12 weeks

We had our super fun nuchal translucency scan on Tuesday.  They don't give us our final results (our actual risk for major defects) for a couple of weeks but the tech and our OB, Dr. R, said that everything looked "nice and average".  Thank you very much, I will take average.  Meeting Dr. R was actually a surprise.  We didn't know he would be there.  It turns out, he is like the head of some secret ultrasound medicine society and the head of perinatology and has a super, super kind manner.  We, parents-to-be, take thee, Dr. R, as our high risk OB, to have and to hold...do you think he would consider moving in with us? I love this guy already.

The ultrasound was really cool.  The babies are pretty well formed and "moving around like circus children", per the tech.  Gregg thought this was hilarious.  A quick aside: my fellow pregnant infertile over at Conceive This, a blog I obsessively follow which is found in my "lifelines" link list, recently posted an entry about quickening.  I have to say that I have felt baby A , who is closer to my groin, pretty regularly for about 2 weeks, and baby B, less frequently, for about 10 days.  It definitely does not feel like gas, and definitely does feel like goldfish flipping and tickling in there.  Bizarre.  I love it.

Anyway.  Both babies have nasal bones, 2 arms and 2 legs, stomachs, hearts, spines, brains.  All excellent things to have if you plan on living on planet earth as a human being.  We saw one rubbing his/her eye.  I never thought I'd say this but, it was totally, totally cute.  I know it's too early, but I could swear one had Gregg's big square head and one had my more roundish head.  It will be interesting to see. Okay, I'll admit it:  little tears squeezed out of my eyes when I saw them and I was grinning like a village idiot the entire time.  Apologies to any village idiots.  I'm talking about village idiots of yesteryear anyway, not current ones.  

 I got my first gender hunch, probably risky but who cares? I know that we will not know for sure for 6 more weeks, if then, but I really, really, really think at least one is a girl.  I Googled "very early genital development and detection" and I swear I saw a "genital tubercle parallel to the spine" on baby B, which could mean girl.  Baby A wouldn't show the goods, and Dr. R just said , "well, could be" and wouldn't commit, but it was sort of with a wink.  I guess with all of that research, my thinking Baby B is a girl qualifies as more than a hunch, but I can't buy girly stuff based on a guess.  We're not hoping for any particular gender, as long as each is fully one or the other anatomically.  These are things pediatric healthcare providers worry about.  There is this $35 pee in a cup to find out the gender thing at the drug store and it apparently works for fraternal  twins too, but if we did it, the results would have to be taken with a large grain of salt.  That's a lot of money for what could be as valid as a party game.

It is again past 1:30 am.  I cannot post my ultrasound pics right now because the scanner is too loud.  Also, they only gave us one super good profile of baby B, and just one of the top of baby A's head.  I know that the purpose of the the scan is to look for serious problems, not for photographs...but...well, darn.  I have a quick visit with the NP next Tuesday then another ultrasound (the official anatomy scan) in 6 very long weeks.  

Sleeping from 8 pm to 12:30 am and then 3:30 am to 6:30 am is working out for me, except for the tip-toeing thing.  Our washing machine is defunct, so I can't do laundry (a situation rapidly becoming dire down here on the farm but soon to be remedied) and I can never seem to knit in these early hours, although I think it would be ideal.  I think it's because I think I'll actually return to bed and fall asleep, so I don't want to get too involved.  Then again, here I am, tippity-tapping on the keyboard blah blah blah.