22 Weeks

Not much has happened over the past two weeks...

Jon felt the babies kick on Friday, November 19. It's pretty neat to see his reaction. I put his hand on my stomach and then you can see his eyes light up when he feels them. My mom felt them a couple nights ago and kind of gave a little shriek when they kicked. It was pretty funny. I feel them all the time now, and they're slowly getting stronger and stronger.

My stomach continues to grow and grow and grow. Most nights it feels pretty tight. The stretching is less annoying if I'm sitting down because then my body isn't stretched out. I've gained about 20 pounds so far. It's crazy! I'm starting to notice that I can't be on my feet for as long as before because my shins start to get sore...I guess from carrying the extra weight. I definitely don't do any window-shopping anymore! I get what I need and then I'm gone!

One thing I should have done at the beginning of my pregnancy was take a picture of my belly button. The change in it is absolutely crazy! I never would have imagined it. I've always been quite proud of my belly button (LOL I bet no one has ever said that before!)...it was a nice and deep innie. Now, I call it an Asian belly button...it looks like a slit in my stomach...there's no way you can even attempt to find the bottom because it's all squished together. I'm hoping it stays that way and doesn't pop out. Probably wishful thinking!

Jon and I have now purchased all of the major essentials for the babies. I don't think we paid full-price for anything; they have all been on sale. We did struggle with the car seats. I didn't like a lot of the fabric patterns, and then the ones I originally purchased didn't even fit into the backseat of the Jetta! If we were both shorter than it would have been fine because we could have moved our seats forward, but being 'taller' and driving a standard there wasn't much room for movement. We returned them and actually found two that I ended up liking better and were $20 cheaper each...and they only require Jon to pull the driver's seat about an inch closer. I never would have thought that we would have space issues with the Jetta! I guess it should only be for the first year max until they outgrow the car seats.

Hmm...I think that's it. I haven't looked at the 22-week picture Jon took of me yesterday, but if it's good enough, I'll add it to this post.

Our next appointment is an ultrasound on December 7th and then an appointment with Dr. Wagner on December 10th so I'll update again after both of those are done.

One Year Ago

I was thinking of doing a "reflections of the past year" entry for new year's, but for Jon and I, it just seems much more appropriate to reflect over this past year. One year ago yesterday we met with Dr. Hitkari at Genesis Fertility Clinic for the first time...frustrated and confused over why we weren't getting pregnant. Many doctor's appointments, injections, blood tests, and ultrasounds later, here we are, over halfway done our first pregnancy. It's crazy. It feels like just yesterday when we began this journey. It's amazing what God can do in your life in the span of one year! We are definitely looking forward to this next year...one that will have brand new challenges for us to face...but at least we know we always have God to rely on!

We're keeping busy...the basketball season at the high school has started again so that keeps me busy for a couple afternoons a week. I'm hoping to be able to be around for the whole season! It's a great group of girls again which is exciting. And for you worriers out there...I'm not overdoing it. Jon only has two weeks left of this semester and then he has a month off. YAY! Although I'm sure the month will go by quickly and before we know it he will be back in school again. C'est la vie.

Anyways, my lunch break is over (I'm at work) so I should get going...don't want to be driving home in too much snow!

20 Weeks + Dr.'s Appointment #4 + Ultrasound Results

So I have to apologize in advance for this posting. Not because it's a day late, but because I can't get the formatting correct. I wanted to add a table to this post but Blogger doesn't have a feature that will allow me to do that (at least, not that I found), so I had to recall my Grade 10 computers class HTML coding and do it manually. And for some reason, I can't figure out why it's putting a HUGE gap between my writing and the table.

I have to admit that I wasn't 100% truthful about what all happened at my last ultrasound. I didn't lie, but I didn't tell you everything I knew. For those of you that don't know me really well, I am a curious, likes to know everything about everyone, kind of person. As the technician was performing the ultrasound last week, I was paying very close attention to every measurement he took and what he was typing into the computer. For the most part, it was all in codes and abbreviations I could not understand. However, there came a moment when he was taking the cutest butt shot of Baby B. And when I say cute, I mean cute. I don't think I've ever seen a cuter butt before lol. Anyways, he started to scan up and down, up and down, up and down. My thoughts were "oh man, he's totally checking for gender right now." Do you think I looked away? No. I figured he's been typing in code all along so far, why wouldn't he now? Especially since I know that they aren't allowed to release information about the gender to patients. As I was watching the computer screen the technician typed in the chromosomes of Baby B. Either they think that people aren't very smart, or they don't really care if their patients see what they are typing. Because I saw the first set of chromosomes, I had to watch him scan Baby A and enter in the chromosomes. I was hoping to confirm what I saw with Dr. Wagner at my appointment yesterday, but the ultrasound place didn't even give her that information. That was going to be my big news, telling you what I saw. I've been going back and forth trying to decide whether or not I still want to tell people what I think they are, and so that was the reason for the delay of this entry. My final decision is to tell everyone, BUT, keep in mind, this is NOT confirmed. Dr. Wagner is scheduling my next ultrasound at MedRay Imaging in Coquitlam because she's heard from patients that they are still releasing gender information. So...drum roll please...the gender(s) of the babies are...

BABY A = Boy

BABY B = Girl

We're pretty excited! Although, because we couldn't confirm it yesterday I find myself a little more hesitant to get excited.

There's nothing else really to share. I definitely feel them moving around more and more each day. It's pretty cool! Dr. Wagner took my fundal measurement and I measured 25 cm. If I were having a singleton than I would be measuring approximately 20 cm. She said I was doing good in weight gain, but would like to see my gain 5 to 6 more pounds in the next month. It's such a strange concept to stand on the weigh scale hoping to have gained weight lol.

Dr. Wagner is also going to refer me to Dr. Caitlin Huckell for the remainder of my pregnancy and for the delivery, but if she can't see me in the next month then Dr. Wagner will do my next appointment too.

I think that's it. I've included the results from my last ultrasound below. I know that they may not be of interest to most of you, but I'm using this blog to help me keep record of everything. The more I include in here, the less I have to remember! (I should note that I don't agree with the heart rates below. Baby A has always been lower than Baby B, so maybe the technician reversed them?) I'm also going to add the results from my previous ultrasound in the approriate post too, in case you're interested in seeing the change over 6 weeks.

Have a great weekend everyone!

DATA	BABY A	BABY B
Heart Rate	152	142
Lie/Position	Cephalic	Frank Breech
Placenta Position	Posterior	Right Lateral Wall
Est. Fetal Weight	288 g	321 g
FETAL ANATOMY
Heart	Normal	Normal
Stomach	Normal	Normal
Kidneys	Normal	Normal
Bladder	Normal	Normal
Spine	Normal	Normal
3 Vessel Cord	Normal	Normal
Diaphragm	Normal	Normal
MEASUREMENTS
Head Circ.	170 mm	169 mm
BPD	46.3 mm	45 mm
Abdominal Circ.	143 mm	144 mm
Femur	28.7 mm	32.7 mm
Cerebellum	19 mm	19 mm
Cisterna Magna	5.2 mm	5 mm
Lateral Ventricle	7.6 mm	8.9 mm
Gestational Age	19 weeks + 1 day	19 weeks + 3 days

19 Weeks (Halfway!) + Ultrasound #4

I cannot believe that I'm halfway already...and that's counting on making it all the way to 38 weeks! Crazy. It seems like I'm running out of time to get ready!

It's been a while since I've posted last because not much has changed. My pregnancy still continues to be easy...at least that's what I'm told! I had a couple days where one of the babies must have been pinching one of my nerves because every time my movement involved my butt (ie. walking, sitting down, standing up, etc) it hurt lol. Glad to say that's gone now! My skin feels very tight at night...almost to the point where if I keep standing up I think I'm going to split open lol. Laying down helps because I can curl up. I've also started trying to weigh myself at home weekly to somewhat track my weight gain. I think I've probably gained about 15 lbs so far...it's hard to say because I don't know what I weighed when I started the in vitro process. 15 lbs is probably pretty close though. Maybe I'm halfway with the weight gain too?


We had another ultrasound today which went great. Well, except for the part that I didn't re-read the ultrasound instructions in the morning so when I came hope from work at 12pm (for a 1 o'clock appointment) I went pee and then started drinking my water. The instructions said to have your last pee 2 hours before and to be done drinking by 1 hour before. Oops. I chugged the full 1 L of water this time in hopes that enough would work its way through my system before my appointment. The technician didn't say anything so I must have been fine.


This experience was better than the last one. It was in a nicer facility, the technician was nicer, they had a better ultrasound machine, and I could see the screen better. He also only took 20 minutes, even though I was scheduled for a one-hour twin ultrasound! He said everything is looking good! He took the time to show us each baby and showed us the membrane that's separating the two of them. Baby A (top two pictures) is on my left side, laying head down, and was sucking its thumb at one point. Baby B (bottom two pictures) is on my right side and is now laying head up.


Here are the pictures from today's ultrasound:



I'm definitely feeling them now. My first feeling/kick was a week ago Thursday, but was first thing in the morning so I wasn't even paying attention. I thought I felt something, but being a newbie to the experience I thought I would wait to say anything until I felt it again...that way I would know for sure I wasn't just imagining things. Sure enough, on Sunday morning, I felt the kick in the same spot again. Since then, I've felt more pokes...usually a few times a day.


As promised a long time ago, here is a picture of me (taken today!):



Tummy is starting to get there! I love feeling it...I think I could be pregnant permanently. There is something pretty cool about a nice hard, round stomach. I'm thinking it might get pretty annoying once it's bigger though? lol. For now, I'm enjoying every moment of this!