Catching Up

I went back and forth on the blog thing. It seems like online is more convienent than writing in a journal. I'm not sure I want to ultimately keep a pregnancy book but that's a decision I can make later. :)

So at this point I'm 11 or 12 weeks along with twins. The first number is based off their actual size. The second is calculated from my LMP. The ticker at the left prefers the 11 weeks for the "You have this many days left until June 28th, sucker!" and the 12 for the "This is how long you've been exhausted." I'm not sure why this ended up being so complicated. lol

We've had two ultrasounds so far. The first was around 8 weeks. I was on the table, holding J's hand as we waited for our first glimpses of the baby. The u/s tech spent what I considered extra long looking at the screen before turning it so we could see. Once she did let us in on the fun, she said "So this is Baby B." Uh... J and I looked at each other. This was not the plan. I immediately blamed him. Both baby A and B had strong heartbeats, in the 140-150 range.

Four days later on November 11th we went to the Maternal-Fetal Specialist to have them determine if they were mono (sharing one bubble) or di (each have their own). It seemed pretty clear to the tech that they were di-bubbled. We were relieved. One book I read said that mono's had around a 50% chance of not making it. Di's also are a decent indicator of fraternal twins but there's a small chance they could be identical. The two bubbles also mean that they won't share a placenta or tangle up their umbilical cords, both serious issues that mono's face.

The MFS also talked to us about Vanishing Twin, a situation were one twin stops growing and gets reabsorbed. It was the first thing we came across when researching twins online and we were really, really worried about it. Some sources were saying there's a 30% chance of this happening! Others say it's lower, like 20%. No one really knows for sure because a lot of people don't get a u/s until much later after and vanishing would have happened (normally before week 12).

I still think about it sometimes, since I'm not out of the woods yet. It's really hard mentally when you plan and think about having one baby, then find out it's two, but that you could still end up with one. Part of you feels excited about twins, but there's a tiny little voice that would be very happy with only one. Add in guilt and general worry, and you've recreated how I feel. hehe

I think we're still coming to terms with having twins, at least in an abstract sense. I'm sure the reality won't sink in until they're born. There's also this feeling that most people don't understand how high risk they are, even being di-bubbled. I'm not going to have them until 40 weeks. Most mom's are induced at 36-38 weeks if they don't appear before then. Bedrest starting around week 25 is a high possibiliy. An NICU stay for the bebes is also something we've had to learn about, including all sorts of premie issues like jaundice, feeding tubes, apnea monitors, and underdeveloped lungs. It's hard to not be perpetually freaked out.