We're having...

a boy and a girl! We're ecstatic about the news and just sort of delirious in our excitement. In some ways it almost doesn't seem real. I think back to all those months (well years really) when I would go to Marcus crying asking if he thought we would ever have babies, and now we're having one of each.

Our ultrasound yesterday was one of the longest ultrasounds ever. We were there for over 2.5 hours and they were doing the ultrasound the entire time. They checked and measured everything on both babies, looked at their brains, hearts, kidneys, measured their leg and arm bones, and counted their fingers and toes. It took forever. For the most part everything is great.

The only concerning news is we found out our girl has a single artery umbilical cord which is a common cord defect which can cause some problems and can be a marker for some chromosomal abnormalities and other issues with the heart, kidneys, etc. It's most common in white women, more common in multiple pregnancies and more often seen in girls (how's that for lining up with the statistics). It can also cause low birth weight, restricted fetal growth, pre-term labor (which I'm already at risk for because it's twins) and other more horrible things that I don't want to write.

Right now the doctor was very optimistic. He said that he never guarantees parents healthy children but said it's a good sign that they were able to see all the parts they needed to see on our girl. She is smaller than her brother though. Our boy weighs 7 oz. and measured at 17w3d which is a few days ahead while our little girl was only 6 oz and measured at 16w1d a full week behind where she should be.

I'm trying to remain calm. The doctors are going to monitor her growth throughout this pregnancy and I trust that I'm in good hands and feel very comfortable with the specialist we saw yesterday. I should also add that in over half the cases with a single artery umbilical the babies are just fine, (although I put little stock in statistics because they mean nothing to the individual).

I also asked the doctor about the any possible complications related to the surgery I had to remove the septum. He told me that for the most part it shouldn't be an issue but that depends on how big the septum was. (I honestly couldn't remember) but he's good friends with my doctor who did the surgery so I think he'll check with her. If it was a certain size they'll recommend that I don't attempt a vaginal birth and just have a c-section (which there's a 50% chance of me needing anyways due twins) so that was a relief that the septum stuff for the most part is a non-issue.

One last piece we also found out that with the girl I have an anterior placenta which is kind of a bummer since it makes feeling fetal movement more difficult (but there's not really any extra risks with an anterior placenta). To date I haven't felt anything (the doctor asked) and now it might be even longer before I feel her move, although I wonder if I'll feel the boy soon, since his placenta is different. It's all so weird. Hopefully soon I'll feel something.

Now that we're done with the potential problems back to the happy news. They also measured my cervical length (which they will continue to do throughout the pregnancy as well). It was 3.7 cm and as the doctor put it was long and closed, good news. We also wanted to tell surprise our moms with the news about the sex of the babies (because I've had years to plan how I would share all of this kind of stuff).

We enlisted the help of my sister and Marcus' brother and ordered one pink flower and one blue flower. On the card I had the woman at the flower shop write, "Hi grandma I'm a boy and I'm a girl" Love, the S---- Babies. The lady at the flower shop was hysterical she was so excited to be assisting in this event and you would think she had some personal stake in all of it. It was fun and I'm glad we had willing siblings to help deliver the flowers so they could tell us the reaction of the moms. All in all it was a great day and we're just going to pray that our little girl grows big and strong and that her cord defect will be a non-issue. We go back in four weeks for another growth scan so hopefully she'll grow a lot in 4 weeks.

I had my MIL take a picture of the flowers for me (since I obviously didn't get to see what I was ordering). They turned out cute I think. I'll post pictures of the ultrasound once I have them scanned.