Maternity Clothes

I finally had to do it....

Get Maternity Tops to wear to work!

I thought I'd be much further along before this happened.  Guess not!

This is at 20 weeks....

You know you're getting big when your belly sticks out further then your boobs!

John said I do look really cute, not sure if I believe him or if he's just trying to make me feel better.

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It's Broke...

We went out of town this weekend to see Sarah's family.  It was her Dad's birthday and this is the last weekend the doctor said Sarah could go out of town.  It was good to see everyone and have one last weekend away.  Sarah said it feels like we're being condemned since we can't go out of town!

Recently our car has been acting up.  Dan took a look at it for us this weekend.  We think we found out what's wrong with the car and we'll have to take it into the shop to get it fixed in the next couple weeks.  Something about a crankshaft-do-hicky-sensor-thingy went out and we need to remove the crankshaft-do-hicky-sensor-thingy nut to get to it.  I just said OK. Tweet This

Types of Twins

Before we found out that Sarah was having twins we only thought that there were 2 types of twins, identical and fraternal.  Well it turns out there are 3 types.  There are two characteristics that are used to judge the type of twins 1. how many placentas and 2. how many amnionic sacs.

Types of Twins

Di-Di twins - this means that the babies have their own separate amnionic sacs and placentas.  These twins came from 2 separate eggs and will always be fraternal twins.  These types of twins are commonly hereditary or "helped" by fertility drugs. (Don't worry Lisa, our twins aren't Hereditary!) This is the safest type of twins to have

Mono-Di twins - these twins share 1 placenta but have separate amnionic sacs.   This type of twin is from 1 egg splitting very early in the fertilization process. This type of twins has it's risks but is relatively safe.

Mono-Mono twins - this type of twins share both 1 placenta and 1 amnionic sac.  That means that their umbilical cords can easily wrap around each other or get tangled causing problems.  These twins are always identical and come from one egg splitting slightly later in the fertilization process.  Because everything is shared these are the highest risk type of twins.

It all sounds kind of confusing so this diagram we found kind of helps explain it:

Here's a link to the report that the diagram is from: http://jdm.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/22/1/59.pdf

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Dr Office - 19 weeks

April 20th, 2010


Sorry for the delay in getting this all posted.  Sarah had her 19 weeks appointment the other day, along with her FOURTH ultrasound.  This appointment was with a specialist doctor called a Peri doctor.  They specialize in high risk pregnancy's.  Sarah's doctor referred her to this doctor because they were having troubles distinguishing what type of twins they are.  


So what we learned from this doctor was "these are the worst kind of twins you can have" which means they're what you refer to as mono-mono twins.  I'll explain that better later.  What makes these types of twins so high risk is they share an amnionic sac and it's easy for their umbilical cords to get tangled and potentially stop the flow of nutrients and blood to the babies.  This is a potential complication that there's nothing to be done to prevent this.  

What this means for Sarah

At approximately 24-27 weeks, once the babies reach 2 pounds each; they will be what they call viable, meaning they can survive out of the womb if necessary.  Up until the point that they're viable, if there's any problems there's nothing that can be done to help.  Once they're past the viable point, things can change very quickly and may need to be delivered immediately if any problems.  Therefore once they hit the viable point, Sarah will be checking into the luxurious accommodations know as the hospital for 24 hour monitoring and daily ultrasounds until the babies are born.

The babies will have to be born C-Section, and the doctor will not let them go past 32 weeks due to the potential risk outweighs the rewards. This means we should be expecting the babies in July.  So much for a September due date!

So Sarah is probably going to be in the hospital around 6 weeks.  

When she found that out she asked "does the hospital have cable?"

After delivery the babies will then be taken to the Neo-Natal unit until they're to the point where the doctors feel they're ready to go home, probably until the 36 week mark.

The potential Good News

With all this sounding not good, the light at the end of tunnel here is the doctor said the babies look as perfect as they can being mono-mono twins.  They're on weight target as if there was only 1 baby, so they're growing great.  Their hearts are perfect right now too.  

So now for the next several weeks all we can do is hope, pray and wait to make sure things are good.

Highlights

Baby A

Weight - 9 oz 

Heart rate - 155

Baby B

Weight - 9 oz 

Heart Rate - 154

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GIRLS!

Yes, we found out that we'll be having 

IDENTICAL TWIN GIRLS!

Just wanted to let everyone know.

We'll put up details from the doctor's appointment in the next few days, 

our computer died yesterday, so we're a little behind on posting.

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Thanks Aunt Lynn!

So we got a little package in the mail today and opened it up to find these absolutely adorable baby booties from Aunt Lynn.

These are so adorable and we can't wait for our babies to wear them!

Thanks Aunt Lynn SO MUCH!

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Maternity Pants

Sarah had to get maternity pants the other day.  She's been resisting but her pants are all starting to leave marks and cut into her.  Yes, she is getting that big! She wore them once and said that she loves them.  They're the funniest things I've ever seen, I'm trying to get her to let me take her picture in them....
That may take some time though... So this picture will have to do for now.

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Registering

So we went to Babies R' Us today to register for baby gifts.  Oh,  my.  It's crazy how much stuff that they have you can register for.  We thought doing a gift registry for our wedding was hard!  After 3 hours we called it quits, Sarah had to leave to get food.  So we'll have to finish the registry online.
Let me tell you, that place is more fun then anyone should in one day. Tweet This

18 Weeks

The funny looks have started at work.  No one says anything, they just stare.  Can’t say that I’m too surprised.  My mom and sister came down this weekend to help clean up our garage.  They thought I grew over the weekend, that I was bigger when they left from when the came.  I guess it looks unusual – gaining weight, all in one area and such.    

The baby bump looks MUCH larger in person then the picture shows.

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Around the House

John repainted the bedroom a warm khaki color.  This way it’ll go with boys or girls.  The baby beds, chair and dresser have all been picked out and will be ordered at the end of April, so we should have everything by the beginning of May.  I’m finally feeling better and want to start doing more –but the Dr still wants me to take it easy and not over exert myself.  J  Guess it’s a good thing I’m a planner and scheduler!  

Pictures to follow of the nursery.

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17 Weeks Appointment

April 6th, 2010

We went in for our regular scheduled appointment and everything looked great.  Babies are growing at a good rate and match up to each other very well.  It’s amazing how big they both are already!  It was hard to see the babies because they are so closely intertwined with each other.  They were going to label the babies and take their measurements.  But guess what?  They couldn’t find the separate amionic sacs.  After 30 minutes of looking – bring in other Doctors and techs for additional eyes – no one could find the line.  They think what they saw last time was the already twisted umbilical cord.  We are now going to a specialist (peri) for high risk pregnancies to get the exact specifics on these babies.  Are they or are they not in separate sacs?  In the meanwhile, with this new little addition, the Dr wants Sarah to make sure and take it easy.  No hard or strenuous work.  He actually told her to relax and lay on the couch.  We’ll be finding out a lot more in 2 weeks.  

Main Highlights and Stats

Heart Rate

Baby A: 159

Baby B: 161

Weight 

Baby A: 6 oz

Baby B: 7 oz

(so their combined wight is the same as the weight of a can of beer)

The Dr. said Sarah has the symptoms of a 30 week pregnant woman due to twins

(so that makes my life real fun!)

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Another Ultrasound

April 5th, 2010

We just found out yesterday that we will be having ultra-sounds every 4 weeks because of the twins and the added high risk.  Won’t be fun paying for all that, but it’ll be nice because we’ll get to see the babies a lot more!

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13 Weeks

March 9th, 2010
The second Dr. appointment went much better,  We knew what to expect.  J  I think Sarah had the poor doctor scared.  She had a long list of questions all typed out, sectioned and organized.  Our Dr joked and asked if his name, date and time was on it… and anyone knowing Sarah – yes it was.  I don’t think he realized exactly what he was dealing with until up to that point. 

Now, back to the good part… The babies are growing good and look great – the doctor wants Sarah to put on more weight.  I told him how much she eats now and he recommended increasing her diet to 3700 calories!  We’ll see how that does.  We did find out that it looks like both babies have separate amionic sacs.  We were both very thankful because this is the safest way to have twins.  This will reduce the high-risk pregnancy slightly.  They will check again at the next appointment to make sure about the separate amionic sacs.  However, they are still concerned because of Sarah’s small frame (with twins) so they will be monitoring her closely because of that too.  

Main Highlights and Stats

Baby Heart rates

Baby A: 167

Baby B: 167

Measuring:

Baby A: 13 cm

Baby B: 13.1 cm

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Babies?

Feb 16th, 2010
The doctor’s appointment wasn’t scheduled until February 16^th.  We went in for the appointment all ready with questions in hand, prepared and ready to go.  Mainly wanting to make sure our little baby was off to a good growing start.  The Doctor’s appointment started off great – the doctor came in and announced, ‘congratulations – you’re knocked-up!’  After the initial excitement and confirmation we got to the best part.  The ultra-sound.  Let me tell you – AMAZING. 

When the doctor came back to start the ultra-sound after Sarah had changed into that cute little paper sheet, he said – “so let’s see how many babies are in there” 

We should really make a side note in here.  Our doctor has 3 year old triplets.  And likes to constantly bring them up – and all the funny stories.  We though it was to make us feel more comfortable and the stories were pretty good.  Even at the beginning of the appointment, the Dr asked how many babies we were having – and of course we said ‘ONE’.  He asked if we have twins in the family, we said ‘NO.’  When questions were asked about the nausea and exhaustion, he said that babies are like parasites and take everything from you – even after they are born, so we better get used to it...especially if there is more than one.  He was always making comments about having multiples…  it was weird, but we liked him and just went with it.

When the first picture came up on the screen, we both smiled.  What a feeling – to see a picture of that little person growing inside.  And then, hold-on.  After a closer look at the monitor the little baby looked kind of funny – something wasn’t right.  It looked like it had a couple of big circular lumps.  At about the time when we were going to ask the Doctor why the baby looked funny – both he and the tech got very excited.  Before we knew what was happening, a specialist for the ultra-sound came in and the equipment was handed over to her.  We’re going to call this specialist Heather.  The doctor finally saw our concern (this all happened so fast) and said ‘guess what – you’re having twins!’  If you could only see Sarah’s eyes and her facial expression – absolutely PRICELESS.  Heather then proceeded to show us ‘Baby A’ and ‘Baby B’.  We were speechless.  Heather told Sarah it’s okay if you want to cry.  Sarah looked too shocked to cry and I finally held grabbed her hand. 

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN???

After listening to the heartbeats for BOTH babies and taking the measurements we asked for good pictures because no one would believe us.  You’ll have to check them out for yourself!

Main highlights and stats

*Both babies are doing just fine and look great.

*Need to eat a lot more protein 

(anyone want to come and take Sarah out to eat for some good red steak??)

*Going to get a lot more ultra-sounds because of twins (we like pictures)

*Due date: September 13 – 16, which was scheduled perfect for Sarah’s dad and the harvest season.  (but who knows now with twins how all that’ll effect everything)

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