Raining Babies (aka Baby Showers)!

There is nothing better than knowing that people truly care for you. Well, maybe getting presents is better...especially if they are branded with the Chicago Bears' orange and blue ("Bear down, Chicago Bears!")...none the less, you could feel the love over the past two weekends in the Quad Cities. Katie and I were blessed to have two wonderful baby showers held for the McGraw boys!

The Stimpson side of the family held an informal shower last weekend, which featured many thoughtful gifts (see aforementioned jackets) and some delicious pie! We can't thank everyone enough for their generosity, time, and heartfelt wishes that we received at the baby shower. The clothes have been put in drawers, the diapers have been stored, and the Bears jackets have been dry-cleaned and put in a place of honor. Thank you again to everyone who attended!


The McGraw side of the family held a baby shower for us two weekends ago. The theme was "twins" - so everyone had to dress similar to someone else (see picture below of Grandma and Grandpa Glaudel getting into the spirit). Thank you to everyone who attended and went through the effort in finding matching clothes! Also, thanks to my sister, Jenny, who demonstrated that, yes, twins can wear "similar-but-different" outfits! We had a very nice time and received wonderful gifts! Everyone's graciousness and generosity is very humbling, and we can't thank everybody enough for throwing us such a fantastic shower!


All in all, Katie and I realized throughout these past two weekends just how truly blessed we are, and what a wonderful group of people our children will have the pleasure of meeting.

Thank you, everyone, for the special memories!

God bless and see you soon!
Chris, Katie, and the boys

Babies Update (33 weeks)

"You are disgusting!" The doctor was smiling as she made that comment. Nobody can believe how great Katie looks. 33 weeks with twins, and only 20 pounds heavier, Katie is making this twin pregnancy thing look easy (knock on wood, of course).

The boys are doing fantastic, "A" is now weighing in at 3lbs 7oz while "B" is 4lbs 3oz. The disparity in weight is not a concern to the doctor, but is something that she will keep her eye on during the next couple of weeks. Basically, the placenta is giving the boys all it can, but one is just getting a little more than the other (a.k.a. being a "hog").

Maybe "B" is just trying to get back at "A" since "A" has been kicking him in the face for the past 8 months. While looking at the little guys on the screen, we watched as "A" continually put his feet in "B's" eyes, nose, and mouth. Nice. Don't worry, because at the end of the sonogram we watched "B" take his foot and place it suspiciously near "A's" face. "A" then proceeded to bring both hands up and complete a successful block. Editor's Note: Typing this previous incident made me realize how much effort goes into typing "A" and "B." I can't wait to call these guys by their first names. Would you like to know them? Keep waiting...

Another fun moment today came while recording the babies heartbeats. As Katie and I sat in the room listening to the tiny, muffled sounds of a heart beating, we suddenly started to hear this big "boom" every couple of seconds. We were soon told that what we were hearing were baby hiccups. Of course they were coming from "B", since he is after all our fat baby.

Katie (as stated earlier) is doing great! The doctor is hoping that we can at least make it to 34 1/2 weeks - which is not too long at all. Obviously it would be great if we could go the whole 37 weeks, but we are just taking each week at a time. The longer the buns stay in the oven, the better. Better to have well-done babies than medium-rare. Crispy bacon is better than...never mind, I am running out of good food analogies.

Please keep the boys and mama in your prayers! We can not thank everyone enough for all of the blessings you have bestowed on us already through your kind words and thoughts! As we hit the final road to this initial journey, we can use all the help we can get!

We hope this finds all of you doing well. We love and miss you all!

God bless!

Babies Update (29 weeks)

Babies growing...room shrinking. This update is very past due, but better late than never! Baby A and B are growing strong, 2lbs 5oz and 2lbs 10oz respectively. Katie is also doing well. She is resting more and more, but hardly looking like a mother of twins! Please keep everyone in your prayers! God bless!

The Belly Watch 4

Babies Update (25 weeks)

"There's not much space in there..." No kidding. What once was a vast amount of black space with tiny white blobs has now turned into hands upon feet upon faces upon tummies. Have fun, guys! Twenty-five weeks have now passed and the McGraw boys are now tipping the scales at 1 pound 7 ounces and 1 pound 9.5 ounces respectively. Both hearts are beating fine, and both brains look to be developing well. There wasn't as much "goofing for the camera" the past two visits (probably due to the minimizing space), but we did catch thumbs in mouths, more shots of the boys' privates (great stories for when they have dates over) and a tongue (see above picture - daddy doesn't believe). We did manage to get a picture of "Baby A" putting on a "gun show" for everybody. Check out those muscles (see picture to the right)!

The babies DO move a lot more. I am able to feel plenty of movement in Katie's belly as she tries to sleep at night, and the babies (or at least one of them) kicked me in my face when I put my head down to Katie's stomach...which she encouraged and applauded the babies for doing.

We have our new crib put together in the nursery, along with a changing table and dresser. We bought some cute stuffed animals from World Market the other day, and I matted and framed two little paintings for the boys' room. We also started registries at Target and Babies R' Us.

Please keep everyone in your prayers. Katie is doing great, but sleep has been a little bit of an issue lately. All in all, we count our blessings and get more and more excited (and a little anxious) as weeks go by - we are almost down to 10 weeks left! YIKES (in a good way)!

We send our love,
The McGraws