Inside the Uterus

Sandy here:

On Monday, I went back in for an ultrasound. We're at 28 weeks (7 months for those of you who have not done this whole pregnant thing--I used to get annoyed when pregnant people would tell me how many weeks along because I'd have to Gulp! do the math--but now I get it) out of 40 weeks.

Doug and I are so spoiled--we have gotten to see the babies tons--I guess it helps make up for the fact that apparently I'm close to as big as I might get if I was just carrying one baby--and I still have about 10 weeks to go! The girls are getting bigger, so in some ways it makes it harder for the tech to get "good pictures" of them. We go in every month so their growth can be tracked. One is a little smaller, but she's been like that from the beginning--they're watched to make sure they each track along their individual growth curves. I learned a couple interesting things when we went:

1. Baby B (whom we have temporarily named Myrtle) actually has chubby cheeks and a big belly! The first picture is her--it looks like she's laying on her side, and you can see one of her sugar cheeks, her nose, mouth and an eyelid.



2. Baby A (whom we have temporarily named Ethel) is head down--and I mean waaay head down (not like ready to come out or anything) but apparently pretty low which is what is contributing (along with the whole pregnant in general thing) to making me feel somewhat uncomfortable. The second picture is of her--it looks like she's laying on her back, with her head at the bottom of the picture, and yes, those are her legs above her--she might be a future gymnast.



3. The babies now have a combined total weight of over 5 pounds! That's a lot of baby for 28 weeks along (if you read the book "Your Pregnancy Week by Week" apparently a single baby should only weigh around 2.5 pounds).

4. Myrtle apparently thinks she's alone (except when she kicks her sister) because she is currently in the 55th percentile (and that's for singles--they don't have a special twin chart). In layman's terms, it means she's big!

5. Ethel is in the 33rd percentile which is also good--especially for twins.

So, what's the summation of all I learned at the ultrasound?

I am a super gestator.

Bump Update

Doug:

28 weeks!!! Wow!!!! Not much I can add to this:

Okay, I can add this. The other night Sandy woke up and had to go use the bathroom. She went to get up and about halfway between the laying down position and the sitting up position ..... she got stuck. Really. She had to ask me to give her a little push to get up. Oh, the things to come.




She's awfully cute, isn't she?

House Update

Doug-

Quick update on the house. First, we finished painting the Twinkies' room (with low VOC paint, it's supposed to be healthier) and also got a lot of stuff handed down from one of my bosses, Lindsey. Lindsey's kids are now 4 and 6, so she's done with baby stuff and gave us a pack-and-play, a baby bjorn, a bouncy chair and a ton of other stuff.



As I mentioned before, we need two of pretty much everything, so these kind souls like Lindsey, Scott and Molly, Todd and Brenda and everybody else that has handed stuff down have been a real lifesaver. Now we're just waiting for the cribs and dresser to arrive.





And finally, Sandy filled the yawning hole in our life that was a missing kitchen curtain; her handmade handiwork is to the right. As you can see she is very talented. If I can talk her into it, she'll do a blog post about all of the baby things she has been knitting.

Fame and Fortune

Sandy here--

I'm not sure how my life is going to change, but I'm sure dramatically, now that my husband is a famous attorney dealing with far-reaching issues:

http://www.durangoherald.com/sections/News/2008/11/13/Bearproof_trash_rules_introduced/

If you come over to our house, hopefully I'll see you behind all the paparazzi.

Birthing Classes

Doug-

Tonight Sandy and I went to our second birthing class. The class we are taking is one night a week for four weeks and they do it at the hospital in the conference rooms. There were 3 other couples tonight as well as last week, but one of the couples was different tonight. One of the couples looks to be about our age, another couple is probably late 20's-early 30's, and the third couple .... well let's just say that we have dubbed her "Juno" and she is accompanied by her boyfriend "Jeff Spicoli." Seriously, its a bit amusing. I was wondering how she gets her homework done if she has birthing class on a school night.

The first night they had us do a relaxation exercise where we closed our eyes and imagined being in a quiet place. The instructor gave us a little narrative to follow, and during the narrative she had us imagining ourselves approaching a peaceful lake in the mountains and then climbing into a boat that was under a tree and slowly drifting out onto the lake in the boat. Sooooo peaceful and relaxing.

When we were driving home, Sandy started laughing and said, "you know, when she had us get in the boat I actually got a little nervous because I was thinking of a canoe and I was worried it was going to tip over." I started laughing too because all I could think of when I was in the boat was how cold the water probably was and what it would be like to swim back to shore if the boat leaked.

So we made a decision about relaxation techniques during the birth; during the visualization stage, we're going to skip the part about the boats.

First Snow

Doug-


Exciting morning here in Durango; Miliya and I woke up to our first snow of the season. Well actually, we got a little snow the night of the election, but it barely covered the cars so it didn't really count.




Now living in Durango, snow is a very big deal!!! Most people that live here like to ski or do other snow type activities (we are in the mountains after all), so the first snow is exciting. Pictures to the right. It snowed pretty hard for about an hour or so and then stopped; by mid-afternoon the sun was out and about half of the snow melted off.



Last year we had crazy snow in Durango, and it quit being fun after the third storm of 15+ inches in 5 weeks. This was at the same time that Sandy was laid up with a broken femur, so it was particularly not-fun for me. We are hoping to avoid a repeat this year because the only thing I can imagine that is worse than having big snows and a wife with a broken femur is having big snows and a couple of newborn twins.


Our lowlight of the weekend was Sandy suffering through a bad cold. Colds and pregnancy kind of suck, but she soldiered through with a lot of hot water with honey and lemon and some quality naps. On Saturday night we went to see Loudon Wainwright III at the college. Loudon is a pretty obscure folk singer that does some very funny songs; I originally stumbled across him working at the college radio station in Gunnison, CO in the late 80's. You may know him from some cameo acting appearances he has done; originally as the singing surgeon in the comedy MASH and lately in a number of Judd Apatow movies and TV shows (he was the doctor in "Knocked Up"). It was very fun, but my only disappointment was that he didn't play the following song, which has taken on some special meaning for me:

Bein' a dad isn't so bad
Except that you gotta feed 'em
You gotta shoe 'em and clothe 'em
And try not to loathe 'em
Bug 'em and hug 'em and heed 'em

Bein' a dad can sure make you mad
Man it even can drive you crazy
It's as hard as it looks
You gotta read them dumb books
And you end up despising Walt Disney

Bein' a dad starts to get radical
When they turn into teenagers
You gotta tighten the screws
Enforce the curfews
Confiscate weapons and pagers

But a daughter and son
Can be sort of fun
Just as long as they don't defy you
They'll treat you like a king
They'll believe anything
They're easy to frighten and lie to

Bein' a dad (bein' a dad)
Bein' a dad (bein' a dad)
Bein' a dad can make you feel glad
When you get paperweights and aftershave lotions
Yeah it feels pretty great when they graduate
That's when you're choked with emotions

But bein' a dad takes more than a tad of
Good luck and divine intervention
You need air-tight alibis
Fool proof disguises
Desperation's the father of invention

So sometimes you take off
For a few rounds of golf
And you stay away for half of their lifetimes
The result of it all is
You're captured and hauled up
Before a tribunal for dad crimes

Bein' a dad (bein' a dad)
Bein' a dad (bein' a dad)
Bein' a dad can make you feel sad
Like you're the insignificant other
Yeah right from the start
They break your heart
In the end every kid wants his mother.

Okay, its not as funny to read it, so go to Itunes and listen. Besides, this is a family blog, so I couldn't put up the lyrics to "Rufus is a tit-man."

Denver Baby Shower and Marathon

Doug-

Okay, we're trying to get caught up here, so bear with us. Two weeks ago we made the drive to Denver (6.5 hours) for a baby shower for Sandy and I and also so I could run the Denver Half-Marathon with Scott. Because we know so many people in Denver, in the past we have usually made this drive every 2 months or so on average. During one particular wedding heavy period in 2005 I actually did 3 trips in 5 weeks, but that's not this story. However, we expect that once the Twinkies get here, our trip frequency will decrease significantly. At least that's what Scott tells us having done this trip a few times with Audrey in the last year or so.

On Saturday morning we had a very nice shower that was hosted by Scott and Molly. Sandy's parents, Doug and Kathy drove out from Missouri to be there, and we were also joined by my Mom, her friend (and ours) Diane, our friends (and Scott and Molly's neighbors) Adam and Elisa and our friends Derek and Jen. It wasn't a big crowd, but that's okay as we were excited to see everybody that was there and it kept the house from getting too crowded.

Saturday afternoon Scott, Adam and I went to the Marathon Expo and talked to our buddy Johnny who was working the Clif Bar booth. Johnny is a guy Scott and I each know from our Chili's days some 15 years ago; he's actually 3 years older than me, but you wouldn't know it most days (except for the gray beard). He tends bar, plays saxophone in a touring band and works for his girlfriend Corey at the Clif Bar booth at these kinds of events (she is a promotions rep for Clif and even though she is about 15 years younger than he, she is the mature and responsible one in the relationship). I told Scott that it's funny that in 15 years our lives have sure changed a lot; Johnny's has not. Anyway, Johnny is actually one of the greatest persons I know in the entire world and he's one of my best friends, so it was good to see him and walk the expo with him. If you know anything about Johnny, it will not surprise you to know that he knew just about everybody in every booth (Johnny is also a twin, so he is very excited about our twins).

Sunday morning Scott and Adam and I ran the Half-Marathon. I did the full marathon last year on an absolutely abysmal day; 40 degrees and rain. It was awful, I couldn't feel my hands for days afterwards. This year was much nicer, in the 40's to start but clear and sunny. Scott had never run a Half-Marathon before and we were hoping to get him across the line in 2 hours or so. We started off a little slow, but between miles 3 and 9, Scott turned the jets on and by mile 9 we were pretty close to where we needed to be for a 2 hour finish. Unfortunately, the finish was still 4 miles away and right around that time it became clear Scott did not have the miles he needed in his legs that day to hit the goal. Our time faded a bit, but we still finished without walking in right around 2:05. In any event, it was a lot of fun and Scott has every reason to be proud considering the fact that he used to declare very adamantly that he is not a runner. Well he is now. Anybody that does a Half-Marathon without walking is a runner.

The best part of the day, however, was packing the car for the drive home. We were taking home all of the stuff from the shower, a lot of hand-me-downs from Scott and Molly, our bags, a dog and, best of all, a TON of stuff Sandy bought at her regular run to Costco (this is a Denver trip tradition). Sandy's dad had the best line of the day when we were loading the Costco stuff:

"I know Sandy likes Costco, but I didn't know she was planning on opening a branch in Durango."

Suffice it to say there was considerable skepticism about whether I could get everything in the Landcruiser. Suffice it to also say that I am a packing wizard.

Here's a slide show of the trip:

Denver Shower and Marathon

Getting Really Pregnant

Sandy here:

A couple weeks ago when we were up in Denver, I had to go to the maternity clothing store (those books and doctors weren't kidding when they said that women carrying twins get bigger faster). I was approached by one of the employees who asked if I needed any help and when I turned to her she exclaimed "You look ready to go!" After wandering around the store a little longer, I learned that it was only her 3rd day on the job. I'm pretty sure that the extensive training program does not consist of "pregnant woman sensitivity training."

This was on a Sunday. Then on Monday I had a doctor's appointment (I get to go every 2 weeks now--twins again). At the appointment, the doctor measured my fundal height (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundal_height for an explanation) where she informed me that I was the size of an 8 month pregnant woman. For those of you who have been following (or not)--at this appointment, I was only 5 1/2 months pregnant! I also like the doctors to compare the size of my uterus to something I would recognize (it sure was cute when the doctors would say "plum" or "grapefruit") and without pausing the doctor said "There isn't a fruit big enough for you!" Although she later recanted and told me I was probably watermelon sized. No wonder I have a hard time bending over! Try shoving a watermelon in your pants and tell me how easy it is.

I'm almost afraid to ask for a comparison when I go to the doctor again.

Surprise!

Sandy here:

So, we've had a pretty busy last couple weeks, and we'll update on that soon, but for now (and all our clamoring fans) just a brief story.

Scott and Molly have very kindly given us some of Audrey's old baby things (she's almost 21 months old!), and we are very excited. One of those things was a carseat and a couple of bases. Doug tested them out in our small car, and we figured out that we can make it work--certainly around town.

Tonight, my job was to search for a second car seat. Now, I could have just gotten any seat, but back before Audrey was born, Molly spent a bunch of time figuring out what would be the best, lightest-weight carseat. And I figure--how much can the technology really change in a couple years? So I flipped the carseat upside down to find the make and model number so we could order one. As I did that, I heard a couple somethings fall to the floor. I looked down, and found....

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/68331/product_review_gerber_fruit_puffs.html?cat=5

I can't wait to be a mom.

Obama

Sandy here:

Barack Obama is running a new campaign ad. In light of all the recent vitriolic discourse by McCain and Palin, it was refreshing to see this uplifting ad. I can't find a direct link to it, but it is embedded on this page.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/obamas-childhood-in-ad/

I'm not posting this as a campaign message, but as a follow up to Doug's Pooh Bear post. After watching this ad, I can no longer look at Barack without tearing up. In fact, watching the ad gets me all teared up (in a good way, but still...).

The list of things that don't make me cry is slowly being whittled away.

Pooh Bear

Doug:

So we're running errands the other morning, it's raining a bit and I'm driving when we notice something laying in the middle of the road. We come up on it and realize its a stuffed Winnie the Pooh toy looking a bit sad and soggy laying there in the middle of the road. At this point, Sandy has a bit of a breakdown. "It's a Pooh" she cries out in a very distraught voice and starts to cry. "It's so sad," she says,"some poor little kid just lost his Pooh." I tried to calm this emotional onslaught by suggesting that maybe the kid threw him out the window. This did not help. "That's even worse," she says, "the Pooh was just abandoned out there in the road."

Luckily I was able to distract her somewhat by suggesting we go get her a snack.

Pregnant Brain and Always Read Ahead

Doug:

Sandy does a lot of reading about having babies. She has about 20 or 30 books about pregnancy, and she actually reads most of them. Luckily as a guy I only have one book to read, "The Expectant Father." It has big print, it's not too long, and it's organized into 9 chapters, one for each month of the pregnancy. Pretty easy stuff; I spend about 30 minutes once a month reading the book and I'm good to go. This "parenting" thing is easy!!!

However, I did learn a valuable lesson about the importance of reading ahead before sharing stuff with Sandy. If you remember, I posted earlier about what we call "pregnant brain" or Sandy's new tendency to forget things. We've had a lot of good laughs about this, so I was amazed when I read the following:

"If your partner has been forgetful lately, or seems to be losing a lot of things - including her memory - it may be because her brain is shrinking. Yep, Anita Holdcroft, an English anesthesiologist, found that during pregnancy, women's brains actually get 3 to 5 percent smaller."

Wow, I thought, that's interesting. So I shared it with Sandy, as I thought she would be interested too. Unfortunately, I didn't read the next couple sentences until after I told her. Those sentences:

"Now that you know this, it's probably best that you keep it to yourself. After all, there's really no nice way to tell someone that her brain is shrinking."

They were right. Sandy didn't find it to be nearly as "interesting" as I did.

Week 21 Bump Pictures

Updated Bump Pictures to your right.

The big news this week was that Sandy felt the Twinkies for the first time on Weds. morning. We were wondering when this would happen as a lot of people said they should start kicking at around 20 weeks. Our Twinkies are probably a little bit smaller than most babies at their age, so its probably not surprising that they were a little later.


It was very funny because I always get up first, feed the dog and let her out, then I get in the shower and wake Sandy up when I get out of the shower. Let's just say that she does not usually have a hard time sleeping through all of my morning activities. However, Weds. morning as I was heading for the shower a VERY awake Sandy suddenly called me to come back to the bedroom. She wasn't completely sure what had happened, but after a few more times, we knew the girls had let us know they were there. They've been kicking like crazy every morning since.

At all costs

Sandy here:

A couple weeks ago, Doug and I went to the grocery store. We got ready to check out and, as one does, we tried to pick the shortest line. Well we ended up behind a woman with many many groceries. We did not notice that we chose a line without a bagger. AND, to complete the trifecta, the checker was very slow (normally she works in produce, and was only checking because the store was so busy--not that I know her--she was telling everyone this information).

I settled myself in for a good dose of "let's see what this person is buying." She had a cart full of every type of organic and natural product possible--I didn't think that many products were stocked at our local City Market!

The woman buying the copious amounts of food had reusable bags with her. However, when the checker asked her how many bags she had, her response was "I don't know--can we count them at the end?" The woman refused to help the checker at all--she did not move from her post and would not help bag any of her groceries. In her defense, I do think she needed a rest for her left hand--outside of movie stars, I don't think I've seen a rock that big in person.

Her bill came to 401 and some change and she wrote a check. Now, apparently, if a check gets written for over $400 a manager has to come do an override (maybe to combat fraud?). So, we're waiting and waiting (and then still waiting). Finally we get the override, the receipts are issued, Doug and I get ready to spring into action (if Doug ever wants a career change, he makes a heck of a bagger), when the woman turns to the checker and says--"Did you put my bag credit on?" Turns out the checker had forgotten. In case you think the bonus for bringing bags is significantly larger here in Durango, let me disabuse you--it's 5 cents a bag. 5 cents! Of course the checker didn't know how to open the register to get 45 cents, so that was another ordeal. Finally the woman got her hard-earned money and left.

My theory is that she puts all that bag money into a special "ring" fund...

House Rearrangement

Doug:

So the last few weeks have been filled with (a) trying to figure out what the hell we need to buy (Sandy has covered that already) and (b) doing lots of re-arranging of our house. This post is about the latter.

Anyway, not much commentary, just some pictures for those of you that are curious. First, the room that used to be known as the "Craffice" is being converted into the Twinkies' room. To date, we have pretty much managed to clear everything out of that room, but haven't done much more. I think the plan is to next paint it yellow (I say I "think" because you know who really gets to make these decisions.) A picture is below:

So if you were wondering what happened to everything in the "Craffice," well we now have a room known as the "Guoffice." This is short for Guest Room/Office. First, we (Sandy) got rid of the big desk and Sandy found a smaller desk from West Elm to replace it. Here's a picture:

Then we moved the futon from the craffice to the guoffice and put the old guest bed in the garage for now. Sandy also painted the futon black so it would match the new desk (a pregnant woman buying spray paint; what could the clerk at the hardware store have thought?):

Anyway, if anybody comes up to visit us, you will now be welcome to stay in the Guoffice.

The other part of this equation is the garage. But I don't even want to go there...