Growing Pains

I have had major growing pains this week. They haven't felt like the round ligament pains I had early in the pregnancy. These aren't as painful, but are rather just achy. I started back to work this week and haven't been drinking nearly as much water as I should be. I thought this was the reason for the pains, but even when I try to drink more water in the evenings, the aches still continue. I have now realized they're growing pains. I think this is pretty exciting as growing pains means a growing belly. And a growing belly means growing babies. Yaaay!

Also new this week is the lack of any major vomiting! I've gone a whole week! I'm slightly reluctant to say it might have been the end. I still get nauseous when I smell something I don't like (smelly Eric breath, mystery food being microwaved in the break room, etc), but no vomiting.

Since I've started back to work this week, I've had to wear real clothes and this is becoming more and more difficult to do. Rubberbanding pants to stay closed is just not comfortable! I am so grateful to have received hand-me-downs from my sister and a friend of their old maternity clothes. I pulled them out last night and tried them all on. What a difference they make! I think I'm officially a maternity clothes wearing girl! I've heard most women (with a singleton pregnancy) start wearing maternity clothes when they are around 20 weeks pregnant. Since I'm 16 weeks this week and a twin pregnancy starts to show a month earlier than a singleton, I think I'm right on track (at least that's my logic!!:) )

Our next appointment is on Monday. We are so excited as we will probably find out the sex of the babies and the shopping can begin:)

Baby Gender Poll

I have added a poll to the right hand side of the blog. Please take a second to vote on what you think Eric and I are having. We might find out at the next doctor's appointment on January 12th:)

Week 12 Belly Pic!

This picture was taken on December 21st. I was about 12 1/2 weeks pregnant and definitely have a bump! Although people said (at the time!) they could only tell I was pregnant because they knew, Eric and I both could see something forming. Since then, I have noticeably grown. I am definitely bigger now than when we first got to Chicago. This shirt hardly fits anymore!

Week 12 Doctor Appointment

I'm a bit behind on my posting since we've been in Chicago the past few weeks! I had my week 12 appointment on December 15th and both babies have continued to grow and develop well and everything looks great! Every time we see the doctor he has told us what good position the babies are in and that they are "the best twins you can have." How reassuring!
We inquired of the size difference that was noted during the week 10 appointment. Dr. McKernan said that it is very normal as they are fraternal twins. He did a quick ultrasound and thought that Baby A (the smaller baby) looked to have caught up with Baby B (yeah!!). We don't have any pictures from that ultrasound because the machine printer was broken, but the twins were so cute and remarkably different from the last time we saw them. Baby A (the twin closer to the cervix) was doing a ton of flips and was very active. Eric and I think this baby is going to be like me-very active and a type A personality. Baby B was just hanging out and only moved when the doctor probed him/her. We think this baby is going to be like Eric-only doing things when he absolutely has to!! :)
The doctor also suggested I take an additional folic acid and a vitamin B complex during my pregnancy. As soon as I started taking the vitamin B complex, I started noticing I had energy! It's been awesome! I still get tired after running errands or standing too much, but there is definitely a difference. Hallelujah!
Also, the morning sickness is still hanging around. I thought week 12 was a magical week where all the the nausea suddenly went away! It is subsiding a bit and smells don't bother me as much as they used to. I hope in a few weeks it's gone for good!

Cravings...

Just so I don't forget....
One of the symptoms I've been having since becoming pregnant has been food cravings. I get them and I get them bad. I think they are rather amusing, but are also a big pain as some of them aren't the most convenient. Lucky for me, I have the greatest husband who has never denied me my craving indulges and a family who has dropped everything to come pick me up and take me down to the ghetto to get my taco fix. Below are some of the items I've craved since being pregnant:

1. Pickles: This wasn't a normal craving for pickles. It happened the week after conception and I didn't even know I was pregnant yet. I ate almost an entire jar of pickle spears and was drinking the juice out of the jar when I realized it wasn't normal. People don't drink pickle juice!
2. Crispy beef from P.F. Chang's
3. Sizzling rice soup from Abbicus Inn
4. Corn on the cobb from Kentucky Fried Chicken: I have never once craved their corn on the cobb. In fact, I normally don't even like it all that much!
5. Barbeque
6. Spaghetti with meatballs
7. Tacos from the original Garcia's
8. Buffalo Wild Wings
9. Nachos from Taco Bell
10. Oranges
11. Bananas: I didn't get to see this one through to fruition. I bought them and when I went to put them on my cereal seeing and smelling them made me puke.
12. Yogurt
13. Cottage cheese with Lawry's season salt on saltine crackers
14. Mango gelatto
15. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

Some of these cravings I think are so funny. I mean, corn on the cobb from KFC? Really? But I have thoroughly enjoyed each one of them...that is until I've puked them up and never want to see them again!

Week 10 Ultrasound Pics

Our doctor wanted us to have two ultrasounds during the first trimester since we having twins. Below are the pictures from that visit. If you look closely in the third picture, you can see why the ultrasound tech thought she tell the baby on the left is a boy.

Groens...soon to be a party of four!

Eric and I have some very exciting news....we're expecting twins!! I'm officially 12 weeks pregnant tomorrow. I had my 12 week doctor's appointment yesterday and since everything looked good, I'm spilling the beans! The official due date for our bundles of joy is July 1st, 2009. We've learned that the average gestation for twins is 35 weeks, so they will most likely arrive in early to mid June.
The first trimester has been pretty rough. I've been incredibly sick and can't wait until the "morning" sickness wears off. That terms still gets me. There's nothing "morning" related to it! I can tell it's getting a bit better, though. It really takes a strong smell now to throw me over the edge. Just a few weeks ago, I would throw up in the morning as soon as I woke up and then usually whenever I would eat anything or drink too much of something. I've been so grateful to have taken the last few months of work. I have no idea how I would have been able to work feeling like this. But now that the nausea is beginning to wear off, fatigue has set it. I get so tired just by doing normal everyday things. Just by taking a shower and getting ready for the day I get so worn out!
At our doctor's appointment yesterday, we got to see the babies again with the ultrasound, but the printer wasn't working to take home a picture. Baby A (the baby closest to the cervix) always does flips whenever we see her (I have a feeling she's a girl, so until I'm told otherwise, I'm calling her a "she"). I think she has a personality like me: very type A and energetic. She's always moving around!
Baby B (who we think might be a boy) seems to have a personality more like Eric's. Whenever we see him, he's just hanging out and only seems to move around when he has to. At our 10 week ultrasound, there was a really good shot of Baby B's butt. The tech was looking at it for awhile and said that although it was really early to tell, she thought she could tell the sex. I thought what I was looking at was the umbilical cord, but she said that if it was it would turn colors when she brought up a red square on the screen. That was so exciting.
We just love our doctor. Eric got a chance to meet him yesterday and when I told Dr. McKernan that Eric was a medical student, he introduced himself as Paul McKernan (yep, they're on a first name basis!) and would use real medical terms when we were looking at the babies. Eric really appreciated that. Dr. McKernan tells us every time I see him we have the best type of twins you can have. They are fraternal twins (so separate egg, separate sperm) and have separate membranes and are in excellent positions in the womb (sounds weird calling my uterus a womb, but I guess it is!).
We feel so blessed to already have these two in our lives. We can't wait to meet them!