Week 15!

2/16/14:

Week 14!

2/9/14:

Week 13!

2/2/14:

Nuchal Translucency Test!

1/29/14: On the same day we had your 12 week appointment, we also did some genetic testing. Mommy and Daddy met with a genetic for a long time to talk about our health history and our family's health history. It was kind of overwhelming! Finally, we got to see you again! This time you were on a much nicer screen and way easier to see. We could see a profile of your bodies and it was so neat! Daddy kept pointing at the screen and saying WOW, this is so cool. The fluid behind both of your necks was within normal range and Mommy was so happy to hear that! Baby A was even awake and moving now which made Mommy really happy again. A couple days after this appointment we got the results and we were very pleased. We are not worried about any chromosomal disorders for either of you!

Week 12 Appointment!

1/29/14: Mommy and Daddy were so excited to have your 12 week appointment. We knew we would have a chance to hear your little heartbeats again. Grandma Judy was coming down to hear them, too. Mommy had her appointment and the doctor answered her questions and when it was time to hear the heartbeats, Grandma wasn't there yet! Daddy was on the phone with Grandma trying to get her to the clinic and the doctor was busy finding your heartbeats. Unlike the week 10 appointment, she found your heartbeats right away! Mommy was so busy working hard to try and hear them that she doesn't remember what the count was. Daddy didn't hear them. Mommy was bummed that Grandma missed it and the doctor knew this. She said if Grandma got there soon, she would show Grandma. Grandma got to the appointment 5 minutes later. We went back to the room and the doctor had a surprise for us! Because Grandma had drove all the way from Saint Cloud, the doctor said she would do us one better and show Grandma the babies on the ultrasound. The machine was very old and it was kind of hard to see you. But it was still very exciting. Baby B was moving all over the place. Baby A was sleeping. The doctor said normally they like to see you guys moving faster, but that A was probably just taking a nap. She wasn't concerned. Grandma asked if she could tell what you guys were! It was way too early for that. The doctor said even if you were out of the tummy, we still probably wouldn't know what you were!

Sharing the news with family!

1/24/14: Finally, the day was here and we could share our BIG secret! Mommy was so excited and anxious that she didn’t sleep much the night before! She just wanted everything to go exactly as planned. Mommy wanted Auntie Nina to hear the big news, too so she was trying to get Auntie to commit to a time to answer her phone when Mommy called. Mommy and Auntie were texting back and forth and Auntie said, “are you preggers”. Mommy responded with, “I will talk to you later.” Again, Auntie said, “You are preg.” Mommy just ignored Auntie's text because she wanted to make Auntie wait to hear with everyone else. The party started at 6:00 and Mommy was getting anxious because Grandpa Clarence and Grandpa Mark were late! Mommy just wanted to hurry up and share the big news! Mommy asked her friend Holly to videotape the news, but sadly the video camera did not work and Mommy continued on with her news and no recording of it! L. Mommy and Daddy stood in front of everyone and Mommy heard people shouting out different ideas of why we were standing there, “You’re having a baby” and “You’re pregnant”. Finally, after everyone calmed down, Mommy started her little speech. Mommy thought she would be able to get through the announcement without crying, but of course Mommy was so happy that she teared up right away. Choking out her words, Mommy said, “Everyone knows that we have been trying to get pregnant for a few years and it has been very hard, but we are FINALLY pregnant!” Mommy was crying really hard! It was hard for Mommy to talk! Everyone started clapping and cheering. Grandma Judy barely let Mommy finish talking before she jumped up and gave Mommy a hug and said she was happy for her! But then Mommy said, “Wait there is more.”  Mommy heard people shouting out, " it’s Twins!" Mommy then said, “We are excited for our family of 3 to grow to 5 in August.” Mommy heard everyone gasping and talking. Mommy looked over and Grandma Judy was counting on her fingers! Afterwards, Daddy told Mommy that Grandma Margaret and Aunt Kim were bawling their eyes out! Later on, Mommy found out that Grandpa Clarence had called Great Grandma Jarnot and told her! Mommy wanted to tell Great Grandma the next day but Grandpa already spilt the beans! Mommy called Great Grandma that night to tell her she wanted to come visit the next day. Great Grandma said she had been praying every night for “Jenna and Neil to welcome a child into their lives.” Then Great Grandma said, “But I never asked the dear lord for 2!” Mommy laughed and really liked that comment. Grandma Judy called Great Grandma Jonas that night and told her, too. Great Grandma Jonas said she wasn't surprised! Grandma Judy texted her friends and sisters and Mommy got a few texts that night and the rest of the weekend, congratulating her and Daddy and saying prayers would be said for our angels!

Dismissal from Reproductive Clinic!

1/15/14: Mommy had to have one last ultrasound at the reproductive clinic so that they could dismiss us and move us on to our regular OB. Mommy was a little nervous, but she had a feeling all was well since we had heard your heartbeats on Monday. It is very rare to be able to see both Twins on the screen at the same time when they are so little, but guess what?!?! Of course our babies were seen together on the screen. The tech pointed out both babies and their heartbeats. It was so fun to see the little flickers on the screen. Mommy was so excited! You guys were looking more like babies rather than just a little seed. Mommy brought up her concerns with the doctor about Baby B being a littler smaller and he said he didn’t know what Mommy was talking about. He looked at my chart and said you both were on target and that what I was talking about was the gestational sac size and it was still within normal limits. Today he said you were both measuring right on target and said in fact, they couldn’t be looking any better. That really reassured Mommy and she was so happy when the doctor said that. I kept looking at Daddy and saying isn’t this cool. Daddy just smiled and kept staring at the screen. Mommy could tell Daddy was really into you guys! Mommy and Daddy’s favorite part of the ultrasound was when the tech said oh look baby A is kicking baby B in the head, they are fighting already! Mommy asked the tech to get a picture of that because she would love to share that with all of our friends and family, and Mommy said that is gonna be a good story to tell! The kicking picture is the one we will use to share our exciting news with our family! We wanted to make sure you guys were good and healthy before we shared our news with our family, so at this point, only a few close friends knew about you! Of course, Mommy would have never been able to keep it a total secret for this long! Grandma Judy had been doing a lot of questioning up until then and Mommy had a feeling that Grandma had an instinct that Mommy was keeping something from her. When Mommy tells Grandma about you, she can’t wait to hear her reaction, because Mommy is sure it will be, “I knew it!” We are having a big party on Friday January 24^th, 2014, to celebrate Mommy and Daddy getting their Master’s degrees. But little does our family know, that we are going to be giving them a beautiful shock when we share our news that we are expecting TWINS!!!

First OB appointment!

1/13/14: Mommy was excited to have her first OB appointment at 10 weeks. She brought with your portraits, just in case they didn’t get them from the last clinic. The Nurse Practioner went through Mommy’s health history and talked to her about what she needed to be doing. The NP told Mommy and Daddy that out of all the types of twins that there are, that your type was the least riskiest. That really made Mommy so happy to hear. At the end of the appointment, Mommy asked the NP if we could try to hear your heartbeats. She was very hesitant and explained to Mommy that it might still be too early to hear them and she did not want Mommy to get upset if we couldn’t hear them. Mommy assured her that she would not be upset and begged her to try. We tried and it did take a couple minutes, but we heard the first one! It was so fast and real quiet. We had to listen very carefully. The NP said it was beating around 170 bpm. She said in order to know they are different they would have to be beating at different counts. She tried again to hear the 2^nd heartbeat and it took a little longer, she even thought it was the first heartbeat but then said oh no this one is farther over. She said the second heartbeat was beating at about 160 bpm. She told Mommy that everything looked good and that I needed to stop worrying. It was such a reassuring feeling and Mommy knew in her heart she was going to be able to hear her babies’ heartbeats.  After we left the appointment, Daddy told Mommy how cool it was to be able to hear them. Daddy also thought it was so neat to see the NP get excited when she heard the heartbeats. She would say ooh ohh did you hear it, there it is, with a huge smile on her face. 

First Ultrasound!

12/26/13: Mommy and Daddy went to the doctor to have our first ultrasound and were scared and hopeful for what we would see! We shared our concerns with the doctor who assured us it was normal to feel this way. The ultrasound tech started the ultrasound and Mommy could see something on the screen, but both the tech and the doctor were quiet. Mommy was a little scared and wondering why no one was saying anything. FINALLY, the tech said, “Congratulations, there are 2 healthy heartbeats!” Mommy’s jaw must have hit the floor and she quickly asked the tech if she was joking. The tech said she would never joke about that. Mommy immediately started crying and looked over at Daddy, who had the biggest smile on his face.  Then Mommy apologized for crying and said she wasn’t scared, she was in disbelief that this was actually happening. The tech laughed and said yes, it usually does shock most people. She moved the wand to show us both of you, and said we call them Twin A and Twin B. Twin A is always the one closest to your cervix. Again, the tech assured us that you were measuring very nicely and both of you had healthy heartbeats. After the tech was done, the doctor talked to Mommy and Daddy about what this all meant. He said that as long as you guys were measuring within 1 week of Mommy’s gestational age, that you were doing well. Mommy was a little scared and questioned if you two were still okay because you weren’t right on target. He smiled and calmly said, yes Jenna, they are both doing well. Baby B was measuring a little smaller than Mommy would have liked to see, but the doctor assured me you were doing OK! He explained that you were two eggs that were fertilized separately by 2 sperm, and you each had your own sacs that you were growing in. He explained that you were each your own person and that essentially you would be brother and sister. That meant that you did not share anything except your birthday being the same. But, he did have Mommy and Daddy believing we would get 1 of each! Time will tell. J He told us all of the basics about our now “high risk” pregnancy and congratulated us and said we could move on to our next clinic after coming back for an ultrasound at 10 weeks. He told Mommy she needed to get lots of rest, and this made Mommy very happy that Daddy was there to hear that! J Mommy’s first thought was, “no more house cleaning!” After the doctor left, Mommy jumped off the ultrasound table and ran to Daddy and jumped into his arms and said, “We are having twins! We are having Twins, oh my god Neil, we are having Twins!” Then she looked up at Daddy and he started crying and got a huge smile on his face! Mommy gave Daddy a bunch of kisses and a few more big squeezes, before the tech came back with your first portraits! Baby B was a little more difficult to see and Mommy told Daddy, that must be our “naughty” little boy! Mommy and Daddy left the clinic with huge smiles on our faces. For the rest of the day, Mommy could barely contain her laughter and smiles. Everything that Mommy had always hoped for was finally coming true! We told a few close friends and everyone was so excited. Mommy really wanted to tell Grandma Judy but the timing just wasn’t quite right yet. Soon, though! The next step was Mommy’s first OB appointment with her new clinic. That appointment was scheduled for 1/13 and of course Mommy thought that day would never come!

Confirmation of Pregnancy Test!

11/26/13: Mommy didn’t want to wait for a doctor appointment to confirm the pregnancy so she went to the clinic right away in the morning. Luckily they let Mommy sneak in quick and get her blood drawn. Mommy was on pins and needles until they called her back around 2:30. They told Mommy her HCG level was at 469 and that it looked good. Mommy would have to go back in, in 2 days to get her level checked again.

11/28/13: Mommy went in for her 2^nd HCG level and this time it had more than doubled to 980. Mommy was so happy and each new step was making Mommy realize that this was really happening. The next step would be to come back for an ultrasound at 7 weeks. Mommy could hardly wait for that appointment. It turns out Mommy was 7 weeks during the week of Christmas and her doctor just so happened to take the week off! Mommy could have waited until he came back from vacation and taken an appointment on January 2^nd. There was no way Mommy was gonna make it that long without being able to see you.  She even tried to get an appointment the Friday before and they wouldn’t let her because she would only be about 6 weeks. So reluctantly Mommy scheduled the appointment for 12/26. She was even planning to call when it got closer to see if they could get her in on the 23^rd. Mommy had to have her appointment with another doctor because hers was on vacation, but that didn’t bother Mommy one bit. As long as she could see her baby she would be happy!