Pure Joy

As each day passes, a wondrous event is happening in my heart, body and mind.  TWO BABIES are growing.  And right this second I feel excited.  I can't say it too loud for fear I might scare the feeling off.  It is a wonderful and slightly strange feeling. 

Of course, my mood is certainly helped by the following (in no particular order):

• It is SPRING TIME!!!! ~ oh how I love spring.  I love everything about it.  The smell in the air, the wonderful weather, the blooming flowers, the newness of it all.  It lightens my spirits and makes me happy again.
• I firmly in my second trimester.  YAY!  I am 15weeks 4days pregnant and I have more energy than I have had in months.
• Tiny Pigweed is so awesome and adorable!  He is my sunshine even on the darkest day.
•  
• WE HAVE A HOUSE!!!  a glorious wonderful house to move into.  Of course it kind of sucks that we can't move in until June.  I am so excited I want to run right over and just move in with the current tenants.
• Tomorrow we are headed out for a mini-vacation in San Antonio.  We are spending a day at Sea World and I am not sure what else yet.  But I know it will be super fun no matter what.  YAY!!! 
• Annnnd, the best for last....IT'S A GIRL!!!  And probably a boy.  :)  Lil' Parker wasn't being very cooperative, so the Dr. was only 60% on the gender of Baby B.  We go back next Friday for another look.  My OB told us whilst using the crappy rolling u/s machine, so no pics of the goods.  But we will have plenty in a couple weeks.  I will be sure to inundate you all with them then.

It is wonderful that the cloud has finally moved on and we are no longer in crisis mode here at the Team Pigweed house.

Weekly Blog Hop

Checking out everyone's blog has been a blast!  I decided to join in on the fun.

The Guidelines for participating in the Weekly blog hop are as follows:

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Link up your blog, visit and follow the blogs that interest you and have fun! If you follow our blogs and leave a comment, we will always follow you back!

Now, let’s get hoppin’!

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There is no place like home!

YAY!!!!!  We have a house to move into!!!  YAY!!!!! 





No inside pics, but it is awesome.  The only drawback is the ANCIENT appliances and icky countertops in the kitchen and bathrooms.  But whatever.  As long as they work!  Our move in date is June 1st.  Just in time to get settled before the babies come.  I can see living here for several years.  Bryan can see us buying the house.  The location is amazing.  It is in a culdesac plus it is right down the street from the community park and pool.  YAY!!!!!  I am so happy.

Tiny Rant

House hunting SUCKS.

We are looking for a house to rent.  NO, I don’t want to buy.  Yes, I know the interests rates are low and all that jazz.  But I want to rent.  I want to rent in different areas of town so I don’t have buyer’s remorse when I do make the big purchase.  The thing is….the Austin market isn’t full of rentals in the areas we want to live.  And when a great rental comes up, it is gone before I even know about it. 

Today was especially heartbreaking.  After seeing house after house that wouldn’t work for us…we found THE PERFECT HOUSE.  I could list the thousand things that could have lead to us buying this house if we liked living in that neighborhood.  I was so excited and then we found out it already had an application and we were too late.  AGAIN.

I cried.  I broke down and bawled in front of our real estate agent.  Pregnant much?

We found another amazing place to go look at tomorrow.  It is more $$$, but it is also a great location.  Cross your fingers for us!

The Shift

Something wonderful has happened over the past week.  There has been a shift in our household.  Weight has been lifted from our shoulders.  This is somewhat unexplicable since nothing has actually changed.  We still haven't found a house.  Our childcare situation is worse than we originally thought.  We are still having twins and will be poor for the next 5-6 years. 

BUT WHO CARES!!!  Let's have some fun.

Saturday we went to the Rodeo.  Bry and I got really sunburned...nothing superhero about that.  I was smart enough to put sunscreen on Coop so he is still translucent as ever.  :)  It was great.  We had free BBQ & beer (well, Bry had beer), played games, ate more good food, watched 5-7 year olds ride sheep (HILARIOUS), pet some animals and generally had a stress free fun day.

Then we took a trip to Houston where we had a pediatric neurologist appointment.

Quick Background:  When Coop was 10 weeks old, he started having what we thought were seizures.  After three grueling days in Dell Children's hospital, we left with a diagnosis of "positional nystagmus caused by a virus that would go away".  It didn't.  So we saw about a million specialists to help us determine what was going on.  Nystagmus is when his eyes would pendelate across his field of vision.  I am including a video for your reference.  The "episode" happens at the very end. As time went on, he developed normally and the episodes were intermittant and bothered him less.  His neurologist in Austin diagnosed him with Spasmus Nutans.  A benign condition that he will grow out of.  We went to Houston for a second opinion.

We got out of the house for a smooth trip to Houston.  Coop was amazing during the trip and at the hotel.  It was actually a lot of fun and that surprised us.  We expected a stressful trip with a toddler.  nahhhhhhh....our super cooperative child was, well, cooperative as usual. 

We went to his apt and found out that he DEFINATELY is not having any kind of seizure and since his previous MRI and EEG and eye exams were all normal....Spasmus Nutans is an accurate diagnosis.  This is great news.  He will grow out of it before he goes to school.  WHEW!  That really made us feel great.

When we were checking out, the lady behind the counter told us that a couple of blocks away was a fun train for the family to ride.  So we decided to do it.  It was a pretty day and still early.  We rode the train and found out that we were in the same park as the zoo!  So, in one of our first real spontaneous events since Coop was born, we headed to the zoo.  AMAZING!  It was like we were our old selves again.  Except we were having fun as a family.  It felt so wonderful.  I wish I could bottle those feelings forever.

When we got to the zoo, we got free tickets!!! Thanks TXU! 

It was like a mini vacation.  Since then, we have been breathing and sleeping easier.  Literally.  It is amazing how a little bit of fun can make such a big difference.  As a result, we are planning a trip to Sea World next weekend. 

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL

It's Been a While....

Thanks to my wonderful friend, Melissa, from Keeping up with the Rheinlanders....I have not totally forgotten this blog.  I have just been too busy, tired or stressed out to even think of writing in it.  But, I think **knocks on wood** that my life is becoming manageable once again. 

whew.  yay.  thank god.  seriously.  THANK YOU GOD.

What's new with me?  Well.  A LOT.  I am pregnant!!!!!!  with twins!!!!!  The getting pregnant story in itself is great and will be included below for those who like that sort of thing.  The finding out it was twins part was....uummmmm...less great?  ha!  I will be talking about that as well. 

This will be a pretty long post, but I promise to keep it more manageable and updated going forward. 

GETTING PREGNANT

Our December cycle we started injectables.  Well, I guess there isn't much of a "we" about it.  Bry poured me the wine for liquid courage, but I did the shot all on my own.  Luckily Bry captured the moments.  Here you go...

Thanks babe for my glass of wine!

 

Here is my shot!  I can do this!!!

Oh hell no...give me the bottle.  I need the bottle to do this.

I am doing it!

I took a shot every night starting CD3 and get a sonogram every couple of days to track my progress. Once the eggs are big enough, I am supposed to take a shot to force ovulation. As an FYI, these drugs are ridiculously expensive and we only have enough money to try with them twice. So we need to get pregnant in the Dec or Jan cycles.

Well, I went in on the Sunday after Christmas for my sonogram and everything was great. They figured I would be ready Tuesday for my ovulation shot and we would do IUIs the following two days. Well, when I went in on Tuesday, the Dr. saw that I HAD OVULATED ON MY OWN. The problem with that is, we don't know when I ovulated (most likely Monday) and Bry and I didn't have sex at all since Friday.

SO WE MISSED OVULATION!!!! omg. omg. omg. omg. omg.

One of our only two tries down the drain. I was DEVASTATED. I didn't even know you could ovulate on your own during this process. The worst part (TMI coming) is that on Monday (when I was actively ovulating) we were supposed to have sex (must keep fresh sperm in the pipes for the IUIs) but we were both too tired so he just took care of business. WASTED SPERM WHILE OVULATING.  omg.  What a mess.

So Tues, my Dr. canceled our IUIs and told us to hurry home and have sex.  We had tiny pigweed with us and rushed to find a sitter so we could DTD in the middle of the day.  (THANK YOU HEATHER!!!)  need I mention that it was "sooooo romantic"?  lol.  the stuff we all fantasize about for sure.  I will spare you the details.

The days after were terrible.  I was so sure that we had missed ovulation and even the Dr. didn't show any hope.  I was very depressed and really thought we didn't have a chance in hell.  I did NOT live my life like I was making babies.  Those days were filled with way too much wine and junk food and no prenatal vitamins. 

Then, 10 days after the big missed ovulation......I had been peeing all day and my boobs were sore.  huh?  Bry and I and Coop were out to dinner and I decided to pick up a pregnancy a test for the hell of it.  AND HERE IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!!!!  I probably took a gazillion tests just to be sure.  They were all positively pregnant.  So awesome. 

IT'S WHAT???  TWINS????  THERE ARE TWO??????  omg.

Here is the beautiful story of finding out it was twins.  This part is the best.  It is all high emotions and wonder and awesomeness.  I recorded it bc SuperDad was traveling and I wanted him to see the very first ultrasound.  While we had some indication there might be more than one...we didn't REALLY believe it.  Nothing prepares you for seeing two babies.

OK.  Beautiful moment over.  Reality sets in.  TWO BABIES.   Two infants and a toddler.  omg.  TWO BABIES.

                                    

This is a pretty accurate rendition of the racing thoughts once the adorable vision of twins running around abandons you.  It may seem dramatic.  It felt dramatic.  I cried.  I cried several times a day for about 6 weeks.

Our car isn't big enough.  We have to take on a new car payment.  Our house (the one we JUST moved into) is too expensive now that we have to cover three kids' childcare.  we have to move.  AGAIN.  TWO babies breastfeeding?  HOLY SHIT....BRYAN TRAVELS.  A LOT.  omg...We don't have any family here to help us.  I don't have 10 hands!  I will be doing this alone.  Poor Cooper...how am I ever going to be able to give him what he needs while attending to TWO babies???  I won't be able to travel to see my Mom and Roni like I do now bc how can I travel with TWO babies and a toddler by myself?  I will never get to see my family ever again.  Now our family has an odd number.  Who will ride with the odd child on the roller coaster?  How will we ever put three kids through college?  WHAT ABOUT SPACE CAMP?  (for those who know me...I am determined to send my kids to cool summer camps)  Will Coop feel left out with twins running around?  Will people still remember to oggle over him or will they only see the babies?  oh shit....I have to buy more baby stuff.  How will I go grocery shopping?    

ok.....as it turns out....most of those are valid concerns.  except the grocery shopping.  I mean really.  I don't go now!  WHY would I worry about doing it in the future? 

And so slowly, we have been working out all of the logistics of our new family.  We now picture our family with three kids.  Three kids camping, kite festivals, bowling, putt putt....etc.  Bryan no longer blames me for ruining his life by getting pregnant with twins.  I have had some wonderful friends and family (and a great therapist!) who have listened to me while I try to come to terms with our new life. 

And while we are not excited yet.  And while we don't necessarily feel blessed yet.  We don't feel cursed either.  and THAT, my dear, is called progress.

Quick Plug

One of my great Gal Pals, Melissa, is doing a give away!  I am going to shamelessly plug it for her.  :)  Go check out her blog and read on for more info on her give away!





Gevalia has a fun new Facebook Application to help you with finding the perfect gift for yourself or your friends and family! It pulls information from your Facebook page (or your friends) to come up with the perfectly matched gift. It's all in good fun and is meant to remind Gevalia's Fans why they are such a great choice for gift giving this Holiday Season and ALL year round! 

I tried it out and here are my results. 

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