Babies and Prayers

I had an appointment for my nuchal fold ultrasound yesterday. This is an optional thing that the doctor recommended last week-I got the impression that she wanted me to do it since I had asked if I would get more ultrasounds before 20 weeks. The tech first said that the babies weren't big enough to measure accurately the nuchal fold (basically from the base of the skull to the nose I think). So, she said I would just have a regular ultrasound since I was there and get pictures to take with us. Baby B looked perfect. She/he was laying on her back and we could see a perfect profile of her sucking her thumb...at least that's what it looked like....super sweet.
Baby A wasn't cooperating well, she couldn't get a good view of her and tried several different ways/times. She left to talk to the doctor (not my regular doctor-I think she just does these screenings maybe) and came back to try again. Then, she went to talk to the doctor again and came back and said the doctor wanted to do the ultrasound.
Once she came in, I began to think something was wrong. I finally asked if they both looked like they should and she said no. She said B looked normal, but A did not. She said the limbs looked too short, there is extra fluid around the baby's head, and that apparently the baby's insides/guts (that's the word she used) come out onto the umbilical cord and then go back-this baby's have not gone back inside like they should. She is having me come back in two weeks to do another ultrasound to see what she can see then. She said 10 weeks is very, very early to determine anything. She said most things are determined at 14 weeks. She said these problems could mean anything from dwarfism to a chromosomal abnormality. There is a test that we can do where they take part of the placenta and test to see exactly what is wrong, but there is a 1% chance of losing the baby-she said with twins that would be higher. I don't think we will be doing that. Wesley asked what the chance is of coming back in 2 weeks and everything being fine. She said she would be shocked. She also told us to be prepared for Baby A not to have a heartbeat the next time we come.
We are very thankful for our wonderful Christian family who are praying for us. We obviously don't want to lose our baby, but we also want our babies to have the best quality of life possible. Please pray for God to do what is best for the babies and for us. Wesley said we would just pray a lot and then let her be shocked when we go back in two weeks!
We love and appreciate you all very much.

Here are our pictures from yesterday.
These first two are Baby A.
The rest of these are Baby B.


Christy-thanks for these verses you sent.

Mark 10:27 "And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible."

Psalm 121 "¹I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.²My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.³He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.⁴Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.⁵The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.⁶The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.⁷The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.⁸The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore."

Romans 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

Happy Times!

We are home from another appointment today. This is the first time I have seen my fertility doctor since we found out we are having twins. I was interested in seeing his reaction. When the nurse opened the door to call me back, she just grinned and I said, "How about that?!" She said, "Be careful what you wish for, huh?" When the doctor came in, he was all smiles and talked about how nice it was to call home from a 3 week trip and hear such good news. When the babies came up on the ultrasound screen, he kept saying "Beautiful, just beautiful." That was music to my ears because I had been super extra nervous all morning about the appointment. He said this will be the last time he will see me, and we have to keep him "in the loop." They went ahead and made an appointment for me with my regular OB (I decided to stay with the one I have seen twice already). I go Friday afternoon just to talk and get information and again on Monday for an actual visit with the doctor. Somewhere in there they will do blood work too. He also told me to stay on the extra progesterone until 11 1/2 weeks.

Enough talk! Time for pictures!
Baby A measured at 9 weeks, which is back to where we originally thought.
Baby B measured at 8 weeks, 5 days.
(I think....I'm already mixing their information up! Ugh!...anyway, you get the point!)
The nurse wrote A & B on the top of the pictures so we would know which is which-this is very important information!

Baby A was upside down. Baby B was on his/her back.

Baby A's heart rate is at the top (185) and Baby B at the bottom (183).

So yesterday I am pretty sure I looked pregnant. I will not be wearing that shirt again! I asked my assistant (Kathy) at school if she thought I did and she said, "Um, yeah.......but just a little!" Wesley's comforting words were, "Don't worry, maybe people will just think you are fat!" How sweet....he was trying to make me feel better. (Then, this morning when I was saying I was extra nervous he said, "But you LOOK pregnant! Everything is fine!") We aren't going to be able to keep this a secret much longer! I think the plan is to wait until next weekend when Martha is back from Disney so she can be there when we announce the happy times in Cleveland. We'll try to keep everything off of Facebook until then. This weekend, Daddy is coming to Cleveland with some cattle and is bringing Ma Coley so we can tell her. Mom is going to see Granny in Alabama and we are going to tell her over Skype.
Lots of fun! You know there will be pictures of that!

Oh.......and just for clarification, I asked, and there are only TWO babies. :)

Uncle Michael

I had to tell Michael our big news over the phone. Sad times since this is my new favorite hobby (seeing people's expressions!)......I told him I was sad that I didn't get to see his face, so he texted me this picture. I think he's a bit excited. Wesley said he thought Michael was more excited than anyone else!
In other news, Kellee told me she watched a show on TLC called "Make Room for Multiples." So, I set the DVR to record it and watched an episode Thursday night. Big mistake (thanks a lot, Kellee!). I was already feeling sick and I felt worse and worse the longer I watched-and I fast forwarded through the C-Section part! As soon as it was over, I stopped the recording of this program! I will stay in this "happiness denial of all scary things" phase for as long as I can!
I have an appointment with my fertility doctor on Wednesday. Hopefully, we will see more pictures of two healthy babies! Martha is convinced there is a third, so hopefully this will also put that to rest! That's more kids than I have arms! Of course, we will thankfully take whatever God has in plan for us!

"Did you know there are two?"

Whew.......I just typed this all out and it is LLLLOOOOONNNNNGGGG, but it's worth it, so hang in there! :)

Friday afternoon we went to the doctor for another ultrasound. My hopes were to hear a heartbeat and see a healthy baby. I knew it would probably take awhile to get to see the doctor because they double booked my appointment in order for her to see me. My appointment was at 3:30 and I think she came in around 4:45. Wesley was not a patient waiter, but he made it. Dr. Holmes came in and talked for a bit then started the ultrasound. As soon as it popped up on the television screen, I could tell there were two babies. The one on the left was moving and looked bigger. The one on the right looked more like a circle shape and wasn't moving much. I started to panic thinking that there had been twins and something happened to one of them. (I am totally not a worry-er! I just have a lot to pray about!) Dr. Holmes asked the nurse to get an ultrasound tech and I was a little more concerned. As soon as the nurse left, Dr. Holmes looked at me and said, "Did you know there are two?" My response: "Are you kidding me? Are they both okay?" She assured me that they were fine. (The baby on the right started moving more and that made me feel better too!) I looked over at Wesley and he rolled his eyes at me, shook his head, and grinned, of course! The ultrasound took awhile because she needed to get good measurements of both babies. The baby on the left measured 6w1d and the baby on the right measured 6w2d. This was about 5 days behind what we thought I was. We were able to hear both heartbeats-what an amazing sound!! We heard the heartbeats for quite awhile because she was trying to get a heart rate for both. She ended up printing the heartbeat pictures for a tech to manually figure out on Tuesday. During the ultrasound, she looked at Wesley and asked if he was okay. She said some people cry and are not happy. I felt myself tearing up when she said there were two babies, but then I was smiling too big to cry! Dr. Holmes said she is pretty certain that they are not identical because you can see the division in between them.
When the ultrasound was finished and we were about to leave, I asked Dr. Holmes about pictures for us to take with us. She had forgotten to print some for us and then was afraid she would delete them off of the hard drive instead of printing them. She assured me we would get copies of the pictures, but we wouldn't have them for the weekend. Of course I asked, "Can I take a picture with my phone?" :) She said, "YES!" and got the picture with both babies. After I took a picture with my phone, she insisted on looking at it to make sure it was a good one. I really, really like her a lot! She said that my fertility doctor would probably want to see me at the end of this week or first of next week and that he would probably continue to see me until 10 weeks before he releases me to my regular doctor since I am having twins.
When we walked out of the office, Wesley said, "That room's barely big enough for one crib, how are we going to fit two? I have to make two cribs?!" (The specifics of that conversation are a little sketchy since I remember it this way and Wesley remembers it another way, but this was the gist of it!) Then again later on the way to Cleveland, he said, "WHO has twins?!" I told him that Jacob and Esau's parents had twins and he pointed out that they fought. Bad example I guess?
Anyway, after we left the doctor's office, I went by Bed, Bath, and Beyond and got two frames that said, "Happiness is having Grandkids," so we could tell our parents the big news. THAT was fun times! They were all shocked! I don't think they were expecting it (which was just what we were hoping!). The picture of the frame and videos of us telling them are below. I can't believe I forgot to get a picture with my good camera, but an iPhone picture will have to do.






Kristy requested another picture of Baby Brody with BabIES Skelton. She said the one from PTP didn't count because we didn't KNOW there were two babies in my belly then. Of course, this is perfectly logical and makes complete sense, so we complied.
Telling people we are having twins is the most fun thing EVER. There were a handful (or two) of people who knew we were pregnant and I have tried my best to tell everyone in person the BONUS news! Wesley spilled the beans to Roby & Jaina on the phone because he was so excited (or shocked?), but pretty much everyone else we have told in person. It's awesome. We show them the ultrasound picture on my phone and they either say, "Awwww," and don't realize there are twins......OR........their eyes pop out of their head and a huge smile spreads on their face. It's so fun! This is my new favorite hobby!
We are waiting a few more weeks before we really spread the news, so thanks to those who know for keeping your lips sealed for the time being!
Love you all!
Wesley, Denise, Patty (because she looks like a padlock according to Mark) and Belte (I had it spelled Belti, but Wesley informed me that there is no i.....sorry about that!)
**Totally forgot to explain that Wesley claims we are naming one baby Belteshazzar and calling him Daniel for short (Daniel 1). Morgan said if he names our baby Belteshazzar, she will call him Belte! Then, she decided Shazz would be better.....maybe they will both be girls! Ha!