Posts Tagged ‘ultrasound’

What emergency trip to Labor & Delivery isn’t without it’s high points?

Like I mentioned in Tuesday’s post, Monday was poopy all around, but at least we got to check in on our little parties.

Let me yank out my wallet and show you the latest pictures of my twins and one of my ladykiller son to round out our clan.

As you can see, Leah is in a fighting position with her dukes up, while Mason is actually convinced you’re spying on him. Notice the pointing hand and suspicious eye.

And our little man? Well, he lives for messy. If only to stop, look at you and say “Messy.” Then he enjoys running away while you try and clean him up.

Here is where I apologize for informing you that my kids are at least 87,000% cuter than yours.

“Yeah, sorry bout that.” *scratches head, looks away*

• Definite sexes of each
• Weight
• Growth process
• Asses the risk levels for spina bifida & downs and any structural issues
• Location in the womb
• Overall health of the babies

Well, we got great answers on all fronts.

We are confirmed as having one boy and one girl. Right now Baby A is our daughter, Leah Anne, and she is 13oz. and currently beating the crap out of Baby B, our son Mason Robert, 11oz., who is currently getting his ass kicked by his older and slightly bigger sister.

Wanna’ meet em?

It looks like Leah is positioned behind Mason with his rear end right in the line of fire, and while watching the good hour long ultrasound we were treated to numerous bludgeons with feet and fists. If there was a way to monitor these kids live at, say a local watering hole, I am sure the humor would cause giggles and finger points all around the bar. I would then invent a drinking game that would require shots of expensive tequila for every head shot, cheap gin for every body shot, and perhaps a bottle of Cristal if a middle finger is raised. It would be legendary, expensive and unnecessary. Much like most of the large parties I have thrown for birthdays or bachelor party festivities (curious? there was lunch meat sliced for the explicit use of throwing it on the entertainment).

I remember slight movements when our son was in the womb, but never a full on ass kicking. This was insane.

My daughter seems to have her brother right where she wants him, and I’m pretty sure I will be unable to resist her charms by the time she pops out to meet us. I have no problem being a complete push over, and yes, she will have a pony.

So everything looks great. The placenta position has improved, the cervix length is better than great, there are no visible complications with growth or structural issues, nada. We are thankful, lucky and not taking anything for granted at this point.

My next goal is figuring out how to make my wife’s job less stressful, and I’m pretty sure the only way to do that is to go bitch slap some butch bitches or convince her it’s time to start bed rest early.

Two weeks ago we traveled to the high risk OB’s office to check on Julie’s cervix length to determine if these extremely early contractions were somehow harming her, the babies or shrinking her cervix somehow. Last time she had the cervical scan, it “looked good for 16 weeks” but there wasnt a truly defined cervix to really measure, but there also wasn’t anything to be concerned about when looking at it.

This time, the scan was more specific because the cervix had developed more since two weeks prior. I’m not 100% sure what the number was, centimeters or “clicks” or what, but she measured at “46.” If you know what that means, please, let me know. Of course, having the technician say “Now THAT is a beautiful cervix,” is good enough for us.

And for the record, I am thankful, once again, for the testicles I was given, because if someone told me to shove this inside of me I would vomit.

Look at this WAAAAND!

Of course the blue goo is perfectly coiled like a squirt of caramel isn’t it?

"Would you like to guide it in?" "No!"

For the record, I would not like to guide it in.

fin.

On Thursday, wifey, myself and “the unborn duo” headed to Delnor Hospital’s SAFEKEEPING High Risk OB. We met them during our last pregnancy after a scare with Julie and some bleeding around 24 weeks where the ER doctors determined her to be classified as high risk just to be on the safe side.

The first few times we visited we were extremely impressed with the staff, and over the course of the final trimester we enjoyed our time there, getting to hear our lil dude and see him on a reglar basis.

Costly? Yes. But who cares about money when you’re looking your unborn kiddo in the face and saying what up long before many other people get the chance to.

Of course, having twins puts her in the high risk category but we were told because the first one was high risk, the second one is most likely high risk as well, so we are doubly high risk this time around.

The goal for this visit was to get the NT test taken care of. The Nuchal Scan is done with ultrasound to screen for higher risks of Down syndrome. Because our last pregnancy only included one ultrasound at 20 weeks to determine the sex, we hadn’t experienced the test first hand, and this time we got to see it done twice.

The ultrasound technician, who was a ninja-ess in our opinion, was quick to point out the 4 arms, 4 legs, 20 toes, 20 fingers, 2 heads, 2 torsos, 2 stomachs, 2 healthy beating hearts, 2 bladders, 2 nasal cavites, and then we got to the ‘nuchal translucency’ party.

She zoomed in on each neck and measured the amount of fluid behind the necks of the twins. Both measurements were the same and in the safe category, so for now, things are looking good!

We’ve learned that our twins each have their own placenta, one anterior and one posterior and fused together in the middle. We were also able to see that the subchorionic hematoma and any and all cysts have disappeared.

Well, what else can we look at in there?
Surely we can’t find out the sex at this stage can we?

“I’ve had great luck the past few years with determining the sexes at this age, let’s give it a shot.”

The ninja ultrasound technician then started snooping around the pelvic areas of each sack and informed us that with practice she is able to pretty accurately determine the sexes based on the angle of the pelvic bone or something to that effect.

She then introduced us to our daughter, Baby A, Leah (spelling to be determined later) and our son, Baby B, let’s call him SuperDuperSquishyFace for now because we are in the midst of a battle for supremacy as far as boys names are concerned.

We’re having a matching set.

Salt & Pepper
Bread & Butter
Brandon & Brenda Walsh
Milli & Vanilli
Cream & Sugar
Venus & Mars
Awesomina & Awesoman

I could go on for pages, and I just might!

We have a permanent grin on our faces. We cannot wait to meet the pair.

We had our first appointment with our new OB group on Wednesday, July 29th @ Focus On Women in St. Charles, IL.

We had no expectations but to hear the heartbeats of our babies for the first time. The last time we were in a position to hear them, they were looking for one heartbeat and found three (a, b & julie – not triplets), so the sound was forgotten in order to celebrate the multiple factor.

Our first impressions were all awesome. Nice office, nice people, awesome Doctor and a huge favor that we won’t forget.

As the MA was poking around with the doppler, we found one heartbeat at 160 bpm but couldn’t find another one. She apologized and left the room saying the doctor would be in shortly. Now, there is nothing like hearing your child’s heartbeat for the first time, and there’s nothing like finding out you’re having twins, but when someone says they cant find the heartbeat of one of your babies, no matter how tough and strong you are, you start to freak out a little bit.

We’ve read about “disappearing twins” and about the mothers who birth one live and one stillborn baby, but we haven’t actually put any of that into our stockpile of preparation ammunition by ANY means. After a few minutes of silence the doctor enters the room and sees Jules crying and me fighting back tears unsuccessfully. She asked what was wrong and we explained without actually explaining so as to keep those words unspoken.

With a quick tilt of the head and a smile the doctor says “Do you want to go see them? I have an ultrasound down the hall. Come on, let’s take a walk.”

A few deep breaths and a squirt of some cold ultrasound lube later we were looking at our two babies. The heartbeat on the right side twin was clear as day, the left side, not so much. Just as we were about to look at each other the left one JUMPED and twisted like a microscopic version of our son. We were overjoyed, again.

I pulled out my cell phone and asked if I could take a picture to which the doctor scoffed and said “I can print you a picture.”

So I have the first picture of our two lil’ ninjas.

The first public viewing inside wifey's incubator. Aren't they cute!

Most people would have no idea what they hell they were looking at, but our son was considered high risk so I have improved my ultrasound viewing capabilities considerably since the first time I witnessed one. If you don’t know, up top, exact middle is one and to the left of that is two. They are both playing Playstation 3 in this picture like their daddy does when all the kids and wife are asleep.

START EM YOUNG!

Needless to say, we’re not as freaked out knowing that they’re still kicking a ton of ass, but we’re not to 12 weeks yet.

This is the part of my life where I hold up encouraging signs for my wife like I’m at a ballgame saying things like:

DRINK THAT WATER!

EAT THAT PROTEIN!

SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP!

I will take care of everything else, you just take care of you three.