Good Ultrasound Today!

First off we would like to say thank you to everyone for all the support and love.

Good news today, the twins are both doing great. Baby A (the donor baby) has a little more fluid in his sac. Monday we are going in for another ultrasound and ego on both babies. We will also be meeting with Dr. Cook, a pediatric/fetal cardiologist. She will determine if the babies are under any stress. If they are we will be off to Cincinnati, if not we will continue close monitoring and as much 'rest' as I can get with Emerson running around.

More waiting game!! I will try and scan some pictures in this afternoon and post them.

Thanks again for the support!!
Love you,
J.E.M.

oh BOY - they are BOYS!!

Well it was an overwhelming day yesterday to say the least. The ultrasound started and within the first minute I saw a penis flying around. The tech quickly confirmed that yes, we are having two boys!! After feeling shock and disbelieve she took a side profile picture of baby b's face and it looks just like Emerson's ultrasound profile and I got all warm and fuzzy inside.
After an hour of measuring body parts a doctor came in to talk to me. Unfortunately John-Adam was not able to get off and wasn't there. She asked me if someone had ever explained the risk associated with having mono-di babies and at that point I knew something was wrong and didn't feel like playing 20 questions. I told her I heard about Twin Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) and she confirmed that was in fact what is happening. I paged John-Adam and he was there in 10 mins.

TTTS hardly happens in mono-di babies, only about 10% of all mono-di twins get this. The shared placenta contains "abnormal blood vessels which connect the umbilical cord and circulations of the twins." The common placenta is shared unequally by the twins, twin b is getting too much fluid and nutrients while twin a is being deprived. This is a good picture describing what happens...
There is a laser treatment done in only 5 cities for this - on of them happens to be Milwaukee but our doctor works with the Fetal Care Center of Cincinnati. We have another scan on Friday just confirm the diagnosis and then we will most likely head to Cincinnati next week for tests and treatment.

They caught it relatively early and twin a is developing good, he has all his organs and moves around a lot, in fact when the doctor was scanning him he was twisting and turning and had the hiccups. If everything goes well we should still have two healthy babies! We will post on Friday with an update.

Love,
J.E.M.

Orange you glad to see us!

Well now that the holiday season has slowed down I have no excuse not to update the blog! I am feeling great and starting to definitely 'feel' preggers. I 'popped' over Christmas and definitely have a "lovely lady lump" :) I think I have felt the twins moving three times now, but a certain doctor type tells me it is a little too early to start feeling them. I can't wait to start feeling the oranges on a regular basis!! Here are some fun pictures from a 'western' rehearsal dinner and a very lovely wedding...