Healthy Dad

The new year is almost here, and that means resolution time. I'm not very big on making resolutions, much less sticking to them, but there are a few things I would like to accomplish before the twins arrive. One of them is to lose a little weight. Very original, I know.

I'm not terribly overweight, but there are definitely some clothes I would like to fit back in to. I don't want to spend money on a new wardrobe because I "grew out of" my current clothes. I read a good blog on this subject yesterday, and it is what got me more motivated about doing this.

I want to be as healthy and active as possible when our children arrive. I'd like to be able to keep up with them without running out of breath. I have a feeling they will keep me very busy, so a decent physique couldn't hurt.

I'm not planning on going all P-90X on my body. I just want to get closer to where I used to be, ten years ago, when I skateboarded 3 hours a day and ran the 100 meter dash. I want to be a healthy role model to my kids in an otherwise obese culture.

My goal is to lose ten pounds. I'm currently clocking in at 156 lbs. I know it's nothing life-threatening, but when my belly is comparable to Melissa's 15 week twin tummy, a little change is necessary.

I started getting serious with our budget, recently, and I actually enjoy working with all the numbers and accounting for all our expenses. I'm thinking of a way to create an eating/exercise budget that will make my progress easier to manage and keep track of. I really am turning into my Mom and Dad, a bookkeeper and an accountant.

Current Weight: 156 lbs
Current Mission: Lose ten pounds
Current Strategy: Eat less, move (a lot) more.

14w4d OB Appointment

***Note:  This blog was written on Wednesday but not posted since Photobucket wasn't working

Relief!  We made it the entire four weeks between appointments and today has been a good day.  I had a horrible dream last night, I woke up sobbing with Pixel cuddled up next to me.  Thankfully I don't remember it!  But it made me more anxious this morning than I had been.  We left the house a little over an hour before our appointment expecting traffic to be bad.  It wasn't!  We made it to our OB's office 40 minutes early and expected to have to wait awhile.  But instead we were taken almost immediately back.

I had to pee in a cup and get weighed while Andy went to wait in the room.  I'm up 5lbs in four weeks!  I wish I had remembered to ask what my starting weight was on their scale back in July.  According to our scale at home I'm up exactly 10lbs so far.  From everything I've read I should be putting on 1 to 2lbs per week right now so in theory I shouldn't have any difficulty reaching my 20lbs by 20w goal.

I was upset to find out that our OB was delivering so I'd be seeing the nurse practitioner instead.  I thought for sure that would mean no ultrasound and was almost in tears.  Thankfully the NP came in and said she was sending us one floor down to an ultrasound tech.  It turned out to be even better than if our OB had done the ultrasound!  It was the same tech that did my ultrasound back in July, she's super nice and very thorough.  She was excited to get to do a twin ultrasound, apparently the tech's don't get to see very many.  She spent a really long time with us looking at both our babies.  It was absolutely amazing.  I can't believe how much they've grown in just four weeks!  Both babies are measuring exactly on track and look great.  They're almost the exact same distance from the cervix so it's still easier to call them Lefty and Righty at this point.

Righty waving "hi!" to all of you

Righty was up first.  The ultrasound tech took several measurements and pictures for us.  I asked her if there was any way she could make a gender guess for us and she said she would try.  I was so excited!  Unfortunately Righty is shy and kept his/her knees bent the entire time so we couldn't see anything.  The heartrate was in the 140s.  Lefty was up next and happily showed us his goods!  We're still a little early to know for sure but I would be surprised if the guess is wrong.  We're not rushing out to buy a bunch of boy things and Lefty will continue to be the nickname for now.  But it's fun to potentially know!  The heartrate was in the 160s.

After the ultrasound we went back and visited with the NP.  She answered a few questions and discussed a little bit about what our delivery might be like.  I'll have to deliver in the OR as a safety precaution even if I can try to deliver naturally since things can change so quickly.  Originally I wanted a medicine free birth with a midwife so I'm having to reconcile this new plan in my mind.  I'm surprisingly okay with it.  I would still love a med free birth but the most important thing to me is that these babies make it here healthy and safe.  I will do whatever it takes to make that happen.

Our next appointment is in less than three weeks on January 9th and then our official anatomy scan is scheduled for the 25th with a perinatalogist.  From what I've heard the peri will have super fancy ultrasound equipment so I'm definitely looking forward to that appointment!

I have to give a last shout out to Andy because he is an amazing husband and already an amazing dad.  He went to his hometown today to have lunch with his brother.  While there he picked up my two favorite foods!  Bean and cheese tacos from one place and Mississippi mudpie from another.  Am I a lucky woman or what?

A checklist to prepare you for her cravings.

There are different levels of pregnancy, and the change from level to level is not always obvious. How you, as an expectant father, play your cards during these changes can be tedious. As you have read from the previous post, my wife had her first official craving. There is a chance I reacted poorly, but in my defense, it was the first one. No excuse, right? Luckily, I have a very understanding wife, and she let it slide...this time. But next time, I better be ready.

Here are five things to keep an eye out for in order to prepare for these cravings that may require a midnight run to the grocery store:

1. Your mother-to-be may start watching The Food Network for the first time that you can remember, and is enjoying it.
2. She comments about food that characters are eating in a television show that has nothing to do with food.
3. Permission is now required to share snacks or drinks, and that permission is harder to earn than usual.
4. A bag of popcorn is now considered a small snack before dinner, and after.
5. She cries at the site of someone else enjoying her current craving.

If it gets to that last one, you are in imminent danger of sleeping on the couch. Do not ask if she wants you to go to the grocery store, just ask what she wants and what flavor she wants it. Then proceed to the closest known location of said food and buy extra of whatever it is.

Do not be reckless while driving. The last thing you need is to be late because you got pulled over, but if you do get pulled over by an officer who is a mother or father, you will most likely be let off with a warning once you explain the situation.

I hope this helps any other fathers-to-be. Good luck and Godspeed.

First Craving

Today is one of those "every third day" nausea days.  I wasn't feeling too well this morning and church wasn't too fun because of the queasies.  I'm feeling better now but all I can think about is vanilla bean cheesecake.  Seriously.  I think I have my first official craving.

Last night Andy and I were enjoying a relaxing night at home watching TV.  I grabbed my Iphone to check Facebook and one of my friends had updated her status to say that she had a cheesecake in the oven.  Instant craving!  I would like to think that I've been pretty emotionally stable this pregnancy, aside from a few freak out moments.  Last night was not my most stable moment.  I seriously cried because I wanted cheesecake.  Who does that?!  Apparently this pregnant lady does!  I think a run to the store is in the immediate future.

Nausea and Dopplers

Today I am 12w5d pregnant!  I'm so ecstatic that the official date for second trimester is approaching rapidly, even though I know it's silly to go by that date with twins.  Developmentally we're already there.  But it's nice to know that in just five more days everyone will count us as second tri!

My nausea has been easing up for a little over a week for the most part.  I was having to take a Zofran every evening in order to attempt to keep dinner down.  Right now it seems to be every third day for some reason.  Last week I didn't need it on Wednesday or Thursday, but needed it urgently Friday morning (thanks Andy!).  Then I didn't need it again until Monday, then not again until tonight.  I'm not complaining, the nausea is comforting in a strange way.  Since we're still early I'll take all the signs I can get that our little ones are growing strong.

Two weeks ago I finally talked Andy into letting me buy a fetal doppler.  Initially I had been convinced I wanted one, then when I found out we were having twins I was on the fence.  What if I couldn't find either heartbeat?  What if I could only find one?  I'm an anxious person in general but let's face it, pregnancy has the potential to send my anxiety into overdrive.  When we had a great OB visit at 10w I was relieved but then immediately freaked out when we were told we wouldn't be seen again for four weeks.  I know I was spoiled in the beginning with weekly ultrasounds but four weeks seemed like forever!  It's now 13 days until our next appointment and it still seems like an eternity away.  So I'm very thankful for our doppler.

It arrived in the mail last Wednesday and we attempted to use it but weren't too confident in our results.  We tried again Thursday morning and thought we heard them and again on Monday morning.  I was never 100% convinced we found them but my anxiety was still eased.  Tonight I decided to watch some YouTube videos showing how other people found the heartbeats.  I'm so glad I did!  We had been attempting to hear the heartbeats up by my belly button and I think we were picking up an artery on either side.  Based on the recommendations in the videos we tried about four inches lower and immediately found our baby on the left side!  It was definitely a different sound than we had heard previously and the beats were a lot faster.  Moving the wand over to the right we then were able to, we think, pick up our second baby's heartbeat.  Best sounds ever!  I think I'll be able to survive these next 13 days with at least a portion of my sanity intact now.

Father to be

Hey everyone. I figured it was about time I introduced myself. My name is Andy Graham, I am Melissa's husband of a little over 4 years, and the future stay-at-home-dad to our buns in the oven. Many of you may have heard about me through Melissa's first blog, Hoping for Baby Graham. We are very excited to be writing about the events leading to the birth of our twins and the memories that will be made once they arrive.

This blog is not only meant to record the things we experience during this life-changing event, but hopefully others who read this will be able to take something with them that can help if they are going through a similar time in their lives. We look forward to making frequent entries here at "One Plus One is More" to keep readers updated on our status as we prepare to bring two lives in to this world, come May or June.

If you have anything you would like to say or ask, don't hesitate to comment. We would love to connect to our readers and anyone else sharing a situation similar to ours. We are new to all of this, but we are ready to face whatever God has in store for us.

One + One Is More

Welcome to our blog!

For those of you that have been following me at Hoping For Baby Graham you know who I am and you know our history.  But for those of you who are new, here is a quick summary:

My name is Melissa and I have been married to Andy for a little over four years.  We have three awesome cats and two amazing pups.  We began trying for a baby over a year ago and were thrilled to find out we were expecting 12/31/10.  Unfortunately we lost that baby at 6 weeks.  We were devastated but began to try again.  When we still weren't pregnant come the end of July we began testing and started seeing a Reproductive Endocrinologist.  I underwent a laproscopic surgery in early September and ended up having mild endometriosis and two cysts removed.  On 9/10/11, the estimated due date for our first pregnancy, we began fertility treatments.  I took five days of Femara and eight days of Gonal-F injections, then a trigger shot on day 14 while we were in Vegas.  On 10/6/11 we were ecstatic to find out that we were pregnant again!

We were followed closely by the RE for the next five weeks.  I initially had lab work that showed the pregnancy was progressing appropriately.  At 5 weeks and 5 days we had our first ultrasound and were shocked, overwhelmed, and amazed to find out that we were pregnant with twins!  We have since had five more ultrasounds that have shown perfect babies with perfect heartbeats.

It's scary being pregnant after a loss.  With our first pregnancy we were naively happy.  Part of me misses that naivety although part of me is thankful for the lessons I have learned and the friends I have made along the way, although never for the loss.   We are now 12w1d pregnant with our twins!  Developmentally we are in the second trimester.  I still have moments of worry and fear but they are getting to be fewer.  I love these two little ones that I am carrying more than anything else in the world!  I know that Andy feels the same.

This is going to be our blog about our experience expecting, having, and raising our twins.  Both Andy and I are going to write.  We have very unique ways of writing and I'm sure Andy will introduce himself soon.  Hopefully our blog will be an interesting presentation of the amazing adventure we're going to have!