Round 2 & NT scan

Christmas Day we got to share the good news again with more of Jason's family.  I don't think we'll ever be able to top this Christmas present again :)

Everyone is very excited, and now all that is left is telling my mom & dad when they get here on the 30th.  

Today I had a nuchal translucency scan.  This is a first trimester test for Downs syndrome.  It measures the thickness of the fluid that is located at the base of the neck.  Anything above 2.5mm is considered "at risk" for Downs.  My feti had between 1.1 and 1.4mm thickness today.  Which are good results, I'm just worried I may be a little dehydrated, because its on the lower end of the normal range.  I drink plenty of water, I just don't retain it.  I drink some and then have to go to the bathroom almost instantly.  Maybe I need more salt...They will use these measurements and couple them with the blood work they took today for beta hCG and PAPP-A.

Well as the trend goes.  Baby B was moving all over the place and putting on quite a show, while Baby A was asleep and had to be pushed on to wake up.  When it did wake up, it just rolled over and fell back asleep.  It's really like I have a little Jason and little Val in me.  Jason's all lively, and I just want to sleep.

Pics below

Baby A (rolled over sleeping, head on the right)

Baby B (awake and kicking)

Week 11

Just in case you were wondering...this is what the Feti (our term for the two fetuses) are looking like at 11 weeks of age.  Kinda creepy huh.  The little eye slits make it look very stealth like.  I think it kinda looks like a cross between a gummy bear and the gecko from the Geico commercials.

11 Weeks Pregnant

Spreading the News - Round 1

We had Christmas with Jason's mom's side of the family on Saturday.  To tell his mom, we put ultrasound pictures of Baby A&B into a flip book style photo album that said "Grandkids" on the front.  I thought for sure she would get it when she saw the cover.  But it didn't click.  She has two other step-grandkids from her marriage to Jason's step-dad so, she probably just thought we got the album for them.  But as soon as she flipped open to the first picture...she got it.  Her reaction was priceless, gasping, crying, happiness.  Jason and I were both crying too and as soon as the word "twins" was mentioned the gasping yelling for joy got even louder in the room.  It was perfect.  Tomorrow (Christmas Day) we are going to Jason's Dad's house for Christmas, and we got his parents picture frames with the ultrasound prints in it too.  I hope everyone will be surprised because it seems like people are on high alert (well as soon as you say "I Do" all parents go onto high alert).  For example, we had Hawthorne Family Christmas Dinner last night and I did not have a glass of wine...it was noticed.  I unfortunately had to lie and say the wine will interact with my meds, hopefully when they find out the truth, they will forgive me :)

Everything's Peachy!

What a great doctor's visit today. It was a little bitter sweet because it was my last appointment with Dr. Schenk, because I have to graduate to a Ob now. I really wish she did obstetrics :-(
So everything looks fantastic. Baby A's heartbeat is 170 bpm and Baby B's heartbeat is 175 bpm. Their size is exactly what it is supposed to be for their age and man are they wigglers. Especially Baby B, that kid was dancing all over the place, squirming and doing a little baby dance. The pictures below do not do them justice, because on the actual ultrasound screen you can see their little hands and legs, and even their knee caps. They just wiggle so much the pictures turn out a bit blurry. I have to make my appointment with an Ob Monday, and it's a really hard decision for me because I tend to be quite picky with doctors. The next step is I go for a nuchal transluceny screen, which screens for Down's syndrome, on the 28th of December. Just something more for me to worry about until then.

Baby A on the left and Baby B on the right

Baby A Close-up (Head on the lower right)

Baby B Close-up (Head on the Left)

You may be wrong, but you may be right...

Last night my wonderful husband decided to take a look at my little blog for the first time...and he is correcting me about the heartbeats.   Being the good notetaker that he is during our doctors visits, he wrote down that both babies heartbeats were between 90-100 bpm.  I still argue that I saw on the screen 65 bpm for baby A, because I remember thinking to myself, wow, that's only 1 beat per second...  But he swears that both were between 90-100.  (Personally, I think she said "We like to see heartbeats between 90-100 bpm", and that's what he wrote down, but I shall argue no more).

Tomorrow is the day anyway... At 9:45am, we will find out if there are still two healthy babies swimming around in there.  I'm so nervous, I don't know how I'll sleep tonight.

I got a widdle sick...

I threw up today. Well kind of...I was brushing my teeth this morning when all of a sudden I started dry heaving for 10 minutes. It was not a good way to start the day. Even though I felt nauseous all day long, I'm pretty lucky that I'm 9 weeks along (well tomorrow I will be) and haven't been sick yet. Hopefully it was a one time thing, and not a sneak preview of the major attraction to come.

Getting scared

The internet can be a very bad thing. You read about others pregnancies, and when yours isn't exactly like theirs, you freak a little bit. When we went for our first ultrasound, the doctor saw two heartbeats and took measurements. I don't remember how fast they were, but I remember Baby B's was around 90bpm. Baby A's was much slower at like 65bpm...so according to these stupid internet sites, both pregnancies have a good chance of failing because their heart beats should be above 100. What if there wasn't an accurate reading, she only looked once for the heartbeat, said it was there, and had us listen. No real accurate measurement was taken. So why am I getting myself all worked up. I need to be more positive like Jason, but sometimes...you just get freaked out. Stupid internet.

waiting....

I'm getting a bit ansy waiting for my second ultrasound appointment on the 14th. I keep having these strange pains in my abdomen, almost like I pulled a muscle. Other times I get a pain like there is a straight pin trying to pass through my intestines.
Last night was awful. I couldn't sleep, I felt like there was an overdose of adrenline surging through my body. My heart was racing and no matter how hard I tried I felt like I could not get enough oxygen. I tossed and turned all night and probably only ended up with about 3 hours sleep. Maybe it's because I ate such a big dinner. I'm sure there will be more nights like these, but right now, I can barely keep my eyes open.

TWINS!!!!!!

So far I've been keeping the posts pretty scarce to major events. But don't you worry, there will be lots of posts in the future that will go through all the in's and out's of what's going on with me. Lucky you.

Verdict: TWINS!
It was the most amazing things we ever saw. When she first put that ultrasound up I swear I saw like 5 amniotic sacs, but it was probably my brain freaking out. Alas, there were only two. Both had fetal poles (the embryo) and yolk sacs. We also could hear both babies heartbeats. They are right on schedule for size, but one seems to be a day behind the other. So they implanted at different times. I got pregnant and then the very next day I got pregnant again!

Everything was happy and amazing until she started in on the medical speak. You have a 15% chance of one of the twins not making it. You have a 20% chance of losing both babies...just to let you know. See you in 3 weeks! I know they have to be honest and professional, but do they really need to tell you that stuff????
Here are the babies first pictures. Baby a is the one a little smaller than Baby b.

2222

Monday results are in. 2222. Take that!!!!! It was so hard for me on the phone to not scream "Ya what do you think about that "Miss negative Nelly You're gonna miscarry"!" Now on to another concern. HOW MANY ARE IN THERE!!!!!! That's a pretty high number. I won't know until the 20th when they do their first ultrasound. I want to hear a heartbeat and on the other side, don't want there to be 6 or something in there. Tough decisions would have to be made.
Here's the new graph: (now in [log] form! makes the curved line straight)

Blue dots and the line are what my values should be in a perfect world...pink dots are what my actual values are...

Thank you data

Today was the worst day of my life that slowly transformed into an "ok" day. First I get a phone call from the nurse telling my that my beta hCG level was only 356. She told me that they wanted it to at least double. Which it hadn't. So I needed to prepare myself that I may miscarry or have an ectopic pregnancy. She also wanted me to come back on Monday to test again. I lost it. I can hold myself together pretty well, especially around work people, but I couldn't this time. I started sobbing and had to go hide in our cell culture room, to pull myself together so that no one would catch on that something was going on.
I yelled at Jason on the phone because he was being wonderful, and just being positive (it will be ok, don't worry about it)...sometimes it is hard for such a cynical person like myself, to be married to someone so upbeat and optimistic. I mean, I'm a scientist, we see the worst in everything and are constantly finding was to invalidate things. I've been trained to be skeptical. So when I heard those words "it will be ok, don't worry..." I lost my head. I didn't want comfort, I wanted someone to be just as upset/angry/crazy as I was. Poor thing, let's just blame the hormones :)
So, after a few moments of calm, I sat down, and like I said, I'm a scientist. I researched, gathered and plotted data. According to physiology, your beta-hCG levels should double every 48-72 hours. I calculated exactly how many hours it has been between my two tests (ONLY 40!). I then plotted my expected values, assuming they doubled at 48 hours, against my observed values 204 at 0 hours and 356 at 40 hours. This is what the graph looked like:

My value is right on the line!!!!! Exactly where it is supposed to be. This little piece of data got me through the day, and made me a little more optimistic to the outcome. I wish it was Monday already.

Re-test

So now that I'm official, I have to go for a follow up 48 hours later to make sure that my beta hCG levels double. I go for that today. I'm getting really used to getting blood taken. At least once a week for since December, it doesn't even phase me anymore.

Happy Birthday to me!

beta hCG levels came back at 204, anything above 1 and you're pregnant. My progesterone was super-high, but she said not to be concerned. It's official, biologically speaking, I'm pregnant :)

Yes sir, there's a band

Yep, it's there...it's faint pink and fantastic. I have a doctors appointment tomorrow, and tomorrow also happens to be my birthday. I think I know what I want as a present.

Is it there???

I peed on a little pregnancy stick this morning, just like I do every morning. Guess what, there is a faint line. You have to hold it in the light, cock your head to the left and squint with your right eye, but I think there's a line there. Can't wait to test tomorrow morning.