Friday, June 28, 2013

Twin Pregnancy, The First Half

Since Bridget was born at 38 weeks and most twin pregnancies end at about that point, I'm mentally preparing to have these babies somewhere in the beginning of November. (I'm also trying not to get too attached to any "due date"; my Type A personality combined with a sure-to-be-uncomfortable end of pregnancy might cause me to implode if I actually end up going past my mental end-point.)

That means that on Monday, I'll be somewhere around halfway through the pregnancy...probably. I want to recap it here for both sentimental (last pregnancy!) and scientific (twins!) reasons, so it may not be my most captivating blog post ever.

Weeks 1-4, I didn't know I was pregnant and felt normal.

Weeks 5-6, I took a pregnancy test that turned extremely positive extremely quickly (before the control line even showed up, the test line was maroon--I'd never seen that before but figured I was just further along than I'd suspected). I then promptly started feeling nauseous, which had also never happened so early on, but I resigned myself to the idea that this pregnancy was going to be sicker than the ones before.

Weeks 7-12, I knew I was having twins and decided immediately that if this nausea was a symptom of the double-hormones inside me, I needed a fix. No way was I suffering through that for another week, let alone months! I started to research anti-nausea drugs like Zofran and found that there had been a drug on the market for decades called Bendectin (click on the link to read about its strange history)--and it had recently been approved by the FDA after having been discontinued years ago for unsubstantiated reasons. Although it wasn't yet back on pharmacy shelves (supposedly it is now), I found many websites advising pregnant women on how to safely try this anti-nausea medication, and this one was my hero. I followed the B6 and Unisom guidelines five or six weeks. Although the Unisom made me even more useless at night than I had been with regular pregnancy fatigue, it was worth it not to feel like I was fighting off nausea all day long. I also plumped up in the torso steadily in these weeks and had to prop my belly up a bit at night while lying on my side so the muscles didn't feel pulled in the morning.

Weeks 13-19 (now), I'm feeling so much better. I'm only taking the Unisom part of the drug regimen, since it doesn't wipe me out as much here in the second trimester but it does still stave off a late-afternoon wave of ickiness (or at least it did a week or two ago when I tried to go without it). I'm energetic enough to work out every day, and while I'm definitively pregnant-looking, I feel like things have moved around and settled more than they've grown in the last couple of weeks. Working out (I do this video that I did while pregnant with Finn, a prenatal yoga sequence, and long walks when it's not dismal out like it is today) has strengthened my core enough while my belly expands so that I actually went from using my body pillow to not really needing it anymore. I'm sure it'll be back in bed with me again during this gestation--I'm not that naive--but it's nice to feel pretty close to normal for a length of time!
Fourteen weeks with the twins

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Blissed Out

What a morning. We found out that we're adding both a baby boy and a baby girl to our family, which is just perfect for so many reasons. If I was "only" having one more baby as I'd assumed, I definitely would have felt some kind of deflation at the ultrasound reveal. As happy as I would have been to have a baby girl/sister for Bridget or another little boy to love, I would have mourned the loss of the other possibility. The same would be true of two boys or two girls. I feel so lucky that I'm able to enjoy my last pregnancy knowing that I get to experience the birth of each one more time--it feels like a miracle and like winning the lottery and a thousand other unbelievable, knock-your-socks-off moments I never thought I'd experience.

Here they are (they're actually nestled side-by-side, but this picture at 18w2d makes them look like they're in very snuggly bunk beds):


Baby A is the boy on the bottom; Baby B is the girl on the top bunk. They were very interactive (with each other!) for the hour-long ultrasound, and active to boot. It was Dave's first "live show" in four years, since Finn's anatomy scan in 2009, and he kept asking if there was this much detail last time. (There was.)

They both look healthy as can be, and I've been feeling so good for the last few weeks that this whole thing feels impossibly joyful.

And shortly after the appointment ended, Dave texted me that the Supreme Court had struck down DOMA and I started to cry while waiting for my egg and cheese bagel while a bunch of college kids crowded the counter, and I was too happy to be embarrassed. There's no such thing as too much good news in a day, right?

Also, we told the boys and Finn seems particularly glad that he gets to have a little brother as well as be a little brother. Will likes that he's going to have two little brothers and two little sisters, "just like Nan!" And Bridget...she just keeps saying "Beh-by. Beh-by." I think she's referring to herself, as well she should be! In fact, she gets to be the boys' baby and the twins' leader, the oldest girl in the family but the beloved princess of her older brothers. I'm rambling now, but I can't help it--everyone in our family is lucky to have these babies, these specific two babies, on their way.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Junebugs

Bridget's first ice cream cone 
Celebrating summer with BFFs at Needham Junction
Ready for action!


Finn's first soccer season ended (he loved the sport AND the medal!)

Movie night!

Will's last day of preschool

Saying goodbye (for now) to great friends

Crazy fun playdate with old friend Ryan
We went off to Storyland for the second year in a row

First conscious Ferris wheel ride!

To jazz up the ride, Finn told me that every time we reached the top a tiger would come out of the air to eat us...

Humpty Dumpty and the boys

Passed out in a very strange (but snuggly!) position

Back home to chalk up the driveway

Wanting to be a preschooler like her brothers

We're trying to make sure our second and last summer as a family of five is as full and fun as humanly possible (while I cart around a big belly in 90-degree heat). So far, so good!




Thursday, June 20, 2013

Welcoming Samuel Murray!


Leah and Johnny had their baby boy and he is a beauty! Look at that peaceful face...just gorgeous. Congratulations to the three of you, and I can't wait to snuggle little Sammy!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Twins! AND the Fourth and Final "Boy or Girl" Poll!

The twins at 6.5 weeks gestation, the day I found out about them in a routine dating ultrasound while Bridget struggled to get out of her stroller and I sat up in shock when two side-by-side sacs appeared on the screen.

Taking shrimpier shapes at almost nine weeks...

Snuggling at twelve weeks!
At the most recent ultrasound (16 weeks along), they were stacked vertically. Baby A (the bottom one) was doing actual somersaults, kicking and jostling Baby B (on the top bunk)--who slept coolly through the entire gymnastics performance. I wonder whether that small glimpse of their personalities will hold true on the outside?

We were stunned, thrilled, overwhelmed, incredulous, and we continue to cycle through all those emotions on a more muted scale as we wrap our brains (and belly) around these babies. 

The anatomy scan will happen at the end of next week, so I'm putting up my last ever (and most elaborate) "Boy or Girl?" poll on the blog so friends and family can vote on these fourth and fifth additions to the clan. And for the record, I have no intuition about the sexes of the babies whatsoever, so you're on your own!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

A Typical Conversation with Each Boy

With Will:

"Hey, Mom? You know how there used to be a wart on my hand over here? Well, you can still kinda see it, but mostly you can't. That's because it's camouflaged into the color of my hand."

"Uh...yeah, buddy, you're right."

"Mom, I'm going to tell you a joke. Ready? Okay: people lived a long time ago with dinosaurs. [Pauses, grins] I'm just kidding! They did NOT exist at the same time."

With Finn:

"Mom! This is a shark when it was a baby. And this is a mommy cat when she was a baby. When was Dad a baby?"

"The 1970s."

"Okay. [Sketches something with his crayons] I'm drawing Dad as a baby. When were you a baby?"

"The 1980s."

"Okay, this is you as a baby. When was Grandpop a baby?" [repeat ad infinitum]

Or:

Bridget: Ba-pa? Ba-pa? [pointing at Finn's backpack]

Finn: [in singsong voice to her] Gen-ius, gen-ius, you're a-a gen-ius!

And also:

Me: Are you getting dressed over there, Finny?

F: I'm just having a meeting...with my UNDERWEAR! Ahahahahahahahaha!

Friday, June 14, 2013

Bridget at 15 Months (and a little catch-up, too)

Are you ready to be bombarded by cuteness? Fifteen months is always my "Oh, wait, now I've fallen totally in love with you!" milestone. Do I have to reassure you that I love my babies prior to that point? No, you already know that. But fifteen months is when I fall IN LOVE, and it happened like clockwork again as Bridget's personality simply exploded and all her idiosyncrasies became intensely clear.

Here she is at thirteen, then fourteen, and now fifteen months:








Fourteen months, when she decided she was a climber and a daredevil, and when her hair became un-tameable:


We had to dismantle the music table because she climbed up and jumped off, bonking her head in the process.




Three crazy kids


The beginning of Bridget saying "Cheeeeeese" out loud when we turn a camera her way...a Noon for sure!













And these days, she's blossomed into our chatty chicky:






First pair of sneaks!
Her words to date include: Thank you, please (eeeeeze!--also means "more"), yummy-ummy, tickle-tickle, backpack (ba-pa), shoooooes, diaper, yessss (often a nod of the head without words), duh for done, this, cracker...and some others I'll think of as soon as I publish this post.

Next I have to get around to writing Bridget's birth story before she reaches the year and a half mark! And I will.