Wow! That's a lot of me! So sorry about that.
Baby Center says that they should be a little over 4 pounds each now, and about 17 inches long. I see and hear their heartbeats each week at my regular doc appointments. They are still stretching, pushing, kicking, and playing a lot in there. I am still feeling very good. I have regular pregnant-with-twins symptoms: so much swelling (my 5 1/2 ring finger is now size 8!), slow-moving, constant bathroom trips, heavy breathing (gotta get oxygen to those boys!), snacking, etc. Really, though, this has been fun. I might be a little uncomfortable, but God has really blessed me and the babies (and Todd, too) with smooth sailing so far!
A few weeks ago, I started to do some research on when most twin pregnancies deliver. Of course, I got varying reports, but some said the average is about 33 weeks. I feel so good knowing that I'm in that average. Of course, I would like to make it to 37 weeks or longer, but knowing that I'm so close to "normal" is such a relief.
Being pregnant with twins automatically puts me in the "high risk" category for pregnancy. Even though I have been doing so well physically, my doctor is being cautious about my daily activities so I will not go into labor sooner than I need to. I may have said all of this before, but stressful situations leading to high blood pressure is the enemy. Of course, he wants me to take it easy, keep my feet up often, etc. Both docs have been so glad that I've had all summer to relax. They (and I) think that Summer may have been a key factor in my doing so well. All of that said, Doc has officially put me on bed rest. He really does not want me to be at work. I set up my classroom, went to in-service week, did meet-the-teacher, but started the year with a sub today. Whoever my students are, they are very lucky to have Mrs. C as their long-term sub. I taught with her for several years, she was team leader for some of those years, and retired in '08. Really, I feel so good about having Mrs. C - I know they have the best start to Kindergarten with her being their teacher. 
So, since I'm home, I have taken on the new job of trying to save us more money on our groceries. I'm sure all of you know that Todd and I did Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. We have a strict budget and categorized envelopes that we use for groceries, restaurants, auto repair, home improvement, babies, etc. Groceries and restaurants are usually empty first every 2 weeks. So, I'm learning the world of coupons!! I will take any suggestions about this new venture. I found a lot at coupons.com and had a few mailers that I saved with some good coupons. Where do you find good coupons? Any tricks to the system? Any ways to maximize coupon values? What's the deal with Kroger "doubling or tripling" the coupon? There is obviously a learning curve to this, but I'm excited about it. 
I have been really good with keeping up with my many doctors' appointments. I registered for the childbirth class, breastfeeding class, and infant safety & CPR class at a local hospital. Guess what I missed? Yep! Childbirth class!! It was this past Saturday. I thought it was this coming Saturday. I had it written on the calendar and had post-it notes up, but I totally missed it. The next class isn't until Sept. 13th, which will probably be way too late. One of my friends, Amy, suggested that we could rent a series about childbirth from Netflix. I was saving this for just in case we couldn't make the class; so I guess we're renting, thanks to my brain of moosh. Thanks goodness for back-up plans. Now I just have to remember to rent it!!
There have been so many of you tell me that you are keeping my dad in your prayers. Some have even said that he has been added to your church's prayer list. We are so grateful for your prayers. Thoughts are nice and appreciated, but prayers are powerful!! Please remember Dad and Mom this Friday as they meet his doctor for consultation at MD Anderson. We are expecting a great miracle.
4 comments:
Bed rest, huh? I'll be praying for you and the boys to make it another month. I'm sure you feel big, but I think you're looking good! It's too hot to be outside anyway :)
As far as the coupons go, one way to make them go further is to use them with sales. Keep the flyers you get in the mail about the sales at Albertson's, Tom Thumb, where ever you shop and when you write your shopping list write down next to the item you want where to buy it from and put your coupons with it. Some places will even match the lower price IF you have the flyer from the other store with you.
I recently learned about two coupon sites, cellfire.com and shortcuts.com. Both are ideal if you shop at Kroger and use the plus card. You create an account using your Kroger card # and then you load coupons on to the card from these websites. When you buy those products, the coupon is automatically deducted if you had the clerk scan the plus card. They have coupons for Huggies alot which has come in handy. Also, if both sites have a coupon for the same item, you can use them both, and you can use coupons from the paper too. Last week for example, I got 2 boxes of Cheerios for the price of one b/c I had a paper coupon, cellfire coupon and shortcuts coupon all for the same item. Also, today at the grocery store a lady who saw I was using coupons told me about grocerygame.com. I haven't checked that one out yet though.
Hey Natalie, the coupon system i use is at thegrocerygame.com. Basically, it keeps track of all the sales and you hang on to your coupons each week so when prices hit rock bottom, you stockpile. (It tells you what to get each week and where the coupon is) I use it for Kroger but it is available for HEB and Randall's too. My percentage saved each week is usually 35-45% although sometimes I do better. You can try it for 4 weeks for just a $1, and it's only $10 every 2 months for the list which is WELL worth it... We figure we save about $2,000 per year on groceries... yep. 2 G's. I also have some websites for playing the coupon games at CVS and Walgreen that are good, I just can't seem to find the time to do them.
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