We've had this magazine ad hanging from our fridge for the longest of time since living in Pasadena. If life ever imitated art, this would definitely qualify. I think I had to double pinky-swear that I would not bring my laptop into the delivery room when the babies are born.

Since I want to make it out the hospital alive, I guess the advice in the ad is pretty relevant "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should".

Anyway, the OR doesn't have any WiFi :(

Ok family and friends, its time to get your reading glasses, contacts, magnifying glasses, glass eye, monocle, or fluoresence interference contrast microscopes together.. We're going to play 'Who Dat Baby Look Like??"

Now the rules are you can only reference one major face part and a relative whom it looks the closest to.. for example:  "Baby A's nose looks just like Uncle Jethro's before he gained all that weight!"

So let the guessing begin ->

So Operation PeePee has been put into full effect the last few weeks. Norma is literally peeing about every 30 minutes when she's awake and a good 3 to 4 times during the night.  If we drive anywhere - we're basically going from bathroom to bathroom.  I guess those little chitlins are growing so much lately that the pressure on her bladder only can hold about 2 teaspoons of tinkle it seems nowadays. I guess I'm not helping the situation by making sure she continues takes her 3 protien shakes and water intake a day.

Her feet are pretty much perma-swollen as well and that's even from laying down all day with brief spurts of activity and bathroom runs. So as I get home from work, the whip gets cracked and I get on feet rubbing duty!

I know what you're thinking - "Man Joe, you sure have it rough". I'll be ok, but enough about me and my pregnancy struggles - onto the PICS!!

Ever since moving up here, I've wanted to go to the Museum of Flight. Since Boeing's headquarters used to be in Seattle and all of their major factories are still here, the museum essentially is a who's who of U.S. aircraft history.

They had an awesome WWI and WWII wing with some of the best looking restorations of naval and Army Air Corps aircraft. It was simply amazing realizing that when our country needed to, airplanes were being manufactured and turned out by the thousands.

The WWII section was my favorite. German Focke-Wulf's, American P-51 Mustangs, Japanese dive bombers.. More notable was the equipment and apparel these men had to wear to bear the environment and cold up in the sky was something to see as well.

We met a wonderful museum guide who was 6 years old during the early part of the war and told us great stories about the WASPs women's air corps - Victory gardens - and the stories of her family working the manufacturing plants (Rosie the Riveter) while the men where away at war. The women of the war were definitely the backbone of their society's time.

While Norma sat down and relaxed for a few minutes - I got to close out our tour with walking through the replica of Boeing's original aircraft manufacturing 'Red Barn'. Definitely a cool depiction of early aircraft design and creation. Even though we didn't get to see it all - overall it was a very fun rendezvous away from home, one of which I plan on repeating again to see the rest of the place.

This past weekend was gah-or-geous here in Seattle. Sitting at home was getting old real quick and we thought we'd get in the car and take a lil cruise up the coast. We decided to head to Deception Pass near the San Juan Islands in northwest Washington. Its about 2 hours from Seattle and an hour south of the Canadian border.

Needless to say that with the weather so good, it was jammed packed with everyone trying to take advantage of hi 70 degree temps. When you go through the balmy and cloudy winters here - every sunny warm day here is highly appreciated.

The bridge at the pass is very picturesque but man was it crowded. We snuck in some glamour shots in the middle of the span but we couldn't go too far since Norma isn't supposed to be walking all over the place and the cars and people don't make good backgrounds.

Afterwards we cruised through the campground and scouted out some good spots for future camping. This was definately a family-friendly place we think we can bring the twins and dogs to and have a good time.

Now our driving excursion with twins doesn't compare to Angiolina Jolie flying a plane with twins but it was fun and a whole lot safer nonetheless.

What's a more appropriate picture for today's celebration of Indenpendence Day than a pose of lady liberty with a flag in the background? Okay so the dress is brown instead of green, she's missing her tiara and torch, but Frederic Bartholdi would be proud to use Norma as a model for a 2008 version of his famous statue.

No we weren't actually posing like this on purpose - While I was washing the car, I reminded Norma we hadn't done a belly shot in a few weeks and I grabbed my camera and quickly snapped some pics in front of the house.  The rest is history as they say..

More Pics!

We're back home now from the hospital and Norma is doing a lot better after our little scare. The shot to stop the contractions has been working very well and the overnight stay waylaid our fears that everything is checking out ok. The doctor checked Norma's cervix and it he didn't see any thinning or efacement - so that was the best news to hear since labor this early does not bode well.

28 Weeks is our next major milestone we are focused on.  At that stage - the babies have a 90-95% viability rate and it gets better from there for every extra week they are in the belly. As a side note - 26 Weeks is 70% and 27 Weeks is 80% respectively. So those milestones are pretty big dates. Anything that early will result in a very long and extended NICU time for both the boys, but we are shooting for the moon and saying our prayers for a good long 36-37 Week pregnancy which gives them the best chance for a healthy delivery.

We'll post an update next week after our next ultrasound/OB visit but it's back to strict bedrest until then.

Right after the worrisome OB visit on Friday - Saturday and Sunday's days of bed(sofa)rest were supposed to slow down any ripening of the cervix and slow down the funneling that was present in the ultrasound.  Needless to say - a picture says a thousand words and once Sunday came around - Norma started to have some pretty good back pain, cramps, and her belly was pretty hard. A phone call to our OB and he suggested to wait and see if it was temporary and if not, head into Labor and Delivery.

Well that lasted about 2 hours when the symptoms for pre-term labor (PTL) didn't go away and we decided it was fine time to head to Overlake Hospital to make sure they can check what's going on. The nurses here are fantabulous and are treating us great. They confirmed with the baby monitor that Norma was having contractions. A shot of Terbutaline (a tocolytic that stops contractions) and her belly was back to normal. Mind you that it makes your heart beat like a race horse, but it worked right away to calm her restless tummy.

So now we wait. Overnight - till tomorrow morning so they can run more tests and be certain that those babies are staying in her belly and we'll see if the bedrest continues at home (we hope) or here in the hospital. 

So Friday's appoint with the OB didn't go so hot. It turns out that those little tikes inside her belly have been putting some extended pressure on the the one way exit of love and began to
'funnel' the cervix much earlier than what is expected at 21 Weeks.

What that means essentially is bedrest for the weary with very limited activity. No more than 4 hours of work (from home) and light cooking at the most. But the list of no's goes from no walks, to no shopping, no exercise, no extended standing. and most importantly - no riding of the 'baloney pony'.  Alas, such is life but we know that the more rest and off her feet Norma stays - the better chances that twins have of making it close to full term (37 weeks).

 Put that together with the 175gm of protein she's required to optimally get - it actually is some tough work trying to eat so much to get that much protein per day.. But the secret after learning from other twin mom's is to drink 3 protein shakes a day. (and omg do they taste nasty). The brand we have seems to suck the least when it comes to tastes so it is as bearable as can be right now but whatever it takes to get those lil chitlins out healthy and happy.

Its baby naming time. YAY! After much discussion, bartering, compromising and researching, our crackpot super-scientific method for naming our sons came down to the tried and true -Momma picks the first names, Daddy picks the middle names.  But to focus our choices we had some guidelines we agreed to:

- Names must have meaning, bliblically

- They should be spanish in origin

- The names should have relevance to our families

We hit the books (all the ones from Border's at least) and settled on the names for both the boys currently known as Baby A and Baby B. So without further ado:

• Cristian Luis Martinez
• Mateo Charles Martinez

Cristian (follower of Christ) Luis (named after Norma's dad and my uncle)

Mateo (gift of the Lord) Charles (named after my dad)

Since baby A and B move around so much, we don't know who'll be named which but we figure it will come naturally once they're born. Plus Baby A is traditionally the first baby out and that could be different if they come out via C-Section versus naturally.