Nursery Colours (Week 20)

We spent this past weekend doing home improvement projects for our babies. My Mom & I spent about three hours, one evening, at a local fabric store called My Sewing Room. We were looking at cute fabrics and trying to piece together a theme and colour idea. (The wall paint colour depended upon our choices.) We ended up buying a bunch of things, and like always I over estimated and we got so much fabric that we could likely outfit two rooms with it all! The main fabric we chose is called Newton's Dream, which has little cartoon animals on it - primarily a sheep called Newton, and then some bears, frogs and what I think may be hedgehogs but I am not completely certain. To go with it, we picked out some basic star fabrics and some beautiful turquoise blue fabric.

Our room fabrics - Selected by my Mom & myself.

 As previously mentioned, my Mom has generously offered to make us the entire bedroom set for our little cubs. She has already started cutting the fabrics for a quilt for the babies' crib. She also will sew a matching crib skirt and window valance. Lastly we picked out some lighter fabric (not shown) that she will magically turn into crib sheets. For my own contributions, I have bought a crib mobile, which I plan to disassemble and cover with the same room fabrics. I had hoped to find a remote controlled mobile, but no luck. I plan to hang some matching handmade characters from the mobile, which I found on Etsy and will post photos once it comes together. I am also planning to make a custom a lamp shade and just need to find a nice little lamp. My last project is to find a suitable cloth hamper and customize the outside in some fashion. I really look forward to seeing it all together. In the meantime I am crocheting another baby blanket to match a blue one, with white trim, which I crafted a few years ago in a fluffy wool. The one currently underway is the same wool in pink, with white trim.

Our nursery is now painted, thanks to DH and my Dad, and it looks fabulous! It's a teal blue colour with a darker teal feature wall, where the crib (or cribs, eventually, if there is enough room) will be placed. I think the cherry furniture will look great in front of the wall colour. Hoping it will arrive sooner than later. For now I just love to sit in our freshly painted nursery and admire the future.

Our nursery - Vibrant Teal Blue. The Photo doesn't do it justice.

This upcoming weekend we will be working on starting the basement. A long overdue project to give us some extra living space. Currently it is a concrete floor with insulated walls - not conducive to babies or baby living space. DH is planning to frame out the dividing walls and possibly get a start on the electrical work. This will be a winter project to get it all finished, and he wants to have it suitable for our cubs. The home renos continue..and the list never seems to get any shorter!

Yet again, a weekly photo update of my belly. I like watching it grow. It lets me know that all must be well if it is getting larger. Also, this is likely one of the few times in my life when I'll be able to have a nice big round belly and not worry in the least about if people think I'm "just fat". Plus - yes it gets better - I can eat what I please (within reason) and say things like "It's our babies who are hungry, not me." I get a lot of yummy things this way - almost all guilt free..

20 weeks along

Later this week I should be able to post some 3D ultrasound photos from our scan on Friday. Perhaps even a video - if blogger allows it. Now I'm off to bed to listen to our cubs' heartbeats before getting a full night's sleep! (Yes, I shall enjoy it while I can..)

Beginnings of a Nursery

Last weekend we decided to go baby furniture shopping! We had browsed around a little bit at some local stores and researched online some of the items we wanted to purchase. We ended up ordering a crib, dresser and bookshelf for the babies' nursery from Bo Bebe. We picked the Volterra collection from the Pali-Design line of furniture in vintage cherry colour. I'll post some photos once we get them all set up. It takes 8-12 weeks for the furniture to arrive, so we expect to be setting up our nursery sometime between early November and early December.

We also went to Kacz Kids and bought our stroller. DH was excited to pick out a stroller. We decided to go with the City Select by Baby Jogger. Mostly because it was one of the very few choices of stroller which allow for two infant carriers to be attached and therefore (hopefully) making it a bit easier to get our babes in and out of the truck, to the stroller and into the mall/house/wherever. The stroller also is very convertible and allows for two seats to be put into place (in any direction) for when they are too big for their infant car seats. One seat comes with the stroller and then you can purchase a second seat. We bought the onyx stroller and added an amethyst second seat. (I still think we may be having a boy and a girl - and if not, the amethyst is a nice dark purple, just in case it is two little boys.) Also, you can convert this stroller to be just one seat and can take one baby separately to the store if you wanted to. (Or use it for future children..) It also fits through doorways and is quite light, both good things. We basically had to buy every part and attachment that is offered for the City Select in order to use it for twins, but so far we love it! It rides so smoothly and we can't wait to take it out with our fat little cubs in it. The only thing DH is missing is a cup holder for his Starbucks..

Our new City Select stroller!

Of course to go with the stroller, we had to buy infant car seats (some people call them infant carriers - I like to refer to them as buckets). We read a ton of reviews and talked to friends to see what they had used, and what they liked about them. We decided to go with the Peg Perego SIP seats. They have a metal frame as opposed to the plastic frames of most of the other brands we looked at. Also, no one we talked to had anything bad to say about the seats, other than they were a bit on the heavier side. (Big arm muscles here I come!) We picked out the Viaggo SIP models from their 2011 line and are really happy with how they look. They have brown leather on them (DH's choice - to match our truck interior..) which I think will be easier to wipe clean and will likely be much more temperature regulating than the cloth models. The cost difference between the cloth vs. the leather.. was only a mere $20. So it was a very easy choice. Like I mentioned we bought every extra piece for the stroller, and two of those pieces were to attach the Peg Peregos to the stroller base. I really hope our babies like their buckets.

Peg Perego buckets for our tiny humans!

This week not too much has happened in the way of medical appointments or anything too fun. We are so thankful that our cubs are doing well and we listen to their heartbeats a few times a week with our at home fetal doppler. At some point, once they're big enough and we can get a steady reading, I'd like to record a video of their hearts beating on the doppler and post it here as well. I will work on that.

One week to go until our 3D ultrasound at UCBaby! Our parents are going to be able to watch the ultrasound live via the internet, which I find really neat. I am sure that they will as well. Perhaps we will be able to get a good look at the babies' facial features and see who they look most like so far. We also are going to see if we can find out their genders this time around. The UCBaby staff told me to eat something sweet 15 minutes before our scan (the office is located right across the street from Crave Cupcakes - done & done!). I think this is to get the babies moving about in a sugar high, so hopefully they'll be bouncing around and we can get a peek at their bums!

Tonight my parents are coming in to the city and my Mom and I will be going to the fabric store to buy a bunch more baby fabrics. She is going to make our babies' bedroom set! (Two crib quilts, multiple crib sheets, a matching bed skirt and valance all handmade.) It is going to be so beautiful. I'll post photos of it all together once the furniture arrives. I really adore that my Mom can have such a big part in their lives and a connection to their nursery where they will fall asleep surrounded by family love. I know she is excited to be a Grandmother. She will never truly understand how much this contribution means to us, but we'll try to show her.

While my Mom and I shop fabric and piece together a baby room, my Dad and DH will be painting the nursery walls. It's great that my Dad can make a contribution to their nursery too. He loves doing home reno stuff, so this is right up his alley. Plus he's really good at it, so I know the walls won't be all drippy. We went out last night and got a bunch of paint swatches from Lowes, then taped them to the walls. Today, our job is to narrow down the colours. So far it's looking like we may go with a light green or a teal blue. (DH kiboshed purple as being "too girly".) We are trying to be gender neutral yet we still want it to have a fresh, happy feeling in the room. We've been peeking in every once in awhile to see the swatches in different lighting over the course of the day. Also, the colour will be affected by the fabrics we select, so tomorrow is final decision day!

Lastly, I wanted to post another belly photo. This one was taken at work after a workout on the elliptical. I was so happy to still be able to fit into my Lululemon gear - though they are getting a teeny bit tighter..

Week 19 Belly

Anatomy Ultrasound!

Week 17 passed by rather quickly. We spent the week waiting anxiously for our 18-20 week ultrasound which was scheduled for the follwoing Tuesday morning. I went for another odd numbered week massage, (It was so very nice and relaxing), and spent some time at my orthodontist getting new retainers made. We're not putting braces back on just yet. (..but that has nothing to do with babies! so moving along..)

Week 18 has been wonderful. On Tuesday August 30th we got another ultrasound and this time it was the anatomy scan. The technician checked each baby over very carefully and measured what seemed to be every square inch of their teeny bodies. She even looked at all of their organs. Then we waited while the Radiologist went over the ultrasound images. They told us that everything looked great and that the babies, whom I lovingly refer to as "The Cubs", measured right along with 19 weeks. (They still think I am a week ahead. Silly doctors.) We asked to find out the babies' genders, but were told that they were both in a position which was hiding their bums. Sneeky little Cubs! These are definitely my kids, very stubborn.

Both babies were in a breech position, with their heads up by my ribs and their feet down by my pelvis. They were spooning and looks so happy in there. Baby A had a heartbeat of 153, and baby B had a heartbeat of 150. We are still guessing boy/girl, but who knows we may just be surprised.

We were delighted to hear the healthy update and went out to CharCut (a fancy restaurant here in the city) for a celebratory lunch date. It was really nice to spend some quality time with DH.

 I also found out, from the ultrasound technician, that there are companies which will do 3D scans and broadcast it to 8 email addresses live, so people from out of town can watch right along. They can also tell you the genders if you like, so we will try once again. I called the company to see when they normally do twin scans. Turns out it's best between weeks 21-24, while the babies still have space to move about. Since we are going to be gone end of September for 10 days to visit family, we booked an appointment for Friday September 16th. We will either be in week 20 or week 21. I'm excited to be able to see them again so soon, yet I really don't want ultrasounds to harm our babies. Though I'm told that they don't, I still worry for them. It will be very nice to experience a 3D ultrasound though and get some more photos, also to be able to bring the photos to show my Grandma the next week.


18 weeks

Through everything, I continue to talk to our babies and tell them to keep their hearts beating and to keep on growing big and strong. I see them in there, I'm getting a big belly and I hear their heartbeats at home with the fetal doppler... yet I still don't believe this is real! I'm so very thankful for both of our precious cubs. If they're anything like me and stubborn, they'll end up being 8lbs each and born in February, just because they don't want to come out..

Home Doppler!

In week 15 we spent time with friends from out of province. They came to visit for 5 days and we went camping near the mountains. My girlfriend that came to visit is a nurse and it was really nice to have her around! I wanted to hire her as a personal nurse from now until the babies are born. Apparently my offer wasn't high enough paying ;)

15 weeks

We received our Sonoline B 3mhz fetal doppler in the mail right before we left on our camping trip and we got to listen to the babies' heartbeats in our trailer. We also listened again once we were back at home. Baby A seems to consistently be about 10 beats higher than Baby B each time we have a listen. Baby A is anywhere from 140-155 and Baby B is normally between 130-140. They can be a bit difficult to find as well since they are still quite small. When we do find them, the beats sometimes fade in and out as they swim around. I find that really nice to just know they are already learning to swim! Also, It always makes me feel so good to hear them, since I can't yet feel them wiggling around in my tummy. I hope that soon I'll get a swift kick and unmistakably it will be the babies. I also realized recently that its likely I'll be able to feel one move around before I feel the other. My guess is I'll feel Baby A on my left side first. (I also guess that Baby A is a girl and Baby B is a boy, but I could be completely wrong as well!)

I'm now in week 16 and things are feeling approximately the same as they have been since we found out we are pregnant. I feel pretty normal, perhaps a bit more tired and my belly is getting rounder. I still cant believe there are babies in my belly. This is very surreal to me. I've been taking belly photos all along on my old iPhone, and I've gone back and updated all of my recent posts accordingly with pictures.

16 weeks

We have our 18-20 week ultrasound/anatomy scan scheduled for August 30th and it cant get here soon enough! An entire 6 and a half weeks will have passed since the last scan. Seems like forever, and at the same time, like the blink of an eye. I continue to think positive thoughts that our babies will continue to grow big and strong, and that they will be born very late in December or into January.

Week 14 (or 15ish)

I believe that today would be week 14, day 2. The measurements taken from our NT scan a couple of weeks ago would put us 5 days ahead and 15 weeks today. So I'm a little bit confused but planned to keep my original dates and err on the conservative side.

Today after work I am meeting with a new family doctor from the new walk-in clinic by our house. I can't wait to finally, hopefully have a doctor who will give me some level of care and a feeling of confidence that everything is going perfectly. (Though DH has a good point, that if anything were to go wrong, a doctor couldn't do anything, so care is really just superficial at this point.) Still, it will be nice to not be in this by ourselves, wondering if we are doing everything we need to be.

I was hoping she could let me listen to the babies heartbeats again. I like to know they're still in there and their beautiful hearts blissfully beating away. It does give me some piece of mind. Especially since it's still a bit too early to feel them moving around and my only real "symptom" is a buddha belly. Either there are two healthy little ones in my tummy or I've seriously got to cut down on the sweets.

We did order our own fetal doppler and hope that it may arrive sometime this week. I'm working under the assumption that DH and I will be very amateur at using it and likely may not be able to find their heartbeats right away. I promise not to get too worried.

Hopefully the month of August will fly by, and our anatomy scan will be here sooner than we think! I'm told it can be done between weeks 18-20. I can't wait to see the babies growth and to know that they are both thriving. I pray a lot for their continued health lately.

14 weeks