A Week for the Strong

Wow, the past week has flown by. I don’t even know where to start.

My mom flew down on Friday, and I was so happy to have her here. Saturday was our baby shower, thrown by my friend Kel, at her beautiful home. It was an absolute blast. We had 52 guests, and the day went off without a hitch. I know dearest was a little reluctant about the concept of a “Jack and Jill” shower, he was at first of the very strong opinion that baby showers are for women only, but he was a trooper and I am so glad we went in that direction. So many of our friends are guys, and it was wonderful to include them. I don’t have words for how special it was to have all of these people who we love, family, old friends, and new friends, all in one place and all genuinely excited for us and exuding all of this great energy for our girls. The pile of gifts was almost embarrassing, but it was so fun to open them! We got most of what was on our registry, and a TON of adorable clothes! Some of the most special gifts were things that were hand made for the babies. The most generous gift of all was Kel and Doug going to all of the effort to organize and host the shower: from the invites to the delicious food, to tolerating our crazy friends and family, it was truly one of the most special days of my life.





Sunday mom and I stayed busy washing and putting away countless adorable little frocks, but we did manage to take a break to go to the Tiki Bar for lunch, the weather was nice and the lake side atmosphere pretty much unbeatable. That afternoon Dearest had the guys over to watch the games, so mom and I ran to Target to pick up a thing or 2 we needed, and then it was back to nursery duty. We assembled the bouncy seat and the Sweetpeace swing, which you would think would be no big deal but which wound up being ridiculous, resulting in mom and I laughing so hard that Dearest came upstairs to check on us. By that night we were pooped, and we were happy to climb into the hot tub to unwind for a little while.

Monday mom had to go back already. Just like that, it was over. ☹ We got so much done though, I am sleeping much better at night for it. The nursery is basically all set (except for a few strictly decorative details) and it is ADORABLE if I may say so myself. Their dressers and closet are organized, clothes washed and hung by size, bedding washed and put away. If we brought them home tomorrow, we would be ok, and that is a huge comfort to me.

Today we had an appointment with the Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialists at the hospital, and all continues to look good. Sophie is weighing in at 2lbs 9oz, and Livi is 2lbs 5oz. Last visit we saw a lot of Sophia, this time it was Olivia’s turn to show off. (Taking turns already! How sweet!) She was doing a lot of breathing practice, which the ultrasound tech said was awesome. You could see her little diaphragm moving up and down about the whole time we were looking at her, and that fluid going in and out of her lungs. Wild. We got a couple good pictures of Livi, she is still transverse across the top of my belly and her face was visible this time. It’s getting harder and harder to get good pictures of the babies because they are majorly squished. Our days of getting both of them in one screen shot are way over. Sophie has backed the truck up and is no longer head down, she is now transverse also, pretty much curled up into a little ball in my right hip area, way down low and on the side. The cutest part of her ultrasound was when the tech pointed out that you can totally see her hair! Yup, she has hair on her head already, even a little ducktail on the back of her head. So cute! Here are the pictures of Olivia today, don’t feel bad if you can’t make them out, the bigger they get the harder it is to see what is going on in there.





Of course I have to mention Barack’s inauguration today, and how thrilled I am that my children are going to be born under a President who is an absolute visionary and how much hope I have that my kids can live in a world where they can be proud of their country. I will be sure my girls never take their good fortune of being born in America for granted: I want them to understand how hard people have fought to create a place where anyone, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, or religious affiliation, can have a voice and can make a difference.

A new game we have been playing in the Fontana household is one I like to call “Poke at the Hard Bits.” Yes, it sounds a little dirty, but truly it’s not. Did you ever play the game Mousetrap? You know the one where you turn the crank and the boot kicks the bucket and the ball drops on to the teeter totter etc etc etc until the mousetrap drops at the very end? Well Poke at the Hard Bits is a lot like that game. First, you push on the belly until you find a hard piece of baby. Then you debate with the other players about exactly what that hard piece could be: Olivia’s knee? Sophia’s butt? A head? A back? Then you poke at the hard bit, hoping to reveal its identity. This is where the Mousetrap part starts- say you found Olivia’s elbow and you push on it. This will cause Liv to try to escape the poking, and she will kick her legs, kicking Sophia in the face, causing Soph to flail about, roll over, pull her knees up, and kick me directly in the colon, making me go “Whoo!” and change positions, which results in the presentation of a new hard bit to poke. Repeat. This game is even more fun if I eat some chocolate first, because then they are already thrashing about before the poking part begins, making identification of the hard bits even trickier.

Anyway, I’m off to bed. This has been a busy couple of days, and I need to recharge my batteries! Thanks to everyone who came to the shower and made our day so special. We are so lucky to have so many excellent friends, we can only hope that our girls are as blessed!