More Twins Stuff

When we went in for our ultrasound on Friday, we told the tech we wanted her to be as speedy as possible. She assured us it would take 15-20 minutes tops to get all the measurements she needed to check for abnormalities. We hesitated, not sure if that was too long.. but in the end, gave the go ahead.
She squirted my belly with the goo, which made Mason cry (he hadn't napped yet and it was 2:00). Right away Tyler and I both thought we saw two heads, but didn't really think much of it. The tech looked around for about a minute and said, "Well, the first thing I have to tell you is that there are two babies in there." We looked at each other and laughed.
We learned those two babies are monochorionic twins.. they are identical, share the same placenta, but are in different sacs. This means there is a 15 percent chance they could develop Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. TTTS is when one baby (the donor) doesn't get enough blood and the other (the recipient) gets too much. There is a couple procedures to fix the problem, one including amniocentesis, the other a laser.
Hopefully we don't have to go down that road, but there is always a chance. We were relieved to find out that our babies are measuring the same size (around 11 ounces) and everything looks great. However, we have to have an ultrasound every two weeks! It only takes a week or two for TTTS to occur and ultrasound is the only way to monitor it. So, we are going from not really sure we wanted an ultrasound at all to getting one every two weeks. Geez. But, if something were to happen that could have been fixed, that would be awful. So, ultrasound, you win this round.
AND, we are no longer allowed to see the midwives. They can't have twin mommy patients. We've switched to an OB that was recommended by one of the midwives and will see him at the end of the month.

 

While this pregnancy started off very similar to when I was pregnant with Mason, some things have been a little different. I was more sick and for a longer amount of time. I started to show sooner and have gotten bigger faster. I felt movement a lot earlier and not just the little flutters. My back hurt (perhaps from carrying my 25 pound toddler?) and I still needed to take a nap weeks into my second trimester, you know, when your energy is supposed to magically return. All of these things I chalked up to being pregnant with baby number two. If we hadn't had an ultrasound, I wonder how long it would have taken to find out there is more than one baby.

 

I feel now like I am nearing the third trimester, even though there are 7 more weeks to that point. I need to sit down to rest often, I can't carry Mason for very long, I just feel big. My acid reflux is bad and my back hurts. I can tell already the rest of this pregnancy may be kind of hard.

I didn't get stretch marks the first time around, I'm thinking that will be hard to avoid now. I felt like there was barely enough room for Mason in my belly, how the heck are the two babies going to have enough space?

All that junk aside, how lucky are we? 

Blessed for sure.