20 weeks complete!

Today is officially the gestational half-way point! According to my sources, the babies are now 10.5" long head to toe or 7.5" head to rump, and about 12 oz (our girls were both smaller than that at last week's ultrasound). I haven't been able to find out if they should be at exactly the same milestones as singletons yet, or if slightly smaller is to be expected. They can hear our voices, although probably muffled, and it's not as though there's a shortage of talking in this house.

On Saturday a switch got flipped and I suddenly began to feel movement in both places the ultrasound showed a baby. It's just a light tap from the inside here and there but it's unmistakable. And thrilling! It's so nice to get more confirmation that all is going along swimmingly (pun intended) in there. I feel it throughout the day, mostly when I'm laying down, and I'm hoping Sean will be able to feel it for himself soon. There's not a whole lot for a guy to be jealous of when it comes to the ins and outs of pregnancy, but actually feeling your baby is definitely something to envy. I'll try to remember that around my third visit to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

I got frustrated with the idea of waiting so long to find out more about our course of care, or whether they are monoamniotic with complete certainty, so I e-mailed the midwives and voiced my concerns about the lack of urgency. One of them got back to me and said she had been thinking the same thing and was glad I let her know because she agreed. So, she set us up with an urgent referral to Eastside Maternal Services and our appointment is Friday. (Here's to my assertiveness paying off!) It was a huge relief to know that we'd be able to get some questions answered and care started in a much shorter period of time. I felt like I could really breathe for the rest of the day. We'll have a more advanced ultrasound and a consult with a perinatologist who will walk us through everything to come. There is still the possibility that a thin chorion (a second layer within the amniotic sac that separates the two babies) will be visible on the advanced ultrasound, and that would take us back to a normal twin pregnancy...keep your fingers crossed!

I also got hooked up with Eastside Moms of Multiples (www.emoms.org), a group that gets together monthly to share information, hear from speakers, etc., and it turns out that the co-chair also had Momo twins and was also treated by Eastside Maternal Services! She was at Overlake for 2.5 months and gave birth at 34 weeks, which is outstanding. It was helpful to hear a nearby success story! She offered to be a resource for us and we're going to try to get together and find out more from her. EMOMs also hosts a twice annual sale of twin stuff from the families, but the Spring sale was canceled because of the recent legislation on testing toys for harmful substances before they're sold. Too bad. We're still in the market for, well, everything. Registering is just gonna have to wait until we know more.