It's a date.

Me @ 35 weeks
I can no longer fit into shoes.

Notice how I never actually made the 34 week update...Ah, well.

Now I'm 36 weeks along, and doing just fine for the most part. At about 34 weeks I was diagnosed with Cholestasis of Pregnancy, which basically means that my gallbladder isn't working as well, thanks to all those hormones and lack of space in my body. The result is a build-up of bile salts in the skin that makes me itch all over. There's also a risk to the babies, and therefore they recommended that if I hadn't gone into labor before week 37 they would induce me.

They put me on a pill to help bind up the bile in my body and send it on out, and wow, what a pill. I don't mean to be a whiner, but I was pretty proud of the way my body had been handling pregnancy -- I'd been feeling great, and this pill finally made me feel truly pregnant. The list of side effects* makes one wonder "who would willingly put that sort of thing in their mouth and swallow?" My body celebrated Memorial Day with my first ever pregnant lady throw up extravaganza accompanied with a nice gastrointestinal (distress) number. A nice way to memorialize the pregnancy, I'd say. My body is so thoughtful.

Anyway, on a happier note, today we went in for our last growth ultrasound and Baby A is estimated at 6lbs 1oz and Baby B is estimated at 6lbs 5oz. Baby B is somewhat transverse, and after a lot of deliberation and thought we decided to schedule a C-section. So, we have a date!

We'll meet our boys this Tuesday, June 2nd sometime around 11:30am!

*Ursodiol 300MG - Common Side Effects: constipation; diarrhea; dry skin; gas; headache; indigestion; metallic taste; muscle or joint pain; nausea; skin rash; stomach pain; swellling; tiredness.

The Pregnant 'Idealist Portrait of a Teacher'

Here's what I look like now @ 31 weeks. At our appointment last week baby A was 3lbs 10oz. and Baby B was 3lbs. 11oz.

My visiting teachers came over last night and we had an engaging conversation during which one of them mentioned her score on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. I've never taken one and heeding her encouragement I found one online last night that is 72 questions long and took it. It's not the real thing, but this is what it said about me:

I am the

Idealist Portrait of the Teacher (ENFJ)

"Even more than the other Idealists, Teachers have a natural talent for leading students or trainees toward learning, or as Idealists like to think of it, they are capable of calling forth each learner's potentials. Teachers (around two percent of the population) are able - effortlessly, it seems, and almost endlessly-to dream up fascinating learning activities for their students to engage in. In some Teachers, this ability to fire the imagination can amount to a kind of genius which other types find hard to emulate. But perhaps their greatest strength lies in their belief in their students. Teachers look for the best in their students, and communicate clearly that each one has untold potential, and this confidence can inspire their students to grow and develop more than they ever thought possible.

"In whatever field they choose, Teachers consider people their highest priority, and they instinctively communicate personal concern and a willingness to become involved. Warmly outgoing, and perhaps the most expressive of all the types, Teachers are remarkably good with language, especially when communicating in speech, face to face. And they do not hesitate to speak out and let their feelings be known. Bubbling with enthusiasm, Teachers will voice their passions with dramatic flourish, and can, with practice, become charismatic public speakers. This verbal ability gives Teachers a good deal of influence in groups, and they are often asked to take a leadership role.

"Teachers like things settled and organized, and will schedule their work hours and social engagements well ahead of time-and they are absolutely trustworthy in honoring these commitments. Valuing as they do interpersonal cooperation and harmonious relations, Teachers are extraordinarily tolerant of others, are easy to get along with, and are usually popular wherever they are.

"Teachers are highly sensitive to others, which is to say their intuition tends to be well developed. Certainly their insight into themselves and others is unparalleled. Without a doubt, they know what is going on inside themselves, and they can read other people with uncanny accuracy. Teachers also identify with others quite easily, and will actually find themselves picking up the characteristics, emotions, and beliefs of those around them. Because they slip almost unconsciously into other people's skin in this way, Teachers feel closely connected with those around them, and thus show a sincere interest in the joys and problems of their employees, colleagues, students, clients, and loved ones."

Eh? Does that sound like me to you?

Here is my ENFJ broken down: E:11 N:62 F:12 J:22

• slightly expressed extravert
  
• distinctively expressed intuitive personality
  
• slightly expressed feeling personality
  
• slightly expressed judging personality
  

Interestingly enough, I took the test again this morning and the second time I was a Rational Portrait of a Field Marshall: E:11 N:62 T:1 J:33

So, evidently in the mornings I'm rational and by nighttime I'm an idealist.

If you have time, I'd love to see what you scored. Here's the link again. Nick was an ISTJ, (that's: introverted, sensing, thinking, judging) 'Guardian Portrait of the Inspector', but neither of us felt like the description truly fit him. Maybe I can convince him to take it again and see what happens.

Four and a half pounds of baby.

Here's an overdue shot of my belly progression:

This is me at 26 weeks, that is, almost 7 months.

At my appointment two weeks ago my doctor said I was measuring 5 weeks ahead of a singleton pregnancy. So, at 24 weeks I was measuring at 29 weeks (let me just take care of that math for you). At our ultrasound on Monday Baby B weighed 2.4 lbs and Baby A weighed 2 lbs. I'm finally feeling huge-ish, and that makes me nervous for the next two months.

Nick: In unrelated news, I finally fixed my music website so that you can actually get to it beyond the entry page.  Download some music, it's fun.

week 20 picture

I'm a little behind on these pregnancy development progression documentation things. As I'm writing this I'm at week 22, but here's a picture at week 20. It's not the best picture in the world, but I'm no photographer. Check out my friend Kelly or Rebecca for that, I'm so jealous of these photos. I should have been a photographer... (p.s. I owe this maternity shirt to Rebecca, thanks I wear it all the time, as you've probably seen.)


Anyway, there I am. You may also notice the haircut I got earlier that day. I took this photo using Nick's joby, which I highly recommend. It's an excellent gift, especially for men who never ask for gifts, you know the type.

My moms will be here in 4 days! I can't wait!

crazy 3D ultrasounds

Since I'm having twins the lovely medical personnel here have me come in every 2 weeks for ultrasounds. So we get to spy on our little guys a lot, which I enjoy. This week I had an intern practice on me which was very educational. Her instructor-nurse-lady walked her thru how to do everything, which let Nick and I learn along with her. I kind of wanted to ask for my turn each time the intern tried out something new.

Because she was learning it took a bit longer too and she had me laying pretty flat on my back, it actually felt like my head was lower than my legs, but that could have just been my perception. Anyway, at one point I asked if I could be raised up to an incline or something because I could feel all the blood running into my head and the instructor lady got all concerned that I was going to go down or something. I don't know, maybe I was, but she wouldn't be appeased until I rolled over so I was kind of on my side. That was interesting. At that point she took over to show my intern some things. One thing that I thought was really funny was that the whole time the intern was practising the instructor kept on saying "you don't have to push so hard...you don't have to push so hard..." I however was fine with the pressure being used on me. But this instructor lady, I tell you what, SHE pushed hard. She was crazy style all upon my belly. I almost told her "you don't have to push so hard" but I'm a little too mild mannered for that sort of thing.

So anyway, moving on, she pulled out the 3D ultrasound, which I wasn't expecting and took some shots of my li'l nudgers, as amy likes to call them ( I think it's amy, is it you amy?).
I was expecting aliens, but these turned out a little more baby like than I was expecting:

Baby A made us all laugh when he extended a nice and shapely pointer finger at his brother. Evidently he was letting us know that Baby B did it. That or he's number one, we can't be completely sure at this time, but I'm sure he'll let us know when we meet him.


Here's A's face (above), since you can't see it very well in the last shot. Woo hoo! I'm brewing up some cute babies! Does he look identical to his brother below?



Here's a nice one of Baby B, and I will admit that I think he's pretty cute, in a, you know, developing fetus sort of way.

So there you have it: Crazy 3D Ultrasound Technology. All those kids are contained in this, my 19-20 weeks-along-self. That means I'm 5 months pregnant, isn't that nuts?

Oh, they're in there. They like nudging and smacking me all day long to remind me about it.

Nick would like me to add that during the appointment he touched the viewing monitor and then realized there was a big sign on it that said "PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH MONITOR." But he was able to identify the 4 chambers of the heart.