Baby B a.k.a Dean

Since our last post there has been weight gain, swelling, stretching, growing and several Dr. appointments. At my ultrasound on 8/9 I was informed that they found a small mass on Baby B’s lungs. They actually saw it during my previous ultrasound but hadn’t told me since the Dr. wasn’t in that day. The techs do not tell the patients anything. It’s always the Drs. who share the information. During my ultrasound on the 9th they were checking to confirm what they saw previously. The Dr. came in and explained what she saw. Also, she had to take more pictures and video. She saw that there was a blood supply going to that mass and she was trying to figure out where it was coming from. Once she had enough information she explained everything to me. To spare you confusing details, I’ll just say that the blood supply going to the mass was coming from the heart. She said she wanted me to see a Pediatric Cardiologist for an echo in order to determine exactly what the issue was.

We met with the Cardiologist (Dr. John Stock) at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Dr. Stock is a wonderful Cardiologist! He put us at ease and did an excellent job of explaining everything in terms we could understand. The whole appointment lasted about 3 hours and we walked away feeling more comfortable about what to expect. Here is the easy-to-understand version…

Baby B (a.k.a Dean) has an extra vessel branching off his right atrium. These vessels don’t belong there at all, they are just extra. We don’t know what the mass is and we won’t find out until after he’s born. Dr. Stock said he thinks there will be an option of two procedures once Dean is born. 1. They will make a surgical incision on his side, cauterize the vessels and remove the mass. 2. Using a catheter, they will travel up and insert a coil into the vessel to stop the blood flow and then remove the mass. So, either way, a procedure will be done to stop the blood flow from the extra vessels and remove the mass. Dr. Stock will consult with the Thoracic Surgeon to confirm this. We will then meet with the Thoracic Surgeon to go over his recommendation, followed by a meeting with the Neo-Natal Dr. and a tour of the NICU. The hospital where the boys will be born is close to our home, but the hospital where the procedure will be done is Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

Unless or until this issue starts to cause other problems for Dean, we don’t yet have a date scheduled for the c-section. I’m monitored at my weekly ultrasound appointments to see if the mass is getting bigger, more blood is flowing to the mass or his heart is becoming enlarged. If any of those 3 things occur, they will schedule the c-section right away. As long as those don’t happen, the boys get to remain wombmates a little longer. I’m hoping to make it as close to the end of September as possible. We’ll see if that actually happens or not! At 34 weeks I’m not experiencing contractions and I’m not dilated at all. That seems like a good sign to me that the boys will stay put a while longer, which is good news. We still don’t have everything ready! We hope to have new carpet installed by the end of next week. We have to hang a couple things on the wall to make the nursery actually look like a baby room and I still have to wash and put away all their clothes! I hope they realize this and are going to cooperate with our schedule! The only way to find out is to check back here and see if the next post has newborn photos or nursery room photos.

Are We There Yet?

The bigger I get, the more comments I get from strangers just passing by. Things like “Wow! You must be close to delivery!” and “How much longer do you have?” When I respond that it’ll be sometime in September they just can’t believe it…until they find out I’m carrying twins. Then the comments change to “What?! You’re not big enough to be carrying twins!” or “Oh honey! You’re gonna have your hands full!” I reassure them that there are in fact two babies in my belly and that we are going to have plenty of help from family and friends. It’s not necessary to reassure perfect strangers but it’s hard not to respond. Based on those comments I guess I look big if I’m carrying one child but small if I’m carrying two! Right? Go ahead, lie to me. I’ll take all the comments you want to give about how skinny I am at 32 weeks pregnant with twins!

We are grateful the boys seem to be comfortable where they are for now and aren’t planning an early escape yet. The longer they cook, the more time we have to get everything ready for their arrival. Since I just returned from my last work trip for the year, I should have no excuse from now on for not finishing the nursery. For some reason, napping on Saturday afternoon (okay…& Saturday morning!) seems like the thing to do instead. It’s a good thing they won’t care what their room looks like when they’re born!

Here is the most recent picture of Baby A from my ultrasound on Monday morning. Do you notice anything different about him? The first thing that came to mind when I saw him up on the big screen at my appointment was, “those are some big lips!” You all know my lips don’t look like that and Scott’s lips don’t look like that. Then I remembered my mom had made that same comment at my last ultrasound at the Stork Vision. The more I show this picture to people the more I hear the comment that he looks like a little black baby! Look at the picture and tell me what you think.

I showed the picture to Scott Monday evening when he got home and he thought the same thing as me. Then we joked about having one black baby and one white baby. Not long ago (last summer, I think) there was a couple that was in the news because they had done IVF and found out they were carrying another couple’s child! The fertility clinic had mislabeled the vials and informed the expecting couple of this mistake when the woman was about 7 months along I believe. Now, this doesn’t happen often but it got us thinking…has this happened to us? The clinic found out which couple the baby actually belonged to and the woman decided to carry out the pregnancy as a surrogate and give the baby to its real parents. I cannot imagine going through something like that but I don’t think I could live with myself knowing that someone who wanted to have a baby as badly as us didn’t get the chance because it was given to us by mistake!

This certainly isn’t something we’re dwelling on at all. Just a funny thought based on an ultrasound picture. If one of our boys ends up with big lips I’ll be so jealous! Mine are so thin! Boys end up with the long eyelashes and I just don’t think that’s fair. It’s us girls who want those lashes and lips!

As of Monday, I’m now getting ultrasounds and Dr. appointments every week. I feel spoiled that I get to see the boys so often when others have to wait weeks in between ultrasound appointments. It really is amazing to see how big they get with each appointment. During my work trip to San Diego last week they really began moving around so much more. Since then, it seems like one of them is constantly moving around. I have no idea what it will be like in a few more weeks. Their living quarters will be super tight. At least there won’t be room for Baby A to kick Baby B in the face at that point! For all the moving they’ve been doing you would think they would finally flip themselves into the head-down position. Nope. Apparently they prefer to stand up. They’ve pretty much lost their chance to flip at this point. There just isn’t enough room to do that now. C-section here we come! And maybe a little nip/tuck while we’re in there? Of course we don’t have a delivery date right now but as soon as we do we’ll let everyone know.

Here’s hoping the boys let me sleep a little more this week than they did last week!

30 weeks down. How many more to go?

With each week that passes we are thankful the boys are continuing to remain in oven.  Even though our goal is to make through August, we'd really like to make it as far into September as possible before they arrive.  That way they have time to get as fat as possible!  That, and of course it gives their organs more time to develop...namely their lungs.

At my last appointment a couple weeks ago I weighed 142 and the boys were 2.3 and 2.0 pounds.  Yesterday at my appointment I weighed 146 and the boys weighed 3.2 and 3.9 pounds!  So, the three of us had a major growth spurt!  And let me tell you!  I'm feeling that growth!  My big belly is extra itchy and the faint stretch mark lines are starting to appear.  My lung space is rapidly decreasing and my ankles & feet are nice and swollen by the end of the day.  In fact, they border the cankle line (you know, when your calves and ankles meld together)!  I tell Scott that the only way for the swelling to go down is if he massages my feet and calves.  So far that's working! :0)  Now I just need to think of a good reason to continue the massages once the boys are born...hhhhmmmm.  Any suggestions?


Here is a picture from my ultrasound this week.  It is Baby B's face.  The tech got the picture just as our little guy was trying to get his thumb in his mouth.  It looks like he's actually picking his nose with his thumb!
 

This past Saturday we had our second and final 3D/4D ultrasound at the Stork Vision in Chandler.  Some of the family came to visit and bring baby supplies so they joined us.  As you can tell, it's not as many as we had at the first one, but it was still a lot! 

Thanks for coming to visit!  And thanks mom, Aunt Sarah and Aunt Elainea for all the matching outfits for the boys.  Now people will definitely know they are twins when we take them out. 

Have a good weekend!  Hopefully some of you are able to enjoy the monsoon rain like we've been getting here in Tempe!

Viability

Today was another Dr. appointment and ultrasound.  The "fun" glucose tolerance test was also today.  Yuck!  I know I'm not the only one who doesn't like the nasty, orange glucola you have to swig down in less than 5 minutes.  Getting my blood drawn an hour later was nothing compared to actually drinking that, and I don't like needles!  This marked my 26th week.  In one more week the boys will officially be classified as "viable".  That is such a big milestone for twins and I'm thankful everything is moving along without complications. 

Here are some stats from today's appointment...I now weigh 140lbs.  I'm 26 weeks pregnant and am measuring 31 weeks.  Blood pressure is fine, no swelling and hopefully no gestational diabetes.  The boys now weigh 2lbs each.  They are extremely active and from the ultrasound, we could see that their favorite things to do are kick and punch each other as well as jump on and kick my bladder!  Their womb space is quickly shrinking because they are starting to really fill up any available space there is in there. 

This week the boys have really been active.  I can stare at my belly and see them punch and kick it.  I'm going to have to monitor the movement to see how often they are just being still.  Something tells me it won't be very often!  I spent almost 2 hours at my ultrasound today and after all that time, we still only got one decent picture (of Baby B, as usual) of a face without an arm or hand blocking the whole thing.  It's like they know we want a picture and they are refusing to cooperate.  I don't know that we'll ever get a face shot of Baby A!  I guarantee that will change when they're born and I can hold those appendages out of the way! 

So here is the one picture (Baby B) that turned out from today's appointment...plus the foot of his brother!  Can you see his monkey toes?!

My next appointment is in 2 weeks.  Maybe they'll be more photogenic at that one!

June 2010 update

Since it’s been over a month since the last post I figured I better write something so we can at least have something on the blog each month. A couple updates on “the boys”…


I had my regular ultrasound appointment on June 3rd. This was the first ultrasound Scott was able to attend since seeing my regular OB. He was excited to be able to see his boys again since he hadn’t seen them on the big screen since April 30th. Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy the appointment as much due to the nausea that kicked in as I laid there. It made for a longer appointment a cold washcloth on my neck and Scott fanning me. Thankfully the technician was used to this and allowed me to lie on my side. It was harder to get the measurements but at least I didn’t puke on the expensive equipment!

The results are as follows:

Baby A: Weight = 1.5lbs; Length = 12 inches long

Baby B: Weight = 1.3 lbs; Length = 11.9 inches long

Based on those results, the boys aren’t lacking in nutrition at the moment! If I were to carry them to 40 weeks I think we’d have some giants on our hands! At this point we know their delivery will be a scheduled c-section. This is due to Baby A (recently dubbed “low rider” by Nana Esther) setting up shop extremely low in my uterus. The result of that is placenta previa. While many women have this at some point during their pregnancy, the baby normally moves up later on and the mom is able to deliver naturally. As my Dr. said, you’re having twins and you’re small so there’s no room for Baby A to move up. If you know anything about placenta previa you know it can cause other complications during the pregnancy. As of right now, the only restrictions I have are no exercising other than walking (no more than 30 minutes a day) and swimming (not a bunch of laps). The swimming is to help relieve the weight that is growing. I’m sure July and August hold much time spent at my brother and sister-in-law’s house in their pool!

To my dear, growing boys…

I would be ever so grateful if you’d take a few more breaks from the punching, kicking and jumping that you love doing. Especially you, mister low rider! My bladder and a sundry of other internal organs can only take so much! Now is a good time to learn how to be gentle with the ladies, so let’s start with respecting your mother and be good, obedient boys.

Must be yet-to-be-born athletes!

As Marisue went on vacation to San Diego and stayed at a beach resort, I toiled at getting the house ready for the boys. Although she said that it was a work conference she did relax a lot. The boys continue to kick each other as the ultrasound pics show and I am just sure that this will lead to very successful athletic careers. Either that or accomplished drummers. We'll just keep the drums at grandma's house.

The morning sickness continues but the only difference is that she is throwing up less. That is good in that Marisue is trying meat again and although it doesn't make her feel that good she is destined to make these boys meat eaters. Just yesterday she had In-n-Out which she reported that it didn't taste the same.  I am waiting for the day when she asks for steak and potatoes. Pure heaven that will be. I'm not allowed to cook meat in the kitchen anymore. Until then, eat whatever she can.

Twin Boys!

Okay, now that we know what we're having everything can fall into place. Apparently I have absolutely no idea what the heck I am looking at in the ultrasound above. So when the tech says that its a boy I have no clue as to what led her to that assumption. Because lets face it, I didn't see any resemblance of a large package on the little guys.

Now, when she clicked to the 3D image I was able to see everything clearly and I can't believe how amazing modern medicine and technology are. I really felt lost because it seemed that I was the only one that couldn't see the elusive phallus. That was also apparent in the video where they had to tell me 3 times what they were.

Friday was a beautiful day with all of the family and it was so special to us. Unfortunately, Saturday was a very tough day for Marisue because she couldn't keep anything down. Sunday was better, fortunately. I really should think about this positively in that I have not had to cook a meal for Marisue in a few months. I also don't want to offend her cooking meat for myself knowing that the slightest odor will send her rushing headlong into the bathroom to yak.

We have settled on names. I am enjoying the idea of Burt and Ernie but Brett's idea of Siegfried and Roy has a nice ring to it. Now introducing.....! Marisue will not allow Han and Luke. Gracie's idea of Sonic and Kashi were really good but I didn't want people asking why we named them after a fast food restaurant and breakfast cereal.

One of the ideas we had was to put the names up for bid on Ebay. How else will we be able to afford all those diapers!