5/30 Doctor Visit

Went in for our regular check-up today (last week was the neck check only). Everything is looking great. Babies are moving around. One baby is considerably more active than the other, bordering on spastic. Poor kid clearly got that from his/her father. No new pictures this week.

Doctor backed Chris' appointments down to every three weeks, rather than every two. We take that as a very good sign.

To appease the masses, we're going to get pictures of Chris up pretty soon.

Ultrasounds from Friday, May 23 (almost 13 weeks)

You can see the baby on the right (top pictures) has his/her little legs crossed. On the bottom picture, the baby on the left is a bit less clear, but they are both there upside down next to each other.

Sleep Deprivation Training

Chris was having more bleeding problems yesterday so I was glad to be heading home from San Jose. I got off the elevator in the Seattle airport parking garage and received a call from Chris telling me she was in the Emergency Room. The on-call doctor had told her to go there. They checked on the babies and checked her out a bit and things seemed to be OK. The marathon trip to the ER got us home well after 1:00am.

After just a few hours of sleep, we were back up heading to an appointment at an ultrasound clinic to do the "neck check". That's my name for the test where they measure the thickness of the babies' necks to determine their risk of Downs Syndrome. Fortunately, the test came back within the normal range. Doesn't guarantee anything, but dramatically reduces the possibility.

We then went across the street to our regular doctor to discuss Chris' problems of the previous day. We showed up without an appointment and they saw us within 10 minutes. They're just great. They instructed us to keep an eye on it to make sure it didn't get worse and told us the important thing is that the babies are doing great and growing at exactly the rate they are supposed to. It might be that Chris is just going to have to deal with this for a while. It sure is scary, though.

OK, enough of the dramatic stuff, the ultrasound during the neck check was incredible. That place can get so much clarity and project it on a much larger screen than you get in the regular doctor's office. We could see the one baby's legs crossed. The babies are about 2.5 inches long from butt to top of head. They regularly practice their pre-natal mixed martial arts, making daddy quite proud.

Keep praying.

Week 11 Ultrasound

Here are the latest ultrasounds. On the one baby, you can see the spine and jaw. Both babies have turned upside down at this point.

Chris is doing better the past few days. She's still tired and sometimes feels like dirt, but nothing worse than that.

Next week is when the scary tests start. Please be praying for us.

Also, congratulations to Kevin and Michelle Temp on the birth of their new baby (codenamed Temp 2.0).

Aright already ...

So, Cousin Jean IMs me today with "Okay cuz, you don't need to respond but if you're going to invite me to read your blog.....you need to actually blog!!!!"

On one hand, she's got a point. On the other hand, I haven't had much to report until today and didn't want to waste everyone's time.

Now that we have that over with, Chris moved her Friday doctor appointment up to today because she was concerned about the babies given the spotting she's been having. She saw two heartbeats and their little jaws and spines. Kiddos are doing great. Next week they get what I call a neck check. It's the first step in testing for downs. They can measure the kids' neck thickness and tell if they are at risk. Depending on the outcome of that test, we'll need to figure out if we want to do further testing or not.

Nurse said the spotting will stop eventually. How's that for open ended?

I'll post the latest ultrasound over the weekend when I'm back in Seattle.

Finding out the gender

OK, here's the interactive portion of the blog. I want to get folks' opinions on finding out the gender before they are born. Should we or shouldn't we? You can click on the comments link below to post.

DISCLAIMER: Just because you post some advice, don't mean we gonna follow it. :)

Forgot to mention that Chris says the way to tell they're my kids is their big heads. I'm sure Nick, my boss, will appreciate this. He likes to make reference to my significant dome. I've always looked for a comeback to his big head barbs, but then I look in the mirror and realize I have no retort. Looks like my kids are destined for the same fate.

Given that I just started blogging about the pregnancy, I thought there are some other things to share. The due date is pretty fluid with twins. Right now, the projection is early November (36 weeks). That could swing two weeks before or after depending on how the babies develop and how miserable Chris is. The kids will spend one week in the hospital for every week short of 36 weeks they are born. For example, if they are born at 34 weeks, they will spend two weeks in the hospital (36 minus 34 equals 2 for the benefit of my mathematically challenged siblings).

I've decided that if anyone asks what names we're thinking of, I'm going to answer with any of the following: Brad & Angelina, Dale (Earnhardt) & Jeff (Gordon), or Paris & Nikki. The reason for this is that what I've heard from lots of folks is that everyone has an opinion on the names and it's a no-win situation so just don't tell anyone. Given that I tend to be a bit of a smarty pants, I won't be able to resist coming up with something like the above. I may also go with Hillary & Barack depending on my mood.

Lastly, we'd love to hear any pregnancy tips that folks have. You can post a comment in response to the blog posting. Feel free to add any tips. Just click on the comments link right below this posting.

Week 10

This week started pretty badly. Chris had some issues overnight on Sunday that caused us to fear that we had lost the kiddos. The period from 3:30am - 11:30am on Monday was one of, if not the, most traumatic eight hour period of my life. The sense of relief when we saw those two heartbeats on the ultrasound was unbelievable. The thought of losing our kids was heartbreaking. Chris has continued to have issues over the past few days, but the doctors think it's just part of the process. That doesn't necessarily make it any less scary.

I had quite an eventful time on Tuesday evening. I talked to Chris just before 7:00 and it was clear she needed me home. I left my office at Yahoo in Sunnyvale, CA, sped to the airport, returned the rental car, took the shuttle to the airport, talked my way onto the flight that was already closed, and got to my seat at 7:35. What an intense time !!

We just ask that folks pray for us and keep us in your thoughts. So far so good, but the week has already been quite a challenge and it's only Wednesday as of this posting.