Maternity Favs

As my time pregnant nears the end, I thought I'd share a few things I love that I discovered during my pregnancy:

The Be Maternity Seamless Ruched Tank from Target is awesome. I have two in white as well as one in black and I literally wear one of those just about every day. They are one of the only things that fit early on and continue to fit my enormous belly now. I love how it feels like it holds me in, but doesn't feel too thick or heavy.

I read about Mama Mio Tummy Rub Butter on a blog many months ago. I decided to try it and haven't turned back. Although it didn't keep me from getting stretch marks (Come on though- I'm short and expecting twins. I wasn't delusional enough to think I'd escape stretch marks completely), it makes my stomach skin feel great. It soaks right in, doesn't feel greasy and smells wonderfully. Using it completely prevents any itchiness. I ran out this week and resorted to Palmer's Cocoa Butter while I waited for more Tummy Rub Butter in the mail, and the difference is astounding. Palmer's doesn't even come close.

After my extreme back pain this fall, I knew I had to get something beyond a basic body pillow if I was planning on sleeping at all for the next week months. A stomach sleeper by nature, it has been hard enough to start sleeping on my side. I thought about a Snoogle, but wanted something that would be good for my belly too, and the Leachco Back N Belly Pillow seemed perfect. We've traveled twice since I got the pillow, and I brought it with both times. It's like my little nest in bed and the #1 reason I can still get pretty solid sleep at 8 months pregnant with twins.

When I'm not wearing my boots I wear Skechers Step Up Mary Janes with my dress pants to work. They feel like sneakers, but look dressy enough to pass as appropriate. I wasn't the first to discover this, though- many of my co-workers have been wearing them for a while now. Usually I'm a little more style over comfort when it comes to shoes- but these have really helped my poor feet take a break from my boots.

And those are a few of my favorite maternity things!

Clothing Crisis and Then Some

Something has happened in the last month or so- I got HUGE. I just finished my typical Sunday-figuring-out-what-to-wear-all-week project, and I discovered that a lot of the maternity clothes I had worn just won't cut it now. Either there isn't enough chest space (just how big are those going to get anyway???), or the shirts are too short to adequately cover my belly. I removed those shirts and a few pants from my closet, and now the closet is pitifully sparse. My few non-maternity shirts that I was able to wear somewhat recently also are a little laughable now. Crap and oh my gosh- how the heck am I going to make it to March???

Now that I'm 25 weeks, I've also had an impending sense of needing to get every last little thing done and ready. I always have in the back of my mind that a student I had last year (a twin) was delivered at 27 weeks. That's only 2 weeks away from where I am at now. We don't have the room done (painted, curtains, OR all the furniture) , we don't have a diaper bag, we don't have a changing pad cover, we don't have enough newborn clothes to cover a boy and a girl... it is a long list of things left to be done.

Major setback today too: the plan to refinish the changing table and dresser I had as a baby is no longer. After working on it for a while today, my husband concluded that is isn't possible to fix the tracks of the drawers. Now we have to find a white changing table/dresser for the room. I'm disappointed to say the least. I'm also disappointed that we could have picked different cribs in a non-white color if we knew what we know now. But it is too late to disassemble both cribs and return them. What can I do though? It is what it is- and white is what the furniture will be.

Updates at 14 weeks

I've been waiting for some time to be able to post the latest updates, but it never seems to be happening. So I'm going to settle for a semi-quickie update, because I'm afraid I'll forget the moments I wanted to make sure to post about by the time I actually get time! Each of these paragraphs deserve posts of their own- but this will have to do, for now.

I think I started feeling movement last Sunday, at 13 weeks exactly. It didn't feel really like flutters to me, just kind of like very, very soft intermittent jabs (from the inside) for a short while, and then they were gone. I really doubted that it was movement- I thought maybe it was my uterus stretching, things repositioning around in there? Until I felt the same thing the following two days in a row- in the same spot slightly to the right side. The other day I felt a similar feeling on the left side. Then yesterday I had a caramel covered apple and ate a bunch of apples when we went apple picking, and had a bit of a sugar overload, headache and all. Those jabs came back with a vengeance, so now I feel a little more certain that it was truly movement.

I've been wearing maternity bottoms almost exclusively- except for two pairs of pants I own that have forgiving elastic bands. I'm afraid even those pairs of pants days' are numbered. I am also running out of options for tops. I really don't want to stretch out my non-maternity favs and not be able to wear them again post-PG body. So, I think starting tomorrow I will probably be in some maternity tops as well. I almost wore a maternity top on Friday, but just couldn't do it. I know I've got two in there, but 13 weeks just felt too soon to wear full-on maternity everything. I don't think I have much of a choice going forward. Reassure me ladies- 14 weeks with twins is not too soon for maternity tops AND bottoms, right? I know I should embrace my belly- especially because of how hard fought it was, but it is still hard to feel comfortable about flaunting it.

It was my 30th birthday today, and we had a very fun and relaxing weekend vacationing in Door County, WI. We went for walks, went apple picking, and had a great time, just being us- not just the us expecting twins, or me the kindergarten teacher. I needed that small break away to just be myself and reconnect with myself (and my dear husband). Those other two things have been ruling my every waking and sleeping moment lately, and I needed a little break from that nonstop stuff. Of course, there was plenty of baby talk- I think we have settled on names for 2 girls, 2 boys, or a combo of one of each. We are not planning on sharing this with family until the birth- I'm not sure if we'll extend that secret to the internet world. You will have to wait and see. :) It was nice to enjoy this milestone birthday, when for much of the past year, I dreaded it. I was so worried I would spend this birthday sad and wishing for what I didn't have. I loved spending it exactly the way we did.

On the drive home from our trip we stopped at Babies R Us and did some window shopping (I've also been looking at cribs online lately) and I have pretty much settled on the type of crib I want. Now all we have to do is measure to make sure two will fit side by side in the room, pick the one of the three cribs I've narrowed it down to, and buy them. We are refinishing the dressers I used as a baby and painting them white, so our cribs need to be white. I also want solid sides, so that when they are side by side and the babies are older- they aren't able to play with each other through the bars when it is supposed to be nap time.

We also discovered a REALLY good deal on a Graco DuoGlider double stroller on clearance (the style of stroller we wanted to get anyway), and got it. It was usually $250 before tax, and we got it for $120 total- and that was with tax included. I think that's pretty good. We'll get the matching SnugRide car seats later(they weren't on clearance yet). We also stopped at Old Navy (the one by us doesn't have a maternity section) and I got awesome deals on a few clothes- including a pair of maternity pants for only $8. The extra 50% off clearance sale really rocked!