24 Weeks and Star Spangled Babies Shower

24 Weeks is always an exciting time--24 weeks is considered Viability! Viability, meaning that's about the earliest a doctor would try to save a baby if you were to give birth, or that the baby would be able to survive. 28 weeks is actually better in terms of baby's prognosis but 24 weeks is a good milestone to reach.

24 Weeks--Cantaloupes!

The babies may weight about 1 and 1/3 lb, and be about a foot long. Their movement is amazing! That has always been my favourite part of pregnancy, but it's even more mind blowing now when I feel one kick, and then the other kick back, and the squirming and the somersaulting! I love to try to picture them "playing" with each other. At the last scan one of the twins was head down and one was breech. The U/S Tech also changed her mind about which twin was A and which was B. At our 20 week scan, Dani was A, and on my right; Dean was B, and on my left. At our 14 week scan Dean was A, on my right, and Dani was B, on my left. At the quick heartbeat check at my 23 week visit, they were back to the 14 week position. Who knows what they will be next time! I guess I'll find out tomorrow--I have another growth scan! (I have a growth ultrasound every four weeks, and a checkup every two.)

The above picture kind of gives you a better idea than a cantaloupe as to their size. I really don't feel as though there are two babies that size in there. I actually feel like I don't really look pregnant at all to people who don't know it's not just fat, but I guess I do since I've been getting a lot of "when are you due?!" questions. And then I walk past a mirror and I'm like, nope, that doesn't look like pudge!

It seems like everywhere I go people ask me how I feel and I'm not always sure what to say. I feel fine, but I think people expect me not to! Honestly, I seem to kind of go in waves. Last week I think we maybe had a growth spurt, and my belly hurt and I was tired. This week I have a little more energy, and about a two page to do list. Overall? I really couldn't complain at all. I'm having twins. I'm going to be uncomfortable, and as the weeks pass I'm going to get even more uncomfortable! I think I'll save the complaining for when I really need sympathy, and continue to say I feel great for now. 

Whoa. There's a difference!

At 23 weeks the babies were supposedly the size of grapefruit. Grapefruit to Cantaloupe seems like a big size jump, but I supposed they are going to be putting on a lot of weight now. The big happening of week 23 was I completely forgot to go to the endocrinologist. Oops! Rescheduled, but it's a month away.

23 Weeks--Grapefruit

I don't have a size comparison picture for 22 weeks, because the fruit was supposed to be papaya and the only time I ever bought one of those in the US I nearly barfed trying to eat it. It was not the papaya of my childhood! Suffice to say, I wasn't about to waste money buying two of them.

STAR SPANGLED BABIES 

I was very blessed in early June to be a part of a baby shower, Star Spangled Babies, hosted by Operation Homefront. Sign ups were online and filled up within about two hours, so I must've gotten in in the nick of time! There there were around 125 ladies there, either due soon or with teeny tiny newborns. Once we signed in we filed through a front room of pregnancy and mother related services booths--babywearing, nursing, doula, formula, WIC, and a couple of others that I can't remember. They also had an area set up where a local photographer took a maternity portrait of each of us (which reminds me, I never got my link to get mine! Hmmm.) She wasn't allowed to give out her name or info, but I figured out later in the afternoon that she was a photographer Nathan had told me about months and months ago--who happens to be the wife of his chief! We had quite a nice conversation near the candy bar. 

Photography was done by Sassy Snapz

Eventually we went through a buffet for a delicious lunch, played some fun games, filed through the candy bar (I shouldn't have spent so much time talking to the photographer--all that was left by the time I got there were two Dove chocolates! Which were delicious, by the way), and got started on the raffle!

Candy Bar

The big ticket items (things like swings or pack n plays) were given away by raffle. I would guess maybe 25 women won. Then we had a speaker, and were released to another room to receive our shower gifts--a 31 diaper bag filled with baby gifts, and a second gift bag full of "essentials". Twin mommies got double, since they had a few extra things. The biggest surprise was that we were each taking home a brand new Evenflo car seat!! I nearly cried, what a great gift! It was fun to get together with other ladies and shower our babies.

Super cute decorations!

 Oh, and I nearly forgot, I made it into the news spot! My two seconds of fame. Literally, I'm at 22 and 23 seconds--polka dot shirt and curly hair. Check it out here if you want to see.

Here are a pictures of some of the goodies I brought home. Thanks so much, Operation Homefront!

Two diaper bags and two gift bags

Two new car seats for when the babies are a little older

Closeup of the boy set--they didn't have girl left so I got boy and gender neutral.

Some of the loot from the bags

Two handmade baby quilts.

And there you have it folks, you're caught up!

22 Weeks {Belated}

Very belated, since I'm 23 weeks today! Haha.

I just wanted to note that on my 22 weeks email I was told that the baby is estimated to be 1 lb now. All of her eggs and ovaries are formed as well.

Isn't that a neat thought? She has all the eggs she will be born with! That means that not only am I carrying my daughter but I am also carrying my grandchildren. Just as my mom carried me, as well as Shane and Azaria. And my grandmother carried not only my mom and aunt, but my siblings and two cousins. How cool is that!

I also wanted to share this picture. I'm not sure how many weeks this fetus is but I learned in Anatomy and Physiology this past semester about how our bones actually begin as cartilage and then ossify. I found this neat picture of it happening! The purple is bone, and the pink is still cartilage. This is also a good way to visualize the bones of the skull that form into a cone as baby is born.

Happy Birthday honey!

Yesterday was Nathan’s 24th birthday. Happy birthday honey! Now we’re the same age again. I made him a spice cake at his request and his mom brought over some B.lue B.ell, which is his favorite kind of ice cream. Melissa and Thomas and Mom and Dad Vines came over to have cake with us. Piglet was doing a happy birthday dance for his Daddy, but his Daddy was busy and didn’t get to feel. I think those were some of the strongest kicks I have felt yet--guess Piglet likes B.lue B.ell ice cream too! Nathan even got all of his candles out on the first blow! Good thing, too—with a pregnant wife I don’t think he could afford extra girlfriends.

A fellow blogger was talking about Braxton Hicks and it made me realize I never posted about having them. I got my first one right around 17 weeks after we got back from Ohio, when we were at S.onic. Since then they’ve gotten more frequent as I’ve gotten further along, but most of the time I don’t even notice them anymore. I forgot to tell Dr. H about them at my last visit so I will have to try to remember this next time. I never can remember anything I want to tell/ask him. He really liked my Christmas cookies though! I told him I’d bring the nurses brownies when I went into labor. Butter them up so they’ll be extra nice to me. He laughed and said that he was sure the nurses would appreciate it.

And speaking of labor, I got a lot of laughs out of this lady’s blog. I wish she would keep posting but I haven’t seen anything in a while. It’s at itsababynotbrainsurgery.blogspot.com/

Not sure how I got from Nathan’s birthday to labor and delivery, but between the missionary and the pregnant brain I’m about to be certified in rabbit trails…

Thanks to all of you for your comment on my last post. I really appreciate the encouragement.

22 weeks, 3 days

20 weeks

22 weeks

I feel like I’ve grown a lot in the past two weeks. Actually, I feel like I grow every single day. Which is probably true.

I had a very nice weekend. On Saturday I made my baby registry at Target, and went to a baby shower for a girl at church. Then we went to Nathan’s cousin’s birthday party. On Sunday after church Melissa (who has moved back up here) and I went to do my registry at Babies R Us. Man do I ever understand why people spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on their little babies. Stuff is just SO precious and of course as soon as you walk in they give you a list of things you “have” to have for a baby. But we had a lot of fun registering. Afterwards Melissa took me out to lunch at P.ei W.ei. I’ve never been there before but man am I hooked now! I had their Pad Thai—it was excellent! We met up with Nathan and Thomas back at our house and Melissa baked chocolate chip cookies. How sweet is that?!

Yesterday my mom got laid off. She loved the people she worked with and they love here and it was a really ideal job for her so she is understandably upset. Please pray for her and dad as they have big decisions to make now. And if you throw in an extra prayer for them to move down to Texas, I wouldn’t mind that. I was also told yesterday that I am either not needed or my hours are being cut. Yesterday I was told I would get 20 hours a week, but today I’m not sure. I have to talk to my supervisor still. And Nathan is in his off season and has only had a few hours of work in the past two months. So pray for all of us!