20 Weeks and Growing

Today marks my official 1/2 way point however technically my 1/2 way point was last week as dr. said I would not go past 38 weeks but it is still fun to make it to 20 weeks :-) and a milestone worth marking. Here is a picture of my 20 week belly...can you believe how much I have grown in such a short time...oh my...can you imagine what my 24 week picture is going to look like. I cant even think about it LOL. I will just blame it on all the holiday food.

The babies are becoming increasingly active. It is amazing some times I can feel them move for a solid hour and other time they are quite for an eternity and I start to worry. Sporadically I will have kick that are hard enough to be felt by my hand on my tummy and I try to get Chad each time this happens but the babies refuse to cooperate. Every time he touches my belly they stop kicking...it is so frustrating because the one thing I wanted most was for him to be able to feel them kick before he left. He always ask what it feels like to feel the babies move and I do my best to explain it but to be honest I think it is one of those things that you cant truly appreciate until you feel it first hand. It is so amazing...I still have to pinch myself everyday to remind me that we have 2 babies on the way. It has been such a wonderful experience so far I hope the 2nd half is as good as the first :-)

wow

There's no way to capture what it felt like to watch the ultrasound machine and hear the words "Yep, it's one of each."  The reality of the blessing of being called and entrusted by God to be earthly stewards to and physical providers for two children of His that are in every respect sheer miracles creates a matchless feeling of awe and amazement.  Watching Evan and Taryn on the ultrasound this morning touched every facet of the heart and energized every feeling of love that is humanly possible.  Look, there's a stretch of the arms...and look, their legs are crossed and there toes are wiggling.  There went Taryn, trying to cover one eye in some sort of early peek-a-boo game with us...and Evan was busy tossing and turning (can you say fiery little redhead, anyone??)  Watching those little hearts beating...hearing the sound of it through the ultrasound speakers...that's the kind of "music to your ears" that we'd dreamt of.  "I love you son"...and "I love you too sweet daughter" were the murmers under my hard-to-keep breath.  My heart must have cried the tears that the amazement in my face wouldn't allow.  His little children are on the way and doing so well so far.  The trials and tribulations of our "then" have blossomed into the "miracle" of our now....in only a way that God could do.  Our Twangels are a true realization of that...and oh to think about all that God has in store for these little teammates; there is beautiful purpose in their earthly journey and no greater blessing is there than to be a part of guiding them in their pursuit and service of Him.  Being a doublet-dad will be challenging, I'm sure.  I know I won't have all the answers, but thankfully I know the ONE who does!  

It's A

Here is the long awaited news :-) but first and foremost the babies got a clean bill of health today which was such a relief. We will get the official word on everything from our dr. next week at my 20 week appointment but so far everything looks great.
Well...it looks like we have 1 of each on the way...It's A BOY and a GIRL...I don't think it gets any better then that!

Twin A is our Girl and measured at approx 19 weeks 3 days and 9oz
Twin B is our Boy and measured approx 20 weeks 0 days and 11 oz

They said it was normal for the boys to be bigger then the girls so although they are not measuring the same any longer it seems to be normal and both are actually measuring ahead as I am only 19 weeks 0 days today.

And now for the Name Game....

Twin A was easy as we have had a girl name picked for some time and have yet to change our minds so our little girl is Taryn Grace
Twin B was a little trickier but we ended up deciding on Evan Reece

A couple years back we were searching for baby names and through our searching decided to look up Welsh baby names (to honor some of Chad's heritage) and came across the name Tarren for a girl which we loved the name but not the spelling so we flipped to the American spelling...that was easy and the middle name came a bit later but seemed to fit perfectly. We had Noah picked for a boy for sometime but over the last couple of years the name has become very popular so we went back to the drawing board. A couple weeks ago I just got on the web and started searching boy names made a list and gave it to Chad for him to scratch out any names that he did not like. I figured we would start w/ names that we both liked and go from there. By the time we went through all the names a few times we ended up w/ Evan and Hunter in the front...so I started looking up meanings of the names...no surprise Hunter means 'one who hunts' not too exciting LOL....but Evan means 'God is Gracious' (how could we not pick this)...so I shared the info w/ Chad and I think the meanings really swayed him on his decision...it seemed perfect. To top it off Evan happens to be a Welsh name as well (though we did not do this on purpose). Evan's middle name came from an idea Chad got from reading an article about baby name trends and one thing they suggested doing we using family names...Chad thought of his grandmothers maiden name Reese...however, the boy spelling is Reece so we had to change it a bit :-) and Reece means 'Fiery' could you imagine the irony if he comes out a redhead LOL.

Pictures

In this picture Taryn is kicking her brother...she is actually head down and towards the bottom of my abdomen...Evan is laying straight across with his head near my right ribs...so basically they are making a "T" right now...it is so fun to see how they move and change positions.

Evan is definitely a boy I am sure they would not appreciate me posting pictures of 'their stuff' on the Internet but I cant help it :-)

This is his little face and his stomach (laying on his back, head on the right and 

abdomen on the left while he's looking up to the left....eye sockets and nose clearly visible...and cute.)

This is Taryn's "stuff" or lack there of :-) she is definitely a girl!!!!

This is her precious face!!!

Window Shopping

Tuesday was a day off for Chad which allowed us to get some much needed window shopping in before he leaves. Unfortunately our town has little to offer so we thought we would make a day of it on Tuesday and head towards Atlanta. There is a Babies-R-Us on the Southside of Atlanta making it a quicker trip for us (or at least we thought it was going to be LOL). (Chad'sNOTE:  I got to park in one of the "Expectant Mothers" parking spots at the front of the store!  It didn't specify how far along you had to be, so I pulled right in!!  That was a great first...and hey, you gotta take advantage of those things while you can.)  I already had an idea of what I wanted to look at before we went...bouncy, car seats, pack-n-play and most importantly strollers. I was told to test drive the strollers before purchasing which we thought was a great idea...so I did some preliminary searching online, read a ton of reviews and thought I had found the perfect stroller for our twins. But of course the stroller I wanted was not in the store (online it stated that it was but when we got there they did not carry any stroller that cost over $200.00). We have found that at most stores will carry one or two double strollers but that is it, which I find kind of odd...yes, not too many have twins but many family's have 2 small children at the same time...you would think double strollers would be more in demand. Disappointed that Babies-R-Us did not have our stroller or really any that we would be interested in...we thought we would call around to a few other stores to see if they carried the one we were looking for or any of the other brands that we had been looking at online. We had no luck finding our stroller at any stores in Atlanta (via the phone calls we had made) but did think there were a couple of stores that might be worth heading to, to see what they did have. So much for staying on the south side of Atlanta...by the time we were done w/ our wild goose chase and many more dead ends we ended up way on the north side of town. However, our adventures that day ended up paying off...we ended up at the cutest little baby store (actually wasn't that small but compared to Babies-R-Us it was small). We asked where the strollers were and immediately upon walking back to the stroller section, a double stroller caught our eyes...it was the very one that we were looking for...so all that driving and being out all day ended up being very worth the trip. We got to test drive and play w/ the stroller that we wanted to buy so now we don't have to be worried about if the stroller is really as good as it looks on line. My favorite features are that it has awesome sunshades, it is light, and it folds and opens very easily...last thing I want is to be struggling w/ a heavy difficult stroller in a parking lot...I am sure there are plenty of other things coming my way to make me feel inadequate I don't need a stroller to do that LOL :-). Anyway here is the much talked about stroller now we just have to agree on the color :-). Before all this I never really put much thought into a stroller or realized it could be such a daunting process to pick one out. Or maybe it is just that I am afraid of making the wrong decision :-).

I am definitely learning my limitations and what it means to be sharing my body w/ these two little ones. On our little adventure on Tuesday I was doing great all day until at 7:00...my energy level just took a nose dive...it was kind of funny how quickly it happened...Chad was kind of laughing at me and was like I guess it is time to head home...I think I hang in pretty good considering :-).

Only 2 days until we find out what our little ones are...mostly I am just hoping for a clean bill of health for our babies :-)

16week Check UP

We had our 16 week check up on Thursday...and I will have to say it was one of the least eventful dr. appointment I have had in years but that is a good thing because it means there is nothing wrong. They checked my blood pressure which came back at 100/54...can that be right...that is so low for me. I am normally in the 120/80 range on a good day I may be 115/75 but that is it. Anyway, from what I have read I think it is normal. I was hoping this would mean I would be at low risk for preeclampsia but from what I understand my blood pressure will slowly rise throughout my pregnancy and I could still end up w/ pre-e...bummer...just a little worried about that because twin pregnancy tend to be at higher risk for it which can lead to early labor and I don't want that (but who does). I guess I will just appreciate my low numbers now and hope they stay that way :-). Beyond checking my blood pressure the only other thing the dr. did was push on my stomach a few times and said "very good" so I guess that means everything is "very good" LOL. I will admit it is hard to not have all kind of numbers and stats thrown at me as I am so used to knowing everything that is going on in my body at least through the whole trying to get pregnant process...it is hard to be so hands off but I am trying to adjust. I really wanted her to measure me just so I could see how far along I was measuring as they say w/ twins you normally measure between 4-7 weeks ahead...see...I just want to know where I stand :-) LOL...I know I need to let go :-)...Easier said then done though. I did get some of my questions answered though which was great:

- I most likely will be taken out of work at or around 28 weeks (Oh darn, that just breaks my heart)

- I can try for a regular delivery and may not be forced into a c-section...wooohooo!!!!!! But that will just depend on how cooperative the babies are. If Baby A is head down and Baby B is breach but not bigger then Baby A we can have a vaginal delivery...but if Baby B is bigger or Baby A is breach then I am headed for a c-section. Which really I don't have any strong feelings about I just want healthy babies so if it means them being delivered by c-section so be it...it is just nice to know that I actually have a chance to have a regular delivery.

- My dr. will not let me go past 38 weeks so that means if I have not had any medical complications that make them induce labor prior to 38 weeks or if I don't go into labor on my own by then...I will be induced no later than 38 weeks. I always thought it was weird when people had scheduled induction dates because most of the time it seemed like it was for their convenience and not due to a medical reason. So I always said I was not going to do that but I guess in this scenario I don't get a choice...it is a whole new ball game w/ twins...however, I will count myself very blessed if I make it to 38 weeks and have to be induced. Making it to 38 weeks w/ twins is a victory :-)

- We have our Anatomy Scan scheduled for 17 Nov...that is just 2 weeks from today...I will be 19 weeks...and then we will be able to know exactly what we are having...I am so excited for that. We did some work on discussing names this weekend and I think we actually have some picked out that we will go with. Chad actually gave me his first choices which luckily enough match mine so you would think that would be it but he prefaced his decision w/ "for now my choice is"....ummm what exactly does that mean...and at what point are you going to finalize that decision....too funny...so hopefully he does not wait until delivery day to exercise his right to change his mind :-) LOL.

Hope all are well.

Hugs,
Gena, Chad, Twin A and Twin B :-)