Guest Post from Puck:

People keep asking if we know whether we are having boys or girls.  The ultrasounds have not told us anything yet but as an engineer I feel the need to provide an answer.

After careful observation, I can state:

• There is a 75% chance that we will have a boy.
• There is a 75% chance that we will have a girl.
• There is a 50% chance we will have both a boy and a girl.

This may seem weird at first glance but bear with me as I walk through the probability math.

What we know:

Like any scary math problem we should start with the information we know:

• There are two babies in there.  (We know because we checked.)
• Each child has a 50-50 chance of being a boy or a girl.

Possible Outcomes

That gives us 4 possible outcomes each equally probable:

• 25% – Twin A is a boy, Twin B is a boy (Upper left corner)
• 25% – Twin A is a boy, Twin B is a girl (Lower left corner)
• 25% – Twin A is a girl, Twin B is a boy (Upper right corner)
• 25% – Twin A is a girl, Twin B is a girl (Lower right corner)

Three cases includes a boy and three cases include a girl.

Conclusion:

Therefore:

• In 3 out of 4 cases (75%) we have a boy.
• In 3 out of 4 cases (75%) we have a girl.

Another interesting fact:

• Half the time the Twins are the same gender.
• Half the time the Twins are of different gender.

On Thursday, Feb. 18th, I headed to my Women’s Health Clinic for my scheduled appointment to do the gestational diabetes test as well as bloodwork for the prenatal screening program. I had told Puck there was no reason for him to come and sit with me for the hour. However, when I signed in at the lab, they told me they had no paperwork for me to do any tests and a call upstairs discovered that I actually had an appointment with the Clinic’s nurse practitioner. After a quick call to Puck to let him know of the change, I headed upstairs for the appointment and took a few moments in the waiting room to jot down questions and write a list of my recent symptoms (fatigue, light indigestion, some vertigo, shortness of breath).

During a brief exam I was squeezed and prodded and pronounced healthy. Then, the nurse practitioner gave me 2 options: she could listen and try to distinguish the two heartbeats or we could go get a quick ultrasound to see how the tykes were doing. I wavered briefly because I felt bad that Puck was not here to share in the new ultrasound but my desire to see the twins won out. She whisked me across the hall and in seconds our twins were up on the screen together. The amazing little duo were more active than I had seen them before with their arms waving and their legs kicking. It was quite a sight to see.

The Amazing Duo in their Secret Mom Cave.

The rest of the appointment was remarkably unimpressive after seeing my little pair, just paperwork and discussion. Then, I made sure my paperwork was in for my blood tests.

Gestational Diabetes Test

Today, I went back for my gestational diabetes test. I drank the small bottle of glucose water. It tasted a lot like a cold bottle of lemon-lime soda that had gone absolutely flat. They give you five minutes to down the drink, and then you have to wait for an hour – no sleeping, walking or exercise. Having skipped my mandatory afternoon nap, I found it difficult to keep my eyes open, and the sugary drink made me a little queasy. Still, I managed to stay awake and even get some grading done. I also met another mother doing the same test, and we talked about her 10-month-old daughter, her pediatrician, and her new baby. (I now have a local pediatrician to check out, and she had glowing things to say about our birthing center!)

What is the state of union at the moment?

All seems well. We’ve been cleared for marital activities, and many of my bizarre first trimester symptoms have gone away. Fatigue and a constantly recurring hunger appear to be my mainstays, but both can be managed (especially with the help of my husband and in-home chef). I’m looking forward to completing this final week of the first trimester and starting the second. Plus, Puck and I decided we just couldn’t wait that extra week to let everyone know we’re pregnant. (You know you want to go public when you find yourself telling random people who don’t really know you.)

We’re ready for the next phase of our adventure. Stay tuned next week for the baby ninja and the super-ultrasound, and if you haven’t seen Puck’s most recent post on his blog, take a peek: http://www.puckandmary.com/blog_puck/2010/02/pregnant-with-twins-embarazada-de-mellizos/

With each week, the belly gets a little larger:

Week 9

Here are a couple of additional photos from week 9:

The twins are making their presence known.

Starting to challenge the buttons on my pants.

Week 10

These photos came a bit late in week 10:

Almost ready for maternity clothes.

The Amazing Duo

Since fairly early in my pregnancy, I’ve had a few dreams that have stuck with me, though I should warn you that they are a bit bizarre and the last two were a bit stressful for me.

Dream 1: Baby Mountain

Baby Mountain

The first I remember is of a village next to a tall mountain. The local male priests lived at the top of the mountain and the “gods” regularly demanded a female “sacrifice” who was taken up the mountain. Sometimes, the gods would bestow blessed children who would walk as toddlers from the mouth of a cave at the bottom of the mountain, and they were honored in the village as children of the gods. (Yes, when I woke up I thought this sounded like an awfully convenient setup for the priests, and Puck pointed out that the children coming out of the cave sounded a lot like a birthing metaphor.)

Dream 2: Mom-zilla

Saving the Bride from Mom-zilla

In another dream I recall I was getting very angry with a woman who was bullying her daughter to do everything in her wedding the way the mother wanted. In the dream, the daughter was a friend, and I finally just lost it. I was red-faced and yelling at the mother to let her daughter have the wedding she wants. For those of you who know me well, you know that I rarely yell, and my anger actually made this dream a bit of a nightmare because I got so worked up that my face was flushed and my heart was pounding. In the dream, I thought, “I have to calm down or I might hurt my babies” and when I woke up shortly after that thought, my heart was pounding and I felt generally stressed.

(Now, I should note that this woman did not resemble my own mother and that I did not feel bullied by my mother when I was getting married nor do I feel bullied by her now. In fact, I’m very thankful to be able to call my mom (and dad, siblings and friends) to share my enthusiasm and to hear her advice. I find it even more beneficial because years ago my mom was an RN and worked for an Ob/Gyn which gives her a much broader perspective on the diverse experiences of pregnancy. My mom has been extremely supportive, and I must admit I look forward to calling her every time something new happens in the pregnancy. Plus, I enjoy her stories about her experiences having all four of her children.)

Dream 3: You’re Stealing My Food!

Mummy Pizza Delivers

Yesterday, I had another stressful dream/nightmare. It started with the doorbell ringing and a young woman starting her “selling” pitch. She had a tall, large fellow with her who had a large pizza box. Apparently, she was offering a slice of pepperoni to people so they would listen to her story. Unfortunately, even in the dream I found her story difficult to follow. She was a veteran of some type, and at one point she pulled a mummy out of the wheel well of her car (Don’t ask me how she got it in there or why.) to show me what she had seen during the war. Then, she wanted to set up a machine made of wood to show me how it worked. I opened the garage, and she set up the machine and started to explain.

At some point, I realized the guy had gone into the house, and when I followed him in, I discovered other young adults inside stealing things, and Shakti (our Great Dane) was interested in what everyone was doing but not at all concerned. What really got me riled was that they were stealing my food. I started shouting at them, “Do you know I am pregnant with twins? You are stealing food from my babies!!!” and as my voice took on an almost hysterical tone I yelled, “Do you know how much food I have to eat!!!”

Needless to say, I chased them out of my house and several of them looked a bit ashamed of themselves. After I had the house to myself again, I was shaking from anger and a little fear, and I locked the door and thought, “Ok, now I need to call Puck and the police.” That’s when I woke up to find my heart thumping away as if I had just chased thieves from my house, and I just felt stressed. I IMed Puck at work, and he said to go ahead and give him a call. After telling him about the dream, I felt much better.

A Few Thoughts

While I generally don’t feel stressed about my pregnancy, I must save up some of those feelings for my dreams. It is interesting that all three dreams have to do with issues of control (or lack of it). One of the miracles and frustrations of pregnancy is how little control you have over so many aspects of your own body and over the development of your little ones. You wait anxiously through the first trimester, especially if you’ve had an early miscarriage scare, spotting or other worrying symptoms, and you hope for the best.

Fortunately, there are a number of things you can control to give your body and the little ones what they need, such as sleep, diet, exercise, vitamins, regular visits to your Ob/Gyn, etc. However, even as it is empowering to be able to give up caffeine or take power naps, you also have to be careful not to blame yourself if something goes wrong with the pregnancy or if the baby is born with special challenges. You can’t play the “What if…” game with yourself: What if I hadn’t eaten that chocolate muffin in the seventh week? What if I had eaten more vegetables in the ninth week? What if I had exercised less/more?

What can I do? Well, I believe in staying as positive as possible about what I can’t control, researching my options, and doing all that I can in the aspects of the pregnancy that I can control. I am also very fortunate to have a husband who is actively engaged in this process. He researches, plans ahead, creates contingency plans, and reminds me to take care of myself and the twins. At the same time, he does everything he can to make this pregnancy a healthy and happy experience.

Now it is time for me to be off to bed. I wonder what I’ll dream tonight?

*Pictures courtesy of Puck!

Guest Post from Puck:

This week we hit week number 11 which puts us very close to finishing our 12 week sprint.

Wifewatch 2010

Food

Why does this saber tooth tiger look so sad?

Mary’s hunger pangs have calmed down and we’ve moved from large feast-meals into a sort of mellow all day grazing.  Lately she has been into oatmeal and cereal.  (I got her started on Total which is heavily fortified.)  She also got a good protein hit with a healthy meal of steak and eggs this weekend as well.

We did encounter a queasiness patch yesterday but I suspect this is more of an increased blood flow issue.  Because Mary’s total blood volume has increased and a good bit of that is spent running errands for the twins, when she stands up too quickly she can get dizzy which is what happened last night.  It wasn’t feinting or anything but a gross feeling and this symptom is entirely predictable based on what we are reading.

I got her a cold washcloth for her forehead and then read her the riot-act about standing up too quickly.  (The last thing we need is her to bonk her head feinting because she stood up too fast.)  According to one of the twin books we are reading, the late night trips to pee are particularly troublesome because a pregnant mom tends to be too sleepy to remember she should stand up slowly.

Like anything else, knowing what is going on and having a plan in place should help.  Afterwards we took a slow walk with the dog and the cool air cleared her head pretty well.  The next morning, she was very good about getting out of bed slowly.  (Of course, I also fuss at her about it which she tolerates with great magnanimity and dignity.)

Mood

She’s still pretty jumpy and her startle reflex is easily triggered.  Even sudden motion that she’s entirely aware of can get the surprise reaction.  I have to suspect that this and her super sense of smell provide her with an evolutionary advantage of some kind.

Here’s one scenario I can imagine:

A pregnant-lady at the dawn of time is happily skipping through a field of wildflowers when a saber-tooth tiger begins to stalk her as prey.  Immediately the pregnant lady can smell the tiger and she prepares a defensive strategy.

When the saber-tooth jumps out from hiding the pregnant lady shrieks and then violently vomits into the tiger’s face.  Highly offended and covered with up-chuck, the tiger decides that there are easier and less messy ways to get a meal.

The pregnant lady resumes skipping.

Sleep

Mary has started sleeping on her left side and experimenting with a multi-pillow sleeping solution.  Sleeping on the left side increases blood flow for the twins and as she gets bigger, sleeping on her back isn’t a good plan because it puts pressure on all sorts of things in unhappy ways.  With that in mind she’s doing a bit of early training to get ready.  Right now she is up to 5 pillows.

• 1-2 under her head
• 1 behind her back
• 1 between her legs
• 1 held between her arms

Think of it like the Winter Olympics except that instead of sports it involves pregnant women sleeping.   So far, that’s working pretty well.

Babies Countdown – The Double Header

• Thursday, February 18, is Twin Week number 11 and also the day of Mary’s appointment for blood tests.
• Thursday, February 25 and our 5 week sprint ends which gets us to 12 weeks.
• Friday, February 26 Mary will have an appointment with Dr. Hershey the Baby-Ninja.
• Wednesday, March 3 is Mary’s Birthday which gets us to the second trimester.  At this point, we unlock the veil of secrecy and get to tell everyone.  (Unless her tummy outs her earlier than that.)
• Thursday, May 7 and the twins become viable as early as 22 weeks.
• Thursday, May 20 and 90% of twins born at 24 weeks survive and that number only gets better from here on out.
• Thursday, August 12 and we hit our goal of 36 weeks minimum.  From here on the twins could come at any time.