One-Month Well-Baby Visit

Phew. Glad that's out of the way. Due to Blue being called in to work today, I got to take the babies to their one-month well-baby doctor's visit by myself. In the rain. I started organizing and packing things up two hours before I wanted to leave the house. I gave myself thirty minutes to drive five miles. I fed and changed them before leaving the house. And I somehow managed to hold two Chicco Keyfit 30s in one hand/arm while opening doors. I impressed even myself.

I had planned on popping the seats into the stroller, but given the short distance from the car to the door, I opted to just carry them to keep them drier. They still got a little rain shower, but neither seemed to mind enough to wake up or stop sucking on their pacifiers.

However, stripping them down certainly got their attention. It was very exciting to see they'd each grown an inch, so they are both 20 inches long now. Indigo now weighs 8 pounds, up from his birth weight of 5lb4oz and his weight of 6 pounds two weeks ago. Periwinkle has also gained weight, which just makes me so happy after her NICU adventures. She's now a solid 7 pounds, up from 5lb4oz two weeks ago and her birth weight of 5lb1oz. Plus, at one point during her NICU stay she was only slightly above 4.5 pounds. She's now a healthy, growing girl who regularly downs 3+ ounces at a feeding, sometimes even 4 ounces, just like her brother.

She's also a champion burper, strong gripper, and extremely curious girl who looks at everything with such wonder and thoughtfulness. It does a mama's heart good to see her thriving. Indigo continues to sleep like a champ, although his sister is taking after him more and more, which is fantastic. He's also very chatty and doesn't hesitate to let you know if he's uncomfortable or bored, usually with an adorable whine that sounds like a horse's whinny.

I'm considering getting a carrier so I can wear one of them. It would be useful when Periwinkle is spazzing out and I want to hold her while doing laundry or picking up the dining room. It also could have come in handy today, when I could have worn one baby and carried the other in the infant seat. Things to look in to...

I just ordered a new camera, the Canon T3i, with the standard lens and a telephoto lens. I'm excited to become more of a "momtographer" with higher quality shots, although my phone has done a fairly good job so far, wouldn't you say? Half of the cost of the camera is covered by my birthday and Christmas gifts, so it worked out to be a pretty awesome deal for me. I'm psyched for it to get here so I can start playing!

Expect an update on the nursery with some "professional" shots from my new camera of the finished product. I've been postponing it because it means I have to tidy up in there, and now because I want to use my new camera for the shoot.

And now, a better picture showing how alike Periwinkle and I look as babies:

I'm on the left, which is obvious by the 80s couch I'm on. Comfiest couch ever, though!

26 Weeks, Baby Shower, Maternity Shoot

It's been a busy week! First of all, I'm now 6.5 months along. Time is simultaneously speeding up and slowing down. Two more weeks and I'll be into the third trimester!

This week the babies are heads of lettuce, which amuses me given the number of salads I've eaten this summer.

From thebump.com

Their hearing is fully functional, and they respond to light. I need to try shining a flashlight at my stomach one of these days. Soon their eyes will be able to open, and they have eyelashes already!

As for me, I feel lucky that a lot of the not-so-fun things haven't been happening (yet). I can still sleep relatively easily other than trips to the bathroom to pee. My back isn't killing me, and my ankles aren't swollen. I just get tired more easily and can't walk long distances (sorry, old omelette place. Switched to one closer to work!). I do have to say I'm done going to baseball games for the duration. Blue and I went to one Friday and while the game was fun, the seats were not. Plus my team lost. Not cool.

I had my baby shower up by where I grew up over the weekend. My mom put together a really cute theme, "Double Dip," and we had a sundae bar and cake pops shaped like ice cream cones (made by my sister-in-law). I got lots of cute outfits, great books to read to them, and useful things like a changing mat, stroller (Chicco Cortina Together), car seats (Chicco Keyfit 30), high chairs (by Graco), one of the cribs (thanks Mom!), and other things I am forgetting. But Blue and I feel incredibly lucky to have such loving and generous friends and family. We really can't thank them enough!

Overwhelmed at the generosity.

Opening a "cupcake" made by my sister-in-law. We'll call her Fuschia.

So as you can see, my sister-in-law, whom we'll call Fuschia because of her intense love of bright pink, made these adorable "cupcakes" as gifts for me. She rolled baby outfits, blankets, and this Pooh snuggle thing into the shapes of cupcakes, complete with cupcake liner and individual boxes. She SO should go into business doing this. She's very creative and crafty like that. She's also the one who made the cake pops. I'll try to get some pictures from my mom of that and other baby shower things.

Here's a picture of me and Fuschia. She even dresses awesomely!

Red and Fuschia. And a crib full of gifts!

One other fun thing from the shower was that I revealed genders, which was exciting. But I'm not sharing here yet, sorry!

The following day, my brother (fantastic photographer) did a maternity shoot for me. Blue got roped into a few photos, and otherwise played assistant, and Fuschia took some behind the scenes photos. It was fun, and perfect weather for it. Here's one sample shot that will be my 26-week photo for you guys. He's still working on tweaking the rest of them.

Beamer Photography

Can we say "Hello, belly"?

More to come from this session in September!

Vermont

I mentioned last week that my brother took a few photos of me when we were up at a wedding in Vermont. He's done his photographer thing and made them look even awesomer by tweaking color and other magical things. I love them! I can't wait for him to do a longer maternity shoot in August (I hope!). So here's me right around 19 weeks:

Beamer Photography

Beamer Photography

In other exciting news, I am 90 percent sure I've felt some nudges from what I think is Baby B over the past week. Usually it's when my arms are crossed over my belly when trying to nap on the train, or when I'm sitting too close to the desk at work. It's a sensation unlike anything I've felt before, so I think I can confidently say it's not gas! It's been happening almost every day and is very reassuring. I'm still looking forward to my anatomy scan tomorrow to make sure they are on track and healthy, of course!

And now I'm also paranoid that they are going to team up on me and break some of my ribs. I read about a woman who had four ribs broken by her baby kicking... And what can you really do about that until after they are born? So I'm hoping they are gentle with their mama...

NT Scan Ultrasound

Last Friday we had our Nuchal Translucency scan, where they do some measurements and compare to the babies' length and gestational age and from that can tell if you are at a higher risk of your babies having Downs Syndrome.

I wasn't too worried about that being a possibility, and I knew we'd love our babies even if they did have Downs, so I was mainly excited to see the babies for an extended length of time. It took about fifteen minutes, far less time than we'd thought, but it was an action packed fifteen minutes!

At first, for the briefest of moments, one of the babies (can't remember which) looked like a stereotypical alien. Then it seemed to realize we were watching and soon looked more human. It was an odd, startling moment that both Blue and I caught. We laughed that we are having alien babies. It looked something like this:

 

Both babies were very active, jumping around, waving to us, and just generally putting on a good show. I blame the huge glass of OJ I had before the appointment. Sugar high!

Baby B really liked to wave. He/she also didn't want to face the right way. He/she was facing us directly, so the ultrasound tech had to jiggle my stomach a bit to get him/her to turn and show us their profile, which he/she did (not knowing genders is going to get old...). Maybe he/she was giving us the finger and not just waving...

Baby A was enjoying what room he/she had while he/she had it. Legs fully stretched out, one arm up by the head, and seeming to suck on the other hand's thumb. It's like he/she knows space will soon be very limited as they get bigger.

 

So there they are. They tested within normal limits, and a phone call today just confirmed that the bloodwork also came back normal, so we are looking at two healthy babies! I go back in four weeks for more bloodwork and probably another ultrasound, and then a Level II ultrasound at 20 weeks for more testing stuff. But I'm not worried. I'm feeling oddly zenlike that all is going to turn out well.

Plus, their heads are now only about a third of the length of their bodies. They are much more proportional, weigh almost a full ounce, and are almost 3 inches long. Crazy! They are now about the size of a peach!

And now I am on to the second trimester! 188 days to go (roughly)!

Twin Shots!

I realize I promised you a post about our ultrasound/NT scan that we had on Friday, but I stupidly forgot the photos at home, and what ultrasound post is complete without new photos of the little ones? So I hope to do that post later tonight.

For now, however, I want to bring your attention to some of the cutest newborn photos on Pinterest---twin shots! These make me so excited for this fall when we do our own newborn twin photos! Here are some samples:

Holy crap, we're having twins...

Photographer Moms

I don't know about you, but I love photography. I like to think I'm okay, but then I find blogs like this one that make me realize I'm just an amateur. The woman at momtog.com is just amazing, although she is helped along by having some pretty adorable kids. She's a professional photographer, which gives her a major edge, too, of course.

I like to think that if I had her camera, a Canon 5D Mark II, I'd be able to take photos like this (hint to Blue). I guess what I really need is practice. And some kiddos to photograph, of course.

I find her blog to be an inspiration. It makes me want to just play with my camera all day. Or take a more advanced photography class. Visit her site and check it out. She's pretty amazing.

Plus she designs templates if you want to make photo books of your kids year by year or cards and invitations using photos. Check those out here. And for an example:

I'm so excited to take photos of our two babies when they get here. Although I'll be seeking professional help for their newborn photos from Katie Slater Photography. She shot our wedding and engagement session, and did a family session for my sister-in-law and her family. She is also amazing (and a mom herself), and basically I just want her to photograph my life from here on out.  I've pretty much unofficially lined her up for this fall for our little ones, whenever they decide to arrive. A sample of her work:

As she says on her site, she photographs love. I want to be able to do that too.

Happy Friday, whoever actually is reading this!