April

 Evan's brother, Patrick, had big birthday.  He was really kind and let Autumn help blow out the candles...then we re-lit the candles and watched for forever as Autumn tried to get all the candles out by herself.

 Autumn loves to help Evan make "Daddy drink" aka protein shake.  Autumn helps peel the bananas and uses her finger to swipe the peanut butter into the blender. 

 The other day Autumn asked me to paint her toe nails..with blues and pinks.  I'm thinking this is an omen for the gender of our babies.

 Autumn loves to "see" and "help" with almost everything. Autumn was helping to make fruit smoothies last night and was eating the frozen fruit and needed her coat because she got cold.

 For playgroup today we had a Easter egg scavenger hunt.  I hid eggs in our backyard filled with papers that gave a clue to another place to look for an egg...with another clue etc.  until the kids found bags of Goldfish snacks.  (I know I'm mean...no candy)

 Autumn insisted on using her sand toy bucket instead of her actual Easter basket.

 Autumn refused to pose with the kids from the playgroup.

 After a nap and a trip to the park (which made me so tired.  I usually can walk home from the park in 25-30 minutes I think it took me 45 minutes today and I had to stop and take a break at one point, pretty pathetic)  we dyed hard-boiled eggs with Evan's fam.

 Autumn was quite aggressive with the dunking of the eggs.  Snow White also "dyed" an egg.

Twin update (in case you think of it as much as I do):  I stopped reading all the twin books.  I took them back to the library.  I still haven't heard any positive recent birth stories.  I had a routine appointment this week.  By mistake the scheduler cancelled my appointment so instead of seeing the midwife I saw a snarkee- careless OB who treated me like I was ticking time-bomb just because I'm having twins.  I didn't like her attitude toward labor and delivery.  I also realized there are about 6 OB/GYNs and 6 Midwifes so I'd have to see both of them and I probably wouldn't have enough appointments to meet all of them.  Also if the babies are born before 37 weeks at the hospital I was originally going to deliver at they would automatically go to the NICU.  I hate the idea of my babies getting stuck in NICU even if they are healthy.  So Evan and I decided I will have the babies at his hospital, even though we originally decided that we didn't want all the nurses hating him because I'm a "difficult" patient.  So Evan is going to going to ask around and see if we can find one doctor willing to deliver my babies opposed to having to be at the mercy of a group of doctors.
Also Autumn has started to talk to the twins.  When we read stories she likes to rest her elbow on me.  I told her she can't do that anymore because it hurts the babies (really I just don't want her elbow in my gut).  So now when we read stories she puts a pillow on my belly and rests her elbow there.  

Twins on the brain

It has been two week since I found out I am having twins, and naturally that is all I can think about.  The next day I checked out about 10 books on twins from the library...they all say the same things.  Here is a recap: You don't need to buy two of everything, prepare yourself for bed rest, awkward things people say to you when you have twins (apparently everyone says, "looks like you have your hands full"-yup that is going to get really old really fast), you're going to have a c-section, and lastly prepare for the NICU.  None of those things seem fun at all.  I've been freaking out.  I can handle the odd/rude comments, but who wants to travel to the NICU (50 minutes away) daily  when they have a toddler they also want to see and won't be able to drive myself because apparently I've just had surgery.  AND I just found out if for any reason the babies are born before 37 weeks they will automatically have to go to the NICU...um sounds like a dumb rule to me.  I've decided I'm OK with bed rest.  Most of my "summer" plans are occurring before June even begins, I'd much rather have the babies inside of me as long as possible.  But in case bed rest is required I've been quite busy completing random tasks that have been on the "TO DO" list for forever now.

We plan on the babies sleeping in our room for at least a couple months....but there is no room for them, since it is the place where all the crap goes that I don't know where to put.

see how tiny it is.

I painted these frames back in August and they've been sitting on the floor in my room ever since...My mom helped me come up with a plan on how to hang them back in February, and I can say that they are finally up on the wall.

I thought after medical school the piles of papers would disappear, but we have an infestation of papers, I think they breed in our house.  I made Evan go through them a couple weeks ago.  The pile is now smaller, however he checked his mailbox at work the other day and the pile is growing again!

I went threw Autumn's "Too Big" box of clothes to get ready for summer.  Oh wishful thinking-it snowed this morning.  And I had Autumn try on MY bunnies slippers from when I was a kid.

I also finally made Autumn's Easter skirt.  It didn't take very long at all, especially since Evan was home to watch Autumn.  I found this lace dress at Goodwill and "re purposed" it into two skirts.

Also Autumn is awesome at puzzles.  She likes to do the "corrrrners" first.

Full skirt I made for my niece....

Modified bubble skirt I made for Autumn....the back of the skirt is totally missing a chunk but I didn't feel like cutting more fabric so Autumn will just have to "walk" fast  as my mom would say to my sisters and I when she was worried about our hem lines.

Autumn was playing in the medicine cabinet on Friday night while I got ready for a MOMs (Moms of Multiples) meeting.  I joined a club.  It was really fun to hang out with people I wouldn't normally have reason to hangout with.  There were 5 other moms at the "meeting".  All of them had their twins first.  They told me I was doing things backwards!  I feel like it too, twins would be so much easier if I didn't already have another child to consider.

The next day after washing her hands she did the same thing....put vasaline on her nose then a band-aid, and one on her pinger too.

17 weeks

You can't really tell by the picture, but Autumn's room is MUCH bigger than our room.  Anyhow I'm getting bigger.  I wore this shirt a lot last summer...I wore it today since I'm pretty sure it won't fit me..next week.  I'm also wearing a "belly band" over my already unbuttoned jeans.  I've broken out the maternity pants and wore those the other night too.  SO much more comfortable than regular jeans.  Also I got a hair cut.  It finally grew out enough to fix the chop job the girl did 18 months ago-I was seriously missing a chunk of hair in one place...one of the reasons I never wore it down.

My mother-in-law is having a garage sale, so I've been cleaning out closets etc. to get rid of stuff...I also spent numerous hours making all these bows to sell at the garage sale.  I spent too much money the other day at Hobby Lobby, and am attempting to recoup the cost ;)  See all very frivolous things, but I feel much better getting them done.  Especially because as each day passes I feel more and more pregnant.  I'm already to the point where I can't eat very big meals and I feel like my body is already telling me to slow down and rest. Also, I have ligament stretching pain and tightness in my belly (not contractions, it just feels really heavy and uncomfortable).  I'm also super itchy (a mom at the mom's meeting told me to put cooking oil on...didn't work) and I feel the babies moving around at night when I'm still.  In fact I'm convinced I felt baby B while we were at Disney World.  I see the midwife again next week, and it looks like my Evan may be able to come with me.  Hopefully she'll be able to calm my anxiety, because my attempt at "thinking positive" isn't working ;) some non-horror stories about twin births would be nice too;)

HELP SHE IS GOING CRAZY - Evan