21 Weeks... and gender reveals

Yes my friends, we are having IDENTICAL TWIN GIRLS!!

We had our appointment with the Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist this past week, and it couldn't have been a more amazing experience.  Dr. Weiss is so incredibly nice and Henry and I agreed that we totally hit the doctor jackpot with Dr. Parnell and Dr. Weiss.

During our appointment, Dr. Weiss checked every inch of both babies.  He measured their brains, the amount of cerebral fluid around their brains, their heads, their arms, their legs, and their bellies.  He also checked their hearts and the chambers of their hearts, their kidneys, their bladders, their lips, their feet, and their hands.  We got to see both babies from literally every angle and it was absolutely amazing!  At the end of the appointment, he determined that both babies are perfectly healthy!  The only two things of “concern” of his are the fact that the babies are stacked one on top of the other (which isn't abnormal), so he says Baby A is going to have limited space to move around as she grows – but this shouldn't affect her development; she’ll just be squished by her sister.  And the fact that the babies are sharing one placenta – he said there’s a possibility of Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome.  This is where one twin doesn't get adequate blood flow from the placenta and therefore doesn't grow at the same rate as the other twin.  He made it clear that they’re both growing equally now, which is a great sign, but he does want to see me back every two weeks from now until I deliver to check the fluids and sizes of the babies to ensure proper growth.  He’s also minorly concerned about the other risks that come with carrying twins – pre-term labor, increased risk of gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, etc.  So he’s also going to keep a close eye on my cervix and just about everything else to make sure I carry these sweet baby girls to term with no problems.

And now, our weekly update…

Sleep: So the oh-so-awesome body pillow I gushed about last week lost its touch pretty quickly – sad, I know.  That one week of solid sleep was so glorious!  But now, it’s back to back aches and hip pains and my heart racing/shortness of breath.  Also, I've gone from only waking up once a night for a bathroom run to twice a night now.  Dear Babies – I’d really appreciate it if y’all didn't sit on my bladder 24/7.  Thanks!  Love, Mom.  Dear Mom – We don’t care!  Love, Babies! 

I find it kind of ironic how people always tell me to “get as much sleep now while you can before the babies arrive”, and yet, I find it difficult to sleep for more than 2-3 hours at a time.  I suppose I’ll just chalk it up to good practice for when they do arrive.

Cravings: I haven’t really had any cravings this week.  I think I was just too anxious about our appointment on Friday to really crave anything in particular.

We did go to a nice steakhouse – Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse – on Thursday night though, to bribe the babies into cooperating at our appointment on Friday.  The food was so good and I intended to take a picture of their pre-appointment dinner to share with you, but in true me fashion, I forgot to get a picture of my entrée and remembered at dessert time.  Oops!  Dessert is what’s really important anyway, right?

Strawberry Cheesecake, woop woop!

Symptoms: I haven’t really had any “new” symptoms this week either – just more of the same back aches and tiredness.  I have found that I can’t walk as fast as I used to (which wasn't very fast to begin with, ha!), and that walking in general kind of makes me tired.  My guess is because my body is carrying the most weight it’s ever had to carry, so it gets really tired really fast.  Not to worry though, I am still well within my expected weight gain and in fact am right on track to the 20 pounds by 24 weeks goal.  I have 4 more pounds to gain in the next 3 weeks to hit that goal perfectly!

How we’re growing:

Baby Girl A is weighing in at 11 ounces, while Baby Girl B is weighing in at 12 ounces.  We forgot to ask the doctor how long each one of them is, but we’re guessing they're about 10.5” long each! 

Best moment of the week: Finding out the genders of these sweet little babies!!!  And that they are both healthy as can be!

What Mom & Dad are looking forward to this coming week: Lots of day dreaming about our sweet baby girls’ personalities and what/who they’re going to look like and how amazing it will be when they’re finally here!  And also registering (and shopping!) for all things pink!

So I know in the beginning I wrote about the babies being fraternal twins, and now all of a sudden they’re identical.  At our very first appointment, when we found out we were having twins, Dr. Parnell saw that they were in two separate sacs.  Based on that, he determined that they were most likely fraternal.  However, during our appointment with Dr. Weiss, he only located one placenta and saw that both babies, while each in their own sac, are connected to that one placenta, making them identical.  Everything about this pregnancy has been such a surprise that I can’t help but feel overwhelmed with emotions to know that not only was I able to conceive naturally (after being told in the past that I might not be able to), but that we have been doubly blessed with a miracle that started as one and split into two. <3  (Seriously y’all, how does that even happen!?  I was able to wrap my head around the whole two eggs thing, but one egg splitting into two is just mind blowing!  It’s pretty much the definition of a miracle!)

Last time you all saw them, they looked like this:

And now, 12 weeks later, they look like this:

Hi!  I’m Twin A!

Hi!  I’m Twin B!