Ahhhh.

Hulk woke up this morning at 6:45. Bliss.

We had an exciting day yesterday. It started out with a visit to Boston (Hulk was fascinated by the traffic while we were waiting to cross the street. Buses! Wow!) to get a sign off by the surgeron.Everything was a-OK. Hurrah! And Hulk charmed pretty much everyone in the office, as usual.

Then, he went to school, and I was asked if it was OK for him to share in one of his schoolmate's birthday cake. I know he is only 8 months old, but I figured what the heck. He loved it.

I actually happened to stop by the school to drop something off just as he was having the cake - and they didn't manange to capture the shit eating grin he had on his face. This boy LOVED the cake. I got a little nervous as I drove away that we would have some fall out from all that sugar - but it looked like a much bigger peice than he really got.

Then, we went to the local fair for dinner. Met up with some of our friends and had fair food, while Hulk watched fasinated at all the rides and big kids and other fair goings on. Aaron even took him on the merry-go-round (which he wasn't all that sure about). By the time we got home, he passed out and slept all night.

All in all, a good day.

Seriously?

So. I was at a friend's cube yesterday gossiping about various items, mostly being the nursery, the fact that I'm due in 16 weeks, and the amount of work to be ready to have 3 children (like you can ever REALLY be ready, but anyway). He was suggesting I don't spend so much time in the house - which is a good point. When you sit there and see all the work and you really can't do much about it until you have a block of time, it's stressful to see it. Once Hulk can go swimming again, I think we'll be heading to the lake to go swimming after work - he thought that was great fun.

Anyway. The girl that sits next to him turns and says - did I miss something? You are pregnant!?

Um. Yeah. With twins.

So I went and took a picture of the belly and the outfit I was wearing. Did she seriously just think I was unfortunately pot bellied? Now I'm nervous that I look just fat and not pregnant. Sigh.

The Nursery

Well. I really haven't thought much about the twin's nursery - I've had a few other things going on. Besides, I know I have the furniture... so it hasn't really been at the forefront of my mind. But. I think I really need to get thinking on this if I'm going to get anything done before I'm too huge to help. This weekend, Suzanne is coming to see Hulk, and has volunteered to help remove some wallpaper. The next step would be to paint... what do we think of this idea?
Not those colors for sure. I'm still thinking of that red rug from Ikea (which I'm not finding on the website? Time to panic?!?) for the floor - so I was thinking red, pink, white and brown dots? Or maybe go crazy and do red/purple? I like the white and brown dots in there, since the furniture is a dark brown....but then I'm not sure about the paint color. I like the two-tone wall. If I do the red and pink - off white and pink? Or maybe light brown and pink? Or if it's purple, off white and purple? Help?!?

ETA: Here is some super awesome paint mock ups to assist opinions. I had trouble getting a decent 'light brown' color on paint...

Purple/Red dots:

Pink/Red Dots

Back to work.

Well. That was a great vacation! It was really a 'stay-cation' - because we didn't go anywhere besides our house, but it was good. Mon - Weds I just hung around, had some 'me' time with Hulk still going to daycare... and then the end of the week was reserved for surgery and recovery. And he is doing great - I'm so thankful that there is no need to worry about that anymore! I do wish Aaron and I had more time to just hang out together, but he was busy with his projects, and they need to get done, so I can't complain.

Spending all the time with Hulk over the past 4 days was great too. We have such a little gem in our son. He is all smiles - and I could spend all day just watching his joy as he discovers things. He is crawling at high speeds, and going EVERYWHERE. No longer does he need me in his sights.. now he does laps around the downstairs... trying to crawl up the stairs (god save me) and if he isn't crawling, he is pulling up on something. He needs to do all this activity with a toy in at least one hand, which has gone badly a few times.. but he is learning! So fast! It's unbelievable to me that 8 months ago we had just brought him home with us! The changes that happen in such a small time are almost a miracle.

Some commented that they didn't remember what the surgery was to correct - I never blogged about it. I'm just thinking 10 years in the future their may be a few things that Hulk won't forgive me for sending around the internet, and some details of his healthcare may be one of them.

Today I'm 22 weeks! I'm feeling great - actually after this vacation, a lot better. I was really having a lot of pain standing up for a past few weeks - but with a week to just hang out and nap almost every day.... I feel much better. Although I'm really considering getting one of those maternity support belts - anyone use those with success? It really feels like this pregnancy is flying by...considering they are scheduling my c-section for 38 weeks, I only have 16 weeks to go. (I hate typing my 'scheduled c-section'. I know my doc says we'll revisit it as I get closer, but I just have this feeling that it will be a c-section. On one hand, at least I know what to expect... but on the other....)

Anyway, 16 weeks... 4 months... until we go from a family of 3 to a family of 5! It has me ALMOST in freak out mode on the current state of the house. Aaron's project this week was enlarging and redesigning his workshop in the basement - which he wasn't really able to finish. I can't gauge how long it's going to take to finish - but it seems like a hell of a lot of work to me. And then, while he was working on the basement, he found a water leak in one of the pipes. Thank god he found it - but that resulted in a huge hole in the upstairs bathroom's wall and floor. After the basement is done, he needs to finish up work in the upstairs bathroom (he started installing a utility sink and cabinets in there after he moved the laundry upstairs... but things stalled when he realized he needed to use his table saw to cut some pieces. The table saw couldn't fit in his shop with the old setup, hence last week's project. Sigh.) And finally - the nursery! We have to install flooring and remove wallpaper and paint! Not a small list of shit to get done! Let's hope that it's less work than it appears to be...

What amazes me sometimes is that really, our house was in 'move in condition' when we bought it. Sure, lots of cosmetic stuff, but I feel like we are always tweaking and messing with it. I love every change we'd made, but I'll be thankful to have these few projects out of the way and the house in a stable state for a while when they are finished.

We are good.

The surgery went well - I think I cried more than Hulk did. Aaron went into the OR with him (to watch him 'gently go to sleep' as the doc said... and yes, that made me cry) - pregnant woman aren't allowed back there - and then we waited almost 2 hours for the procedure to be over. I was good for about 20 minutes... and then I was almost staring the door down for the doc to come in and tell us everything was ok.

And it was. He did great, everything seems fixed (we'll know more as things heal) and he woke up really well from the surgery. When we were let in to see him in recovery, that is when I cried for a bit - he looked so helpless there with all the tubes and everything!

The surgery was at 7:30, we got home at 12, and he fell asleep for about 3 hours. Then we got up and played a bit, took a walk around the block, and now he seems totally burned. So we gave him dinner and a bottle and put him to bed. I'm going to try to keep up with his pain meds until we go to sleep and hopefully he will stay nice and comfortable and get some good rest tonight. We go back on Weds of next week to for a follow up with the doc and get the dressings off... I'll be happy to get this all behind us!

Surgery is tomorrow and considering cloth diapering

So. Tomorrow is the big day, and I'm just glad the day is finally here, so we can just get it over with. Like I've said before, it's minor surgery to correct a minor birth defect - basically cosmetic surgery.... but DAMN. I worry about my little guy! Since we've been on vacation all week, we've gone to the town beach everyday, and he has been loving it. I feel like life is going to suck, because he can't be in the water for 10 days (at least) after the surgery - so the fun routine I've started is going to come to an end tomorrow. Sigh.

Anyway - think good thoughts for the Hulk. I'll report back tomorrow when we get home. He will be going in pretty early in the morning - so I'm hoping we'll be home in the afternoon.

On a completely different note, I went to a Mom's Group that Hulk and I used to go to when he was little and I was on maternity leave yesterday. It was a blast, and his cuteness was a big hit. At the store, they were selling G-diapers... which got me thinking. Now that we won't be using daycare come December... maybe I should look into cloth diapering. We can't do the G diapers because we have a septic system (and you flush the liners). But - a bunch of mom's have done the math, and cloth is significantly cheaper in the long run. More work - but cheaper. And I'm all about cheaper. I know Jen does cloth, and loves it. I think I would do disposables for newborn size, and then move onto cloth one they got a little bigger (don't think I want to deal with cloth when I'm dealing with tiny newborns and c-section recovery). So - I put a call into my nanny to see if she would be willing to deal with it - which I bet she will be.

Can't. Stand. The. Cuteness.

OK. I know he is MY son and I may be biased... but seriously.
The last 2 tries at swimming (AKA being near any water that wasn't the tub) have gone horribly. This weekend, Aaron is in CA with his buddies, so I decided to take a risk and visit my mom at the cabin. 2 good things from the weekend - Hulk had a BLAST playing at the beach - we were there for almost 5 hours! And.... my mom and I had fun. So it's all good.

But - as usual, Hulk slept like CRAP at the cabin, so we are both exhausted. Yep. It's 7:30 and I'm heading to bed.