An itty bitty getaway

We've been eager to get away for quite a long time.  Our last real vacation was our trip to the Cape and Islands last August and oh that went just splendidly.  Oh the days when we went away every few months...  We were going to go to Saugatuck a few weekends ago, but instead we ended up in Ohio for my dear grandmother's funeral.  So we are finally getting OUT OF TOWN.

We are headed up to the Grand Geneva resort in WI.  If this sounds familiar, it's because we went there for the first time last Memorial Day weekend, after our last failed IUI.  It is supposed to be 100 degrees, so I will likely be sipping lemonade in the shade by the pool.  Then we are off to Pardeeville (best town name EVER) for my cousin's wedding, and then to the Dells for the reception.  The extended family doesn't know yet that we are expecting, and now that I am 12 weeks and showing, the cat will be out of the bag.  Then on Saturday, we are finally going to Spring Green to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's home, Taliesin, which is celebrating its centennial this year.  We are both big fans of his (he's a famous architect for those who don't know) and went to his winter home, Taliesin West (original, no?), when we were out in Arizona a few years back, so the pilgrimage will be complete.

We'll have a bit of respite when we return, and then on Tuesday we go into the city for our u/s (NT scan) with the geneticist and then in the evening to Soldier Field to see U2 in concert.  This concert was supposed to be last summer, but then the whole tour was rescheduled due to Bono's back surgery.  Then we're off to Ravinia on the 10th and have sailing on the 11th!  Love having stuff to look forward to! :)  Happy Fourth!!

Nursery fabrics

I've decided to make the curtains and the crib skirts for the twins' nursery.  I'm hoping I don't regret being this ambitious later, but this way I can get exactly what I want and by putting in some sweat equity, save some money and they will mean more to me than having someone else make them.

I've spent A LOT of time looking at fabrics over the last year plus, and since I don't do pink for home decor whether we have girls is not going to influence my decision making, so this is what I've come up with...

For the crib skirts: (and later to be adapted to valances for the two kid bedrooms/bed + playroom)

Uzbek in Jewel by P Kaufmann

"This whimsical animal print that is reminiscent of a Persian crewel design, comes from P. Kaufmann and will make quite a statement in your space. The cheerful elephants, monkeys, and alligators are paired with leaves and vines in Gold, Cranberry, Greens, Teal and Tan. All are showcased against an Ivory background. This fabric is suitable for bedding, draperies, valances, cornices, decorative pillows, accent pieces and upholstered furniture."
 
I love that this is so colorful and fun, but is still sophisticated enough to grow with the babies.  Full disclosure, I have a serious obsession with elephants (and suzani).  Stumbling across this at Calico Corners when I was looking for another fabric nearly single-handedly got me to abandon any idea I had of a pastel nursery.  I'm thinking of bringing out some of the colors, like the azure blue and marigold yellow with a pillow and maybe even an accent wall.
 
For the curtains:  

Butterscotch Horseshoe fabric from Serena & Lily (@ nearly 90% off per yard!)

In other nursery news, my research (and the above decor decisions) have gotten me down to this crib as our best option...

A white crib just didn't look right with the decor scheme we'll have going, but this one is really growing on me.

That's all I'm saying for now, more to come... :)

12 week OB visit and new pictures!

We had great u/s and OB appts. today.  The u/s was amazing, and was external for the first time ever.  I feel so grown up. ;)  The babies are each measuring a few days ahead, have perfect HB's (in the 170's), and are getting so big (both ~ 5 cm/each).  They look like babies now... arms, legs, fingers, toes, the whole shebang.  It's completely wild to see.  We'll have a more involved level 1 u/s in four weeks, and then our level 2 anatomy scan at Prentice in eight.  The OB said everything looks perfect and was fine with the fact that I haven't actually gained any weight yet, though I am trying.  DH is putting me on a pound cake diet soon.

Baby A: I could just sit and look at his/her cute little face all day long...

Baby B: He/she was dancing all over the place, but we could only get a back shot from this angle

But this shot made up for it.  Look at those feet!!! (baby B's feet on left, baby A's head on right)

I'm not a doctor, but that looks like a little winkie to me on that one... ;)

I suppose I will have to post a pic of me and my growing pot belly soon, so stay tuned...

It's a fig! It's a lime!

It's 11 week time!  I can hardly believe it.  I feel like every day that I am pregnant is a huge gift.  We go in next Tuesday to see the little ones and I'm so excited.  It has been WAY too long, even with all that has gone on in the last three weeks.  I know I'll have to get used to waiting between visits, and will probably relax a little after we get through the next few weeks.  I still can't believe that we are approaching the second trimester of a twin pregnancy.  It's just too crazy after the last three years...

I finally started putting stuff on an Amazon universal registry, so I can start getting organized.  We are seeing double for everything these days, so I will likely be selling the Maclaren jogging stroller and the Cariboo bassinet. :(  If you or someone you know is local and/or expecting a singleton and are interested, let me know as they will be going up on Craigslist.  The stroller has literally been used twice and the bassinet is still in the box.  I'll be passing on my amazing savings and they will be a very good deal. 

Three months from today I will turn 35, eek!  And will likely be put on lockdown by my OB.  Here's to making the most of the summer!

In other news, my sister E confirmed this week the she is still pregnant.  She had a u/s and they saw the HB @ 7 weeks.  The rest of my family seems to be as surprised as I was that she is expecting again, and my mother has made it clear that she will be at my house when the twins arrive. :)  For some perspective, by the time this baby is born, she will have been pg and/or breastfeeding for SIX years straight.  My goodness...

Some tidbits from the OB

Since I never got around to posting after our 9w OB appt., I wanted to get it down for anyone who is curious and for my own remembering.  I really like our OB, which was reassuring since I chose her pretty blindly based on her affiliation with Northwestern (where we'll deliver), the fact that she had an office on the N. Shore (so we don't have to go into the city for all our appts. though they have an office there too), and that she specializes in high risk pregnancies.  She is part of a group of eight female OBs, The Women's Group of Northwestern, and we are encouraged to meet with others, though while she is often on call, there is always the possibility that one of the others will deliver the babies, which is fine.

She said that while I will be 35 when the babies come, since the eggs were harvested in November and would have been due in August, they are really only 34 11/12, so we couldn't have possibly eeked out anything closer to AMA without really being...

She said that she will not let me go past 39 weeks (1st week of Jan. 2012) and they are most likely to come between 34 and 37 weeks, so we are probably looking at December babies.  How they are born will depend on the position of baby A.  If he/she is head down, we can go for a vaginal birth, but otherwise a C-section is likely, which I almost couldn't care less about, since obviously our priority is to get them out safely.

We will see her next week for our 12 week and again at 16 and 20, but then will go to biweekly appts.  We are opting for non-invasive genetic testing only, so I went downtown to the NW reproductive geneticist yesterday for my bloodwork and we go in on July 5th for the u/s and b/w results.

She will put me on lockdown at 24 weeks, unless I am "rock solid"...  No more sex, exercise, or air travel...  This also happens to be my 35th birthday (9/24).  We are still discussing whether it's completely insane to consider going to Italy for our 5th anniversary/my 35th b-day/our babymoon trip in early September, and will likely take it up with her at our next appt. before we book anything.  We are discussing going back to Bermuda for a closer trip and are entertaining other ideas, so feel free to share any you may have. :)

She diligently went through what I should and shouldn't be eating, which of course I'm already up on.  She finished with that I should be eating anything allowed now that doesn't make me sick.

She is keeping me on baby aspirin until 20 wks., which will follow my weaning from my estrogen at 13 and progesterone at 15.

She wants to see me gaining ~40lbs. w/twins.

On a random side note, she mentioned that I was lucky to be so tall and long torsoed w/twins, hopefully it will give them more room.
She encouraged us to start looking into prenatal classes at NW, which of course I already did when we were pg in December, but now we'll be taking the ones for multiples. :)

10 1/2 weeks!

I can't believe we are already in week 11!  And depending on which e-mail we believe, they may each be the size of a prune, a kiwi, or a kumquat (why use a fruit that no one knows how big it is? ;)).

It's been a really tough week and a half, but grandma is now at rest, and we are finally back home and trying to get back into our healthy routine.  On next Tuesday already, we go back to the OB for our slightly early, 12 week u/s and appt.  I can't wait to see how the LOs have grown.  I still have to pinch myself that this is actually happening, and to us...  It's all very surreal.

I am overall feeling pretty good.  Of course, I'm exhausted and feeling huge (I've already bought and am wearing a few maternity dresses) and am feeling every bit of of my uterine expansion.  I have only passing phases of nausea now, but they are usually at night and can be pretty bad.  Generally, my appetite is not as strong as it could be.  I do get hungry, but then either few things sound good to me (a huge ick to fish) or I try to eat and I feel sick.  I am reassured that even though I can't eat as much or what I think I should be right now that the kids will be fine since they are able, at this point, to subsist off of the reserves in my body (which is why even those with severe morning sickness who can't keep anything down can have perfectly healthy babies).  I guess this is the advantage of being in TTC mode for so many years, all that clean living and good eating will hopefully pay off.  I had to get up the other night to pee four times, which is a new record, but as I catalogue all these random early symptoms, I am keenly aware of just how lucky I am.

On a positive note, I've finally got the boobs I've always wanted. ;)  Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather be small than big, but every girl deserves some cleavage, at least for awhile. :)

My sister E is unsure whether she is still pg.  She had some bleeding and cramping last week (@ 6wks) and her hCG came back at 2K, which is low but she doesn't have anything to compare it to as she has never been under the care of a Dr. this early in a pregnancy, as she gets pg on her own.  So I guess it's wait and see...

In Ohio and asking for your help

Taking a break from funeral planning to share an e-mail I just got from Resolve.  I hope that if you took the time to write to your Senator like I urged you to here, or even if you didn't, you will consider calling them to urge them to support this bill.  Through the Resolve website fewer than 6,000 letters have been sent to date.  That may seem like a lot, that that is fewer than the number of people who do IVF cycles in a year in Chicago alone.  So in my opinion, it's pretty embarrassingly low.  How can we possibly expect anyone to care at all about our infertility and do something about it if we are not even willing to take five minutes to send an auto-letter online?  No wonder it seems like we are living in the dark ages...

From Resolve:

To date 5,890 letters have flooded the U.S. Senate asking for support of the Family Act of 2011, S 965. THANK YOU!


Many of you have contacted us asking, “What else can I do?”

RESOLVE needs you to make the halls of the Congress ring with hope.

Please call your Senators on Monday, June 20, 2011 and urge them to co-sponsor S 965.

Here’s what you can do: (Note: you will repeat these instructions twice, once for each Senator in your state.)

1. Call the main U.S. Senate switchboard at 202-224-3121.

2. Ask to be transferred to your Senator’s office.

3. Here is a sample script for your call:

“Good morning/afternoon. I live in and I’m calling to follow up on a letter I sent to the Senator regarding a bill that I care about, the Family Act of 2011, or S 965. May I speak with the Health Legislative Assistant or someone else in the office?

Once you’re connected:

“I sent a letter to your office and asked that the Senator co-sponsor S 965, as it is very important to me. This bill is called the Family Act and it would create a tax credit to help with the out-of-pocket medical costs for infertility treatment. As you know, yesterday was Father’s Day, and with millions of Americans suffering with infertility, there are men in this country who have no chance of being fathers due to the cost of medical treatments.

Can I count on the Senator to help me and thousands of others in our state by co-sponsoring this legislation?

I urge you to talk to my Senator about this call and my letter. I encourage you to reach out to Karina Cabrera, your colleague in Senator Gillibrand’s office, and let her know if you have questions or need more information about this bill.

Thank you for taking my call and passing on my message to the Senator.”
Need a reminder email sent to you on June 20th? Click here to sign up and you will receive a reminder to make your calls to your two U.S. Senators.

This is a critical step to getting S 965 passed. Our Senators need to hear from us!

Thank you for taking action.

Sincerely,

Barbara Collura
Executive Director
RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association