Twins: Weeks 14 & 15

Week 14

I was given a BeBand (from Target) by a fellow mom and began using it this week instead of the usual rubber band act to magically turn my pants into maternity wear and I am convinced thus far that it is the greatest maternity invention ever!  I'll have to take a picture this week so show exactly how the thing works but the point of it is, obviously, to hold up your regular pants so you can get away with wearing your own pants during pregnancy.  I'm not sure exactly how long I'll be able to cheat with the band, but my goal is the entire pregnancy, although I did invest in some Gap maternity jeans I scored on sale for $33.   

As for pregnancy woes and cheers this week, I feel like pre-pregnancy with a little hill around the middle and a little sleepiness following me around...a.k.a. pretty darn good!

Week 15

Even though it seems as if things haven't changed much from week 14 to 15, I definitely feel like I'm looking more pregnant and maybe a front shot would show that more.  A stranger (maybe just the one brave enough to guess that I'm pregnant and don't just have a little beer belly) even asked me for the first time when I was due.  :)  I'll have to admit, my first "proud mom" moment came a few seconds later when I piped up and answered "almost 4 months".

On the flip side of side bright and sunshiny, my back and upper abs are starting to feel the stretch.  I ridiculously thought for two seconds this week that one of the twins was maybe kicking, only to realize a few minutes later that it was only my upper left ab spasming as it was pulled to make room for two growing chitlins.  :)

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Side(view) note:  To make things a little easier and just a tad bit more organized...and, well, just because they deserve their own post each week...I'm going to start posting baby belly pics sometime during the week instead of the normal Saturdays starting this coming week.  Stay tuned for regular programming later on today as our internet is now up and running after a week of being MIA!   

No Net

Sorry y'all.  No post this lovely Saturday.  I'm actually typing from friend's house/computer because something is very wrong with our internet...it's been MIA for a couple of days and neither of us have had time to call and fix it.  Sooooo...look for a real post sometime this week as soon as we can get the world wide web back up and running.  We've got kitchen progress to tell you all about and the twins have seemingly grown a ton this week - my belly button is getting less and less shallow and it's kind of amusing.  So, until asap, whenever that happens to be, have a great day!

Lazy Saturday Morning

Breakfast:

Beverage:

I thought I'd try my luck, and my gag relfex, out this morning and brave the 'ole coffee pot again.  It's the "wonderful" second trimester so why not, right?  I grabbed a mini creamer yesterday at the grocery store just for the occasion and I've come to find, as I sip and type, that it's not too bad!  I'm not gagging and the rest of the world is revolving quite nicely so maybe things are looking up...or going down, whatever floats your boat.  I'm just excited that "I" am feeling somewhat normal again.  :) 

As for the culprits of taking away their mama's normalcy (gladly sacrificed), here they are now at 13.5 weeks:

Pregnant to friends and family,  and "that girl needs an ab workout" to strangers.  I know, I know.  Just wait...

Anyway, I'm sad to admit for the umpteenth weekend in a row that I have no beloved project to show-and-tell.  I could go on and on about how I went to the grocery store yesterday - a  pregnant lady with a starving belly - and picked up a few things we really didn't need...gushers, jalapeno poppers, mini pizzas, trix yogurt...or about how I literally climbed over 40 sleeping teenagers on an overnight tour bus ride last weekend just so I could make it from my little perch in the front to the bathroom in the back to empty my bladder at three in the morn.  Speaking of last weekend, Anthony and I were blessed to help chaperone a 150 teenager trip to Washington D.D. to march for life.  It was so exhilarating to brave the cold and rain (yes Grandma, don't worry, I was warm) to walk to the Supreme Court building in honor of the millions of aborted fetuses and it meant more to me this year, with the two little sprouts in tow, than any other year.  Hopefully all of our voices will be heard and the murder of these innocent babies will come to an end soon.  Pray, pray, pray.

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I hope everyone has a great day and a great week!  Just to make your day a little more interesting:  Anthony notified me this morning that it is the 125th anniversary of the largest snowflake ever observed - 15 inches!  Crazy!  (Disclaimer:  In case you're wondering, he found that fact online.  It's not just one that's permanently logded in his noggin in which case I would think he was a little off his rocker.  Not that if you really did know that you're weird...)  So with that, Happy Snowflake Anniversary!  

P to the S.  If you live under a rock, you'd be well-informed to know that the Superbowl is next Sunday and if you aren't sure who to root for, well, let us tell you:

(Caps courtesy of a lovely marriage between nflshop.com and Photoshop.)

Tops

 We ordered new countertops!  Scuzzy laminate, it's time for you to go!  After waiting and researching and waiting and researching, we actually landed ourselves a good deal (surprise, surprise) at Home Depot.  We found and went with a Staron solid surface that's a tid bit darker than the sample shown on the very left in the pic below.  (I returned the sample before taking a pic...shame, shame.)

 Lucky for us, we snatched up a countertop that was on 'Special Buy' - regularly $42/sq. foot on sale for $37/sq. foot.  On top of that, all of Home Depot's countertops were 10% off plus we persuaded them (easily) to give us an extra 5% if we opened their credit card (to match the deal Lowe's swings around these days).  All of those awesome discounts add up to about $300 in savings!  We can't wait until they're done and in!  Should take two to three weeks.  While we were at it, we scored a new sink (because we can't put an old sink over new countertops, right?...think wine skins people...thank you Jesus)  at a fave discount store around here - Dirt Cheap.  It is/was a $400 stainless steel sink but we got it for 70% off because of one little dent that won't even show once it's in because it's around the undermounted part...if that makes sense.

Anyway, you can be sure we'll have a "they're here and in" post for ya in a few weeks.  As for the current bump situation...

Here 'we' are at 12 weeks.

While we were in our doc's office last week, Anthony asked him what his "professional opinion" was on the sexes of the babes.  He informed us that he usually doesn't give his opinion for a few more weeks but did tell us that the "old wives, whoever and wherever they are, would tell you you've got two girls in there based on their quick heart rates."  Anthony proceeded to put his head on doc's desk...

See you next week!

Expansion

Here's the three of us at 11 weeks...I know it doesn't look like much but...

since then, we've had some expanding:

I've had to resort to a few fashion tweaks and I'm officially on the hunt for good maternity jeans.  Even though we're only 12 weeks now, my uterus measures in at 15-16 weeks...some interesting info offered yesterday by the best Ob doc in the world, mine.  :)

Here are the twins this week:

And here's their last snapshot-in-utero together:  

Lately, during my spare time, I've found myself searching the net to find pictures of what your belly is supposed to look like week-by-week with twins but I haven't come out with any good results so, it'll be interesting to see how quickly the mid-section expands and to document it for other people with the same "what am I to expect?" questions as muah.  :)

Anyway, as we deviate from DIY into pregnancy land, rest assured that I feel hints of motivation rising in me.  We (I told Anthony he needs to make me) will be working on the loveseat this weekend and we're raiding home improvement stores today to seek and find the best deal on new countertops so, with all that being said, hopefully we'll have some more progress to share on all that mumbo jumbo next week.

Until then, be sure to keep up with Nicole at Little Spriggles!  She's made a New Year's resolution to do a project every week and I can't wait to see...and to get some added motivation and inspiration...from her ideas!

Have a great weekend everyone!

P.S.  Be sure to cast your vote on your thoughts about the male/female-ness of the two tots in the sidebar!