14 Weeks: We've Got More News

So the pregnancy has been going pretty well.  I've been sick like last time, much more tired than last time and I feel bigger than last time.  All sounds very normal.  At my 10 week appointment, the midwife said you're measuring larger but that's pretty normal for a second pregnancy.  At my 14 week appointment on Thursday, the doctor measured me and said, "You're measuring much larger.  Have you felt movements?"  I answered kind of but it's hard to tell. Then she says the words, "Do twins run in your family?"  I answer, "Well actually, yes they do."

My Great Grandma Stevens was a twin and my Grandma May had twins (my aunt Karen and uncle Kevin).  Soooooo skipping a generation, it had been a minor worry of mine but I wasn't really thinking much about it.  She heard the one heartbeat the first time so I thought we were golden.

The doctor quickly squeezed us in for an ultrasound and lo and behold, there were TWO BABIES.  TWO. BABIES. IN. MY. BELLY.  OMG.

Twin A and Twin B

They couldn't keep us long but they wanted us to come back shortly for a more in-depth ultrasound in about a half hour due to other appointments that were already scheduled.  So we waited in the waiting room and excitedly notified our family and friends.  It was completely shocking and overwhelming.

We went back to the room in about a half hour.  She started with what they call Twin A.  Twin A is the one that is closest to the cervix and will come out first.  Twin A was a little showoff.  Posing, waving, kicking, playing.  What a character! Heartbeat was about the 150s.  She said she could tell us her best guess on the sex if we wanted.  We agreed.  She took a close look and guessed Girl.  She moved on to Twin B and Twin A kept popping up in the picture. You could see her hand occasionally like she was saying, "Don't forget about me! Take MY picture!"  Twin B was also in 150s for heartbeat. She took a guess that the way each one was formed, the size and measurements, etc, that they were identical!! TWO GIRLS? Whoa.

Baby Stats

She finished the ultrasound and mentioned something about swelling before leaving the room to go get the doctor.  The doctor came and explained that she was concerned about the swelling around Twin B's brain and spine. Also the baby was a week behind in development compared to A.  She went through a terrible, horrible list of things she thought it could be.  She referred us to the Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist that comes to Lafayette once a month.  We will be seeing the specialist in a month to find out what exactly is going on with Baby B.  Shocked and terrified, we left the office and both took the day off to digest this information.

I think I can safely say that we both went through a range of emotions that day while trying to figure out how we were feeling about all of this.  By the end of the day, we decided there was nothing to do but wait and be hopeful.  And try to stay offline (impossible.)

Because seriously, what else can you do? It's scary and all we have to do is WAIT.  A month is an eternity in this situation.  Friends and family have been super supportive which is hugely helpful.
I came home from work today to some beautiful flowers from some beautiful friends.  Damn, you girls are FAST!

 Love the colors! 

My Email Club Girls

So for now until we have reason not to, it's time to celebrate. Twins, ahem, identical twins (if the ultrasound tech wasn't wrong) are pretty much a miracle.  They are not genetic.  They are pure luck and happenstance.  Another miracle (or just plain good luck) is that each twin has its own placenta so it is less likely that there will be TTTS where one takes the blood supply from the other.

So as disappointing as it first was for me to grasp, this pregnancy/labor/delivery is going to be entirely different from the first one.  I think unless you have a horrible experience, most mothers want a similar experience the second time around because familiarity is very comforting.  But I'm embracing it and trying to best prepare myself for the craziness that is ahead.

I have to post a week by week picture too, as much as I've been fighting it.  But you have to see the difference between the two pregnancies.

Here's 14 weeks with Tommy T. Just a LITTLE bigger. Sheesh. 

I used the Wave Cam App that I got from Apps Gone Free to take this picture.  This app was strictly made for selfies.  Too funny.  But hey, it works! 

So Baby T2 is now Baby A and Baby B.  Sorry for the confusion but hey, apparently we don't do anything easy in the Thornburg household.  The thought that keeps running through my head is "You make plans and God laughs."  I had just made the mistake of mentioning to my mom how much I would hate to have a high risk pregnancy.  Welllll, now I'm super mega ultra high risk.  Such is life.  

If you have the time, we could really use good thoughts and prayers for both Baby A and Baby B.  We want them to be healthy! 

Saturday in the Park/That's Apptastic

Last Saturday we went to the park with Tommy who was wearing his Batman shirt with the attached cape. He ran around fighting crime all morning! 

I took a boatload of pictures and I didn't want to bore you with park picture after park picture after paaarrrkkk piiiiiiccccctttuuuurrreeee.  So I pulled up a couple of trusty ol' apps and had a little fun. The first app I used was Instacollage with a nice app for throwing pics together easily. 

 He Capital L Loved the swing! Whee!!

For my next APP, I chose Halftone so I could make a quick comic book for all y'all.

 I love that cape blowing in the wind as he climbs up the slide.

 Yes you are supposed to read that in a Schwartzenegger voice.

Batman/Aquaman?

 Yep I wrote "geen gas".  That's exactly how he says it too.  Geen gas, geen gas, geen gas!

You're supposed to use your imagination here, folks.  Pretend that's not a swing but a Repelling Device for a Superhero.

I looked of the spelling of little boys' ray guns and that's what the internet gave me.  Pyew pyew pyew! 

That cartoon cloud just appeared in my picture after I took it, no effects needed.  He was running that fast.  

I was trying to create the whole explosion-happening-while-he-walks-away-in-slow-motion thing.

Once again, Superhero Tommy saves the day!

Alumni Game

Last weekend we went to Purdue's Inaugural Alumni game. It was very cool to see the players come back and play a pick up game. I take that back. It wasn't cool at all.  It was hotter than two hamsters farting in a wool sock (inspiration for that saying is here, not very proud that I stumbled upon it). Mackey Arena has no air conditioning so we sweated for a few hours while watching the alumni game and then the current players scrimmage.

We went to Jake's for lunch before the game. Of course Jake's didn't know it was the alumni game.  They had one waiter working the upper level and 2 cooks for the whole restaurant.  We were there early so we got our order in early but we felt bad for everyone else that got there after us. It got packed really quickly.

Not only was it the alumni game but it was also graduation day for Summer Session.  You would think they would have prepared for that.  But not so much.

I got a new app and I tried it out.  It's called 360 Panorama. I haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet but this is one of my first attempts.  Hopefully I'll get a little better.

 They had the current players sitting out at tables around Mackey for people to stand in line and get autographs and pictures.  We didn't stand in line but we did creep on the players a bit while walking by. :)

I can't tell who the first guy at this table is (I think he's a walk on) but the next 3 are T. Johnson, Hale, and Simpson.

Let the creeping commence! I'm posing with Terone! :)

Then it was game time!

 The alumni were practicing before the game.  I love Robbie's face in this shot.

This is also a good face from Cardinal.

 Tomahawk Jam from Kramer!
By the way, I googled Tomahawk jam because I wanted to make sure I was calling it the right thing (shut up) and I found this little gem that makes me so much more in love with the interwebs.

JAZZKETBALL!!

 Here's a full court shot of Mackey.

 Here's Mean Gene waving to the crowd. Purdue Basketball Family Reunion INDEED.

 This guy.  He was what they called the "Senior" Alumni player.  He played in the 60s I believe.  It was pretty awesome.  Every time he had the ball in his hands, the crowd was screaming SHOOT IT! He did not.  Things have changed a bit since he played. But he gave it a GREAT effort.  Plus with no air conditioning, I mean come on.  What a champ.

Here he is playing the actual game.  He's like "Yikes fellas! Don't hurt me!"

 I got to zoom in and creep on Jujuan.  Aww. Stalking is such sweet sorrow.

Creeped a bit on Robbie too.  Hey bro!

Hey look at that! The Boilers won! Nice!

 Alumni player family picture

Instead of googling what type of dunk this was, I asked Andrew.  He said, "Backward." So here's Anthony Johnson doing a backward dunk. :-)

 Two big johnsons on the floor (A favorite quote in my family is my super young younger brother saying, "Dad, just what exactly IS a big johnson??")

 Newly married Mean Gene is ready to party!

 Jeff Washburn from the J&C got a quick interview right before....

 Erin and I got our picture with Gene Keady!! Awesome!! We asked him for a picture and he agreed.  He said, "I'm like a thorn between two roses." (Did you think he used a line like that when he met his new wife?) Erin said to him, "And our last name is Thornburg!" He said, "Huh. Are you guys from Thorntown?"  Ah Gene.  You still got it! :-)

Andrew took this pic and it just cracks me up. What do you think he's saying?

Got his Herbie Hancock too!

Anyway, despite that horrendous heat, we had a great time.  Very cool to see all the old players again.

Random Pictures of the Week

 I'm still using Hipstamatic occasionally.

 Action shot! He loves making that noise.

 After his bath, Tommy played the part of a cape-wearing superhero!

 He ran laps holding his duck from his bath.  Back and forth, dragging his towel tail behind him.

 Then I made him stop for a quick pic.

 Then he decided to put his hands in my mouth.  He loves teeth!

Cast a spell, little wizard! :) Or play a drumbeat. Whichever works for you, Tommy T.

iSplishin' and iSplashin'

Another photography app? Seriously? Yes of course! I'm a little obsessed. This one is called iSplash.  It works a lot like Paint so I can't use it on my iPhone.  Waahhh. But it works better than the function on my camera.  Take a look.  

 This was my first try.  Not too bad.

This was my second try.

This is my favorite.  Tommy is now big and strong enough for the Ducky Tub!! What a big boy! He doesn't quite know what to think of it just yet. He likes being able to play with toys while bathing but it's much harder for mom and dad to get him clean.  He is a wiggly one (as Grandma Strauser used to say).

Look forward to more color accented photos.  I know you're excited! :)