Week 26

Getting more real by the minute... Crib #1

It was a full-on baby-prep weekend.  Friday afternoon, we went to check out a day-care three blocks away at a Lutheran Church.  It was a friendly atmosphere with lots of room to play.  We're at the top of the waiting list and we've been told that usually the first 7 or 8 babies get in off the waiting list.  

Then, on Saturday, we took my desk out of the office and put together crib #1, which we procured from friends.   Used one allen wrench to put this puppy together.   Am feeling like I may be putting together many more things with allen wrenches in the coming months.. and years.  

On Sunday, we kept working on the babies' room - by moving Katy's desk into the front guest room, which will serve as her office/our second guest room.   And further turning the office into the babies room.  We got a second rocking chair, which Flash has already put dibs on.  Katy also began inventorying  the boxes of clothes that we've  gotten passed along from friends to figure out what exactly we have and to begin to make a list of what we still need. 

In the News

 Katy's starting to feel nauseous again.  We're hoping it's just passing (but we're not holding our breath).


Went up to the Sundance Film Festival today for a movie about food insecurity and Katy and the girls joined the Utahns Against Hunger current staff and future staff (2 AmeriCorps VISTAs who begin with us in a few weeks) in Park City for the show.  And yes, if you're wondering, it was work for me.  Hard work. 

Wanted to share a few twin related articles that have come our way recently:
Twin Births in the U.S., Like Never Before - NYTimes
A Thing or Two About Twins - National Geographic

Meat? Why Yes, I'd Love Some.

It's near end of the second trimester and Katy's body is starting to ache and hurt and itch more and more.   We are very thankful that she's not feeling sick all the time.  But these new pains are daunting because as we think about how things will become more challenging in the coming months. That being said, Katy still is congested.  The same congestion that has been with her since the beginning of her pregnancy.  Next time you see her, don't ask her if she's sick.   (She might be but she's tired of answering that question.)

Following the lead of our dear friends from Austin - Leah and Chris - Katy is keeping track of all the protein she eats, as well as her calcium and iron.  She's eating more meat than she can shake a stick at and eating protein fruit shakes that we're making at home and whole grain this and that.  

Katy eating pork butt

Though regular meat eaters always seem to take particular glee that a vegetarian has given it up, Katy while enjoying the meat in her diet, isn't enamored with it and is thinking that she'll leave it behind again once she is back on her feet again after giving birth.  Meanwhile, she has become quite adept at making a mean beef and barley stew and I am close to earning my cub scout bacon cooking badge.

Ultrasound #2

We've been seeking a new provider ever since we learned about the twins thing and it looks like we found one! On Friday we had an ultrasound and appointment with Dr. Erin Clark up at the University Hospital and we both really liked the way she answered our questions (some even before we asked) and the fact that she works closely with midwives in a sort of team-care model. What clinched it for me was that the U Hospital is designated a "baby friendly hospital" - a global program that means all doctors, nurses, and staff have had extra training to make sure parents and babies get to bond as much as possible (emphasis on breast-feeding, skin-to-skin contact, rooming-in, etc.) - and they have the best neonatal intensive care unit around, just in case the girls should come too early or anything else should go wrong.

The appointment was a marathon 3 hours, including time in the waiting room, the almost 2-hour ultrasound (measuring 2 babies takes twice as long), and the appointment with Dr. Clark. But we are happy to report that all looks good. The girls weigh 1 lb. 9 oz. each and are measuring within a few days of each other in terms of gestational age, which means they're sharing nutrients like pros. All of their measurements put them in about the 40th percentile for gestating babies (including singletons), so they're developing right on schedule. As Dr. Clark put it, "Things couldn't look better, even if we made up numbers." Of course, now that I've written that, I've totally jinxed us. :-)

Next week I get my lab work done (glucose screening test and blood work), then another appointment with Dr. Clark in a couple of weeks, and then another u/s a couple of weeks after that just to make sure they're still being good sharers. I suppose in and amongst all the appointments, I'll have to keep my day job!

Mike's Birthday & Bulging Belly Shots

Leader struts her stuff in front of the new coop set-up

Mike celebrated his birthday this year by building a new henhouse. All day Saturday and most of the day on Sunday he spent cutting lumber and screwing it all together into a snug addition to our current chicken set-up. Some of you know that we had to put down two of our chickens due to a mysterious illness, leaving us only three hens. Those three have each been laying heartily (almost once a day, even though it's been cold and snowy), but not nearly enough to keep up with my constant demand for fresh eggs. Lucky for us, a friend of a friend is now having to get rid of her flock of laying hens (not so lucky for her) so we'll soon be adding three more birds to ours. We're going to quarantine the newbies for a few weeks, just to make sure they're not carrying any diseases and to let our hens get used to their smells, sights, and sounds from a safe distance. Hence the need for the new henhouse, which will be integrated as a second room onto the old henhouse when we combine flocks.

In baby news, the girls are growing at a a frantic pace. I can feel their kicks more forcefully now, especially after I eat. The baby websites tell us they're each about the length of a papaya or an ear of corn, which would explain my large, large belly. Right now our focus is on nutrition: getting enough protein, calcium, iron, and other vitamins and minerals to grow and support all three of us. While twins tend to come early and have low birth weights, good nutrition, exercise, rest, and low-stress living helps increase your chances of carrying to term. Our friends Leah and Chris shared the food chart they used to track Chris's protein-calcium-iron intake when she was preggers with twins and it's really helped guide my eating. It does feel really weird (and slightly unhealthy) to go from eating no meat to eating meat or fish twice a day, but it would be very difficult to hit my protein goal (120g / day) without it. The girls seem to like it as they are busting out!

24 weeks and counting!

Hello, 2012 - Urp.

Running out of Zofran on New Years Eve led us to accidentally test out the "if-we-didn't-have-these-anti-nausea-meds-how-would-Katy-be-doing" experiment.   This led to the first vomiting of 2012 in the wee hours of the morning, followed quickly by the 2nd and 3rd vomits.  Poor Katy.

Today we met with our midwife for the last time; we need to find an OB since our midwife doesn't do homebirths with twins.  She was great and gave us lots of recommendations going forward.  And recommended that Katy needs to almost double her protein intake going forward.  This will be quite a challenge since the girls have taken up most of her belly room and Katy fills up much more quickly than before.