The new men in my life.

I thought I'd write a more detailed account of my trip to the perinatologist yesterday. The big news was of course, that we are having two boys.  The relieving news is that they are doing extremely well!  

Each twin weighs several ounces more than the average twin at the same gestational age.  Their fluid levels are the same, their growth is the same, their heartbeats are strong in the 160s and my cervix is very long.  Look at me...bragging already!  We still have a ways to go, but for now, all is going very, very well.  I'm so grateful!  

Remember what I told you when I was about 8w along?  The Twinks are strong, so very, very strong.  They are here to stay.  

My peri (who I'll call Dr. Sweetie) was so optimistic and pleased with our current stats that he said we could wait four weeks until our next appointment.  Typically I would be seen every two weeks from this point forward.  And while I love seeing my Twinks, I am happy not to lay there through hour-plus long ultrasounds more often than necessary.  

The sonographer (also an IVF survivor) printed me a ridiculous amount of pictures.  Suffice to say I have asked to have her at my next ultrasound!  She said that she was pretty sure they are boys.  I would say that I am more than 100% sure.  All you have to do is look at the photos below...

Yes, indeedy.  The Twinks are little boys.  The new men in my life. Swoon!

Little parts

Apparently I am such an awesome mom to Piglet that it was decided I should have more just like him.

My reaction went something like this:

My three sons...?

My three sons...

My three SONS!!!!!!!!

Sorry to all my friends who I promised I would give all my oodles and oodles of boys' clothes to if we had girls.  

I'm apparently going to need them ALL.  :)  

Will post pictures in a bit, but wanted to share our amazing news!  

P.S. - I know I have some readers who are going to say "poor MVK" or be smug because they have daughters and think boys are crappy, but honestly, my response is: Poor you. You can keep your barrettes, boys ROCK.  

My poll

When I first put the gender poll up it said something like "38 days left to vote."  

And now it says 11 hours and I can hardly believe it.  

In 11 hours we are going to find out if we are adding sons or daughters to our family.  

I have my own gut feeling about pink or blue and while everyone who I see or speak to regularly knows my guess, I think I'll let the rest of you take your own guess.

I love that so many people voted in the poll!!!  Thank you!!!  

As a gesture of lurve to my awesome blog readers, I will report the news here first!  I won't even tell the people on Facebook!  They'll have to come HERE to read the news. How's that for preferential treatment?  

Btw, you should know I'm really good at playing favorites, I've actually already got a system all figured out. It'll go something like this: 

You. 

You are the favorite today. 

You other two?

Are

Not.  

Try again tomorrow.

See?  The key to parenting Piglet plus twins is favoritism!  Easy as pie! (Mmmmmm. PIE.)  I'm Asian, I know a thing or two about favoritism, Mr. K too.  

I am so going to write a parenting book.  

It passes the time

In two days we will *hopefully* find out the gender of our twins.  I say gender because whatever they are, they are the same!  So if just one baby cooperates, we'll be golden. In the meantime, we are keeping busy here at Maison de Piglet by playing all kinds of new games and learning critical life skills, both seen below.  What can I say, we hang out with a lot of cute little girls and we need to be prepared. :)  

Oh and you may want to turn the volume down for the first video.  I am not kidding when I tell you I am having an overly effusive mommy moment and I do believe that my squeal is so high it rivals Mariah C.arey.  In fact I may have cringed when I first watched the video.  So, Piglet is cute as a bug but I am just plain annoying and I'm the first to admit it.  Just sayin'!  

Last year

Exactly one year ago today, I took this picture.  

Today I took this picture. 

I wonder what this picture will look like next year?

My week

Last week I co-hosted a surprise baby shower at my house for a close friend from my play group.  It was intimate, just 12 adults plus six tots but regardless of the size of the party I wanted everything to be perfect. I'm a true perfectionist and it is never more evident than when I'm throwing a party.  I spent the better part of three days cleaning and decluttering my house (sometimes on my hands and knees), running to the grocery store, decorating, and arranging flowers.  

And you know how it goes, when you start cleaning, sometimes you have to make a bigger mess in order to get the end result you really want.  So while I did the usual vacuuming, mopping and dusting, I also found myself tackling bigger projects like cleaning out the pantry (our nanny can attest to it being in dire need of attention) and wiping down cabinets and baseboards.  

I am a complete nut job.  

I accept this assessment.  

Mr. K did take a few hours off on one day so I could get some errands done, but most of the preparations were done with a Piglet by my side.  As many of you can guess, an almost-two-year-old is not the best cleaning companion.  

The shower was so fun.  I loved seeing the guest of honor's family (whom I refer to as my Irish relatives) and showering her with darling little pink things.  Plus my co-host made these delicious puff pastry delicacies that I was actually able to eat!  And she let me keep the leftovers!  

During those days leading up to the shower, I worked hard, I pushed myself but I felt pretty good.  I even had a one-puke day in there!  In my former life as Director of Development at non-profit, I was responsible for overseeing several large events.  The days leading up to an event were always charged with energy, adrenaline and very little food or sleep.  I always powered through.  And literally the day after the event, my body would wave a white flag and I would get really sick.  One year it was shingles, another a lung infection and always always a migraine would greet me the next morning. It was a reliable pattern.

So I should not have been surprised that just hours after the shower I felt like utter crap.  And by 10 p.m. I swear that all the nausea from the previous three days had built up and unleashed its terribleness on me.   It hasn't let up since Thursday night and I've been popping Zofran as often as I'm allowed.

I really should've known better.

No one would've cared if I had left my stack of magazines and mail on counter or that my baseboards weren't sparkling clean.  And while my pantry did need cleaning and reorganizing, it could have waited. 

Lesson learned.  

I need to be gentler to myself.  My friend who has twins just a few months younger than Piglet has been lecturing me for months about this.  I should have listened more closely to her.  Because she's right, being pregnant with twins is NOTHING like being pregnant with one.  It's different for obvious reasons, but what it requires from your body is incredible.  

The end result is pretty incredible too. 

I am standing on the threshold of 15 weeks.  The Promised Land.  But based on how I've been feeling, I'm not so sure what promise it holds other than more of the same.  Oh well, I've made it this far, I can power through.  I always do.

My trio accessorized

So you know how we all have friends, you know those friends who are ridiculously creative and can make stuff with their BARE HANDS?  And I don't mean lowly home cooks like me who make cupcakes from scratch and run three victory laps in celebration.  I mean people who can make a LIVING from the things they create with their BARE HANDS.  And it's some cool stuff people.  

My friend, the maven over at Create Beauty Daily is one of those people.  She was inspired to start her business after her MIL sent her a pretty necklace for her birthday. Said MIL had bought it at a craft fair or something and accidentally left the price tag on. Miss Maven was all "She paid WHAT?  I could totally make this."  

And so she did. 

And Create Beauty Daily was born.  

Pretty nifty, eh?  

What's even niftier is that she customizes things based on whim of the client.  

So when she posted a photo of a necklace with two connected rings, I commented and asked if she could make it with THREE connected rings instead.  

Because I am all about TROIS as you well know.

Lo and behold, a few days later, she posts THIS on Facebook. 

A necklace named just for MOI!  MVK and my trio are now immortalized in sterling silver. 

Now tell me you aren't a teeny tiny bit envious?  

Psssh.  You *know* you are!  

And being the clever, creative and also funny person she is, she priced it at $33 USD.  

Clever, I tell you, so very clever.  

 

Maybe, just maybe if you go to her website (which links to her Etsy store) and ask a question or make an awesome suggestion, she might name something after you too. 

Maybe.

But don't hold your breath.  

Because she is so very creative she might just want to name it herself. 

Did I mention she makes things with her BARE HANDS? 

*P.S. Dear FCC, No products were given or exchanged for this freaking awesome endorsement.

Just a bit ago

I felt the Twinks kick for the very first time.  

I've felt a flutter here and there before.  But not like tonight.

Tonight they definitively said "Hey Maman, we really liked that Thai food.  More tomorrow?"  

It was amazing.  

I am so grateful to have felt that kick before from Piglet so I recognized it instantly. Feeling him move and kick me was very possibly my very favorite part of being pregnant the last time around.  So I am thrilled it is starting so early with the Twinks.  

Anyway, I was sitting on the couch reading a book with Piglet when I felt the first kick on my right side.  I wasn't positive it wasn't Piglet kicking from the OUTSIDE, so I paused and then, bump bump, Twink B kicked me again!  A few seconds later, Twink A followed suit and I felt a bump bump lower on my left side.  It went on like this for several minutes.

HOLY COW. 

I know I have had the better part of three months to get used to this idea.  

But HOLY COW.

Two babies kicking me tonight was surreal. 

What can I say?  

I am in LOVE.  

I loved them before, but now, wow, I am IN LOVE with them.  

Just. Like. That.  

They've hooked me.

Stinkers.  

They're going to have me wrapped around their little fingers just like their brother.  

Damn.  

Because if that's the case.

I am completely screwed.  

My favorite nine

I love this picture because no one is focused on the photographer except for me. That's how it is a lot at our house.  Mr. K is my brilliant, absent-minded professor, Gingee the Labradoodle is too busy barking at the mailman and Piglet cannot be bothered with something as mundane as doing what you ask of him.  Now you can add me and my tired self to the crew.  

Lately my "gift of blog" as a friend so adeptly referred to it, hasn't been as plentiful as it has been in the past. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fatigue, puking, toddler-chasing, insomnia twins.  Nope.  Definitely not.  

I've been thinking and reminiscing about what are, in my humble opinion, my best posts.  Posts that some strangers friends might not have read, especially if they just started following along in the last few months.  So, read one, read two, read none if you've been a long-time reader, but if you do choose to click on a few links below, I guarantee you will get to know the dwellers of Maison Piglet a little better.  

With that in mind, I present, in no particular order, my best nine blog entries to date:

1. Asian baby

2. Resolutions

3. One year old

4. Hello?

5. Self-restraint

6. Perfection

7. Caveat emptor

8. Lyrical

9. Love letter

PS - I know this is kind of cheating, but I am so distracted right now!  10/29 hurry up already!

In the water?

Mr. K came home a few weeks ago telling me that the insurance premiums at his company were going up because of "all the twins" (and some major back surgeries, etc.). What twins, I asked?  How could they already know about our twins?  Then he told me that three other families at his company had had twins in the past year. Two fraternal and one identical. There are about 350 employees where my husband works, so three (and soon to be four) sets of twins in a one-year period are kind of a red flag I guess.  From what I know, none of the other twins are a result of ART though.

Mr. K works with one of the twin dads on a fairly regular basis and he took this hilarious video of him before a meeting the other day. (Gotta love the 3Gs.)  As I watched it, Mr. K kept saying "Look how tired he looks! Look at the bags under his eyes!"  My thoughts?  The guy is showered, dressed and there appears to be hair product in his coif.  Doesn't seem that tired to me!  ;)   Though he does refer to one of the twins as "it" and says "cycular" which I am pretty sure is a hybrid of *real* words such as "cyclical" and "circular." Bahaha!

Then again, better stop laughing because in a few months, instead of laughing at this video, I might be crying alongside it.

My latest obsessions

1. Glee

2. Fritos

3. Creating the best and most awesome train track configuration for Piglet

4. 10/29

5. shoe stretching products

6. Lucy yoga pants

7. Trying not to think about selling my beloved car.

8. Holiday Globe seedless grapes

9. Honeycrisp apples (no, not the cereal and if you are only seeing small ones you are shopping at the wrong place. Locals, try Zupan's.)

10. convincing Piglet to wear hats and bibs

11. my friend Carrie who is going to deliver triplet boys ANY DAY NOW

12. Mad Men

13. our Christmas card

14. Piglet in fleecy footie PJs in the morning...love my little bear.

15. Laughing Cow Cheese...La Vache qui rit c'est mon amie!  

Second trimester and fun with gourds.

I was so excited to go to my blog this morning and see my little b.abystrology ticker say 13w!  You all know what this means?  It means I am barreling into my second trimester, folks!  The Twinks are now the size of peaches.  Seriously!  Peaches! My favorite pie filling! (Mmmmmmm. PIE.) And there are TWO of them!  

I'm pausing now.

So we can all let that sink in.

The other day my favorite playdate ladies and I took our kidlets to the pumpkin patch for a white knuckle ride of fear hayride and a romp with the gourds.  I was helping Piglet untangle his foot from a vine and my friend Shelly says sort of incredulously, "You're SHOWING." Snort!  I responded "And where have you been?"

  

I see her every week at least once, and sometimes more.  And I would swear that I have been showing for some time now.  But she said that she hadn't really noticed (mental note to get her an extra special Christmas present) until that day.  I have to admit I did feel that I "popped" last Wednesday.  Or it could also have been the herniated disk from bending over to get my increasingly violent toilet facials.  On that note, they are becoming less of a small splash and more of a cannonball-like sensation.  

Oh this will make you laugh. 

But it is not for the faint of heart.

So if you can't handle puke, you should stop here.

Moving on!

You all know I cannot eat much these days.  Even toast sometimes can turn my stomach.  So my pukes are usually pretty bland in color.  

Then one day, I went tearing into the powder room, puked and saw bright red in the bowl. Being the calm, even-tempered, non alarmist person I am, I of course immediately thought I WAS DYING.  

I perforated my esophagus! 

I have a bleeding ulcer!

I am throwing up my stomach lining!  

OR.

I ate a slice of raspberry pie.

That I got from the pumpkin patch.

Piglet's 20 something month update

I'll admit it.  I have not been very good at keeping up with Piglet's monthly updates.  In fact, the last one I did was two (almost three) months ago.  Hmm....what could have been happening in the last three months to make me such a slacker?  Not much, not much at all. ;)  

Also, I don't think I'll be able to do monthly updates for him forever, and there will eventually have to be an endpoint, right?  Today I was just thinking about all the words he says now and I wanted to document them (as I'm sure I'll look back and want to compare the twins with him).  That's right, I'm a mother and I'm not above comparing my children.  Right now it's twins 1, Piglet 0 as they passed their NT scan and he did not!  

Anyway, Piglet has been talking up a storm lately, surprising Mr. K and I when we just say "Piglet can you say _______?" out of habit and he repeats us as if to say "That's right, suckers, I CAN say that!  I've been able to for awhile!"  

A sampling of Piglet's spoken words:

• Yes
• No
• Gingee
• Eat
• Juice
• Up
• Down
• Gotta go!
• Car
• Bus
• Choo choo
• Blue
• Underwear 
• Basketball
• Outside
• Cheese
• Night night
• Poop
• All done
• Crane
• Book
• Cracker

He is also all about walking on the sidewalk, at the mall, down the driveway -- all by himself.  He totally gives me the hand brush off when I go to hold his hand.  Already too cool for mom I guess.  Piglet continues to be an awesome mimic and it is hysterical, making for some very entertaining and memorable dinner times! Sometimes I look at him toddling around the house with his snack trap or playing on the rug with his trains and I feel like my heart might burst from being so full of joy and love.  

In a few short months he'll turn two years old and then a few short months after that he'll become a big brother.  Mind-boggling but true.  And once again my heart feels like it might burst.  

And because I haven't posted an update with photos in so very long, here are some pictures (a few of them grainy because they were taken with my phone) of Piglet from the past few months.  Besides, let's face it.  Most of you just skipped all the text above and went right for the pictures anyway.  :)

Dear Oprah

thanks for making me a crier.  

To be honest, I used to be much more of an E.llen show-dancing-in-the-aisles-laughing at-people-wearing-sumo-wrestler-suits-bobbing-for-apples-kind of gal.  

But.

Ever since I got pregnant, I have found myself waiting for 4:30 to arrive each day so I can get my daily session of boo-hooing out of the way.  And yes, I know O.prah comes on at 4:00, but who has time to watch it in real time?  TiVo, baby. 

I have always TiVo'd O.prah, but I rarely watched any shows, usually just deleting them from the recorder to make room for more G.rey's Anatomy or reruns of Friends.  But now, I am a captive audience.  Inexplicable. Really. I'm not a huge fan of the shows with Dr. Oz, but the ones that talk about triumph over adversity (so...all of them), forget it and pass the K.leenex.  

And since I just *know* you are wondering how the puking is going (the more polite of you would ask how I'm feeling), I had one AMAZING puke-free day this week!  High fives all around!  I didn't tell anyone about it or talk about it for fear of jinxing it.  Then the next day, feeling cocky, I told two of my girlfriends while we were chasing the kids at the park.  "I didn't throw up ALL DAY yesterday!  I felt normal!" I exclaimed.  They cheered and told me how happy they were for me.  Then two hours later I spent every ten minutes getting a toilet facial.  Sigh.  Oh well, the Twinks are thriving, so all for a good cause.  

Three more weeks until the Promised Land.

First trimester screen

The day I had my first trimester screen with Piglet, all I wondered about was whether they might be able to tell me the gender of the baby.  I wasn't worried or stressed, just so excited!  Then I had a suspiciously quiet ultrasound tech and after her, a complete a-hole of a perinatologist who gave us the less than perfect results of our scan.  Piglet's nuchal fold was measuring larger than the acceptable range. We were unprepared for such news.  Then the jackass actually WROTE out the word "abnormal" on my ultrasound photo.  

Thanks, Dr. A-hole.  That'll look great in our scrapbook.  

Our bloodwork also came back wonky, so we had to decide: to amnio or not to amnio.

I'll tell you one thing, we were NOT going to have that jerk perform it if we decided to have one.  

In the end we decided in favor of having it so we could gather all possible information. As you know, the ending to that story is a happy one.  Ten days later we received word that our baby boy (!) was perfect and we had gotten a false-positive on our screening tests. 

So today when I went in to have our first trimester screens done for the Twinks, I was more than apprehensive.  I mean, what are the odds of getting another false positive? And they are identical, so what one has, the other has too, right?  

When the ultrasound tech took me back to the exam room, she asked if I was okay with having an OB/GYN resident do my ultrasound with her guidance, I said sure, I'm all for learning, I'm a G.rey's Anatomy fan, go for it.  The resident was very sweet, though I think I must have been her first, real, live ultrasound patient.  The ultrasound tech, while very capable, was not as accommodating as other techs I've had.  She didn't give me an extra sheet in case I got cold (I was freezing and I told her I was), when I asked her if she would try and get a picture of the twins in one frame, she sighed and said she would try, but no promises. Then even though she got tons of great shots of the babies' feet, legs, thumbsucking, etc. at the end she printed out a paltry THREE photos for me, none of them very good.  

Oh and then get this!  The babies did not cooperate at times, making it difficult for her to get all the shots she needed and before she left she said "Your babies are ornery!  Just so you know, for your future appointments, I'm off on Wednesdays."  As in, COME IN ON WEDNESDAYS SO I DON'T HAVE TO DEAL WITH YOUR BABIES.  

Hello subpar experience!

Here is one of the three grainy photos I got today. 

If I hadn't known I was getting another ultrasound in a few weeks, I would've been more bummed, but knowing that I would have many, many more ultrasounds helped me to just shrug off this bad experience and my tech's poor attitude. 

The important part is, the Twinks looked GREAT!  Nuchal folds within normal range and clear nasal bones were noted.  We're still waiting on my bloodwork, but the peri said that the ultrasound was the more important piece and there are no markers present. Hooray!  

I go back in at the end of the month for another ultrasound, at which point they'll start measuring my cervix and checking the babies' growth and fluid levels in case of TTTS. For now, all is quiet and good on the gestational front and I am grateful, so very grateful.  

This time of year...

I love the fall.  It's really a tossup between fall and the holidays, but something about the changing leaves, corduroy pants and apple harvest...puts a smile on my face.  I also get very sentimental this time of year.  Not sure why, but I do.  I start thinking about Piglet and what we were doing this time last year (trying on too many Halloween costumes and going to the pumpkin patch) and it puts a lump in my throat. Last year I reminisced about Piglet almost being one year-old and this year I'm thinking about how different our lives will be this time next year.  

I have *loved* being Piglet's mom for the past 20 months and I know I will love being the twins' mom too, but for now, I am just reveling in having one child and focusing purely on him.  It feels very decadent.  Sort of like buying an entire pie knowing I will be the only one eating it.

Which incidentally, is something I did last week. 

Whole. Pie. All. For. Me. 

That's right, people.  Miss MVK does not mess around.

No this does not mean my hurling has halted, but I do get some crazy strong cravings and pie is often one of them.  Actually, that's true even when I'm not pregnant. I love me an abundance of pie.  

Just one more thing I love about fall.

Now you'll have to excuse me as it's time for Piglet and I to go stomp on some crunchy leaves.  

OB appointment update

Just a quick update about my appointment yesterday.  Let me preface this by saying that I *love* my OB.  In fact, we are friends outside of our dr./patient relationship.  So going to my OB appointments are also like catching up with a girlfriend.  From here on out, I'll refer to her as Dr. Adorable, because that's what she is, doll-like and adorable, but don't let that fool you, she is extremely capable.  Dr. Dreamy referred me to her after I was released with Piglet. That Dreamy, he never fails me.  

Appointment details: All is well with Les Twinkies, hearts beating away.  I have not gained any weight - not shocking considering my current hate-hate relationship with food.  I didn't have an ultrasound since I'll have an in-depth one at my NT scan next week.  I'll keep having ultrasounds every two weeks with the MFMS until about 28 weeks and then I'll start having them at my OB's office if all is on track.  I might even have them at both places. Fine by me!  

One of the topics we discussed were my delivery options.  I had a V delivery with Piglet and all went fine.  The fact that the twins are mono-di means that a C-section is probably in my future.  I'm actually ok with this.  I could have another V delivery if a lot of things fall into place: the twins are both head down, they have not had any growth or fluid issues my entire pregnancy and I carry them to at least 36 weeks.  I'm thinking this is doable (like how I was so breezy about ticking those things off my list already?  Ha!).  

But here's the funny part. 

While we're talking about the possibility a C-section, Dr. Adorable says "Do you want me to do a tubal while I'm in there?"  

I started laughing hysterically.  

ME!  An Infertile!  

Talking about getting her TUBES TIED! 

Surely you jest.

She might as well have asked me if I wanted to walk on the moon too.   

Once I collected myself, I said "Do you really think that's necessary? I mean, given that I'm you know, completely infertile?"  

And she replied "Well I've seen other people get pregnant again..."

And once again I started laughing hysterically.  

Those other people also don't have gimpy ovaries that barely respond to the highest doses of stimulation medications. Those other people didn't have cysts come back six weeks after being surgically removed. Hahahahahaha!  Tubes tied!  Ha!

Then she reminded that I had already bucked the odds because I have a toddler at home and identical twins on the way.

Gulp.  She was right!  

That cured my laughter pretty quickly.  

In the end we decided on a C-section because I am going to have her take out my left ovary at the same time.  Not sure about the tubal yet.  

But I know that horrible cyst is coming back with a vengeance soon after I deliver the twins and there is no way I'm going through the stress of having someone else care for my babes while I am recovering from surgery. 

Been there. Done that.  Not going back.   

So that was my appointment in a nutshell.  I go back in three weeks.  

Next up, first trimester screen including a nuchal translucency scan.  

After that, my next ultrasound will be my gender scan at about 15w.

GENDER, PEOPLE!  We will know if Piglet will have baby sisters or brothers.  

Swoon.  

PS -- I have to give a shout out to MeInsideOut for her HILARIOUS comment, giving a name to my "toilet water on my face while puking" description - a TOILET FACIAL. Seriously.  Infertiles are so funny!!!