4th Ultrasound: The Results Are In!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had our gender ultrasound today. We're having................

a BOY and a GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We could not be more excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Baby A is the boy, Baby B is the girl.
The babies are doing great! The heartbeats were nice and strong. My cervix was described as "perfect"! Ha-ha. They are growing right along, and we got nothing but good news today. Well, I was told I have to double my iron pill intake.... ick!!!! But the babies are doing just terrific.

Sorry for the quality of these pics. My scanner isn't working, so I had to take pictures.

Where to start...

If you want to start reading from the very beginning of our journey, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page. That's where the blogging first starts. :)
To read older blogs that may not be on this front page, click the links on the left side under "Blog Archive". The first blog is the link at the very bottom of the blog archive. Thanks!

Facts on Twin Pregnancy

I guess I should mention that we are having fraternal twins.

This article below has a lot of good information that is right to the point about twin pregnancy and what that means for me as mom. The big risks are high blood pressure, which thankfully I'm starting with ultra low bp (if it hits 100/15 that's good for me), so I should be ok there.

Also, anemia is a big side effect of carrying twins. I do have anemia, and always have since I was younger. I take care of this with daily prenatals, folic acid, and of course an iron pill.

Other than that, preterm labor is always a factor. Twins are commonly born a couple weeks or so early. They are usually just as healthy as someone who went full term. In fact, it's less than 5% that preterm twin babies have trouble.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/twin-pregnancy/PR00120

3rd Ultrasound: Hula girl

Our third ultrasound was with Perinatal Associates. I was 13 weeks then. Along with seeing a regular OBGYN, we have to see a Perinatalogist due to our pregnancy being high risk. It's labeled as high risk since we are carrying multiples. I'll post a separate blog about twin pregnancy specifics for those of you who are curious.

We first met with a Genetics Counselor who took our family medical history. She assessed our situation to be healthy, with very minimal risks. We were offered an NT scan which measures the back folds of the babies' neck to show signs of Downs Syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities. We decided to do the scan, and so far the results are great.

We also got to hear the heartbeats, and that was such a fantastic sound! Baby A's heart rate was 149bpm and Baby B's was 140bpm. The doctor said that was great. Baby A was in a great position for the doctor to take all the measurements. Baby B had its back to the camera and did want want to pose for any pictures. The doctor told me to do the "hula" in which I motion like I was doing a hula hoop. I laid back on the table after my hula dance and sure enough, Baby B had turned towards the camera to get the measurements done. They are both growing right on track!

Belly Pics

36 Weeks




28 Weeks


20 Weeks



15 Weeks


6 Weeks

2nd Ultrasound: Our cute little beans

On December 3rd we had our second ultrasound. I was 9 weeks at this point. Heartbeats were good and strong, and the babies had definitely grown!

1st Ultrasound: We're having what?!?!

I had my first ultrasound on November 19th when I was 6 weeks along. I was so nervous for some reason. I think I had the thought of "what if the nurse was wrong?" and the possibility that nothing would be there on the screen.

As soon as the ultrasound started our doctor said "Well, there's two!". He found both babies right away. I barely remember anything that happened after that point. I do remember there being two flickering heartbeats on the screen, and I couldn't believe my eyes. I am pretty sure my jaw was on the floor. I looked over at Nathan and he was smiling from ear to ear. I've never seen him look more thrilled in my life. I looked at the doctor to make sure he was really there and this wasn't some bizarre dream that was happening. After he told us that they both look great, relief started to seep in. The doctor asked me "Are you happy?" and I then realized I hadn't said anything or even blinked up to that point. I shook my head yes, but nothing could really come out. Don't get me wrong... I was ecstatic!!! But shock had set in and was taking over my body and facial expressions.

I always knew there was a possibility that it could be more than one. In fact, our friends and family would even joke with us and refer to them as the "babies" before we even knew. I think everyone had a slight inclination that this was possible. I guess I still wasn't prepared for the doctor to actually tell me there really was more than one. Even as I type this now, I can't believe how blessed we are that God gave us two miracles.

We could barely wait to tell everyone! We called everyone we knew on our way home.


Here's the babies' first picture!

Halloween - Not so scary afterall!

Well, it was 8:00AM on Halloween, and I couldn't stand the wait any longer! Not because it's Halloween, even though we all know that this is by far my FAVORITE holiday. But for a much more important reason!

I rushed to the hospital to get my blood drawn to see if I'm pregnant. At that point I felt like I was. If I wasn't, I couldn't explain the 5 gallons of orange juice I had just consumed. Not to mention the chocolate bar that sounded like the perfect companion to the OJ.

I got back from the hospital, and waited very impatiently. Why was it taking so long?! It had been 10 minutes, shouldn't they have sent the results to my doctor, who had received them, looked them over, and then looked up my information to call me? I mean really, 10 minutes is plenty of time!

So, 4 hours later...I called my doctor for the umpteenth time, and to my great relief they had the results......................."Well?!?!" I screamed in my head as the poor nurse on the line took too long to spit it out. "It's positive!" she said! I was sooooo excited!!!! She proceeded to give me my HCG level. To many of you this will make no sense at all, and you probably don't care. But the HCG is the hormone level of human chorionic gonadotrophins the body produces to support a pregnancy. Lets just say my number was high. I was thinking there could be more than one in there at this point, but I was more focused on the fact that there was one at all!

I crept to the back bedroom where Nathan was still sleeping (yes, it's about 12PM by now). I took a pregnancy stick into the bathroom with me so that I had something of tangible proof to show him. I woke him up by showing him the stick that said "PREGNANT" and a big smile on my face. He was so happy!! We both just sat there talking about how exciting this was going to be and when we should tell everyone. I'll never forget how special it was.

I knew Halloween was my favorite holiday for a reason, and now I know what that reason is!!!!