And Now Presenting....

27 weeks:
Thanks to modern medicine, premature babies born at 27 weeks gestation have a 90 percent chance of survival. Babies born at this gestation typically weigh about 900 grams. At 27 weeks a baby is no longer considered a micro-preemie but is now termed a very premature infant. At 27 weeks  the eyelids are now open, the eyebrows and eyelashes are fully formed, along with fingernails and toenails. The footprints and fingerprints have begun to develop but their tiny feet will often be smooth to touch with very little creases. Although the 27 weeker can hear your voice, loud noises are often too much for their underdeveloped neurological system and they will startle easily. By 27 weeks, premature babies are also starting to develop more coordinated sleep-wake cycles and are starting to have periods of REM sleep. The lungs sacs (alveoli) are formed and are capable of breathing air as their vascular system can now handle oxygen carbon dioxide exchange and their brain stem can now regulate rhythmic breathing; although they often still have underdeveloped lungs and may need extra help with respiratory support as they grow stronger. The 27 weeker has begun to regulate their basal body temperature but will need help keeping warm as they lack brown fat and their brain is unable to regulate their tiny body’s temperature. The preemie born at 27 weeks will still require a lot of medical care and can be expected to stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care for an extended period of time. (http://www.peekabooicu.net/2012/02/your-growing-preemie-week-by-week/)


I'm 27 weeks today and I feel about 42 weeks. I had my growth scan today and it's no wonder I'm feeling so pregnant, Baby A is measuring 2.6lbs and Baby B is measuring 2.7lbs. Altogether I've got almost 5lbs worth of baby in there as well as double the fluid and double the placenta. All that together would be like me carrying a 7-8lb singleton baby. That's the size of Mason at 40.3 weeks! The average size for a baby at 27 weeks gestation is 1lb 9oz so my girls are almost 1lb bigger than average! I'm extremely happy about this. No sign of TTTS and I had the high risk doctor measure the blood flow to the brain (she was not happy about this, but oh well my babies, what I say goes.) and the blood flow was perfect so no sign of TAPS. TAPS is a different form of acute TTTS only its slow moving and can only be caught via doppler brain ultrasound. The doctor said that she is extremely pleased at how well the twins look and couldn't ask for better looking twins. This doctor is a big stick in the mud and I've had trouble with her before, so for her to actually get excited about how well they look means they must look REALLY good. After such a good ultrasound the girls did not get any clothes today, which is great. I know I've mentioned this before, but if I get stressed I go shopping for the girls and try to think positively. No reason for retail therapy today.

Both babies are vertex breech which means I have a head in both sides of my lungs. This makes it very hard to breath. I had a very bad week last week and my legs just wouldn't work right. I couldn't walk without a lot of pain and had to brace myself up against walls to get around at work. My legs were also having trouble holding up my weight which makes me think both babies were on something that was causing me to lose strength. They must have moved because I'm having a much easier time getting around and am now quickly trying to get everything done and ready for the twins. I got a little taste of how hard things are going to get and I know I won't be able to get anything done pretty soon.

Here are some pictures of my nursery during the renovation period. I didn't get any before pictures and I wish I did. The room used to be green and we decided to go with a gender neutral theme of chevron. The top half of the room is light grey and the bottom half is white. You can see the closet is horrible and we are gutting that and putting a lot more shelves in it. Jared has to be done with the room this week since he goes back to school next week and will have no time to work on it between now and delivery day.

The room is fully painted now.

Gutted the closet and now it's ready to paint.

Those are the only pictures I could get right now because Jared is in the process of painting and the room is a complete disaster. He will get the closet finished tomorrow and everything will be able to be moved into location so I will be able to get better pictures.

So it sounds like everyone is curious about the twins names. We have been telling anyone that asks, but haven't revealed in public yet because we wanted to be sure that the names fit, but now that we have been using the names for a few weeks we know that these are the names we are going with. I have a baby shower coming up this Thursday and I am sure I will get asked there so I wanted to reveal it to all my readers first since you all have been following me along in this journey.

Baby A- Aubree Lynn Norman. We named her Aubree because I felt like that was a more outgoing name and she is my fiesty twin. She is constantly moving and she can pack a punch after getting a taste of something sweet.

Baby B- Avalee Norman. We have had the name Avalee picked out for awhile, Avalee is a quieter name and I felt like it would be perfect for my quiet baby B. We do not have any middle names picked for her but we are open to suggestion! Her name is very hard to find a middle name for. Her nickname will be Ava. Avalee is pronounced a-va-lee and nickname is pronounced A-va.

27 weeks

Week 26 Lord Give Me Patience

Oh how true this is.

26 weeks:
Approximately 80% of babies born in the 26^th week of pregnancy will survive. Babies born at this gestation typically weigh less than 800 grams and are termed micro-preemies. At 26 weeks, the eyelids are now open, the eyebrows and eyelashes are fully formed, along with fingernails and toenails. The footprints and fingerprints have begun to develop but their tiny feet will often be smooth to touch with very little creases. Although the 26 weeker can hear your voice, loud noises are often too much for their underdeveloped neurological system and they will startle at loud noises. The lungs have started to develop alveoli, the air sacs that allow gas exchange (breathing!) and their lung walls have begun to secret surfactant; a surface-activated fat on their lungs necessary for breathing however, the lungs of the baby born at 26 weeks remain underdeveloped making them susceptible to injury and may be dependent on respiratory support in order to survive. A long and sometimes complicated NICU stay awaits the preemie born at 26 weeks gestation. (Taken from http://www.peekabooicu.net/2012/02/your-growing-preemie-week-by-week/) 

GOOOOAAAAALLL! This was a small goal I had, but 26 weeks was my next one to reach because of the high chance both babies will survive. Next goal is 28 weeks and next big goal is 30. Only 10 more weeks to go until delivery. I've started experiencing pregnancy symptoms I've never had before, and let me tell you, experiencing this stuff is fuuuuuun.
1. Hot flashes
Good gracious these things are mean! I will suddenly break out into a sweat and feel like someone sucked all the AC out of the building. I get them about every 5 minutes all day everyday. I guess I didn't realize just how hard it is to be pregnant during the summer.
2. Stretch marks
:-( I avoided them the entire pregnancy with Mason. This time I knew they were unavoidable but I was still hoping I would be able to keep them away until I was almost done. No luck there. Oh well, just one more thing to add to my list of items I will be fixing on myself once Jared is done with residency.
3. Dizzy spells
I had this with Mason, but not nearly this bad.
4. Shortness of breath
I get out of breath doing just about anything. I think I have one or both babies pressing on my lungs and so I have a hard time catching my breath.

My maternity clothes are also getting too small on me. So glad I had to spend all that money on maternity clothes only for me to grow out of them 10 weeks before I delivered.


I feel like I have a bowling ball attached to my stomach. A bowling ball that moves around constantly. And we haven't even reached the big growth period yet of 3rd trimester. Can you tell that my belly button is disappearing and it's starting to get bruised from all the stretching? Either that or it's getting bruised because I bump it all the time.

Jared goes back to school in 2 weeks. I'm pretty freaked out about it. He will be starting out with the hardest block (Neurosciences) which means he will have very little time to be with me and Mason. The block is 6 weeks so from 28 weeks to 34 weeks I will have no help from him. This summer I have grown very dependent on him to help me out so I can rest as much as possible and now that I'm getting into the hardest part physically in the pregnancy I'm very concerned about how I will keep up with a fast moving, stubborn toddler while also getting the required rest I need to keep these babies cooking as long as possible. I've started trying to get my body used to having 1/2 a cup of coffee a day so that I will have some liquid energy to keep up with Mason all on my own. I feel guilty every time I drink it, but I have to remember that I'm not just the mom of twins right now, I'm also Masons mom and he needs someone there for him that has enough energy to play.

The bigger I get the more impatient I get. Dealing with a high stress pregnancy for 26 weeks is taking its toll on my patience with everyone and with having to wait 10 more weeks. A high risk twin pregnancy and stubborn toddlers don't mix very well. Mason stubborn?!?!? NOOOOOO, it's not like he is MY child or anything. He has started doing things that he knows he isn't allowed to do, so I will tell him "no", he will then look at me and slowly continue doing whatever it is he was doing while watching my reaction. What a booger.

Speaking of booger, here he is right now. Don't let that Cherub face fool you, he is looking at me right now and feeding the dog under the table like I told him not to do. Sneaky baby boy. Please excuse the mess in the background (and in the background of my belly shots as well) I'm currently working on getting all my boys clothes ready for the Kids Consignment Sale coming up next week. I slacked off last year and didn't consign anything and now I have all of Mason's clothes from newborn to 18 months that I have to go through and tag for the sale. It's a really big job.

Week 24 Part 2 and Some Fun Things

Sorry I haven't updated until now, Mondays are my blog days because Jared can watch Mason while I get on the computer. Otherwise he will want to type on the computer also. Just to update I talked to my Doctor about what Dr Evil said. His nurse was horrified and said that she couldn't believe that he would talk to me like that. My cervix was checked and it is high and closed. I'm so tired of cervix checks! I also got an FFN test done and that came back negative which means that I have almost 0% chance of going into labor until 26 weeks. Yay! My doctor reassured me that he will do everything possible to stop labor if I would go into labor anytime before 34 weeks, after 34 weeks the drugs used to prevent labor will do more harm then good so he said it's better to deliver and just put the twins in the nicu. My doctor said he is pretty confident based on the location of my cervix that we don't need to worry about preterm labor anytime soon. I have my next ultrasound on Monday and if that one goes okay then my chance of TTTS goes way down. My doctor said that there is no need to have another ultrasound until 28 weeks when I start weekly BPP tests. I love my doctor, but I do not trust him to handle my babies care because he is not very knowledgeable about modi pregnancies and I'm going to have a talk with my perinatologist if he tries to tell me that I can wait 3 weeks for another ultrasound. The chance of TTTS goes down, but it is still there throughout the entire pregnancy. Thankfully I schedule all my ultrasounds weeks in advance so I already have another ultrasound scheduled 2 weeks from Monday so I will just show up to my scheduled ultrasound. :)

I've realized that I haven't focused much on the good parts of this pregnancy. It's been very hard to focus on that because I've been in "fight or flight" mode ever since I found out about the twins and I've been determined to make it to viability. Now that I'm here I have allowed myself to let my guard down slightly and start thinking about the future and about the fun things during a twin pregnancy. So I want to take some time to really focus on the fun things.

1. Lots of movement and earlier movement.
I can tell what their personalities are just based on their movement, and I can usually tell which one is moving. It's awesome to be able to watch my belly go crazy at only 20 weeks.

2. The faces people make when I tell them I'm having twins.
I love it when people ask what I'm having because I can say 2 girls and their faces are shocked. I love seeing how people react to my news of identical twin girls.

3. Twin belly is fun
I'm sure this one will change when I get bigger, but for now it's so much fun to look extremely pregnant so early on. One of the best parts of pregnancy is showing off the baby belly and I got to show mine off starting at 14 weeks. I love baby belly!!

4. I get to see the twins a LOT
Ultrasounds every 2 weeks, anatomy scans every 4 weeks, BPP's every week starting at 28 weeks. I have filled up a photo album with ultrasound pictures already. I love seeing my babies and making sure they are okay. All these doctors appointments also make my pregnancy go by a lot faster. I now see a doctor every week and in 3 weeks I will be seeing a doctor twice a week.

5. I get to buy lots of clothes that I will actually use.
Yes I go overboard with buying clothes if I were having one baby, but because it's two I don't feel guilty at all about buying so much. I can't even imagine the amount of money I will have to spend if Mason sizes up at the same time the twins do and all 3 kids are in sizes that I don't have a stash of, so I am trying to get a stash for every size up to 12 months for the twins while it's garage sale season. I love buying baby clothes. :)

6. I don't feel guilty about not doing housework.
Technically I'm not supposed to be doing much, I'm supposed to be resting so if I don't get the housework done for the day I don't feel guilty.

7. I am 1 in 300.
I think it's so awesome that I am 1 in 300 women that have modi identical twins. It's not everyday you see identical twins and I am still amazed that God blessed us with identicals. So cool!!!!

8. Naming twins is fun
It's also hard because we had a hard time deciding if we should do rhyming names, same letter names, A and B names, or different names but it was still fun to have to pick out two names. Unlike most people, we got to actually use our first and second choice in names.  

I know I will have a lot more fun things to add when the twins get here. Twin pregnancy is hard, and I never want to have a modi pregnancy again. I don't think I ever want to have twins again, but there are still fun things about it that I should focus on more because not very many people get to experience this and I need to try and soak up and remember as many of the good things as possible because this is a once in a lifetime experience. (Hopefully).

VIABILITY!!!! And some interesting developments. Part 1

Today is July 8th, I've been counting down to today ever since I found out I was having twins. I'm so excited that I am not carrying two very viable babies. Up until now nothing mattered except for making it to 24 weeks, getting close was not an option, I had to make it to July 8th. Now everyday that goes by is just added growth that these babies need to survive. Just to make things interesting I will be posting NICU statistics every week the twins stay inside.

"24 weeks:
Approximately 39 percent of premature babies born at 24 weeks gestation will survive delivery. The term micro-preemie is used to describe a baby born in the 24^th week of pregnancy. Babies born at this time will often have fused eyes but will have fully developed eyebrows and eyelashes. The toenails are also fully formed. Their skin is very thin, sensitive and vulnerable to touch. 24 weekers are born before they develop the brown fat to keep them warm and protected and often weigh less than 600 grams at birth. Most of the body’s systems are underdeveloped. Although they can hear and recognize your voice, loud sounds are over stimulating to their neurological system. Their lung walls are beginning to secret surfactant; a surface-activated fat on their lungs necessary for breathing however, the lungs of the baby born at 24 weeks remain underdeveloped making them susceptible to injury and will be dependent on respiratory support in order to survive. A long and often complicated NICU stay awaits the preemie born at 24 weeks gestation." 
           -To read more visit http://www.peekabooicu.net/2012/02/your-growing-preemie-week-by-week/

So obviously it would be very bad for the twins to be born this week, and if they survive they would probably have lasting effects from the early delivery. But doctors would try to save them, and that makes me feel much better about the outcome. My next goal is 26 weeks because the survival rate goes up to 80%.

Today we will celebrate by going to my doctors appointment and then we will go out to eat and see a movie. Another way we celebrated today was we have officially picked names! The twins have an identity :). No I'm not sharing the names because we still have to pick one more middle name and we haven't decided if we will keep the names to ourselves until we see the twins in person, but in my heart I know these are the names. They fit the twins personalities perfectly. So during delivery I will make sure my doctor knows it is very important to not mix up Baby A and Baby B.

And now for the interesting developments. And what's a pregnancy without a little Doctor drama?! Sigh.
Saturday I started having braxton hicks. I was averaging 5-6 an hour, but they were very hard to count because there were times I had no clue I was having them until I felt my stomach and it was rock hard. I met a mom in Old Navy that was a modi mom and we talked awhile. As we were talking I started getting very hot. I was sweating so bad and started getting worried I was going to pass out. I could feel my face flushing and I felt like I was in a furnace. Finally the hot flash passed and I was able to get out of Old Navy.  After that the braxton hicks really started to pick up. They didn't last long, maybe 20 seconds each, but they were very noticable at this point. I felt like every few minutes my entire abdomen would tighten and then slowly release. I drank 2 bottles of water, layed on my left side and tried to relax, but they were still coming so finally after having 15 in 1 hour I decided it was time to call the on call Doctor. Just my luck, Dr Evil was on call. (Dr Evil is the same doctor that told me I was going to lose the twins because of all the bleeding and laughed at me when I asked about taking some time off work and told me that it wouldn't matter and if I felt like I just couldn't possibly work while gushing blood then I could stay home the rest of the day. My doctor had to call me back that evening and correct everything Dr Evil said and put me on modified bedrest). So I explained to Dr Evil what was going on. Again he kind of laughed and said that braxton hicks were only bad if I'm in labor and he obviously can't determine if I'm in labor. So I asked him what to look out for to know if I am in preterm labor. He asked me if I was a first time mom and I said no. He said that I will know when I'm in labor and to just wait until I'm in labor to go to triage, but once I'm in labor he won't do anything to stop it. So I asked if it was okay to be having 15 braxton hicks in 1 hour and he told me no it's not good if I'm in labor, but it's okay if I'm not in labor and we don't know if I am or not so for now drink water, lay down, take some ibuprofen (WHAT!!!!) and wait until they pick up in intensity. He also said if I feel like I have to get checked out go ahead. I hung up and was more confused than ever. Dr Evil basically blew my twins off again. This was the second time!! And why did he tell me that if I am in preterm labor he wouldn't do anything to stop it?! I felt like he was telling me that the best thing to do was wait it out and if I am in labor then we will learn from our mistake and know better for the next baby. The advice he gave me was the exact same advice the midwife on call gave me when I was 37 weeks pregnant. Wait it out until it increases in intensity... only at 37 weeks we were welcoming labor not trying to avoid it. So what I had to do was consult with Dr Google to figure out if I should go in or wait awhile. What I decided was to wait because the bhs were only lasting 20 seconds and I read online (something the doctor should have told me) was that they have to last 40 seconds in order to do any damage. I also read online that more than 6 in 1 hour, no matter if they are painful or not, should always get checked out. But by the time I read that they were already slowing down. The next day I was having them again, but not more than 6 in 1 hour so I laid down all day. I was also swollen yesterday so I tried to get the swelling down. Today I'm crampy and still having bhs, but I have a doctors appointment in 2 hours. I will be having a conversation with my Dr today about the level of care a received from Dr Evil. I will make a decision on if I will switch doctors and hospitals based on how my Dr responds. I am not a first time mom, but I am a first time mom of twins and this is the first pregnancy I've been high risk of preterm labor so no I don't know what I'm doing and I need to be able to reach a caring doctor that will give me advice on what to do for after hour concerns.

So that's what's been going on this week. I have a lot more to write, but I will wait until after my conversation with my doctor and update a belly pic in Part 2.

23 weeks

I will give a quick update on the appointment today first. The twins measured 1lb 2oz for A and 1lb 3oz for B. So both over 1 lb! Fluid levels concerned me this time. A had a fluid level of 7.5cm but at first the Dr measured B's fluid at 3.8cm. That was NOT okay. A reminder that TTTS is diagnosed by one twins fluid level over 8cm and the other one 2cm. I got very upset at the fluid level the Dr measured so she went back and measured again and it came out to 5.8cm. Much better. Way to get a pregnant woman's blood pressure up though.

Everyone asks me how I feel and normally I will just say "I feel fine" because I don't want to really go into detail about how I feel, so this is really how I feel.  I think I've hit the downward spiral. I'm just at the very beginning of it, but I know things will only get worse from here. I get braxton hicks a lot, and my belly is shiny from stretching. I also get a lot of period cramping which is just muscles stretching, but boy does it hurt! Whenever I sit down my belly presses on my chest and so I have to sit up straight so I can easily breath. I can't be very active because just walking around for a few minutes makes me feel like I've been running a long distance. The other day I was on a parenting site and a woman was 35 weeks pregnant and trying to get advice on how to naturally induce labor. She said that she had gained 15 lbs all in her belly and she was miserable. I had to laugh, I've gained 30lbs all in my belly and I still have 14 weeks to go. So if anyone really wants to know how I feel, just try to remember back to when you were 40 weeks pregnant, that's exactly how I feel. But I don't mind feeling like this as long as it means the babies are safe, the thing that I hate about this pregnancy is that my body I looks, feels, and acts like I'm late 3rd trimester. I keep losing pieces of my plug and I have spotting which I can never tell if it's bloody show. I have contractions, and my backaches feel like back labor. I never know if what I'm feeling is normal so I'm constantly on edge. I think the emotional stress is really what's getting to me more than anything.

 The babies movement is no longer subtle, they can kick. And it's harder to tell them apart because they are taking up so much room in there that I'm now feeling movement everywhere. I used to know who was who because I would feel movement on either the left side or the right. Baby A is my outgoing baby, she kicks a lot and loves sweet stuff. Baby B is my sweetheart, she worries me every once in awhile cause she is so quiet, but during her awake time she is a busy little bee.  It's so crazy how they already have personalities.

Everyone asks us about names so in answer to everyone's question, no we do not have names picked out. We do know one name that we will use, but we do not know which twin will have that name. I have a list of names, but we don't know what name we will use. I want one sweet name and one sassy name to go with their personalities. Naming twins is hard because I don't know if I want rhyming names, same letter names, A and B names, or names that are nothing alike. Not sure if these babies will be named before they get here, we have 2 hours in recovery once they are born so we may take that time to choose names...although at the time I will be on morphine so maybe I need to make the decision before I'm all drugged up. :)

Those are huge diaper boxes.

I've said before that I handle my stress by shopping. This would be the damage I've done so far. This is mainly all newborn clothes with some 0-3 mixed in. It's almost all used or sale clothes so I haven't broken the bank, but it's sure helped me relax.
















Are you ready for stupid comment time? Three people have now told me "Oh how great, 2 for the price of 1!!"  I had one man have the nerve to tell me that having two at once was easier than having two at different times cause you get it over with quicker. Obviously he knew what he was talking about since he has had to house sooo many kids in his uterus. Why do people want to get kids over with quicker? If you want to get the baby phase over with quickly then maybe you really don't want to have another kid, ever thought about that?

Here is my belly shots so far. I haven't taken another one in a week, but I have an ultrasound on Monday and will blog after that and add the newest belly pic.

6 week

8 weeks

11 weeks

12 weeks

16 weeks

22 weeks

14 weeks

20 weeks

23 weeks