OB Appointment

The whole family went to my OB appointment yesterday because I was going to have an ultrasound. Since Jason missed the first one that knocked my socks off, he wanted to come see the babies.

Even though it's only been three weeks, the babies look totally different. No longer do they resemble lima beans. They are little babies which were moving all around to entertain the children. Jackson told me yesterday that the babies actually looked like turtles in the first set of ultrasound pictures from three weeks ago, but now they look like babies.

They measured the babies from crown to rump and both of them are measuring about a week bigger. I'm 12 weeks today, but yesterday they were measuring 12 w 6 days. I hope they continue down that path, for their sake, not mine.

We will have another ultrasound in about 6-8 weeks to find out the genders.

I cleaned...

I'm definitely feeling better... I actually cleaned the downstairs of my house. Jason has been doing this for the last couple of weeks, which has been really wonderful. Maybe I should have faked it for a few more weeks... hmm-hmm...

I wanted to clean the downstairs because Jason and the children are going to put up the Christmas tree tomorrow. Jason likes things to be in order and clean when he does stuff like that and considering I'm going Christmas shopping all day, it's the least I could do.

However, I will say that Christmas shopping is work too. However, since I will be alone, I will happily 'work' at shopping.

I might have turned a corner...

Today, I actually felt good all day... I might have turned a corner in this pregnancy thing...

Funny thing is that I just spoke with my good friend Amanda (who has ~4 month old twins) and she said that I should be feeling better in the next two weeks. I was looking forward to that, but today was a nice surprise.

I know with my other pregnancies, I felt better by 12 weeks, but I never felt as badly as I have felt this time around, so I didn't know when this was going to improve.

A Little Information...

Monozygotic Twins	Dizygotic Twins
Form when a single fertilized egg splits into two.	Form when two eggs are fertilized by two separate sperm.
Also called identical.	Also called fraternal.
Only one-third of all twins are identical.	Two-thirds of twins are fraternal.
Don't "run in families" except by coincidence. No hereditary influence for identical twinning has been identified.	Can be hereditary on the mother's side. The tendency to hyperovulate (release more than one egg in a cycle) is a genetic trait that can be passed from mother to daughter.
May have one shared placenta, two separate placentas, or two placentas fused into one. See examples.	May have two separate placentas or two placentas fused into one. See examples.
Share 100% of their genetic markers.	Share about 50% of their genetic markers, same as singleton siblings.
Are always same sex.	May be same sex or male/female.
Have the same blood type.	May have the same blood type or different.
Not caused by fertility treatments, birth control pills or maternal age. No one knows what causes identical twinning.	Can be attributed to fertility treatments, advanced maternal age, birth control pills or other factors that influence twinning.
May be contained in one sac in utero.	Develop separate sacs in utero.
Can result in conjoined twins or mirror image twins.	Not conjoined.
May be at risk for Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS)	Rarely at risk for TTTS.

Here is a chart to share some knowledge about the differences between identical and fraternal twins. It's really pretty cool that Jason is an identical twin and his father is a fraternal twin, but neither of those things has any bearing on us having twins.

Our twins are in two placentas, so statistically they have a greater chance of being fraternal, but they could be identical. If they are fraternal it means I released two eggs, (which has nothing to do with Jason or his genes) and if they are identical then that means the ovum split into two by a miracle. If that happened very early then there is a very small percentage chance that we have identical twins. Obviously, if we found out we were having a boy and a girl that would clear up that question.

So, just to kind of clear up any questions that you might have about twins take a look at the chart.

Seriously???

I wanted to post a picture for you, but it wouldn't scan on my dinky little scanner.

So, I guess this will have to do.

We're pregnant.

We're due the end of June.

We're excited!

And we're a little surprised...

We're having twins.

No, we were not on any fertility drugs.

I went to the doctor today for my first visit, 9 weeks, and they did a standard first ultrasound and found two 'lima beans'.

We're assuming the twins are fraternal because they are in two sacs, but there's no way to know 100% at this point. I know a lot of people think that because Jason is a twin that is the reason for this, but fraternal twins are when two eggs are dropped, which comes from the female. I just want to clear that up because it's day ONE of the news and we're already hearing some funny stuff.

However, it is very cool that Jason's dad is a fraternal twin, Jason is an identical twin and we're having twins. No matter how, that is awesome.

I was by myself at the appointment because we just got back from seeing Leigh Anne and Karl's newest baby in Charlotte and Jason had an appointment for work. I called him as soon as the doctor left the room.

So, now you know our business. Pray for us, and pray for our lima beans.