Growth & Development

We recently announced that we are expecting again and with three beautiful daughters already here a lot of people ask "So are you going for a boy this time?" The answer for both Eddie and I has been "we just want a healthy baby" Eddie adds "another girl would be cheaper and easier, we already have all the stuff."

It's true, we do have all the stuff and we kind of have a handle on the diapering and emotional moods of girls, every baby and every girl has been different, but there are some things that are almost old hat for us at this point when dealing with little girls.

We have been anticipating the ultrasound that would hopefully tell us gender of this new little one, trying not to spend too much energy on that anticipation because with both Ella and Nina we didn't know for sure that we had girls till we saw them in person.

Pardon me for stepping back a bit, but when you see the ultrasounds from early weeks you realize what a marvel it is that we know anything at all about our babies that young in development.

Here is a scan of week 7 of our pregnancy,
basically we saw that there was indeed a baby, there was only one, and it had a heart developing.

Here is a scan of week 11,

now we see (sort of) that the baby has a face and little skeletal arms and legs.

So yes, not the clearest of images but they are pretty darn close to the original printout I have on my desk here, there is no HI-DEF clarity, but it sure is reassuring that the baby is growing and moving right along during those early weeks when the only proof I have that the baby is there is an overwhelming urge to purge.

So now we have come to week 16 , and because I am old (I turn 35 a month before my due date) I got to go see a Perinatologist last Friday just to make sure that everything was going well, and hopefully to find out if we need to track down the hand-me-down clothes in pink or blue.

Well, I won't hold you in suspense any longer, did in fact find out that one of the babies is a BOY!

Wait,.......what?........did she write "one of the babies?"

Why yes, yes I did, and now that I have had two days to adjust, I can type it without shaking, though I am still bursting into shocked laughter every few minutes.

When we first sat on the exam table, and the doctor set the scanner on my belly three big blobs showed on the screen, Eddie made the joke

"From that picture it looks like we are having triplets."
Dr. - "No, no, Isn't twins enough?"
me - "No, we're only having one baby"
Dr. - "You are having two babies, you didn't know that you are having twins?"
me - "No, it just isn't possible, we've had two scans already, are you sure?"

Jumping ahead a bit, she was very sure , here is a scan of our twins, or at least two round blobby things one on the left, one on the right, and the curly line in the middle is the dividing line where their two Amniotic sacs meet. They are measuring well and equally big.
Twin A gave us a lovely head shot,
and a nice view of it's spine, but not a money shot

Twin B gave us a nice profile, I think I can already see a resemblance to Eddie's full lips,
and he spread out a bit to enjoy the space and gave us this aerial view of his, well, his boy part
So we are happy, and in shock, and looking for a slightly bigger house, and we are now anticipating the gender of twin A, since I have to return every 4 weeks for scans now, maybe we will get the money shot yet.

I will post more info on due dates etc. when I get it, thank you all for you love and support, and prayers, we are going to need them all as we learn how to be a family of 7. Am I really going to be a mother of 5? it just seems so much more than 4.

Do you think I should get my co-pay back for the first few visits? maybe just half off?