13 Weeks

Please excuse my tired face - it was a long day.

We had our second prenatal appointment this week where they drew blood to check me for anything that could affect the pregnancy – blood type, Rhesus status (basically blood compatibility between me and the babies), anemia, immunity to rubella and the chicken pox, etc.  These are all routine tests that are done on all pregnant women between 11 and 13 weeks.  Once the blood was drawn, the doctor listened for the babies’ heartbeats using a Doppler machine.  He found one baby’s heartbeat right away and we listened to it for about a minute straight.  Henry and I stared at each other, smiling the whole time while the doctor bobbed his head to the beat of one of our babies’ hearts.  Then he searched around for the second heartbeat… and searched… and searched… and found silence…

Henry and I started to get a little worried.  Dr. P. assured us that he was confident everything was ok, but he wanted to do a complimentary sonogram just to make sure everybody was ok on the inside. 

We walked down to the sonogram room, and after a few minor technical difficulties with the sonogram machine, we were able to see our two beautiful, healthy (and wiggly!) babies!!  It turned out that rather than being side by side, they were stacked one on top of the other, laying in the same direction, almost as if the bottom one was trying to hide perfectly behind the top one.  That’s why Dr. P. couldn't pick up the second heartbeat with the Doppler – Baby #2 was hiding!! 

Overall, our appointment went well.  We are super thankful for Dr. P. for doing an impromptu sonogram just to give us (and himself, I’m sure) the peace of mind knowing that both of our sweet little babies are doing well.  Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of the sonogram since it was a quick “are they ok” one.  But Henry and I got to see them dancing away!  (Seriously, it looked like they were rocking out to music only they could here.  Their little arms and legs were moving like crazy!  And also, they have really big heads!!)  I think their little hiding stint was their way of saying “hi” to us – “Hi Mom!  Hi Dad!”.  I also think Baby #2 is going to be the jokester of the two.  At our first appointment, s/he was like “Surprise!  I’m here too!”.  And at this appointment, s/he decided to play hide-and-seek.  If s/he is being crazy silly this early on, I can just imagine the kind of shenanigans we’re in for in the future! ;)

And now, our weekly update (as told by the twins)…

Sleep: Mom has been sleeping great this week (except for when she wakes up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom – sorry mom!)!  She can’t sleep on her stomach anymore though, otherwise she squishes us and we don’t like it.  And dad is still reading us bedtime stories – thanks dad!

Cravings: We haven’t really had any food cravings this week.  Mom has just been really thirsty, so she's trying to drink enough water to stay hydrated. 

Symptoms: I started getting Carpal Tunnel Syndrome-like pains in my right arm early in the week which made it somewhat hard for me to sleep – I felt like my forearm was on fire!  After reading up on CTS and then asking my doctor about the pains, I learned that it’s pretty common for carpal tunnel syndrome to suddenly appear in pregnant women – who knew!?  The swelling and water retention that occurs during pregnancy can do some crazy things!  I talked with my Aunt Lydia (she suffers from CTS :() about it for a while, and she recommended some good braces/remedies to help ease the pain.  I started stretching my hand/arm and wearing a brace and the intense pain is now manageable.

I also started feeling the effects of wearing flip flop sandals every day – my feet and back really started hurting this week.  I switched to wearing real shoes and, after an “I told you so!” from Henry, everything feels much better. :)

How we’re growing: This week, our unique fingerprints have formed on the tips of our tiny little fingers.  Our skin is still pretty thin, so you’d be able to see all of our veins and organs if you looked at us right now.  Our bodies are starting to catch up to the size of our heads – mom is pretty happy about that.  We've gone through a bit of a growth spurt over the last week.  We’re about 3” long now and have doubled in weight to one whole ounce, each! 

Best moment of the week: Getting to hear one of our babies’ heartbeats on the Doppler machine, and getting to see them both wiggling around.  It was also absolutely amazing to see how much they've developed in the last four weeks.  The first time we saw them (~8.5 weeks), they both looked like little kidney beans.  This time around, we saw two little humans, with very large heads, and little arms and legs.  Seeing them was absolutely breathtaking. <3

We also enjoyed our time in El Paso over the weekend.  We got to spend time with lots of friends and family, and the general consensus is that December needs to hurry up and get here because there's lots of people waiting to meet these two little babies!

What Mom & Dad are looking forward to this coming week: We’re officially past the riskiest time of the twins’ development and things are going great – woohoo!  For now, we’re looking forward to them growing more!  And we can’t wait until we’re able to feel all the moving around they’re doing!

Side note: For anybody who is wondering if/when we are going to find out the sexes of the babies – Yes, we are.  Dr. P. said we’ll find out at our 20 weeks appointment, which is like forever far away!  Ok, so it’s only 7ish weeks or so away.  But that feels like forever when all you want to do is shop for cute clothes and nursery stuff!