| Doctor Appointments |
| August 25, 2003 "Twins?" 1st Appointment My first appointment was just to confirm my pregnancy. Since I was far enough along (about 6-7 weeks) Dr. thought we might be able to see something on the ultrasound. Boy did we see something.....two sacks and two little beating hearts. TWINS!!! Needless to say we were surprised and very excited. We also got our due date of April 13, 2004. |
| September 10, 2003 "OK.....Spread the word" 2nd Appointment Since we discovered our twins so early in our pregnancy our Dr suggested we not spread the news quite yet, rather we come back in a few weeks to make sure all was well. So we went back in the beginning of September to check again. And sure enough, the ultrasound still showed two sacks and two little heartbeats. This time we could also see two little "slug like" creatures :) growing just perfectly. It was during this appointment that I also took a ton of blood tests, and were given the okay to spread the good news to friends and family. |
| September 2003 "New Doctor" 3rd Appointment We went to this appointment to meet our new doctor. Our first doctor informed us that she has retired from deliveries. This appointment was great for us because of course the new doctor wanted to get a look at these twins so we were off to our 3rd ultrasound. (No pictures this time) We were able to see two slightly larger "slug-like" creatures with hearts beating away. Wonderful. Our doctor also recommended some further testing due to the "high-risk" aspect of our pregnancy. (Twin factor) She suggested we go for genetic counseling and a Level II ultrasound. More ultrasounds? Sounds good to us :) |
| October 3rd, 2003 "Genetic Counseling" 4th Appointment We discovered that Genetic Counseling was recommended because some tests for genetic diseases that are usually performed during pregnancy often have false results in a twin pregnancy. It was very interesting and simple. First, we had an ultrasound where the technician looked for the nuchal fold (the skin fold located at the base of the fetus' neck). This fold is measured and should be found to be less than 3mm. Both our babies were found to have a nuchal fold of under 1. (Which is great - almost immeasurable) The technician also told us she was able to find a prominent nose bone for each baby....which is also a positive indicator of a healthy baby. We were also able to hear the heartbeats of our babies for the first time. They were 168 bmp and 171 bpm. Next, we met with a genetic counselor who went over our family trees. This was to see if there were any known genetic diseases in our families. Finally, I had some more blood tests. We got all the results back within five days and found that I have the genetic risk of a 20 year old - which we suppose is a good thing. :) |
| October 20, 2003 (15 weeks) 5th Appointment Just a regular check up to make sure all is well. Blood pressure, weight (I'm up 1.5 lbs so far), hemoglobin blood test and doppler heartrate check. All went well. Doctor just gave me a list of my "drug cocktail" which includes: prenatal vitamins, Folic Acid, Vitamin C and Vitamin E. Got a prescription for my next ultrasound which will be in 3 weeks! |
| October 27, 2003 (16 weeks) 6th Appointment Just a quick appointment for blood work. I took my AFP blood test (tests for Spina Bifida and Down's Syndrome). I also took my Glucose blood test. An hour before my appointment I drank a high concentrate glucose drink. Then had my blood tested to see how my body handles the sugar. (No big deal :) |
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| November 13, 2003 (18 weeks) "Level II Ultrasound" 7th Appointment We had our second Level II Ultrasound today. The technician took a ton of measurements from both babies including arms, legs, skulls, toes and fingers etc. We also got to see the babies' kidneys, stomachs, hearts & vessels and brains. The tech said that everything looked perfect and their sizes and measurements are average or above average for their age. Baby A weighs 8 ozs. and Baby B weighs 9 ozs. This means that already at 18 weeks I have over one pound of baby in my belly!!!! We could have found out the sexes at this point- I'm sure the tech knows. However, Shawn wants to be surprised, so when it got to the point where we were getting the thigh measurements the tech had us look away so we could not see the screen. I was so tempted to peek! They would like us to have another ultrasound in 2-3 weeks to make sure the babies continue to grow and develop as well as they have been. |