I'll take an order of blue...Make it two!

Before I start this story about how we found out we were having twins at the late stage of 17 weeks, let me tell you that Momma and both baby boys are very healthy (just a little cramped for space!).

I had blood drawn for the Quad screen on Monday. For those of you that aren't familiar, it can tell you if you baby has any chance of a genetic defect. Jay and I are always curious, so we can be prepared to take care of baby. I got a phone call from a genetics counselor on Wednesday night. They don't say a whole lot over the phone but we did find out our baby was at risk for holes in the spine or abdomen. Luckily for us, they had a cancellation the next morning to have a level 2 ultrasound with a perinatal specialist. I still am not quite sure how either us made it through that night. I do know that there was a severe lack or sleep and way too much thinking going on. Even though there is a huge number of women that leave these ultrasounds with just normal variations in the protein and no birth defects, it still doesn't make the night go by without a lot of worry.

The next day, Presley went to Jay's parents and my parents met us at the hospital (What a wonderful support team we have). We spent about an hour with a genetics counselor who went over all of our history, what my blood work was telling them and what we could expect if they found signs of spina bifida. She did ask if I have had any pregnancy complications. I told her that other than the heartburn and shallow breathing I was experiencing, all was normal.

We spent exactly 5 seconds with the ultrasound tech before she announced, "it's twins!". We were ecstatic!!! We still did an hours worth of ultrasound to ensure each baby was healthy and growing well. The babies are both boys, are fraternal and are sharing my uterus in a ying yang sort of position. They are also both measuring a week ahead right now! I have 36 weeks worth of baby growth after 17 1/2 weeks of being pregnant! No wonder I can't breath! They re-ran my blood work based on a twin pregnancy and surprise surprise, it came back normal.

After the ultrasound, we met with the high risk OB. She explained some of the new risks with carrying twins and the complications I would have to watch out for. I get to stay with my midwife but will be working more with an OB this pregnancy. I also get ultrasounds every 4 weeks to ensure both babies are growing throughout the entire pregnancy.

There is a very good possibility we won't be waiting until June 5th to meet our boys but regardless of when they come, we can't wait to have them here!!!

Twin A is laying head down on the lower left.

Twin B is laying head up on the upper right.
The great thing about their position is that they wont be moving around willy nilly :) If we can come up with names we know who is who right now!