Two babies?!

Just in case you couldn't bring yourself to ready through the entirety of the previous post...the news is that we're having twins!! Still sinking in...it will probably take the next few months to fully sink in!

OMG!!?!

So, today (after much delay--my first appointment was cancelled because of the snow, then my doctor had to cancel the second) was my first prenatal appointment with my doctor's office. They called it a "confirmation" appointment, but to be honest, I had no idea what to expect--would they do blood work, a urine test, would I get to hear a heartbeat? Unfortunately, Daniel couldn't come along on this appointment, so I was on my own. My appointment was in the afternoon, and I had to get back to work for a 4:00 meeting--and the doctor's office was running late, so I was a little bit annoyed. They finally called me in, and I started going through routine questions and answers with the nurse--first day of last period, medications I'm taking, etc.--and I had my blood pressure taken.

The nurse told me my due date is October 3, 2010. AAhhhhhhh!!!

So, I'm left alone with instructions to undress from the waist down (yipes) and to cover myself with a paper napkin (ug). Dr. Hibshman came in--I'd never met with her before, but she was young and fun and very friendly. She told me she was going to (TMI) do a pap smear--I asked, are you sure? Are we here for the same kind of appointment?! She basically said that since she was going in there anyway, she might as well...

So after that fun (note: speculums are NOT fun), she grabbed the sonogram wand (not as bad as a speculum, thank goodness) and took a look at what came up on the machine. She smiled broadly, patted my leg, and told me it isn't very often that she gets to tell someone that they're HAVING TWINS!!!! What?! I almost fell off of the table. I was crying, with tears running down my face--and then I was laughing uncontrollably--I'm sure she thought I was nuts. I also think she was a little bit worried because I was crying, but I reassured her that it was a good cry, if a bit overwhelmed and WAY unexpected. So, she showed me the two little peanuts (to which I exclaimed, TWO KIDNEY BEANS, because that's how big they are this week--once again, I think she thought I was nuts) and their individual little heart beats. She said they each have their own sacs (?), which is a good thing, and that one was measuring slightly larger than the other.

Then came LOTS of information--things I can do, things I can't do. And being pregnant with twins puts me in a high-risk category, so there are all kinds of additional restrictions I will eventually face before we have these babies (What?! Plural?!? BABIES?! I know!!). I also have to start regularly seeing a specialist, as well as frequent visits to my doc. She wrote me out a prescription to see the specialist, and I was officially diagnosed with twins :) She also told me twins deliver at 36 weeks instead of 40 weeks, so I may be having August/September babies instead of October babies!

So, the first thing I had to do was call Daniel. Of course, he was at work--so I call and, with a quivering voice, ask him if he's in a place where he can talk. He said he'd call right back. I instantly felt terrible, because I was sure he was thinking the worst. As soon as he called, I assured him that all was well--in fact, all was well times two! If we were dazed with the news that we were pregs with one baby, you can imagine how dazed we were with the news that we would be having two. Dazed--and overwhelmed and happy and excited (although I still wonder what we're going to do with TWO BABIES!)! I love Daniel so much--and we love these little kidney beans :)

A Visit!

Next week is Kenny's birthday, so this weekend Candy and Casey came to DC for a visit (they were up in Boston, moving Casey in and getting her settled before she starts a job with Fenway Sports Group--exciting!). They came over and made dinner for us on Friday night, which was delicious and fabulous. Then on Saturday, we all met up for a birthday dinner extravaganza for Kenny at Fogo de Chao. Even though my usual bed time is EARLY, I was able to nap and snack accordingly, and we all had a great time stuffing our faces full of MEATS!

Funny Story

Snowed in here. But a funny story to tell while I was home.

So, I knew I was pregnant, but had only known for a week or so, and was only like four or five weeks along (using the crazy pregnancy calendar where you count the first two weeks of your cycle where you're actually not pregnant at all?!--confusing). Basically, I was going home to ski, and didn't want a little thing like being barely pregnant to get in the way (sorry baby). Besides--I was going to be super careful, and it was the only time I was going to be able to ski ALL YEAR (and the sacrifices begin...).

Aw, look at how cute we all are--and awesome mountain in the background!!


The first day, we all skied Alta. Dad had a HI-larious fall where he took off first while Rachel and I stood watching--he did a face plant and proceeded to slide down the mountain on his stomach, face first, unable to stop. It took Rachel and me a full 5 minutes to stop laughing and be able to breathe, after we made sure he was OK of course.

Then, in an open glade on the back side of the mountain, we were all cruising to the bottom of a bowl and Rachel took a tumble. Dad missed it, but she kicked up quite a bit of snow, did a flip/cartwheel, and ate it. I got a pretty good chuckle out of the deal.

I did not fall. Mission: accomplished.

Second ski day, Dad and I went to Snowbird, my fav. After our first run, we notice a few skiers making their way down the Road to Provo, which leads to a bowl at the top of the mountain that was untracked--it hadn't been open in weeks, and there was fresh powder to be had. Clearly, we had to check it out. Immediately.

So, we trekked all of the way over to the run, turned the skis down, and let them ride. It was beautiful.

Until I got to the bottom. Seeking a few more turns in the good stuff, I hung left. Dad stayed in the middle and made his way back to the lift (in retrospect, that was a good idea). I took a small breather, then went for my last powder shot of the run. I made a few turns, then saw a clump of snow that looked like the perfect place for a turn--I hit the clump and ATE IT. I double ejected--both skis off. One came off in the clump (which must have been avalanche debris, and not the soft clump of snow I thought, but instead a hard, icy ball of crash), I flipped, and the other ski shot off of my foot like a javelin, landing about 30 feet in front of me. I was a little bit dazed, and a little bit whip-lashed from my flip. I was also COVERED in snow--and I'm sure anyone standing above me got a really good laugh from my fall. So, I picked up the pieces, gathered my skis, dusted myself off and skied to the bottom. One look at my snow-covered self, and my dad was laughing.

So, I felt badly--I had been trying to be soooo careful. But, seriously--where and when I fell was probably the best possible situation I could have asked for. It was soft snow (except for the clump), I wasn't hurt, didn't jab my midsection with a pole, my skis came right off...but still, I was a little bit concerned. So we get on the lift, and out of the blue my dad asks if I'm pregnant yet. Really? What are the chances?! So, I reply with something coy like, I don't know, not yet--but if I am, hopefully it held on for the ride! To which my dad replied--oh, I'm sure it did. And if it didn't, you wouldn't want it anyway (he KIDS baby--already trying to toughen you up!).

So, that's my story. No ill effects from the fall, and definitely got the morning sickness thing going on--so things are progressing!

(in other news from that ski trip, the last run of the day we decided to drop over the back into Mineral Basin to check out the snow. Turned out, it was AWESOME, too good to hit only once, so we decided to have a second last run of the day. That time down, my binding BREAKS--literally, it falls off. I have to make my way down half of the mountain on one ski, and part of that gliding on one ski, leaning on Tom--then I got to ride the tram down, so I got a gorgeous view of the mountain as we rode down into the valley. Oh, our skiing adventures!!)

Whew, What A Trip!

So, Sacramento was fine--I was only there for a day and a half to make a presentation to the CA Canning Peach Association. I worked out at the hotel, attended the meetings, and felt fine. Then onto Salt Lake City for two gorgeous days of skiing and one day in Pocatello--the first ski day was with Rachel and Dad at Alta, the second was just Dad and me at Snowbird. I had no falls the first trip (Dad and Rachel couldn't say the same, haha), but took a SERIOUS TUMBLE in the powder at Snowbird. Glad you held on, baby! (sidenote: sigh, my only ski trips for this year--sacrifices for baby!!) But I had a WONDERFUL time at home.

Then onto Santa Barbara for a big work meeting--Daniel came out to meet me for the week. We met Julie, Lauren and Josh our last day in CA out at Hollister Ranch, which is when I got my first glimpse of the months to come--I got SO car sick driving out to the ranch, and it stayed with me the entire day. EW!! I still felt pretty sick the next day as we drove down the 101 to Malibu for lunch and then onto LA, and felt even worse the next morning as we boarded a plane to fly back to DC. We left this:


for 5 feet of snow!! We had to stay in CA one extra day--we might have been stuck there the rest of the week, but luckily we were able to get home between storms. Spud was so glad we got home when we did. DC was shut down for the entire week with so much snow, so we got to spend days playing in it!

Baby update: baby is the size of a lentil bean this week! I had to show Daniel what a lentil was...