34 Weeks + Art

So we're at 34 weeks tomorrow and I can't believe it. Really, this is kind of unreal. I'm officially in the "freaking out" stage. I think the roller coaster of emotions goes somewhat like this:

Anxious (to get things started) ----> Excited (that things have gotten underway) -----> Nervous (that you have to wait for news on the transfer) ----> Over the moon (that it worked) ----> Nervous (that you have to wait again to see if it really worked) -----> Over the moon (that there are heartbeats) ------> Patient (as you wait for the next scan) ---------> Reluctant (to get too excited because there is a long road ahead) ------> Excited (that all is going well) BUT --------> Hesitant (to do anything because so many things can go wrong) -------> Reluctantly excited (as scans come back positive) ------> Denial (that this could really be happening and that it will all be OK) ----------> Continued Denial (that this is all OK... and that you should be excited) ---------> Desperate (for more information, thinking that there is no way you can get enough information to calm your nerves) -------> Reluctantly happy (that you are actually shopping for stuff and telling people about the good news... but will everything actually be OK?) ---------------> Overwhelmed (with the amount of stuff that you have to do before the new arrivals make their debut) --------------> Freaking Out (that this is just two weeks away).

Such a roller coaster, but in just a few more weeks, it will all be worth it. We leave for India in two weeks. Even writing that makes me nervous. Though I guess that's normal for anyone who is about to welcome twins into their world.

We've gotten one bag packed (full of diapers so wasn't too tough). And the rest of the packing of the baby bags is happening this weekend. We'll be as ready as we can be, just in case they decide to make an early debut. I'll share our full list once we finish up packing.

In other news, our DNA kits have arrived at the Embassy and are awaiting our arrival. So all smooth on that front.

Check out this painting that C drew and painted for the nursery. It's amazing. So perfect for the elephant/giraffe theme of the room! This is where having somebody who can draw, paint and take pictures comes in handy. I told him he should start to do it as a business along with his photography! Right?

32 Week Ultrasound (and a few shower pics)

Now that we are getting closer to the big day, time seems to be flying by. I haven't had a chance to update the blog at all as work travel has been uber insane.

The positive? I have been in the US alot so have been able to see my prego sister and my mom.

In fact, I went to my mom's house two weeks ago and her and her girlfriends surprised me with a shower! It was awesome. Carlos was in the UK so he couldn't be there... :( but we sent pics and Facetimed him in. Isn't this a cool cupcake cake that they ordered???

The next week, my US colleagues got together and threw us a surprise shower in the office. It was such a great surprise and everyone has been super cool. Cute elephant and giraffe cake, huh?!

Last week, we got an update and our 32 week ultrasound. Everything is looking good. The pics didn't show much again (grrrrrr!) but the important thing is that the twins are both growing well. The small echogenic intracardiac focus didn't show up in this last scan...so fingers crossed that whole thing is all over with. The only issue that we are dealing with right now is our awesome surrogate having gestational diabetes but they have been treating that with insulin everyday and that seems to be working.

So here is what is happening with the twins. The scan was done at about 31 weeks 5 days:

TWIN- I

Cephalic presentation

The approx. gestational age is 31 weeks 0 days

BPD- 77 mm 31 weeks 0 days

HC- 292mm 32 weeks 2 days

AC- 259mm 30 weeks 1 days

FL-. 5.9 mm 30 weeks 5 days

EFW- 1607grms

TWIN- II

Breech presentation

The approx. gestational age is 32 weeks 2 days

BPD- 81 mm 32 weeks 4 days

HC- 297mm 32 weeks 6 days

AC- 286mm 32 weeks 5 days

FL- 59 mm 30 weeks 5 days

EFW- 1909grms

 

I guess we should start to get ready for the trip, huh? We are scheduled to leave for India in just 3.5 weeks. This is so crazy. Is this really happening?

I've finally started to get stressed out. Mostly about the details of things like passports and visas... luggage and lists of what to bring...

Details...details...details.

So many updates...

I have been the worst blogger. Ever.

So more than a month has passed since our last blog. I don't know what has happened with the time. Carlos and I have so much to update everyone on. So here we go...

Just after I wrote our last blog we received an email from Dr. Shivani. Our awesome surrogate had completed her diabetes test and unfortunately they found that she has a mild case of gestational diabetes. Of course, I went straight to Google -- the absolute worst thing to do. I read a ton about the condition and it made me worry even more than I already was. That said, everything has gone just fine since then and our surrogate is responding well to her daily insulin doses so I guess we shouldn't worry.

Since our last scan, we have had another scan, one surprise shower with friends and family and one virtual shower with everyone from the U.S. I have gotten my DNA test done (we used Chromosomal Labs in Arizona and I had my DNA collected when I was home in the US last weekend) and we have put together the cribs.

Our 28 week scan came just on time (two weeks ago). Pics aren't great, but here they are:

TWIN- I
Cephalic presentation
Approximate gestational age is 27 weeks 4 days
BPD - 69mm, HC - 259mm, AC -220mm, FL - 5lmm, EFW : l020gms

They still see the small echogenic intracardiac focus. Ugghhhh.

TWIN- II
Breech presentation
The approx . gestational age is 28 weeks 5 days
BPD - 75mm, HC - 268mm, AC - 239mm, FL - 50mm, EFW: 1169gms

Last weekend, we went to see friends in Chicago. Little did we know that they had planned a surprise shower for us and my dad and step mom flew in to surprise us as well! It was a great weekend and something we'll always remember and tell stories about for years to come. Oh, and the bloody mary bar was awesome. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us and my family and friends for organizing it!

This weekend, we had a virtual baby shower with our friends and family back in the U.S. It was so great to see everyone and share our new pics of the nursery with them! Before the shower though, we had our day-long Caring for a Newborn Baby class here in London. It was just the two of us so we had our own personal teacher for the day. Most of what she went through was pretty straight forward and actually the material that she taught from was free material that anyone can access.

Literally, visit this site and go to the "Your Newborn" tab at the top, it has everything you need to know including a few videos. It was nice to be able to ask questions and try a few things out but really could have saved the money and just read most of this on our own. We did get baby and child first aid and CPR though, so that was a plus.

The shower was amazing. Even though it was virtual. We did it in the nursery so that everyone could see. Here are a few pics of the virtual shower and the latest happenings in the nursery (ignore the screwdriver on the floor and the little table between the cribs -- it's leftover from the guest room):

Looking Good!

Right on schedule, we received our latest ultrasound results yesterday. Everything appears to be on track. One of the twins is measuring about six days behind the other one, but guess a few days is nothing to worry about. There is plenty of time to catch up! That pesky small echogenic intracardiac focus is still seen :-/ I wish it would go away...

The pics that we got this time around weren't that great so you won't see much, but here are the details and pics:

Normal active and passive movements are seen.
The liquor is adequate .
Placenta seen along anterior and posterior wall , low lying, not previa, grade 0

TWIN- I
Variable presentation
The approx. gestational age is 22 weeks, 6 days
BPD 56 mm, HC - 204mm, AC - 18lmm, FL - 39mm, EFW : 540gms
Nasal bone is seen. The fetal head shows normal ventricular system. The fetal spine, limbs, cord insertion, 3 vessel cord, KUB, four chamber view, stomach bubble show no obvious abnormality. Small echogenic intracardiac focus seen.

TWIN- II
Variable presentation
The approx. gestational age is 23 weeks, 5 days
BPD - 59mm, HC - 220mm, AC -190mm, FL - 39mm, EFW : 594gram
Nasal bone is seen. The fetal head shows normal ventricular system. The fetal spine, limbs, cord insertion, 3 vessel cord, KUB, four chamber view of heart, stomach bubble show no obvious abnormality.

We went to the beach today since the weather was awesome and ended up popping into a store after lunch and walking out with a few more baby items.  We couldn't resist. Check out some of the super cute stuff they have in their new Baby Elephant Collection.

OH! And we ended up ordering our cribs last weekend! They are scheduled to arrive around September 20. That was pretty exciting as well. Here's what we ended up picking out:

OK. No more shopping for us. We now need to put all that shopping time into reading baby books so that we know what to do once these two new additions arrive. Seriously, if you handed me a baby right now, I'd have no clue how to even hold it. I guess that's easy to learn, right?

That was easy...

We're finally back from a few weeks of travel and I'm really excited to say that telling work was a piece of cake. I wasn't too stressed out about it but was definitely anxious to tell everyone and make it all official. My boss was amazing. My team was equally amazing. And colleagues that found out were super excited. I have to say, the fact that I work for one of the world's coolest company's makes this all so much easier. I'm going to take four months off -- the best benefit that we probably have as a company.

Last week I was in the US again for work and spent the weekend with my mom. We went shopping and bought a few things. She got the twins the cutest bedding ever. Check it out on Pottery Barn Kids. We got some more clothes, a few other small things, and I found the stroller that we want at Buy Buy Baby (LOVE this store) for about $300 less than it would have cost us to buy it here in London. So I bought it (Baby Jogger City Select). I should have taken a picture of me lugging a massive duffel bag and three large boxes back to London by myself. Thank god for car services.

Today, we're going to check out a few cribs and then try to get our list of stuff we need together as my step mom (P) and dad (ok, mostly P) is putting together a virtual shower type thing for us since we are all alone in London with the family being back in the U.S. and in Mexico. They are coming to visit in two weeks so can't wait for that!

One question, will just bringing two Phil & Teds Cocoons to Delhi be enough to get the twins around in and let them nap and stuff or do we need to bring something else like a stroller, pack and play, etc.???

This weekend all of our friends are hanging out in Chicago and we're kinda wishing we could be back there with all of them. Such a fun weekend in summer. Carlos and I were just talking about how nice it would be to be out on a boat with friends again. I think it's because we have this pic in the house from one of our last boat trips in Chicago before we left and it made us just a little homesick this morning. But alas, we have the Olympics. We saw the 3m men's diving finals on Tuesday and I saw the women's beach volleyball finals on Wednesday, where the U.S. brought home the gold. Guess I can't really complain.

Big Week

With just a few minutes until I board my flight back to the US for a week full of meetings, I thought I'd post a quick blog to say that this is the week I'm going to tell my boss the big news. I'm pretty relaxed about it and love the fact that this isn't stressing me out. We'll see how that goes after my meeting tomorrow morning!

Everything is going well with our surrogate and the twins. Following the last scan we had a cardiac specialist do an ultrasound to look at the twins' hearts. I was nervous about the small echogenic intracardiac focus that they saw on one of the twins, but continue to be told it's nothing to worry about. The cardiologist did a very in-depth study and sent through pictures and videos of both of their little hearts, pumping away. And found them to be in perfect condition.

Ok, I'm paranoid. But everyone who has gone through this or is going through this, knows why. You just never know what kind of news will come next. In our case, it has been all very positive news so far.

Last week, we actually gave in and bought some awesome clothes for the twins. They are super cute and we were super awkward actually buying clothes. We had fun with the family doing it though and that's what really matters. My mom simultaneously has bought a few things for the twins so it's getting more and more real by the second.

I think this is really happening. Oh, and did I say that my sister told us she is prego and just five weeks behind us?!?!  So crazy. Especially since it's just the two of us. Our parents are going from zero grandkids to three in a matter of weeks. Nothing like us going all out on this one.

Surprise Scan!

The past three weeks feel like months. While they have flown by, the only thing we've had to look at are the ultrasounds from the 16 week scan. The next scan was supposed to happen next week (20 weeks), but to our surprise an email came in from the wonderful team at SCI yesterday. It was our next ultrasound (at 19 weeks).

To put this all into context, the scans don't always happen as planned. It usually takes place within a few days of when it is supposed to happen. And that's OK.

The good news is that we are able to see the little twins growing away. The bad news is that we have to wait four more weeks for a new one.

Everything seems to be on track. The only issue that came up was that Dr. Jolly saw a small echogenic intracardiac focus in one of the twins. I've been told that everything is fine and that this usually disappears before the third trimester. I've also Googled the hell out of it and sounds like it can be nothing, but that it could also mean there is an increased chance of a problem. We're going with the "it's all OK" explanation for now -- which is what Dr. Shivani said.

The pics look amazing. Would love to know if any ultrasound experts reading this see anything in particular that we might not have made out. The 3D images are pretty cool. A little weird. But amazing to see.

Here is where we are at:

Normal active and passive movements are seen.
The liquor is adequate .
Placenta seen along anterior and posterior wall, low lying, not previa,

TWIN- I
Variable presentation
The approx. gestational age is 19 Weeks 4 days
BPD -46mm, HC -170mm, AC -150mm, FL -26mm, EFW:288gms
Nuchal Fold - 2.4mm
Nasal bone is seen.
The fetal head shows normal ventricular system. The fetal spine, limbs,
cord insertion, 3 vessel cord, KUB, four chamber view of heart, stomach
bubble shows no obvious abnormality. Small 'echogenic intracardiac focus seen.

TWIN- II
Variable presentation
The approx. gestational age is 19 weeks 0 days
BPD -44mm, HC -16lmm, AC -134mm, FL -28mm, EFW:260gms
Nuchal Fold - 2.8mm
Nasal bone is seen.
The fetal head shows normal ventricular system. The fetal spine, limbs,
cord insertion, 3 vessel cord, KUB, four chamber view of heart, stomach
bubble show no obvious abnormality.