Weekly Update: Week 24

Number of weeks pregnant: 24 weeks

Total weight gain in past week: 0 pounds. (I know, shocking. My doctor says it'll all even out. I just happened to gain 0 pounds this week, and 4 pounds 4 weeks ago.)

Most recent natural product purchase: I dyed my hair again with semi-permanent color. Most doctors will tell you that you can dye your hair while pregnant. I had one doctor who said she didn't recommend it, and I figured one being against it was good enough for me. (I know most of you probably think I'm overreacting.) In the last two months I started using a semi-permanent color with no ammonia or peroxide that I can only find at Sally's Beauty Supply. This was my second time dyeing my hair. The downside is that I now have to dye my hair once a month instead of once every three.

New pregnancy symptom I've noticed: I now have a faint temporary line going down my stomach-- it fades after pregnancy. I hoped that I was too fair to get them (finally my paleness paying dividends!), but no. I get to burn after 5 seconds in the sun and get a line down my stomach.

Other new pregnancy symptom: Whenever I stand I feel like I need to pee - even if I just peed. It goes away when I sit down. (It would be funny if it went away when I was sitting on the toilet. Well, not really funny...)

Food cravings: Pizza again - especially from Little Star or Amici's.

Baby gift: My mother-in-law's friend, Elaine, made us really cute baby quilts. About a month ago we picked out the designs we wanted from some pictures she sent us and we chose two designs with safari animals because they were the cutest (we can't resist a cute elephant) and went with our nursery safari animal theme. Mark is sad he can't claim a quilt (or two) for himself.

Quilt A

Mark points out his favorite part of the quilt. Mr. Pillar.

Mark promptly scrunches up the quilt.
Bad Mark! It's not a blanket!

Quilt B

Bad Mark! That can leave wrinkles!

Used thing I'm most excited about: Boppy from Andrea, bag of baby girl clothes from Julia.

Maternity clothing news: I can no longer wear my non-maternity pajama bottoms. The only things that fit me on the bottom now are my maternity jeans and maternity corduroys. I also outgrew my borrowed maternity shorts. Now I have to wear my maternity jeans to work out, but thankfully my exercise now only consists of walking. Mark often comes with me.

What I've learned: It's best to get help when getting up from being seated on the ground. Mark and I saw War Games outside on a blanket at Google and it was really tough getting up. (At home I roll over to a kneeling position to get up, but I didn't have that luxury on a small blanket on the grass.) By the way, War Games is awesome.

Would you like to play a game? It's called "not being able to get back up once you're sitting on the ground". The only winning move is not to play.


Other news this week: We made an offer on a third house. (We also did a stake out to see how much noise would be generated by the two preschools located behind it. Answer: Surprisingly not that much noise.) But we lost to someone who bid all in cash. Again.

Our friend Sophie (of throwing up in her sink fame) is a professional photographer specializing in maternity photography. How lucky is that? She did a photo session with us which was a lot of fun. When she's done Photoshopping us to make us look beautiful I'll post the photos here. We ate the same pizza I threw up in her sink afterwards (well, not the exact same pizza) and surprisingly eating there didn't repulse me at all.

Also, Mark painted my toenails! Unfortunately he did not allow me to take pictures. I told him it was too hard for me to reach them anymore so he had a choice - pay for a pedicure or paint them himself. While painting them he complained that when I do it, I don't allow enough time for my base coat to dry before applying color.

Weekly Update: Week 23

Number of weeks pregnant: 23 weeks

Total weight gain in past week: 2.5 pounds

Most recent stress out about how something I've eaten or done has hurt the twins: I haven't stressed out recently but I did ask at Sweet Tomatoes if their feta was pasteurized. (If you're pregnant you're not supposed to each unpasteurized cheese.) The manager tried to tell me they didn't have feta. I said, "What about on the Greek salad, the couscous, and the Greek pizza?" "Ohhh," she said. "That feta..." Thankfully it was pasteurized so I was able to eat my first feta since learning I was pregnant.

New pregnancy symptom I've noticed: I get tired easily while getting ready in the morning. It's especially bad when I'm getting ready and one of us has just taken a shower - I think the heat in the bathroom makes it worse. Often I do a task like brush my teeth and then have to sit down a few minutes, then I get up and do my hair and have to sit down again. I've had to add 10-15 minutes to my getting ready time in the morning, and depending how I'm feeling it is sometimes still not enough.

Other new pregnancy symptom: I've had this symptom for awhile but it hurts to twist my body when laying down (to say, reach for a glass of water from bed). Turning over while laying down is quite a task, too. It's definitely not something I would be able to do in my sleep.

Food cravings: Pasta with vodka sauce (the vodka's cooked off) and garlic bread. Can you tell I ate at Lotsa Pasta this week?

Baby gift: Boy and girl pajamas from my mom and dad for my birthday (plus maternity tops).

They have feet!


Used thing I'm most excited about: Vibrating chair and maternity clothes from "Kate Ran." (I've already worn four of the tops.)

Maternity clothing news: I didn't realize before how all my shoes involve a heel. (What can I say? I love a heel.) Right now I'm wearing shoes with 1 inch and 2 inch heels because they're the shortest ones I have. I've known for awhile I need shoes. I just can't find any I like. (And I only want slides because my feet might be a half size bigger after the babies.)

My mom noticed that my ankles were swollen after the drive from San Jose to San Diego. She pointed out that I no longer had ankle bones. (Where have all the ankle bones gone? Long time passing...) (Side note: Mr. Kathy is also missing one of his ankle bones but that's because he crushed it once with a bowling ball.) The day after we drove back from San Diego my feet really ballooned, but have since gone down in size. I try to lay down with them elevated. Mark likes to say that I have "cankles." Sweet guy.

I apologize ahead of time for the gross picture to follow.

Brace yourself.

AAAAAAAAHHHH! My swollen feet and ankles. It was only this bad for two days.

My cankle doppleganger.

What I've learned: Not to stay seated in the car so long on road trips. (Getting up every 2 hours is not enough.)

Weekly Update: Week 22

Number of weeks pregnant: 22 weeks

Total weight gain in past week: 2.5 pounds

Most recent stress out about how something I've eaten or done has hurt the twins: My OB told me not to worry about the cream (possibly with retinol) and body wash (with salicylic acid) that I used early on without knowing they were bad. (Products with those ingredients really should have labels telling pregnant ladies not to use them!)

Most recent natural product purchase: For my birthday Rachel R gave me the gift of deodorant. It was because of a discussion about natural deodorants (a.k.a. hippie deodorants) in which I referred to them as "placebo deodorants," and of course also because I reek. The Nature's Gate deodorant she gave me in lemongrass scent is the one I've been using now. It works better than Liken, my previous hippie deodorant, but sometimes by the end of the day I smell like a lemon-scented hobo. Someone online suggested applying it to a large radius around your pits in addition to the pits. It does work better but I feel like a little girl with no coordination putting on lipstick everywhere by the lips.

In case you're wondering there are actually hippie deodorants that come in patchouli scent. Did they do a hippie focus group to come up with that? I'm surprised there aren't hemp or hackysack, or worse, B.O. scents.

Combine these two into one intoxicating scent.

New pregnancy symptom I've noticed: My belly button is on the verge of becoming an outie. Right now it just looks confused. I have a very shallow innie so it might not come out at all, but the skin around it is turning white (or should I say "whiter" since I'm already on the white shade of super pale) like it wants to pop out but can't.

Other new pregnancy symptom: My back hurts more at work since I have to sit farther and farther from my desk to accommodate my growing belly.

Food cravings: Pineapple again. I cut up another whole one. Also, walnuts.

Baby gift: Knit boy and girl hats made by the really sweet manager of AG Ferrari who also is a twin. (Clearly I eat out too often.)

Knit hats from AG Ferrari manager, Louise


Used thing I'm most excited about: Maternity clothes from April. (April also was nice enough to go through the entire "must have" list from the Babies R Us registry to tell me what we will really need.)

Maternity clothing news: I started wearing cotton dresses. They are very very comfortable...

What I've learned: Mark's going to need to start tying my shoes soon.

Weekly Update: Week 21

Number of weeks pregnant: 21 weeks

Total weight gain in past week: 2 (I overtook Mark in poundage on Wednesday.)

Most recent stress out about how something I've eaten or done has hurt the twins: Worrying about the coffee ice cream in my free scoop of Baskin Robbins Jamocha Almond Fudge. I had a terrible time falling asleep that night and Mark (my partner in ice cream crime) did, too.

Jamocha Almond Fudge: Friend or Foe?


Most recent natural product purchase: Mother's Special Blend Skin Toning Oil. Doctors say there's nothing proven to keep stretch marks at bay, but since I'm having twins I figure rubbing this stuff all over three times a day won't hurt. Good news: It's made from all natural products: almond oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, and Vitamin E oil so I smell like one of my mother-in-law's chocolate coconut bars (included in the cookie suitcase from her last visit). Bad news: I have a designated towel to sit on afterwards since I get pretty greasy.

New pregnancy symptom I've noticed: Kicking! For the past week I thought I might have felt kicking but wasn't sure if it was just a gurgling stomach, but then Twin B (the girl) definitely kicked on Sunday night, and Twin A (the boy) has been kicking all week. Mark finally felt baby kicking on Thursday.

Other new pregnancy symptom: Itchy tummy. It's been itchy for awhile but it's really itchy lately, which of course means more growing to come.

Food cravings: Pizza. And many times this week I've had to um... deposit liquid assets, so pizza is a no-no.

Used thing I'm most excited about: Maternity clothes and books from Kelsi/Rachel R.

Maternity clothing news: My maternity jeans are already too tight in the belly, and the maternity shorts for the gym are about to bite the dust, too. I have a couple non-maternity skirts I can still wear but only one matching top meets the fit-over-entire-tummy criteria.

What I've learned: Don't feed a baby Clamato and have them do jumping jacks. We learned this after watching one year old Rivven. She threw up into Rachel's cleavage when Rachel came to pick her up, and apparently this was the first time she's puked. (Okay, we didn't actually feed her Clamato and have her do jumping jacks.) I think we were let off the hook when Rivven puked some more at home and Rachel came down with the same stomach flu.

The only thing worse than Clamato?

Weekly Update: Week 20

Number of weeks pregnant: 20 weeks

Total weight gain in past week: Um, 4 pounds. (Yeah, yeah, I'm having twins, okay?)

Most recent stress out about how something I've eaten or done has hurt the twins: Bending forward to paint my toenails hurt afterwards; eating sea bass a month ago after reading it was safe in What to Expect When You're Expecting and reading elsewhere recently it's not so good if you're preggers.


Sea bass at The House. How can something so good possibly be bad?


Most recent natural product purchase: Hippie deodorant with no aluminum.


As a sign of the effectiveness of my new hippie deodorant, I call it "placebo deodorant."


New pregnancy symptom I've noticed: Bending forward at the waist is really tricky. I have to do a sneak attack on my shoes from the side in order to tie them. And forget sitting on the floor instead of a chair to tie them— I'd never get up.

Other new pregnancy symptom: Feeling warm. I've had this symptom for awhile and so far I like it. Finally I'm not the coldest one in the room and don't have to drag my sweater everywhere— even in the summer.

Food cravings: Mango (about the size of each baby). But I wouldn't say any of my cravings have been stronger than they were when I wasn't pregnant.

Used things I'm most excited about: 3 bags of boy baby clothes from co-worker Andrea; maternity clothes from Rachel P.; books from Alison; Baby Bjorn from Jenn.

Maternity clothing news: On top: half maternity wear, half pre-pregnancy clothing; on bottom: all maternity wear. Pre-pregnancy dresses and skirts... barely.

What I've learned: Don't stay on your feet too long.

Weekly Update: Past 19 Weeks

Today I'm starting a new blog feature— the weekly update. This one, however, will cover the past 19 weeks.

Number of weeks pregnant: 19 weeks

Total weight gain in past 19 weeks: 19 pounds.

Most recent stress out about how something I've eaten or done has hurt the twins: Eating tiramisu (I was worried about the alcohol but it's the eggs that make it a bad idea).

Most recent natural product purchase: Semi-permanent hair dye (no ammonia or peroxide) in week 19 so my hair's back to red.

New pregnancy symptom I've noticed: Must go to the bathroom at least once in the middle of the night and many times during the day (I used to be a camel— but with urine. Often on workdays I'd go before I left the house and again at 4 p.m. or later.)

Other pregnancy symptom: I'm getting slower and slower going up five flights of stairs to our apartment (yes, there's an elevator). My hips and thighs hurt when I sleep on my side too long (from the extra weight?). Also, I sometimes experience light headedness and in one case, blurred vision.

Food cravings: (Don't read this, Mark's family) Bacon and Pineapple. I also bought pickles a few weeks ago (but not because I had some crazy craving for them).


Between cravings for bacon and pineapple, it seems like a Hawaiian pizza would be perfect. However, this looks rather repulsive.


Used thing I'm most excited about: Activity mat and activity seat from co-worker Jenn; maternity clothes from Rachel R and co-workers Jenn, Julia, and Nicole; travel breast pump kit, baby carrier and books from April G (I've been holding onto them for over a year).

In maternity clothing news: Maternity corduroys!

I've never seen a higher waistband than on my new maternity corduroys. But by the eighth month that waistband may be south of my belly button.


What I've learned: The nutrition class I took at Kaiser that I thought would be a waste of time, wasn't. Daily I try to figure out what food groups I've had during the day and bend my meals and snacks at night to minister to any deficiencies.