34 weeks

33 wks pregnant with the twins

34 weeks pregnant with Calum

Yep, huge-and this pic was actually taken at 33 weeks. Huge as is none of my "maternity" clothes cover my belly anymore (would love to say I chose this top again for consistency but really it's one of about two that cover my ass right now). Huge as in it takes me quite awhile to get up from the couch or out of bed which is especially inconvenient considering I have to get up literally every hour during the night to go to the bathroom. Huge as in I now can't leave the house without getting questioned as to when I am due and in fact even when in the house (think grocery delivery man, postman, etc.), I get the same questions!

I don't have another appointment now until Sept. 5th which will be my last scan, the 36 week scan to check on how big the babies are and reconfirm their position (which will hopefully be the same as they have been, both head down). Depending on the weights of the babies at that stage, we will then make a more concrete decision as to whether I get to go for a "regular" birth or if we are going to schedule an elective c-section. If the babies are 7 lbs or more (which is pretty realistic if I make it that long), we are definitely looking at a c-section. If twin 1 (girl) is in any position other then head down, we're also looking at a c-section.

I'm really hoping for a normal birth this time but realise things are pretty much out of my control at the moment. Feeling very much like I am stuck in a zone, waiting for the next stage of our lives to start and looking for any hint that labor might be coming, in short-driving Mark nuts and probably not being the most amazingly patient Mom to Calum. The hot weather here hasn't helped, you can't imagine how excited I was to see rain today!

The care package from my Mom last week helped though-think two massive bags of Jolly Ranchers, Slim Jims, a couple of nice maternity tops from Nordstrom and a battery operated fan for the hospital (the maternity ward isn't air conditioned and they only allow fans that have been approved by their electrical department so when I was there last, I literally almost died from heat exhaustion!).

All along I've said that if I had to predict, I would say that the babies will arrive on Aug. 30th so we shall see..... x

Going potty....

On one of our first public outings...
Lounging around the house in his pants...

One of many bribery treats

Graduating from nakedness to pants AND trousers! Shirt came later...

So it's been awhile since you heard from me... Would love to say we've been sooo busy doing lots of fun stuff but in reality our life has been encompassed by finishing the nursery and potty training Calum which has been the hardest thing I have done so far in terms of parenting. Maybe you are thinking I thought it was hard because of the mess involved which is partly true (although so far we have had only one "poo" accident....), but mostly it's required a ton of patience which runs short when you are 30+ weeks pregnant with twins and can barely put on a pair of shoes, much less crouch down for the 50th (literally) time that day to read a book whilst your child is on the potty or clean wee off the floor....

Anyway, it's done-and by typing that I have probably cursed myself but thought I would share a bit of how it's gone thus far as it seems like a lot of you are approaching this fun task with your own toddlers or might have done already and can offer some tips for when Calum surely digresses as all the books say he will when the twins arrive.

We started a few weeks ago with introducing the potty at bath time, just getting Calum used to sitting on it with some success (they say the sound of water is an old trick to get them going...). Then we cleared our schedule for the weekend after my birthday and literally spent the first day with Calum running around the house naked, as he had only ever gone on the potty before bath he thought that clothes were not part of the deal so Mark and I looked on horrified wondering if every time he went he was going to insist upon taking all of his clothes off. We had lots of accidents the first day. Day 2 Calum got more excited about his "pants" (underwear here in the UK) but thought that pants were like nappies and that you could wet them as you pleased. A majority of the 18 pairs we bought went in the wash that day. Day 3 was a slight improvement-we kept him home from daycare and I tackled the task by myself, we had a 50% success rate but at least had him in pants AND trousers! Day 4 it all came together, we even managed to get out of the house to the park where he used the potty I had to bring along with, just in case.

Since then every day has gotten better and for the last week we have been totally accident free. I feel pretty proud of Calum for getting it and glad for not having to clean wee off the floor every 5 minutes but is it a massive amount easier not having a kid in diapers (minus nap time and overnight)? Honestly, I don't really think so-in fact, it seems to be more work because the second we hear the words "wee wee" we have to drop everything and take him, sometimes turning out to be false alarms which are particularly annoying but of course you have to keep on your fake cheerful parent face and praise him all the same.

Anyway, C now hates diapers/nappies. Which is great on one hand (less emptying that disgusting diaper pail, easier to pack a bag for going out...) but not so great on the other. You see, Calum has somehow trained himself to only poo when it's either nap time or bedtime-usually first thing in the morning to be precise. This results in frantic screams (from behind his firmly closed door) of "nappy, icky nappy, poo poo nappy" the second he wakes up which don't stop until I go in and change him at which point we might as well forget him going back to bed, resulting in me being up every morning around 7.30.... Great.

So that's that. Yesterday C had his first major accident, falling from a step in the bathroom and hitting his head on the edge of the bathtub. The ER doctor we saw said it can look like a bit of a slaughterhouse with head injuries. He's right. I cried more then he did. Called Mark who rushed home from work to accompany us to the hospital. No stitches required, thank God.

My belly is growing more by the day, so much so that almost none of my maternity tops fit and with 5.5 weeks or less to go, there really doesn't seem to be any point in buying any new stuff so trying to look half way decent these days has become ever more impossible. On Tuesday I have my 32 week scan which will help us plan more for the birth (hoping for a VBAC-vaginal birth after c-section rather than another c-section) and know how the babies have been growing so if they do come any day now, at least I can (hopefully) rest assured they are good weights-at our 28 week scan they were about 2.5 lbs....

Our weather was ridiculously hot and humid this week leading to lots of Braxton Hicks which I never had before and are apparently more common in multiple pregnancies and which prompted Mark to think the babies were coming any day now. Will keep you all posted, of course-have a great weekend x