What Came First - the Chicken or the Eggplant?

Weeks 25-28 (Month 6)



From TheBump.com:
Let your spouse put an ear to your belly -- he might be able to pick up baby's heartbeat (no stethoscope required). Inside the womb, the formation of tiny capillaries is giving baby a healthy pink glow. Baby's also soaking up your antibodies, getting the immune system ready for life outside the womb. Eyes are forming, and baby will soon perfect the blink -- perfect for batting those freshly grown lashes.

I want to go home and try out the hearing-the-baby's-heartbeat game. If the babies have my genes they'll be able to blink, but never wink.

Nobody Puts Baby in a Coroner

I already know this post will be more about Patrick Swayze than the babies...


I felt kicking and it was during the worst movie ever made!

I was supposed to feel kicking between weeks 18 and 22. And for a week I'd feel a little shudder at times but thought it could just be my stomach gurgling. And then Sunday night (halfway through my 20th week), I felt it again but slightly more so. And then I looked down and saw my stomach move!

We were watching Road House at the time. You see, my birthday is the same date (different year of course) as Patrick Swayze so I decided to celebrate my birthday "Swayze style" by forcing my friends to watch watching Road House with my friends for the first time. Mark got me a cake that had Swayze written all over it, and Lila gave me a musical Dirty Dancing Christmas ornament that repeated different quotes from the movie. Brendan put together a game where he took pictures of Patrick and his brother, Don Swayze's co-stars and made them virtually unrecognizable with Photoshop filters. We all had buzzers and tried to see who could first identify the co-star (each person had four levels of obfuscation from crazy hard to none). Here's the awesome game (which is on the verge of taking Facebook by storm).


My Swayze cake perched on my baby bump.

Brendan was so inspired by Road House that he made a website:
Everything I Needed to Know I Learned by Watching Road House

But I digress.

Patrick Swayze was probably kicking ass and taking names, shirtless no doubt, when Twin B (the girl) started kicking. I twice put Mark's hand on my belly to feel it, but Twin B felt performance anxiety and stopped.

I've felt kicking daily since then. The first kicks during Road House were from Twin B, but it's usually Twin A (the boy) kicking up a storm. Mark has felt them kick many times now. I read that baby kicks feel like butterflies, but I thought they felt more like flutter kicking in water.

This party was in August. And two weeks later Brendan and I sang a karaoke duet of She's Like the Wind. Sadly, Patrick passed away a week later. That day I received three condolence gmail chat/text messages. Here's the transcript of me learning the news on Gmail chat:

5:30 PM Brendan: my sincerest condolences on your loss.

me: what loss?

Brendan: <>

i can't bear to break the awful news.

5:31 PM me: not swayze!

In case you're interested, here's my Patrick Swayze decor:



This sign still hangs in our living room.

I think in total I hung 20 pictures illustrating Patrick Swayze's moods. Again, they are still up. A few are below.

Yeah, this post was about 95% Swayze, 5% babies. Sorry.

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.)

Kathy's Preggers Birthday

I had lunch at Google with Mark, Lila, and Brendan on my birthday last month.


Mark and I with our future Googlers.
(Uh oh... Mark, that's not a name idea!)


Wait. What does that Google registration sticker across my belly say?


Extreme belly close-up!
We considered getting three different stickers (one for me and one for each twin) but thought the better of it.

Twin Shirt

My high school friend Lauren who has 3 year old boy twins (and survived!) sent me this super cute shirt with twin thought balloons.


This picture was taken a month ago and I've definitely grown into it since then.


I stupidly took a close-up picture while I was wearing it instead of laying it flat.


Since the twins have started kicking in the last several weeks, this shirt is becoming more and more true. The boy is on the side with the "Ha, ha... I just kicked her ribs" thought bubble and he's definitely a kicker!

Behold! The rapidly expanding belly!

I've been growing and growing and growing...

Left: 8/1 (17 weeks; 4 months)

Right: 8/15 (19 weeks; 4 1/2 months)

Left: 8/15 (19 weeks; 4 1/2 months) - same pic as before for comparison
Right: 8/29 (21 weeks; 5 months)

Are you ready for the next one?


Are you sure?


Really?


Don't say I didn't warn you.

9/14 (23 weeks; 5 1/2 months)

Here's me in June and July.

How many months pregnant do I look, like if I was carrying a single fetus?

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.

I'd Gladly Papaya You Tuesday for a Hamburger Today

From TheBump.com:
Watch what you say -- baby is now able to hear outside noise from down in the womb. Studies show that baby finds gentle music and your own voice most soothing. Nipples are starting to sprout, and that little face is fully formed. And, baby's starting to settle into sleep cycles, snoozing about 12 to 14 hours a day. It shouldn't be hard to figure out when -- just pay attention to those kicks as they start and stop.

For those of you who don't like the fruit posts... Brendan, you'll be happy to know that there are only monthly updates from TheBump available here on out.

Is papaya the fruit that tastes terrible and smells like vomit or is that guava?

I definitely notice when my little kicker, Twin A (a.k.a. the boy) is asleep because it's the only time he's not kicking me constantly. Thankfully he sleeps when I sleep, and he likes to kick when I'm watching TV, usually reality television. Maybe he's trying to get me to change the channel for my own good?

Kathy: Puke Detective

So I clogged my friend's sink with puke. I know, I know - next time use the toilet. But the sink was so big and inviting...

Let me set the stage. I was at Sophie's loft several weeks ago where she was hosting a listening party for our friend Jon's new CD. I chatted with Lauren who had a baby about six months ago. She asked how my pregnancy was going so far, and I bragged that I'd had no symptoms of morning sickness, and that I was doubly lucky being that twins usually make morning sickness worse. And then 20 minutes later the puking began.

I sat down with Mark and just didn't feel good. I didn't know why and I didn't really feel nauseous. I went upstairs to go to the bathroom and then well... you can guess. There were four forceful heaves where I barely caught my breath between them. Unfortunately I chose the sink as my receptacle. I had no idea that making the sink my personal vomitorium would clog it. I called Mark upstairs to figure out an attack strategy, and I fully planned to fish out the chunks blocking the drain myself, but then I really started feeling sick to my stomach again and had to sit down. Poor Mark ended up cleaning the sink all by himself. (Kelsi pointed out that I do have to bear his children, so we can call it even.)

I told Matthew, "When you go through your photographs from that night there will be one where I'll be looking up at the ceiling thinking, "I am just not feeling good and I don't know why..." 15 minutes later: Blaaaaaaaeghhh!" Matthew was nice enough to find the aforementioned unflattering picture of me full of pre-vomit fear.

Thankfully it didn't happen in the middle of a trans-Pacific flight like last time. You can read that awesome account here. (It was so bad I puked five times and made one bathroom out of order.) Kathy's Puketastic Flight as Reviewed on Yelp

I couldn't decide between captions so you get two:
1) Fly the puke-filled skies
2) Something puke-y in the air


So the big question is, what caused the pukage?

I called an advice nurse the next day because my book said to call if you experience vomiting in the second or third trimesters if you didn't vomit during the first. I asked her if it might be food poisoning, and she agreed that was likely. (To be fair, Mark thought I lead her there.) She asked what I'd eaten the day before and I said a chicken burrito and a sausage pizza, and she said I should choose less fatty foods. Ouch. I got schooled. (Okay, the sausage pizza isn't the best thing to eat, but it's not like I eat at Little Star Pizza every week. At most I go once a month and usually just get the cheese. And the grilled chicken burrito was pretty healthy. You know, except for the possible vomit-inducing bacteria.)

I saw my OB/gyn yesterday and brought up the incident and she said she didn't know why that would happen. It was weird asking my doctor hypothetical puke questions nearly a month after the fact just so I could report back a conclusive puke answer. I wanted to say, "But I need this settled for my blog!"

Reasons it might be morning sickness
-I'm pregnant
-It involved vomit
-Did I mention I'm pregnant?

Reasons it might be food poisoning
-Not preceeded by nausea
-No trigger like a smell
-Nurse said food poisoning was likely
-I'm not going to lie. I want to keep the perfect morning sickness record alive.


Vomit FAQ:

Why did I choose the sink?
I always thought with toilets there was a chance of splash back. I've since been told there's not if you kneel down in front of it. But Sophie's sink looked so nice and easy to reach...

If it was food poisoning, what did I eat?
From what I've read food poisoning usually occurs on average 8 hours (but can be 6 to 48 hours) after eating contaminated food. My guess is that it was the Una Mas chicken burrito I had at lunch... almost 8 hours before the incident. (I ate there at 3 p.m. so I wonder if they left meat out for a couple hours.) If I'd actually gone to De Afghanan Kabob House in the last two days I'd blame their tasty, yet unsanitary, Unwashed Hands Kabob.


Scene of the gastrointestinal crime?


De Afghanan Kabob House: Home of the Unwashed Hands Kabob.


What did I throw up?
Okay, no one actually asked that, but I thought I'd volunteer that it looked and smelled like pizza from one of the greatest pizza places on earth, Little Star. Thankfully that won't slow me down from eating there in the future.


Imagine this put in a food processor and emptied into a sink. And then imagine Mark cleaning it up.

The moral of the story is this: Don't get food poisoning when you're pregnant or on an airline flight because no one will believe that's the reason for the pukeage.


Epilogue:


Jon was nice enough to still sign a CD for us, despite my retching during track 10.

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?