Thursday, June 30, 2011

what's your prediction?




Answer to be revealed at the beginning of August.

Monday, June 27, 2011

here come the belly shots...

Even though I am only 14 weeks, there is no denying the pregnant belly.



My co-worker was nice enough to create this projection of what I will look like:


He's lucky I have a sense of humor!

are you kidding me ?!

On June 9, we went to Johns Hopkins for the first trimester screening, an in-depth ultrasound at about 12 weeks to test for chromosomal abnormalities such as Trisomy-21, Trisomy-18, and Down Syndrome. This test is performed by an ultrasound technician  primarily by measuring the baby, looking for the presence of a nasal bone, and measuring nuchal translucency (fluid beneath the skin behind the baby’s neck).

There was a screen set up that we could watch while the ultrasound tech watched another screen.  The ultrasound tech had the baby up on the screen pretty quickly. Then she panned over and said, "and here's the second baby."  I believe my reaction was "Are you kidding me?!" Pat and I just looked at each other in disbelief.  Pat said, "I don't think they joke about things like that." We were in such shock  that we pretty much sat in silence for the rest of the appointment. It was completely mind-blowing since the doctor only saw one fetus at the first ultrasound. Our minds were racing with a million things...how much will daycare cost?...we will have to buy two of everything...how will I physically do it...are we going to have to move?...wait, what? Two?

Logistics aside, we were completely in awe of this amazing news and felt absolutely lucky and blessed.
The twins, Baby A and Baby B are fraternal (known at this point because they have two separate placentas) and passed their tests with flying colors.

3D ultrasound of both babies

3D ultrasound of both babies

Profile of Baby A

Full body of Baby B

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

in the beginning...

On April 19, 2011 we found out we were going to be parents. We had been planning this for some time so it was nothing but a pleasant and long-awaited surprise. We anxiously awaited the first ultrasound to find the heartbeat.  At about 9 weeks, we were elated to see the beating heart in our first ultrasound and got this fuzzy picture.




On Mother's Day, we hosted a brunch for Pat's mom, Ellen, and Aunt Anna. There were sweet enough to bring me a pile of pregnancy books and a card.




In this early stage, we were still keeping the pregnancy a pretty close secret but having our own fun calling the embryo The Sea Monkey since that's what illustrations of this development stage look like.