large and in charge

Camera and battery have reunited- so you may now observe my 33.5 week belly. It juts right out there, doesn't it?

Ignore my lackluster face. I was thinking about how much I wanted to sit back down.

ahhaa, this picture just makes me giggle. You know how when people pretend to be pregnant and put a basketball under their shirt? And it looks ridiculous? Well this looks ridiculous. But it's real.

But I do love having these babies to grow. See my little love pat? Yeah, that's love.

Ah yes, I have a new question- Is gentle detergent necessary for baby clothes? Should I just use my normal stuff and see how the boys react, then buy some different detergent if it's irritating?

Fun pregger belly developments! They are thus:

• I've never heard of this before: Every so often, I'll hear a little click from my belly. Kind of like the pop from a very small bubble of bubble wrap. It's usually accompanied by a kick and comes from the top of the belly curve (though how well can I localize that, really?). It now happens about 5 times a day. Anyone have an explanation?
• I have ITCHINESS like the dickens. I don't know who or what the dickens are but my stomach skin just cannot be soothed. I wake up scratching all the time.
• You can find us often writing down times as I start counting braxton hicks contractions to see if they're in a pattern. The doctor said to call if they're in a pattern for 2-3 hours. Well, last weekend I'd get them 3-6 minutes apart for an hour and a half and then they'd go on a break for 20 minutes. So we never called. Perhaps we should have? I tell you, that was fun for Sean while he studied for finals. At least it motivated him to pick out some clothes for the hospital bag.
• Not really new, but the baby ninjas are constantly getting more active. Here's a quick example:

(Man, could I sound more lethargic and dopey?) Oh babies, you two just have too much fun.

Octopus

Did anyone notice that it's been a month since I've put up ultrasound pictures?

What's that you say? You didn't miss them because you couldn't make heads or tails (literally) of them anyway?

Too bad, I have more. Two weeks ago, the high risk OB, the one who does the 3D pictures couldn't get a good view of either face so... he didn't give us any pictures. Hmph. But the tech at our normal doctor gave me a slew of pictures this last week. Not stellar pictures, mind, but good enough.

TOP: Somebody's leg. The tech was getting so frustrated with these guys. They've moved from being beside each other- left and right- to on top of each other- anterior and posterior (toward my belly button or my spine). She showed us a view of all the limbs flailing around in there- it's like there's an octopus in my belly!

BOTTOM: Aw, someone's foot! Except the big toe's hiding somewhere. I HOPE IT'S NOT MISSING! We'll have to be sure to count toes at the hospital.

TOP: I guess the tech figured out which arm was baby B's. He's a strong boy, look at him flex!

BOTTOM: I don't know what to make of this. You can see both their skulls. That's cool I guess. What IS cool as that they're both still head down!

Ok, now let's try and look at faces (well, just A's because B wouldn't look at the camera. He's a shy thing. Don't judge). Look at the bottom picture first.

BOTTOM: Okay orientation- forehead is on the right, chin on the left with the chin tilted slightly up. You can see the shadow of the right eye fairly dead-center in the picture (the other eye is completely shadowed) and you can sort of make out the line of the mouth by the chin. Yeah? Kinda?

TOP: This one's weird, I admit. The head's off the to upper right side and the chin is tilted up more. But you can get a sense of the mouth a cheeks a bit better. Okay, okay, move on, you'll hurt your eyes if you look at that one too long.

MIDDLE: Ah, good ol' profile. I mean fuzzy ol' profile. It's still forehead on right, chin on left. Can you make out the nose and lips?

These guys are just too well-formed and squirmy to get good pictures anymore. They're getting mighty big- A was 4 lb 12 oz and B was 4 lb 4 oz. It's like I have a 9 lb baby in me!

Once we get the camera battery, I'll show you my monster of a baby bump. We're hoping these guys wait for a few more weeks before their grand arrival. At least a week because Sean has finals all this week, heh. But if they make it to 36 weeks, there's a good likelihood that they wouldn't have to spend any extra time in the hospital. And folks, that's only 3 weeks away....

yikes. I better start getting ready!

zoology

Our camera has returned! Apparently in working order, but I can't check... because Canon didn't send back our battery or charger. Ugh. I don't know if they lost them or what but they're sending a replacement now. So once again, these babies better wait!

But we did get our washer and dryer today. Though, that didn't go without a hitch either- they initially installed the wrong washer. They called to tell me that bit of news after I had arrived to work so I had to leave early so they could switch it out. Not that I really minded leaving work. And it was an easy change and now we can do laundry whenever we want!

... Should I really be excited about that?

Anyway, no proper camera means no new pictures. But, hey, remember that one time Sean and I went to the San Antonio zoo? And I constantly promised to show you pictures and never did? Yeah, way back at Thanksgiving time? Wanna see them now? Okee dokee. I wish we had the telephoto lens back then but I did the best we could. I guess that I'll just have to make another zoo trip!

So bring on the pictures and a title accompanying each.

Bear Necessities (Sean suggested "Bear," then "Bear Walking")

Coy Koi

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Do Not Disturb

King Rodentia

What You Lookin' At?

Options, Options, Options

Stretch Marks

Anaranjado

WEIRDEST ANIMAL ON THE PLANET

Blue Hood

Dormant Amongst the Leaves

Twinsies

**Warning: this post contains the word "uterus" and the like, so feel free to skip it if that sort of topic aint yo thang.

Speaking of lack of pictures, our camera is on the fritz. Well, it's supposed to be fixed and on the way back here by now. The darn thing started giving me an error code after every few pictures and eventually stopped turning on at all. Luckily, this all happened two weeks before the warranty ended. But I tell you, I've been a little extra worried that our babies were going to show up and we'd be without a camera. What a thing to worry about!

So since we're pictureless, how about I tell you the story of how we found out we were having twins. Sounds fun to me!

I was pretty nervous for our first obstetrician's appointment. I had already been in there to do a blood test to confirm pregnancy- see, when we took the at home test, the control line didn't show up too well. Observe:

Hey, I did put in a picture! Anyway, that horizontal line was just so faint. So I wanted to make sure I actually was pregnant but was too cheap to go get a new test (I know, I'm a weirdo). And that's why I had already done a blood test at our obstetrician's office, which confirmed our happy hopes!

But I already had a kernel of doubt. I little piece of my brain worried they'd do an ultrasound at seven weeks and find nothing. It didn't help that Glee had featured just that sort of thing.

But lo and behold, the ultrasound found a little fetus! The PA who was performing the test took all the measurements while Sean and I exchanged loving gazes and a few happy tears. She showed us the baby's fluttering little heart and finished up by checking out the general health of my uterus.

She came back to the heart and I saw her give me an odd side-ways look. So I immediately start thinking something's wrong. Sean didn't notice the look and remains a happy-go-lucky soon-to-be daddio.

After doing a little more ultrasound surveying, the PA starts to explain, "alright, here's your baby's heart." A little more moving, "and here... is another heart."

A moment of processing...

"You're having twins."

My initial reaction: "Really." Delivered straight, hardly any inflection at all. Honestly, I was feeling sweet relief- that look didn't mean anything bad at all, it meant something doubly great! But the surprise counteracted the relief into a sort of neutrality.

Sean's initial reaction: Excitement. But so struck with shock that he couldn't say anything for a moment. He hadn't seen the PA's funny look a minute before, after all, he wasn't expecting any new information.

But recovering quickly, Sean pops out little "wow"s and "twins?!" while a second set of measurements were taken, as he watched wide-eyed. I don't think I ever had a moment of utter shock. Just a growing sense of surreality. And happiness.

I walked into the doctor's office that day worried the doctor would find an empty uterus but walked out knowing we had twice the baby! What a doubly fantastic day.