The 29-Week Update

We went to Sunnybrook for the usual bi-weekly ultrasound this morning. The girls are looking great! Portly Baby A, as Jenn called her, is weighing in at 2 lbs 14 ounces and Baby B is currently 2 lbs 13 ounces. They are both hitting all of their measurements for this stage and are still right on their growth curve at the 50th percentile. They looked at a few different things this morning, including rating their breathing, movement and muscle tone. Both of our little champs got perfect scores!

Their perfect movement scores don't surprise me in the least, especially for active little B. My abdomen has felt and sometimes looked like a scene from Alien, not that I've seen it but I can imagine. As I suspected, baby B has flipped and is now head down (just what we were hoping for!). The pressure in my lower abdomen has increased significantly in the last week. She has gotten hiccups about four times in the last week. Late last week she had them twice in one day. The second time of the day, her head was significantly lower than the first. She was also doing some interesting acrobatics at several points, making me wonder and hope that she was changing positions. As the tech put it this morning, 'there are a whole lotta feet in my upper abdomen.' They are extremely active now, so movement can be felt all day long (Friend, hop a plane this afternoon. You'll definitely feel them now ;) )

A quick an interesting factoid that we learned last week at our midwife appointment...I am now measuring full-term size for a single baby! We are hoping for another 7 weeks, so I will admit that I'm feeling slightly anxious about the size that I'm going to get! But, if they keep growing at this rate, I'll be happy :)

The Fascination With Twins

People have babies every second of every day. But, from my very brief research, the chance of having fraternal twins with no fertility drugs is about 3%. My chances may have been slightly higher since my grandfather was a twin.

Now, of course our initial reaction to the news of me being pregnant with twins was one of shock. That feeling very quickly shifted to one of excitement. We feel very fortunate that I became pregnant relatively easily, so if we're being given two babies then so be it! Our feelings shifted so quickly, so I often forget that hearing that I'm pregnant with twins can be shocking, horrifying or fascinating to others. It has become second nature to say, "they" or "the babies." I think in twos.

One of my favourite reactions so far came from one of the security people back in December. She asked me if there was any reason that I cannot go through the new body x-ray scanners. I told her that I was pregnant. I then prepped myself for the dreaded patdown that I'd heard so much about. Thankfully, it was completely uneventful and there was no groping, as the media had talked about. (I think the US is worse!) Anyways, while she's doing her thing, she asks me about my pregnancy and I end up telling her that I'm having twins. She stops, puts her hands up and says, "Oh! I feel so honoured!" No, she didn't say it sarcastically ;)

Sometimes the reaction is one that says, "poor you" in anticipation of all the work involved in raising twins. Good friends of my parents have twin grandsons. While having dinner with my parents and their friends, one of them says to me, "oh my God, your life is going to be hell for the first year!" Granted he was several glasses of wine in.... He didn't mean for this to sound like that, I know! I had a woman on Queen St. tell me that pregnancy was going to be hell for me in the last month or so (she had 10 month old twins herself). Thank you lady. That is very helpful information. These comments roll off my back now. Everyone is different and I know I'm strong enough to handle it.

More often than not, the reaction that I get is one of fascination and intrigue. At my first prenatal yoga class, we went around the room to do the usual introductions. When it was my turn, I introduced myself and said that I was pregnant with twins. "Ohh wow!!" The group said in unison. At this point regardless of who I'm speaking with, I'm usually asked many questions. Are they identical or fraternal? Boys or girls or both? What position are they in? What do kicks feel like? Did you do IVF? How are you feeling? etc.

Feel free to share your initial reaction, regardless of how good or "bad" it may have been :)

Our sweet little (very active) girls

I had to go to Sunnybrook Hospital today for an initial ultrasound before we officially start going to their Twin Clinic.  Sunnybrook is completely anal and want "perfect" ultrasound shots so reports from other clinics won't do. I won't complain in this instance!

The girls were not being very well behaved for the tech today. They wouldn't stop moving long enough for him to get most shots. As they twisted, turned and flipped away from him, I had visions of these two very active little girls running around the house. Mom, can we get them on the ice sooner than age 2?! ;) In the end, his patience and expertise prevailed and I was given two thumbs up that they are both looking great. So far, Twin A is in the 46 percentile for weight/size and twin B is in the 50 percentile.

Here are two great shots that he got today:

"Oh twins"...part deux

Last Tuesday we went in for our first ultrasound (at 7 weeks). I had this irrational fear that there would be no baby. Crazy, I know. I had been exhausted, nauseous yet hungry with abdominal twinges, among other symptoms...yet for some reason, I still thought that maybe this pregnancy thing wasn't really happening. No sooner does she put the gel and ultrasound wand on my abdomen, then we hear, "oh twins!" My mouth dropped. Jenn and I just looked at each other, speechless, yet beaming. The jokes about having twins had become reality. Putting the shock aside for a moment, we were able to see these perfect little blobs on the screen...our TWO babies! She then shows Jenn their rapid heart rates. Jenn said that they were flashing on the screen. One baby's heart rate was 152 and the other's was 150, which are perfectly within the 120-180 range.

I call my mom the minute we leave to tell her that she's going to have to buy two pairs of skates now! But seriously, in our family, babies are born in skates. 

Later that afternoon, I call our friend Sarah. We had joked for months that if we happen to have twins, they can have one of them. I call to tell her that their wish is our command (kidding, of course). Now, they just have to move to Toronto!