Our 12 week ultrasound... at 12 weeks 5 days

TWIN 1 view of face

TWIN 2 View of face

TWIN 1 3D VIEW

TWIN 2 3D VIEW

It was a very emotional morning for Luke and I.  Today was our 1st trimester screening appointment, and also the first time we were able to see that our babies actually are starting to look like humans.  I say "humans" with a grain of salt because to be honest I think they look a lot like badgers right now :) (do you know what I mean?)  apparently this is completely normal and the ultrasound tech assured us this is what all babies look like at this stage... so not to worry.


I dropped Henry off at his preschool class this morning on the way to meeting Luke at the hospital for our appointment, then when I was in the car driving to the appointment I started crying.  I can't help it, before every ultrasound appointment we have I get this way- I'm so afraid that there is going to be something wrong with one or both of the babies and I just kind of lose it... I'm sure hormones don't help.  But seriously after losing 6 babies and finding out at two separate ultrasounds that we had lost our babies (our 2nd and 3rd pregnancies) it's just a very overwhelming situation, because you never know what life is going to throw your way.  You would think that the further along I get into this pregnancy the less I would worry, but so far it's still the same.  Maybe when I can feel the babies moving consistently I will feel differently, but right now even though I think I have felt some flutters I don't have that regular reassurance.  I am getting better at talking myself out of worrying-like the other night, on Tuesday, I almost went into the ER because I had been experiencing light cramping on and off since last weekend.  I was worried that I had over done it (with our garage cleaning project) and caused some sort of problem.  I kept telling myself that our ultrasound was in two days and if there was something wrong there was nothing at all that I could do about it, and that the discomfort I was (and still am) feeling was most likely stretching from the babies growing.   Up to this point in our pregnancy, the babies have been doing a lot of developing, but from now on they are going to be growing... like crazy... and I can't imagine that I am going to grow two babies in my belly without feeling discomfort on a regular basis.  So needless to say, I talked myself into relaxing... well for a couple of days- but it hit me on the way to the appointment. It's difficult not to be a basket case with our history.


As soon as the ultrasound tech was able to get a view of the babies I asked her to look for heartbeats right away, and as soon as they were confirmed the tears of relief started flowing.  Next, I asked her to look and see if she was able to see the Subchorionic Hemorrhage that was seen on my 8week 5 day ultrasound, and thankfully she was no longer able to see it which means that my body absorbed it and it is gone! YAY!


With all of that relief I was really able to enjoy the rest of the ultrasound.  It's always exciting to see the babies squirming around and flipping over- I can't wait until I can really feel them all of the time!  Our tech was able to get a lot of good pictures and both babies are measuring 12 weeks and 4 days so almost right on with our due date.  Their heartbeats were 157bpm and 168bpm, and most importantly it looks like both babies are developing completely normally!  The nuchal translucency measurements (the measurement of the collection of fluid beneath the fetal skin in the region of the fetal neck) on both babies were in the normal range and both of the babies' fetal nasal bones were visible.  If you aren't familiar with what this means you can read more info at this website:
http://www.baby2see.com/medical/nuchal_12weekscan.html
I also had a blood test done today as well, and collectively the results from all of these tests will hopefully give us a good indication that neither of our babies are suffering from the common chromosomal abnormalities for which they tested.  We should have our results at the beginning of next week. 


Twin 2 didn't want to cooperate for the nuchal measurement... stubborn?? The ultrasound tech had to take the nuchal measurement on our baby lying on its face rather than it's back and I found myself apologizing for my child's behavior (something I didn't expect to do for a couple years yet) HA!


Part of the first trimester screening also included checking to see whether our babies have all of their limbs, that the heads and brains appear to be developing normally, that the babies have visible stomachs and bladders and if the umbilical cords are inserted correctly... so needless to say we have all sorts of pictures including body parts, which I will post below.  I still find it amazing that they can identify all of these parts so well- you'll see why when you look at the pictures.  In addition to checking all of the limbs I asked if we could take a quick peek between their legs to see what we could see... knowing very well that there may still be some future development in that region over the next few weeks and that what we see today may not be an accurate indication of what we will welcome into the world in the next 5 or 6 months... needless to say, they both look like boys right now, but that could change... I still have my fingers crossed for boy girl twins but we'll find out for sure in a few more weeks.  I read some information after our appointment today that said it's the "angle of the dangle" at this point that determines the sex of the baby as most babies at this gestational age have a "dangle".  So to figure out the angle you have to have a perfect picture of the baby lying on it's back and then be able to measure the angle between the "dangle" and the spine, but quite frankly I'm not that interested in knowing at this point, I will wait until our 20 week scan and find out then! 


Something else interesting we found out today... even though our twins appear to be fraternal (they each have their own placenta and sack) there is an 8% chance that they may actually be identical... I had no idea that that could happen, but I guess it all depends on how conception took place and if one egg split early enough they would appear to be fraternal but still be identical (unlikely but possible) ... time will tell.


So here are the rest of the pictures we received today:

TWIN 1 LEGS

TWIN 1 FEET

TWIN 1 ARM

TWIN 1 OTHER ARM

TWIN 2 BOTH ARMS

TWIN 2 LEGS

TWIN 2 FEET

Thankfully it appears that our babies have all of their limbs and everything appears to be developing normally :)

I hope you enjoyed seeing our babies today! Can't wait to share more pictures and stories soon!