At least five minutes with the stand mixer! Probably more like ten minutes by hand.

Shoot, yes! Maureen, I should've mentioned that. I have a 6-quart Kitchenaid, which can handle the bigger batch. If you have a smaller mixer, kneading by hand may be necessary.

Gah! Accidentally hit post. Anyway, I love knowing, and if we have more babies I will always want to find out their sex in utero, but I also feel it's a very personal decision. I've seen deprecating comments about both decisions from people who chose the opposite way, and I have no patience for that. Who cares? People can be crazy.

This is so interesting, Jennie. And Meaghan's comment about whether most women wouldn't like the chance to do their first pregnancies over again really hit home for me. We *didn't* find out with our first (Camilla) and did with subsequent ones, and interestingly, if *I* could go back and do it over, I would find out the first time too. With all our boys we knew at 16wks, and it turned out I loved knowing. I felt like it helped me relax into the pregnancy in a way that I couldn't the first time when I was missing this vital piece of information (that I could've had, but had chosen not to have!) about my baby. I thought a lot about my boys' names - and with my twins, I made the decision about which one would have which name based on which one felt like which in the womb, which sounds crazy but was very concrete to me

What a lovely recap, Jennie. I hope you know how much all of us non-Organizers appreciate all the work that you do on this event. You pour yourselves into it, and it shows. I'm really, really grateful. I feel like I've been waiting for ages to meet you, and I was bummed I didn't get more time to talk to you last weekend. But I'm determined to fix that next time! I'll be like a barnacle! You won't be able to shake me! Thank you for being awesome, as always.

Celeste, I'm fascinated by the idea of Gratitude Privilege! I think you're right - just having our needs met in a way that allows us energy left over to contemplate our blessings is surely a privilege in itself.

Erin, as I read your comment I thought, "She misunderstood me!" and then I reread my post and realized that it was my own fault entirely. I did not say what I meant. I edited the post and it now says exactly what I mean to say about my own experience. I *hope* that the newly edited post does not offend you, but if it does, we'll just have to respectfully agree to disagree about what twin parenthood means to us. All the best to you!

Kate, I have hope that he or she will too! I really think if my blood pressure hadn't started going up (it was 150/100 the day I went to the hospital for their delivery) then we would have been able to keep the babies in at least a few days, maybe even a week, longer. Since you don't have the BP complication, really strict bed rest might do it for you. But it is hard! Keep holding on - I'm praying for you.

Danielle, thanks for asking! The truth is, I don't know anything about St. Blaise that you can't find by Googling. My husband and I just liked the name. And my due date with our baby Blaise was February 2nd, and St. Blaise's feast day is February 3rd, so it seemed appropriate. We've been really happy with his name, and I'm glad you like it! Good luck finding a name for your little guy. (Oh, and congratulations on the baby!)

Rosie Kate, you're so right! (And how very Thomistic of you. :-)) It's such a crucial balance we must strive for in the Christian life, figuring out what "letting God's grace do its work in our lives" looks like. How much do we do, and how much does he do? Of course the final answer is that everything good is caused by his grace, but we do have a responsibility, too, to take the steps he asks of us, to figure out what those steps are. Empowered by his grace at every moment, yes, but our will plays a part. I guess there's a reason these things are called "mysteries," huh? I'm making my own head spin even as I write! But my point is that you're totally right, RK. And thanks for pointing it out!

We once actually bought a humidifier with a "permanent filter" that you could supposedly wash and reuse. Except we have very hard water and after a couple months there was buildup anyway... And then we couldn't find a replacement filter because they were supposed to be permanent. So that was actually worse than just sucking it up and budgeting $20/month on humidifier filters all winter long. Which is what we now do. But we don't like it.

Amy, I can't believe how big your boys are getting! Glad they enjoyed Halloween. :)