Rooms

Today was supposed to be the appointment day from hades. I was scheduled for an ultrasound at 7am, a non stress test at 9:20, and a doctors appointment at 11. I had Adi's emergency bag ready. Playdough, crayons, books, snacks, and my tablet loaded with Dora and Yo Gabba Gabba episodes. The ultrasound was finished at 7:35, and the thought of waiting around in between this and the other appointments scared me. Well the good lord showed me some mercy today, because I was squeezed in to the non stress test and my doctors appointment and was done for the day at 9am.

The ultrasound revealed that girl is still breech and weighs 4 pounds 9 ounces and boy is head down and 3 pounds 13 ounces. Their heartbeats are great too. No more to say about the boy's kidney. Nothing has changed there. I'm 32 weeks and change, and my belly is measuring at 35 weeks. I havent gained any weight in two weeks, despite my recent ice cream intake. I'm having mild swelling, but I don't notice it unless I wear socks. All in all, we're all hanging in there and doing great. Oh the doc did say that if (this is a big if because my cervix is still long) I go into labor after 34 weeks, they won't do anything to stop me. That is a scary thought. It's less than two weeks away.

We're almost ready for the twins. We have the carseats, and now the cribs. No mattresses yet or blankets. So we're getting there. Not quite all the way there yet, but we're making progress. It's just hard to see a half empty room and imagine two tiny babies living in it.

I'm still in shock. I will have two babies, plus a toddler. Who, by the way, refused to leave the house without her blanket and paci, even with me bribing her with m&ms.

Last weeks random twins pregnancy food craving - prunes
This weeks random twins pregnancy food craving - brown sugar pop tarts

State Fair

Went to the Alaska State Fair today. Well the sun is out now, now that we're done with the fair experience. But our time there was spent in a cloudy, cold, and windy environment. Layers do wonders out here, as well as a water and wind proof jacket. I was fairly warm, except formy hand and nose. I alsoneed to save the hood for rainy days, and get a sweet hat for cold and windy days. You can't really find an all weather maternity jacket easily, so hopefully my XXL all weather jacket (not maternity) will hold up for a little while longer. I noticed the belly region losing spacetoday.

Pregnancy wise, I did great today running around the fairgrounds. I only had a few contractions, ate a halibut taco (it was alright), and wasn't nauseated by the barnyard smells.

Stress wise, I did better than I expected. When you go to the state fair on the first Saturday of the season, it is going to be crowded. I don't usuallydo well in large crowd situations, add on top of that pushing a stroller, and being super pregnant, oh and I had to pee really badly and all I could see were portapotties with long lines. So the first 15 minutes or so were stressful as I assessed the crowds and looked for a decent restroom. But once tbat was achieved I was able to relax. There were millions of booths with everything from fair food to ridiculous t shirts to energy conservation to crafts to larping swords. Yes larping (live action role playing) swords.

Adi loved watching the carnival rides. She really wanted to ride them herself and didn't really understand why I wasn't letting her. And then threw a huge fit when we tried to leave that area.

We found a building with Australian animals. We saw a kangaroo, kookabura, emu, and pelicans. I've always loved pelicans,bt Inever knew how absolutely huge they were! Then we foundthe building with the judged baked goods. Rows and rows of cookies, cakes, and breads, all divided into age groups. It looked amazing. Oh and speaking of amazing baked goods, I made a black forest cake with cherry filling and a chocolate ganache topping for Mike's birthday. And yes, it would have won a ribbon, honorable mention at least.

We caught the very end of the chili cook off. Miss Alaska welcomed us into this event. Honestly, I was disappointed. Though I only tried one, I knew what each contestant was going for. They were looking to make the spiciest chili imaginable. That's not the point of chili. It's about the flavors. It made me want to make up my batch of chili. But I haveto wait until it gets a little colder.

Then we made it to the farm exhibit. I think this was all of our favorite exhibit. Mike loved the judged produce. There was a pumpkin as big around as the width of a car. There were cabbages that rivaled The Little Shop of Horrors creature. And rows and rown upon berries. There were also judged flowers. My favorite were the dahlias. I just imagined the gardens they came out of and thecare each person tookin choosing the one flower tbey would present. Adi's favorite were the chickens and roosters. She laughed hysterically each time one crowed. The judging for these went on earlier,so we sought out the placed and best in show fowl. There were also rabbits and ducks as well. Out in the main farm area were the larger farm animals. We saw a sow (she was massive) and her piglets, sheep, lambs, goats, and cows.

If you ask me, this is what a state fair is supposed to be like. I had a blast. I wish it was less crowded, that the weather was milder, and that I was less pregnant, but overall, I loved the entire day.

super pregnant woman

I've been on a bit of a frenzy. So much stuff to take care of and so little time. Driver's licenses, titles, registrations, oil changes (those are the magazines from the oil change shop in the picture), car seats, cribs, cleaning, library cards, you name it, I've been doing it. Almost over doing it. Today I woke up with a wicked sore throat. Could have been caused by taking my jacket off while outside trying to get three carseats in the back of the explorer. I had worked up a sweat and the sun was out, so it didn't feel like 53 degrees.
Out of everything that I've been taking care of, laundry has fallen by the wayside. I had seriously taken for granted having our own washer and dryer. Now I share with three other families, and I have to make sure I have a steady supply of quarters. The days just go by too fast and the next thing I know the laundry is as tall as Adi.
Despite feeling cruddy, a mommy never has time off. And the nesting hasn't waned. So how did I spend my morning after having a warm bowl of oatmeal? I played school with Adi, we're working on writing the letter A and tracing lines did the dishes, nd began cleaning the mini blinds in the kitchen. The person who lived here before us never cleaned. Who knew that mini blinds could become so disgusting.

bbdisgusting.

please act older

Like it when my two year old doesn't act like a two year old. It happens sometimes. I had a brief glimpse of it yesterday, but not at the times when I most needed it.

I'm a stickler for getting driver's licenses updated or changed. Not sure why. But I went in to get my official Alaskan driver's license. It was maybe 9:30. Though nothing in this town opens before 10. Honestly that doesn't make sense to me. But I'm learning to roll with it. So we finally make it in. I have everything I need, or so I thought. I fill out an application, and thebentire time, Adi is a full blown two year old. Running into every one's way, jumping on every chair, and repeatedly hitting the 'take a number' machine. I finally make it up to the counter, only to realize that I didn't bring my social security card. While I'm talking with the woman at the counter, I have a hand on Adi who is going completely limp and swinging and laughing hysterically. The woman at the counter the said "just come back with everything, and you can take the test, and maybe you can find someone to leave the monkey with." Yes she was trying to be funny, but she had no idea how bad that made me feel. I don't know anyone here. It felt lonely. I know we'll get plugged into a great community soon, but right now it's pretty isolating. I ignore her advice and come back with the monkey.

On the ride home I let Adi have it. She responds to the phrase "you are not being a good listener", probably because she knows that good listeners get special treats and especially a paci. She said in a big girl voice, "momma, I'm sorry". Oh man that tugged at me just a bit. Then we had a conversation like she wasn't a two year old. It was nice. She promised to be a good listener and we would go back and try again.

I show up back at the dmv, and thank goodness, it's completely empty. Yes God had mercy on me. Unfortunately, I still failed the test, but one question. So I'll go back in 24 hours and try again. I'll go back with my monkey and pray that she acts older than she really is, for my sanity and the dmv workers'.


In twin gestation news, my second round of NSTs went well. I'm afraid that girl flipped. I'm pretty sure I felt it, or a massive roll. But now ALL movement is down low, meaning feet? I have no idea, I'm just along for the ride.

I do wish that I ate better for these two. That's why, well not only that, but that's why I have a WIC appointment today. Any help that we can get right now, still one income and three children, in Alaska, with high food prices, I'll take. To be honest, my pride does get the best of me when it comes to government assistance. But it's not just about me, it's about Adi and the twins.

Random meeting and dinner

First off, who wouldn't want to hang out with this kid? She took this picture of herself. I still cannot believe that she knows how to access the camera and take pictures with my tablet.

After being in Alaska for a week, today I actually had a real conversation with someone new. I've been hitting the parks around town, and finally, ran into other people. Poor Adi hasn't really played with other kids in a long while. So we roll up to the park just a few blocks away, and yes, it was full of people. It also helped that today was the second day in a row with sun and a sweet 65 degrees. There was one mom sitting and texting, then left immediately after I got there. There was a grandmother who kept climbing up the slide and,preventing Adi from using it. She left with her two kids shortly after I gave her a look for blocking Adi from sliding as she played some monster game. I mean Adi actually went down the slide and I had to pick her up over the edge because of this woman. Then there was Barbara. She hadbtwo boys, and they looked about the right age for Adi. She also had a big dog which is a plus if you want Adi to follow you around. After about half an hour I get up the nerve to start talking to her. There were some neighborhood boys selling lemonade and Adi wanted to sit at the same picnic table Barbara's boys. If you know Adi, sometimes she doesn't know about personal space. And well she slid up as close to the three year old as she could. He wasn't having any of that. Thankfully the five year old sat next to her.

Here's my awkward conversation starter, 'so umm let me guess, he's four and he's six'. It wasthe best line I had atthe moment. She responded with an equally awkward, 'close, three and five, but their birthdays are in November'. Score Adi's birthday is in November too! I can keep the conversation going! The next thing I know three hours have gone by and we've discussed everything from child birth, to schools, to neighbors, to careers. It felt so good to talk with another mom. I had no ideahow starved I was.

Thesky turned hazy, it gave everyone the sense that it was time to call it. She had mentioned a few times things that she had that would be perfect for Adi. So I thought we'd keep this thing going. She said that we should let the kids play together again, so I asked for her number, and then she invited us over,for dinner. Let me tell you, I was not eeexpecting to pull up to a mansion on a mountain. I was super intimidated. That's probably why I felt so weird. I couldn't get past the fact that I live in a humble apartment,and she was in a multi million dollar home. I mean there wasan entire wall of windows overlooking the valley and other side of the mountains. A mom and baby moose walked through the yard! I will never afford a life like that.

The kids played well, AdiLOVES the five year old, and he seems tohave taken a liking to her. Dinner was great, we small talked. Nexttime I will have to get over the social differences and just enjoy the moment.

Twin Boy

Twin boy is having some issues that's causing te doctor to 'keep an eye on things'. It all started at my first appointment with my new doc here in Anchorage. The doctor used an ultrasound machine to watch each twins' heartbeats. She noticed some variable decelerations, where his heart rate drops suddenly.

The next day I had an ultrasound to check for growth, yep they're huge. But the the tech noticed fluid in twin boy's kidneys. He said he sees it all the time, and that I shouldn't worry. Given my family's history of GI and kidney issues, I had to worry. The internet told me that it could be because of his boy parts backing things up. Who knows.

Oddly, I have peace with this. But I just want to ask the rest of you to keep him in your thoughts and prayers. It doesn't hurt to have some extra people sending good vibes our way.

Alaskan OB

I went to my first doctors appointment for the twins. Since I'm new to the practice I had to go through the initial work up that they typically give to people who have just found out they're pegnant. I received a folder full of first trimester information. The woman doing the paperwork was the most bubbly and encouraging person that I've every met. I'm not sure if she was a christian or not, but she really had a gift. The cynic in me wants to think that she just knows what to say to very pregnant women to make them feel comfortable, but there was something else about it. The way she encouraged me when she took my weight and kept commenting on how good I looked, it just made my day.

To top everything off, the place was immaculate. It made my old place look like a shack. They offer hypnobirthing classes, and give all of their patients prenatal massages each trimester. I shouldn't have been surprised when my new doc was pro vaginal delivery as long as one kid was head down. I tried to say, that c-section can still be a possibility (I didn't want to seem stuck on one idea) but she made it a point to keep talking about the negatives. And without so many words, I could tell that she wantedto try for a vaginal birth. It also helped that girl is head down and boy is breech.

Another new thing for me, doctors who use the ultrasound machine to check heartbeats for themselves. I like that. This way they can really see and listen. When she went to check boy's heartbeat, she had a look on her face, and I knew something was off. She said he had variable deceleration. His heart rate was slow and then picked up. That's when she decided that I should have a NST - non stress test, just to make sure that he isn't having those too often. Well the NST consisten on 40min of trying to find each heartbeat then keeping the monitors on them. They moved a ton. I also had to press a button every time they moved, which was laughable, because all you would hear on the monitor was the rhythmic gallop of two heartbeats, with random staticy whooshes (that was them moving). Atfirst I thought that this was a one time thing, but my doctor decided that because,of boy's variable decelerations, the fact that its twins, and my gestational age, that I need these things twice a week. Not bad right, quiet alone time? Nope, Mikegoes back to work starting tomorrow with workdays, and Adi will be coming along to all of my appointments, even the ones that consist of an ultrasound, a NST, and an appointment withmy doctor. I just hope she can stay entertained!

Two days in Alaska

Day 1 - Friday
Today Mike had to go to an all day training for Anchorage School District. That meant Adi and I were on our own. It was cold and rainy. First things first, grocery shopping. Man cannot live on beer, milk, and rasin bran, so honestly I don't know how Mike was surviving. So Adi and I headed out to Fred Meyer, a super walmart of sorts. I started in the homegoods section first, knowing that I wouldbe getting cold items in the grocery section and I didn't want them to spoil. So we meandered arounded looking at everything, and probably taking way too long. I got a few household things, a broom, toaster, etc, when I realized that I needed to leave room in my cart for food stuffs. So super tired and already feeling done with shopping, I walked,over to the gorcery section, and that is where my world freefell. Food out here is expensive, and not by a little, but by a lot. The 1.88 off brand fig newtons are now 5.60. What?! I'm slowly having a nervous breakdown inside the store. I'm fighting back tears which I know are partly due to hormones, and Adi is developing some serious bags under her eyes from the plane ride and time change. I have to call it soon, but I've barely gotten anything to eat; some chicken nuggets, bread,peanut butter and jelly, bananas, ramen, and juice. Pathetic I know. I panicked, I didn't know where to begin. Exhausted, I step into a checkout line labeled 'family friendly' which I'm thinking is perfect because Adi is slowly breaking down. The woman said no kind courtesies, and made no eye contact. And at one point, as shewas bending down to place something inthe bottom of my cart, Adi flailed her arms and hit her in the head. I know that toddler hands can hurt, a little, but nothing to warrant a sharp 'hey!' And evil eye of death.
Family friendly? Yeah right.
I let Adi take an extra long nap to catch up from the transition, while I wondered around the house not knowing what to do or where to even start. It took me half an hour to figure out how to put the filter into the Brita pitcher. I was miserable. Mostly in part due to sleep and hormones.
I took Adi out again, this time to find the post office. It wasn't far from our place but the gps took me on a very round about way through some super nice neighborhoods. I found it, and the sun had come out,making for a plesant afternoon. We mailed a letter and pickedup some stamps.
Mike came home and we ventured out down themain road just outside of our neighborhood. It wound around some mountain passes and along come rivers. Peaceful. Notfor Adi. Shescreamed the whole time " oh no, the mounains are in the way, we cant go anywhere" and then how scared she was because of the mountains. Now I'm talking snot covered face fear screaming. We stopped at a trailhead to let Adi out to try and calm her down. We took a short walk to the river and let her look around. We had to tell her that these were Adi's mountains and that we follow the road aroundand over Adi's mountains. That did it for her. From that point on, when she starts to get afraid on car trips, she tells herself ouloud that they are Adi's mountains and starts to giggle.

Day 2 - Saturday
Car ride to a glacier.
I had no idea how long this trek would be. We ended up stopping at some random gas/food mart in the middle of nowhere. Adi was asleep so Mike stayed in the car and I waddled up to an open doored room with a grizzled old man smoking at a table. We talked,about the weather,and I'm sure he though that we were tourists because of our Texas plates. After over two hours we made,it. It was majestic. Unfortunately I had to pee and headed straight for the batrooms, well latrines. Oh my, oh my, what horrible events had happened in there. But really, the air outside and the view was incredible. The grassy area we were on was covered in wild raspberries. I wish I could have stayed there all day, but my pregnant hunger kicked in. On theride back my feet swelled up pretty bad. I guess I cannot stay in the car for long anymore. We made it back into town and ate lunch at China Lights, an alright chinese buffet right by our place. I'd give it a 5 out of 10, only because I was digging the spring rolls.
We bought a small three drawer dresser for next to the bed. We still need something for Adi, but I'll get that figured out soon. Speaking of figuring things out soon, we need to get a couch or something soon. Those ikea chairs and my pregnant body are not mixing well. I had to lie down in bed for a while just to alleviate thepaininmy back and hips. I started thinking that I was,going into labor, but that was jusyt my drama from being tired and sore.

Day 3 starts today. No ide what is planned, but I'm sure I see a few hot baths in store for me.

Just a Short Plane Ride

I successfully made it though a 6+ hour plane ride from Texas to Alaska. When we got to the gate you could tell the flight was bound for Alaska. Everyone was decked out in pants, long sleeves, and hiking boots, with quite a few hunting/camouflage hat. The plane sat at the gate forever because of some mix up with the sky chef. That was probably the worst bit of it. But Adi stayed occupied with some games on my tablet. Though she wanted her paci, I stuck with what I told her and I didn't give it to her until the plane was up in the sky. I don't know if it was sitting in the next to last row or if it was the pilot's steering, but taking off was miserably shaky.
Once the flight got going they showed the movie Thor. That gave me something to do while Adi played random games. I have to say, the movie wasn't as good as I had thought it would be. Yes it had a hunky main actor, and an ending that made me cry (hormones, because it really wasn't cry worthy) but overall, I'd give it a 5 out of 10. Sometime during the credits, Adi fell asleep. Good thing I got up twice before that to potty and take Adi potty, (which she did, in the airplane bathroom!) Because the way Adi fell asleep halfway on me and I was stuck. I was also stuck watching the second film Arthur, some film with Russell Brand. I didn't pay full attention to this movie so I can't give it a score. Being stuck to my seat was miserable. I folded my jacket at the small of my back, that helped, but then I started having pains on my left side. I'm not sure if it was twin boy moving about or what but I wasn't digging it. To make it worse, all of my drinks and foods were on the floor, and reaching down was painful. After the man next to me decided he needed to stand for a bit, I took that as a sign to freely get up as well. I tucked my jacket under Adi and snuck out of my row. When I looked down,wow had my feet swollen. I even had flip flop marks on the tops of my feet. I did get to stand for about 5 or 10 minutes before I heard Adi wake up and start crying. But at that point we had about an hour left in the flight.

So overall, the flight wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. But the best part was seeing my husband after two weeks apart. :-)

Chucke E Cheese where a kid can drink soda until they puke

Adi's grandparents treated her to Chuck e Cheese on our last full day. That place is a responsible parent's nightmare. Adi was an amazingly well behaved toddler in an amazingly over stimulating environment. We explored the toddler section first. It consisted of a two step jungle gym with a small slide, and two mechanical cars that slowly rocked back and forth. Boring for Adi, but she used it to look around at the rest of the place. The first game she played was called jet rider. It was a reclined seat that shimmied and shook as she went over rollercoasters or flew through a city with a jet pack. She rode that game 5 times. She also tried her hand ( with he granddad's help ) at sket ball, punch a duck, fireman rescue, fill a clown's mouth with water, monster truck, and the car that takes your picture with chuck e cheese. She also climbed the big jungle gym with all of the tubes that run across the ceiling. I was a nervous wreck, picturing her getting lost or bullied by older kids, and with me having no way to crawl in and get her. She took two steps in and two boys came tumbling out at the same time nd scared her. She told me "there's peoplei n there". Then she climbed all of the way up and immediately went down the twisty slide. I couldn't stop her from then on, but she did stick to climbing and sliding only. After a while of watching the bigger kids explore, Adi turned away from the slide andventured down the tunnel. I saw her disappear, the immediately come running back crying. She told me that some kid told her no. After I held her for a split second and told her it was alright, she ran right back in. I am proud of her. She's only two but can hold her own and be responsible. Not like the kid, 3 or 4 yrs old, with a gaudy cross bling necklace and rodeo belt buckle the size of his face. That kid was going ballistic and even pushed me, an adult, out of the way. Where was this kid's parents? Your guess is as good as mine. There were several children like him, unsupervised and disrespectful. Only one kid made me laugh then sigh at his level of unparenting. He was Adi's ageor a little younger, and had managed to climb into the basketball shoot and was ripping the balls out as his butt crack hung out of his pants. Later I was this same kid on top of the sket ball machine pulling the ballsout of the back ofthe game and throwing them as hard as he could in whatever direction his tiny hand decided to go.
In the end Adi had a blast, drank two cups of fruit punch, ate half a tiny slice,of pizza, used all of her tokens, and received 15 tickets which bought her two packs of sweet tarts.
In the end I learned never to trust a kid with bling and rodeo belt buckles, and no parents.

pictures and tea

While visiting with my parents (I'm still in Texas) we decided to visit the 3D ultrasound center. It was like stepping into the ultimate zen zone. Aromas, shavasana music, and an overall super awesome place. Anything a pregnant woman who wants to be pampered was there. I opted for the ultrasound only. It was in a huge room, with bigcomfy chairs, and a tv on thewall so you don't have to crane your neck to see the screen. The technician did have all of the appropriate certifications to be an ultrasound tech in an ob office, but she started out by saying ' wow I've never done twins before'. So that made me a little,nervous. And several times she'd say something about being confused and double checking who each one was. She started with a 2D to check heartbeats, head sizes, and positions. Twin girl is head down, way down, and twin boy is breech with his body in an entire half fold with his legs over,his head. He will be our chill yoga man. Twin girl's heartbeat was 157 and twin boy was 144. Exactly what they were when I last visited my doctor. We were lucky to get the 3D pictures that we got. Twin girl had her face squished up against the placenta. Adi was like that her entire time in the womb, and she wanted to sleep with blankets on her face when she was little, but now just rubs the corner of her blanket on her cheek or nose. I wonder if twin girl will be like that. I have a feeling she will be justlike Adi. Twin boy had all sorts of legs and arms in his face. I'm not sure what that says about his personality yet. Twin girl looked bigger, at least her face did. I wonder if that means she'll have huge cheeks like Adi did. Twingirl,also hadbthe distinctive Doiron nose, and twin boy had a really generous mouth. Not just lips, but his mouth seemed to go on forever. Overall, it was fun, and I'm glad that I got the chance to see them. The ultrasound tech said that if I had come in any later, they'd be too squished to see anything.
If you search facebook for La Bella Belly, like them, then search their image access for me Jacquelyn Welge, you can see the twins.

This will be a longer post covering a couple topics. You see, I tried to blog the past few,nights but Adi has decided that she's afraid of the dark.

Adi got to spend the afternoon with her grandpa bill, grandma tanya, and great aunt ruth. She had a blast. I know this because she passed out in the car on the way home. She played herself out. Adi was playing with some new toys when I noticed something. She was playing with a tea set eating pretend cookies while also giving out medical shots. She associates getting shots with getting treats. Then I remembered that every time I would take her to get shots I'd buy her candy of sorts for a reward. Is this bad? I don't think so, but I could be starting a bad doctor's office habit.