The New Pics

Say hello to baby #1 (cute nickname pending)!!!
S(he)'s measuring at 9weeks 3days, with a crown to rump length (CRL) of 23.7mm!


Now, say hello to baby #2 (cute nickname pending)!
S(he)'s measuring at 9 weeks 2 days, with a CRL of 23.4mm!

You can see both babies in each picture pretty clearly. But, I thought they should each get their moment to shine!!!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the doctor said that she saw one of them wiggling!!! Hee hee hee . . . I was so excited, I forgot to ask which one it was!

Our First OB Appointment!!

It went wonderfully!!!!

At first we had a little difficulty seeing baby #2, since s(he)'s hiding behind baby #1! But, after our OB moved us to a new room with a better sonogram machine we were able to see both perfectly!!!

They both have strong heartbeats and are measuring about the same. Baby #1 is 23.7mm and Baby #2 is 23.4mm. They both measuring at about 9 weeks 2 days! Which is why my doctor decided to move my due date up to December 31st!!!

That's right! The Cortez Twins will be here this year! I highly recommend you all start preparing now! haha . . .

I'll post the pics later today!

Clearly the prayers are working! So, keep them coming!

Love you all,

Des

Update on Babies

Had to make an emergency visit to my doctor's office this morning after a bit of a scare.

The kinda bad news is, random things happen and I'm bound to be "scared" many more times between now and January 4th!

The good news is, just like today, these scares always have happy endings!!

The best news is, I got the first picture of the babies together!!! YAY YAY YAY!!!! Now, the baby on the bottom isn't quite as clear as the one on the top, because (s)he's further back. But, no matter, it's their first picture together . . . and I think they're beautiful!

Here are there current stats:

Baby on Top - heart rate: 157 bpm/ CRL: 9 mm

Baby on Bottom - heart rate: 154 bpm/CRL: 12.1 mm

My hcg and progesterone levels are nice and high! It's a beautiful thing ladies and gentleman!! It's a beautiful thing!

The Head!

About a month ago, a mysterious package arrived at my office. When I opened it, I found a wooden statue wrapped in leopard print gift wrap, with no gift card.

Of course, my first reaction was complete and total fear! I ran out of my office with the statue convinced that some unknown enemy of mine was cursing me! I hid the statue in an empty room far away from my office and immediately hopped online with Natasha and Alex to get help figuring out who was trying to curse me!

Well, when I told Natasha what happened. Her response, "Oh good! You got it!!" My question, "Got what exactly?" Apparently it wasn't a curse, but a handmade African fertility statue from Ghana! Oops!

The instructions were to put it at the head of my bed and just wait. Well, that's what we did and 4 weeks later, we found out I was having twins!

Coincidence? You tell me!

Our First OB Appointments

Well, it's time to move on to phase two!

Yesterday our doc gave us the go ahead to make our first appointments with our OB!! While this is very exciting, it's also understandably, quite scary! But, every time I start to feel that old fear creep back into my consciousness I remind myself of my new mantra.

Just in case I haven't shared it with you, here it goes . . .
Today I am pregnant. Today I am pregnant with twins. Whatever happens tomorrow or the next day will happen. There's nothing I can do to change it. So, I'm going to live in today and today I'm overwhelmingly happy to be pregnant with twins.

So far it seems to be working really well! Yay for me!

Anyway . . . the appointments are set. The first will be next Friday, May 30th, at 8:45 am. This appointment is for our first sonogram with the OB! Hopefully we'll be able to get a nice clear picture to post for everyone to see!

Our first full-fledged OB appointment with the midwife is scheduled for June 17th at 5:15 pm. I have no idea what will happen at that one! I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

So, there you have it! As usual, keep the prayers coming . . . for those of you who haven't been keeping count, we have 7 days left to go, before we've entered brand new territory!

TWO HEARTBEATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not one, but TWO!!!

Yes, it's true! Frank and I are having twins! TWINS!!!! I just can't wrap my brain around it! You can see for yourself above! Well . . . you can kind of see! There's clearly something going on in the left picture! As for the picture on the right, I guess we're just going to have to take the doc's word for it! He said that it's hiding further in the back, so it's more difficult to get a clear picture right now.

This TTC ride has been quite a trip, I tell ya! We went from wondering if we would ever have one to wrapping our heads around having two . . . at the same time!

To say that we are overjoyed is an understatement! We couldn't be happier about the news!

But there is one thing . . . the Dr. said that they are both about the same size and have the same heart rate (140 bpm). That lead me to wonder, is it possible that my doc is crazy and only thinks he sees two babies in there, and in reality, he just keeps counting the same one twice? Just a thought!!!

Quick Update

As most of you know, the past week has been an absolute nightmare! It was a week filled with pain, fear, anxiety, anger, frustration, confusion . . . you name it and we felt it!

So, first we'd like to thank all of you who were so extremely supportive and caring and loving through all of it. Whether you were with us physically or not, we wouldn't have survived the week without you.

We headed back to the Dr. on Monday. As we sat in the waiting room, I oscillated between preparing to accept the worst and envisioning the best possible outcome. After an hour and a half of sitting and waiting and thinking and worrying our name was called and we made our way to the room. Again, I took a deep breath and preparing myself for whatever we would hear next.

So, what happened? Well, we saw the heartbeat . . . then the Dr. noticed something else. Behind the baby with the heartbeat there was another baby! Yup, that's right another baby. Now, we didn't see baby number 2's heartbeat, which could mean one of two things. First, it's just too early and we'll see a second heartbeat next week. Or, all of the issues I had last week could be attributed to me losing one of the pregnancies.

At this point it's all just a huge waiting game. Let's just hope that we'll get a few more questions answered at Monday's appointment.

In the meantime, all we can do is pray.

A Very Special Day

So not only did Frank and I see our baby for the first time today, but one of my closest friends gave birth to a beautiful baby boy . . . who just so happens to be my godson!

WOOHOO!!!!!!!

Congratulations Alex, Ted, Lucas and Olivia! Baby Victor is the perfect addition to an already wonderful family!

Love You!!

Baby's First Picture

It may not look like much right now, but that itty bitty little dot is definitely a baby!!

Had more bloodwork and our 1st ultrasound today and it went BEAUTIFULLY!

My levels are increasing right on schedule and we're all feeling really good about this pregnancy! To all of you who've been rooting for triplets and even quads - hate to disappoint, but the Doc only found one in there!

Next appointment is scheduled for May 12th, I'm thinking by then we'll definitely get to see a heartbeat!