27 Week Update

How far along? 27 Weeks exactly
Maternity clothes? There is a bit of a panicked undertone when it comes to getting dressed. The jeans are fine, not concerned about those. However, my sister-in-law gave me a huge bag of maternity tops for when I get HUGE (think 4 weeks from now). I just tried on every single one and none even cover my belly. She wore them in her last trimester with her twin boys. She is also about 5'4''. I am 6'0''. Stupid long torso. Not sure what I'll be wearing in February. Could make for a rather "exciting" Valentine's Day, don't you think? jk. I will still have to get out of the house somehow!
Best moment this week: Appointment with the maternal fetal medicine specialist. Hands. down. We got a 90 minute ultrasound. Got to see our boys and get accurate measurements on them. I spent all week trying hard not to be worried. I did find myself paying a whole lot more attention to feeling kicks and movement from Nash, though. So much so, that I freaked myself out because Gray had flipped and I was no longer feeling kicks where he used to kick. Anyhow - we went into the appointment wanting to know what was going on with Nash and why he was "so small" according to our doctor. The ultrasound tech said that whoever did the ultrasound last week probably didn't know what they were looking for because things couldn't look more perfect. Nash (Baby A) is nice and squished at the bottom. I'm not dialated at all. He is weighing in at a healthy 2lbs 7oz. He's in the 61st percentile. Above average. We like that. His head is in the 98th percentile. He's in the 93rd percentile for height. He's a big chunk according to the specialist. We like that. :) Gray is currently sitting on Nash's head. Ah, the wrestling begins. He is weighing in at 2lbs 14oz. He's in the 79th percentile. Very much above average. His head is in the 94th percentile. He's in the 97th percentile for height. We finished measuring Gray and I said, "Gosh - we've got a linebacker!" The specialist said "You've got two!" She said that if I make it to 36 weeks that the boys will definitely come home from the hospital with us and that natural childbirth is back on the table. She also said that she sees no reason our boys won't be between 5.5 and 6 pounds at birth. I'm thrilled. It's also really encouraging to know that I am currently carrying over 5 pounds of baby already. We also determined that the boys are, in fact, fraternal. There are two placentas, two amniotic sacs, etc. Also, because we did a 5 day transfer, one embryo splitting earlier enough to create two placentas is impossible at that point. The embryo could've still split, but if that was the case, they would be sharing a placenta.
Movement: It seems to come and go. Maybe that's because I just paid extra close attention this past week. Also, Gray flipped so I thought I was feeling extra kicks from Nash, but that wasn't exactly the case. Their feet and legs are all in the same place now so I have no idea how I'll keep them straight when I have to do kick counts next week.
Food cravings: Anything. Still not a huge fan of straight chocolate, but I did down a bunch of heath bar chocolate chip cookies on Sunday that made for a pretty blissful day. I'm just hungry all the time and I can't get enough water.
Labor Signs: Lots of contractions, but not dialating at all. Which is really encouraging. The boys are taking the contractions just fine, so we should have a beautiful and hopefully uneventful next couple of months.
Belly Button in or out? Pretty sure the end is near. Still in though. :)
What I miss: Sleep. And yes, I realize it will only get worse. Cam no longer asks me how I slept. He asks if I slept at all. Most of the time, the answer is no. Naps are my only saving grace right now.
What I am looking forward to: My nap today. :) Watching Parenthood. Finishing the boys' bookcase and rearranging the nursery.
Milestones: 9 weeks left! (until 36 weeks) Single digits! Crazy.
Realization of the week: I believe my dad put it best when he said to my mom, "She's about to embark on a whole new level of tired she doesn't even know exists yet." I don't think I'm quite there, but my word I can see where this is going.



At this point, I think Nash has Cam's nose, and Gray has mine. We'll just have to wait and see! :)

A Silhouette Living Room Makeover

Cam and I have been trying to clean out our 2nd bedroom to make room for these two boys that are coming in March and it's taken a little bit of creativity. We've ALMOST done it, there are just a couple more things to clear out. (If you are interested in buying our elliptical machine, let me know!) However, this sparked a need to re-do our living room. We love our purple couch, but since we finished it, our piano was still red and looking mighty out of place. Also, I was sick of the "shrine" to the television. Also, the couch was way too far away from the TV so watching movies was a pain (rough life, eh?). I also really just like change. So we rearranged the room one Saturday. Cam promptly broke the coffee table while trying to move it out of the way so we could try different couch layouts. The flimsy little thing just completely collapsed, which turned into a blessing in disguise. We went to Lowe's, bought some yellow and black paint and the projects began.

Before:

Note the "shrine" to the TV. Hate that thing. Also, please take note of all the gross cords and the nasty gold cabinet. Blech.

After:

We painted the gold cabinet black. Trashed the top drawer, used part of the wood from the recently broken coffee table to make a shelf and created ourselves a little TV console that goes on the back wall of the living room. From the front door, it is the very last thing you see, which just makes me so happy. Also, the couches now face each other which encourages conversation rather than TV consumption. For the pattern on the drawer front, Cam painted it silver first and I cut a "stencil" out of contact paper using my silhouette machine. We applied the stencil, painted the rest black, and voila, we're in action! I'm really REALLY pleased with how this turned out!(And I'm bummed the picture is blurry. I'm trying to figure out how to use my new camera...It's hit or miss right now.)

(This pic is a little better, but I was trying to avoid using the flash. O well. Practice, practice, practice!)

Please note that you can't see a single cord on the wall. This was BIG. Cam figured out how to hide all the cords for his surround sound system and all the cords from the Bluray player. I hate cords, and now they're invisible. I'm happy. Also, the picture doesn't show this very well, but the black paint inside that top portion really hides the media. It all just blends together. It makes it a lot less distracting/prominent in the room.

Cam then used the top of our little splintered coffee table to make me 3 shelves for the desk area. We moved our computer desk down out of the 2nd bedroom to make room for the boys and he built me a gorgeous new office area off in the nook of our living room. We have even MORE stuff in the living room now, but it's never felt so spacious. Funny how that works. :)

That was the small part of the makeover. (Sometimes I'm amazed Cam hasn't thrown in the towel yet. I am slowly but surely weakening him to my "wild" color schemes and patterns. Also, due to being prego, most of "my" projects quickly become "cam's" projects while I sit on the couch and watch. Marry a good man, ladies.)

Thus began the piano makeover. (The red was clashing with my purple couch.)

And because I LIVE to have little bits of ourselves injected into every piece of home decor I possibly can, after Cam finished painting, I started cutting vinyl for the front of the piano face. It took a long time, but was so worth it!

The finished product:

The vinyl on the front face is scripted song lyrics that we love. We try to keep it classy...ha. I picked a nice cursive/handwritten font so the overall appearance would get the effect I was going after. I also think it makes for a really fun little "treat" for those who look close enough to actually try to read the words. Things start off with a raucous "Rah rah rah ah ah" from Lady Gaga. There are tributes to our roots with the words "I'm ready to go for it! I'm ready to reach for the Northern star!" (shout out to my other EFY counselors and kids!) I believe Katy Perry actually makes 2 appearances. ("Own the night like the 4th of July" and the slightly more risque "let you put your hands on me in my skin-tight jeans"). The entire right side is dedicated to Phoebe Buffay. "Are you in there little fetus? In 9 months with you come greet us? I will buy you some adidas!" Among other gems.

It's quite possibly my favorite project. Ever.

(And thus we see a "hit" with the new camera. Hoo-rah for a sweet shallow depth of field! That was my goal today, and I figured it out. Boom baby!)

Overall Room After:



All I need now are curtains. I'm thinking grey and white chevron. Cam is thinking we don't have money in the budget for that. We shall see, we shall see. :)

26 Week Update

How far along? 26 Weeks 1 Day
Maternity clothes? Can you say maternity skinny jeans, in LONG sizes for $17 bucks?? wahoo! I feel like a whole new person! I have been feeling SO frumpy lately and the jeans, oh the magical jeans, have really turned that around. It also might be the incredible face wash system I got for Christmas from my mama, and the new eye-liner and mascara too.
Best moment this week: Besides buying the jeans? LOTS of things. My family getting to feel the boys kick for the first time, seeing our boys on the ultrasound yesterday, sleeping in our own bed after 10 days on vacation (rough life, I know). Meeting up with Julie (AMAZING friend and certified doula) to talk natural childbirth...which was always the plan until I got a phone call from the doctor about 10 minutes ago. After our ultrasound yesterday, we learned that Nash (Baby A) is a full half pound smaller than his brother. I have an appointment on Tuesday with a specialist to hopefully find out what's going on and what we can do about it. Until then, prayers would be very much appreciated.
Movement: All the time! I am really enjoying it, honestly. Although Gray often gets all up in my ribs. I think he's bruised something in there. One tiny little kick can make me tear up.
Food cravings: Anything healthy. Fruit, nuts, bagels with cream cheese. (Healthy is a relative term here). I'm still digging on vinegar. Veggie subs from Subway hit the spot every. single. time.
Labor Signs: Oh the contractions. Apparently elevation change can cause contractions. These are fake-os though. They don't hurt, they're just uncomfortable and the boys always kick like crazy afterward. I'm sure I would too if all the walls of my house all of a sudden decided to cave in and squish me up for a minute at a time.
Belly Button in or out? Pretty sure the end is near. The top half is looking mighty strange.
What I miss: Nothing really. Maybe the luxury of having a non-high-risk pregnancy. I have been really enjoying not worrying too much about the boys until today. Hopefully I get to regain that peace of mind after the appointment on Tuesday.
What I am looking forward to: Christmas morning with our boys next year. Also, seeing their little bodies in the clothes and blankets we got over the break! I'm also looking forward to my snaps coming in so I can sew up these cloth diapers, pronto.
Milestones: Got all the cloth diapers cut out. Baby B is 2 lbs 6 oz. Baby A is 1 lb. 14 oz. I am carrying over 4 lbs of baby already! Grow boys, grow! We also celebrated our last anniversary as just the two of us. Cam out did himself again. (See the Christmas post) and bought me the book "How do you tuck in a superhero." It's really a celebration of mothering boys. I think a hot bubble bath and a long read of that will make me feel better about everything today.
Realization of the week: I need naps. I will probably need a nap every single day until these boys arrive. And that is okay. I refuse to believe anything is wrong with the boys until someone really tells me whats up. It would sure help, though, if the doctor wouldn't be so vague. 6 days seems an eternity away.

 

Christmas!

This year we spent Christmas at the McGuire house. (my family). It was a total blast. I loved it. Not a lick of snow on the drive down, either, which made for a nice, easy, and quick drive (relatively speaking...I was pretty uncomfortable due to the sudden growth of these two boys.)

Christmas Eve is my dad's birthday, so we had a big breakfast and did presents for him. Then, we all went out to my Grandma's house (that they're selling this year) to take family pictures.



The photographer was nice enough to snap a couple maternity photos for us. This one is my absolute favorite. :)



Christmas Eve we went caroling. Normally, I hate caroling. I have always said my family just isn't good at it. We have caroled to a dog, through a glass door because the family wasn't home (all 3 verses). We have caroled to the wrong house, which turned into the right house about halfway through the second verse (the family had just moved to a new house and the cousin answered the door...a cousin we had never met before.) We have also caroled to a house where the inhabitants did not hear us knock and the daughter opened the door to take out the trash, saw a bunch of large hooded figures, screamed and slammed the door. However, in the years I have been out of the house apparently we have improved at it.

This year, my brother brought his guitar and my other brother brought his cahone [sp?]. (It's a drum that makes all sorts of different sounds. Pretty rad.) We were a hit wherever we went! Such a different experience than years past. We only went out for an hour and sang to our good friends, and neighbors we hoped to meet, etc. I was actually sad to be done when we were out of treat plates.

Because Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, my parents wrapped up the living room and we all got ready for church at 9am. It was pretty bizarre to not be awake before the sun on Christmas Day. (My super mature 26 year old sister is still the first one awake every Christmas...at like 4:30-5 am. It's a riot. I was definitely not complaining about the extra hours of sleep, though!



I really enjoyed having church on Christmas Day. It was a beautiful musical program. Cam sang with the choir to help out the tenor section and the boys kicked and rolled through the entire thing. That was probably the best gift I could've received because I was nervous about making the drive. The reassurance that they're both OK is the most important thing to me.

We came home and got back into pajamas.

And tore down the wrapping paper. :)

Please note Jessica's pajamas. That girl is so absolutely my favorite. lol.

Lillie got a dollhouse full of a variety of characters. Disney princesses, dinosaurs, trucks, Woody, Buzz and Jessie (who are favorites), and woodland creatures all live in harmony there. We try to embrace diversity. :) She was so fun to watch! Having a kid around really brings a whole new level of Christmas magic. It made me terribly excited for next year when we will have two rambunctious, probably crawling boys to keep track of.

JT getting "conservative ties for his mission." :) This was the last year we would all be together. Mackay and Lindsay won't be coming out for Christmas morning again and JT will be on a mission for the next two Christmases, so it was nice to have everyone together this time.

Hair done and make-up on for Christmas morning is a definite first. There were onesies in our stockings and cute little socks for the boys. What a fun Christmas!

Also, major husband points right here: Cam got on my pinterest account, found my board of books I'd like to read eventually and ordered two of them. WHOA. I had no idea he even KNEW about that board, let alone how to get on my pinterest account. Total win right there.

There was one bag for the in-laws, which we found a little weird considering Cam lives in Utah and Mackay lives in Colorado, and my parents made them wait to open it through the rest of the Christmas presents. They gave a bag to us McGuire kids after all the presents were unwrapped. Inside were 3 DVDs of our family photos, set to music, with video clips of major highlights. We got to see pictures of my parents growing up, the night of their first kiss, mission pictures from my dad I had never seen before, all the way through the growing up years of our family and into the marriages of me and Cam and Lindsay and Mackay, the birth of Lillie, the glory days of all of us in high school sports. It was 2.5 hours long! Such a blast! In the "in-law bag" was a pack of oreos for Cam and a pack of oreos for Mackay along with a magazine (something financial for Mackay, and one on woodworking/projects for Cam). It was their "we're sorry you have to sit through 3 DVDs of our family" present. :)

We ended up watching the DVDs on Christmas day and the day after. So awesome.

The days after were spent on a cloth diaper making blitz and playing a new game called Pandemic.

Lots of laughing til you cry, kicks from the boys, and pajama days. Tons of amazing food, including a beautiful Christmas dinner of prime rib served on my mom's gorgeous china...that we all ate in our pajamas after waking up from naps. Sometimes Christmas is just meant to "be". No expectations. I think that's what I love most.

 

 

Baby Shower!

Over the Christmas Break, my mother-in-law and aunts threw me a baby shower. It. Was. So. Fun. I didn't really know what to expect because I've never been on the receiving end of one, and in the past baby showers were hardly my favorite place to be. It was incredible to me to see how excited and supportive everyone was and to finally be in the "mom club" where other moms actually want to know what you think regarding baby related things. It was wonderful. Definitely a turning point from the infertile mentality I was in for so long. I felt like I belonged. And I loved it.

And that's not to mention all the wonderfully adorable BOY clothes, burp cloths, and blankets we received. What a fun thing to have it so close to Christmas! It was like present overload! (And pretty surreal to pull TWO of everything out of each box or bag.

Cousin Anne made some cute receiving blankets for me and taught me how to swaddle the boys with her daughter's baby dolls. It was crazy to see two babies there. I had read how to swaddle in "The Happiest Baby on the Block" but never tried it. It's a good thing I tried before the boys are here because Anne walked me through it the first time and it was fine, but when I tried to do it on my own...yeah. :) Practice makes perfect.



Aunt LaNell made the banner out of 8 burp cloths and sewed one letter of each boys name to the front for the clothesline. I can't believe all the effort that went into this!

These boys are already spoiled!



My gorgeous sister-in-law and mother-in-law. They are so much fun. Amberlee made the boys 4 bibs all on her own! Pretty impressive!



Pretty crazy to think that in less than 3 months, those dolls will be replaced with REAL boys! Thank you to everyone who brought yummy food, the beautiful gifts and came out and supported. It was wonderful to get to talk to you and spend some girl time. It got me all excited for these boys to get here!

 

Merry Christmas!

23 Week Update

How far along? 23 Weeks 2 Days
Maternity clothes? Yes. Although my pants are getting harder and harder to put on. I haven't figured out how to bend without knocking the air out of myself. When googling almost any pregnancy ailment, the first solution is generally "have the baby." However, ailments set on quicker in pregnancy when there are two babies and your body is expanding almost comically. "Have the babies" really isn't an option at this point, which I'm pretty grateful for actually, we're not ready for them to make their arrival just yet!
Best moment this week: Going to the temple last night. It has been a long, long time since we've gone because of one excuse or another. My thoughts when inside the temple always turn to "why don't we come here more often?"
Movement: Yes. They also wake each other up now, which made for a long week of no sleep. Dear boys, if it's a scare tactic, it's working. Point made. Love, Mom.
Waist Diameter:  39"
Food cravings: All of the above. They're all favorites. Although, I have developed a huge appreciation for Granny Smith Apples.
Labor Signs: Nope. Keep cookin’ boys!
Belly Button in or out? In. But in is a relative term. It hasn’t popped yet, but it is streeeetttched...Cam doesn't think it's as close as I do. How does this work? Does it just pop one day or is it always a gradual thing?
What I miss: Nothing really. Maybe emotional stability? I have cried and cried this past week, but I'm generally aware enough of the situation to realize I'm being ridiculous. Getting myself to stop crying is next to impossible, but at least I know I look silly!
What I am looking forward to: Celebrating being a stay-at-home wife & mommy-to-be. My last day of work is TOMORROW. :)
Milestones: Finished Babywise! (Thanks Em!) That book addressed all of my major concerns and gave me some great goals to shoot for. I am excited to see how it all works out. (Terrified is also appropriate to use here, but let's stick with excited.)
Realization of the week: I made stockings for our little family of 4 this week. Cam's says "dad". Mine says "mom". There are two other boy stockings, and their names are definitely on them, but their names are on Christmas cards that went out to parents, family members, mission presidents and most importantly the fertility clinic. :) So, once they receive the cards, we'll post the digital version on here for the friends and cousins that we couldn't afford to mail cards to this year.