"Get A Massage, Take a Yoga Class, Hire An Au Pair"

Who said it?
A) A well-meaning friend.
B) A fellow mother of multiples.
C) My dermatologist.

If you guessed C, have a cookie.  Although they seem more likely to come from a friend or a mom who's been there, these words were spoken to me by my skin doctor.  I will explain. But first, let me just say that I don't know what to think of this guy.

I went for a consultation on my skin to get a plan for the future. I was called back, and after the pleasantries and whatnots, got right into to telling him about my rosacea.  I told him what has worked for me in the past (IPL), what I haven't seen any results with (creams, pills) and asked him to give me his thoughts on the matter.  The following is our conversation:

Him:  What exactly do you think I'm going to be able to do for you today?
Me:  Look at my skin, listen to my concerns, come up with a game plan for what can be done after these babies are born.
Him: Oh. Okay. You wouldn't believe how many women wait until they are pregnant to come in with concerns over their skin and then they get pissed that I can't do anything for them.
(Uncomfortable silence.)
Him:  So, are you staying away from your rosacea triggers?  Hot drinks, chocolate, cheese, tomatoes?
Me:  I have one cup of coffee a day and yes, I stay away from the rest. (A blatant lie. I have cheese and fairly often. It's my go-to snack. Whatever. He doesn't need to know that.)
Him: What do you hope to accomplish with future treatments?
Me: I want to get my redness under control, get rid of some of these capillaries and achieve an all over more even skin tone.  If my pores were smaller, that would also be a bonus.
Him: You think your pores are enlarged?  (looks at my face through funny looking glasses)  Are you under stress, by chance?
Me: (stares at him)  Well, we just moved into a new house, I'm pregnant with twins after dealing with infertility, we've had some complications in this pregnancy, and I live about 1000 miles away from my family.  In a word? Yes.
Him: Because there's this amazing (starts gesturing demonstratively) phenomenon that happens in the brain when someone is under stress that makes things appear larger than they really are. People visualize things that are not there.
Me: Sooo, you're saying my pores and my rear end AREN'T as big as I think they are?
Him: They're probably not.  I really wish more doctors would read the research that has been done in the field because...(blah, blah, blah)...
Me: (Thinking to self)  I am witnessing someone having a mental breakdown. This is what the thought process of someone who has taken one too many hits off the gravity bong sounds like. I think I want some lemon pound cake from Star.bucks.
Him: ...but the pharmaceutical companies can only treat stress with pro.zac and pax.il, so there's really no money to be made off of stress-related brain phenomenon.
Me: (stares)
Him: Until we can get you some practical treatment for your rosacea, why don't you get a massage, take a yoga class and hire an au pair.
Me: Are you going to give me a prescription for that?

Honestly. I'm left a bit confused by the whole experience. Do I think he's capable of treating my skin issues? Yes. Do I think he's koo koo for cocoa p.uffs?  Absolutely.

The Week Ahead: February Style

How to be a better blogger.  I'm trying to document the ins and outs of our life here so that I can have it to look back on. I'm hoping to get a few regular posts in each week so that I can cover more of the what's happening and what-have-yous.  I thought that if I did a post on Sundays called "The Week Ahead" and a post on Monday reviewing the previous week, maybe, just maybe I can get some better life-scripting going on.  Good intentions, peeps. Always with the good intentions.

So, looking ahead, the boys have Monday off for President's Day and I have an OB appointment in the morning. I'm hoping that a little PSP and DS will keep them occupied.  I like how my life has turned into memorizing a bunch of acronyms - OB, MFM, PSP, DS,  KWIM??  I still dont' know what DS stands for, though.

Thursday night, we have tickets to the Thunder v. Lakers game.  The boys are so excited. I'm looking forward to it as well, just questioning at this point what I'm going to wear to show my team support.  Do they sell OKC Thunder muumuus?? (And yet ANOTHER acronym.)  Maybe a nice scarf and some face paint? No?  I'll figure something out.

I'm hoping to make plans with my friend, N (who has twin boys who are two) sometime this week. She actually has four kids under the age of five, so I know if I can just sit and observe her in her natural habitat, I could learn a lot about how to operate when my little guys get here.  Maybe I'll be able to get with her on Wednesday or Friday.

Saturday afternoon, I'm taking a crocheting class at Chesapeake. I'm fairly certain that bedrest will be in my future again at some point, so I need to figure out a way to keep my hands busy.  Even if I don't go back to bed, I would love to have a few blankets made for the twinkies when they get here.  And maybe some booties. Again with good intentions.

Do any of you good people meal plan? Figure out a menu for the week and then go to the grocery store for one big trip?  We didn't used to, but with the pregnancy and my doctors recommending I don't do any heavy lifting, we sit down every Sunday and plan out our dinners and then Josh goes to the grocery store.  In doing so, we have saved a BUTT LOAD of cash money.  It's amazing how much the three or four trips I used to make a week added up.  Anywhoodles, meal planning can be kind of a pain, but we've managed and I thought I would share what we are buying for this week as a way to help anybody else who finds themselves in the dreaded, "What to have for dinner?" cul-de-sac.
Sunday - chicken parm
Monday - glazed pork loin with new potatoes
Tuesday - chicken cordon bleu with steamed fresh spinach
Wednesday - hamburgers and hot dogs with chips and fruit
Thursday - grilled cheese and Campbell's Tomato soup (a family fave)
Friday - shepherd's pie

I would be happy to share any recipes I have, as well. Dinner is difficult!

Sunday, the 26th marks viability for the twins.  I am seven days away from my next big pregnancy milestone. We still have a ways to go, but I plan on celebrating Sunday like it's nobody's business.  One step closer to bringing these sweet baby boys home. I am so grateful.

Love and hugs to all, until we see each other again,

Aub

If I Could Be Presendent

Words of wisdom, from my oldest...

"If I could be prisendent of the united states I will let kids go to casinos. I think kids should go to casinos because it's un fare for kids when thier parents go out.  I think kids should go to casinos because they should get a chance to win money.  I also think kids should go to casinos because to feel like a adult. That's what I would do if I were presendent."

So, friends, if you ever find yourselves living in a country where casinos are 18 and under, you will know who your presendent is.

Love and hugs to all, until we see each other again,

Aub

24 to 24

At 20w4d pregnant, we are just days away from viability. Twenty four days to be exact. Close, but still a ways away.  I never thought I'd be so obsessed with the day that I hit twenty four weeks pregnant, but it seems I've been counting down.  Every day. Like a kid counting down the days of school to summer.  (Cam informed me yesterday that he has 85 days of fourth grade left.)  Let me be clear. I have no desire to have these babies at 24 weeks.  If something should happen, though, the doctors would attempt to save them. Hence the term "viable".  Between now and then, well, they're just too little. It's a sad reality.

My previa is correcting itself.  The nasty side effect to that is that I've experienced more bleeding because of said correction.  I am currently on four days of bedrest because of this nasty side effect.  Hopefully, my followup on Monday is good news all around and we are back to normal. (What is this "normal" anyway?)  Until then, ugh.

Now, I would stand on my head to keep these little guys safe until it's time for them to be born. But bedrest with two children to manage as well as a house to run and a husband who works a very busy job is....difficult.  We have approximately zero outside help.  Nada.  We have no family to turn to.  This is our life. We live 1000 miles away from our help. We made this choice. Times like this make that choice hard to live with.  It is what it is, though. We will make it through.  Be it four days or four months, all of this has an expiration date.

It is worth it.

Off topic, Starburst are delicious.

Love and hugs to all, until we see each other again,

Aub

The One for When They Say, "Folks, Get Underground...NOW!"

Yesterday, we had our storm shelter installed in the garage of the new house.  (I just realized I have yet to do a post on the new house.)  I'm so happy the boys had off school to watch! It was great boy fun - ditch witches, power washers, this saw thing that chewed through the concrete slab.  Very Bob the Builder.  Very Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor.

We used Ground Zero Storm Shelters out of Perry, Oklahoma. They test their shelters somewhere in Texas and blast them with all sorts of things that strong tornadoes can produce to see how durable they are.  We opted to get one installed in the garage so that if/when the sirens go off, we don't have to take the kids and dog out in a possible hailstorm to get into a backyard shelter. I took lots of pictures while the men worked and thought I would share them for all my eastern friends who don't have to worry about this type of thing!  Oh the wonders of the west!

Who knows - come spring, I may be posting A LOT from here! :)

Love and hugs to all, until we see each other again,

Aub

New Year, New House, New Pregnancy-Related Issue

So, I'm already a slacker with blogging, but I'm hoping my new ailment (how 80s-year-old does that sound??) will get me to be a little more regular in my posting and it will become a habit. Probably wishful thinking, but I like the warm fuzzies that happy thoughts bring, though.

Our trip back to West Virginia was wonderful, too short as usual.   I flew in the with the boys and then drove back with Josh.  Oh, I also forgot to call the airline to tell them I wasn't using my return tickets and get a voucher so.....yeah, yeah, yeah.  I've lectured myself enough about it already.  As usual, I took about ZERO pictures while I was there. I don't even know why I own a camera, people.  My awesome brain power will preserve the memories of that trip better than any picture.  (You know, the same brain that forgot to call the airline.)

We've been home for about two weeks now and it was all business as usual and getting ready to close on our new house and prepare for the move when I went to the doctor this week after experiencing some complications and was put on bed rest with partial placenta previa (Josh says it sounds like a pasta. I would NOT eat it.)  I am not a very good sport at all about this, but I will stand on my head to keep these baby boys in if I have to.  Which brings me to my next little bit of news that I forgot to mention:

The twins are both boys! Yeah!!!

 We are thrilled to be having two more little guys join us in May. I'm excited to be able to plan for their nursery (already have ideas) and buy them little clothes (already started) and try to figure out what we are going to name them (I'll be doing a post on this topic soon!)  I just never thought I'd ever be a mama to four boys.  I hope they all grow up to be best friends.  

Ugh, I hate long blog posts, which is impossible not to do when you never post, so I'll talk more about the house and my plans for bed rest shenanigans next time.

Love and hugs to all, until we see each other again,

Aub 

NT Scan Perfection, A Gender Guess, A Name and A Belly Pic

We had our NT scan on Thursday and at 13w4d, I was on the cusp of being too far along to perform the ultrasound and get accurate measurements.  An NT scan or nuchal translucency screening is a test done between 11 and 14 weeks of pregnancy to measure the fluid on the back of the baby's neck and assess risk for Down's Syndrome.  They also look thoroughly at the facial structure and take measurements of the fetus to make sure that everything is progressing as it should be.  I was excited to get to see the babes again and even more excited to get an abdominal ultrasound as opposed to a "violating" ultrasound.

The tech who performed the ultrasound took her time with measuring everything and Josh and I were just so excited to see the babies looking so much like babies!  They were moving much more fluidly than last time and one was even rubbing their little face with their hands.  Eeek, I can't wait to be the one rubbing those little cheeks and kissing them!  As a tech, she wouldn't say anything about gender, which was disappointing and I made a mental note to ask the doctor if he would. I caught a glimpse of each NT measurement and both were well under the 3mm mark (1.8 and 2.1, I believe.)  We waited a bit for the doctor to come in and he went about going over all the tech's measurements albeit a little more quickly than the tech.  He explained the risks of a multiple pregnancy, told me I had my age and physical fitness on my side for carrying these babies to term, my cervix was 4.72 cm, which was great and overall just made me feel very capable of this pregnancy, which was appreciated.  I asked him if he could tell what sex the babies were and he said he wouldn't guess unless he got a good look. Baby A wasn't cooperating at all, but Baby B wasn't shy and looks like a boy!  Overall, it was a great appointment and I am thankful that the babes are growing on track and looking good with no markers for any issues thus far.

We had already decided on a name for our son and we will be sharing it as soon as we find out what sex his sibling is.  Our gender ultrasound is on January 5!  Stay tuned!

And last, but not least, a belly pic, me and the littles at 13w6d.

Love and hugs to all...until we see each other again,

Aub