Shower News!

Ok so,

My babies shower was on a Sunday afternoon almost two weeks ago now. Although I have been feeling miserable from the pregnancy and my 160 pound weight gain due to water, I was anxious to see everybody. It was quite a close call, though, as my doctor had called the day before to tell me that he was concerned with the extremeness of the swelling (a condition I had pre-pregnancy but not quite as badly), so he was going to admit me into the hospital for observation for an indefinite length of time. Luckily, he admitted me the following Tuesday. I don't think he was really prepared for a case like mine. After all, I weighed over 160 lbs. less when I met him just a few months ago. Above is a picture of Augie and I in Vegas last January- not even a year ago!

My stay in the hospital lasted exactly four days, at which point I told my doctor to either release me or I was going AWOL! I was seriously going crazy in stir! Fortunately, he agreed. Since then, we've talked about all the possibilites and limitations for this pregnancy and even though we really just have to see what happens, I will be given a C-section in the 38th week if both the girls are gaining 1 lbs. a week. If not, out they come any time now! Its a scary proposition! At any rate, my baby shower was a success although I can't believe how enormous I look. The kidney doctor didn't seem to be a bit surprised by the swelling and said it should pretty much all be gone by 6 weeks after delivery. Thank God!

Too much pregnant!

ok so,

Some things have changed since my last post. Augie and I decided to ditch his apartment and crazy landlady for a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom rental house in the same neighborhood. I really appreciate the garage space, our new washer and dryer and a nice backyard. We already have a patio set although we used it only 3 or 4 times before the weather got too cold. The place is tidy and nicely decorated but most of our real "junk" has been stored in the garage for 4 months now. I said I would organize it all day by day but haven't really attempted that at all. See, I am now 28 weeks pregnant and quite uncomfortable. We found out at 17 weeks that we are having 2 little girls. I am over the moon! We've named them Isabella Anne and Lily Beth. So far, babies are doing great and measuring right on target. There are, of course, a few concerns with my health, so we are hoping to make full term before delivery.

So, even though the baby shower is set for December 9th, the nursery is just about finished. I really loved Pottery Barn's discontinued non-gender specific "Alphabet Soup" collection but I couldn't resist going all girly instead. So, while I still went with Pottery Barn as I like the quality of their bedding, I chose the "Ava" collection which is now also discontinued. I am glad I bought it in time. But the real reason I decided to buy the collection early is because the bedding needed to be tailored to fit the corner cribs. Remember them? Ah yes, the corner cribs I bought from ebay way back when I was barely even preggers! Boy, I am glad I bought those, now! I have been checking ebay regularly to see if corner cribs were ever posted in auction again and aside from someone is Wisconsin months back, nobody has ever posted one again. I thought I had paid so much for them at about $600 for 2 but the woman from Wisconsin listed hers for $600...a piece! Not surprisingly, she got no bids.... So, the twins grandmother took apart all the Pottery Barn bedding and made a canopy for the top of the cribs, a bedskirt for each and shortened the bumpers to make them fit. I sent a queen sheet of the same Pottery Barn collection (PB is one the only company I have found that makes a whole line of bedding from crib sheets to queen sheets) to the Baby Trilogy Company (the people that make the corner cribs) and had them make two corner sheets. The end result is excuisite. Additionally, Augie's aunt bought us a fantastically comfortable ivory chenille rocker/glider/easy chair and ottoman from Babies R' Us. My mother also bought a matching Pottery Barn rug and a twin dresser from IKEA. I got a changing table from Target (which turned out to be free due to several shipping mishaps). My brother painted the room pastel yellow and I had 2 pictures made to say the girls' names above their cribs (which will probably have to be removed when they start to stand up). Boopey the cat loves the nursery. I find her sun bathing in there almost everyday. Even though the twins' nursery appears to be unique, I really just copied the display nursery for the "Ava" collection right down to the curtain rods. Its amazing that I have anything left to get but the gift registries are filled. I just hope the baby shower guests come through! Even if they don't, I will be so happy to just share such an exciting event with my friends and family. My mother and her best friend are giving the shower but won't tell me what they have planned. I am sort of nervous about it since I am not really feeling my full capacity physically. I just hope they don't embarras me. We'll see on the 9th, just 2 weeks away!

How to obtain a twins crib...

Ok, so

The bidding on ebay for the twin corner cribs didn't go as expected. I did win the bid but I had to pay $163 more than I had expected. The ironic part about the bidding war is that if I had just chosen the "buy it now" option, I would have paid $63 less. I figured I would score the bid easily because nobody was interested in the item. Wrong again, Tamara!

I guess I just have to concentrate on what I am getting instead of the money that I have lost. After all, $663 is not all that much to pay for 2 specialty cribs and their mattresses. The crib I had chosen at babiesrus.com was $400...x 2 plus another $150 or so for the mattresses. So, I guess I have scored in the end.

Now, we have to have Augie's apartment painted! I can't believe we have been married for almost 6 months and we still live in my bachelorette pad. If only we could buy a house! I love LA, but I sure hate the housing market here. I have been looking at the real estate ads and realize that the tinyest houses in a decent neighborhood won't be sold for anything less than $650,000. To think that Amee and her husband bought their huge house in Georia for about $350,000 just makes me ill. My husband and I are both professionals and we can't afford to buy a house to start our family!

But Augie's place isn't so bad. It is located in a really nice area, accross the street from the park and it certainly is the right price at $1100 for 2 bedrooms. He says that he plans us to be there for only a year or so. When I ask him what is going to happen in a year or so, he never seems to have a good answer but I will trust that he must have some plan other than a large inheritance.

The only thing about moving into Augie's place is that I just bought a Nautica quilt set for the daybed in the spare room. But the spare room is not so spare anymore. In fact, come 6 months from now, it will be quite crowded. The large dogs around his building really worry, however.

Secretly, I wish we could stay in my place. I have loved it for 5 or 6 years now. But we really are very cramped. Like this picture shows, my place used to be so uncluttered and spic and span everyday. But since Augie moved in about 8 months ago, the place has gone to pot! Meanwhile, we have been waiting for his landlord to fix the extensive problems in his apartment.

More news to come!

The story of us....

After having worked together for 3 years, but dated for a few months, August and I were married in Las Vegas on February 17, 2007.

...What an enchanted day that was. I had always expected to have a big, lavish, stressful and highly expensive wedding. Our special day turned out to be none of those things...and we were both very glad. We had a beautiful ceremony on a gondola at the Venetian Hotel (ok, it was a little bit expensive but well worth it).

We had decided to seize the day. We told nobody of our plans to wed and ran away to Vegas 2 days after Valentine's Day and a week before Augie's 49th birthday.

However, we did not announce to the people at work that we were married until 2 months had gone by. We were concerened that it might jeopardize either one of our positions as I am a history teacher and Augie is the dean/counselor at the same school. When we finally did reveal our news, our co-workers and administration could not have been more happy for us.

What a busy month February will be for us from now on, you may say. But wait, there's more...5 1/2 months after we wed, I am 2 1/2 months pregnant!...no, wait, there's more....with TWINS!!!

As a teacher, I am I glad for summers off now that I am in my first trimester. And now that UTLA & LAUSD agreed to have a 12 month pay schedule, summers off don't hurt us financially. But all the time off is making Augie and I very anxious about what to expect. My mother had twin boys with her first pregnancy (and I am a twinless twin, myself), but in 1966, she was unaware of it.

I, like a lot of fist time moms-to-be I guess, am worried about the health and safety of the tiny, delicate, little packages in my tummy, especially since I am diabetic and apparently now also have thyroid dysfunction.

My doctor tells me that worrying about this pregnancy will only be more stressful for my little fetuses and everything looks pretty good anyway. So, I have decided to turn my attention to learning how to manage having multiples.

An interesting thing that I have learned is that there are very few solutions to the crib dilema for multiples. Why is this, I wonder? Twins are common enough. My mother told me that my brothers cribbed together until about 6 months until she noticed that they were both bruised and scratched up.

This couldn't be, I thought. And if so, surely my brothers were just the exceptional little rascals. Not so, I have been reading. Apparently, babies develop the kind of motor skills right around the 6th month which can be harmful to their cribmates.

Jeesh! I was really hoping to get away with just one crib. In fact, I was hoping to get away with just one of everything. Boy, am I wrong! And then it struck me. I AM HAVING 2 BABIES!?!?!

You would think 2 educators could think of what to do with 2 kids but its funny how you feel so clueless about the things you should be confident about.

And now I am thinking: I am having 2 babies and I want to cry...I have always felt like an anomolly. I grew up a half Armenian, half Irish, fat, painfully shy, highly perceptive kid in prodominantly hispanic Los Angeles. My parents were older, my brothers were older and now my husband is older. I am diabetic, have a thyroid condition and an autoimmune disorder and I am only 32. And now I am pregnant...not with 1 baby, but 2 and I want to cry...because I finally have an anomolly that makes me blessed!

So, I did what any other 10 week pregnant woman would do, I bid on a crib for twins on ebay.

It is 2 canopied corner cribs by Baby Trilogy that you can link together to form a half circle. They are enormously expensive at $600 per crib and $100 per mattress and $350 per bedding set. $2100 total!!! Luckily, the double one on ebay is being sold with the mattresses and partial bedding by a mother of twins for $500 and local pick-up. It is the only double corner crib auction on ebay and it happens that the seller lives just 35 miles away! What luck, I would have paid more than that for 2 regular cribs.

...And now for the bedding...We, of course, don't know if we are having boys or girls or both. And the pricey DNA gender tests are not really good choices for me as I am having twins and they would only be able to detect 1 male and the other twin would remain unknown. I thought about the problems with gender specific environments anyway. While, our girls, if we should be blessed, will be the apples of our eyes, we don't want to raise overly affected, entitled, cotton candy little Paris Hiltons. Neither do I want to raise muscle bearing, macho boys. So, I have been searching for cute but non gender specific kids bedding and things.

Lately, I have decided that I love, love, love Pottery Barn's Alphabet Soup which is now discontinued. I found it by accident while searching for Cocolo's Alphabet Soup (which is cute but is a tad too circus-y for me). I was able to get some of the collection at Pottery Barn Kids before it became discontinued but not nearly all the pieces that I needed. Luckily, a lot of the pieces are up for auction at ebay, although for way more money than the store had them. I have to adapt a lot of the pieces to fit the corner cribs but I can be resourcefull and imaginative when I need to be and I guess I will just have to pay a few dollars more. I plan on using the window valances as the canopies and this is proving to be the hardest and most expensive aquisition so far.

More news to follow...