I Should Be Folding Laundry

Wordless Wednesday

That Spongebob is so funny.

For more Wordless Wednesdays, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

Random thoughts, scary drawings and an extra large belly shot

This past Saturday I had the privilege of having dinner with four other fine bloggers.  Carrington from Capri by the Lake, Jen from Mommy Instincts, Lynette from A Day in the Life of the Ordinary and Crooked Eyebrow.  The food was fantastic, the service was divine and the company was awesome. 

One of the highlights was being able to snap pictures of Carrington's scrumptious daughter.  In this picture she is being held by Crooked Eyebrow who apparently is also known as the The Baby Whisperer.  It's good for me to have this information, no doubt about it.  Hopefully she has this talent with a child in each arm, say this June or July.  Maybe she'll even have to move in with me for awhile.  Or forever. 

I decided to take President's Day off from, well, everything.  The kids and I literally spent the entire day at my Mom's house with my sister and her two kids.  Ariel and Racecar enjoyed a ten hour play date, without a nap, so by the end of the day, once we got home, I was VERY READY to put them to bed.  Quickly.  Without delay.  Interestingly enough, they did not seem to have a problem with that decision.

While there, my sister, Amy, who is the "artist" of the family and who also has quite the sense of humor, decided to draw random pictures throughout the day.  Here is one she drew of me after I became a little upset about something:

I'm not sure what I was upset about, but I must have been very angry.

One thing I accomplished at my Mom's was sitting around.  A LOT.  In a very hard wooden chair, which absolutely killed my butt, I was literally in pain.  Amy documented one of my most shining moments of the day:

In case you are wondering, no one would massage my butt.

and then she drew a picture of the twins.  Wearing bathrobes.  The one on the right apparently has a dislocated right shoulder and a club foot, and do I even need to mention their eyes?  I do have to say, that as scary as these pictures are, she did a pretty good job of making them identical.  By the way, if you are interested in having a portrait done of yourself or of your children, please e-mail me and I can check my sister's availability.

And here is my belly at 18 weeks, 1 day.  Holy belly, batman. 

Here is a comparison shot of my belly at 15w, 5 days, just about 2 and a half weeks ago.

At this rate, by the time I'm 30 weeks, I'll be the size of a...I don't even want to think about it.

Where's my motherhood crown?

Brian has been gone for almost 22 hours and he'll be back in almost 86 hours. 

Not that I'm counting down or anything.  But it is hard work being the only butt wiper in the family and the person who takes them potty in the middle of the night.  We also had an unfortunate incident with a monster in Racecar's room at 3 a.m., he was not happy and I was not happy.  I think my angered face scared the monster away.  He never came back again.

Then, my darling children woke up at 7:19 a.m. on a day with no school.  I will be punishing them severely by allowing them to watch ridiculous amounts of TV and allowing copious amounts of Wii and computer time just to stay out of my very frizzy, pony tailed hair.  I'm stern like that. 

So, we have a day of nothing today and I'm not too happy about that.  I'd like to take a shower, and I will, I'd like to go to the store to get some fresh produce, and I won't, I'd like to go to the Old Navy and Gap outlet stores to see if they have maternity clothes, but I won't because, hello????  15 degrees and dropping rapidly.  It would be awesome if outlet malls could have domes for the winter.  I would be all over that.

Well, the children have found me crouched in the closet trying to blog, so I guess I better feed them some breakfast and do some laundry.  We are moments away from not having enough underwear and it's much too cold for that.

Bloggy Meet Up - this Saturday

This Saturday, at 5:30, we are having a bloggy meet up at an undisclosed location.  (we like to feel like James Bond whenever possible.)

If you are interested in attending and you live in the NW Indiana/Chicago vicinity, just send me an e-mail (folding laundry AT gmail DOT com) and I'll give you the very private, secure, secret location.

Here's a list of bloggers attending, so far:

A day in the life of the ordinary
Adventures in Babywearing
Capri by the Lake
Chased by Children
Crooked Eyebrow
Flip Flop Momma
Milk and Honey
Mimi's Toes
New Mama's Nest
To Think is to Create

and me, too.

There's always guilt

This summer, our family will be growing by two boys.  This summer, we will have three boys and one girl, and although I am so incredibly excited about these additions, I am also feeling sadness and a little guilt.

Because Ariel will never have a sister. 

On Christmas day, when I was ten weeks along, we finally told Ariel and Racecar that I was pregnant and that there were two babies in Mommy's belly.   The news did not really affect them too much, Ariel told me that there were NOT two babies in my belly, that there was only food in my belly.  Which, quite honestly, was true, too.  But after a few days, she came around and would announce to everyone that I am having a girl baby and a boy baby.  She felt very strongly about this.

When we would talk to her and tell her that the babies could quite possibly be two girls or two boys (which, by the way, it was always my gut feeling that we were going to have two boys), she would reply very sweetly with "two girls would be great, too, but NOT two boys."  She'd smile and be on her merry way.

Her feelings have remained consistent for the past seven weeks.  So, this weekend, just a day away from finding out the sexes of the twins, I had a nice little chat with her about the very real chance that these babies could be boys, but that just meant that she and I would be The Girls in the family, we could shop and paint our nails together and that we would always be very close.  And I have to say, she seemed pretty excited about that idea.

Then when the tech told Brian and I that we were having two boys, we both looked at each other and we were thinking the same thing. "what the hell is Ariel going to say?"

When we told them the news, we were in the car, I turned to tell her the very exciting news and she was so excited, she exclaimed that "now you and me will be twins and best friends forever!!!!!"  We laughed (with tears of relief in our eyes!) and said "yes!" and "can you believe we are going to have three boys in the family!?"  Not believing it ourselves.  I turned back to the front of the car and felt happiness that she took the news so wonderfully and then a realization hit me for the first time since getting the results and I felt a pit in my stomach. 

She'll never have a sister.

And where I know there are millions of woman who do not have sisters who are just fine, I grew up with three sisters.  Three sisters that I remain close to.  Sisters I fought and played with in childhood, sisters who I share and bond with in motherhood.  Sisters who I can call when my husband is being an idiot or when I just feel fat, sisters who will help me move or clean my house.   I have three sisters.

I honestly do feel sadness over this, it does not overwhelm me,  I do not cry over it, but it is there and I can't deny it.  But it is also a strong reminder of how blessed my life has been and continues to be. 

It will be my hope and life mission to raise a kind, confident, loving girl who will find sisterhood through friendship that will carry her through life.  Because I know that exists, too.  And although I won't be able to hand her a real life sister to live and play with, I can teach her how to be a good sister to her brothers and her friends.

I think that's pretty good, too.

(no, Mom, I will not try for another girl after this pregnancy)

14,775

I had an OB appointment today.  If it seems I see my OB weekly, it's because I do.  BUT, after today I wait a whole two weeks before going back.  Luckily, each visit has been fun.  There is nothing better than hearing these boys in my belly.

My doctor received the results from my holter monitor that I wore last week.  I should stop and tell you that my heart palpitations miraculously stopped last Friday.  Ever since then I have felt pretty normal.  The monitor recorded my heart rate for 24 hours and found that my heart had an irregular rhythm 14,775 times.  That's a lot.  And although I do feel better, I go in for an echo cardiogram next week, just to make sure my heart is handling this increased blood volume okay.

Today I am 17 weeks, 4 days pregnant and I am measuring 21 weeks.

Tonight, the kids, Brian and I are going out to dinner to "celebrate" Valentine's Day.  We also "celebrated" this past Saturday by taking the kids to see a movie for the first time ever.  We saw Alvin and the Chipmunks and they loved every single second of our time there.  It was worth the $40 we spent for the 90 minutes we were there.  At least, I think it was.  We would go to dinner tomorrow night but Brian is doing the most romantic thing tomorrow.  He is leaving for a business trip to San Francisco and leaving me alone, pregnant with twins, with the kids and a house on the market until Monday.  Just call him Casanova.

No, I'm not bitter.  Not bitter at all.

A note

Hi friends,

I wrote over here today.
Just thought you'd like to know.

Have a great day.

Love,
The large pregnant lady

Check It.

I interrupt all of this twin fun for a few giveaway announcements.

My friend Jenny, over at Chased by Children is giving stuff away so go and enter to win her daily contests all this week.  Today's giveaway has my mouth sweating, in a very good mouth sweating kinda way.  She's having giveaways all week long because she loves me so much.  Well, not just me, but everyone, apparently.

And, it's the final days of Crooked Eyebrow's pluckin' good giveaway, so go there, too, and enter to win.  It's time you whipped those eyebrows into shape, don't you think?

The Results are In

And we do have some very exciting results.

This is Baby A. 

When I think of Baby A, I think of a quiet, little baby, one who likes to rest.  I only feel this way because as of right now, I feel very little movement from this baby's side of the belly.  But when I do, it's a definite kick, a nice little nudge that says "hey, Mom, may I have some ice cream?"  I always say yes.

This is Baby B:

Baby B is a mover and a shaker.  I feel this baby move many times a day, we (as in myself and even others) can feel limbs being pushed out towards the outskirts of my belly, I can even feel the movements when I walk.  After talking to the ultrasound tech today, she said I felt so much movement from Baby B because this baby is higher up in my uterus.  crazy kid.

Onto the big news.  77 people made guesses of what we were going to have.  32 of you guessed a boy and a girl.

And you would be wrong.

22 guessed two boys.
23 guessed two girls.

Here is what I will tell you right now.  It is very likely, almost 100% that these two babies are identical.  So, after finding out the sex and that they are identical, we felt a very strong desire to take the kids and go find these babies matching outfits.  And we did.  Except, we all wound up picking something out for these babies and let me tell you...IT.WAS.FUN.

Here is what Racecar picked out:

And here is Ariel's choice:

And Daddy's choice, his sleepers say "I heart Mom" and "I heart Dad:"

And Mommy's choice:

And their first accessory:

I can hardly take it.  Two little boys are dancing around in my belly as I type this.  Beautiful additions to our family.  What are the odds that both my mom and I have identical twin boys?  I have no idea, but it blows my mind.

Completely.

The winner of the Amazon.com gift certificate is Jennifer, Jennifer, just e-mail me your e-mail address and I will e-mail you an e-certificate.  Congratulations, you lucky girl, you!

It's a contest!

Are you a little psychic?  Are you a little lucky?

If so, then you have a very good chance of winning this contest.  Here are the details:

On Monday, February 11th at 3:00 p.m. we will be having an ultrasound done where we will hopefully learn the sex of both of these babies in my belly.  So, what do you think we are going to have?  Leave your guesses in the comments section of what you think the ultrasound will read, two boys?  two girls?  or a boy and a girl?  What do you think?  You can make your guesses right here until Monday the 11th at 6:00 p.m. C.S.T.

THEN -- the correct guessers will be entered to win a $25 gift certificate for Amazon.com.  The winner will be announced along with the exciting details of the sonogram on Monday, February 11th after 9:00 p.m.

IF the results are inconclusive, then everyone who entered the contest by leaving their guesses will be entered to win the gift certificate.

GOOD LUCK!