Here’s the 18 week belly shot.

Those are the names we’ve decided on for the babies.  What do you think?

Just kidding!  Those are actually the names of the two bedding sets we picked yesterday.  Here’s what they look like: (Click on the pictures to see them larger.)

Don and I went to Babies R Us yesterday intending to choose the bedding so we could then decide on paint colors and get started on the room.  Instead, we spent about 2 hours registering for lots of the things little babies need.  It was kind of overwhelming, realizing two tiny little humans and their parents could need / use so much stuff.  Our little house is going to be very crowded in June, I think.

 I originally thought we’d use the same bedding set in both cribs.  Don thought the lavender (which he called pink) on the Sir Leapsalot was touch too girly for his son, so we decided on the two sets that coordinate.  She’ll have a little froggy prince and princess, and he’ll have little bees. Lots of the little accessories for each set are the same colors, so we think it’ll look cute all in one room.  We also went to Home Depot and got white wainscoting for the nursery, before we ever saw the picture from the Honey Bee set above.  We’re going to use a similar yellow on the walls, too. 

I spent all day today cleaning out the babies’ room, which had become a catch-all for things we had nowhere else to put, or had never unpacked from when we moved on, over a year ago!  Don is really excited to get started on the room, and I am too.  I’m sure we’ll post progress pictures soon!

17 week belly picture:

I think I might be starting to feel these little ones moving around. A few times yesterday and today, I have felt tiny little…thumps and bumps, I guess you could call them. Other, more experienced people call them flutters or say it feels like you have butterflies inside you, but I don’t think that. But then again, I never swallowed a butterfly to know.

It feels sort of like a little twitch or muscle spasm or tiny little fingers drumming on something, that lasts about a millisecond – long enough to think something happened, but WAY too short to ever be sure. I feel them mostly when I am sitting and leaning forward, or laying on my side. I’m excited to feel it, I just wish it lasted longer, or that they could do it on command, so I could feel more certain.

I’m finally starting to gain weight – about 9 pounds so far. Nice people tell me it’s all belly. We’ll see how long that lasts. The internet says I should gain about 45 in all, and since my dr. has said nothing at all, I have to go with the internet gods for now. I never thought I’d be so sick of eating all the time! Mostly I try to eat healthy and balanced meals, but I did have potato chips, a Little Debbie zebra cake, and vanilla pudding for dinner last night.

I have a whole list of questions for my next appointment, starting with the weight. I also need to ask about why I am so completely exhausted, and also suffering from insomnia at the same time. I wake up every day around 2 or 3 and toss and turn for the next few hours. I also had headaches on my list to ask about, but those seem to have gone away. And I’m really curious about whether they think I’ll end up on bedrest or not. I am hoping NOT!

Here’s the 16 week belly shot.

The baggy clothes don’t do it justice. She’s definitely getting bigger

We had our 16 week sonogram today and the good news is that everything looks great!  Baby A is measuring slightly ahead of B, but not far enough to worry about.  Seeing them onscreen is amazing every time.  Today, A impressed us with Cirque du Soleil like flexibility and almost did a backflip.  The tech made the comment that B is definitely the rambunctious one – we’ll see if that holds true after birth!  Even though each whole baby is only about 4 inches long and 5 or 6 ounces, it’s amazing what can be seen and measured.  In the early weeks, they measure length from crown to rump (head to tail.)  Now, they’re too big for that so they average the head circumference, abdominal circumference, femur length, and one other thing I forget.  While the tech was measuring, we could see fluid in the stomach – they already swallow the amniotic fluid.  It’s still very hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that they are in there doing all that and I still don’t think I’ve felt them except maybe once or twice.  I’m sure in a few weeks I’ll miss these peaceful days.

Seeing them both active and healthy makes the whole day go by happier and easier – even when you lock yourself out of the car like I did when i got to work today!  Thank goodness for AAA.  That dude who showed up broke in faster than a city kid could have!  Apparently, a side effect of being pregnant is that your brain becomes oatmeal.

And of course, the questions everyone asks:  Do you know what they are?  Well, we do for sure now.  At 12 weeks, during a genetic screening, we were told A was for sure a boy and B looked different, so was likely a girl, but we weren’t sure.  This morning, we didn’t tell this tech what the earlier one had said.  She told us for sure B was a girl right away, and she thought A was too.  I asked if she was sure and told her what the first tech said.  She said the legs were closed, so she looked again a few minutes later, and sure enough, he’s all boy.  Don is thrilled – he was hoping for the mathcing set, and I am relieved that it will be physcially impossible for me to mix them up.  A diaper check will always set us straight no matter how similar they look!

 And, even though we know what they are, we don’t have names and aren’t even close to deciding.  We’ll keep you posted on that!

Here’s our 15 week belly shot: