22 Weeks....

Well last week ended up being a whirlwind. Unfortunately, having twins means that I no longer can see the midwives and I had to change to an OB. I have not seen her yet but I have in the past so I know she will be great. My OB had me see a specialist right away so that is what I did last week. I am not going to complain about already having a second ultrasound and I have my 3rd next week.

Seeing the specialist was so much better than the first ultrasound. At the first one my head was right next to the screen so I could only watch for 10 minutes when she swung it around at the end. This time I was facing the screen and was able to watch the whole thing! Also, while they were taking the measurements they were really good at pointing out the different parts of the brain, stomach, heart and all the other body parts...well not all of them :) It was so interesting to see everything and it is amazing how much they can tell when the babies are so small and still in my stomach! After the first tech took a look and the specialist he said that both babies look great! They were screening for genetic disorders since they can be more common in multiples.

Something else that they were able to determine is that they are definitely identical! Craziness. They can tell this because they for sure share a placenta. For a while the first tech and the specialist could not find the membrane that separated the 2 babies and we could have sworn we saw one baby grab the foot of the other. However, there are so many limbs in there that it is hard to figure what belongs to who. Fortunately, the specialist was able to find it towards the end of the ultrasound. If he had not found this membrane that would have meant they were in the same amniotic sac and there would have been a huge threat of the umbilical cords getting tangled. Also, I would have had to be on hospital bed rest in order to be constantly monitored. I dodged 2 big bullets with that one!

There are some complications that can occur when babies share a placenta but so far they were not showing signs of them. I have a follow-up ultrasound next week and he said that if the main complication was going to develop that it would by 24 weeks. So we will see next week if we are in the clear.

I have already been put on modified bed rest. I have to have my feet up for 4-6 hours every day during the day but since I sit at a desk all day I am able to continue working which is good for now. I was also told to try not to run errands after work and I can't walk for exercise anymore :( If this is the worst bed rest I am put on it is not bad. Also, the specialist said he was going to tell my OB that he did not want me to go past 37 weeks if I have not already gone into labor by then. I have not talked to my OB yet so there is no date set in stone but 37 weeks is December 9th. It looks like we will be getting 2 early Christmas presents :) It certainly makes planning for the holidays a lot easier.

So I think that is about all I found out last week. Like I said, I have a follow-up ultrasound with the specialist next week so pray that everything is still looking great. In the meantime, I have definitely been enjoying feeling them squirm around. At one point the specialist told me he hopes I have good gym shoes because these babies are active! They are not too cooperative at this point to feel them from the outside but Scott was able to catch Baby B in a good mood and was able to feel him/her last week. I was so happy that he was able to finally feel one of them so we could share in the experience. This past weekend I took advantage of it being my last weekend before the 4-6 hours of having my feet up. Scott and I cleaned our place and began clearing out the second bedroom, went to ikea to check out baby stuff and we registered with my mom and Linnea on Sunday. I was wiped out after 3 hours walking around Babies R Us and boy do we need a ton of stuff for 2! It was kind of funny going around looking at things and deciding on something that we like/need and then saying "and we need 2!" This is already an adventure but I can't wait for the next 3 months to be done and that is when the real fun begins :)

So here are the 22 week pictures...