Aubrey and Charlotte's Room

Today was a very productive day for sure! A friend of mine came to help my shop for things for the girls' room while John worked on his backyard project, our new deck. After shopping till we nearly dropped, we worked hard in their room and got a LOT accomplished in a little amount of time. There are still many things left to do, clothes/blankets to wash and put up, etc. BUT at least I feel good about what we have done so far!

Countdown begins....

Two weeks from today I will be heading into the hospital for in-patient monitoring.... kind of nervous about spending so long in the hospital away from home, but know that it is absolutely the BEST place for me to be for our little girls! We have an appointment with our doctor, Dr. Kirshon, on June 30th and he told me to bring my bags packed! So much to do still....

Our little ladies received the rest of the furniture for their room this week, so now it is time to organize! We are so fortunate to have such great family and friends to bless us with many showers and gifts for Aubrey and Charlotte. We have one more shower this weekend, so I am trying to hold off on putting things up and away in their room until I bring home more. :)

I am also working on organizing and cleaning things out in our house too... closets, pantry, garage, etc. As much as my good ole hubby will let me do! He is such a trooper! He cleans, takes care of the yard AND flowers, really does anything I ask him to do! I could really get used to this....

Trying to stay cool in this heat is another hard feat! Thank goodness we are teachers and have the luxury of being at home. John and I stay in the house with the blinds closed as much as we can during the heat of the day!

Back to work now!

Pictures of Our Girls

10 Weeks

Both of our little beans hanging out together

12 Weeks

Only got a shot of 1 of them this time.... (Baby A)

We were told that our twins were "twincesses"! Our specialist said he was 90% sure they were girls!

16 Weeks

Baby A Aubrey Belle sucking her thumb

Baby B Charlotte Ruth getting kicked in the face by sister

19 Weeks

Aubrey's super cute profile... we always get great shots of her!

Look at those cute little divas snuggling in there!

Aubrey 11oz Charlotte 9oz

22 Weeks

Do you think they already look alike?? I can already tell that they are going to have their daddy's chin...

Aubrey 1 lb 3oz

Charlotte 1 lb

Twin Heartbeats

One of the most sweetest things I have seen in my LIFE!
Look closely... you can see both of their little flutters beating at the same time. :)
7 week ultrasound
March 3, 2011

What are MoMo twins?

When John and I first saw 2 heartbeats, we of course scoured the Internet about the different types of identical twins. When we came across all of the information for Monochorionic/Monoamniotic twins, we thought for sure that ours would not be that. It is pretty rare, so what are the odds right? Waiting the 2 weeks to see the specialist for a diagnosis seemed to take forever! Our specialist confirmed at that appointment that they were indeed mono/mono or MoMo for short.
More about twins....
There are two different types of twins, identical and fraternal. Fraternal twins occur when two different eggs are fertilized. Identical twins occur when one egg is fertilized and then splits. Identical twins are always the same sex and they share 100% of their genes. There are many different types of identical twins too. Our MoMo twins share the same placenta and the same amniotic sac. This is a rare occurrence that occurs in less than 1% of twin pregnancies. These type of twins are at a great risk of health complications due to umbilical cords being so close in proximity inside the one amniotic sac. It is easy for the umbilical cords to become tangled or compressed therefore cutting off the nutrients and food supply necessary for survival. The survival rate for MoMo twins is approximately 50%. By going in-patient it improves our odds significantly as they will be monitored several times a day. The only way to "fix" these problems with the cords is to take them. So, we already know that we will have our babies early. Our goal is to get to 32 weeks!

Where To Begin....

The journey that John and I have been on has been a rather interesting one for sure! We had been married for 3 1/2 years when we decided that it was time to start planning for a family. I had finished my Master's degree in Library Science and everything was going to fall into place.... I just knew it. After months and months of trying, a miscarriage at 8 weeks, surgeries, and even more trying, we decided to go a different route. After consulting with our doctors, we determined IUI (Inter-Uterine Insemination) was the next step to take. With any kind of fertility treatments, your odds go up for having multiples, especially fraternal due to multiple eggs fertilizing. That was a risk that John and I were willing to take.
After our first attempt with IUI, we were blessed to see those 2 LINES and even the word POSITIVE on multiple pregnancy tests! John and I were cautiously excited! We knew from experience that so many things could go wrong!
At our first ultrasound at 5 weeks, we saw one little sac (really looked like a blob to us), and realized that we must have beat the odds of having multiples when we only saw one. At our 7 ultrasound, we got to see 2 little heartbeats beating together! What an amazing thing! Our one fertilized egg split and we were lucky enough to have identical twins!
Our OB recommended we go see a Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist. He informed us about the different types of identical twins and it is something that he didn't know much about. We were able to get an appointment with Dr. Kirshon, a highly recommended MFMS in Houston in 2 weeks. At 9 weeks, we went for our first ultrasound with him. He confirmed what our OB suspected.... there was no membrane in between the two, therefore our little ones are a very rare type of identical twins, Monochorionic Monoamniotic .