28 and a Half Weeks

The belly is GROWING! I am almost 29 weeks and feeling those boys move around all day long. Their movements have become so much stronger and I even felt the "bottom bunk" have the hiccups. It was a strange but sweet feeling. :o) I measured my belly this morning and it measured 48 inches around! That's 4 feet of belly and still 10 more weeks to go! I go back again this Tuesday to our ultrasound specialist to check my cervix, so keep your fingers crossed that it has not shortened anymore!

Nestle the Snow Dog

Nestle has absolutely LOVED the snow this weekend! I wasn't able to take her out for a snow walk due to my walking restriction, but my mom took her on a big walk and Jared even put the harness on her and had her pull him on his snowboard! I took a video that I will upload soon, but Nestle should have been an olympic snow dog with all of that strength. Overall, we got 8 inches of snow and the low tonight is supposed to be 9 degrees...I think it may be white around here for a while! I have to admit that I'm looking forward to a few days off of school and an excuse to lay around with a fire and some hot chocolate. ;o)

The Nursery So Far...

My Mom and Dad came up to North Carolina this weekend for our baby shower but with the 8 inches of snow and freezing cold weather the shower had to be postponed. We were able to get a lot of baby prepping done though! Mom and I worked on sterilizing the bottles, pacifiers, and nipples while Dad and Jared worked HARD on putting up the quote and elephants in the nursery. We had stolen this idea off of HGTV (so we can't take full credit) and were able to find a sign company near our house that would create the quote and elephants copied from the boy's bedding onto digital decals. It sounded like an easy process, but I know those boys were sweating hard for hours and hours making sure it looked just right for Coleman and Carter! It was a lot of work but it turned out better than I could have imagined! We can't thank Mom and Dad enough for all of their help!

Our next project in the nursery is to hang the curtains, install the ceiling fan, and get the bookcase cute. Hopefully we can venture out into the snow and ice sometime this week and get the stuff that we need to knock out these projects next weekend!

A whole new world...

When I went to my perinatal specialist for our 26 week appointment he re-measured my cervix. The month beforehand it was measuring 3.5cm which he said was okay, but not wonderful. Unfortunately when we went back at 26 weeks my cervix had shortened to 2.8cm when it was stressed (he applied pressure). This means that I am basically on the warning borderline (anything 2.5cm or less is not a good sign and requires bed rest and/or progesterone injections). Soooo...we compromised and I told him that I would modify my schedule. I had been on my feet constantly at school and out and about for the holidays and hadn't really given myself a break by staying off of my feet. He agreed that we could try that and he would re-measure me the following week. It has stayed at a 2.8, so we are able to continue modifying our day (yay!)! All of this means that I am bound to the electric carts at Target and the grocery store (which can actually be quite fun) and I had to sit in a wheelchair to take our hospital tour.

It's definitely a whole new perspective being dependent on others and avoiding being the independent and busy body woman that I am so used to being, but Jared has been amazing and has been doing double duty the past few weeks. We are now 28 weeks and only have 10 weeks to go until these boys are here! I am willing to do anything and everything I can to keep those sweet boys baking as long as I possibly can!

Showers of Love for Coleman and Carter

We were truly blessed to have three showers for the boys last weekend! Our first shower was a co-ed shower in Birmingham. We had an awesome time and were super excited to see all of our friends and to be able to spend a short amount of time with everyone. It was definitely hard for us to leave!! My soccer girls and best friends were amazing hostesses and the boys received so many wonderful presents and sweet cards from their future aunts and uncles.

Our second shower was in Atlanta with my Mom's best friends. It was really neat because the ladies that were the hostesses for the shower threw her baby shower 29 years ago for me! They thought that I was a boy right up until the day I was born, so these ladies have now thrown boy baby showers for both my mom and I. ;o) The boys received so many wonderful things! I LOVE just looking through the clothes and toys and imagining their little bodies in them!

Our third shower was at school. I work with such a wonderful staff that has been more like a family than co-workers. They have been there for me throughout the ups and downs of the past year and are truly awesome friends. I look forward to work each day and am so blessed to have them as my other family.

Needless to say, the boys are definitely loved!! I never imagined how much stuff a baby needs (or two babies!) and we are so fortunate to have such wonderful people in our lives that want to bless us with these things and more importantly their prayers. Here are a few pictures from the weekend...our camera is trying to break on us, so I wasn't able to take as many as I would've like to. Enjoy!

And the Belly Continues to Grow...

My belly is feeling HUGE lately but I cannot begin to explain how incredibly sweet it is to feel those two boys moving and kicking inside of me. This weekend Jared and I were sitting on the couch at a friends house and Jared could see my stomach moving as one of the babes was having a soccer match. It is definitely a weird and neat thing to watch but I can only imagine that in a few weeks I'm going to start feeling like I star in the movie, Alien, as they grow and the movement is more obvious to everyone else. I am currently 25 and a half weeks and have gained 35 pounds! I often get asked "how much longer" and "when are you due" only to have people look surprised when I say that I have three more months, but their surprise disappears when I say that there are two babes inside of there baking instead of just one. Here is a picture that was taken over Christmas at 24 weeks. While I was uploading this out of my belly pics folder on my computer I came across my 5 week picture of when we first found out we were pregnant....so of course I included it for good measure. ;o)

My Hard Workin' Man

I stole the idea for our nursery off of the HGTV website. It was one of those "rate my space" links and the lady had twin boys and had used the same bedding that we had purchased for our sweet little guys. We did change some things around and knew that we wanted to do something different with the paint. I suggested painting a stripe around the wall to break things up, and my smart hubby suggested two stripes. He was so incredibly sweet measuring and making sure the stripes were perfectly straight for his boys and wouldn't let me be anywhere near the upstairs while he was painting. It came out looking great!!! Here is a picture of the work in progress. I'll post some finished pictures in the next week or so after the quote and elephants on the walls are finished.

Big Wheels Keep on Rollin'

So Jared and I have been researching (okay, more so Jared than myself) strollers and trying to decide which one is right for us. I never knew there were SO many to choose from! We knew that we definitely wanted a jogging stroller since that is something I enjoy doing and that we wanted something that was going to last these boys for a few years, as well as something that had to be EASY to break down and set up since we don't really have the option of slinging our child on a hip and walking in a store...although I'm sure it would be a funny sight! We came to a final decision on the Easywalker Duo and were fortunate enough to find someone who was actually selling theirs, brand new and still in the box, for less than retail. Here is a picture of our new (and huge) stroller that I have a feeling is soon to become our best friend.

Coleman and Carter

Before Thanksgiving Jared and I decided on names for our two sweet boys that will be here in a few months. We started this process long ago with a date to Barnes and Noble. We went there to actually buy a book with baby names but with so many to choose from, we wound up grabbing one of each and sitting at the coffee shop browsing through them and making a list of the names that we both liked. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be!! So many names reminded me of a student that I'd had in class or knew through my school, or it would be a name that one of us liked and the other didn't, etc. We did agree to officially eliminate all "J" names from the list though...we are not the Duggers! That night there were two names that we both really liked but we continued to play around with our list of 15 or so. We decided to finally narrow it down in November, and made the decision to stick with the two we both initially liked: Coleman Jared and Carter Thomas. Neither of the first names are family names, however the middle names are. Jared is obviously named after that sweet hubby of mine, and Thomas is after my Dad. We then decided that we wanted to tell the grandparents over Thanksgiving in a unique and cute way, so here are some pictures of the burp cloths and poem that Jared and I created to spread the news!

O' Christmas Tree

This year we went to downtown Raleigh to see the lighting of the Christmas tree. It was a cooooolllld night but a ton of fun. They had an ice skating rink, Santa, Michelle Branch, other performers, and of course funnel cake! I didn't manage to take any pictures of the actual tree being lit (my camera decided to act up) but here are a few with Monte and Kara.

Sips n' Strokes

I know that I have not posted in a while and have lots to document and catch up on, so here goes several posts!

Over Thanksgiving Jared and I went to Atlanta to visit with my family and to Lake Martin to visit with his family. We had a great time visiting both families and catching up! While in Atlanta I was able to also see a childhood friend, Ashley, and her mom along with my sister in law, Mercy. All of us went to Sips n' Strokes which is basically where you try your hand at painting a picture that the studio has pre-selected while you "sip" on wine or your favorite drink (sparkling grape juice for me this time around). It is a ton of fun and although we are definitely not Picasso's, we had a great time pretending.