Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Having a baby by email....

means sometimes there is miscommunication. Our surrogate did not have a scan today like we were expecting instead she is scheduled for her next scan in two weeks.  The good news is she is doing well and as usual the motto during this pregnancy is "no news is good news".  We know that all three of them are in good hands with Dr. Shivani and her staff.

We are into our 23rd week of pregnancy!  Our apartment is starting to look like two new residents will soon be moving in.  We have a large storage unit from ikea that is beginning to fill with baby stuff.  All major gear decisions have been made - crib, mattress and stroller - but nothing purchased yet.  We will soon be scheduling infant cpr class and an appointment to interview the pediatrician I have picked out for TO and TT.

We are also very thankful to this little guy...the soon to be "big" cousin for letting us borrow all of his baby stuff!  If we have a boy (or two) he is all set for clothes! 


We will be happy to hit Week 24, known as the first week of viability!  Here is to hoping that TO and TT stay put for another 12 weeks and don't cause our surrogate too much trouble.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Week (Pretty Much) 21


So we got the new scans today and boy did I freak. The "scans" are 4D ultrasounds showing a few angles including frontal shots of the faces. Problem was TT looked like s/he had horns. Not just a horn, as if that wouldn't be bad enough, but horns...two of them. I had Stacey frantically emailing the Dr. trying to figure out what's going on and why the report accompanying the scans said everything looks good, when my child clearly has horns. Thank God for Meg and Margarida, two women who now work for our Dr. but previously were her clients and went through the same process Stacey and I are going through now. After reading their emails back to us detailing their reactions to some of the scans, including lines like "I was sure he had no skull and therefore no brain" and "it's baby with a duck bill" and "One of ours looked like ET!" I felt much better.

Now, to explain what's really happening with the scans, I'm just going to plagiarize Margarida's explanation because she does an excellent job of capturing all the science stuff and making it easy to understand "the ultrasound is just sound waves bouncing off surfaces, depending on where your baby is, how big your baby is, how much fat/bone your baby has, there may not be much differentiation between the baby and the uterus and unlike all the pictures you see in books, the inside of the uterus is not smooth surface, but has some small bumps and lumps, so the ultrasound may not differentiate between where your baby stops and where the uterus begins."

PHEW!!! TT doesn't have horns. So, thankfully all is still going well - everyone is healthy and doing what they're supposed to do. Funny thing is they both look like they're raising the roof. And I can make out a little smirk on TO's face and a pout on TT's. Must be because TO is a little bigger than TT and must be pretty pleased with him/herself about sneaking a bit more food.

That's all for now...we get another scan in two weeks. Can't wait!!!