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!