Christmas 2009

Jim and I enjoyed a few days in Marion/Sugar Grove to celebrate Christmas with our families. Here are some pics from our holidays.

My wonderful family :)

Me, Jim, and the babies :)
The excited aunties-to-be

Abbie & Mollie are all smiles for Christmas! Of course, Santa was very good to them!

Jim & I with Amelia and Lauren, who also had a big Christmas!

Celebrating with friends before Christmas

Belly Update

As the babies continue to grow, so does my belly!!

17 weeks

18 weeks

Snow!

On Friday, we had the biggest snowfall we've seen in several years (18"+). Our friends Kristian, Hannah and Mia came over and brought along their sled to take advantage of our hilly yard. Of course, Jim and Lexie enjoyed the fun, too!

Lexie, the Snow Dog :)

Hannah and Mia, bundled up and ready to sled!

Here goes Jim...

And again, head first...

Minus all of the shoveling the boys did, it was a fun day!

Dr Appt

So, we went to the doctor today and although we were scheduled to see the nurse practioner anyway, we didn't get an ultrasound because the doctor was out sick :( We were able to hear their heartbeats on the doppler...one was in the high 140s and the other in the high 130s/low 140s. They were very active, she heard a lot of movement and kicks as well. I can't wait until I can feel them moving! Our "big" ultrasound is scheduled for January 12th. We are very anxious for this day to come!!

My belly continues to grow!

Here is my belly at 15 weeks:

And at 16 weeks...

We go back to the doctor tomorrow (Dec. 14th) and are excited to see our little ones on the ultrasound screen! It should only be a few more weeks before I feel them moving around in there. New ultrasound pics coming soon!!

Basement Progress

Jim installed all of the recessed lights last week (over 20 in all!) and has ran the electrical wires to most of them.

The bar area in the kitchen has been built and all of the electrical boxes and light switches are in place.

Dad came up Saturday and helped run the circuits into the electrical box and installed the breakers while Jim and Kristian put in the new door (see below).

The lighting in these pictures isn't great, but it only opened on one side...

...and the wooden frame on the outside was rotting.

Here is the inside of the new door, which opens from both sides and is much better insulated.

The outside of the new door has a metal frame so it will not rot. Jim used plenty of spray foam to insulate all around the frame. This is before he scraped away the excess :) He still needs to frame around the outside of the door.

Christmas Decor

We put up our Christmas decor a couple of weeks ago and have been enjoying the season!

Basement Ceilings

Jim has been diligently working to frame in all of the duct work and pipes on the basement ceiling. Here are a few recent pictures of his accomplishments:

Hallway/Living Room

Living Room

Bedroom

Down the hallway

And the Master himself at work....

Growing Belly

Here are a few pics of my growing belly...

11 weeks

13 weeks

14 weeks

And a pic of me with each of the babies that we already have...

We have walls!

Jim has been working very diligently on the basement. In just two weeks, he has gotten all of the walls framed! Here are some recent pics:

Bedroom

Entrance to one storage closet

Utility closet
Bathroom linen closet

Bathroom (complete with tub!)

Future kitchen and storage room #2

Living Room

BABIES!!

Since I am just getting started on this blog, I thought I'd post all of the ultrasound pics that we've had to date.

Our first baby pics were earlier than most. This is what our little "babies" looked like at 5 days post fertilization, at just over 100 cells each. This was the day that they were transferred into Mommy's belly:

On Oct. 5, 2009, we traveled back to our fertility dr in Charlotte to see how things were progressing and to find out how many little ones we were going to have. And as you can see below, we saw TWINS!!

Upper left: Two sacs=TWINS!!

Upper right: Baby A

Lower left: Two sacs=TWINS!!

Lower right: Baby A's measurement = 0.62 cm(equivalent to 6w3d)

Upper left: Baby A's heartrate = 127

Upper right: Baby B

Lower left: Baby B's heartrate = 132

Lower right: Baby B's measurement = 0.65 cm

(equilvalent to 6w4d)

We are so thankful to be blessed with not one, but two miracles!! It was so amazing to hear their little heartbeats for the first time!

It turned out to be a little more challenging than expected to get an appt with a local OB, so we traveled back to Charlotte for a follow-up ultrasound on November 6th. We were pleased to get to see our doctor and nurse there one last time--they were so wonderful!! We were 11 weeks, 1 day at that point. It was amazing to see how much the babies had developed!! We could count fingers and toes, see little faces and vertebrae, and watch them move all around. Here are our pics from that visit:

Upper left: Baby A profile

Upper right: Baby A--bottom and legs

Lower left: Baby B, who stayed upside down

Lower right: Baby A

Upper left: Baby A--straight on

Upper right: Baby B's measurement=4.3 cm
(equivalent to 11w1d)

Lower left: Baby A's measurement=4.6 cm

(equivalent to 11w3d)

Lower right: Baby A again

Upper left: Baby B--upside down

Upper right: Baby A

Lower left: Baby B

Lower right: Baby B

Left: Baby B

Upper right: Baby B

Lower right: Baby B

Finally--our first real OB appt!! We went to see Dr. Roberts of Carilion OB/GYN on November 19th. We really liked him and his staff. We were able to see our babies on the ultrasound, and they were both moving all around. They had grown, measuring about 6 1/2 cm each (right on track for 13 weeks) and had heartrates of 162 and 166. Everything looked great! However, we only left with one pic of the two of them (profile of Baby A on the left, "alien"/straight on shot of Baby B on the right):