22 weeks!!

(I'm not sure what in the world is wrong with my formatting today...please ignore the fact that this post is all underlined! It isn't supposed to be centered, all in bold, or blue, but I'm just too tired to try to figure out what is going on and fix it!)

How far along?

I am 22 weeks today!!

How big are the babies?

According to Babycenter.com, they are "11 inches (the length of a spaghetti squash) and almost 1 pound, your baby is starting to look like a miniature newborn. His lips, eyelids, and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and he's even developing tiny tooth buds beneath his gums. His eyes have formed, but his irises (the colored part of the eye) still lack pigment."

I think our boys might be just a little bigger, at least weight-wise, than this says, just because of where they were a week ago at our ultrasound.

Total weight gain/loss?

15 pounds so far!

Belly measurement?

42 inches!!

Stretch marks?

Still no stretch marks....yes!

Sleep?

Okay...still surrounded by pillows galore. I'm definitely noticing that if I don't have a pillow under my belly and one beneath my knees, I'm really uncomfortable!!

Best moment this week?

My parents came home last week, and they were both able to feel the boys kick. It was so exciting to see them excited!

Movement?

They are definitely moving a whole bunch more, and I'm feeling kicks, and I think hiccups too, fairly often! There are many times a day when one or both of them push out really hard with their head or maybe their back, and it is great to feel their little bodies! So amazing!!!

Food cravings?

None really this week...still wanting to eat hummus and pita bread though!

Labor signs?

None...praise Jesus!

Belly button--in or out?

It's getting closer and closer to being flat!! Any day now!!!

What am I looking forward to?

24 week milestone--coming up in 14 days! Weeks 22 and 23 with Jonathan were not the best weeks, so I will be so glad to get past them to 24!

~~~

Here are a couple of pictures of the belly today!!

This first one cracks me up...the belly is definitely off center a little bit!

Here's the belly...growing, growing, growing!!

Joys of homeownership...

The last few weeks, while my parents were out of town, we have been 'housesitting' for them and enjoying their pool!! We go home every few days to get the mail, check on our house, water the plants, scan in pictures from the ultrasounds =), and just keep an eye on things.

Since my parents are now back in town, we packed up all the stuff we'd brought over during the last few weeks, and headed home to spend some time in our own house and bed. So it was to our horror as we walked into the garage to start unloading the cars, we experienced the one of the great joys of homeownership...

Look carefully at the top of our water heater...do you see the leak? The rusty-looking water dripping down the side? By the time of this picture, the flow had stopped, but everything on the floor in that part of the garage was just a little bit wet. Fun.

But, the good news...and there seem to be many things that we can be thankful for!

~Our water heater is in the garage, not some closet inside the house. So the flood was limited to the garage, and really only affected the sheetrock on the little pedestal that the water heater is standing on. I just can't even begin to imagine the damage we would have had to face if our giant water heater was inside of our house!!

~We have a home warranty that will pay for a new water heater!!! Praise Jesus! We will just have to pay for any adjustments that the new water heater might require. Thank goodness, because we are already in the process of ordering and putting in new carpet at the end of the month, and we really didn't want to have to spend the money on a water heater instead of fresh new carpet for our boys!!

~Since there is no hot water in our house, and probably won't be until sometime later this week, we have a place to stay at my parent's house! We just put our stuff back into the car, and headed back to my their house!

All in all, not the kind of thing you want to come home to, but it could have been a WHOLE lot worse!! I guess when you're a homeowner, you just have to be ready for anything!!

The boys at 21 weeks!

Another wonderful appointment with Dr. Z, our maternal fetal medicine doctor!! Here are a bunch of pictures from the day so far, with the updated stats down below...enjoy!

Here's the belly at 21 weeks--wow! (I decided to use my laptop to take my pictures this week--pretty cool)
This is my computerized version of the positions the boys are in today! Jack is head up, with his little feet right down on my bladder! And Will is lying transverse, with his feet kicking Jack in the head!!

Here are their precious profiles... Jackson first with his little nose squished into my placenta!

And William just chilling!

And now for some 3D shots...

First Jack--since he was so close to my placenta, it made it a little hard to get super clear pictures of him (I guess the more fluid around them, the better the 3D shots turn out).



And Will... he was just hanging out, posing, moving his hands all around, and being a cooperative little guy!!

Overall, the boys are just beautiful and are doing SO incredibly well!! Dr. Z told us multiple times how well they are doing, how good they look, and how happy he is to see their great progress!

Today's Stats:

Jack--measuring 21w 5d (5 days ahead), 15 oz, heartbeat 152, all bones/measurements right on track, and plenty of fluid around him. Jack even had the hiccups while the doctor was trying to hear the umbilical cord sounds--I couldn't feel them yet, but it was so cute to watch his chest bouncing and hearing them through the doppler!

Will--measuring 21w 3d (3 days ahead), 14 oz, heartbeat 140, all measurements right on track, with plenty of fluid around him. He was pretty mellow today, just enjoying getting his pictures taken!! The DVD of the ultrasound is great of him--he was showing off how cute he is!

Mommy--BP 128/64, cervix measuring almost 6 cm and closed (Dr. Z said it was like a mile long!!)

It's just hard to believe that they are both just about a pound already!! What a great appointment--it is so reassuring that they are doing so well, and that my body is doing great keeping them in to grow strong and healthy! We only have 21 days until we make the 24 week/viability mark! And then on to full term...36 weeks (or more!)!

What a great day!