I feel as if I went from my first trimester straight to my third trimester with a two week burst of energy in between. I’m tired again.

Things are getting easier sleep wise. After Ben dropped his nap he never relapsed. He sleeps much better at night and there is no crying, except for one occasional wake up around 3 or 4am. I usually go to bed with him and we sleep until morning.

However, I have found it difficult to stay awake during his old nap time. This week I fell asleep on the couch for a few minutes and woke up to find him with putting his hand in his poop-filled diaper then smearing everywhere. Lovely.

Next week we have our 20 week ultrasound. This is the one that can tell us the sex of the babies. But don’t get too excited. We don’t plan on finding out.

I am curious to see how they are positioned, though. I can feel one baby rolling around right on top of my bladder, while the other one is wedged under my right rib cage. Have no idea where they will grow into over the next half of the pregnancy, but it will be interesting to find out!

Our United Screening Approach test results came in the mail yesterday.

If you remember from my Pregnancy Update for Week 12, we were a bit concerned about our risk for Trisomy 21, or Down’s Syndrome.

In week 12, before we had the tests, both twins had a 1 in 106 chance of having Down’s Syndrome. After the test Twin A had a 1 in 309 chance and Twin B had a 1 in 252 chance. So taking the test dropped our odds of both kids having Down’s Syndrome, just not enough for the doctor to feel comfortable.

After the United Screening Approach test, the odds of Down’s for Twin A was 1 in 1,702. The chances for Twin B, 1 in 1,273. Our risk assessment has been down graded to “screen negative”.

I never for a second thought the twins for at risk, but it’s still nice to see it on paper.

They say everything happens earlier with twins. This week was no exception. For the first time I could feel the unmistakable flurry of movement on my belly. Oddly, most of the action was on my left side. Which makes me wonder about the position of the babies. They were transverse last time we had an ultrasound (one on top of the other). Perhaps they are both laying the same way and these are their four little feet, dancing an odd, jerky little tap dance on my left side.

I weighted in at 145. Which means I gained SIX pounds from my last weigh in a short two weeks ago. I bet my husband I would top his prediction for a 60 pound weight gain. Only 35 more pounds to go.

Mostly I’m just hoping I gain enough this time to see the bottom of my belly button. The first two pregnancies were such a tease. I waited and waited and waited but it never fully popped. This time it’s going to get the scrubbing of a lifetime.

This week I gave blood for the USA test. They send you the results by post so I’m hopeful I’ll have good news to report for next week’s update.

36 Weeks Pregnant with Jack

16 Weeks Pregnant with Twins

Oh, it’s going to get ugly, people.

Had another appointment with my ob/gyn this week.

I weighed in at 139 pounds. That’s about 20 pounds weight gain so far.

My heart rate was good – 106/54.

The babies must be getting big because this time she was able to hear both heart rates without using the ultrasound machine.

Secretly I was disappointed. My mom is in town and I was hoping she could see them on the screen.

But the most important thing is that the heart rates are completely normal.

In two weeks I have to go back for a blood draw for the United Screening Approach. Hopefully it will put our mind at ease in regards to Chromosone 21 (Down’s Syndrome).

In five weeks we have our twenty week ultrasound. That ultrasound can tell us the sex of the babies, but don’t get too excited. We don’t plan to find out in advance. It was scheduled in another office. Apparently it takes a long time to do with twins and they don’t want to jam up the ultrasound machine in their office.

Not much to report this week. Next week I have another check up with the doctor but this week I’m basically sitting around incubating.

When you are pregnant the question you get asked most often is, “How are you feeling?”

My response for the past three months has been, “I’m much more tired this pregnancy. I think it’s the extra hormones from having twins.”

Then, this past weekend, I went to New York. Same hormones, but no kids waking me up screaming in the middle of the night. No responding to kiddie requests every 5 seconds. No carrying, no chores, no cooking.

You know what? I wasn’t tired once.

13 Weeks Worth of Twins

This week I spent some time looking back at my old pregnancy photos. I actually did a month by month comparison of my belly for the first two pregnancies on our old website. At the time I wondered why I was spending so much time doing it, but now that we are having twins I’m so glad I did. Now I don’t have to search through my files month by month to compare. All I know at this point is it’s going to be much bigger. Perhaps grotesque. Already this time around my 3 month photo looks like my 4 month photos in previous pregnancies!

Jack was getting in the bath last week when he asked me why my nipples were sandy. They were not sandy, I told him. And please don’t touch my private parts, I added. They were growing milk for the new babies. And growing they are! As I’ve discussed recently with a few of my girlfriends, pregnancy makes your boobs grow and grow and grow. Then you have the baby and they get even bigger. That’s when you buy nursing bras. At three months pregnant, I’m wearing the nursing bras from my first two pregnancies and they fit.

The whole episode with Jack made me wondered if my nakedness was going to scar him for life. Then I thought – maybe I should stop showering while they boys bathed. But then, more thoughts. When would I find a new time to shower? When they were sleeping? That’s during my precious few hours of freedom! Suddenly a little scaring didn’t seem so bad.

This week we had another ultrasound. This time it was for genetic testing. We were screening for Trisomy 18, Trisomy 13 and Down Syndrome.

Trisomy 18 is called Edwards Syndrome and happens when there are 3 as opposed to 2 copies of chromosome 18. The syndrome has a very low rate of survival, resulting from heart abnormalities, kidney malformations, and other internal organ disorders.

Trisomy 13, also called Patau Syndrome. It is an extra or third copy of chromosome 13.  An extra chromosome here will interrupt the normal course of development, causing heart and kidney defects.

Before we took the tests, which include a blood draw and ultrasound, we had a statistical risk of 1 in 190 for both Trisomy 18 and 13. After the test we were reduced to 1 in 3,781. Both babies were considered within a safe range, no further screening is required or recommended.

Down Syndrome is an extra chromosome on chromosome 21. This impairs cognitive ability and physical growth. For this test they use the Nuchal Translucency Scan, measuring the fluid behind the babies necks. We were told that under 3mm is good.

Both ultrasound technicians were very positive about our twins Nuchal Translucency, which was under 2mm on our ultrasound this week and last week. Twin A was measuring 1.7 mm. Twin B was 1.8 mm.

I walked into the doctor’s visit after the screening very confident. So you can imagine our surprise (Adam was with me, and Jack & Ben) to find that Twin B was showing ‘increased risk’ for Down’s. I little millimeters difference between Twin A and Twin B put one in a safe range and one in an increased risk range!

Before we had the tests, both twins had a 1 in 106 chance of having Down’s Syndrome. After the test Twin A had a 1 in 309 chance and Twin B had a 1 in 252 chance. So taking the test dropped our odds of both kids having Down’s Syndrome, just not enough for the doctor to feel comfortable.

If we want to do more testing there are a few options.

We could have a Chorionic Villus Sample (CVS) done. It is similar to an Amniocentesis, but instead of drawing fluid from the amnio sac, they take a sample of the placenta. At this point, the chance of miscarriage from the CVS test are about the same as having a baby with Down’s Syndrome.

Or we can wait another month and have the United Screening Approach. It is simply a blood draw that combines your first and second trimester screenings. It detects at least 97% of cases of Down syndrome with an overall false positive rate of 5%.

We had planned to do the United Screening Approach even before the tests came back, as we have with all our other pregnancies. We decided to wait on the results of these tests before we decide anything further. The blood draw for this test can be performed anywhere from 15 – 22 weeks into the pregnancy. I’ll let you know how it turns out…

I’m happy to report that there is absolutely nothing to report right now. Yesterday we had our monthly check up which included an unexpected ultrasound. Normally our doctor just uses a little wand to listen to the heart beat but I guess it’s a bit confusing to find two heart beats.

The babies have grown quite a bit since the last time we saw them. Instead of just a little dot on the ultrasound we were able to see real babies. Heart rates were normal. Brains were developing equally on both sides. The nuchal fold, or fluid in the back of the neck which can screen for down syndrome, was normal. There were four arms and four feet. There were two placentas. There was a thick line between the two babies.

Since we do not want to find out the sex of the babies before they are born, our doctor says we will have no way of telling if they are identical or fraternal until birth.

Even though it’s our third time, it is still a miracle to see those tiny little babies up on the screen.

Since I’ve been pregnant, my skills as a human being, mother and wife have suffered. Before my hard working husband would come home to a nice, warm, healthy home cooked meal at night. Now he’s forced to forage in the fridge or freezer for whatever can fill him up. I’m too tired. And by the time I cook something myself I don’t want to eat it anymore. I think my cravings are on speed.

After seeing the ultrasound I’m pleased to know that at least somewhere, deep on a cellular level, I am still functioning well.