NZSL class

So last night had to be one of the funnest NZSL classes that we've had in a long time. Our tutor has completely changed the format of the classes and has really stepped up the content as well. Which meant I was lagging behind quite a bit as I missed the last class and my vocab just isn't as good as everyone elses. but everyone was very encouraging and patient as i struggled through various pieces of dialogue.

we also announced the pregnancy (in sign, i might add!) and much excitement ensued. and also led to the tutor (Tim) telling us about his 13 week old baby! We had no idea! it was fascinating to hear that both him and his wife  are deaf, but the baby is hearing, and so we all wanted to know how they can tell if the baby is crying, especially in the middle of the night.   turns out they have a special monitor that flashes lights and vibrates if the baby is crying. and Tim has also started sleeping with his hearing aid in. He can't hear what people are saying, but he can hear sounds, so wakes up easily if the baby makes a noise. so interesting and what clever inventions!

12 week update

How far along? 12 weeks

Baby size: 5 cm and 5.3 cm

Total weight gain/loss: nothing yet, been a slight decrease of 2 kgs all up.
Maternity clothes? Not yet.
Stretch marks? Nothing yet.
Sleep: Sleeping well except for the occasional need to get up and pee. Or when I watch birthing videos and look up twin skin and freak myself out haha

Best moment this week: How lovely Josh has been lately. Making me breakfast, walking with me, and not making too much fun of me when I cry at silly things.
Movement: Still too early for me to feel anything

Food cravings: Still just fruit and spicy food.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Lots of things these days! Yoghurt. Veges. Anything sugary (eg., chocolate biscuits) or too greasy/buttery. And non-spicy food just tastes like cardboard :(  And if I have a sleep in and don't eat when i normally eat, I throw up. And if I don't drink enough I throw up. I've been more sick this last week and a half than throughout the rest of the trimester. Not happy!

Have you started to show yet: I've got a bit of a baby bump happening. And today I wore a dress that used to be a little bit too big for me around the boob area. Fits perfectly now :)
Gender: It's going to be a surprise!  But we are guessing boys for now.

Symptoms: Need to pee alot, crying over random stuff, so tired, HUNGRY all the time. Been sick another two times this week, and I feel queasy ALL day :( Headachy too
Labor Signs: No signs yet 

Things I miss:  sushi, blue cheese, feta, ham, alchohol and my gym classes. And being MS free

Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On, and kind of falling off at the moment. These babies are sucking up all the food I eat.
Looking forward to: Getting the blood test results to complete the NT scan/assessment. 

Telling the fam bam and a freak out

We were going to wait until I'd passed the 12 week mark before telling the rest of the family that I'm preggers...but once we found out that there are TWO babies, well, we just couldn't keep it to ourselves any longer.

Telling Sharen was the funniest, as she totally freaked and swore her head off for a good 2 minutes. And Shaz is not really a swearer, so was hilarious to hear her mouthing off haha. She also said it was always her dream to have identical twins. Had no idea!
Josh's mum cried, and his dad looked a little shell shocked.
My father said "shit" haha and then told me that he couldn't keep this a secret, he just had to tell the world. My mother surprisingly said,  "i was expecting this". Seems she figured that as Josh's dad is a twin and Josh was supposed to be a twin, I had a high chance of having a twin myself.  I didn't think to tell her that identical twins aren't genetic, so the fact that Josh's family has a history of twins has nothing to do with our two little ones.  and she also reckons that many, many, many years ago, she saw a fortune teller who told her that there would be twins in the family. 
My brother and nieces were excited and josh's grandparents, well, they were over the moon. Insisted on making us dinner which was sooo yummy. And they had champagne while i drank my water. oh champagne, how i miss you.
josh's brother and partner were very excited, but a little bummed as they are relocating to another country at the end of the year. they did however promise to try and get a 3 or 4 bedroom place on the gold coast so we can come and visit :)
josh's other brother and sister in law were excited but of course wanted to give us advice and tell us how hard having a baby is, etc. always so negative, those two! of course i know this will be hard work, but i am hoping we'll have more fun with being parents than what they seem to be. famous last words ha!

oh yes, i also saw my friends that night, who just happen to be identical twin girls. of course i had to tell them and was expecting them to say "identical twins are awesome! this is awesome!" but they said "congratulations" and "that's harsh, having identical twins as your first baby(s)"....
which totally freaked me out. I'd been so calm about all of this up until that point. but once i got home i could not sleep and the more i thought about what they had said, the more i started to think how impossible this whole thing would be.

by the morning, i'd worked myself into such a state, and so, crying and crying, i called my mum. sobbing down the phone, i told her I was scared. and i don't know how i'm supposed to carry two babies in my tummy, let alone look after them. and will i ever be able to leave the house?! and if i want to visit them in aus, will i even be allowed on a plane with two babies if I am travelling on my own?

mum was absolutely brilliant, and said all the right things. told me that of course i'm scared. it's scary enough being pregnant with your first child, so having two would scare anyone. and if i want to leave the house, i'll just have to get a big old double pram and i can plop them both in and that will be that. and she said if i'm tired and the babies are crying, just take them both to bed with me and we can all spend the day in bed. just maybe get a bigger bed haha.
she wasn't sure about the travelling bit, but i guess we'll work that out later.  everything she said made sense, and is what josh had been telling me as i was crying in bed, but i guess sometimes you just need to hear from your own mother that everything is going to be okay. even when you are all grown up :)

anyway, my mum obviously told my sister about the phone call, and now they have put together a schedule of when they will be coming over to nz to help me out. it is brilliant as it looks like i will have support for part of the month, every month for at least the first 6 months.

I'm a big believer in the saying "it takes a village to raise a child", so really glad that my "village" is rallying around already. These twins are going to be so loved x

A glimpse into the future...

You know you are a twin (or more) parent when:

You get excited when you see a buy one get one free sale.
It drives you crazy when you're singleton mom friends complain about being tired or how hard it is with one baby.
Every time you leave your house you feel like a D-list celebrity.
You can't leave your house without being stopped by random strangers.
You avoid going certain places because your double stroller won't fit.
You pick your grocery store based on whether their carts can hold 2 children.
You constantly have a mental tally in your head of who you held last, who pooed, who ate, etc.
You reheat the same cup of coffee 17 times before you finally finish it.
You can use your feet just as well as your hands.
You've mastered the skill of carrying two babies at the same time.
One days worth of bottles fills up most of your dishwasher.
While you're out you realize one child has 2 left shoes on and the other has on 2 right.
Your diaper bag has enough stuff in it to last a single baby an entire month.
You automatically multiply everything by 2.
You go to the dentist (your least favourite place) and you consider it a break.
Going anywhere with one baby seems too easy.
You never get a hot meal.
You're so scatterbrained that you put the milk in the cupboard and cereal in the fridge.
You have no time to go to the gym but after months of carrying your twins around your biceps look better than ever.
You can simultaneously feed a baby, bounce the other, talk on the phone and respond to emails.
A friend you haven't seen in months announces she's pregnant. You think to yourself "she must be in the middle of her second trimester" and she says "my doctor is going to induce me Monday if I don't go into labour this weekend".
You go out without your twins and people don't recognize you.
You have to do the kids' laundry every 2 days.
You base your decision on which car to buy on whether your stroller will fit.
You wish you could make 5 cents every time you're asked "are they twins" cause you know you would be a multi-millionaire.
People feel the need to ask you very personal questions such as "do twins run in your family"? Or "are they natural"?
When you see people struggling with one baby you think to yourself "I can do that with my eyes closed."
You take the babies out for the day and what you've packed looks like you're going away on vacation for a week.
You're constantly calling one by the others name and vise versa.
To be somewhere on time you need to start getting ready 3 hours before.
You start wondering what all the mothers with single babies do in their extra spare time.
You can no longer make it past 9 pm. In fact, the thought of it scares you.
You lie to your paediatrician about how often you bathe them. Every day? Of course.
You have an infinite amount of patience and energy and an incredible sense of humor.
Your living room looks like a BabieRUs.
You ask all your friends how their "babies" are doing instead of "baby".
You go to an appointment alone and have no problem waiting in the waiting room...forever!
You haven't been alone in your house since the day you came home from the hospital.
You discover a fully-fenced in park and don't care how long it takes you to drive there.
You spend your days either listening to hysterical laughter as they entertain each other or hysterical crying as they torture each other

How far along? 11 weeks

Baby size: About the size of a fig.

Total weight gain/loss: nothing yet, been a slight decrease of 2 kgs all up.
Maternity clothes? Not yet.
Stretch marks? Nothing yet.
Sleep: Sleeping well except for the occasional need to get up and pee. And had to have a midnight snack last night of peanut butter on toast and a glass of milk.

Best moment this week: Finding out we are having TWINS! Crazy, wonderful, exciting news!
Movement: Still too early for me to feel anything

Food cravings: Still just fruit and spicy food.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Anything sugary (eg., chocolate biscuits) or too greasy/buttery. And non-spicy food just tastes like cardboard :(

Have you started to show yet: I've got a bit of a baby bump happening
Gender: It's going to be a surprise!  But we are guessing boys for now.

Symptoms: Need to pee alot, crying over random stuff, so tired, HUNGRY all the time. And been sick twice this week. Hopefullly this stops soon.
Labor Signs: No signs yet 

Things I miss:  sushi, blue cheese, feta, ham, alchohol and my gym classes

Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On, and kind of falling off at the moment. These babies are sucking up all the food I eat.
Looking forward to: Getting the blood test results to complete the NT scan/assessment, so we can finally start telling people!

11w6d scan

My identical twins at 11 weeks 6 days. So cute!

That shit cray!

Sorry for the hiatus! Things just got a little crazy!

It all began when we had our first scan on 14th June 2012. An image of a perfect, tiny little baby popped up on the screen, and for a second I freaked and thought it was dead because it didn't move at all. but the scanner lady (i know she has a proper title but my mind has gone blank) piped up and said yup, baby is looking good and has a strong heartbeat.

so then i was just excited. because it was just like all the images i've seen in the movies/online and was just perfect. i couldn't believe it was inside me! She did say it was measuring smaller than expected, which means my dates are out by about 11 days.  and as she moved the wand around, i swear i saw a flicker of something. just  a little blob at the edge of the screen. but then it was gone in a split second. and the next couple of words out of the lady's mouth were - how do you feel about two?

At which point i broke into hysterical giggles while josh sat there stunned, looking like he was going to faint. and then we were saying "are you serious", "are you sure", "i knew it" (that was josh)", and "it's your fault" (that was me whilst pointing at josh and giggling some more).

so josh reckons he'd been talking about the possibility of twins with his mother just 3 days before the scan. but he hadn't said a word to me the whole time. and i'd googled twins and it said that the twin gene runs through the mother and as there are no twins in my family, i didn't think twins were very likely.

the lovely lady had a closer look at the twins so she could figure out what type they are and then told us that they are identical. josh got her to check that they weren't conjoined, and also that there wasn't a 3rd one, and thankfully they aren't and there wasn't. phew!  So, seems like we are lucky enough to be having identical twins, which aren't genetic, and are just completely random. A gift from god apparently :)

So i was super excited and couldn't stop laughing and josh was looking more and more shocked. To the point where i was worried he was going to pass out or vomit. What a crazy and wonderful surprise!

For some weird reason, i felt better knowing there are two babies inside of me. As silly as it sounds, I like the idea of them having company and not being alone. and oh my gosh, what a crazy adventure this will be. Looking forward to meeting the babies and learning about identical twins and hopefully, between the 4 of us, we'll be able to figure this all out x We are going to be a family :)