Updated pics and a video of the excited big brother

Lovely webcam photo of a photo--Quality, right?! This is the GIRL: Brooklyn

Again, look at the quality here...just kidding. Here is our BOY: Aidan.
On to the Silly Putty 3-d pictures, This is Brooklyn's profile with her little hand in the way--she's consistently been camera shy. Must get that from her daddy!

And finally this is Aidan, look at that bone structure! ;) He does have a sharp little nose, but it's hard to see here. They just didn't want to hold still long enough to get a good capture!

We've established that I'm not so consistent...BUT...

It's funny because some of the biggest news has come and gone and yet where was the blog post?? Well, apparently I'm a slacker! Or better yet, I'm an expecting mama who is just too tired to form a coherent sentence most of the time when I have a 'free' moment. But, alas it has come time for the great reveal!!

On Oct. 15th we were able to go in for a comprehensive ultrasound, which was a really neat experience. You wouldn't think that much has changed in the four years since we were finding out that Kaleb was a boy and proud to be so! All of the things that they were able to check for on the twins was truly impressive. But the most important factor that we had been waiting on was GENDER. Checking out the first baby--which has been referred to as baby B from the get go, the sonographer very confidently declared "it's a girl" At that point I let out a yelp of sorts. I was so incredibly excited to get a girl, that I genuinely didn't care what the other ended up being because I knew that I could officially, without second thought be done with the whole impregnation bit! John took it pretty well but did let out a huge sigh of relief when baby A was deemed a boy.

One of each, just what I put my order in for ;) the factory get's it right sometimes I suppose! As thrilled as I was with the results it was also very comforting to see how in depth each of the babies were examined. We were able to see all four chambers of each of their hearts and how their blood flows, all of the major organs and the umbilical cords were checked out quite closely. It was very cool what they can tell you at just 20 weeks! The science behind these ultrasounds has definitely seen vast improvements in a short amount of time.

Kaleb had been sick the days leading up to this event, and on the morning of the ultrasound convinced his teachers that he was 'sick'...he has a little of his mama's theatre in his blood! So, even though they frown upon young children being present for the ultrasounds it was a really neat experience to be able to share with him. He was so fascinated by hearing their heartbeats. I think it made the whole concept of babies in mommy's tummy a little more real to him.

We already had a name picked if we had a girl, we weren't quite settled on a boy name though. It's been exciting because I've really felt this whole time that there was one of each, maybe it was because Kaleb told us so as soon as we found out that we were having twins. He seems to know things that we don't! In the tradition of Baby 'A' and Baby 'B' we are going with Aidan Bradley and Brooklyn June.

At my appointment it was great to hear the nurse/midwife say that things couldn't look better from the ultrasounds and my labs. I honestly feel really good. Of course I wish I had more energy, and wish that gravity would allow for the things I drop to come back up to me without any squatting or bending over--but that's pretty minor in comparison to the misery of morning sickness. On the whole I feel like I'm doing really well, I'm still working full time and the only real complaint I've had is due to the round ligament pain and the fact that Brooklyn has settled in really really low. I wasn't sleeping well at all because of the aches in my hips and pelvis (felt like I was trying to move while wearing steel underwear) they gave me a muscle relaxant which truly has helped me get rest at night, which makes all the difference in the world!

Kaleb is thrilled about having a brother and a sister. He has learned their names and usually remembers which baby is on which side of my belly--but he does still refer to them by the names he gave them: "Monster" and "Mickey Mouse". He loves to look into my belly button to check on them, and talk to them. Kaleb is still quite protective of me as well, when I groan or whince at a sharp movement he is the first to scold "Hey baby, stop kicking my mommy." Tonight that was followed up with, "I big, I beat you up, Monster." So the sibling rivalry and minor battles begin!!

Sick of being SICK!

This past week and a half has been a serious challenge for me, initially Kaleb got sick at preschool. He had a cough and would make himself cough until he threw up, beautiful visual I know! Anyway, he was in relatively good condition otherwise just a little grumpy. I had a prenatal visit on friday which was disappointing because the Dr. hadn't scheduled a full ultrasound which is what they do monthly on these twin visits. Anyway, so I had a regular visit with one of the midwives on staff and a med student. They were very excited to pull a portable ultrasound machine into the room and do a little prodding to check on the babies. Not being ultrasonographers they did their best but we couldn't get much more than two wiggley babies with normal size heads and regular heartbeats. Just knowing that is very helpful, but I admit I was bummed because we were hoping to find out genders on that visit. So the mystery continues!

By Monday he was acting fine and really wanted to go to school. But then at work I get the call to come pick him up. This time around he was running a fever, which always gets me worried. I had picked up some of the beautiful coughing fits from him at this point, when Kaleb didn't want to wake up after an almost three hour nap I knew I needed to get him seen right then (despite the fact that there were no appointments available on base.) So we finally got the referral to ok a visit to the urgent care. We checked in at 4:35pm and didn't get seen until 8:45pm--which was technically 45 minutes after the entire building closed for the day. We were home with prescriptions at 9. It was a looooooooooooong day, and I definitely got exposed to more than I ever wanted.

Tuesday I worked half a day at the office and half a day from home. Come Wednesday I was getting ready for work despite the lack of sleep and serious congestion when I started on the vomit comet. Definitely not how I planned to spend my day! I was a serious trooper and worked my butt off from home, despite the fact that I was miserable and had little to no voice left.

So this morning I wake up with an eye gooped shut. At this point there was no choice, I needed to go to the Dr. the congestion issues I'd been having obviously traveled to my eye--and let's face it, this was NOT pretty.

I'd been trying so hard to avoid medications wherever possible, but I knew that I was only making myself worse by not getting antibiotics, so even though the clinics here are all overflowing and getting an appointment is next to impossible I managed to get squeezed in--yes I absolutely played the high risk pregnancy card, I have no shame.

Diagnosed with a serious sinus infection, and a headcold which has gone into my eye I finally got the medication I need to help me get better so I can be a better 'oven' for these tots I'm cooking up! I was able to hear the heartbeats with the doppler today, every little connection like that is really powerful. That was definitely the highlight to one yucky sick day.

I bargained with the Dr. to get a note to go back to work on Monday (he wanted me to be off until Wed. I told him not a chance!) So that was my minor victory as well, even though I know that I am going to have to take things much easier or I'll over-do it since I'm so exhausted.

So here's to hoping that next week will go much more smoothly...and cross your fingers that the babies play nicely on thursday so that we can find out their sexes!