Reacting to the News

IDENTICAL twin BOYS!!! Yah, the news is still the same...and somehow, so is my reaction! Every time I tell anyone or I have someone ask me about it my heart starts racing and I think...IDENTICAL twin BOYS!! Because you know me, everything is CAPITALIZED when it's exciting and I'm slightly FREAKING OUT! :)

As always, the emotions and thoughts come in floods (we've upgraded from waves now...it is just right to a flood of thoughts!) BOYS - I'm beyond excited! That part of this news was easy for me to handle. IDENTICAL - now that might be a different story. For some reason identical just freaks me right out.

What if we mix them up?! How do you make sure they feel like they have their own identity? What if one commits a crime and frames the other for it - their DNA will be identical too ya know?! (Yah, I watch a lot of crime shows...what can I say?!) Do we have them match? Do we care if they match? Ok, we know it's boys, do we really want a baseball theme? Are the names we picked out really the names we want to give them for the rest of their lives? What if we name them backwards, Baby A should have been Baby B and vice-versa? And the one Tadd laughed at the hardest - what if I grow their boy parts wrong? How does my body know how to grow them? I've never had any!

That's just some of my randomness. Trust me there is plenty more! Having twins was complicated enough, now having IDENTICAL twins just makes it seem even a little more intimidating. I told Tadd we will have to paint their toenails or something...markers wash off too easily! 

Tadd's reaction (other than the goofy grin plastered on his face)...

"It's a dream come true!" 

 His exact words in fact. He says every dad wants a boy, and to get two at the same time - Awesome!

That's a guy for you...I worry constantly and think of the craziest and silliest things...He just goes on being blissfully happy, living his ultimate dream apparently. We will see if that excitement lasts when those dream fulfilling boys are the reality of two screaming newborns at our house. 

I won't lie, knowing these lil nuggets are boys is kinda fun. Okay, it's really fun. I like being able to tell Tadd "Your boys sure are wiggly tonight" or "Will you tell your sons to stop pushing on my bladder?" And I used to think they listened. Tadd would talk to my belly and tell them to be nice to mommy and they seemed to listen. Now when he talks to my belly, I think they recognize his voice. They seem to get excited and move around more! Which is fun too. It makes me cry every time. Ahhh, pregnancy hormones! 

Wiggling babies is indeed a strange sensation. I've been able to feel them off and on for a few weeks now. Kicking babies - now that's even more strange...yet equally awesome! They started actually kicking about a week ago. It was a Sunday and I had to work, and they just started kicking. If I pushed on my belly they kicked me back. :) It always makes me giggle. 

These boys are definitely starting to become more active. Not enough that I can pinpoint a time of day they move more, or what foods make them kick (at least I hear that foods have an impact) - but they move enough I know they are there. Tadd has even been able to feel them. One of them kicked him at church on Sunday - quite comical. The look on his face was great. Before that he'd felt them moving a little, but this time it was a KICK!

It is amazing how fast time has gone by. I mean really, 21 weeks this week. How did that happen? I mean sure, I think back and March sounds like a really long time ago. But as far as the pregnancy goes, how did this belly get so big?

20 Weeks

Oh that's right, because there are TWINS in that belly. IDENTICAL twin BOYS!! (Yep, still slightly freaking out at that news!) That's how it got so big. Two babies the lengths of large carrots. (Last week the e-mail said bananas, this week carrots...I think a banana sounds bigger personally.) Does that blow anybody else's mind? Cause mine sure is blown. I swear it wasn't too long ago they were only the length of an almond or an apple. Does time always go this fast with babies?

Apparently. Or so I'm told. Definitely seems to be flying by for us. But I'm glad we've been blogging about it so you can all read along with our journey! And don't worry...there's plenty of journey left. :)

The Verdict is In...

Well, don't worry everyone, we did not fall off the face of the earth! Our lives have just been full of a lot of craziness lately. But don't you worry...it's about to become filled with even MORE craziness!
(More on that later)

I know why you all have really been checking in on us - yep, that's right, I can stalk you all! Okay, I just see how many times the blog is viewed, and my guess is you haven't kept coming back to re-read our thrilling stories...you've been waiting and waiting for the details. We sorta left ya hangin' about the genders didn't we...

Well, some people know that we are even meaner than you think. We've known for weeks...since my belly was this big...
 

18 Weeks

 ...That at least one of our nuggets was a little BOY! That's right - at our appointment on June 20th we found out - the doctor told us we were for sure having one little BOY!

Baby #2 wasn't as cooperative, so we decided to torture all of you, and wait to share that news until we knew for sure what both babies were and make a big announcement about it.

Of course, now we've known the genders of both babies for a good two weeks and have just been so crazy I haven't had a chance to make the news official.

So...here it goes.

 The verdict is.....

BOYS!

Now, let me just say, this has not been the normal pregnant experience. For many reasons. I have not been sick at all. (Angry - oh yes. Hormonal - definitely. Exhausted - and then some, especially in the beginning! Sick - not so much.) We have not had a doctor's appointment without an ultrasound. Every doctor's appointment seems to come with a surprise. For example:

Appointment #1: We get to hear the baby's heartbeat...and *surprise* we find out we are having TWINS!

Appointment #2: Doctor cannot hear distinct heartbeats so *surprise* ultrasound it is.

Appointment #3: Doctor again can't hear distinct heartbeats so *surprise 1* ultrasound! *surprise 2* a BOY!

Appointment #4: Our ultrasound with the high-risk specialist *surprise 1* Baby #2 is a....BOY!!!!!!! *surprise 2* These BOYS are IDENTICAL!!!

Yep, that's right. The extra verdict is in...IDENTICAL twin BOYS!!! Is anybody else's heart pounding like crazy after reading that?! Because even after two weeks of knowing that, my heart is still beating like crazy after typing that!

On top of the big news, we got even one more surprise at our visit with the specialist. We now have to have doctor's appointments with ultrasounds every TWO weeks! Yep, add just a little more craziness to our lives. Now that they know they are identical they have to keep a closer eye on them to make sure something called twin to twin transfusion. From what I understand, since the babies share the placenta, they have to worry about the shared placenta containing abnormal blood vessels. This connects the umbilical cords and circulations of the twins - usually resulting in one twin getting more nutrients than the other.

Being pregnant with twins, you are already at higher risk for a lot of pregnant complications like preeclampsia, preterm labor, gestational diabetes. But all of those things can be tested for at your regular checkups or have symptoms associated with them. Twin to twin transfusion is not something you can test for, and has no outward symptoms. So, they keep a close eye on the babies and make sure they are growing at a similar rate. Twin to twin only happens in about 10-15% of identical twins, so we have good odds that our little nuggets will be just fine! And if we get to see them more often, whose complaining? :)

 So, I vote that from now on, no more surprises at the doctor's office. I am not sure my heart could handle anymore surprises. Now it seems like the only surprises we could have would be bad surprises...so I'm really hoping no more! Just routine appointments from now on please :)

And here's what you were all really coming back to check on us for...the pictures!!

Baby A - Heartbeat 144 bpm

Baby A- Profile

Baby A - Close up profile 
(You can see part of Baby B's face above Baby A's!)

 

Baby A - BOY!! 
(Baby A is the more cooperative...we knew he was a boy a week before!)



 

 Baby B - Heart rate 157 bpm

 

Baby B - Profile

Baby B - Profile closeup



 

 Baby B - BOY!!!



In all honesty though, we are thrilled. Tadd is on cloud 15. (It's even higher than cloud 9) Twin boys is what he said would be awesome ever since we found out we were expecting. He came out of the doctor's appointment with the biggest grin on his face - and I'm pretty sure it hasn't left yet.

In true Resa fashion...my first reaction after finding out was, "Tadd, we need to go fabric shopping!" So we did! And the fabric we picked out is fantastic! I can't wait to get started...but wait is what I will have to do since I have an anatomy final in one week. And let's be honest, with all of this excitement going on, who would have been studying? Not me is the answer to that one! So I have to buckle down for one more week...then let the crafting begin!