Ultrasound @ 27 weeks and 2 days

Am and I went in for our 27 week ultrasound this morning.  As mentioned earlier, we will have ultrasounds every 4 weeks throughout the pregnancy to ensure that both babies are growing the way they should.  The fear is that one baby will begin to move far ahead of the other baby and will hog the majority of the nutrition.  While this is not as big of a concern with fraternal twins, it is still something they like to monitor.

We are very happy to report that both babies are progressing well and are right in line with where they should be in size.  Our baby boy is currently weighing in at exactly 2 pounds and our baby girl is weighing in at 1 pound 15 ounces.  You may remember that our boy weighed 1 pound 4 ounces and our girl 1 pound 3 ounces four weeks ago.  So both babies have gained 12 ounces or an average of 3 ounces per week.

Apparently the babies have been shifting positions some so we have not always been blaming the correct child for sleepless nights and brutal karate chops.  It is still really hard for me to visualize who is where.  Am definitely has a better grasp on that. 

We did get further confirmation that we are looking at a boy and girl and that both appear to be healthy.  We need a little more shifting to occur in order for them to be in position for a natural birth.  Currently they both are more in a feet down position.  But overall it was a very good report as we come down the homestretch that is the third trimester!  Here are a few pictures from the visit (they still don't scan very well but are better than nothing).

The first is the two heads and you can see that they are still right next to each other.  In a lot of the shots from the 3D ultrasound it looks like they are constantly sticking feet and arms in each other's faces.  I didn't quite understand how this was possible considering they are in separate sacks.  But the doctor confirmed today that the sacks are very thin and they definitely can and do mess with each other.  So we already have some sibling bonding going on (or squabbling depending on how you want to look at it).

The second shot is one of the girl's face.  You can't see it very well (especially in the scanned version) but it is a lot better than previous shots of her face.

And the final one is a shot of the girl's feet.  Again, not a fantastic shot but she had her feet together which was quite cute.

3D Ultrasound Video

We just received the 2 minute video of the 3D ultrasound.  Portions of it are kind of cool and portions of it leave you scratching your head on exactly what it is you are looking at.  I guess 3D ultrasounds are kind of like playing the lottery - you may get lucky and have an amazing experience with video of your baby sticking her tongue out or swallowing or smiling at the camera or you may get nothing more than confusing pictures of a what appears to be a squirming alien (or in our case, two squirming aliens).  We were somewhere in between but probably leaning more toward the latter.  We did have a normal 2D ultrasound today - more on that later when I have more time. Until then, here is the video (beware the creepy music):

3D Ultrasound - 26 Weeks

Am and I went back and forth on whether or not it would be worth the money to get a 3D ultrasound done.  The 2D ultrasounds that you get at the doctor are very cool but you can actually see features in the 3D ultrasounds and you can get a DVD and electronic versions of the pictures to share.  We originally decided against it as we didn't feel it would be worth the money.  But then came the constant kicking and moving that Am feels pretty much all day and night.  We decided that would be really cool to see!  We guessed doing it at 26 weeks would be good from the standpoint that the babies still have room to move but bad from the standpoint that they don't have much meat on their bones yet.  We decided the movement was more important to us so 26 weeks it was.

So we did some research online and decided to use Inner Child Imaging in Innsbrook.  We showed up for our appointment this morning and were met by Dave Onesti.  Dave was absolutely fantastic but our babies decided not to cooperate, especially our baby girl.  The babies are literally lying right up against each other which limited the angles available for viewing their faces.  That said, we loved being able to see all of the movement and to realize how close they are to each other.  Their heads are side by side and their legs and arms seemed to be all over each other.  This constant contact probably explains why they are awake and moving so often.  It was also nice to count fingers and toes and to see that both babies appeared to be doing well.

Many of you have already stated that you find 3D ultrasound pictures creepy.  Sorry.  We received around 50 of them but many are hard to make out so I am limiting my post to 3.  Hopefully we will have our video to post online by mid-week but for now the pictures will have to do.

This first one shows a side view of our baby boy's face.  You can see him looking down with one arm in front of his face and his other hand underneath his arm.  Right above his head is the head of his sister.  She was resting her head on her brother's neck for most of the ultrasound.

This next one shows the view looking down on their two heads.  Each of the babies has a hand up by his/her face.  The joke was that they are telling each other secrets.

This final one is just kind of funny.  This is a side profile of our boy and makes it look like he is in a thinking pose.  Our babies will spend the rest of Am's pregnancy fattening up but you can definitely see that they are quite skinny at this point.  One thing we read today that was really cool, though, is that if the babies were to be born this week, they would still have a 95% chance of survival!  Oh, and yep, that is still baby girl's head lying in his neck.

Now we just have to decide if we are going to go back and give it another go in a week or two.  Either way, we will post the video later this week.

Pregnancy Pictures - 25 Weeks

It has been 4 weeks since our last round of pregnancy pictures so, much to Annmarie's displeasure, it was time today to do another set.  We just completed our 25th week so we are nearing the 2/3rds mark.  Our babies are most definitely growing fast in this stage but Am continues to be a trooper. One thing is for sure -  she is still EXTREMELY beautiful!!!!!  Here is my beautiful wife and the mother of my babies:

Ultrasound @ 23 weeks and 2 days

Am and I went in for our second ultrasound this morning.  The twins have upped our classification to a "high risk pregnancy" which means we get to go have these pictures taken on a much more regular basis.  The doctors want to be sure each of the babies is growing at a good healthy rate and that we don't have a situation where one baby is hogging the nutrition.

The ultrasound went great (with the exception of my trying to record a video of the ultrasound on my iPad only to find that somehow I didn't hit "record").  The babies are both growing well and "everything looks perfect".  Am's suspicions about who is hanging out where were confirmed and the babies were very cooperative in terms of positioning.  Here are some shots (not great ones - using the copier at work as a scanner):

 (This one is from the side looking directly down on the two babies' heads.  Baby B is our boy and Baby A is our girl.  Both brains look highly intelligent to me!  Our boy is up high in Am's stomach while our girl is riding very low.)

 (Here is our baby boy looking at the camera - I think they are going to be photogenic like their mother.)

 (And here is our baby girl looking at the camera)

We also had 100% confirmation that our boy is a boy and our girl is a girl (they left no doubt - we have a picture but our boy was being quite the exhibitionist and I wasn't sure it was internet appropriate).  Our baby boy is sitting at 1 pound 4 ounces and our girl at 1 pound 3 ounces which are both right on target.  Next official ultrasound will be 4 weeks from today.  Thanks for your continued prayers!!!