One Boy and One Girl

We had our big doctor's appointment yesterday and things went really well. We went back for the sonogram and the sonographer spent some time locating each of the babies and then measured their heads, stomachs, and femurs. Suprisingly both babies are measuring the exact same which is wonderful because the are developing at an equal rate. She next went to Baby A to determine the gender, but the baby was not cooperating. At first a foot was in the way and then the umbilical cord, so she went over to Baby B to try. Very quickly she was able to identify the extra equipment and declared Baby B a boy. With this news Tim let go of my hand and started screaming and jumping up and down. Next he dropped to the ground for push-ups. I apologized to the sonographer but she said that she liked to see such excitement.

Once Tim regained his composure I was sent to the restroom in the hopes that walking would move Baby A. When I came back, the umbilical cord was still in the way, but she was able to get a pretty good look and declared Baby A a girl.

Baby A Yawning

As she was finishing up, the sonographer and I were talking when Tim said, "Is that someone waving?" We both turned to the screen and sure enough Baby B (boy) was looking directly into the "camera" and waving at us. I thought it was a joke the sonographer plays on all parents at the conclusion of the sonogram, but she convinced us that it was no joke. You can kind of see it in one of the pictures, but on the video she gave us it is super clear.

If you look closely you can see the face of the baby on the left and his arm above his head waving.

We are going back in two weeks for the fetal analysis sonogram where she will look at internal organs such as the heart and the brain, but she said at this point everything looks great.

For those 6 of you who voted correctly, don't worry you will all be given equal opportunity for the night shift. We wouldn't want anyone to feel left out :-).

Finding out the gender of the twins helped us to finalize names. Our son will be Tayden James - Tayden because Tim really wanted his son to have a "T" name, and James after my precious dad that passed away on September 9, 1998. Our daughter will be Brooklyn McCarty - Brooklyn for two reasons - 1)My grandmother (dad's mother) was named Brooksie and 2)My middle name and my mom's middle name is Lynn, and my great grandmother's first name was Lennie. McCarty was Tim's grandmother's maiden name. She meant the world to him and he wanted to honor her.

We greatly appreciate all of your prayers and encouragement! We are truly blessed and this year Thanksgiving will have a whole new meaning for us.

17 Weeks

I am officially in my 4th month of pregnancy and the 2nd trimester!! I am still feeling good and have a little more energy than I did the first few months. I am starting to show and for once in my life my stomach is very firm. People are wanting to rub my belly and find it so "cute" - again a first for me.
We rented a Doppler from storkradio.com so that we could listen to the twins' heartbeats at home. We spent every night for two weeks listening to the babies, marveling at how well we could hear them. When we went to the doctor for our October visit we took the Doppler just to make sure we were doing things right. Dr. White came in with his Doppler and the sound his picked up were totally different than what we had been listening to. We showed him what we had been doing, and he explained that for two weeks our nightly ritual was really listening to my heartbeat in my pelvis. We were so embarrassed!!!!
Next Tuesday, November 24th, is our BIG doctor's visit. We will be having the sonogram to check to make sure both babies are healthy and to find out what they are!!! I am so ready to know so that I can start buying stuff and setting up the nursery. We had pretty much decided that the theme of the nursery would be Dr. Seuss (reds, blues, greens), but now I am starting to wonder if we should go with the more traditional pink and brown or blue and brown. Decisions, decisions...
We officially cancelled our December trip to Pittsburgh last week. I was already a nervous wreck that something would go wrong and I didn't want to be far from home if it did. We figured we would wait until next year and try to take the babies to their first Steelers game. We did decide to go Austin instead. We are going to spend a day at the outlet mall shopping for baby goodies and then two days just relaxing. It will more than likely be our last trip for awhile.
Our nightly dinner conversations now focus on how different our lives are going to be in a few short months. I want us to be as mentally prepared as possible, but in reality I know that nothing can truly prepare us for the journey we are about to begin. I am so lucky to be married to such a calm, laid-back man. I know he will be my voice of reason, my calming force, and my equal partner in parenting. He is so very excited and I know that he will be an amazing dad!!! We are both blessed to have such supportive families that we know will help us keep our sanity. Please keep us in your prayers and tune in on Tuesday for the big announcement - boy/girl, boy/boy, or girl/girl.