Heartbeats. Check!

Well, we have conquered another step in this process - we saw 2 little strong heartbeats yesterday afternoon. Praise God! Everything looks really good and the babies are both measuring well. Due date has changed to July 3rd (I think I know someone with that bday - huh, H? :) ) but with twins, I highly doubt that I will make it to that date, although it's a goal.

Now I feel like I can sort of take a deep breath and relax a little more. To be honest, I have been somewhat cautious in getting too excited about being pregnant. I think I have read way too much about things that can go wrong that I haven't let myself truly revel in the joy of being pregnant. I think every pregnant woman, regardless of the ways and means they achieved pregnancy, holds her breath until that magic week 12. And I guess I still feel a little anxious knowing that my body may not fully be producing everything it needs to yet to maintain the pregnancy.

However, my doctor feels pretty confident that everything is progressing as it should. So, he is FINALLY tapering down my progesterone injections (to end tomorrow - yay!!!!) and starting me on alternate means of receiving progesterone. It is still not a pleasant means of getting meds (think yeast infection, but not yeast infection medicine ----ewwww, I know. Gross.), but it beats the heck out of nightly injections and butt massages.

Which by the way, reminds me... I totally have the cure for anyone who feels like their butt is a little too jiggly for their liking and would like to firm it up a bit without doing 1,000 squats at the gym.

Simply go through in vitro and take progesterone shots every night for over 30 days -- you will have a firm butt in no time. The residual effects of the leftover progesterone in your butt kind of forms into hard lumps all over and you will have no jiggle whatsoever. It is amazing - if you can get past the unsightly lumpiness all over that precious real estate. Oh yeah, and the searing pain that comes along with the shots in the latter weeks because there simply is nowhere "fresh" for the injections to go.

Or you know what? Just hit the gym. A lot less painful.

So now, we are again in the waiting period. I will go back every week until week 11 or 12 for an ultrasound and bloodwork at my RE's and then I am officially released to my regular OB for good. Yay! I will be so glad for that "Graduation Day"!

The ever popular question has been "how do you feel?" Well, I think so far I have been pretty lucky. While I do have nausea, it is somewhat tempered by always stuffing my face. So as long as there are crackers, chocolate, and cookies (especially Subway cookies!) around, I seem to be ok. I definitely have cravings and aversions but they seem to switch up a lot. It's throwing off my grocery store trips big time because what looks good to me on Sunday does not usually sound good by Weds at dinnertime. So I have taken to going to the grocery on the afternoon I am going to cook dinner to ensure I don't have to throw out yet another meal because I simply can't stomach it.

I'm all about everything Italian and Mexican and my scale definitely reflects that. I have finally started to add on a little bit of weight from the weight I lost during the invitro process. It's been a little hard on me mentally to have my jeans fitting tighter with no obvious outward signs of pregnancy but I hope soon enough I will show and not just have this horrendous bloating feeling.

Other than the food thing, I am just plain exhausted. Thank goodness for home officing. I tend to wake up really really early -- either because I am hungry or I have to pee :) -- so my workdays have started earlier and allowed for naptime in the afternoon. Such a blessing to have a flexible work schedule. Praise the women who work a full day at "regular" jobs while pregnant -- and I'm selfishly glad it isn't me!

I still have not been released to work out at all - even a quick mile stroll around the block. Like my doctor says, now is not the time. I do miss working out or at least breaking a little bit of a sweat. It was always a great stress reliever for me. However, I know I will have to spend A LOT of time working out after these babies, so maybe it is just as well to enjoy it now. And besides, I don't know where I would find the energy. You know, after a hard day of sleeping and eating and writing blogs.

Anyway, that is pretty much all that is happening around here - and kind of sums up my life - I just roll from meal to meal and naptime to bedtime :). Sounds like my dog's life actually. We're totally on the same schedule.

Thank you all for your prayers, notes, and comments. The prayer support we have received has been nothing short of amazing and please know how much it means to us. We pray for you all daily.

Also - update on my mother-in-law, Barbara.... she is doing incredibly well and her strength through this battle has been inspiring. She will receive her 2nd round of chemo this Friday. We did find out that while it is stage 3 breast cancer, it has NOT spread anywhere else which was a huge blessing. Please continue to pray specifically that her body continues to tolerate the chemo (last week she had an infection that required antibiotics to ensure that it cleared up before the chemo hit again), that the chemo starts to shrink the main tumor, and that Barbara continues to feel well and positive. Thank you all.

In Him,