Sigh of Relief

Everything looked great at today's appointment! I don't know why I was so nervous, but I was. Both babies are looking great and I'm in pretty good shape too. Here are the highlights.

• Each baby has its own placenta
• Both placentas are in a good spot.  Baby A is on my left side and the placenta is attached at the front.  I think this explains why it has been harder to hear the heart beat on the doppler because the sound has to go through the placenta.  Baby B is on my right side and the placenta is attached at the back.  Although Baby A is called Baby A because it looks like this will be the first baby out, they told me today it is close.  Looks like they're going to compete for the first trip through the birth canal.
• Blood flow through both placentas and cords looks good and both cords appear to be placed appropriately (in the main part of the placenta and going into the belly).
• Both babies weigh about 5 ounces right now and are measuring about 3 days ahead of schedule.  This is really good news for twins.  They like to see them grow at the same rate.
• Both babies had a heart rate of 150.  Normal is 120-160.  We watched one of the babies have the hiccups or some kind of rhythmic jerking while listening to the heart beat.  This is quite common because their nervous systems are just forming.  You could see the movement along with the spike in the sound from the disturbance.  Pretty cool.
• We saw two hands and two feet on each baby.  Too soon to count fingers and toes because they generally are all curled up at this point (although you'll see from below, we did get one shot of a spread out hand on Baby A).
• We saw a nice nasal bone (the nose) in both babies.
• We saw stomachs and bladders full of fluid.  This is a good sign that the babies are swallowing amniotic fluid (as they are supposed to) and it is making it through their whole digestive system.  We also saw two kidneys in each baby.
• Nuchal folds were both within normal range for this time frame (<5).
• My cervix is nice and long (I think over 6?).
• I have two fibroids (an extra has grown since January), but they are small and shouldn't interfere with the babies at all.
• My blood pressure is still very low at 112/56.
• No protein in my urine.
• My uterus is now above my belly button and I'm measuring at 21 weeks.
• My weight is up to 129.5, so I gained 8 pounds since my last appointment (about 3.5-4 weeks ago).  I'm psyched about this.  It seems like it took forever to start gaining weight.  I'm officially the heaviest I've ever been in my life and couldn't be happier!  (I know 130 doesn't sound like much, but I'm only 5'1").

They sent us home with a bunch of pictures (some of which are below) and a dvd!  We were able to play the dvd in our dvd player, but I can't get it to play on our Macs.  There goes my idea of trying to post the video.  Oh well.

We did agree to draw blood for the quad screen today (tests for risk of Trisomy 13, 18 and Downs) since it was recommended (no particular reason) and insurance apparently pays for it.  Results should be back in about a week.

Next appointment and U/S in 4 weeks.  All in all, we couldn't have asked for a better appointment.  I still don't know quite how to react when everything goes perfectly!  Other than the perma-grin attached to my face, of course.  Just not used to that.

Here are three pictures for your viewing pleasure.  The first shows both Baby A (right) and Baby B (left).  Baby A looks like a freaky skeleton in this picture.  The shot is taken like the camera is right above Baby A looking straight down.  Baby B looks a little more normal and is shown looking towards the camera.  You can see the nose, mouth and one of the eye sockets.

The second picture shows Baby A stretching out the left hand.  You can count four fingers and a thumb in this picture.

The third picture is a 3D/4D picture of Baby B, which is why it looks different than the others.  Cool, huh?  They look better as you get further along and they have more flesh on their bones.  We cracked up when we saw this picture because it really looks like Baby B is flipping us the bird!