Sunday, February 14, 2016

16 Week Update {and gender reveal!}

Hooray for finally feeling like myself again! Hormones during pregnancy are no joke - especially when baking two. I had a brief time around 11 weeks where I felt a lot better, but then morning (all day, really) sickness came back with a vengeance around 13 weeks, and finally started getting better again at 15 weeks. I still have bad days, and if I'm not constantly eating it's not good news, but I'm just grateful to be able to function, mostly for the sake of my boys and Doug. Although people think I am still small, I feel so big already. My belly is probably the same size as when I was  26 weeks with Landon and I'm just 16 weeks. I haven't felt movement yet but I'm sure it's just a matter of time!

I went in at 13 weeks to have my NT ultrasound done at the specialist office and it was so fun to see how much the babies had grown and see them dancing on the screen. I swear Baby B even waved hi to us. Everything looked great and I was relieved. But.... I was bummed because our ultrasound tech guessed what gender we were having. She looked at Hunter and Landon and said "Are you sure you want to know?" when I asked her if she had a guess. Because they are identical, it's two boys or two girls. I wasn't shocked when she told me boys, but I held on to hope she was wrong because I really wanted girls. I was mad at Doug for the rest of the day (jokingly) telling him he had one job and he got it wrong. He pampered me that day haha.

This last Friday I started my biweekly ultrasound schedule at 16 weeks to monitor for TTTS - twin to twin transfusion syndrome. When twins share a placenta like mine do, there can be problems where one twin gets too much of the blood/nutrients and the other twin doesn't get enough. Having ultrasounds every two weeks is important to diagnose this condition (TTTS) because it can progress rapidly and can lead to the death of both babies if not treated by a risky intrauterine surgery (which I would fly out of state for because there are a limited amount of doctors who perform the surgery). So, I have biweekly ultrasounds to monitor the size of the babies, fluid levels, and sometimes the blood flow in the cords.. All of which can show indications of TTTS.

My sisters came with me to my appointment because Doug was working. It was fun to watch their reactions as they have never seen an ultrasound before. The tech confirmed that we are indeed having BOYS! Ahh!!! Don't get me wrong, I love boys but it would have been perfect to add two girls. I probably would have been upset about this all day except the news my doctor gave way overrode whether they are boys or girls. She came in to inform me that I need an ultrasound next week instead of two weeks because they noticed one of the babies had "obviously low" fluid. My heart stopped as I know this can be a sign of TTTS. She told me not to worry and that they are just taking precautions. The thing that bothers me is that she said they didn't record measurements for fluid or growth, two very important factors that are standard protocol in a TTTS screening. So after I left the office I consulted with some people on an identical twin Facebook group and all advised me to get in sooner than my next appointment and demand for measurements taken vs "eyeballing" the fluids. TTTS is not a thing to take lightly so I probably will be one of those annoying patients who seem like they know more than the doctor, but I got to fight for my babies to have the best care possible.

So, I'm just nervous for my next appointment.. And I think about it and praying constantly. 15-20% of twins that share a placenta will develop TTTS and I hope we are part of the 80-85%!!  I'm thankful that other than the fluids the twins seem perfectly healthy. I'm trying up my protein and water intake as that has been shown to be beneficial in this type of pregnancy. It's so hard because I'm not a huge meat person, especially during pregnancy, but I'll do whatever to keep my babies healthy!

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