17w4d Anatomy Scan

Friday, January 13th, 2012

Today we had our anatomy scan!  It amazes me how nervous I still get before EVERY ultrasound.  Losing our last baby is always fresh in my mind until I see those babies on the screen with flickering hearts.  Todays ultrasound was no different. My nerves were especially on high alert as I knew today we were checking for risks associated with identical twins.

Waiting for the tech...

Joe and I were checked in and started the brutal 45 minute wait for the ultrasound tech to grace us with her presence.  This does NOT help the nerves of an anxious pregnant woman.  Once we got started, and saw 2 beating hearts, I was instantly relaxed.  Both babies were so much bigger.  The tech asked if we wanted to know the gender and we said, "Yes, of course!"  Pretty quickly, she told us that Baby A was in fact a GIRL.  This was actually our FIRST confirmation on Baby A.  She checked out Baby B and determined that she is also, still a girl!  YAY!  I can finally feel confident that we are truly having girls!  Absolutely amazing!

The tech checked out all their bones and measured their heads, hearts, brains, etc.  She then went on to check their kidneys, bladders, etc.  Physically, both babies are developing perfectly and looked just as they should!  Such amazing news!  I enjoyed watching them wave and wiggle during those 45 minutes.  The tech also checked the blood flow in both of the babies umbilical cords which also looked great.  This was a big relief for me because I know this is a concern for identical twins.  She then checked the placenta and gave us great news that the placenta is no longer blocking the cervix!  Yay, one less thing to worry about in this pregnancy.  She finished up and told me the MFM specialist would be in shortly to discuss the results with us.

Baby B- My little sweetheart!

Baby A's beautiful profile :)

When Dr Lee, our MFM, came in she told us both babies looked great, yada, yada, yada, but I could feel the impending 'BUT' coming.  And as soon as she said BUT... my heart sank.  "But, based on our measurements we have found a size discordance in the twins of 16%"  This means we are now officially on the radar for my biggest fear in this pregnancy, Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome.  She said not to worry yet, because we don't need to worry until we hit 20% (Um, well, I'm no mathematician, but thats' only a 4% difference- insert panic here).  She went on to explain that she didn't see any other markers for TTTS- blood flow from both umbilical cords looks great, the amniotic fluid levels were within normal range, and their weren't any physical abnormalities to suggest we were heading towards TTTS.  However, because of the discordance we are on alert for TTTS and/or placental sharing issues.  After we discussed this, she did another exam to check my cervical length and manually simulated a contraction to see how my cervix reacted (thanks, that felt AMAZING -is my sarcasm coming through here?)  We will go back in in 2 weeks for the fetal echocardiogram and another measurement to see how the girls are growing.  We can only hope and pray that the size discordance stays the same or becomes less. If not, we will be looking at various interventions and weighing our options on how to proceed.  I'm doing everything I can to stay positive and stay strong for our babies.  I really need them to stay strong for us too!  Keep growing baby girls, we have already fallen head over heals in love with you and can't imagine not having you here with us!

To all our friends and family- we welcome all the prayers and positive thoughts you can muster!  I know our girls are fighters and can pull through this.  But if you could keep us all in your thoughts and prayers we would truly appreciate it!