I can’t believe they are not ready to come out at this point. Next week, I have another doctor’s appointment and an NST with an API. The NST is to listen in and make sure they are not stressing out and are doing ok. The API is a visualization to do a brief growth estimate to determine when they may have to come out. I’m seeing my doctor regardless since I had made that appointment before knowing about the NST/API requirements. I’m going to be doing the NSTs and APIs every week until I pop. I also have a follow-up ultrasound in three weeks. I’ll be really surprised if I last that long to me honest with you.

Now,back to the baby shower. One of the games was to guess the due dates, time born, and weights of the babies when they are born. Well, already a few people are out of the pool. Some had guessed they will be under 5 lbs when they are born. LOL, well that ain’t going to happen! I’m thinking about 6 – 7 lbs at least.

Now there is still one concern with Kiefer. His left kidney is still a little dilated. The doctor said that it may be narrowed where the kidney meets the ureter, or reflux. I’m suspecting reflux since the problem goes from one side to the next. If it doesn’t clear up by the time he’s born, they will do a postnatal assessment on him to determine what could be causing his delay with urinating. I hope it’s nothing too serious.  He IS peeing, but it’s just not happening as easily as it should be.

As far as their estimated growth. Cameron’s age is averaging at 36w 1d and Kiefer’s age is estimated at 34w 5d. It appears that Cameron is still 3 weeks ahead but at least he hasn’t gained too much in age. His head is big, however and he’s breech now, so my desire to go for a vaginal birth is probably not going to happen. I think I’m going to be facing a c-section at this point . Oh well, I still can hope, but if I have to do a cesarean, then so be it. It’s the babies’ health that matters here. I will not be able to have a vaginal breech if he’s in the position he’s in any how. There are some breech positions which are not that dangerous to both the mom and baby, but he’s in a slightly tilted Frank breech I believe and that is just not going to happen for me. Kiefer is also breech, but twin B’s are a bit more flexible since there’s often a chance the second baby can change positions last minute due to having all that extra space after twin A is born. As far as Kiefer goes, he’s slowly catching up to Cameron’s estimated age. That makes me happy because he’s definitely getting everything he needs and Cameron is sharing his space well with Kiefer. Though…I think Cameron was kicking Kiefer in the head last week in the sneak peek ultrasound I got from the doctor. Well, what should I expect? They’re boys!

One of the things that makes it enjoyable there is the compliments I get from the doctors, the patients, and even my colleagues. They are nice to me and they do give me advice that helps me do well in my job. Though they never asked me to join them for lunch That’s ok, I do like to use that time to talk to Jason. It’s one of the things I look forward to during the day…talk to my husband about how my day is going. I just feel I’m in the right field.

The doctor and I were talking about how I have been helping her out in the office. I mentioned that I feel like I’m doing something that helps the patients feel better and to help the doctors work more efficiently. She very much agreed! I understand that I don’t have to be a doctor in order to have an important role in the office, though I still do want to advance my career at some point. I am considering nurse or ultrasound technician. Either makes more money and both work with the patients which I found is my niche. I enjoy it, and I think I’m good at it.

For now, however, my interning will be over, and I am free to take my certification exam whenever I feel I’m comfortable taking it. I will not be pursuing a job, though, until I have had these babies. I need to settle down and relax a bit. I need to focus on my health and taking care of myself and the precious cargo I’m  carrying around. Once they ar born, I’ll be mothering them for a while. Once Jason has settled into his own routine and I have completed my self-determined maternity leave, I will go back to searching for a job. I may even consider auditing a class if I need to.

I will miss work. I got myself in to a working groove, and now it’s time to go back to not being busy. In some ways, I’m looking forward to that, but I’m jsut afraid that I’ll get too comfortable, and it’ll be harder to get myself back into work mode. I’ll do it. I need the money and I do like working.

Well, finally I settled down and she asked me to lay down on the table and loosen my pants. I never had an external ultrasound before so this was a whole new experience for me. She asked me about my MS and how they found out. I decided to tell her from when I first started having my experiences from 2000 up to 2003.

As I was talking away, she went ahead and started to look for the babies. My husband jumped up from his seat and stood next to me. When I felt his arm next to me (I wasn’t paying attention since I was trying to remember how they found out about my MS). At that moment I realized Jason was standing there, the doctor said, “Hey look! He’s doing the mambo!” I turned around and BOOM there was the sweetest site I had ever seen! A baby with two legs, two arms and a head on a body. I never saw more than a blob with a heartbeat! There he was doing some sort of gopher dance while shaking his hips back and forth (I only say him because it just came out that way, I have no clue if it’s a girl or boy). Well, next the doctor looked at the next baby who was directly next to Baby A (the gopher dancing mambo king/queen). This one was not moving too much. I asked the doctor why that is, she said there’s a definite heartbeat and she saw some movement. We think Baby B was sleeping, as they do that from time to time.

I just couldn’t believe my eyes. I felt like I was looking at one of those TV shows on the Discovery Health Channel. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I was looking at my babies. The ones I’ve been wishing for for the past 2 1/2 years! The ones we’ve been trying to have since we first tried to start a family. I know I’m not out of the woods yet. I generally won’t be the entire pregnancy, but I am so relieved just to get to this point. Those are my babies. I am going to be a mom and my husband is going to be a dad. Twins are a lot of work, but all this was so worth the chance to have them. All I can do now, is take care of myself, take care of these babies, and hope for the best.

I have a AFP (Maternal – Alphafetopotein) test next week. I’ll get another ultrasound and a blood test to check for any abnormalities. If anythign shows up abnormal, I’ll probably need to get an amniocentesis where they pull out some of the amniotic fluid from both baby sacs and check for Down’s syndrome and anything else they can find through this means. There’s a small chance of miscarriage so I’m not certain how I feel about it.But the good thing would be, we can find out the sexes a little earlier than the next scheduled ultrasound. The next scheduled ultrasound after the AFP test, is February 14. That one is to check anatomy and gender. There, the sonographer will check all parts, bones, internal organs, and external organs, measure the babies, and make adjustments to the due date if necessary. It’ll be an exciting time! Either way, I am just happy to be where I am. I am looking forward to completing the baby registry and actually being able to plan out the babies’ room.