28 Weeks!

And Mom's still getting bigger.

Merry Christmas!

Going out with a bang

Yesterday was my last day of school for quite some time. It's hard to believe I won't be back to school until March or April! I thought it would be an uneventful day - aside from the baby shower that 7th period APUSH had planned. Nothing much planned in any of the classes, especially since I knew the kids wouldn't want to do anything. Imagine my surprise and shock with I almost passed out during 1st period! I got really dizzy and hot and spent practically the rest of the day sitting. My blood pressure was fine, so who knows what was wrong! I guess I needed a sure sign that I was done teaching for a while!

The baby shower was great. The kids had asked what we wanted/needed, and I told them newborn-sized diapers. Boy did they deliver! We got a bunch of newborn diapers and some other cute things too. They're great kids!

I realized that I never posted about the faculty shower last week! Shame on me! Mary Beth and Bonnie did a great job planning everything, and almost the entire social studies department (all men except for me and Holly) showed up! Quite a few people dropped by, and it was a good time. Ryan was even able to come!

Update - 27 weeks

We went to see both docs yesterday, and everything went well. My hemoglobin is back up, so I don't have to double up on my iron pills anymore. WOO! The peri was VERY pleased with how things are going. The boys are growing right on track - even right on track if they were singletons and not twins! Baby A is 2 lbs, 2oz. and Baby B is 2 lbs even. Physically, my body is measuring a full 40 weeks.... and there's still LOTS of time to go! The peri is SHOCKED at how well I'm doing physically. He said most women of smaller stature pregnant for the first time with twins go on bedrest at 22 weeks. And here I am at 27 weeks, 3 days, still going strong! Ryan has decided to put me on bedrest after Christmas break, and the peri agrees with him. He told me that at 31-32 weeks, I will feel much like a women pregnant with one at 40 weeks. It's hard to think about not coming back to school in January, but I know I will appreciate the rest...and the boys will too!

Baby A is currently head down, and Baby B is currently head up. We got to watch Baby B kick his brother in the face numerous times. They love to cuddle and be close, but I guess Baby B needs his leg room. Maybe that means they'll be tall like their daddy! We can only hope!

It's strange to think that these boys can come at any time. I asked the OB how delivery will work since we're doing a C-section, but it's not like we can exactly schedule it. He said we'll most likely come in for a routine check-up, and he'll discover that I'm in labor (most likely because of dilation). Then it'll be go time!

This week's veggie--a head of cauliflower! Though only based on weight (2lbs) and not on length.

Stay tuned for a 28 weeks picture....to be posted this weekend.

Spoiling the Stones

We have amazing friends. And I have amazing students. Yesterday has unofficially been dubbed the "spoil the Stones" day. My 4th period AP class threw us a baby shower (no - it wasn't a surprise because they know I don't do surprises very well), and it was great! Ryan surprised them by changing his work schedule so he could come! They all gave very generously - diapers, wipes (one girl bought us a box of over 400 wipes, I'm guessing from Sam's or somewhere like that!), cute clothes, blankets, our bath center, our changing table pad, and...... OUR DOUBLE STROLLER!!!! We were shocked...and incredibly grateful. One of my students also hand-carved the boys a whistle and a rattle - amazing!

To top off the day, our friends Kevin and Emily (AKA kevandem) hosted a diaper shower for us last night. We had a great time fellowshipping with couples close to us, and of course we thoroughly enjoyed Em's culinary delights. We now have a carload of all sorts of sizes of diapers and more wipes! We are so thankful to have such wonderful friends.

This week's vegetable: an English hothouse cucumber! Very specific, don't you think?

For Emily...

Emily commented that she was surprised our son wasn't wearing a bow-tie in the 3D picture from our last ultrasound. Thanks to my oh-so-talented brother-in-law, well... take a look! :-)

Speechless

This is my (Ryan) first time posting in quite a while. All of you who regularly check this page out have my wife to thank for all of the updates. But here's my turn. We went back to Dr. Grieg today, and got our first 3-D ultrasound shots. And it absolutely stunned me. Here's a little sample of what we got to see. Alas, we only got to see one of our boys. The other was turned the other way, so we couldn't see his face.

Gives you a whole new sense of Psalm 139:

For you formed my inward parts;
You knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
My soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
When I was being made in secret,
Intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
In your book were written, every one of them,
The days that were formed for me,
When as yet there was none of them.

Hole-y Corn"dawgs", Batman!

Pregnancy silliness coming out with the title of today's blog, can you tell??

Today we'll travel to see Dr. Greig, the specialist. Hopefully we'll get a good report and I won't be put on bedrest yet. But after the first day back to school from Thanksgiving, I'm almost ready for it! I'm beat!

Lots going on in the Stone household, like:



There's an enormous hole in our ceiling! We're finishing the attic for Ryan's office, and there's a big ol' hole in our ceiling as of yesterday.

AND:

The babies are now the size of ears of corn (hence the reference in the title).

AND:



I'm ENORMOUS! This is my big ol' belly at 24 weeks. I can't believe we still have 3 months to go! Please take special note of my outfit - red and black in honor of the Bulldogs for beating those pesky Yellow Jackets. You know I had to wear red and black and gloat to my 3 die-hard GT fans in 7th period. I'm so nice.


More to report this evening or tomorrow, I'm sure.

Updates and frustrations

In the past 2 weeks, we've gone from carrots to spaghetti squash to large mangoes! The boys are getting BIG!!!!

We had a bit of a fright last week because I was experiencing some pain that just turned out to be inflamed ribs. Good news is that it's nothing bad. Bad news is that I just have to grin and bear it. It can be quite painful, though recently it's been OK. No news of bedrest yet!

We had a nice weekend with the Ranks celebrating Jayne's bday. That's our last trip for a while, as everyone's coming to us for Thanksgiving (except the Cranks) and we'll see everyone at separate points when they come up for Christmas.

We were supposed to have a perinatologist appointment on Wednesday on my day off before Thanksgiving, but he just called to reschedule (for the 2nd time!). Next appointments are: Nov. 27 (Thursday) for the peri and Dec. 3 (Monday) for the regular OB. Guess we're learning patience!

And the veggie of the week is....

THE CARROT! Typical 21-weekers are 10.5 inches long and 3/4 of a pound. So, apparently I have two carrots growing inside of me! :)

Two babies, two doctors

These days we feel like we do a lot of doctor-hopping. We had an appointment with the perinatologist last Tuesday, and then one with the regular OB yesterday.

Last Tuesday's appointment was pretty long. They did an in-depth, long ultrasound to check each of the babies thoroughly. It was really neat to watch the tech measure each boys' head, their stomachs, their kidneys, etc. Granted, I didn't know what was what so I had to ask 4,000,000 questions (as usual). And of course, we received the great news that we're going to have two boys! Both boys are developing well, and everyone is healthy.

Yesterday's appointment was on the shorter side. We asked doc some questions, and he checked the HRs (154 and 146, I think) to make sure everything was ok. He had some humorous reading in my chart, as I had to call the emergency nurse on Friday morning because I fell out of bed (long story). Everything and everyone is fine! Doc told us that we need to do any traveling we may want to do now, and both docs agreed that I need to start preparing myself for probable bedrest at 28 weeks (Dec. 23, for those keeping score at home). It's difficult to think about being on bedrest and not going to work (and hence not getting paid) for so many weeks, but I'm much more OK with the idea now than I was last week.

While this post is rather boring (sorry), it's been an exciting couple of weeks!

20 weeks

Here's the much-anticipated 20 weeks belly shot. Updates from our appointments forthcoming...

The results are IN!

We had a very successful doctor's appointment this afternoon. We love the perinatologist, and it was a really nice visit. We're having BOYS! WOO! Well on our way to a football team!

We have conclusive evidence of this fact. Should you so desire, you could ask for it.

Vegetables, Registering, and... Snoogles?

One of our favorite things to do is checking babycenter.com at every week benchmark (i.e.--19 weeks pregnant, etc.) to see what new fruit/vegetable/food analogy they've come up with to help us know how big the babies are. Ryan's personal favorite was "jumbo shrimp," which I think was somewhere around the 8-week mark. Last week they were large sweet potatoes, and the week before that they were large onions. Currently, the babies are the size of small zucchinis, something that is a foreign concept in the Stone household. We grow zucchini in the summertime, but we usually don't remember to pick it until it's 18" or so long (no joke). And I don't usually think of small zucchini as being larger than a large sweet potato, but who am I? I don't even like sweet potatoes, much to my husband's chagrin.

We went to Babies 'R' Us (henceforth referred to as "BRU") on Tuesday night to begin the registry process. The process was excruiating...much worse than registering for anything for our wedding. Our "registry hostess" was awful! She kept repeating herself and speaking so slowly that I felt like I was 5 years old again. Later, Ryan and I both confessed to each other that at one point or another during her schpeel we each almost asked her if we could just have the scanner and get on with it. We were so tired by the time she finished her deal that we only scanned a few items. Granted, some of that is also due to the fact that we don't know genders yet, but that's beside the point. We were able to go back to BRU on Saturday evening and add a few more things. I think we may do our Target registry completely online...and avoid another "registry hostess" like the one at BRU.

One of the things they say about pregnant women is that we're really only supposed to sleep on our left side. This poses a bit of difficulty for me, as I'm usually a tummy sleeper. It doesn't quite feel like I'm sleeping on a watermelon yet (maybe small zucchinis?), but I don't want to squish the little guys any more than they already are. I'm not supposed to sleep on my right side because of the pressure the womb puts on the gallbladder, liver, kidney, inferior vena cava, etc. And I'm not supposed to sleep on my back because of the pressure the womb puts on my spine and aorta. This leaves the left side (who cares about the 2nd kidney, right?). Ryan woke me up 4 times on Friday night because I wound up on my back. He's been very good about making sure I'm sleeping on my left side, but I can't get comfortable!! And when I wake up on my back, I'm in pain and have a booger of a charleyhorse in my right calf. The point is this - on Saturday night when we went to BRU, Ryan let me splurge and buy the most glorious pillow I've ever had. It's called a Snoogle (yes, a Snoogle), and it's a C-shaped pillow designed for other preggers like me. Here we are thinking this would solve my sleeping problem, because the pillow wraps around my back, presumably keeping me from flipping over. Alas... my dear husband woke up a few times last night to the mother of his twin children sleeping....ON HER BACK. *sigh* I'm personally chalking it up to getting used to the Snoogle. We'll see how tonight pans out...

18 weeks

Guess it's been a while since we updated....I guess it's because there's not too much to report at this point. I had to go have an ultrasound done on my gallbladder and liver for some pain I was having. The tech said everything looked fine, but of course, doc has the final say.

Some friends of ours hosted the annual Oktoberfest soiree yester-evening. It was a great time, though I certainly missed my Spaten Oktoberfest this year. It's worth it!

Babies are now the size of large sweet potatoes (that's just for you, Em!). We get quite a kick (HA!) out of the size analogies that babycenter.com comes up with.

Headed to Babies 'R' Us most likely on Monday night to start registering for stuff. I think I've finally decided on a stroller, though of course I want R's input too.

T-minus 10 days and counting until the BIG ULTRASOUND!!!!

And the stubbornness begins!

We had our 16-week appointment on Monday morning, and both of us enjoyed the morning off from our respective jobs! I had blood taken (3 vials...eek!) to do some routine tests, and then we got to see the doc - and the kiddies! Both babies were active, and everyone looks great. They're growing well, measuring well, and their heartrates are strong (150 and 154, FYI).

We were hoping to find out the genders of our little guys, but they were already exhibiting some of their more endearing character traits - stubbornness! BOTH of them decided to keep their legs firmly crossed and together, leaving the 3 of us (Ryan, doc, and me) in suspense. Guess we'll just have to wait another 3 weeks until we go see the specialist. It's probably better, though, because the specialist has a much better, much cooler machine.

Ryan and I finished our morning together by enjoying a nice, not-very-healthy breakfast. We had Chick-Fil-A (I had the chicken minis, and Ryan had a sausage biscuit), Starbucks (decaf coffee for him, Peppermint Mocha for me), and a Maple-Glazed donut from Dunkin Donuts for dessert! YUMMY!! I was certainly spoiled my breakfast, my morning with my husband, and only a half-day of work. If only every day could be like that!

By the way, according to babycenter.com, our babies are roughly the size of avocados. :)

16 Weeks

Here's mom at 16 weeks.

Pictures from 13 Weeks

And it's about time, too. I know, I know. Sorry.



Our kid's head looks like an alien!



Sorry this isn't so clear. The head's at the bottom left... we think.

2nd verse...same as the 1st?

We've officially been in the 2nd trimester for a week (as of today!), and I must say that it's been a pretty easy road considering my body is caring for 3 people at the same time. I've had some pretty harsh headaches, which are either associated with hormones (sorry...) or sinuses or a combination of the two. Headaches are NO FUN when you have to teach a bunch of hormonal teenagers all day long. And, headaches are NO FUN when you can't take the usual Aleve or Excedrin Migraine...only Tylenol. I've felt a bit icky this week, so I was starting to wonder if I was going to be sick during the 2nd trimester since the 1st was relatively easy (no morning sickness!). I think the ickiness may have been a few isolated days, but I'm starting to realize that I can't eat much of the same food I'm used to eating. Nothing huge, but I've been more cognizant lately of that.

Ryan and I worked in the nursery one evening this week. We put some clothes away that Mary Beth gave us from Lucas, and we put the maternity clothes we've bought or received on loan from friends away too. It's actually starting to look like a nursery! We even set up our really cute pack 'n' play. Now if we can just figure out where to put the elliptical machine so we can have room for the changing table and rocking chair/ottoman that we'll hopefully get from a generous friend/relative.

I guess it's time to start registering for things... I've been thinking about strollers/travel systems since that's going to be the biggest thing we'll need. We already have the cribs! :)

My perinatologist's office called this week to reschedule our Oct. 22 appointment. Apparently the doctor will be out of town. Fortunately, they made a special appointment for us late one afternoon so I don't have to miss school and Ryan doesn't have to miss work and/or school. Our appointment is now Oct. 23 - thankfully we don't have to wait too much longer past the original Oct. 22 appointment!!

13-week update

We went to the doctor on Tuesday afternoon, and after waiting for a while (of course!), we spent a good hour or so with the doc. We got to see our little ones again, and they looked happy as can be! They were very active, and they've even started kicking each other. I looked at Ryan and said, "it starts already!" Both babies are measuring well (6.8 cm if anyone's interested), and the heartrates were 154 and 161, which is nice and strong.

Of course, I had 4,000,000 questions to ask. I can't help it if I'm curious! :)

Our next appointment is in 2.5 weeks (YAY!), and then 3 weeks after that we're going to a perinatologist, which is a doctor who specializes in high-risk pregnancies. There, we'll be able to determine the genders of our little ones. We'll also get a really long ultrasound to check for birth defects, etc. Apparently this doctor has one of the really high-tech 3-D ultrasound machines, so we're looking forward to seeing our babies a bit clearer!

We'll post pictures from our last visit soon.

"Reactions" addition

I failed to include one other reaction in the previous post. I decided to go to school the day of the ultrasound to see my good friend Mary Beth (principal's secretary extraordinaire). She had just started her Hot Pocket for lunch when I showed up with the pictures. She was so caught up in looking at the pictures that she didn't realize the microwave never stopped! It got stuck and kept heating and heating and heating. Before we knew it, my principal came in (we were in a conference room) and huge amounts of smoke came wafting into the room. Mary Beth tried to burn the school down!! To top it all off, the room where the microwave was STILL smells a bit burnt. :)

Starting to show a little bit...

Reactions...

Jayne (Beck's mom): *scream* *another scream* *the sound of a phone dropping* *another scream so loud that we could hear it even though the phone had been dropped* (We respectfully admit that Jayne claims to have not dropped the phone. We also respectfully don't believe her.)

Pam (Ryan's mom): "Ryan Kendall Stone, if you're kidding me...!"

Martin (Ryan's dad): *chuckle* "Are you serious?!?"

Chris (Beck's brother): "Holy crap, that's cool... Holy crap, that's cool! That sounds like a lot of work." (Thanks for the nod to TWINS in your response!)

Stan (Ryan's brother): "Are you kidding me?!?"

Aimee (Beck's sis-in-law): "What?!? That's awesome!"

Michelle (Ryan's sis-in-law): "Are you serious? Tell me you're not joking."

Kate (Beck's niece): "Two babies... There are two babies in Becky's tummy."

Josiah (4-year-old from Redeemer): "But Ms. Becky, won't they fight in there?"

If you're wondering where Don (Beck's dad) is, then wait no more. This was our favorite reaction, partly because of the way we told him (he was the first to find out, by the way). Beck's dad has always prayed for his not-yet-born grandchildren that they would have 10 perfect fingers and 10 perfect toes, a sharp wit, a sound mind and a heart that longs for God. Here's our phone conversation.

--------------
Ryan: How's it going?

Don: Oh, it's going alright. Busy day. (brief side note, Don's dealing with massive plumbing problems in one of his rental properties at this point. He's been jackhammering a concrete floor, in someone's living room!)

Ryan: Well, we've got a request for you.

Don: Sure, anything.

Ryan: We need you to change your prayer a little bit...

Don: Ok (in a hesitant voice).

*pregnant (ha! punny!) pause*

Ryan: Well, we're going to need 20 perfect fingers and 20 perfect toes.

*silence again*

*more silence*

*slow, quiet chuckle*

Don: Really? Are you serious?

Ryan: Would we joke about this?

Don: Well. How 'bout that?

Pictures!

My silly wife (who has pregnancy brain) forgot to add the pictures to her last post.

We also forgot to post about the different reactions we got when we told people we're having twins. It should pop up in the near future.

Anyway, here are the pics!

Seeing Double...

We had our first ultrasound appointment at about 8 weeks, so you can imagine our excitement at the thought of getting to see our little one! The doc got me all set up and called Ryan in, turned the lights down low, and turned on the screen. Keep in mind that I'm flat on my back and Ryan's standing by my side...and it didn't help that the screen was turned so we couldn't see it! Silly doc...

Before we knew it, the doctor looked at Amanda, the nurse, and said, "you may want to get him (Ryan, obviously) a chair." Now, I'm not really sure what to think at this moment. Was it good news? Was it bad news? In the split seconds that followed, I did some quick "teacher-like" observation of both the doc's and Amanda's faces. Amanda's was priceless - she was completely silent with this enormous look of awe on her face. The doctor was smirking a bit, and he finally broke the incredibly-long-what-seemed-like-eternity-but-was-really-only-a-few-seconds silence by saying, "Well, Becky, it's a good thing you never went on Clomid, because you might be having 4." I started laughing, looked at Ryan, looked back at Doc and asked, "Twins?" At the doctor's confirmation, I promptly teared up and squeezed Ryan's hand a bit harder. Little did I know that at this point, most of his body weight was now supported by his one arm propped on the table! He smiled one of the biggest smiles I've seen and started chuckling a bit...I think out of shock!

Doc turned the screen so we could see BOTH of our children. There they were, two little beans, two little miraculous gifts from God. I asked the doctor if he knew if they were identical or fraternal, and he told me that it was still early to know for sure, but that if he had to guess, he thought they were identical. Amazing! They had two strong hearbeats, and they're just the right size for their age. The funny thing is that I knew we were having twins before we went to the doctor, but I didn't say anything to ANYONE...mainly because I didn't want people to think I was crazy. That, and I wasn't sure if it was mother's intuition (although I was pretty sure it was) or just a really, really, really big desire of my heart.

I can't describe how blessed I feel (not speaking for Ryan of course, but I know he feels the same way). God chose ME to carry two children, and He chose US to be the parents of TWINS. TWO BABIES! This is completely His work, and we are humbled by His choosing us for this adventure.

Thus began our amazing adventure...our adventure of raising TWINS!

Oops!

Beck reminded me that I forgot to tell what my late birthday gift was!

I got two bibs! One's blue, the other's pink. They both say "I Love Daddy."

Irony? I thought so.

Finding out...

So when Beck first told me that we were going to have a kid, I was completely surprised. I had just come home from work, and she told me that she had a late birthday gift for me. She hands me the gift bag, I pull out the card, and it says on the outside of the card: "Daddy." Now maybe you're thinking that it should have been obvious, but if you know us at all, you know that we're a little obsessive about our pets, and when we speak for the pets, Beck is "Mommy" and I'm "Daddy." So, I was thinking that the pets all of a sudden remembered my birthday and I was getting a present from them.

Begin tangential note:
Beck had been waiting to take the pregnancy test we had bought until the morning time (when it's supposed to be more accurate). I had called her from work to find out if she had taken it, and she lied to me, because she didn't want to tell me over the phone.
End tangential note.

This is what the card said:

------------------

Dear Daddy,

Mommy asked me to write you a note asking your forgiveness on her behalf. She didn't want to tell you about me on the phone earlier today. She's sorry and she hopes you'll understand.
I love you and I can't wait to meet you in about 9 months.

Love,
(insert baby name here) or Baby Boy =)

------------------

Sorry that I didn't insert the baby name there, but we're not telling.

So.... Praise God! And Praise God!