Twins!

Here's the latest picture of our youngest kiddos.

At our first ultrasound, our ob/gyn only saw one baby.

At our second ultrasound, a couple of weeks later, another baby popped onto the screen. What excitement! We were expecting twins. However, it appeared that both twins were in the same aminiotic sac. Apparently, this happens in a small % of twin pregnancies. It's referred to as "mono/mono" or "momo"... and it's very dangerous for the babies. I read that there is a 50% mortality rate for momo's (although our ultrasound specialist said it was 60-80%!). Also, successful momo pregnancies usually end with bed rest from 24 weeks or so (when the babies become viable) until birth.

Our ob/gyn referred us to an ultrasound specialist, but we had to wait for about a week and a half before we could get it. This was a little bit of an anxious week - we were ecstatic at the thought of twins, but concerned they they might be "mono/mono" and might not make it. We reminded ourselves that God is in control.

About a week ago, we had the ultrasound at St. John's The Perinatal Center(*). The ultrasound tech took several pictures and measurements of our babies. It was so cute - they looked like they were playing patty-cake at one point (communicating in secret twin sign language, maybe?). Another time, Baby A had her head on Baby B's belly. I'm saying "her" because that's just my guess; we should know the sex for real in a couple of weeks. But the tech couldn't see a membrane between the babies - they looked momo to her.

Then the specialist doctor came in and took a look. Praise the Lord - he found a membrane between the babies! So we are very thankful for that.

This wikipedia article describes the different kinds of twins pretty well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin "Fraternal" twins always have separate placentas and amniotic sacs.

"Identical" twins can have separate placentas and amniotic sacs. (This is "di/di", the safest). Or they can share a placenta and have separate amniotic sacs (mono/di, this is most common for identical twins, and is what ours are.) Or they can share both placenta and amniotic sac (mono/mono, the most dangerous).

The specialist told us about the greatest danger to our mono/di twins - something called twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin-to-twin_transfusion_syndrome). He said this occurs in about 20% of mono/di twins. So far, our two look completely fine, no evidence of this disorder. Please pray that they will continue to grow and develop healthily.






(*) the sign in the perinatal center says "The Perinatal Center", so I figured I should leave the "The" in there.