19w6d

It's SO hard to believe that tomorrow I'll be 20 weeks! I'm most DEFINITELY over halfway there... even if they surprise us and come on the later end of things. I feel a ton more pregnant than I am though of course. I haven't been able to feel the top of my uterus lately-well surprise, it's because it's right underneath my ribcage. Wasn't checking up there. I haven't been sleeping good-my back has really been bothering me (old back problems I can't really do anything about) and this morning I just woke up on my own at 8 and got up instead of trying to snooze a little more-unlike me, but I was sick of tossing and turning. Might as well be productive and enjoy a little quiet time before Maya wakes up.

So yesterday. Well, back up to the night before. Had a horrible sleep, I swear it was the longest night ever (it's like the night before Christmas or the night before Vacation when you were a kid!) ...but somewhere in there I had a VERY vivid dream that we had one boy and one girl. I had been thinking that for a few weeks now, even down to which was which, so I officially made it my guess (and the dream was so vivid that I remembered what time I had them and everything). We got up early yesterday morning, Patrick got out of work early, and we were on our merry way to a busy day in Savannah shortly thereafter.

When we got to the appointment, everything changed. Long, emotional story short-they REFUSED to let Patrick in with Maya and insisted that not only did they not go back with me but they had to go wait downstairs in this tiny lobby area (couldn't even wait in the waiting room?!) because of their "strict no children policy".

Now, I had heard the recording with the confirmation of my appointment, please no children allowed. That's fine and all, but I heard this recording on Tuesday-in the middle of the day-so, way to give us a lot of time to plan. We still don't know a ton of people here yet, most of them work, and our usual sitter had family in town so I couldn't ask her to take Maya for 6 hours. I decided to take her, but was still unsure, so Patrick quickly did the paperwork for CDC (day care center on base)-but it ended up that there was no way we'd be back in time to pick her up before they closed. So we were kind of in a bind.

I cried and cried in that office (VERY unlike me, for those who know me really well) and the manager refused to budge. I tried explaining to her that we HAD NO OTHER OPTION since the CDC would be closed by the time we got back, and that if we had known about this policy beforehand we would have made the appointment for an earlier time so that we COULD drop her off there. She swore up and down that I knew about it, saying that it's on the paper with the initial appointment stuff (which ends up being ball dropped on Naval's part because they were faxed that paper and only relayed the appointment date and time to me) and that I should have gotten paperwork in the mail (nope, I had my appointment for over two months, but nothing. Then she realized the office had only mailed it a few days ago). But then she tried to blame it on the fact that I changed my appointment so otherwise I would have gotten the letter (um, sorry my husband is in the Marine Corps and things change so I have to change appointments too... and plus, seeing as I STILL don't have that letter, it STILL would have been extremely last minute that I found out!) ...so I was seriously sobbing and she was asking what she could do to make the situation better (at this point other patients were going after them, saying that's not fair, how can they do that, etc) and I just sobbed and told them to please make sure that NEVER happens to another person again, because that was completely unfair. So, he didn't get to come back. I cried till I had to go back for my scan. Really took a crap on our really exciting day.

I had an awesome ultrasound tech though. When she started talking to me back in the room I couldn't even talk without crying then either, but it was ok shortly thereafter-she really was sweet and just really helped kind of diffuse my emotions, I guess. She told me when to look away when she was getting the gender shots, and then labeled them (NOT that I needed any labels... they were clear as day!) and put them in a sealed envelope for Patrick and I to open together.

So, now that the huge story is over, I'll get to the the babies!

Both babies are head down right now, both weigh 10oz, and as of yesterday were both measuring at 19w5d, right on target. Baby A, our little girl, is on my left side (I guessed girl on my left and boy on my right! How's that for accuracy!) and her placenta is on the back bottom. Baby B, our little man, is of course on my right and his placenta is on top in the front-might be why I can't feel him kicking quite as much! They both look great-hearts, kidneys, brains, all their fingers and toes... moving around and growing just as they should, in the right amount of fluid they should have!

Baby B, however, has a few soft markers for Down Syndrome. Now, this doesn't mean he'll have it-it's kind of like hindsight pregnancy symptoms, where you were sick but that could have been being sick or morning sickness, you were tired but that could have been a drop in iron or the fact that you worked a long day or because you're pregnant, or you have a ravenous appetite but that's because Aunt Flow is about to arrive or because you are pregnant. Get what I mean? He has a hot spot on his heart-there's a looong name to it but I forget it, and it's REALLY not important anyway-it does absolutely nothing but just exist, it doesn't hinder heart functions or anything (the ultrasound tech said that they probably see that 10 times a day). The only other marker he had was different arm/head size ratios-but like the hindsight symptoms, that could just mean that he has a little wider of a head! They called Naval for my quad screen bloodwork and it came back just fine-so I had the option of getting genetic counseling (to up or lessen our "chances") or an amniocentesis (which would definitely tell us, but comes at a risk) and I declined both.

Right now they put us at a 1/300 risk for it but if that is how God made that baby, so perfect and special and just for us, wasting our time going all the way back down to Savannah to do genetic counseling or possibly risking his little life to get an answer by doing an amnio isn't going to change a thing. Every person on Earth has his or her own challenges and if that's the one that's going to face our little man, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Want to see some pictures now? :)

These ones are of our girl, Baby A:

Our little dude-Baby B!

I admittedly thing this one is a little creepy. haha.

This is my favorite, of them snuggled up together :)

After our appointment we finished some errands we needed done (we rarely venture to that part of Savannah since it's so much of a drive), we caught a few really good deals and got a couple of the babies' first outfits, just to add to the excitement of the day. By the time we got done, fought traffic, and stopped for (a delicious!) dinner, we didn't get home until almost 9. My head was pounding from the stress at the office and it was pretty much all I could do to get the results and the ultrasound pictures posted online before I finally crashed.

Today's a busy one, but a fun one (if I can shake this headache! It's making me go 2 miles per hour). I'm hoping Patrick gets out of work early today so we can go pick out paint, stop by the secondhand store here in town (we've seen BRAND NEW baby outfits in there-win for us!) and just basically keep working and making plans for the nursery, since it's time to be planning now. And I need to plot out our garage sale route for the morning. Cross your fingers I can find a nice big dresser to refinish, I refuse to buy one new!

Thanks for all who got through this post! I know it's a long one but there was just a lot to tell. Thank you for all who are so excited for us and who support us through this-it means so much!

**edit: The letter from the Perinatologist came today. It did indeed specify-in highlighted words-to not bring children, why, and what would happen. My mail runs at three. The CDC closes at 4:30. Even if I hadn't had my appointment changed it still wouldn't have given me time to get all the registration done and get her in. And here's the kicker: the letter was postmarked the ninth, the day before my appointment.