My hubby and I flew down to Charlotte on Friday - we had a great weekend with our friends & family! :) I'm at the airport waiting for my flight home. My husband's sister, aka Sissy, got us these 4 little rattles for our little ones! So adorable! When she was checking out at the store, the lady asked her if she was making a diaper cake for a shower. Her response was, "No, my brother is having quadruplets." So crazy to hear her tell that story - but it's true. :) I'm now thinking a safari theme for the nursery would be gender neutral if we get a mix of boys & girls.
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This morning my sister had her appointment with Dr. Lindauer - bright and early at 8:15AM! Not only did my husband and I join her for the appointment - she brought along her hubby and youngest son, Oliver. It was quite the party. When we were walking into the examination room, I said to the nurse, "Our parents couldn't make it today..." ;) My sister was also past due for her annual - so Dr. Lindauer took care of that this morning as well. We hung out in Dr. Lindauer's office while she took care of that business - I sent my cousin a payment for hotel rooms while we waited (Thanks, Greg!). When it was time for the ultrasound, we were called back into the room. Luckily, Dr. Lindauer was able to do the over-the-belly ultrasound with my sister to find the babies. The great news is that our other two babies are also doing really well. They weren't as active as the two we saw on Monday - but we saw heartbeats flickering and they both measured 12 weeks. All 4 of them are right on track!
So, we'd like to introduce you to Baby C ("Baby A" within my sister) and Baby D ("Baby B" within my sister). They are kinda laying back-to-back or head-to-head inside. Baby C is on the left and its head is right below the slash at the top of the monitor. Baby D is on the right and its head is under the "64" at the top of the screen. We are heading out to a Broadway show tonight, so I apologize for such a short post. In closing, I'd like to shout out a huge WELCOME HOME to Annsley Robbins who is going to spend her first night at home - after 8 weeks of being in the hospital Good Evening! :) Just a month ago, we found out that we had four little 7-week embryos developing. And today, we had our first appointment with Dr. Lindauer, our regular OB. (My sister and I both hit the 11 week mark last Thursday, so today we're precisely 11 months and 4 days.) Although we will miss our time with Dr. Williams and the rest of the friendly staff at ORM, it was kinda nice to be back among the "normal" pregnant people. This was my husband's first time at Dr. Lindauer's office - since he has never accompanied me there for any of my annual exams. ;) They had me give a urine sample, weighed me, and checked my blood pressure before we went into the examination room. I quickly put on one of their lovely robes with the sheet to cover my lap - then hopped up on the table and waited for Dr. Lindauer! Dr. Lindauer came in with so much excitement and joy for us - such a sweetie. It was nice for my husband to finally meet her. After congratulating us - she started talking to us about twin pregnancies. We are considered high-risk just because we are carrying twins. The good news about us carrying fraternal twins is that there is little less risk - since each baby has their own placenta. I guess more complications/issues can arise when identical twins are sharing one placenta. She also said that we will definitely get more ultrasounds with twins - so they can check in and see how they are both doing. For now, we will just have appointments with her every 4 weeks until we get to the 28-week mark, then we will have appointments every two weeks. And she also said we'll probably switch to weekly appointments a little sooner that someone that's only carrying one baby. The chances of C-section are also higher - because with two babies, there's a greater chance that both aren't in the proper position. And she did say they will send us both out for a high-risk ultrasound around 18 weeks (we'll be 18 weeks on June 6th) - which is when we can find out their genders. :) Since I was overdue for my annual exam, my husband got to see all of the excitement that comes with that - but I will spare you the details. Once she was done with that, we got to get back to the much more exciting baby business. Dr. Lindauer said that she would try the over-the-belly ultrasound first - to see if she could spare me one more internal ultrasound. I told her that either way was fine and that we were just excited to be looking for babies instead of follicles. The good news is that we were able to check out both of the babies with just the over-the-belly ultrasound! It is amazing how much they have changed since our 7 week ultrasound with Dr. Williams. They actually looked like babies on the screen this time. And the most amazing part was that we could see them both moving around on the screen. :) :) So amazing to see two of our little miracles up on the screen moving around - it did bring a few tears to my eyes. It's still hard to believe we have little babies developing - seems more real each time we see them. We didn't get to hear their heartbeats, but we did see their heartbeats flickering on the screen again. She measured both of them and they were both measuring at exactly 12 weeks - so they are both right on track for their development. Yay!!! Dr. Lindauer definitely took a few ultrasound photos for us - so I will do my best to try to help you see them. I think it's easier for us to see them in the pictures - since we saw them up on the screen. I texted a couple pictures to my dad and spent quite some time trying to describe where the baby was in each photo. She labeled the ultrasounds as "Baby A" vs. "Baby B." "Baby A" just means that it's the baby that is furthest one down and the one that would come out first. I know the babies will probably move around within their own individual sac, but I don't think that the actual sacs will move around or shift so that Baby B would be further down later on. But I don't know for sure, so I will try to remember to ask her later this week during my sister's appointment. Baby A: Looking right at you! :) Introducing Baby A: So this first ultrasound picture is of Baby A - who is ever so slightly south than their womb-mate sibling. Baby A is actually facing out - looking right at you. Their face is to the right of my finger - the brighter area outlines the forehead/nose/cheeks, with the darker circles for his/her eyes and dark circle for the mouth. Their body is right underneath - kinda going diagonally down towards the left. And it looks like there could be an arm out on either side - though it's a little tough to tell. We kinda think this baby looks like a little ghost with its mouth open and the way it is facing out with its arms out to the side. For those of you that can see Baby A's head in this picture - there is a membrane going diagonally down from left to right, that seems to be touching his/her head. That is the membrane that's serving as the divider between the two sacs. You can see a black sac to the upper right of Baby A's sac - that's where Baby B is - even though you can't really see them in this shot. But it gives you an idea of where they are in relation to each other. Baby B: Chillaxing on his/her back showing you their profile. Introducing Baby B: And here is our ultrasound picture of Baby B. Baby B didn't face the camera for this picture - but instead gave us a side view of his/her developing body. This baby is laying on its back with the head on the left and the body going out and up to the right in an angle. And it almost looks like it has their knees bent. If you can see the bright white line in the ultrasound, the baby is pretty much the length of that line. There is a little white circle that is right above where the nose/mouth might be. You can also see a very faint line going down the back that is the baby's spine. Although we were able to see both babies moving around today - Baby B was definitely the more active of the two, based on what they showed us today. For those of you that can see Baby B's head, the dividing membrane almost looks like it's serving as a pillo for Baby B. Then you can see part of Baby A's sac down to the lower left of Baby B's sac. Clear as mud, right? I tried my best to explain - but I'm not sure I'm doing a good job. I am curious to see if you're able to make out the babies in either ultrasound - so feel free to leave a comment or send me a quick text to let me know. ;) After the ultrasound excitement, we had a few more things to take care of before we left. I had to get my blood drawn for a couple tests. Then we sat down with Amy, one of the nurses - who walked us through a folder filled with pregnancy info and just general info about contacting the doctors after-hours. (I didn't think we'd be getting any more folders since we had graduated from ORM.) She also gave us a little gift bag from Similac full of different magazines, information, and give-aways. On our way out, we were able to schedule our next appointments back-to-back for Monday, 5/20 - our nephew, Oliver's birthday. I will be first at 2:30pm and then my sister will be at 3pm. It was a great appointment - we are both so thankful and excited that two of our little babies are still doing so well. My husband commented on how much smaller the rooms were than the examination rooms at Ohio Reproductive Medicine. Their rooms are just designed for the doctor and the patient and spouse - they don't need to have room for the embryologist and a nurse, etc.... When we go back on Wednesday for my sister's appointment - we'll have to figure out a way for him to see the screen, yet not their aunt. :) 11 Week Development: Alright, real quick - I wanted to give the updates on how the babies are developing during week 11 of pregnancy. Just like we witnessed today on the ultrasound - babies at this stage are busy kicking and stretching!
Thanks to everyone for their continued love and support. We are so grateful to have such loving family and friends. We really appreciate your enthusiasm and love being able to share this journey with you all. And although we know that we have no idea what we're in store for later this fall, we are super excited to become parents (times 4) and planning to just take it all one day at a time. In closing, I'd like to shout out a Happy 3rd Birthday to Quinn and a Happy Belated Birthday to Ethan! I'd also like to request prayers for Mr. Frase - that his tests went well today. And please continue to pray for the Bowers family and for the Robbins family. Good night!! Prayers for all of the innocent people that died and those that were injured or witnessed the chaos at the Boston marathon today. Such a sad day!
It's hard to believe it's Sunday night already again - the weekends just fly by! Last Thursday we hit the 10 week mark and our little ones are now officially considered fetuses. :) Their most critical portion of development has completed. At this point our uteruses have doubled since before we were pregnant - now about the size of a grapefruit.
Yes, we've assigned emoticons to the babies. As far as we know, everything is still going well with our 4 little fetuses. Our appointments with Dr. Lindauer next week will confirm whether that is truly the case or not. The appointments still seem so far away - but I'm sure they will be here before we know it. Neither of us are having any morning sickness still - whew. There are definitely certain foods that don't sound appetizing to either of us these days (like salad or grilled chicken) - but no severe nausea or anything to complain about. My sister said that she's feeling much more tired than she remembers with her other two pregnancies. She's not sure if she just forgot how tired she is or if it's really worse. I have a feeling that working full-time and already being a mom to two boys may have something to do with it as well. She's a trooper though! I'm starting to feel more tired than before.
10/10: Last Wednesday was April 10th and before we were going to bed I told my husband, "6 more months!" :) He obviously assumed that I was referring to something about the babies. But I clarified that I was still counting down until my birthday - I told him that these babies would not take away my obsession with my birthday. If all goes well and we're able to keep the babies in our bellies for the long haul, we will be exactly 36 weeks pregnant on my next birthday. When my husband realized there was a chance that we could have our babies on my birthday he was like, "Oh no.... five 10/10 babies in this house?" I don't know if he could handle that - but I would love to share my birthday with our babies if they want to arrive on that day.
Prayers for the 23 youth that were confirmed in our church today. Please continue to pray for continued strength for the Robbins family- their little fighters are almost 7 weeks old. The word on the street is that little Annsley may get to go home from the hospital in a week or so. Hopefully that will motivate Breann to step it up as well. :) And please continue to pray for comfort for Mr. Bowers and his family - especially my dear friend, EW. 9 Week Embryo :) Good Evening! We have made it past the 9 week mark as of last Thursday. So far, still no morning sickness for either of us. My sister's just feeling more tired and doesn't have much of an appetite at dinner. I don't think I'm feeling that tired - but I did manage to squeeze in some naps both days this weekend. :) My biggest symptom is just busting out of my pants by the afternoon. Here's how our little ones developed during Week 9:
Next Appointments Scheduled! We also have our next appointments scheduled - which will be our first prenatal appointments with Dr. Lindauer! It was pretty funny when I called to schedule the appointments for myself and my sister. I tried to explain the situation real quick by saying something like this...."So I need to schedule some appointments for my sister and I. We're both pregnant - she's carrying our babies, too. We'd like to schedule the appointments back-to-back if possible - since we'd obviously like to be there for her appointments, too." But I think it was maybe too short of a synopsis, because the poor receptionist said, "I'm sorry - this is just really confusing..." So I took a few steps back and explained things in a little more detail - how we're both patients of Dr. Lindauer, how my sister already had two boys of her own with Dr. Lindauer, how we've had trouble getting pregnant and Dr. Lindauer sent us to Ohio Reproductive Medicine, how we tried in-vitro and put embryos in both of us, and now we're both pregnant with twins and ready to set-up appointments with Dr. Lindauer. After that, she responded with - "Wow.... congratulations! 4 babies!" She did say it may be tough to get our first appointments back-to-back, but that they would do their best to make it happen. Dr. Lindauer actually called me later that day to congratulate us and asked me if we ever thought all 4 embryos would take! I told her that we really didn't expect it at all - we were just hoping for at least one. Anyway, she is super excited for us and can't wait to see us. She actually cleared her schedule for April 29th to see both of us in back-to-back appointments - which is so sweet. Unfortunately, we weren't available on that day - because my husband and I will both be in Charlotte that Monday. Because of our travel conflict, I told them we were fine with separate appointments this month. So my next appointment is on Monday, April 22nd at 1:15pm in the afternoon. And my sister's appointment will be that Wednesday, April 24th at 8:15am. Going forward, they said they would schedule our appointments back-to-back. We are so thankful for them being so accommodating of our unique situation. He Knows! Throughout this whole cycle we've been talking about how my sister's oldest son (4 year old, Wendel) may react to the news of her carrying our babies. We all agreed that he would accept things - as long as we positioned it from the beginning that the babies in my sister were his cousins and not a baby brother/sister. Earlier in the cycle, of course we were thinking the conversation would be more along the lines of, "Aunt Annie couldn't have any babies - so Mommy is helping her by carrying them her in her belly." That explanation doesn't really fly now that I'm also pregnant - which makes things a little trickier. My sister said that the conversation would now be something like, "Well, Aunt Annie didn't have room for all of the babies in her belly - so Mommy is carrying some of the babies for her and Uncle Joby." She's so smart, isn't she? ;) Since it's still early on, they haven't really talked to him about it - I think my sister was thinking they should wait until we start showing a little more. Needless to say with the excitement of everything, other folks (and even us 4) have talked about it when Wendel is around. The few times I've noticed that he's in the room - he never really seemed to be reacting to the news. But the Friday before Easter, when I was walking him back down to his house after playing with the neighbor kids - he let me know that he knew. Out of the blue he said, "Aunt Annie... I can't believe you're going to have 4 babies." My face would've been priceless - I'm sure. I was definitely caught off-guard and responded with, "What? Oh... you know? Did your mommy & daddy tell you?" And he said, "No, I just know." And I asked him if he'd been listening to what people were talking about. And he said, "Yes." Then I said, "Well, are you excited to be getting 4 more cousins?" And he said he was and started to count up his cousins - including some of my cousin's kids, which was super cute. I asked him if he thought we would have room for 4 babies in our house and he said, "Oh yeah - you just need to get 4 cribs." :) I told him that we were going to need him to teach the babies lots of stuff - he promised that he would teach them lots of cool tricks. This should be an interesting scenario to explain to our older nephews and niece - JoJo (6), Lucas (8), Henry (almost 9), Keenan (10), Chloe (13), & Jack (14). I think that our one sister-in-law has mentioned that we're having babies to her 3 boys - but not sure if anyone has said anything to the other 3. I think they'll all just be excited to be getting so many cousins all at once. And somehow, I have a hunch that Oliver (almost 2) and Nicholas (1) will be cool with it as well. ;) In closing, I'd like to shout-out a very Happy 1st Birthday to Miss Leah! :) And please say a few prayers for continued strength and love for the Robbins & Bowers/Watson families. A few weeks back, our friends delivered 3 huge plastic containers of maternity clothes to our front porch! The traveling maternity wardrobe belongs to a group of my hubby's high school friends who have been passing them around. I finally went thru them today & sorted them by season. So many great pieces! They warned me that the tops may look like tents now - but that they will end up being one of my favorite things to wear later on. ;) I just hope I don't outgrow "the tents." So excited to get a baby bump so I can start wearing them! But most of all, feeling very lucky to only be 9.5 weeks pregnant and have quite the maternity wardrobe. Thank you, Troy Girls!!! I'm so glad Joby became friends with you all when you were growing up! ;)
FYI - I even tried on a few pants and think that all pants should have the stretchy maternity material at the top. Thanks, Frases! :) We hope that you all had a wonderful Easter holiday weekend with your family and friends. We had a jam-packed weekend of Easter and family fun. Friday night we had dinner with the Price family and then went to the Good Friday service at church. On Saturday morning we volunteered at the "Easter bash" at church and got assigned the "Lily Pad Toss" game. It was really fun - lots of kids came through. Every time I saw some parents come through with a young toddler - I couldn't help but think, "How are we going to handle 4 of them at that age?" ;) The sad thing is that my legs got sore from bending/squatting down to pick up the froggies that the kids were throwing. After we packed up, we headed over to Troy to visit with my husband's side of the family. My husband went golfing with his dad since the weather was nice. I went for a 2.85 mile walk with my mother-in-law - we just chatted about everything, which was nice. My husband's older brothers are twins - so she was telling me how she didn't know she was having twins until she was 36 weeks along. And then she delivered them at 38 weeks - so she had two weeks advanced notice. Craziness! On Easter Sunday we went to church and then picked up Granny on the way home. We met up with my mother-in-law's side of the family to celebrate a birthday brunch for Grandma LaVelle - who turned 90 on Friday. My husband now has 3 grandparents over the age of 90 - pretty amazing, especially considering their mental and physical health. They are all excited about our 4 babies! FYI - Grandpa LaVelle has already named them if they are all boys.... Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. ;) 8 Week Embryos - Fraternal Twins 8 Week Updates: My sister and I both hit the 8-week mark last Thursday - so here's the latest in the babies' development:
Last Month of Shots: Even though we've been transitioned back to Dr. Lindauer's care - we are both still continuing our post-transfer regimens of shots as instructed by Dr. Williams. After our appointment on 3/22, I went ahead and ordered the rest of the medicine. I'm getting 1/2 mL of progesterone each night - while my sister gets 1mL each morning. She also gets to keep doing her shot of estrogen on Monday/Thursday nights and takes some progesterone suppositories each night. I need to keep taking my shots through 11 weeks (4/18) and my sister needs to keep it up through 12 weeks (4/25). Neither of us are feeling any morning sickness - but we are s FAQ Time: Since we found out that we have 4 little babes on the way, our minds have just been swirling with many of the same topics/questions that you may be wondering about as well. So here are our answers to a few of those questions....
Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers - we appreciate everyone's enthusiasm and support for our 4 little miracles. In closing, I'll leave you with "When You Believe" by Mariah & Whitney. Good night! |