It's the Final Countdown!

We are at 28 weeks. It is just sad how fast time flies! I've realized this is that point in our lives, when we're pregnant, that we start saying that and it's actually true. You say it through college, you say it after when you've started your career, but the cliche actually becomes true when you've got a fetus or two (or more!) all up in your guts. Maybe THAT is what officially makes us adults? Still hashing out that conundrum. 

And half my friends reading this are thinking "Welp, I've lost another one to the dark side."

I love you all. 

How far along?  28 weeks! Less than 10 to go...yikes! 

Total weight gain:   About 20? I will be weighed again on Wednesday! It was 18 pounds at my last appointment almost 2 weeks ago. 

Maternity clothes?  Absolutely! I can get away with some of Kevin's size L's though which is nice, because I'm not buying any more workout shirts at this point in the game. 

Stretch marks?  My body has turned on me. I woke up with one, and then overnight it seems came 3 or 4 more. They're in the area formerly known as my bellybutton. 

Movement?  Just about all day, every day! I will be so skinny chasing these animals around. 

Sleep? Once I can get comfortable, like a rock. I feel like I sleep harder than I did before I was pregnant! I also really like naps these days, around 4:30/5ish after I get home from school.

Best moment this week:  Last night we met a gentleman while in line for ice cream (I was a walking cliche, let me tell ya) who guessed that I was 6.5 months along (how generous of him) and it turns out he has a twin sister and was one of the nicest guys I've met! 

Miss Anything?   Wine. Sleeping without being poked. The absence of back pain. 

Food cravings:   Thursday  night, I really wanted cheesecake and ice cream. I refrained since I had my glucose test (results pending) yesterday morning. Got ice cream last night, though ;) 

Anything making you queasy or sick: Still having a slight aversion to eggs and red meat at certain times. 

Starting to show yet? This is a trick question, right? 

Gender:   Boys!

Labor Signs:   Having what I believe are Braxton Hicks contractions here & there but nothing serious at all.

Symptoms:   Heartburn. Randomly swollen ankles. Ribs are sore alllll the way around. 

Belly Button in or out?   It can't decide. It's at a stage of flatness, trying to decide what to do. 

Wedding rings on or off?   On but I feel like I'll be saying goodbye to them shortly! I've taken them off a few times in the past week. 

Happy or Moody most of the time:   Happy! 

Looking forward to:  Finishing the organizing of their room (lol, if you know me, that stage will never happen.) and my work shower next week with the awesome ladies I work with! 

26 Week Update & Dr. Seuss Babies Shower

Ok, I'm 27 weeks...so pretend we're time traveling back a week, alright?

Last weekend was our beyond wonderful babies shower, Dr. Seuss themed. My wonderful cousin, Vicky, to whose freakishly adorable children Kevin and I are Godparents to, threw it at her house. She's quite a party planner. We brainstormed a lot together over cute ideas, and between her, my mom, MIL & several aunts, pulled this party off.

First, Open House Shower. Greatest idea of my life. (Thank you, Pinterest.)
Raise your hand if you're tiiiiiired of sitting in a church hall or similar locale, eat, play cliche games, share how you know the bride/mother-to-be, eat cake and then watch the bride/m2b open gifts for what seems like an excruciatingly long time?
My hand is raised. Yours probably is too, but I won't tell.
Sure, I'll of COURSE go to these showers because I love my people and showers are exciting no matter the purpose, but someone had to jazz it up. I'm hoping the rest of my generation will set a new trend.
This Open House Shower was basically like a graduation party...come, talk to me and the hubby for a bit, leave your (very generous and thoughtful!!!!) gift, eat not enough food because you don't want to be judged, hang out, leave when you wanna. Simple as that.

Second: The pictures. That's what you really want to see, I know. We stole most of these ideas from Pinterest. We're not THAT creative...

Cutesey table where people can write in these books for the boys and then leave us messages on diapers for 3AM changings! 

This sign was about 6 feet tall...any elementary teachers have a Dr. Seuss themed room that would use this? 

Cake pops. Chocolate-dipped pretzels. Cupcakes. Best table ever. 

Bubble blankets!!!!! Vicky found these on Pinterest awhile ago and decided I wanted one, too. Her mom, my super crafty-and-great-with-a-sewing-machine Aunt Kim made two for the boys! I'm super stoked about these! 

Kevin's Uncle Al has a fancy carving machine that does what the computer tells it to do, so
he carved these and his mom painted them! SO awesome! 

These pictures do not do it justice....so. many. bags.
It was slightly overwhelming!! 

How far along? "26" Weeks

Total weight gain: 18 pounds. Allllll belly, baby. 
Maternity clothes? Yup. 
Stretch marks? None yet! Pretty sure I'll see some soon :(
Sleep: Difficult to get comfortable, but I sleep pretty hard once I do!  
Best moment this week: My bestie, Alicia, getting to go to the ultrasound with me and getting to see the boys in real-ish life! 
Miss Anything? Wine. The absence of back pain. 
Movement: Allllll the time. Baby B is crazy in there! 
Food cravings: Sprinkle donut...nothing too crazy. 
Anything making you queasy or sick: Not this week!  
Gender: Boys! 
Labor Signs: Braxton Hicks contractions! 
Belly Button in or out? Mostly out, but not all the way. In depending on their locations. 
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: HAPPY!
Looking forward to: We may have a list of real possibilities for names! (That will remain a secret until they are outside of my body.)

Twin Education

Since finding out there are two humans in my body, I've gotten a lot of questions about how you know if they're fraternal or identical. Today, I'm here to share the basics on knowing what they are. Twins 101, if you will.

You may already know that our two little ones are identical, or what I'm amping up to be "the scary kind." I've seen The Parent Trap too many times to be even somewhat calm about this, especially when we approach them being school-age. (I say this like they're 3 or something...nope. Still in the oven.) It should come as no surprise that I've already thought through strategies to helping their teachers, because what decent mom of twins would leave the teachers hanging???? Ok. Off my tangent.

Identical twins: Sometimes defined as "freaks of nature" in the twin world. It's not really clear to me (lots of research, trust me!) if genetics plays a role in identical twins being conceived, but it appears not. They have the exact same DNA and come from one egg splitting after conception. There is a thin membrane that separates them in utero, so they have their own apartments, as one of our sonogram techs called it, but they feed from the same fridge, aka the placenta. (This made me think of Joey going to Monica and Rachel's fridge all the time.)

  

Not my twins, stole it from Google images, just like the rest of the
pics in this post. 

Since they're identical and share a placenta, there's a handful of complications that can arise during pregnancy. One fridge for two apartments would be an issue outside of the metaphor, so you can imagine with a pregnancy what could happen.
Or maybe you can't, but you know it sounds bad.
Twin-Twin Syndrome results in one of the babies getting more nutrients from the placenta than the other, meaning one keeps growing and the other does not. Should this happen, mama has to have surgery and get some blood vessels from the placenta ablated (set on fire!) to stop this from happening. With bi-weekly trips to the high-risk doctor (actually we met him once in January and it's been sonographers ever since), they can monitor the boys' growth and make sure this isn't happening.

Genders? Identicals share the same DNA, therefore, share the same gender, unless there is some mutilation genetically. 

Fraternal Twins: More likely to occur with higher age of the mother and/or when fertility drugs are being used. STILL could happen to anyone.
Two eggs, two sperm, two placentas. Separate DNA...so you can tell them apart.
Can't say I'm all that educated on fraternals since I'm not having them. But, that's the basics.
Genders? Fraternals can be any combo! Boy/boy, girl/girl, girl/boy. 

  

Separate sacs=fraternals.

                                        

There are other sub-categories of twins beyond the fraternal and identical labels. Mono-mono, di-di, mono-di...A boring but informational page can be found here if you are interested. 

Teaching Funnies

Teaching middle school definitely keeps teachers in the know as to what kids actually know. No, I don't just mean if they can identify a preposition, list facts about Medieval Europe, etc. I mean the things they know that we don't want to know they know but know they know. (Friends flashback, anyone?)

At my previous teaching location, the kids didn't hide what they knew. I knew every cuss word (and then some) and inappropriate comment they could possibly say...and then some. They had no filter; no judgement when it came to the "maybe we shouldn't say these things around our teachers" thing that most of us were brought up with.

Being in a rural setting now, the kids have these filters, and my super-awareness of the inappropriate is still slowly backing down. I know the inappropriate and expect a lot more giggles and smirks than I often get. Definitely part of the job.

Today...we had the giggles. All of us. Sometimes, it's just impossible to hide it, and can work in your favor. Fight it? Raise your voice and tell them to calm down? Ya gotta pick your battles, people. Plus, when they see you laughing at this stuff too, they tend to like you a little bit more.

Enough of that. Here's the story:

I teach Language Arts. Content standards demand that I teach vocabulary and that students spell correctly. We all grew up in a land where spelling words were a weekly thing and much to my students' dismay, I brought that back. Because seriously, good spelling is hard to find with this younger generation of millennials, and it doesn't take up all that much time when added to my vocabulary list. So they learn the definitions of these words, as well as how to properly spell them (most of the time.)
Today we were reviewing by playing *Sparkle Spelling,* a classic.
The kids stand in a line, I give a word and they build the word as they move down the line. I've noticed that spelling test grades increase dramatically when we do this game.
For example, I give them the word animal. 
Student 1: a
Student 2: an
Student 3: ani
etc. etc.

This week, they have the words apprehensive and furtive. 

I'm sure you can all figure it out.