Oww! & Relief coming soon

I just had that cramp-like pain in my abdomen again - what is that? It's here and gone within a few seconds. I've been told it is my uterus stretching, so hopefully, that is all it is.

I called the spa that my husband got me a 'mom to be' massage gift cert at for Christmas and made an appointment for the 10th. I can't wait. I seriously would like it sooner, but I wanted to wait until my husband could drive my relaxed body home and weekends work the best for both of us. The person doing the massage is a guy, and well, I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I'm sure it will be fine.

Body Pillows, Cosleepers and Dad

Last night, I brought my body pillow (just a simple one, not one of those fancy ones) onto the bed to help provide support for my back as I (attempted) to lay on my left side. Well, I would still catch myself moving onto my back in my sleep, then I would wake up and move myself back to my left side. My back is just killing me today. I think I'm going to reposition it a different way and see what happens - I also think I'll find a pillow to put between my legs as I think that might help. I might end up getting another body pillow to put between my legs and under my tummy.

Has anyone used these cosleepers? One of my bosses says she has one that she would let us borrow if we want. I think I'll be taking her up on that offer.

In other non-pregnancy related news, my dad is back in the hospital. They are giving him more drugs in hopes that will help, but if not, they might have to go to dialysis (at least, that is my understanding). He doesn't have the results of his biopsy he did last week yet. I'm considering going over to Spokane sooner than I had thought, but it really depends on the weather across the pass and maybe a weekend when my husband can go with me.

Today's Update...

I am so tired right now. So very tired. I need a nap so badly. Is it 4:30 yet so I can go home and take a nap? If only. And my back is killing me. I seriously need to look for one of those lumbar pillows to use at work. Luckily, I haven’t had much in the way of pelvic pain today so yay! I didn’t call the doctor yesterday like I meant to, and now I’m not feeling any pain, but I will call if it happens again.

On another topic, perhaps related to the back pain – every book I have and every e-mail I receive related to pregnancy says I should stop lying on my back. Lying on my back is bad and horrible! I like to lie on my back. And I should be lying on my left side, not my right. I go between lying on my side (either one) to my back. I think I need one of those body pillows or something to provide support to my back at night.

Regarding those multiples classes at UW I’ve mentioned a few times, they were nice enough to let me change the times I will be going to those classes from Apr/May to Feb/Mar, so for the next few Thursdays, I will be visiting UW (and will be really tired the next day at work). I also decided to go to a psychology lecture at UW about infants and children and symbolic understanding (psych was one of my majors – political science was the other one). It looks interesting and it’s free – that’s on the 21st of this month. February will be a busy month. Unfortunately, Jon won’t be able to go to any of these classes with me, but he said to go ahead and change the dates of the classes especially since before I knew about the multiples classes at UW, I had signed us up for some classes at Swedish and apparently, there are no refunds there.

I haven’t been keeping too up to date on my blog reading lately. I’ve been busy at work (most of the time) and I’m just too tired when I get home to do much on the computer except check my e-mail, so if I haven’t commented lately, don’t take it personally.

Owww – just as I was typing that last paragraph, I had what felt like a 2 second cramp – just this sharp pain. What the heck was that? That hurt!

Only 13 more days until our next ultrasound!!!

Start of the 16th week

Today marks the 16th week of my pregnancy - wow!!!

Weekends go by way too fast. Saturday, we went out to breakfast with a couple friends who were trying to fatten me up (since I need to start gaining more weight - this will be the only time I actually want to gain weight). After that, my husband and I went to go visit my sister-in-law on Saturday in Tacoma. We came back and moved the bed out of our "guest room" to make room for furniture we will be purchasing sometime soon for the nursery. The bed is now downstairs ready for whenever my brother comes to live with us.

Then on Sunday, we were lazy, but eventually, my husband went to the school to study with his class buddies while I went shopping. I didn't go to any consignment stores this weekend like I had planned. I just went to Target and bought these cute little onesies that were on sale. I don't know what I'm having, but the supposed boy ones could be unisex in my opinion and well, the girl ones, if we don't end up having a girl, I have a support group buddy who I know is having twin girls. The onesies are so cute! However, the smallest size they had was for a 6 month old. I assume we'll use them eventually.

I also recycled a bunch of magazines this weekend - our recycle bin will be quite full when it comes to recycling day.

In other news, I've been having some pelvic pain in the vaginal area. I've been told this is normal by my coworkers who have been pregnant, but I'm kinda freaked by it. It hurts more when I'm walking around which is unfortunate since I need to be walking around. I walked over to the pet store for lunch today and things seemed o.k. then, but it hurt quite a bit this morning. I'm going to be calling my doctor to see what she has to say.

I'm officially not wearing my wedding ring anymore - my fingers are too bloated. I was looking for a "fake" ring that I could wear, but the smallest sizes I could find were a size 7 and well, that's too big for me so I guess I will be going ringless for a while. My finger feels so naked!

And finally, I received some sad news last night from my husband's friend from college of whom I've been e-mailing - she found out last Friday that she had miscarried. She seems to be handling it well, but I know this has got to be a very hard thing to go through.

OB, Ultrasounds, Classes & More

I didn’t get a chance to blog yesterday because work was so busy (as was today up until this point), then I had the first “expecting multiples” class last night – so busy. Here are some things I wanted to talk about yesterday as well as some things for today…

First, I forgot about some things discussed at the OB visit the other day. She mentioned my weight. She asked what I weighed before pregnancy and it sounded as if she doesn’t think I’m gaining weight fast enough for twins. She said to eat 6 small meals throughout the day, but I’ve been pretty much doing that (most of the time), and I’ve gained maybe 2-3 pounds since my last appointment with the OB’s office. Last night at the class, the topic of gaining weight came up along with Dr. Luke’s book on Twins and other multiples. The teacher of the class says you should try to follow her recommendations as much as you can – which means if you are struggling to gain the necessary weight, then you should definitely eat more – perhaps protein bars or nuts or even those En*sure drinks, etc. So last night after the class, I was starving, and since she mentioned cheeseburgers, I wanted a cheeseburger so I got a cheeseburger even though it was past my bedtime (being 9:30 at this point).

She also mentioned exercise – that I should be walking 20-30 minutes a day. I am going to try to remember to bring my tennis shoes and walk around at lunchtime since when I get home it is still too dark and I just don’t want to walk around by myself in the dark. It would be nice if Greenlake would put up some lights for when it gets dark – I might go there after work.


Second, to answer some questions, the ultrasound place I’m going to is in Seattle on First Hill near Swedish. They seem o.k. from the one time I’ve gone there – we went there for the NT scan. By the way, the next ultrasound will be on February 12 at 8 a.m. – right at the beginning of my 18th week. They have got to see the gender then, right?

Regarding coping with multiples – I think it will definitely be hard in the beginning. As I’ve never had a child before and the closest I came to taking care of a child was my brothers and occasionally, my sister’s kids (very occasionally), I am incredibly nervous about just having one, let alone two. But I think we will make it work as so many parents before us have (ha – make it work reminds me of that guy on Project Runway). I don’t know how much blogging I’ll do once those babies come though. I’m not sure if that really answers the question, but I’m not exactly sure how we’ll manage, I just have faith that we will somehow.

Third, does the struggle one had with infertility ever go away? Vanpool girl is back to work as of this week and she, of course, was talking about her baby, and for some reason, this made me sad. I explained to a friend that night that I had to stop myself and ask myself why I was feeling that way – after all, I’m pregnant now…with twins. What do I have to feel sad about? It is hard for me to think of myself as pregnant sometimes, but most of the time, I am relishing being in this situation. I love that people are telling me I look pregnant. But I think the reason why I might be feeling sad now is that the twins aren’t here yet and I am still so nervous I might lose them. I’m only at 15 weeks now – I’ve got a while to go.

Finally, more about the class last night. The topic of discussion last night was “pregnancy with multiples”. The teacher started with going over administrative stuff, but quickly started us with a “getting to know each other” exercise. It actually wasn’t that bad – it was fun. And there was a couple from my support group there, so that was nice. Jon wasn’t able to come with me last night, and he probably won’t be able to come with me for any of these classes as I’m hoping to switch the classes from taking them in April/May to Feb/Mar. I’m waiting to hear back from UW about that. I hope I can switch though it would be nice if my husband could come. There are some classes I signed us up for at Swedish, so he should be able to go to those with me (at least, most of them). He is taking some classes at night M-Th this quarter.

Anyway, about the class. After the exercise, the teacher showed us some slides on how twins are created (which seems silly to me), but some other things she discussed were interesting – like nutrition, preterm labor and birth (of which I’m going to a class on 02/15 about preventing preterm labor and birth and recognizing the signs of), and things you should ask your doctor and how often your doctor should see you, which brings up a question. For those with twins, how often do you see your doctor? She was saying once every 2 weeks after 20 weeks. I’m trying to remember what my OB said about that. All I remember her talking about is how often I would be having ultrasounds (once a month). Right now, I’m set to see my OB every month, but I think (I think), after the next appointment, I will be seeing her more often though at the moment my schedule is to see her every month until April at this point. I need to ask her about that the next time I see her on the 23rd (which seems like an eternity from now – but thank goodness, we have that ultrasound on the 12th).

Hmm, what else? I can’t think of anything else about the class, so maybe I’ll think of more later. It was a good use of my time – I think the next few classes will be better as this seemed more like an introductory class.

One last thing - I've been having some bits of pain in my abdomen (and continuing with the pain in my hips - of which the OB suggested I might have to have physical therapy to help with that). The OB mentioned something about round ligament pain, which could be the cause of the pain. I keep meaning to look that up and find out exactly what that means. Oh, and I don't think I mentioned last time about the OB mentioning that since I had high blood pressure on the regular birth control pils before that I could have high blood pressure during the 3rd trimester, so they will be keeping a closer eye on that so hopefully, I won't have to be put on bedrest (which I really hope I don't have to do).

O.K. That's all for today. I may or may not write over the weekend. I need to continue cleaning my house and moving things around to make room to start the nursery. Also, I thought I would go to some consignment stores and see what they have - we'll see though (if any of my friends are interesting in going with me - let me know). We may be visiting my sister-in-law in Tacoma this weekend so that might take up a good chunk of one day.

Oh, and today, my dad has his kidney biopsy - things appear to have went well (which is what my sister told me). I'll need to call them later when I get home. O.K. enough for today!

Today's OB Appointment

Today we had our 2nd OB appointment in which we actually met our OB (last time was with the nurse practitioner). She came in and just went over the NT scan we had a while ago; whether an amnio is necessary; gave us information on whether a C-Section or an vaginal birth would be the way to go; and exactly how many times we will have ultrasounds.

I've already talked about the NT scan, so the next thing is whether to do an amnio. Since the NT scan came back normal and because I'm only 33, she would suggest now to not do one. However, she also said we could wait until after our next ultrasound at the ultrasound place before making a final decision. Even then, unless we are willing to terminate the pregnancy, then she would recommend that we not do an amnio. I'm pretty much saying no to the amnio right now - too much risk and the NT scan came back normal.


Next, a C-Section v. vaginal birth. Contrary to what I've believed and heard, she said that they would prefer a vaginal birth even with twins because it is easier on the babies. However, it will all depend on where the babies heads are. She said, of course, if the babies heads are down, vaginal birth is definitely the way to go. If the first of the babies heads is down and the other one isn't, she would still recommend a vaginal birth as they can extract the baby that isn't head down. However, if neither are head down, then a C-Section would be what is needed. Before a couple days ago, I had thought I would just go ahead and do a C-section, but after talking with some people and the OB, I'm changing my mind. I always thought I would have a vaginal delivery, so I would love for it to happen that way (with both babies heads down as the extracting part kinda freaks me out). We have a while before this decision needs to be made.

And onto ultrasounds, she said with twins, I will be having an ultrasound at the special ultrasound place once a month. The next one will be between week 18 and 20 - I'm hoping more around week 18 as my next OB appointment is in week 19 and the OB mentioned wanting to talk about it the next time I see her. She wasn't going to do an ultrasound today at the clinic, but I said we were kinda hoping for one so she did one and they were being wigglers again! Unfortunately, she wasn't able to tell what sex they are because of their wiggling around. :-( Hopefully, this next ultrasound, they will be able to tell. We also go to hear the heartbeats with their handheld machine - hearing the heartbeats was very cool. Seeing them is also very cool.

I think that about covers it for today.

15 weeks, 1 day

The news for today...

Pregnancy baby brain syndrome strikes again. Last night, I went to the store and got one of those frozen pizzas from the store to feed myself, my husband (who was sick yesterday) and a friend. Well, I put it in the oven after taking the plastic off. After waiting 20 minutes as instructed, I hear my husband take the pizza out of the oven and say expletive or something (can't remember exactly what). I go into the kitchen and yep, the pizza is burned - but just on the top - not on the bottom. You know what my problem was? I forgot to take the pizza off the cardboard before putting it into the oven. I can't believe what a dork I am! We ended up ordering a pizza.

Today I've had a headache and been extremely hungry. This Ho-Ho that I'm eating right now is quite tasty. The other night, my husband and I went to a gift exchange that we always go to in January and someone brought Ding Dongs. Well, someone then mentioned Ho-Ho's and I wanted them ever since, so when I was at the store last night, I got some. Yummy. Don't worry, I have been eating healthy things today too - apple slices & Cheerios for breakfast and a Lean Cuisine meal for lunch.

Early this morning, I woke up a couple times to go to the bathroom and just felt nauseous. I had to talk myself into not throwing up. Luckily, I didn't. It's interesting that I keep getting up to go to the bathroom every 2 hours - is this my body preparing myself for what's to come because I feel incredibly tired today?

It seems that I am starting gradually to gain weight - maybe 2 pounds since I started tracking it, so I guess that's good.

This morning at work has been a very annoying one - let's just say that one federal agency is so frustrating and inconsistent in what they expect of us each and every time. I just wish that they would offer some kind of class not only to us on what is the proper way to do things, but also to their employees so we don't have as many inconsistencies.

Well, that's all for today. Tomorrow is the next OB appointment at 8:40 a.m. I hope that they do an ultrasound tomorrow!!!

Dad & More

My dad got to come home yesterday. He is still puffy, but he is feeling better. He was told to make an appointment for the kidney biopsy at a different hospital in Spokane, so I'm not sure when that's taking place now. My mom is also doing o.k.

On another topic, I want to start writing more on my blog so I have a better journal as I go through this pregnancy. I would like to write on this blog every day, but we'll see how that goes.

So lately I've been having a lot of aches in pains, particularly in my hips. Sometimes the aches in the hip feel like spasms. I've been told that this is normal, but to check with the doctor anyway. Thank goodness my appointment is this Wednesday.

I hope that they will do an ultrasound this Wednesday, but I've been told by numerous people that they don't do it every time. I'm hoping I can talk the OB into it if she isn't already planning to do one as I'm anxious to see them again (and well, I kinda want to see if they can tell what the genders of the two babies are - any guesses? I'm thinking one boy and one girl).

Another symptom I've noticed lately is stuffy noses and occassionally blood in the nose. So far, it hasn't been a "bloody nose", but there has been blood that my husband asked me the other night if I have a bloody nose. It's weird because I had no idea that this was a side effect.

Oh, and of course, I seem to have gotten pregnancy baby brain syndrome - I cannot think of the simplest words! Last night, I was talking to some friends about hair color, and I mentioned that my hair salon I go to says I have "dark blonde" hair - well, it's seems brown to me, but whatever. Anyway, a friend said that my hair looked blonde on the ends maybe due to summer? And I replied that no, it was because I had my hair...umm, you know, umm... colored!!! a while back and haven't had it colored in a while so that is why I have lovely grey hairs sticking out everywhere. She said to me "welcome to pregnancy". I've heard it only gets worse.

This past weekend, I've been trying to be an organizing maniac. I've organized (mostly) the downstairs room with the help of my husband, and also our linen closet in the bathroom. I've still got more to do downstairs so we can move the guest bed downstairs (where my brother may be staying until he finds a place of his own - he is supposedly coming in April after he turns 21), and then once that's done, I can clean up the current guest room and turn it into the nursery. I'm looking forward to decorating it! :-D I hope this weekend, I might be able to go around to a couple consignment stores and look for some furniture (not the cribs as we will buy those brand new). We'll see though.

Well, I think that's all for today's update. I can't think of anything else. Hopefully, tomorrow, I will write something else.

Oh, I've been invited to a baby shower for someone who struggled to get pregnant. I am so excited to go to baby showers now. It's not until mid-February, but it will be so good to enjoy baby showers again.

Update

Well, I just talked to my mom - she's at home now - the doctors think she has a bladder infection (of which she doesn't believe is really the case). So one parent is at home - one more to go.

What? & Update on dad

So now my mom is in the ER. My sister tells me she's waiting for my mom to come back from an ultrasound to see exactly what's going on with her. I guess she managed to see a doctor today (not sure if the nephrologist) and the doctor told her to get to the hospital right away.

My dad is still in the hospital and will be until at least Monday or Tuesday. They are doing a biopsy of his kidney on Monday and he's super puffy from all the fluid retention. My mom said last night it looks like he's gained 40 pounds. His kidneys seem to be getting more function though. They seem to think the combination of high blood pressure medication he was taking might have caused this.

I really want to go over to Spokane, but I don't want to drive over the pass. I really hope they are o.k. I can't believe they are both in the hospital at the same time for the pretty much the same thing.

More Kidney Issues For My Family

So I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before or not but my mom was going to see a
nephrologist because one of her kidneys is not working at all, and the
other has some kind of blockage in it (possibly another kidney stone
or 3). She wasn't going to see the doctor until early February as that
was the earliest they could get her in. My mom is convinced it is
because of the radiation or chemo for her breast cancer.

Well, my dad was taken to the hospital this morning as he wasn't able
to move all that well and had swelling in his legs (though for some
reason he still was able to go into work - not sure how he drove
himself there - he works over in Couer D'Alene, ID). The doctors have
said he is in acute renal failure and will be admitted into the
hospital. UGH!

The kidney issues in my family keep coming! I hope everything is o.k. and they are able to figure out what is causing the failure and treat it. What shocks me is that with my family's history of kidney issues (even my dad has had kidney stones) the doctors didn't think to look into that when he went into his regular doctor. When I first went in for pain and throwing up when I was 19, the doctors for a long time didn't consider kidney stones so I lived it with the pain for a long time. This is the same office that my dad just went to this past week.

Sometimes it is very hard to live 5 hours away from family (and of course, with the weather being so bad, there is no way I would attempt to drive over the pass to get to Spokane - I didn't even want to drive to Issaquah to go into work).

Many various things

Just thought I would post something and update everyone on how things are going. For the most part, things are going well. I'm still pretty tired all the time, but I'm thinking the nausea is starting to subside a little (I did throw up the other day though - after brushing my teeth, of course). Today is the first day of the 2nd trimester - woo hoo, so I hope to see more of that energy everyone talks about and the nausea goes away for good!

Other than that, I'm trying to figure things out on where I'm going to put things that are currently in the room that the babies will go in (once we move them out of our room - they won't be sleeping on our bed, but in a crib or bassinet). I also need to start looking at child care options - it would be really nice if I could find someone I know and feel comfortable with to watch them once my husband and I are back at work, but we'll see how that goes.

I'm waiting until after we know the gender of the babies to get furniture and put together a registry more than I already have (I've kinda already started at a couple different places). We have our next OB appointment on the 24th, so I'm hoping we will have an ultrasound that day so we can maybe determine what gender these babies are. Although, of course, we want two healthy babies, I would love to have one boy and one girl.

To answer Erin's question, we are planning to deliver at Swedish. I've heard a lot of great things about that place, so that's where we're going. However, UW seems to be the only one nearby me that offers classes on pregnancy with and taking care of multiples. We are taking a few classes at Swedish too.

Speaking of multiples, did anyone watch the National Geographic Channel show last night called "In the Womb: Multiples"? My husband and I watched it this morning, and it was really interesting. I am so curious how these babies will act in the womb with each other. Will they fight or play like the babies on the show?

Last night, my husband and I had dinner with two other couples. Both of the women were in my support group and are both pregnant - one with twins. One of the other ladies with twins couldn't make it (I assume because of the bad roads some of the area around here still has - I actually slid today when turning into my driveway - I hate that). The woman that is pregnant with twins had this cute shirt on last night and I want it. I went to the store where she said a friend of hers got it for her and they were out, but they'll call me when they have more. I thought about ordering it online, but I'll just wait until the store has it.

Well, that's about it for now. :-)

Delurk, won't you?

Reading another blog just now reminded me that this week is National Delurking Week - I'm not sure why this week is National Delurking Week, but it is. So if you haven't commented or you haven't commented that often, feel free to leave a comment and say hi! Of course, even if you have commented a lot, feel fre to say hi too. :-D

OB, Class & More

Tonight I was going to go to a "pregnancy with multiples" class at UW, but it was cancelled and rescheduled for a couple weeks from now. The weather around Seattle is again crappy - snowy and icy so that's why it's cancelled. I was looking forward to it, but I guess I'll have to wait a couple more weeks for it.

I also have to wait another 2 weeks until the 24th for my next OB appointment. I can't wait for that either - another ultrasound opportunity! It's hard to wait so long in between ultrasounds - I love seeing them move around and making sure they are o.k.

This is my last week of my first trimester! I cannot believe it!

TwinsTogether010407

TwinsTogether010407
Originally uploaded by heathercim.

And of the babies together - this picture shows their heads.

Twin Lower Pic 010407

Twin Lower Pic 010407
Originally uploaded by heathercim.

And here is the other pic of the other baby laying on his/her back.

Twin Upper 010407

Twin Upper 010407
Originally uploaded by heathercim.

I asked my boss if she would scan the pics for me on her scanner, and she said yes. This one is of the baby that refused to move from his/her side, and kinda looks like an alien in this pic.

Movement(?) & Game

Just a quick little post today…

The other morning, I had what can be described as a flutter in my belly. It actually felt like mini-bubbles. A few people have told me that I should expect something like this when the babies move earlier on in the pregnancy. So even if it wasn’t them moving, I’m going to say it was. It was such an incredible feeling that I had such immense joy. It happened in the wee hours of Saturday morning, so I didn’t wake my husband because he wasn’t going to be able to feel anything. I can’t wait though until I feel them move for sure, and my husband can feel too.

I haven’t felt anything since, unfortunately.

And on another topic – did you see that Seahawks-Cowboys game on Saturday? What a wild finish to that game (and lucky for the Seahawks)! I’m certain they won’t be so lucky next weekend when they play the Bears!

(And I still haven’t set up the scanner – my husband might be able to scan the u/s pics tomorrow at work, so maybe I’ll have them posted soon).

Funny Video

My sister sent me this link of twins fighting in utero - I think it is quite funny... make sure you have the sound up.

11 weeks 5 days

11 weeks 5 days
Originally uploaded by heathercim.

I want to post the pics from today, but the scanner still isn't set up yet. However, I know my sister wanted to see this pic. Black probably isn't the best shirt to show a belly with, but this is what I had on and I'm not about to show my tummy without something on it.

I didn't mention earlier but I had someone ask me already if they could touch my belly. What a weird feeling.

NT Scan

Thank you to everyone's comments to yesterday's post. I really appreciate it!!!

Well, the NT scan went really well. Both of our little wigglers are measuring close to 13 weeks, and their heartbeats were 152 and 162. They wiggled around a little bit today, but not as much as last week. One of the babies refused to move from its sleeping position on its right side so the U/S person could get a picture of the baby from the side. She had me lay on my right side, then my left side, then shake my butt around, but this baby was comfy right where he/she was at, thank you very much. It was funny because at one point, the tech asked the baby to move for her and it actually looked like the baby shook his/her head no.

The other baby was laying on his/her back and had one of his/her arms up by their face. That one was wiggling around more than our little stubborn baby mentioned above.

The U/S person measured the babies to see if they showed signs of Down's and everything was normal of which I am grateful for.

With today's ultrasound (and with any of the others), I was close to letting out some tears. With each ultrasound, I am more and more believing that this is actually happening.

In other news, I should have known better than to talk too soon when it comes to nausea. Brushing my teeth these days usually makes me gag, but this morning, it made me throw up even though there was nothing in my tummy to throw up. So afterwards, I had something in my throat that was making me cough and the U/S person stopped a couple times so I could try to fix the problem. Ugh, I am so looking forward to the nausea being completely gone!

2006, today, and many questions

I had thought about doing a year in review - month by month, but that just seems like too much work. Let's just say that 2006 was one of ups and downs. We had 2 failed IUIs before our successful IVF. That was probably the biggest change in 2006. We are just over 12 weeks right now - holy wow!

We have a NT scan tomorrow morning (early at 7:30 a.m.). I'm excited to go to it as it is another chance to see those wigglers of ours. I can't wait!

If you have the National Geographic Channel, they are airing a show called "In the Womb: Multiples" on January 14. I'm looking forward to watching this - it should be really interesting. My husband and I just got through watching "In the Womb: Animals" which was very interesting and educational!

Now to the questions:

1) Does anyone know exactly how much weight I should have gained by this point? The twin book I have says I should have gained 25 pounds by week 20 - I seriously don't think that's possible the way things are going right now. I seem to be hovering around a certain weight (I will not mention here). However, lately, I have been very, very hungry. The nausea is still there, but it seems to be going away more and more each day (knock on wood). Last night, I just couldn't eat enough food and today is no different. Perhaps, I will be able to gain a certain amount of weight (not 25 pounds though) in 8 weeks.

2) My husband and I were discussing whether or not it is a good idea to have our babies sleep in the same bed as us in their early months because we will be getting up with them regularly. I don't think it's a good idea, but I'm curious about other opinions.

3) We went to Babies 'R Us the other day, and I am completely overwhelmed. My sister has been giving me her suggestions and sent along a list of things to get she saw on the web (though some things she pointed out aren't necessary). Any opinions on brands for cribs, bottles, diapers, etc.? What sort of things are a must and which things aren't?

4) We don't know the gender of our babies, and might not for some time now, but we started a discussion on circumcision and whether we would do this procedure should we have a boy. I'm torn on what to do. Any opinions on this topic?