Boys or Girls?

Since we are having twins and our previous baby had several heart defects, my ob/gyn wants to make sure the babies are very carefully monitored.  So she sent us to see a Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist, Dr. Lu. A Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist is essentially a high-risk pregnancy expert.  Even though my babies and I are healthy, it's a good idea to keep a close watch on my pregnancy.  

We had our first appointment with Dr. Lu on February 28, 2016.  Walking into the office was a little scary for both Adam and I.  As soon as I walked in, I heard some say "hypoplastic" and it brought back some pretty scary memories of when we found out our first baby had something wrong with her heart.  But I am pleased to say our appointment went incredibly well and we got some visual proof that our babies are doing as well as they possibly can at this point in the pregnancy.  

The first part of the appointment was an external ultrasound.  The sonographer took a close look at our babies and recorded some measurements.  It was pretty surprising how much they had grown from our last ultrasound!  They were moving around quite a bit and one even waved at us!  We could see their spines and arms and legs.  They both had brains!  The best thing we saw was that each baby had 4 chambers of their hearts.  This was a huge relief.  While it doesn't rule out the possibility of heart defects, seeing those four chambers was a beautiful sight.  

Even though I was only 13 weeks along, the sonographer asked us if we wanted to know their genders. Heck yes, we did!

Both Adam and I thought they were girls.  I had had a dream that they were both laying on a blanket on the living room floor and they were both girls and Jazzy licked both of their heads.  Both of their heart rates have been pretty similar and on the higher end, which according to old wives' tales means girls. However, we were both wrong.  

The sonographer told us Baby A is a boy!

And Baby B is a girl!    

I honestly would have been beyond thrilled to have any combination of girls and boys, so long as they were both healthy.  But I am pretty darn excited that we get to have a boy and a girl!  

For the second part of our appointment, we met with Dr. Lu.  He told us that so far everything looks great. He shared some of the complications that can happen with twin pregnancies and things to watch for throughout the pregnancy.  He told us that he would like to see us at least three more times to check on how the babies and I are doing.  Other birth defects can show up later and other complications can arise, so it's a good idea to keep a close watch on the pregnancy.  But for now, everything is just peachy!   

I went into this appointment feeling nervous, but left pretty darn happy knowing we have a healthy boy and girl!