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By Janet, on May 14th, 2009 We have weekly visits with the OB now so we were back there on Monday, May 4. He was looking at the report from the ultrasound specialist and commented about how the head size for Baby A was off the chart. His report listed Baby A as weighing in at a gargantuan 21 pounds, 3 ounces! I honestly didn’t know how to respond at first, but if true, I was seriously going to reconsider natural childbirth. Fortunately, we quickly determined that there was a bit of a typo — it should have been 2 pounds, 13 ounces (this weight was from an ultrasound about a month earlier). Obviously, I was rather relieved when we got that resolved. After all, who wants to try to deliver a 21 pound baby with an unnaturally large head?!
Then he asked how work was going. He’s asked that at each of the past few visits and I’ve always told him it was going fine. But lately I’ve been feeling more and more fatigued, particularly by the end of the week, so I told him I was ready to discuss a reduced work schedule. He has kindly restricted me to six hours per day with a limit of 20 hours per week. He said I could do that this week and probably next week and then there was a good chance I’d be done. By the end of the week I could see the wisdom in working part time. I realize now that I didn’t see just how fatigued I was by the end of the week. I’ve felt so much less zombie like this week. So now I’m in “wrap up mode” – trying to finish up the things at work that I’m going to finish before my leave starts.
I’ve also noticed in the past couple of weeks that I’m not sleeping quite as well as I had been. It’s more difficult to get into a comfortable position. Plus recently I’ve been having to get up every 2-3 hours for bathroom visits. Then I have to go through the whole process of finding a comfortable position again.
Note: Janet had every intention of adding a bit more to this post so that it would include something about her first Mother’s Day. She didn’t quite get around to that, and now events have rushed us forward. It’s time to simply post this and move on.
By Janet, on May 7th, 2009 The past five weeks have pretty much just flown by, and I’m told it only gets faster from here. We’re very thankful that the pregnancy continues to progress very smoothly. Here are some highlights since the BIG 26 week update.
Tuesday, March 31 – I had to take a glucose tolerance test to make sure I haven’t developed gestational diabetes. You start by drinking this sweet beverage in the morning (on an empty stomach), then one hour later they draw blood and test the glucose levels. I was told that I needed to consume the contents of the glucose beverage within five minutes. No problem, I thought. It was only about a 12 ounce bottle of fruit punch flavored drink. Then I took my first sip. It didn’t actually taste all that bad, but it was just slightly carbonated and drinking that fizzy drink first thing in the morning on an empty pregnant tummy was not as easy as I had envisioned. I don’t know how women who are actually suffering from nausea get it down!
 Sunday, April 5 – Annmarie, Mom, and the Peacemakers quilt group hosted a baby shower for us today. I was honored and humbled at how many women showed up to help us prepare for these precious little girls that are on the way. It was a tea party themed shower with lots of tasty tea snacks for everyone to enjoy! Cortnie & Audree greeted every guest and kept me supplied with packages to open for the afternoon.
Monday, April 6 – Saw our OB today. We passed the glucose test so there’s no special dietary restrictions. Then he measured the height of the uterus at 32 centimeters. With a singleton, on average you expect 1 cm per week of pregnancy. We’re at 27 weeks so we’re a little ahead there. Plus it had grown 6 cm in four weeks.
Tuesday, April 14 – 28 weeks down and time for another visit to the perinatal specialist to make sure the girls are sharing the prenatal resources evenly. After taking an assortment of measurements, he determined that Baby A is 2 pounds, 13 ounces and Baby B is 2 pounds, 11 ounces. That makes each baby slightly above the 50th percentile in size for their age (I can’t remember the exact numbers, but it was something like 51% and 53%). They don’t have a separate scale for multiples, so the girls are slightly “above average” compared with all pregnancies.
Continue reading 31 Weeks (and counting)
By Dan, on April 28th, 2009  We recently decided to cancel our Cable TV service. It costs us about $50 a month, and we barely watch it because almost everything is garbage. Sure, there are a few shows that we enjoy, but lately we’ve found it’s easier to just wait 6 – 9 months and then rent the DVDs from Netflix. Better yet, since Netflix partnered up with Microsoft, there’s quite a bit of TV content I can stream directly through my Xbox, some of it even in HD. Another obvious factor is that we’ve got these twins on the way, and — well, I’m just guessing here, but I’m thinking perhaps we won’t be sitting around with oodles of time to kill once we’ve got a couple of infants to care for. I suspect that we might rather try sleeping if we happen to find a few minutes of peace and quiet.
Once we had made the decision to kill the Cable TV, I felt wonderfully liberated. I knew I wasn’t really going to miss it, and saving $50 a month was going to be nice. The promise of freedom was exhilarating.
So, Janet called the company and asked them to make the change. Now, I already knew that there was some kind of discount for having both the Cable TV and high speed internet through Comcast, and that the cost of the internet service was likely to go up when we ditched the TV. But I was shocked to find out that Comcast charges more money to keep just the high speed internet without the TV service. Yes that’s right, the total amount is CHEAPER if we keep the crappy cable TV as part of the package. What kind of business model is that? Aren’t they concerned about bandwidth or something?
My good friend Todd Beason explained this to me:
They get money from local ad inserts on a per subscriber basis. They do make more money if you have the TV service.
So… The way I figure it, they should be paying ME to keep their cable TV service. I’ll be waiting for my refund check. Meanwhile, my dreams of TV freedom have been dashed, and I reluctantly remain in the clutches of Comcast.
By Janet, on April 25th, 2009
Pregnancy is one of those things that just prompts all kinds of massive changes in your life. For example, look at us – we’ve finally started a blog! The pregnancy is moving right along, but here’s a recap of the first two trimesters to bring you up to speed.
Tuesday, November 4 – Election Day 2008 may have been a historic day for our nation, but to be honest I barely noticed. As it turned out, that day proved to be historic for Dan and I as well – that’s the day we found out we were expecting our first child!!! I called the doctor and they scheduled an appointment for three weeks later. Three weeks! Why so long? What was I supposed to do in the meantime? Well they waited three weeks because that would be about 8 weeks pregnant – and that’s when they can see the heartbeat on the ultrasound. And as for what to do – life as usual, except no strenuous lifting. So I carried on, but nearly constantly chanting “We’re having a baby” in the back of my head.
We spent the next three weeks going about our day to day lives – but filled with great anticipation. Our first doctor appointment was scheduled for Tuesday before Thanksgiving so we decided early on we would wait to share the news until after seeing the doctor. If I thought I was preoccupied now, I had NO IDEA how I was going to feel in just a few short weeks.
An interesting side note: Since the doctor visit was three weeks away and I just couldn’t wait that long I did the next best thing – research on the internet. Did you know there’s an online calculator for EVERYTHING. Not just mortgages and interest; there’s a “due date calculator” for pregnancies. It’s based solely on the date of the last menstrual cycle. When I plugged that information in, it spit out a due date of July 8 – which happens to be my Dad’s birthday. So I spent the next three weeks thinking my child (because at this time I didn’t know any better) might have the same birthday as its grandpa.
 Tuesday, November 25 – Our first doctor appointment. He did an ultrasound and showed us the beating heart of our child. Amazing!!! Then he shifted the sensor and discovered the beating heart of our SECOND child. We’re having twins! I was speechless, dumbfounded, nearly incapacitated. Dan took it in stride. The doctor measured the babies (18 mm) to determine the date of conception and advised that our due date was July 5. He also told us to expect an early appearance since twins have a tendency to run out of room before their due date. When the physical exam was complete the doctor said, “We have a lot to talk about.” I responded, “Whatever you’re going to say, you should have told me before the ultrasound.” I was still pretty stunned and didn’t know how much of what he was going to say would really register. Afterwards, I went back to work. I might have just gone home and called it a day, but Dan was leaving from the doctor’s office to go to Shafter to pick up Grandma Siemens so she could spend Thanksgiving in Livermore with everyone. I composed myself as best I could and went back to work. I’m not sure how much work I actually accomplished (every other word that went through my head was “TWINS!”), but I made it through the rest of the day without anyone asking what was up. Not sure I could have maintained my silence in the face of a direct question.
Continue reading Janet’s Pregnancy Update – 26 weeks in 10 minutes
By Dan, on April 22nd, 2009 
Somewhere along the way, I realized that I just wasn’t maintaining or developing my old website at all. Part of the reason is that I just never really worked very hard to learn how to design decent-looking HTML. Plus, the FTP interface I had to work with was kind of a hassle. When blogs really started to catch on I was intrigued by the idea of a constantly updating webpage for sharing news and photos, all of which could be managed through a relatively simple web browser interface… But I guess I was kinda lazy even about getting something like that started.
Now I have finally gone ahead and done something about it! A big reason for this is because Janet and I are expecting our twin girls to be born in the next couple months, and this seemed like a good way to share updates with friends and family. You can expect to read a good deal more about that in future posts, I’m sure. I think (I hope) that this format will be both easier to maintain and more interesting to look at from time to time. Perhaps Janet will even take an occasional interest in posting something!
Enjoy!
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