It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for!  Pretend like there’s a drumroll!  The winner of a brand new Tempur-Cloud Supreme is…Melinda!  Major congrats to Melinda!  Be sure to check out her fantastic video…

Now, don’t scurry away just yet.  Didn’t win?  That’s ok!  All of the videos that you submitted were so wonderful, that we wouldn’t want you to leave empty handed.  Every person who entered the contest will be getting a Tempur-Pedic All Purpose Pillow!!  (Please note:  one per person.)

Doesn’t it look super comfy?

For those of you who submitted a video, I will be passing your e-mail addresses on to the contest sponsors.  They will be contacting you to collect your information, and then you’ll get your fantastic prize!  Please be sure to respond with your contact information by September 1st.

Finally, for those of you lucky enough to be going to BlogHer this year, be sure to stop by and visit Tempur-Pedic.  They will be hanging out in America’s Hall 1 at the Hilton…and they will be giving away two mattresses to one lucky blogger!  One to keep, and one for her to use as a giveaway.

Thanks again to everyone who entered the giveaway.  I really loved watching all of your entries!

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Disclosure: I have partnered with Tempur-Pedic to help promote the Tempur-Cloud-Supreme mattress.  I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program, which includes writing about my own experiences regarding sleep and its relation to overall well being, and hosting a giveaway where the prize has been provided by Tempur-Pedic.  However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.

How Far Along: 29 Weeks, 4 Days.  We are getting so close to the end that it’s freaky.  Even though my due date is October 16th, I’m just hoping to make it to October 1st.

How Big are the Babies: Apparently my babies are like butternut squash this week.  Fun for them.  They are about 15.25 inches long.  30 inches of baby in there?  Wow.  Today at their growth scan, Baby A weighed 2 pounds, 15 ounces.  Baby B weighed in at 2 pounds, 14 ounces.  They are growing beautifully.  I don’t have any decent pictures from today’s scan, but I did get to see that their little feet are close together, and that their heads are next to each other.  I bet they are in there plotting how to drive mommy crazy!

Total Weight Gain: I’m up to 149 pounds.  I thought that I was 130 at the beginning of my pregnancy, but according to my medical records I was 128.  So, I’ve gained 21 pounds at this point!

Maternity Clothes: Yup, though I still spend most of my time in tanks and pajama shorts.  This is going to have to change when I start back at work in a few weeks.  I really hope to avoid having to run out and buy more clothes for the last few weeks of my pregnancy, but it may be unavoidable….or I’ll just wear the same clothes all the time!

Stretch Marks: Nope, though my belly button looks disgusting.

Sleep: Well, I’m pretty comfortable in bed, which is awesome, but I do a lot of tossing and turning.  I think I roll over at least once an hour.  And, of course, I have to get up to pee.

Movement: I’ve got some fairly active girls.  Baby A is my bladder/cervix kicker.  She even kicked the OB while he was checking my cervix the other day.  Baby B like to wedge herself up under my ribs which is all kinds of comfortable.

Food Cravings: Ugh.  I am absolutely sick and tired of thinking about food, tracking my food, talking about food, and planning my life around food.  I have to plan my whole day around what time I’m allowed to eat and what time I’ll need to check my glucose levels.  It’s more than a little annoying, especially because I end up getting insanely hungry and crabby while waiting the two hours after my meals to check my glucose before I can eat again.  So, I’ve started a running list of things I want as soon as the babies are born.  Let’s see…a blizzard, brownies, apple juice, a gallon iced chai, a cherry icee, lemonade…you get the idea.  Not like I ever ate these things non-stop, but not being able to have them is making me crazy.  If you come visit me in the hospital, you will be required to relinquish a cupcake to me before entering the room.

What I Miss: Being able to eat when I want to!  Isn’t it a pregnant woman’s right to eat when she’s hungry????

What I’m Looking Forward To: We are painting the girls’ room this weekend!!!  Of course, by “we” I mean Ted.  I’ll just pop in now and again to supervise and photograph.  I’m so excited to get their room ready…and to move all of this baby crap out of my living room!

Milestones: Ummm…well…I switched OBs this week.  I guess that’s a pretty big milestone.  I was also the joyful recipient of my RhoGAM shot since I am Rh negative.  Nothing like a good shot in the ass!

Twin Stuff: Well, we’ve got a lot of it.  It seems to be taking over our house!  We’ve been busy buying up the things we still need…and a few things that are just cute too!  Ted put the stroller together yesterday, and he even busted out the car seats so we could have the full effect.

Isn’t it huge?  I swear, it didn’t seem that big in the store!  Still, it’s a fantastic stroller.  I love that I can use it as a frame and add the car seats for when they are little.  Plus, it has actual stroller seats for when the girls are older.  Swoon.

Dog Stuff: The dogs are insane.  So many things are changing for them.  I feel bad, but we are giving them lots of love in the meantime.  We are also making sure that they are getting used to not having a schedule.  They used to eat at very specific times in the morning and at night.  Not anymore.  They still get two meals, but they eat when we get to it.  Our next big plan is to practice walking with the stroller.  Is it weird to walk an empty baby stroller down the street?  Maybe, but how else are the dogs going to learn?

Oh, and THIS: Pregnancy is supposed to make your hair awesome.  Well, my hair is certainly thicker than it was, which is totally not a perk for me, but it’s also disgusting.  I have horrific dandruff, and my hair is super greasy.  There isn’t much point in doing anything with it besides throwing it up into a ponytail because it is just that disgusting.  Yuck.

If you follow me on Twitter, you are probably already aware, but I’ve gone and done something that few women in their third trimester ever do…

I switched OBs.

Trust me when I say that this was not an easy decision, especially so late in my pregnancy.  Still, it had to be done, and I feel really good about my decision.  The more I think about it, the more I realize it’s been a long time coming.  Don’t get me wrong…I loved some of the doctors that I saw at my old OB, but there was always something that felt…off…about my care.  At first I thought it was just because I was spoiled rotten at my REs office, but after visiting with my new OB today, I’ve come to realize that it felt strange there for a reason.  So, what led to this third trimester switch?  A couple of things…

1.  They wanted my thyroid monitored, but they didn’t want to do it themselves.  I didn’t think anything of this at first, but my family doctor thought it was strange that they just wouldn’t do their own blood draws to monitor my thyroid.  He even went so far as to call them up while I was there to confirm that he should be the one monitoring me during my pregnancy.  Weird, but I let it go.

2.  Back when I was about 16 weeks pregnant, I ended up having horrible, horrible back pain at work.  I was literally in tears because it hurt so bad.  I was still having some cramping at that point too, and I got nervous.  The maternal-fetal specialist had told me to call my OB immediately if I ever had even a single sign of preterm labor…so I did.  After passing me around from person to person and keeping me on the phone for more than half an hour…the OB nurse sent me to my family doctor with what she assumed was a bladder infection.  Strange?  I thought so.  Turned out my back pain was just regular pregnancy back pain, but the whole experience left me feeling odd.

3.  Since my cervix looks so great, the maternal-fetal specialists decided that I didn’t need to come in for transvaginal ultrasounds twice a month.  Yay!  They wrote a letter to the OB stating that a cervical check at my regular OB appointments would do just fine unless there was a change.  I had two appointments…and no one checked my cervix.  Not even when I asked.  I also had to ask for my Rho-Gam shot, which they never did either.

4.  Of course, how could we forget the whole gestational diabetes debacle.  Getting lectured by a nurse about what a big responsibility pregnancy is?  Not cool.  Later, I called back to speak to another nurse and to get my questions answered, and I got the same crap.  When I went in to see the doctor because I really felt it was important to get my questions answered, it was like pulling teeth to get any kind of information.  If they were too busy and important to answer my questions about gestational diabetes, what would delivery be like?

After all of this, I just wasn’t comfortable there anymore.  I felt like no one was listening to me, and I was concerned that the staff really didn’t seem to take my questions seriously.  So, I talked to Ted, and we decided to go ahead and make a change.  Many people I have spoken to who had concerns about their care have told me that they wish they had switched during their pregnancy instead of waiting it out.  Even though it was scary, it was absolutely worth it!

I had my first appointment at my new office today, and I am really happy.  The whole staff was great.  The doctor answered all of my questions and told me what an awesome job I was doing taking care of my girls!  I also had an interesting conversation with the nurse since parts of my medical records were incomplete.  When she inquired about my previous practice, she mad a face at my answer.  She then said that many of the doctors there were great, but that the whole medical group had really grown too big for it’s own good.  She told me that she felt that patient care there was suffering…and I had to agree.

So, now I have to get to know a whole new practice of doctors over the next few weeks.  Not ideal, but I definitely feel a lot more comfortable at my new practice than I did at the old practice.

It seems I have some body image issues.  I’m not talking about the I’m too skinny/too fat/hate my nose/butt/legs kind of body image issues.  I’m talking about the kind of body image issues that arise when your body doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do.

It started, of course, with the infertility.  There I was, doing everything I could to make a baby, and my body just wouldn’t cooperate.  It seemed that my body was incapable of doing the very thing it was designed to do.  Meanwhile, people all around me were just magically pregnant.  It took us years of trying, surgery, pills, injections, and 4 IUIs to get pregnant with the girls.

Eventually, though, all our hard work paid off, and my body agreed to cooperate and carry two baby girls.  With each passing day, my anger at my body faded into the background.  Things were going great!  Every day I expected a problem, and every day passed without a sign of a problem.  My girls were growing and healthy, my cervix was long and closed.  I was taking care of myself and even starting to enjoy this pregnancy.

Then, along came gestational diabetes, and all of those rotten feelings about my body came back.  Once again, I find myself standing on the outside.  While all the other pregnant women I know get to eat what they want when they want…not so for me.  I have to eat certain things at certain times.  I can’t just eat whenever I’m hungry.  I have to wait two hours after each meal to check my glucose, and only then can I have a snack.  Could I have a bowl of ice cream?  Sure.  Half a cup.  And the choice to eat that ice cream is the choice to not eat something more filling and that has real nutritive value for my girls.  Once again, I feel like my body is failing to do the very thing it was designed to do.  I was a failure at getting pregnant, and now I feel like a failure at being pregnant.

And, of course, along with the gestational diabetes comes the advice.  Just like with infertility, everyone is quick to tell me just what it is they think I need to do.  I’ve had some very helpful conversations with people who have had gestational diabetes, but I also have an inbox full of advice from people who have never been pregnant, never had gestational diabetes, and certainly don’t understand the complexities of dealing with gestational diabetes while eating enough to keep me and my girls healthy.  It feels like infertility all over again.

On top of all that, it’s looking more and more like I’ll be the lucky recipient of a c-section for the birth of my girls.  Having multiples combined with the gestational diabetes just makes the likelihood of a c-section extremely high.  It’s something that I really don’t want.  I understand that women do it all the time.  In fact, something like 40% of births in the US are c-section.  Still, I’m not a fan of having major abdominal surgery, and I really, really want to give birth.  I would like to give my body the chance to do what it’s supposed to do.  I’m not giving up hope completely on the chance of a vaginal birth, but it’s looking less and less likely at this point.

I’m sad.

I’m tired and angry.

And I’m really frustrated with my body.

What I want right now is to drown my sorrows in a gigantic brownie sundae.

What I want right now is to snuggle my girls.

What I don’t need right now is anymore advice from people who don’t know anything about gestational diabetes.

What I don’t need is people e-mailing me telling me how much worse their problems are than mine.

What I don’t need is to be told to be grateful that I’m pregnant.  If you know me at all, you know how much this pregnancy means to me.

Instead, what I need is to find a way to deal with the shortcomings of my own body.

I need to stop putting so much pressure on myself to fix things I have no control over.

I need to find a way to be at peace with my body.

It bothers me when the flag is flying at half mast, and I don’t know why.  Shouldn’t I know who we are honoring?

I freaking love salad.  I do not understand people who don’t love salad.

Pregnancy brain is completely real.  I completely forget when I’m talking about in the middle of a sentence.  I can’t make my brain work at all.  For example, I was just convinced that 5:45 was exactly two hours after 1:45.  Yeah.

I love getting packages in the mail.  Surprise packages are the best, but I also love peeking out the window to see if something has been delivered yet.  I love deliveries so much that I think I would be excited to have water delivered to my house.

I have eaten approximately 9,455, 329 cherries so far this summer.

When you are pregnant and you start crying, it is extremely hard to stop.  If I start crying, my eyes will just keep leaking for an hour afterwards.  I can’t help it.  I just keep on crying.

I ordered new glasses last week, and I cannot wait for them to come in.  They’re purple.  Yeah.  I’m awesome.

I was checking my DVR to see what was coming up to be recorded this week, and I just discovered that Project Runway starts this week!  Swoon.

Even though I have mountains of baby stuff, I have this really intense urge to go out and shop for more baby stuff.

I love watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch during the day.  I might be a little sad when I miss it.

Last Thursday, Ted and I were treated to all sorts of baby shower magic.  The day started with a text from Renee telling me to get on the internet so that I could discover my virtual baby shower!  It was so fun to watch adorable videos and read wonderful posts from so many internet friends.  Of course, my internet was misbehaving, so it was a few days until I could actually watch most of the videos, but just seeing that list of posts made me teary.  I highly recommend you go out and watch the video blogging stylings of my wonderful friends.

That evening, we had our real-life baby shower which was hosted by Renee, Anika, and my long-time friend Meghan.  We had the shower at our house (which I highly recommend, by the way), and it was a truly wonderful time!  Thanks to the lovely Stephanie for taking all of these pictures for me!

We played BINGO as our shower game.  No smelling diapers or measuring my baby bump with toilet paper!

Here we are playing BINGO.  That cute old dude is my daddy.

There were even prizes for the lucky winners.

Renee with the prize wine.  I hope she gave it to the winner!

There was all sorts of cute and yummy food…

…and I’m sure these cupcakes were delicious.  Yes, I behaved and abstained from eating a cupcake at my own baby shower.  That’s love, people.

There was even a lovely vase for guests to leave us thoughts, advice, and well-wishes.

We opened presents…

…presents…

…and more presents.

There were a lot of presents!

Even the Internets sent us presents…

…both of our car seats!!!!!!  Good thing I’m open about my blog, or that might have been a hard gift to explain!  Also, present holding dude?  That’s my baby brother.

The girls are very, very loved!  I cannot believe how generous everyone was!

The end.

I have gotten a bit behind in posting these updates…and a bit behind with pretty much everything else this week.  It’s been quite the week what with 4 doctor’s appointments, cleaning the house, dealing with the cable company, baby class, figuring out gestational diabetes, and a fabulous baby shower.  I’m pooped!  Still, I promise to catch up on your posts and responding to comments soon!

Can you tell how tired I am?  Not the greatest photo, but I was too lazy to take self-portraits.

How Far Along: 27 weeks, 6 days.  Tomorrow I’ll be 28 weeks.  Hello, third trimester!

How Big are the Babies: Let’s go with the 28 week numbers since we’re practically there, shall we?  The girls are each 14.8 inches long and they weigh 2.25 pounds each!  Vegetable of the week?  Apparently they are like Chinese cabbage.

Total Weight Gain: I’m still hovering right around the 17 pound mark in terms of weight gain.

Maternity Clothes: Of course!  I really don’t think this is going to change any time soon!  Still, when I’m at home, I live in my pajama shorts and a maternity tank.  I like to be comfy!

Stretch Marks: Still nothing.

Sleep: I’ve been sleeping fairly well this week, especially considering that it’s been something of a stressful week.  Sometimes I make it through the night without getting up, and other times I leap out of bed at 2 a.m. to pee.

Movement: Some days, the girls are super active…and other days they are more laid back.  They generally wiggle around a lot when I’m waking up in the morning, and again when I’m going to sleep at night.  Throughout the day, they have a lot of flutters, kicks, and flips.

Food Cravings: Not so much a craving, but I would kill someone for some ice cream right about now.  Sadly, no more ice cream for me.  Or cookies.  Or popsicles.  Or anything fun.  Thanks, gestational diabetes.

What I Miss: What I miss right now is not having gestational diabetes.  I was really enjoying my life without needles and pee sticks, but apparently it’s just not something I can get away from.

What I’m Looking Forward To: Getting the girls’ room ready for them!  Now that we’ve finished our big flooring project, we can start on the nursery.  I can’t wait to get everything set up for them!

Milestones: Well, we’ve made it to our final trimester!  Crazy, crazy, crazy.  I never thought I would say that.  We also had our baby shower last night, which was so amazing and wonderful.  I’ll do a full post on the shower soon.

Twin Stuff: Well, after our shower, we certainly have more than a few things for the girls!  Still a few essentials that we need to get, but I’m feeling so much more set than I was before.  In our childbirth class, we watched a birth video…and the teacher chose a mother of twins delivering vaginally!  I really hope that is a possibility for us.

Dog Stuff: The dogs have been a little stressed over the past few weeks.  There have been a lot of changes to the house which is stressful for the dogs.  They also are both a bit protective of me.  Kaya goes nuts anytime she thinks a car might drive down the street.  Rufus wants to snuggle me all the time.

Oh, and THIS: So, yeah.  I have gestational diabetes.  It kind of sucks.  The way that the message was delivered to me was less than ideal and included a 40 minute lecture from a nurse about what a big responsibility being pregnant is.  My OB offered me NO information whatsoever on what having gestational diabetes meant, and I was really very upset.  Based on this, and some other things, I’m seriously considering switching OBs.  I like several of the doctors at the practice I’m at quite a bit, but if I can’t get consistent, quality care…well, that makes me nervous.

I’ve now seen the dietitian and the diabetic counselor, and I feel a lot more informed about gestational diabetes.  Yes, I know it’s not my fault, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling horrible about it.  And, I realize that it’s “not a big deal” to a lot of people, but anything that affects my health and the health of my girls is a big deal to me.  I don’t have to eat that differently, but I cannot have anything fun.  No sugary treats for me.  I also have to count my carbs at meals and snacks.  I have to eat on a schedule.  I have to pee on a stick every morning to check to ketones, and I have to check my glucose levels 4 times a day.  Good thing I still had a sharps container left over from my infertility days!  So far, my glucose levels have been plenty low.  This is great, but it’s also frustrating me.  I’m not really changing anything about my eating habits, with the exception of leaving out the occasional treat, so I fail to see just what’s making me diabetic.  If I was having the occasional high reading, I could see the need to monitor myself.  If my readings are all well within normal limits, I’m not sure I understand the point.  I go back to see the diabetic counselor in a few days, so I’ll definitely be asking some questions.

A few quick edits: Yes, the diabetes is caused by pregnancy, and it will likely go away when the babies are born.  In my case, it’s largely caused by hormones from the placenta and my body not being able to handle compensating for two placentas.

As far as sugar-free treats are concerned…they contain artificial sweeteners.  The safety of using artificial sweeteners in pregnancy is a topic of debate, and I’m not really sure why putting chemicals in my body would be better than natural sugar.  I also HATE the way anything containing aspartame tastes.

It was something of a busy weekend for us.  Here’s what we were up to:

Friday…

Ted worked on the floors.  This is the very last piece of tile!

The amazing Allie Larkin did a reading & book signing at Ted’s store!

We hung out with Allie for a bit after the reading.  So fun!

• On Friday, I also got a call that I had failed my glucose screening so fantastically that they were just going to go ahead and diagnose me with gestational diabetes.  I was a bit of a wreck because it was so unexpected.  Still have no idea what it actually means for me and my girls right now.

Saturday…

• Ted finished grouting the floors!  All we have to do now is finish cleaning the grout cloud, and our gigantic tile project will be finished.  There is definitely a photo-filled post to come!

We went to our second wedding in a week…and we actually remembered to take a picture of ourselves!

Some of my favorite girls from work.  Sadly, none of us will be together next year.

Sunday…

• Ted worked.  I puttered around the house doing laundry, mopping the floor, yelling at the cable/internet company for sucking ass…

Rufus did his usual lumping.

How was your weekend?

Naming a baby is hard work.  Naming two babies?  Well, it just complicates the matter even further.  Think about how you struggled to name your dog, cat, iPhone, or your car.  You wanted a name that was perfect…even if it was just for your computer.  Now, imagine trying to name a human.  It feels like such an awesome responsibility…and it is.  I don’t want my children growing up hating their names!

Here have been some of the things that make naming twin girls something of a challenge:

• I don’t want two names that start with the same letter or end with the same sound.
• Our last name starts with a J, so I don’t really want any J names.
• Our last name ends with an “ee” sound, so that eliminates some of my favorites like Audrey, Amelie, and Hermione.  Yes, I would consider naming a child after a Harry Potter character.
• I don’t want any kind of matchy-matchy names for the girls.  No Emma & Ella.  No Heaven and Nevaeh.  No Autumn and Summer.
• I do want names that sound nice when said together, though.
• I like names that are classic, elegant, and lovely.
• I don’t mind names that are popular, but I’m not a fan of overly trendy.  Though, I grew up as an Erin, and it never bothered me.  My brother and sister are Michael and Jennifer, and they came out fairly unscathed in the name department as well.

Tricky, huh?

Ted and I are actually pretty settled on the names for each girl.  We came to them pretty easily…almost too easily…but they just seem to fit.  Still, being someone who loves names and meanings, I can’t help but shop around a little bit.  Truthfully, even when I find something else that I like, it doesn’t feel quite right to replace one of our front runners.  I’m pretty sure that we won’t be changing our minds about our names, but it’s fun to play around with them.  And no, we’re still not sharing the names with anyone.  It doesn’t matter how nicely you ask or promise not to tell!

Anyhow, I’m wondering about your name now.  Do you like it?  Hate it?  Love it?  Why?

If you have a popular or trendy name, does it make you feel like less of an individual?

If you have an unusual name, do you like that, or is it awkward?

Tell me about your name!  And feel free to suggest baby names for us too.