Gratuitous Cuteness

Her - not me. First dance class today! Mommy and daddy were so proud. She can't wait to practice Pizza Feet (first position). Awwwww!

20 weeks, a midwife appointment and a sold car

20 weeks, taken last Thursday. Substantial growth in the past week. Went to the midwife today and met our backup midwife Amy, as Colleen is on holidays for September. Pretty uneventful, although we did confirm that the ultrasound was totally normal and no abnormalities were found. We weren't given the exact measurements but the babies were millimetres apart in length and on the small side of average in overall size which is completely normal for twins. My blood pressure was good, I measured 22 cm and their heartbeats were in the 140s for A and the 150s for B.

In other news, I got spoiled for the big 3-4 this weekend. In addition to getting sent for two spa treatments and a night at a hotel, I got the following cake care of Jordan's Grill and Bar. Mmmm, tasted as good as it looked.

Lastly, we sold the Matrix for the price we were asking. Great news although it was a sad day. That car has treated us well over the past 4 years and when we bought it we intended it to serve our family a lot longer than it did. Alas, the universe had other plans. Farewell Matrix...you'll be missed.

Obstetrician Appointment

So we met with Dr. Cooper, our obstetrician. Very nice man. The appointment was interesting to say the least. We talked a lot about the things I already knew/had read but we focussed in a lot more on the risks which I was trying to ignore. Here are some of the risks and how they are going to be (hopefully) mitigated:

1. The poor human cervix is not meant to hold in more than one baby at a time and as such could fail me at any time, leading to very premature labour. The plan is to physically check my cervix every two weeks from 24-32 weeks as that is when I am at the highest risk.

2. The babies, being identical, are sharing a placenta. This is not a good thing because one can be literally sucking the life out of the other via the blood supply, causing one to grow inordinately and one to be unhealthily small. They will give me an ultrasound every 4 weeks to watch the growth of the babies and make sure they are progressing at the same rate.

3. My chances for "regular" pregnancy maladies such as high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, etc, will be increased. As such, they will watch me closely and any tests that were optional with Rio will be mandatory this time around. He also said there is a decent chance I will spend at least a night or two in the hospital at some point during the pregnancy because if any levels of pretty much anything are elevated I will be admitted until they figure things out. Ewwwwww.

4. The general aches and pains of pregnancy will be vastly increased this time around, partly due to size and partly due to added hormones. Apparently the hormones to stretch muscles and ligaments are going double time and this is what is leading to my ridiculous sacrum and now knee pain along with some fairly severe uterine cramping. This is going to get nothing but worse in the upcoming weeks so he is "concerned" for my overall physical well being if I am in this pain now. Oh, and just to throw in an added bonus, the extra hormones softening all the right places are also softening all joints...meaning I am at higher likelihood for twisting or breaking an ankle or any other bone. Great! Like I won't be fat and clutzy enough I need to worry about breaking a bone!

5. Being pregnant with twins is hard. Period. As such, he wants me off work by 24 weeks (4 weeks from now), or 26 weeks at the latest. That came as a bit of a shocker. I didn't even contemplate the fact that I would be told to go off early. I can't say it's a horrible thing because it will be great to hang out with Rio, plus I am in a lot of pain already, but it is just surprising that after all my jokes about being "delicate" I am apparently quite delicate!

So ya, none of that really good news, but all of it is worst case scenario. I appreciated that he never told us anything to alarm us but wanted to give us the hard facts so that if any of the above do happen we might not be so scared and confused at the time. The odds of all the complications are really only 50% so I need to tell myself I'm going to be in the good 50%, not the bad.

Oh - one last tidbit. When I asked him how many people are going to be in the delivery room (actually the OR, solely for the purpose of fitting all the guests in attendance) his answer was "Roughly 15". FIFTEEN?! With Rio there were three people in the room and you're telling me I need five times the staff for two times the babies? The rundown was something like: Me and Jord, the OB, my midwife, an anaesthetist (Go epidural! I went drug free with Rio but this time it's mandated so I'm on board) and his or her assistant, two pediatricians and their assistants, and at least 4 nurses. So that takes us to 14. Throw in a few student nurses and med students and we could round this party out at 20. And this is what's involved for a normal twin birth. I shudder to think who's in attendance if things start to go sideways. I am reminding myself that very few people get the quiet, uncomplicated birth and labour I had with Rio so it's ok that this time it is a bit of a circus because it's all in the best interests of myself and the babies.

With all those facts and figures it's a lot to absorb and needless to say I didn't really sleep easy last night. All that being said, at this very moment in time both the babies and I are doing well so that's what we need to focus on. One day at a time.

I am 20 weeks today and will post a picture at some point, likely after my midwife appointment next week. Have a great weekend!

The ultrasound details

A's Foot

B's Profile

Here's details as promised.

The scan was at 12:30 so I took the day off work, thinking the morning would be stressful. I was correct, the morning was horrible. The anticipation of it and the whole experience itself were a bit much for me to handle and I didn't really feel better till it was over. Everyone around me has been, and is so excited, where as my happiness feels complicated. I do think every day will get easier from here, now that we know all is well.

We got there 20 minutes early and they called us in 15 minutes late, so that added to my stress. I sat in the waiting room cursing them for making a full bladder wait even longer than it had to. Turns out they were late because they were scrambling to try to re-book appointments because my midwife hadn't booked a long enough appointment for twins. The tech only knew it was twins because she reviewed my last scan and then realized she didn't have enough time. Originally she was going to scan us at our allotted time, then we would have had to leave and come back for her to do the second half. Thankfully when we got half way she found out they had done more shuffling in the mean time so we did the whole thing at once. About an hour and a half as opposed to a normal 30-40 minute scan, but she got all the images she needed.

Apparently it is incredibly difficult to scan twins because one is always moving to cover part of the other. It was pretty amazing to see the difference and see how hard she had to work. At one point I literally had to get up and do a bit of a dance in an attempt to get one of the babies to move. She tried everything and for the life of her could not get his profile. My dancing worked and she got a great profile shot and all the other shots she ended up needing.

So everything looks good. She of course couldn't say much, but the fact that we didn't get left forever while she discussed with a radiologist made us feel good. They are basically the same size, she was quick to point out 4 kidneys, and she didn't spend an overly long time on the hearts or brains which was also reassuring. Heartbeats were 142 for Baby A (the lazy one) and 155 for Baby B (the mover and shaker). I guess we will get all the details when we meet the OB next Wednesday.

The babies are currently positioned so they are stacked front to back instead of top to bottom. Additionally, my placenta is on the back of my uterus, so basically a placenta and 2 babies are stacked on me back to front. I am hoping that this accounts for my getting-worse-every-minute-sacrum-pain and that if and when they move to be top/bottom that will alleviate it a bit. Baby A (first to be born) was technically slightly lower and to the right and back, and Baby B was slightly higher and to the left and front.

She was able to see the gender basically right at the beginning so it was pretty cool to hear her refer to them as "he" and "his brother" as any previous ultrasounds I have had refer only to "the baby(s)". We are excited it's boys, but of course would have been just as excited if it were girls. I don't think either of us had a real preference but now that we know it's boys I am really excited that it means Rio is our one and only princess. Speaking of Rio, she is just ecstatic and can't wait to meet her babies.

If I get any more exciting details I will post after we meet Dr. Cooper on Wednesday. Have a good weekend!

The ultrasound results in 2 words

Healthy boys!

Details and pictures to come. It's been an emotionally exhausting day...

To find out or not to find out

As the ultrasound fast approaches I am starting to question our (my) decision to find out the gender of the babies. Jordan fully supports this, yet I know if it was completely up to him he wouldn't find out. Part of me says what's the harm in finding out, while the other part says I am ruining 1 of the 2 great surprises of my life (the other being Rio). However as a friend points out, it's still a surprise, we're just choosing to find out a few months early.

So here are my reasons for finding out:

1. When we had our loss I decided right then that next pregnancy I would want to find out the gender in order to bond better with the baby. 

2. I don't want to come up with 4 first names and 4 middle names. 8 names is a lot.

3. We have friends waiting to give us hand me down clothing, gender specific. This isn't such a concern if the twins are girls but if they are boys we have nothing. I know it will take a bit of effort to get these clothes (e.g. getting them back from other people, not giving them to the Salvation Army because their basements are overflowing, etc.) so I'd rather ask for them sooner than later.

Here are my reasons for not finding out:

1. See #1 above - I don't really see that being an issue anymore. Now that I am pregnant I don't have any trouble bonding with these little guys. I don't feel like I need to know their sex to know "who they are".

2. We will have other ultrasounds so we could find out in the future. But then why find a month down the road if we're going to find out anyway?

3. Surprise is gone. That's it, bottom line. 

So my real question is, what is the harm if the surprise is gone? Am I going to regret finding out? But on the other hand, will I just be stressing because I can't plan enough if I don't know? And God knows I don't need to add more stress to this occasion!

18 week photo

Just a quick update to attach an 18 week photo taken last Thursday. Things are good - the ultrasound is coming up in 4 days and we are both nervous and excited. We are already making some baby purchases (stroller, carseats, etc) and starting to organize some things in their bedroom. I feel a bit apprehensive about doing this but at the same time know we need to assume a positive outcome from the ultrasound.

I am feeling ok in terms of my cold FINALLY being mostly done; however the back pain has really set in. I feel like I did with Rio when I was 35+ weeks pregnant so I am concerned about how hard the upcoming months might be on my poor weak back. I am going to acupuncture and soon starting massage, yoga and aquafit, so will do everything I can to stay comfortable and healthy.

Summer is done in Victoria (rain rain, please go away!) and we had some great holidays. Jordan and I just had a fantastic weekend in Vancouver without Rio to see old friends who also farmed out their 3 year old. An amazing concert, great food and friends, and sleep ins were much enjoyed. Now must go and more attentively watch a tutu clad Rio shake her booty to daddy's guitar.