The Third Act

I've officially entered my third trimester! The first trimester brought extreme exhaustion, the second trimester brought terrible heartburn, I'm thinking the third trimester will bring hugeness......
I'm finding all my preconceived notions of what kind of pregnancy and birth I would have are false. First, I never dreamed I'd be pregnant with twins. Second, I thought I'd have a fabulous, natural, water birth. Third, I'd planned to keep up my running through the entire pregnancy. Fourth, I thought I'd work full time up until the day I went into labor. Well, these babies have plans of their own!
We had out latest ultrasound on Tuesday and were excited to see two healthy big girls. One of the babies is in the 90th percentile for growth and the other is not far behind! I'm not kidding when I say hugeness is just around the corner for me. The only bad news is the naughty monkeys have flipped and neither is head down. They still have time to get in the right position, but they'll be running out of space pretty quickly. It seems more likely we will end up having a c-section. In the beginning I was 100% against a c-section but I've found my chi and accepted that it may happen and it won't be the end of the world. Those of you that have had c-sections, any thoughts or advice based on your experience?
As for the running, I said goodbye to that one months ago. I have taken up swimming though, and I have to say it is fabulous! All day long, I feel like a beached whale, but when I'm swimming, I'm just a whale happy to be back in the water. Not only do I feel weightless, but all the strain is taken off of my back and hips and there is no pain or discomfort. Of course, the second I get out of the water, that glorious feeling subsides and I waddle back over to my towel. But for 30 minutes, I feel awesome!
On the work front, I'm still working full time but I've let my employer know I won't be returning after maternity leave. I plan to work through the end of August and wait out the last few weeks at home doing last minute preparations and taking lots of naps :)
Life as we know it is going to change very drastically, very quickly. But I say bring it on!

Here we have the lovely profile of Baby B. What you can't see in this picture is that Baby A keeps kicking her in the face; hence, she has to raise her little fist to protect herself!

Here's Baby A's foot. She didn't pose very well for a face shot, but  a foot picture is cool too. 

Maternity Photos

This whole pregnancy, I've debated whether I was going to get maternity pictures taken. On the one hand, I wanted to document the experience of pregnancy, but on the other hand, I wasn't sure I wanted an entire photo shoot dedicated to highlighting my ginormous belly. I had just about decided to skip it when Nate's cousins, Jeff and Carly, moved to Bentonville. Carly took our wedding photos and they were beautiful, so I knew she would do a great job with maternity photos too. She did not disappoint! We absolutely love the pictures. Thanks Carly!!! Here are a few of our favorites.

3 Years!

Once upon a time Laurel and Nathan were sitting on the couch in Laurel's apartment. Laurel was jabbering on in her usual fashion and was annoyed to notice that Nate seemed to not be listening! Suddenly, he interrupted her and said, "Laurel, I think........I might........possibly love you." Well that was good enough for Laurel and pretty soon they were married and lived happily ever after for these last three years. Fortunately, Nate is much more sure of his love at this point :)
We celebrated our three year anniversary on June 26th. In the grand scheme of things, I know three years is not very long, but on the other hand, so much has happened in those three years and life before marriage seems to be a lifetime ago. It's been the most amazing three years, and it's hard to believe by the time our four year anniversary rolls around, we will be a family of four!

Relaxing in the hammock

To celebrate, we went to a quaint, tourist town about an hour away, Eureka Springs. We stayed at the cutest bed and breakfast. Anyone who knows me, knows I adore porch swings so naturally I was in love with this house!

Eureka hosts an eclectic group of visitors from hippies to bikers to honeymooners so half the fun of our trip was people watching. We wandered around the little shops, ate some delicious food, and survived a haunted hotel! It was a quick, relaxing getaway and a fun way to celebrate our anniversary.

Haunted Crescent Inn

Delicious Italian food at Ermilio's: "2nd best chicken parmesan of my life!"- Nate

Thorncrown Chapel- Glass chapel in the middle of the woods

Growth Spurt

Hello 22 week baby belly! I'm pretty sure these babies are getting bigger by the minute. But no complaints here; I'm just happy they are healthy and growing. They are quite active these days as well. Nate got to feel one of them kicking the other day. He thought that was pretty cool and I'm pretty sure we have two soccer stars on our hands. Which is no surprise considering Nate and I are their parents :) Our next ultrasound is in a couple of weeks, so we're excited to be able to see them again and make sure they are still both girls! One of them was a bit stubborn last time so we're only 80% sure she's a girl.

Nate set up both the cribs the other day. I get scared every time I open the door and see two cribs! I can practically see two little girls sleeping (I hope sleeping, not screaming) and start to panic a bit. 

I have to admit, its been quite fun to bargain shop for the babies. We got one crib from our neighbor, one from Craigslist, and Alyssa got the changing table for us for free from someone at church! Wahoo! Are they all cutesy and matchy? Nope, but I'm pretty sure the babies won't notice or mind. It's been almost addicting to find deals everywhere from ksl.com to consignment sales. I've even started keeping a spreadsheet of our baby purchases and I can't help but brag. We've  spent $378.50 as opposed to $1242 if we would have bought new or full price of the same items. That's a total savings of $863.50! I'm practicing my frugal skills that I am sure will come in handy while raising twins. 

GIRLS!

We had our full anatomy scan on Thursday and were thrilled and shocked to find out we are having two GIRLS! In my mind, I thought we were having a boy and girl or possibly two boys. I didn't even consider two girls. So much for mother's intuition! Haha. Nate had to warm up to the idea of Daddy-Daughter dances rather than Father-Son campouts as well. ("I hate dances!") Once we got over the initial surprise, we immediately fell in love. We're going to be waist-high in ruffles and bows in just a few short months and couldn't be happier! Those of you with girls, any advice for us??????

18 weeks, 4 days pregnant with twins

Family Photo

Sewing For Baby Bump

I decided to pretend I'm actually good at sewing today. Maternity clothes can be expensive so I thought I'd try my hand at making a nice knit skirt with a stretchy yoga waist band. It cost me about $8.00 but next time, I'll make sure to use a coupon and hopefully save a bit more on the fabric. This is the tutorial I followed http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2011/03/womens-skirt-with-yoga-style-waist-band.html.

I've yet to sew something without screwing it up somewhere along the way. I had several blunders today, but I have to say my favorite was when I accidentally sewed the top of the skirt completely together eliminating the hole to step through. I didn't even realize I had done it until I tried to attach the waist band and was startled to discover there was no longer an opening in the skirt! Whoops. It seems I spend a good deal of my sewing time unpicking my seams and fixing my mistakes. Oh well. In the end, it turned out quite cute and I'm certain I can make another one in half time with half the mistakes and hopefully half the price.

See my nice stretchy waist band. I have it folded down in the picture but I can also wear it up over my belly as it grows.

Here's my first baby bump picture at almost 15 weeks pregnant with twins!

The Double Line

In case you're not friends with me on Facebook and missed the memo, here's a quick update from my life.

Nathan and Laurel sittin' in a tree,
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First comes love,
Then comes marriage
Then comes……
You guessed it, the baby in the baby carriage! We are expanding our family this September. But wait, let's not forget the rest of the song.
Get out the diapers,
Get out the pins,
Laurel and Nate are having TWINS!

As a side note, while it may seem rather teenage pregnancy-ish to buy a pregnancy test from the dollar store, they really work. So next time, rather than paying $7.00 for a stick to pee on, just head to the Dollar Tree or Dollar General for a $1.00 test!

We are super excited and feel incredibly blessed for these two little miracles from God! We should find out the genders in 4 weeks, so stay tuned......

Not that you can actually see anything in this picture, but here's our ultrasound at 10 weeks.