Double the blessings

Mother’s Day was a very nice day.  Although I’m not technically a mother yet, Doug surprised me with a very thoughtful mother’s day card.  We went to church and then took my mom out for lunch.  After lunch, Doug wanted to go buy some shelving for the nursery.  He spent the whole afternoon painting, installing, and decorating the shelves and hanging the valance.  He is totally nesting…it’s cute.  I can’t say enough about how amazing he’s been lately.  He is going to be a fabulous father, and the girls are going to love him!

Doug and I worked on the nursery again this weekend.  We placed another decal on the wall…and actually we ordered another one.  I guess we’re decal-crazy.  We ordered a family of birds that we’re going to place on two of the walls.  You can also see what the inside of the closet looks like with all the diapers.  There’s actually more that you can’t see in the picture and a ton more stored on the side of one of the cribs.  Next weekend we’re going to buy some shelving to put up on the walls, and I’m still waiting on our maternity pictures to come back so we can frame a couple of those.  Other than that, the nursery is pretty much done and ready for little girls to occupy it.  Not too much longer now.

Do you remember the picture of my belly that I posted that Doug took on his knees (a straight head on shot of my belly)?  Well, he took another one last night, and holy canoli!  I’m still debating whether to post it or not.  It’s quite shocking.  After looking at it on my camera, I noticed a small stretch mark or two.  I rushed to the bathroom to check it out.  Yep…there it was…three small stretch marks.  NO!  They’re not bad…yet!  They’re barely noticeable.  But I still may have 3 even 4 more weeks, depending on when the doc schedules my c-section. 

I know it sometimes comes with the territory and the chances of me getting stretch marks are greater since I’m carrying twins, but I was just really hoping that I would get lucky and salvage my belly skin.  I know in retrospect, having these girls is so much more than the changes my body is going through.  I’m still going to continue to SLATHER my belly in cocoa butter, which I do every night.  Crossing my fingers that they don’t get too bad.

I know I’m jumping the gun a bit on this, but I’ll post it again as the date gets closer. 

Upon arrival at Riverside Community Hospital, all visitors must check-in with public safety at the information desk in the main lobby.  Only two visitors per patient bed (**my friend Kim just had her baby at RCH and when I went to visit her, she had 8 people in her room at one time so I think they are pretty lax on this rule**).  All visitors will be issued a visitor badge in exchange for their driver’s license or another valid form of identification.  Visitors must wear visitor badges at all times.  No children under 14 years of age will be allowed to visit patients.  As an additional reminder, visitors must be in generally good health without infections or communicable diseases.  Persons with runny noses, fever, sneezing, or coughing should not visit in the hospital or even after the patient has returned home.

After my baby shower, I arrived home at around 4pm on Saturday.  With the exception of about an hour eating dinner with Larissa and Dara, Doug and I spent the rest of the day and night until about midnight sorting through all our gifts (just to show how much we really received).  It was a bit overwhelming but fun at the same time. 

I think Doug and I are both nesting.  I have fallen in love with him all over again as I watch how he’s been trying to get everything ready for the girls’ arrival.  He has done so much work, taken charge of what needs to be done, and made sure that I’m resting and not overexerting myself.  He’s such an amazing husband, and I know he’s going to be such a loving father. 

Sunday afternooon we drove out to the Chino Hills’ Babies R Us to buy the other crib bedding set since it’s been out of stock everywhere else.  I received one from my shower, but we weren’t sure if and when we would be able to get the other set for the other crib.  Doug went online and found that the Chino Hills store had a few left in stock so we drove out there and bought it.

We stayed up until about midnight on Sunday night finishing the laundry, folding baby clothes, and putting them away in drawers.  We’re both on a kick right now where we just want to get everything done.  I know that I wouldn’t be able to do it without him, and I’d be a total stress case if he wasn’t so supportive and helpful.  Anyways, the nursery is coming along.  We bought one more decal to put on the opposite wall of the tree decal.  We still want to buy some shelving for the walls, frame our favorite maternity picture (still waiting for those to come back), and do some last minute arrangements.  But this is what it looks like so far.  I like it…it’s been a fun project for us to do together.  Soon two little girls will occupy this room.

My baby shower was amazing!  First off, a HUGE thank you to Larissa, my mom, Christie, and Margi for all the hard work they put in to making this day so special and beautiful!  The turn out was wonderful…I think about 40 family and friends showed up.  Everything from the food to the games to the decorations were so nice!  I guess the only drawback from having so many people in attendance was that I wasn’t able to really talk to any one person for longer than a couple of minutes. 

The weather was beautiful.  I was able to see a lot of family and friends that I hadn’t seen in a long time.  It took me, what seemed like an hour, to open all the presents.  The day brought to light how blessed Doug and I truly are to have such an amazing support system through our family and friends.  With just a handful of items left to buy, we received pretty much everything that we need (and more) to bring our daughters into this world.  It was a special day I won’t soon forget!  Thanks to everyone who came and who didn’t but sent their best wishes.  Doug and I are so blessed to have you in our lives and can’t wait for you to be a part of Abby and Izzy’s too!

Tomorrow’s my baby shower.  I can’t wait!!!  It’ll be a great day spent with family and friends.  I’m really looking forward to it.

Last night Doug and I attended the Maternity Tea class at Riverside Community Hospital.  We were able to fill out our registration, take a tour of the hospital, and take a free breast feeding class.  During the tour of the hospital, we were able to look at the nursery.  Seeing those brand new babies hit home…that in just a few more weeks or so, our babies would be born there.  Unfortunately, we also learned that there are no private post partum rooms at RCH so Doug will not be able to spend the night with me at the hospital.  Oh well…no biggie, I guess.  There were a handful of raffles, but we didn’t win…bogus.  The breast feeding class was also very informative.  Doug took the above picture on the L&D floor.  I was the biggest belly there that night of our group.  The lady who was giving us the tour asked me how I was feeling and when I was due.  When I told her I was due in June, she got this look of surprise on her face.  When I explained that I was having twins, the reaction was funny….”Ohhh…that makes sense now.”  The next time Doug and I will be on the 2nd floor at RCH, we’ll be getting ready to welcome our daughters.