16 Week Update

As of last Tuesday I was 16 weeks pregnant already. Tomorrow I will be 17 weeks along. I had an ultrasound last Tuesday at Riverside Hospital with the high-risk doctor's group. This ultrasound was quite involved - looking at organs, taking measurements of bones, and much to our delight telling us the genders of our little jelly beans! So imagine the normal ultrasound that is done around 20 weeks, only taking twice as long. Luckily everything looked completely normal and perfect with the beans' development. There is no sign of TTTS (Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome), they are measuring right where they should for 16 weeks, and they calculated their weight to be 5 oz each based on the measurements that were taken. Perfect!

They also used heat imaging to take a close look at both of their umbilical cords and confirmed that they both have 3-vessel cords (2 arteries and 1 vein) which is exactly what we want. We were thrilled the news of this ultrasound!

A picture from my 12-week ultrasound showing both twins

Baby B's nice profile at 16 weeks

Baby B waking hello to us!

Pregnant with Colin at 16 weeks

16 weeks pregnant with the twins

I included an ultrasound photo of them both at 12 weeks because now they are getting too big to get them both in a single shot together very well.

I have had prenatal testing done in this pregnancy that I didn't have done with Colin. There are more risks of birth defects with twins although no more risks of chromosomal disorders with identical twins but my ob/gyn still strongly encouraged the testing. It was a hard decision for me to make but in the end we decided to have it done. We had an "ultrascreen" done for Down's Syndrome and Trisomy 18 right after Thanksgiving. They used an ultrasound to measure the fluid levels in the backs of the babies' necks and then took blood from me to check the levels of certain substances. The results came back with flying colors - our babies have a tiny, tiny risk of having any issues. Something like 1 in 10,000!

And then last Wednesday I had an appointment with my regular ob/gyn and the technician said, "Oh we're going to draw some blood today for your AFP test." And I said, "What's that?" She explained it is a test for spina bifida and neural tube defects. I guess they just assumed I would want this test done as well which is fine. I haven't received the results back yet from that test.

If you want to see where I go for my high-risk ob visits and where I will deliver the twins, you can check out "One Born Every Minute" which is a show on Lifetime featuring birth stories at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus!

Oh and if you've made it this far in the post then you deserve to know that we found out the gender of our baby beans' at this last ultrasound as well!! We are having.....drumroll please.....baby GIRLS! I am ecstatic about this news!! I have been walking on Cloud Nine all week. I told my Mom and Dad that it was too early to tell at the ultrasound and we didn't find out, just so I could tell them in person when they were here 3 days later for Christmas. We wrapped up two pink jelly beans in a box for them (we have been calling them jelly bean(s) since I found out I was pregnant). My Mom didn't get it because she trusted me when I said we weren't able to find out!