Halfway cooked

Last week, our OB said they consider 36 full term for mono/di (our type of identical) twins. I was 18 weeks on Tuesday, making these babies halfway cooked!

We had our 18 week TTTS monitoring ultrasound on Wednesday, and all looks great. No signs of TTTS - I think this only happens in about 5-10% of identical twin pregnancies.

Sleeping is getting difficult already. I guess gaining the baby belly so quickly because of the twins doesn't agree with me. Whichever side I lay on starts to ache or falls asleep (pins and needles) about every hour. Plus, I think the boys are dancing on my bladder. Hoping that one of those pregnancy wedge shaped pillows will work to help me sleep...regular pillows are not working for me.

It's not all doom and gloom though! So excited the boys are doing well and can't wait for he big anatomy scan in 2 weeks. We will get their estimated weight for the first time!

Its a boy! Its another boy!

Last Saturday, both sets of grandparents came with us to an elective 3D/4D ultrasound for the gender reveal.  The car ride survey was 5 guesses for boys and one guess for girls.

Before the big reveal!  From Left to Right: Grandpop, Mom, (? debate over name - Grandma?), Gran, Pop (photo by Dad)

The ultrasound was a lot of fun and I am so glad we got to share it with our families!  We got lots of neat photos and a (long) video of the whole scan.

Oh, did I mention we are having two boys!  Jackson Lee and Benjamin Michael.  

Its a boy!

Its a boy, too!

Baby B hamming it up on the camera.  His "I'm too sexy" pose:)

Baby B on left, Baby A on right (you can see his butt at the top).  Also, an umbilical cord in the background.

Baby parts!  Baby A is on left, head at top just out of the screen.  Baby B is on the right head down and out of focus, arm of B in middle of picture.

Our next TTTS (Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome) monitoring ultrasound is Wednesday and our Anatomy scan is two weeks after that!  At the OB's office, they told me they consider 36 weeks full term for mono/di twins.  Tomorrow I will be 18 weeks, making these boys halfway cooked!  Yippeee:)  The OB also said if things were progressing normally with the pregnancy, they would let me go until 37 weeks before scheduling an induction or c-section.  So the latest these boys will arrive will be August 9.  They also said that a lot depends on how the pregnancy progresses, how the shared placenta performs, how the babies are growing and if they are growing evenly (since they are sharing the placenta), and my health.  If there are issues with any of these things, the date may be earlier.  I am hoping everything goes well and I can cook these boys until 36 weeks, which should minimize the chance they have to spend time in the NICU.

In other news, the grandmothers are throwing us a baby shower!  I asked to have it early since this pregnancy is considered high-risk and I want to be able to enjoy seeing friends and family.  The shower will be in early May when I am 24 weeks pregnant.  For those who want to see a nice pregnant belly, have no worries, they say when carrying twins, your uterus is the size of a woman carrying a singleton who is 6-8 weeks further along.  Meaning at 24 weeks, I should look 30-32 weeks;)  Yay for me...  I keep forgetting to have Mike take a nice belly shot, and he is traveling for work today and tomorrow. 

We have started doing a bit of shopping.  I picked up the cutest baby blanket and nursery set - we are going to use the colors from this for the boys nursery - not sure which color(s) yet.  The foxes tail is a rattle and there are all kinds of neat textures on the quilt, so when the boys are too small to use the blanket, they can sit on the quilt on the floor and play with it!  We also picked out cribs and crib mattresses at Ikea - nice and affordable for buying two (they don't recommend co-sleeping twins anymore due to increased risk for SIDS).

Nursery theme - woodland animals!

Early shower gift from Mike's mom and dad - our stroller!  Mike almost got the whole thing together without the directions:)

The car seats (also and early gift from Mike's mom and dad) snap into the stroller frame.  This one is a compact double, so the car seats sit side by side.  You can see the babies, they can see each other, and they each have a view.

View of the car seats from the perspective of the person pushing the stroller.

We picked up some clothes at another consignment sale.  Once again, you have to be at these things early to get any of the baby gear items.  We are looking for a used pull behind bike carrier for my mom, a BOB brand jogging stroller with the front wheel that swivels but can lock, and extra car seat bases.  Yard sale fun this spring/summer:)

Middletown mom's club consignment sale.  All the heads are people in line behind Mike...  Sale started at 8 am and this was about 8:45!

Lots of toys!

Much Ado About Nothing...

We had a bit of a scare two weeks ago and I haven't felt like writing about it...
I woke up, did the usual pregnant lady bathroom trip, got back in to bed, and noticed a wet spot on the sheets.  I turned on the lamp, and sure enough, there was fluid...enough to wet the top and bottom sheets making a spot about 8 inches in diameter.  The fluid was clear and odorless.  I had been having a few drips show up for the previous 3 days, fluid of similar consistency and nothing that seemed like normal discharge to me.  The next day I called my OB and they advised me to go to the hospital.

After some waiting...well, lets say a lot of waiting, they checked my cervix and said it was closed, which is good.  They took a sample of fluid from around the cervix area and looked at it under the microscope and said everything looked normal.  After some pleading on my part, they checked both babies and the amniotic fluid using an ultrasound scan.  Again, everything looked normal.

Side note, note sure why they were so insensitive at the hospital.  Once they found the cervix to be closed, they were about to send me on my way.  When I asked if they were going to check on the babies, the doctor actually said there would be nothing they could do if there was something wrong.  Really?!  That's what you tell your patients you crazy jerk?!  Well, the look on my face must have said it all, because he changed his tone and said he would see if they could do an ultrasound at the attached maternal fetal medicine office, which thankfully they did and the doctor there was super nice!

They said to resume normal activity.  I continued to have some small drips of fluid, I am talking dime sized drips every 4-6 hours, for 3 more days.  I went to work for a few hours the next day, but couldn't take it, so I went home and put my feet up.  No issues since and the last leakage was 1.5 weeks ago.

The positive side to the whole crazy story is that when I talked with the really nice doctor at Maternal Fetal Medicine, she said since my twins share a placenta, I should have appointments scheduled every two weeks to monitor for Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome and an anatomy and growth scan every four weeks.  No one had told us about that and we were able to schedule those appointments while we were there.

Today we went in for our 16 week monitoring, the first of many!  Everything looked normal and healthy!!!  Amniotic fluid was fine!  The two of them were moving around some much the poor ultrasound tech had trouble getting all of the information she needed.  It was great to see them moving around and active.  Initally, she had asked me if I thought I felt movement yet, and when I felt some jabs here and there since Friday, she looked a bit skeptical.  Once she saw them moving around like crazy in there, she said that she wouldn't be surprised if I was already feeling them moving around at 16 weeks.  Also, she said the placenta is all in the back, so the front was "nice and thin."

Both babies together, lying on top of one another, one head is on the right, the other on the left.

Baby B (aka Baby 2) profile shot.  The little bugger was moving around so much it make his features look blurred.

Baby A (aka Baby 1) sat still enough for a photo!

On Saturday, Mike and I went to a Mothers of Multiples Second Hand Sale.  This one was in Pennsylvania and we were using it as a practice for one coming up in Delaware in April.  It started at 10am; we got there at 9:45.  The line was around the building!  By the time we were inside, most of the "gear" type items were sold, but we did pick up a nice changing table.  There were a lot of clothes, so once we know if we are having boys or girls, we will be able to take advantage of that too!  We kind of figured it was going to be like a black friday of sorts, so now we are planning on going to go to the DE sale early.

Nicole @ Mothers of Multples Sale!

Mike with the changing table we bought.

We picked up a new changing pad and cover at Buy Buy Baby and started a Baby Registry there!  

Diaper Bag Daddy!  Mike modeling the diaper bag we picked out at Babies R Us! 

Me with the same Diaper Bag!

On Saturday, we are going for an elective ultrasound and will find out if we are having boys or girls!  Both sets of grandparents will be there for the big news.  Most of the old wives tales point to boys, which is what I have thought from the beginning, but something tells me it has to be girls.  Either way, we can't wait to see our babies again on Saturday.  And it will be nice to see our parents too:)

What is your prediction?  Boys or girls?!