It's a date!

March 26th is our date to have these babies! The girl is head down, but the boy is still head up so I have a c-section scheduled for this Friday, March 26th. We are very excited to finally meet these two little ones... a little nervous to double our family in size, but thrilled all at the same time. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers through this pregnancy... I can honestly say, it was not terrible! In the last few weeks, I have had trouble getting comfortable to sleep (but doesn't every pregnant woman?!!) so again, not to shabby of a pregnancy especially for twins. Friday will be 38 weeks which is great that we surpassed the goal of 36 weeks. I have been on bed rest for 5 weeks now. Really, I like to call it "couch rest" because I am literally on the couch all day long (only in bed to sleep at night). Lexy and I have had some serious bonding time since I have been home :) I worked throughout the entire bed rest which helped tremendously as I would have been thoroughly bored had I not had something to focus on. And Brett has been such a huge help with everything... I think I have mentioned before that he has had to do everything... literally. From cleaning to cooking meals to yardwork to helping me get up from the couch :) and getting me anything and everything I ask for... he's been a blessing all while still working lots of hours trying to close out projects before the babies arrive. Our families have also been a huge help by running errands for us, providing meals, and doing anything they can to help both of us out. I couldn't have made it this long without all of the help we received so thank you!!! Here's the final belly shots at 37 weeks and 4 days.

Definitely March Babies!

Quick update --- Not much has changed since the last update... I am still on bed rest and working from home. Our goal was to make 36 weeks so if we make it through tonight, we will have reached our goal! :) The doctor doesn't think it will be much longer so I am always watching for "signs", but so far... nada. He has officially scheduled us and put us on the books for a c-section on Friday, March 26th. I will be 38 weeks then so if they don't decide to come out before... their birth date will be March 26, 2010! Stay tuned...

36 weeks photo

Rest, rest and more rest!

We are down the final weeks (for a twin pregnancy, that is). I am currently 34 weeks and we're shooting for at least 36 weeks. In early February, my girlfriends threw Brett and I "Couples Baby Shower" in Dallas. It was really great to be able to gather all of our friends and family together in the area and celebrate the two growing munchkins. Carrie, Michelle and Mattie did a wonderful job hosting the shower and they had all my favorites... queso, brownies and lots of beer for the non-prego people :) Here is a picture of me at 31 weeks in front of the awesome diaper wreath they made for me (it will hang on my hospital room door).

Me with the hostesses - Carrie, Mattie and Michelle

Us with the Parkers

All was moving along well and then at 33 weeks, the girl "dropped" putting too much pressure on me so the doc prescribed full time bed rest! Now, I know it sounds delightful to HAVE to lay around all day long (literally), but let me tell you, it's not all that fun. I literally have to "lay" down all day and night, only sitting up to go to the restroom, dr appts and eating. Everything else --- horizontal position! Brett has taken on ALL of the household duties, last minute baby tasks, Lexy-duty... you name it, he's doing it. Luckily we had his parents come in one weekend and cook meals for us so he can heat up some yummy food after he gets home from work. And my folks came down to clean the house and do some random projects... all while I laid on the couch with my feet up :)

I have officially been on bed rest for 11 days now and we are into the middle of my 34th week of my pregnancy. We had another Couples shower planned in Austin last Saturday and I was determined to be there... so I laid on April's couch during the whole shower :) The hostesses did an awesome job with decor, food and beverages. I think everyone had a great time considering not a single soda was consumed, but all of the wine was depleted and a majority of the beer!

Here's a picture of me with the hostesses at 34 weeks -- Stephanie, Chrissy, April and Ann.

At the shower with Brett's sisters, parents, Aunt & Uncle and my parents.

They did a "divided" cake --- Texas Tech and Texas A&M.

That's all of our updates... now how 'bout them babies?! We had an ultrasound today with the specialist and they are growing right along. The baby girl is approx. 5 lbs 6 oz and the baby boy is approx. 4 lbs 2 oz. Yep, the girl is bigger and probably hogging all of the room in there! So that means I have over 9 lbs of baby inside of me! Craziness! All of their measurements (head, stomach, legs, fluids) look great. They are definitely scrunched up in there and we can't seem to get any more profile shots of them. I go in weekly to the specialist's office to check their fluids, heart rates, movement and make sure they are "practicing" their breathing. We watch the screen until their stomach/chest moves up and down like they are breathing... amazing that they know to "practice" this movement. The girl is head down and the boy is head up --- a little yin-yang-style going on there. They move around so much, my stomach looks possessed as random areas poke out here and there. Lexy seems to be getting used to it as she cuddles with me more and more by laying her head on my stomach. Her head bobs up and down as they kick her... very cute. Here's a picture of Lexy snuggled up next to my belly. We'll try to keep this blog up-to-date more frequently than we have in the past... babies should be here soon... but hopefully not TOO soon :)

7 months and counting...

It's been awhile since our last post... Brett was able to go to Lake Tahoe for a ski trip with work. Here's a picture of Scott, Brett and Dan relaxing after a run down the mountain. They had a great time gambling and skiing (actually Brett is snowboarding these days!). He says he tried the whole "babies need new pairs of shoes" at the Craps table, but no luck, he didn't bring home the big bucks from the casino. As for me, I've been great! Babies are all on track, weighing in at about 3.5lbs for the girl and 3lbs for the boy. I have to watch my carb intake and eat smaller meals more frequently (less queso is very hard!) to combat gestational diabetes. And I've been lucky (knock on wood) that I am still eating all of my favorite spicy foods :) I think the kids like it too... or at least I pretend that they are happy with the spice as they kick around in me. And man, they are moving! We can see body parts moving in my stomach... looks like little aliens trying to get out. It's a really cool and interesting feeling being able to feel them move around, kick, punch and hiccup. Here's a picture of me at 30 weeks. They say 36 weeks is the average delivery week for twins... I would love to go "full term" at 40 weeks or even 38 would be great. Below is a picture of our little girl. It's getting harder and harder to get good pictures of them because they are all scrunched in there. I can barely make these pictures out! So this is a profile of her, right in the center you can see her eye socket and her nose is to the left of that. And below is our boy... this picture is not a profile, but a straight on face shot with his arm in front of his face. So the lightest object in the middle is his arm coming from the bottom upwards (fist is round) crossing over his face. To the left of his arm is the bridge of his nose and then further left are his two eyes. Brett had to show me about 3 times before I could actually see his face! Basically you have to tilt your head to the left to see him upright.

Results are in...

Here's a picture of us headed to my company's Christmas party - Crystal at 24 weeks. For some reason, she wasn't quite as into getting over-served and acting like idiots like the rest of us this year.

Belly at 26 weeks...

Here's a picture of the notes that were written in the envelopes for us at our first measurement sonogram around 20 weeks. After getting the full court press from all sides, she finally caved and agreed to open them up on Christmas morning. The results...one boy and one girl.

Thanksgiving and more...

As William Wallace said to do in Braveheart ("Unite da clans") - we united the clans in San Antonio for Thanksgiving. The entire Bunger, Puskos and Beckman clan together at Jennifer's house. Good time had by all, lots of card domination by yours truely, and got to catch up with the yankees from Minnesota. 1st for them - swimming on Thanksgiving. And because any Bunger family get together wouldn't be complete without some sort of touch football game, we knocked that out as well. Here's a few pictures from that weekend.

Here's Crystal's latest belly picture and a couple new shots of the kiddos from our latest ultrasound and measurements. Both babies are doing great, are both a few days ahead of schedule size wise, and apparently are now attempting to kick each other. Lexy is still not impressed. Now that she's past 23 weeks, Crystal has to see her OB once a week, and we'll keep going to the perinatalist for ultrasound/growth measurements once a month until 32 weeks, and then more often after that point. Everything with her blood pressure, weight, etc. are great. He actually wants her to eat more, or at least more often, to which her response was, "does ice cream count?".

During the Puskos visit here in Austin during Thanksgiving, we were able to finish putting together the nursery. Cribs are in tact, and the changing table that Crystal's dad made us is in and ready to roll.

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and having a good Christmas season so far.

We're having...

...well, you'll have to wait. We had our perinatal visit to take full measurements and got some good sonograms. The sonogram technician, we forget her formal title, is awesome and really walked us through all of the measurements and pointed everything out. From the brain development, head size, lips (checking for cleft palate), organs, 4 chambers of the heart, arm and leg bones all the way down to the piggies. Everything is great for both of the them, and they are both a few days ahead of schedule size wise. She made us look away from the big screen when she was "below the belly button" so that we wouldn't see (and Crystal wouldn't let me peak). She and the nurse put them in 2 envelopes for us to open at a later date. So you'll have to stay tuned. Here's a picture of Crystal at 18 weeks, the baby's profiles, and the guardian of the gender envelopes...