27.5 Weeks

Every morning I wake up and thank God for that day in regards to my pregnancy. Like this morning, I woke up and thanked God for today- 27 weeks 3 days- because no matter what happens, my babies will not be born before 27 weeks 3 days. Every day feels like a victory!

I never updated after last week's appt because... there's really nothing to tell. Everything looked normal. I'm showing ZERO signs of preterm labor right now (woohoo!) and the boys look good. In fact, my drs have lessened my restrictions- I'm allowed to be up and about more now. I'm limited by my back pain and my exhaustion mostly. That's why I was off my couch in the last picture Em! Its been nice to be out some- I was able to go to the Christmas Eve service at our old church and participate in all the family Christmas activities. I even went to Target today.

I did pretty well when I was on bedrest/house arrest but I missed being out around town pregnant. I am at the point that I definitely look pregnant and its really fun to talk to random strangers that I come in contact with. They almost always ask first, "When are you due?" When I tell them March, their eyes get really big. I always wait a second or two before explaining that I'm having twins. Its always fun to hear the reactions. I always love being pregnant but this pregnancy is twice as special and its almost over.

Here's my 27-week-measuring-33-week belly pic


P.S. My belly is now starting to grow wider and not just out front! Lovely.

Kiran's Favorite Christmas Present

Christmas Traditions

This has been an interesting Christmas season for our family. And since our first 6 Christmases were spent in 5 different houses in 4 different cities in 2 different states and 2 different countries, we don't have many consistent traditions. We want this Christmas season to be fun and special while still meaningful to our girls even amidst the chaos that rules our lives right now.

So tonight we put on the girls pjs, wrapped them up in blankets, got hot chocolate for the over 4 crowd and drove around looking for Christmas lights! We live very close to the country so it wasn't hard to find lots of fun displays.




Observations from the girls
K: They are so, so beautiful.
S: Right there! Right there! (pointing to the stoplights and the CVS sign)




We sang Christmas songs and fawned over the lights. When we got home, we started reading the Polar Express which is one of my favorite Christmas stories.



I'd like to start some new traditions now that the girls are getting old enough to participate. Do you have any traditions that you have now or that you grew up doing? Liz has about 50 gazillion of them- she's chronicling them on her blog this year. I hope we can incorporate some new yet simple ones. I'm thinking I won't have much time for complex traditions next year with two ten month olds under foot. We are planning to head up to McAdenville this week- another Christmas treat I can participate in from the comfort of my passenger seat.

Getting There

First off, I passed my 3 hour glucose test. Whew. I was really worried once I failed the first hour of the three hour portion (You can fail one and still pass). Evidently my body doesn't like to process sugar quickly. Or maybe its just those yucky drinks. Anyhow, I'm so thankful I don't have gestational diabetes.



Today we had an ultrasound and a fetal echoccardiogram. During the whole process, the boys were like this:

Those are their two heads- forehead to forehead. I think they are already planning mischief.

Everything looked normal today and I'm not showing any signs of labor soon but for some reason, it hit me today that these boys could literally be born any day. They could be 2009 babies. Labor can come on so suddenly. I don't know if its because we were talking about survival rates (80% now although usually with lifelong problems at this gestational age) or because Michelle Duggar had her baby last week. She was due one week ahead of me. I think a lot of it is because I had a dull backache all day which was one of the preterm labor signs I have to get checked out. For whatever reason, I finally realized that these boys could be on their own timetable. I'm not ready for them to be born. I'm not ready to not be pregnant any more. I hope they will hang on until at least February.

One day at a time...

A parting wave from Rhys

More Reports- With Pictures!

I feel like all I ever blog about any more is updates on the twins. I also realized that there isn't much blogworthy material that comes from sitting on my couch every day. Although I have been working with Sienna on answering her name when asked "What's your name?" She used to say Elmo every time. Now she usually says "See-na" and only sometimes says "See-na Elmo". I figured we could move on to other people so I asked her what my name was. "Big Bird."

I had two consultations today. I had an ultrasound at Maternal Fetal which showed all normal readings for the boys.
Here's Owen at almost 25 weeks:

Here's Rhys at almost 25 weeks:

I had my regular OB appointment today also. My blood pressure is still good but I failed my 1 hour glucose test. I failed it with pregnancy #2 also and had to do the 3 hour. I am hoping I will pass the 3 hour one and I'm not actually developing gestational diabetes. The doctor did measure my belly and I'm almost 25 weeks pregnant but I'm already measuring 32 weeks!

World TTTS Awareness Day

Its World TTTS Awareness Day! Check out this website for more information. Awareness is one of the best tools we have against this disease. If you know someone having twins, ask them if their twins share a placenta or not. If their twins share a placenta, they need to be monitored by a Maternal Fetal Specialist for TTTS. I am convinced that our boys have responded so well and our chances are so good for this pregnancy because our MFM doctor caught it so early.

During my surgery, the drs took pictures using a real camera of the twins. So cool to see actual pictures. We also have a video they took from inside my uterus!!! If you want to see it, email me and I'll send you the Youtube link.

Ultrasound #something I forget

We had another ultrasound today and the boys looked great! Its amazing how quickly we have gone from scary to normal. Now our main concern is not the twin to twin transfusion but preterm labor. These TTTS babies tend to come early (by 32-34 weeks even the ones who have successfully had the surgery). Our big goal is 32 weeks- Janurary 29. We are praying for February babies!

The good news is that I'm 24 weeks tomorrow! That is considered the edge of viability so if I went into labor and delivered tomorrow the boys would have a *chance* at surviving. It seemed so far away when we first got our diagnosis 5 weeks ago but its here. I think that Jonathan & I are both starting to realize that with every day that goes by, our chances of bringing home two baby boys gets better and better.

Jonathan says I have to post more pictures. Pictures have been lacking b/c our camera is broken. Its just the shutter button but we were quoted $251 to fix it. So the opportunity to get the digital SLR I've wanted might be here...but we sort of have these unexpected medical bills. So for now we are just hanging tight and using my mom's old camera.

This is how I spent my Thanksgiving :