Growing Strong!!

This has been an exciting week in the world of baby(ies) growing!!  Yesterday I had a dr appoitnment at 21 weeks to finish up the anatomy scan....yes the anatomy scan has taken place over a few weeks.  Apparently double babies are trickier to measure! ;)  Both boys are growing amazingly and are still boys (;0 hahaha)!!  They have been growing neck and neck which is exactly what we want! Baby A was weighing in at 14 oz and baby B 13 oz.  Since these boys are growing so wonderfully I no longer have to go in every 2 weeks (until later).  So my next appointment is in 4 weeks, but we wont do another ultrasound until 2 weeks after that.  So that is 6 weeks until I see my boys again!! This makes me a bit nervous....as our original monitoring plan was every 2 weeks and I felt calm and reassured that every few weeks I got to see that my boys were doing well.  However, Bryce has sweetly reassured me that it's a good thing! That all it means is I'm such a good baby baker that the boys are growing perfectly and don't need to be seen as often.  So I will be constantly reminding myself of this...repeating it as a mantra...the next 6 weeks until I get to see them again.

the boys are fine! i make healthy babies.
the boys are fine! i make healthy babies.
the boys are fine! i make healthy babies.

Both of my boys flexing some arm muscles at 21 weeks!

I will say that I am put slightly at ease with not seeing them as often, knowing that I have really started feeling them squirm and worm around...it seems to be more and more every day.  Last night, Bryce finally got to feel some kicks too!

The obvious question I regularly get is: how does it feel with 2 moving around in there?

I thought I could tell who I was feeling....assuming baby A was on the bottom and baby B was on the top...until yesterday.  Yesterday, during our ultrasound, both boys were head down (on the cervix area) and feet up! ugh.....so much for my theory of one being toward the top and one toward the bottom.  Now I have NO clue who is moving when!!

I suppose, so far, the only way it is really different from one baby moving is that I feel it more EVERYWHERE and sometimes in multiple spots at once.  But I'm sure the differences will become more prevalent as they get bigger.  But for now I'm just relieved to get to feel them moving around.

Since babies (and mommy) are growing great....I have been reassured that all the aches and pains I've been feeling are totally normal and nothing to be worried about...my goal for the next month is to remain calm and not stress!  Last week I started a prenatal yoga class...so I will  be continuing those Wednesday nights.  It is nice to get away and have a little "alone" time to relax and stretch.  I definitely enjoyed the environment and look forward to my weekly stress-reliever (and hopefully pain-reliever) sessions.

Holy babies!! 21 weeks and measuring about a month ahead.  

Growing up is hard...on moms!!

Well....Last night was the first time that Peyton slept in her big girl bed! In fact, it's almost 9am and she's still sleeping in her big girl bed.

I have been nervous and anxious about getting Peyton's new room put together and her sleeping in it!  It's been a bit of a slow process....we have had her bed for awhile (it became a fun toy!) and then slowly got things painted and moved. The final thing we were waiting for before getting Peyton moved in was our new baby monitor ( daddy wanted to motion track her!!).  So yesterday we picked up the new monitor and got it all set up. 

Bed time hit and Peyton didn't want to go to bed...as usual.  But with a little bit of whining she let me lay her in her bed, I gave her all of her stuffed animals to cuddle with, covered her with her blanket and kissed her goodnight.  She cried a little ( she tends to do that when she's over tired) but she stayed in bed.  As I turned off the hall lights and walked down the stairs I began to instantly cry....I mean hysterically BAWL.  

Bryce met me at the bottom of the stairs askig what was wrong.  I was crying so much I could hardly get anything out.

I was crying because I didn't want her to be scared in a new room and I was sad that my sweet little baby was big enough to sleep in a bed and not her crib!  I wasn't ready for her to grow up yet! In fact...I'm crying as I write this! (I'm sure some of it has to do with the mass amounts of hormones I have running through my body right now). But regardless, the first night was a success. 

I'm watching her on her monitor now and she just leaned over the bed to pick up any fallen stuffed animals and is laying back down cuddling with them! How cute is that!?!!?

Ugh....I can't believe she's growing up so fast!!

Holy vocabulary!!

The past few weeks Peyton has been blurting out new vocabulary left and right!! It just amazes me and is so exciting to watch.

Previously her vocabulary consisted of: go, hi, mama, dada, dog, all gone, bath, milk, shoe, no, nose, more, book....moo and various other animal noises

Well recently we have added: ready, eyes, brrr, monkey, movie, all done, please, Lily, bye, elephant, lion, elmo, doctor, potty, poop, Nana, babies, bunny, toes, me, hot....that's all that I can think of at the moment!  

I'm just so astonished that in a matter of weeks she learning so many new words! Guess it's time to start watching what we say around her!! ;)

In other news...Baby boys are doing great! I have started feeling little baby flutters and occasionally pokes and prods. It has taken a bit longer to feel baby movement because I have an anterior placenta....basically my placenta is like a pillow between babies and my stomach so I have to feel any movement through the placenta.  But these little boys are getting stronger by the day...I'm sure I'll be feeling them more consistently in no time!!

    Baby B is waving "hi" at 19 weeks!!

 

WOW!!!!

In exactly 4 days I will be at the halfway point....19 weeks!!! (19 weeks is currently our halfway point since the drs won't let me go past 38 weeks).  Man....I'm already BIG!!!  These boys are growing!

      Today....18 weeks and 3 days

      

      18 weeks

      16 weeks

      

           14 weeks

      
        13 weeks

       

           11 weeks

I was going to write an entire blog about my crazy out of control hormones but decided to save that for later...so instead you got the progression of the growing belly (sorry I haven't been super consistent with belly pictures....but I hardly took any with Peyton, so this is an improvement)!! 

I'll be the first admit that I'm SUPER nervous about how big my belly will get by the end of this journey!  Especially when I look back on my pregnancy with Peyton.  I was this size when I was about 26 weeks pregnant with Peyton!!

     

26ish weeks with Peyton!            Almost 19 weeks with twin boys!

       

Summer at last!!!

The rain finally seems to have subsided and summer is here (at least for a few days)! Nice weather has been Peyton's favorite....she loves it outside. When we play in the backyard or at the park and it's time to go inside or leave Little Miss gets PISSED!!!  But who can blame her....outside is pretty awesome! She is totally content just walking around out in the sun....no entertaining required.

Next week we get to start swim lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We did swim lessons last summer too but this year will definitely be different and hopefully more fun! I can't wait to see my little fish in action. 

We have also started working on room arrangements in the Houtchens' house. Peyton will be moving one room down (and will have an attached bathroom...lucky girl!) and the boys will be taking her room. Sounds easy enough....hahahaha.  So we have had to clear our the office/exercise room/junk room in order to make room for the extra bed, so that Peyton's new room is empty and ready.  Ugh!!! Peyton's new room is now ready to be painted...she even has her new big girl bed in there. 

Hopefully by the end of June her new room will be all ready for her and we can start that transition and begin working on getting the boys room ready! Should be easy...right!?!!? ;)

We had a dr. Appt today (17 weeks) and got to see our boys worming and squirming around.  Boys and mama are doing great!!

The dr said just keep doing what I'm doing....everything is looking good.  I was told that I can no longer sleep on my back....ugh!! I have never been a back sleeper but the past few weeks I have been so uncomfortable sleeping that sometimes sleeping on my back provides a little comfort...but oh well... I'll survive.  

My dr has also suggested that I start taking a calcium supplement, as twins tend to suck up extra calcium.  So in addition to the 4...sometimes 6 pills I was taking a night, I know get to take 2 more!! Blah!!! On nights I'm not feeling well it is hard to get those suckers down....but anything for healthy babies!

And our twins are........

BOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bryce and I are so excited to get to add 2 little precious boys to our family!!! We know Peyton will be a great (and tough) big sister!!

We learned Thursday at our perinatologist appointment that Baby A was a boy!! While Baby B didn't want to show us his goods we knew, since they are identical, that he too was a boy!

However, yesterday we had a top secret source (names will not be mentioned so as to protect the said party from any job abuse for doing said ultrasound! 😉) who was more than excited to check out these twin babies via ultrasound for us! And within the first few minutes both boys were happily showing their boy parts without being shy!! And once again...a big thank you to the unnamed source! It was so awesome just get to see our little guys for fun rather than for medical purposes. 

Once we revealed the babies genders to our families the next obvious question was....what are we going to name them? 

We quickly had to bursts our families bubbles and let them know that both precious boys do have names...but....everyone will have to wait for their arrival to learn what they are!! 

I will say...they will NOT have "twin" names (e.g. Larry and Harry, Brandon and Brian, Jim and John). Nor will they be named after anyone....sorry folks, that's just not my thing!!

Profile views of both Baby A and Baby B. 

Baby B sucking his thumb.  

I've got a SECRET!!!

Today Bryce and I met with a Perinatologist AKA a high risk OB doctor.  We got an ultrasound done to further confirm that our babies are identical and sharing a placenta...which the Perinatologist did confirm.  It was so fun to see our little babies squirming around.  Though these babies may technically be identical...they already seem to have very different personalities.  Baby A (as he/she has always been labeled) is very much relaxed and just takes it pretty easy nuzzling inside me.  Baby B on the other hand is ALL OVER the place! This little baby has not held still for a second during our last 2 ultrasounds....and I'm not just talking wiggling a little bit.  NO...this little baby was literally running circles around baby A.  Needless to say baby B has already been deemed the trouble maker!

Anyways...both babies are doing great....leading me to the secret I have.......we got a little peek between these babies legs!! But.....we aren't sharing just yet!!!! SORRY!  We also have an ultrasound on Saturday to confirm the gender...it never hurts to double check! So maybe after that we'll share!

Because the babies are identical twins sharing a placenta our Perinatologist has suggested that we have ultrasounds every 2 weeks...HOLY COW!!!  It's exciting to know that we will get to see our babies so often but it's also exhausting because these appointments tend to average 2 hours.  The reason for so many ultrasounds is to monitor the babies and their growth and keep an eye out for the Twin to Twin Transfusion I spoke of a few posts ago (though our Dr today said that just based off his past Dr knowledge and experience he doesn't foresee that coming up...sigh of relief).  With so many ultrasounds coming up I think that it is also time find a babysitter....because taking Peyton to these long appointments is becoming more and more difficult!

Well friends, until next time!!