Weeks 19-20

Here are the pictures from Week 19 and Week 20. Picture-taking sessions have now transitioned to Oregon as we are here for the month. Kyle drove to Oregon with Bruchi a few days before Patty left as she had to finish up some things at work and was advised not to drive across the country. The day before Patty flew out to Oregon, she visited the doctor who noted that her belly was measuring at 24 weeks even though she was only 18 1/2 weeks at the time. Apparently this is pretty normal for twins. Heart rates were at 151 and 154, so not much has changed there. This time both girls were very cooperative with the doctor, and he was able to measure them quickly. Both girls are starting to move quite a bit, and a big belly is making life a bit more uncomfortable all around--putting on socks has become an anaerobic activity as it is difficult to breathe when bending with two babies in the belly. Otherwise, both girls have already had a healthy dose of long walks on the beach, Mo's clam chowder (apparently high in Iron?), and plenty of relaxing and reading in front of the ocean.

Here's Week 20 at the Beach

The New Camera on The Beach

We decided we needed a better camera to properly capture the lives of the twins. We were very close to buying a Canon DSLR camera from Costco that promised to produce much higher quality pictures. In the meantime, we wandered through Shutterbug at the beach and they talked us out of the DSLR and into the Sony NEX-5N, which is supposed to be as good as the DSLR, but faster at taking action photos. So, here are two of the pix we snapped tonight. The weather cooperated.

Philadelphia!

K had to some research up in DC and at Penn State at the end of May for about 2 weeks. Conveniently, P had a 4 day weekend for Memorial day, so went up and met him in Philadelphia during a conference.  We figured this may be one of our last mini-vacations with just the two of us, so we better take advantage. While there isn't a ton to do in Philly, we made the most of our time by checking out the sites to see ahead of time.

Independence Hall--where the Declaration of Independence was drafted and signed.

Love Park--in the City of Brotherly Love.

Liberty Bell

Of course, Philly Cheesesteaks. Though K claims that Bruchi's has them beat.

The "Rocky" stairs at the Museum of Art.

The Rocky Statue

Here's pregnant P, making an attempt at climbing all these stairs.

All in all, it was a good time, despite it being hot and sticky. We ate at lots of great restaurants--including a fabulous hot dog with garlic cream cheese, red onions, and tomatoes.

Twins?!

We found out we were most likely pregnant somewhere around the end of February/beginning of March. We wanted to verify that our strong suspicion was correct, so went in to see the doctor where they took a blood sample. Sure enough, they confirmed our suspicion and scheduled a second appointment just about 2 two weeks later to listen to the heart beat. In the meantime, we went to Oregon for Spring Break and broke the news with fortune cookies at China Faith. We were with Gardners and Patty's parents, and Kit, the manager at China Faith, had agreed to substitute the regular fortune cookies for these instead.

Everyone was a bit confused by the fact that: 1) they were wrapped, 2) they were all the same, and 3) they had a very distinct date on them--compared to most ambiguous fortunes. After a bit of staring at each other at the table, Katie screamed "you're kidding!" and about flipped back in her chair. Everyone else figured it out almost immediately. Everyone was sworn to secrecy because Patty was up for a Principal position, and this news would likely put a stop to any chances.

After Oregon, Patty went back to Texas and Kyle had to head to a conference in St. Louis. On Friday of that week, Patty returned to the doctor to see if we could hear a heart beat yet. Unbeknownst to us, the doctor had a suspicion that we were having twins, and this is why the appointment was quite early--around 7 or 8 weeks. With Kyle on speaker phone, the doctor pointed out two gestational sacks.

P- "What does that mean?" (a bit concerned that she knows exactly what it means)

Dr.- "That means you're having twins."

P- "Oh, wow. Did you hear that Kyle?"

K- (in a crowded book exhibit at his conference)--"No, I don't hear anything."

Dr.- "I said, you're going to be the father of twins!"

K- "You're joking!"

Dr.- "I don't joke about these types of things."

Kyle got sheet-white and our good friend, Kelly, who was with him at the time thought there were something very wrong. He had to tell her the news since he couldn't think of another excuse for his reaction quite fast enough.

This is what 2 gestational sacs looks like--not much.

Nonetheless, after doing some research, we found that there is a high (30% or so) incidence of a vanishing twin in the first trimester, so we thought we'd wait to see what happened. We then returned a week or so later to hear the heart beats and heard them this time. Roughly, 174 and 171. The nurses commented that high heart rates meant girls--only according to an old wives' tale. Kyle was thrilled and got his hopes up.

At this point we decided it was okay to let our family know that we were having twins, but it was still a secret to the rest of the world as Patty's principal position was up in the air. Here are a few pictures of the progression. There was a bump almost immediately. This first picture was taken at about 6-7 weeks. The doctor explains this bump as the internal organs moving around to make room for an expanding uterus.

Here is a sonogram of the twins at about 8-9 weeks. Their heart rates were roughly 171 and 174--still on the fast end of normal. Each of them were just about 1" in length. We were shocked as to how much  you could see them move. It was amazing that these goofy little things were animated and alive--not just blobs sitting in there.

Baby A--aka, Zadie

Baby B--aka, Lia

As soon as we found out about twins, we got moving on the nursery.

The first trimester was plagued with lots of fatigue. Patty came home from school each night and crashed immediately. She fell asleep around 7 or 8:00 almost every evening and barely made it through the day. This was okay since the doctor had mandated no lifting, no squatting, and taking it easy in general. There was minimal "morning" sickness, though she did throw up a few times and had a wicked gag reflex (Kyle found this very funny). Almost any smell invoked lots of gagging, and her appetite was pretty limited. The best food--giant dill pickles! Around week 11 we found out that Patty had severe anemia, so the doctor prescribed some iron pills that contain 650% of the recommended daily value of iron for pregnant women--on top of the prenatal vitamin that has something like 125% of the recommended iron. That helped tremendously, but the real energy didn't return until around 12-13 weeks.

With the growing belly, people at school started talking. Everyone was just certain that Patty was pregnant, but luckily few people approached her about the issue. The twins were still our little secret (or at least we pretended it was a secret) until news came about the principal position. Despite a growing belly, Patty only gained about 2.5 lbs. up to week 13 or 14.

Around week 15, Patty was named Principal of Cross Oaks. At this point, we no longer had to keep the secret quite as tight. Patty shared the news with the administrative staff at her school, but still kept it quiet from the teachers as she wanted to let the superintendent know first.

At Week 16, we traveled to Philadelphia for a conference. 

It was on this trip where we posted the below picture to Facebook, and someone commented: "Congratulations on your little bundle of joy! When are you due?" Patty was still in denial that she looked out right pregnant. It still COULD be explained away as sudden weight gain--all in the belly. There was a LOT of walking on this trip, leading to very sore feet, legs, and lower back. While the energy was not a problem as in the first trimester, the body could not quite keep up.

The day after Kyle returned from Pennsylvania, we had our ultrasound anatomy appointment. One of the crazy teachers at Patty's school often gives her daily calendar notes. She had given Patty this back in January before she was even pregnant:

As it turns out, she was right. She also predicted the sex of one of our friend's babies, so Patty figured she'd break the news to her that she was right about twins, and see if she could give us any insight as to whether we were having boys or girls. She predicted 2 boys.

During the ultrasound both babies moved around like crazy--rolling and flipping making it a bit difficult to follow them at times. We have no clue how the doctor and the sonogram technician can distinguish them. They explained that they are in the shape of a 7. Zadie is head down on Patty's right side angled toward the exit--that's why she is considered Baby A. Lia is horizontal across the belly. Her head is over by Zadie on Patty's right side, but her legs are clear over on Patty's left side. The sonogram took about one hour as the technician had to identify all sorts of parts of the babies--heart, lungs, spine, brain, legs, arms, kidney, and most importantly...the GIRL parts (pictures not included). This time the heart rates have slowed down significantly (which is normal) to 154 for Lia and 150 for Zadie. The doctor had a difficult time finding their heart rates with the doppler as they both kept moving--very active. We did not really get a full measurement, but the size of their feet gives us a pretty good idea of how much they have grown. The foot is now about 1 inch, which is what the entire body was just 8 weeks earlier! We were shocked at the amount of growth in such a short time. Both girls no longer fit in one picture as they did at Week 9.

Here's a creepy picture of Lia--especially her eyeball:

 Here's a picture of both heads. Lia on the left and Zadie is lower on the right.

 Lia with her arm above her head.

 Zadie with her arm next to her head.

 Zadie's profile.

Of course, once we discovered they were girls, Kyle HAD to go shopping! The girls are ready for Summer, 2013.

After church on Sunday, we visited Pottery Barn Kids, and selected some wall decor, curtains, and sheets.

 And that, brings us pretty well up to date at 18 weeks. Weight gain is approximately 10 pounds now, and the belly is almost impossible to hide even under baggy clothes. No weird cravings, though Mexican food is definitely a favorite as Patty could eat it almost every day of the week. There is very little fatigue anymore. Back aches follow excessive amounts of time on feet or working, but otherwise all is well.

Oh, plus a little shopping. :)