Pretty packages

A few weeks ago I attended the baby shower for my friend, S. She wasn't due for a few weeks but guess who decided to come early? Her baby girl, Eva. Unfortunately, the one we were celebrating was still in the hospital, but we did get to celebrate with the woman who carried her for almost 8 months, which was a real treat.

If you know me, like really know me, you know I'm one of the world's biggest procrastinators, second only to my mom (sorry Mom, but you know it's true. Decorating the Christmas tree the day before Christmas seems to seal the deal for all of us that know and love you). My usual M.O. when invited to a birthday party, shower, or wedding, is to go out the night before or morning of said event, stress myself out and buy something I haven't put a lot of thought into. Then I rush home to wrap it and kick myself for not spending enough time thinking through everything. Well, let me tell you something. I actually did things for this baby shower the way I imagine normal people do things. I thought carefully about the recipient (at this point, we didn't know if the baby was a boy or girl) and it's parents and then started to plan. This was 3 weeks before the shower. Crazy! I started shopping and planning and had everything in hand 24 hours before the shower. A first for me. Seriously. 

The night before the baby shower, C was studying and I thought, why not start wrapping the gifts? I have a couple of hours before bedtime. People, I have never had this thought enter my head before!
And here is the end result. Feast your eyes because this may never, ever, EVER, happen again!


And here are a couple of shots of what was contained within some of these pretty packages.

(Eva was conceived in Australia and I couldn't resist)

It's official

Cohen and I both have outties (outies?).

It popped out, with my belly, a few days ago. My belly has popped so much that I've already had strangers asking me when I'm due. That makes me feel FANTASTIC!

Maybe you've seen your last belly shot at 20 weeks. I'll leave the next 18 to your imagination.

It's my party

...and I'll cry if I want to.

At this point, we didn't realize the birthday boy had an ear infection. Poor little birthday boy had to leave his party early to go wait at the insta-care clinic for 2.5 hours and didn't get to blow out his candles or open his gifts. Instead, everyone else ate the cake and then helped clean up so I could go relieve Daddy, who had an important deadline looming for school.

But we still have the "Cohen" banner up on the mirror and I'm sure it will be up until Easter, seeing as it remained for Valentine's Day. And he still insists on forcing us to sing Happy Birthday to him every now and then. Maybe next year's birthday will be a little less painful for the little guy.

And now, some images from this low-key party. And yes, it was low-key like I promised myself it would be; hotdogs, condiments, chips and dip, veggies, and cake. Oh, and if anyone needs rainbow bunting, it's yours for the taking! I'd love to see all of that late night sewing go to good use for someone else.

Cohenisms

Me: Are you Mummy's Coco Bear?

Cohen: NO! I not Mummy's Coco Bear. I Cohey Gray Hancock!

Oh maaaannnn! - said whenever he drops something.

Uh-oh pedi-ohs - Uh-oh spaghettios.

I live on Bryan Avenue in Salt Lake City, Ooootah.

Me: Hey Cohen, what should we name the babies?

Cohen: Ummmmm, Baby Ava and Gordon.

Watch this, Mummy & Daddy - he then proceeds to do something which he wants us to watch. This occurs every minute or so at dinner and every couple of minutes the rest of the morning and evening.

And his latest "trick" is to ask me a lot of why questions. When I finally get to the point where I have no more answers, I tell him "because." So now when I ask him a question, like "what would you like for breakfast today, Cohen?" he answers "Because!" Smart kid.

Trying to show off his four new two-year molars.

Twenty weeks

Well, I'm officially beyond the half-way mark. I cannot believe it. I haven't even started obsessing over nursery colours yet (nor even started thinking about anything beyond today).

I had my 19 week ultrasound on Valentine's Day. It was a lovely treat to see Alex and Bobbi-Jo. They were both measuring almost to the day of gestation and each weighed 10 oz. All of their measurements were great and I learned that Alex's placenta is posterior and Bobbi-Jo's is anterior, which means all the movement I feel is Alex. At this point, I don't feel like he's (yes, I'm still convinced it's two boys) as active as Cohen was at this point, but maybe I just can't remember all that well--or he's a lazy slacker.

Yesterday I met with my midwife for my 20 week appointment. I've gained 3 lbs since my last appointment 5 weeks ago for a grand total of 10 lbs so far. And I finally found out how much weight I should gain as people have asked me and I had to confess that I had no clue. I was pleased to hear my midwife say only 35 lbs. I was expecting her to say 45 or 50. If the babies start to measure smaller, then we'll talk about putting some extra weight on, but at this point, it's business as usual since they are measuring to their gestational age. The big shocker was when she measured my uterus. I'm currently measuring at 27 weeks! That's one large and in charge uterus I have. My appointments will now be every 2 weeks and I'll start meeting with the high-risk doc who will be performing my c-section. Ultrasounds will still be every 4 weeks at this point since everything is going so well.


And now for my 20 week photo. I couldn't decide which one to post so you've got your choice to gawk at. Enjoy!

 

Honesty in pregnancy

My friend M-B has a blog where she captures life raising two boys. One of her frequent titles is "Honesty in parenting" and I couldn't get it out of my mind when I was thinking about what to write today. So M-B, this one's for you, whether you like it or not.

Two weeks ago I had just recovered from a 5 week bout with a head cold that turned into sinusitis. Good thing Sudafed is okay to take during the second trimester because that stuff saved my life. Literally. Okay, not literally, but pretty close. Anyway, was just feeling better when I was hit with a stomach bug. I initially thought it was morning sickness as I woke up feeling okay and then threw up, but instead of feeling better, I started to feel really crummy.

Made it through work all day without throwing up, but wanted to. Just kept telling myself I was fine. But when I got home that night and was hanging out with little c (Daddy was at class), I couldn't convince myself any longer that I was okay. No, I certainly was not okay.

Started throwing up just after dinner, but I had my lovely companion beside me to pat me on the back and alternate with "What doin' Mommy?" and "Mommy's funny!" the entire time I was barfing. That wasn't so bad. And the next time wasn't so bad. But the next time, after I had got little c down to bed, I threw up AND full-on wet my pants at the same time. Gotta love throwing up while having two babies jockeying for position on your bladder.

Oh, and if you really want to know, the next time I missed the toilet completely.

Out of the mouth of babes

We had a lovely weekend with little c. It included a very cold and windy trip to the zoo, letting him make his own sandwich (the kid is obsessed with watching everything we do from the vantage point of standing on his new little chair and now wants to get his own meals ready), lots of time spent playing with Play Doh, dinner with new friends who are also expecting twins, fun at church, and having a blast with Stacey & Bryce while Mommy & Daddy went to a Superbowl Party.

But the highlight for me was when I was changing one of his 4 daily dirty diapers yesterday. He looked up at me and said:

"Mommy's an old lady and Daddy's an old man!"

Well, he's half right! But we'll make sure we don't let Daddy hear that or he'll feel worse about being 40.