Ultrasound 6-3-09 - 25 weeks 6 days, Twin B

Here's a couple more photos! Only Twin B this time, since Twin A was moving a lot. At least they cooperate every other time. :) Enjoy!

25 weeks and 1 day - New Pictures in the Month of May

It's time for the monthly update of Jen's Journey! I have some new pictures to share from yesterday's appt. at the Perinatologist, the 25 weeks and 1 day mark:

I couldn't believe how clear the picture of Twin A turned out!!! Brought tears to my eyes. Last month she was moving too much to get a clear shot...this month Twin B was moving too much, but between this month & last we have a couple of fairly good pics of each one. It's amazing to see how big they ar growing. Not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but I wrote on there "Twin A 1 # 11 oz." and "Twin B 1 # 11 oz.". Oops...just realized I wrote it wrong, Twin A was actually 1 # 10 oz. just an ounce smaller than Twin B. I am feeling them move quite a bit every day now, mostly when I am quietly sitting at work or watching a movie or TV. Their little punches & kicks are getting to be quite powerful! Last night when I was trying to fall asleep I think one was using my bladder as a punching bag! OUCH! I LOVE to feel them move, but that was the first time it was actually painful. I started to sway from side-to-side and think I rocked the little boxer to sleep, thank goodness. :)

As for names, I have been getting asked about that a lot lately, but it's still a work in progress. It would be so nice to already have them picked out so we don't have to keep calling them "Twin A" (who is on my left and currently breech) and "Twin B" (who is on my right and currently head down), and we have a few possibilities we have in mind, but nothing is definite yet. Every time we watch a movie we look at the credits to see if any names pop out at us, which has been fun. Speaking of movies, Shaun & I and his brother in-law Tom & our 3 youngest nephews all got to go to a special screening of Disney/Pixar's "Up" Thurs. night, the night before it came out, at the AMC Theaters in Burbank. It was GREAT! Pixar films are amazing, they get better and better every time. The short before the movie was excellent as well, in classic Pixar style with superb quality and a witty storyline. I highly recommend going to see it.

On Memorial Day I planted a few flowers in our little border along the front of our house, as Shaun was working (he was shift leader, PLUS it was a holiday, so he got big bucks for working that day! Perfect to add to our savings for cribs & diapers & medical bills...oh my! LOL). I didn't take a picture of it yet, but I was really happy with how it turned out, and it is so nice to walk by the front of the house now. I planted a couple of cranberry/white variagated mini carnations, a couple of blue balloon flowers (they are really cool...the flower heads look like a little balloon being blown up, getting bigger & bigger, and when they open up then POW with a burst of color!), soft yellow pansies, and some really neat flowers I found called "Moss Rose", which the name is slightly deceiving, because the leaves aren't anything like moss, more like little succulent leaf pods. The flowers open when the sun is out and have beautiful colors in many different vibrant shades (from oranges to magentas to creams to yellows), and when the sun goes down they close and look kind of like carnations. They are really pretty, and the tag said they can tolerate extreme heat (also poor soil)...perfect for Simi, as it gets SO hot here in the summer. It was hard work, but I love seeing the fruits (or rather flowers!) of my labor.

That's about it for this month of May. We're coming up on Shaun's & my 8 year anniversary in 3 days...my how time flies! It has been a good 8 years with lots of accomplishments and adventures, and I look forward to many more to come, especially sharing it with our little girls. :) :)

New Ultrasound Pictures - 20 weeks/5 days

Here are the latest pics of our little girls! Yes, I said girls. Went to the Perinatologist today, at the 20 weeks/5 days mark (but who's counting?), and got 100% confirmation that both are GIRLS!!! (and just to clarify, NO, we are NOT having triplets, just twins...there are 3 pics because the little ladies were VERY active this morning, so the top picture is "baby B" on the right side of my tummy, and the 2nd & 3rd down are both "baby A" on the left side of my tummy a little out of focus) Both were facing down today, and the ultrasound tech took almost 45 minutes visualizing & measuring all the little parts...the head, the brain, the ventricles in the brain, the stomach/abdomen, listened to the umbilical cords (sounded like a fast "swoosh-swoosh-swoosh") and hearts (sounded a little different from umbilical cords but similar "swoosh-swoosh-swoosh" like a horse galloping), the arms, the hands, the legs, the femur, the feet...it was AMAZING!!! The pictures above are their little profiles...look very similar, but you can tell their faces are different. SO adorable! I love it.

Oh, and we just came back from a cruise to the Bahamas! Flew to Miami, FL last Thurs., stayed in a hotel by the airport, in the morning after a yummy continental breakfast took the hotel bus to the port of Miami for our Carnival cruise on the Imagination, and had a GREAT time enjoying the buffets, free room service, amazing Broadway-quality shows, took some fun pictures (to be scanned/downloaded & posted soon), had a nice afternoon on the island/capitol of the Bahamas, Nassau on Saturday where I got to be a part of the only trained flamingo show in the world (they were nuzzling me! Silly me...I wore a "flamingo"-colored shirt that day! They probably thought I was their momma! LOL), hand fed some beautiful parrots, took a dip in the pool, watched some kids go down the water slide (wishing I could go), and slept in. It was a wonderfully relaxing vacation. Had a lot of turbulence on the flight home during a good portion of the flight, even the stewardesses were asked to buckle in...made the rocking & swaying of the ship seem like nothing! Although I still feel like I am swaying...hoping that feeling goes away soon. The ride home from LAX on Roadrunner Shuttle was like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland! It didn't even compare to the taxi ride in Florida from the port of Miami to Miami airport...and I thought that was pretty hairy. Nope, not as wild as Roadrunner Shuttle. they packed us in like sardines, so we were uncomfortable, then there was traffic on the 405, so the driver decided to take some side streets and was zipping through the streets at "light speed", taking speed bumps at what felt like at least 30 mph, with terrible shocks on the van. Each speed bump felt and sounded like we were going to loose the back end of the van with all our luggage and we REALLY felt each one...there were about 8 sped bumps at least. It was rougher than the flight turbulence AND the swaying of the ship combined! Was a crazy ride. I couldn't wait to be home. We got back onto the freeway and the traffic wasn't too bad, it was moving, then a couple minutes later we passed the propane truck that was right in front of us when the driver decided to take all those side streets. So, we could have avoided the speed bumps all together! Had a fabulous time on the trip though, and it was so nice to come home. It was worth it. TTFN! :) (PS - this new background is called "Pieces of Heaven"...I decided to change the background, inspired by my girls! The colors & name of the background and style fit perfectly. LOVE IT!)

And the genders of the twins are...(drumroll please)

as of Thursday, 4/2/09 at my 17-week Dr. appt.,









SCROLL DOWN…























98% chance 1 is a girl…

(keep scrolling down…you gotta wait almost as long as we did to find out LOL)






















and the other is 90% chance it is a…………





























GIRL!!!

BASHFUL:

Shaun & I are still on the fence about the 90%, since it was really hard for the Dr. to see...we may know with more of a surety at the next appt. in a month. But, for the time being, that is the current prediction! *singing* Thank heaven, for little girls! :)

Update (finally!) with pictures

Oh my, I can't believe how long it's been since I added my last post! I am really slacking. Sorry! I've been rebuked by a couple friends already, so I'd better update my blog! :) I have a good reason though...I spend 8 hrs./day 5 days/week in this room at my work computer (right behind me), using the very same chair I am sitting in right now. So, staying in this same room and simply turning my chair around to my home computer after being on the computer all day is not the most appealing thing. Thus, my delay in blog posts & email replies.

Now that I have explained, onto the fun stuff!
Here's the video I sent out via email several weeks ago, with my ultrasound from the 10-week mark on 2/12/09:

(if you can't see the video, here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mZmGdJeRk8)


If you can't tell from the video (as I know these are hard for some people to decipher), we are having TWINS!!! We are very excited, can't wait to find out if it a boy/boy, girl/girl, or girl/boy! We'll find out in about 3 weeks.

So, we knew we were having twins from the very first ultrasound at the end of January. I emailed out the photo with just the one twin, but we knew then during that visit there were 2. Our Dr. recommended waiting until the 10-week mark to say anything though, because sometimes one of the twins will "fall off" or be "reabsorbed"...strange phenomenon, but we decided to wait to be sure before sharing this amazing news!

Below are a couple of the most recent photos from 3/2/09 (12 & 1/2 week mark). The first picture is a 3D ultrasound, and you can really see the features of the tiny face, may be sucking their thumb, and little legs...SO cute, huh? The 2nd picture is the other baby, who for a while had their back to us (it was amazing to see such detail on the entire spine!), and just when I was about to say they were being "camera shy" they flipped & gave us a nice profile shot, even smiling...you can see the features of the face pretty clearly. It was cute, the baby alsy put their arm up & looked like they were waving! Wish we had captured that shot, but I have it in my memory. Signing off for now...more to follow! Goodnight!

Good News!!!

OUR LITTLE LIMA BEAN

Shaun and I have some wonderful news to share

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I'm pregnant!!!

This year is definitely a year of miracles. Shaun and I are so happy & excited to share the news with you! We first found out on New Year's Day (best day of the year, up until yesterday), and yesterday we went to our Dr. for our first ultrasound, and saw our little "lima bean"! I got to see the heart beat as well, just a tiny dot blinking/flickering. It truly is a miracle! I am 7 weeks and 2 days now, and my due date is September 10th. What a wonderful next step in my Journey.

My first blog...Journey 2008

Well, this is my very first blog. I love the theme "Joy in the Journey", so I thought I would title my blog "Jen's Journey" as it will be an accounting of my journey through life, including the happenings, joys, and anything else I would like to share. :)

It's almost the end of 2008...it flew by! I wanted to document some of the triumphs and trials of 2008. It was a busy year! One of the highlights was Shaun and I bought our first home!!! 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and my favorite feature, an atrium! It needs some work, but it's good for a start. That's when some of the trials came into play. I like to call it "Adventures in Homeownership!" Let's see if I can remember them all...the first couple of weeks of living here the plumbing all backed up...the showers AND toilets...no water going anywhere. SO, we had a plumber come out to roto-rooter the pipes. That was adventure #1 (imagine sewage & toilet paper washed up on the lawn from the overflown sewage pipe...yummy!)

Adventure #2: One of the garage door hinges/springs snapped/broke, leaving a crooked/wanged garage door and Shaun's car stuck inside! So, he was unable to get to work that day. Thank goodness for the Horton brothers who came to the rescue and with their super strength held up the door so Shaun could get his car out! (thanks guys!!!) $1000 later we had a nice new functional garage door, which of course was not covered under the home warranty as it was not the actual garage door opener that was broken, just a hinge/spring. Go figure!

Adventure #3: The oven does not work! This is a few weeks before Thanksgiving, and the plan was to have all of Shaun's family come to our house this year for our first Thanksgiving. The good thing is Sears had a great deal on a nice range, so we purchased it, but the delivery was cancelled by them 3 times (first was due to the fires, 2nd was due to an employee having a fridge fall on him, I don't remember the third...). It finally arrived less than a week before Thanksgiving! Whew, perfect timing.

Adventure #4: (at this point I almost started loosing count/track)...oh yeah, the sewage had backed up again after only a couple months since the initial roto-rooter. So, we had a different company come out, and discovered a meshed entangled network of roots at about 35 ft. out. So, we paid for a turbo blast to blast out the roots and some chemicals to prevent the roots from growing back, and then discovered there was a small crack in the pipes at 35 ft. out. SO, time to contact the HOA to see what they will cover. *sigh*

I think that may have been it so far for our Adventures in Homeownership (knock on wood)...hopefully not many more to come.

As for triumphs, as already mentioned we purchased our first home, I got to start working from home (woo-hoo!!! LOVE it!!!), we had our first Thanksgiving at our home, which went very well thanks to lots of help from my mother in-law and aunt. Considering it's almost 2009 I will write more next year! Let the journey begin! :)