The end is near

So I have 9 weeks left if we're going by the whole "twins are considered full term at 37 weeks," and I'm so freakin excited to be down to single digit weeks!

It's been so insanely hard being pregnant with twins. I've really slowed down. Literally, I can't walk down the sidewalk without my heart skipping now, and it feels like I could keel over and have a heart attack at any minute. This is probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life, bring two babies into this world at the same time. Sleeping is really hard, breathing is really hard, eating is really uncomfortable. Blech.

I spend most of my days at home with Lachlan playing with his toys or outside in the yard, and we do music class once a week. He still has his speech therapy on Thursdays which is nice because the therapist comes to our house and Lachlan just loves her.

As for all the stuff....we have pretty much everything at this point; the bigger house, a mini van, the twin gear. Now it's just a matter of getting the smaller things together like the closet, washing clothes and sheets. I got a Spectra breast pump and since I have tons of Medela parts, I bought this little adapter that allows me to use the two systems together. I've gone to my "birthday wishes" appointment which is basically just pre-registering at the hospital so when we have to go there, we won't be inundated with paperwork. And I wrote out what I hope to have happen during birth...which in my case I'm leaning towards a c-section.

I basically just wanted them to know that I have anxiety and really don't want to be restrained during the c-section. The thought of having both arms tied down FREAKS me the hell out. I also want to be sure I have a breast pump in my room because last time the stress and pain of breastfeeding made me so anxious I cried a lot. And also, to give them a heads up on my scoliosis so they can get the spinal in correctly the first time (fingers crossed).

They do "gentle c-sections" at my hospital, which from what I've researched online can mean a few different things. In our case, it basically means that Brian stays with me during the entire surgery and the babies stay in the room with us. They won't take Brian away with the babies while I'm lying there being sewn back together. We won't ever get separated unless of course someone has to go to the NICU. But the nurse said that just because I'm having twins, doesn't mean it's a guaranteed ticket to the NICU which was nice. I've been worried about that a lot. I'm having a growth scan in two weeks to make sure everyone is doing well, and my sister will be here to see the ultrasound. I'm excited for that!

My mom is coming to stay with us for a few months starting in May. I'm really so thankful for that because it means she can take Lachlan out of the house and to the park when I just can't. I'm also going to start having appointments every week which she can stay home with him instead of Brian missing work to stay with him. It's just easier not to bring him with me because of his short attention span and how most offices usually run late.

After all is said and done, and if no one is in the NICU, we're planning on having a sip and see party. I didn't want a "sprinkle." We already bought a bunch of stuff ourselves and have plenty left over from Lachlan. And who wants to sit around and look at my big bump when they can instead look at two adorable babies. I'd like to wait till maybe 6 weeks after they're born so it gives me time to heal (and deal with the awful baby blues hormone crash) and gives the babies time to be vaccinated. The germ thing freaks me out, but I would like to have some sort of celebration for them after all. It's going to be super simple...brunch foods, mimosas, come anytime between 11-2 and that's that.

My mom's group is also going to do a meal train for me. It's such a nice thing they do for the new moms in our group, which there are plenty! I think at least 5 of us are pregnant right now, that I know of at least. They plan on making 5 meals for us and dropping them off over the course of a week or two.

And I've also got a few photography appointments set up... In a few weeks I'm going to do a mini mommy and me session with Lachlan which will also serve as my maternity pics. I thought it would be nice to get some pics of just us before the babies come. Then while we're in the hospital, a photographer we've worked with before wants to build her portfolio to include twins, so she offered to do a free "fresh 48" session of the babies while we're in the hospital. And then after we're home, I booked a professional to come to our house to do those posed, squishy, blankets, and basket photos. Yea, I have a thing with documenting memories :)

So that's that.

I just still can't believe we're going from 1 to 3 kids. I really don't understand how or why we were chosen to be parents to twins. I never would've thought in a million years this would happen to us, especially after all the IVF stuff. And for some reason, it just blows my mind to know that besides having a baby girl, we're having another boy too. Another boy! I don't know why that's such a funny little thing that trips me up. Like, I keep wondering how will he be different or the same to his big brother? Will he look like him? How will his personality be different? Because Lachlan is LACHLAN and the idea that there will be another very similar little boy to him trips me up I guess.

Alright, well that's that. I'm not sure how many more pregnancy posts I'll do. I've been seriously slacking off on blogging and it will get even slower once the babies are here. But I do want to keep doing it so please stick around!