Guess who is here?

Want to see the newest additions to the family? They made their appearance on 11/29!

Baby A - on the left hand side (internet names are still pending) was 7lbs 5 oz, 20 inches long and born at 3:47 AM.

Baby B - was 6lbs 10 oz, 19.5 inches long and born at 3:48 AM.

Saturday night, I went out to dinner with some girlfriends and ended up staying out until 11. Got home, and got into bed. Around 1 AM, I woke up feeling 'funny'. Figured I just had to pee. Then I was nervous that peed my pants...then I realized my water broke. We got the troops called in for Hulk Care, and made our way to the hospital. I was still in shock that they got to chose their own birthday... and that it was all really happening. Once we got to the hospital, everything went really smoothly.

I'm deeply in love.

Special Sweaters

I finally put the finishing touches on the girl's coming home sweaters, and found matching outfits to go under them:

The sweater on the left I made right when I found out I was having twin girls, to go along with the one on the left, which is the sweater I made to bring Hulk home in if he was a girl. They are both lacy, sweet little sweaters - but over the months I'd also knit a hot pink and bright orange set of sweaters... and was thinking they would wear those. Looking at the other sweaters, and being realistic on the 4 day old size of the girls, I decided they would look silly in the other sweaters. So - back to this plan! Plus, these are more 'traditional' (Hulk's was a cabled sweater).

I never got around to steaming out the lace or putting buttons on the darker one. Hulk is napping, and I finally got them ready! The super cute outfits are ready to be filled with babies!

A week.

So. A week from now, the twins will be here. It's all sinking in. I'm finally excited to meet them, and not just terrified. I have everything ready. Anything that I could have obsessed over, I think I've managed to either deal with, or get over it. Want a list of the things that would keep me up at night?

• Getting Hulk an 'I'm a big brother' shirt to wear. This proved rather difficult, as I left it really to today to go looking, and they didn't have them at BRU. Or Target. Or Carters. Or Walmart. I finally found one at Gymboree. Hopefully their 2T doesn't run huge - I have it on hold and will pick it up on my way to get Hulk from daycare.
• I got Hulk a special Birthday Boy romper - but I wanted him to wear it both on the 4th to school (it's a Friday, so it's the day BEFORE his birthday) and on his actual birthday, the 5th. So I was going to ask his godmother to run a load of laundry that night so he would have a birthday outfit for the day of his birthday. But today, I found a very sweet My 1st Birthday onsie for him to wear Saturday.
• Other birthday related items - I got a cake pan in the shape of the number one - Aaron has agreed to make a cake to bring to daycare on Friday and another to bring to the hospital for a little family party on Saturday. I got candles and plates... and that is the extent of my 1st birthday party plans. I think we'll open presents when we get home with the girls on Sunday.
• Baby food. The kid has enough food to get him through me being in the hospital. I had obsessively made a HUGE amount before I stopped working, and then realized that I still had 3 weeks to go... so I made more last night. And now we are good through when I'm back home. Although I'll probably make MORE this weekend so I don't have to worry about it right away.
• Hulk's sleeping. Of course, he went from sleeping reliably from 7 PM to 6AM to waking up in the middle of the night because he has a cold and was coughing. That seems to have calmed down - so I don't have to worry about my Aunt or his godmother dealing with a fussy baby in the middle of the night.
• Hulk's eating. He went from shoveling food in for dinner to refusing to eat at night. Thankfully the last two nights we seem back to normal. I was picturing my poor Aunt sitting there trying to get him to eat to no avail. Phew.
• My bag is packed. I have new nursing PJs for the hospital and books to read and knitting to bring. I even packed shampoo and lotion and all the little things that I forgot last time. I have the batteries charged for my camera.

I think that's it! Am I a freak or what? The food and sleeping things I feel are OK to obsess over - but his outfits? What is WRONG with me?

Ginormous.

That is what Aaron calls me now. No longer am I just plain 'big', or even 'HUGE'.


Nope. Now I'm ginormous.

This is the best I could do on this cloudy day, but I feel like I needed to share.

Woot!

Aaron installed the floor this week. I. Freaking. LOVE. It. Every time I enter the kitchen, I squeal a little, I love it so much. It's kind of like when you get an AWESOME haircut, and every time you see yourself in the mirror, you do a double take? That is how I feel when I walk by the kitchen.

The old floor was cold, hard, off-white BUMPY ceramic tile. I hated it. It was hard to keep clean, anything you dropped on it would shatter into a million pieces, and it was COLD. So cold that in the winter, if you weren't wearing slippers, you feet would actually hurt if you stood on it. This floor is kind of soft and definitely warmer and I just love it. Love love love it!

Hulk did a bit of 'helping' too:

I was nervous that the wood floor with the wood cabinets would be awful - but I don't even think it's that offensive. Our next project is to paint the cabinets white (well, paint the whole kitchen area) - but I don't hate how it is now. Which is good, because I don't think we are going to have the spare time to do that painting in the near future. We have something big coming up in 9 days... if I could only remember what it is....

: )

Seriously - I had my non-stress test this morning (37 weeks today!) and everything is still good. Hulk had his follow up visit on his surgery in August - and he is looking good too! Aaron and I had to divide and conquer this morning - he took Hulk to the doc and I went to my own doc appointment - so Hulk got to play in Aaron's office for a while, which he loved. I complained to my doc that my hips were REALLY hurting me, and his answer was - if they WEREN'T hurting you I'd be worried. Sigh. The doc said if I was REALLY miserable, we could talk about moving my date, and I just don't feel comfortable with that. I'd rather they have as much time inside as they need. If I pushed the c-section up because my hips hurt a little, and someone ended up in the NICU, I would feel AWFUL. I can suck it up for 9 more days.

T minus 2 weeks.

Well. I'll be holding babies two weeks from right now! Crazy!

I'm enjoying my vacation - and getting random little things done. Getting chores done that were impossible to do with the combo of being heavily pregnant and working full time (car inspected, oil changed, stuff picked up from people willing to give me baby stuff and finishing Christmas shopping for my nieces and nephews) and also doing fun projects - like painting letters so I can put the girl's names over their cribs. I'm on the 4th coat of paint - I think I'm a little obsessed... but does that surprise anyone? I also got a wonderful pedicure yesterday with nice sparkly nail polish. Love it.

All my doctors appointments went great on Monday. My 24 hour urine came back normal, along with the blood work. My blood pressure was also nice and low (121/60 - but I was lying down). At the ultrasound - both heads were basically in my cervix! No wonder I'm so uncomfortable! And Baby A is at 5 lbs 6 oz, and Baby B is 5 lbs 13 oz - so they are doing really well. I did find out an annoying policy at the hospital - only one person is going to be allowed in the OR with me at delivery, so that may mean that I won't be able to have my doula there... which makes me sad. Stupid swine flu. I'm going to talk to my doc about it next time I see him.

Today I think I'm just going to hang out here, try to finish knitting up a sweater for one of the twins (I have to finish it so I can show you the super cute outfits I have to take them home in!). Tomorrow is another non-stress test, and then I need to plan out my weekend. I think Aaron will need some alone time to install the new flooring (I picked that up yesterday!) so if I can manage it, I may take Hulk to a play group at Nini Bambini's.

Aaron's Version of Nesting

Exhibit A, our kitchen floor:

We had this vague plan a while back that we wanted to rip out our nasty tile kitchen floor (I know, doesn't sound nasty, but it was these off-white textured tiles that were poorly grouted and showed every little bit of dirt), put in a wood laminate floor, and paint the cabinets. The whole prospect seemed a bit daunting, and I figured we certainly didn't have time before the twins came, so I didn't think any more of it.

Friday, Aaron finished his last big project (insulating his workshop in the basement). And we need to order a dumpster. Well, he figured, if we were going to get the dumpster, he might as well tear up the kitchen floor! Ha. This was a lot of hard work that he did while I was out of the house with Hulk yesterday afternoon and this morning. When the man in motivated, he works FAST. Hulk is napping, and Aaron is a Home Depot getting some supplies. I bet I have a new floor by the end of the weekend.

It'll look a little weird until we paint the cabinets - it's a lot of wood - but Aaron's uncle (the one that painted the twins room) already has volunteered his services for this winter.

So. To review. I seem to organize when I'm nesting. Aaron starts (and finishes) large projects. When I asked him what he is going to do when all these projects are done? He said - sit on the couch and play with my babies. Sounds like a good plan to me!

I'm turning into my mother.

So - as I have had all these friends and family members organizing my house, I find myself loving it. Before, I understood that having everything more organized made sense, but a childhood of my mother saying over and over again 'A place for everything and everything in it's place' made me kind of want to pull away from that kind of super organized life.

But now. I'm going to have 3 babies. And a full time job. And a nanny in my house during the day. With my organizational kick start, I find myself wanting to stay like this. And get any other parts of my house like it too. I'm finding it takes the same amount of time to put stuff away right then than to wait hours (or days). And if I don't put it away, then I'm digging through piles of laundry (or mail or dishes or whatever) taking MORE time to find it. When if I just put it away in the first place, I'd already have it in my hands. Silly things like pairing up socks. I wait until Hulk gets up in the morning to get up and get dressed. I used to leave out my outfit for the morning so I could throw it on real quick and go to his room.... but would never remember the socks. It would easily take me 5 MORE minutes to find socks that matched, with Hulk getting more and more spooled up the longer I took. Now, I just grab what I need. Easy peezy.

These are things that my mother has been preaching since I was a kid. It's freaking me out a little that I get it now. I wonder if I can keep this up when I have 3 little ones? Maybe I'll HAVE to keep it up to avoid getting totally overwhelmed? Or maybe I'll fall back into my old ways... although with how much easier things have been the past few weeks with things under control... I hope not.

Please don't tell my mother she was right.

Super Fun

Yesterday was Veteran's Day - which meant I got the day off work, and Hulk's daycare was closed, so we had a Mommy Fun Day. It started with Hulk staying at one of my girlfriend's houses while I had a check up and got swabbed for Group B Strep (fun fun). HE had a blast - my friend has 4 teenage girls and they loved playing with him.

From there, we headed out to do some shopping... but it was mostly with gift cards - so basically FREE shopping. I got new duds for Hulk (including a new pair of walking shoes), some new nursing PJs for the hospital for me (a gal can hope, right?), a new video game for Aaron, and a bunch of stuff we needed from BRU. Hulk seems to love shopping -so much to see!

We then went to Nina's and participated in a SUPER fun Mover's and Shaker's play group - I've never really gotten to sit back and watch Hulk play - and he had so much fun! It ended with him getting bitten by another kid (poor guy) but I think the other mother was more traumatized than either Hulk or I was. At Nina's I got couple sweet coming home outfits for the girls, and new bras! Hurrah!!!!! Why I ever waited so long on the bra front is beyond me....

We got home around dinner time nice and tired out from all the fun. I only have a few more things that I want to get wrapped up before the girls come in 20 days! I'm hoping that it isn't sooner, as my blood pressure is still moving up - today it was 140/79. We shall see - I peaked at 180/100 with Hulk. Maybe I should pack a bag for the hospital?

Broken body parts (not mine!)

So. I was napping on Saturday afternoon, so I missed the phone call - but my mother fell down the stairs at the cabin, broke 2 ribs and punctured a lung. And I am on travel restriction, so I couldn't do anything. Thankfully, my cousin and some of her friends chipped in and got her all settled in the hospital and got the dog taken care of. And I spent last night getting everything all set for her to come home today. But damn. It's hard to deal with all this long distance and on the phone! I wish I could have just popped in the car and stayed with her until at least tonight and tomorrow to see that she is all settled.

Of course, now that I know she is ok, I feel a little vindicated. She won't be able to drive for a long while, because she has a standard shift car (which I mentioned that she should maybe get an automatic, as she has arthritis, and it may be harder to drive a stick shift as she gets older). One of the biggest stresses was getting her dog taken care of - and of course, you all know my issues with her having this HUGE boxer. It's much easier to get someone to take care of a little dog than a 60 pound one! And, of course - the way she hurt herself? She was carrying a very heavy table from her deck at the cabin to the basement to store it for the winter. Over and over again I have asked her to have some of her friends (or even to hire someone) to help with that... but NO. She is too independent (and stubborn). I guess that is what comes from being on your own for so long.

Maybe she'll start listening to me a little now?! I doubt it though.

Baby-wise, we are doing great. I went for my non-stress test this morning, and things are all still good, and the results of the 24 hour urine were perfect. So that is good news. I've only got this week left at work, and then I'm done! 35 weeks today, and still feeling good. I think that is great.

Blah.

Just spent ten minutes getting dried snot out of my son's bulb aspirator (used boiling water - anyone else have a better idea?). Yesterday I collected my pee for 24 hours. Last night, I came down with the same cold Hulk has, and we both feel like CRAP.

Damn, my life is sexy.

In good news, I was having issues dressing Hulk this morning, and decided to just send him to school in a super cute sweater and khaki's (I couldn't find a long sleeve onsie and it's going to be only in the 40's today. I figured he could wear a short sleeve one with a sweater over it, right?). Well - today is picture day at daycare! Score one for tired Mommy.

The house looks awesome - the guest room is totally ready for guests, which may be a good thing, as my blood pressure continues to rise - it was 145/74 at my non-stress test this morning. I'm close enough to my last day at work (11/13) that I found myself hoping for a reason to just use up my sick days and be done with it. On Monday - I actually could do that, as I have 4 sick days left, and next week we get Wends off for Veteran's Day. We've been dealing with crisis after crisis, and my heart isn't really in it... and there is a chance I'm going to have to log in this weekend. How annoying would that be??? On the other hand, I know I wouldn't realistically leave them in the lurch unless I was really on bedrest, and that would supremely SUCK, as I have plans for those 2 weeks off! Nothing major, but maybe going to the movies and stuff like that. And what would I do about Hulk? Who would take him to daycare? So, in all honesty, I don't REALLY want to have the doc give me a reason to leave work early.... only one week to go. I can make it!!

Dust.

I braved the guest room this morning. It's the room that got converted into my craft room once we found out we were having twins. And then, was used as nursery furniture storage when we got the cribs and stuff long before the room was ready. And finally, it's been the dumping ground for anything that didn't have a place in Hulk's room, the twins room or my closet.

It was kind of a scary place.

Aaron and I went up there together on Friday, before Suzanne visited, to try and make space on the bed at least for her to sleep. So, I did get rid of a few things from the closet (old quilts, throw away pillows, crappy pictures we will never hang again). But I still had the lion's share to organize. Thankfully, Suzanne was the one who helped move the craft room over, so I did have a pretty good system in place, just needed to put a few things away, sort and throw away. But DAMN! We haven't cleaned in that room in ages, since it's been filled up with CRAP, so now I'm totally stuffy.

Aaron and I will tackle getting the give away and throw away piles out of there tonight, and then we can assess if I'm actually going to be able to enough space to make my elliptical machine usable. That would be awesome. I took that from my FIL's after it became obvious that it wasn't something he would use again - with visions of using it in the morning before I went to work. Ha. Then I got pregnant. So now, I have visions of using it to get back in shape after the twins come. A girl can dream, right?

I fully admit to putting 3 boxes in the closet that I can't sort through right now. But that isn't too bad for the amount of crap I've gotten rid of in the past 3 weeks. I'm pretty proud of myself! It will be good to have that room ready for guests - as we are going to have people here non-stop for a month once the twins arrive.

Victory on Many Fronts...

First victory - I finally got my H1N1 shot. I somehow got screwed over on getting it from my general practitioner... but when I went for my 34 week check up this morning, my OB had just got some in. So, I have my seasonal flu shot, as does Hulk. Hulk still needs the H1n1, and Aaron needs both! But I feel better that at least I finally got totally covered. The twins were looking great on the non-stress test, but my blood pressure is borderline high, so I have to collect my urine for 24 hours. Yuck yuck yuck! I'll survive.

Second victory? My closet is totally organized and clean. I conveniently have a good friend who loves to organize. She has been waiting 5 years for me to give her the green light to attack my closet. We started the weekend with fun (which for us is a trip to an awesome yarn store), and then got down to business. I donated and/or threw away 8 bags of crap. I had jeans in there from the 90's.Anything with tapered legs and or greater than 4 sizes smaller than my pre-pregnancy size were gone. I was brutal. I even got rid of hand knit sweaters and scarves! It's amazing how great it looks. Now I need to keep it that way.

Aaron finished building the castle bookshelf for the twins (just needs to be painted) and did some major yardwork this weekend. I have someone coming up to pick up an extra car seat that I have, and hopefully some baby clothes. If not, they are getting donated tomorrow. This house is going to be totally clutter free by the time these babies arrive! I swear it!