Week 26 and 27: Getting closer!

Week: 27

Weight:161 (Pre-pregnancy weight=125)

Body changes: Getting really tired of the weight gain. Last night, I noticed the first stages of stretch marks around my belly button. Nooooooo. I've been religiously using Burt's Bees belly butter once a day but am upping that to twice a day. Although, I've heard mixed reviews on whether that stuff actually helps at all. Worth the effort if it at least helps reduce their appearance just a bit. Bring on the BUTTER!
Rose (good thing that happened) and thorn (bad thing) of the week:
Rose-Babies are moving like crazy. It's such a cool experience to see and feel them move. Josh loves feeling them move, and I love watching him feel them and see his eyes light up. :)
Thorn-Back pain and acne everywhere (back, neck, stomach, face). Ugh.

26 weeks

27 weeks

The past 2 weeks went by pretty quickly which is great! This pregnancy has felt like it has been lasting forever, but the closer we get to that 30 weeks mark the faster time seems to go. At this point, we have a goal of 6 more weeks to reach 34 weeks and a max of 10 more weeks to reach 38. How exciting!

Had a check up visit last week, and everything looks good according to the charts. Great news is that I passed my glucola test with flying colors. I was relieved to hear that because that is one less thing to worry about. I was worried that I was going to fail the test and then not only be restricted from sex but also from sugar. That would be pretty dang awful. lol. Next Thursday, we have another ultrasound, and then doc said that we will probably start having weekly visits after that. 

The nursery is finally starting to come together! We ordered 2 cribs from BabiesRUs about 3 weeks ago. When we initially purchased them, the store employee accidentally charged us $57 for the 2nd crib instead of taking $57 (10% twin discount) off the 2nd crib. It was after a long workday, and I thought the total price seemed too cheap but went ahead and paid for it because the employee even repeated the total price when I questioned what she told us it was. Then, Josh and I went to the car, and I looked over the receipt because the math didn't seem right. I caught the employee's $200+ mistake, and Josh and I thought we would do the right thing and bring it back in to be fixed. We thought our honesty would be rewarded with at least like a package of free diapers or something, but instead, we got a weak "sorry" and an additional 20 minutes of having to wait for them to fix the mistake and charge us the additional $200+ for the 2nd crib. The employee actually acted almost annoyed about it.

The cribs are ready for 2 adorable boys to sleep in them!

Fast forward a couple weeks. I called to check in on the status of the cribs. They put me on hold for 10 or so minutes. Let me tell you (in case you have never had to experience ToysRUs hold music) that ToysRUs has the most horrible hold music loop that I've ever heard, and I have heard a lot of hold music. They gave me a vague response saying the cribs were still not ready. I checked back a week later, more hold music, vague answer, more hold music, was told that the cribs were at the warehouse, and that there was this glitch in their system that keeps happening to orders and that they would email the warehouse and get it fixed. I called back the next day to make sure that "email" was sent. More hold music. No one knew about an email. That's when I pulled out some skills I learned from my mother and asked to speak straight to a manager and get these dang cribs figured out. I was polite but firm and reiterated that my experience with these dang cribs was very frustrating and becoming time-consuming. That's when the manager apologized and stated she would give us 50% off the cribs. I thanked her, hung up the phone, and high fived Josh. Despite the annoying runaround with the company, buy-one-get-one-free cribs are AWESOME! We got them on Friday night, and Josh had them assembled by Saturday. Now, this whole twin deal feels really real. Eek. 

Josh is ready to rock some boys to sleep!

We also got in our new navy striped rocking/swivel chair and ottoman that we ordered from Walmart online. We are pretty happy with the quality and comfort of the chair. I was nervous since we didn't get to see it in person first and based the purchase on online reviews. I'm looking forward to rocking my little babes to sleep in that chair.

 
 Last weekend, Josh made his second appearance as Mr. Easter Bunny at the Prime Easter Egg Hunt. He somehow transforms into character very well...hopping around and hanging out with dozens of kids and not complaining at all. Love him! This year, we had over 100 kids attend the hunt and get photos with E.B. Shout out to my little sister Amanda who also helped hide the 1000+ eggs for the hunt with me and Josh. I couldn't have done it without them because I found out I wasn't a very fast egg-hider with my pregnant waddle.




Other than those things...I don't have too much to share. Nothing too exciting or funny or crazy right now...which is probably a good thing. I kind of finally feel like we made it to that "honeymoon" phase of pregnancy. Besides being quite large, I feel pretty good overall and happy to be pregnant. I'll enjoy this phase while it lasts because I'm sure it won't last too long. Have a great week everyone! 

Happy Easter from the Mueller's!

Week 24 and 25: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Week: 25

Weight:155 (Pre-pregnancy weight=125)

Body changes: My "innie" belly button is no more. It's kind of a half outie, half just weird.
Rose (good thing that happened) and thorn (bad thing) of the week:
Rose-Babies are healthy and 2 lbs a pop!
Thorn-Babies are only 2 lbs a pop! Where is all this other weight coming from?? Oh wait, I think I know...

Week 24

Week 25

During week 24 of my pregnancy, I went on a work trip to Louisville, KY for the Mid-America Trucking Show for 4 days. I had gotten permission to fly from my doctor, but he was hesitant about it. I didn't understand why it seemed like maybe not such a good idea until after the fact. Yeah. Umm. It was basically like one of my worst ideas to date. During the trucking show, we have a company booth where all we have to do is stand and represent Prime and answer questions and recruit drivers. Seems simple enough, right??! Well, it turns out the convention center was the size of my hometown, and it is possible to get so lost inside the convention center that one could walk for a continuous 20 minutes and still be lost.  I mean...so I've heard. But really, I did get lost and ended up sitting on a random bench in the middle of some wing of the center for 15 minutes just to catch my breath. I knew if I took one more step, I would either pop out a baby or pass out. After that, my body basically felt like it had been run over for the rest of the convention. My back, my boobs, my chest, my legs, my belly. Every part of my pregnant body hurt.

Mid-America Trucking Show-Louisville, KY

 Planes: I was scared of flying to Louisville because the month before when I flew I ended up with a week full of charlie horses at night. Doctor said to drink lots of water and get up and walk during flight this time. I drank a little water because I feared having to pee in the tiny toilets in the sky and was too intimidated to get up at all during the flight to walk in the aisle. Plus, come on. Those planes that fly out of Springfield, MO are only like 20 feet in length anyhow. Luckily, on the flights back to MO, I somehow got first class on one flight which was awesome. I've never appreciated legroom so much in my life.

Trains: In prior trips, I thought the "plane trains" or trams that run you from concourse to concourse at the airports were pretty cool. When I rode it, I imagined myself on the monorail at DisneyWorld (instead of the reality which was standing next to stinky, stressed out, exhausted frequent flyers). However, this trip I was a little nervous to step on the plane train because the day before the plane train at the Chicago Airport derailed and injured 32 people. (Chicago Train Derails) Normally, I would try to look like a frequent flyer and not hold too tightly to those poles on the train, but I said screw that and clung to the pole like it was my new night job. Luckily, we survived the 30 second train ride from concourse to concourse.

Automobiles: For the convention, we somehow ended up at a hotel/casino not even in the state of Kentucky. Our hotel was in Elizabeth, IN which gave us a good 30 minute car ride to and from the convention each day. I hadn't had much hope that I would have too much fun on the trip as I knew I was pregnant and couldn't enjoy drinks with coworkers at the end of the work days. (Standing up at these conventions and talking with hundreds of people makes for long days and turns out to be very exhausting.) Despite the body pains, I ended up having a blast with my coworkers. We all agreed that there must have been a gas leak in our rental car because every time we got in the car, it turned into a non-stop laughter fest. There were times when we all just started laughing without even saying anything. (There were also a couple times I was dangerously close to peeing my pants.) I think my cheeks finally just stopped hurting from all of the laughter. Oh yeah...and we almost got hit like 3 times. Good times!

Needless to say, I will be avoiding any more extensive traveling including planes, trains, or automobiles for the rest of the pregnancy.

On Thursday, Josh and I attended a doctor appointment and 2nd ultrasound. I was actually pretty nervous because I worried that I overdid it at the convention and with all the traveling. I hadn't felt an overwhelming amount of movement the few days before the appointment so I was imagining the worst. Fortunately, we had our ultrasound and both boys were found to be healthy and moving and a whopping TWO POUNDS each. I was so happy to hear that news. My doctor was very positive about the babies' progress and my own. He didn't even bring up my weight gain...which I was a bit worried about. It's just so hard to resist the ice cream...and brownies...and cereal...and pb&js. Ha. Josh brought up that I climb a set of stairs at work since I work in the basement and asked the doc if he thought I should use the elevator. Thanks to Josh, I now get to wait for the world's slowest elevator. It seriously takes at least 2 minutes or more each time to go up or down ONE FLOOR. The good news is that the doc also said that I can't mow the lawn (or do other intense chores). Darn! Unfortunately, the doctor also told us that there should be no more sex as it could risk premature labor. Of course, now I want it more than ever. Ha. I'll just have to settle for brownies to fill that void for now. ;)

Took our nephew to the Shrine Circus this past weekend. Not sure who enjoyed it more, but I'm pretty sure it would be Amanda and me. Human canon ball was the best part. Slightly terrifying but very cool...especially since he didn't die.

Had my glucola test this morning. I actually bought my routine McDonald's breakfast burrito and remembered the test as I grabbed the McD's bag from the drive-through employee. Man was that painful to throw away the  burrito and have to wait to eat for hours. I found the glucose drink to be pretty delicious. Maybe it was because I was just hungry, but it tasted like an orange soda. Hopefully, my results come back good. We'll find out in a couple weeks.

Anyway, babies are kicking me a lot, and we are getting more and more eager to meet them. Life is good.

Have a blessed week!