nope...still no babies

sorry for the lack of updates, but as you can imagine we've been quite busy around here with family in town for the holidays. christmas was pretty lowkey, since the weather was so miserable and we unfortunately had our share of sickies in the house.

so here we are now at december 30th, in my 37th week and still prego! i honestly thought they would have been here by now, but not the case! had a doctor's appt this morning and i'm sitting a 1cm dilated....which is nothing to get terribly excited about since that's exactly where i was two weeks ago!

so now, if they are not here by next week, we'll be picking a day to be induced. so much for our 2008 tax deductions!! well i suppose they still have 36 more hours if they decide they're ready!! :)

hope you all had a wonderful holiday! and have a happy new year!!

maternity pics

we went to take some pics a few weeks ago, and i thought i'd post the few that i have. i was quite pleased with our photographer, but i'm more excited for when the babies get here to take their newborn pics!

fFN test results

so....we went in yesterday and had the test done and the fetal fibronectin results came back negative...meaning there is a 95% chance that these babies will not be arriving in the next two weeks! there seem to be many who doubt this test, but my doc seems to be a believer, so i've got no reason to think otherwise!
of course parts of me are so ready to have and meet these babies, but it's obviously better for them to be in utero for as long as possible. in two weeks time, i'll be 35 weeks, so that is definitely a good thing if they're still in the belly. on top of that, house remodelling is still underway, so not exactly ideal if they arrived before that was completed (target still is 12/15).
other than that, still feeling great and if i make it to next saturday, doc says i can resume my physical activity again! :) of course that really just consists of walking and a little weight training, but that's perfectly fine by me!

happy turkey day!!

happy thanksgiving everyone!! so much has happened it seems in the past couple of weeks. perhaps it's easiest to just list one by one...

• dawn came to visit from australia - she came and stayed with us for a few days and it was so great to see her. she looks fabulous and is getting married in australia next november! it was a short visit, but we managed to cram quite a bit in which was good fun!

• work threw me an amazing baby shower last friday, the 21st - i love my co-workers...everyone is so sweet and generous. not only did they spoil us rotten with presents (our mdx had both rows of seats down and it was filled to the brim!), but they wanted to start a little library for the twins, so books out the wazoo...such a fun idea! i'll post pictures as soon as i get them.


• kitchen and bath remodel - not sure this is the most brilliant idea that jason and i have had to date, but we've just begun some work on the house. we've been wanting to do this for quite some time, but finally just got everything finalized. we're having the tile, countertops and backsplash in the kitchen replaced and then the counters, shower and tub area done in the master bath. they're supposed to be done by the 15th of december, so let's hope they meet their deliverable and these babies don't come early!!


• 32 week appt - we went for a checkup yesterday and the dr. swaim has officially told me that i am to quit exercising and to take it easy...ouch! :( my cervix has thinned, although still completely closed, but she does not want to take any chances. she hasn't put me on bedrest, but just wants me to take it easy. we go back next friday to take a test which can tell us if i will deliver in the next two weeks (fetal fibronectin)...that will be interesting! let's just hope they don't decide to come before then! otherwise, i still feel great, so this no exercise and taking it easy bit is going to be tough! 32 week belly pic...

other than that, we made our annual trip to the renaissance festival last week, went to see our friends allison and sean who just had their sweet baby cate a few weeks ago which definitely made our babies upcoming arrivals that much more real and supermom kristyna just delivered leighton last week! babies everywhere...so exciting, but so scary at the same time!! and last but not least, janice just got in from the uk last night, so had dinner with her last night and will be fun catching up with her through sunday.

sorry to blab for so long, but lots of updates! btw...a lot of you aren't so much fun not guessing an arrival date! (although i know you're reading these posts!)

follow up appt

sorry it's taken so long to give you an update, but went back for the follow up ultrasound last week and thankfully everything was just fine. the fluid in either sac was just about equal, so apparently it was just a one-off the previous week...false alarm.

30 weeks

we went for an ultrasound and a doctor's appt thursday and friday and we're right on track. both are still head down...yay!! he is 3 lbs 5 oz, 53rd percentile and heart rate of 144. She is 3 lbs 3 oz, 47th percentile and heart rate of 155. apparently, he's got quite a large head and long legs - just like his dad! it blows my mind that collectively i've got 6.5 lbs of baby in my belly right now!! so if you're questioning the accuracy of the weight, so was i...what i was told is that at this point in time, they believe the margin of error is only 10-15%. but as they get bigger that margin does increase.

the one minor concern they had was that there was a little more fluid in his sac than hers, so i need to go back for a follow up ultrasound next week. she thought that might indicate that i had gestational diabetes, but my glucose test came back negative so that's not the case...thankfully! or she did say it could very well be a one-off, so hopefully she can confirm that next week!
i'll keep you posted...

pick a date??!!

anyone care to hazard a guess as to when these kids will enter this world? just for kicks, how about picking a date and we'll just have some fun with it. almost daily, someone thinks it's going to be this day or that, so i thought why not capture it here?
perhaps there's an easier way to this, but the only way i know how would be to enter it into the comments section.

okay...so these are the "facts:"
my true due date is jan 24th.
full term for twins is 37 weeks, so that puts us at jan 3rd.
i'm at 30 wks now, so you call it...anytime between now and then!??

28 week belly

officially 28 lbs and counting...

baby shower

our friends sheila, gina and michelle (l-r in pic below) threw us a fabulous couples shower saturday night. it was so great to see everyone and thank you all so much for the wonderful gifts! the food and decor (b&w) was absolutely amazing and the venue as well (thanks jim!)

thank goodness for the plasma tv since there was quite the football match on and then of course to accommodate the karaoke machine as the night progressed! upon waking yesterday morning, jason informed me there the football game of the century was on that night (ut/tx tech), so how terrible did we feel being in tx and all! regardless, it worked out just great, so thanks to all the men who sacrificed their night to be with us! :)

26 weeks

we went for an ultrasound this week and it was so good to see the little ones! it had been about 5 weeks since the last ultrasound and so it always makes me nervous going into it...you just don't know what's going on in there each and everyday!!

anyways...i'm happy to report that everything's looking good. based on their calculations, he is now 1 lb 14 oz and she is 1 lb 12 oz. that puts them in the 50th and 42nd percentile respectively. they are no longer yin and yang, but rather both head down. apparently still plenty of time for them to change again, but definitely would be ideal if they decided to stay in these positions!

other than that...we've got the dresser and change table ordered, i found the fabric for the crib skirts and window treatments and work is ongoing around the house.

i guess the only other big baby prep we did is purchase a twin friendly vehicle....jason's new car! it took a while, but we both really like it. jason's a little distraught and i think suffering from separation anxiety from his truck, but i hope once the two little ones in the back seat, it will all be a thing of the past! ( let's hope so anyways) :)

nursery progress finally!

we've been back in our house now a week and it's amazing how behind we feel as far as baby prep goes...they're going to be here before we know it! we've finally ordered our nursery furniture and i've got the plan forward for the bedding and window treatments. i've decided to go with a black and white nursery, but black and white baby stuff is really hard to come by. my boss's wife is going to be making the bedskirts and window treatments and we're going to go with the bumper and swivel glider from pottery barn kids. (see below)







other than that, as far as pregnancy goes, i'm definitely starting to feel a lot of movement inside my belly...it's really quite amazing! and jason felt his first kick just this past weekend, so that was exciting! we go in next week for an ultrasound, so hopefully everything checks out okay.

we actually just changed doctor's last month because we were not terribly impressed with the hospital my original doctor was affiliated with. not that jason and i have unreasonably high expectations, but the hospital did not even come close to giving us a warm and fuzzy. thankfully though, we got a great recommendation for another doctor who is affiliated with woman's hospital here. we've only met with her once, but we were both very impressed. and to top that off, we did the new hospital tour this past weekend and it was soooo much better...definitely glad we made the change!



here's a belly pic from last week...24wks.

ike aftermath

i do have pics to post, but unfortunately have not had the time nor the resources to do so. jason and i are still without power, but once we get back up and running, i promise i'll get them posted!

thankfully though, mr. and mrs. lawless are letting us bunk up with them until our power comes back. given the circumstances, we're really quite fortunate the only thing we lost was power. there are tons of houses in our neighborood that have trees going right through them.

we spent 5 days in vegas last week visiting my mom and had a great time there. nice to get away from all the chaos in houston and did lots of eating, gambling and baby shopping! :)

as far as babies go, we went for our detailed 20-wk ultrasound a couple of weeks ago and everything is looking good! baby a was 14 oz and baby b was 13 oz, so they're pretty much growing at the same rate. he is head down on my right side and she is breech on the left, so they're pretty much positioned like yin and yang at the moment. i tell you what though...my belly has grown substantially these past few weeks! i can't imagine what i'm going to look like at the end of this!

happy??? a belly pic for you!!

i don't think i can handle anymore harrassment, so here you are...a pic of my big belly...20 weeks and counting! to be honest, i don't think the picture does it much justice...it's much bigger in person!

and just in case you were still interested in my face (and/or jason's), it was jason's birthday yesterday, so we were out celebrating his last birthday as a free man!

the unveiling of the sexes...

so...we went yesterday for our gender confirmation appointment and we are happy to report that we are having a boy and girl!! we are ecstatic!!

it was quite funny actually the way it happened. they were running about thirty minutes late, and my bladder was about to burst from drinking all the water they need you to for the ultrasound! so keep in mind, we knew that we had at least one boy going into this. as soon as i laid down, i mean, not even five seconds had passed and she said, "well, baby a is definitely a girl!" it took jason and i probably a good minute to register what she said, but once it did, we were thrilled! and then just to be sure, she moved onto baby b and sure enough, there was our boy!

they both measure right about 10 cm right now and baby a's heartbeat was 156 and baby b's 140. it's amazing how they are growing so quickly!

the other really funny thing this time around was that their movements were night and day from two weeks ago. last time, baby a (little girl) was moving nonstop - squirming, kicking, rolling around, but baby b (little boy) barely moved. he just sat there chilling the entire time. the ultrasound tech even tried to poke and prod him, but to no avail. jason and i were actually a little concerned something was wrong with baby b. but yesterday, roles were completely reversed. baby a was just resting peacefully, while baby b was all over the place! so that definitley gave us some comfort.

our latest pics ( you can click on the images to enlarge if you wish)...

this is baby a...our little girl!

not sure if you can make out the bottom pic, but this was the proof that she was indeed a girl!

and here we have baby b...our baby boy!
for the bottom pic, if you can imagine he was sitting on top of a glass table and you were looking up from below, you're looking at his little bum and legs.








so there you have it...a boy and a girl! let the planning begin!

news for you...

so now the blog has been set up, but unfortunately i haven't made too much headway on it.

so the news for the past month?!

jason and i are expecting! and...not just one baby, but two! i am currently at 16 weeks and our due date is january 24th. this is the due date for a regular 40-wk pregnancy, but with twins it is 37 weeks. so...that just means little "a" and "b" may very well be here by the end of the year!

we went in for some testing a couple of weeks ago and just for fun we also did what they call a "jack and jill" test (aka gender determination). we just got the results back and what they can tell us so far is that we have a boy in the mix! question now is...one boy or two?!! we go back at the end of this week for a confirmation ultrasound, so hopefully if all goes well, we'll know for sure!

meet baby a and baby b...

finally!!

after talking about posting a blog forever, i've finally set one up! to be perfectly honest, i had no idea how easy it was to do! if i can do, that means anyone can do it!
so hopefully this will keep all our family and friends posted with what's going on with the lawless family down here in h-town!