Will is {hopefully} gonna be a BIG BROTHER!
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| {15 weeks-ish} |
And some more exciting news....he's going to be the big brother of TWO babies!
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| {this is an old picture and I'm not sure why he's naked... but I felt like it was appropriate here} |
And some MORE exciting news.....
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They're identical twin....GIRLS!
And now the sort of scary/crazy news. {what? you thought it couldn't get crazier?}
The reason I said that Will is "hopefully" going to be a big brother is that this is unfortunately a super high risk pregnancy. {which is why you haven't seen a big facebook announcement and why I waited awhile to post about everything} I've actually learned a LOT about twins in the past couple of months. And it turns out that identical twins are usually {99% of the time} formed when the embryo splits between 3-8 days after conception, meaning that each twin has its own amniotic sac. But in very rare and totally random cases, it splits AFTER 8 days, which is after the amniotic sac has already formed...so both babies are in the same sac together. And that's what our sweet babies did, which is also why we know they are identical! So we have what are called monochorionic/monoamniotic, or "momo" twins. Unfortunately, because there is nothing separating them, this puts them at a scary risk of getting tangled in each others cords and possibly then compressing the cords, which could cut off their blood and nutrient supply. Sadly, this could happen at any time in the pregnancy, and until they are developed enough to safely deliver if they go into distress, there's nothing the doctors or anyone can do. We pretty much just have to wait and pray that they will be OK in there. It's really tough because there is literally nothing that we can do to control the situation - it's completely in God's hands. And it's been unbelievably hard, but I'm beginning to feel better about letting go of my inner control freak and turning this over to Him.
Soooo...I am seeing a perinatologist {high risk pregnancy specialist} every 2 weeks, at which time we check to see if they are still ok. And if we make it to somewhere around 26 weeks, then they are considered viable outside the womb {hooray!!!}, meaning that if something happens at THAT point, we would deliver them immediately. {if something happens before that point, there's just nothing we can do, which is the scary part.} So the plan is pretty much to pray A LOT, and if {when!!} we make it to the 26ish week mark with healthy babies, then I would move into the hospital and be on hospital bedrest and monitoring, hopefully until 32 weeks, which is as far as the doctor will let me carry them. Apparently after that point, the risk of cord compression is just too high, so 32 weeks is our final goal, and would be SO awesome. {crazy, because that's still TWO months early!} But if something happens with their cords between 26-32 weeks, they would be delivered immediately...so when people ask my "due date," there is really no easy answer!
So as you can imagine, with double baby hormones, this journey has been a bit of roller coaster. We are trying sooo hard to stay positive and focus on enjoying this crazy pregnancy as much as we can. It hasn't been, and isn't going to be easy, but if we are lucky enough that God decides to give us these babies, it will be SOOO worth every minute! I am 16 weeks now, and we got to see the doctor again on Friday. Both babies looked great and are measuring slightly ahead of schedule. And although this can change in a heartbeat, when we were watching them, it appeared that there wasn't much, if any, cord entanglement on Friday. That's all we can hope for, and we will just continue to pray that these little girls can stay out of each others' way as much as possible and grow big and strong!! I'll be sharing updates on the blog as we go. Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support!
And to end with something happy...here's baby B on Friday, at 16 weeks:
{we didn't get a great shot of both babies on one screen...sorry baby A!!}
