15 Weeks

Continuing the march towards normal proportions, baby's legs now out measure the arms. And, finally, all four limbs have functional joints. Your fetus is squirming and wiggling like crazy down in the womb, though you probably still can't feel the movements.

Today I am 15 weeks 6 days! I'm almost at the half way point for a twin pregnancy! I'm starting to feel great again. I still get tired if I over do thing, and at the end of the day, but it is a lot less pronounced as it was earlier on! I'm enjoying having some energy back, while it lasts! I know soon enough I'll be tired all the time again!

I've written before that I think I have been feeling movements. Now I am sure I feel movements...and very frequently! I feel them every day now! With Lily I felt my first movements at 14 weeks, and it wasn't consistent for a while after that, so I'm surprised to be feeling them so often already! I'm not surprised at feeling them earlier, (they say you feel movements earlier with subsequent pregnancies) I'm just surprised at how often I feel them already! I'm still waiting for those nice strong kicks, but for now I'm happy to feel them wiggling around!

I finally had my second doctors visit last week. Everything is great with me and the babies. No weight gain to date (actually I've lost 5 lbs!), and blood pressure is great. I hope it stays good throughout the pregnancy. I got a lot of questions answered on how delivery may go, so I'm feeling a little more calm about the whole thing. Unfortunately my doctor wont deliver naturally if one of the babies is breech...so please keep us in your thoughts as we get further along that both babies are head down! My next appointment is later this month for our big anatomy scan! I'm really looking forward to that ultra sound!

Sick Again

Poor baby is sick again. Last night she had a low fever, and today it has shot up pretty high. I'm wondering if she caught something over the weekend meeting and seeing so many people at the rehearsal dinner? ( I hope if that's the case that it wasn't spread to the other little girls she was playing with at the party!) Right now we're just taking it easy cuddling on the couch, alternating between Tylenol and Motrin, and pushing as much fluids as possible! I hope this illness doesn't last to long like her last few did. Be thinking healthy thought for us! We don't want to miss the fireworks this weekend!! Poor baby has had such a rough year with being sick!

14 Weeks

Your adorable little fetus is busy with thumb sucking, toe wiggling, and (not so cute but equally amazing) making urine and breathing amniotic fluid as the liver, kidneys and spleen continue to develop. Lanugo (thin, downy hair) is growing all over the body for warmth.

Today I'm 14 weeks pregnant! Finally out of the first trimester!! My all day nausea has finally left, and my appetite is back! It's so nice to be able to think about dinner again without feeling sick! Speaking of food, the things I've been craving are all really healthy. All I want is fruit, salad or fresh veggies. I'll take that over craving ice cream or some other sweet!

I'm still exhausted though...I think I'm resigning to the fact that I will be exhausted this entire pregnancy. What else could I expect with building two babies at once?! I read somewhere that in a singleton pregnancy our blood volume increase 50%, and in a twin pregnancy it's more like 100%! That's a lot of extra blood to oxygenate! No wonder I get tired just standing still some days!

Babies seem to be doing well. I listen in to their heart beats every day, and I can hear them moving around a lot. I've been feeling the little flutters of movement for a couple weeks now, but wasn't 100% sure it was them yet. Now I'm sure that I have been feeling them. Last week I had one experience where I thought I was having a lot of braxton hicks contractions, one right after the other. When I slowed down and paid attention to them I noticed the tightening was only in one small spot on my tummy....so I grabbed the doppler on a hunch, and sure enough I could hear baby b rolling and kicking around right under the spot I was feeling the tightening! I haven't felt movement like that since...but I have been feeling a lot of the little flutters. I'm looking forward to feeling them get stronger!

The only other new thing in the pregnancy is back pain has already started. It's not to bad yet, but makes me worried for how it will get in the next few months. Hopefully I'll be spared to much discomfort for as long as possible!

My next doctors appointment is next week. This will be the first one since finding out it was twins, so I've definitely got to get a list of questions started! Looking forward to hearing what she has to say about delivery!

20 and 21 Months

Dear Lily,

I know these past couple months have been really hectic for us all, with mommy being so sick! You haven't slowed down your growing and learning though! Sometimes I really wish I could stop time for a bit, and preserve you just the way you are now!

The biggest change we've noticed over the past couple of months is in your vocabulary! As has been the case over the past several months, you are picking up word left and right. You are starting to repeat everything you hear. The most drastic change in your vocabulary has been that you are speaking in two and three word sentences now! Some of the sentences you say a lot are "I don't know!" (always in reference to where your binky is!), "I want______ (insert object or food here)", "Are you ok?", "Daddy's home!", and "I love you". It's so amazing watching you learn to communicate more effectively with us!

You have become such a sweet heart in the last few months. You're starting to really show some genuine sympathy and concern for others. Whenever you see someone crying, you like to give them a big hug and say "Awwww". If someone coughs, sneezes, burps, yawns or hic-ups you drop everything to come over, pat their arm or back and say "are you ok" in the sweetest concerned voice! You'll do the same sometimes if the cats are meowing!

I have a couple of anecdotes that relate to this. The first one involves the kitties. One day I was holding Orion for you to pet nicely (which it appears you have finally learned to do!!). You kept giving him nice pets on the back, nice scratches behind the ears, and gentle hugs. It was clear, no mater how gentle and nice you were being though, that he did not want the attention at the time. So I was trying to keep him calm so you could get more practice at being nice to the kitties...and you started copying what I was doing. You were giving him kisses, and getting close to his ear to say "sshhh..." softly, and patting his face gently and saying very sweetly "you're ok...you're ok!" A few hours later you did the same thing with Ouija!

Last week I spied you walking around the house with one of your baby dolls in your arms. You were carry it around in a craddle hold, and I heard you saying to the baby "Are you ok? Are you ok?" and patting it's arm gently...then you would say "You're ok...you're ok...shhh" And you were giving it hugs and kisses, and just being so sweet to your dolly! I've seen you do this a few times since! (ok...so maybe that belongs in the 22 month blog post...but I know I'll forget it if I don't write it down now!) It's just so nice watching you be a little sweet heart!

One of your favorite things to do since the weather has turned nice is go outside and play! You LOVE going to the park down the street. Daddy's been taking you a lot the past 2 months because I've been sick. You love the slide and swings! You like to climb up the stairs to the slide all by your self know, and even try to climb the slide the wrong way once you are at the bottom. You always say "wee!!" when you go down the slide or get on the swings!

Another favorite outside active is drawing with side walk chalk! You love to take every piece of chalk out of the box and draw straight lines. You also love to do the same with crayons inside! I think you may be starting to learn the colors too. You repeat all the color names, and will sometimes say pink green or orange correctly while holding up that color. Though you also often times hold up another color and say orange! But sometimes you get it right! haha!

Probably my favorite thing you've been doing these past few weeks is singing a lot more! You sing along to all your favorite songs...and you even made up one of your own a week or so ago. You sing "Ah, ah , ah, ah, ah...Babies!" Maybe you were trying to tell us something?! haha!

Lily, being your mommy has been the very best thing in my life! I'm so happy and blessed to have such a wonderfully spirited daughter! I'm worried about you getting the attention you deserve now that we've got twins on the way. I want you to always remember that no matter what...you are my baby, and Daddy and I love you more than we can express! Keep growing and learning baby girl!!

Love always,
Mommy

Onto the much overdue pictures:

April 18th we went to a Pawsox game. Here's Daddy and Lily at the game:


She as it turned out was still sick at the game...so she didn't enjoy much of the game. Here she is watching at one point:
Cheering on her favorite team:

Being a goof:
After the game posing in her chair...I think this was the only time she sat in it all game!
20 month photo shoot:


Working hard on something....maybe her stock crashed?
Posing again:

Getting tickled:
We went on vacation to Cape Cod at the end of April with a good friend Jon Becky and Kyan. I still have to sort through those pictures, but here is a shot of the kids goofing off one night. they were kicking their legs really hard and laughing at each other!
Lily at one of her favorite activities, side walk drawing!

Lily being silly in her favorite sunglasses:
And finally the one and only photo Lily let me take for her 21 month birthday!

Full Report

So now that everyone knows our news...I hope you all understand why I haven't been posting on the blog a lot lately!

Ok...so here is the full report on the pregnancy thus far! Hope you make it to the end...I know it will be long and wordy!

We found out we were pregnant on April 21st, so we've been holding onto this secret for a long time! I'm now currently 12 weeks and 3 days pregnant, with a due date of 12/22. The original due date, before our scan yesterday, was actually Christmas day...but the babies were measuring ahead by a few days, so we've adjusted the dates. My blood test to confirm pregnancy came back with a beta of 4903 at 18dpo (days past ovulation). For those who don't know how to read beta numbers...that is very high. That was our first indication that we might have more than one in there!

My first trimester so far has been pretty rough. I started the pregnancy with a cold, which was no fun. As soon as that cleared up, morning sickness kicked into full swing! Or rather...I should say all day sickness! For several weeks I was nauseous all day long. Poor Lily, all I could do was lay on the couch and try to rest as much as possible! Eating has become a complete chore. Nothing but fruit has been appealing to me at all! I actually spent the first 2 weeks or so that I was sick having a green apple with peanut butter for dinner every night. Sean wasn't to pleased with that!

Thankfully around 10 weeks the all day sickness started to ease up a bit. I have some days now where I don't feel sick at all as long as I make sure to eat on time. Other days I'll still feel a bit sick throughout the day. It's usually at night when it is the worst now. Eating still is a pain though. I frustrate Sean so much...it takes us a good half hour at least every night to figure out what we're going to have for dinner!

No real cravings so far. Fruit, as I've said, is my favorite. I'm really looking forward to going out to pick strawberries now that they are in season! I've had a lot of aversions. I can't eat, see or smell bacon, garlic, eggs, most meats, and olives. Cheese and tomatoes were bothering me for a while too, but recently they seem to be making a comeback into my diet...thankfully! Anything that is overly smelly sets off my gag reflex!

As soon as the all day sickness started to ease up, being overly tired kicked into overdrive. I've been so tired lately...going to bed as early as 7:30 some nights! I hope as I approach the 2nd trimester that I will start to get some energy back soon!

We heard the heart beat (or should I say "a" heart beat) for the first time last Friday. We bough our own fetal doppler so we could check in on our baby as often as we needed. Hearing that heart beat last Friday finally make this whole pregnancy sink in. All of a sudden we had proof that there was a baby in there! Then Wednesday night, I was looking for the heart beat again...and started noticing that I was finding it on both sides of my belly. I would find it up high on the right, and down low on the left. I tried to convince myself and Sean that the baby was just very active, and I was catching it as it was swimming laps! In the back of our minds though, I think both Sean and I were entertaining the idea of twins again.

Then yesterday we went in for our first ultra sound...and sure enough, as soon as she put the probe on my belly, I could see two separate sacks. As she moved it around a bit more, I started to see the two separate bodies. That's the part in the video that you can see...it dawning on us that there really were 2 babies in there! What an amazing surprise! On Sean's birthday too! "Happy birthday honey! I know you only ordered one baby...but look...were getting two!"

Both babies are looking great. They each have their own sack and placenta, which the doctor and ultra sound tech said was the best kind of twins to have. We'll have a less risk for problems because they have their own placentas. Both heart beats were 163 bpm (beats per min). And they were both measuring great. One baby measured 12w2d, and the other at 12w3d. Baby A is the one down lower on the left, and baby B is up higher on the right/middle.

Here are the pictures we got in full size:

The tops of both twins heads, and the membrane that separate them:



Twin A Profile:



Twin B Profile:



We are so excited to be going down this adventure again....and we are so doubly blessed! We have so much to research now, on twin pregnancy and child care. It's almost like we are completely new at this all over again!

We ask for your prayers that everything goes smoothly for us, and that the babies get to as close to full term as possible!

I look forward to sharing this amazing journey with everyone...and of course we can't forget the continual updates on big sister Lily!! Look for a new blog updating what she's been up to these past couple months that mommy has been to sick to get on the computer!

Lily's New Role...

....Big Sister!!!

That's right folks! We're pregnant again! Santa's bringing us a special gift this Christmas...Due December 22!

But wait....there's more!!

Santa isn't bringing us one baby...he's bringing us two!!

We just found out today it's twins!!! We are so excited! More updates to come!

11 Weeks

Today I am 11 weeks pregnant!



Your fetus currently enjoys a 1:1 ratio between body and head, and has skin so transparent that blood vessels show right through. But, fingers and toes are no longer webbed, and hair follicles, tooth buds and nail beds are forming -- setting up a significantly more attractive future.

I heard the heart beat for the first time today!! We bought a fetal doppler, which came in the mail today...and I was able to find the heart beat!! It took me a while to find it (and of course kept finding my own heart beat!), but once I did, it was the sweetest sound I've ever heard! The baby kept moving away from me, so I was only able to hear the fast paced beats for a few seconds at a time, but it was so nice to be reassured that there really is a baby growing in there! Now I really can't wait for our first ultra sound next week!

As for how I'm feeling, morning sickness has been starting to ease up. I'm so relieved to not be sick all day long any more! I still feel sick most nights, and finding something to eat is always a pain, but it's getting easier! Unfortunately as much as my sickness has decreased, my tiredness has increased! I've been going to bed at 7:30-8 most nights now. I'm just to tired to stay up later! All for the good of the baby though right! If baby needs sleep, it's getting sleep!