Beckett tells us about his babies

Beckett likes to go to the midwives with me. They let him hold the doppler and help listen for the babies heartbeats. So one day after my last appointment he started playing baby. He's telling me right now that his babies were just born and they are twins and both boys. And they can jump. "Jumping babies in the house. Jumping babies in the house today!" is the chant he is currently singing. I hope he's not too disappointed when our babies don't immediately jump after birth.

I also just learned that Beckett bought his twins from the baby store. "All of them are so cute but you have to be soft to them and not hurt them."

V is for Vertex

This is currently my favorite picture in the world. Why?, you ask. It looks rather similar to a sort of boring picture of circles you posted a few weeks ago. Well, this time it shows two HEAD DOWN babies. They've wiggled around and are no longer in bunk beds. I thought I felt some big movements going on. Now they're next to each other so I can expand width wise instead of them trying to reach my chin. At any rate with Baby A head down that means I'm on track for the VBAC. I am thrilled. I'm 29 weeks so there is less chance that they are going to flip into breech as there is just going to be less and less room from here on out.

Their estimated weights are 2 lb 12 oz and 2 lb 13 oz. So they're still about the same size which is great. All heads, bellies, arms and legs are still the sizes they should be. The babies are in about the 40th percentile and that is based on singleton measurements. This is around the time when they start falling off the singleton growth curve so our doctor is very pleased with their size and growth and says they're doing great for twins, and really for any baby. In fact our perinatologist mentioned to me that this pregnancy must be a lot less stressful for me than the last one even though it's twins. He said, "I know twins are 'high risk', but they're not really high risk high risk like you had last time." I know that well and I am amazed that at 29 weeks 2 babies are the size of my 32.5 week baby. They're doing so well he doesn't need to see me again for 3 weeks. Alright! Grow babies, grow!

The babies are already learning to take turns. This week Baby A wanted to be the star of the photo shoot and Baby B only got one shot.

3-D shot of Baby A's face.

Baby A profile.
Baby B's hand. He was shy and didn't want to take pictures this week.

**Update** I just returned from my latest prenatal visit and my glucose levels were perfect at my diabetes test. Yes! Another complication dodged. I am a little bit anemic. However, this is the point when babies are reaching peak blood volume so I am within the acceptable dip they expect to see at this point. I am already taking iron, but I'll up it to two pills a day and see if that can't bump me up a little more.

A Warm Day

It finally felt like spring might actually be on its way. After days of rain and some random bitterly cold temperatures we had a day when it was a pleasure to be outside.

We played golf. We kicked the soccer ball around. We found the garden tools in the garden where they'd gotten buried by snow during winter and then dug. We even found little green shoots heralding the spring that is to come.

One of the best things though was the walk we had around our neighborhood. As Beckett walked ahead of us, I held one of Ciaran's hands, and we all walked down the sidewalk together. Suddenly it hit me that this was the first family walk we'd ever had where everyone was walking. Ciaran had progressed enough that he could walk along the uneven sidewalk with me and had the stamina to do it not only that walk, but later as we followed Beckett riding his bike around. It was a wonderful moment. I was so happy that my little low tone guy who was so uninterested in being upright was loving being up on his own two feet.

And here is our Beckett bike riding dude.

Good News and Bad News

Poor Ciaran has a double ear infection. Oddly this is the first ear infection either of my children have ever had. It's pretty miserable. Ciaran was a mess, so grumpy and out of sorts. My weaned child nursed for a half hour before his nap yesterday, that's how awful he felt. But after two doses of amoxicillin he's his happy self again. We'll take it easy this weekend, but hooray for antibiotics!!

On to the good news. We got into the Mamaroneck Avenue Pre-K Program!! Lest you think I am the mother named Moon in the Nursery University documentary, I am not. This program is free! Hooray! We got a call yesterday saying it turns out they did have enough space for all the kids and we don't have to enter the lottery. We'll be getting information about what session/times he'll be attending in the next week or two. We've had friends attend this program, our landlord's children did, and Ciaran's PT's kids have gone there. They have all had wonderful things to say about it. So not only is free good, but he'll actually learn stuff too. It is a relief with two extra little friends coming along that we won't have the expense of Pre-K and I won't have to deal with trying to do a Joy School type situation when I am crazy with fatigue.