merry christmas!

hello and merry christmas!

i wanted to give you all a brief photo update of what i have been up to from 30 weeks to 37! weeks…

cleaned out closets, squint helped

my mom came to visit and we put together our crib – LOVE this crib!

trouble and squint made sure that the crib mattress box was empty!

trouble took a break from baby prep and hunted lady bugs

took several thousand moments to marvel in our good fortune

celebrated thanksgiving with mother-in-law who brought her FABULOUS tender turkey

grandpa (my dad) built us a cradle!

photo at about 37 weeks – baby measuring 7lbs 5oz!

celebrated christmas – no tree due to destroyer kitties

time is chugging along. i remain fairly nauseous most days (oh well!) but am getting through it. i have slightly elevated fluid levels (and elevated maternal age) so i go every week for a sonogram and to see my OB. all my vitals are good and the baby moves a lot and is doing her practice breathing so i am all thumbs up from my docs.

i had a wonderful visit with the babypants gals and their little one last week and this week got to visit with olive from insert metaphor… i don’t think their are nicer people on the planet. was SO great to spend time with them all. made me inspired to reach out and say hello to everyone – hello!! i HAVE been reading even though i have not been writing.

we are having a baby shower on jan 10th – i am due on the 16th! we’ll see how that plays out… i am excited to see friends and share our excitement with them… i have REALLY been quite housebound and it is making me kind of bonkers. my folks are coming out from the west coast for a couple weeks (or more if baby comes late). they will arrive on the 15th and are staying a few blocks away. we found them a house swap so visiting won’t cost an arm and a leg – so great!

much love to you all…
xo mulberry

meds available…

hello…

i have been cleaning out closets trying to make room for our little gal and all her stuff that will soon start to accumulate.

the big news here is that we have some fertility meds to donate to someone who is doing ivf or possibly injectible IUIs. some of the stuff needs refrigeration, so it is best if you are in the NY area and can pick up the goods.

please email me if you are interested… and we will coordinate.

in other news, my mom has been here for a few days and we have another 4 days to visit. it has been great!

… and inlocoparentis sent us some adorable baby girl clothes they are not going to need since they are having a little fella the stuff is SO cute!

… and my belly keeps growing growing growing. 30 weeks and counting.

wedded bliss…

a couple photos for you all

we had a WONDERFUL time yesterday. my gal is the BEST!

thanks for all your well wishes.

28 weeks…

hello!

i know it has been a VERY long time (10 weeks to be exact) since last i posted…

i am at 28 weeks this week. pretty amazing! yippes… picture of the ever expanding belly below

belly last week @ 27 weeks

i have been feeling a bit better over all… but was still being plagued by almost daily bouts of the runs – it has been 7 MONTHS of being afraid to go far from the loo, ”just in case”… i just went off dairy this week (already i am off gluten for 6 years now, because i have celiac). it is sad for me to have NO cheese and NO butter and NO real ice cream – i had already been avoiding milk, guess i somehow ”knew” deep down that dairy was a problem for me

my mom is coming to visit nov 3rd for 9 days! i am SO very excited to see her and spend some time with her. it is hard that my folks live so far away.

on monday dakota and i are going to CT to get married (shot gun elopement). it is going to be a blast. next year at this time we will have a big party/celebration with all of our family and friends – and our little girl who will be 9 months old by then – but for now (next week), it will be just the two of us and the justice of the peace, a photographer and some video – so we can show it at our party next year.

we are doing well, still holding our breath a bit till we get through this and our little one is with us… the fear never completely leaves though it gets smaller and the excitement grows with each passing week.

got a sweet request to fill you all in on how we were doing, so now you all know. i have been trying to follow along on all your journeys… even though i don’t comment as much these days. my heart is still with you all.

xxoo mulberry

18 weeks…

hi there all… i know i have been radio silent lately. truth is, i just am not in a blogging mood, so i have not been writing and don’t expect i will again any time soon.

… but, i know that some of you have been worried, and i thank you all for your well wishes and your love. i wanted to let you know how we are doing.

- my belly is expanding.

- i have gained no weight (i was about 50 pounds overweight before i got pregnant, so there is a lot of repurposing going on i expect).

- i am still sick all the time (except a 2 day break where i actually felt pretty ok. so far that has not happened again, but i am HOPING).

- we still have moments of extreme sadness about the little one who we lost. they sneak up on us when least expected.

- we are having more and more moments of delight over the little one still with us.

- we are relieved to have made it to 18 weeks and everything looks good so far.

- for now, i am fading from the blogisphere. not reading much, not commenting much, definitely not writing much. for all of you who have been so wonderful and supportive of us and who we have been following and cheering on, we send you much love and will be thinking about you.

xxoo mulberry

It’s been a hard week…

Mulberry hasn’t posted for some time and I wanted to say a little about what has been happening with us.

It has been a hard week for mulberry and me. Last week we had some troubling test results on one of the babies, and this week we lost that baby. One of the hardest things we have had to experience to be sure.

As sad as we are, it looks like things are good with our remaining baby so we are trying to stay positive. Trying to adjust to the fact that we now have a singleton and not twins…

We are still overjoyed that we have a little one coming.

Thank you for your love, prayers, hope, and happiness for us.

met our OB :) more scan pictures

we went for our 1st OB appt. yesterday and all went well. she was SO nice. we liked her and her practice. dakota had our doc giggling and asking for more details when after all the medical questions were out of the way, dakota asked for the doc’s birth date (doc’s kids birth dates, other doc in the practice’s birth date) and then proceeded to tell our doc about herself and her relationship with kiddos and the other doc etc. doc was charmed, and curious… and thought dakota was right on and kept asking for more… it was one of the more full of laughter exams ever.

we were able to see another picture of the little fish – who don’t look like fish anymore… wow – starting to look like actual babies!

we have to go for genetic counseling and 1st trimester scan next week – i guess they use stronger machines than the doc’s office has? seems we have had so many scans already. it will be our first interaction with the hospital we are going to birth at. it is a catholic hospital, and even though our doc has assured us that her many gay couples have been treated very well there, we have some trepidations… we’ll see how it goes.

i remain under 24/7 nausea barrage. i want to crawl under a rock for the next several weeks, until – rumor has it – the symptoms are supposed to subside. my brain has turned to mush… i keep forgetting what day it is, missing major appts, etc… going almost nowhere, seeing almost no one (with the exception of the babypants girls and their little fella who stopped by for dinner the other night.) they look SO good and seem SO happy. yay!

at our doctor’s suggestion we bought the mayo clinic’s guide to a health pregnancy. best book i have seen so far on pregnancy. very informative, not touchy feely in any way (though i like that in some things), and of course heterocentric…. but very informative and clear to read. a great resource once you are ready to (cautiously) retire the ”how the hell am i ever gonna &^*&^ conceive” books – of which i have a million!

nauseous and miserable, but ok otherwise :)

hello all…

i have been told several times (today alone) that it has been 3 weeks since i last posted, and my blog friends are starting to worry. sorry to make you all worry, we are all doing fine… thanks for the love!

here are some photos of our latest scans… both little fish are doing well, strong heartbeats and we even saw them swimming around.

i have not written because i have been feeling SO sick and miserable. i spent 12 days visiting my parents in So Cal. i remained on their couch about 90% of the time, so nauseous i wanted to cry. i have tried ginger, small meals, sea bands, guided imagery, three kinds of prescription medications and yet the urge to cry from frustration, and hurl remains. strangely, i have only thrown up once (well three times in quick succession), but the 24/7 nausea alone has been crippling. oh, i forgot to mention that i have the runs at least every other day. i have not been working since i was laid off may 1st, and i have ceased looking for work because i don’t think i could make it through a work day at this point. i am used to working through stomach distress and regular migraines… i have even performed on stage, on a revolving stage none the less, with a room spinning migraine. i am generally not a wuss, but these little fish have me by the short hairs.

i am so grateful to be pregnant, and with twins! if we make it all the way through this we will have 2 children… more than i was EVER thinking would come to pass given the last year and a half… i have some joy, and i have some fears – but they are minuscule in comparison to my current quease induced misery. i feel bad even saying that to anyone, including you my blog friends… so i have not written

i have my first OB appt next week. i am looking forward to meeting the docs and getting the low down on what to expect with twin birth – and the rest of this pregnancy. home birth and water birth are both out – not that i was EVER going to be able to convince dakota to go either of those routes… and i realize a lot of other possible birth plans i would have wanted to explore will be out… but, i say bring on the info and we will happily make NEW plans.

till next week…

amazing! (2nd scan photo included)

the picture below is very blurry cause i took it with my phone, but it shows two growing fishies and HEARTBEATS (well, this photo shows babyB’s heartbeat below, but you know what i mean) – oh wow! we were amazed, stunned and delighted that we got to hear and see each of their little hearts going so soon. yesterday was 6w5d

picture from our first scan on tuesday…

holy moly… there’s two of ‘em1