Tuesday, June 28, 2011

20 Weeks

Today I am 20 weeks pregnant with the twins!


We had an appointment today with our doctor and an ultrasound with the perinatal specialist, Dr. Drake. It was a LONG day! We had our detailed ultrasound of the babies which took about an hour and a half. Then we were supposed to meet with Dr. Drake right after that but she had been called over to the hospital so was running about an hour behind. Our appointment with the OB, Dr. Polzin, was coming up so we went there first and then back to see Dr. Drake. I was glad I took a snack!

So at our last ultrasound with Dr. Polzin, they noticed a "white spot" on Baby B's heart. Dr. Polzin said it was nothing to worry about and don't Google it, which I promptly went home and did. It can apparently be a "soft" marker for Down Syndrome which was pretty scary. They also thought that Baby B had a two vessel cord instead of the normal three vessel cord. We didn't really know much about what this might mean. So with those two findings they sent us to see Dr. Drake, the "high risk" OB. Apparantly high risk OB, perinatologist, and maternal-fetal medicine specialist are synonymous (at least from what I'm gathering).

The appointment with Dr. Polzin was uneventful. It was a quick in and out. We asked a couple questions, he went over all our information again, and that was pretty much it. He was pleased with the information we took him from the ultrasound today and is going to follow whatever recommendations for follow-up Dr. Drake gives.

So onto our meeting with Dr. Drake. First I have to say she was amazing! She was so kind and down-to-earth and made us feel at ease. She said Baby B (the boy) DOES have a two vessel cord. Usually babies have a three vessel cord which has two arteries and one vein. In our baby's cord there is only one artery. A two vessel cord means the baby is more likely to have heart and kidney defects. The GREAT news is that Baby B's heart echo was normal and his kidney's looked normal! She said that usually she sees that the one artery compensates and becomes larger than normal and there usually aren't any problems. However we will continue to follow up with her so she can monitor him and watch for any problems such as delayed growth. The white spot was still there but Dr. Drake COMPLETELY reassured us that it was nothing to worry about. It's technical name is an echogenic focus. The spot is on a ventricle which is a normal finding. It is basically a collection of calcium in that location and will go away over time. She said if it were somewhere else in the heart it could possibly be a marker for Down Syndrome. So basically Baby B looks healthy! Praise God!

Baby A (the girl) looks healthy as well. Her cardiac echo was incomplete because she was being uncooperative and wanted to lay on her tummy. Though everything they did see looked normal. They will try to get the rest of the pictures they need for her at our next ultrasound in four weeks.

Today Baby A was 11 ounces and Baby B was 13 ounces. Baby A's heart rate was 150 and Baby B's heart rate was 136. They are looking quite adorable if I do say so myself! Though they were both mildly uncooperative at times - guess they are just getting us ready for when they are here!

According to Baby Center they are about 10 inches from head to feet which is the size of a banana! I can definitely feel them moving around but I can't wait for Jeremy to be able to feel it too!

So I think that's it about the babies. Hopefully all that medical information made sense and I got it correct.

Completely unrelated Jeremy and I are trying out E-Mealz which is a website that gives you five weekly recipes and a shopping list for everything you need to make all of them. It is $1.25 per week. This week we just used the sample menu with three recipes to try it out but I really think I'm going to like it. I HATE coming up with ideas for supper and I HATE making three trips to the grocery store to get everything I need because I can never seem to remember everything at once. This seems like a good solution. They also have low-fat, low-carb, gluten free and other specific dietary needs. Check it out! I have to give credit to Gerry Thomas for this website - thanks for posting on Facebook Gerry!

So here is the first meal we made yesterday: Parmesan Chicken, Roasted Veggies, and Loaded Baked Potatoes

It was delicious!

I hope you all are having a GREAT week! Oh, and we WILL reveal names soon if you haven't already heard them - we are just trying to make sure we are settled on them!

1 comment:

  1. So glad everything is looking good! Will keep praying for continued good health all around!

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