

My belly button is either completely flat or it pokes out, I've been rocking the linea negra since about 24 weeks, I get these weird little red dots in various spots mainly on my arms and chest, and I can't believe how slowly the hair on my legs grows now--plus I'm reasonably sure it's lighter now.  Then there's the pregnancy rhinitis--I'd never even heard of that before, but I'm really looking forward to the day that I don't have to blow my nose 17 times and don't wake up completely blocked up.  It seems like every day, there's some new, bizarre symptom that I never would have expected.  It's like everything in me is different now.

I've been a little concerned because I haven't gained any weight in the past month or so.  It's a little alarming, because everything I've heard and read says that this is when the girls are really needing the nutrients to put on fat.  I know they each gained over a pound between my 22 and 28 weeks appointments, but they also went from regularly measuring ahead by 5-7 days to measuring 1 day behind.  I think I'm going to start drinking a protein shake every night before bed, but I'm not sure what else to do.  I eat when I'm hungry, until I'm full, and it seems like there's getting to be less and less room for food in there.  But neither the nurse nor my doctor mentioned it as an issue, so I'll wait and see where I am at my next appointment and bring it up with my doctor if I'm still not gaining.  Maybe my body just piled on the weight early and they're feeding off of those caloric stores now... I don't know.

But other than that, I'm still feeling pretty good.  I went and walked with a friend for almost two hours today, and as long as I have a couple days a week to veg out, I'm still able to get out and about and be social on the rest of the days.  This weekend, I'm hoping to wash and organize all of our wee baby clothes, and on Saturday we're going to the birthing class at our hospital, the highlight of which will be the labor & delivery tour.  And here's hoping that the glucose test tomorrow returns better results--I just don't even want to imagine a life without desserts!

28 Weeks: Glucose and Rhogam and Inductions, OH MY!

Today I celebrated my official entry into the 3rd trimester with a delicious bottle of dextrose goodness and a Rhogam shot to the ass.  And who said pregnancy isn't magical???  I am certainly eating my words from my last pregnancy update, as time has definitely not been passing slowly.  In fact, I feel like I just wrote that 24 week post, and here we are a month later and a month closer to having two precious babies in our lives.

Annabelle's hand in front of Charlotte's foot--they must be so squished in there!

I had my third growth scan on Tuesday, and neither one of the girls was feeling particularly sociable.  They flipped over face down, covered their faces with their hands, squirmed away from the ultrasound techs magic wand, and were just generally difficult, meaning no adorable glamour shots from this appointment.  But we did learn that both babies are still doing great, and growing like weeds.  They're no longer measuring ahead, which worries me just a little, but they're only a day behind, so hopefully we'll still get some nice, big babies when the time comes.  Charlotte is a little bigger, measuring 2 pounds 11 ounces with a heartbeat of 158 bpm.  Annabelle is back to being the little one, measuring 2 pounds 7 ounces with a heartbeat of 149 bpm.  It's hard to believe I've got more than 5 pounds of baby inside me already--I've known girls who gave birth to full term babies not much bigger than that!
We met with the new high risk doctor, and got to ask him a bunch of questions about the labor and delivery process for twins.  He confirmed that his recommendation is to take the babies between 37 and 38 weeks depending on how they are measuring if they don't come before that on their own.  He also told us to be prepared for them to arrive anytime around 36 weeks.  I'm still feeling a little anxious about that since Colby is scheduled on a trip that will get him back home when I'm 34 1/2 weeks, so hopefully the girls will stay inside at least until then and hopefully longer.  But it's absolutely mindblowing to think that in 10 weeks or less, we'll be meeting our babies.
As for how I'm doing... I'm hanging in there.  I have good days and not so good days, but I think considering what my body is having to contend with, it's doing a pretty good job.  Bedtime has become my least favorite part of the day.  I've pretty much returned to 1st tri levels of exhaustion, but now without the benefit of being able to sleep for 15 hours a day.  I can't even toss and turn because just rolling over in bed requires such monumental effort.  I sleep with a pillow between my legs to try to alleviate the joint pain in my groin, but I wake up every morning so incredibly achy.  I really want to try to find somewhere around here that does prenatal massages--I would be willing to pay scads of money for just one hour of not feeling uncomfortable.

I've been having lots of weird little aches, pains, and twinges in my uterus that tend to freak me out a bit but so far haven't led to anything of concern.  The Braxton Hicks still come and go, but without any regularity and no pain--though they are getting more uncomfortable.  As the girls have gotten bigger, their sweet little kicks have turned into full on assaults.  I think Annabelle is the one who likes to get right up into my ribs and just roll and flail, and Charlotte is down really low and likes to take shots at my pelvis.  It's a real joy when they're both going at it simultaneously.  It's all I can do to keep breathing.  Is it possible to get an epidural at 28 weeks?
But still, I never take a minute of any of this for granted.  I love these babies so much, and I am so excited for them to arrive.  This weekend we're repainting the nursery in a different shade of grey (I wish I didn't think of S&M every time I thought about painting the nursery), and going to Ikea for the last of the baby furniture.  I've started sorting through their clothes and hope to get it all washed and put away next week.  My mom and a very sweet family friend are making the crib skirts and a roman shade, and should be finished by the end of September.  Other than that, I'll figure out what else I want for decor when I see how much wall space we have.  It's all starting to come together, and I really want to be ready for the girls to arrive any time after 32 or 33 weeks.

Please, let's all hope that Ikea is feeling kind this weekend.  I've already had one tearful breakdown in that store, I'm not sure if I can handle another!

From A Distance

What an absolutely phenomenal weekend.  I'm absolutely dead tired, but it was so worth it to pack in so many amazing events over just a couple of days!

We did kick things off with a lazy day on Friday since Colby had the day off, but Saturday life got a little more exciting.  We went in search of a second grey paint option for the nursery since our original grey magically turned blue as soon as we put it on the walls.  The paint selection here is pretty laughable--there were about 8 different greys, but that was ranging from pale, almost white, to dark charcoal, so there were really only 2 or 3 that could possibly work in our color scheme.  Oh, how I miss the infinite number of paint colors available back home--or the ability to see a color you like in the magazine and just go pick it up at the store!

That evening we had our maternity photo session with the insanely talented Jess Fountain of Jess Renee Photography.  It was a bit touch and go as some pretty massive storm clouds were hovering just before our session time, but we holed up in our car for about 15 minutes waiting for the rain to pass, and it ended up being a perfect evening.  I had a lot of anxiety about how the photos would turn out.  I am ridiculously self-critical and almost always hate pictures of myself, but this pregnancy is so special to me, I knew that I wanted to document it and have tangible reminders of it.  Then the weather seemed to be against us and I was a little nervous about how much wind there was while we were shooting.  Then I got home and realized I NEVER PUT ON MASCARA when I was doing my makeup.  For me, this is like... forgetting to put on pants.  I never, ever leave the house without mascara, even if I'm wearing yoga pants and have my hair in a ponytail.  And I'll freely admit that my eyes are my one vanity, so I was pretty distraught upon this realization.  However, the pictures are PERFECT.  I've only seen the sneak peek so far, but I already can't pick a favorite, and I am so amazed at how Jess captured such a special time in our lives.

Sunday, the weather was still blustery and rainy, but we pulled out our fall sweaters and rain gear, and headed out to the Pferderennen (horse racing) in Miesau with some friends.  It was a pretty charming event with the track consisting of a mowed field and race horses mostly between 10 and 15 years old, but despite the wind and spurts of rain, we had a great time.  Plus, they had delicious flammkuchen, so my tummy was happy.
Finally, we wrapped up our day with a wonderful international baby shower held in a Google Hangout!  My sister, Brittany, and sweet friend, Jessica, co-hosted and did an incredible job of making it feel like a party, even across thousands of miles.  I received a box last week filled with baby shower decor, treats, and gifts, and we had eleven people who were able to either phone in or participate in the video hangout, and so many more who couldn't "attend" sent gifts and their love across the pond.
I realize how lucky I am to have this experience living abroad, but it's bittersweet to do it during my first, and possibly only, pregnancy when I would give anything to be surrounded by my closest friends and family.  But the way we are all scattered around the globe, this was the perfect way to celebrate our little girls and spend time together in a crazy, chaotic video chat!

Blogdentity Crisis

The strangest thing is happening.  My blog is morphing into a mommy blog.  More and more often I find myself thinking of blog posts I want to write, and then censoring myself because, "Ack!  Too much baby!"  But I don't know... I'm realizing that's a bad idea.  I've always said I keep this blog primarily for myself as a document of my life, and if I'm constantly supressing the urge to write about pretty much the most major event of that life thusfar, then it all becomes a bit pointless, no?

When I first started blogging, I was fresh out of college, writing about working and dating.  Then I got engaged and it became a blog largely about wedding planning and subsequently being married.  Now there are babies happening, and so I guess it's time to talk babies for a while.  I do promise that I will never, ever post a picture of my child on the toilet though.  This, I solemnly swear.  Feel free to bookmark this post and hold it over my head at a later date.

So, baby stuff.  Y'all, I'm sure I'd be equally as over the moon about having wee little ones to munch on in a few months if I were having boys, but let me tell you, shopping for a girl is just about the funnest thing ever.  I haven't quite transitioned to that girl who never buys anything for herself, and always shops for her kids (just ask the Gap, Old Navy, Motherhood Maternity, and Zappos, they'll vouch for me), but I'm more like the girl who constantly buys stuff for herself AND her kids.  The perils of building a maternity wardrobe and a twin girls wardrobe at the same time.
Yesterday, my very first shipment of baby girl clothes arrived, and it felt like Christmas as I opened the boxes and lovingly stroked each sweet little garment.  I was lucky enough to be gifted with a ton of baby clothes at my shower in May, but because we didn't yet know the sexes of the babies, all of it is gender neutral, so it's thrilling to toss a little bit of pink into the mix amongst all of the yellow and green.

I also made my first foray into cloth diaper purchases, and have found some pretty great deals on Charlie Bananas, Thirsties, and the Workhorse fitteds.  I had planned to wait until after my upcoming shower to see if I ended up with a decent starter stash from that, but then these sales kept popping up and, figuring we'd have to buy some on our own eventually anyway, I decided to strike while the iron is hot.  I also revamped my registry/shopping list based on the cloth diapering plan you all helped me create with your amazing advice and suggestions.  I'll write a separate post about that soon.

But what I'm most excited about is that we're finally getting started on the nursery this weekend!  We got a really good head start in my first trimester, buying cribs and large baby gear in the States before we moved since we didn't know what we'd find here and what could be shipped.  Then the move happened and life kind of exploded for a while, so the nursery has been on the back burner.  But we bought the paint a couple of weeks ago, and on Saturday Colby will be manning the brush and I'll have the roller, and if I'm a very good girl, maybe we'll even get cribs put together!  Here's a little sneak peak since it'll probably be awhile before we have a finished product:
25 weeks down, 15 more to go!

24 Weeks

Ah, the great, gaping chasm of the middle of pregnancy.  It's sort of like the middle of a deployment--the first part goes by so fast, then there's that looooooong bit in the middle where you feel like you're treading water.  There's almost as much ahead of you as you've got behind you, and things feel a bit stagnant.  But at least in the case of a deployment, things tend to pick up speed as the end draws near, and I'm hoping pregnancy is similar in that regard.
After feeling like the first trimester and beginning of the second trimester blew by, I've noticed that time seems to have slowed drastically.  This slowness of time seems to be directly proportional to my level of discomfort, which seems a bit unfair.  For pretty much the first time in 24 weeks, I'm just going to be whiny for a minute.  My back hurts constantly.  I'm exhausted during the day, but I can't sleep through the night.  My ankles and feet are swollen almost every night.  I'm inexplicably congested.  I'm ridiculously moody--going from insanely happy and upbeat to soap opera crying for no discernible reason.  My stomach is starting to be uncomfortably heavy.  I feel like I'm the size of a walrus.  And perhaps most upsetting of all, I'm beginning to understand that this pregnancy is never going to result in Victoria's Secret model boobs or thick, luscious locks of hair.
So, after getting all of that off of my chest, I must say that I'm still very aware of how incredibly lucky I am that this has been such an easy pregnancy.  When I first heard the word twins in association with the state of my uterus, my very first thought was, "Oh my god, months of bedrest."  While that could still be ahead of me, I thought for sure by now I would be experiencing all kinds of complications, and so far, with the exception of some slight anemia, nada.  I am so, so, SO grateful for that.  To combat my lack of energy, I've started incorporating more regular exercise back into my regular routine.  I'd been doing a great job keeping up with it before we moved, but then there was a couple month interim where I fell off the wagon with the exception of walks.  It feels great to get back to my videos for a little strength training, and even if I don't actually feel less tired, I know it's good for both me and the girls.
The babies--Charlotte and Annabelle, I should say!--are rocking and rolling pretty much constantly now.  If I haven't felt them for more than an hour, I start to really miss them and to worry that something is wrong.  But before long, they're right back to kicking and karate chopping their way into my heart.  With the exception of a few unfortunately aimed kicks to the cervix, the movement isn't uncomfortable, though I'm sure as the three of us continue to grow, that will probably change!
Nothing terribly exciting pregnancy-wise has occurred lately, but at the end of August, there will be a huge flurry of activity.  I'm super excited about a maternity photo shoot that I scheduled for August 25th with the crazy talented Jess of Jess Renee Photography--her photos are just so filled with life and joy.  My sister and one of my sweet friends are co-hosting an online baby-shower for me on the 26th, so I'll get to spend an evening video chatting and opening presents with friends and family on the other side of the world.  And my next anatomy scan (ultrasound) is scheduled for August 28th, when I'll be almost 28 weeks and nearing the home stretch!  It'll be a busy few days, but I'm so looking forward to all of it--especially seeing my beautiful girls again.  This will have been the longest I've gone without a little peek at them.

Until then, I'll just be blowing my nose, vainly searching for the perfect pillow positioning to support my back, crying at the drop of a hat and avoiding all mirrors and scales!

What's In A Baby Name?

When I was growing up, I wasn't so madly in love with my name.  My first name was too uncommon, and I didn't think it sounded girly enough.  I went through various phases, but I think the name I wished for the most was Stephanie.  I don't know what exactly it was I liked so much about Stephanie, but to me it seemed like the perfect name to ensure that I would grow up to be pretty and popular, the two things most nine year old girls care about most in the world.  My middle name was also fairly uncommon, and inspired people to serenade me with renditions of The First Noel.  I was not terribly impressed.

However, as I grew older and the desperate desire to be exactly the same as everyone who surrounded me passed, I learned to love my name.  Especially the flow of my first and middle names.  I think it's beautiful, and meaningful and given my birthday around Christmas time, I'm not even bothered if people want to sing The First Noel at me.

That said, having to come up with a baby name--two baby names at that--has given me a lot of heartburn.  I want to love their names.  I want Colby to love their names.  I want our family and friends to love their names.  I want THEM to love their names.  And oh, there are SO MANY NAMES.  When I was a little girl, imagining that I had twin daughters, I went with matched sets like Denim and Lace.  Or Stacy and Tracy (I wanted to be a Stacy almost as much as I wanted to be a Stephanie).  I'm pretty glad that I'm not obligated to stick with any of those early life decisions.

We talked a lot about what we wanted our baby's names to say.  We wanted them to be classic and meaningful.  Nothing cutesy, matching or even starting with the same letter.  We had to make sure initials didn't spell anything bizarre or inappropriate, and that we weren't making playground taunts too easy.  It was a tall order, but we finally settled on two names that we both really love.  So without further ado, I'd like to introduce you.

Charlotte, the artist formerly known as Baby A, was the first name we came up with--almost two years ago now--and we've loved it consistently.  Not only is it a beautiful name, but Charles is a family name on Colby's side.  My only surviving grandparent is Cecile, and she's an incredibly strong woman who managed to hold a demanding job as a nurse as well as raise a family of five children, and she never leaves the house without a fresh coat of lipstick.  When we shared the names with Colby's parents, we discovered that Cecilia is also a family name for them, making it even more special.

Annabelle is a name that I fell in love with after we found out we were pregnant and started researching names more purposefully.  I love that it has a Southern vibe to it, and my mom's name is Ann, so there's a nice bit of family connection there.  Colby took a little longer to come around on this one.  He kept saying that he liked it, but he imagined a Southern belle in a hoopskirt sitting under an oak tree.  To which I say, I should have never made him watch Gone with the Wind and WHAT'S WRONG WITH HOOPSKIRTS AND OAK TREES???  Anyway, when he came home from his last trip, with no prompting from me, he declared that he'd decided he liked it, and thus, Baby B became Annabelle.  I've always loved the name Claire, and it's a variation on Colby's mother's maiden name, so again, family connections are important to us and we managed to tie them in without overtly using a family member's name.

For some reason, giving them names makes me even more excited about meeting them in a few more months.  Not that I wasn't already over the moon, but they seem even more humanized now, and I love thinking "Charlotte must be sleeping" or "Annabelle just kicked me in the belly button".  So, there we are, another baby-related decision down and only fourteen frillion more to go!

Highlights Reel

Wow, thank you all SO MUCH for your responses to my cloth diapering post.  I'm still processing all of the comments I got here and through Facebook and email, but I can honestly say that you all made me feel tons better about my current "plan of attack".  I think the two most frequent and most helpful comments I got were:

1. Don't commit fully to one system before the baby comes--buy a lot of different options and try them out because different diapers will work for different babies.  How sad would I be if we spent $500 on BumGenius 4.0s and then they didn't work on our kids?
2. It's not only okay to start out with disposables, but pretty darn smart since most people had lots of leaks until their babies got to be bigger (8-10 pounds).  And have disposables on hand for emergencies--they aren't The Devil.

There's been a lot of baby talk around here lately, and obviously that's something that's going to happen with more and more regularity, but there has been a lot of other stuff going on in mah life, and I thought I'd rely on my favorite lazy writer's crutch, bullet points, to get through it all.

** The seemingly never-ending moving process is actually getting pretty close to ending.  After four trips to Ikea over the course of four weekends (ugh), we finally managed to cobble together a linen closet, meaning that I was able to unpack my last box.  We've gotten lots of pictures and decor on the wall, and I think one or two more dedicated weekends will finish up the rest of the house.  Well, aside from the nursery.  But that's another post for another day. 

** We painted the big open great room over the weekend, but sadly ran out of paint about 80% through, so we'll finish that this weekend.  But it's a delightful pale greenish-yellow and I think it'll keep things bright and cheery through the long dark German fall and winter.  I finally feel very much at home in our house.

** I've been taking a German class for the past 3 weeks and I'm having so much fun being back in the classroom.  Learning a language is such a different experience when you're a) not in highschool and b) actually living in a country where the language is spoken.  I don't think I'll be fluent or anything by the time we leave here, but I really want to be able to understand more of what I'm hearing on the radio and out and about.  This was just an introductory class (telling time, asking for directions, numbers, colors, etc) and it ends next week, but I'm planning to continue my education with online lessons and maybe some vocabulary books.  I love languages, and it's really nice to start understanding the very foreign world around me a little better!

** The Air Force is making me exceptionally grumpy in that they STILL haven't paid us all of the money they owe us following the move.  To put it in the simplest way, each paycheck we get BAH or OHA which is a housing allowance set according to the costs of homes where we currently live, as long as we live off base.  Also, in Germany, we get a monthly utility allowance since it's so much more expensive over here than in the States. They still owe us all of our OHA and utility allowances for June and July, as well as a one time "move In allowance".  That comes to a LOT of money that we're owed. It's amazing how long it takes for them to pay us money owed, but if they make a mistake and overpay us it's snatched back fast enough to make our heads spin.  

** But the good Air Force news is that it looks like Colby won't be going TDY (Temporary Duty Assignment for the non-mil folks), to DC for the entire month of October and into early November like we thought.  The current plan is still for him to go for a few weeks in October, but at least my mom will be here and hopefully I'll be able to keep the babies inside until he gets back in mid-late October.

via 

** And the most exciting news--we're going to Turkey in  just a little over two weeks!!!  Colby's squadron dicked around just long enough on approving his leave to ensure that we had to pay higher prices for airfare and hotels than we would have if they didn't suck, BUT, we're still going and I CAN'T WAIT!  We're going to spend four days in Istanbul and three days on Cirali beach, laying around enjoying the sunshine and the ocean.  There's a pretty good chance this will be my last big trip before we have the babies--we *might* be able to fit in Belgium in September if I'm still feeling mobile, but I'm not counting on it--so I'm planning to enjoy the heck out of it and really appreciate my diminishing days adventuring with Colby as "just us".

Calling All Cloth Diapering Mamas

Right up front, want to let you know, there is absolutely nothing remotely interesting in this post--just lots of questions and confused ramblings from the deranged mind of a woman who has read WAY TOO MANY WEBSITES about cloth diapering.  But if you have experience, or advice, please, I am begging you: PLAAAAYYYS HAAAAAAALP.

So, here's the prologue.  Colby and I decided ages ago that we wanted to cloth diaper.  This is back when we were young and starry eyed and certain we'd have a baby in 9 months.  One baby.  Now it's almost two years later, and we're thrilled to be having two babies in four months, but a little more daunted at the thought of cloth diapering.  But not so daunted that we've given up hope.  It still makes a lot of sense in our situation.

We got lucky that our house has hookups for a large American style top loading washer with hot and cold water so laundry shouldn't be an issue. We have a hand held shower head on our bathtub that will reach to the toilet in lieu of a sprayer (tankless toilets) and a utility sink in the laundry room.  Our garbage is only collected every two weeks, and we have an 80 liter trash can.  That is... small.  You can get garbage bags specifically devoted to diapers, but you only get 52 to last you for a year (possibly we could get double that since we'll have two babies), but still, the thought of massive bags of diapers piling up in our house or carport for 14 days between pick ups grosses me out.  So while our work load will be doubled from what we originally anticipated, I still feel like it's workable and even practical.

Now I'm at the point where I'm deciding what kind of diapers we want to invest in, how we'll deal with the hard water issue, and possibly most importantly, just how many diapers will it take to keep two baby butts covered without having to do laundry every blessed day.  And oh my stars, the options.  From trial packages from boutiques, to Amazon, to Etsy.  All-in-ones, pockets, inserts, prefolds, covers, Snappis, fleece, wool, PUL, hemp, fleece, liners, velcro or snaps... I thought I would just do my research, get a few options, decide what works best for our specific babies and all would be good.  But the more research I do, the more my head spins.  So, here's where I am now...

For the first few weeks, we'll likely stick with disposables.  I expect we'll have some pretty teensy babies, and it'll be enough dealing with adjusting to life with two infants without having to add in figuring out laundry routines, or worrying in advance whether or not they'll be big enough to fit into the cloth diapers without leaks.

My current plan of attack is to eventually have a stash of around 40-50 diapers.  I think that seems like enough that I could go every other day between washes, and perhaps once they get older we'll be able to push it out to two days between washes.  I've seen everywhere from 8-16 as the estimates of diapers that an infant goes through in one day.  Eight seems a bit on the low side, and 16 seems pretty high just from my limited experience, so I'm going with the average of about 12 diapers a day per baby.

I'm leaning pretty strongly toward prefolds with covers as my primary diapering system, with some all-in-ones and pockets thrown in for outings and short trips, just for the sake of easiness (long trips we'll just say to hell with it and go with disposables, unless we're staying with family and have access to laundry facilities).  My biggest concern with the prefolds is that the dampness is right against baby's bottom, and I've read a lot of accounts of this leading to diaper rashes.  Maybe fleece liners would help with that problem?  But they seem so much easier to wash than all-in-ones and even pockets, definitely cheaper and more forgiving on our stash since you don't necessarily have to change the cover every single time.

Of course, in doing this research, I was led to Green Mountain Diapers and their Cloth-eez Prefolds.  And as I was trying to decide if I wanted to deal with Snappis or if we'll just do a trifold and lay the prefold inside the cover, I saw the Workhorse Fitteds.  I'm pretty taken with them, but I don't know if they're worth the pretty significant extra cost compared with the prefolds.  I love that I can get 48 prefolds for less than $100, when the Fitteds would run us $240 for the same amount (cost comparison based on newborn size).  But if they really work that much better, it's worth it not to have to deal with leaks and blowouts.

For covers, I'm thinking about auditioning Best Bottom with Hook and Loop closures, Thirsties Duo Wrap Snaps, and Bummis Super Snap.  I think I prefer snaps because they last longer than velcro, they're harder for baby to pull off, and I won't have to worry about Velcro irritating baby's stomach.

All-in-ones I'm looking at are Thirsties Duo All-in-One Snaps, Lil Joeys, Bummis Easy Fit Tots Bots with Snap (according to reviews, good for small babies), and BumGenius Elementals.  And for pockets, FuzziBunz Perfect Size, Blueberry Mini Deluxe, Happy Heinys (also good for small babies, but has velcro which I don't love--so I may just get the one size).  Maybe 10-15 of these total, for the aforementioned uses.

For the rest of it, I'm still at a loss.  Should we use Snappis?  Is hemp really that much better than microfiber?  How many additional inserts should we plan to have on hand in case of heavy wetters?  Can you use an additional insert inside of the prefold to help with a diaper lasting through the night when that day finally comes?  Are disposable liners as awesome as they seem, or just a waste?  Do I seem like I have a handle on this, or are you sitting there laughing at me?

Really, now is the time to launch any and all assvice in my direction.  Please share your experiences and tell me what worked for you and WHY it worked for you?  Seeing it all in writing, I feel like maybe it seems that I've made a lot of decisions, but honestly, I still feel so confused.  I will love you forever if you can help me figure this out before I actually give birth to these little pee and poop machines.

22 Week Ultrasound

I feel like I was just at my 18 week appointment, making the big discovery that we are going to be having two lovely little ladies this fall, and already, our second anatomy scan rolled around.  From what I understand, typically there's only one anatomy scan around 20 weeks, but since I'm seeing an MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine) and currently categorized as "high risk" rather than seeing an OB/GYN, I'll have three anatomy scans to track the girls' growth.

The good news is that everything is still looking great in there.  The girls are still measuring about a week ahead, but I looked up their current weights to compare them against average sizes and they're at 53% and 54% for weight, so I'm not too worried about gargantuan babies.

I AM however, a little concerned about babies with gargantuan heads!  The ultrasound tech measured Baby A's head twice because it was so large, she thought she'd messed up the first measurement.  Eep!  That's my dad's side of the family right there.  Then the tech, in a sort of misguided attempt to comfort me says, "Well, at least Baby B should be able to come out nice and easy--that Baby A is a door buster!"  DOUBLE EEP!!!!!  Her weight at 21 weeks 6 days was 1 pound 2 ounces and her heartbeat was a beautiful 148 bpm.  She's usually the one we end up with all the best pictures of, but yesterday, she just wasn't feeling it and spent most of the appointment behind her hands and rolling away from the ultrasound tech.

Baby B, on the other hand, was all about the pretty pictures for once.  She also surprised us by overtaking her sister in size, going from being the consistently smaller twin to the bigger one at 1 pound 3 oz with a heartbeat of 153 bpm.  It's very good news that they're such similar sizes, meaning that one girl isn't hogging all of the nutrients.  Still in utero and already they're such good sharers!  And I love my ultrasound tech--she is absolutely brilliant at what she does, she's fun to talk to (which is important when you're spending two hours together), and she always sends me home with tons of pictures.  I got over 40 last time and more than 30 this time--she asked me to keep them rolled up while I was in the hallway so she wouldn't get in trouble for printing so many!

I also finally had a great appointment with a doctor--sadly, this doctor is moving next week, so I'll be seeing her replacement at my next appointment.  She asked me if I had any specific birth plans, and I told her that I have a pretty relaxed attitude about it.  When I thought I was having a singleton, I had big plans for a birth center and a crunchy, granola natural birth experience, but with two in there and all of the increased risk for emergency situations, I'm open to whatever the doctors tell me is the best for us.  I have to trust them.  She was also a strong proponent for breastfeeding, giving me lots of encouragement and recommending that I meet with a lactation consultant when I get into my third trimester when I admitted I am very nervous about breastfeeding two babies.  It didn't hurt that she has twelve-year-old twin girls conceived through IVF with ICSI, which put a much more personal spin on all of her advice.

I'm supposed to call back in a couple of weeks to make my next appointment for four weeks from now, but since I'm hoping we'll be on vacation that week, it'll probably be in five instead when I'll be 27 weeks and just getting into the third trimester.  I'll also be getting my Rhogam shot at 28 weeks and will probably be scheduling my glucose test for some time shortly thereafter.  Things are starting to feel really, really real!

The Last Thing I Need is Friday the 13th

Well, last week I had a brief reprieve from the massive torrent of crap that is being flung our way, and naively I thought, "Phew, that was it, we had a house sale fall through, a business owner threatened to sue me, and I almost blew up our television, but we SURVIVED!  Tomorrow is, in fact another day, and it is a much better one!"

And then Sunday happened.

Y'all, I feel like all I've been doing lately is complain, but I am just so stressed out right now, I can't even ugly cry anymore.  It's like I've gone into emotional shock... maybe I should elevate my feet or something.

So it all began--again--on Sunday, when we got an email from our property manager saying that our air conditioning unit in our South Carolina house had died on the day that the renters (and hopefully very soon, buyers) moved in.  He'd had to send out his own contractor to do a bandaid fix of adding more freon, and wanted to know how we'd like to proceed.  Essentially, we can replace the coil system and some other internal parts, or buy a new unit for maybe just a little less than twice the repair cost.  The coil system has no warranty, the new unit does.

I immediately filed a claim with our home warranty company, they were supposed to send out a contractor, but after repeated calls to them, the contractor never contacted my property manager over the next 3 days, and on Wednesday, we discovered that the company is located in Charlotte, NC and had been telling the warranty company for days that they can't service our area.  So the warranty company found a more local contractor, but THEY can't come out until next Monday, and in the meantime the a/c has already gone out for a second time, requiring more freon and our repair bills are already up around $1000.  So the warranty company told me that I can find my own contractor and then submit the bill for reimbursement, but one of the agents I spoke to told me that the most I can get back is $1500 and all we can do is the repair, because in order to cover a replacement, we'd have to provide annual a/c unit service records.

The hell??  What a flipping scam.  So, I'm waiting to talk to the repair guy my property manager has been using, but I'm expecting this whole thing will end up running us close to $5000 with all the repairs, and we'll maybe get $1500 from the warranty company.  And then there's a good chance we won't even own the home in a couple of months.  ARGH.  We were supposed to close two weeks ago, THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE OUR PROBLEM.  And of course, it's on top of the thousands of dollars we just put into repairs after the inspection in order to get a clear CL-100 for closing.  Ha.  Hahaha.

Then, I bring our new/old car in for an oil change, and in very broken English, the service guy tries to get me to agree to some kind of repair that will cost between 3000-4000 Euro.  When I told Colby about it, he was highly skeptical, but neither one of us are exactly car experts either.  Between all of the costs we racked up doing repairs for the supposed closing of our house and now the a/c, I'm thinking we'll probably play chicken with the car repair for right now and hope for the best.  Then, in a couple of months, I'll take it somewhere else and see if they find anything.  Germans tend to have this concept that the Americans living over here are made of money, so I can't help but be a little suspicious of the fact that the garage may have been trying to take advantage.

Finally, and this is right now more "likely" rather than "definite", but we've discovered that there's a very good chance that Colby is going to have to be TDY for the month of October.  You may remember the little fact that I'm due on November 22.  With twins.  And statistically, 70% of twins are born before their due date and less than 40% make it past 37 weeks.  For me, 37 weeks is November 1st exactly.  I am trying really, really hard not to freak out about this.  Maybe he'll be able to get out of it.  Maybe I'll go past 37 weeks.  Maybe...

And to top it all off, at just 21 weeks, I've already started with Braxton-Hicks contractions.  It's happened three times over the past week, I'll just have this tightening feeling, and when I touch my stomach, it's rock hard.  It's painless, and they aren't consistent or frequent enough to be too concerning, but I'll definitely be bringing it up at my appointment next week.

So, basically, I'm thinking my best course of action for Friday the 13th is to bury myself under my blankets and attempt not to see the light of day.  Don't go near the phone, don't look at email, and when I emerge on Saturday, the world might be over, but as long as I don't step on my glasses I should be just fine for the rest of my life.

Twenty Weeks

Actually, 20 1/2 weeks now... but who's counting?
My stomach has well and truly popped--there's no doubt about the fact that I'm a pregosaurus rex.  I was at a barbecue for the 4th of July, and met a girl who's expecting a baby girl on November 7th, and I felt like an absolute whale next to her.  Not that I feel like I'm fat or have gained excessive amounts of weight or anything, it's just that my stomach was SO MUCH bigger than hers and she's two weeks ahead of me.  Oy.  I'm starting to understand just how massive I'm going to be by the end of this journey.

I'm still feeling pretty good--definitely sliding into the uncomfortable stage, however.  There's almost always something that hurts.  Nothing too excruciating or worrisome, but between the horrid charlie horses in my calves that I wake up with two or three times a week, the sciatica, round ligament pain, a baby doing the polka at pelvis level and another doing the lambada in my ribs, I'm regularly at at least a four on the pain scale.  I've had a number of days where I'll feel so crampy I can barely stand up straight, and we actually had to leave the barbecue on the 4th early because I couldn't even sit without feeling uncomfortable.  I'm sleeping fairly well at night, but the 1st trimester falling asleep ability is long gone and I'm back to tossing and turning for an hour before I finally doze off, which is not so easy now that it requires a lot more exertion just to roll from my back to my side!
But in news of the more awesome nature, the babies are making their presence known in much more exciting ways than just punching me in the hoochie cooch.  I've felt them moving for about two weeks now--I noticed it right after our 18 week appointment.  It started out feeling like I had tiny goldfish flopping around in my stomach, and now it's a much more noticeable poking or rubbing feeling.  Colby has been able to feel them a few times now, and I spend my evenings sitting on the couch staring at my stomach, watching them hop around.  It seems a little early to be able to see them move from the outside, but I expect since I've got two ahead of the growth curve babies crammed in there, it makes sense.
We're still having pretty circular conversations about names.  We've decided on one first name and two probable middle names, but our second little lady is still awaiting her christening.  I'm absolutely in love with one name that Colby is a little less in love with, but he hasn't come up with any other suggestions, and I think he's coming around to it the longer I give him to ponder.  I'm definitely the one who's feeling a lot more motivated to come up with names though, I think he'd put it off until they were standing in front of us with blank birth certificates at age 18.  I'm just so tired of thinking of them and calling them "Baby A" and "Baby B"--our girls need names!
So, here we are at the halfway point, and I'm still loving this whole pregnancy experience.  It's also starting to feel a lot more real as we make arrangements with our parents for when they're coming to visit and help out, plan our final vacations before I have to start taking it a lot more easy, and get around to unpacking all of those boxes that we stashed in the nursery to think about in a couple of months.  I just cannot believe that in 20 weeks or less we're going to have two little babies.

And maybe they'll even have names.

18 Week Ultrasound

After a highly disappointing experience with my 15 week ultrasound, I had braced myself for the one at 18 weeks to be just as much of a let down--little did I know, it was the big anatomy scan!  The anatomy scan is technically a thorough check of all of the baby's measurements and organ functions, but for the majority of pregnant woman it really means one thing: SEX REVEAL!
Of course, as we know from my previous post, we got the incredible news that I'm carrying two little ladies around in my ever expanding abdominal region.  We also had the joy of spending an hour and a half staring at the screen as the ultrasound tech measured the heart, the kidneys, the brain, all of the limbs, and we even got to see where the blood flows in and out of the heart with a pretty nifty color coded doppler.  It was absolutely amazing, and exactly what I needed after spending the previous appointment doing crunches just trying to catch a brief glimpse of baby.

The tech spent about 45 minutes on each girl, and took frillions of photos for her records, printing out almost 40 for us to take home.  We got detailed snapshots of little feet, hands, heads, arms, legs--my ultrasound photo album is now literally overflowing, and we've got two more of these big ultrasounds coming up over the next two months!
Baby A was on her best behavior for us once more, allowing lots of amazing shots of her little face and body, and even a pretty spectacular 3d photo of her face--especially considering how difficult it can be to get cute pictures this early in their development.  At 17 weeks and 6 days, she was measuring at 19 weeks and had a beautiful strong heartbeat of 148 bpm.  My bump has been growing pretty rapidly lately, and it thrills me to know that it means the girls are growing big and strong.

The most disconcerting discovery of the day was that Baby B is a terrifying demon.  It's a shame, but you can't argue with the photographic evidence provided on the bottom left... check out that menacing monster face to the left of her hand!

Baby B spent most of her time in the limelight hiding behind her hands.  It didn't make for the best pictures of her face, but it was still kind of adorable.  I guess she just doesn't want the big reveal until she actually enters the world--she's always been the shy one during ultrasounds!  She measured at 18 weeks and 6 days, so just a teeny bit smaller than her sister, and had a heartbeat of 143 bpm.

But, continuing with our streak of bizarre appointments at this hospital, when the ultrasound tech went to get our doctor, we discovered that she had been rushed to a room and was on IVs for fluid loss after becoming violently ill while watching our ultrasound from her office.  Sooooo, we didn't get to meet with a doctor.  However, our tech was extremely experienced with 20 years of ultrasounding under her belt, and she assured us off the record that everything looked great to her and we'd be meeting with the new high risk doctor at our next appointment on July 18th.

So, we've only got about 2 1/2 weeks to go before our next peek at our girls, and name discussions and negotiations are currently underway.  I can't believe we're almost halfway there!

Please Send Internet

So much to tell you about and I have no idea where to begin...  Let's see.

We're still without internet at our house.  We have determined that it's not a T-Mobile issue, and some of our friends who successfully set up their phone and internet through T-Mobile came over to try and set ours up and failed, so at this point, it seems like it's a house issue.  But our property managers are insisting that it's NOT a house issue.  They're coming over tomorrow to do the house inspection with us, so I plan on presenting them with our computer, telephones and modem, and not letting them leave until they've either got our system online or agreed that the landlords will pay the EIGHTY EURO service fee that T-Mobile will charge to come out and do it for us.

In the meantime, I'm still doing most of my internetting from the phone--pain in the ass--or at the Business Center when I come on base to run errands.  It is... less than ideal, but it keeps me from feeling entirely disconnected from the world.

We made the Incredible Journey to Ikea last weekend to get a crap ton of furniture and organizy type solutions, but it's still taking forever to unpack.  We've got all of the boxes, aside from our wall art unpacked, but it's reached the stage of unpacking where I feel like I'm just moving piles of stuff from one place to another place.  I try to remind myself of how horrifying it looked last Monday after the movers left, and reassure myself that we're getting there, but oh, how tired I am of piles of stuff and bare walls.  Once our loaner furniture is gone on the 9th, I think we'll feel a lot better about our space, but that seems sooooo far away.

Our 18 week OB appointment was awesome and came with the lovely surprise of finding out that our little Frankensteins have little lady parts.  Colby dealt with some initial disappointment which I fully understood, because I would have felt the same had we found out it was two boys, but I think he's really come around, and he talks about "his girls" all the time now.  I melt.  It also means that I can plunge full steam ahead in my nursery plans.  I had a theme in mind that was pretty gender neutral, but I now I can girly it up just a little and finally update our registry with items that aren't all yellow, green or white.  I have tons of pictures and updates to share with you from the appointment, but they'll have to wait until we get internet at home so I can get the photos from my computer to the World Wide Web.

I also still want to tell you all about Switzerland, but that involves photos.  And we went to a Medieval Festival at a local castle (we have a local castle!!), but again.  Photos.

I went to my first spouse social last week, and met some nice girls, but oh, it made me miss my friends.  Again, I just remind myself that it took time to bond with the other wives in Washington and Charleston, and I know I'll get to that place here as well, but it was definitely a different vibe than my amazing Charleston spouse group, and it made me feel a bit homesick for the first time.

So, I suppose the bottom line is that we're doing well, still loving Germany, still hating the moving process.  We're going to look back on this time fondly some day... right??

Everything Nice

16 Weeks

The time, it is flying.  Today I'm 16 weeks pregnant--and since I'll probably deliver at the latest around 38 weeks, that means we're just 3 weeks away from the halfway mark of this pregnancy.  It makes me pretty sad that there is a really good chance this is the only time I'll ever be pregnant, because I have really loved it.  I feel like I've missed out on the bad parts (namely, crippling nausea) and have had a really easy pregnancy so far.  It's sadly ironic that evidently my body was made to be pregnant, just not to get pregnant.
I have had a couple newer symptoms creeping into the rotation lately.  The most annoying of which is the almost constant sound of my blood pounding in my ears.  You know that sort of dull off-in-the-distance drumming noise you'll hear from time to time when you've exerted yourself?  Yeah, that's pretty much in my ears all the time and it is definitely a symptom I'd never heard of before.  It makes sense being that my baby book says that blood volume increases about 50% with just one baby.  I'm not sure if two babies means even more blood coursing through my system, but I would say there's enough to go around.

I've also been feeling faint a little more often.  I'll suddenly get really hot and clammy and a little nauseous, my head feels swimmy, and I need to sit down ASAP.  It's only happened two or three times in the past few weeks, so I'm just trying to make sure I'm eating and drinking enough and that there's always a place to perch nearby if necessary!  I also think my joints are already loosening up and my lower back gets pretty achy after walking for about 30-45 minutes.  It's not unbearable, but I think it's time to find some summer shoes with a little more support and cushioning than my constant rotation of ballet flats.
My belly button also looks about ready to give up on its long standing quest to be an innie.  It's dangerously close to being completely flush with my stomach, and the top part has already started popping out.  Colby is highly entertained by this scenario, and does belly button checks pretty much daily to see if I've popped yet.

He's also been pretty adorable about asking me if he can feel the babies kick yet.  Being that I haven't even felt the babies, I've explained that it'll probably be at least a few more weeks before he can, but that doesn't stop him putting his hands on my stomach and waiting intently to feel something.My 15 week appointment was pretty disappointing.  We spent about 30 minutes with a nurse, 20 minutes with a doctor, and 2 hours just waiting around to be seen.  The nurse was cute and bubbly, but didn't really teach us anything we didn't already know.  And the doctor was... ready to go home.  I get it.  He'd probably seen 20 babies that day and just isn't a warm and fuzzy guy, but I was ready to cry after the ultrasound.

I'm extremely happy that we DID at least get an ultrasound and heard the heartbeats, but he had the monitor facing away from me the whole time, and I had to sit up in a sort of half-crunch and crane my neck around to try and see anything.  Colby was behind the doctor, so he reported back that he could see their arms and that their spines and ribs had really developed, but sadly, no photos and no measurements to share with you.  The doctor spent more time going over all of the genetic testing we could have done than he did actually checking on our babies.

He also reviewed the labs that were run at my last OB appointment in the states, and evidently I'm anemic and RH negative.  For the anemia he added iron, vitamin C and Colace to my daily vitamin rotation (which already includes a prenatal, a calcium-magnesium-zinc combo three times a day that my last doctor prescribed, glucosamine-chondroitin for my achy joints, and a probiotic), and at my next appointment we're going to ask more questions about the RH negative factor.  Evidently that's only a big deal if either one of the babies is RH positive, so hopefully we'll know more soon.  I think I'll just have to get a Rhogam shot around 28 weeks if Colby is RH positive.  You can read more about the RH factor here if you're curious.
I have another appointment coming up on June 20th with the high risk OB, so I'm thinking she'll probably take a little more time with us, and hopefully it won't be such a bummer of a vist.  I don't know if I'll be considered high risk for the rest of the pregnancy or not.  I know that multiples can be higher risk, but no one has come out and said anything about me being high risk.  So.  We'll see.

The bottom line is that everyone is doing well and on track with where we should be, and we'll be getting another peek in just two more weeks!

11 Week Ultrasound

I was scrolling through my blog yesterday, reliving the past few weeks, when I realized that I never mentioned anything after my 11 week ultrasound.  Y'all, I am totally slacking on this Oversharing Mom bit that I've signed up for.  So, allow me to remedy the situation.

My 11 week appointment was my first one outside of the fertility clinic, and I was pretty anxious about how it would go.  I also really wanted Colby to be able to see the babies since it was the first appointment since he'd gotten home from Seattle, but I had heard that a lot of OBs only do the confirmation ultrasound and the anatomy scan at 20 weeks if you aren't doing the nuchal translucency test.

Cozied up in their bunk bed.

It turned out, I had absolutely nothing to worry about.  I did get a surprise Pap test which wasn't my favorite part of the day, but we also got an ultrasound--the longest one I'd had--and the babies had finally started to really look like humanish critters.  We got lots of great shots of Baby A since she was staying relatively still, just waving or adjusting here and there, but Baby B isn't as well represented as he was rocking and rolling the whole time and most of the shots are pretty blurry.

I think Baby A is going to be a thumb sucker--her hand was up by her mouth for almost the entire ultrasound!

Their heartbeats were still nice and strong and we got to hear them for the first time, which led to an embarrassing display of emotion on my part.  I wouldn't make a very good Vulcan.  Baby A's was 171 bpm and Baby B's was 174.  They were also still measuring a week ahead, which makes me very happy since I'd like them to be as big as possible when they make their grand entrance into the world--Baby A was 52.6 mm (just over 2 inches) and Baby B was 49.08 (1.9 inches).  They also confirmed that the babies are dizygotic twins which I was pretty sure of already, but my other doctor had never actually said out loud.  So that made me happy since they each have their own blood supply and aren't sharing nutrients, meaning there's a much better chance of a low-complication pregnancy and two healthy babies.

Pretty much the only good shot we got of Baby B.  He's a wild one!

It's now been three weeks since the appointment, and I'm already anxious to take a peek in there and make sure everything is okay.  I've definitely got the baby belly going on, but I still get nervous about the fact that I don't really feel pregnant and don't have many of the typical symptoms.  I'm still tired, and my back has been starting to bother me from time to time, but it'll be reassuring when I get to the point where I can feel them moving around.  I did get an appointment at the OB clinic on base for next Thursday, the 31st, and we'll be meeting with a nurse first, and then getting in to see a doctor immediately after.  So, it'll be a long appointment, but I've got my fingers crossed that we'll get an ultrasound to check in on our little Frankensteins.  I'm excited I was able to get in so quickly, and I hope the next week flies by!

Wrapping Up the First Trimester

So, who knew one of the trickiest parts of pregnancy would be figuring out exactly when the first trimester ends and the second begins?  Before getting pregnant, I heard a lot about 12 weeks, so I just figured that was the end of first tri.  Then, once I started reading up more on pregnancy, I heard conflicting reports about 13 and 14 weeks each being the beginning of the second trimester.  So, for my own purposes, I've pretty much decided that since I'll probably have a truncated pregnancy anyway, 13 weeks is probably close enough to the end of first tri for me to breathe a sigh of relief, but 14 weeks is just around the corner, so either way, I'm almost done with the first 1/3 of my pregnancy.

How did THAT happen??
The first few weeks of the pregnancy draaaaaagged horribly.  We were extremely nervous about whether the babies would stick around, and it wasn't until about 9 weeks that I started to rest easy and really get excited about being pregnant.  Since then, the past few weeks have blown by and I find myself staring in the mirror in complete and utter shock when I see myself from the side.
I was pretty bloated from the get go thanks to the lovely side effects of IVF meds, so I've felt pretty puffy in the abdominal region for three months now, but in the last week or so that bloat has definitely transitioned into full on baby bump, in no small part thanks to my two little Frankensteins consisitently measuring about a week ahead.

I've been incredibly lucky that I've managed to almost entirely avoid any morning sickness.  For the first couple of months, I'd get nauseous if I was hungry, and I had one or two days when I didn't feel top notch, but I've never experienced anything that I would compare to the awfulness that other women go through.  I'm counting my blessings on that one.

The only real symptoms I've had have been the debilitating exhaustion, some pretty rotten headaches, the afore-mentioned bloating, and erm, irregularity shall we say.  In the last week, the skin on my stomach has been itching something awful, probably the result of stretching to accomodate my little parasites.  Happily, also in the last week, the daily headaches have abated and I'm feeling a lot more energetic.  I still tire easily, a two or three mile walk wipes me out, but I don't need naps every day, and I'm sleeping a more regular 7 or 8 hours a night and feeling rested instead of needing 10-12 to function normally.

And perhaps most exciting of all, I'm finally getting my pregnancy boobs!  They're still nothing to write home about, but I am getting close to growing out of my bras and may just make it to a B cup before this whole thing is over.  I'll never give up hope...  Somewhat more frighteningly, my belly button is already becoming alarmingly shallow.  I'm not quite sure where I'm going to put these babies for the next 6 months.

The plan for the next week is to figure out where I'll be seeing a doctor and schedule a 15 or 16 week appointment.  We're hoping that by then maybe we'll be able to find out the sexes, though we probably won't announce until the 20 week appointment when things are more developed and certain.  It's been a very exciting few weeks, and I can't wait to get into a house and start setting up the nursery.  We got so many tiny little outfits and hats and mittens at our shower, but it's still so hard to believe that pretty soon we're going to have some tiny little babies to filling out those clothes!

Another New Home

After an INSANE week of packing, working, running last minute errands, spending time with friends, cleaning out our house, driving to Baltimore, dropping our car off at the port, spending 12 hours in an airport, and 7 hours in an airplane over the Atlantic... WE HAVE MADE IT!  No more countdowns, no more preparation... we live in Germany.

I still can't quite believe it.
Last week went pretty well.  At one point we had all three moving companies in our house, and it was hectic trying to direct them all toward the right piles and making sure the right things were leaving with the proper trucks.  The pups started to get a bit overwhelmed when the house started to empty out, but they found consolation when we ended up sleeping downstairs on an air mattress for our last few nights in the house.  They got the special treat of climbing on the bed and curling up with us--usually a huge no no in our house since I can't stand dog hair in my sheets!

Some of our good friends were kind enough to rescue us from our air mattress hell (I was waking up at least once an hour and completely stiff with pain every morning--I'm getting too old for this shit) and we stayed at their house on Saturday and Sunday night.  Saturday, a few of my amazingly wonderful friends hosted a beautiful going away/shower for us.  The theme was our "Journey to Parenthood", and they had peeked at my Pinterest to get an idea for decorations!  The house was decked out with banners and hearts made out of maps, the food was all based around the places that we have lived together over the years--apple pie for Washington, jambalaya for Louisiana, benne wafers for Charleston, Kaisespatzle for Germany, etc--and all of the colors were my front runners for the nursery, aqua, green and yellow.  It was so, so fantastic and we had a wonderful evening with our closest Charleston friends.
Monday, we woke up early, loaded up the car and took care of all our last minute to-do's, then hit the road toward Baltimore around 9:30 am.  We hit some DC traffic that delayed us about an hour, but we made it to our hotel around 7, then went out for a quick dinner.  We went to a really yummy sushi place, Sushi Q for all you Baltimore folk, and I got called out for being pregnant by a stranger for the first time ever.  Guess these babies are starting to make their presence known!
Tuesday was a very long day as we had to complete the intricate dance of dropping our car off at the port, picking up a rental car and reloading everything in the hotel back into the car, then getting to the airport, heading to a wonderful lunch with my very good blog (and real life now!) friend, Lynn and her adorable kids, dropping Colby and all of our stuff at the curb while I went back to drop the rental car off, shuttled back to the airport where we checked in... and then sat for 12 hours.  We checked in at 3:45 and were supposed to take off a bit before 10 pm, but there were mechanical issues and the plane didn't even arrive until 9:45, so we finally took off at midnight.
Although we couldn't talk our way into the first class seats--even playing the pregnant card!--the check-in agent got us some good seats on the top level of the 747, and I had more legroom than I've ever had in a non-bulkhead seat.  There was also a little shelf between my seat and the window where I could put drinks, books and other airplane paraphernalia and not feel squished against the wall.  We both slept for most of the flight and landed around 1:30 pm on Wednesday Germany time.  It took us a while to get our bags, and while Ellie seemed to endure the flight without too much trauma, Jack spent the flight trying to chew his way out of his airline crate.  He even managed to bend some of the metal on the door with the force of his chewing.  He must have been absolutely crazy with fear, poor little guy.  He chipped one of his canines, so we'll need to get him into a vet soon to make sure his teeth are okay.

Our friends picked us up at the terminal and brought us over to our temporary living facilities.  We're set up very nicely for the next few weeks until we can find a permanent housing solution.  We've got two bedrooms, a nice bathroom, a washer and dryer, a very big (for Germany!) kitchen with a dining area and a living room.  Colby spent today inprocessing and I slept in then got unpacked and did a little organizing.  When Colby got home from work we went for a long walk with the pups to enjoy the beautiful weather.

We've still got a long road ahead of us--we have to find a car to buy, a house to rent, set up cell phone service and all of our utilities, figure out a local banking plan, have our household goods delivered, unpack... it's overwhelming, but I'm so excited to be here, and I'm just hoping things start to fall into place soon.  Here we go!