Slabiak Sluggers...that's what my girlfriends who threw me my baby shower in the end of June called the babes and I thought it was catchy! They threw an adorable MN Twins themed party and decorated it all in baseball related decor. It was so much fun and I appreciated everything they did to make it a great time!
I myself feel like a "Sluggish Slabiak". This makes sense as I am only 1 week away from the grand finale...the THIRD trimester! YAY! I can't wait for them to get here but know it's not time for the girls to meet us yet. Patience! Anyway, since about a week and a half ago I really have popped (it seems like I keep saying that but then I get even bigger) and has made doing simple things like putting on pants, bending over and getting up out of the car or sofa very difficult. Plus around that time, I've begun to experience the joys of heartburn. Now, I must say all these slightly irritating symptoms are NOTHING compared to the nausea I had first trimester so I try to remind myself how much better this is.
However, one downfall to all these current symptoms that I don't think I realized was affecting me so much was how terrible I've been sleeping. I'm so used to being a champion sleeper my whole life (like how I can sleep anywhere, can always sleep in and let's not forget how I could sleep through industrial fire alarms my freshman year of college). Well Becky, I think my 26+ year run of fantastic sleep is going to be just about over for a LONG time. Now, I can't fall asleep because my chest burns so bad, I get up at least 3-4 times a night to pee and usually always at some point have a small snack accompanied my bizarre preggo craving of a glass of milk. Not to mention all the tossing and turning I do trying to find a comfy position on my side with the thousand pillows that have overtaken our bed. Pete has been a great sport and I think is still sleeping OK from what he tells me. :-) I have witnessed some pretty funny Pete sleep talking moments in the last few months. One night he just started blurting the word "taco" out over and over again probably 20 times at least. The other night he was talking about someone named "Crawl"...it proves to be pretty entertaining!
Anyway, last week after 2 particular really rough nights of sleep and feeling really crummy, I saw the doc and she gave me the go ahead to start taking a low dose of pepcid before bedtime...this has really helped and all weekend I was able to get some great shut eye in with a little less tossing and turning. We spent a few days this week at Shell Lake with our great friends Ryan and Lissa and their adorable pooch, Dexter (how cool that they chose to spend their one year anniversary with us!). We had a great time however the last day the heat got really bad. With humidity it felt like 103. Lis, Dexter and I were planning on staying one more night but we decided the heat was too much. We still had a fabulous time though!
Moving on, I'm badly overdue for a blog and part of the reason I procrastinate is because I elaborate so much on each detail. So, I've decided to give a quick timeline of what's happened over the last month instead of writing a novel (which I already have done I notice, 5 paragraphs in...)
June:
-Friends threw me the MN Twins shower! It was such a great time. Lots of my friend's mom's were even able to attend which was wonderful being able to catch up with them and it also reconnected me to some old friends I hadn't seen in forever! The girls did a great job with everything...the food, decorating, desserts, games...everything was perfect!
-Got together with the dancing mom's and those nice ladies collaborated and generously threw me a surprise shower at the gathering! It was so much fun and so nice of everyone. They had a diaper bag theme which was so cute and got me off to a good start on all the necessary supplies! The cake was adorable...it said "Twice as Nice" on it. I think there is a picture of it floating on someone's camera that I must get to put in the girl's baby book!
-Had several ultrasounds at Abbott proving to all be very encouraging...the girls have been measuring/weighing almost exactly the same and the risk of TTTS is very low at this point.
July:
-Spent the 4th over at Lissa's parents, Paul and Patti Madison's house. It was the girl's first time in the lake and they loved every minute! I sported my one and only maternity swimsuit all day and it sure felt awesome being in the water.
-My sister in law Amanda (with the help of my mother and law and sister in law Maria) threw me a shower for the Schroeder/Slabiaks at Ellen's house. It was beautiful! Amanda spent the week's at her mom's house that week and put so much effort into the shower along with Ellen and Maria...everything from the flowers, table settings, food, gift giveaways...looked like it came from a fancy magazine. Thanks everyone for making it so special! Pete's cousin Allana made us a GORGEOUS cake as well...I'll post a pic. She does this on the side and is SO very talented. It was so special!
-Pete and I had our first of three "childbirth for multiples" class at Abbott. It was very informative but also a bit tiring learning all kinds of new information. We are thrilled we signed up for this specific class because of the approximate dozen other parents in the class, everyone is having twins with the exception of one couple that is expecting triplets!
-Had another ultrasound at Abbott (finally, at this like 7th trip to Abbott I learned the best place to park!) Both baby a and b are doing great. However, just as we had suspected...baby b decided to change positions. (We had felt a very odd, slow and hard movement a few mornings prior and were wondering if that's what had happened). So...baby b is breech and baby a is vertex (head down). The doc said that my chances of a natural delivery are probably low if they stay in this position...however, the girls can move several more times until about 32 weeks so nothing is set in stone. For first time mom's it's difficult to try and deliver a breech baby when she's a twin because the risk of complications goes up with all the cords and there are other factors as well. I'm just not going to lament over anything yet, because the plan is up to the girls and God! I'm just the incubator :-) The doc mentioned that often times the breech/vertex position is how twins will end up. It just seems to help them "fit". They're kinda like a ying yang! So I can call them the
"ying yang twins" for fun (which is a rap group, ha!) Which reminds me, I'm going to write about some nick names we've developed...
-Nicknames:
"
Cute little potatoes" or "sweet potatoes"...this is what Pete likes to call them and I think it's adorable! We play this song for them that my parents used to play for me called "Little Potato". It's so sweet and often gets them dancing. Sometimes when they are moving and Pete's talking to them, he will call them
"you little STINKERS!" which I love :-) I tend to call my nieces and nephew this a lot. Hopefully they don't take it to heart because it's my way of expressing my love for how "stinking cute" they are!
"
Sassy and Trixy"....My friend Kirsten at work thought of this one. I love it because we've kind of associated baby a as being a bit of the womb hog and she was who I felt move first...so we've kind of given her the rap as being "sassy". Trixy is baby b...because she for so long was curled up in the little room that baby a left her with and now how perfect that she, the little trickster, "Trixy"...switched on us!
"
The Jefferson's" (or Georgina and Weezy)...this is because one day my friend Michael at work asked me what size they were that current week and I said, "eggplant...they're movin on up!" He instantly thought of the Jeffersons! LOL. Michael has come up with some great nicknames along the way...and often times has kindly brought in fruit/candy corresponding to the girls' current size of the week! He even got me a delicious fresh squeezed lemonade from the Good Earth last week just because! He also came up with
"Pete's angels" since there are three of us for Pete like "Charlie's angels" and before we knew they were twins, since Michael knows I'm an avid office fan, was calling them
"Jim and Dwight". Mike, another friend from work suggested
"Jimessa and Dwightina" once we found out they were both girls! Haha!
I'm sure I've forgotten dozens of nicknames...so let me know if I did. But perhaps my favorite nicknames thus far was determined by my 3.5 year old niece, Laney. When she first found out there were two girls in my belly she thought of
"Plomey and Clomey" or "Isla and Isla" (Isla is my niece/Laney's 1 year old sister).
Right before the Slabiak/Schroeder shower, she decided upon "
Trampolina and Plomey" as their current names. How adorable is this??! I must mention that when Laney saw me for the first time in about a month last week I said, "Does my belly look bigger"? She said, in this silly little voice, "IT LOOKS LIKE YOU HAVE A BIG WATERMELON IN YOUR BELLY!" Haha! Kids say the darndest things. Another cute quote was when she was showing my friends Tiff, Lissa and Ryan that she knew how to do yoga, Lissa said, "Do you know downward dog" and Laney started to do the post and then corrected her and said "Downward FACING dog!".
-This isn't a nickname but another sweet comment that daddy to be said about the girls last night that almost brought a tear to my eye was, "They are the most beautiful things I
never seen". Awww...
Time to wrap it up...I'll keep ya posted if anything with the babies changes. I'm going to upload some belly photos, etc. It's hard to post ultrasound photos because they are getting so big that they aren't taking lot of pics of the girls together and they show up kinda fuzzy on screen. Love to you all and thanks for everything everyone has done to help/support us along the way!
OH, and yes...on
SIX different occasions we encountered double yolk eggs. 5 out of 6 were hard boiled and the last was when I was baking cake pops. How crazy is that?!?!?! We swear to God this is for real too...I know it seems unreal!
