19 weeks + and a lot of food!

19 weeks already! time is flying by fast and the twins are growing like crazy!

so how did last week go....
i made dinner for another one of the twins' ninangs' birthday, Cynthia. it was just her, me and mark. it was my first time (i think) making braised beef ribs in the slow cooker. i served it with a side of roasted garlic mashed potatoes and a mixed green salad with a mango balsamic vinaigrette. it was really tasty!

my very small but filling portion

i had to visit the endocrinologist again this past week. to see how my thryroid is doing. it's been acting up and they've been monitoring it. i got the call today saying that my TSH level was still a little low and that i'd have to schedule a follow-up in 4 weeks. i had been taking medicine for it before to bring it up, but then the medication must have worked too well and made my TSH level too high. i hope they get it right soon. it's stressing me out!

i finally got to go eat crawfish! of course, i ate much less than i normally would... but it was so delicious and totally satisfied my craving... for now! ;) (i was way too hungry to take pics)

when i posted about it on facebook though, so many people gave me their unsolicited advice and comments. it was annoying. i could understand if it were a doctor or medical professional or an established mother who gave these comments. but more than 50% of them weren't. the comments that annoyed me were the ones from people telling me that eating seafood was bad for pregnant women and things like that. after careful thought, i responded by telling them, "the other day i asked my docs if i could eat a bunch of crabs and crawfish and 3 of them said "can i come too?" if they don't oppose my seafood intake why the hell should i?" BAM! leave me and my delicious seafood alone please!

i just "LOVE" people's unwanted advice and comments about my body and my pregnancy... said NO PREGNANT WOMAN EVER!

on saturday, we went to a baby bazaar flea market. i thought it'd be a lot bigger though. we did get some cute clothes for reagan and adorable nike shoes for lincoln... all used of course so they were nice and cheap! one of the dresses we got reagan was a cute little green Ralph Lauren dress for only $5!! we also got some hooded bath towels and burp cloths for $1 each! it was amazing! but they're all in the wash right now to get out that flea market smell. i'll have to take pics of them once they're nice and clean. 

sunday, (yesterday) we went to several cemeteries where mark's family members were buried. it's an annual thing that his family (and most chinese families) do to pay their respects. it was a perfect day for it too. it started to get a little hot right before lunch and at the last cemetery though. i was getting hungry and irritable! but thankfully, the visits were all very short and we were able to eat lunch soon enough. so after the cemetery visits, we, mark's dad, mom and sister (Stephanie) and her husband (Chris) and kids, and also Chris's parents and aunt, and mark's Uncle Don, Aunt Jeanne, and Uncle Joe headed to get dim sum. we ate so much and i was so full that i was definitely waddling out of there! 

after a nice long nap, we went to church for Palm Sunday mass. i don't know why, but i hadn't noticed how much our church congregation had grown. years ago when we first started going to mass there, the late day mass that we sometimes attended, if we missed our morning service, wasn't full enough so that people had to stand. yesterday, there were so many people that they even filled up some of the room outside of the main area. it was really nice to see. hopefully it's not because it was a holy day of obligation and that it was because people really were wanting to become part of the church. i guess we'll find out after Easter has passed!

after mass, we went to eat mexican food at one of our old favorites Mi Rancho. we ordered the fajita combo (beef and chicken) and stuffed ourselves to the gills! it had been a long time since we last went there and it was just as delicious as we remembered it. and after dinner, we went home, cleaned up the house a bit and then settled in for the night. 

it was a busy but nice week/weekend. hope everyone else's week/weekend was just as nice as ours!

18 weeks + "just like his mommy"

this was a pretty exciting week for us... i finally got to feel the babies move! unfortunately, it's still too early for mark to be able to feel them. the night before my sonogram, i didn't sleep well at all because i kept feeling this sharp stabbing pain near my belly button. it wouldn't go away unless i rubbed the spot. but as i would start to fall asleep and stopped rubbing, the pain came back. and then there was this little twitching feeling on the other side that didn't really bother me too much, it just felt weird. i can describe it as a feeling similar to when your eye twitches when it's tired. it was a rough night to say the least. i was worried the next morning as i was telling mark what happened all night. i attributed it to gas, but it stayed in that same spot, so i was more concerned. i was so glad to have our appointment that next morning.

we went to the sonogram and saw the babies on the screen. there they were, squirming around. thank God. i had told the doctor about the stabbing and constant pain. she placed the sonogram wand right where the pain was and told me to look at the screen. there he was, on the screen, bobbing his little head up and down and rubbing right at the spot where the pain was... out little lincoln jude. so it turned out it was just him... probably wanting some affection from mommy to help him sleep according to the doctor! mark said, "just like his mommy." apparently, according to mark, i've had a tendency to want lots of hugs and affection right before i fall asleep and want mark to rub my back to help me sleep better. and the little twitching feeling... our little reagan elizabeth. as usual, she was calm and only seemed to nudge her brother when he'd get into her space... calm, just like her daddy.

unfortunately, the carpal tunnel has gotten worse. i ordered some wrist supports that were supposed to help alleviate the pain and numbness, but they did nothing but make my hands all swollen. so i returned them and ordered another pair. i hope the new ones help. it's been difficult staying asleep because my hands just get completely numb, fall asleep and are just so painful! just this morning, i woke up with both hands numb, asleep and almost impossible to move; i couldn't even grip the blankets to get them off me! it took almost half a hour before i could ball my hand into a fist. even then, it was painful.it was a rough start to my morning to say the very least.

mark, the twins, and i also had brunch with one of their ninangs this week. ninang is the filipino word for Godmother. it had been a while since we had seen Sera cause we had all been so busy lately. we had a great time and brunch was delicious. we went to Maple Ave in Virginia. you definitely have to make reservations to dine there cause there are only 8-10 tables, but it's totally worth it!

mark's beer... it smelled delicious. wish i could've tasted a bit!

crème fraiche wings

steamed PEI mussels

shrimp & grits

seared scallops and risotto

pork belly sandwich

us with sera

again!

that seems to be all i can remember for now... if i think of anything else that was eventful, i'll do a few mini-updates. have a great week everyone!

"Make your mess your message"

i shared this blog with someone outside of our family for the first time the other day. i thought she'd get a kick out of my weird humor and it would help fill her in on what she's missed since it had been a long while since we had seen each other. i had never intended to make her feel ashamed by any means about how she approached and dealt with motherhood, but alas, that was how she felt.

this blog and it's gory details were never meant to make anyone feel bad about their easy journeys or anything of the sort. it was simply a way for mark and i to document our journey to becoming parents and a little something to never let us forget just how precious the miracles are that God has given to us. but most importantly, i started this blog to show people like us that their rough journeys aren't walked alone.

in july 2013, mark and i were watching the ESPYs. some time in the show, one very strong woman that i have always admired received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. it was Robin Roberts.

check out those guns!

as she bravely walked up the stage to give her speech and her receive her award, i couldn't help but to think, "damn, what an awesome woman." that turned out to be an understatement.

prior to her speech, the show did a montage of sorts where Robin's mantra so to speak was "Make  your mess your message" - something her mom always told her. in essence, she was telling us to tell our stories and share our heart-aching pains and journeys so that others like us, going through the same things as us, would know that they're not alone and that there are people out there who genuinely knew exactly how they felt and what they are going through. as she would say, "Find the meaning behind whatever it is you’re going through because everybody’s got something." 

our journey is our mess. this blog is our message.

(you can find Robin's full speech here.)

17 weeks

yay for 17 weeks! i'm getting bigger by the minute and so are the twins! well, technically, i'm only getting bigger BECAUSE of the twins. i've managed to keep a pretty good weight by exercising and eating well. so while i'm losing my own weight, the twins are gaining to keep things even. does that make sense?

i've had to buy some maternity dresses for upcoming weddings though. i was hoping to be able to fit into current dresses that i own but my breasts just do not want to comply! hahaha! i still have to wait to get the new dresses all altered right before each wedding 'cause i have no idea how big i'll be by the time each wedding rolls around. if anyone out there needs reasonably priced and pretty dresses, i highly suggest ASOS. i never thought to look there until a friend of mine suggested it. i had always thought the clothes there were too small for me. even not pregnant, i'm not exactly on the smaller side of the scale.

the update photo explains the other stuff i cannot for the life of me remember right now. time for bed!

the process, the gory details and all that stuff - part 7

a BIG FAT POSITIVE.

we were pregnant! we had a few blood tests to check that my hcg (pregnancy hormone) levels kept rising. boy did they rise and boy were they HIGH! they were definitely indicating a multiple pregnancy! and our first sonogram verified that there were, in fact, 2 little babies growing in my uterus!

just before we were set to "graduate" from shady grove to my OBGYN, we had another bleeding scare. this time, they were calling it a subchorionic bleed. dr. o'brien wasn't overly concerned about it and said it was more common that i thought it was. we just had to monitor it as usual and make sure it wasn't getting worse. it would pass and heal itself with time and i needn't worry about it if she wasn't worried. but i have to tell you, seeing blood when you don't want to makes you worry even though you know you shouldn't. dr. o'brien graduated us the week after and we made our first appointment for the twins to meet my OBGYN at Capital Women's Care.

and that's where this lengthy multi-part process ends and starts with the updates from "since January 18, 2014".

stay tuned for why i decided to tell you all about every little detail (as much as i could remember) and why it was so important for me to do so.