so....

me at 16 weeks 2 days

yesterday we had our 16 week appt. with the OB and also an ultrasound.

A little bit of twin trivia....there is much concern in a twin pregnancy about pre-term labor and incompetent cervixes among other complications. I will be having ultrasounds every two weeks to measure my cervical length. This week I measured 5.2, not sure honestly if that is inches or centimeters...But it is a great measurement. Of course it will probably shorten some as I get bigger and farther along but as long as it stays over 2, in. or cm, then I can avoid bedrest or cerclage. Which is what we want!

Anyway, so I knew this u/s was mostly for that purpose but also figured that I would be able to see babies, how can they not u/s a pregnant woman and not show her the offspring? And they did! She said that they wanted to check the heart rates so we would need to look at the babies. Woo HOO! I just about squealed with excitement. Now I have to say that with Josey because of some complications, minor, we had more than your normal 1-2 u/s. But with these babies I would lose my mind without knowing I would get to peek at them so often. I think that since there are two in there I have a double dose of mommy worry! Seriously.

She puts the "jelly" stuff on my belly and Josey is all worried it will drip down my belly, which was cute. Then puts the little transducer thingy(technical term you know!) on my belly and poof....Babies! They were moving around a bit in there, heartbeats just a pounding away. I was so happy to see that both were good in there and still doing ok. Oh to have a window in my belly! Baby A had a heart rate of 150, and Baby B was beating away at 136. They looked good, according to u/s tech, but that was not really the point of the u/s so we did not spend too much time looking at them. Just saw them kicking and hearts beating. Apparently, if I understood the orientation, they are looking at each other, baby A is feet down on my left side and baby B is head down on my right side but their heads are side by side. Almost like they create their own little Yin and Yang.

Oh and in the interest of being honest....I have gained two pounds now. 1 for each baby!

Here is a pic! How sweet is that! Just for clarification...Baby B is on the bottom. It is a side view. You can see the little legs off to the left, and the feet. If you look by Baby B's head you will see a shadow that appears to be the hand. Maybe doing a little early thumb sucking? Baby A is on the top facing down looking at his or her sibling.

a little update!

Ok....so the last time I posted it was to tell you all I was pregnant with twins! WooHoo!

Well...I have been sick off and on. Morning sickness but also a bout with Bronchitis last week. I have not updated here for a while due to that. And just being beat! I am so much more tired than I remember with my first pregnancy. I am sure this is partly due to the fact that there are two I am cooking in there.

As far as we know things are going well. I am growing which indicates that the babies are growing too. I have not gained any weight yet just fluctuating a lot. I worry a little but obviously the babies are just taking it all. I am sure that my weight will catch up! Remind me in a few months when I post about being amazed at how much I have gained! Ha Ha!

I have an ultrasound on Monday and we will get to see the babies so I will post again then and let you all know how we are.

I am going to try to post a link to a slide show to see my belly....hope it works. If not there will be a still also of me today at 15w5d. Not even 4 months yet!
http://s175.photobucket.com/albums/w158/ardathalbum/?action=view¤t=.my_first_widget.pbw

well....it worked!

How appropriate that the last post on here is the one that apparently sealed the deal! We did manage to match up his swimmers with my cranky and shy eggs. The oral meds this time REALLY worked. Apparently I ovulated twice and my hubby's over achieving sperm got them both. We are pregnant with twins.

I decided to keep this blog going since the journey to get here is just as important as the fact that we were successful this time. That cycle in Feb. was apparently the one. But it is funny because things were weird from the get-go so I thought we had failed again. I was totally gearing up for a negative cycle and setting my sights on the next month...here is how things went.

I got the positive ovulation test on Sunday Feb. 25. We had our afternoon fun. ;) Then another positive the next day and the next and again on the next. By this time I was terribly uncomfortable in my lower abdomen. I have had a cyst burst before and began to wonder if that was what I had, a large cyst just waiting to rupture. Because of this I thought this cycle was a bust. I also thought it was weird that I had a pos. ov. test four days in a row. Seemed a little strange. I called the doc and talked to a nurse about it. She suggested that maybe I had actually ovulated twice. I thought that just seemed impossible and dismissed that idea. She was not worried about me having a cyst since they mostly resolve on their own. She suggested that I go in on the next Monday and get a progesterone level, p-4, to see if I had in fact ovulated or not. I agreed, again figuring that answer would be a big fat no.

Monday comes along and I go in....get my bloodwork done and get the results. Now for a "normal" ovulation a reading of about 10 is fine. For women, like myself, on ovulation medication they want it to be at least 15. Mine was 50. Yes you read that right...50! I of course got excited and started combing the internet to see if that could possibly mean that I was pregnant. It does not necessarily mean that, the p-4 does not indicate pregnancy one way or the other. But I was still excited. If nothing else I did obviously ovulate. So that was Monday. We were leaving that Friday to go to TN to visit family so I wanted to test before we left.

I waited until late Wednesday night early Thursday morning. Seriously I tested at 2am on Thursday morning. My hubby was still awake and I was so worked up about testing that I was having a hard time sleeping. I went and tested, without telling him what I was doing, and it came back positive. Faint but there. I told him and we were tentatively excited. The next day I called the RE and they scheduled an u/s to check on things but that was not until April 2. since I got a positive on a home test they saw no need to do any bloodwork, I had already had one pregnancy that went well so they wanted to just see me at the u/s. I could not wait until then so I called my GP who is here in town and asked them to do a blood test. They said no problem and got me right in. They did not get the results that day.....I had to wait until the next morning. I called them about 9:30, could not wait anymore. The receptionist told me to wait just a minute she would get the nurse....I of course read this to mean it was negative. The nurse got on the line and said, "well....get the baby clothes out you are pregnant!" I was thrilled.

Fast forward to April 2. I had some wondering about how many were in there. Cannot tell you a definite reason why, just a weird instinct. But still really did not think we would be that lucky! My husband, myself, and my 2 year old go to the doc to get this u/s. We did not tell her anything about what we doing...that way if things were not good we would not have to backtrack and tell her that mommy was not having a baby afterall. The image comes on the screen and I see a heartbeat. I think I gasped, and the tech said, "wait. I have another surprise for you." and then shows us baby B. So yes there were two in there. Baby A and Baby B. We were excited. Well, my daughter and husband were really excited....I was a little scared with the thought of two newborns and two babies in my tummy at once, and just all that would come with that. But I was definitely still excited.

Both babies looked good. Heartbeats were strong and healthy. They measured exactly what they should according to the ov. tests and when we "did the deed". Apparently the nurse who suggested the "crazy" idea that I may have ovulated twice was not so crazy afterall. The twins appear to be fraternal since they could tell that I ovulated out of both ovaries. I am still reeling sometimes that my ovaries, who refuse to do ANYTHING on their own, tossed out TWO eggs and both were good and solid and healthy.

SO....currently I am 12 weeks 1 day pregnant with twins. We went to the ER a week ago on Sunday because I was hurting pretty bad. Verdict was that I overdid it the day before and was just feeling my body telling me to slow down. We did however get to see the babies that day and they were both doing well. Baby B was turning somersaults while Baby A tried to rest. :) both hearts were beating and all looked good. I am bigger than I expected, but I guess with two in there.....well duh! Things are going well. I am tired alot but sickness has worn off. I was pretty sick for a while there but things are much better now.

I will try to do what I can to keep this blog updated. What an incredible blessing we have been given and what an amazing journey this is sure to be. Below is a montage of my belly taken and showing in order of week 8 to week 10 to week 12. I will post pics every two weeks since that is what I am going to be trying to keep up with this time around...a photo journal of my growth! that should be fun!