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