Long Time

I know it's been a long time since I have last posted, but I've been busy. I'm now 28 weeks, according to the dr.'s office today. My calculations show me at 27 weeks and 5 days. They change it every time I go in so I never actually KNOW how far I am. Heartbeats were good. I passed my glucose test with flying colors, which was the test that had me worried.

Dr. H measured my belly today. He told me my belly measures 33 weeks. I'm going to be very large! haha

Work has been CRAZY! I can't wait until my vacation in January.

I went to the perinatologist last Thursday and we were able to see the girls' faces. They are cute! It makes me want to meet them that much more. But they still have some baking to do.

I am having a few contractions a day. According to the preterm specialist at OSF, it is perfectly normal. It is good that I know what it feels like though. I don't have them that often so it's nothing to worry about.

I've been really tired lately. More so than usual. Probably because I have two babies. Oh well, it will totally be worth it in the end.

I still have a hard time grasping the reality of my situation. I'm going to be a mommy. I'm going to be a mommy of twins. I'm going to be a mommy of twin GIRLS! I'm so excited.

It's time to go to bed now. If I don't post before, I hope every has a very magical and merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. Please keep in mind the special meaning behind this very special time of year. Keep your family close to you and enjoy each other.

I love you all!
Andria

Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and this year, more than ever, I have so much to be thankful for. First of all, my husband. He is everything I could have ever hoped for in a partner. Second, our twins. They are growing steadily inside me and I get to experience the greatest things every day. I can't wait until the day they are here and I can hold them in my arms for the first time. I also am thankful for my family and friends. Without all of you, I would not be the person I am today. I thank God every day for everything he has provided me and Dave with. I am not worried at all about anything once the girls are here, since I won't be working. I am so thankful that I will be able to be a stay at home mommy with my girls.

I hope everyone has a safe Thanksgiving and enjoy the time you have with your loved ones.
I love you all and am thankful you are a part of my life.

God Bless!

Update

The dr. appt went well. I gained about 6 lbs. in a month. I got to hear both heartbeats. I'm not telling anyone the heart rates because I don't want you to make any assumptions. Let me say, though, that the heartbeats are exactly where they are supposed to be.

I also had blood drawn today. They wanted to do some tests to make sure the babies are not at risk of Downs Syndrome or Spinobifida. (I have no idea if I spelled that right. I spelled it the way it sounds to me. haha)

So a good report. I have really popped out in the belly area. Lots of people think I look further along than I am. I am 17 weeks and 4 days today. In my fifth month. It is going so slow.

I go back to the dr. on Oct. 23rd. Hopefully I will have some very exciting news for you then. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Dr. appt I

I go back to the Dr. tomorrow. Just a routine check-up. I'm ready to find out the sexes of our babies but it just isn't time. I wish it was going so much faster but I have to learn to be more patient.

The babies are constantly moving. I'm not sure if it's one at a time and they are taking turns moving or if it is both of them moving at the same time all the time.

Well, I'll let you know if there are any updates tomorrow.

By the way Meggy, I think we are going to tell my dr. that I want to deliver at OSF. Just in case...I wanted to let you know.

Hope everyone is having a good week. I'm glad the week is almost over. :-)

New Pictures for the cousins!

OK girls. Here you go! I hope you enjoy the new pictures.


Copper loves his mommy. He didn't want to lay with me...he just wanted to be close to me.


Lucy is getting so big. She likes to chase Minnie up the stairs and they will play there. Minnie doesn't mind. She likes to play too.

This is her favorite spot to lay if the dogs are outside. Sorry the picture is blurry. I made it really close and it looked better on the camera.

And now a picture you are probably waiting for. The first belly pic. The babies are growing so much and moving all the time now. They are no longer little bubbles. I still can't distinguish the two different babies, but it is so amazing to feel them. I have another Dr. appt. on Thursday but we don't have our next sonogram until Oct. 23rd. Hopefully on that day we will be able to find out the sexes of the babies.

Well, there I am. Getting fat. Keep watching for more baby updates and pictures. I'll try to do better to update this more often. Love to all reading!

If you haven't already noticed....

I have added an element to the page. Now you will all know how long we have to wait to meet our little blessings. You can play around with the countdown. You can turn on a light, zoom in, hear what the heartbeats should sound like at the present time, and even tickle them and make them laugh! It is so cute!

Hope you all enjoy!

Andi

Quick One

So this is going to be short because I am exhausted and want to go to bed. I just wanted to let everyone know that follows our blog that I have felt the first signs of life. It is the most wonderful thing up to this point besides seeing and hearing our babies during a sonogram.

The babies currently feel like bubbles popping. It is really special and only something a mother would understand. So to all you mothers out there, I finally understand what you felt.

Hope everyone is having a great week. All I have to say is TGIF.

Saturday I travel to Chicago to visit a good friend of mine who is also pregnant but several weeks farther along than me. We are going to go into the city and see one of the world's greatest shows:

Wicked!!!!!!!!

Please pray for safe travels for me and my unborn.

Good night to all!
Andi

Dr. Visit

Well, we went back to the dr. today. He was a little concerned with the fact that I have lost quite a bit of weight since I have been pregnant. Well, ok, he was quite concerned. He said I am healthy and my babies are healthy but I need to make sure I am eating enough.

We got to hear one of the heartbeats again today. The other baby was hiding I think b/c they were unable to hear the heartbeat. Dr. H said it is rare to be able to hear both heartbeats from a Doppler this early. It made me a little nervous until he told me that. I seriously wanted to cry.

I have another appt. in 4 weeks, a sono in 6 weeks and yet another appt in 8 weeks. Dr. H told me that until I am half way through my pregnancy we will stick to once a month appts. After that point, I will be at 2 a month appts. Then the closer I get there will be once a week appts. I will have a lot more sonos than normal pregnant women b/c there are two of them. He wants to make sure the babies are growing and developing at the same rate and one is not hogging all of the nutrients.

I still feel really good. Haven't been sick. I am very thankful for that. Please just pray that nothing goes wrong with either twin or myself. I appreciate everyone's prayers thus far.

We love you all!
Until my next update...

OK now I know most of you know that Dave and I are expecting our first child so here are some pictures for you so you can have a first glimpse. The same look we got yesterday.







How totally amazing are these pictures!!!

Now for the best picture out of all of them...

Can you believe it? We are having twins!!! We are so excited and still a little stunned right now. We were really hoping for twins but it was still a shock!

Our families are soooo excited! Now we get to go double shopping! Yay!

Hope everyone has been having a good week. I'm sorry your day wasn't that great Meggy. Love you and glad you are ok!

Until next time... =)

If you didn't already know...

For those of you that follow this that I don't know, we have some exciting news! Dave and I are expecting our first child in March! Yay! We are so excited and it's going to be a long 8 months from now until we meet our little one. I think we are going to wait and not find out what we are having until the doctor announces it. I think it is more fun that way. It will be a surprise for everyone then.

I don't have much time for posting today but I wanted to explain the layout change.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Vacation pics

OK dear cousins of mine. I have posted vacation pictures on facebook. Hol...I sent you a message to add me as a friend so once you do that you will have full access. There are six albums all together so you can see why I didn't really want to put them all on here. It would take too long and I am not as patient as Megan is. hehe

For those of you that view my blog and want to see my vacation pictures but don't have my facebook, you can ask to be my friend if you know how to find me. If I know you I will tell you how to find me if you ask me to. Otherwise, you are out of luck on seeing vacation pictures.

Don't forget girls to check out the pics of me and Dave on vacation. I pulled those pictures out and put them in their own special album.

7 weeks!!! Only 33 more to go!!! You should understand what this means.
Oh, and Thank you so much Holli and Lisa for the journal. (I'll be calling you to thank you too, but I wanted to put it on here too) If I need a reprieve, I know exactly who to call. :-)
Love you girls so much!

Until next time....

Sorry

I know, I know..I am horrible at keeping everyone posted. I guess I just post when things are happening. Not much is going on right now. We went on vacation to Washington DC and New York City with others in my family. We had a lot of fun. Now we are just enjoying our summer. Dave has been golfing a bit and I have gone swimming once. I really need to swim more. I need more color on my body. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I'll post more later when I have something more exciting to share. Until then...Bye!

Graduation and Such

Well, today Baby Rachel graduates from high school. Kinda sad, but happy at the same time. I just can't believe she is going to be 18. Hopefully it doesn't rain and we all get to go. Otherwise...well, let's just pray for no rain. Yesterday was her party and she had a really good turnout. The weather was very cooperative yesterday. I'm so proud of Rachel and all she has accomplished. She is one incredible person and I know she is going to be very successful. Baby Rachel is all grown up.

Well, today we start daily PCC practices. The show is in just a little over a week! CRAZY!!! I'm so excited though. It's going to be a great show. If you don't have a ticket to come see the show yet, just let me know. I can get you one. This is a show you do not want to miss!

Well, since it's been a while, I have some pictures to share with you. Hope you enjoy them. Lucy is getting so big...almost as big as Copper. And since I haven't posted many pictures of Minnie, she has a debut here today. Enjoy!



Look how big and beautiful she is! Copper actually looked at the camera for once!

Minnie's new spot to lay is right on the kitchen table. Luckily for me, we were in the process of getting a new fridge and deep cleaning the kitchen so I had to wash the table later anyway.

She and Dave were playing...I know she looks evil here!

And this is where she attacked the camera! haha

Lucy loves to lay with daddy and she laid like this for almost 2 hours!

Close-up of her beautiful face!

What? haha

She wasn't too thrilled about this but look at my cowardly lion! This was Copper's Halloween costume last year and he is too big for it now, but she is the perfect size for it.

Sitting pretty and posing for mommy!


Well, that's all for now. This is going to be a really busy week so I might not have too many posts to share. I'll try to get some more pictures, especially of Civic Chorus once the show starts and get those posted. Until then...you will just have to come see the show if you want to know what it's about!

Until next time!

Andi

Here Ya Go!

OK Megan, here are some recent pictures for you. Lucy and Copper got to go on a car ride down to St. Louis. We had tickets for a Cardinals/Cubs game.


These are pictures of Copper in the car. I thought the tongue was hillarious!


Lucy slept the whole way down to St. Louis and the whole way back. She was so good!
Here she is when she was just a little puppy. Just wait until you see how she looks now!
This is my ADORABLE niece Sierra! She was being tickled and was squirming but I still got a great picture!
And this is Lucy now. Isn't she getting big? She's so fun!

Copper hates to have his picture taken.

Now for some pictures of the game. We had seats in rows 16 and 17 behind home plate. They were amazing and the pictures don't do the view justice! Enjoy!!

Albert Pujols

The view of the arch from our seats.

Me, April and Amanda. Yes they are both Cubs fans. (Good thing the Cards won!!!)

Dave, Jeff and Jared
View from our seats. So amazing!




Today we participated in the Race for the Cure. We had such a large group this year. We were walking in celebration of my mom, my Great Aunt Betty and some others too. Mostly for my mom though. It is so wonderful that we have her around and she is doing so well.
The group in order from left to right. Judy, Stevie (my cousin), Lindsay (my cousin), Rachel (my lil sis), Jordan (behind Rachel, my cousin) Denielle (behind Jordan, my cousin) Aunt Joy (next to Denielle) Michelle (my lil sis) Grandma Oltman, Mom (my hero), Grandma Frazier, Megan (my cousin behind Grandma F) Aunt Jody (next to Megan) Me (next to mom), Mallory(my cousin) Jacey (my cousin) Marie (Aunt Jody's mom). Sara was unable to walk with us but met us later for breakfast. After the race we went to Missy's cafe in Pekin. It was good and I think we all really enjoyed the family time.

Now some pictures while walking:

Aunt Jody, Marie and Mom

Mom, Aunt Joy and Grandma Oltman

Mom, our survivor!
A view of thousands of walkers in front of us. I forgot to take a picture of behind us.

Well, hope you enjoyed the updates and pictures. I need to go take care of my monsters before they terrorize my sisters.

TTFN

...

Well...Lucy is getting really big. I don't want her to grow up. She is still as sweet as ever and I love her more and more every day.

Civic Chorus is going well. Tickets will be going on sale soon. The show runs from June 3-8. Tickets are $13 each. Let me know if you are interested. It is going to be such a good show.

Rachel only has a few concerts and activities left in high school. It is so sad to think she has grown up so fast. She will be graduating at the end of May and going off to Bradley in the fall. I know...it isn't that far away, but still...I won't be able to see her whenever I want to.

The family is doing the Race for the Cure on May 10th. It means even more to us now than it ever has before. Now we are walking in celebration of my mom.

Speaking of mom...she goes into surgery again tomorrow. She has some scar tissue that needs removed. Minor compared to what they did last time. But I have taken the day off to be at the hospital.

I think it is going to be a long week. I should be back soon. Have a good one!

Love ya all!

Busy weekend

Well, it is another Sunday night and I am about ready for bed. Dave is currently at work. They have to switch a restaurant from Coke to Pepsi. Yay! Another restaurant that has figured out which product is better!

Lucy is doing well. We are still working on the potty training. It is slow going, but we think she'll eventually figure it out. Copper is helping her to figure it out. She is getting bigger, but we don't really see it until we see pictures of her from 2 weeks ago. It's hard to believe that we have had her for 2 weeks already. Copper and Lucy love to play together. They will play tug of war and they will play fight with each other. Minnie still doesn't like Lucy.

Yesterday was the last Noteable show EVER for Rachel. I can't believe she is going to be graduating in May. I am so proud of her. She has grown into such a beautiful young woman who has accomplished so many things.

Today I had Civic Chorus practice. We are learning the choreography for some of the songs. It's not difficult, it's just a lot to remember. I'm not worried about it at all.

I'm ready for the warmer weather. I'm tired of wearing coats and shoes. I want to wear flip flops and short sleeved shirts again. I am also ready to start working on our house again. We need to finish the front porch. We need railings and steps off the front. Then we need to put our new mailbox in and put up a privacy fence so Copper and Lucy can run outside without being on a chain. The fence we have now does not keep Copper in the yard. I'm also ready to start bike riding. Dave and I went out and bought bikes so we can have a fun way to exercise. I'm ready to start walking Copper and Lucy too.

Well, I think now would be a good time to go to bed. The kids are starting to wind down and Dave should be getting off work in a couple hours so I need to get a little sleep before he gets home and wakes me up again.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!
Love you all!

New Pics

Well, I don't have a lot of time to post so I'm just going to give you some pictures. Sunday was Dave's dad's b-day and we had a big party at Kevin and Ashley's house. All the puppies and their parents were there too. We also played Hillbilly Golf/Ladder Golf. It was so much fun. I got really sunburnt but I am healing just fine.

Enjoy the pics!

Lucy and her daddy Chewy

Lucy's daddy Chewy and mommy Chloee and brother Traycer

I won't be able to hold her like this much longer. :-(
Dave did that to her tongue!
This is how we'll be holding her before too long!

Bob's new bike!

Grandpa Bob and the kids

Hillbilloy Golf/Ladder Golf



Well, there ya go. Our exciting weekend! Hope you enjoyed them and have a great rest of your week! Love ya all!

A Trip to the Vet

Well, today was our first trip to the vet with Lucy. She was very good. She wanted to play with the vet and the tech. They said everything looks good. She is the perfect weight and body physique. We can start to give her a bath and brush her teeth while she's young. Then she was given her shot. She was such a good girl. She didn't cry or anything. She loved the treats they gave her. And they made a paw print that we get to keep! It's so cute. Now we can always remember how small her paws were.

Then it was Copper's turn. He is the perfect weight and body physique too. He had to get his rabies shot and he was such a good boy. Then he had to get his nails cut. It took 2 techs to hold him down while the vet clipped them. He didn't like that too much. He has to go back in June for his Parvo/disthemper shot. Lucy has to go back on the 23rd for her next shot. Lots of vet time. They loved Lucy though, I mean who wouldn't. She's ADORABLE!

Right now Copper and Lucy are sleeping next to me. They are worn out from their shots. Well, I have to get going. Dinner has to be made and I have Civic Chorus tonight. Have a good night!

Andria

And her name is...

Well, a decision has been made. We decided to name her Lucy. I just think she looks like a Lucy.

Last night we tried to put her in her kennel to sleep and she just started crying. So we put her in bed with us and let her fall asleep. When she was sound asleep I put her back in the kennel and she just laid down and slept. So I proceed to go back to sleep. Well, about 45 minutes later I am woken up from a dead sleep to Lucy crying and yelping so loud. I tried to ignore her for a few minutes but it broke my heart to hear her yelp. So out of the kennel she comes and back into the bed with mommy and daddy. I put down a blanket just in case she messed and she laid right down and fell sound asleep again. She did not move once during the night.

Right now she is laying beside me on her back sound asleep. Copper is laying with daddy just as happy as can be.

Here are more pictures of Lucy so you can see again just how adorable she is. By the way Holli, now would be a good time to come see her, while she is small enough to pick her up.

Have a great week! Enjoy!