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.

16 Week Ultrasound -- Half Way There (sort of)

We keep asking ourselves, "Is this real" and "At what point do we need to admit that everything is good and on track and actually start planning?"

As most of you know, we've been hesitant to jump the gun and get too excited. But there was something about hitting this 16 week milestone that made this all real. Maybe it was seeing the report with the estimated birth weight, the actual measurements of the twins' heads and abdomen, or maybe just the pictures of the almost-human-looking babies growing bigger every week. Whatever it was, it has made this all real and we're now going to start planning. That said, we know that it is still early on and that we have a long way to go, but we have to focus on being excited and the positive -- which is what this scan was all about.

So I said that we are half way there, sort of. Here's what I think... Since a singleton is normally born at 40 weeks or so, and twins are usually about 3-4 weeks earlier, I'm guessing that the two (which we are convinced are one boy and one girl) are going to be born around November 18 or so. That means they will be born at about 36 or 37 weeks. If that's true, then we are just about half way there, with only about 20 weeks left to go. That's awesome.

We get the next scan in four weeks. Following that scan I'm going to make it totally official and tell work.

I'll quit rambling now and get on with the details and pics...

The scan took place a few days before we hit 16 weeks and the twins were both measuring perfectly!

Placenta seen along anterior and posterior wall, low lying, not previa, grade o 

TWIN- I (1st and 2nd pic on top)

Variable presentation 

The approx. gestational age is       16    Weeks    2       days 

BPD -33mm, HC-120mm, AC-102mm, FL-21mm, EFW:153gms

Nasal bone is seen.

The fetal head shows normal ventricular system. The fetal spine, limbs, cord insertion, 3 vessel cord, KUB, stomach bubble show no obvious

abnormality.

TWIN- II (last pic on top, first on bottom)

Variable presentation

The approx. gestational age is        16     weeks     2     days

BPD -34mm, HC-125mm, AC-110mm, FL-18mm, EFW:149gms

Nasal bone is seen.

The fetal head shows normal ventricular system. The fetal spine, limbs, cord insertion, 3 vessel cord, KUB, stomach bubble show no obvious

abnormality.

Patience is Overrated

So I've written a blog post with this title before. It's so true though. Patience is overrated.

For some reason C and I were thinking that we would have another scan this week as this weekend will be two weeks since the last one. I was wrong. At this stage, the scan happens every FOUR weeks, not two. How are we supposed to wait four weeks? That's an entire month.

I guess the good news is that everything is OK and there is no need for a scan every two weeks. But I got so used to seeing the updates, new pictures, little alien, peanut-looking things turning into what now actually looks like a little human. Oh well. Guess we have to wait.

Now that we are at 13 weeks, we're starting our second trimester, or ending our first, depends on what you read. Think maybe we'll start to think about planning now. Maybe even look at baby stuff. And we might even buy a book or something (any suggestions???) to start to learn more about what's about to happen come Nov/Dec.

On another note, could you please ask summer to return to London? I prefer sun and warm to rain an cold. Thank you.

I guess I'm not patient with the weather, either. Do you see a theme?

Congrats to our fellow bloggers Jeff and Kevin in DC who just had an amazing (and 10 lb!) little baby boy. It's so cool to watch other people who have been on this journey reach the point where all the waiting, all the emotions and all the dedication pays off.
 

Surprise Scan

The weather is finally great here so we decided to head to the beach for the day. On the train ride back, we got an email with our latest scan results. Everything is on track and both twins are measuring about 12 weeks, 3 days. We are technically at about 11 weeks and 3 days so they are definitely growing ahead of schedule!

So we thought we were going to get the scan later this week, but Dr. Jolly apparently had an appointment this weekend and was able to do it early. This was our 12 week scan, which included the NT test. Everything looks great, according to the OB. Here is what it said:

- Active and passive movements were seen.
- Liquor was adequate (don't know what this means)
- Placenta along anterior and posterior wall, low lying, not previa, grade 0 (don't know what the last part means)

- Twin 1: BPD 16mm, HC 61mm, Nuchal lucency 0.8mm, nasal bone seen, ductus venosus shows normal flow (don't know what this means), no obvious gross congenital anomaly.

- Twin 2: BPD 16mm, HC 64mm, CRL 47mm, Nuchal lucency 0.9mm, nasal bone seen, ductus venosus shows normal flow (don't know what this means), no obvious gross congenital anomaly.

So we're right at about 12 weeks. We are excited, but cautious still. About a week or two and we'll be done with the first trimester. I suppose in another month or so we'll have to shift from being cautious to actually planning.

Is this for real?

Looking at the image on the top right, I'm starting to feel like it might be.

All good

It's been a busy week this past week, which was probably a good thing as it kept us from obsessing over the waiting game and worrying too much! Over the past week, we were happy to find out that everything went OK with our surrogate. We are now expecting twins and as of the latest scan, both of them are doing well and measuring in at about 10 weeks and a few days.

We are so happy that everything went well, but know that this is still very early and that we shouldn't get too excited. I think the thing that made it different for us this time is that the scans really do resemble little alien-like babies. And I mean that in a good way. It's really the first time that we can make sense of what's happening in there... and that's kind of exciting.

Heartbeats were coming in at 156 and 162 bpm, and the one with the 156 heartbeat is measuring in at 31mm, the other one is a bit bigger at 37 mm. Still a long road to go, and we're not over the first trimester hump yet. But we're keeping hopeful.

In two weeks we will receive the next scan, which will be right at about 12 weeks. Now we wait again!

Have a great weekend everyone! It's been a good week!

Latest Scan

It looks like time has gotten away from us again and we've realized that we haven't updated the blog in the past two weeks or so. Here's where we are at...

Two weeks ago Saturday, we received an email from Dr. Shivani's office that said our surrogate had came in due to light bleeding. We of course freaked out. They did an emergency scan that day and found that everything was totally fine. No issues at all. Apparently, this is fairly common. Who knew!?

That said, we had a scan at 7 weeks, instead of the normal 8 weeks. You can see it below. All four embryos were fine, all four had heartbeats detected (124, 126, 132, 136 bpm), and the next step was to wait two week for the next scan and update.

We heard from the doc on Monday and the specialist has seen our surrogate and believes that everything is looking really good so they have decided to schedule the mandatory reduction for Saturday. Bummer to have to go through this, but we don't have an option. I've read about many people who really struggled with this and I can now understand why. The only saving grace to it all is that we have no option in the matter. Otherwise, we'd probably be having quadruplets.

We're thinking good thoughts for the next few days and wishing our awesome surrogate and the docs in India all the best.

More to come next week. Hopefully continued positive news!