Third Trimester! Hazah!

So today marks the beginning of my third trimester of pregnancy. Wowsers.

Considering that most twins are born/induced/pulled out at about 38 weeks - this means that we have 10 weeks - or less - to go. I should be more anxious than I actually am, but I guess I'm in denial a little. Still.

We don't have any solid names (I've completely ruled out names that are too common, religious names and anything starting with an "X, Y or Z") and Stef doesn't like abbreviated names or last names as first names. Fine with me. This does however, limit the choice considerably.

I know if it were up to Stef we would have one baby called Jupiter Eight.

Yeah, it's kinda cute, but every music nutter knows a Jupiter 8 looks like this:

Soooo... I don't know about that one. And even if we did call one Jupiter Eight, what would we call the other one?

Dilemmas!

Ahh Japan. I guess it's oficially bai bai.

I was looking at some old photos of Japan. It's not that I want to go back there (ok, I would love to do some shopping), but I have some incredible memories. In 2005 I found it incredibly painful to look at these photos and I ached to go back so badly. Then last year, I did go back and I can safely say that "that's the end of that chapter".

These photos are going to seem extremely random...

my pinhole camera...

I'm glad I went back. I'm glad that Stef waited for me. I'm glad my parents and brother visited me and I'm glad Stef came to see my world too. I'm glad for the best 10 years a person could've wished for. I really did have an awesome time for those six and a half years that I lived there (and my adventures weren't just limited to Japan). Ahh, this is all sounding so soppy. I guess I just want to say that, looking back, I had an awesome time and I'm looking forward to the next ten years. They are going to be very very different but I'm very excited.

ps: I think that last pic of the monkey about to pop is totally what I'm going to look like in about 10 weeks time. And Stef will probably be feeding a monkey an orange just as I'm about to pop too (that's something he'd do).

I <3 colour

I bought these sneakers off ebay for less than $50 for all three pairs (inc shipping!). They barely fit me - even though they are the right size. I was so sad but I am pretty sure I can still wear them.

Curtains, babies and insides...

Last Thursday we had another ultrasound and it's always exciting to see what's happening inside my belly. One foetus was lying across my hips and one above my belly button area. That would explain the occasional kick/punch I'm able to see from the outside and above my belly button. Freaky!

The other one had his hand between his legs but the sonographer was pretty set on getting an image of their penises so we could embarrass them in the future. Observe:

(yeah, I can't make out much except a teeny penis - as pointed by the arrow - and a scrotum... haha)

Everything is looking good, they're measuring well (a week ahead of where they should be). I even got to see my own kidneys on the ultrasound - which I found especially thrilling - and they too are looking good. I was watching a TV show last week where a woman had a caesarean and the doctor, after yanking the baby out, said to the woman's husband "would you like to see her womb and ovaries? They're very healthy!". He didn't want to.

I told Stef that if he is asked this question then the answer is "YES - and can I take a photo for Sharnee?". I know this is probably very weird, but I've always thought it would be awesome to see my insides. OK - that sounds terribly weird and possibly rude but oh well. So that's why I was pleased to see my kidneys on the ultrasound. Hello kidneys!

As for my belly... well, I think it's quite small considering that a) it was already pretty big to begin with and b) there are two babies inside:

In other exciting news, we finally got curtains on our massive front window:

(Stef totally has a cat ass in his face in the above photo.. haha, whoops)

They look awesome. We now have a civilised place to live in - you know, with privacy.

Geelong Show, 2008

After a 24 hamburger bender (hey, I love hamburgers a lot - I don't just mean junky food hamburgers, I just love meat patties in general. Extra bonus if they're in a bread roll. Super amazing bonus if they come with cheese and sauce) I don't feel guilty at all because I've been on this crazy diet for 3 weeks and a slight tangent isn't too bad.

We went to the Geelong Show last night and the only thing on that we wanted to watch was the meat cutting display. When I was a teenager I wanted to go on the crazy rides and be a daredevil. If someone had said to me then "hey, in 15 years time you'll be more interested in watching the meat cutting display with your husband than the rides/showbags" - well, I may have been upset and completely shocked.

My brother got up and helped the butcher make some sausages (as there were about 20 people watching the meat cutting) and they then gave away all the meat. My family got most of it, hah!

I thought this was more entertaining that it probably was!
C'mon... watching your brother make sausages (and getting very red and embarrassed) in front of people is pretty funny.

It was all about lamb - I wanted to know why everyone has such a hard on for lamb these days when I think beef and chicken is superior. Stef thought it was so funny that he wanted me to ask the butcher - he wanted me to use the term "hard on" too - of course I was too embarrassed to do that. So I guess we'll never know.

They also had some competitions (ie: bread baking, photography etc) where you win a small certificate if you make the best cake, or sew the best tablecloth etc. Stef and I were very very inspired by this art and craft (and cookery) and we have challenged each other to enter something next year. There were, for example, only two entries in the "Best Christmas Tabletop Decoration" - so naturally someone came first and someone second. One of these entries was a few white candles on a plate with some rhinestone earrings stuck into it. If I had entered this competition I would have at least come 3rd. So we are inspired.

If only I could enter the "Three Arrowroots decorated with icing" competition (which is, unfortunately, only for those who are about 4 or 5 years old. The entries in this category were very inspiring. If we go back on Sunday (because we live 200m from the show and have nothing better to do) then I'll get some photos.

PS: I had another ultrasound yesterday and one baby was touching his penis! Haha.

ok - things are perhaps getting more real

If the gestational diabetes or occasional punch in the guts (from the inside) isn't enough to convince me that we'll have two babies soon - this room is pretty persuasive:

My parents painted some furniture for us over the weekend (and Stef got all his music stuff out of the room :-( sorry Stef) - we put some curtains up and it's looking mighty nice. It's so nice, in fact, that the cats keep going in there and I keep wanting to look at it every 5 minutes. So pretty!

TV update

I'm enjoying our Foxtel TV (cable) so much! One thing I never counted on was the amount of celebrities - a term I used lightly - who are looking for love. I think I mentioned Bret Michaels and his "Rock of Love 2" series, but we also have enjoyed watching "A Shot at Love 2 with Tila Tequila" (aka: a Myspace celebrity). Ahh, it's gold.

The other night we saw something called "Flavor of Love 3" and had to watch it!

It took my brain about three seconds to realise it was about Flavor Flav - oh my it was awesome (to use a Bret Michaels word). Watching Flavor Flav get around Europe, tongue kissing women, was pretty funny because he is almost 50 years old! I say that he was "tongue kissing" women because that's what he was doing. That's what they all do! Actually it's pretty gross.

I did notice that someone got nicer hair between seasons though:

season 1

season 2

Look at those locks in the second season! Wowsers! So pretty.

coax with sugar-free candy

After eating extremely healthy last week (I mean extremely - I didn't eat anything bad at all and restricted my carbohydrate levels, even the dietician said I ate better than she did) and monitoring my blood sugar the Dr said I need to take insulin at night before bed. :-(

Basically when you wake up you should have low blood sugar but mine is not as low as it should be. It's not high or anything, but it's still a few points higher than it should be. So slow-releasing overnight insulin it is. I started last night and they have me on a very low dose - which didn't make any difference to this mornings reading, so I'm assuming that the dose is going to have to go up. Bummer (but I do know it's for the best). It's actually more painful to prick your finger than it is to inject the insulin - which I found very surprising.

That's about all that's happening.

100 of these, post babies, please.

DVD now available on You Tube...

Earlier in the year (as you may or may not remember) - I was working in a Japanese kindergarten and had to film/compile/edit a promotional DVD in about a week. I lost my copy in the move back home - and also somehow deleted it from my computer - but I have found it again on You Tube. Hoorah!

If you would like to watch it (totally worth it for my dodgy voice over and extremely cute kids) then here it is. Warning, it has more dodgy screen wipes than Star Wars:





It's pretty cute. YOU CAN EVEN SEE ME DANCING - 3rd from the left in big group dancing scene. Now they want me to make a website (uhh, for no money) and I don't think I want to say yes. It's just going to be waaaay too much work.

We finally have internet again! Wee!

Weeeeeeell, I do have gestational diabetes. Oh well. I'm trying not to take it personally but it's hard. I have to do the whole pricking of the finger thing and monitor my blood sugar. I have found sugar free chocolate at Safeway so that makes me happy! Fingers crossed that things don't go weird. I'll have to have insulin if things can't be controlled by diet.

Last Friday was my birthday (a very unexciting age of 31) and Stef and I went to Port Fairy for a couple of nights. It was lovely to get away. On my actual birthday we took a drive down the Great Ocean Rd and saw the Twelve Apostles - Stef had never seen them before:

It was very pretty but kind of misty. We came back home on Saturday morning and had a BBQ that afternoon with some friends. We were hoping to watch the Cats slaughter the Hawks, but it wasn't to be (I won't bore you with that if you don't know what I'm on about). :-(

Stef got me a Singstar (PS2) for my birthday and it is awesome!
Unfortunately my mum came around the other day while my brother and I were having a sing and she started hogging it. The worst thing is that she got "Singstar" status about 4 times and now thinks she's a professional singer. My dad was forced to sit on the couch and watch her sing for over an hour. Poor man.

In other news, we now have Foxtel (kind of like cable TV for you americans) and I'm loving it so much. There are so many shows about babies! I also loved watching Rock of Love 2 with Bret Michaels, although if I see him tongue kissing any more ladies I'm totally going to barf.