This is actually my first pregnancy update....sorry it has taken me so long. Below is a picture of me at 30 weeks. Ella took it in our kitchen one morning before we headed out to school.
I will start right off the bat with the difficult stuff. At 18 weeks, Lyle and I found out that we were having two little girls. We were shocked to say the least. We had both expected them to be boys or at least a girl and a boy but never did two girls cross our minds. We also found out on the bittersweet day that Baby B was very sick. She was very small compared to her sister, had heart defects, and cysts in her brain. Our doctor believed it was a sign of Trisomy 18 but that was not confirmed until Dec. 26th when we got the final results back from our genetic testing. Prior to that we had a echocardiogram done on baby B and she had a VSD, possible ASD, pulmonary stenosis, possible left ventricular hypotrophy and another defect I am not quite sure of but dealt with the development of a possible third pulmonary artery that wasn't supposed to be there. Given all of these results, our doctors gave her a 50% chance of surviving to delivery and no survival after birth. The most we could expect if she did make it to delivery was maybe a couple of days. As you can imagine this news was heartbreaking, unbelievable and shook all of us to our core.
Here I am at 33 weeks.This twin thing is no joke! I can bet with 100% certainity that every part of my body was hurting when that picture was taken!
It has taken a lot of praying, patience and faith, but we are coming out of the fog which has filled our second trimester. We are starting to focus on the miracle of Baby A and getting ready for her arrival. She will be staying in our bedroom and we have called her space...the nook.
Ella and Luke picked out these two rabbits to give the babies as welcoming gifts. I thought they were so sweet.
In addition, they made some pretty artwork to go in her nook. Ella's is on top and says Welcome Home Love, Sissy! Luke's says I love you, Luke! I can not tell you how excited they are to meet these little girls. They of course know that Baby B will not be coming home with us but are still excited none the less and never ever forget to include her in our family.
Both babies are still alive and growing. Baby A is doing fantastic and growing perfectly. She constantly has the hiccups and her strength and quantity of kicks reminds me much of her older sister:) Baby B is also continuing to grow. Her growth has fallen about 3 weeks now behind her sister and she is about half her weight but continuing to thrive none the less. Lyle and I both feel she is her sister's guardian angel and is continuing to survive to give her sister the best chance at a full term arrival. Things could have gotten very difficult for Baby A if Baby B did not survive.
We are now playing the waiting game. My doctor says I could have the babies any day now. I am hoping to make it to 36 weeks and then would like for them to come quickly. I have a c section scheduled for April 8th at 38 weeks but that is just too far away!! We don't know exactly what to expect on delivery day but we are more than excited to welcome these two new faces to our family. They just have no idea how much love is waiting for them!
