23 weeks :)

Shammy and I have been busy over the last month but we still have managed to fit in a half marathon for Shammy and a visit to his sister's place last weekend. I started doing on-call with my new job in September but due to the inconvenient hours, a call out at midnight and a 4am phone call (which really could have waited til the next morning) I have asked to be taken off the roster and the weekends where possible. This has meant that I am now only doing one weekend and one on-call a month which should work out better.

Shammy however doesn't have the same privilege and seems to be constantly on-call or working late due to a month of consults which has just ended, yey!

I have managed to gather some baby goodies from Pauline at work who had twins and also I spent a night with Ash and Krish going through baby clothes and baby gear. They were so helpful and Ash had the pleasure of loading up our toyota highlander with the gear, it came in very handy with all the seats in the back needing to go down :). Shammy then helped me organise our second bedroom which is starting to look slightly babified (if there is such a word).

The scan at 21 and a half weeks went well and both babies are the same size (14 ounces) and looking healthy at the moment which was good to hear. They are slightly smaller than if it was a single baby but this is to be expected and they had nice constant heartbeats around the 144bpm. Shammy was excited this week as he felt them move for the first time and has been asking them to hi-five him which gets a little nudge back, I had a book resting on my stomach and one of them kicked so hard it managed to dislodge the book :).

Shammy did really well in his half marathon coming in well under the 2 hour mark in 1 hr 50 mins, even in the rain, and managed to score a spot in the local paper.

We had a nice relaxing weekend at his sister's place for her birthday last weekend and got to see our nephew Aahil learn to swim, he seems to have a similar issue in the water to Shammy that his bum and legs just want to sink to the bottom but by the end of the lesson he was starting to kick his feet up.

I'm still feeling well and only a little less agile and we having birthing classes in October to look forward to, a baby shower in November and James's arrival in December. Its starting to get cooler here but I'm enjoying one of my favourite times of year.

Relaxing weekend at Niagara Falls

Shammy and I went for a trip to Niagara for the weekend, it was refreshing, fun, and renewed us for another work stint. Although I have been to the Canadian side before, I actually enjoyed this trip more as we got up close to the falls with the 'cave of the winds' tour which lets you really feel the force of the waterfall. Its a 6 hour drive from our place but we broke this up with an overnight stay Friday and arrived in Buffalo at lunchtime, giving us the afternoon to relax before heading to the falls in the evening.

Our first stop was the maid of the mist tour where you feel like the boat is going to be sucked into the horseshoe falls and you can't hear a thing and then we took a quick walk across to the island where the cave of the wind tour is held. I was most impressed that not only did we get our much needed raincoats but some cool trekking shoes to wear and keep afterwards.

It was getting dark as we descended down to the falls level so we got to see the lights reflecting off the falls as the sun set, aahhh. Shammy like a mad man decided to back into the most forceful part of the falls and was totally drenced but exhilarated. I chickened out and went for a quick dash on the less forceful side of the fall. Needless to say we know who ended up looking like a drowned rat when we finished, although luckily he had a change of clothes in the car :)

Things are going along smoothly with the 2 jobs at the moment and it makes me really appreciate a day off now. Shammy is also getting into the swing of things with cardiology and is managing to do Ramadam as well which you can imagine is making him a little tired.

I had another ultrasound today and both babies are doing well with one of them deciding that standing on its head is the new comfy position, while the other had its legs up around its armpits.
Their heartbeats have slowed down to 148 and 152bpm which is supposed to be what happens. So now we wait for the full ultrasound scan which I have scheduled for a few weeks time.
I have been feeling much better and less sick so I am really appreciating that. I have also started to move some of my wardrobe to the back as its not as comfy as its used to be, I haven't had to buy any new clothes as yet, but some adjustments to the wardrobe may be just around the corner.

An exciting day!

Today we got to see our babies in 3D and I think reality has hit a little bit more. We loved being able to see them move about, their little legs and arms and cute faces. It is also a great relief to see their little hearts beating and to be given the all clear on the nucal fold scan. They are both in good health apparently. Twin A which is positioned lower and towards the posterior being slightly larger than Twin B. Twin B has an anterior placenta, while Twin A has posterior placenta and this is apparently how they will be able to tell them apart as well as the position in my body, to the left or to the right. Twin B was in perfect position and only required a few of my coughs to move it around a little while Twin A was a little more difficult. Twin A had decided to lie with its bum in the air and nice and cosy and frankly was not interested in moving, Shammy mentioned it will be the naughty one while our Sonagrapher was convinced it must be a girl, she prodded it to try to get it to move and it just yawned stretched and went back to the same position again :).

Shammy is on call tonight and is finding these nights the most stressful with the extra responsibility of being the decision maker on what things to deal with himself and those to make the attending aware of.

I start my new job on the 26th of July which will mean I'll be doing just over 40 hrs a week, as I'll pick up 20 hrs with the new job which I'm hoping to fit into 2 days so that I at least get one free day of work a week.

We are both enjoying our new home and making the most of the weekends when Shammy isn't on call.

In these pics Twin A is on the left as you look at the picture, Twin B is on the right

The latest additions to the Ahmed family

Due 22nd January - Ultrasound at 10 weeks - big smiles all around - our 2 little munchkins are officially fetus :)

Shammy graduates

We pulled ourselves together for some graduation celebrations with Friday being the formal ceremony and Saturday the fun dinning and award ceremony. Congrats should go to my hubby, he is obviously well liked by all his colleagues and received the award from the other residents for the best cardiology resident. The night was fun even if the DJ let us down on the dance floor. One step down, yeah Shammy!!

Grand Canyon/Vegas

What an experience, its hard to describe the view when you first look over the edge into the canyon. It is truly overwhelming and almost meditative at the same time if that makes sense.
We managed to catch sunset and sunrise at the canyon, although Muneer, Shammy and I left Pallavi and Raj at the motel for our 2:30am start, perhaps a little too early for them.
We were hoping to do more hiking, but the heat wave during the day (43 degrees celsius) prevented this and we were warned not to climb down into the canyon unless it was very early or late in the day as the temperature increases as you descend. We did manage to hike along the rim on Day 1 and do a nice hike before sunset however and also got in a cool forest Mountain hike close to where we were staying in Williams.

It was a fun group of people and I don't think Muneer has felt so sore and exhausted from hiking in a long, long time as his daily activity usually involves walking to the car and around the hospital.

We also went on a gorgeous drive through the Sedona area where the rock land formations were incredible. Shammy commented that the boys would love to ride through that area.
We were a pretty sore and exhausted crew by the time we arrived back in Las Vegas but we managed to pull ourselves together after a quick nap in the afternoon to check out the sites of Vegas. I was not overly excited about this part of the trip but it turned out to be great fun and even though it is a completely fake set up the design and layout have been done to perfection. There are the beautiful fountains of Bellagio, the Venetian with its complete mini Venice set up, Caesar's Palace and the list goes on, very luxurious buildings. We were also happy to try out some different cuisine as everyone was full to the brim on American style dining, no more burgers and fries for a while!
On the day before we left we lined up for 2 and a half hours for the cirque de soleil show "O", we managed to get in on a cancellation and got the best seats in the house, even though costly it was worth it and after waiting so long we were not going to give this opportunity up. It is labelled as one of the best shows in Vegas. It was absolutely incredible, the stagging, costuming, acrobatics, the athletic performances and it all was based around water, so the stage would drop and lift filling with water as required. James and Sarah its a must see when you are in Vegas.

We stayed in the stratosphere accommodation which has the tallest tower in Vegas at 1149 ft where people bungie jump and do all sorts of insane rides off the top. We forgoed this but did watch them from the viewing tower with clammy hands and then proceeded to have lunch in the revolving restaurant on top instead.
The one major hiccup to our trip was missing our check-in time at the Vegas airport. We arrived 40mins before departure with just carry on luggage to be told that check in closed 45 mins prior to departure, so this then meant a 10 hour wait and a $140 fee per ticket ( which at this stage sounded better than $700 which delta airlines was offering us). We left at midnight and arrived in to Allentown at 10am the next morning looking worse for wear after no sleep and a change in time zones. We are still recovering but it was well and truly worth it :)

moving addresses

Shammy and I are definitely back into the swing of things in US. We just recently went on a trip to Washington DC so Shammy could present a poster at a cardiac conference and stopped off at his sister's house for a day on the way. It was a short but sweet visit and I managed to get a sore arm from getting too competitive playing Wii tennis with Shammy :).
We signed the lease on a new rental apartment yesterday so as of the 19th of June we are moving into a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment with our own garage. Its in a nice location with lots of greenery and hills and in a quieter area then where we are now. Still close to where both of us work so we are quite excited about it. Our new address will be: 6690 Hauser Rd, Apt K202, Macungie, PA, 18062.

We also went to a beautiful wedding on the weekend of one of Shameer's friends from work, Brian and Ashley Costello. It was a gorgeous setting on a 100 acre property where they grow their own produce and graze their own livestock for serving in the restaurant. It was pretty exclusive so luckily for Shammy and I it is close by and we didn't have to stay in the accommodation. The brides dress was stunning and even though it rained it kept the ceremony short and sweet and we had our umbrellas at hand. Shammy and I were both amazed when they started reading the verse we had at our wedding. The food was yummy and Shammy loved the chocolate fondant fountain while I concentrated on the red velvet wedding cake which was so perfect that Shameer and I even wondered whether it was fake at one stage. There was lots of dancing afterwards and we have a lot of good memories from the first wedding we have attended as a married couple.
We also went back to our favourite Kosher cafe for breakfast with friends from the pharmacy Krysta and Kevin the following morning. I love the Challah french toast!!
Shammy mentioned that both of these places (Glasburn Inn, for the wedding) and Syb's deli would be great places to take Sarah and James when they visit, I couldn't agree more!
We finished off our weekend with some karaoke with friends last night using the rock band game, soooo much fun, one song required Shammy and I to work in tandem on the drums so that we could make it through the song :)
Shammy has been studying up for his exams and I have been getting back into work, keeping an eye out for another part-time job to pick up. We are still into our running, gym and bootcamp but Shammy seems to be running rings around me. Its got to the stage where I suggest he takes a longer route in the same time I do a shorter one. Summer is definitely on its way though and as I write this I can hear them filling the pool outside our apartment.
Hope everyone is doing well
x o x o