The Third Crib (and Other Good Deals)

Jason thought I may have lost my mind yesterday.  I went to a consignment sale at a church nearby.  They were closing at 3, and I got there around 2:45.  So I didn't have much time to shop, but they had nearly everything at 50% off since the sale was just about to end... including a white crib.  Yes, I bought a THIRD crib for our TWO babies.  It's not identical to the other one(s), but it will match closely enough.  It also came with a mattress that looks brand new (these seem to retail for something between $60 up to $150 or more each, and we don't have any mattresses yet). 

So I'm going to sell the last crib that we bought on Craiglist for the $150 that we paid for it.  The way I see this, I'm saving us $100 and we have one crib mattress now.

I also got 5 or 6 pairs of maternity shorts from a combination of Good Will and the consignment sale yesterday for under $10 total (including tax).  I just don't want to spend too much money on things that I'll only wear for a few months, and I'm thinking that any time I'll be wearing my maternity shorts I will probably not be looking my best.  I'll save that for the nice maternity jeans that my mom bought me.  =)

I'm a frugal mommy.

Oh, and it occurred to me for the first time this weekend that I have three hearts beating inside of me.  That's pretty darn cool.  We'll find out on Friday whether we're having sons or daughters or one of each - can't wait!  Hope you all had a great weekend!

16 Weeks!

I can't believe I'm 4 months pregnant now.  That seems impossible.  It has gone by fast, but I have a feeling that it's going to start to feel like is slowing down a lot as we get into the third trimester.

Our babies are about the size of avocados right now.  Their eyes have moved closer to the front of their heads (I have a really bad animation in my head of that happening... very scary).  They are starting to grow toenails and they can probably hear us now (or at least hear me).  I may be able to feel them moving soon, and I'm really looking forward to that.

A week from Friday, on March 5, we should find out whether they are boys, girls or one of each.  Jason thinks it's two girls.  I have no idea what I think they are.  Well, I guess I think they are one of each, because that's the most statistically likely scenario.  It's 50% chance of one of each, 25% that they're both boys and 25% that they're both girls.  We don't have any preference as to what they are.  We just hope that they're healthy and happy and that they want to go to engineering school someday (JUST kidding).

Weird Things About Being Pregnant

There are many weird things about being pregnant (especially being pregnant for the first time) that I find very interesting.  I think the fact that we're having twins makes a lot of the pregnancy symptoms more pronounced because of the higher hormone levels.  Here are some of the things I've noticed:

1. My nails and hair grow a LOT faster.  I think that's because of the increased blood flow.  They say that a pregnant woman's blood volume increases between 25 and 40%.  Some say 50%.  I would assume that I'm on the higher end, because I have twice the number of babies (but I could be wrong).  The average adult only has about 1.3 gallons of blood, so I guess that's not really that much volumetric increase.  I was surprised to learn that.
2. I can see veins all over my body that were not there before - on my stomach, my arms, everywhere.
3. Sometimes I get a weird taste in my mouth - almost metallic.  It makes me brush my teeth more, which is probably gums that are now bleeding more.  Some people get pregnancy gingivitis, which is also caused by the increased blood flow.
4. My back hurts a LOT now, which is the newest and must frustrating symptom.  It's right in the middle of my back, and seems to get worse as the day goes on.  That makes it the worst at night right before I go to bed.  The only comfortable position I can find then is to lie flat on my back (sitting up gets very uncomfortable).
5. I get out of breath really quickly - from exercising, from talking in front of a group of people or making a presentation.  It's weird to me, because this was never a problem for me before. 
6. I haven't had too many weird cravings, but I have had a hankering for barbecue and Papa John's (which were never strong cravings for me before).
7. I am extremely congested.  I though my allergies were just going insane until I started reading about the increased blood flow affecting your mucus membranes and causing severe congestion.  Who would have thought?
8. I cry really easily at sentimental things, like thinking about how much I love Jason or watching the Olympics (especially the ice skating).
9. I have trouble sleeping.  I always slept through the night before - hardly ever waking up to go the restroom and never waking up when rolling over, etc.  I was one of those lucky people who falls asleep and then wakes up when the sun is out and it's time to get up.  Not anymore.  Now I wake up probably at least 6 times a night, sometimes not being able to fall back asleep. 

And I have a feeling that all of these symptoms will get worse and that new symptoms will pop up as I progress through the pregnancy.  We're not even half-way there yet.  Wow.  I think I've gained about 10 pounds (at 16 weeks pregnant).  I'm hoping to keep my total under 200 lbs.  I'm not even kidding.  =)

Crib Score!!

We bought our first crib off of Craigslist brand new, still in the box.  The couple (grandparents) had a crib that had been recalled, and they bought our crib brand new with a voucher from their crib company.  Then we bought it, so it was a very mutually beneficial situation.

Today, I saw a listing on Craigslist from someone else with another crib voucher.  She's going to Babies R Us tonight to buy an exact match of our other crib, and we're going to pick it up tomorrow.

If we had bought both of these cribs from Babies R Us ourselves, they would have cost us something like $450 together.  Buying them with these vouchers on Craigslist, we got them both for $295 total.  That makes me very happy, considering that it's virtually impossible to find new cribs on sale or to find any coupons for more than 10% off at Babies R Us.

Good thing we're making room for them, because these babies are growing!!

Taken today - 15.5 weeks

15 Weeks

We're 15 weeks pregnant today.  I think I'm finally starting to feel back to my normal self, though I still do feel a bit sick at night - usually starting around 8:00 PM.

The babies are around 4 inches long - about the size of apples.  Though their eyes are fused shut, they can sense light.  Their taste buds are developing.  I can definitely tell that these babies are growing, because my tummy is starting to grow a lot more with them, too.  We'll have to take more pictures soon.

I should be able to feel the babies move between 16 and 22 weeks.  They say that sometimes you can feel them earlier when they are twins.  I'm looking forward to that.

Totally unrelated to the babies, but still interesting:  a red-bellied woodpecker just found my bird feeder this morning and he keeps coming back for more seed.  The feeder sits right outside my office window, so I see the birds feeding every day.  It's fun to watch them.  They have been loving my feeder since I refilled it after the snow.  (This is not my red-bellied woodpecker, but this is what he looks like.)

He's way too big for my feeder!

Crib FAIL

We bought a crib a couple weeks ago on Craigslist.  It's brand new and still in the box (and not recalled), so I was delighted at getting a particularly good deal.  We're either going to look for another white crib on Craigslist, or we might just suck it up and go buy an identical one at Babies R Us so that they match perfectly.  Here's what it looks like:

I couldn't wait to put it together to see it in person, so Jason and I started assembling it in bedroom.  We can't put it in the nursery yet because we use that room for the children in our Life Group from church on Monday nights.  So we decided to assemble it in our room and then move it over when we're ready to start putting the nursery together.

I looked at the dimensions on the crib, and I saw that it was 30 inches wide.  I didn't actually measure the width of the door, but I "eyeballed" it, and I decided that it would just barely fit.

We put the crib together and it looks beautiful.  But then we realized that it's too big to get out the door of our bedroom.  We're going to have to disassemble it again to move it into the nursery.  Crib... FAIL.

So much for those Masters degrees in Engineering...

14 Weeks

We're at 14 weeks today, officially into the second trimester.  I was reading about the babies today on babycenter.com, and it says that the babies are about the size of lemons (definitely an upgrade from a medium sized shrimp).  They should be about 3.5 inches long and weight about 1.5 ounces.  They can now squint, frown, grimace, and possibly suck their thumbs! 

Working Out During Pregnancy

I haven't had much of an issue with not being able to work out much during my pregnancy so far, because I've been feeling so nauseated all of the time.  There was no way that I was thinking about running or anything more than walking.

 Somehow I don't think I'll be sporting a fuschia leotard and 80s early 90s hairdo like this, though.

Now that the morning sickness (which I still think is a complete misnomer) is waning, I'm starting to want to get back into a more regular workout routine.  I'm not going to be running 5 miles a day or anything, but at least I can do some short videos and long walks (maybe 3-4 miles), which will become more appealing when the weather starts to warm up.  Right now, I don't really enjoy spending much time outside in the freezing cold (and rain).

I guess I figure that while the rest of me is expanding, I might as well try to keep my arms toned.  After all, I'll need them for heavy lifting of two babies for the next couple years.  We'll see how that works out...

Belly Pictures

I'm almost at the point of having a pretty good "belly picture," so I thought I would share these.  I'm going to completely ignore my feminine tendency to critique the shape of my body.  =)  Big is beautiful.  I'm officially wearing maternity jeans for the first time today, and they feel SO good - much roomier than my old jeans (which didn't seem to have quite enough room for the babies and any food in my stomach).

Around 8.5 Weeks

 

Around 10.5 Weeks

 

Around 13.5 Weeks (We always seem to take these pictures on the weekend, 

and our "weeks" change on a Wednesday.)

Letting the Cats out of the Bag

Today, I'm making the formal announcement at my company about our babies and my impending departure from the company.  I was trying to find a cute way to tell them, and I found this video on YouTube.  Maybe some of you have seen it before, but I had not seen it.  I thought it was cute.

Evian's Dancing Babies


I hope my house doesn't end up looking like this all the time.  I don't think I could keep up with them!

13 Weeks Today!

We're at 13 weeks today - almost out of the first trimester.  I think technically, we're out of the first trimester halfway through this next week (this weekend, I guess).

Our babies are supposed to be about 3 inches long now.  BabyCenter.com says the twins are the the size of medium shrimp.  WhatToExpect.com says that our babies are the size of peaches.  I like that... my little peaches.  Maybe they're Georgia girls!

Cloth or Disposable Diapers?

We're in the process of trying to figure out a lot of the "logistics" to managing two babies.  One of the big questions that I have is whether we should use cloth diapers or disposable ones.  There are advantages and disadvantages to both, of course.

Cloth diapers are appealing because they seem more cost-effective and environmentally friendly.  However, they are clearly more inconvenient than disposable diapers, because you actually have to deal with the mess instead of throwing it away.  And, of course, the cost savings / environmental impact / inconvenience is all doubled because of the twins!

I would love to hear everyone's experiences with both.  Feel free to comment or send me an email.  I'm really on the fence about this one.