The Zoe and Silas Show

We are taking full advantage of Derek having a few weekends off this month. Organize, purge and reconfigure was the name of the game this weekend! On Saturday morning we picked up all the twin stuff from Eugenia. Considering we didn't have anywhere to put it, this was the impetus we needed to start organizing! The back bedroom (aka, the nursery) is now filled with crib parts and the basement is storing things like play yard, booster seats, and a pack-and-play. At this stage we are way ahead of the game in many respects! On Sunday we went to Ikea to look at other nursery furniture like dressers. We picked one out we really like, but we need to do some measuring to make sure it will fit. Next we went to Jordan's Furniture and bought a rocker/recliner. It is a chocolate brown color and covered in microfiber so it is nice and cozy. I figured that I will be doing many solo late night feedings while Derek works, so having a good chair would be a worthwhile investment. Here's me &

We are registered at Babies 'R Us , Target , and Magic Beans . Registries can be found under 'Westerlund' or 'Dutra'. We have currently specified gender-neutral items on all registries, but we are hoping to find out the sexes at my 18-week ultrasound on June 3rd (assuming both babies cooperate!). Our home address for direct shipping is 4375 Washington Street #1, Roslindale, MA 02131.

We absolutely love this time of year, because it's time to start the vegetable garden! We hit Allandale Farm this morning just in time for Farmer Jim's informal talk about growing tomatoes. We learned a lot, including how to start treating our late blight before it even starts (copper -- who knew?!). We bought pepper, tomato, and eggplant seedlings in addition to all of our herbs. We headed home and started planting! We also bought half a farm share from Allandale this year, so our weekly pickup will begin on June 2nd! We can't wait! Fresh, local, organic vegetables from June until October for only ~$17/week... It will be great next summer, too, because we have high hopes of making our own baby food, with the help of a magical baby food maker that I saw demo'd at the Baby Faire this year. The Beaba Babycook is on our Magic Beans registry in case anyone wants to buy it for us :) Speaking of things that grow, those babies are growing up a storm right now! I am hungry as

Derek decided awhile back that he wanted to be trained as a dispatcher for Boston EMS. The original idea was that having this additional training might afford him more opportunities for overtime, and if god forbid he would ever get hurt he would have additional skills to fall back on within Boston EMS. He let the higher-ups know he was interested in the training as it became available. I got a call from Derek on Friday saying that the deputy had contacted him re: a last-minute position that had opened up in the dispatch training class that was starting on Monday! It turns out the training is a bigger deal than we originally knew, but it is a great opportunity! The 'Emergency Medical Communications Officer' (EMCO) training is a nationally certified program. Derek is currently an EMT, but this type of training outside of the Boston area does not give you many job opportunities. We don't foresee ourselves moving in the future, but if that changed, the EMCO certification would

"Fear" and "anxiety" are two emotions that I have been experiencing a lot recently. I always thought that having one baby would be a piece of cake, but now that we know we are having two I'm freaking out a little. This freakout can manifest in a number of different ways, depending on the day. Just ask Derek (who is getting closer to sainthood every day of this pregnancy). So one thing I've been looking forward to is having lunch with Eugenia, a developmental pediatrician who works in my department. Eugenia also happens to have 2-1/2-year-old identical twin girls. Eugenia was the voice of reason today that I have desperately needed to hear. "It's going to be okay. You can do this," she said several times during the course of our two hour lunch. But most of what she gave me today was really good, sound, practical advice from a mom who knows what it's like to have two babies. One of the things I am currently freaking out about is "stuff

Here is a picture of the babies at the 12 week ultrasound. They pretty much look like aliens! The baby in the top picture is "non-presenting", meaning this baby will likely be born second. I'm assuming in future ultrasounds this baby will be referred to as "Baby B". Baby B did NOT want to cooperate for the specific kind of measurement they needed to get of the fold on the back of the neck. It was lying face down and fell asleep, then it flipped to be on its head hanging like a bat with feet up (which is what its doing in the picture). I had to change positions multiple times, get up and go to the bathroom, and finally the sonographer resorted to pushing down pretty hard on my stomach for over 20 minutes until Baby B finally cooperated for the measurements! The baby in the bottom picture is “presenting”, meaning this baby is closest to my cervix and will likely be born first. Baby A was awake for the entire scan and laid perfectly still – we had those measurem

We get a lot of questions these days, so here are some of the FAQs! Do twins run in your family? Yes. I have twin cousins on my mom's side, my dad has twin cousins, and Derek's mom has twin cousins. Derek and I had discussed what would change if we were having twins, so this didn't come completely out of the blue! Are they identical or fraternal? They are "di-di" (diamniotic, dizygotic), meaning they will be fraternal. Since they each have their own placenta we know they came from two separate eggs. The odds of them being two girls is 25%, the odds of two boys is 25%, and the odds of a boy and a girl are 50%. Will you find out the sexes? Yes! Derek won't play the name game with me until we know what we're having! The ultrasound is scheduled for June 3rd. Stay tuned!! What is your due date? I am technically due on November 4th. Full-term for twins is considered 38 weeks so that puts us at October 21st. How are you feeling? I felt pretty darn goo

We were so excited to find out at the beginning of March that I am pregnant! I had imagined all the worst case scenarios about how we might have problems conceiving, but it appeared to be a piece of cake. As of March 11th I was six weeks along and feeling good... Fast forward one month. I got the terrible news from back home that my dad had a stroke. Stephanie and I decided that I should fly home, but I couldn't leave until after my 10-week prenatal appointment which was Thursday morning, April 9th. Following my appointment I was heading straight to the airport. Derek had to work that day so he wasn't able to go to the appointment with me. No big deal, it was just a routine, meet-the-midwife kind of appointment. I have been told that OB's are obsessed with due dates and that the best way to get an early ultrasound is to profess minor confusion as to when the first day of your last period was (it is this day that's used to start counting 40 weeks until the baby is full-