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.

Random.... Thursday?

So usually Wednesdays are for random. And when I opened up this post to start writing, I was pretty sure it WAS Wednesday. I think that gives a good indication that I'm overdue for next week's vacation. My current life in bullet points:

• Aaron leaves this afternoon for the weekend in CA. In normal Aaron-style, he is taking a 'vacation' to help rip apart a friends house and put in hardwood flooring.
• He will return on Monday, and begin ripping apart our basement to make a better workshop.
• So I've got 4 nights of single parenting... which shouldn't be a big deal. Of course, I'm actually sore this morning from a bad twist in my sleep which almost had me in tears. Damn round ligament pain. I even called my doc this morning - because it was still sore... and I'm supposed to rest it.
• How do you 'rest' a round ligament? Especially with an almost 8 month old that needs to be picked up?
• I called my Aunt to see if she would come over and help with bedtime. She is leaving for a weekend trip today. Sigh.
• I'm planning on going to see my mother this weekend. I'm going to be pissed if it's annoying. I'm leaving my dogs home to try to avoid the whole 'your dog sucks' conversation.
• Call me a wimp, but I just don't want to get into all that in a face to face discussion. At least this week I don't.
• On Monday, Hulk will be going to daycare even though I'm not working. Am I a bad mom? I think not. I have a massage scheduled for 9 AM.
• I may even go see a movie on Monday.
• His surgery is on Thursday. I got the information in the mail about what he is supposed to do... no food after midnight, and only clear fluids in the morning. I hope he is in really early so I can't need to deal with Hungry Hulk - because he gets pretty mad when he is hungry.

That's all the excitement here. Looking forward to my week of no work - but will be pretty busy at home! I'm may even do some work on the nursery... if I'm able to get the wallpaper down without chemicals. We'll see.

20 week checkup

I went to my 20 week checkup on Monday. Both babies sounded great on the doppler, my weight was up another 2 pounds... and I'm measuring 26 weeks. At least I know I don't just FEEL huge, I AM huge. We talked a little more about delivery and the probability that I'll have a c-section. He agreed if I went into labor before 38 weeks we could discuss it (if both babies were head down, blah blah blah)...but I don't have a good feeling that is going to happen. I guess I'm setting myself up for the worst case scenario so I don't get disappointed. I'm also going to continue to go for ultrasounds every month, and I think he said I'd start non-stress tests every 2 weeks once I'm in my 3 trimester.

Fun fun.

The reason I love this doc? When I told him about the marker that one of my babies had for trisomy 18 - he told me that BOTH his daughters had the exact same thing, and they are totally healthy. Made me feel much more at ease... even though I honestly wasn't that worried to begin with (but of course, was worried that I wasn't worried!?! That's a normal Cece reaction for you!).

I was reading the book 'What to expect when you are expecting twins, triplets or quads' - and they recommend that you gain 20 pounds in the first 20 weeks. My doc hasn't said a thing about my weight gain... but of course, I went into this pregnancy 10 pounds over what I was when I got pregnant with Hulk - and it isn't like I'm wasting away. I just really want to avoid any NICU time with the girls....but I also don't know what else I could be eating to gain weight! I feel like I eat like a pig!

Hulk was somewhat miserable this weekend - his top two teeth are coming in. He even had a fever and threw up on Aaron on Sunday - but yesterday he was back to his normal happy self. I can feel the teeth, but I can't see them yet. I'm hoping he continues to be happy (and sleeping well - he slept really well last night too) for this weekend. I'm planning on going to the cabin to spend the weekend with my mother. Aaron is off to CA for another weekend with his buddies so I figured it would be a good time to go to the cabin. Just hope that Hulk sleeps better there than he did last time.

Summer is here, finally

The weather is finally getting nice, my brother is visiting this weekend, and our planned vacation is a little more than a week away. I'm really excited about my brother coming - he is my half-brother, and we really only got to know each other over the past 15 years. He has a really neat family (4 boys) and they are all coming and staying at my house on Saturday night. Sunday we are going to go into Boston and do a duck tour... and then they are off to the Berkshires for the week.

For our vacation, we are staying home. This is what we usually do, and as I've mentioned in the past, Aaron will be embarking on his favorite thing - tearing up a part of our house. This time it is his workshop. I'm hoping to be able to work on the nursery. But Hulk is going in for his minor surgery on the 6th...so we'll have that to deal with also. I am excited for a block of time when I won't be dealing with work bullshit. Things at work are just annoying and crazy.

Hulk is so funny now that he is crawling. I want to make a video in which I put 3 items on the floor - a teddy bear, a sharp stick, and a knife. I will bet a million dollars that he will first crawl to the knife, then the sharp stick and then, reluctantly, the teddy bear. He is also finally figuring out that he can follow me places, so it isn't such a crisis when I leave the room. Oh! And the bath scare seems to be over. Last night he was totally fine in the tub, and had a great night's sleep. I'm hoping that keeps up for the weekend when I have 8 people trying to sleep in our house!

TWO GIRLS!!!

I am over the freaking moon. I really didn't know what I was expecting, but I'm SO excited that we are having 2 girls!!! So so excited.

We pretty much had the BEST ultrasound tech also. She was kind and explained everything. She saw Baby A as a girl 100% when Aaron went to the bathroom, heh heh (and showed me - I saw the 3 lines). She couldn't pin down Baby B - but she gave an 80% chance of girl on her too. The doc came and she 100% saw that Baby B was a girl, and couldn't see it on A! So - for me, that is confirmation.

The heart, kidney's, brain, bladders and stomachs on both baby's were perfect. One of the babies (I can't remember which) had a marker for trisomy 18. It had something to do with the top of the spine - but the doc said she wasn't very concerned, and the heart and head shape of that baby was just fine. I guess that 1 in 500 'normal' babies also will have that... and I'm not going to have an amnio anyway. I did ask Dr Google, and he said "studies have shown that a single marker found on ultrasound is usually not a good indicator of a chromosomal condition (ref 3,4). In other words, if only one marker is found during a level 2 ultrasound, the odds are very high that the baby is healthy."

We go back in a month, and the doc did say they would recheck that, and she expected that it would be resolved anyway.

HURRAH FOR BABY GIRLS!!!!

Revel Yourselves!

Tomorrow is the big ultrasound day! For what it's worth, I think it's two boys - Aaron think it's a boy and a girl. I really hope that all is well with the gang, and they decide to show their stuff! I will report back when I get home.

We just got home from the cabin. It was a pretty OK visit. My mom acted as if nothing happened. Hulk HATED swimming in the pond (he also hates being in the BIG bath, whereas the little infant bath that he really doesn't fit in anymore is fine). He also barely slept. I'm pretty sure he is teething again (awesome). But the weather is finally nice and I've still got a few hours of weekend left! Off to enjoy....

Current State of Sleep and the Belly

Last night, Hulk went to bed at 7 PM and woke up at 6 AM. Aaron gave him a bottle, put him back in his crib (a move never done before) and he slept again until 7:45! We were strong over the past few days, and we are (hopefully) being rewarded. Monday night he woke up at 3 Am and cried on and off until 4, and then woke up at 6:30. Tuesday night it was a 3:30 AM wake up with 30 minutes of crying, followed by a 6:45 wake up for real... and then last nights blissful 11 hour solid sleep (followed by another couple of hours!). I'm not calling it a success yet - but it is progress!

And speaking of progress, here is a picture of my belly from today:

Yep, I'm going to have trouble going through doorways in a few months.