Pregnancy Ticker
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Baby Showers Bring... Well, Presents
We flew up to Chicago last week to visit family one last time before the twins are due (our high-risk-pregnancy specialist does not want Sarah to fly after September 15). We had planned on going to Sarah's cousin Jennifer's wedding, but it is a week after the deadline, so we are grounded.
The shower was held at the home of Sarah's grandmother and mother in Des Plaines, IL, and was put together by her mom and her cousin, Laura. It was a joint shower for Sarah and Jennifer, the aforementioned bride-to-be.
In addition to the extended family present for the festivities, four of Sarah's good friends from high school drove down from Wisconsin and joined the fun.
There was much bounty to be had, and we got a lot of really great gifts, including crib bedding, blankets, clothes, toys, indoor playground, money for cord blood storage, a pack 'n play for twins, and much more.
I tried to avoid temptation, but eventually gave in. This is one of the many very cute articles of clothing Sarah's cousin Katrina gave us. She wanted to get us the "Tax Deduction" onesies, but they were out at the store, so she found this little gem.
Photos of a lot more of the gifts we got are available on our Flickr site, which you can reach by clicking one of the photos above. Thanks to everyone for a great time and for your generous gifts. We really appreciate it and can't wait until we can bring the twins up Chicagoland.
The shower was held at the home of Sarah's grandmother and mother in Des Plaines, IL, and was put together by her mom and her cousin, Laura. It was a joint shower for Sarah and Jennifer, the aforementioned bride-to-be.
In addition to the extended family present for the festivities, four of Sarah's good friends from high school drove down from Wisconsin and joined the fun.
There was much bounty to be had, and we got a lot of really great gifts, including crib bedding, blankets, clothes, toys, indoor playground, money for cord blood storage, a pack 'n play for twins, and much more.
I tried to avoid temptation, but eventually gave in. This is one of the many very cute articles of clothing Sarah's cousin Katrina gave us. She wanted to get us the "Tax Deduction" onesies, but they were out at the store, so she found this little gem.
Photos of a lot more of the gifts we got are available on our Flickr site, which you can reach by clicking one of the photos above. Thanks to everyone for a great time and for your generous gifts. We really appreciate it and can't wait until we can bring the twins up Chicagoland.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Bed Rest
Prescribed at 24 weeks.....that means I get to participate in semi-normal activities until September 15th. After that I get to lay around...a lot. Not what I was hoping for, but I guess there are worse things!
Monday, August 6, 2007
More Doc Visits
Today we had our first appointment with our High Risk Pregnancy specialist. We're IVF patients, are having twins, and there was bleeding earlier in the pregnancy; any of these reasons is sufficient for being labeled "high risk."
They gave us a lot of information on what to look for that would warrant a call or a visit to the ER. It's really interesting how the survivability and birth defect rates decline precipitously after you get past 24 weeks. In just one week survivability goes from 54% to 75%, and it gets better and better after that.
Thankfully, everything looks normal for both babies. They did a level II ultrasound to look at the babies' organs, specifically their hearts. This is not the 3D ultrasound that is all the rage. Rather, it is a more sensitive version of what we get every other time. It was really cool to see all four chambers of their little hearts pumping away. Oh, and for the skeptical, the tech checked again, and she's quite sure that we're having one of each. No doubt about it.
Emma (previously known as "Baby A") is quite the wiggleworm. In every ultrasound we see she's kicking and punching and swimming and doing somersaults. It's funny, because Joseph ("Baby B") is the one that Sarah can feel so far. However, Emma's exertions are probably why Sarah's lower abdomen is so sore all the time. She'll start feeling her soon enough. I've said all my life that I was going to have bad little girls. Can I take that back? Please?
We only got one really good picture this time. As usual, Emma is much more photogenic. This shot shows her in profile, head to the right, on her back facing up.
They gave us a lot of information on what to look for that would warrant a call or a visit to the ER. It's really interesting how the survivability and birth defect rates decline precipitously after you get past 24 weeks. In just one week survivability goes from 54% to 75%, and it gets better and better after that.
Thankfully, everything looks normal for both babies. They did a level II ultrasound to look at the babies' organs, specifically their hearts. This is not the 3D ultrasound that is all the rage. Rather, it is a more sensitive version of what we get every other time. It was really cool to see all four chambers of their little hearts pumping away. Oh, and for the skeptical, the tech checked again, and she's quite sure that we're having one of each. No doubt about it.
Emma (previously known as "Baby A") is quite the wiggleworm. In every ultrasound we see she's kicking and punching and swimming and doing somersaults. It's funny, because Joseph ("Baby B") is the one that Sarah can feel so far. However, Emma's exertions are probably why Sarah's lower abdomen is so sore all the time. She'll start feeling her soon enough. I've said all my life that I was going to have bad little girls. Can I take that back? Please?
We only got one really good picture this time. As usual, Emma is much more photogenic. This shot shows her in profile, head to the right, on her back facing up.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Gosh, Doc, I Can't Decide...
How about one of each?!?!
The long awaited day has arrived. We can now tell you that our new arrivals will be fundamentally different from each other. Our not-so-secret hopes were fulfilled, as we found out we're having a girl and a boy.
Why hope for one of each? First of all, the thought of twin girls frightens me to my core. Secondly, the boy will be named after my great-grandfather, Joseph Bedford James. You see, my dad and I are both Joseph B James, but we have different middle names (neither of us is a Bedford). If we had 2 boys it just wouldn't be fair to give one an old family name and the other, well, an other name. Thirdly, it's unlikely we'll have trouble telling them apart now, as new parents of twins often have trouble keeping it straight, even for non-identical twins.
So without further ado, the pictures...
Baby A, the downtown baby, is a girl, Emma Christina (she shares her mother's middle name).
Baby B, the uptown baby that pokes his head into his mommy's organs, is Joseph Bedford.
For the record, the baby we labeled "Fatigue" is a girl and the one we labeled "Nausea" is a boy.
The twins are still almost exactly the same size and their measurements are right at or slightly above the benchmarks for their gestational age. Now that the clot and hemorrhage issues have passed everything is going along swimmingly. Granted, Sarah is still uncomfortable all the time, and that won't get better for another 4 months or so.
"I never thought I'd be so happy to see the word 'normal' in my life," Sarah said, as the US tech was filling in her data fields. It's very comforting to see that everyone is doing just fine, considering the fairly trying times we've had. Please continue to remember us in your prayers as we're really appreciate smooth sailing for the duration. We're tired of being special. We like normal.
We head to Pensacola in a few days for a Level II ultrasound. We should get some pretty cool pics from that, because it's much more detailed.
To wrap it up, what better than a salute from Lil' Joe and his cute little phalanges. Representin' uptown, boyzzzzzzz!
The long awaited day has arrived. We can now tell you that our new arrivals will be fundamentally different from each other. Our not-so-secret hopes were fulfilled, as we found out we're having a girl and a boy.
Why hope for one of each? First of all, the thought of twin girls frightens me to my core. Secondly, the boy will be named after my great-grandfather, Joseph Bedford James. You see, my dad and I are both Joseph B James, but we have different middle names (neither of us is a Bedford). If we had 2 boys it just wouldn't be fair to give one an old family name and the other, well, an other name. Thirdly, it's unlikely we'll have trouble telling them apart now, as new parents of twins often have trouble keeping it straight, even for non-identical twins.
So without further ado, the pictures...
Baby A, the downtown baby, is a girl, Emma Christina (she shares her mother's middle name).
Baby B, the uptown baby that pokes his head into his mommy's organs, is Joseph Bedford.
For the record, the baby we labeled "Fatigue" is a girl and the one we labeled "Nausea" is a boy.
The twins are still almost exactly the same size and their measurements are right at or slightly above the benchmarks for their gestational age. Now that the clot and hemorrhage issues have passed everything is going along swimmingly. Granted, Sarah is still uncomfortable all the time, and that won't get better for another 4 months or so.
"I never thought I'd be so happy to see the word 'normal' in my life," Sarah said, as the US tech was filling in her data fields. It's very comforting to see that everyone is doing just fine, considering the fairly trying times we've had. Please continue to remember us in your prayers as we're really appreciate smooth sailing for the duration. We're tired of being special. We like normal.
We head to Pensacola in a few days for a Level II ultrasound. We should get some pretty cool pics from that, because it's much more detailed.
To wrap it up, what better than a salute from Lil' Joe and his cute little phalanges. Representin' uptown, boyzzzzzzz!
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Stay Tuned...
Today is the day (I hope!) that we get to find out the genders of our little sweethearts, Fatigue and Nausea. I'm sure we'll get them some decent names once we know what they are. My mom calls them Mike and Ike, but Joseph and I generally just refer to them as the babies. My appointment is not until the end of the day, so we won't update the blog until later this evening. I hope they'll cooperate and we'll leave the office knowing their genders. If not, we get the level II ultrasound in a week or so.
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