Perinatalogist Appointment #3 - 21 weeks

This whole time I have been hoping that time would pass quickly to be closer to the end of this unpredictable journey. Now, I find that time is passing very quickly and I am NOT ready to be hospitalized yet! We are currently 3 weeks away from 24 weeks which I am sure will pass just as quickly as the last three!
The twins were doing well today. Today's twin A measured at 21 weeks and 0 days weighing 14 ounces and had a heart rate of 144. Today's twin B measured at 21 weeks and 2 days weighing 15 ounces and had a heart rate of 145. They are very close in size still which is wonderful. No twin to twin transfusion yet! Hopefully, that is one syndrome we can bypass.
The doctors also confirmed today that the "baby B" has only one kidney. In this type of pregnancy birth defects are very common mainly because the pregnancy it self is a defect. The development of a Monoamniotic pregnancy is the result of the egg splitting in two later than "normal" identical twins. "Normal" identical twins split between days 3-8 and Monoamniotic twins split between days 8-12. Any egg that splits after 12 days will be conjoined twins. So, as far as birth defects go, this one is something that we can live with. Lots of people live a normal life with one kidney. Last weekend a set of monoamniotic twins was delievered at the hospital and each of them have only one kidney. They are currently doing very well.
As far as my inpatient stay goes, we are going to try to make it to 26 weeks before going inpatient. As long as the cords are not too tangled and the blood flow in the babies looks good I may be able to stay home for a couple more weeks with periodic outpatient monitoring. This is something that we will not know until the time comes. The babies can be tangled up in a short period of time so we will go from here and take it one appointment at a time. My next appointment will be October 16 which is just over two weeks away. I hope that everyone is well and thanks again for all of your support! (oh yeah, I added a couple new pics!)

Perinatalogist Appointment # 2 - 18 weeks

Well, the little ladies were very active today and kinda camera shy! But, we did manage to get some essential photos to check up on their progress. They have doubled in size since our last appointment. Today the "baby A" weighed in at 8 ounces had a heart rate of 151 and measured at 18 weeks and 2 days. The "baby B" today weighed in at 9 ounces had a heart rate of 145 and measured at 18 weeks and 3 days. Three weeks ago they only weighed 4 ounces each.

The appointment lasted 3 hours again with about one and a half hours of that being the ultrasounds. The cords are twisted once but, not knotted yet. Everything looks pretty good so far. They measured lots of organs and tried to get some good shots of the heart but, it is still to early to get good enough pictures so we will be getting those next time. It is amazing what they look for in the ultrasounds. They even took pictures of the bottoms of their feet and they actually looked like little foot prints! We will be returning for another visit and more ultrasounds on September 30th. We are also planning to tour the hospital that day to see where I will be staying and the different things that go on there. Hope that all is well with everyone and enjoy the pictures!