After the silence...

OK, bad Shannon not updating the blog for so long!

This morning I was thinking about my good friend from church/high school who I lost touch with by about 23. She always made me laugh. We didn’t live in a very good neighborhood growing up. Instead of bringing in her handbag whenever we went to my house she would always leave it in her trunk. I didn’t think this was safer, but she did. One day we were with our friend Sam. As we arrived at the townhouse she parked on the main road, we all walked to the trunk, and she put her handbag in the trunk. She slammed the trunk shut. It didn’t latch. She did it again. It still didn’t latch. This time when she lifted the lid I put my hand in and moved her handbag strap off the latch. She said as she slammed it down finally latching it, “Oh, I thought your hand was in there!” LOL Did she intend to slam down the lid on my hand? And yes, she is a natural blond.

I’M OFF THE CRUTCHES!!!! FINALLY!!! It is not comfortable to walk but I ditched the crutches on Christmas Eve and haven’t used them since.

We had a very quiet Christmas. Tawni and Sam came down from Virginia Beach again. They arrived late on Friday after we watched the movie I Am Legend with Will Smith. Wow, it was more of a horror story then an action flick. Not my cup of tea, because those kinds of movies make me think of them for quite a while afterwards. They also freak me out while watching them. Guy didn’t like it either and never thought of it again. Saturday we all hung out at the house except for a trip to the grocery store & pizza joint. We also detoured to pick up Guy’s police cruiser. He went to pick up the pizza on his own but locked the keys in the car… lol We had to get the extra keys from home to bring to him. Since we live 20 minutes from the pizza joint it was a long time before we got our pizza. Tawni just sat at home the entire day. Oh, I forgot we did all go out again to go to our church Ward party. They had food neither Guy or Tawni would eat so we left and went to Chick-Fil-A. We stopped by Wall-Mart for a new game too. So we played The Game of Life and Catch Phrase. Both of which we all loved. Guy was surprised at how much fun it was.

Sunday Guy and I went to church. The sacrament meeting was the adult Christmas program with the choir. Very nice. Guy came in to teach the little ones with me since I was still on crutches. The little ones are so cute. I only get to teach them one more Sunday. Then I am either going to have the newest 3 turning 4 year olds or not teaching at all. Whichever the Primary presidency decides to do with me. They are worried I won’t be able to teach much longer with the pregnancy I seem to be having. We had our Christmas dinner on Sunday night with Tawni, Sam, and our friends Aleesha & Mondo with their two boys Ethan & Jaxon. Tawni was upset they were invited as she thought it should be family only. What family is she from? We always had friends at our family feasts. We had fun, and managed to throw in a game of Catch Phrase. The girls won!

Tawni bought us a diaper bag for Christmas. It is nice and big and black. It will fit either Guy or I and over the stroller handle. And it has a changing pad with it too.

The pregnancy is progressing well. I have finally gained some weight which has gone strait to the belly! I can still wear my normal pants (the larger ones), but I am beginning to get to the point of no zipping at all. So as long as the shirts are long then I can keep wearing them. The problem then becomes the non availability of long shirts. I’ve almost grown out of a few maternity shirts because they are too short as the belly sticks out there farther and farther. I’m having normal aches and pains. Tight feeling skin and round ligament (hurts down in the nether region) pain are the most obvious. I have to lean back to eat a normal meal so it fits. When I walk there are some Braxton Hicks contractions where my belly gets really hard but no pain. Those stop when I rest more. We just took a tape measure to my belly. It’s already a whopping 40 inches. Wow. My normal waist size is 32 inches. When I thought I’d gained a couple inches the last two weeks I was way off. It was more like 4 inches…

Monday (12/31/07) is another growth u/s and regular OB appointment. It will be interesting to see if the babies are still on top and bottom or if they are beginning to move side by side. Now that they are moving around more I’m not nervous, but I do look for at least one movement from each per day. Guy still hasn’t been able to feel them move yet even though by leaving his hand on my belly last night he got them moving. It will all come soon enough. I’ve actually felt a kick in my rib already. Granted I was leaning forward a bit, but still shocking the girl could reach my rib already. Over this last week the boy has firmly started to apply pressure on my bladder. Gone are the lovely days of going to the restroom with a full bladder every time. Sometimes its amazing there was even the urge to go with how little comes out.

That’s all for now… There will be no more big gaps like this. I promise!

17 week belly shot and update on the ankle injury

This is my 17 week pregnant photo. I got a cool moon boot after this was taken too which has helped a lot with my mobility. I'm still not walking on the foot yet, but I pretend to with most steps. Each day a tiny bit of more weight can be put on my foot. Hopefully it is the bruising underneath the heel and arch area (or lack of arch area) that is keeping me from walking. Guy went to his follow up visit with the doctor this morning (12/14 Friday). He said I can go see the orthopedic doc if I want to. I'm going to give it a bit more time to see what happens. Guy was able to get some new migraine medicine with a recommendation to find a job where he can avoid working night shift or have a constant shift all the time. He was also diagnosed with some exercise induced asthma and given an inhaler. This should help him with his running and preparation for the upcoming physical testing. Only three more weeks to prepare for his testing.

What to name our kiddos???

This photo was taken in California. Love sunset photos. They generally have more depth then sunrise photos and who wants to get up so early on vacation?

So the big question everyone asks when they hear we found out the babies are a boy and girl is..... What are you going to name them? or.... Have you decided on names yet? Nope. Nope. Nope. We are most likely going to take quite a while to contemplate, discuss and make sure we are giving the kiddo's the right names. And we have different tastes in names, but a strong desire to make sure both of us are happy with the choices. We definitely welcome any suggestions from anyone. Not that we'll love them or use them, but we'd love to hear your suggestions. Family names would be cool. Good formal names that also make great nicknames. Maybe names that make cool initials that make a name/nickname. Nothing that sounds funny with White forward or backward. Nothing that rhymes too much. And probably nothing too popular, though if the kid is meant to have the name we'll give it to em. Guy would like to explore giving them the same first initial. I don't want anything that can very easily be pronounced two ways. However, I recognize that people mess up just about every one's name at some point or another anyway. I also seem to be unable to think of or like just about any boys names and seem to be stuck on A's, E's and M's for girls names. Guy seems to be stuck on nicknames, but not like the formal version of the name.

Hooray for the goods!!!

As many of you already know, today was the big day (or at least we hoped so). The little ones decided to co-operate, and boy did they. It all began with me first off advising the ultrasonographer that we did not yet know the sex, and that we wanted to know (I was not even sure we could find out to be honest with it only being 16 weeks). She immediately said no problem. went right to baby B (the higher one), and whalla its a girl. As you can see in the picture to the right. Certainly isn't a boy. At this point i got a little nervous thinking about the White curse (is the other one a girl too).

She automatically moved onto baby A, as my heart was pounding told her that the baby might be as stubborn as Mum and Dad, and just after we spoke those words whalla again. As you can see in this picture, the arrow doesn't lie. It surely is a boy. We were so excited, Shannon and I high five'd each other. Now both of our dreams have come true, a true "TWOFUR", a two for the price of one. Now if with our fertility problems we can no longer have 1 more, at least we have one of each. From the sounds of the reception as we called practically everyone who has a number store to our phones, everyone else is equally as excited.

Well the rest of the ultrasound for me was pretty much a bore, measuring bones, checking valves, looking for vital organs. Well i just wasn't that interested, even though i am comforted knowing that both babies are fine. The only thing we could not see was baby boys lips to check for cleft pallet. But doc says we can check next time. I did perk up a little when we were looking at the hands and out of nowhere the boy told us in a not so nice way to go away. He had his hand out with only 1 finger showing. We did not get a picture of it (good thing). After giving his Uncle Jamie a what for he then switched fingers and told us that he was number 1 again, but this time as if he had a huge foam finger on his hand. You can see a full body shot of the boy to the left.

Also you can see a full body shot of the girl. to the right. We are both excited and thank everyone for your thoughts and prayers, we cant wait to see the little guys, and show them that they are our number one's, and two's!

Dad to be!

Whiteguy

P.S. Not bad for my first blog, wouldn't you say?

By the way... What happened to my Happy Happy Blog??

Whooops a daisy!

A nice peaceful photo not describing my last few days of busy busy and drama today. It was taken at Surfers Paradise in Australia. Lovely, lovely, lovely. I now know why so many Assie's go there for domestic vacations. Like California and Florida but a lot cleaner with less people.

The last few days have been very busy. Today takes the cake in all ways! At work I am one of three people who must answer the phone and answer the front door. One was away and the other on the phone when someone rang out front bell. No one else was close so I got up. 1/2 through my first step I realized my foot/leg was completely asleep. The step was completed successfully. The next one was not. Let me explain. My foot points strait down when fully asleep so my toe was under me and not the flat of my foot. It twisted knocking me into the wall then I crumpled down onto my left leg and turned my upper body to take the rest of the fall with my hands. It felt like a rubber band was being stretched on the outer right foot with a pop at the end of the stretch. The pain was immediate and very strong. Normally when hurt I jump right up and walk it off. Nope. Just laid there not letting anyone touch me. And yes, for all you pregnancy worriers I really did do a mental pain check of the belly area. None noted. However, even with no pressure put on my foot at all, after 45 minutes the pain had not lessened and there was no swelling. Yep, totally kept on my bitty ankle sock and the sensible tennis shoe I had on. There were also some weird cell outages in our area so it took about 15-20 minutes to actually speak with Guy. We do have a home phone... But the number is unknown to me (story for another time). Guy tried to call the new doctors office he loves but they didn't have any openings. I tried my normal primary care doc. No service, at all. The soonest I can get in is January and they have no x-ray anyway. So poor Guy came to pick me up even though he should have been resting before going to work tonight on the first of four 5 pm to 5 am shifts not to mention he also worked yesterday 8-5. We went to Urgent Care. My work refused to put this under workers comp stating I knew my foot was asleep when I tried to step. That got my blood pressure going. So after 3 hours at urgent care and a claim filed against my personal health insurance I have an avulsion. This is caused by my ligament tearing away a very small chunk of bone from the rest of the bone. These generally heal themselves, but require a followup visit and x-ray. They draped the crap out of me with the lead drapes and the ankle is pretty far from the babies. I have a hard splint which is the cast material on the backside of my calf down to my toes in the foot flat position with ace bandages wrapped around from top to bottom. The healing time for an average healer is 2-3 weeks to be able to walk on it (yep - stinky crutches with under arm bruises and hard to carry anything) and in 2-3 months feel good again with mild pain up til then. Sounds like a ton of fun. There is some minor pain in my right wrist from the impact. The urgent care did not have either an ultrasound nor a lab capable of testing if there was any trauma to the babies. I called my OB's office and was told by the receptionist that since there are no symptoms of baby stress there was no need to come in today, but to call if any show up suddenly as they can appear later.

I tried to bum some ice cream off the neighbors since Guy had to go to work, I need to gain weight, and it would be an easy meal. No go. They are all out.

My friend, Alesha, is going to be a super champ and help me with the photo session I have booked tomorrow. She has taken some sessions on her own and has assisted her dad for years. So this will be a big favor I owe her.

It only took me about 3 minutes to get the 10 feet from the kitchen with a big protein shake to the couch. Not bad, though I did try and put pressure on my foot a few times. Getting some food later will probably be a lovely issue though. I could crawl with a bowl or plate in one hand, but Moose will take this as an invitation.

And the other depressing thing from this morning is one of those two pounds I gained is gone again.... How much do I seriously have to eat to gain anything? Maybe I'm not meant to. Though I'm sure it will be traumatic for me when it actually happens. All that weight. Can't we just grow em & pop them out with just their weight. Then I could count my chub taken to grow babies already as it!

Last night we went over to Armondo and Alesha's house after dinner. Mondo has taken a job with the Gilbert Police department. Guy is going to help him drive his car out there when we go in January (I get to fly both ways!). Alesha is stuck here until the house sells. The market is definitely in a holiday slow down. They have made a lot of improvements to the home which should hopefully help it sell. Anyway, we played Ono. Loads of fun. My belly always hurts when we leave from laughing so much. One of their two boys (age 4 & 2) got in trouble when all the boys were playing. He pulled down his pants. Whooops. LOL Of course, it is funny, but no laughing so he doesn't learn it is OK to do again.

The night before that I went to finish the baby registry. Man that two hours wiped me out. And I totally want to remove 1/2 the clothes. Only 6 more days until the little ones cooperate and show us what they are! Then I can take most of pure neutral stuff off and put on the sex specific stuff. Though really I just want to put on the essentials and if anyone wants to pick something they like as a gift it is just fine! All but one of the addresses for the Phx shower are into the appropriate peeps. The one elusive one is my very oldest friends mom who really was like a second mom growing up. Misty and I were friends from our first year of 1st grade until now. We were really close (saw each other all the time) until the end of high school. Now we pick up and talk to each other every 6 months to a year and it's like no time has passed, but tons of new news to share.

Holiday news

This first photo is a photo of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic from the airplane as we left. Almost everything there was perfect, except for the food. It was mostly edible, but warmer then it should have been. Guy got the old issue people get in some countries. He still refers to it as Poopa Cana. lol We went there the summer before last for a long weekend. It was one of the cheapest trips ever! If we had gone to a bit more pricey of a place the food would probably have been better and still been a really cheap trip so we recommend it to everyone. And the country could certainly use the money. It has inspired me to do two things in life. I'm now over my fear of scuba diving after getting on one of those underwater scooters with a big bubble over your head. The other is to get some great upper body strength and learn how to (uggg the name is escaping me, but the other photo is of me trying) ride one of those surf boards with a sail things. It was the most frustrating experience ever. My upper body strength was not enough to lift the sale out of the water with all the water on it. But I'm determined to try again and still would love to learn to surf. Not sure how that will work with contacts and all. I can't see without them. And with them in the seawater makes them blurry for a second causing me to rub them and sometimes the impact with seawater will cause them to roll or pop out. lol. It all sounds like impossible dreams to me. Laser surgery is certainly appealing. Both my aunts had it and loved it. The last Optometrist I saw said there really is no need for me to get the surgery as even being the worst contact wearer he ever saw my eyes are in fantastic shape. How's that for a back handed compliment. I'm the worst because I wear the 1 week contacts that can be left in for about 3-6 months without ever removing them. Well, sometimes once if they get a bit dry on me for a day. He actually switched me to a new brand. These are the best yet. They have been in for a full 6 months with no break.

Well, now onto the holidays on off the weird ramblings. Tawni and Sam came to stay with us for the four days. It was very nice to have them. I certainly don't envy them the working out of the first year of marriage kinks and a pregnant lady on top of it. Tawni is doing well except for her diet. When someones only vegetables are french fries (not even mashed or baked potatoes) and breakfast cereal there are definitely some vitamins & minerals missing in the body. No wonder she is soooooo tired and pooped all the time. We had roast with mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, rolls and some delicious gravy. Sam was giving me a hard time about how I was planning on cooking the roast (when there was 3 hours till eating he asked why I didn't cook it all day) so I invited him to cook it. He declined. And it was my first roast so I was probably more prickly then I should have been considering I wasn't even sure how it would be cooked. Well, even with the silly roast still partially frozen it came out wonderfully tasty if a tad overdone for me. Guy was in hog heaven with a well done roast and the young marrieds just ate it. Of course, they said it was good when asked.

Tawni and I both pre registered at Babies R Us on Black Friday. We had a great time shopping with no crowds and a nice sit down lunch at Olive Garden. I was able to get quite a bit of prego clothes for only $70. Yeah, more choices now and enough to last thru a week. Tawni purchased a few smelly things at Bath and Body Works. Tomorrow my friend Melissa and I will go finish out the registry except for the majority of the clothes. December 6th is coming quickly! Hopefully those little chickens cooperate and show the goods so we can know what to expect and pick out the rest of the non neutral registry.

I have finally gained a pound! And my tummy seems to have grown a full inch over the long weekend. Only 20-30more to gain, and that's with counting my little bit of chub weight before getting pg being transitioned to belly(10-15 lbs). lol It doesn't even seem possible to gain that much. Believe me. I have been eating a lot for the last two months and it still isn't packing on. Today I had the most yummy pizza for lunch. My buddy Melissa B. and an old work buddy Michael met up at an Italian Restaurant.

For the super sad news. Both uncle Lance and uncle Clifford are not in good shape. Lance has been in the hospital and had some more scans done. They said the cancer is spreading and the time left is very short. Especially after having been estimated at a year and it is only 2 months later we are all very devastated! Clifford was more recently diagnosed and the final tests are in. They are only going to treat for pain management and the cancer is in a lot of his body making it impossible to treat. We went from having time and hope to imminent loss. I think about them often and hope and pray the time left is as pain free and meaningful as possible for them especially. Uncle Lance has no belief in God or an afterlife so I'm hoping he feels the love and guidance of the Holy Ghost as he gets closer to passing. And that he will not feel despair and hopelessness.

More news!

Richard & Allison (fed us dinner last night) had a little baby boy today!!! Wow, she went into labor and when it got time to get him out it took only 15 minutes of pushing. What a rock star!

Guy is officially predicting two boys for us. He told me that gem a little while ago.

Jamie (Guy's brother) let me know he will be coming down for our baby shower in PHX!!! And he will either bring the sisters or his family or everyone when he comes down! YEAH! How exciting.

I think that's it.

Food is lovely

No, this photo is not of food as the title implies. lol It was taken on some random trip outside our hotel. Most likely in CA since those are popular there.

This week was very interesting in the food department. My issues with food are going away. I'm feeling more normal in my timing of food. It is no longer a necessity to have food every single 1-2 hours depending on how big the last meal was. Now I'm getting back to my 'normal' 3-4 hours between meals. Very nice. The second trimester is definitely bringing me up to feeling more normal and not like a total wuss.

We were invited to our friends house on Sunday night. David & Nicole Sweeney. David stayed with us while they were separated due to his job relocation. Then the whole family came to stay with us the two weeks we were in Australia. It worked out perfectly for all of us. They had sold the old house the day we left and the new one would be ready the same day we were expected back. They needed a place to stay and we needed a Moose sitter. So they saved us $400 in boarding charges and we lent them a comfy place instead of a weekly motel. We had pot roast and played a great game called Catch Phrase. Never played it before and will definitely be buying it sometime. The boys won 2-1 rounds. They will gloat forever, I'm sure.

Monday my friend Melissa B. (since I also have Melissa A. in AZ) invited me over for dinner. Yummy! We always have interesting conversations. Her husband is very opinionated like me. She also made pot roast, but on the rotisserie cooker. The conversation at one point turned to who we thought would end up president of the US. Hmmmm. No consensus about who our countries people will vote for. It is in no way a clear cut race for either party or candidate.

Yesterday we were invited to Richard & Allison's house. Rich works with Guy at the police department. Allison is the cutest pregnant person I have ever seen. She does not look like she is 3 days form her full term 40 week mark! No swelling, just a baby bump, no waddle. We had lasagna. They showed us the 3D video they had done of the baby 10 weeks ago. It was really cool. They are waiting to find out the sex. She is going to be induced on Saturday so they will find out soon enough. I loved their house. Very pretty.

Today we had a big ham dinner at work with everyone bringing in something. There was tons of food, and we are all waddling around the office trying to stay awake till it's time to go home. I even ate a couple bites of pecan pie. For not being a desert person it was quite tasty. I have the late shift today and get off at 5:30 pm. Hopefully Tawni and Sam have left and are on their way. Sam got off work at 1pm and they were hoping to leave at 2pm. That would get them here about 6pm when I get home. Tomorrow we will have a roast for Thanksgiving. Do you think I'll be roasted out after tomorrow? lol

Oh, and you may have noticed. I finally figured out how to create seperate paragraphs in HTML. Not as easy as hitting the 'enter' button.

Friday Funky

Good and bad news today.

The photo is in Virginia Beach, VA. My aunt Karen, cousin Corey, me and Guy. My two aunties were in town visiting Corey where he is stationed in the army. Aunt Madelynn was in a conference most of the time. I think almost everyone in the whole family has tagged along with aunt Mady to all her conferences. The yearly national Game and Fish conference is the favorite as they have lots of activities for the tag alongs and go cool places. Anyway, we decided to go at the same time. Virginia Beach is so wonderful! We had a lot of fun. The aunties were teaching Guy how to play poker. He is a big fan of Blackjack, but we were playing the regular poker card games with some spare change. Aunt Karen had loads of change with her just for a poker occasion. Corey is living in the barracks so the aunties were kind enough to let us share their hotel room. We'd travel with them anytime! And we're looking forward to the next time we can.

My mom emailed me today to let me know that uncle Lance isn't doing so well. Aunt Karen was very worried about him the last time we talked a couple of weeks ago. My mom's comments were very grim. He has lost 30 pounds, has more trouble with his walking/motor skills, and is also thinking he is speaking clearly but the words are coming out garbled sometimes. I'm wishing right now I had tried harder to actually talk to them both over the last few weeks. Several times I have called both the home and her work but not left a voice mail when they were not available.

The OB coordinator called from my doctors office. She said the doctor is referring me to a perinatologist (better then an OB for prenatal care) for my 18 week u/s because it is twins! Wooo hooo! They are known to have much better u/s equipment and sometimes will use a 3D machine which is really really cool. Guy has reiterated it is ok for us to find out the sex because I really really want to. So hopefully we'll know in about 3 weeks. We also have a set date for our trip to Phoenix. My mom and good friend Melissa are going to throw a babies shower on 1/12/07. So for any Phoenix peeps put that date down in your calendar. Lock it it! Because it is coming up so quickly I have started to register already. But the whole not sure of the sex is holding me back. I'm so not a fan of yellow stuff and you can only handle so much green. Blue is OK for girls and boys, but if we get a girl then I want some girly stuff too. What a whiner huh? lol

Yesterday the 15th was our 5th anniversary. I forgot as usual and Guy remembered. He is such a great husband! We ended up going to Cracker Barrel for dinner because it was close. We generally do not do much for our birthdays and anniversaries. Some people ask us all the time how we have travelled so much the first years of our marriage. Well, not giving each other gifts for birthdays and anniversaries is one way we cut corners to travel. Since we both love to travel so much it suits us perfectly.

We saw the babies by ultra sound

Here are the u/s pictures from today. If you click on the picture it will make it nice and big for you. Baby A are the first two on the left. A is head and torso on the first one with a very clear hand with the thumb clear on the hand. The other on is facing us right below it. Baby B are on the right side. Both are a full body profile and the hand is barely showing by the mouth. The bottom two shots are both babies together. B is on the left upside down showing a full body profile. A is on the right with its head closest to B and torso showing. I don't know about you, but unless I see an u/s in motion I can't see anything in a still shot! Hopefully you have better luck if you are interested... If you aren't interested it is sooooo OK with me. Seeing them clearly not looking like aliens is really cool. It is amazing to me those little babies are just growing away inside me. No matter how much I eat still no weight gain. Just getting skinny everywhere except my belly which is growing slowly. My next OB appointment is on 12/6/07. We'll either schedule the big u/s to see how they are doing and sex or have it that day. Guy really doesn't want to know what they are, but I do for planning purposes. He said today it is my body so if I have to find out it is my choice. He is so great, but then it makes me feel guilty he doesn't really want to know. I'm still pretty set on finding out anyway though! We found out today the overall cysts have gone down, but the fibroid's are a little bigger. Yeah for the cysts going down! And hopefully the fibroid's don't grow anymore.

My baby sister

Here is a photo of my sister Tawni & her new hubby Sam. They were married about two months ago. And they just found out they are going to be parents! She is 7 weeks pregnant, and I am 13 weeks. We are going to have babies the same age! It's pretty surreal when I remember all the details of her being a little baby! She is 13 years younger then me. Her nausea has kicked in by showing up every afternoon/evening. She also just got a job at Target. The schedule they gave her is mostly afternoons and evenings. Hopefully the nausea will start to go away pretty quickly for her. Our mom is going to be swimming in babies soon!

Updates on the family and my doctor's appointment

Guy's sister, Melia, came out of surgery on Monday. The doc had some trouble determining exactly what the mass was so they took out the entire area of the gland. She was feeling much better after the surgery emotionally. She had a big problem with pain management in recovery, but said she felt better when I talked to her which was right when she arrived home. Now it is wait and see on the pathology report, and an update on how she is feeling now.


Here is the update on my Uncle Clifford from my mom in her words: They have given him a hormone shot and will be giving him radiation therapy. Not sure on how many treatments or anything like that. He is in pain all the time and the hope is that the radiation will shrink the bone cancer. Not sure what it will do for the prostrate.


Here's my update... The apt on Monday was with the same OB I didn't like. Still don't really like her. One perk at this office is they use the portable u/s machine to find the babies and then they can make sure they get each h/b. So we got to see them both briefly. They were both practicing to be Aussie Rules Football players kicking and kicking and kicking away. Guy said later he was excited because they finally look like babies and he saw them moving so much making it very real. The OB had a completely different opinion from the OB last week on my general health and tolerance for doing almost nothing. She basically treated me like I'm exaggerating how 'not up to anything' I am and the pain. Then she also said I really have to take it easy because I'm growing two people. Helllooooo, contradiction. Anyway we weren't sure what to think. So I'm just going to keep plugging away and trying to rest as much as my body tells me to. Yesterday I ended up taking a two hour nap at work! My friend brought in a cot for me... So now our conference room is a nap area. tee hee. Today I'm definitely feeling it is Wednesday and can't wait for home and bed tonight.

Monday morning news...

This is a photo from the Tower of London when we were in London 2 years ago over Thanksgiving weekend. Guy obviously loves it when I act goofy in front of the camera! :-)

The weekend of continued modified best rest was, you guessed it, BORING... Today is my follow up appointment to see how the babies are doing and what the doctor wants to do with me. After taking part of the week off last week and really taking it easy I'm feeling better, but still having some issues with pain.

Melia (Guy's sister) is going in for surgery this morning. I talked to her just a bit ago to give her my best. Now that it is almost here she seems more calm. She received a blessing yesterday and a call from Mum and Dad helped a bunch. Hopefully she will be alright and come out of this with the best possible outcome. The surgery is to remove a tumorus growth in her salivatory glands (yes I am making up words today). About 15% of these types of tumors are cancerous.

Our neighbors are all campaigning for us to stay in Raleigh instead of moving back to AZ in May. What a nice compliment. We have really enjoyed living here, and our neighbors are fantastic. I'll miss this house. It's too bad you can't get a nice Southern style home in Arizona. And trees! Love the trees here. Though builders here do tend to clear cut all the trees when building new construction which is so sad! Our house has about 12 full size trees, and 4 young trees. In the spring I decided to prune everything under 8 feet (as tall as the clippers would reach and I could still get leverage). Boy was I tired a couple of hours later. Guy drove our neighbors trailer around the yard cleaning up all the debris a few days later. I secretly think he was impressed at how much I clipped and made pretty.

Rest required

Over the weekend I was feeling a pain across my entire belly which caused me to walk hunched over like a tummy tuck patient. On Monday I woke up with a very sharp pain on my left side where the cysts are. I decided to go into the doctor. They got me in around 11 am. The appointment was with a nurse practitioner, but once I was getting checked in by the nurse assistant they upgraded me to an OB. He was really nice. We were able to talk about my cysts more in depth. He assured me the babies would not be growth restricted because they are outside the uterus (as well as the fibriods being on the outside) so the babies will determine their own growth. He also wasn't concerned at all about my lack of weight gain. What he was concerned about was the pain across my belly. He gave me a perscription for a safe narcotic (it's fun to say narcotic for some reason) and said I need to be on a modified bed rest. He said I need to take two days off work and be very lazy at home. I have been taking it easy, and will take Wednesday off work to rest. Hopefully, I wont need to take another day off but will if needed. I think this is coming from overdoing it last week. Up until now I have been resting every day after work and on the weekends. But the weekend before last Tawni (my sister0 and her new hubby Sam came to stay. I took and then did all the computer work on their photos working until they left on Sunday afternoon. On Saturday afternoon of the same weekend our travel buddies from Cincinatti OH came down with their 3 month old son. We spent time with them and also did their photos every day after work. So I think it was all just too much on the body at the moment. Hopefully after a super rest this week I can at least work and be lazy the rest of the time. The lack of money coming in would really suck if it starts this early.

First belly shot at 11 weeks

So here is the first belly shot at 11 weeks pregnant. Woo hoo, we'll be a third of the way on Tuesday 10/30! When Guy was lifting the camera to take the first shot.... I sucked in my stomach! Duh, we are trying to show off the belly not look slimmer. No weight gain so far, but all the fat I had is now firmly moved into creating the tummy.

The first comments

Hey everyone! Here is my new blog! It will be for my family and friends to keep up with Guy and I and the two little ones on the way.

It's finally raining here. We have had rain for two full days with today making three. It is making up for some of the super extreme droubt conditions we have had. The normal around here is to rain about one day a week thru the summer. It was more like one day a month this summer. Yea, for rain!

We have made it to 11 weeks pregnant with the little twiners. As most people know I am having issues finding an OB I like who will work with me on my pregnancy goals. With twins, my almost 35 age, having had fertility issues, having fibriods and having large cysts from the fertility drugs I am considered high risk. They really should monitor me including ultra sounds (noted as u/s from now on) at least once a month or less is OK if the cysts go away. Also, the first OB I saw was pushing a c-section already. A little soon for that! The next appointment is 11/5 so another update after that. We are still trying to get a belly shot so hopefully tomorrow. FINALLY. :-)

I just found out yesterday another uncle was just diagnosed with colan cancer which has gone into the bones. They will begin chemo soon. The prognosis is not good though. After a lifetime of no cancer in the family there are two poeple in two months! I'm not nearly as close to this uncle as my Uncle Lance. He really holds a special place in my heart and has had a lot of impact on my growing up years. So far Uncle Lance has gone thru radiation to shrink the tumors in his brain that were causing paralisis. He has also had two chemo treatments which are done once a month with 4 more scheduled. I'm so glad he has gotten his mobility mostly back!

Guy's sister Melia is also being seen for a tumor in her salivatory glands on 11/5. Not very many of this type of tumor are cancerous so I'm hoping this one stays benign. This type of tumor does have to come out though and they also take the glands it is near. This can create a lack of natural saliva depending on where they are. Just waiting on her appointment for now.

As most people know I disowned my dad two years ago after he crossed the line for the millionth time. We found Gracie on myspace a few weeks ago. So we are now in contact with her and she just reached the fabulous milestone of her sweet 16 birthday! Her parents know we talk and have said it is OK. Hopefully after the twins are born she can come visit us. I really don't want to wait until she is 18.

That's all for now. Trying to put too much info into one session.