Going to the Dr. to Get Some Babies

Irby loves Tylenol, Motrin, and any medicine that tastes like fruit, so his common solution to any problem is that he needs to go to the Dr. because he has a fever, and he needs some medicine. Sometimes his booboo has a fever too, which means he wants some medicine in his mouth and a bandaid on his leg.  Of course, I never give the medicine to him unless he really is sick, but he is always cracking me up with his dramatic antics about needing his meds.  

Anyway, he said the most hilarious thing to me the other day.  "Mama, I'm full, I've got some babies" (meaning his stomach is sticking out, he will also say this to anyone in the grocery store who has a belly, pregnant or not..."She has some babies, Mama," kind of embarrassing).  Then he said, "Mama, I need to go to the Dr. and get some babies!"  I guess maybe he's seen a few too many ultrasounds in the past few months, and he is following what is going on more than I give him credit for.  Smart Irby (just got to learn some social rules about calling strangers fat!)

I also forgot to say in my last post that the ultra-sound tech who I saw last time said the babies have a lot of hair!  I was amazed that she could see it, but it really made me feel like we are getting close to meeting our little ones!  I feel like hair on a baby is definitely something associated with a newborn not a baby in-the-womb.  I know it sounds silly, but it made me excited.

And, as you might have guessed from my previous post, we are going to get to meet these babies pretty soon, actually, we are pretty sure it will be tomorrow, Sunday, Sept.27.  A little earlier than we hoped, but all 4 Drs. agree that they may soon reach a point where they will

 be safer outside the womb, than inside due to some issues with the blood flow in the umbilical cord which is already manifesting itself in the fact that the babies are measuring small.  The tricky part is that they don't know when it will become just more than measuring small, so they feel it is safest to take the babies tomorrow.  So please keep us in your prayers!  Health for babies, being born at 34.5 weeks (which is a great # for twins, but still), and other things have just got me a little anxious.  I am definitely a planner, but somehow when you have to choose the day and time your baby will be born seems a little weird and unnatural to me, but we are very thankful that the technology is so good that they can see these type of things before major problems arise.  I am also very thankful that they have made it this far and are still inside though!  Please pray with us!  I will be induced at around 1 on Sunday.

And a few pictures of our precious little boy whose world is about to be turned totally upside down, I mean rocked completely!  He's going to do great though, he's pretty excited about being a BIG brother.

Making play-doh, finger painting, making cookies (licking the batter is obviously the highlight), very fun indoor activities, especially if you are very pregnant and trying to think of things to do with your 2 year old that don't involve braving the 95 degree humid DC weather.

Bike ride to Gravelly Point with Daddy for the favorite activity, watching the planes go over about 100 yards above your head.

In front of the rockets at Air and Space Museum.  After Labor Day, it's a great thing to do in the mornings, visit the Smithsonian.  There is basically no one there bc all the tourists are gone! (Don't know why this is underlined...)

Playing at Stanton Park.  I love this picture because it is about the only one I took this summer where he still looks like a little boy.  He's growing up SO fast!

I'm Having Sisters. Yes, Sisters.

No, we didn't find out what we're having, this is just Irby's guess and he is VERY adamant about it.  If you ask him if the babies might be brothers, he will tell you, "NO, MAMA!  They are sisters!"  We'll see in a few weeks I guess!

Jumping at Tyson's Corner.  I never knew how much time you could spend entertaining yourself jumping until I had this little boy!

Riding Metro with the Polston's

Watching the acrobats in parking lot near our church.  Irby LOVES them; he would stay all night to watch if we let him.

We were really thankful for sprinklers these past few weeks, it's been terribly hot. But now, fall seems to be here!  This mama is very happy for some cooler weather.

A wonderful chilly June day.  They were few and far between but a glorious gift from Heaven!

And, for some news on what our other kids have been up to...I've been to the Dr. several times lately, both the high risk specialist and my regular Dr.  Today, the babies were 3lbs 8oz(A) and 3lbs 10 oz(B), which are good weights for twin babies at 32.5 weeks, so I was very thankful to hear that news.  They are monitoring me a little more closely bc they are pretty certain the babies are identical since they share a placenta.  The Dr. did have some concern about a blood-flow study in the umbilical cord of baby A (Spud).  This is important because when they share a placenta, as opposed to each having their own, one baby can start to take a little(or a lot) more than their share, which means the other baby doesn't get as much good stuff from the placenta.  He said the number wasn't too worrisome yet, especially since they seem to be close in size and moving a lot, but was higher than normal, so he just wanted to keep an eye on it.  Because of that I will go to him 2 times a week for a non-stress test, once for an ultrasound, and to my regular Dr. each week.  That is 4 times to the Dr. every week from here on out!  Thankfully I was able to get 3 of the appointments around the same time on the same day each week, so I only have to go 2 days a week.  I am also very blessed to have many sweet friends in close proximity to me who are continually offering to keep Irby for me, take him to the park, etc.  This is especially helpful bc of all the Dr. visits, but also bc at my appointment today I was instructed to lie down "most of the time."  Not strict bed-rest, but close to it.  So, they have been more then generous and are helping keep Irby (and me) sane as we wait for these babies.  Not to mention the fact that Irby left today to go out of town for 8 days on his LAST (!) business trip for a few months.  My mom is coming tomorrow to help me for the week!  I can't wait:)

PS-I can't figure out how to un-underline this text...feeling kind of dumb about that considering up until last week I was doing web-design as a part-time job.  

Fish, Cheese, Popsicles and Other Things

After picking Irby up from Sunday school last week, he was telling us about the lesson.  He had learned about how Jesus had taken just a few fish and loaves of bread and fed many, many people.  This is pretty much how the conversation went: 

K: Irby, did you have fun at church?

I: Yes, Mama, I have friends at church.

K: I'm so glad you had fun playing with them, did you learn anything at church?

I: I ate my dinner (our church meets at 5pm and lasts 1.5 hours so the kids eat dinner at the end).

K:  Did you learn about Jesus too?

I:  Jesus.  He was hungry and ate some dinner too.

K: Do you remember what he and his friends ate?

I: Ummmm.......fish........and cheese.........and popsicles.

K: Did they eat bread too?

I:  No, Mama, popsicles.

And a few pictures:

Going to the pool

At the Nats game with our new french friend, Chloe.  She is here with us for a few weeks learning English and helping me with Irby.  Great timing as I am starting to slow down quite a bit.

Not going to waste a drop of that Helmet Sundae (ice cream in a mini-plastic hat).

And this is the most recent picture of Spud (baby A) from my appointment last week.  Praise God, both babies looked great!  Spud weighing in at 1lb 8oz and Sprout at 1lb 9oz (at 25 weeks).  They are right on target for their age, even for a singleton!  No wonder someone asked me the other day if I was 8 months pregnant!  I got to have a 4D ultrasound which is incredible.  It's like watching a movie.  I could see little Spud opening and closing his/her mouth and moving arms around kind of scratching his/her face.  It was so cute!  Unfortunately I didn't get to see too much of Sprout bc he/she was facing towards my back. I hope we get to next time, though.   My Dr. said everything looked great, he couldn't ask for a better report.  We are very thankful!

I also googled triple stroller and this was the first link 

that came up.  It's called a mini-bus, I mean seriously?  I would say this is more like a mini-van than a stroller, but it cracked me up.  I would think you would need something like this if you ran a preschool, not had 3 kids.

Sunny Days in DC

We have had some beautiful days in the past few weeks.  This week the temperature got up to 90 though, so I think summer is finally here.  Hopefully it won't last too long...

The first picture is of Irby and his aunt 'Kiki' on Grandma Prince's 'farm' in Knightdale, NC.  Irby had more fun riding in the wheelbarrow with her!  She ran and ran in circles, not something I'm really up for doing these days, so I was glad for someone else to.

Enjoying a milkshake at 'Good Stuff Eatery' a local burger place on the Hill a few blocks from us.  Delicious burgers and fries and better than 5 Guys because you can get a milkshake!  Every pregnant woman's dream.  In fact when we first found out I was pregnant with twins, I had been really sick, but the first day I was feeling better, Irby took me here and would not let me get up until I had finished everything on my plate.

The 3rd picture is playing in the hose out front on one of these hot days lately.

The last one is at a cookout a few weeks back.  A friend of ours read for a while to the kids while the rest of the adults just sat around and talked.  What a servant, the kids loved him!  I think he must have had really good voices:)

Fun Trip and Fun Visitors

Irby and I got to take a little trip to Bermuda a few weeks ago.  We were celebrating our 7th anniversary (a little early) and also enjoying a little time together before life gets totally insane, and we might not have much opportunity to do this for a while.  We chose Bermuda because it is a direct 1hr45min flight from Reagan Airport (10 mins from our house) and because it is a little cooler there in the summer than the Caribbean.  We had THE BEST time, I can't wait to go back.  You should go if you've never been, it is absolutely gorgeous and perfectly romantic.  Little Irby also had fun with his aunt, Kiki, who gave us the best gift of coming to keep him while we were away.  Here are a few pictures from their adventures.

Playing in the sprinklers at the park.

Riding the Carousel.

Irby's family (minus Peter and Willie) came in town for the 4th.  If you're wondering who the other blonde is, that is Lucy's new husband, and little Irby's new uncle Whitt, who we all LOVE.  We had a wonderful fun-filled weekend of riding bikes, grilling out, shopping at Eastern Market, eating tons, and watching fireworks!  My parents also came in town to see us a week before, but we didn't take any pictures!  Next time...

Potty Trained!

Here's a pic of Irbs in his new big boy underpants.  We are very proud!  Took about 4 days before he really got the hang of it, but I think we've got it now.  I wanted to be sure to give him plenty of time to get potty trained and totally adjust to it before the babies come.  Our little boy is getting so big!!

A Big Wave Hello

Here is a little picture of Baby B waving hello.  It is so amazing to me that you can see every bone in every finger individually.  What an incredible and creative God we have!  We had a great ultrasound this morning at 19 weeks.  Both babies look great and are measuring right on target.  Baby A (Spud as he/she is better known around here) is weighing in at 10 oz and baby B (Sprout) is a close second at 9 oz.  (If you don't like the nick-names, you will just have to appreciate how much better they are than little Irby's.  He was known as 'Ricky Bobby' before he was born(and the funny thing is he often says 'I want to go fast!'.)  I couldn't argue with Irby about these, I was just glad he isn't calling them Will Ferrel characters.)  I just can't tell you how thankful we are that they look so healthy and are measuring the same size.  This is of more concern because now they are saying 'with certainty' that the babies are identical.  I know they could always be wrong and they could turn out to be fraternal, but that is the most recent verdict.  Anyway, apparently there are more complications with identical twins, so they are doing a lot of extra screening.  We were SO thankful for a good report today, and continue to pray for healthy growth and development of our adorable little babies!

I hope to have some more pictures up of little Irbs soon.  He has been up to some pretty hilarious things (I'll keep you in suspense, but one of them includes big-boy underwear).  My camera wire is still lost....it's first on Irby's to-do list, find me a new wire in the tangled mess in his massive box of wires down in the basement...