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Knot Twins Birth Announcement

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17 days to go!

It is hard to believe that I have just 17 days (or less) left of my pregnancy, and it is mind-boggling to compare Finn and Erik at 8 weeks...

...to their size 32 weeks! Only their heads fit on the screen!

Though we will meet them so soon, waiting for these last few weeks to pass is challenging. I can only compare these last few weeks of pregnancy to how I felt running the last mile of a half-marathon; even though that last mile was such a short distance to go in comparison to what I had already ran, it was tough for me to maintain the race pace I needed to in order to meet my goal time because my body was so tired / sore. It took me a lot of concentration and motivation to will myself to keep running during that last mile years ago, and it is taking a lot of mental toughness to hang in there right now (though at least now it is perfectly reasonable to rest while I wait it out)!

And so...until then...lots of naps and popsicles!

Happy summer!

Happy first day of summer! For the first time in my entire life, I could do without the summer heat! It is tough to be pregnant when it is hot outside, and I eat a lot of popsicles for my own survival. Though it is hard to believe how fast the weeks have gone by, I am now 32 1/2 weeks pregnant! The twins are doing really well, and we are currently scheduled to meet them on July 27. (Unless they have a different birthday in mind...but I hope they can be patient.)

Finn and Erik are both about 4 pounds each now, and they are beginning to tire me out. Today marks my first day of working from home, and though over the past few weeks I was feeling really stressed out about finishing experiments and being away from the laboratory, I am now embracing the comfort of my couch and pajamas and air conditioning!

Sadly, we decided not to garden this year - not only were the preparations too much work for David to complete by himself, but the upkeep would have been challenging given the mid-summer arrival of the twins. However, preparations for the nursery are in full swing, and our apartment and car are now ready for little ones. Since I would normally show photos of us preparing The Danger Zone around this time, here are some photos of our nursery preparations instead.

Ipita was convinced that my parents bought this Pooh Pack N Play as a house for him, and was quite frustrated to discover that he was not allowed to jump inside whenever he wanted to.

David had a lot of fun drinking beer and putting together the cribs...

...which look like this when put together with our cute Winnie-the-Pooh nursery materials!

David and I (but mostly David) have been testing out our new baby gear by using stuffed animals as stand-ins for the twins. Here is Pooh in the car seat...

...with a bear friend in the double stroller...

...and taking a ride in David's baby carrier.

Here is Kermit getting ready for a ride in one of our single strollers. I am very excited to have two of these single strollers because I can actually lift them.

We are beyond excited to meet our two little ones! I cannot wait until July 27 (but I will...and you should too, Finn and Erik)!

Congratulations, Kristen DPT!

Kristen visited last weekend in celebration of her upcoming graduation from Northwestern (I am travel restricted and cannot attend the graduation, so we had a little pre-graduation party instead). I am so proud of her, and excited to see which of the "real world" jobs that she is interviewing for will turn into her first physical therapy position.

No celebration is complete without a giant cupcake! We felt it was best to take a picture of this while it still looked like a cupcake (after this photo was taken, we continued to coat it with sugary icing and it began to look more like an igloo).

I got Kristen a pinata for her graduation present. After my own ups and downs at Penn, I believe that the piece of paper that confirms the end of all the frustrating things that come along with graduate school (otherwise known as the diploma) isn't necessarily the answer for achieving maximal closure and satisfaction as a new graduate. Instead, the pieces of paper that really matter are all of the little pieces of paper on the ground...after the destruction of a symbolic paper donkey. Everyone's donkey represents a different challenge they overcame in order to graduate - for some people it is dealing with difficult people, for others it might be a difficult class or experiment - in Kristen's case, her donkey was named Lois.

Kristen looks quite ready for her battle with the pinata.

It turns out that pinatas bought at Target do not go down without a fight, which is fitting, because I don't think the real Lois would ever go down without a fight. The head of the pinata severed quite quickly, but it took several rounds of bat swinging for the entire thing to erupt.

Success! Congratulations, Dr. Kristen! (Keep a patient slot open for me at the end of the summer - I think my lower back might need some physical therapy by then...)

Little bits of news and spring

The weather is changing rapidly from one day to the next (it was 84 and sunny on Monday but today's high is 20 degrees colder than that, for example), and that seems to fit the state of our lives lately. My bump is growing at a crazy pace that can only mean these two little boys of ours are going to make an appearance a lot sooner than three months away feels like!

We have begun to prepare for our nursery. Thanks to all of our very generous friends and family that attended our baby shower over Easter weekend, we finally have many items to put in our nursery! We have also moved our furniture around so that the room is ready for cribs and a dresser (and Pooh decorations!) that we will pick out on Monday after my 24 week check-up in Syracuse. I will post pictures when it is all put together. As my body keeps changing, I am beginning to feel incredibly anxious and unprepared for my impending motherhood status; I am hoping that putting together the nursery will provide the organization/preparation I usually require (as a type A person) to feel ready for change.

David is also preparing for another year of farming at The Danger Zone. My role this year will be limited to documenting our garden's progress and eating all of the yummy vegetables that David grows (not a bad role to have), but I am very excited for another year "on the farm." David is still finalizing his master list of vegetables that we will grow, but I anticipate that this list will include lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, and peppers. Please feel free to comment on this post if you feel strongly about us growing pumpkins this year. David is not so convinced we should take the space since Linus and Lucy were so small last year...but I am convinced that growing more pumpkins is always great idea. Though lately I have been able to outnumber David in disagreements by simply reminding him that technically I count for 3 votes and he only counts for 1, I feel confident that other people outside of my womb also love pumpkins as much as I do (or at least, almost as much as I do), and so I leave this decision in the hands of the limited readership of this blog...

Halfway!

I am halfway through my pregnancy now, which is incredibly surprising. I think David would argue that the weeks are not going by fast enough, but I feel like time is just flying by! A few observations related to my experiences as a pregnant lady so far:

1. I am not sure how people survive being pregnant without naps. I am not taking naps, but I think if I could take naps every day, I would be a more functional person (particularly during the evening hours). Every day around 2:00 pm (right now), my energy begins to fade over time until it finally becomes time to go home for the day, and then I collapse onto the couch. I see other pregnant people walking around that look awake, and I want to stop and ask them what their secret is for staying so awake, but I don't...because...

2. Well-meaning people interpret my growing baby bump as an invitation to both share a lot of personal information with me as well as ask me very personal questions. (And just to be clear, I am not talking about people I know in any way, I am exclusively referring to strangers.) I do not always have the patience to carry on conversations with these people, particularly at times when I am very tired, but mostly I just find it very strange. People who hardly know me ask about my birth or breast-feeding plans like they would comment on the weather outside. And while I know that they mean no offense or imposition, I just can't for the life of me figure out why pregnancy seems to be the universal signal to ignore all personal boundaries. (Yes, woman on the elevator this morning and other woman in the Target checkout line a few weeks back, I am talking to both of you.) And so to all of my friends that have been pregnant before me, if I have ever asked you any questions that crossed this barrier, I sincerely apologize; if it is any consolation, I am sure I meant well too, even if I didn't know any better.

3. Speaking of my baby bump, it is now growing at what I would consider to be an exponential rate (and I am really hoping this translates into more weight gain when I visit the doctor's office next week). It took a while for me to show (even with twins), but now that I am showing, my reflection in the mirror is crazy weird. Because I cannot feel the twin's movements constantly yet, I sometimes go hours without thinking about the fact that I am pregnant...and then I look in the mirror and get a strange sort of wake-up call.

4. I always thought cravings were a myth, but THEY ARE REAL. And they are ever changing - in the beginning, I only wanted to eat buffalo chicken bites, but now all I can think about eating is Velveeta macaroni and cheese!

5. Not that I didn't appreciate how nice it was to be married to David, but I definitely appreciate this fact more than ever. While I am a puddle of pregnant lady on the couch, he keeps our apartment/clothes clean and brings me food. While I cannot pretend that being pregnant is easy for me, I think his job during all of this is more difficult.

Overall, pregnancy has not been nearly as terrible as I imagined, though I still cannot claim to be one of those people that loves being pregnant. But as selfish as that makes me feel sometimes, I already know that even if I don't always like carrying the Eggberts with me on the inside, I will never want to let go of them when they are finally in my outside universe! I can't wait to meet them!

This year's Lenten sacrifice

The Lenten season is back again, and it was very hard for me this year to determine what exactly to give up for Lent this year. In past years, I mostly stuck to giving up food or drink items - junk food, chocolate, or soda - but this year I am already missing some of the foods I cannot eat because I am pregnant, and so I decided that limiting myself even more would just drive me crazy. (And it's Girl Scout cookie season - can I really be expected to stop eating junk food when there are GIRL SCOUT COOKIES around??)

Instead, this year I have decided to give up all of the trashy celebrity webpages I use to distract myself from accomplishing real work. At 2:30 during an afternoon workday (particularly now that I am focused almost exclusively on writing my paper instead of doing benchwork), my mind slows down and thinking about science becomes harder to manage. I begin to browse the internet, and because the point is to not to think for awhile, I eventually shut my brain off completely and head to People.com or USWeekly.com (or sometimes, even TMZ.com), where suddenly whether or not Lindsay Lohan met her probation requirements becomes very, very interesting. My browsing of these celebrity webpages can last anywhere from 10 minutes on a slow tabloid news day to 30 - 40 minutes when "earth-shattering" news happens.

It's hard to regain my productivity after these mid-afternoon mind wanderings, and since the summer / maternity leave (seems like it) is fast approaching, I have decided to take these next 40 days to try to be less distracted at work. And so, so long celebrities...try not to make too many bad decisions while I am away.

(But don't worry, I can't possibly give up every distraction at work...you can still find me on Google chat, especially around 2:30ish?) :)