Cooper got an aquadoodle for Christmas. This is one of the neatest toys! You can draw with a water pen on this plastic mat and it turns the mat blue. It is a great way for Cooper to get some extra practice with his fine motor skills without making a huge mess. I gave him some foam brushes and allowed him to dip them into water and “paint” water onto the mat. He had more fun dipping his foam brush in and out of the water container. I highly recommend the Aquadoodle to anyone with a young toddler. Just buy some foam brushes for another medium to use on the plastic mat.

I just had my 24 week appointment with my OB. The twins are looking great! There is plenty of fluid in each sac and they each gained a whole pound in one month. They now weigh 1 lb 12oz and 1 lb 11oz. That means I am carrying around almost 4 pounds of baby. No wonder I am starting to feel uncomfortable. Their heart beats were 151 and 161.  Baby B is still breach (head up) and I am praying that he/she will flip before it is time to deliver so I can have a vaginal birth. The good news is that Baby A is still head down and this baby is the one closest to my cervix. Baby A has to remain head down in order for my doctor to even allow me to attempt a vaginal birth- so let’s pray that he/she stays that way!

I am measuring as if I was 30 weeks pregnant with a singleton- and it feels like I am 30 weeks pregnant!! My back has started to hurt. It is beginning to get hard for me to bend down and tie my shoes or pick things off the floor. I cannot lay on my back at all or even recline strait back in a chair or I get very light headed and short of breath from all the weight pressing on my veins and lungs. My doctor said that is normal for the amount of weight I am carrying around from the babies, placentas, and extra fluid. Carrying Cooper around is starting to get more difficult, but luckily he is walking now and will hold my hand to go most places around the house. I don’t fit into any of my maternity pants I bought when I was pregnant with Cooper already. One baby is sitting very low (right on top of my cervix) and this makes putting some pants on very tight and uncomfortable. The baby will actually start punching my waist band if the pants are too tight, which does not feel good. Luckily, a girl from my small group gave me all her old maternity clothes that I can fit into.  I have gained a whopping 28lbs so far this pregnancy. I am suppose to gain between 35-40lbs, so I don’t see this as a problem.

We finally decided what to do with the twins’ nursery. I am going to paint the walls green (gender neutral) and use brown accents. We are also going to use the monkey theme that is Cooper’s room currently and move it into the twins’ nursery and give Cooper a new theme for his room. Since Cooper is obsessed with cars, we are going to make his room into a car, truck, and vehicle theme, which I know he will love! Once Cooper’s and the twins’ rooms are done, I will post pictures for everyone to see.

Here are some pictures of the twins from our 24 week ultrasound. They ultrasound pictures are starting to get a little more difficult to see because the babies are getting larger, but at least you get some kind of a glimpse of the twins:

Here are some comparison pictures of my belly at 24 weeks with my pregnancy with Cooper and this currently pregnancy with the twins:

24 Weeks Pregnant With Cooper

24 Weeks Pregnant with the Twins

24 Weeks Pregnant with the Twins

Height: 32.5 inches (85%ile)

Weight: 26lbs 13oz (78%ile)

Head Circumference: 50cm (>97%ile)

Cooper has been trained to poop on the potty. In fact, he poops in the toilet 95% of the time. However, Cooper is not pee trained yet. I still put him on the potty several times a day, if he pees great, if not oh well. I am not pushing potty training on him yet since he is only 14 months old.

Well, I usually put Cooper on the potty before his bath, in hopes that he will not pee in the bathtub. Well, he sat there for about 2 minutes and nothing happened so I took him off the toilet. He started to run around the bathroom naked. I called him over to me, but instead he sat down on the floor and started to pee. I had literally taken him off the potty only a minute earlier. I immediately grabbed him and started running towards the toilet, all the while he is still peeing leaving a yellow trail behind us. By the time I get him to the toilet, he had stopped peeing and was laughing. That little turkey!

Cooper received a Christmas card from my grandmother, Mommom. Inside the card was a bib that said, “Grandma Loves Me.”

We thought we would take some pictures of his wearing his new bib and reading his Christmas card!

Thanks Mommom!! Cooper loved the card and the bib looks very good on him! We love and miss you!

Still unknown! But, we did find out today that the babies are indeed the same sex. We had told both the ultrasound tech and the doctor that we did not want to know the sex of the babies, but the doctors said to us, “Well, I can tell you that they are the same sex.” GRRR! We did not even want to know that much information, but oh what are you going to do? So that means that babies are either 2 boys or 2 girls. What do you think they will be- leave a comment and vote. I think it will be fun to hear everyone’s guesses.

I am 20 weeks along and doing great. I feel good and I really have no complaints. The twins have been pretty active and I can feel them pretty often. I feel Baby A a lot more than Baby B, but I think that is because of the way they are positioned. Baby A is head down in my pelvis and Baby B is breach (head up) toward the top of my uterus (right now). I hope that Baby B will fip before I have to deliver so I can have a vaginal birth, so say a pray for me and the babies. I started taking an iron supplement, which has helped with my energy a whole lot. I guess I was slightly anemic after all. My belly continues to grow. I have a picture of my belly taken at 20 weeks and I compared it to a picture of when I was 7 months pregnant with Cooper, and the bellies look to be the same size, which I think it nuts.

The twins are healthy! We saw a specialist today. She preformed a detailed anatomy ultrasound. She confirmed that my twins are the best type of twins to have- di/ di. Which means they have separate sacs and separate placentas and are not at risks for developing at different rates. The current weights of the babies is 12 ounces and 13 ounces, which are very healthy weights for 20 weeks. During the ultrasound today, the technician took two 4D pictures of the babies faces. I thought it would be neat to include them in this post. Baby B was so cute in his/ her picture, with his/her arm tucked up near his/ her face. I was also told that Baby B’s butt is right in Baby A’s face right now…haha! That is funny!

And now for some pictures….

Baby A @ 20 weeks

Baby B @ 20 weeks

20 weeks pregnant with Cooper

20 Weeks Pregnant with twins

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha…

A few flurries and the whole city of Houston is going nuts. Yes, Houston is experiencing some mild snow, well it is more like flurries. It is lightly coming down and it not even sticking to the grass where I live. I went to MOPs (Mother’s of Pre-Schoolers) today and here was the announcement by the leader to a group of over 150 women, “We are going to end our MOPs meeting a little early today because schools are closing early. We also don’t want anyone driving on the roads as the weather gets bad. The snow is really coming down hard. So please be careful driving home and walking on the side walks.”

Yes, no joke they are closing schools early. Local school districts are closing anywhere from 1- 3 hours early. As I drove home from my MOPs meeting today (around 12pm), I passed a local middle school. The entire school was outside, scads of middle schoolers running across the school yard with their hands lifted and screaming in delight at the sight of flurries, oh opps, I mean snow. The sight had me laughing so hard that Cooper starting to mimic my laughter even though he had not idea what I was laughing about.

Having lived in Maryland, I just find Texans’ reaction to the light flurries/ snow to be comical. Marylanders would not even bat an eye at the type of weather we are having here. Having said all that, it is still nice to see a little white stuff coming down. Reminds me of home. I have really missed Maryland the past few months. But I believe that God has blessed me because I  was able to see leaves changing colors over Thanksgiving- beautiful red, yellow, and orange leaves as we retreated to Chris’s family’s farm. Houston trees are even begining to show sings of fall. I took a walk with Cooper yesterday around my neighborhood and just soaked up the colors in the trees. Then today little white flakes, simple reminders that God really does love us. He takes delight in making us happy. I have felt very lonely here in Houston lately, but even though I may be far from home and what is familiar to me, God has not left me. He has given me comfort through his creation. The snow and the changing leaves are just signs from God that all is not lost, but there is hope here in Houston!

Are Cars!

Cooper is obsessed with cars. Of all the toys he owns, he always gravitates to his cars. I would have to say he plays with his cars about 80% of the time. He says the word car about 100 times a day if not more. Today, he took all of his cars and lined them up on the window ledge. After I took this picture the entire window ledge was full of his cars. Today when I went to put him down for his nap he clung to his red fire engine. When I took the fire engine out of his hand before he went to sleep, he started to wail and scream, “Car, Car, Car!!” over and over. I finally just had to put him in his crib and leave. I could hear him all the way down stairs screaming for his car. He did that for abotu 5 minutes and then finally gave up and went to sleep. When I went into his room to get him up from his nap, the first thing he said to me was….you guessed it…”CAR!” He pointed at the fire truck. I picked him up and handed him the fire truck and he looked extreamly pleased. My son is all boy, or should I say, my son is all about cars!

We spent Thanksgiving with Chris’s family at the farm. We had a good time hanging out by the camp fire, taking long walks under the autumn leaves, smoking meat in the smoker, eating a ton of food, riding four-wheelers, and taking the canoe out on the newly formed lake. Cooper had a good time and enjoyed all the attention from his grandparents, aunt, uncle, and extended family. Cooper was pretty much spoiled rotten while we were there.

I hope that all of you had a good Thanksgiving with your family!

Here is a picture of Cooper from our trip at the farm.
(Don’t worry that is milk in that glass!)

Cooper is trying to communicate more and more.

Currently he can sign:

All done
More
Ball
Sleepy/ Tired
Milk
Eat/Hungry
Potty/ Bathroom (sometimes)
Waves Hello/Bye

Currently he can say:

Car
Da (dada)
Ma/ Mom (sometimes, but not often)
“Gu”- this is really anything he points at, including dogs