Latest dr appt...

So I had my first appt this morning with a dr at the Naval Hospital, and it went well from what I can tell. Rush was able to come with me, which was nice since he won't be able to make many with his schedule. I pretty much caught the dr up with what is going on so far in the pregnancy, asked about 100 questions, and he did an ultrasound to measure the heartbeats.

He said the babies are still in a good range, Baby A was at 130 bpm and Baby B was at 150 bpm. He said the normal range is 120-180 bpm. He also agreed that there was only one placenta, and said that the membrane between the babies was still "loose & flowy" which is good because it means there isn't one baby with not enough or too much fluid in the sac.

So it looks like we will be able to come home to Texas for Thanksgiving (if we have our way we'd like to come for about 11 days), but it is highly unlikely that Christmas will be an option. I'm not too sure how I feel about this yet, I know it's for the babies health, but it'll also be our first Christmas not in Texas surrounded by family. I think once the holidays get closer, it'll hit me harder and Rush will have to deal with me going overboard with decorating for Christmas more than usual. Mom has mentioned that they might try to come up and spend Christmas with us, no pressure Mom, but I would be forever grateful. I also wanted to put it out there that anyone else that wants to is more than welcome to come visit over the holidays. The more the merrier, and we understand if you can't because of normal traditions taking place back home. We're planning on me quitting work before Thanksgiving so that we can maybe spend even more time at home for Thanksgiving to be with family and maybe a baby shower (or two.) ;) Seeing as it seems like the only time I'll be making it to Texas...

OH also, Robin, the dr said that the 10K shouldn't be a problem. Pretty much its up to how I am feeling and if I think I am ready. So I have a few weeks to make up my mind and figure out if I am going to transfer my entry to Will Baskin (Rush's cousin) or if I'm going to go for it. Of course the dr said that my specialist dr will definitely discourage it, so we'll just have to see.

And not to brag, well yeah I want to brag, I came home yesterday from work to a tbone dinner on the table! Rush surprised me with a very good steak and salad, and I just wanted to brag about how sweet he's been since the pregnancy and my weird food-mood swings. He's really been very understanding and a big help around the house. The house would be a wreck without him! I love you babe! :)

Latest ultrasound pics!

Finally remembered to bring these to work with me so that I could scan them!  These are from when I went to the specialist and they determined there was only one placenta. As you can tell they have much better equipment than the naval hospital, and the details are just much more visible. While I was watching the ultrasound I could literally count fingers (of course they didn't sit still long enough for me to) and see their defined legs and arms. So far both look good!

Also just FYI my dr appt got changed to Sept. 1st. So expect more updates on the babies then! :)

The Results of my last Dr. appt...

Ok, so as I stated in my last post, I had to see a specialist in order for them to determine if there was one or two placentas. The verdict they came up with is that I am mono/di! Meaning one placenta with two sacs. Which means the babies are very likely identical, a blessing from God and not hereditary! So it wasn't in the blood, it was what God wants for us. :) It's also reassuring since I think that it means we are less likely to have twins again. *whew*

There are also some downsides to being blessed with identicals on one placenta, there are things we have to watch closely for such as TTTS which is where there is one baby taking from the other. It's not a death sentence but it can be serious. If it does occur with us it is possible I will be flying out to either Miami (that's where they said first) or Houston (he mentioned this one and I told him I'd prefer to go to Houston since I knew I would be with family) for drs to stop the transfer between the babies with a laser. This has been an option since 1988 so it's been around for a while, and had good outcomes. Anyways, I haven't been diagnosed with it so I'm not going to worry about it unless I do. For the most part all it means for me is bi-monthly trips to Wilmington to see the specialist for scans to catch TTTS as early as possible if it does develop, and also to watch the babies' size. We want them to stay as uniform as possible in size because that means they are getting equal amounts of nutrients from me. Which brings me to another downside, there is no way to be certain how much % of the placenta the babies are getting until they are born. As they grow the drs can guess by their size differences how much they are each getting, but they can't be 100% sure. So far they are exactly the same in size so I am going to go with that and pray they stay close to the same size throughout.

My first scan will be Sept. 3rd, and then every two weeks after until they are born. I'm planning on going to Wilmington early so that I can do some do-it-yourself pottery painting! I've been wanting to do it again since the last time (like 3 years ago in College Station!) So now I have something positive to look forward to and help keep me calm. :)

Thanks for reading, and your continued prayers! They really mean a lot to Rush and me, and we're going to continue to need them for the next 20 years! ;)

Update on the twins...

So I had my first "real" ultrasound and both babies are doing great! Of course the main reason we went in was to see if they were on their own placenta or sharing one, and of course the technician couldn't tell! It took forever to finally see the thin membrane seperating the sacs, but once we finally found it, we kept seeing it! She (our tech) thinks that the babies were both sitting on it so it was invisible to us, and she said it didn't help that they were being so mobile! But it was a good thing they were moving around.

Rush was able to make it to this appointment so he got his first glimpse of the babies. He was awesome, he asked so many questions, and soaked it all in! Of course what he really wanted to know was if they were boys, girls, or one of each...and our tech wouldn't (or wasn't allowed) to even venture a guess! I just kept reminding him that it won't change, the babies have been what they are and will be from day 1. He did mention that even if we were told boys he wouldn't believe it till they were born and he saw with his own eyes! LOL, he cracks me up!

So here's what the technician said, she said the babies were both measuring at 12 weeks even though they have me at 11 weeks and 3 days. *Rush was quite proud of the fact that they were bigger than scheduled! Both had heart beats around 162 bpm which is good, and we were able to see 4 arms and 4 legs! We could even make out tiny little faces and fingers. And if we had to guess what sex they were by how they were acting we would say they are boys! More than once we saw Baby B sitting on Baby A's face and they were even throwing tiny little punches at each other. I thought for sure that was the Baskin in them! If it was Moring then the babies would be tickling each other! They were just a tumbling around stretching their tiny limbs. It was really neat to watch. Very surreal. To see some pictures scroll down to my previous post.

Back to the reason for the appointment, since she couldn't tell if there was one or two placentas, I get to go to a specialist. Hopefully this Dr. will be able to tell. The reason we need to know is because if they are sharing one placenta I get called "higher risk" because there tends to be sibling rivalry where the dominant twin will take most or all of the nutrients and not leave much for the other. So if there are two it will be a relief and also it will mean I am less likely to have to see a specialist for the rest of the pregnancy. So a prayer sent our way would be much appreciated, I'd like to be able to stay here in Jacksonville for my appointments and their birth, and for the fact that two means two healthy babies. I don't have the appointment yet, but once I do, I'll be sure to update!

Babies' First Pictures!

My precious little babies

I have loved you both from the start

You are tiny miracles

Laying closely to my heart

Each day I feel your presences

Each day you both quickly grow

Each day your hearts' beat softly

As only I could know

So I'll keep this in a special place

And remember each year trough

Of this very special time of your lives

The months I carried both of you.

~J. Morse

*edited by me to my twins

Baby A ^ v

Baby B sitting on Baby A's head!

Also...remember that shark tooth that I found?

I'm pretty sure it came from the newborn baby of this monster! And Rush didn't believe me! Psshhht...I showed him! LOL

I saw this picture and immediately thought of my babies!

They are just too cute! and TINY!

Updating my blog's look!

Spent quite a bit of time today working on getting my blog revamped, and I couldn't of done it without the help of LIESL! Thank you so very much! Well I got almost all that I wanted to accomplish, accomplished. Tomorrow I am going to try and see about inserting my own dividers to go inbetween my posts! eeek, kinda nervous! Anyways just thought I'd give a shout out to Liesl, since I definitely wouldn't have been able to have this new design without her help.

Be on the look out for some more posts soon, I've got an ultrasound coming up and I'm very excited to post a picture finally! So much is changing for this Baskin family, and we are very excited.

We are also hoping to have our internet up and running fairly soon! :)