Week 22

We are 22 weeks pregnant, which makes us "in" our 23rd week.

I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions since about 16 weeks, but in the last week or so they've become more frequent - every hour or two for a minute or so. It's just the uterus contracting, kind of like a practice session, or in response to being so much more stretched than it's used to, and is completely normal. It doesn't hurt, it's just a little uncomfortable and odd feeling.

The baby books and sites say that the uterus should be just above my navel by now...ha!! It's about two fingers away from my rib cage! Those who haven't seen me since the gender unveiling have been surprised at how much I've grown in that short time. Hopefully it means the girls are taking off like the weeds in my sorely neglected yard.

Right now they're supposed to be about a foot long, which could be either a spaghetti squash or a package of Oreos, depending on your point of reference, and around a pound each. They have eyelashes, eyebrows and fingernails. ("Your baby has a beating heart… it can feel pain… and it has fingernails!" Well, not until week 22 or so, Su-Chin.) The nerves in their fingers are advanced enough that they're testing out their hands by touching their faces, umbilical cords and, probably, each other!

Baby growth is a bit of a concern in the back of my mind because I still haven't put on any weight since getting pregnant. I fit in the obese category (which I hate about the whole BMI system) because I have a lot of muscle, which weighs more. According to the experts "Women who are in the obese category should gain approximately 15 pounds. Women carrying twins should plan to gain about 35 - 44 pounds." I have gained... zero as of the 5 month mark.

I blame it on a combination of:
1) Losing 8 pounds from morning sickness, which I just barely have gained back;
2) Losing muscle tone from stopping my weight training classes. Once we found out that they were momo, the perinatologist and midwife both said that with cord compression possibly already in progress, its more important than ever to have the maximum amount of blood flow to the placenta and weight training steals that blood and directs it to the extremities; and,
3) Never feeling hungry and always filling up too quickly. The girls have been up against my stomach for some time now and don't leave me a lot of room to eat anything. I've been trying really hard though, I swear.

It kind of feels like the end of Thanksgiving dinner when you're positive you couldn't possibly have another bite to eat and then someone insists on filling your plate again. You take a deep breath and power through even if it's not the least bit desirable. Eating used to be fun. Now it's a chore. I never thought I'd feel that way! Sean picked me up a case of Ensure and a case of protein drinks because taking in fluids is a lot easier than a meal, so that helps. And I've been planning a lot of foods that are quick and easy here at work, like an apple with a side of peanut butter or a Ziploc of fresh pineapple. But still, it takes a ton of effort.

Tomorrow we have another ultrasound and an appointment with our OB/GYN, whom we haven't met yet. We had been seeing the midwives, and then got our referral to the perinatologist right away, but the OB/GYN is the one who has to decide to turn over our care to the perinatologist and he won't make that call until he's actually met with us. I asked his nurse if he could just review our case file because it feels like a waste of time to be meeting with yet another doctor, but she said he wants to meet with us. It's frustrating (yet again) because we can't plan any timelines (again) until he makes this decision. I can't get a letter stating my ability to work on a laptop while I'm in the hospital, can't establish a definitive date to plan around for leaving work or my home, etc. We're playing the waiting game. And then our follow-up appointment with the perinatologist is this Friday, when we'll have another ultrasound and do this all over again. Not that I'm all that eager to go to the hospital, mind you, but I would like to have a game plan more than a week in advance.

The girls have gotten big enough that I'm now feeling their little taps throughout the day, even when I'm sitting or standing, so that's fun. Every once in awhile one of them will do a giant movement of some sort that takes me off guard and even makes me a little sea-sick. Sean has felt it once, but they're not yet often or reliable enough for him to sit there with his hand on my belly waiting around for more.

This weekend I went out and about with 2 specific goals: find a bra that fits and will be comfortable in the hospital, and get some baby bedding so I can move forward with the color scheme for decorating. I was brutally disappointed on both counts.

I'll start with the bedding. Although they have a decent selection online, both Target and JCPenney were practically bare when I arrived. Is there a sudden baby boom of girls coming? Should I set up dates for our daughters now in anticipation of a shortage of eligible males at some point? Babies 'R' Us was a little better, but you can't buy separate items, just the whole kit. Due to safety, the quilt would go on the wall anyway, and the bumper would only be used at the very beginning and once they're toddlers. But you can't buy a bedskirt or cute sheets all by themselves. I left empty handed and more stressed about getting this done in time.

I'm a unique size bra, and I need one without underwire if I'm going to be wearing it at the hospital, so I headed for Nordstrom and the maternity store. Maternity didn't have my size at all. Nordstrom had one (ONE) and it was black with white polka dots. Seriously, what kind of clothes am I supposed to be wearing where that wouldn't show through like I'm under a black light? I know women want to feel pretty during pregnancy, but whatever happened to simple nude? Who decides these things and how can I get their address? When she told me she couldn't fit me, I teared up a little. What am I supposed to do now? Invest in ACE wraps?

Ok, so maybe my patience for problems is inversely proportional to my waist size. As one grows, the other gets infinitely smaller. In a future post I'll address the ways that the twins and hospitalization have a brighter side and hopefully that will help compensate for all of my whining.

Hi ho, hi ho, it's to the hospital I go....

We had our follow-up consult with the perinatologist on Friday and she confirmed that our girls are momo and the recommended course of action is hospitalization between 24-27 weeks for constant monitoring. (We are currently 20 weeks 5 days). It's our choice when to be admitted - I was kind of hoping the doctor would just tell us what to do - based on our preferences.

She said that pretty much all they could do if the babies went into distress is to either deliver them or let it run it's course. If the choice is to let it run it's course, then there is no point to being hospitalized. If the choice is to deliver, we have to consider whether their prematurity at that point is within our comfort range. Tough choices. At 24 weeks (5.5 months) the survival rate if delivered is 50%, at 25 weeks the rate is 75%, and it gets progressively better from there. And the earlier they are delivered, the greater the chances of long-term health issues, including being what she called "special needs" children. It's hard to know the right choice, or how that choice will impact the girls.

I think we're leaning toward being admitted at late 25 weeks or so, which is the week of April 14th, depending on how their growth looks. It's so soon. And they typically won't let the pregnancy go beyond 32 weeks, which is the first week of June.

Sarah and Kristina asked about a baby shower, but because the timeline is getting so tight (and they have their own obligations at the moment, including K delivering little Evey!) I thought it might be best to delay until after the girls are delivered and then schedule a shower for about 3 weeks after that date. They'll still be in the NICU in all likelihood at that point, so we won't need to have everything set up just yet.

I feel a pending urgency to get things situated here at the house before I leave, but between work and daily life, I'm not sure how much I'll realistically get done. I need some more time to think things out and map out a game plan.

Once I'm in the hospital, I won't have any limitations - no staying in bed, no laying in a certain position, etc. - I'll just have to be in the room so that I can wear the heart rate belts for the babies and have ultrasounds a few times a week. It's going to be dull dull dull and I just found out my employer won't let me work via laptop while I'm there because they consider hospitalization to be "disability" regardless of medical condition. I'm so incredibly frustrated by that, not only because I'll be bored and need productive ways to spend my time, but also because any paid time I use up before the girls are born means less paid time after they arrive. In all likelihood, by the time they get to come home, I'll have to go back to work and won't get my own precious time with them. It breaks my heart to think about that even now.

The perinatologist also provided us with a DVD of the ultrasound (we're working on uploading the more interesting parts) , said that they look healthy and still about week behind, which is fine considering the margin of error on an ultrasound. The clinic usually only sees about 1 of these cases a year and we happen to be the second this year! Our next visit is in another 2 weeks and we'll find out more about whether our OB/GYN or the perinatologist will take over our case.

Insert ad here.

Anyone know someone who is in the market for some furniture? http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/fuo/1067946801.html

We're trying to sell our couch and chair set, but this is probably bad timing to sell anything for cash. : ( So far I've only gotten e-mails from people who are "out of state" and want to send me a cashiers check so they can send a delivery person to pick "the item" up. Oh, and the check will be for more than the amount so I should give the balance to the delivery person in cash. Ri-ight.

20 weeks complete!

Today is officially the gestational half-way point! According to my sources, the babies are now 10.5" long head to toe or 7.5" head to rump, and about 12 oz (our girls were both smaller than that at last week's ultrasound). I haven't been able to find out if they should be at exactly the same milestones as singletons yet, or if slightly smaller is to be expected. They can hear our voices, although probably muffled, and it's not as though there's a shortage of talking in this house.

On Saturday a switch got flipped and I suddenly began to feel movement in both places the ultrasound showed a baby. It's just a light tap from the inside here and there but it's unmistakable. And thrilling! It's so nice to get more confirmation that all is going along swimmingly (pun intended) in there. I feel it throughout the day, mostly when I'm laying down, and I'm hoping Sean will be able to feel it for himself soon. There's not a whole lot for a guy to be jealous of when it comes to the ins and outs of pregnancy, but actually feeling your baby is definitely something to envy. I'll try to remember that around my third visit to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

I got frustrated with the idea of waiting so long to find out more about our course of care, or whether they are monoamniotic with complete certainty, so I e-mailed the midwives and voiced my concerns about the lack of urgency. One of them got back to me and said she had been thinking the same thing and was glad I let her know because she agreed. So, she set us up with an urgent referral to Eastside Maternal Services and our appointment is Friday. (Here's to my assertiveness paying off!) It was a huge relief to know that we'd be able to get some questions answered and care started in a much shorter period of time. I felt like I could really breathe for the rest of the day. We'll have a more advanced ultrasound and a consult with a perinatologist who will walk us through everything to come. There is still the possibility that a thin chorion (a second layer within the amniotic sac that separates the two babies) will be visible on the advanced ultrasound, and that would take us back to a normal twin pregnancy...keep your fingers crossed!

I also got hooked up with Eastside Moms of Multiples (www.emoms.org), a group that gets together monthly to share information, hear from speakers, etc., and it turns out that the co-chair also had Momo twins and was also treated by Eastside Maternal Services! She was at Overlake for 2.5 months and gave birth at 34 weeks, which is outstanding. It was helpful to hear a nearby success story! She offered to be a resource for us and we're going to try to get together and find out more from her. EMOMs also hosts a twice annual sale of twin stuff from the families, but the Spring sale was canceled because of the recent legislation on testing toys for harmful substances before they're sold. Too bad. We're still in the market for, well, everything. Registering is just gonna have to wait until we know more.

It's a girl. And a girl.

So we're sitting with the ultrasound tech at the start of our appointment and she begins to point out what we're looking at. "That's your cervix. And that's your right ovary. That's your left ovary." And then she moved the wand over and this popped on the screen:


The first thing I thought was: "Those look too big to be organs. How weird." And then I asked, "What are those two things?" at the same time that the very thought was running through Sean's mind. The u/s tech, Marina, got quiet for a few moments and then finally said, very softly, "It's twins." (This picture is looking down at the tops of their heads as they face each other.)

I laughed nervously. "No really." Silence. My smile fades. "You're kidding, right? Shut up!" Silence and my slow realization. "Wait. Are you serious? Is that twins? Are you joking?" She replied, quietly, "We don't joke about that."

She said, "I'm going to step out for a moment and just let the girls know that we'll be taking a little longer for this ultrasound than we thought." Apparently this was the first time in her career that she had been the one to tell someone they were having twins. Normally people know a lot sooner than 18 weeks, 6 days because they can hear two heartbeats or the bloodwork comes back wonky, but not us! In those brief moments until she returned, Sean and I tried, unsccessfully, to process this. "Wow. This changes everything." "Oh, my God. We're having twins." "Holy cow."

As the tiny detail about suddenly having two children was being absorbed, we got another piece of news. The babies are sharing the same amniotic sac. In a normal twin pregnancy, there is a placenta that connects to a different sac for each baby, so they're kept separate from each other but within the same womb. To put it in perspective, 1 in 250 pregnancies results in twins. Of those, less than 1% are what are called "monoamniotic". We are that very rare occurrence. Our babies are in the same sac and have arms and legs all intertwining with each other. (More on that in another post.) And, since we know they are monoamniotic, it is 100% certain that they are identical.

The babies kept shifting position and getting in the way of the right angle for some of the shots, so we have a few of Baby A and only one of Baby B at this point. We saw WAY more than this during our 2 hours of scanning, but these are the shots she printed out:

Baby A, face, looking straight at you.

Baby A, profile

Baby B, face, looking straight at you

If anyone tells you that twins run in their family, here's the skinny: fraternal (non-identical) twins come from two different eggs that are each fertilized. The mother releasing two eggs at once is a genetic trait that can be passed down. Identical twins, a single egg that gets fertilized and begins to split into 2 cells, then 4, etc., then at some point splits and separates into what becomes two different fetuses, are a different story - they are a fluke occurrence that has no genetic basis, and, frankly, no one really knows what causes it. That's us.

Marina waited until she had done all of the measurements on Baby A, the one on my right side and a little lower in my pelvis, before she finally keyed in on the news we originally thought would be the main event: the gender. Sean had thought it was a boy, I was leaning toward girl. We laughed about how we were about to find out that one of us was even more right than we thought. She panned to a view looking up from the feet to the pelvis and we saw those three little lines that mean girl. We looked at each other and said, "We're having identical twin dughters." You can probably imagine all of the not-preschool-friendly words running through our heads. And for the record, I was the one who was doubly right. Just so that's documented.

*Side note: Do you recall that I was hoping to find out gender so that I could use more specific pronouns and not have to keep saying generic things like "they" when describing the baby? Turns out "they" was pretty accurate.

We were having close friends and family over to our house later in the evening for a little "baby gender unveiling" party, but on the way we called the people who couldn't make it. We started with, "It's a girl!", waited a moment and then said, "...and a girl!" The reactions were priceless and ranged from utter confusion, to excitement, to outright calling us liars. The reactions at the party were along the same lines.

I think my brothers said it best, as I suspected they would: "Leave it to Britt. Go big or go home."

Holy crap, we're having twins. I'm still in complete shock and disbelief. Is this really happening? I was JUST adjusting to the idea that I have a baby inside me, and now we're having two at once? This is crazy talk.

Actually, looking back, when we first heard the ultrasound, I briefly thought I heard two overlapping beats. I got a terrified expression on my face and asked, "Is that two!?" The midwife repositioned a bit a said, "No, it's just one." My response: *sigh of complete relief* "Phew!" Uh...

So, in coming posts: "Monoamniotic Twins - but what does it all mean?" and "The Name Game". Stay tuned.

19th week. I've popped.

Some time in the last week or so, the beefsteak tomato (current fruit reference to size) outgrew it's lodgings and added an addition to the House o' Britt. I'm still at the point where people who don't know I'm pregnant may be wondering why I'm packing on the pounds, but it shouldn't be much longer until they're no longer afraid to offend me by asking about it. I woke up this morning and swore that my belly had suddenly become inflatable. Usually I'm bigger at night than the rest of the day, but I guess the baby had a growth spurt while I was sleeping. One of the many scary things I'm thinking about (there are a lot of them currently on my list) is that the beefsteak will put on 15 times more weight than this by the time we're done.

The little one is about 6" long now, head to rump. That's the size of a dollar bill. If you still have one of those, take it out, hold it up to your belly, and imagine a baby that long from head to butt, not including legs, tucked up inside of you. Also in development news: The baby is now covered in that white waxy stuff they always leave out of births that happen on sitcoms. It helps protect against chafing and bumps as well as those wrinkled fingers you get from staying in the pool too long. I'm told that gratitude is in order because that "vernix caseosa" helps keep things slick during delivery. Also in development is the meconium - the first poo, which is because he/she is now swallowing and processing amniotic fluid. Yummers!

Yesterday I walked about 6 city blocks, half of them uphill, with all of my bags, to catch the bus. By the time I got there, my abdominal muscles were tight and pulling and definitely reminding me that I'm pregnant. Not painful, but not entirely comfortable either. I'm still a pound less than before I got pregnant. I think I've been burning up some fat since my eating isn't back to normal, and maybe even losing some muscle since I've cut down to 1-2 workouts a week due to sheer exhaustion.

I may, MAY, have felt a little movement on Friday afternoon. Usually I know for certain that what I'm feeling is digestion-related, but this was a slight butterfly feeling in the lower abdomen that I wasn't so sure about - kind of like when you see a car about to get in an accident and your stomach goes all tingly. Nothing has happened since then, but there's still plenty of time. If the placenta is attached toward the front of my belly it acts as a cushion and movement isn't felt as early.

On Monday afternoon we have our first ultrasound!! We'll not only get to finally see our little beefsteak, if it cooperates we'll finally know gender and I can stop using "it" and "they" in place of a real pronoun. Hooray! We have a list of names started, but it will probably be awhile until we finalize. They're all pretty standard, easy to pronounce, easy to spell kind of names. They aren't too popular yet still familiar to most folks, and they go with "Sparks". We can't wait!!!

Top ten of all weekends

If it wasn't my favorite weekend of all time (which would have to rival our fantastic wedding whirlwind, so I don't think that's possible), it was definitely in the top ten. For starters, there were three days of wonderfulness. For another, Sean was home for ALL of them! Bonus for Britt!
On Saturday, after the crack-of-dawn feeding of Roscoe, we both fell back asleep until 8. Then, we watched t.v., brought some breakfast to bed, watched some t.v., fell asleep for a few more hours, watched some t.v., then got up around 3 to get ready for our dinner at Stella Mia. Afterwards we saw "He's Just Not that Into You", which had some pretty funny moments, and quite a few I could relate to directly. Then it was back to bed again!

Sunday was spent more than making up for the lack of productivity the day before. I cleaned out junk drawers, the desk, our closets, threw away a ton of things we never should have kept, washed and folded about 8 loads of laundry and just generally cleaned and organized the day away. Sean built a great set of shelves on the car side of the garage that perfectly match the ones he built on Friday on the other side. He's been working hard to help the Man Cave reach it's full potential.

On Monday we fully intended to be just as productive, but then Sean asked me to come with him on some errands that included test driving the two cars we were considering purchasing later in the Spring: a Honda Pilot and a Toyota Highlander. (See posting from last year) We started at Toyota and saw a Highlander we really liked until we were looking at what our financing might be and found out the sticker had incorrectly stated it was 4-wheel drive when it was actually 2-wheel. But by then we were still interested and pushed forward with other options. So, here is our newest addition!

The dealer actually gave me $1000 trade in value for the Jetta! As sad as I was to see my trusty little car drive away for the last time, sitting in the new one quickly erased those feelings. This sucker, in addition to being the color of a clown car (but Sean loves it, and I don't care enough for it to matter) also has: automatic windows and doors and keyless entry (none of which I have ever had before), hill assist, snow package, towing prep, 7 airbags, defrostable mirrors and lights, rear back-up camera, in-dash navigation system, 3rd row seating and leather seats (against my better judgement as a vegetarian - I can hear the cows crying). It's a dream to drive...so smooth and effortless. Of course, it has to be in comparison to the Jetta.

I've actually caught Sean quietly going out to the garage just to look at it. I'm just sayin'.

Neither of us has ever owned a car this nice, let alone one that isn't used. We feel oddly guilty about buying it. We know we've been talking about it for over a year, and that the Jetta wasn't going to be reliable or safe enough for when our new little responsibility arrives, and that everyone we know has had a much nicer car for years, but it still feels like so much more than we deserve. It's not buyers remorse - we're just too frugal to buy Sean boxers when they aren't on sale, so this is big.

To top it all off, though, I talked to our insurance agent on Tuesday about switching our coverage from Jetta to Ol' Blue and the quote she gave us was $64 a month. No, that's not $64 more than the Jetta, it's a total of $64 a month to insure the Highlander. *gasp* That's amazing. Apparently it's so safe that insurance is only $9 more than the Jetta. I'm still in shock over that one.

Somewhat graphic images *be advised*

I found a great diagram online that shows what everything looks like "in there" right now. It was titled 20 weeks, but since the baby goes up to the belly button, this person must not be short-waisted like me, so I figure it's close enough for now.
And here is the difference at 40 weeks (check out the squished bladder!):

Week 16

I'm a little confused about how this pregnancy timeline stuff is counted. Some things say I'm 16 weeks, some say I'm "in the 17th week". For those who are new to counting by weeks, I say I'm 4 months. Either way, things are moving right along.

Sean and I went to our second prenatal visit on Friday, heard the heartbeat again and this time remembered to record it. I e-mailed it out to a few folks so if you want to listen, just let me know. Everything is totally normal and our ultrasound is now scheduled for Monday, March 2nd! Which means we'll probably know the avocado's gender in three weeks!!!

Because I have a strong family history of Diabetes, I needed to take the glucose test a few weeks earlier than normal, so we did it while we were there at the clinic. I drink an 8 oz bottle of 50 mg of glucose, which tasted like flat-extra-sweet-orange soda, then waited calmly for an hour without moving around and had my blood sugar taken to see how my body adapted to the high levels. This stuff is so sweet it made me nauseous, The results came back over MyGroupHealth on Sunday and I had "elevated levels": 143 when the ideal range was 65-135. Not terrible, but a smidge high, which meant I had to do the THREE HOUR TEST. No less than 3 midwives sent me secure messaging to make sure I did it right away, so first thing Monday morning, after not having eaten since dinner the night before, I was there. I had an initial vial drawn and then drank the glucose, this time a lovely flat-extra-sweet-lime-soda flavor, and waited. An hour passed and I had another vial drawn. An hour passed and I had another vial drawn. An hour passed and I had another vial drawn. All while trying hard not to vomit the syrupy liquid back onto my own lap.

Turns out all of my levels were in the normal range this time, so NO GESTATIONAL DIABETES FOR BRITT!! *sigh of relief*

This weekend was also major milestone in another way - Sean and I went to a maternity store. I realized at Kristina's baby shower that my jeans were definitely not as comfortable sitting down as they were the weekend before and finally bit the big-belly-bullet. I got a pair of jeans and two tops for now because it's really all I had the patience (or budget) for. I'll need to get some work pants soon, though. Sean was actually very enthusiastic about shopping for me. With us, we tend to prefer to buy the other person clothes since we know they would rarely do so for themselves. Plus he got to take a picture of me wearing the sample belly they provide for size purposes. So, here is a preview of what's to come:


I'm currently not showing much belly, if at all, but I can definitely feel a firm lump when I lay down or bend over and I suspect it won't be long now. I can feel it up to my belly button already because I apparently am short-waisted. I think I'm just short-everything and that happens to be proportionate, but whatever. I've also lost 7 pounds thanks to morning (all-day) sickness, but I'm told I can count on all of that coming back and then some.

The baby is now an avocado about 4 1/2" long head-to-rump. That's bigger than my ipod. Oh jeez. That's big. *deep breath*

15 weeks... and counting

By the end of this week "the apple" is about 4.5 inches long and weighs as much as a slice of cheese. (I didn't make that reference up, I borrowed it from a web site.) I'm not quite sure if that is still head-to-rump or an actual length at this point.

The baby's taste buds already look like a mature adult's and doctors have learned that the amniotic fluid that surrounds it can smell strongly of curry, cumin, garlic, onion and other essences from a mother's diet.

The baby spends most days practicing breathing amniotic fluid and swimming about. Apparently they're quite mobile at this point, waving their arms, smiling and frowning, sucking their thumb, but I probably won't start feeling that for another few weeks. Unless I mistake it for gas.

On Friday we have our next prenatal visit. Still no ultrasound. We'll probably hear the heartbeat again, though. Nothing much has changed since our last visit, so I have no idea what we do this time. Oh, but I'll probably go to the lab and ingest a gallon of un-carbonated Mountain Dew-like juice so they can test my sugars. Diabetes runs in my family, so they do this test early for us lucky gals.

The buttons on my shirts scream in torture these days, although my pants ride low enough that they're still doing ok. I need to go maternity shopping. The clothes my wonderful friends loaned me are summer weight and I can't quite get away with them yet. I know it seems silly, but I always feel "hefty" when I go try on clothes and I'm fairly certain that trend is going to continue for awhile, so I'm not all that enthusiastic about hitting the racks.

Week 13

This week the baby is the size of a peach; 2.5-3" from head-to-rump. (Apparently they've never had a massive and heavenly Chelan peach). It still doesn't feel real at all that there's a baby in there.

Fingerprints have now formed, and the body growth has started to catch up with the head, which is nw only 1/3 of the entire length. If it's a girl, she now has over 2 million eggs in her ovaries - holy grandkids, batman!

Sean and I went to the "Bodies" exhibit when it came to town almost 2 years ago and we were mezmerized by the fetus section, which showed a fetus in every week of gestation. Absolutely amazing. I wish I could find pictures online somewhere. It would help me visualize all of this better - the 'artist depictions' I keep seeing are almost worthless.

The big news

It's the moment that many of you have looked forward to ("So...any news?"), and some have dreaded ("They'll never shut up now"). Yup. We're breeding.

We found out the day before Thanksgiving and it's been VERY difficult to keep it to ourselves for so long. My M.D. called me on my way home to congratulate me and my Blue tooth, which apparently was made by Bose, announced it to my dad, who happened to be sitting next to me. Luckily dad was very gracious and never even acknowledged that he heard a thing.

I immediately went to Barnes & Noble and bought a few books: Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy, Your Pregnancy Week by Week, and 40,000 Baby Names. When I got home, Sean was on the phone so I just stood there waiting, bursting at the seams. I eventually nonchalantly handed him the books and said, "I picked these up, just in case". Inside the cover was the printout of our positive results, but did he open the book and check it out? No. He immediately said, "Are WE?!?!" I rolled my eyes and responded, "Open the book." In my head it was going to go differently than this.

We told my family on Christmas Eve because it was the only time we would all be together, but I had to wait until we were almost ready to go because no one was ever in the same room. Apparently my brother's women were speculating about my lack of wine already at that point.

We told Sean's dad and Gayle at their house on Christmas. It wasn't a big moment. Sean waited for a moment of quiet in the conversation and said, "So, we're expecting."

I was really looking forward to telling his mom's side of the family because I knew that there would be a lot more excited personalities in the room, so we came up with a game plan. We'd propose a Christmas photo of everyone in front of the tree. Sean would get the shot ready and set the automatic timer and tell everyone, "OK, everyone smile and say, 'Britt's pregnant!'" and then we'd be able to capture the expression on their faces. Semi-brilliant right? Except that I should have had someone other than Sean say it. He's known as a bit of a jokester in his family and no one seemed to take him seriously. Everyone in the picture smiled, said, "Britt's pregnant!" and stood there waiting for him to take the shot. And stood there. And stood there. Finally, Jill turned and asked, "Wait, is she really?" and then everyone finally got it.




Tanya knew from the start, which is why she's pointing at everyone else. In all, I think Kristin, my youngest brother, Nick's, girlfriend, and our neighbor, Vivian, have been the absolute most excited out of anyone. Within moments, Kristin was already talking about things she wanted to get, and Vivian was clanging her glass to announce to the rest of the room. You guys get the gold.

So, where do we go from here? Well, we're just starting the 12th week, so next week we'll officially be in the second trimester. We had our first visit on Friday and heard the heartbeat, so that helped make it seem a little more real. After all, other than constant nausea and outgrowing my bras in a week, there was very little supporting evidence that I actually had a little parasite in there. This week we're calling it "the lime" because that's how big it is. (A key lime, not the giant ones.) Our next appointment is in 4 weeks and then we get an ultrasound 4 weeks after that. I'm disappointed that we have to wait until our 5th month to get a glamour shot, but I guess that's how it goes down in Group Health-world.

I'm feeling a lot better, queasiness-wise, this week, although I'm now at the tail end of a nasty cold. Sean has been wonderful, as usual, and very patient with my laziness, and has made sure to be a part of every moment. He bought a book, Dad's Pregnant, Too! and went to the library for a few more, and he may now know more than the Duggars about pregnancy and birth.


Stay tuned....

Holiday Musings

Christmas is my favorite holiday and as soon as November rolls around I'm thinking about all the good times to be had. Trouble is, Christmas in coupledom is wa-ay more hectic than those of my childhood.

In the old version, we'd go to my grandparents house a few miles away for Christmas Eve and have a holiday buffet and egg nog - I'd bring a dish or two. On Christmas morning we'd all go to my parents house for brunch and present opening and then I'd work on the Christmas puzzle in front of an endless loop of "The Christmas Story" on TBS until it was time to start the next round of dishes for Christmas dinner, again at my parents house. It took place over the span of 24 hours.

In the coupledom Christmas, we have three families to celebrate with, half of whom live on the Peninsula, which involves several hours of traveling back and forth, including a ferry ride. (Note: I'm told that by those who reside West of Puget Sound that "the Peninsula" to them means the Kitsap Peninsula, a small growth on the thumb of Washington's mitten. In my East-sider vernacular, the Peninsula refers to EVERYTHING West of the Sound.) Luckily, Sean's side of the family is notoriously gracious when it comes to celebrating on alternative days and leaving the actual day of Christmas to others. But, the drawback of this is that means two additional weekends are thus taken up traveling to Seabeck (his mom's side) or Sequim (his dad's side), which leaves oh-so-little time to shop, go to parties, and all the other holiday moments. So if we don't have all of our Christmas shopping done before the first trip of the season, we don't really get any more chances.

It's even more stressful for me because I didn't grow up sharing holidays and Sean and his family are old pros at it. Although, Sean's old version of events was doing all of his shopping in the two hours before he had to catch a ferry and then wrapping them on arrival using whatever gift bags his mom had set aside in her sewing room. I'd say we've progressed significantly since then, but maybe that's bragging? Of course, my version of progress involves lists. Shocking, I know.

Holiday Musings

Our tree is up! Well, it was up two weekends ago, but I haven't been very blog-ivated. (Aside: My new G1 phone takes lousy pictures, too. The light quality has to be super high and then dark colors aren't very clear.)

Sean is a fan of getting trees early and I'm a fan of putting out the decorations early, so we make a good team. After all, why go to the effort only to use them for 2 weeks, right? The lights on the house were super easy because we didn't take them down last year. Yeah, we're kind of "one of those" except that the way I mounted them under the eaves means that no one can even tell the lights are there unless they're turned on. So that's my reasoning.

Cooter and Roscoe have pretty much left the tree alone, and I learned last year to put decorations at least 2 feet off the ground to avoid temptations and tails. Hey - that's a good name for an ornament shop. Or a burlesque show. "Temptations and tails". Thus far there have been no casualties. *knock on wood*

Sean makes an entry.....

[Seans Entry]

Just wanted say that I love my wife the most! Have I ever mentioned that her ability to write is what first attracted me to her? MMMMmmmmm.....Deep fried turkey!