Crossing Things Off the List

We are inching further every day towards... chaos? Double the joy? Sleeplessness? Fulfillment? Insanity? I guess one thing we're not inching towards is certainty of what we're getting ourselves into. In that way, this time around the block is very similar to the first time. We know life will be changing significantly, just not exactly how. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

In the meantime, we're continuing to slowly prepare. I'm nearing the end of a push to finish up all of my work travel by the end of October. Turns out I'm pushing the deadline a bit with a trip to the middle of nowhere in Northern France for a quick visit to a big customer at the beginning of November. But that will be it, after that, an indefinite travel ban. The past couple of weeks have been hectic with trips to the UK and Spain and a few customer visits in other Bavarian cities, and I know it's been tough for Nicole to have me away even for a night here and there as she gets more uncomfortable as the days drag on and that's usually also when Lily gets tougher to handle. Luckily Oma and Opa are back from Chicago and have come to Munich this week while I was away for two nights instead of one.

I was finally able to go to one of Nicole's doctor appointments this morning, for the first time since the first appointment. Between work, trips and someone needing to look after Lily, I just haven't been able to make the timing work. Today Oma and Opa picked up Lily from her play group, so I could go along to see the twins specialist who has a top of the line ultrasound machine. And pretty much the whole visit was watching the big flat screen as the doctor took a ton of measurements and talked about what she saw. First, the good news is that all is good with both babies, they're still growing as if it was a singleton pregnancy and they still have room to move around in there. Nicole now has about eight and a half pounds of baby in her, almost as much as when Lily was born. And yes, the babies hopefully have another month to six weeks to go.

The boy had his face towards Nicole's spine, so we couldn't take a look at his face. But we got a great view of the little girl as, with the push of a button, the doctor went into 3D mode and there she was in all her glory. Our first reaction was that she looked a lot like Lily when we got a 3D ultrasound of her at about the same "age". And when we looked back at Lily's 3D picture vs. her as a baby, it was definitely accurate. So we'll see if we end up with two little girls who look... well, like twins.

We still have a long list of things we would like to get before the babies arrive, but nothing completely critical. We don't have a 2nd infant car seat yet, but since we live a block from the hospital, even that isn't a necessity. Yes, it is easier to buy things now compared to after they arrive so we need to get our act together soon, but for the moment we've been slacking. Maybe we've just been waiting for the weather to turn while we have fun around town with Lily, and since the high temperature this weekend isn't supposed to crack 50, it may just be a productive weekend. And if not, hopefully the babies stay put while we procrastinate.