Pregnancy: Week 27

This week I defied gravity and proved that I am still awesome by painting my own toenails. 

They were in desperate need of a new coat of paint. 

Fortunately I surprised Jesse and myself by whipping my leg up on the counter to paint without too much difficulty. I'll be honest, I felt so cool! haha. Now putting on socks or tights..... that's a different story!

My upper back has been bothering me more and more lately. I guess it's just the combination of working long hours at the hospital and being rather disproportionate these days. I am still told all the time that I am way too small to be this far along with twins but I'm not complaining. I usually am told that when I'm seen in my scrubs too which have been pretty good at hiding my belly. I'm still working full-time and feeling very blessed that I've been able to. No bedrest thus far and I'm crossing my fingers to keep it that way. My OB did mention at one point in time that if I made it to 32 weeks working full time that we wouldn't push it past that. I guess I'll find out what exactly that means at my next appointment. I'm hoping to be done working at that 32 week mark (which is the end of February believe it or not!) so I can finish getting everything ready for the babies and spend a little extra time enjoying being pregnant and spending as much time with Jesse before we become a family of 4.

My grandparents finished their mission in Louisville, Kentucky this week and stayed with us on their journey home! It was so much fun to see them! We visited, toured Noah's, went to dinner, and offered up our humble air mattress for them to sleep. Luckily they're great sports and were willing to camp out in our little den with an air mattress! I did have to giggle though because my grandma was very protective of me while she was here. At one point we were carrying in some stray baby items I had laying in my car. One was a stroller that we were pulling in on the wheels that she wouldn't let me touch so my grandpa wheeled it in, another was a small swing that she opted to carry, I was allowed to care the little bar that goes over the swing and dangles toys in the babies' faces. We even stopped off at their car and my grandma pulled out a pillow to carry in but didn't think she could get the other pillow because her arms were already full, so of course I offered to carry the pillow. Her response was "No, no, no, grandpa can come back for it." hahaha! Apparently a pillow is too heavy to carry these days? I decided it would be best not to tell her what all I do at work! :) I do really appreciate the concern though and am trying to get better at letting other people help me. It just does not come easy for me. I like to be able to do everything independently and it tries me to ask for help, but it's all for the sake of the babies.

We also officially signed a new apartment contract this week and will be moving towards the end of February. We found an apartment that has lots of storage space, good square footage, huge bedrooms, and will hopefully be good for us longer than our current apartment. It makes me sad because our current place has been so great and has been perfect for the last year but when this second baby snuck into our lives we need some more living space! So I'm going to have to work on packing up our house over the next few weeks. Ugh. Not really looking forward to moving, but we figure it will be better now without babies and some of their larger things than with small babies and more things than we already have accumulated!

I also booked a photographer for maternity and newborn pictures this week! I'm pretty excited about it. I had to look for quite awhile to find a photographer who actually gives you all the pictures with a print release because apparently that isn't a thing. Everyone wants to charge an arm and leg and your first born to get an 8x10 picture and I was not having it. But I finally found a girl whose portfolio impressed me, her price didn't completely break the bank, AND we get all the pictures with the print release. Win win win. Should be fun!

This belly is growing, growing, growing!
(And I feel like I have to include two pictures because my belly size looks a little different.)
The babies have been a little more active and a lot stronger. Jesse and I watched one baby push my belly completely lopsided and it was so funny! Love it!

Also this week my belly button officially transformed to an outtie. Most of the time you can't see it because I'm still squeezing into my regular garments (ok, one size up) and have a couple of layers on that keep that belly button in, but this night I was lacking in garment tops so I busted out a big ol loose maternity top that didn't suction in the button so it was almost visible. We tried to document it, but it's kind of hard to see.

Pregnancy: Week 26

This week we learned in my pregnancy bible that babies are supposed to start opening their eyes and being able to tell light from dark and respond accordingly. Because we are good parents, we decided this needed to be explored. A few nights this week we pulled out a flash light and shined it on my belly and watched the babies get all wiggly with the flashlight! A couple of times it was so instantaneous that we had to just laugh! 

I had a first this week as well. While at my appointment with the perinatologist I started feeling really hot, a little light headed, and like I was going to pass out while laying on the ultrasound table. This is fairly common, especially with the weight of twins as the ultrasound tech pointed out, but it had never happened to me before! Those babies were squishing my inferior vena cava and cutting off the blood flow but fortunately a roll to the left side fixed all my problems. This ended up being one of our quickest appointments as they tried to hurry and get the measurements that they needed between me almost passing out and while laying on my side. Luckily everything still looks good with the boys. The doctor said we have one small baby and one smaller baby but they're not concerned enough to make any drastic changes at this point. Baby A is our chubbier one and weighed in at 1lb 15oz while Baby B weighed 1lb 10oz this week. 

This seems to be the week that I feel more and more pregnant. My belly continues to grow on a daily basis, I'm getting increasingly tired, my back hurts by the end of the day (or sometimes during the day if I'm at work), and if I sit down on the floor in the evening I essentially forgo the option of getting up without assistance. It's rather comical actually. I also can't seem to move without groaning. Jesse even said one time "Honey, you got up without making a sound that time!" That's a little embarrassing!

We totally scored this week and went over to the house of the family I used to work for who have twin boys and bought a WHOLE bunch of things from them. We got a killer deal on their stuff and now have more baby things than we even know what to do with. It truly is amazing. We are feeling so blessed to have been able to get all these things. We ended up with two cradles, a little swing, two bouncy chairs, this random car thing, two play mats, a double stroller, bags and bags of clothes, lots of swaddle blankets, a double baby carrier, and a whole slew of bottles and binkies. I went to town scrubbing, spray-n-washing, bleaching, and cleaning things but everything has come out perfectly and looks brand-new! It is so much fun! I actually feel like we might be ready to have babies come live at our house. At least more so than I used to!

This week I was also counting my blessings after being introduced to a girl in our ward who is pregnant with triplets! My mouth seriously dropped. She has one little boy who is 3 and is pregnant with three little girls. I cannot even imagine! I felt so thankful to only have our one little tag along. I honestly do not know how you have triplets! At least with these two there are two of us so we're not outnumbered yet. This family of 3 is being doubled in one go. They'll probably go straight to heaven. Once again, counting my blessings. Twins sound absolutely great to me!

All in all...

still loving being pregnant

love watching and feeling the boys move

love when Jesse plays with the babies at night. 

(That is by far my favorite thing these days. I usually lay down and Jesse and I watch my belly move and poke the boys so they'll move more... oh it's the best!)

and starting to panic that my due date is approaching so quickly! It's all going by so fast!

Welcome Home Elder Dorius!

Elder Dorius returned home after serving for two years in the Korea Seoul mission! My mom and I had planned a couple of months ago to surprise Brad by getting me on his same flight from Salt Lake to St. George and not even tell him I was coming. Through my mom's resourcefulness she called and found out his flight plan and we subsequently booked me a flight seated right next to him! We were bursting with excitement but tried to subtly throw in some comments that alluded to the fact that I may not be able to make it.

Due to the time difference he started his journey Friday the 7th early in the morning but it was Thursday night for us. My slightly paranoid mother planted herself in front of the computer and monitored his flights to see exactly where he was and how it was going. Well it didn't take too long to discover they were delayed and flight plans would be changing. At this point she called me in a panic saying they had already rerouted him on a later flight into St. George so we needed to figure out how to get me on that flight. I knew if anyone could take care of the situation it would be her. She made a couple of phone calls and threw in some charm because they switched my flight and didn't even charge us a fee! There is still hope in humanity!

I arrived in Salt Lake and luckily was able to mosey to my connection now instead of run (which we should all know by now would be a joke anyway). After waiting a while I finally saw two missionaries walking my direction and I was really curious to see how Brad would respond!

He walked up without a change in facial expression and said "What are you doing here?" hahaha!
I responded with "I'm going to St. George with you."

Brad: "I didn't know you were coming."
Me: "Well yeah, it was a SURPRISE!"
Brad: (in his excited voice) "Is Jesse here too?"
Me: (having to crush his excitement) "No Jesse had to work."
Brad: "Oh. I really want to talk to Jesse sometime...."
Me: Silence.
Brad: "Well I was worried about not having a companion this flight but I guess I have one now."
Me: "Yeah. Because mom and I are awesome."

It was a pretty funny conversation. I thought there would be a little more visual excitement out of him but I guess after traveling for about 26 hours he may have been a little tired. :) The next hurdle came when we boarded the plan because now our seats were not together. I was holding out that humanity would take pity on a cute little missionary coming home and a pregnant sister but was sorely disappointed when we asked the man in the seat next to Brad's assigned seat. I simply asked if he would be willing to trade seats so my brother and I would be able to sit together on this flight and he responded "I'm sorry, but I'm actually really comfortable where I am." SERIOUSLY?! What kind of a person says that!? Brad was probably thinking nicer thoughts than I was because I was thinking this guy is a total jerk. So then we hoped that there would be a nice person in the seat next to me who would be willing to switch. We got back to those seats and my seat buddy wasn't there yet so we hoped that was a good sign. He finally walked up and when I asked if he would be willing to switch so we could sit together he quickly responded with "Just tell me where to go" THANK YOU nice human! You seriously made our day! And I kind of felt bad he had to sit by the jerk in the 2nd row.

Anyway, that was the long-winded version of our journey to St. George but we had so much fun on that flight home and just talked about a million different things! We arrived in St. George with a great welcoming committee and then headed to the Stake President's house to get our missionary released. And what a tender moment that is. Wow. I will never forget how emotional it is when we got to hear about Brad's mission, how the church is doing in Korea, and then the moment when he is told to take off both of his name badges. It really is an amazing experience to be a part of.

This sign has a story that needs to be shared. My Uncle Mike and Aunt Kerry live in Hurricane so they were able to make it to the airport and they made this sign. Kerry thought she was writing "Welcome Home! We love you!" but my sneaky Uncle Mike tricked her and instead she wrote "Welcome Home! What's that smell?" So Brad read the sign and instantly starting smelling himself! haha. Mike was laughing but Kerry was insistent that she had put "Welcome Home! We love you" on that sign, until the truth came out that Mike knew all along what it really said! He said they were just double checking to make sure Brad really did spend two years in Korea.

And now that he was home, the partying began! Lots of partying and food with the Dorius Clan!

We also celebrated my parents 50th birthdays! My mom turned 50 about two weeks prior and my dad turned 50 that day! It's kind of a big deal. They are now half a century. I'm sure it will be their best year yet with our two little munchkins on their way!

I even got my dad a grandpa kit.

Filled with his favorites, like memory.

(Apparently because I played this game about a million times when I was a kid, my dad may or may not be traumatized forever)

We also introduced Brad to Just Dance which was about the most hilarious thing ever! I didn't really tell him what it was, just to follow the people on the screen and we ended up laughing until we couldn't play any longer!
For your viewing pleasure:

Pregnancy: Weeks 23, 24, 25 Blur

Time is going by so quickly! I feel like weeks 23-25 just went by in a blur and I don't remember much specifically about each week. Therefore pictures will just have to do.

I did have a doctor's appointment at week 24 and Gus (Baby A) weighed 1lb 6oz and Budsy (Baby B) weighed 1lb 3oz. It is so much fun to see how much they weigh and how they are positioned each time I go in. Those are the two things I look forward to the most at each of those appointments.

I definitely keep growing but don't have many complaints. Still loving being pregnant, feeling the babies move, and sharing it all with Jesse. We have grown so much closer while I've been pregnant and he has honestly been wonderful. I don't know what I would do without him.

23 Weeks


24 Weeks

 

25 Weeks