Our Nuchal Scan and OUR BOYS :)

We had such a great a great appointment yesterday. Of course any appointment where Pat get to come along is extra good.

At this point the test are used to look for chromosome abnormalities and predicts your likelihood of having a Trisomy 13 or 18 (both are fatal) or Trisomy 21- also known as downs. Walking in our ration was 1 in 760 for downs and 1 in about 200 for Trisomy 13 &18 So this part of the test is important of course..... however my eye was on finding out the genders :)

So I saw our ultrasound tech and immediately got excited, she was super friendly and a bit older and I was assuming she had been doing this a long time.... so I was hoping I could convince her to take a peek .....and it didn't take much convincing :) I was like "would you possibly mind taking a quick peek at what we have cooking in there.... I know its early...but..." and before could finish she said "sure" and had the wand right where it needed to be.

I have been looking at tons of earlyultrasound pictures (I am crazy I know) so I knew right away and said "Well I know what that is... that is a boy" and she answered with "yep and so is the other one" hahahaha Pat was THRILLED he shouted "Yes" and laughed because of course I was sooooo certain I had at least one little girl in there.... nope not so much. She had scanned the second baby so quick I hadn't gotten a good look so I figured of course I knew better and maybe she hadn't really seen... but when she did the full body scan on my little baby there was no denying that one was also a boy. Twin boys.... never in my dreams would I have expected that although I am super excited, two Momma's boys on the way... and I will forever remain the princess of our household.... Oh and lots of people remind me that its early and things can change or be miss read--- our tech was so certain when I said "don't worry I won't go out shopping for blue just yet" she looked at me like I was crazy.... So I have been looking up the accuracy of the "nub" test at this gestation and it seems to be over 90% (some studies was 98%), the ones that are diagnosed wrong are typically babies that are said to be girls and turn out to be boys... less then 2% of the errors were in babies diagnosed as boys that turn into girls... so I am pretty certain team blue all the way :)

Really I should have expected it for 2 reasons... 1) in the last two years I have had more then 8 babies born to close friends.... all girls... someone was due for a boy and I made up for it by having two :)Plus someone is going to have to date all of those girls in about 18 years and 2) Pats brother has three boys... gender determined by the father... = I should have guessed my husband would be having some sons... and of course he is very proud of himself!!!

Now for the very important stuff..... after our scan and our bloodwork the chances of all of these chromosome abnormalities has decreased to less then 1 in 10,000 for both!!! The Dr. said they are off the charts healthy and we really couldn't be happier or more blessed.

They for sure have very different personalities all ready... Baby A is extremely spunky and active, kicking, punching, moving all over... Pat was like "he is going to be a fiesty little one" and Baby B was calm just kinda relaxing an kept putting his little hands on his face. The ultrasound tech kept pushing on my belly to have him move his hands out of the way... but in the end she said our boys cooperated great and she couldn't have asked for more in my babies.

Oh and they are now both measuring ahead at 13 weeks exactly, I was only 12 weeks 4 days so my little monkeys are great!!!

So as far as I go............ they weighed me when I got there.................. I am up 11 lbs!!!! So at first I was horrified then tried to make myself feel better by reasoning... I am almost 13 weeks 2 babies that is less then 1 pound a week... plus we had eaten lunch on the way to the apt with a big drink so I am sure that was a pound hahaha. They want me to gain about somewhere about 50 lbs.. I am hoping to roll in at 40... and to be back to pre preggo size by Christmas... A girl has got to dream right?!?!?!?

~Heather

Our babies 12 weeks 4 days :)

12 week belly picture

Now that I am cruising along and starting to really pop out a bit...... although I still feel "chunky" and not really pregnant looking yet........ I am going to keep these pictures coming once a week. I think it will be nice when I am holding my babies to look back at these pictures and see all the changes my body made to get them here. At least I hope... and I hope it doesn't make me cry when I see how flat my belly used to be hahahaha

Tomorrow is Wednesday.... two more days till our next ultrasound. Oh I almost forgot to tell you all the self restraint I had yesterday :) When I arrived for my blood test they offered me to go ahead and do the ultrasound right after (they had a cancellation) sooooooooooo tempting I LOVE seeing my babies but I am really looking forward to Pat coming and being there to experience this test (I think it will take about an hour .... lots of pictures) so I held myself back and keep it for Friday. I was pretty proud of myself.

~Heather

Almost forgot!!!

The babies are now the size of large plums, 2.5-3.5 inches long :) Crazy I have two little plums growing in my belly.......

The last week of my 1st trimester!!!

I can't believe it... one down two more to go :) I have been feeling great and still growing a nice belly. When I first got pregnant I kept worrying about pants and how I am going to have a hard time fitting in them, I figured with top styles nowadays I would be able to get by for a long while with my regular clothes...............well I was wrong. I am still wearing all of my old jeans/pants (ok so I extend the waist but they still fit) but I am really having a rough time with shirts. They are becoming to short and or tight so I look chubby instead of pregnant.... oh well I knew it would happen just figured I would have more time... So I had to do some online shopping today, poor me I know :)

This is an exciting week I have my blood test tomorrow (it gives you your chances of fetal development problems in numbers for example: downs syndrome 1 in 900) and then Friday they do the nuchal ultrasound which is in much better definition and they double check all of the development, best part is clearer pictures for me to obsess over.

Speaking of obsessing............. so you all know I am dying to find out if I am on team pink, team blue or one of each. I have been doing a bunch of research on early gender pictures etc and guess what I learned.... at 10-11 weeks a both boys and girls parts look identical... the little girls have bulges that are shaped EXACTLY like a little boy, they call it a "nub".......hmmmmmmmmmmm now I am not as sure as before that my little Baby A is really a boy from the last ultrasound picture. Patience is a virtue hahaha. However I have also learned that at our upcoming nuchal test if you get a side picture of the baby it will show the "nub" you can determine the sex by the angle of the "nub" if it points north, blue bundle if it is parallel/strait in line with the spine or points south, pink bundle. So now my next challenge will be in two parts 1) to bribe my ultrasound tech to try to get some of these pictures (maybe they can even give me a guestimate of what they think) and for my little ones to cooperate and show their goods hahaha. This isn't 100% but its pretty accurate from what I have found.....we will see :)

I think its the impending bed rest. I just want to be really prepared with the nursery before 24 weeks so the sooner I know the better.... ok ok and I am just super excited :)

I had a great weekend... let me start by saying my dearest husband really got some major points as the best husband ever. He was gone all week in Salt Lake City Utah conducting some training classes so that leaves me to watch t.v till all kinds of crazy hours. 1:00 AM Tuesday I was watching TLC's the Little Chocolatiers... they are AMAZING they do all kinds of crazy things with chocolate, they made a life sized 4 ft fireplace all with different flavors and colors of chocolate then followed it up with a life sized pool table all edible! Everything is hand dipped and hand made. So I am dying watching this totally craving chocolate so I google them and guess where they are............... Salt Lake City Utah!!!! I sent Pat a S.O.S with address map and phone number to the place so he can bring me home a taste, I told him his babies REALLY NEEDED it. I was so excited until the next day when I found out that the store was over 20 miles away from where he was and he had no vehicle... but I was impressed he tried, he called them to check hours/delivery etc but he just wasn't going to be able to make it happen with his schedule. So Friday night he gets home and low and behold he brought me a box of the most delicious glorious velvety chocolate I have ever had!!! He skipped lunch on Thursday borrowed someones car and made a trip that took him over an hour just to bring me my candy!!! It was soooooooo good and now they are soooooooooooo gone :) Worth every calorie!

Friday night we went out with our new neighbor to go to a karaoke place with her and her friends, it was really fun but I think I am getting old we were out way past my bedtime.... Saturday we stayed very low key worked on the house and took a nap :) I recently signed up with a group that kind of matches you by due dates and location with other preggo ladies, so you can do things together now and have play dates after the babies come...they keep them fairly small at 6-10 people, I figured it would be a fun way to meet new people here. In chatting with the lady who runs everything she mentioned another soon to be twin momma (not in my group) and she put me in touch with her... today we met up at a bagel shop and she was super nice and great to chat with, we are going to try get together soon with our hubbys :) Wednesday evening I will be meeting my new group, that should be fun as well. Slowly but surely we are getting settled in up here :)

Although I miss my family and FL friends big time.................

~Heather

Ultrasound pictures!!!

So here are the babies from the other day. They are really starting to look like babies!!!

Ok so check out the close up... I may be crazy but as you look at Baby B you can see the leg of Baby A--- and well then there is that tiny little thing sticking out that looks an awfully lot like a little boy pee-pee.... I think you can almost see the- um -little tiny round counter parts to the pee-pee. Do you all see it or do you think I am crazy? Yes I know its early and it could be something else but I am voting team blue for Baby A :)

Picture time!!!!

Updated belly shots

This is 10 weeks on the bottom.

11 weeks on the top.

I am hoping soon that I start to really look pregnant instead of like I ate too many jelly donuts :)