What a week! Last Sunday was my first “almost-a-mom” Mother’s Day. It was nice to have people wish me a Happy Almost Mother’s Day – I even got a couple of cards and a gift. I can’t imagine what next year will be like...we’ll have 2 babies and our lives will be completely different than they are now.   

We went to our second Prenatal Class on Wednesday and we learned a lot about product safety and what to look for when buying car seats, cribs and other baby paraphernalia.   Did you know that if you want to use an heirloom crib that if a can of pop can fit through the slats in the crib than it is not safe to use. We have bought 2 new cribs but we also have a cradle that my grandfather made when I was born that we’re hoping to use at the beginning. I’m going to have to do the “pop can test” to see if it is safe.  

One of the other interesting safety points was around crib bedding. Supposedly you shouldn’t use crib bumpers because they increase the risk of SIDS by limiting the fresh air that circulates through the crib. Our instructor suggested pushing the bumper down so that it is on the same level as the mattress instead of sitting above it.  

We are hoping to get a lot done in the nursery this weekend. DH has primed the room and plans to paint this weekend. Once the painting is done we can put the cribs and change table together. I’m hoping to have all it done this weekend, but we’ll see! We have a long list of other things we want to do, so time will only tell if we’re able to accomplish all we want to do! I think having the nursery done will be a big step and both DH and I will feel a little more prepared if it’s done.   

Yesterday I saw the doctor who is going to deliver for us (you know, OB2). He’s such a nice man and it was a relatively routine check-up. My belly is measuring 39 weeks. 39 WEEKS!!! I’m only 29 weeks! It’s that twin thing once again…everything is bigger!  

I have also been scheduled to do a glucose test next week to test for gestational diabetes. Diabetes runs in my family, but only in older relatives. Since I’m having twins the risk of contracting GD is higher, so to be safe I’m going to do the test. Anyone ever done this one? I’ve heard it’s not too bad – you just have to drink a sweet drink and then they test your blood an hour later. Hopefully all is well and I don’t have to do the longer, more involved test!  

I have my first two showers next week to look forward to – again, it’s hard to believe we’re at a point in this pregnancy when I’ve got showers to attend. I feel really lucky that in about 9 weeks (OMG really??) we’re going to get to meet our daughters. Our daughters…how cool is that?

Last night was the first of six prenatal classes we’ll be attending over the next month and a half. The class is run by our regional Health Department, and the best part of it so far is that it is free! We’re going to cover a whole range of topics including:  

-  Healthy Eating and coping with changes to your body and emotions

-  Getting ready to parent (preventing pre-term labor, crib and car seat safety)

-  Birth (yikes….this is the big one!)

-  Breastfeeding

-  The First Year after Birth (coping in the early weeks, baby-proofing, growth and development)

-  Caring for Baby (bathing, diapering, health, when to see a doctor)  

I’m really pleased with the range of topics that are going to be covered. Normally I’m a big researcher, but I’ve been slacking a little in the ‘taking care of baby’ department. I can tell you which products we want to get, but when it comes to how we’ll actually take care of these babies kicking around inside me…I’m a little lost.  

My first impression when we got into the class was that it was strange to be around a big group of pregnant women. Naturally I checked the other preggos out to see how my bump compares to theirs. I was surprised (and pleased) to see that most of the bumps were around the same size as mine. Maybe I’m not as massive as I thought. And then we did introductions and had to say who you were, when you’re due and where you’re delivering. We were the only couple expecting twins, and when the others started throwing out their due dates I realized that my due dates is probably 4-6 weeks after most of theirs! So yeah, I guess I am big….  

One of the things I liked about the class was at one point the instructor put the women in a group and the men in a group. The women brainstormed different physical and emotional changes we’ve gone through in our pregnancies, and it was really interesting to hear that a lot of what I am going through is not unique. A lot of the other women are suffering from heartburn, and are really tired, and are finding their legs and feet swollen.  And while I know that what I’m going through is similar to what other pregnant women have gone through since the beginning of time, it was still reassuring to hear from others how they are feeling.  

So, one class down and five more to go. I can’t quite believe we’re at the ‘taking prenatal classes’ stage. And I really can’t believe that tomorrow we have an appointment at the hospital to discuss the birth. Already?? Again…I don’t think I’m quite ready for this.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the agony of trying to find bedding for our nursery. A short recap – we had found the bedding we liked but were having trouble locating it. My hubby has been relentless about calling the store almost daily and asking if it’s in (we were told it was in the warehouse and hadn’t made it to the stores yet). Finally yesterday we got the payoff we wanted: our local store had just received it in stock and had 6 sets.  They put two sets on hold for us (two babies=twice the amount of bedding needed) and I didn’t waste any time hopping into the car and going to pick it up! I am so relieved to finally have the bedding and be able to move ahead with decorating and setting up the nursery.   

In other nursery news, my hubby and his dad installed a new light fixture in the room – it’s a really cute little chandelier with pink crystals hanging off it. I think it adds a really cute feminine touch to the room – it’s much nicer than the old ‘builder’s’ fixture we had. Here’s a pic of the light fixture - isn't it cute?

I’m almost 27 weeks now – yikes! Where has the time gone? It’s hard to believe that in another 10 weeks I will be considered ‘term’ for a twin pregnancy. I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet! Fortunately a lot of prep is going to happen in May – we start our prenatal classes next week, I have an appointment at the hospital to pre-register and speak with a nurse, we have booked our hospital tour, I have some showers coming up at the end of the month…and then hopefully we’ll be ready to meet our babies.   Of course there are still some more items on the agenda, including choosing names! For some reason I’m not too worried about this – I know we’ll have names for the babies by the time they arrive, but we should probably start talking about what names we like again!  

That’s it for this update – I’ll be back next week to fill you in on our first prenatal class!

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I went to see one of my two doctors last week for a check-up. Two doctors you ask? How did that happen? Well when we got the good news that I was pregnant and that we were expecting twins, the doctor at the clinic we were going to referred us to a Twin Specialist located in downtown Toronto. I liked the idea of going to see a Twin Specialist (let’s call him OB1), but didn’t want to commit to delivering our babies in Toronto. I work downtown, but I don’t live here, so I really wanted to find a doctor closer to where we live (about 40 minutes outside of Toronto). I did some research on the doctor and the Multiples Clinic and found that they would do a ‘shared care’ with another OB if you wanted. Sounded perfect.  

It’s been working out pretty well, although I feel like I have to explain every time I go why I’m doing the shared care and who I see next. It’s a little frustrating. Also I have only seen the doctor who will be delivering the babies for me once (we’ll call him OB2), and that was my first appointment back in March! I really liked him (he was recommended to me by a friend), and found him to be very reassuring and kind. My next appointment with him won’t be until May 15th – which is about 6 weeks after I saw him last. It’s funny because I always heard with twin pregnancies that the doctors try to see you more often…so far my visits have been few and far between – and that’s with TWO doctors! Not that I’m complaining…although I will be interested to know how often OB2 will want to see me after my next appointment. I’ll be 28 weeks at that point and I’d guess that he'll want to start seeing me more often.  

Anyways, back to the appointment with OB1. It went well – I got weighed (oh joy!) and had an ultrasound to check the growth. I got to see both babies on the screen and found out that they are both breech right now. There is still time to move so hopefully at least Baby A will end up head down. Baby B turned her head and yawned directly at me – so cute but I saw a glimpse of my future with teen girls!  Also the ultrasound tech was able to tell me that Baby A is weighing 1lb 5oz and Baby B is weighing 1lb 6 oz. I hope all the extra weight I’ve gained is due to the fluids and the placentas….and not to the daily slushies I’ve been consuming!   

In other news I booked our Prenatal Appointment at the hospital we’re hoping to deliver at. We will go in and meet with the nurse and talk about our delivery plans (which we don’t really have), and feeding plans. We also booked our hospital tour for later in May so that will be interesting too! AND our prenatal classes start the first week in May - that’s so soon!! I can’t believe how quickly things are moving along. 

Like all moms-to-be I have been perusing the baby aisle in my favorite stores and looking online for product ideas and suggestions. Which is the best play yard? Video or audio monitor? What type baby carrier should we go with? So many questions and everyone has an opinion on what is best. I thought I had made up my mind. I went through catalogues, marked pages and made lists – you would think that when I got to the store to actually register it would be a breeze. You would think….  

We decided to go register on Sunday afternoon. Word to the wise – don’t choose a Sunday afternoon. Don’t choose a Saturday afternoon…go during the week or in the evening. It was so busy at Babies R Us on Sunday afternoon I couldn’t believe it. I was so excited to get to walk around and choose items for our babies that even though the store was busy, we decided to stay and start the registry. We signed up and DH was handed the scanner gun (what is it with guys and those scanner guns? They LOVE them…I think it has something to do with video games or Star Wars…), and off we went.  

First stop was the monitors at the front of the store. To be honest, I had no idea what to choose! I had thought I was prepared and knew what I wanted, but faced with the options in store my mind went blank. I knew I wanted a monitor, but what kind to get? After much discussion and reading of the boxes and comparing prices, we decided to go with DH’s first choice, a video monitor. One item down, many many more to go.  

The wall of bottles was next, and so was more discussion. BPA free plastic bottles? Glass bottles? Regular bottles? We spoke to a sales associate who told us that the regular bottles are ok if you don’t heat them past a certain point. Another shopper said she was appalled that the stores still sold bottles with BPA in them. DH and I were more confused than ever. Now a bit of a side note – I'm a little cheap. My mother calls it “frugal” but really, I’m cheap. But these are our babies…I don’t want to do anything that could potentially harm them and that includes feeding them out of bottles with the potential to release toxins. So we picked a variety of bottles – BPA free plastic and glass in different brands and different sizes (and really different price points). Not sure which ones we’ll like (or which ones the babies will like), but we’ve requested a bunch of different ones to try.  

On we went, aisle after aisle. Bathtub? Check. Baby Swing? Check. High Chairs? Double check. We were moving along at a pretty nice speed and then all of a sudden DH went to scan an item and the scanner gun stopped working! Uh oh…are we going to have to do this all over again? I didn’t think I could face the wall of bottles again! After talking with another sales person we were once again scanning away happily. By the end of the day we had registered for bouncers, a swing, carriers, a diaper pail, a pair of play yards, lots of washcloths, pacifiers and yes, bottles.  

My feet were sore, I was really tired, but as we left the store I was even more excited for the next few months and getting things ready for our babies arrival this summer.  

My hubby and his dad have been working on finishing our basement for a while now and it is finally done! It looks amazing and we now have a place to put all the stuff that has been in “the room that will be the baby’s room.” It’s hard to believe we’re at the point where we need to start thinking about what to do with that room.   

A few weeks ago we went and ordered the cribs and change table. I was all settled on some really really cute bedding that was a fantastic price and exactly what I am looking for – nothing too girly or frilly, but cute and pretty. I thought I had found it in this bedding from Toys R Us:

But they don’t seem to have any in stock…anywhere! Can’t find it online, the stores don’t have any…it’s like my perfect bedding is also every other expectant mothers perfect bedding too! I’m going to go into the store this weekend and see if it can be ordered, but in the meantime I’ve felt it necessary to start looking around.  

Like I said, I don’t want anything too girly or frilly, and I’ve decided I’d like to do the walls in green. The furniture we’ve ordered is a dark cherry wood, so now I’m on the hunt for another ‘perfect’ set. I found this one from Migi:

Of course there are a couple of problems with this one too. Number one being they don’t ship to Canada. I’ve found it at other online retailers, so if we definitely can’t get the Ladybug collection (weep!), then I might have to explore this option. The other issues I’ve found are that the green is a little more vibrant than I really want to do the walls, and the price is more than the other set.  Plus of course the fact that I can’t see it in person before purchasing…but it’s still really cute and I think will work too.  

I also like this one by Laura Ashley – it’s called “Gabriella”:

Same problems as with the set from Migi – getting it delivered to Canada, it’s more expensive and I can’t see it before buying. But I think it’s cute too.

It’s a little stressful because I feel like we’re in a holding pattern until we decide on the bedding. DH can’t even start to paint because we won’t know what color to get. Hopefully once I go into the store this weekend and find out if my dream bedding is definitely not available and won’t become available any time soon, then I guess we’ll have to really look at the other options.  

As I’ve said before, I’ve been feeling pretty good the last few months since finding out that I’m pregnant. But now that I’m 5.5 months along and getting bigger with each passing day, I have a couple of complaints. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled to be pregnant and expecting twins, but like most women, the changes to my body are beginning to take a toll.   

1.  My back is killing me. It doesn’t seem to matter what chair I sit in, or what position my feet are in, or even how many pillows and heating pads I use, my back is sore. All the time. Ok, well I can wake up in the morning and be ok, but once I sit at my desk, it starts. I’ve tried switching chairs, adding a pillow, bringing a heating pad from home, changing positions, getting up and walking around…it’s all short term help. It doesn’t seem to matter what I do, around 3:00 every day it becomes unbearable.

2.  I have to pee. Constantly. I think one (or both) of the babies are enjoying using my bladder as a pillow, or a punching bag – or both.

3.  I can’t get comfortable. It’s probably a combination of the two complaints mentioned above, but I’m finding it more and more difficult to get comfortable. I’m not comfortable on the train into work because my back hurts, I’m not super comfy in the car because my belly is beginning to touch the steering wheel, I’m not comfy in bed because I have to wake up and go pee all the time!

4.  I’m tired. The fatigue I experienced slightly in the first trimester has suddenly reappeared. This time around it’s worse – I used to start to feel tired around 3PM and be able to suck it up until I went home at 5. Now it seems like I can’t escape the tiredness. I’m tired at 11AM, at 3PM, at 5PM…and pretty much all the time in between.   

Now I know these are not unique complaints from women who are preggers. And really, there are way more positives than negatives, like:  

1.  I’m feeling movement more and more every day.  It's a really cool feeling and I can't wait for DH to be able to feel it too.

2.  Now that we’ve hit 5.5 months, I’m feeling a little more confident – we even ordered baby furniture last weekend and have plans to go register next weekend.

3.  My hubby has been wonderful – he offers to massage my feet and my back, he does more than his share of the cooking and the cleaning, he puts up with my insane bursts of emotion (yesterday I cried uncontrollably for a good 30 minutes), he doesn’t complain that the body pillow I’m using at night is taking up tons of space in our bed. He’s truly the best ever.  

Now I’m off for a walk – a slow walk, but a walk just the same.  

Choosing a name for your unborn child is such a big challenge! And having to choose 2 names is even more difficult. Before DH and I knew that we are baking a pair of girls we were all settled on a boy name. We had a laundry list of girl’s names but weren’t sold on any of them, but the boy’s name – that was good to go. Now we won’t need the boy’s name (unless there was a mistake in the ultrasound) and we need to narrow down our list of girls names. Sigh.  

So many choices – have you ever looked at one of those baby name books? There are thousands upon thousands of names! How will we ever narrow it down to 2? How do people narrow it down to 1??  There are also a lot of things to consider when choosing a name:  

Do we want the names to rhyme? Nope.

Do we want the names to start with the same letter for consistency? Nope again!

What do the initials spell? Don’t want to saddle the kids with initials other kids can make fun of (like BUM or DAM).

How does the first name sound with our last name? We liked the name Emma until we put it with our last name and then it became a huge mouthful.  

My mother heard a theory that you should watch the number of syllables in the first name so that there are not the same as in the last name – so if your last name has 3 syllables, then your first name should have 1 or 2 syllables. Too many rules!!!!  

How did you choose your child's name? Did you wait until you ‘met’ him/her, or did you know beforehand?  Any tips??

I think I’m feeling movement in my ever-expanding belly. It started out really low and kind of like vibrations or waves of motion. That was a couple of weeks ago. Now I’m feeling little pokes and taps throughout the day. It’s all still from the inside, but is such a strange feeling. I’ve heard people describe feeling early fetal movement as popcorn popping or bubbles. For me I was finally able to distinguish movement when it became little taps and pokes. It’s funny….you become really used to them and I find myself very aware when I don’t feel anything. It’s all still inside, so DH hasn’t joined the party yet, but I’m looking forward to feeling movement from the outside, and being able to see his face when he can feel his daughters kick. His daughters – wow.  

In other news I had my first OB appointment last week. I hadn’t met the doctor who will be delivering for us yet and had been seeing a twin specialist in the big city I work in. It was a really great appointment and I really liked the doctor. He made me feel really comfortable and was very kind. He checked my blood pressure (A-OK) and listened to the babies heartbeats using a Doppler. He let me hear the heartbeats and it was so reassuring to hear them thumping away. He didn’t have any trouble finding both heartbeats so that was good.  

We also discussed my delivery options. He said that his goal is to get me to 38 weeks (normal gestation is 40), but that I should be prepared to deliver early. He also said that if I make it to 34 weeks I can deliver at my local hospital and won’t need to deliver at one of the larger hospitals in the area. I’m so happy about that – personal goal is making it at least 34 weeks – I want to deliver close to home. And as much as I’d like to make it to 38 weeks, I’d be thrilled to make it to 36-37. Just want the babies to be healthy and happy!  

He also talked about the circumstances in which I’d need to have a C-Section. I’m a peace with the fact that I might need to deliver via C-Section, and while I’d like to have a natural birth, I also want to do whatever will be best for the babies. It was a struggle to get to this point so their health and safety is at the top of my mind. It’s all going to depend on the babies and what position they are in anyways. If Twin A is head down then we can do a natural birth. If Twin A isn’t head down, well it sounds like a C-Section will be in the cards. Last we saw (at our ultrasound at the beginning of March) Twin A was head down and Twin B was transverse lying across my stomach. I’m feeling most of the movement down low in my belly so maybe they’ve both made their way to the head down position!   

So overall things are going well – I have minor complaints (really sore back, minor heartburn, stuffy nose), but nothing huge. Feeling good and counting down the weeks until babies arrive! We’re at 21 weeks now – how did that happen??