February 24, 2010...It's A....

Nothing like making everybody wait all day huh?? Well I have been extremely frustrated with my internet as it has not been working well the last few days and I was not able to get on at all this afternoon until now.

We had a wonderful and LONG appointment today. They did an anatomy scan, and the babies cooperated enough so that we were able to see the really important anatomy (in our opinion).........

Yep, a boy AND a girl!!!!!!!!!!  We are sooooo excited!!!!!! I think Cody's brother Travis said it the best..."you guys are just receiving blessing after blessing" and we are. We are reminded of God's grace every single day and try not to take a minute of it for granted.

Baby A is the girl. She is on my right side with her head down and feet up. She is weighing 6oz. and has a heart rate of 153. In this picture, her head is at the top and she is looking off to the left. You can kind of see her ear and just underneath she has both of her hands pulled up to her neck area.

Baby B is the boy. He is more in the middle, but off to the left a little. He has his feet down at the bottom with his head towards my ribs. He is weighing 5oz. with a heart rate of 155 (we were very glad to hear that both babies heart rates had come down so significantly). Here his head is at the top with his face looking right towards us, however both of his hands are up right in front of his eyes. Notice baby A's head down towards his legs, just off to the left.

This next picture shows the two of them together. Baby A is on the left with her head at the bottom. You can follow her body up and then her legs are pulled in tightly at the top. Baby B is on the right with his head at the top. You can see his arm pulled up over his ear. They look to be very close, however they are separated by a pretty thick membrane where they are each in their own placenta. These pictures just amaze me. It's awesome to see how much they've grown since we last saw them. I feel very blessed that we get to see them once a month and actually get to watch them grow.

Both babies continue to be extremely active, and everything looked so good today! The doctors were very pleased. After our ultrasound we met with the Perinatologist. He specializes in high risk pregnancies and will keep an eye on us throughout the rest of my pregnancy. He discussed the fact that babies conceived through IVF have a slightly higher risk of birth defects, one specifically being a heart defect. At our next ultrasound, they will get the rest of the anatomy measurements that they were unable to get today, but they will also try to do an ECHO on each of the babies. This will help them to detect any type of heart defect.

Another thing that they will continue to look for, right up until the end, will be the length of my cervix. A big concern with carrying twins is having cervical incompetence. This is where the cervix gets shorter and shorter and is unable to tolerate and hold the babies. My cervix today was measuring nice and long so they said that looked great!! The doctor took a measurement of my uterus and thought I was measuring right around 25 weeks. This means, if I was carrying a single baby, my uterus is measuring at the size I should be at 25 weeks, even though I am only 16 weeks. So it's no wonder I feel like I am getting big soo fast!!

We must have misunderstood someone along the lines when we thought we were going to start going every two weeks. Today we understood that they would start seeing us every month. Our next appointment is scheduled for March 25th.

February 9, 2010...second trimester

I know, I know, I have been horrible about blogging lately. But honestly, there is really nothing new to share. This is the last week of my first trimester. It's amazing to think that tomorrow I will already be starting on the second...where has the time gone??  A little update to my most popular question "how are you feeling?" Initially it was awful. I was sick all the time with an overall feeling of nauseousness ALL THE TIME. I am glad that constant feeling has subsided, however I continue to be sick often. It's completely random though and I haven't really been able to link it to anything. Completely out of the blue I will be running to the bathroom to hug the toilet. Cody usually responds with "seriously? what just happened there?" I have been lucky though, and haven't had any spells during the day while at work. It usually happens in the morning or at night, while i'm able to be in the comfort of my own home.

Our next appointment will be February 24th. I can't believe how excited we are to be able to see them again. It feels like this has been such a long wait. I will be 16 weeks, and our doctor told us there MIGHT be a possibility we could find out the sex at this appointment. We absolutely cannot wait to find that out and are hoping they cooperate. If we don't find out this time around, it most likely will be the next one. We are excited to get rolling on the babies room and will feel much more organized once we know the sex!