RANT

A little rant that really has been a long way in the making… I am just now writing it down… but most of the being annoyed by these comments and questions started weeks ago and I have had enough, so now it’s time for a rant!

First off, I don’t want anyone to read this and think that I am a know it all… because I realize I know nothing about being a mom or having two babies… but that’s not what bothers me…

What annoys the crap out of me is peoples' questions, comments, and 2 cent duhs… chances are some of you reading this probably have commented on what I am talking about. The thing is if you were the only person to say something then I wouldn’t be annoyed, and be starting into a rant. The amount of times I have heard the below list is what makes them so annoying.

I will make a list. I have been asked/told the following 329,000 times since telling people I was pregnant.

                                                                                                                 

1.      Did you have fertility treatment to get twins? (people who know us ask this question!)

NO. My husband and I were married for two months when we got pregnant 100% naturally with our twins.

   

2.      Money saving tips. Uh, yes I get it! Having one baby is expensive; which makes two, extra expensive. And of course I am worried about giving both babies everything I want them to have. But right now your money saving tips go in one ear and out the other. It is hard to listen to people’s money saving tips when all you are thinking about is not throwing up your lunch on their face. To add to that, I grew up in a house that never had any extra money. I learned at a young age how to use coupons and how to bargain shop. I bought myself a bike from a layaway  program I enrolled in when I was 10 years old, had a job at 12 years old, bought my 1^st car at 16 years old, and bought my 1^st house at 25 years old… all without the help of my parents, or anyone for that matter. I think I know a thing or two about saving money and getting the things you need and want in life. And it’s not like using coupons to shop is some unique idea… so thanks for the annoying duh 2 cent tip.  

3.      Cloth diapers. AHHHHH. If one more freaking person tells me to use cloth diapers my head might spin around in circles like something off of the Exorcist!  Actually cloth diapers is something that I have done research on and have considered and may still use, but not until my twins are much older and are not using the "bathroom" every 5 seconds. Babies go through diapers all the time and in this case times two. Everything will be harder with two children, so I plan to use disposable diapers because washing diapers for two is not something I want to add to my to-do list. Plus my mom said she was giving me free childcare and she was not dealing with cloth diapers and I could afford to pay for disposable diapers. What I found out on my own… is that many companies offer free products and coupons to families of multiples. You send them a copy of your babies discharge papers  from the hospital and they will send you free stuff. Pampers is one place that will send free diapers.  In a personal economic class we learned about “resources”…  resources are things like, time, money, schedule, and energy. Since I will not have the time, schedule, or energy to deal with cloth diapers. I will use my money resource to buy disposable diapers.

4.      Consingment shops. Nothing against them what so ever. But people act like I have never heard of these places before. Yes for the 329,000 time I know that consignment shops exists and may use them as a place to save money in the future.

5.      Have you tried crackers? Ok. Yes I have tried crackers to stop from throwing up. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn’t. I am pregnant with twins so my morning… I mean all day sickness is a roller coaster. I have more hormone than a singleton pregnancy so what worked for you may not work for me.  

6.      Name suggestions. Ok, I get it, people do this all the time, but with twins I feel like people are also giving us corny twin name suggestions. And there is like a 0.0000001% chance I would actually name my twins any of the corny suggestions people give us. Sometimes people are being funny with the suggestions, and to me that’s ok, and it is funny. It’s when people are serious about the names… that’s when my hormones get wacky my blood pressure rises and I get extremely annoyed.

7.      One pregnancy and done. When people say that’s so awesome twins on the first pregnancy you’re done! People also say if you get one girl and one boy that’s prefect you’re done! Umm not really… I have no idea what the plan for more children is… I mean being pregnant is hard work and this is the easy part. But I do know that when people make these comments I get so freaking annoyed. I have no clue if there are more children in our future, but never thought and still don’t think I am one pregnancy and done. If we do decide to have more kids there will for sure be a nice age gap 4-5 years, especially since the chances that we will have twins again are high, and we are young enough to wait a few years to decide if we would like to continue growing our family. But we are the ones who will decide that. Thank you very much.  

You know I love all  of you! Just was time for a rant... and I tell you I feel much better already!

Xoxo,
Heather

Twins, Twins, Twins

Gender Reveal

Just found out today that we will find out the genders of the babies on January 30^th at 8:30am when we have our 1^st 4-D ultrasound with the multiples specialist! This was a huge surprise because at the last doctor’s appointment it seemed like I would have to wait until my 20 week visit to find out. So I will go to my regular doctor at 16 weeks and then at 17 weeks I will go to the specialist to find out the genders! We are planning a gender reveal party that evening, so if you would like to attend mark your calendars now!

What is a gender reveal party? It’s when you have cake (in our case a baby A and a baby B cake) and you cut into the cake and it’s either blue or pink for girl or boy. Now this will only work if I can keep my mouth shut about it until the party… which for me will be super hard! I am already so excited it will be a long month!

I can’t wait to know what they are and I am dying to know if my motherly instincts are correct! I knew they were twins before the ultrasound do I know their genders too?!?

Because it’s fun… what are your guesses?

OMG I look pregnant

So in the last three weeks I have really popped. I really wish I would have started with the belly picture taking right when I found out because I am not sure how this happened. I did take my first picture at 9 weeks 1 day and now at 12 weeks… holy moly I have a belly bump. We went to Target last night and someone talked to be about being pregnant which really means I look pregnant!

Twin Clothing

OMG so cute! There are so many websites that have “just for twins” clothing. Already obsessed! They have onesies that say: I am the planned one, I am the surprise, My twin did it, I am the favorite, yes we are twins stop staring! Too cute and too fun.

Am I still sick?

Uh yes.

Cravings?

Fruits and Vegetables! Yum, yum, yum. I think I can become a vegetarian.

Do I miss alcohol? Was it hard during the holidays?

Nope I haven’t missed it at all. Nor do I want it or really think about it. It wasn’t hard at all nor a big deal. And if you know me you know I love a happy hour and a beer here and there. But no part of me has wanted one or missed it at all.

12 week doctor visit

Today we had our 12 week check-up. I was nervous about it and then really nothing happened… ok something huge happened we heard their heartbeats! But I wanted to see them! They have doubled in size since the last ultrasound and I wanted to see them damnit! I was literally at the doctor’s office 10 minutes total and that was it, I had this huge build up about it and I was under the impression I was going to get to see my babies and then I didn’t get too L

I came in the office, I peed in a cup, they weight me, I have gained a pound since the last visit, which apparently is good from all the puking I have been doing they were worried about me losing weight. The doctor told me I can gain a HEALTHY 45-55 pounds, that really freaks me out, but I guess it is part of the whole process. While the scales say I have only gained a pound I am for sure showing in places. I have went up an entire cup size and am now wearing a 36D bra (this is crazy to me), and my baby bump is there. I will start taking pictures soon.

After, I peed in a cup, they weight me, and took my blood pressure and then the doctor came in. She said, “ok I am going to do a sonogram, we may not be able to hear them yet, and we may not be able to find both heartbeats, so we will see what happens, we may have to schedule an ultrasound.”  She put the gel on my tummy and began to roll the little ball across and instantly she said “there’s somebody.” And we heard thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. She rolled the ball over to the other side of my stomach and said “there’s another one.” And we heard thump, thump, thump, thump. A minute earlier she was just telling us she may not be able to hear anything because it is still early, and instantly she found two strong heart beats. Don’t get me wrong it was an amazing experience, but I wanted to see them!!!     

After the sonogram we talked to the doctor for a few minutes. I will go back at 16 weeks for an ultrasound yay I get to see the babies!! We may be able to find out the sex then! But will come back for another visit and ultrasound at 20 weeks and will for sure know the sex then. And then at 24 weeks we will start seeing Dr. Christmas (yes apparently that’s his name!) the multiplies doctor… and then we will start getting 4D ultrasounds!

A lot of excitement this holiday seasons! And a whole lot to be thankful for. God has truly blessed me.

Xoxo,

Heather

Being pregnant is like drinking 20 beers…

Because I do not remember having fun last night and I puke all day. Tuesday… was the worst sick day to date. I was puking all day from the moment I woke up. I am so glad I didn’t have to work because I don’t know what I would have done if I had to go to work. So anyways not too much to say other than I puked all day, it was different than the normal pukes I have been having. I drank water and threw it up, I just threw up everything all day. I kind of freaked out a little bit, thinking I would have to go to the emergency room to get IV fluids because I was worried about being dehydrated. I called my doctor and they told me to calm down and didn’t have to worry about fluids until the 48 hour mark. They did schedule me for a doctor visit to come in and check me out to make sure I was feeling ok.

 So on Wednesday morning I went in for the doctors to check me out. To date Wednesday was probably one of the best pregnancy days I have had. Funny how that works… terrible day followed by a pretty awesome day. So anyways went to the doctor on Wednesday my doctor wasn’t there so I saw someone else and really they didn’t do anything, they give me some meds… and that was it. It boggles my mind how they can literally do nothing for me and bill my insurance $525.00. Crazy!

                                                                                                                                     

12 Weeks today!

 I go to the doctor tomorrow for my 12 weeks check-up I am so excited but so nervous about everything! I want to see and hear two healthy heartbeats! And I am scared because I have been having such a hard time. I just want everything to be okay. Sometimes I worry all this sickness is my body trying to fight off the babies. Hopefully everything will be fine tomorrow. I want nothing more but to me a mommy to two healthy twins!

Sleep, Eat, Barf

That’s pretty much all I do. I am very happy to have work out of the equation for 2 weeks. Sleeping, well I am always sleeping or sleepy and then falling asleep, taking a nap, or out of breath and resting and then falling asleep. Going up and down the stairs in my house gets me totally winded. I am really scared for how bad it will be in the months to come. Apparently it is pretty common to feel winded so early in pregnancy with twins due to the increased hormone in the lungs.  

Eating is getting better, but most of the time it  is a complete chore. I rarely know what I want to eat. I don’t have any foods that make me sick, but just picking something that sounds good to eat is a challenge. One day I thought Mexican sounded good so Mike took me to a Mexican restaurant and once we got there I couldn’t eat anything, even the chips and salsa tasted gross. So I sat there and watched Mike eat.

My cravings so far have just been for fruits and vegetables. I have been buying fruit and vegetable trays from the grocery store and I will eat the whole thing with in a day or two. I guess it’s a good craving to have since it’s healthy, but you don’t really get full of fruits and vegetables… which makes picking out dinner and lunch meals hard.

I tell you eating for someone other than yourself is extremely weird and hard.

Barfing… I wish I could say it is getting better… and maybe it is because I am better at detecting and dealing with it now, but I will not say the frequency has lessened. Morning time is better; I barf less because I suck on gingersnaps, eat a bowl of cereal in bed and wait for the nausea to pass before getting up. But if for some reason I have to pee you can forget it! As soon as my feet hit the ground I am going to puke. I barf more now at random times. Before or after dinner, randomly at 2am, or if my body temp changes too quickly from hot to cold or cold to hot. For example I cannot shop at short pump mall being outside in the cold and then walking into a heated store = game over. Or taking a hot shower and getting out and having the cold air hit me= game over.

11 weeks today!

11 weeks today! My next doctor’s appointment is Dec 23rd, I will be 12 weeks.  

 How are my babies growing right now?

(Below information is taken from babycenter.com)

 They are just over 1 1/2 inches long and about the size of a fig, is now almost fully formed. Their hands will soon open and close into fists, tiny tooth buds are beginning to appear under their gums, and some of their bones are beginning to harden. They're already busy kicking and stretching, and their tiny movements are so effortless they look like water ballet. These movements will become more frequent as their body grows and becomes more developed and functional. 

How is a twin pregnancy different than a singleton? 

Well since I am carrying more than one baby I am automatically considered a high risk pregnancy. Three lives have to share one body and that puts a lot of demands on the body and the babies– which increases all complications and risks.  I will have to see a specialist throughout the pregnancy and at 24 weeks I will go in for checkups every two weeks. I will not go a full 40 weeks, 38 weeks maximum.

At this time I know very little about the actual birth plan, we will have to wait and see how the babies and I do. But the chances of me having to get a C-section are much greater. I am not too fond of the idea of a C-section; to me it is not natural. Our bodies were (in normal cases) built to have babies, not to have our stomach and uterus cut open! Ah…

 I have been doing a lot of reading about the birthing process of twins… and sometimes with a vaginal birth, baby A is delivered fine, but then baby B won’t come out quick enough, and then they have to do an emergency C-section to deliver baby B. So if there is ANY chance of that… I’ll just do the C-section. I do not want to be stitched in two places. No thank you. 

A singleton baby has an average birth weight of 7.5lbs while twin babies have an average birth weight of 5.5lbs. There’s only so much room our body can give the babies – they will be little guys!

My vitamins completely overwhelm me. I went from taking zero pills a day for my whole life. To having to take 7 pills a day. I start the morning off with my hormone, and then take my prenatals (6 total) after dinner. I have to take the normal dose of prenatals plus extra folic acid and a calcium complex. Just thinking about taking them and I get sick. They are hard to swallow and, well, it’s just challenging for me! 

       

 Who is my doctor? Where will my babies be born?

My doctor is Lea Mahoney of West End OBGYN. She is great and I really like her. I am not sure yet if she will be there when the babies are born – since I have to see a specialist. At this time I do not know who the specialist will be, it will be set up by West End OBGYN, and I’ll update this information later.  The babies will be born at Henrico Doctors Forest, the same place I was born!!!

  Will I work or stay at home?

 Right now saying this is easy for me… I will work! I love my job so much and feel blessed every day when I get to spend my day with such amazing youth. I know I will love my babies more and it will be hard to leave them, but I am leaving them in good hands. bringing home some bacon and providing my family with some really good health insurance.

Who will watch the babies while I am at work? 

My mommy of course! She is very excited about this task and I am so blessed to have her be so willing to be nanny granny. No doubt in my mind she will be the best grandma ever! If I did not like my job or if I had to put my kids in daycare then I would stay home with the babies. But I really think working and having nanny granny is an amazingly awesome situation and will be the best scenario for my family. 

When will I update?

More later… I plan to update pretty regularly. I do not know if I can commit to a daily posting but will try to stay as regular as possible and will definitely post as random things come up and as I have doctor appointments! Check back regularly and let me know if you have any questions about what’s going on with me… oh and leave me a post so I know who is reading! Bloggin will be no fun if it feels like no one is reading!

Xoxo,

Heather

How did we take the news… that we are having twins?

As I said earlier it wasn’t a complete surprise to Mike and I that we were having twins because we had a feeling and talked about the what ifs of twins many times.

So we go in to the ultrasound and first off.... I need to vent about this for a moment! It is NOT like you see in the movies or on TV it’s not done on the stomach for the first ultrasound at 8 weeks. It is done vaginally. With a huge dildo looking thing that has a camera on the end of it. I would have had a heart attack about it, but thankfully Carrie who is 4 weeks ahead of me in pregnancy warned me.  When she first told me I thought she was joking with me. WHY DOESN’T ANYONE TELL YOU THIS? You should be prepared for this…it’s kind of a big deal (pun intended). So I am letting all you guys who have never been through it know now!

So anyways… as the ultrasound tech puts the screen up and says “do you see anything?” and I said “ummm... yes.... I see two things” and she said “yup so far there’s two, now lift up your buttocks and let’s make sure there is nothing else in there!”  The next few moments seemed to take forever… and I thought to myself “OMG what if there is more in there? What will I do?”  Thankfully there is just Baby A and Baby B.

Both Baby A and Baby B measured right on track and had heartbeats on 154. I am due July 12, 2012. That is exactly 40 weeks. However, since I am pregnant with twins I will not go the entire 40 weeks. Doctor said most twins are born between 34-38 weeks. If I am still pregnant on June 28th (38 weeks) my doctor will induce me. She said “these babies will not be born in July!”  My response to her was “Oh no I really wanted a ruby ring!”

Ruby is the birthstone of July. I told Mike that I wanted to have three children…one in May (Emerald), July (Ruby), and September (Sapphire) because I liked each of the birthstones. Funny I know, but I was serious. I guess you can’t plan babies around gemstones.

So anyways… how did we respond when we found out we were having twins? It was nice to have our feelings confirmed by the ultrasound but it caused reality to set in. Of course twins sounds like fun but they also sound like a lot of work and a lot of money… which brings up a lot of overwhelming feelings.

So as Mike and I left the doctor’s office we stood in the parking lot and we both vomited. People were walking by looking at us like WTF… if I could have I would have yelled “we just found out we are having twins!”

How sick are you?

There goes my dinner!  I just threw up my whole dinner again… this is the third night in a row. What is going on?!? I had my fair share of sickness this morning and now again tonight.  It is true that when I actually am lucky enough to throw up (and not just feel like I am going to for 12 hours) I do feel relief for a while after, and it does score me more sympathy points then just saying I feel bad because puking is the proof that I really do feel bad! 

Whatever the case, this is getting really old. I am 11 weeks tomorrow… so almost at the end of the first trimester; I really hope up it lightens up. That’s what I have heard but I am trying not to get my hopes up because I really haven’t done too many things “typical” so far in this pregnancy!

Fraternal or Identical?

Fraternal or Identical? 

 My doctor told me mine are most likely fraternal because there are two sacs. She said 70% of the time if there are two sacs then they are fraternal, but we will not know for sure if they are fraternal or identical until they are born... or if one is a girl and one is a boy then of course they are fraternal. I am pretty sure they are fraternal because that's what “runs” in my family… there’s one set on my mom’s side and one set on my dad’s side. My doctor also said identical twins are usually in the same sac, but with identical twins it all depends on when the zygote (the egg) divides into two. If it divides later then you get two sacs.

If it divides early on then you get twins in the same sac!

Apparently Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen are fraternal… who believes that?!?

Oh how my life has changed...

I wanted to start this blog a while ago... but hey I have a lot going on!

On Halloween Mike and I found out I was pregnant! We weren’t expecting it to happen so soon or so fast but it did! We couldn’t be happier about being young parents. When we found out we told our parents and that was it. We weren’t going to tell anyone until the end of the first trimester, aka the “safe zone” but when we found out it was twins… well that was a total game changer.

 On November 28^th at 8 weeks, I had my first ultrasound where we found out it was twins! Surprise! Except for not really… see Mike and I “knew” it was twins.

Mike and I both had a feeling we were having twins. When we told my dad I was pregnant, he looked at me with a serious face and tone and said, "well Heather, you know you are going to have twins" and at that moment I was like OMG what if is twins.... a couple of weeks went by and I just had a feeling that it was twins. Mike and I had many conversations about the "fact" that we were having twins. The day before the first ultrasound we had dinner with Mike's parents and we told them it was twins. And they were like "what, how do you know?" and we said, "we just know!"

The morning of my first ultrasound (as we were going  to the Dr. office we said to each other "today we find out if we are really having twins."

We had the ultrasound... AND WE ARE HAVING TWINS!!!

When we found out we were having twins, we couldn't keep it secret, so we spilled the beans early.

Shortly after my 1st ultrasound, the doctor called me and told me I have thyroid disease. Which makes everything EVEN harder…twins and thyroid disease. I have a hypothyroid, which means I do not make enough thyroid for myself, so I do not make enough thyroid for myself and two babies! It makes me tired...so hypothyroid plus first trimester with twins = no energy what-so-ever… I fall asleep all the time.  

I have to take a hormone every morning on an empty stomach with 8 ounces of water. This equals mission impossible. Because I am sick in the morning!

Actually I am sick all the time. I am constantly nauseous, and I throw up most days. But at least when I do throw up I feel relief for a little while-- with the nausea it’s like all I want to do is throw up and I don’t! GRRR

I have to keep plastic bags and towels in the car with me just in case I have to vomit. Last night… that towel got used. I barfed up my whole dinner… blah.

When I got home I felt so sick so I laid on the sofa and fell asleep around 6:30… I woke up at 10pm and went to bed… and did not get up until 7am. I am a tired woman.