Tuesday, November 24, 2009

feeling blessed!

I had another ultrasound today. And the babies are doing great! Dr. Masaki is thrilled with my fluid levels and cervix size (sorry for TMI!). I left the doctor feeling so blessed. While my pregnancy is higher risk due to carrying identical twins that share one placenta, I have had a relatively easy time so far!

And I feel so blessed by that! I know there are women who experience complication after complication during their pregnancies...and I'm just so thankful for the healthy babies so far! I do NOT take it for granted!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

hugs, kisses and more please!


Julia is getting so big! Every day she's getting more confident in her walking. She comes walking toward you with this gigantic grin!

She knows how to blow kisses and give hugs. When you tell her to lay down she finds a spot and lays down on the ground! We've taught her to ask for more milk/juice--she used to just shriek when she wanted more but we were able to teach her pretty quickly to sign "more" when she wanted more. It makes for more peaceful meal times!

Today while we were waiting for the doctor, she reached over and playfully hit Kate on the head. I told her, "no, Juls, be gentle." I rubbed Kate's head to show her how and told her again to be gentle, to which she leaned over and gave a hug! Ahhh! Just precious!

smarty pants!


This girl is one smart cookie! A couple days ago she counted to 30...well, actually 29. When she got to 30 it sounded something like this:

"Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, twenty-ten..."

So not quite, but close!

She really is quite brilliant! She remembers details that normal people don't remember, even grown-ups! She recently related to us a morning at Chuck E. Cheese that had happened a couple months before. She remembered what we ate for breakfast before we went, who met us there, that they didn't eat at Chuck E. Cheese but instead ate at McDonalds, that their mom hadn't been there because she was getting her hair done... what kid pays attention to that stuff and remembers it?!

She is constantly shocking Jason and I with the things she remembers and knows. She even knows my doctor's name (Dr. Masaki) and asks if I'm going to see him.

She sure keeps us on our toes!

Friday, November 13, 2009

babies update

Yesterday I had the "big" ultrasound, ya know, the one where they check all the anatomy, the brain, the heart, etc (or should I say--the brainS, the heartS!).

And everything looks great! They are both right on track for where they should be! Both weight 11 oz and are measuring in at 19 weeks 6 days and 19 weeks 5 days! Oh and yes, they're both STILL girls!

I didn't know this until the END of the appointment (which I'm thankful for) but I guess my doctor was pretty concerned about something called Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS). Because I only have one placenta for both babies I have a 15-20% chance of this happening. What happens is that one baby starts receiving all the nutrients and the other baby doesn't get any (or not near enough). This can obviously cause big problems! There isn't a whole lot that doctors can do about it either. There are a couple things, but nothing definitive.

My doctor even told me that in a lot of cases, if a bad case of TTTS is seen by the 20th week, they'll advise the mom's to abort the babies. How sad! There is a 30% chance with TTTS that the babies will have Cerebral Palsy. A 30% chance. And they advise mom's to abort. *sigh* This made me really sad.

BUT, no sign of ANYTHING wrong was found yesterday. Doc said that if I had a bad case they would have seen something by my last appointment (2 weeks ago) and definitely by yesterday. He was absolutely THRILLED with the water levels around each baby and with their growth! THRILLED! Of course I was too, I just didn't know I needed to be until the end--which actually I'm thankful for. I don't want to know how concerned a doctor is about something until there's a reason to actually be concerned! I asked him if he's ever seen a case like mine where everything looks great at week 20 and then it changes and TTTS develops. He said it's possible but he's only seen it ONCE in his entire career. So we're really hopeful that we don't have to worry about this at all now!

This doesn't really have much to do with the health of the babies but I thought these facts were interesting--he said that I'm his only twin patient (out of a "gazillion") that is monochorionic (one placenta). He also said that of his gazillions of twin patients only me and one other mom are natural twins--the rest are in vitro. Weird hah?

So anyway, we've made it to week 20 and so far everything looks great! Praise God! I feel extremely blessed!

Monday, November 9, 2009

love!


Jason always meets me and the girls for lunch on Mondays. He's in the office on that day and so he's close to home, the perfect time for us to meet for lunch!

He told me the other day that the guys at work always give him a hard time for not going to lunch with them. They said, "it's because he loves his wife."

What a compliment! I love Jason so much and am so thankful for the husband and dad that he is. And I'm so glad that it's obvious to others how much he loves us too! The girls and I cherish our Monday lunches with Dada!

Today, Jason decided to eat with the guys. Boy did we miss him! But I'm glad he was able to go with the guys too...relationship building is important too!

Next week though...he's all ours!

Friday, November 6, 2009

sweet big sister


This precious girl is such a sweetheart! Julia has had a little bit of a runny nose the last few days. Today I was suctioning her nose (something ALL babies love!) and she was, well, let's just say, NOT happy! When I was done, Julia was still crying pretty hard and Katey, sweet big sister that she is, ran to the fridge and brought back her juice for her and also got her a tissue for her nose. She has been just precious to her little sister today!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year! We found this really cute doctor costume for Kate and Juls was a little lamb!

Dr. Kate:



Little lamb:


Sisters:



Ready for some candy:


We went to an outdoor promenade called The District where all the stores had candy for the kids to go trick-or-treating. The girls look pretty thrilled here, don't ya think?!:



Me and the hubs:


Dada and his little doctor:


There were also some brand new cars for the kids to trunk-or-treat from:



There were a lot of people, see?:



Mama and the girlies:



Back at home, someone found the candy and was caught red-handed:




Fun, fun, fun!