2nd trimester!!!!

Woohoo! Major milestone! I am so relieved to have made it this far. Sorry this post is so late...we have had A LOT going on. Here is my usual weekly update with some extra info below.



How Far Along: 13 weeks 5 days

Total Weight Gain: not sure, I'll have to update this after my next appointment

How I'm Feeling: Pretty good, no complaints

Best Moment This Week: I know I had mentioned last week that we were going on a little family getaway. That trip was Adam's idea and he surprised me a couple of weeks ago with the plans to go to Gatlinburg. The biggest surprise though was that he and our friend Dan had planned it together and rented us our own cabin in the mountains. The kids got to play a lot, we did go-carts, played putt-putt, ate tons of junk food, and took really long naps. Oh, and I got to introduce the Heisels to their first-ever hot, fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts...It was truly a special moment in my life that I will treasure forever. Oh sorry, I got off track thinking about the doughnuts. The trip was a really nice time and very relaxing. It came along at the perfect time. It was so thoughtful of Adam to plan this for us and I feel so blessed to have such a great hubby...Hands off ladies, he's mine!

Movement: I feel some little bubbles here and there, sort of like popcorn popping but who knows if that is the real thing. It is hard to tell this early.

Food Cravings: Meat...red meat...yum

Food Aversions: None

Belly Button Innie Or Outtie: Outtie...yikes

What Is Coming Up This Week: Nothing worth noting

Ok so now that I have posted my usual update, I have some other things to talk about. Last week we had our NT ultrascan for the babies. This is a high-resolution ultrasound paired with bloodwork to check for genetic predisposition for Down's Syndrome and Trisomy 13 and 18. Usually this testing is reserved for women over the age of 35 as well as women carrying multiples. Multiple pregnancies and IVF pregnancies carry a higher risk for genetic abnormalities and birth defects than pregnancies conceived without assisted reproductive technologies. The testing is very expensive and only partially covered by insurance so it is done electively. Given that we were at a higher risk, we opted to have the testing done.
Before the testing, our risk for each baby, individually, to have Down's Syndrome was 1 in approx 529. The risk for each baby, individually, to have Trisomy 13 or 18 was 1 in approx 1000. After having the high-resoltion ultrasound and the bloodwork results, our risks went down to 1 in over 10,0000 for each baby to have either Down's Syndrome or Trisomy 13/18. So...That is great news! Those are the only things we could test for at this gestational age. There are more tests to come once we get a little further along.
The babies were not very cooperative during the screening. The ultrasound tech needed the "perfect" angle to get a picture of the nuchal transulancy (NT) that they were looking to measure for the testing. It took a little over an hour to get that picture for both babies. In the meantime, while we were waiting, she was kind enough to take a ton of pictures for us!...Some of them are in 3D/4D which I had never seen before. That part was a lot of fun. Here are some of the pictures she took.

Side profile of Baby A. I love this one because of the cute little nose.

Baby B lying on its left side with its back to us.

Baby B is on the top. You can see a little bit of Baby A on the bottom.

Baby A in 3D/4D

Baby B in 3D/4D

Baby A is the one on the lower left (you cannot see its head) kicking Baby B in the back of the head. I saw this happen and it was definitely a kick that made Baby B jump. I can't believe they are already fighting in there. Little stinkers.


In other news...We are moving!!!! We had been planning on moving for a while now but the plan was to wait a year or two. Once I found out we were having twins, I told Adam we were going to have to put off our moving plans for a little longer than 1 or 2 years. He did not want to wait. Given that the market is picking up now and interest rates are so good and they probably won't be in 3 or 4 years, he wanted to pull the trigger now.
We found a great house in Miami Trails in Loveland that is perfect for us. It is a Zicka Walker, new market home with 4 bedrooms 4.5 bathrooms on almost an acre of land. The basement is finished and the house has lots of other "play" areas for the kids. The kitchen has a big island and double ovens (yay!!), most of all though, we love the yard! It is big, almost flat, and full of lush, green grass. Brooks is going to be in heaven!! And I am certain our kids will love it.
We close on June 15 so hopefully we will be all moved in and settled before I will be in the bed-rest "danger zone". Our house just went up on the market this past Friday, which is why I haven't had time to post any updates. It was a ton of work to get it ready for listing but it looks great. We had our first open house this past Sunday while we were in Gatlinburg. Now that we are officially on the market I feel like I can finally take a huge sigh of relief. Here's hoping it sells quickly.

Here are some pictures of our new digs


Great Room

Kitchen

Kitchen

Dining Room

Basement

Basement

Master Bathroom

Master Bathroom

Front door

Front walk

Back yard looking at the house

Back yard from the house

The garage (I had to include this pic because it is Adam's favorite part of the house besides the yard

Hurry...Someone call Guinness and see if I get the world record for longest blog post ever!!!