Baby and Incubator Status

Steve and I have been busily wrapping up loose ends in preparation for the boys' arrival. We met recently with our selected pediatrician to be sure she'll be a good fit, and she seems absolutely fantastic. Great attitude, answered all our silly first-time parent questions. Our petsitter is lined up and ready to look after the rabbits while we're in the hospital. Steve has been cleaning the house, getting on top of the gardening, working on lots of little projects, and helping me do things like make room in kitchen drawers for the kids' bottles and stuff.

This past week was my first week on maternity leave. It was definitely time to stop working given my difficulty walking, general discomfort and inability to sleep more than two to three hours at a time. I think my job duties have been successfully transitioned to the very bright and nice summer intern my boss hired. She's a quick learner and I was able to work with her for a month and a half before going out on leave. I haven't had any frantic texts, phone calls or e-mails, so they must be managing without me.

I'm glad my boss was willing to take the transition seriously, and put up the money to pay both me and the intern at the same time to really allow plenty of time to get things figured out. My boss and the intern have planned for her to stay on for awhile after my return as well, which will hopefully make that transition as stress-free as my departure has been. Oh, and before I left, my boss gave me a bonus and thanked me for all the good work I've done during these challenging months. I am very lucky to have the job (and, more importantly, the boss) that I do.

Since some people have asked (weirdly more than one... I guess there's an endless fascination out there with disturbingly distended abdomens), an updated progression picture of my increasingly ridiculous condition (newest picture on the right is from last Wednesday):

(I'm trying to smile, I swear.)

I am, as one might expect from looking at me, very very uncomfortable. I can stand for about 5 minutes before I have to put my feet up to bring down the swelling and deal with the joint pain. The boys move around a lot. Baby A is still more active than Baby B, but both of them stretch and shift frequently. I empathize with them, though; I too stretch and shift frequently in attempts to find the most comfortable position possible. Can't feel good for them to be squished in there together like that. Certainly doesn't for me.

(Did I do it, am I smiling now?)

At the last ultrasound (back on the 15th), the boys looked healthy. We could see them practicing their breathing, which was crazy and amazing. Baby A was estimated at 4 lb 6 oz and Baby B was estimated at a whopping 4 lb 14 oz. Now, ultrasound weight estimates are far from exact, but if they're at all close, I'm lugging around over 9 lbs of baby plus the extra fluids and such the two of them require. And I'm certainly feeling every ounce. I've gained 35 pounds total, am now 44" around, and my poor stretched uterus is the size one would expect from a post-date single pregnancy (equivalent of week 41 - 6 weeks ahead of my actual 35 weeks).

I really hope they decide to come out the second they're ready. I want the best for them but, man, they are heavy.

For now, I go into the doctor twice weekly for non-stress tests (where they strap two monitors to my torso to measure the boys' heart rates and a third monitor to make sure I'm not having contractions). And... we wait.

But where will they sleep?

Arranging our little home for two additional (albeit small) people has required some creativity. Our 860 square foot house is a 1 bed, 1 bath. We do have a "bonus" room which was added (likely illegally) onto the back of the house at some point in time, but we determined that having the kids' bedroom so far from ours seemed really impractical while they're tiny and demanding very frequent attention. Someday the bonus room will be theirs, but for now we've essentially divided our living room and devoted half of it to the boys.

Their crib area (for the more anxious readers of this blog: objects on shelves have museum putty on the bottom to keep them from beaning the kids during an earthquake and yes, I know they shouldn't have stuffed animals in the crib, it's just to look cute for the pictures): 

(Well, the fish pillow is also for scale.)

(Pun very much intended.)

From what I've read, many twins find it soothing to share a crib when they're little, so we're going to give that a shot. They have a dresser for their clothes. The drawers under the crib hold spare bedding and blankets. The giraffe pockets (which Steve modified to hang on the crib edge with over-the-door plastic clothes hangers and attached with rivets) hold burp cloths and blankets for easy grabbing. The orange bed pockets are the "soother stash": pacifiers, teethers (which they won't need for awhile but are safe to suck on should the mood strike them), plush rattles (shark & pirate), and bunny & elephant super-soft plush/blanket hybrids. Steve was a pacifier kid, while I was comforted by my stuffed bear (and sucking my thumb to an embarrassingly ripe old age) so we'll see what these guys like. 

Their play area:

The orange and green bins hold their toys and board books (and have a half-finished art project of mine on the side, which will eventually feature more painted kelp and fish). The cradle (from my grandparents) can be gently pushed by someone sitting on the couch or perched on the toy bin holder. Though space looks tight, the cradle has room for a nice amount of swing. The canvas alligator box holds bulkier blankets (padding for the floor during stomach time and cuddling during eventual cooler weather). The triceratops canvas bin corrals larger toys (like their collapsible activity gym you can see sticking out).

Their transportation: 

The fabric pattern on the Britax car seats is called "cowmooflage." It amuses me. The seats snap easily into bases installed in our car. As demonstrated above, they also snap easily into our twin stroller. We looked at a ton of twin stroller options and liked the Joovy Twin Roo+ the best (for while they're still in infant car seats). It's lightweight and can be folded with one hand. 

Steve installed bicycle hangers on the wall near our front door to hold the stroller while not in use. A hook next to the stroller holds their diaper backpack. 

Their lavatory: 

I read a recommendation on a small space design blog to place the changing table in the bathroom and I thought it was brilliant. Easy sink (or tub, when things get really dire) access for cleanup and a vent fan right there to limit smell (especially important in a tiny house). Made a lot of sense to us... plus we really didn't have anywhere else to put it. It looks a little awkward sticking into the doorway, but even me in my current enormous condition can fit past with plenty of clearance, and we've been living with it there for a couple weeks with no issues. Diapering supplies (including a middle-of-the-night-don't-want-to-take-the-dirty-diaper-out-to-the-trash bucket Steve decorated adorably with safari animal stickers) are stored underneath the changing table and in pockets above. The shelf beneath also stores their washcloths, shampoo + soap, tub toys, and baby-washing sling (basically a hammock made of towel-like material for them to lay in while we wash them until they're big enough to sit up in the tub). 

And there you have it: our small space nursery and infant care layout. Just add mini-humans... sometime in the next four weeks.

Preparations

Steve and I have gotten to that stage where the boys' arrival is really getting imminent. It hit me recently when I realized just how few work days I have left before going out on leave... only 7 days to go now of my already reduced 10 am - 2 pm Monday through Thursday schedule.

At one time I had considered not going out on leave until the boys were really knocking at the door, but it's definitely getting difficult for me to function. I'm a tad over 43 inches around now, and experiencing pretty intense late-pregnancy symptoms (joint pain, painful swelling, general exhaustion at just existing)... which makes sense since the boys are somewhere around 4 lbs each now, making for a hefty combined payload. I made a plan with my employer to have my last day be July 14th, based on research I'd done which put the average time of twin delivery at 35 weeks. It's possible the boys might not arrive for a few weeks after that (my doctor says I'll likely be induced if I get to 38-39 weeks without going into labor on my own) but I definitely need the rest so I think it's still the right thing to do to stop working.

At any rate, we're now getting around to things like washing baby clothes and bedding, stocking the changing table, stuff like that. Still all feels very surreal. 

I fold tiny clothes:

I signed Steve and myself up for a combined total of 17 hours of classes (the final of which we completed last Saturday) including labor & delivery, infant care and CPR. I still feel woefully unprepared, but I doubt anything could really prepare us for twins. We'll figure things out as we go, I suppose.

Somewhere between 2 and 6 weeks to go...