Touching Base

We're going back to OKC in the morning, and I just thought I'd post my random thoughts. Evan and Wesley are little boogers. They're kicking their mommy something fierce, often right square in the bladder, or so I'm told. Tomorrow, and apparently from now on, we go to this big fancy new building full of wonder and joy for our ultrasound, and then a block away in the old run-down utilitarian building for the doctor's appt. I don't get it. the same doctors staff both places, and skip back and forth between, so why can't we just stay at the fancy place? Not that there's anything wrong with the old building, it's just that it has this sort of rat maze feel to it. all the rooms are tiny - even the big rooms are smaller than our smallest bedroom, and it's always hot. the care is the same and I don't think we're getting any lower quality of anything there, but the new building is really amazing. it's this big glass-front tower with a huge atrium in the front and an enormous waiting room with plenty of seats and toys for the kids to play with. The old building has a small chair for the kids. I don't know if this would be any different in the new building, but it doesn't seem like it - We got there at like 10 the last time we were there, and didn't get in to see anybody until after noon. That's insane! If they are at such a high load that they can't see anybody until 2 hours after their appointment time, they should schedule people later or something. It sucks having to wake up at 7 and get Joshua ready for school while we get ready because we have to leave as soon as we drop him off. If we knew we were going to be in at noon, we could have taken our sweet time about it. I'm sorry, I don't mean to vent and get all nasty. I'm just frustrated that now we've got to go to the promised land for ultrasounds, only to be thrust back into the desert for the doctors appointment.

Oh yeah.

I was looking up the boys' names, and discovered that Evan is the Anglicization of Iefan, which is the Welsh form of John.
Ian is the modern Scottish form of John.
So we kinda, in a roundabout way, without realizing it, named one of the babies after me.
So Wesley and Junior, then.
I bet he's the one I felt kicking. He was all like "You named me after YOU?"

I FELT THE BABIES MOVE!!!!

WHEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

I felt the babies moving last night!
We lost internet right before it happened or I would have said it sooner, but my wife called me in the living room because the babies were kicking up a storm, and I put my hand on her belly just in time to get kicked hard in the palm.
I FELT THE BABIES MOVE!!!!!!
And then I put both hands on her, kinda spread out, like I was a wings fan, and I felt somebody roll all the way over from belly button to right up under ribcage. Like he was doing a somersault.
I FELT THE BABIES MOVE!!!!!!
And here I thought I couldn't get any happier. I'm gonna explode! YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!

Say Hello To My Little Friends

Say "Hello" to Wesley Michael Amanti and Evan Gabriel Amanti. We've finally settled on names. We had perfect girl names (Autumn Rose and Violet Ann) before we found out they were boys, and it took us until today to settle on boy names. I wanted to name them Magnus and Studs, but my lovely, brilliant and understanding wife overruled my stupid idea. I really wanna get 'em out of there and give 'em both a big kiss and a hug, and then give 'em both like four hundred million more kisses and hugs. and a lollipop. and a puppy. and anything else that will make them smile at Daddy.

I'm a Daddy!
I can't get over it. I'm flipping out - I'm elated - I'm ecstatic - I feel like my heart is going to grow so big that it will come out of my mouth.

I made people!
I can't get over that, either. Well, I helped make them, but still.

I don't know if people who haven't had twins realize how incredibly hard it is to name twins. We didn't want "twin" names, like Brendan and Brandon, but we didn't want them really unbalanced, like Atticus and Jake. At the same time, they have to have a first name and middle name that pair well, and a first name that pairs with the other one. Torsten and Daniel sound weird, and Atticus Pip is just dumb. Not that those names were actually in the running. Well, Atticus was for a while until we realized it was nearly impossible to pair it with a middle name, not to mention with a twin brother's first name.
So yeah, super happy, can't wait to meet them, can't believe my good fortune - I'm great.

Doctor and 3d/ 4d

This is one of the babies being kicked and hit in the face. If they are both born with black eyes, I won't be surprised.

Two faces. One is on the left, lower. The other is higher and to the right, with his hand in front of his face.

I'm feeling a lot better this week now that we know the babies are still doing great. Had another Level II ultrasound (in a much nicer office, too) and the doctor said everything looks GREAT. At this point in time, NO signs of TTTS, and their growth is excellent- Fluid levels just right. Babies are measuring at about 1 lb 6 ounces and 1 lb 7 ounces. They have moved my 40 - week due date to March 9, which makes me now 24 weeks instead of 23. The babies are measuring in the 24 week range. They are still boys- Baby B made sure we knew it too- The ultrasound tech had a hard time getting anything out of him besides "look at me- I'm a BOY!" shots. They were kicking each other a lot (hopefully not on purpose!) and seem to be fully aware of each other.

I, on the other hand, have a new hernia. Partly a recurrence of an old one that was improperly fixed and partly new because I'm getting so huge. I had a LOT of pain yesterday, but it seems to be improving a little. It's hard to stand up straight. I am really happy about these babies, but I can now say that I hope the next 12 weeks go quickly, because I hurt! I was told I should get a referral to a general surgeon at my next clinic appointment- Hopefully I can arrange to have the hernia(s) fixed (PROPERLY this time- with mesh) at the time of the c- section.

I was a bit nervous about the 3d/ 4d today because of the pain, but it wasn't too bad. I think we may have gone in a little late because the babies were interfering with each other. First of all, they would NOT stop moving, making getting photos difficult. Several times, the tech got a great shot that was blocked by the other baby's hand or foot right as the picture was saved. We got several shots of a baby's face being kicked or hit by the other. The good news is that they did a DVD of the entire session, so we'll be able to see all that anyway, just not in the still shots.

She was also afraid to push down hard because I mentioned the hernia pain, so the shots weren't as clear as they would have been if she had been more aggressive. Although it could have been better if done earlier and by a more aggressive tech, we are still pleased and now have an idea of how our babies will look. They seem to very obviously have their Daddy's nose. (He has a great nose.) See?




More pics as we get them scanned.

Long time, no post....

That's because NOTHING is happening. We had a prenatal appointment on the 8th and I am now in the process of attempting to transfer to another clinic because of some complaints about this one. Our first appointment was FANTASTIC and then it went downhill from there. Over the last 2 appointments, I've had several fairly major complaints, but the final straw was when, at this last appointment, they just FORGOT I was supposed to have an ultrasound. I insisted and managed to get a rudimentary one, but they didn't measure the babies or their fluid, which is the whole purpose of the biweekly ultrasound for TTTS (For more information: click here ) . So, we had a brief nothing of an ultrasound that didn't tell us anything (and yielded no pictures, not that that's the important part anyway), and for all we know one baby could be twice the size of the other. Fortunately, This Friday we go down for a proper one (and in 3d/ 4d). We are just praying in the meantime that everything is still going well.