The Holidays

This year we celebrated Christmas in San Antonio with the Yates' and Smith's. It was a change for all but we enjoyed everyone's company and making the sacrifice for us! We went to Christmas Eve Service followed by Christmas morning traditions. I think Caroline and Claire may already be our family's favorites. : )

Macy, Connor, Dustin and me

Yates

Smiths

We also had visits from the Northcutt's and the Brooks' but I don't have pictures. We had a great holiday break, but were very busy! Our cribs, carpet, bedding and furniture all came in!! We went to the Alamo Bowl to support the Bears -- my sister-in-law, Katie, is 3 weeks behind me in pregnancy. I wanted to take a picture together, but may have conveniently forgot since um she doesn't look pregnant and I look like I ate a ham! Dallas and Katie are having a little girl as well, Emma.

Dustin worked a lot to finish off the year strong and he also turned 29. We had dinner at Perry's, his new favorite steakhouse with all of the Brooks's, followed by Red Velvet Cake (would he have it any other way??!!). Dustin also received a hamster again from people he used to work with at his old firm. I know some stalk our blog there so here's my shout-out to you.... #findanewmammalin2012

Today was my first day back -- this week I get my classroom situated then I will be out through February 7th almost everyday to chair ARDs.....so time has flown by!! Our goals this month are to finish up the nursery, pack "the bag" and we'll be making a trip to Levelland for our West Texas shower and then back to San Antonio for our ones here. We have such a wonderful group of friends and supporters -- thank you all for your continuous kind words and prayers. We had a sonogram last week that revealed all is still well. Our cords don't look "all that tangled" according to Dr. Higby which of course is miraculous. We go back on the 16th to measure more growth and tie up loose ends before I get my orders for admission on February 8th. Initially this stay sounded miserable but at this point it actually sounds restful. Yesterday, New Year's Day, Dustin got to feel them kick/move for the first time! I have felt a lot of movement but nothing from the outside so this was really special for him. So far they are both breach, laying side by side. We got a look at them the other day with them hand-holding....now that may bring more tears than those heartbeats. It's so very sweet to see them interact the way they do. : )

Here is a sneak peak of our nursery, but no full pictures will post until it's all done!

Expansion

I think there has been growth! Today marks the beginning of the 18th week.

(As you can see the nursery has been painted!)

Healthy Baby Girls

Today was our "long" Dr.'s appointment where we basically had a 2 hour sonogram, which was fun. We got to see them a lot and they are both healthy. They each weigh 7 oz. which sounds so tiny especially compared to my weight gain, but their weight and mine are perfectly normal and on track. The Dr.'s were happy to see that they weigh the same and there isn't Twin-Twin going on (where one twin gets/steals more of the nutrition). On the screen though they look so much bigger than 7 ounces.
Their hearts checked out perfectly along with all of their organs and whatever else was checked today (we lost track). They do like to hover by each other...at one point they couldn't measure their leg bones because they couldn't decipher which leg belonged to who because they are so close. They move a lot which is fun to see and I'm starting to feel movement. Though their movement makes me nervous, I don't want them to get too tangled, I do enjoy the peace of knowing they're alive and well.
We got a lot of amazing sonogram pictures today including one of their lips.....they are HUGE. Haha....definitely got that from Dustin and not me.

Baby A and Baby B is for their marking only. The first one out of the womb will be Claire and the second one will be Caroline.

Significance of the names: Caroline was my mom's grandmother's name and her middle name Emalee comes from my dad's grandmother Ema and my grandmother's middle name Lee combined together. Claire was a name we liked and Elizabeth came from my dad's side somewhere and of course from Dustin's family they're getting Brooks. We essentially had to pick out 4 names and that was time consuming especially trying to find a name we liked that had family significance.

Our sitting area has turned in to the baby supply area for the time being. The nursery is under construction. The painter comes Wednesday and the carpet comes next Monday so in the meantime the goodies are in our room. Our cribs and furniture are supposed to be in anyday!! I love anything baby and decorating so this has been such a fun time for me. We just got in our double-decker stroller. They are seats when they are older and for now we can pop on a metal bar to hold the car seats -- this is going to be such a great asset as they can truly grow with this stroller---and it's user friendly! Thanks Momsey and Pops!

Christmas:
What a wonderful time of year. I love everyone's spirit, the smell and decor of the house. We started early this year but have moved slowly -- I am close to finishing up shopping. The weather has been extra Christmasy this year with cool days and nights, overcasts and rain....for San Antonio that's as close to snow as we're gonna get!

It takes all I have to keep Dustin from adding on to our outside decor....so I'm enjoying the simple lights on the house. I'm sure next year we'll have blow up Santa's, wrapped tree trunks, etc. We're going to give that family on Capitol street in Levelland a run for their money.

I hope you're each enjoying the holiday season. : )

Watch me Grow...

We had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving in San Antonio. I got lots of rest -- literally to bed by 9 and up around 8.....my kind of schedule! My mom came for most of the week and my dad followed midweek for Thanksgiving festivities. This year we had a traditional Thanksgiving with all of the trimmings, gravy, pies, etc....just for Dustin. The Yates' came the Saturday following Thanksgiving and we all had some Red Raider quality losing time and dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, The Grill at Leon Springs between here and Boerne. MM MM MMMMM!

Updates to the nursery: We have torn out the carpet, my dad and Dustin have sanded the base boards, paint has been sort-of selected and the room has been taped off. Before I proceed too much further I do want to have another confirmation that these really are girls....I hear this is a common worry and I may be one of the biggest worriers in a 10 mile radius around here so this is super normal for me! We have ordered the furniture and found the type of chair we want -- we just need to select the fabric. Since knowing I was pregnant I have pretty much baby shopped online nonstop. Immediately I found this bedding called the Mackenzie and I'm just in-love....and so is Dustin. The designer is out of Houston and I have spoke with her -- her inspiration for this was a Mackenzie Child's catalog....and if you've been to our house you know I'm pretty inspired by her things as well. I'm almost 100% certain we're going with this crib set...or I hope at least since we ordered antiqued black furniture!

P.S. that bedding is on the crib that we ordered....it must be fate!

I have taken photos of my tummy every two weeks for the past 6. Sometimes I wonder if I am growing or not, but this is a fun way to watch my growth...so I'm going to share with you all as well. Today at school I had a student tell me "I knew they were girls!" when I announced the genders to my class and I asked him how he knew. We have another teacher that is pregnant in our department that is 2 months ahead of me and she's having a boy and obviously she is a little bigger than I am since she is further along....so his rationale was..."she's bigger and she's having boys so you must be having girls!" Ha--loved this!

It's a girl.... times two!

We are happy to announce the addition of Babies Caroline Emalee and Claire Elizabeth to our family in late March of 2012.

1/80,000

1/80,000 twin births results in mono/mono twins. So, yeah, we heard it was rare, but numbers really help put this in perspective. Our "twin" doctors have seen a handful of cases (9 or so) of mono/mono twins in their time practicing....and they each tipping mid-50's. But we know we're in good hands with them. No wonder we get so much attention when we go to see our doctors....we're like a textbook scenario that 98% of ob's will never see in their lifetime of practicing. (I'm not that good with numbers this all came from our twin Dr.)

Wednesday will conclude our 13th week. Our babies are doing great -- their heart rates are solid and they are on target growth-wise. So far so good!!!! We're still looking at 26 week hospital check-in for constant monitoring.

Our next appt. with them will be three weeks from today. We should be able to find out their sex on this day!!!! So exciting!!!!

This weekend we're going to relax and get the house ready for Christmas....and our traveling days are now over. This past weekend we went to Austin for the Tech/UT game with the Brookses and well...we all saw how that turned out. Dustin said he had never been so sick of hearing the Texas Fight Song.....too bad, I actually had bought a cute red and black dog collar for Polo...guess he will still be sportin' the faded burnt orange collar for another year.

11/7/2011

11/7/2011 Baby B is always shy...I don't think we have seen his/her face yet!

Hook 'Em

Happy Tech/UT Weekend!

Love,

1 of the Baby Brookses