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33 Weeks With the Twins + A Writing Wrap Up

  March 10

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Hey peeps! Thanks for checking in on Budget Blonde on this fine Monday. 🙂

Preggo Update

I’m 33 weeks now with my twins, and I’m hanging in there! Things are starting to get pretty real. I’m just trying to keep my spirits up and take it really easy. I’m kind of amazed that my body has carried these two kiddos this far. I’m measuring past 40 weeks now in terms of size, and it’s kind of interesting to see what the body does when it’s stretched past what’s normal. I know I don’t look super huge to others from the outside, but I’m carrying around a lot more weight than the average preggo (extra baby, extra placenta, extra fluid, etc.), and it’s affecting me in other ways. Basically, as long as I’m sitting down and writing, I’m okay, but moving from room to room is starting to get very challenging.

My doctor doesn’t think I’ll make it all the way to 38 weeks, so we could be parents in about 4 weeks or less! The only thing I’m really hoping is to get to the 35/36 weeks point, regardless of how much the pain intensifies. Knowing me, we’ll fight through it day by day until the little beans are ready to see the world somehow or another, and hopefully it all goes well!

Hubs Update

I’ve mentioned the hubs has been studying for his first medical licensing exam pretty much the whole time I’ve been back in the States.

He takes it on Thursday, and all of us are very ready for the test to be over with. It’s an 8 hour exam, and he won’t have his phone with him, so the goal is to not have kids while he’s in the test.

He’s being pretty sweet despite the immense amount of stress he’s under, and after I broke down because none of the pictures were up in the nursery, he hung up almost all of them for me (because you know, it’s not like he had anything important to do.)

I’m looking forward to having him around more starting on Friday and hope the babies give us at least a few days to clean and finish up our last minute preparations for them!

My Writing Elsewhere

As I’ve admitted previously, I have been a bit feisty during the last few weeks of this pregnancy, and I’ve used writing as my primary means of therapy. While I haven’t shared a lot of that writing with anyone, I did submit one piece that was recently accepted at the Huffington Post.

I wrote it after a particularly bad encounter with rude strangers at a restaurant, and while I’d usually keep a post like that to myself, I just decided to go for it in case it helped someone else. I’m sure people were calling me crazy after reading it. My mom made me laugh when she wrote me and said, “Wow. Angry pregnant lady.” Haha. But, seeing as it was liked over 350 times, I think it at least resonated with someone. Plus the ladies in my twin group were very sweet and thanked me for putting into words what they haven’t been able to articulate this whole time.

huffington post publication

Other Interesting Things

  • I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this before, but one thing I use sometimes when I’m creating the titles to blog posts like the one above is Jon Morrow’s headline hacks.
  • Grayson had a really interesting post about how money talks. It’s kind of a sad truth about our nation that some of the best ideas don’t get heard unless someone with the money decides to make it so.
  • I didn’t know Holly was a talented DIY-er as well. For under $3,500 she fixed up her kitchen and it looks like a million bucks.
  • Laurie’s post on how to save more money on groceries was definitely welcome after I spent $220 on my last grocery trip!

Carnival Inclusions

Thanks to the following bloggers who featured my posts in their carnivals!

Carn. of Fin. Camaraderie at Messy Money
Carn of MoneyPros at Money Pros
Aspiring Blogger Fin. Carnival at Aspiring Blogger
Fin. Carn. for Young Adults at Save and Conquer
Fin. Carn. for Young Adults at Finance with Reason
Yakezie Carnival at 2 Copper Coins
Lifestyle Carnival at Master the Art of Saving
Carnival of Retirement at Brick By Brick Investing

Insta-Fun

I’ve been snapping a lot of nursery pics and general shenanigans on Instagram. Follow along if you have an account. 🙂

instagramHave a great week everyone!

31 responses to “33 Weeks With the Twins + A Writing Wrap Up

  1. Thanks so much for mentioning my post. I can’t believe you’re 33 weeks. You’ve got full-blown babies in there. I can’t wait to see them!!!

  2. It’s getting closer Cat! I wish you the best of luck. Thank you for including my post. I really appreciate it. Nice work on the HuffPost article as well.

  3. I love seeing your updates [still so happy for you guys]! I take my exam on Thursday too so good vibes had better be in the air that day! I’ll send some you and J’s way 🙂

  4. Great updates! And it seems like you have a lot on your hands these days between your pregnancy, your husbands test, and blogging. How do you do it? I guess you were listening to Sheryl Sandberg when she said “Lean In!” LoL.
    Thanks so much for dropping by our blog over the weekend 🙂 And congrats on the HuffPost article!
    Blessings to you 🙂

    1. Haha thanks Anneli. I don’t think I’ll be up to Sheryl S’s standards for FOREVER haha but I appreciate the kind words. 😀

  5. I’ve been thinking about you and hoping that you were doing okay. There is so much to love about being pregnant but as you know – it does get a bit tiresome at the end! You are almost there and I can’t wait to hear the good news about a healthy Mom and two new babies! I’m glad the hubs exam will be over this week, so he can take care of you. And hormonal pregnant women get a lot of passes, as they should. Now I have to go read your post at Huffington Post because it sounds like a doozy! Take care and rest easy!

  6. Good luck to your hubs! I remember when my husband took his (I was not 33 weeks pregnant) but I remember being so nervous. Tell him to relax – if he is anything like mine he kept letting the pressure of the test get to him. He’ll do great 🙂

    Good luck to you as well!

    1. Thanks for the pep talk Sara!! It so helps to hear from other people who dealt with the same thing. He had had ups and downs through the whole study period but for right now it seems like he’ll be okay on Thursday! 🙂

  7. Ah! The boards are the worst! My husband’s specialty of interest was very competitive, so he knew that if he didn’t do well on this exam, it would really limit his choices. Fortunately, it all worked out. Good luck to your husband!

    1. Ah that is so stressful! Luckily the hubs doesn’t want anything SUPER competitive but because he is an IMG he does need to score a bit higher than most. Fingers crossed!

  8. You’re in the home stretch! I’ll say a prayer that everything goes well for your hub’s exam, and that the timing of your birth works out!

    Congratulations on your article, too! You hustle harder while preggers than I ever do — go you!

  9. I had the same problem when I was pregnant with one of mine! I only had one, but I guess I still didn’t look big enough. Then with another one I got comments that were rude the other way around when I got huge. There’s no winning on either side.

  10. Blog posts titles are something I work really hard on, almost as much as the post itself. So thanks for the headlines hack link. I can already tell I’m going to love it just by reading the intro and table of contents.

  11. Congrats on your HuffPost article Cat!! I am so glad that you shared your view even if it seemed like a “vent.” I think that pregnant women get offended all the time and just have to keep it to themselves, or go home and cry in a bowl of ice cream like I had to when people said I looked like I was pregnant with twins when I just had one.

  12. Very cool my friend – very exciting indeed! Can’t believe you’re at 33 weeks, I remember when you emailed to tell me and it just seems like it was yesterday. I’m sure you’ve thought of this already, but is there anyway to have the proctor keep your husbands phone or something like that during the exam?

    1. I know it went by so fast!! Ah, we’ve talked about the phone issue. Since he can’t leave the test since the score will be voided (and that looks really bad on residency applications) we just decided that it’s better that he not know haha! He’d be so distracted if he knew I was in labor and the test is pretty much the most important one he’ll ever take. Obviously the babies are the #1 most important thing in our lives but after a lot of talking about it, we just decided to pray a lot that nothing happens on that day and if it does, I’ll try to keep the babies in there as long as possible so he can get there when it’s over!

  13. I recently started following your blog, so I had no idea you were expecting! Congrats!! I am sure that you look great! Hoping you can make it as far as you are planning for some healthy babies!

  14. Oh, hon, I know what you mean about those last few weeks. Our babies were are HUGE (Maddie was 10 lbs, 12 oz.), and those last few weeks it really is SO difficult to do anything other than sit on your behind, so grant yourself some grace and mercy about being feisty. 🙂 I remember being SO big with Maddie just before she was due, and one day, it was like, 100 degrees outside, and Rick had to accompany me, crying, into Target to buy a kiddie pool for my hugely pregnant, enormously hot body. 🙂

  15. Wow, congrats on your post at the Huffington Post! That’s a huge deal. I’m going over to read it right after I finish this comment 🙂

    I hope your husband did well on his exam. I hear twins often come early, so you really could be parents at any time now; you must be thrilled! I feel like you just announced on your blog that you were pregnant.

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