3D Ultrasound

On Thursday, Tony and I went and had a 3D Ultrasound done so we could get a preview of Emma and Logan. It was really an amazing experience.

Here is our precious litte girl -

Here is our handsome little man -

Here's a few more shots of each of them:

http://s499.photobucket.com/albums/rr360/jcortez2157/?albumview=grid

Baby Shower # 2!

Last Saturday we had our second baby shower. This one was was hosted by Jami Litton. I want to thank Jami for an awesome shower! Also, thank you to Mrs. Shotwell and Mrs. Litton for your help and also Sarah for having the shower at your house. I know you're probably tired of seeing me for a while :)

The shower was wonderful - once again, everyone was so generous and we REALLY appreciate all of the fabulous gifts. We received lots of adorable outfits and pajamas for both Logan and Emma, several handmade blankets, two bouncy seats, two bath robes, diapers and wipes, some other really cute things and gift cards from out-of-state family (those will certainly come in handy!).

Thank you so much for everyone that came to the shower and to all of you that helped make it a success!

Pictures - Coming Soon!

28 Week Doctor's Appointment

We had our 28 week Doctor's appointment this past Tuesday and everything is looking great. We had another full anatomy scan ultrasound and both babies are growing nicely - Emma is now 2 lbs 14oz and Logan is 3lbs 1oz. They're within 5% of each other's weight which is perfect! The only bummer is that Emma is still not cooperating with Mama and is still breach. There's still a possibility that she will turn, but we're running out of time and room. I'm trying to prepare myself for a C-section because I think that's going to be the most likely outcome.

I will start going in now every two weeks, so our next appointment will be on May 7th. This appointment will be with one of the other doctor's in the practice. (We still have 3 doctors left to meet). The plan for this appointment will be to "check" me and also to do a test called a FFN (Fetal Fibronectin). A negative result on the FFN test means it's highly unlikely that I would go into labor within the next two weeks. They use this test for women that are considered high risk, but have not shown any typical signs of pre-term labor. A positive result does not mean that you'll definitely deliver within two weeks, but it does tell you that you're at risk for pre-term labor and allow the doctor to make decisions on how to proceed with treatment. Hoping for a negtive result and a little peace of mind!

We have scheduled our 3D/4D ultrasound appointment for this Thursday! I'm SO excited to get a sneak preview of our little babies :) Hopefully they'll cooperate and we'll get some cute pictures to share with everyone!

Our First Baby Shower!

We had our first Baby Shower last Sunday (April 19th). I would like to thank Sarah and Fred for hosting the baby shower!! It was a Co-Ed shower and the guests were all people that work with Tony. Sarah had everyone bring a package of diapers, so we got a great head start on our diaper supply. We had a really great turnout and are so thankful to everyone for all the generous and thoughtful gifts!

Here are a few pictures taken at the shower:

To see the rest of the pictures from the shower, click here: http://gallery.me.com/derfberg#100048&view=mosaic&bgcolor=black&sel=0

Thank you Fred for all the great photos! And Thank You again, Sarah, for the awesome shower!

New Hairdo & Belly Pic

I finally got my hair cut and highlighted last Thursday. It had been way too long! Here's a picture of my new 'do:

I have now began my 7th month of pregnancy! Since I'll be induced if I haven't delivered by about 8 1/2 months, that means I have less than 2 1/2 months to go. WOW! I am still feeling great. My biggest difficulty is sleeping at night. I've had a hard time with that my whole pregnancy, but now I'm definitely at the stage where I'm having trouble getting comfortable. I am having a lot of lower back pain too when I sleep, so I've started to wedge pillows around me to help alleviate that.

I've also been experiencing a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions, but that is normal for me at this point. The nurse said that as long as they don't start forming a pattern, then I shouldn't worry. I go in for my 28 week appointment this Tuesday April 21st. I'll be very relieved to see the babies again and know that everything is okay. 4 weeks between appointments seems like forever! After this appointment, I should start going in every 2 weeks, so that will be good.

It's amazing how much I'm growing from week to week. According to what I've read, the babies should be about 2 1/2 lbs now, so that's 5lbs of baby in there already! We'll get to confirm their weights on Tuesday. Here is my latest belly picture:

Baby Names

Drumroll please.......... Well, that's probably not necessary since most of you already know the names! :)

For those of you that don't know yet, the babies' names will be:
Emmalee Grace and Logan Vincent

We made our decision within a few days of finding out that we were in fact having a boy and a girl. We have actually had our little girl's name picked out since before we even started "trying" to get pregnant. We're SO thankful to be having a little girl - because with two boys, one of them would have really been picked on with the name Emma!

We did have several recommendations and suggestions for "twin" names and my all time favorite has got to be "Fannie Mae" and "Freddie Mac" - thanks to Joyce for coming up with that one! For those of you not in Real Estate, you might not quite appreciate the humor in that as much as we did :)

We are really getting excited for the arrival of our precious little ones. As my belly grows, so does the anticipation! I think reality is really starting to set in for both of us. We're hoping to focus on the nursery over the next couple of weeks and get that finished. I'll post pictures as we get it put together.

25 Week Update & New Belly Pics

I am now 25 weeks pregnant - less than 13 weeks before I'll get to meet these two little ones. I cannot believe how fast time has gone by. I have really enjoyed the past couple of weeks because I have been able to feel the babies moving around SO much. It's really an amazing feeling. Most of the time I'll feel one of them moving around at a time, but there's been a few times where they both get to going and it's like fireworks going off in my belly! My favorite thing is to be able to sit and watch my belly and actually "see" them kicking me. Sometimes I'll see the actual kick, sometimes just quivering, but it's such an awesome sight!

We got good news back from the Doctor on Monday - I did "pass" my glucose test, so I do not have Gestational Diabetes, which was such a relief! Bring on those carbs!! :) They did say my iron level was a tad bit low, so I have to take an iron supplement each day. Nothing to worry about though, it was just slightly below the normal level.

Now for those of you out there wondering what a twin belly looks like at 25 weeks, here's a few pictures for you :)

24 Week Doctor's Appointment

We had our 24 week Doctor's appointment, Ultrasound and Gestational Diabetes test on Thursday. According to the Ultrasound, the babies are looking great - they're getting so big! Our little girl is now 1lb 13oz and little guy is 1lb 15oz. Unfortunately Little Girl is NOT cooperating as of yet and is still breach. Since she'll be the first one out, it's a guaranteed C-Section for me if she does not turn head down. She still has time and room to turn, so let's hope she does so soon!

I met with one of the other Doctors in the practice at this appointment. They have us meet all the Doctors at some point, so in case my Doctor is not available when I deliver, I won't have a stranger delivering the babies. She listened to the heartbeats and measured me. I'm currently measuring 33 weeks - WOW! For those of you not familiar with what that means - they measure your uterus from the outside and that corresponds with how far along you are. So basically, I am the size of someone having one baby at 33 weeks. That's how much room that extra little one is taking up! What this means for me though is that my body actually thinks I'm about 33 weeks pregnant, which is why it's so common for women having twins to go into pre-term labor.

My next doctor's appointment will be at 28 weeks - scheduled for April 21st. After that, I will go in every two weeks and they will start monitoring me very closely to determine if I'm showing any signs of pre-term labor and need to either cut back at work or go on bedrest. She said bed rest is very common for twin moms. Let's hope things go well and I can continue "business as usual" for a while longer!

I will work on getting some of the Ultrasound pictures scanned and posted for everyone to see. Also, no word yet on the Gestational Diabetes test - hopefully I will hear something on Monday! Praying for good news!

23 Week Picture

Here's a new picture of me and the twins at 23 weeks!

As you can tell, my belly is growing and growing :) But that means the babies are too, so that's good! The questions when out in public have now started - like "When are you due?" - when I answer June, they kind of look at me funny - like WOW! You're huge if you're not due until June - at least that's what it seems like to me. Or even better "You don't have too much longer do you?" and then I answer "Three more months!" - again with puzzled looks. But when I tell them I'm having twins, I get the "Ohhhhh!" response. It's actually quite comical. Definitely an "ice breaker" when you tell someone you're having twins.

The babies are both moving around like crazy! Our little guy was wide awake this morning at 4AM doing what I can only imagine are his karate moves - and his sister did the same thing the night before! I think they're taking turns at getting momma ready for the sleepless nights!

Our next Doctor's appointment is coming up on Thursday. They'll do another full anatomy Ultrasound to check the babies' growth and development and I'll also have my Gestational Diabetes test. I hope all goes well!

Babies are on the Move!

I've been feeling the babies move around for several weeks now. I would say I felt the earliest movements around 16 weeks or so, but at the time, I wasn't 100% sure that's what I was feeling - since it was so light. Now, I can definitely feel them both kicking and it's strong enough now for me to sometimes even see from the outside.

The most exciting news of the week though is that Tony was able to feel both babies kick on Wednesday. It seemed for a while now that they only kicked during the day when I was at work. Luckily on Wednesday when I was sitting on the couch, I felt our little girl kick and said "come here, come here, come here" - he was able to catch her in the act! Later that evening, the little guy started kicking while we were watching TV and Tony was able to feel that too.

Michael and Thomas haven't been able to feel them kick yet - and I think it's about to drive Michael crazy, but I have a feeling it will happen soon. They're more and more active all the time. The little guy is kicking up a storm while I type!

I'm officially 5 months pregnant this week and I cannot believe how much time has passed since I first found out! Only 3 - 3 1/2 months left until we can meet our little ones - I can't wait!

Nursery

We have officially "started" on the nursey - Tony and his best friend Darren put the two cribs together yesterday. They started to put togther the changing table and there was no hardware included in the box - bummer! So Tony had to go by the store we bought it at to get the hardware for it. We still have some more furniture to buy - at least one dresser (maybe 2) and possibly a closet style armoire of some sort, since we do not have a closet in the room. Still deciding exactly what we want/need to finish it out.

We have decided on the bedding for the cribs. Instead of going gender neutral on both, we decided to do pink/brown for one crib and blue/brown for the other - both in the same patterns. Here's what the bedding will look like (the crib and other furniture is/will be white):

20 Week Doctor's Appointment

We had our 20 week Doctor's appointment on Wednesday. They did a quick Ultrasound to check on the babies' hearts (since they were not quite developed enough at 16 weeks to get all the measurements they needed) and the babies' feet - since they were so low last time we couldn't see them :) Everything looked great! I even had the Ultrasound tech double check to make sure Baby A was a girl! Didn't want any suprises!! All is well - Baby A is still a girl and Baby B is definitely a boy. Our little boy has decided to flip and is currenlty in a head down position which is great. Little girl is still breach, but the doctor assured us that there is still plenty of time for her to turn. If she's not head down at the time of delivery, it will be a definite C-section.

After the Ultrasound, we met briefly with the doctor. She informed us that at my next appointment at 24 weeks, they will do another full anatomy ultrasound and I'll do my glucose test. We'll also get to meet with one of the other doctors in the practice. There are four different doctors and over the next few months, I will have at least one appointment with each of them, so in case my Doctor is not available when I go into labor, I will have already met the on-call doctor.
After the appointment, Tony and I had lunch at Olive Garden and then spent the rest of the afternoon registering for baby stuff! We had a wonderful day together!!

19 Week Belly Pics

Well, here are my 19 week pics:

According to my daily e-mail updates from "What to Expect", the babies are now approximately 10 ounces each and about 6 1/2 inches long (crown to rump) - it compares their size to a small canteloupe :) I love how all the pregnancy books compare babies' sizes to fruits and vegetables!

Our next ultrasound and doctor's appointment is next Wednesday, so I'm praying that everything is still going great!

4 Months Pregnant

According to all the books and calcualations, I am officially 4 months pregnant now. Tomorrow is the beginning of my 5th month. Wow, the time sure has flown by. I remember wondering when I was going to "feel" and "look" pregnant. I definitely do now!! I can occasionally feel both babies moving around and I have definitely "popped" over the past week.

The 2nd trimester has been a nice change for me. I feel really good most days - the nausea is gone, my headaches have pretty much gone away and my difficulty sleeping has gotten a lot better.

We have started some shopping in preparation for the babies - we have both cribs and mattresses (thanks to my Mother In Law!), Changing Table, Double Stroller and Car Seats. Our next big task is to decide on the babies' bedding.

It's a Boy AND It's a Girl!!

Here are the Ultrasound pics from our last appointment:

It's a Boy:

It's a Girl:

Our Ultrasound and Doctor's appointment was last Thursday, January 29th. We knew there was a "slight" chance that we might be able to find out the sex of the babies. As she was taking measurements of Baby A, I could tell Tony was getting a little anxious. He said several times "I guess it's just to early to tell, huh?" and she would respond with "I don't know, I haven't gotten there yet." She was very methodical and went through and pointed out every little thing to us. Once she was done with all her measurements, she was able to get a pretty good shot of Baby A and said that it's a girl! Yay! She then went through the same process with Baby B and as you can tell by the picture, It's a Boy! :) So at 16 1/2 weeks, we were able to find out the news we were hoping for - we're having a litle girl and a little boy - how perfect!

After the ultrasound, we met with my doctor briefly and she said that based on the preliminary report, everything looked great. They were able to do the full anatomy scan on everything except their hearts because it was still a little too early for that. So, at our next ultrasound, all they'll do is get the measurments and pictures of their little hearts and make sure all is well. Our next appointment is February 25th.

Here are a couple more ultrasound pictures. The first one is of our little girl giving us the "thumbs up" - too cute! The next two are profile pictures of each of the them. They were both breach (head's up) and facing my back instead of my stomach. There's still plenty of time and room for them to move around and get into the proper positions - they'll monitor that more closely as I get into the 3rd trimester.