Baby A & B

I had my first peri appointment yesterday (perinatoligist or maternal fetal specialist) to have an NT scan. It is a scan that is relatively routine across the country, but of course, not here in little old St. George. It usually goes along with the triple-screen to help identify downs, etc, but since I couldn't get an accurate triple screen with twins, I wanted t make sure I had the NT scan. It is an ultrasound that measures the thickness of the nucheal fold on the baby's neck. Not sure why that is an indicator of issues, but it is. My babies numbers looked fine and they were growing right on target. Very reassuring.

Here is a pic of Baby A:

Here is a pic of Baby B (this one is the better shot):
I had some weird hormone levels last week and I made the doc see me for an u/s, so I was feeling pretty positive that all was still well. After going nearly 4 weeks without an u/s, I was having a hard time believing there were really any babies to go along with this pregnancy. Paranoia. Usually I rent a doppler, but the positions of these kiddos makes is such that getting two heartbeats is pretty difficult, especially since they have nearly identical heart rates of 170 and 171. So it is nice to know everything is still okay, rather than relying on feeling yucky and sick and fat. Speaking of fat, I have actually put on 10 pounds. TEN POUNDS! Holy cow. I know that I was supposed to put on the weight quickly and I'm right where I should be, but it feels so weird to be getting big so early on. Not much I can or want to do about it at this point. I ordered some maternity jeans from Gap--- the two pairs that I have don't stay up, but my own jeans don't button. I'm hoping some of their new styles will fit me better than my old maternity standbys.

The ultrasound was fun to see-- the one at the peri yesterday was about 45 minutes (contrast that to my 10 minute OB appointment yesterday!). I've never had an u/s at this point. At 7 or 9 weeks, they just looks like blobs. Now they are still so little (3 inches long), but I watched them kick and move their arms and put their hands in their mouths. Crazy. I've seen it at 16 weeks and beyond, but not this early before. Pretty darn cute. But I feel like such a weirdo talking about Baby A and Baby B. How odd is that to say? It feels somewhat pretentious to talk of "the twins". Mark and I were laughing about the vernacular-- "We'll have Maddie and Meggie and Janie and . . . . . the twins." It just sounds so wacky.