The cribs have arrived and were delivered on Friday! With each milestone it is starting to hit home more and more that we're having two little kiddies on the way, but the cribs make it more prevalent. We live near a section of Seattle that has tons and tons of furniture stores in the Tukwila area which includes the baby store we found the cribs in (Cribs2Bunks).There was a heckuva wide selection but we found a wonderfully looking furniture set right away that matches what we were looking for in a traditional but not too fancy.

The set comes from Creations Baby and its called the Ravenna set. Most of our visits to the baby stores buying two of everything has been sooo cute - but the cuteness wore off something fierce after realizing two cribs were in order :) We thought about just getting one since most infant twins sleep together in the same bed - but we received some great advice that having two cribs makes it easy if one crib gets wet, you just move the babies to the other crib and not spend 1 hour in the middle of night trying to put on new crib sheet and fussing with a mattress.

Putting them together was pretty easy but they do weigh a bunch once setup. We thought we had plenty of room to put the cribs side by side in front of the window but apart on sides of the room was the best setup. The drawer chest was delayed coming in and should be here in another 2 weeks but the room is about close to how we want it to look.

I'll take more pictures in a few weeks once everything is setup but let us know what you think :)

Picking a baby room color is a lot harder than it seems like. Since we knew they were boys, I was looking for something in the 'camouflage' color scheme. Needless to say, Norma wasn't too keen on that idea. So with that out the way, we thought something in the blue, greenish, maybe yellowish range would be nice.

Well we stumbled into a baby furniture store last weekend and saw a crib-set and matching wall painted and loved the color.. Restrained Gold. I swear there must be a guy that gets paid a whole lot of money to come up with names for colors - must be a tough job I tell ya.

With that out the way - off to Sherwin Williams we went to pick up a gallon of paint and while the queen of the nile sat in waiting (can't smell paint fumes) - I went buck wild and taped, cut, and painted the room in 2 hours. I threw in some Wii Tennis in between my union break as well :) Now for the furniture to arrive next week!!

Belly shot time! That's right we're back and bigger than eva'. 20lbs of baby luvin so far and we're halfway there! The doctor said 40-50lbs is about average so there's lots more cushion for the pushin to be gained and I can't even imagine how big that will be.

Still no feelings of kicking or boxing going on in there but Norma says she definately feels flutters, but then again that could be bad gas.. :)

The last checkup reports all systems go.. the babies look healthy and fine and we should get a size/weight estimate at the next ultrasound this coming Friday.

This was from our 2nd perinatologist appointment with Dr. Walker. He's one of two special doctors in the Northwest that is certified in Twin-to-Twin-Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) and we are fortunate enough to have him taking care of us.

We'll have him as our primary care physician until at least 26 to 28weeks and if all goes well, we go back to our OB with Dr. Lawler.  Here's a great story in the Seattle P.I. about Dr. Walker and his expertise. Of course we're praying for no complications, but we have lots of confidence in our doctors and they're ability to take care of the twins.

Even though he was quite busy - he answered all our questions and left us with some advice:

• He doesn't usually let MoDi twins go longer than 36-37 weeks
• We have a 50/50 chance of a C-Section - it all depends on baby A placement, our risk for TTTS, and the health of both babies
• Baby A is currently slighty bigger than Baby B, but he said it isn't a significant difference and almost all ID twins are of different sizes in the womb

So the news was good but guarded and we'll be back in 2 weeks for a detail size check. Onto the pictures!!

So we're at the halfway point and it was about time to start figuring out the big baby purchases. So first on the list is infant car seats and associated stroller.  People must be having twins like rabbits these days since I never recall these many options available for families of multiples. So off to the research department we went and looked at review after review and settled on two tandem strollers between the Graco Quattro Duo or the Baby Trend Double Snap-n-Go.

After reading Consumer Reports reviews showing the Baby Trend on top for safety and
customer reviews at the twins sites, it was kind of a no-brainer. We ordered it from Wally-World (WalMart) since they had the cheapest prices for the stroller and two car seats.  When we got it home today, the stroller took us about 5 minutes to put together (not much to it really) and the seats snap right into the stroller quite easily.  The biggest reason we got these was for ease of use to not have to take the babies in and out of a the car seats as they go from Car to Stroller to House.  The infant seats come with bases that can be left in the car using the LATCH system so we figure we'll two each of the cars to not have to continuously move the bases around.

There's no way getting around the length of the stroller, but it's manageable and folds up pretty small and weighs almost nothing so Norma should have no problems lifting it into the SUV.

So our first big purchase is out the way. We're gonna start looking at cribs next and see about buying the large furniture items for the nursery in the coming weeks. More pictures to come soon.

So Saturday was one of those days that reminded us why we fell in love with Seattle when we
first started visiting this place during the summer months. It was a nice comfortable 70 degrees with a gentle breeze and crystal clear day that gave a great view of Mt. Ranier in the skyline.

We decided to go to Petrovisky Park around the house which is great for the dogs since it has lots and lots of green space for them to run around to chase the ball. Poor lil Josie couldn't run at all since she just had her 'girlie' surgery the weekend before. So she was not the happiest having to sit there watching her older sister run everywhere. They behaved but were still a handful as they get very excited seeing other people and dogs around. But they're good puppies nonetheless.

We had a nice picnic with sandwiches we picked up from the grocery store and then decided to head home since the park was getting a little crowded. We'll have to try to keep taking advantage of these nice weekends and getting the puppies back into shape. They go nuts whenever we visit the lake, so maybe we'lll do that next week. But for today, a few hours in
the afternoon and I thought it was fun but not too exhaustive - but as they anectdote goes 'pictures say a thousand words...'

(no I did not let Norma sleep on the floor, I woke her up :)

Although the picture doesn't show clearly, my baby belly is growing.  I am 15 weeks and 5 days in this picture.  I don't fit into any of my pants and had to go maternity clothes shopping last weekend.  The good news is that there are some very cute maternity clothes out right now.  : )

Well mom planted some flowers and tulips last year when they were visiting during Thanksgiving. So some have fully bloomed and are looking gorgeous. It's been cold for a bit now with lots of rain but now the weather is getting better and I think the rest of mom's plantings will finish blooming. So yes we now have the best looking lawn and flower-bed in the neighborhood. Thanks Mom! :)

So the Jetta and Josie were going crazy after being cooped up all winter in the house, the day was so nice that we took them out to the park to play with their favorite throw toy. They say that a tired dog is a happy dog and after wearing them out, they came home and had a ball trying to cool down and drink water from the sprinkler.

Labs are great dogs for sure being so loyal and super-smart, but man do they need to be active with all the energy they have. I'll post more pictures of the two little rascals once the gallery is up.

We had our Geneticist appt today and three things happened:

• He's positive they are boys and I was apt to agree after seing basically a third leg on each of 'em :)
• He confirmed they were twins, sharing a placenta but in different sacs. The technical term being Monochornionic Diamniotic or MoDi for short. So there are potential complications there but nothing to worry about now
• They will definately be identical if the next ultra-sound re-confirms they share a placenta.

So Good news keeps a coming. The doctor did tell Norma she has to gain at least 2lbs a week - so I'll do my part by gaining 3lbs a week as well so that she doesn't have to go it alone :)

More pics!!!

Here's Baby A:                            Here's Baby B: