Room to Grow

34 weeks, with less than three weeks to go before we hit the baby jackpot, and Karen ceases to be a giant belly with legs.

Since we are so close to having the babies at home, we figured we better get our ducks in a row and get the boys' room put together. Anyone that knows me well knows I like to obsess about wall color, bedding, and any aspect of a room's decor, and this being a room I will most likely spend a lot of time rocking babies to sleep in, was no exception. So for weeks I tossed around a few decor ideas for their room. A beach theme? Nope, didn't feel right. Trucks? I am sure the boys will go through a truck/car things for several years, so I would rather wait until then. Sun/Moon/Stars theme? I hate light yellow, so this was out of the question. Frogs? Very cute, but I already have several rooms and the house painted a light green, so that won't work. A whale theme? I am a HUGE fan of the whale theme, but couldn't find anything that was whale-ish for babies rooms. (I guess there aren't that many expecting moms who have spent summers working aboard whale watch boats touting the wonders of the marine mammals? ) Then for a hot minute I thought I would do a safari theme. Seems appropriate, I'm from Africa, I like animals, Keith likes animals.. Most kids like animals, what's not to love? And, Keith and I just went to South Africa and we have some great pictures from our safari to include in the room. I actually tried to convince Keith that's Cole's middle name should be Sabie, after the Sabie River in SA where we saw a ton of wildlife. Keith did not agree with me that Sabie would be a cool middle name, he's so left-brained. But I'm getting off-subject, sooooo, anyways, in search of cute animal things for the room I went. My shopping trips were not as successful as I had hoped-all the crib bedding and decor for babies' rooms were so...well, baby-ish. Yes, I know, they're going to be babies. I get it, I just don't like the super foofy-frilly-nauseatingly pastel baby room stuff. I realize at some point I'll have no control over their rooms' decor, and when the time comes I will happily fill their room with Bob the Builder/Dinosaurs/Trucks/
Bugs/Whatever-They-Are-Obsessing-About-At-The-Time, but for now, I can be picky.

After listening to me lament about not finding the perfect bedding for the boys (and you know it HAS to be perfect, how else will the kids get into Harvard later?), MG offered to make the bedding. (For those of you who don't know MG, she is a lady I call Momma Gwen, a very dear friend of mine and Keith. MG was my supervisor at work when we met, and over the last 10 or so years she's become an adopted mom-person). I was thrilled! Custom bedding, all I had to do was find the perfect fabric. Flash forward a few weeks to a shopping trip when MG and I were going to pick the fabric. I should preface this by saying that prior to meeting MG at the fabric store, I went to Babies R Us to create a registry, and that experience left me drained and overwhelmed. That place is scary, seriously. Who knew there are that many types of bottles?

Anyway, I digress. MG and I met up, and we dove right into the fabrics. For some reason I expected to get to the store, and the perfect fabrics would just leap off the shelves into my arms. Didn't quite work out that way. There were SO many choices, tiny prints, big prints, floral, plaid, solid, phew. To say it was overwhelming would be an understatement. The rest of the trip is a bit fuzzy, but here's what I remember: MG found the perfect fabrics!, I stood paralyzed with indecision while clutching a bolt of fabric for the majority of our shopping trip, and MG had to steer me away from the pink/orange section a few times. Apparently I have a natural affinity for those colors and was secretly contemplating how I could include a cute pink & lime green paisley into the animal theme. Paisley is unisex, right?

Thanks to MG we got fantastic fabrics picked, and we have the bedding on the crib! It's perfect. The room doesn't exactly have the animal theme I initially had in mind, after all that searching I decided to keep it simple and just focus on a cute room with colors I liked. Here we are, our boys' room! Many, many thanks to MG for the bedding!

Keith's Gone High Tech

In anticipation of our boys arriving, we purchased a camcorder to record all those special moments. Said camcorder came with a pretty cool program that allows you to edit your video clips to create short films, add text and sound. Since I reign supreme as this blog's Writer, Keith took it upon himself to become our household's Film Producer. Behold his first masterpiece! He's made a 7 minute video of the boys' ultrasounds that is most definitely worth watching. (Yes, watch the entire thing, no skipping ahead). Make sure your computer's sound is on, the score to this film is superb. The last few minutes is the most recent ultrasound images, taken Thursday. Enjoy!

A new goal

Karen's goal is to make it to February 20th, when boys are scheduled to arrive! After the ultrasound and her appointment with the doctor today, Karen decided to schedule the C-section, and hope she doesn't explode before then.

The boys are about 5 lbs each according to the estimate from today's ultrasound calculations. Cole is estimated at 5lbs, 1 oz, and Grady at 5lbs, 2 oz. Decent sized babies, and poor Karen is now lugging around over 10lbs of baby. I am making a mental note to get her an appoinment for multiple massages when this is all over, she's definitely earned it.

So... Feb 20th, that is a little less than 4 weeks. Exciting! I am going to make one of those countdown link chains when I get home, I love a good countdown! There is always a chance that Karen goes into labor before then, of course, but that is too stressful to think about, so for now I will focus on the countdown, it's good to be preoccupied.

Update: This week the boys weigh about as much as a large pineapple.

Crunchy, crunchy Jicama

Karen's made it to 32 weeks with Frick and Frack romping around in her womb. Here is the BabyCenter email we get each Friday:

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

It cracks me up that they might already have hair. Since I was blessed with a mess of hair, I've always been preoccupied with hair. Will theirs be straight and dark? Curly and red (how cute would that be!)? I am excited to see what they were given in the ol'e genetic lottery.

How cute are these?

I've always thought it was really, eh....interesting that people bought bibs with loving sentiments on them. Why is a piece of cloth that is essentially a food rag the perfect place to tell someone that Baby Loves His Daddy? But, during the last trip to Babies R Us when Keith and I were buying even more baby gear to cram into this little house, we found these-perfect bibs for Cole & Grady! They attracted me from the far end of the diaper bag aisle, and when I saw them, I knew I had to get them. (I'm pretty sure I heard some music that sounded like the beginning of Cold Case indicating I HAD to buy them.) So now I'm a Sentiments Bib convert. Especially when they mention how fabulous big (big as in older, and as in big with huge belly) sister is.

We love Aunt Karen!

And now we wait.

From the time we realized that the sciency part of this process was done, Keith and I kept setting little deadlines for ourselves. First it was if we can just make it to the end of the first trimester. Then it was the date of the ultrasound that showed us the babies' sexes, then the first baby shower, then Christmas, New Year, my birthday, and a few more showers. I had a mental checklist of events that would happen before the boys arrived, and this last week the last event occured. (Thank you again to our great friends Chris and Melissa and Justin and Tracy- you guys host a fantastic party!) So, Sunday night Keith and I realized this is it-we're in the homestrech, we're almost parents! The boys' room is about ready, we're stocked up on diapers and every baby-raising item you can imagine, including the cutest little fishy mobile -- I can stare at it for hours as it plays music and turns, which I guess is good 'cause that's what its used for --and outfits so little it seems inconceivable that the boys will be that small when they arrive. Just a few more weeks now!

Happy Birthday, Mamacita.

Keith: Happy birthday to my lovely wife, who turns 29 today. Since this is her last year of being a 2o-something, I fully expect her to try to talk me into doing something crazy, like skydiving. (I am going to tell her to wait and go with Karen, once Karen has recovered from the pregnancy). She has wacky ideas, but I love her anyway.

Giddy, I am

Thursday's ultrasound was just the coolest thing ever! We got all the necessary measurements done, and also got good looks at the boys' faces. Or, I did, at least, poor Karen couldn't see the ultrasound screen, either the screen was at a bad angle or her belly is just that big...you take a look and decide for yourself. (Yeah, I also think it's because the belly is so big).

To update you on the boys, the email this week from BabyCenter said that the average weight for a 30 week baby is about 3lbs. Welllll....not to brag or anything, but it seems our babies are above average. I know, I'm not surprised either, Keith and I are pretty fabulous, so clearly our kids would be above average, too. Or Karen could just be a great baby grower, we'll give her some credit too. Are you ready? Cole weighed in an an estimated 3 lbs, 14 oz and Grady, aka The Heavyweight, come in at about 4lbs, 1 oz. In other words, BIG. I really wish I had my camera ready when they told us the estimated weights, because Karen's eyes got pretty big when we heard Grady's weight. All joking aside, big is good if they are going to come early like some twins do, and it's also good that both babies are close to each other in weight. That means they are sharing the nutrients and womb-space nicely.

So here are their pics: First, Baby A, Grady. Turn your head sideways towards your left shoulder when you look at this picture and you'll see his face. His little hand is over his mouth, but you can see his eyes, and the round little belly/chest. I think he has Keith's headshape. No Bothma genes has produced a head that thin.

Here is B, Cole. In the actual ultrasound I got a really good look at him, but the picture did not turn out as well. To see him, turn your head towards your right shoulder, and you can see him. He was shielding his face with his arms (Noo, no papparazi!), so only the one side of his face is visible, but if you look closely, you can see his little hand next to his face (bottom of his face). I think he has my nose. The round thing to the left is his chest/belly.

That's it for now! Have a great weekend everyone.