Now that Michael's in Toronto for four weeks, I have Meghan to keep me company. She's basically living here on an air mattress until Michael returns. Pretty awesome sister!!

We finally made a trip out to Costco yesterday to buy some much needed fruit and sustenance. I've discovered that I can eat and LOVE mini quiches!! They are so delicious and agreeable to the babies!! Yipee!!

I'm trying to read as much as I can right now about growing and raising twins. There's so much information and I'm having a grand old time sorting through it all. I question some of these websites and books though. I don't think the authors have had twins or just went insane trying to raise them. There's some pretty nutty advice out there.

Things They Don't Tell You About Pregnancy

Lately I find myself tuning into the TLC show 18 Kids and Counting , which chronicles the life of the Duggar family, who also happen to have 18 children (plus one more on the way). The mom, Michelle Duggar, has given birth EIGHTEEN times!!! Some of the births were through C-section, some where natural (no anesthetic), and some where even home births! I'm quite impressed by how well she handles her pregnancies. Always very kind, not a mean bone in her body, even when she's going through all the blah times that comes with pregnancies.

I on the other hand.........not doing so great. Just ask Michael. For the last few months he has been my neglected and abused husband. Which brings me to my topic. Why do people down-play or don't tell you all that happens when you're pregnant!??! If I had known this before, I still would have wanted a baby.......but much later down the road. I would need a lot of time to psych myself up for the pregnancy to come.

For starters, you have to use the washroom a lot. If you really know me, then you'll know that I hate using public restrooms (ie. bathrooms that are not in your own home). I will go the whole day sometimes at work and not pee until I get home. That's almost 10 hours (yes, I know, my poor kidneys). It's practically a phobia! Now, I have to go every hour and it isn't like the "oh yes, I have to pee" feeling, it's the "I'm gonna pee my pants if I don't find a toilet now" urgency.

Secondly, you're always thirsty. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the medication or pre-natal vitamins that I'm taking. I'm just always parched and require a lot of water/juice/pop, whatever I can get my hands on. I was worried it may be a sign of gestational diabetes but that doesn't seem to be it. The OB said it's common.......

Sleep deprivation has also been added to the list of things I didn't know about being pregnant. It's hard to get a good night's rest when you have to pee every hour and the babies just aren't positioned comfortably. It's darn right miserable. Sometimes I feel like a zombie all day but the minute I put my head down, I'll get heartburn or nasal congestion or something and then it will be another restless night.

Body change...I'm not going to go into detail about this, but it happens, and it happens fast! EVERYTHING changes, believe me, I'm living it. Michael keeps asking with that worried tone if my body will ever return to normal. I sure hope so. OH! And the acne! *sigh* I feel like I'm fourteen all over again.

So far, food cravings and aversions have been pretty mild. No real cravings. The only thing I cannot tolerate is too much are garlic and onions. That will get me barfing in no time. Otherwise, it's pretty good. There are also a lot of different foods out there that I have to avoid as well. Such as smoked salmon, sashimi, deli meats, soft cheeses/pate, uncooked sprouts, large fish (ie.tuna), caffeinated drinks, alcohol....the list goes on and on. And now that I can't have it, I want it! Even BEER. I'm not a beer drinker, never have been, but now I want a cold beer so badly. The good thing is Michael hates any kind of alcohol so he doesn't drink and I don't have to watch him drink. I think he's been dying to pour the remaining liquor in our pantry down the drain.

Lastly, and the hardest thing about pregnancy, before the labour and birth that is, is the morning sickness. I know with twins, there's going to be more hormones, which means more violent bouts of sickness. I HATE vomit. I hate how you feel before you vomit, and when you're vomiting, and when it's over. It's just awful. I applaud all those mothers out there who toughed it out and didn't take anything to help with nausea/vomiting. They're crazy hardcore!! I cannot live without my Diclectin. It is the saving grace when it comes to morning sickness, and sometimes it doesn't always do the trick.

Is it worth all this grief? I think so. Even though I haven't met these two babies, I already know I love them so very much.

Living/Breathing Baby Growing Machine

I am officially just a living, breathing, baby growing machine. I really needed that bad day at the office to realize how much stress and discomfort I was placing on the babies just so I could feel like I still had a "career". So for now, I am done working. After the babies are a year old, then I'll see if there is 1) time and 2) the desire to go back to work and raise two kids.

Many many people have told me this over and over again. Caring for twins will keep me very, very, very, VERY busy. So far though, I'm just enjoying my time before they're born.

I have also heard that expectant mothers go through a time where they like to "nest". Apparently it is this primal urge to prepare for their baby, and it usually involves a lot of house cleaning, re-arrangement of furniture etc. So far, I'm still my very messy self, which drives Michael bonkers. Maybe that's why he decided to take that elective in Toronto for 4 weeks. Today is only Day 1. I miss him terribly, but not enough yet to take a plane ride in economy to visit him. Yes, once you've been in business class while pregnant, there's no turning back.

What a fun packed day I had yesterday. I went back to work after a week of sick leave only to see four patients before the nausea and vomiting took over.

Not a great start but I did have my first OB appointment in the afternoon. Thank goodness Michael was there. There is a LOT of information to take in but I feel like I'm in really good hands with my OB. Dr. Bloomenthal has a lot of practical advice and she's very understanding. Apparently she specializes in complicated pregnancies which I didn't know when I first contacted her.

We had our second ultrasound at her office, and from what she could see, both babies are doing well. They are active and have strong heartbeats. Although it's still a little early to definitively say, but one of the babies looks to be a boy and both are sharing a placenta with no membrane separating them. From that conclusion, she thinks we're having IDENTICAL TWIN BOYS!!

This means I have to have ultrasounds every two weeks at BC Women's Hospital to make sure they stay healthy. Good times!!

Vomiting Saga Continues

Ok, it's not all about the barfing but I have to comment that last night's little up-chuck session made even Michael pretty nauseated himself.

Anyway, the topic of me working continues to plague us. I'm taking a week of sick leave and so far there are days when I feel really good but there are days when it's really bad. I've suggested cutting down on my work days to start but Michael is just not sure if I can continue working without puking on my patients. Being an adult can be tough at times. I'm not quite ready to give up my career even though I joke about being a lady of leisure sometimes, but at the same time I have to think about growing and raising two healthy babies.

I've been praying about my job situation for awhile now. God has provided me with a wonderful, well-paying job. And it seems that if I were to stop working today, everything would be in place that we could manage financially but we wouldn't be living like we're used to. Maybe this is a lesson for me to let go and just trust what God has planned for us is the best.

Unexpected Surprises

In July, we learned that I was pregnant. It's a very emotion-filled time when you just learn that you're going to have a baby. Lots of things run through your head. You're excited and a little scared at the same time. I understand why so many people wait until the 2nd trimester to tell their friends and family, just in case the pregnancy is not viable.

That month I must have taken nine of those home pregnancy tests just to be sure that I was really pregnant. Yes, they really can detect the hCG hormone much earlier BUT that little positive sign is sooooo faint that you just can't be sure....

We really wanted to wait before we told anyone, but it just so happens that I'm a horrible liar and it also just so happened that my aunt decided to pat my tummy and asked if I was expecting. What the heck!??! I'm not even supposed to be showing yet and she thinks I'm pregnant already? So the next thing you know, my family knows and of course we had to tell Michael's parents as well. So much for keeping it a secret.

Not long into the pregnancy I started feeling the dreaded morning sickness. It didn't happen in the morning at first, it usually hit after work, right before dinner. Then the next week it would be in the afternoons right after lunch. Soon it ended up being ALL day and included vomiting as well. From everyone that I had talked to about morning sickness, this was unusually bad. There would be times when I had to pull over on the side of the road just to vomit. My doctor prescribed all sort of meds for me and still the sickness continued. Anyway, my lovely nausea/vomiting eventually cut short my vacation with my mom and sister in the beautiful Mediterranean.

Once I returned home, Michael insisted that we visit our GP since we did not have an appointment yet to see our obstetrician and her assistant had mentioned that we should have had an early ultrasound. With a little more pushing we were able to get a drop-in spot at the Chinatown Ultrasound Clinic. Yes, it was a little ghetto.

Now we knew there could be a chance that I was pregnant with twins. First, twins runs in my family, secondly I was just more sick during this pregnancy than most and thirdly I looked way more pregnant than the 14 weeks that I was.

Finally the technician brought me into the room. You're supposed to drink a lot of water before your ultrasound so that the imaging is better or something like that. At this point I was ready to burst. Unfortunately, Michael was not allowed into the room until the tech finished doing all her measurements so that she wouldn't miss anything. She found my uterus with the ultrasound wand and there were these two irregular blobs in the middle. She starts asking me questions about how many kids I have, how many I wanted, and I mention to her that we had joked about having twins and getting it all over and done with in one go. That's when she finally confirmed what I saw was for real. We're having twins!! At this point I'm crying, asking for my husband, and I'm just completely elated! It's unbelievable!! Then she let me listen to their heartbeat and starts taking stills of their bodies, hands, etc. FINALLY Michael is allowed in and told the good news and she goes through everything again.

After all the excitement about having twins subsides, you start to think about what you need to do to keep them healthy and well. There's so much that can go wrong esp. with two babies. So far things are well.