The second trimester...so far

The second trimester is a beautiful thing. No more nausea and lots more energy.
Literally, it was like one day I woke up and the persistent feeling of wanting to yak 24/7 had ceased. Thank God. And while I'm still ready to go to bed around 9 p.m. each night, I am able to stay alert all day and not want to take a nap at my desk. Well, most days.

Of course, that only lasted about a month. I'm now 18.5 weeks, and already my feet have started swelling, and I'm exhausted all over again. I'm learning that I can't move at the same speed I did before I was pregnant. Everything takes a little longer, like chores and even walking. I'm told the swollen feet is from doing too much. It's not easy to slow down. But totally worth it. I look and feel more pregnant all the time, and I've had several people tell me that I have "the glow." At 16 weeks, I started to feel the flutters, and now at almost 19 weeks, they are becoming stronger, although I don't feel them often.

I started reading a book about twins, triplets and quads. All I can say is that I've been blessed. A lot of the women featured in the book have had to go on bed rest by this point. Which I think is crazy. I have too much to do in the next few months to be on bedrest! But I know I will do whatever is necessary to protect these sweet children.

The cribs and mattresses have been ordered, along with one set of bedding. We are going to do a Noah's Ark theme, since the animals came "two by two" and so did our precious babies.

I'm learning so much  more about the whole "being a mom." I have such great friends that have been through it all, and who don't sugarcoat things. Which for a realist like me is a good thing.

At 17 weeks, we had an appointment with the Houston specialist. He was able to determine the gender of both babies and that weekend we hosted a "gender reveal party." It's the new thing! We had the nurse seal the pictures of each baby proclaiming their genders in an envelope. Then I took the envelope to Grandough Bakery. They made us two cakes, one for each baby. Inside, the cake was dyed pink or blue depending on the gender. Guests at the party included: Mom and Dad, Greg, Melissa and their kids, Laura Lovett and Addi, Amber and Daniel Bewley, Richard, Sherrie, the Coffey crew, Lindsey and Joe Frank Mott, David and Lisa Crager, Glen from Brian's job and his girlfriend. All of our favorite people. We had to wait about an hour for Richard to show up, but once we did, we got set up to cut the cakes. First was Baby A. We saw the inside of the cake along with everyone else. It was a GIRL!!

Cutting the first cake

It's a GIRL!

 At this point, Brian said he got major butterflies. I think he was just worried that Baby B would also be a girl, and then he would be surrounded by all these women! So then we cut the second cake for Baby B. It was a BOY!!

A boy!!

Our gender reveal party had a football theme, so Brian, Mary Liz and I all wore our Carolina Panthers gear. These two new additions have no choice but to LOVE the Panthers like we do! What's ironic is that the jersey I'm wearing is for Tightend Greg Olsen, my favorite player, who had twins in 2012...a boy and a girl.

I love this man. He's given me such a beautiful life, including 3 incredible children.

The Hayes crew

The Crager clan

Brian, Me, and Sherrie

I was so blessed that my sweet best friends were able to be part of the day. Laura and her little girl Addi came from Belton just for the weekend, so I was glad when Baby A and Baby B cooperated at the ultrasound.

And now they have names! Emily Anne (short for Annette which is my mom's middle name) and Isaac David (for my dad and it's also a Crager family name).

Can't wait to really get started on buying things, setting up the nursery and getting ready for the twins to be here!