I think we have Cooper totally pooped trained. The past couple of times that Cooper has had to poop, he has come to get me and pointed toward the bathroom. He then takes my hand and guides me towards the bathroom which has his potty seat. Instead of me having to take him to the potty at set times, he is now telling me he needs to go. This makes me really happy because I feel like we are one step closer to being completely potty trained. I just wish he would tell me that he has to use the potty verbally, but I just have to wait for his language to develop more. Now the next thing we need to tackle is pee training. I would have love to have Cooper pee trained before the twins arrive, but I just don’t think that is going to happen. I am going to wait for the weather to get warmer and do a “bare bottom week”. Essentially what you do, is allow your toddler to run around without a diaper or clothes on below the belly button. Then every time he starts to pee, you pick him up and put him on his training potty. People have had great success with this method. So I thought I would give it a try once the weather starts to warm up a little more.

I am 32.5 weeks pregnant with the twins. I am officially bigger than I was when I was pregnant with Cooper. I have gained about 35lbs with Cooper and this pregnancy so far I have gained 40lbs. I still have 7.5 weeks to go until my due date so I am wondering how big I am really going to be? The twins looked really healthy today! Plenty of amniotic fluid for them to hang out in and their weights were great! Twin A was 3 lbs 10 oz and Twin B was 3 lbs 15 oz, which a total of 7 lbs 9 oz of baby. When Cooper was born he was 7 lbs 8oz. Yikes…now wonder I feel so uncomfortable! I am basically the size of a full term pregnancy. I am in need of some larger maternity clothing because I am out growing most of what I own, but I hate to buy some new clothing when I am really only going to wear it for another 7 weeks.

About two weeks ago, I had a ton of contractions for a few days. One night the contractions were coming every 4 minutes for about two hours. I called the on call doctor because I thought that something might be wrong, but by the time the on call doctor got back to me the contractions started to slow down again. Well apparently the night I had a ton of contractions was the night that Baby A decide to flip and is now breech. My doctor explained to me that most women get contractions or complain of server discomfort when a baby flips. Darn! So the twins are both head up and breech and looking at one another in the face. I guess they had a lot of things they wanted to talk about, haha! Because both of the babies are breech, I will most likely need a C-Section. That is unless Twin A decides to flip back to the head down position. But my doctor told me that at this point, to not expect much movement from either of the babies because they are running out of room. I really wanted to have a vaginal delivery, but I am doing okay with this news. It takes a lot of the risk of delivering twin A vaginally and then having a problem delivering twin B breech. Sometimes the plans we make for ourselves are different from the plans that God has for us. There is still time for these babies to flip, but if they don’t flip, that’s okay! God’s will either way.

Still don’t know their gender. Their heart beats were pretty low this appointment 129 and 130. One of the twins was sleeping and the other twin was not moving around too much. So if they had been a little more active, their heart rates may have been a little higher. The doctor reassured me that 120-170 is the the heart rate range they are looking for. So they are still looking healthy!
I don’t have any pictures of the babies this time around because honestly they just did not come out that well. I did not think it was worth posting them when most of you will have no clue what you are looking at. Haha! I did post some belly pictures. The first belly picture is of me when I was 33 weeks pregnant with Cooper. The second picture is from this pregnancy taken a few days ago when I turned 32 weeks.

33 Weeks pregnant with Cooper

32 Weeks Pregnant with the Twins

Cooper has a fascination, or should I say obsession, with lining things up. He loves to line up his cars on the window ledge. He always makes sure that the cars are facing the same direction. Sometimes he has the cars all facing looking out the window and other times he might have them all facing the left. If you move one of the cars to face a different direction, he notices and immediately switches the car to face the “correction” direction. I think that Cooper is a lot like his dad. Chris is very particular about how things should be done or put away. The other night Chris was playing with Cooper while he was in his bath. Chris was taking some of his foam toys and making them crooked. Cooper immediately noticed how they were crooked and straightened them. Chris laughed and said, “hey, I think Cooper is a lot like me!”

Well Chris’s Aunt Gloria was visiting and brought a gift for Cooper. She bought him some rubber figurines of zoo animals. Cooper loves them. He lines them up like his cars. He could spend two hours playing with these animals. He will take them out of the plastic container, line them up on the window ledge in all sorts of configurations, and happily rearrange their line up over and over. He occasionally points at each animal, which is Cooper’s way of asking me to name each individual animal. Too Cute!

Here is a picture of Cooper lining up his animals.

he falls asleep in his playpen with all the lights on amidst all his toys and music playing.

Cooper had a rough night of sleep last night. It took him much longer than normal to fall asleep last night and then he woke up several times crying throughout the night. He even woke almost an hour early this morning. I am not sure why he had such a rough night of sleep.

Cooper usually spends an hour in his playpen in his room after breakfast. I highly recommend to any stay-at-home mom that you definitely instituted independent play time so you can have some time to yourself. Ever since Cooper went down to one nap, I really look forward to my hour in the morning to myself while Cooper plays by himself in his playpen. (wrote about this on my baby blog if you care to read about it- Independent Play Time).

So Cooper was in his playpen this morning and I could hear him playing in there for about 30 minutes and then it got really quite. I decided to just check on him and he was asleep. I just let him sleep since he did not have a good night of sleep. I woke him at the end of his normal allotted time for independent play time. I decide to grab the video camera and video tape Cooper sleeping since this is such a rare event. He usually only falls asleep in his playpen if he is sick or really really tired. He usually needs complete darkness and quite to sleep.

Enjoy the video clip!

My Pregnant Belly at 32 weeks with the twins. Will I really make it to 40 weeks without exploding? haha!

Cooper has been making great progress with his potty training. He has been telling me that he has to use the potty a lot more lately, instead of me just taking him to the potty at set times. When Cooper is on the potty, we usually read a book to help pass the time. There is this one book that he loves to look at and read when on the potty and I keep it by the toilet so I can easily grab it.

Well, the other day I had to pee and I announced to Cooper, “Cooper, Mommy has to go to the potty!” As I was getting ready to sit down, Cooper ran over to the toilet and handed me his book. It was as if he was telling me, “Here Mommy, Read This while you’re on the potty.” Haha! To funny!

Well I am 30 weeks pregnant and I am feeling huge. Baby A’s head is always resting on my hip bone when I lay down and Baby B’s head is digging into my rib cage so it makes sleeping less than comfortable. My multiple trips to the bathroom at night have started up again. I pee at least 3 times throughout the night if not more. This makes feeling like I got a solid night sleep a thing of the past. I know it will only get worse as I get further along in my pregnancy.

I went to the OBGYN today and found out that I am only measuring 4 weeks ahead, so that is not that bad. I was kind of hoping she would tell me that I was measuring more than that because I am starting to feel very uncomfortable. I am wondering how I am going to make it the full 40 weeks. The babies heart beats were 138 and 142 today- I still think they are boys, but I will not know until their birth day. While my doctor was checking me, she felt me having a contraction- yikes! I do notice my stomach getting hard every once in a while, but it is not painful so I do not pay close attention to it to be honest. Baby B is still breech, boo! I am still having faith that everything will work out and I will be able to have a vaginal delivery. I am reminded of Abraham when he took his son to the mountain to be sacrificed. Abraham had faith that God would deliver a way out, and at the last minute God did by providing a lamb to sacrifice instead of his son. So even if Baby B does not flip before delivery, I am confident that he/she will flip before it is his/her time to come out! I would still appreciate your prayers- asking God to flip baby B.

We have had a busy two weeks. Last weekend we went to Chris’s family’s farm, which was a lot of fun. Cooper had fun playing outside. This coming weekend we are heading to San Antonio for Chris’s uncle’s wedding. I just hope that all this traveling is not to much for me.

Here is my belly at 30 weeks.

Where has time gone? I cannot believe that Cooper is almost a year and a half old. So many changes in his life that they are hard to even list here. But I thought I would give a fun update on how my little Cooper is growing…

• Cooper started to walk at 14 months old Thanksgiving weekend!
• Cooper stopped bottle feeding at 12 months old and started to drink from a straw cup, but he still got a bottle before bed.
• At 14 months, I weaned Cooper of his nighttime bottle and he solely drinks milk from a sippy cup during his 3 meals of the day.
• Cooper move to one nap early- at 12 months old. He took a solid 2.5- 3 hour nap during the day and 11 hours at night. Still doing that expect his nap is a little shorter now.
• Cooper’s communication skills continue to improve. He understands a simple two step command now. So I can tell him to pick up his truck and put it in the basket and he’ll do it. He is also still signing and saying a few more words. Currently he signs: ball, all done, more, yes, sleep/tired, potty (sometimes), help, eat/ hungry, and milk. Cooper will say: car, hi, hey, da, dada, daddy, all done “all gun”, dog “gu”, help “hu”. We have caught him saying- thank you, turtle (on the intonation), and more- but he does not say these consistently or hardly at all. He quacks like a duck and barks like a dog. I also have heard him recently mooing like a cow.
• Cooper has some favorite foods- bananas, blue berries, hot dogs, crackers, sweet potato, and butternut squash. He eats pretty much all fruit, very little veggies,  most cheese, and some meat (chicken nuggets/ hotdogs).
• Cooper is starting to enjoy being read to. This has become a huge part of our bedtime routine. He will sit on Chris or my lap and contently listen to story after story.
• Cooper is still obsessed with cars, but will play with some other toys more often now. His favorite thing to do is line his cars up on the window sill in the playroom. Quite cute if you ask me!
• Cooper knows some body parts now- he can identify his head, belly button, nose, eyes, and tongue.

So here is the update on the twins at 28 weeks:

Baby B is still breech and I am having Chiropractor adjustments (Wester Technique) to help that suborn baby to flip- hopefully! Chiropractor explained to me that twins typically are in the head down and breech position for a reason and that if they don’t flip before delivery to not worry. That after baby A is born, baby B should have enough room to flip. I am hoping he is right! My OBGYN is going to allow me to have a vaginal birth since baby A is still head down, but if baby B does not flip after Baby A is birthed- I will have to have a c-section. YIKES! This is not the most ideal situation for me, but I am putting my trust in God! I have been praying for a vaginal birth and I feel like God has heard me and will answer my prayer. Please pray that I am able to have a vaginal birth and that Baby B will flip before he/ she is delivered!

At my OBGYN appt. today I found out that Baby A had a heart rate of 143 and Baby B had a heart rate of 139. I am really starting to think that I am having two boys. We still do not know their gender, but that is my hunch. I have a total of 5lbs of baby in my tummy and I am measuring as if I am 33 weeks pregnant with a single baby (5 weeks ahead). Baby A was 2lbs 6oz and Baby B was 2lbs 8oz. During the sonogram Baby B was trying to suck his finger and you could see his mouth opening and shutting (so cute). You could see both Baby A and Baby B’s eye lids blinking and opening and shutting too, which was so neat! Both babies are growing well and look healthy!

How am I feeling? Well, I am starting to get uncomfortable. It is hard for me to find a comfortable position to sit in for a long period of time. Even laying on the couch can get a little uncomfortable for me at times. I have noticed that I am starting to have some contractions. The only way I know that I am having them is that my tummy gets hard. They are not painful at all and I have no clue I am having them half the time time. My doctor wants me to start keeping track of how often I have them. Anything over 6 contractions in an hour is not good. I don’t that I am having that many contractions, but I will keep an eye out. I find that I just am not able to move around with ease anymore. I find myself rolling off the bed so that I can get up and pee at night, haha! My doctor also warned me to try not to push it to hard in my third trimester and take it easy. Easier said then done!

Other Tidbits….
I have been watching my friends little girl for about a month now (Let’s call her K). I am going to watch K until the twins are born. She is only 3 weeks younger than Cooper. Cooper has had some adjustment to having K around. Cooper does not like to share his toys and I often find him ripping toys out of K’s hands or pushing her away from the toys. Cooper also does not like it when I have to share my time between them. He is slowly getting better, but that is a product to many time outs after he has either stolen K’s toys, pushed/ shoved her, or just been mean towards her. They do play well together at other times and it is cute to see when they start babbling at each other as if they were talking to one another. K is very motherly towards Cooper and often likes to “help” him out. For instance, I was calling Cooper to me the other day and he would not come. So K walked over to him and put out her hand, trying to get Cooper to come to me. Too Cute! The two of them keep my very busy, but it has been a lot fun to have the two of them together!

Pictures: Below are belly pictures, ultrasound pictures of the babies, and a picture of Cooper & K playing together. Enjoy!

Twin B's face and his/her eye is open @ 28 weeks

Twin A trying to suck his wrist/ thumb @28 weeks

Twin A's face @ 28 weeks

K and Cooper

28 weeks Pregnant with Cooper

28 weeks pregnant with twins

28 weeks pregnant with the twins

Our neighbor had a birthday party this past weekend. She turned 2. Her uncle works for the fire department and had to pick up a fire truck in San Antonio and drive it to Houston. He made a stop at the birthday party and parked the truck in our court. Cooper was so excited to see the fire truck. He was able to explore the fire truck inside and out. He was even allowed to sit in the driver’s seat. Here are some pictures of him and the fire truck.