Locked and Loaded?

Well, to our surprise, the babies have both just turned head- down and have slowed down their movement considerably. They got a perfect score on a biophysical profile yesterday, so all is well and we are supposed to be watching for signs of labor now since the babies seem to be under the impression that the time is coming soon...

The natives are getting restless...

The last 3 days have been a flurry of activity. Not for ME, mind you- I am pretty much a lump these days, with as quickly as I get tired and sore- but the babies. I mentioned once before that sometimes it felt like I had a litter of puppies in there. Well, now I'm convinced. They aren't babies- They are puppies. Or maybe ferrets. Or something else very, very active.

They never stop. I am wondering what they are up to in there. Perhaps they sense that the end of womb life is near and they are preparing for their world domination by doing their tae bo and whatever else prepares a baby for taking over the world.

Baby A also has a sense of humor- He LOVES sending Mommy to the bathroom for no reason- An empty bladder, being stomped on, feels JUST LIKE a very, very full one.

Remember me?

Little old me, the fertilizer, Twilight Jones, the baby daddy. Or is that babies daddy? Anyway, I'm back. Not that I was ever really gone.
It's just that I wanna post ultrasound pictures, and we're not getting any, and I can only say I'm gonna explode so many times before people start listening for it, ya know?

I want to elaborate on the names used here. Those who know me know my name isn't technically Twilight Jones (gasp!), but they also know my last name isn't Amanti. As a matter of fact, I don't even know anybody with that name. The deal is, I'm changing my last name, to Amanti. It means "Lovers" in Italian. And yes, it's also a car. I thought it was terribly old fashioned, more than a little sexist, and downright rude to expect this amazing woman to take my name when we got married. I could have taken her name, or she could have kept it, but I thought: what if we came up with a whole new name? One that was ours alone. We could be the trunk of the family tree, the progenitors of Casa Di Amanti, The matriarch and patriarch of our little clan. Turns out she knows a couple who've done this already, so we had some help there. I've got to pay some money, publish it in the paper for a while (to make sure I'm not running from creditors) and go before a judge, and my last name will become Amanti. Odd that when we get married, all she'll have to do to change her last name is, well, marry me. In any case, That's the poop on why they're not the Ennis Twins.

In other news: Less than a month to go! And that's the best-case scenario. If something goes wrong, they'll be here earlier than that. I was talking to the Incubator about this. She feels like the whole pregnancy has flown by at a million miles an hour, and they'll be here any minute. I feel like she's been pregnant forever, and they're taking their sweet time getting here. I don't know if that's because I'm not carrying them in my uterus or because I've never made anybody before and I wanna see how they turned out. You know, when I make pancakes, I always have to throw away the first one. It's always burned or undercooked or both, or otherwise just wrong. I'm really hoping I didn't burn one of these. I'm happy she's carrying them, though. I'm a total wuss. I can't even get sick without curling up in bed feeling sorry for myself. I can't imagine carrying twins around in my uterus for 9 months. Also I don't have a uterus, so it'd be awkward.

The BIG Appointment

I say "big" because that's what the babies are. BIG. We are at 31 weeks, 4 days now, and the babies are weighing in at approximately 4 pounds, 8 ounces and 4 pounds, 15 ounces. An in depth discussion with the doctor regarding the birth yielded some new developments: Since most twin moms have gone into labor by 36 weeks and since they do NOT want me to go into labor, We are going to be considering, as discussed before, delivering at 36 weeks.

The plan at this time is to schedule an amnio for 36 weeks to assess lung maturity. If the babies' lungs are mature enough for birth, we'll go ahead and do the c section. If they are not AND if the babies and I are healthy, they'll do another amnio at 37. Depending on the results, they'll either go ahead and deliver the babies THEN or wait until 38 weeks. 38 is the absolute latest they will go. SO there is a chance the babies might cook until 38 weeks.

Apparently twins mature a little faster than singletons, so there's a good chance we'll still deliver at 36 weeks.

We did the math and realized that if they continue their current growth rate, they'll be around 6.5 pounds each at 36 weeks and possibly 7.5 pounds each at 38.

I have only one word: OUCH.

Incubator: out

Wow- Just about a month to go...

We will be exactly 36 weeks on February 9. This is the official "due date". A month from today. They say that the babies could come at any time now. A good friend of mine gave birth to her beautiful, healthy twin girls at 32 weeks, so now things seem REALLY real.

We'd love to set the birth for Feb 14, and we are going to ask at the appointment tomorrow since it's only a few days past Feb 9. That's still barely over a month. Twilight says that the pregnancy has seemed like forever to him. It's actually seemed to ME like it has flown by, which I suppose is strange. You'd think I would be the one thinking I'd been pregnant forever.

Aside from a little hernia trouble here and there, I've been relatively free of pregnancy complaints. No complications so far. Some pretty nasty back pain and pelvic pain (pubis symphysis dysfunction), but that's to be expected- I had it in my first pregnancy and I'm carrying twice as much baby this time. Other than that and being a little tired (I'm sleeping 8 hours a night fairly often now, which, if you know me, you know is a HUGE feat for me), I'm doing great. The babies seem to be also, and we'll know more about that tomorrow. We can't wait to see them again. It's been a month since our last appointment and we miss seeing them!

Holy cow. This is real!

Just to clarify...

In case you hadn't figured it out, dear reader, the previous post was composed entirely by the boys' 7-year-old big brother, who wishes to be identified as Joshua Monkey. I assume he'll be posting off and on from now on. No doubt you'll be able to tell his posts apart because of the extreme level of excitement he displays. Yes, he's like that in real life.

FORMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!2!

our twin's look like aliens in mommy's tummy.
our twin's are super cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we are exited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




im the BIG! brother!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we are crazzzzzy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we are sillllllllllly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!