I was feeding my son lunch today and when I happened to stumble on a TLC program called The Wedding Story. There was a very gorgeous couple on, and in a matter of seconds I find my mind wandering many many years in the future to my own son’s wedding. It’s a strange thing, but this show has made me take stock of my life.

 My husband and I got married in Feb. 1997 through the court system. I took a semester off of school, while he finished his and we were able to move wherever his job was going to take us. While he was in school, I stayed at the apartment and on most days find myself watching The Wedding Story. Often, I felt a little envious because I didn’t have a typical wedding.

 In May 2004, we finally wed in church, surrounded by a handful of friends and family. Though it still wasn’t a typical wedding, it did make me feel like a traditional bride. After the church wedding, I no longer felt envious of the wedding I see featured in The Wedding Story. Instead I watched it with a great big smile on my face feeling lucky that I avoided the typical stress that comes with most weddings.

 Today, while I watch The Wedding Story, my mind zips to the future instead, to my son’s wedding. He’s not even 2 years old, but I could picture it as clear as day; my son looking very gorgeous and breath taking on his wedding day.

 Isn’t this what parenthood is all about? It no longer matters where we’ve been in life. It no longer matters what trial and tribulations we’ve been through. What matters the present and especially the future of our children. What we do today is all about how we can make our children be the best people they can be in the future.

I just took Salem to the vet. The vet has taken blood and will see what the blood work will tell us. If the blood work is normal all around, the vet said that the assumption is that whatever is wrong with Salem is in his brain. A CAT scan will then be done...  Apparently the CATscan runs around $700!  We should know by tomorrow afternoon the result of the bloodwork. The vet also said that this could be epilepsy, in which case, Salem would be on meds. I can only imagine how much that medicine would cost.

Matthew was a handful at the vet. He crawled all over the floor (so he's covered in all sorts of animal hair by the time we got home) and pretended he was a dog. He was touching his nose on the vet's shoes. Oh golly. It's tough to pay attention to the vet and then keep an eye on Matthew at the same time. Errands like this would be all but impossible when the twins arrive.

My husband has just discovered that my dog (salem, the black one) suffers from seizure. Matthew and I were napping, and my hubby was in the office. He came out because he heard some weird noise and found Salem on his back shaking, and foaming at the mouth. It lasted a while, and when he came out of the seizure, he didn't know where he was. Poor dog.

I will be calling the vet on Monday and hopefully they can determine the cause of the seizure.

On a side note... My rank is fast falling down and down and down. I have some ideas on articles to write, but I'm too lazy to do any writing right now.

Alright, I popped in to display my tickers and then I'm off. My belly isn't feeling too well today. It feels like it's in the way of everything and weighing a ton all of a sudden. I don't know if it's gas or what. I know, it's embarassing. But which woman out there who has ever been pregnant who has never had issue with being gassy.  

For the past 5 nights, we've been able to leave our son in the bed while he's still awake. This is something we'd never been able to do until now (22 months). My husband and I (whoever is putting our son to bed) usually have to lie down with him until he falls asleep.

But 5 nights ago, I had to go downstairs to get something. I told my son that I would be right back, which he understood. But while downstairs, I got sidetracked by email. It took me 15 minutes to get back to the bedroom and by that time, my son was almost asleep. I was amazed!

So the next night, I waited until he was done tossing and turning and playing in bed. And once he did, I told him I would go downstairs but I will come back and check on him later. And again, this worked! For the next few nights, I've reassured him that if he needed daddy or I, that would we go up and come back (we use a monitor). Then one night, when it was my husband's turn to put him to bed, my son actually told him to go and leave the room. Aaaahh.... success!

Unfortunately, all these nights have been with my son sleeping on our bed instead of his big boy bed (on the floor next to ours). It's been cold and  his bed is right next to a big window. So I've been having him sleep with us the entire night. But no matter. Success is success!

Yipeee! More time for me and hubby to just do whatever we want for the rest of the night.

I am feeling absolutely terrible. My nose is stuffed up and my head feels like it's going to explode everytime I try and blow my nose. There's nothing worse than having to wake up in the middle of the night just to blow your nose. Yuck! And I'm also starting to cough. I was just starting to get over my cough last week (after battling bronchitis for 3 weeks).

Fortunately, my little hardy boy seems to have gotten over his cold. It amazes me how fast he gets over a cold. Yesterday he was back to his old self running around the kitchen and wanting his daddy to chase him. When daddy got tired, he got one of his choo choo train and set it up on the floor. He then turned it on and ran away from it pretending he was being chased. He then tried it with one of his cars that doesn't really move and quickly figured out that wasn't as fun. So hillarious!

I don't think there is anything worse than being pregnant and being sick at the same time. 

 Well.. I think I must be off. I'll try and take a long hot shower and see if I feel any better.

Some things to share...

1. I am experiencing restless leg syndrome lately and I hate it. I can't just sit still and have my legs up because it feels like I should go walking around at stretch them. ARGH!
2. The whole family has got a cold. My son's nose is continually dripping and his eyes are watery. Tylenol Cold doesn't seem to help much. I tried Triaminic Cold & Allergy and works great! My hubby takes medicine too...and unfortunately for me, I have to suffer. I have an approved medicine I can take, but I won't take it unless I feel absolutely horrible.
3. Hubby and I saw the movie "Click" with Adam Sandler and it's a great movie! Adam Sandler has been doing great movies lately that has great morals. This one is all about putting family first above all else, because in the end, that is all that really matters.
4. I found out a few days ago that I can leave my son in bed while he's still awake, but drowsy, and he is alright and falls asleep on his own. This is excellent - more time for me before I have to hit the sack! He used to hate it when I or his dad leaves him. But lately, I tell him that I will be right back to check on him later and he just lays down quietely. Yipee!
5. I just hate it when I find time to sit down and watch TV and there's nothing to watch!!

This was taken a couple of weeks ago. We donate to the local volunteer rescue squad and as a thank you, they take a portrait of the family and give an 11X13 copy for free. But while we were there, the photographer took pictures of Matthew and since they came out really well, I went ahead and bought them. It's his first pro picture ever.

I saw Oprah the other day and they mentioned that Google has been dubbed the best company to work for and they showed why. They have arcades, beach volleyball, pool tables, massage parlors, doctors on site, a concierge! Everything for the enjoyment of their employee! They even have a laundry services and have about 7 caferias which serve gourmet food for FREE!!! Everything is free and even snacks are free! oh boy!

The hubby did point out to me that it seemed like they have the company set up so that people don't have to leave work. So it's probably most appealing to single people rather than people with families. He has a point.

But still! Wow!

I am 14 weeks pregnant tomorrow and I am a little bit concerned about my eating habits. From 8 weeks to 12 weeks, I gained a pound. I was glad by this because I know many books say to keep the weight gain to a minimum during the first trimester.  But this past couple of weeks, I haven't been eating enough because I don't have an appetite. I'm not longer sensitive to smells, which prevented me from eating left overs before and want only new things to eat.... but now I just look at the food in my fridge and just don't feel like eating. I've resorted to packaged soups (which I know isn't healthy because of the preservatives) a few times because that's the only thing that looked appetizing to me.

Also, a few times, I've let myself go hungry because I didn't want to eat what I have in the house. Should I be worried? Do I need a swift kick on the butt? You guys can give me a lecture... if that's what it takes. Should I eat beyond and ignore the fact that I don't feel like eating?

By the way, I am taking prenatal vitamins and calcium supplement. I think I better take this up with my OB on my next appointment.

I've been teaching my son animal names and the animal sounds that they make for a while now.  A couple of days ago, I noticed that he was making a "meow" sound and I asked him if he was a cat. He just kept meowing and wanted a cuddle. He was pretending he was a cat! I was totally amazed, and so is his dad. We have no idea at what age kids do this, but we are pretty impressed that he is doing it at 22 months old. Who knew we had a kitty cat?!

Then this morning, he pretended to be a train and shuffled his legs and said "choo choo".

Here are the babies' ultrasound pictures at 8 weeks and at 12 weeks.

I saw the perinatologist today and had a scan. I also go the result back from the down syndrome test I took and everything was fine. The babies show a very very low risk that they have down syndrome.

The scan was excellent. At 12 1/2 weeks, I was expecting to see a tadpole sort of image, but I was wrong. The babies are growing great and most importantly, they are about the same size right now. Baby B is very active. During the scan, we saw baby B doing a sucking motion with it's mouth and trying to get it's thumb in the mouth, though there wasn't much luck. Then later he/she put both her hands on his/her face, from embarassment, I guess.  

Baby A was not as active, and very stubborn. The sonographer had to do some measurement but baby A wasn't cooperating. She tried to jiggle my belly a few times to get baby A to change position but wouldn't budge. But in the end, the sonographer finally did get what she was looking for.

As far as being identical twins, no one wants to commit to a "yes" because they said no one really knows for sure until the babies are born. But all signs point to "yes" though. One other clue that they may be identical is the thickness of the amniotic sac that separate the babies. They said that for fraternal twins, the sac is quite thick. The scan shows the  sac between my babies is very thin.

Everything is good so far! My next OB appointment is in 4 weeks.   I will try and scan the ultrasound pictures I have later for all to see.

Oh, and I forgot to add how wonderful it is to feel the baby move! Apparently I've been feeling them for the past week, but I always thought it was hunger because it felt like my stomach was grumbling.

I saw my OB today and so far so good. The nurse had to fish around to hear the heartbeats and mentioned that the babies seem to be active. This made me groan because my son was very very active in the womb too and the hubby and I were hoping that the twins would be a little bit mellow. How funny!

Blood work from last time were good, and everything else was good. I gained 1 lbs in the last 4 weeks, which surprised the heck out of me since I've been eating a lot! But yeay for me!

I was prescribed antibiotics though, because the doctor said there has been changes in the vaginal bacteria and now there is more of bacterias that are normally in check. He said that this bacteria has been associated with premature labor and so is treated in high risk pregnancies. If I am having a singleton, it would have been ignored and left untreated.

I will be seeing the perinatologist for the first time on Monday. I am hoping that the scan shows everything is a-OK too.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Matthew had Little Gym today and while the kids were playing with balls, he got 3 balls. He handed me 2 and played with one. I saw that a kid wanted one of the balls I was holding, so I gave it to him. But when my son saw that he was now holding one of my balls, he went over and took it away from him. I came over to him and explained that he didn't have one, so I gave him one. After that, he took the remaining ball from my hand and gave it to someone else. And then he proceeded to look for an extra ball an then gave that to a kid who didn't seem to have one. How sweet, huh?

I guess it was my mistake to not have explained to him in the first place why I gave one of his balls to someone else. Whoopsy!

I've been coughing for about 2 weeks now. I have no other symptoms other than the cough, but it's made worse by asthma. I know it's allergy related, because I seem to get it around the same time every year.  I decided not to go to the doctor, since I know I will be given 2 asthma inhalers, advair and albuterol, a decongestant, and possibly an antibiotic. A week after suffering from the cough, I've decided to use my albuterol inhaler I still have. Without it, my coughing was just unproductive. Instead of ridding of the phlegm, my lungs just seem to close and give me a massive migraine headache every time I cough - so the inhaler was necessary. Then, once in a while, I take robitossin for my cough. It's the list of OK meds from my OB, so I am using it, though only when it's necessary.

Anyway, I think my desire not to see the doctor and avoid meds, have prolonged whatever I'm suffering from. But I'm on the 2nd week now and I'm finally getting better. I'm still coughing, but not as often.  I think I will just go ahead and see the doctor next time I get sick again.

Over the weekend, we had the my in-laws at our house along with one of my husband's nephew. Matthew got more gifts, and most of them are cars. He got a pack of 50 very tiny cars and interestingly enough, he played with them by colors. One minute he played with the red cars. We thought he may have a liking for the color red, but later in the day, he was playing with yellow cars. And then, green, and then black. It was very interesting to watch. He also got a whole lot of other stuff. I think he now has enough toys to last for a couple of years.

My inlaws got my husband and I an xbox 360. Of course, it's mostly for him, as my playing games were over pretty much after my son was born. My husband is very very happy. My mother in law thought that he should have this now and enjoy his playing time, as it would soon disappear when the babies are born.

I got a check, because I couldn't come up with a list. But it's better this way. I can buy maternity clothes as I need them. I'm finding that I'm getting bigger already and I'm only 11 1/2 weeks!

My inlaws left yesterday afternoon, so the evening was again quiet. Matthew and I welcomed the new year sound asleep, while my husband stayed up playing with his toys.

Happy New Year everyone!