Scan 25 wks and 5 days!

We had the most amazing scan today! Babies happy and healthy and my cervix is holding.. YAY!! Little Angel's growth is slowing a bit, but baby is doing well! The blood flow is great and the brain development looks great. The tummy is shrinking (only measuring at 22 weeks) but she said we can feed that up on the outside! Blessing is growing at almost the same rate as if he/she was a single baby! Angel was 620 grams this week and Blessing was 860 grams. On average a single baby grows at 150 grams per week at this stage so the fact that Blessing is growing at 140 grams is amazing.

They started giving me Celestone shots today to speed up the babies' lung development. Even though my cervix is holding they are worried about the slowing growth of Angel. Because of the marginal cord insertion it'll continue to get harder for Angel to get enough nutrients, etc so they are predicting that we'll get to a point where it'll make more sense to take them out and feed Angel on the outside. Dr. Morris said if I make it to 32 weeks I'll be doing REALLY well, but that she wouldn't be surprised if they come much earlier. Our next scan on June 10th will be very telling! I'm really hoping I can keep them in much longer than 32 weeks and am thinking very positive thoughts. I also keep telling the babies that it's cold outside so they need to stay in as long as they can!!

I'll upload the scan pics as soon as I can!! It's a bit tough from bed so I have to wait until Andrew has a sec to do it :)

25 Weeks Pregos!

I've now been on bedrest for 4 weeks! It's so crazy how fast time flies. Bedrest hasn't been easy by any means, but it's totally worth it if it means I get 2 healthy babies out of the deal :) We are officially out of the danger zone for laser surgery this week and so excited about that! At this point if anything happens they'll deliver the babies!

My belly is still growing each day which means the babies are too!! We go back to the hospital tomorrow for both a growth scan and to start getting Celestone injections. Because my cervix is so short they want to start speeding up the babies lung development so that if they come here soon they'll hopefully be able to breathe on their own. The Celestone helps with that! From this coming Monday (26 weeks) they say the babies have a very good chance of survival if they have to be delivered. Even though that's the case, I'm really hoping I can keep them in for several more weeks!! A friend just told me that she learned that for every day they stay in my belly, that's 3 days less they have to spend in ICU!!

They are suspecting our babies will come quite early because of my premature labor and short cervix, but also because of little Angel's marginal cord insertion. They said it's very likely that we'll get to the point where Angel isn't able to get enough of what he/she needs to grow properly and therefore it might be beneficial to deliver so Angel can be given enough nutrients! Also, the risks of TTTS increase as I get further along so they'll be monitoring very closely for that. I'm confident that if I keep laying on my back (well really on my side) like I have been that I'll be able to keep going for much longer!! Andrew tells me almost every day to "keep my legs crossed"! Now how many husbands do you know of that tell their wives to CROSS their legs? Hee hee!!

23.5 Week Belly Pics

Everyone keeps saying I'm small for having twins in my belly, but boy am I ever feeling big :) I stopped fitting into my clothes AGES ago (at about 19 weeks) and swear I can see my belly grow each day! The babies are sooo busy and I am so in love. You can now see my whole stomach move when they do! I had a book sitting on my tummy today while I was reading and Blessing decided that he/she didn't want it there so started kicking it. The whole book moved up and down.. it was hysterical! Since I've been on bedrest for 2 weeks now we haven't been taking many pictures, but we're going to try and be better about that! Even though being on bedrest has it's challenges.. I still feel so lucky to have been given my 2 little ones and am just loving being pregnant!

Pheew!! Labor Stopped, but Bestrest Continues...

I got to get out of the house today to go to the Dr. It's only been 4 days, but my body is sore from laying still and I'm SO happy to get outside!

I cried the whole way to the Dr's office. I don't know if it's all these extra hormones or if I was just really worried about that the Dr was going tell us, but I couldn't stop! Poor Andrew didn't know what to do with me so he just drove.

The Dr gave us some very good news today. The drugs and bedrest were working! My contractions had stopped and my cervix was short, but holding! Back to bed I was sent! Dr said it was highly unlikely that I'd be taken off bedrest for the remainder of my pregnancy. I'm just starting my 22nd week so there's a chance I'll be in bed for up to 15 weeks! What am I ever going to do with myself?? :)

Dr. Hulme also suggested that we take a short tour of the ICU since it's looking like we'll end up spending a significant amount of time there. The nurses were so friendly and you can see that they care so much about those babies, but the babies were SO tiny. There was a 4 day old little girl in there who only weighed 600g. She could fit in the palm of my hand and was hooked up to a million machines. One of the nurses walked us through what everything was, how they handle the babies, what life's like for parents with babies in the ICU, how the babies go up and down, etc. I'm really glad we did it, but it was very emotional for me. I started crying again while we were there and am tearing up just writing this. I know they'll be in good hands, but the thought of them on all those tubes isn't nice.

21 wks & 5 days - Scan & Surprise Labor

We went for our routine scan today and got quite the surprise. In the middle of the scan our Dr stopped suddenly and asked "Are you in labor???" I promptly answered with "I dont think so, but it's not like I've done this before so I can say for sure!" She then proceeded to ask me about back pain, pressure in my lower abdomen, and any pain of which I said yes to all. I now feel a bit silly, but I really thought all of those things were just normal in pregnancy and apparently they can be. She did a more thorough exam on me and found that not only was I in labor, but my Cervix was funneling and spreading wide open when she gently pushed on my stomach. YIKES. The amniotic sack was pushing into the gap in my cervix and Baby Blessing's head was RIGHT there too!

I don't think I really realized the severity of it until she rushed off to call my OBGYN. I could then hear the panic in her voice and the discussing putting me into the hospital. She cam back into the room, told me to get dressed, and that I needed to go and see my OBGYN immediately being very clear to say that we mustn't stop anywhere or do anything else! She didn't even finish the scan or give me pictures of the babies because she just wanted me to get to the Dr asap.

Dr Hulme also got a very nervous look on his face as he looked at the scans. He discussed putting me in hospital, but said that I could go home as long as I promised to stay in bed. Of course, I had to get some clarification on this so I started asking him questions like can I shower, make tea, etc to which his answer to all was a big fat NO! I was allowed to stand up to use the bathroom and that's it! If we couldn't manage the he would admit me, but Andrew was fantastic and agreed to look after me! He put me on extra progesterone and another drug to relax my uterus too! As we were leaving he said that he didn't want to scare us, but that we needed to realize the seriousness of our situation and that basically any babies delivered before 26 weeks were considered a miscarriage. I have to say that this comment really hit home! I teared up immediately at the thought of possibly losing our babies and of course agreed to stay in bed with everything, especially my legs, crossed!

Just when we got little Angel growing again they now want to come out. Not easy, but bedrest will be a small price to pay for healthy babies!

Scan 19 Weeks & 5 Days

We considered ourselves the luckiest people alive this day! Baby A started to grow again!!! The Dr. couldn't believe her eyes and kept asking what we had done in the last 2 weeks because she'd never seen a little one turn around like this. We explained all about the energy work, improved supplements, bedrest, all the people routing for them and more! All she could say was that she was SO happy and that we must keep doing what we'd been doing because it was working!

While were we in Plet we started talking about names and gave the babies nicknames for now because Baby A and Baby B sound too generic. They are now referred to as Angel and Blessing! They started kicking up a storm in Plet and it's the best feeling ever! I know I probably shouldn't, but I would sometimes poke them to get them to kick just so I would know they were ok!

Angel was still smaller this week, but the bladder and head (therefore brain development) had caught up so nicely! The stomach was still very small, but the Dr said a baby can always gain weight later! We weren't in the clear, but felt so much better that our efforts were making a difference and that we could help our little one! This week they weighed 241 g and 280 g.

Dr. Morris got some very cute pics of our babies this week! In the one photo they were even looking at each other! We are so in love with our babies and soooo relieved that surgery is off the table for now!

19 Week Belly Pics

I started showing at 9 weeks, but by 19 I was really starting to look pregnant! The babies had been kicking for 2 weeks at this point. I never thought I'd be so happy about getting bigger and so anxious about waiting for each kick, but I was because they both meant that the babies were ok! We spent a week in Plet that went from the end of my 18th week to the end of my 19th week! It was amazing how the new supplements and all the rest made such a difference.. you could see it in my belly after just a few days! It was so awesome!!

Scan 17 Weeks & 5 Days!

We get so excited before every scan and just can't wait to see our little babies! We go every 2 weeks and can't imagine having to wait any longer! I felt the first real kick today!!! Baby B kicked the scanner really hard! Today was the start of lots of kicking which I love!!!

We unfortunately didn't get a very good report from the Dr. today. In fact, the Dr. is very worried about Baby A. With identical twins there's a big risk of the twins starting to transfuse blood. It's called TTTS or Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. One baby becomes the donor and the other the receiver. I'll spare all the details, but it's very dangerous for both babies. One sign of TTTS is slowed growth and reduced bladder size. Today Baby A had both of those so the Dr became very worried. Because Baby A has a marginal cord insertion it's hard to tell whether any transfusion has started or if it's just that Baby A is struggling to get enough of what it needs from the placenta due to the poor insertion. Baby A weighed 167g and Baby B 184 g. The weight wasn't what worried her as much as the size of the head, tummy and bladder. The Dr determined that is was just the cord causing the problem and not TTTS, but started talking about the possibility of us having to go overseas for laser surgery. The surgery is very risky and it would mean losing one baby if not both. Scientifically there's nothing you can do if a baby has restricted growth due to a marginal insertion so we were told that there was nothing we could do to help our little one.

That left us feeling horribly helpless so out of desperation we started researching frantically and calling everyone we knew that might have any information about what we could do. What we learned is that diet and rest had worked in some cases not all, but we thought it was worth a shot. I started having SCIO energy work done to increase the amount of energy going to the babies. I also saw a homeopathic nutritionist to help me find some better prenatal vitamins & supplements. He also put me on some oxygen boost to help increase my circulation and therefore oxygen to the babies. I also put myself on partial bedrest because, although nothing is proven, it's been said that bedrest and particularly laying on your left side increases the amount of blood flow to your uterus. I tried hard to control my stress, but it was a very emotional and stressful time because we were faced with the real possibility of losing our babies. We spent a week in Plet and it was very good for all of us! Needless to say it was a very long 2 weeks until our next scan! Even though we were quite nervous, we considered ourselves so lucky because we had so much support! People around the globe were praying for our babies and sending lots of healthy thoughts! Deep down we knew they had to be ok because they were loves so much by us as well as all of our family and friends!

Scan 15 Weeks & 5 Days

We were amazed to see how much our little Bubbas had grown in just 4 weeks! Baby A now weighs 113g and Baby B 117g. Dr Morris was amazed at how evenly they are growing given that Baby A's umbilical cord is only marginally connected right on the edge of the placenta. Baby B has a solid connection right in the middle! She checked them again to be sure they are anatomically correct and they are perfect!! They are really starting to look like babies and are so adorable!!

Our 1st Specialist Scan - 11 Weeks & 5 Days

We went for our 1st scan with Dr. Morris today! She specializes in high risk pregnancies which identical twins are among the riskiest. She has super high-tech equipment that was able to count every finger & toe. She could also measure spaces as small as the bone in the babies' nose! We loved seeing our babies this close up and received some very good news today! Anatomically our babies are perfect and there's no risk of Downs or other mental problems. She confirmed that we are in fact carrying Monochorionic Twins which means they are identical and sharing the same placenta. She could tell which gender they were today, but we decided to keep it a surprise for when we meet them! We both have a feeling they're girls, but we'll see! They will definitely be either 2 boys or 2 girls and not one of each! We are still getting over the shock of learning that we'll be having 2 babies and not 1, but are SUPER excited too! We feel so lucky to have been given this special gift! Today Baby A weighed 46 grams and Baby B 52 grams. Baby A is lying on my left hand side and Baby B on my right!

The ultimate 8 week surprise!!

At 8 weeks we went for our 1st scan! When the Dr. asked if Andrew was sitting down we got quite a fright thinking that was something was wrong. He then pointed out the 2 flashing lights on the screen and said they were hearts. We then thought "why does our baby have 2 hearts??" Very silly when you look back look back, but the last thing we ever could have imagined was that we'd be expecting twins! We not only found out that we were blessed with two babies that day, but that they would be identical!! We are so lucky! The chance of falling pregnant with identical twins is less than 0.02% :)

A big + on the stick!!

We found out that we are expecting a baby today!!!! It came as a bit of a shock because we'd been trying for some time, but we are both SOO happy! We are also relieved because we thought when we got home from Seattle that we were going to have to start seeking some help to fall pregnant! There is SO much truth to the saying that wanting a baby is the best contraceptive because as soon as we'd resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to need some help...we got pregnant! I'm sure it also helped that we were on holiday and very relaxed!

We had a hunch when I was late, but confirmed it today with a stick from Target! Good old Target! I had an appointment with Theresa (homeopath) in Seattle so we had to take the test at her house just before so we knew for sure. When you're pregnant there are a lot of supplements that aren't safe to take!

When we got home to my Moms we handed her the stick (we washed it of course) and she just asked "why are you handing me a thermometer?" It was soooo funny! It took her a good few seconds to figure out what was happening and then of course the excitement started!!

Where it all started!!

Our actual 1st year marriage anniversary was on Nov. 28th, 2010, but since we were apart (Andy was in SA and I was in Seattle) I decided to surprise him with a getaway! We drove out to Hood Canal and spent 2 nights at Alderbrooke Resort! This is where, we believe, our little ones were created! We hadn't seen much of each other in weeks so we had the most amazing time just being with the 2 of us and enjoying each other's company! Oh and of course we had massages too!! The weather wasn't great so it was the perfect setting to just cuddle up in front of the fire! The fire, yummy wine, and long chats were just what the Dr ordered apparently :)