Still unknown! But, we did find out today that the babies are indeed the same sex. We had told both the ultrasound tech and the doctor that we did not want to know the sex of the babies, but the doctors said to us, “Well, I can tell you that they are the same sex.” GRRR! We did not even want to know that much information, but oh what are you going to do? So that means that babies are either 2 boys or 2 girls. What do you think they will be- leave a comment and vote. I think it will be fun to hear everyone’s guesses.

I am 20 weeks along and doing great. I feel good and I really have no complaints. The twins have been pretty active and I can feel them pretty often. I feel Baby A a lot more than Baby B, but I think that is because of the way they are positioned. Baby A is head down in my pelvis and Baby B is breach (head up) toward the top of my uterus (right now). I hope that Baby B will fip before I have to deliver so I can have a vaginal birth, so say a pray for me and the babies. I started taking an iron supplement, which has helped with my energy a whole lot. I guess I was slightly anemic after all. My belly continues to grow. I have a picture of my belly taken at 20 weeks and I compared it to a picture of when I was 7 months pregnant with Cooper, and the bellies look to be the same size, which I think it nuts.

The twins are healthy! We saw a specialist today. She preformed a detailed anatomy ultrasound. She confirmed that my twins are the best type of twins to have- di/ di. Which means they have separate sacs and separate placentas and are not at risks for developing at different rates. The current weights of the babies is 12 ounces and 13 ounces, which are very healthy weights for 20 weeks. During the ultrasound today, the technician took two 4D pictures of the babies faces. I thought it would be neat to include them in this post. Baby B was so cute in his/ her picture, with his/her arm tucked up near his/ her face. I was also told that Baby B’s butt is right in Baby A’s face right now…haha! That is funny!

And now for some pictures….

Baby A @ 20 weeks

Baby B @ 20 weeks

20 weeks pregnant with Cooper

20 Weeks Pregnant with twins

So I had my 17 week appointment with my OB to check and see how the twins are doing. She told me at my last appointment that I would not have an ultrasound because they would be big enough to hear with a Doppler. However, when I got there and she tried to locate their heart beats she had a difficult time finding the heart beats so it turns out I got to have an ultrasound after all. They have grown so much since my last appointment 4 weeks ago. They are really starting to look like little people now! Their heart beats were 147 and 151. If you go with the old-wives tale that low heart beats are boys and high heart beats are girls, I would have to guess they are boys. She asked me if I wanted to find out the gender today and I told her no because Chris and I are still undecided if we want to find out the sex of our babies and Chris was not with me at this appointment.

I have a level II ultrasound scheduled with a specialist in about 3 weeks. I will be 20 weeks and this is when, if we wanted to, we could totally find out the sex of the babies. I know there are many friend and family who hope we chose to find out the sex. My doctor did tell me that since the babies are in separate sacs and have separate placentas it is not imperative that she know the sex of the babies. I am very low risk and knowing the sex really does nothing in the way of preparing for the birth of these kiddos.

She did take some ultrasound pictures of the babies. Baby A was moving around a ton and it was hard to get a good shot of him/ her. She was able to get a face shot with his/ her arm up and over his head. Baby B was pretty still and we got a better shot of him/her. I have posted those pictures below. I have also added an updated picture of my belly. She told me that at 17 weeks your uterus is usually right under your belly button. My uterus is above my belly button and she said I am measuring as if I was 22/23 weeks pregnant with a singleton. I also included a picture from when I was pregnant with Cooper at 18 weeks. Again, I am much larger this time around. My doctor told me that I was going to be pretty large if I was able to make it to 40 weeks (which is highly unlikely for moms pregnant with twins).

I am feeling pretty good. Still take a daily nap with Cooper for at least an hour. I need at least 8 hours of sleep at night or I feel like I am dragging. I gained a bunch of weight in 4 weeks- 8lbs. I am not surprised. My total weight gain this pregnancy is 13lbs. I was told I needed to gain between 35- 45lbs. So I am glad I finally put on some weight. I want to make sure these twins are healthy! The twins have been keeping me pretty hungry. It is not unusual for me to eat a snack right before bed. Then wake up around 3am and eat a snack again (I have been known to have a bowl of oatmeal at 3am), and finally I eat a hardy breakfast between 6-7:30am. I snack between meals and I eat three meals a day. It is nuts how hungry I am. No real cravings. I have do not have a big desire to eat sweets with this pregnancy. With Cooper, I went through a box of brownies a week- no joke.

17 weeks pregnant with Twins

18 weeks pregnant with Cooper

Twin A's face and his/ her arm lifted over his/ her head

Twin B's side profile of face and you can she his/ her spinal cord and back

Today we had our 13 week check-up and ultrasound at the OB. I was a nervous wreck leading up to that appointment. Since I had found out that I was carrying twins, I went stalking the Internet and checked out a ton of books for our local library on twins. I feel like I am having to relearn all about pregnancy all over again. Well, in the course of my quest for knowledge, I learned about a couple of scary conditions and situations that could arise from carrying twins. There is a condition called “Vanishing Twin Syndrome” that can happen prior to 12 weeks. One of the twins will suddenly die and be reabsorbed and “disappear”. I was horrified when I learned about this. The next 4 weeks until our next appointment, seemed like an eternity. I had also learned that if the twins share a placenta there is a condition called “twin to twin transfusion” that can occur. In this condition, one of the twins gets more of the blood flow and nutrition than the other twin. I did not know if our twins shared a placenta or not, which added extra anxiety for me. I am such a worry wort. I know that I am suppose to trust in God, but sometimes it is a hard thing to actually do. I am sure that God is trying to teach me a thing or two through this pregnancy.

Well the appointment went well, both babies are alive and well. There heart beats were 163 and 157, both in the normal range. She took a picture of each baby so we could share it with our friends and family. Baby A was moving a ton and she had a hard time getting his/her heart beat and picture, but finally he/ she decided to cooperate! It turns out that each baby has its own placenta, which are on separate sides of my uterus. This means that the babies are not at risk for “twin to twin transfusion” and they are beyond 12 weeks and out of the risk for “vanishing twin syndrome”. Yes, there is always a change that things will not work out, but things look positively good for these babies. My uterus is measuring larger than most women who are caring only one baby. I am 13 weeks today and I am measuring about 4 weeks ahead, which means I look like I am 17 weeks pregnant- hence why I have popped sooner!

Chris and I are really starting to get excited about having twins. The more I think about it, the more excited I become. Yes, I still have fears about the lack of sleep, can I breastfeed, how Cooper will handle the adjustment, and things of that nature. However, I think that having two little ones will be a wonderful experience. I have had so many people tell me great stories about their twins and how they grew up being best-friends. I feel blessed that I get to be apart of this wonderful experience and to see two siblings grow up together and nurture a wonderful relationship between the two.

So what’s next?

Our next appointment is in 4 weeks, I will be 17 weeks pregnant. We will not have an ultrasound done at that time because the babies will be large enough to hear on a Doppler (heart rate monitor). We have a level II ultrasound schedule at our local hospital at 20 weeks with a specialist to make sure that the babies are developing healthy and normal. At this ultrasound we can find out the gender, but Chris and I are starting to think we would like to be surprised. So we are going to see if there is anyway they can keep the gender a secret from us. We were told that keeping the sex of the babies a secret would be hard, but we’ll see. I think it would be a very neat surprise to find out at the delivery. I loved when Chris screamed, “It’s a boy,” after Cooper came out. I think it would be equally exciting to experience that again with our next two children.

Please continue to pray that this pregnancy goes well and rather uneventful! Pray that Cooper will do well with the adjustment with his siblings, and that I would be a good mom to all three of my children. I am grateful for all of you and your prayers!

Some of you have already heard the news, but for others this might be new. But yes, we are expecting TWINS! They are due April 23, 2010 (Chris’s birthday).

Chris and I decided we wanted to have another child and would like Cooper and his sibling to be 18 months- 2 years apart. When we found out we were pregnant, we were more than excited! The thought of watching our family grow was wonderful. With my first pregnancy, I felt great. No morning sickness really and did pretty well. With this pregnancy (my second pregnancy) I have had some nausea, exhaustion, headaches, and just generally not feeling well at all. I just thought, “well every pregnancy is different.” Chris speculated that it could be a girl since I was not feeling so well. I had this weird feeling that this pregnancy was different. I even made the comment to Chris two or three times that perhaps it was twins. I started to “pop” sooner that I did with Cooper and I just did not feel well. I have never wanted twins, as I know that twins is a blessing but also doubly hard. I thought that one baby at a time was enough work.

Well our first ultrasound appointment with my OBGYN was scheduled about two weeks ago. I was 9 weeks pregnant at the time. We invited my in-laws to come to the ultrasound, as they had never seen an ultrasound before. My doctor began the ultrasound and at first glance you could see a sac and a tiny, tiny baby, and I thought to myself, “good, at least the baby is in there!” Then she kept moving the ultrasound  around and as she moved a little to the left I saw another sac and another baby. SHE GASPED and turned off the ultrasound quickly! I had already seen it and so had Chris. Since Chris and I had ultrasounds with Cooper we knew what to expect and we knew that what we had seen was not one baby, but two. My in-laws had not clue what was going on at the time. My mother-in-law actually told me she thought that there was something wrong and the baby was not okay. But my doctor quickly said, “Oh my God, you’re having twins.” I was beside myself. I instantly began to cry. “TWINS!” I thought to myself. I then said, “I don’t want twins.” I could not believe this was happening. I knew that having Cooper, who would be 18 months when the twins were born, and caring for two newborns was going to be a huge challenge. I just proceeded to cry. The doctor handed me a tissue and try to console me. My mother-in-law was stunned, saying, ” I cannot not believe it’s twins. Oh My.” My father-in-law was telling Chris, “You’re screwed” over and over again (haha). Chris, was just kept reassuring me that everything would be okay. The twins were very healthy! One had a heart beat of 173 and the other had a heart beat of 181. I kept asking my doctor if they were okay and she kept reassuring me that they looked great! (sigh of relief)

It has been two weeks since we found out and I am starting to embrace the thought of twins, even get excited about it!  Never in my wildest dream would I have ever imagined myself as a mother of twins, nor could Chris. It is going to be a rough ride, but I know that God has blessed me with two bundles of joy for a reason. I have always wanted 4 children so I guess this just gets me closer to my goal quicker, haha.  I hope that Cooper will not be too affected by the two new additions. I know that it will take some adjustment for all of us, but in time I know we’ll be okay.

Please pray that my pregnancy goes well with little complications. Also pray that both babies will be in the head down position so I can have a vaginal birth and not a c-section. Pray for the health of the babies and that Cooper will adjust well to two new siblings. Thank you for you prayers!

Our next doctors appointment is scheduled for Oct 15 and I will have an other ultrasound. I will post more pictures of the twins’ ultrasound then. Hopefully you will see more than two little blobs!

Below are two belly comparison pictures between my last pregnancy with Cooper and this pregnancy with twins. As you can see, my belly is a lot larger around this time around.

12 Weeks With Cooper (1st Pregnancy)

11 Weeks With Twins (2nd Pregnancy)