34

I've hit the 34 weeks mark! That is considered a milestone because the babies could come and be relatively safe after this. I had an appointment last week and all is well. They plan on taking out my stitches at 36 weeks-it is weird to see that appointment on my calendar because it means babies will likely come relatively soon after! I have watched other twin pregnancies through blogs and it seems that week 34 is the week when most women feel like they want to be done. I hit that point about two days ago:) I'm lucky that I've had no heartburn, no varicose veins, no serious swelling (yet), but I am officially ready to not be pregnant anymore. I have to grunt and groan to stand from a seated position (laying is even worse), if I move I am instantly out of breath, when I sit I have to cradle my tummy just to take some of the weight off my sides, I can't cross my legs or I cut off all blood circulation, I can't sleep with Danny anymore because our little double bed has officially outgrown the two (or four:) of us, and I have just gotten my first serious stretch marks(and no I'm not the type to post a tummy pic).  It will only get worse:)

More then all that, however,  I am just excited to see these babies! We have been toying with names since we found out they were girls and are almost set. Picking names has been way hard for us this time around-I just don't like many girl names. I could name triplet boys on the spot-but girls are hard!  We'll see if the names stick when we see their cute faces.

I have set a deadline of April 4 to get my to do list finished. I'm trying to finish editing and burning our family videos, finish the babies' room, pack my hospital bag and other assorted chores. I really want to take it easy in April (meaning-lay around and read my book, watch the masterpiece shows on my dvr, play pretty princess with Lucy) in hopes that the babies will stay put as long as possible. My goal is to deliver the week of the 17th. Do I actually have any control over that? No. But positive visualization has to help right? By that time I'll be 37 weeks and the girls should be pretty big (I will also be pretty big I expect:)

Well, that was a random jumble of thoughts. I tried to take a tummy pic yesterday-unfortunately I was not very talented at it.  In most of them I cut off either my head or my tummy-kind of defeats the purpose:)

My favorite number

Friday was Danny's birthday! He turned 28, one of my favorite numbers (it makes this age feel special). Danny treats his birthday pretty casually, but we still managed to have an exciting day.  He started it by letting me sleep in and going to work-wonderful man. Lucy and I met him for lunch at Tomatina.  We love celebrating things there-even though it is a pretty casual dining spot.

We had a great lunch then headed over to the Borders by our house which is going out of business. Everything was up to 40% off-so it was like heaven. Danny picked a book for himself and somehow we ended up getting Lucy several things-I'll have to save them for her birthday:) After a leisurely afternoon we met our parents in Walnut Creek for dinner and opened gifts there. We had Naia (we gave you a mental shout out Kate) for dessert and sang only the Happy Birthday song-it was pretty cold and the Anderson tradition of three songs just wasn't going to happen.
Unfortunately I was persuaded to rely on the iphone for birthday pics this year-which means we have no good pics and hardly any of the birthday boy himself.

I'm grateful for fish

The above title was the message Lucy brought home from Sunbeams this week.  Lucy LOVES Sunbeams and her teacher. She always comes home with a little paper bag filled with coloring pages and cute projects they do in class. This week she came home with a fishing game she was very excited to play with us. Each time you catch a magnetic fish you say something you're grateful for.  I have been consistently fishing since she brought this game home, and I am grateful I can hear all the things Lucy is grateful for. It has also been a fun to try and think of new things to be grateful for myself.  It's way harder then a gratitude journal:)

Real

So, I'm going to have twins, and soon.  I know everyone knows that, and that technically I've been pregnant for about eight months, but every once in awhile it actually hits me and I'm always surprised.   I really can't believe it, maybe because it has been along time since I had a baby, maybe because there are two of them, maybe because having a baby always feels like this.

I know Danny is in for a shock when it actually happens. Sometimes just looking at me he looks surprised to see my tummy-I'm sure he will be shocked when the time actually comes and they put two little babies in his arms. Anyway, just wanted you to know that this is actually going to happen and that according to the calendar it will happen pretty soon. This month is FLYING by and I don't doubt April will fly by too.

This is what made me embrace the reality today

I bought this today. I can't believe it.

PS: Does anyone have a camcorder they really like? I hate researching these things-there will be ten reviews saying the product is awesome and then five that give really good reasons why it stinks. We're looking for an HD one and don't want to spend a ton of cash. We have been using the one my parents in law gave us for our wedding. It still uses little tapes! Unfortunately it won't work without being plugged in and has officially stopped downloading to my computer (there goes Christmas morning! Oh well). Anyway, I want to be able to film these girls in all there glory-so any suggestions are appreciated:)

Beach Trip

We have been spoiled with awesome weather, so the week of rain we've just had was rather depressing. Next week is supposed to rain too, so when we noticed that Thursday was the one clear day for a while, we hopped in the car and drove to Santa Cruz. Lately I haven't accompanied Danny on his surfing trips, but this time I realized that I may not get the chance again! Danny surfed, Lucy played in the sand and I sat on my beach chair with my tummy propped up by towels and my special back pillow in place:) It was a beautiful day and so fun to have a little holiday mid-week. (Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery within two minutes)

Lucy got some new shades from Gma L and sported them the whole trip.

Welcome babies!

I expect that title freaked you out when you read it on your google reader-but today we are only announcing the birth of Lucy's twin girls.  Lucy went to her great-grandma Leininger's house yesterday and GG gave her two baby dolls. She instantly looked at her dad and said "Wow! Twins are so hard to hold!"  She carried them around and took care of them the rest of the day. Their names are Lucy and Katy.  That is her preference for our babies as well, but I've explained that  having two daughters named Lucy could be kind of confusing. She still disagrees.  Here she is doing outdoor chores with her babies:

Big girl

 There are lots of awesome things about having a big girl who is almost four:
*She can get in and out of the car by herself
*She can entertain herself for long periods of time reading, coloring or doing other quiet activities
*She is a big helper-she gets me things when I don't want to stand up (which is pretty often these days!),  sets the table, sorts the socks, waters the plants and is an awesome weed puller
*She is an awesome shopper and always tells me her opinions
*She sings to me, tells me stories and puts on ballet shows for me
*She is in all ways SUPER FUN

But one of my favorite things about having a big girl, is sharing my favorite things with her. 

Today we watched Anne of Avonlea together. I had some projects to do while we watched and I thought she'd get bored and just play around me. Nope. She sat next to me and watched every minute (yes, I know that is a lot of tv for one day!) Every once and a while she'd turn to me and say very seriously, "Mom, I don't know who she is going to marry. Who does she love?"
I know Lucy, that always tortures me to. Thank heavens she marries Gil, who is second only to Danny in my heart.

 

"I just want you." Sigh.

Twin Sale!

On Friday night I had anxiety dreams about the twin sale I was attending the next day. I kept seeing these girls pushing my giant-pregnant self out of the way, or arriving really late and everything was gone-they were intense dreams. You can tell I have been excited to attend the annual sale in Pleasanton. My Mom and Dad woke up early on Saturday morning to take me-they even brought me a bagel and donut. We fueled up and got to the sale about 40 minutes early. At first we felt like we were surprisingly far back in the line-but by the time they let us in I was feeling great-the line behind us was incredible! There were hundreds of people waiting to be let in! Ladies had brought large bags and even laundry hampers to carry home their loot. We went straight to the equipment section where unfortunately I didn't find the double snap-n-go I wanted, but I did find two cute changing pad covers, an awesome door-hanging jumperoo and mom got a bunch of puzzles for Lucy.  We felt relatively successful, left Dad with our first haul and went in to the clothing building. They had nothing cute for Lucy, but I wandered to the newborn girl section and we ended up with some adorable outfits, preemie onesies and sleepers. Most new moms say they get a ton of newborn things and then don't have much for the other ages-I'm the opposite. I think I'm set for clothes (although I have no idea really, I've only ever clothed one baby at a time!) but I didn't have very many newborn clothes-so this was perfect. We left feeling very successful-not to mention exhausted and sore- I had tons of contractions all day after all the activity:)

Just some of my cute newborn outfits. There is nothing cuter then mini-clothes.

My preemie onsies-this pic doesn't show off how tiny tiny they are!

...so I had to show you. They are so dang small!

Every three months...

Every three months for the next four years Danny will go in to his oncologist, have some blood work  and occasionally a scan done and make sure that he is healthy and cancer-free.  We've had these appointments throughout the last year. Sometimes they have been really hard to go to-hard to just sit in the building again, hard to remember. As time has gone by they have gotten a bit easier I think. Yesterday when Danny had an appointment-I didn't even go with him. Shocking I know! I wish I had actually, Danny saw our favorite nurse who is pregnant with her first baby-I'm so excited for her. It's amazing how connected you feel to the people there ( and they to you-all the nurses tell Danny how sexy/handsome he is now. I thought he was cute bald-but technically he is in much better shape these days:)

Anyway, without these appointments sometimes we are able to forget about that time.  Then little things remind you-Danny has been feeling kind of sick after eating for the last while now.  Chemo made him lactose-intolerant so I was thinking that he would have to be even more vigilant about staying away from dairy (he has been able to eat butter on things) or maybe he had just caught an annoying stomach bug. He asked the NP about it and she told him that the amount of chemo they gave him had pretty much stripped his GI tract and he would likely feel this way the rest of his life. Shoot. Doesn't that stink? He is going to start taking prescription strength probiotics in an effort to help, but that is about all we can do.  It is annoying, but probably a good reminder of how lucky we are he is generally healthy, not to mention alive.  (Be proud of my awesome attitude-it took awhile for me to get there, and I still don't totally buy it. Danny does though-he has had a very good attitude about it from the start.)

Hopefully it is another three months until we have to think about cancer again.

31 weeks

To document this week:

Excuse the horrible pic. I asked Danny to take it for me, then somehow got mad at him (hormones) and just wanted to take the darn thing-so we took it in an awkward place.  I added Lucy so it would be less weird-then she told me she stuck out her tongue. It was randomly a very awkward experience.

Last week I had my monthly sonogram that checks the babies' weights. At 30 weeks they were weighing in at:
Baby A: 3 lbs 9 oz.
Baby B: 3 lbs 10 oz.

Baby A has consistently been head down and Baby B seems to go back and forth. Last week she was head down, but today she was breech again, so who knows. She is definitely a little squirmer.  I've gained a total of 37 lbs, but don't really see it anywhere but my tummy yet. I'm just waiting for the day when my face and ankles start swelling-but I hope its later rather than sooner:) Today my tummy measures at 40 weeks, so no wonder I feel kind of big:) Danny tells me I'm huge, but most people say I look small for twins--anyway, with several weeks to go I'm only getting bigger. Fortunately I'm only really uncomfortable at night, and most of the time I'm tired enough I hardly notice even then.  The weeks are flying and before I know it I'll have babies so I'm appreciating this fun time (although we'll see how long that lasts! I may be whining for the end to come by next week!)

Obsessed

My stroller finally arrived in the mail yesterday. I scared the UPS man because I threw open the door and yelped with excitement when I saw him pull up (it was embarrassing).  I was worried it would be hard to put together but it was incredibly easy-I just snapped on some wheels, attached the canopies and was done! Here are way too many pictures of it.

Lucy mugging for the camera

Here the single seat is in the highest position-shows off the big basket underneath

Lucy has freakishly long limbs-so maybe most kids can ride in here at three and 35 lbs, but it doesn't look like it would be too comfy for Lucy.

The canopies go pretty far down! I like that both kids can see out when the canopies are up-one isn't sitting way beneath the other.

Looks awesome-but has very little leg room-they'll just be kicking each other, but maybe I can do this when they're younger:)

I love the color and it is a very smooth ride. I like that I can have both babies face me and then face out when they're a bit older. The seats click in and out of place very easily and I love how narrow and short the stroller is-I don't feel like I'm pushing a boat around. Anyway, just wanted to share:)

Twins

Can you see where my mind has gone these last couple weeks?

This pregnancy my emotions have been all over the place.  Most of all I have been thrilled and felt blessed beyond belief. However, occasionally other emotions have crept up as well. The last bit I have been increasingly frightened. Twins seem so exciting, and for someone like me who can't get pregnant without help, they literally are "two for the price of one".  I finally decided to confront the fear and read up on what this will really take for the first little while (I'll face all the other issues and intricacies that come with twins after the first year:) Well, the books have freaked me out even more! Just feeding these girls is going to take a lot of organization! Sleeping too, I just can't keep all the rules straight in my head! Let me tell you-each of these books suggests getting a "night nurse". Come on! Who can actually afford to get a night nurse?!

I just need to take some cleansing breaths and know that of course we will survive.  I mostly want to be able to enjoy these girls baby-hood and appreciate it while it lasts-I know how freakishly quickly time flies at that stage (and in general really). 

So to sum up: super excited, a bit freaked out that I'll mess everything up, confident in the end it will all be fine (which is to say, we'll survive:) I'll have to post the babies' stats tomorrow after my appt. I feel like this is actually going to happen soon! Most mornings Danny looks at me with wide eyes and tells me I've grown overnight. I think he is actually realizing there are TWO babies in here!

Baby Ruby II

I can't remember if I've written about this on the blog before, but Lucy has never been very into dolls. She LOVES dress up clothes, her barbie-sized Princesses and everything else Princess themed.  After seeing baby Ruby (Becca's adorable child) at Christmas she found the one baby doll we own and named her Ruby. Well, in the last couple of months Lucy has been pregnant and given birth to Ruby abut ten times. Lucy loves pregnancy-it is all about eating delicious food that her baby wants until her baby is full, and asking me to feel her stomach so I can feel her baby kick. Sometimes the baby in her tummy will even make her feel sick or uncomfortable (but not nearly as often as reality:) Labor usually consists of Lucy yelling, "My baby's ready to come out", running to her room and bringing back baby Ruby for me (the proud grandma) to hold. I have to babysit fairly often because the new mom is so tired.  Lucy kisses her baby and whispers sweet endearments to her and has stolen a pair of baby shoes from my baby wardrobe for her own baby. We'll see what happens to baby Ruby once our house is filled with new babies, but for now I'm glad she is getting some good experience.

(yes it is warmer here in CA then in most places in March. Is it bathing suit weather? No. Lucy has decided her new swimming suit from Gma can also serve as a ballet dress until the pools open. She insists she is not freezing. Crazy.)