Pro's and Con's

This week the novelty of this increasingly heavy belly has worn off. I think it happened at around 9pm on Wednesday (to be precise!). I am really trying not to complain because: 1) my pain doesn't need to be everyone else's pain; 2) We not only chose this but prayed, pleaded and fasted for it; 3) complaining won't make it less uncomfortable. But - for journaling purposes I would like to list some pro's and con's I have noticed for this week:

Pro - Not having a single day of morning sickness
Con - Constant fullness/burning in my esophagus
Pro - Not having my collection of fibroids attach to either baby or either placenta
Con - Looking/feeling like I am 32 weeks pregnant at 22 weeks (instead of 22 weeks with 2 babies and 3 huge fibroids)
Pro - Generosity of family and friends with maternity clothes (gently used and new)
Con - Having chemise-styled "tops" that refuse to let your bra strap stay in place and maternity jeans that need to be hiked up one time every 7 seconds.
Both - Having a helpful husband that you have come to rely upon and then going to the grocery store alone and having to unload the cart onto the belt and the bags out of the car and put everything way. This - under normal conditions is less than fun.... but now....
Both - Feeling pretty good and invincible in the morning and feeling tons of weight, pressure, aching and possibly pain by evening.
I am trying to have my glass half-full and focus on the positives. Shane got home this morning from shift work and came in to ask me if something had happened that I couldn't put the groceries away. (Take that as he knows me well enough to see that something was up - verses the text book "what did you do all day" type of comment). I told him I was hurting too badly to take the storage room items downstairs until this morning.... and that was truer that I would have imagined a few weeks ago.

In the past several days we have received some cute and fun little gifts for the babies and one for me. We are excited and so grateful for the generosity of friends and family and for their shared enthusiasm. I wanted so share some of them here:

Hello from the both of us!!

This week I have been feeling the babies a lot more regularly - which is very reassuring and not interrupting my sleep yet! I like to imagine that these two little ones are just wanting to say hi to the outside world a little more regularly. I attended an all day sales meeting yesterday and Baby Boy (he is on my left) must have wanted a change in positions because there was a lot of movement from him - enough that I put my hand over my tummy to see if I could feel it from the outside - but couldn't really differentiate if I could feel it with my hand. My account manager / helper at work was sitting by me. We have been quite close over the years though the singles ward, being in the YW's Presidency together in Holladay and working together. She reached over and put her hand on my tummy and said she felt the baby move. Later in the day he was moving a lot again and this time I could visually see the little movements. I'm excited for Shane to be able to feel the babies moving around.

A Happy New Year!!

We celebrated a Happy New Year with another little dinner party at our house. We didn't know of anything going on - so we made our own plan. And then - just as everyone confirmed - we got invited to some other fun plans. We a nice little dinner party at our house and Stevan brought over the Beck's XBox Connect and we played some games and laughed and celebrated the new year with some Sparkling Cider and some great people! We had each couple tell what they thought their spouse would say was the highlight of 2011. I said that Shane's retiring from the Utah Department of Corrections was his and he said that the miracle of our healthy pregnancy was mine. I think we were both correct!

I got another really bad cold and was down and out for a few days - but recovered in time to (with Shane's great help) get all the Christmas decor down and put away before our January 9th Ultra-Sounds. This one was scheduled for and hour and a half - because at the 20 week ultra-sound they look for and measure everything possible little thing. It was very reassuring to have them audibly check off every organ, body part and indicator of a healthy baby - while we were watching the cursor on the screen demonstrate what each "part" was. And it was nice to hear the completed check list for both Baby A and Baby B. Including these two parts:

We discovered that what our hopes were and our "I think it is..." were correct. Baby A is a boy (who was stretched out and not in the fetal position at all during the ultrasound) and Baby B is a girl - who was balled up so tight that her knees are up over her head. Typical of the brother to be taking all the room! During the "baby girl" checklist of all "parts" that little boy kept sticking his hand the shot over and over. I'm not sure if he just needed more attention or if he was trying to make "rabbit ears" over his sister during her photo shoot.

After the ultrasound, we went to The Cocoa Bean and got a few little boxes of gourmet cupcakes to announce the results and took them to a few homes - including Granny and Grandpa Williams and Grandma and Grandpa Sargent. It has been so nice to have so many people happy and excited with us.

A Very Merry Christmas!

We enjoyed a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We had the Williams' Family Christmas Party in our home this year. We felt like it was our turn to host a party and that maybe next year would be a little more difficult to do something like that. It was fun to set pretty tables and try to make everything look lovely. Everyone brought a food assignment so it wasn't difficult to get the dinner on. I had "hired' my original niece - who is now 20 and really my cousin, to come at 9:30pm to clean up and do all the dishes. I knew that my that time of night these babies would be heavy and I would be wiped out. It was the best money I spent all season and because I was throwing a little cash her way I felt like I could sit in the recliner with my feet up and direct traffic and that if we would have let our family stay to clean up that I would feel too much guilt to not me in the kitchen with them. We also had a nativity program and little talent show. Shane and I played Carol of the Bells - him on the guitar and me on the bass. My part was so simple (which reflects my skill set) that I was a little embarrassed but Shane is really good and it provided an opportunity for us to participate on the program and for him to be in the spotlight a little.

We had Christmas Eve dinner at Van and LarRene's House and enjoyed each other's company and then for the program we had everyone come to our basement - which has the piano and a lot more room than my parent's living room. We started off with the kids singing the Nativity Song in the costumes I have made over the years. This year we added another little lamb (Naomi) and the New Star (Olivia) and Talmage was baby Jesus. I'm not sure what other 2 "parts" to add next year to this little scene - but we have 11 more months to get it figured out.

We enjoyed Christmas Morning together. It was the first time it has just been Shane and me in our own home. Shane very generously gave me a Pandora bracelet with lots of charms on it (love it!) and very sweetly gave me 2 Willowtree Statues. This is one of them.

The babies gave their dad the DVD of "Winnie the Pooh" which he has been wanting to watch and they gave both of us a little kit that you can use to listen to your babies' heart beats and play music to your babies. As I type they are listening to "Symphony #40" by Mozart. And at night they are listening to their daddy and mommy read them the Book of Mormon. My doctor confirmed (separate of lots of studies) that it is great for babies to have this kind of interaction early on and we figure that in the very least we are reading the BOM together at night.