14 Week Ultrasound

They’re GIRLS!

We’re very excited and I can’t wait to start decorating their room. The doctor was very adamant about me not doing any painting myself though. I kind of planned to just ignore that, but Luke told me on the way home that I needed to listen to the doctor. I know he’s right - we’d never forgive ourselves if something happened to the babies because I was being stubborn and wanted to do everything myself, but that didn’t stop the tears from coming. The doctor had also told me during the visit that I wasn’t allowed to do any of the stuff we had planned for our Vegas trip this weekend – no helicopter sight-seeing tour, tour around the Grand Canyon, nothing fun. I had made peace with the idea of early bed-rest, but the idea of not being able to enjoy the time before that is awfully frustrating.

So now my mission is to figure out ways to do what I want to do without breaking any of the rules…I’ll figure something out J

Here is the ultrasound picture from today’s visit. I’m so used to seeing 2 of everything that I was very confused as to what I was looking at when the ultrasound tech handed this picture to me on the way out. For other clueless people – it’s a shot between the legs of baby A – just showing there is nothing there to confirm that they’re girls.

On a somewhat unrelated note - last weekend was Father's Day and my mom had out the camera. Here is what my baby bump is looking like these days:

12 Week Ultrasound

Today we had our 12 week ultrasound visit. The babies are still looking healthy, albeit a bit on the small side. Based on their size alone, they’re 3 days and 5 days, respectively, behind where they should be. That’s consistent with where they were during the first 2 ultrasounds, so I suspect my due-date may be off by a few days. The nurse said that they won’t change the due date as long as it’s that close, so we’re sticking with December 22 (not that it really matters given the planned early delivery).

I asked the doctor when we would be able to find out what they were. I meant what the gender of the babies was, but I was struggling with my words. I tried to save the conversation and said “I mean I know they’re babies, but when can we find out if they’re boys or girls?” I’m pretty sure the doctor muttered underneath her breath “puppies” which made me giggle a bit. She then started shaking my belly with the ultrasound scanner trying to get them to move apart (they were curled up together before that and it was hard to differentiate one’s body parts from the others’). Unfortunately she couldn’t get a good enough look to tell us for sure what the gender is. She said she thought she knew, but didn’t want to tell us until she was absolutely sure. To my untrained eyes, I didn’t see anything between their legs, so I think they’re likely girls – but hopefully we’ll get a confirmation next time.

We strangely don’t have a preference as to whether they’re boys or girls. I really would have expected to feel strongly about it one way or another, but with all the potential risks that have been thrown out there, our focus has just been on having healthy babies. I’m very anxious to know either way though – I have the week of 6/27 off and would love to get their room painted and start decorating during that time. The doctor keeps telling me to get my ducks in a row very early because I won’t be able to during bed rest, so I’m feeling the pressure.

Here are the ultrasound pictures from this week’s visit:

MOMs Group

Tonight I tried to attend my first Moms of Multiples (MOMs) meeting. Their website said they meet at the hospital on the first Monday of each month. Something about going into a room full of new people really makes me uncomfortable, so I was dreading it. I’m completely fine once I find someone to talk to, but the initial fear of the possibility of being the only one that doesn’t know anyone kinda freaks me out. Luke is usually the social one in those situations and loves having the opportunity to make new friends, but the name seemed to imply that it was for moms only which meant I was on my own for this one. Luke had given me a pep talk over dinner and I had prepared myself to try my best to be social (yes, I realize that sounds lame).

I got to the hospital and went to the room where I thought the meeting was, but that conference room and all of the rooms surrounding it were empty. In the lobby there was a group of very pregnant women and their significant others. I asked one of the women if this was the moms group and she said yes (after giving me a strange look). I thought “okay, not sure what that was about, but I don’t think I want to try to be friends with that one...” I took a seat and waited for something to happen.

A few minutes later a nurse came by and asked if everyone was there for the hospital tour. Now things were starting to make sense – while these were moms, they weren’t MOMs. Oops! I briefly considered taking the tour to avoid bringing attention to my mistake, but I’m not delivering at that hospital so it would be a waste of time. I got up and quietly made a getaway. I’ll try again next month.

Happy Anniversary To Us

Today is our 5 year anniversary and was our first visit to the specialist. While we were sitting in the waiting room we kept hearing someone frantically telling the nurses that she thought she had broken the machine and needed someone to come help her. She was running around in a panic. Luke and I kinda looked at each other, not sure what that was about, but didn’t think too much of it.

We got into the exam room and did the routine first visit stuff with the nurse – basically repeating everything we had told the previous doctor. Then the doctor comes in. To our surprise/concern, it was the seemingly crazy British lady that had been “breaking” the machine out in the hall. Even as she came in to see us she was all worked up because she couldn’t find her stethoscope and ran out of the room a couple times to go find it.

Fortunately the doctor pulled herself together and was less crazy while doing the initial exam. She walked in and shook my hand and immediately commented on how tiny my hands are. Luke added “that’s nothing – you should see how tiny her feet are!” to which the doctor responded “I haven’t gotten that far yet!” Later in the visit she asked if I had done this all by myself. I think she meant get pregnant with twins without fertility treatments, but it took a lot for me to not give her the smart-ass response that Luke helped.

My focus thus far had just been on how to keep the babies healthy and I hadn’t really given my own health too much thought. The doctor assured me that she would make sure the babies were okay, but that I needed to make sure I was fine too. My size, or lack thereof, seemed somewhat concerning to her. She told me to plan to be on bed rest as early as September because she expects as the babies get bigger I’ll have an increasingly hard time getting around. Since my torso is so short, she expects the babies will end up pushing on my chest and make it hard to breathe.

We learned a lot more during the visit than I was anticipating with regards to what to expect through the rest of the pregnancy. In addition to the doctor’s September bed rest prediction, the babies will need to be delivered via C-Section which will occur no later than at 36 weeks (December 1). They may need to be delivered sooner than that if my health is in danger or if they start to develop twin-twin transfusion. In the meantime, I’ll go in for an ultrasound every other week to monitor the babies and make sure they stay similar in size. As we get closer to the delivery date, that will likely increase to once a week. The doctor instructed me to gain 20 lbs by 20 weeks which should put me about the size of someone about to give birth to 1 baby. I’m sure there will be another weight gain goal once we get to that point. Based on one of the books I’m reading, it sounds like I’ll likely be close to 200lbs by the time I deliver. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to stay upright at that size. I guess we’re about to find out!

On the wall in the exam room was a framed picture of triplets and their stats at birth. Each weighed approximately 6 lbs – the doctor noted that although it might not be easy for me to carry 2 babies, the mom of those triplets was the same height as me (4’11’’) and they all came out fine. She is hoping for the same result for our babies. It’s not impossible, but is just going to take some close monitoring.

We had an ultrasound during the visit and the doctor confirmed that the babies are sharing a placenta. Here are some of the pictures from our visit. We had lunch before the appointment and the babies were very active - they looked like they were swimming on their backs. The ultrasound tech called it their "Pillsbury Dough Boy" stage - based on the second picture below, that's pretty accurate.

Beating the Odds Part 2: OhMyGoodness!

At 8 weeks it was time for my first prenatal check-up. I was very excited for the appointment because I was pretty sure it would include an ultrasound. I had to reschedule my first appointment because of jury duty, so I was even more anxious by the time the day came. Luke was with me and got his first experience of a trip to the OB/GYN and all the fun (not!) that goes along with the exam. We met with the doctor and talked through some of my concerns about health issues and started getting a plan together for the rest of the pregnancy – things like what supplements I would take and what warning signs to look for, etc. Then we moved down the hall to the ultrasound room.

While the ultrasound was being performed I was lying on the table and couldn’t see the screen. Luke was standing behind the technician watching what was going on, so all I could really go off of was his facial expressions. The technician was very quiet for the first few minutes which made me think something was wrong. I looked to Luke and he had a very confused look on his face. I kinda figured he just wasn’t sure what he was looking at. It’s so early in the pregnancy that I knew it probably would look more like a blob than a baby. Then came the conversation that would change our lives forever.

Ultrasound Tech: Do twins run in the family?

Me: That’s not funny – and no.

Ultrasound Tech: Well they do now!

Me: Really, that’s not a funny joke….

I looked over at Luke again. He wasn’t saying anything but had his hand over his mouth and just kept nodding his head. Eventually he said “I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at because I kept seeing 2!” Here is what he was seeing:

The ultrasound technician turned the screen for me to see – sure enough, there were 2 blobs on the screen. I kept saying “OhMyGoodness!” over and over. Looking back, I’m kinda proud of myself for not cursing like a sailor, but wow what a shock! I didn’t know what to think. Luke moved to the end of the table and rubbed my foot as we watched the monitor. I think that may have been all that was keeping him from ending up on the floor.

The technician was trying to figure out if the babies were identical or fraternal, but wasn’t having much luck. She went to track down the doctor and see if she had time to come look for herself. The doctor came in and started printing pictures of all different angles. She told us that she saw the membrane in between them and wanted to make sure she got it documented. Completely clueless about twins, I said “Oh, so they’re fraternal!” The doctor then realized that she was kinda talking above us and sat back and gave us a quick biology lesson.

Our twins are in the same placenta but in separate sacs (the membrane the doctor saw). Since they are sharing a placenta, they are definitely identical. She explained that there are 4 situations that can occur with identicals:

1.      2 placentas, 2 sacs

2.      1 placenta, 2 sacs

3.      1 placenta, 1 sac

4.      1 placenta, 1 sac – conjoined twins

It’s good that they’re in separate sacs because they can’t get tangled up in each other’s cord, and obviously we’re happy that they’re not conjoined, but sharing a placenta comes with risks too. The doctor explained that because of the shared placenta, this would be classified as a high risk pregnancy and she would no longer be able to see me. I needed to go to a specialist and would not be able to deliver outside of the medical center. Her nurses put together a package of information and a disc of images to bring with me to the specialist. They immediately put in a call to the best doctor in town and told them I needed an appointment ASAP. I asked the doctor what the concern was and she said twin-twin transfusion. She briefly explained what it was (basically the babies don’t share like they should) and told me there was lots of information online about it. I somewhat jokingly asked if I would get upset if I looked and she responded “actually maybe you shouldn’t do research…” Keep in mind, I’m being told all of this while still in a gown on the ultrasound table.

We walked out of there completely in shock. We weren’t sure what to think of it all. Within a half hour I got a call from the specialist’s office and made an appointment for a week and half later.

The whole day was such a whirlwind for me. I just really didn’t see all that coming. I (mistakenly) thought that you only would end up with twins if you had them in the family, were on fertility treatments, or if you were over 35. Since I don’t fall into any of those buckets, I didn’t think of it as an option. After doing some research we learned that that is generally true for fraternal twins (race can also be a factor), but identicals are just random and only occur in about 3 of every 1000 pregnancies. Lucky us…I think

Beating the Odds Part 1: Pregnancy Tests Lie

So I should probably start off with a disclaimer. Despite having lots of letters after our names (Nicki – CPA, Luke – CEBS, PHR, CMS, GBA) and being pretty good at googling/searching WebMD, we’re not doctors. This whole experience has been quite the biology lesson for us, but we’re learning.

Anyhow, here’s our story… Luke and I agreed about 2 weeks into dating that we both wanted to have kids one day. 7 years later, the time was finally right. We didn’t want to have a baby before I made manager and I really didn’t want to be super pregnant during busy season, so we had about a 4 month window to aim for.

By month 4 the pressure was on. Armed with a fertility monitor provided by a friend, I followed all the rules and was sure that this month we just couldn’t go wrong.

I had grand plans for how I would tell Luke we were having a baby and how we would celebrate while in Kansas City for friend’s wedding. I was pumped. I had a business trip to Florida the week before and after the KC trip, so I made sure to bring along pregnancy tests. All over the label it said things like “tells you 6 days before your missed period” and “unsurpassed accuracy.” I was sold on it.

So 5 days before, I excitedly took the test and was very quickly let down. I thought to myself “well maybe once I get closer it’ll work…surely that’s not right.” So the day my monthly frienemy was missing I gave it another shot. Same result as the first one – so at this point I’m hormonal and very disappointed. Instead of celebrating that weekend, poor Luke tried to comfort me.

Back to Florida I went. Monday night I went out to dinner with some of my co-workers. On the way back to the hotel the girl driving me innocently asked “So are you having babies anytime soon? If I were married, I would definitely want babies…”

I reluctantly went to the drug store that night and bought a couple more tests. I kept thinking of the quote “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” But I figured it was worth one more try even though I was pretty pessimistic about what the results would be.

The next morning I took the test. I was so sure it was going to be negative that I just left it on the counter and went back to bed (very different from excitedly watching it waiting for a response like I had done the prior week). A little while later I went back and checked it – this one was digital and very clearly read “Pregnant.” I stared at it in disbelief for a few minutes and then ran to my computer to try to figure out my due date (yes, I realize I’m an accountant…) My due date is 12/22 which happens to be Luke’s birthday.

I really didn’t want to tell Luke over the phone, so it was extremely hard trying to keep it from him for the next few days. I bought a onesie that said “I love my daddy” and wrapped it in birthday paper and gave it to Luke as an early birthday present when I got home. He opened it and then kept looking back and forth between me and the onesie and wasn’t saying anything. He eventually asked “So are you….?” He later explained that he was really confused because of the prior weekend when I was so sure I wasn’t pregnant. After that, why would I give him a onesie? After clearing up the confusion, he told me he had a gift for me as well and grabbed a wrapped present from the top of the closet (well above my reach). It was in Christmas paper, so he had been prepared for a while. It was 2 baby books – one was to prepare the dad-to-be and the other was for the mom-to-be. It really took me by surprise, I hadn’t expected him to have thought about it enough to go book shopping – it was really sweet.