look ma, no stretch marks! (yet)

we're rounding the 18 week bend and doing great! we had another dr appointment last thursday and the boys are terrific. they are growing like weeds and as a result, so is my belly. it's the craziest thing to see dramatic changes in a matter of days. and i can also feel the sensation of my belly stretching. but i've been religious with slathering on my concoction of super-concetrated vitamin E lotion and cocoa butter, and so far, no stretch marks!


sometimes when i look in the mirror, i really am taken aback by what is happening with my body. imagine waking up one morning and looking like you swallowed a bowling ball! it all just happens so fast and it's truly a miracle what our bodies are capable of - let alone what is actually happening inside! it has been a serious lesson for me, however, to let go of things that i have no control over, as well as to respect the limits of my body now. i'm used to pushing myself physically, whether exercising or just always being on the go. that's not an option anymore, and it has been an amazing lesson to learn! to give you some perspective on my growth, two weeks ago i was measuring at 19 weeks (really at 15 weeks). now i'm measuring at 24 weeks (really at 17.5 weeks). here's me on my birthday (9/20) - i'm 32 now!


one of the more important points of having twins is to gain lots of weight early on in the pregnancy. this has been proven to prevent preterm labor, premature birth and low birth weight. they say if you're normal size, you should gain 20 - 25 pounds by week 20 (gasp!). i really didn't think it was possible for me, especially since i'm really not piling in the calories. well, i'm happy to report that i've officially met my goal of 20 pounds! don't ask me how i did it...

j and i love going to doctor appointments because it means we get to see the boys. i was shocked to see how big they were! we could see everything - their fingers and toes, their well-developed spines, and of course, their sweet skeletor faces! baby a is facing head down on the left side of my belly and he was showing off with upside-down 360s with his one arm behind his head (total diver-style!). baby b is laying horizontal above baby a, which explains why i've felt like there is someone laying on my lungs. he was using my uterus as a trampoline and bouncing up and down. here's his foot planting, about to spring off:



and just in case y'all need a little help getting in the halloween mood, here is baby a's face (the pirate eye patch you see on his top eye is actually the lens of his eye!):



our next appointment is in two weeks for our 20 week anatomy(s) scan. they'll look at all their organs and make sure everything looks the way it should. after that, i'll also start seeing a perinatalogist who specializes in multiples. i feel very taken care of!

birthday action

happy birthday j! my wonderful hubby is 32 today. we met right before we both turned 28 and i remember making him a batch of chocolate chip cookies for his birthday care package and burning my wrist on the oven. i still have the scar - now that's true love! i can't believe where those 4 years have gone. well, actually i can. it consists of a delightful whirlwind of moving across the country, getting engaged, married, moving across the country again, renovating a house, moving into a new house, and now having two babies. i know time moves a lot faster when you get older, but when i look back it seems like warp speed. like a whole lifetime squinched into a few years, but in a very good, satisfying way. and now with these two baby boys, i can't wait for our next life to begin!

speaking of the boys...they gave j the best birthday present by letting us feel them move today! over the past week i've thought i felt them move in the middle of the night, but it was hard to tell given my barely conscious state. but today it is definite and indescribably amazing. i first felt them at lunch (they must like tacos), sitting on the gallery porch with anne. by the way, it's a perfect day, clear and sunny and in the mid 80s with a glorious breeze. we are just sitting, talking, laughing and enjoying when all of a sudden i feel a flutter. almost like a gurgle, like when you eat something that isn't quite working for you, except this gurgle is completely harmless and on the right side of my projecting belly. and since lunch i've been feeling it more and more. i think it's just one baby, because it's definitely in one spot. and either he is wiggling his little butt all over the place, or he's flutter kicking his legs like he's swimming.

it's pretty wild to be sitting in my office with no one else, and realize that i am not alone.

gender spoiler alert warning!

we were cautiously optimistic we might find out the babies' genders at our appointment yesterday. while still being a little early (just over 15 weeks now), we heard with a good ultrasound and the babies in the right position...bingo! well, we got our bingo and the prize is two baby boys!

i think it's some strange right of passage for parents to publicize pics of their naked children (for proper embarassment, of course). this can be categorized as an "up shot of the bunz" with two chub legs on either side of the evidence. doesn't get much better than this:


it's really fun being able to rub my tum and say "how ya' doing boys?" it feels that much more real now! most of you know that i truly thought they would be a boy and girl. after the initial shock, i'm now totally loving the idea of our two lil' guys. hopefully it will mean less maintenance (no pig tails, dresses, etc.), less drama and more rough housing. i even have this vision of the two of them climbing on top of matilda and riding her around like a horse...definitely a texas-themed holiday picture in our future with cowboy hats and all! for now, they still look like skeletor:


so the boys are doing great. they did extensive measurements of just about everything (head, belly, femur, etc.) and both are growing the same and fast - 16 weeks and 2 days. boy b was in true form, flipping around and diving when the tech would try and get a measurement. boy a was pretty chill, wiggling his arms and legs but generally staying in one place. i wonder if these are their personalities developing already, or if boy a is a tumbler too, just not when we peek in on him. i'm really trying not to make assumptions based on what we see of them at ultrasounds - i'd hate to unduly influence one boy into being a nutball and the other to be passive! anyways, here's the one good shot the tech could get of our nutball:


i'm doing really well, too! the past month has been characterized by some good days interspersed with some pretty bad days. the bad days have just been extreme fatigue, no appetite, achey belly and back - just crumby feeling. but i think that i've turned a corner this week. i can feel that i have more energy during the day and my appetite is even coming back -even some meat is doable! maybe i've entered the fabled second trimester bliss? keep your fingers crossed!

the doc can now measure what's called my "fundal height," which is how big my uterus is getting. at a little over 15 weeks, i'm measuring at what someone with with a singleton would be at 19 weeks. this is reassuring to me, as the books say someone with twins typically measures 6-8 weeks ahead of schedule (yup, i had my second anxiety attack of the pregnancy after reading that one). so i feel like i'm growing in proportion to my size, but i'll probably laugh at myself for writing that when i'm 30 weeks along! here's a pretty dorky picture of me, my belly and a blurry mati:


sorry for the never ending post. i promise to update more often from now on!