I am still pregnant. I am 37 weeks and 5 days pregnant with the twins. My feet are swollen and like marsh-mellows. I can only manage to get flip flops on these days. Good thing that the weather has warmed up here in Houston. I am having trouble sleeping so I am pretty tired these days. Any day now these twins could arrive.

So I thought this would be fun…When do you think they will be born? What day?

36 Weeks

I am 36 weeks pregnant, which is 8 months pregnant. I only have 4 weeks to go until I make it to my due date- yippy! So I went to the doctor today and had my final growth scan ultrasounds. Baby B approximate weight is 5lbs 15oz and Baby A approximate weight is 5lbs 5oz. That is a total combined weight of 11lbs 4oz of baby in my tummy. Can you say, “BIG”! My doctors tells me to expect 6-7lbs babies, which is large for twins. My doctors does not think I look like I have any signs of impending labor so these two little ones could decide to wait until the very end to be born. I asked how much I should expect them to grow over the next 4 weeks. She told me twins typically grow about 1/4- 1/3 lbs a week these last 4 weeks. A singleton baby usually grows 1/4-1/2 lbs a week. Something neat happened during the ultrasound. We got to see Baby A blink and see Baby B practice breathing- so cool! I just cannot wait to meet them in real life. No pictures to share this time around. Again they are just too big and they don’t come out looking very good. But I will include a picture of my belly taken a few days ago when I was 35weeks, 4days pregnant.

So here is the shocking news…. Baby B is no longer breech- “WHAT!!!” Baby B has been breech since week 20 and was all tucked up so I am highly surprised that he/she is head down. Nuts! I had a ton of contractions Sunday and Monday. Monday night was so bad that I did not sleep a wink. I was literally up all night long. Apparently that is when Baby B did his/her somersault to head down. This still means I need a c-section because Baby A is the “gate keeper”. Which means, he/she is blocking the exit out. His/her feet are facing out toward my cervix. Unless Baby A decides to flip and get his/her head down, then I have to have a c-section. I had already mentally prepped myself for a c-section so I am okay if that has to happen. BUT, I am holding on to hope (with lots of prayer) that baby A will flip head down so I can have a vaginal delivery. There is never anything to impossible with God (as long as it is in his will).

35.5 Weeks Pregnant with Twins

35.5 Weeks Pregnant With Twins

18 Months

Cooper had his 18 month check-up this week. Cooper actually turned 18 months on Monday. I cannot believe that he is already a year and a half old. He is babbling up a storm. He just says strings of sounds and gestures with his hands as if he is trying to have a conversation with you or tell you something important. Too cute. He continues to add to his list of words he can say and sounds. He loves to make animals sound and trains, cars, and ambulance sounds. He is still obsessed with cars and anything with wheels. I do not think that is going to change! He continues to surprise me with is ability to tell me he needs to go to the bathroom. He has even woken up dry from his naps a few times recently and peed on the potty after waking- yippy! His favorite movies/ TV shows are Cars (Disney Movie) and Clifford The Big Red Dog (comes on PBS). He loves being read to, which I love! Oh, he discovered how to say no and shake his head no. He tells me no very often now, which actually cracks me up. At least he is better at communicating his wants and needs to me now that he can say both yes and no.

Here are his stats from the last doctors appt:
Weight: 28lbs 3oz
Height: 33 3/4 in

Cooper 18 Months Old

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.