Motherhood Maternity is the DEVIL

Dear pregnant woman of the world,

I've got some advice for you...do NOT shop at Motherhood Maternity. If you do, don't give them your address for "coupons" because they will sign you up for 20 issues of the Parenting magazine and then not inform you about it. You will not get a single notification in the mail or by email about it and then a month later you will see that $20 was raped out of your checking account. You will go to the website and look everywhere for a phone number so you can yell obscenities to these creeps, but you wont be able to find one. You'll have to settle for a very angry email and hope your point gets across. The next day will be your birthday so you wont want to ruin your day by yelling at the stupid, ugly girl who scammed you into signing up at the mall, so you'll wait until you hear back from Parenting and if nothing gets solved, you'll give the girl a piece of your mind on Thursday.

Consider yourself warned,
Brittany

As you could probably tell with my last few posts, pregnancy has put a feist in me that I've never had before. That poor girl, if she's at work on Thursday she'll probably leave crying...

Oh, and the only reason I went into Motherhood Maternity was to get stupid preggy pops which didn't work any better than Jolly Ranchers. They've got a few cute clothes, but I'm boycotting them forever. Idiots...

Josh just found a phone number, but we missed their closing time by 16 minutes. If they could only see what they had coming....

Things to never say to a pregnant woman

Ok, so I've debated on how to write this post because I don't want the people who have said these things to feel bad (although most of them have come from random people who don't read this blog). However, know that if you've said them, I don't hate you and it's all in good fun, but I'm just surprised at some of the reactions I've received. A lot of these aren't just for a twin pregnancy, but I'll star specific ones I've gotten because of the twins. And also, I'm going to paraphrase responses I've received to maybe mask the comments a tiny bit.

- You look really cute now, but in a few months you wont be able to walk, or even wear maternity clothes, so enjoy wearing regular clothes now. (actually if you know me, you know my love for sweatpants. I change out of regular clothes as soon as I get home so I guess I should consider myself lucky there)

- Twins! You're going to get stretch marks like you wouldn't believe!* (that one made me cry..)

- Two? You're never going to sleep again. SO much crying, poop, and spit up. I don't know how you'll do it. I'd loose my mind.* (Oh thank you for the heads up. I'll call the insane asylum and make an early reservation.)

-"How far along are you?" "{insert # of weeks at that given time}, but there's two" "Oh honey, you're going to get so big."* (Thanks, I hope you don't die at the age of 30 from a flesh eating disease, but you never know, it might happen.)

-Don't you just love it when you get out of that stage where you don't look fat anymore? (Well, I'm assuming the last time you saw me you just thought I was just fat....)

-My worst nightmare is having twins.* (Oh thank you. Mine is being brutally murdered, but mother two kids sounds awful too...what???)

-Was it planned? ( I know everyone gets this question and I've asked it too, but when you're the pregnant person you realize how weird any answer you give is. Not so much offensive, just awkward especially when it's asked by someone you don't really know, but actually having someone ask you who you do know really well is weird too. Weird question all around.)

-Twins?! God bless you, you're going to need it.* (Well, I consider this pregnancy a blessing so I guess he already has. I hope he blesses you with some tact someday.)

-I don't know how you're going to do it. You aren't even done with school? Hopefully you can graduate, but I wouldn't count on it. (this isn't exactly how it went, but basically I was told fat chance for ever going to school again. Uh, thanks for having faith in me.)

-I can't even imagine how much this is going to cost you guys. (Yeah, we'll we're starting too and we're terrified. Thanks for the reassurance.)

-Wow, you're only that far along? Good luck...(Ok random girl at the quick stop. Good luck ever getting a boyfriend because your voice makes Fran Drecher sound like a lullaby.) (Ok, that was mean on my part I realize, but I blame it on the pregnancy hormones. haha)

-Are you going to be able to breastfeed both babies?* (ok, I hardly know you. I don't feel the need to discuss my potential lactation abilities with you.)

-I hope you can get some quality time together because once these babies come it'll feel like you're hardly married.* (Ok, so I know the dynamics of a relationship changes with kids, but hardly married? I know of many couples with twins that don't seem "hardly married". I'm pretty sure Josh and I have a strong enough relationship to not let these children turn us into just roommates. Again, I'm not naive about the lack of "us" time we'll have, but hardly married? Come on...)

-I hope you have lots of family around because you're going to need it BIG time! I would have died without my mother and I only had one baby* (actually, we don't and most of our friends are moving away from Logan after the summer, so thanks for letting us know how awful our situation is.)

-Don't twins come always early? Are they going to have to be in the NICU? Are you terrified? Does the thought of a c-section freak you out? You'll be on bed rest, right?* (Now, this isn't offensive, but I get asked these questions ALL the time. Yes people, there's a chance of all of this happening and nobody knows how a twin pregnancy will end so I've got no answers for you. That's what I'm scared of most. I have no idea how this will end. Hopefully with two healthy babies, but people are really quick to tell me their horror stories of what they know about twin births and since every twin birth ends totally different, there's no way to know what's going to happen this summer.)

and possibly my favorite...

-So, how did you conceive your babies?* (Um....do we really need to go there? You've got kids. How did you conceive yours? If you're still confused, go talk to someone about it, please.)

So there you have it. Things not to say to a pregnant woman (particularly someone with twins). I don't mean to sound like Negative Nancy and I realize how much support we actually do have. The supportive comments have completely outnumbered the weird ones, so I've very VERY grateful for that, but I'm always a bit taken back by some of the comments. I've been able to laugh them all off (except the stretch mark one) and it's pretty entertaining to see people's reactions. I'm slightly sad though because I've lost a lot of my identity and have become this pregnancy. I guess that's what happens to all moms at some point so I should get used to it, but since I exploded at 11 weeks, I didn't really get the chance to wrap my mind around any of it before the questions/comments started pouring in. Oh well, we'll make it and no matter how scared or how poor we are, we couldn't be happier. Josh and I are getting more and more excited each day and we can't wait for these little ones to arrive.

So, any moms or pregnant women out there that would like to add to the list? :)

I don't have much to say

I've been staring at this blank screen for about 7 minutes now and nothing is coming. So this will be short. Very short. I've got two things to say,

1. I want to thank Josh for allowing me to be such a slob this week. I'm pretty sure my entire wardrobe is on the floor of just about every room in our apartment. I need help.

2. 10 more days until we find out what these little ninos are. To say I can't wait is an understatement. That's all I can think about as of lately and really the only thing I care about. If you talk to me, I'm probably not listening and instead thinking about what the outcome of the next ultrasound will be.

The end.

But on a more serious note...

Wow. 3 posts in one day. Someone needs to get a life, right? :)

The real issue we should be discussing is Fox's 24. CTU is down and the terrorist have the nuclear rods and are bringing them to Manhattan. Who can't wait for the next 16 minutes to be over so she can watch this week's installment? Me.

Also, I've never had so many people stare at my stomach as I did today. Yes people, I'm pregnant. Pregnant with twins that is and there's nothing I can do about it. Since I've been in the mood to voice my opinion lately, keep an eye out for an installment of "things to never say to a woman who is pregnant with twins". I've gotten some interesting responses from people and some have left me in tears. I'm just grateful I've got a husband who will pull out his mandolin and sing my worries away. Anyways, I'm trying to think of a tactful way to write my post, but at the same time since not much tact has been shown towards me (ex. "Wow! Twins? You're going to get sooo many stretch marks!) I might just make a blunt list. For now though, enjoy this overplayed, but joyous youtube video that put a smile on my face today.

Wanna know what's awkward?

When you delete people from facebook and a few days/weeks later they request your friendship again. I'm sorry, but we didn't talk in middle school, you moved away in high school, and I don't feel like we're "friends". Am I horrible? Or there's the people that you become friends with and NEVER say a word to. I've been 'friends' with people for years and never say a peep. It only for stalking reasons they are still my friend. It's sooo creepy! Really, if it wasn't for me wanting to spare social awkwardness, I'd be friends with probably 200 people. Family, friends, and a few people I'd keep for entertainment purposes only. Maybe I should just stick to the blogging world and dump facebook? I mean, how are high school reunions going to be now? Everyone knows what's going on in everyone's lives and even more so than when we were going to school together! Hmmm....the decisions we must make these days.
In other news, I felt the baby on my right side move yesterday. It was actually more than just a "flutter" like people say it is. It felt like a vibrating ping pong ball if that makes any sense at all. I don't think I felt the left baby move, but I tried to talk myself into thinking that I did. So Lacy, as of yesterday the pepperoni baby is on my right. However, apparently they can switch places inside of me within seconds. How in the WORLD am I not feeling that? Crazy. Oh, and we've got just two weeks until we find out the genders! Mommy and Daddy are thrilled. (that will be the one and only time I refer to Josh and I as such. I realized a few days ago that we would be parents and I had a slight panic attack.) Until then, feel free to guess what the kids are. I don't think I'll put a poll (haha, Fro) anywhere, and there wont be a prize if you get it right, your guesses would purely be for my entertainment.

I never thought the sound of a lawn mower would make me so happy.

I love it. I sounds like summer. Happy first day of Spring, everyone.

Photo by Lacy Lynn

Also, someone invited me to become a fan of, Twilight New Moon! First 10,000 Fans Get a Free New Moon DVD!!!

Seriously? I wouldn't even make it in the first 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 fans. I'm glad my facebook friends know me so well. :)

One last thing. I bought my first pair of maternity jeans yesterday with the fabulous photographer mentioned in this post. They are a dark wash, skinny jean and I love them. I'm finally ready for pregnancy. Bring it!

My children are modest

There was a tiny chance that we would find out the sexes of the babies today, but sadly it looks like we've got bashful babies. They showed off their crazy looking spines, toes, and alien heads, but other than that they did not cooperate. It's ok. I've got an appointment for April 5th at the hospital to use their super high tech ultrasound machine. The doc said he was certain we'd be able to find out then and two weeks after that I go in for my 3D ultrasounds. I love how often we get to see the babies. By the end of the pregnancy, our fridge will be littered with ultrasound pictures. My anxiety was put to rest once again when we found two healthy heart beats and saw both of them kick. Their heads are right next to each other and I'm convinced that they're already plotting how they're going to terrorize teachers and parents. (I mean, any of you who knew either Josh or I as a kid have to admit that we'll get what's coming to us...)

I think the pregnancy finally became real to me today. Most people say that it's when you first hear the heartbeat, but for me, I was in shock at that time because there were two of them. We were happy, but it all seemed like a big joke. We've had a few weeks to calm down and the excitement is definitely there. Now it's back to waiting until next time. So, if anyone would like to make the next 3 weeks go by faster, feel free.

Since I've already won a giveaway this week...

I'll give another a shot. Go here for a chance to win a photo session from Elise Lauren Photography.

The first and only giveaway I've ever won was one on babymama's. I'm getting a book with 101 tips to breastfeed. It's not a car, but hey it's FREE! :)

p.s. Tomorrow we see the babies again! It's insane how the 3 weeks between appointments goes by soooo slow. This is going to be a long pregnancy. Oh and also, we're hopefully picking up a crib in the next few days that my sister found on ksl. Denial needs to end and action needs to start or else we'll bring these kids home and we'll still only have the 5 onesies that we currently have. Thank you again Amy Jane. Sometimes I just sit and stare at them and it all starts to feel real.

A little list

• Going to the special ed talent show was the greatest moment of my week. I cried when my most favorite participant ever came out. I hugged him at the end of the show and almost cried again.
• Speaking of crying, this song came on the radio the other day while I was dropping off Josh at school. I started to cry. I must be pregnant.
  
• I want to eat a fresh peach more than anything right now. I can't wait for Brigham's Peach Days.
• I'm thinking we might be able to go to the State Fair if we get a babysitter. Any takers? I'll pay you in cotton candy.
• I'm very proud and very tired over the fact that I worked 10 1/2 hours today. However, I was pretty useless around hour 7.
  
• My spring break plans will consist of staying in sweatpants all day and trying not to think about peaches.
• I'm grateful the Relief Society had a birthday so I was able to eat awesome food and excellent cake.
• I'm also grateful that Lacy was willing to skip the second half of our 3 hour photo class to go to said birthday party.
  
• I realized that the van I drive for work is a Toyota and almost had a heart attack. (I'm sorry, but the recalls have got me freaked out.)
• Seeing friends after more than a year is always fun.
• I refuse to accept that I'll probably be wearing maternity pants in a few short weeks.
• I've had a cold this week and I keep sneezing. Every time I do, I get a crazy spasm in my stomach. Apparently the kids don't like it when I sneeze.
  
• Someone in Barcelona was on my blog for 39 minutes today. I hope they enjoyed their stay.
• I've got a really good friend named Josh, who sends me encouraging and funny texts throughout the day. I'm a pretty big fan of his.
  
• I was asked this week if I took fertility pills in order to be pregnant with twins. I replied, "Nope. I've got my grandma to thank for it." (I don't think there's anything wrong with fertility medicine, but it was a weird question to get asked by a random shmo. I mean, who asks a stranger that? And with twins? Twins are not super uncommon, right?

This list is about 4 times longer than I originally anticipated, so I will end it now. Happy weekend and happy spring break.
{Image taken by my awesome little sister}

This post might be a little cheesy, but I like cheese.

The other day while I was getting ready, the song Little Red by Kate Nash came on my I-pod. The song doesn't mean anything in particular, but the title does. "Little Red" was the first nickname Josh gave me over about 2 1/2 years ago. We were sitting in the hallway outside of our apartments (yes, USU is a little different from BYU and girls and boys can live next door to each other or live right across the hall from each other) talking. Just casual "getting-to-know-you" chat and I was wearing a red hoodie. Josh called me "Little Red" as we were saying goodnight and my heart skipped a beat. I had already developed a small crush on him and this little action made it grow a bit. Over the next year he became my absolute best friend and a year and a half after we met, we got married. 3 years from the day he first called me Little Red, I'll be holding his twins. It blows my mind thinking about the way the Lord works sometimes. Here's why...

After my freshman year at USU, I decided to transfer to UVSC (not UVU quite yet...) I lived with my best friend, Fro, in a great apartment with great roommates. I had a good job, and felt at home in my hometown. I still wasn't sure what I wanted to go into, but I was seriously leaning towards Special Ed. UVU might have a program now, but a few years ago, UVSC didn't. In the back of my mind I saw that as a problem, but I brushed it off assuming that somehow it would all work out. I was lying to myself BIG time. I talked to many people about why I made the switch and I didn't really have any solid answers. I talked myself into believing that it was the right decision and I started to really believe it. Towards the end of the summer, Fro asked me out of the blue, "I don't understand why you transferred to a school that doesn't have your major." I sat there silent for a few minutes and then burst into tears. All the feelings I had been suppressing came flooding in. I knew I wasn't where I was supposed to be. I ended up going to visit an old teacher from high school and she told me if it was right, I'd be able to go back up to Logan and everything would work out. I immediately talked to my apartment manager and told her I needed to get out of my contract, I called my old roommates and Hailey graciously offered to give up her private room so I could live with them, and my Park Place contract sold within days without me doing any work at all. Not more than three weeks later I was back living in Logan, living next door to my future husband. That school year was the happiest, adventurous, most drama filled, yet the most fulfilling experience I've ever had. It's crazy to think how close I was to missing all of it. I'm sure my life would have worked out if I would have stayed in Provo, but I know my last name wouldn't be Mangelson right now and I know I wouldn't be this happy.

Moral of the story? Don't lie to yourself. Don't trick yourself into being happy. Do what you know you need to do and do it from the start. Because I decided to do that, (even though I didn't do it from the start) I have this blog and Little Red and Tall Josh are going to be parents in a few short months.

I love my life.

{December '07 when we gave the boys their stockings}

Now, was that cheesy enough for ya? Hope so. Oh, and wanna know the funniest thing about it all? I took two special ed classes at USU the next year and decided it wasn't for me. (Although I'll probably work with people with disabilities for the rest of my life.) I'm a sociology major. I could have done that anywhere.

Cloth diapering pt. 2

I'll be honest, I didn't think I'd get such positive responses from everyone and I had NO idea that a lot of my friends were planning on cloth diapering too! I'm going to go for it. However, as I mentioned, I'm not sure if I'll go 100%. I'm also not sure when to start cloth diapering. I'm pretty sure I'll be a teeny bit overwhelmed with two newborns and I don't know if I want to add that much poopy laundry. I've heard that some woman start cloth diapering around 3 months. I'll give it some thought and let you know what I decide. For now, I need to come up with a system. Pre-folds? All-in-ones? Covers? Like I said last time, there's a whole WORLD I never knew existed. There are so many choices and it's a lot to think about. Anyways, I'll keep everyone posted (no pun intended...) For now though, here's another belly shot of the kiddos. I'm 14 weeks here, getting huge and running to the bathroom constantly. Hello second trimester!

Making My Own Belt

So after watching The Assassination of Jesse
James by the Coward Robert Ford
I was intrigued by - although by no
means new - their manner of dress.

I took a liking to style of the gun belts or the
classic western holster belts that they wore,
yet upon searching the internet I found that
they were near obsolete to buy or they were
relatively expensive.

So I decided that by buying my own center
bar belt buckle made for holsters, the
leather strip, dye, punches, brown waxed thread,
and exacto knife I could make my own belt for
much cheaper, and I had fun doing so in the
meantime.


First to get the leather in a thick enough weight
I found a strip that was 9/10 oz although 8/9 oz
will work as well.

The leather came in a 2.5 inch thickness,
so I cut it down to fit the belt buckle
that accepts 1.75 inch thick straps.

note: 1.75 inches thick is wider than any common belt
made for males. Belts can be bought that are really wide
for women just not men.

I then cut it to length by using the exacto knife.

Using the hole punch I punched holes .75
inches apart to accept the belt buckle
with the middle hole measuring the comfort
of where I usually were my belt.

I then punched other smaller holes
on the opposite end to be able to sow
on the leather strip to the belt buckle
using the wax thread.

I then used a dark mahagony dye that
I watered down and then applied it using
a sponge brush.

I then rubbed the leather after it dried
with a rag to give the dye a shiny luster.

I then finished the condition of the leather
by applying mink oil using a rag and then
buffing by using a shoe shine brush.






And there ya have it...my new belt!!

Sweet Oiled Tools of the Fat Trade

Cloth diapering

Ok, before you freak, hear me out.

I've done a decent amount of research and you might think I'm crazy, but I think I'm going to try it. Anyone out there cloth diaper? Know people who do? I don't think I'd go 100% cloth for a while, but even if I did 50% it would be like only buying diapers for one instead of two. There's a whole cloth diapering community out there that I had no idea existed. Everyone is very positive about it and hey, humans have been doing it for thousands of years, so it's not that crazy of an idea, right? I read that you can easily save $1,000-$2,000 by cloth diapering/cloth wiping. That's one baby. Granted, you've got to take into account the time to wash them etc, but like I said, this isn't anything new. My grandparent's used cloth diapers, why can I? Plus, you can reuse cloth diapers for multiple kids. Disposables? They're gone in a couple of hours. Forever.

It's something to think about. People will think I'm a hippie weirdo, but I really think I'm going to do it. I found this blog and series of posts last night that reassured me. Then there's this list and these FAQ's that also brought up some good points. Plus, you can buy flushable inserts that make the job even easier.

The only negative thing I can see about it (and this is a pretty big negative) is the washing. However, people swear that it's not that bad and if it's going to save thousands of dollars and have lots of other benefits for the babies...why not? I've mentioned this before, but I'm no stranger to diapers. I change adult and teen size diapers all the time. I know you can't really compare those, but I really know what it's like to change a diaper. Would a cloth diaper be anymore of a big deal than an adults? Probably not.

Has anyone tried it and hated it? I know a lot of people find it repulsing from the get-go, but I'm wondering if anyone has given it a shot and has not liked it. (or knows of someone who hasn't liked it) I've tried to find cases like that on the internet and they are few and far between. I'm really, really leaning towards it. Saves mucho money (I know upfront it's more money, but if you you can use them for all your babies and save over a $1,000 for each kid, that adds up quick), natural for babies, less chance of diaper rash, a lot less environmental impact, plus they're cute...


Thoughts? Oh, and if any of you lovely people ever babysit my children, know that we'll put them in disposable diapers. Don't worry, my sister already said she wouldn't babysit if she had to deal with a poopy cloth diaper. :)

I miss him

Yep, I do. It's been a rough hour and a half at the Mangelson household. That is why I'm up and mindlessly looking through pictures on the I'm With CoCo fan page in the middle of the night. Hopefully Josh and I can fall asleep soon and I wont fail my test tomorrow. Hopefully...

For the love of cotton candy

I wish I could accurately express my love for this stuff. I love it so much that I even put up a double chinned picture of me inhaling it. I again want to thank everyone who was involved in this wonderful, WONDERFUL Christmas present.

p.s. There have been ads on my facebook sidebar telling me that I am eligible to donate my eggs. This only started happening once I wrote the word "twin" on there. Really facebook? Really? Donate my eggs? Maybe if it will help pay for these little ones coming up....just maybe...

p.p.s. Does anyone know how to get my text to not underline when you scroll over it? I think it's got something to do with the text being under the pictures. It bugs.

MARCH!

I love March. Not only is it my birthday month, but it's the first month in the year that you start to get a little bit of warmth. I guess yesterday was technically Feburary still, but I didn't even wear a coat to church. It was heaven. I also like March this year because it's the start of my second trimester (I guess technically that doesn't start until next week even though the babies are about 5 days ahead of schedule already) and it's the only month left standing in the way of finding out the genders of these little children. Yep, March is going to be good to us.

Yesterday, we went down to Josh's parent's were we had a Thanksgiving feast. We got the works in honor of his family be thankful for the babies. It was excellent. We finally convinced Rachel that there's two babies in me (I think we did at least) and she's convinced they're boys. We'll find out in about a month!

I've taken about a dozen belly pictures (and when I say "I've", I really mean Josh.) but I'm not really satisfied with any of them. I'm getting past the point of caring because already half of my skirts and none of my pants fit without being unbuttoned. So here you go, the twins as of yesterday (13 weeks).

p.s. I'll try to think of non pregnancy things to blog about. It's just a little hard when that's the only thing runny through my mind. Sorry...I'll be better. :)

p.p.s. I just read that I should be drinking up to a gallon of water a day. A GALLON!? I'm an avid Nalgene carrier, but an entire gallon of water? I can't really comprehend that.