Thanksgiving and twins update

November 27, 2015

Yesterday was Thanksgiving in the U.S. and obviously like most everyone else we have a lot to be thankful for here in Spain. It might not be surprising that the foremost thing that comes to mind at this point when listing things that I appreciate are the two little babies that will hopefully be coming sometime in March. We are over half way through the pregnancy and things continue to progress well. Everyone involved is healthy though not always comfortable. Growing two little people is exhausting and though I have had relatively few complaints up until now in this pregnancy (no nausea for example) it seems like lots of little issues are cropping up now. Hello heartburn! Or needing to be very close to close to a bathroom thanks to the little girl sitting on my bladder. All in all though, I can't complain (though I am sure that is coming).

Before I move on to another twinning update I would also like to point out that I am thankful for the doctors and nurses who helped us during the long process of trying to get pregnant. I will also be forever grateful to some of my family members who generously gave us a gift that made this dream possible. Also, thank you to everyone who kept us in their thoughts and prayers and continues to do so.

Ok, so as of the last post we had found out we were having one girl thanks to our one squirmy active baby who I can now feel moving around a lot. She is the one that is lower and will most likely be born first. We have decided to name her Vera (for those that were curious about what name we might pick). Jose and I wanted to give our kids names that will be appropriate both in English and Spanish and we had no problem landing on Vera though it has no real meaning or family connection.

This past week we went back to the doctor for another check up and ultrasound. I told Jose before we went that I would refuse to leave without knowing what the sex of Baby B was. This baby is much calmer and more laidback than Vera. In fact, though it finally did move enough to get all the correct measurements and to show its goodies (it's a GIRL!!!), we weren't able to get a good profile shot. Rather we ended up with a picture of her snuggled up by my ribs with her back to us. In the ultrasound picture you can see Vera's foot kicking at her on the left side if you look closely enough.

Both girls are doing well and are the perfect size for the time they have been cooking. This is one of the concerns that doctors have with twins because it could mean that one baby is getting more nutrients than the other but ours seem to be growing quite well. This ultrasound also looked at all of their organs and other parts of their bodies which all look good.

Looking through my phone at the ultrasound photos we have I realized that I have a whole series of them since week 6 where you can only see two little sacs. Compared to what we just were able to see it is amazing so I decided to upload all of those pictures here both for you the reader and for us to look back at in the future. Enjoy!

This is them at six weeks (there are two arrows that are pointing to the sacs). After confirming the pregnancy via blood tests we had an ultrasound very early on and were able to see two little circles, one of which had a heartbeat while the other did not. We went back a few days later to hear the second heartbeat.

Here they are again at about 9 weeks. Again, you can't really see a whole lot of detail but they are starting to take shape and are much bigger.

These pictures come from week 13ish. It was the last time we could get them together in the same photo. Now they definitely are starting to look like actual babies.

At about week 14 we started to only get good quality pictures of Baby A (in the top picture). Here you can see her profile with the arrow hand pointing to her nose. This Baby was the one who cooperated and moved enough for us to see that she was a girl. She is much more active it would seem than her sister. The bottom picture is Baby B who really did not want to move that day no matter how much juice I had had or how much the doctor pushed on my stomach.

This is Baby A (Vera) again at about week 18 or so. Compared to the pictures at 6 weeks is just incredible. In just three months the babies developed a lot. We also have tons more pictures from these visits with the doctors (of organs and different body parts) but to be honest I can't really tell what they are showing most of the time so I am only posting here when you can see clearly the babies. Baby B continued to not want to move and we didn't get any good picture of her. She's too chill.

These pictures are from our latest check up at 20ish weeks. The top photo you may have guessed is Vera again. She seems much more photogenic. She is showing her profile and the details are amazing. The bottom picture is Baby B. She is laying on her side so we are seeing the back of her head and one arm. (You can also see Vera's foot on the left side kicking her). Now that we know she is another girl we are debating names. I would never have thought deciding on two names would be so difficult. We are open to suggestions as I want to decide sooner than later! I don't like calling one by a name and the other Baby B.

So there you have it, our latest update and some of our ultrasound journey up until now. Tonight I am cooking a turkey for our friends to celebrate Thanksgiving which I am looking forward to. In other updates, poor Cooper is having some minor health problems which means he has to wear the cone of shame. He hates it!

Also some people have asked so here is a picture of the baby bump. It isn't that impressive for five months but the doctor assured me that the babies are the correct weight and size so I am going to enjoy not being huge for a little while longer.