Week 20 Doctor Appointment

Last Monday I had my week 20 doctor appointment. It was fairly uneventful. The doctor did a quick ultrasound (seems like I get to see the boys each week!) and Baby A was doing the cutest thing. He was lying down on his back and had his arms behind his head and and his legs crossed. He looked like he was just relaxing and having a good time!

Other than the ultrasound, the appointment was uneventful. The boys are doing well. I asked Dr. McKernan where I would deliver and he said Arrowhead. Yay! That's where I wanted to deliver. He also told me I would most likely deliver by cesarean section since the likelihood that both babies will be in position is slim, but he said it could happen.

We are so grateful that the boys continue to develop healthy and can't wait until we get to see them next.

Week 20 Belly Pics!

Here is a picture of me at 20 weeks. I'm getting huge! This picture was taken last Wednesday, when I was exactly 20 weeks pregnant. Eric says I'm beginning to look like an apple on toothpicks. It seems my legs keep getting skinnier while my belly gets bigger!

Level II Ultrasound Pics

Well, it's official! We're having two boys! On Friday, I had an appointment with a perinatologist and it went very well. Detailed anatomical measurements were taken and it was confirmed that both babies are very much boys! It was so much fun to see each moving around. Baby A is still an active contortionist who likes to kick his brother-alot! Baby B is still active, but seems a little more chill than Baby A.

Both boys are developing well and show no signs of spina bifida or down syndrome and in fact were way below the markers for these. Baby A is measuring 12 oz which relates to the gestational age of 19 wks, 3 days. Baby B is measuring 9 oz which relates to the gestational age of 19 wks, 1 day (the appointment was at 19 wks 2 days). We inquired of the perinatologist of this difference and if it was anything to worry about and he said absolutely not and that we shouldn't even think about it. He said that since they are two separate babies, their growth is going to be different. He said you begin to worry about the size difference when they are weeks apart, not just a few days.

I will have to see this specialist again around 28 weeks to make sure the babies are continuing to develop right on schedule. I certainly don't mind as they have the coolest ultrasound machine I've ever seen and I get to see the babies for more than an hour! Yeah!

Below some of the pictures from the appointment. There were a bunch, so if you'd like to see them all, please click on this link:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0R9BE7BJ

**Note: when you enter the website, enter the 3 letter code and click download. There will be a short wait time, but then you'll be able to download all the pics. Just click on "free download" under the "Free" column.

And here are some of our faves:

Baby A's hands

Baby B pointing to the Heavens

Baby A's Feet
Baby A kicking Baby B in the head

Baby B's gender confirmed

Profile Shots

Head shot of Baby A

Head shots of Baby B

The first one is so cute with his arms up by his head. It kind of looks like he's throwing a temper tantrum.

I finally felt the babies!

I have been waiting (not so patiently) to feel the babies. In my weekly emails I receive from babycenter.com, it said that if you are carrying twins, you can feel them as early as week 14. Needless to say, I've been trying very hard to feel one of them move since then. I was beginning to get anxious as I'm 18 weeks today (and in my head I certainly should have felt them by week 18 and if not, something must be wrong!), so I was very excited to feel them on Monday.

On my way to work, I felt this little nudge on the left side of my belly. I felt it three times. After the first, I thought it was just my tummy growling or some sort of intestinal movement (I'm sure you wanted to know that!), but it just felt different. After the third little nudge, I knew it was a baby. It was very exciting and I will always remember it. Later that night, as Eric and I were watching TV, I felt it again. I grabbed Eric's hand so he could feel it. He was able to feel the baby nudge and confirmed that it couldn't be my intestines since it was not where they are located. We were both thrilled! I feel the same movement quite often now and it gives me so much reassurance that we have healthy babies. Grow, babies, grow!

Weird Dreams

Just so that I remember....
During the past few weeks, I've had a few vivid, weird dreams. I know it is completely normal to have weird dreams during pregnancy, but I just think they are so weird! I never dream!

They haven't been quite like Jenny McCarthy's as she described in her book, Belly Laughs (this has been one of my favorite pregnancy books-it's SOO funny!). In her book, she said she had recurring dreams that she would give herself a cesarean, take the baby out and play with him, and then put him back and sew herself up. At least I'm not doing that in mine!

Below are my weird dreams to date:

1. A few days before Eric and I found out that we are probably having two boys, I dreamt that we found out they were two boys and I started bawling hysterically while the tech was performing the ultrasound. This upset me so much when I woke up! I was so upset that I would have that type of reaction in my dream. Needless to say, I did not have that reaction at the real appointment.
2. Last week I dreamt that I gave myself an ultrasound so I could see the babies. This was also a disturbing dream as I could only find one baby!
3. Last night I dreamt that I had hair growing on my belly. It was like thick, man chest hair but was only on my belly. In my dream I was running my fingers throught it! I was freaking out because I didn't want to have to shave it off and because if I did, you'd be able to tell. I did NOT want any medical staff knowing that I was shaving my belly like a man shaves his face. A five o'clock shadow on my belly!

Halfway there! And the anxiety is in full effect....

This Wednesday I'm officially 18 weeks pregnant. Do you know what this means? I'll be over halfway through the pregnancy since average gestation for twins is only 35 weeks. Four more months!!! Eric and I have been dealing with this the past few weeks and are starting to widdle down our to-do list of things that MUST get done.

Last weekend, we finally finisehd painting the office so Eric can move his desk from the spare bedroom upstairs back to the office. He moved it before the Boards so he could lock himself away and have no disturbances (apparently I can be a disturbance!). We thought it was going to be an easy job; we wanted to paint three horizontal stripes and we'd already painted the middle section a few weeks ago. Well, apparently our ceiling isn't level, so when we tried to measure the lines from the ceiling, they were coming out wavy. The part of drawing off the sections was only supposed to take a little while and ended up taking hours. We had to borrow my dad's big ladder to paint the top section and in order to bring the ladder, we needed his truck. So, needless to say, as frustrating as it was to do this project, it had to get done last Saturday so we could bring his truck back and Eric could get his car! After working all day (and Eric and I both fighting off colds), we got the top section painted and I was able to finish the bottom section on Sunday.

Below are the fruits of our labor. I think it turned out nicely for us novices to try fancy paintwork!

And now we feel a little better and can almost check off the first thing on our to-do list: moving the desk downstairs.

Week 16 Belly Pics!

I am so much bigger now than I was at 12 weeks! Or even last week for that matter. Those growing pains I had last week resulted in big belly poppage! Below is a picture of me taken on Monday, where I was 16 3/4 weeks pregnant. I am waiting to feel them any day now!

These boys are growing!!