Hello 2nd Trimester!

So now we're officially up to date with this blog. I'm very happily in the 2nd trimester (finally), at 14 weeks 4 days.

Morning sickness has subsided considerably, although I still have random vomiting from time to time! But once in a while I can handle, the 8+ times per day thing was wearing on me thin!

My appetite still isn't what it once was, but I seem to be developing a sweet tooth again! Last weekend I had an intense craving for chocolate cake, so I made myself homemade chocolate cupcakes with raspberry buttercream. Talk about hitting the spot! I have also been craving Caesar Salad and French Onion Soup. But since the very beginning, my most favorite meal of all is a tuna sandwich! This is beyond frustrating because we all know that you're supposed to greatly limit your tuna intake during pregnancy, if not eliminate it all together. I have to admit, I have given into my craving twice so far during the pregnancy, but from what I have read eating canned white tuna once in a while is perfectly safe.

Our last appointment was at 13 weeks and went great! Our babies have grown SO much - they actually look like babies now! They were moving all over during our ultrasound. Baby A was especially active, my OB says we're going to have our hands full with that one! :) I love seeing them move though, it's such an amazing sight. I just want to be able to FEEL it now!!!!

Here are their beautiful pictures from the last appointment:

This is Baby A, looking cute as ever! It's head is to the left, and you can see he or she is waving to us! See the little hand right in front of the face?!

This is Baby B who is facing down. His or her head is to the right and you can see it's spine going all the way down, with it's legs to the far left.
And here they are together! This isn't a great picture though. Baby B is on the top, with it's back facing us. Baby A is on the bottom and is staring straight at us, with his or her hands to the side! Cute and a little creepy, haha!
In terms of my body changing and growing with these babies, it certainly is! Like I said before, I lost 10 lbs. in the first trimester but my belly is growing day by day! I'm in maternity pants most of the time now (and don't forsee me EVER going back to regular pants again, even after the babies are here! They are beyond comfortable!), but I can still get away with some non-maternity shirts. Here are some progression pictures I've taken over the weeks!

The early weeks...

Up until 8 weeks pregnant, I was getting an ultrasound once a week. I really enjoyed these appointments, I loved getting a peek at what was going on in my uterus! I know a lot of people don't get to see what early ultrasounds look like, so I thought I'd post pictures so you can see a progression, and see what happens from week to week with the babies.

This is at 6 weeks pregnant. At this appointment we got to see their little flickering hearts on the ultrasound screen. You can just kind of see them in the pictures - they are the little white specs in the black sac.

Here we have 7 weeks pregnant. You can see the "white specs" have grown quite a bit in a week! In the top picture, you can see the head to the left and the body to the right. The round circle next to the baby is the yolk sac. The 2nd picture is of Baby B, but it's not quite as clear as the picture of Baby A because it was further from the ultrasound. Also at this appointment, we got to hear the heartbeats through the ultrasound machine! What a sound!

And here we have 8 weeks pregnant! Quite a difference from 6 weeks, huh? This time you can see both babies in one picture. Their heads, bodies, and their little arms and legs. They are so cute already!

During those early weeks, I did suffer from severe morning sickness. It was not fun at all. Since it took me so long to get pregnant, I always said I'd never complain about any part of my pregnancy, including morning sickness. Yeah, that changed after it actually happened to me. They say morning sickness is worse in twin pregnancies because of the high amounts of the hormone Hcg pumping through your body, but since this is my first pregnancy I have nothing to compare it to. Around 7 weeks I started to get to the point where I couldn't function (ie. stop throwing up) from about midnight until noon, so my doctor prescribed a drug called zofran. What a life saver! As soon as I started feeling queasy, I would take one and in about 15 minutes I would feel relief. I tried not to take it every day, but I did more times than not. I finally started feeling a little better in my 13th week and stopped taking the zofran.

Another "ailment" from this pregnancy has been my loss of appetite. Nothing sounds appealing at all. I get these completely random cravings every so often, and then when I satisfy that craving I start feeling sick as I'm eating whatever I was craving. It makes no sense, but that's pregnancy for you! I rarely feel hungry any more, and force myself to eat as much as I can. I lost about 10 lbs in the first trimester, and have been slowly gaining it back. Now I'm only a couple of pounds away from from my pre-pregnancy weight.

Surprise!

After my blood pregnancy test came back positive, I was instantly wondering about the possibility of multiples - I actually could have ended up with triplets because of the fertility drugs that I was on! But before we even began treatments, Brian and I discussed the possibility of multiples in full and decided that we were completely ok with however many babies God decided to bless us with. Granted we were not hoping for high order multiples because of the health risks for me and the babies, but we thought twins would be ideal. Then our family would be complete.

So after the first blood draw, I asked the nurse if she thought the level was indicative of multiples (I thought it was pretty high, but who am I to judge?!) and she said she actually thought it was a very strong singleton. So at that point I sort of forgot about the idea of having twins...I mean, she was the nurse and has been in this business for a while so I trusted her judgment! I was just happy to be pregnant!

So after my 2nd blood draw went up accordingly, I was scheduled for an early ultrasound at 5 weeks pregnant to make sure my lining was adequate, and to see the gestational sac (or two!). At this early in pregnancy, that's pretty much all you can see. So I went in, hoping to see one gestational sac.

Well imagine my surprise when the ultrasound tech said "There's a sac...and oh look! There's another! It's twins!"
After that, I just couldn't wipe the stupid grin off my face, or wipe the happy tears from my eyes...