The Growing Belly

Laurie at 3 months. Most women with their first pregnancy don't start showing for a few more months, but Laurie is already wearing maternity pants.

Laurie at 4 months.

Laurie at 5 months. The background is our vegtable garden/jungle.

Laurie at 6 months. Notice how she is starting to look more and more tired. She is small for twins, but the girls are big for any average baby. They just sit farther back. At 25 weeks her belly was the size of someone 32 weeks along.

Laurie's belly seems to be growing faster and faster these last few weeks. Stay tuned for next months photo.

Fayetteville 2005

For those of you who wanted to see Laurie actually hold a gun, here is the proof that she not only held one, but shot one as well.

Ultrasound Scrapbook Page

Ultra Sound photos of the girls from 6 days old until 24 weeks.

Ultra sound pictures of the girls at 24 weeks

Baby A at 24 weeks. Both of her hands are next to her face.

Baby A at 24 weeks looking straight at the camera. Her chin is on the left side of the picture.

Baby B at 24 weeks. The tech can only get profile shots of her because she is still rolled in that tight little ball.

July 23, 2009

I had another ultra sound taken of the girls today. The girls are both very healthy and tall. The ultra sound tech made a comment about how long the arms are already. They are taking after their daddy. Most twins end up being smaller then normal, but not these girls, they are big for twins (weight wise). The tech said not to buy too many preemie outfits, because unless these girls come early, they are going to be average size. Which means my belly is getting bigger and bigger. Joe and I went out for dinner the other night to celebrate my birthday. Near the end of the night I was rubbing my belly trying to make room for more food when the waitress came over and asked me if I was getting ready to go into labor. I guess she was worried I would make a mess in her section having a baby. I just had to laugh and say, I sure hope not since I still have 3 months left. She had a surprised look at that. I do have the constant feeling that I am going to pop.

Baby A was as active as usual. I still can only feel them when they actually move the surface of my belly which is a little unusual but probably a good thing because Baby A is all over the place. During the ultra sound she kicked Baby B many times. She was looking right at the camera again, I posted a face shot of her. We got to watch her opening and closing her mouth. She also had the hiccups.

Baby B was rolled in that tight little ball again. It is probably in self preservation what with Baby A kicking her all the time. It is hard to get any good photos besides profiles since she never seems to unravel from that tight ball. One would think she would want to stretch out more since she has the longer legs and is slightly bigger.

They are both very close in weight. The tech cannot measure the size anymore. Baby A is 1 lb 10 oz. Baby B is 1 lb 13 oz.

Married for 5 years

We were married June 4th 2004. I know I am a little late in posting the picture for our anniversary. We have done much and seen much in 5 years, always growing closer together.

Growth and Personalities of the Twins

Baby B at 20 weeks rolled up in a tight ball.

Baby A at 20 weeks looking right at the camera.

By now most of you have already heard our great news. We felt one of the babies kick for the first time this week!! I felt her on Thursday (June 25th) , and Joe felt her when he got home from school on Friday(June 26th). We are both very excited. We only felt the one that is closer to the surface (Baby B), the one farther back I think I feel every once in a while, but it could be gas :) I now feel her kick all the time. It might be a good thing that I can't really feel Baby A yet since she is the one that usually is bouncing all over the place when the ultra sound tech is trying to take pictures. She is our little tigger. We had the ultra sound on Thursday when I was 20 weeks and 5 days. The ultra sound showed they held up great for our long 3 week road trip. They even doubled in weight. The tech said they are too big at this point to tell me how long they are, but she can tell me their weight. One is 15 ounces and the other is 16, so they are very close in weight. She also said they are big for twins which means they are getting plenty of nutrients from me which might be why I am so tired all of the time. Now, even though they are big for twins, I am small for twins. I think that has something to do with the surgery I had when they went in to clean up the endometreosis, she rearranged my insides so that I would carry well, so I think the babies sit farther back in me then most women. I think they were both worn out from the trip since neither one of them moved much. I expected that from Baby B since she is the one that usually does not cooperate for the ultra sound tech, but Baby A is usually all over the place. Which is strange since it is Baby B that I feel kicking all the time now. For the pictures, Baby B for the most part was rolled up in a tight ball and she would not budge, the tech could not get much info out of her this time. I see the tech every 4 weeks, so she was not concerned about getting everything this time. She was able to see fingers, toes, hands, feet, and get the heartbeat though. Baby A was looking directly up at us for the most part. I have one picture of her looking at us, but we really wished the tech took a picture of the face shot we saw. The whole screen was the babies face and you could really make out the eyes, nose, mouth and chin. We were trying hard to see if she had Joe's chin :) On Tuesday I will be 5 months along which means I only have 3-3 1/2 months left since they won't let me go past 38 weeks and twins usually come around 36. We still have so much to do to get ready for them.

Baby B 16 weeks. Its a Girl.

Baby A 16 weeks, it's a girl. I am sure they will love to know one day that I posted these very private pictures of them for all the world to see.

Baby A 16 weeks. Facial shot. We were trying to determine if we can tell if she has Joe's chin.

Baby B Profile at 16 weeks

Baby A Profile at 16 weeks

As you can see they are both getting bigger and bigger. They are now 16 weeks and 5 days. The tech said they are both girls, I even posted the pictures to prove it :) It was so cute, baby A had the hiccups. We got to see her body jerk each time she hiccuped. Again, Baby A was more active then Baby B. Baby B just wanted to be left alone while Baby A wanted to make her presence known. They don't look too much like alien babies anymore, they are starting to take shape and look human. I posted a close up of the profile of Baby A's head. The facial features are really starting to take shape. They are both about 7-8 inches long and weigh about 7.5 - 8 ounces each. I still can't feel them. Most women can feel them between 14 to 20 weeks. I am really starting to show now. I have only gained about 13 pounds though, so it is all baby.

Here they are at 14 weeks and 3 days. As you can see they are slowly getting bigger and getting more shape to them. The top picture is of baby A facing the camera and the bottom is Baby B's profile.

Baby B at 12 weeks.

Baby A at 12 weeks.

April 30th, 2009. We had another ultra sound again today. Joe was able to make this one. They would not let us video record it unfortunately. This ultra sound took about an hour. She was looking for specific things. She was measuring the back of the neck (to determine if there is a chance for downs), the heart rate, how long the babies are, and if they had all their fingers and toes. It took so long because neither baby wanted to cooperate. The baby on the right was kicking its body like it was jumping up and down, and it kept arching its back (as you can see in one of the photos I sent, the bottom picture) It is hard to measure a bouncing tigger ;) I don't know if she was ever able to count the fingers since it had its fingers clasped together some of the time and the rest it was moving its arm back and forth waving (taunting) then closing its hand to make a fist at the last second. The baby on the left was still sleepy. (The top picture) It wanted to curl in and present its back side. She had me lift my hips and do a little belly dance to get the baby to wake up. I don't think it liked to be woken up. It already has Joe's cheerful disposition upon waking up. It turned on its side so the tech could get one photo, then turned back to its original position. I had to do the shakes again. All the while the other baby was bouncing around. You could see its head bob up and down on the side of the screen.We got to hear their hearts beat for the first time, they sounded normal. She said that it looks like all the tests are normal they are just waiting for blood work (my blood work- I would not have done an invasive test) to come back to check hormone levels and such, but she said everything looks great by what she saw. We have another ultra sound set for the end of May which will be able to tell us more. A little about the pictures.She was only able to get one angle with both the babies in the same picture, it happened to be of the top of their heads. So that is the picture with the two circles in it.The other two pictures are the individual shots, the baby on the rt with the arched back, and the one on the left wanting to be left alone. They are being labled as Baby A and B. Baby A is on the right and in the back, while Baby B is on the left and in the front. They are both about the same size. About 2 1/2 inches.

April 16th 2009 I was given the opportunity to see our babies again today. We were not expecting to see them today so Joe did not come, but he will be there for the next one. They are only a little over an inch long, but look like little babies already. Their legs and arms were pumping like mad. It was the cutest thing! I hope that does not mean that in a few months they will be kicking and punching each other. That might hurt my insides :) They are right next to each other, only a thin membrane is between the two of them. Baby A (the top picture) is looking right at you. In the ultra sound itself I could see everything a lot more clearly. I couldn't believe he/she has so many facial features. Joe said they both look like little aliens. Baby B is a little harder to see. He/She has a side view with the arm sticking straight up. Our babies are finally starting to take shape. They no longer look like little blobs.

Here they are now about 1.6 cm, so still not quite an inch big. They are growing at a normal rate and have a strong heart beat. We still have not been able to hear the heart beat, it was just shown to us on the monitor.

The babies at 6 weeks. This was when we first learned that both of the embryos attached and that we were having twins. We were both so excited! We told everyone in our family by sending a link to the double mint commercial and letting them guess what the lyrics were saying. Although we know we are not having identical twins, we are still going to have double the pleasure.

This is a picture of the Twins at 6 days old before they implanted them back into me.