29 Weeks: Growth Scan

 

We got to see the babies again today!  They are getting so big and crowded, we didn't really see the boys... we saw more slices and chunks of the boys.  At the end, the ultrasound tech did kindly give us a quick 3d/4d peak at them.  You can see even less in these images than the last scan, but it is still pretty neat.  They are getting a lot fatter! 

 

 

To start, I made this nifty diagram so you can better understand how they are in there.  Note: this is not to scale.  I'm still not super great at making things using Paint, so we are all stick figures.  In real life, they are curled up a lot more.  Leonidas's butt is in my ribcage for example, not so much his legs.  Anyway, here is the baby positions:

 

Leonidas is in blue and Zeus is in red.  You can see how their heads are pretty close in the middle and their legs are over the other's head.  It is kind of like a giant ball of babies in there.  They are facing each other and curled around each other.  I definitely won't feel guilty about putting them in bunk beds when they are born. 

Here are the boys:

 

Here is Leonidas.  In real life, he is upside down.  You can see how he is curled into a ball.  His butt is in the area where my ribs meet in the middle.  I had been feeling something hard there for about a week.  I assumed it was Zeus's head, but I was wrong.  I've been rubbing my boy's butt all week instead of petting a head.  Ooops.  You can see his legs curled up to his chest and his arm over his head.  Zeus's face is at the top.  I did give him eyelashes, eyebrows, and a nipple for frame of reference.

 

Here is an angle that better shows them curled up around each other.  Leonidas is on the right upside down and Zeus is on the left right side up.  This reminds me of the scene in the Spiderman movie where he kisses the girl upside down.  They do have a membrane between them, but it looks like they are getting some valuable cuddle time.  I think the stuff across the time is Leonidas's body, but I wasn't positive.  You can see Zeus's arm in really good detail.

Here is another with both the boys.  You can see Leonidas's knee above and around Zeus's head.  Zeus's lower body and legs are wrapped over and around Leonidas's head.  Zeus has a random red line draw on his head.  That was a tracing mistake on my part.  I was not trying to highlight anything important.  Again, the best details of this picture is the clarity of Zeus's arm.  They do look cute curled up in there together though. 

A final image of the boys together.  The ultrasound tech labelled this one for you.  Zeus's hand and arm are really clear in this one.  If you look back at old images, you can really see how much he has filled out. 

That is all we got this week.  As you can see, there was no way to get a clear shot of their faces.  They are too close together and facing each other.  That is okay, we will be able to see their faces all we want in 5-7 weeks!!! 

 

 

Their measurements are all fine.  They are still within 11% of each other.  With my type of twins, one of the biggest concerns is making sure they stay a similar size to each other.  11% is well within the acceptable range.  Leonidas is 2 lbs 10 oz and Zeus is 2 lbs 5 oz.  That means I have about 5 lbs of baby wiggling around in there.  As huge as I feel, I just really don't understand where all of the baby is.  It seems like I should be way bigger.  

Fun Appointment Fact: The doctor kept calling me Ruby and asked Cody how work is going at ConAgra.  I guess he was pretty close.  It seems a little bit particular for me to expect my doctor to know my first name.  That's what I get for having 2 names that are common as both first names and last names.  Cody and I just laughed each time and didn't correct him.

Cody jokingly said something to the doctor about me being whiny about being uncomfortable sitting, standing, etc.  The doctor said that he was going to give me a left handed compliment and said that after 5 minutes with some of the pregnant women he comes across, you wouldn't want to ask them on a date.  I, on the other hand, am relatively low maintenance.  So there you go, the specialist in high risk women's pregnancy believes that I am relatively low maintenance.  The exchange was a little odd coming from a doctor with a daughter older than me.... but whatever.  I'm pregnant so people get to say weird things I guess.  As long as the babies come out healthy and happy, I'll take odd exchanges with doctors. 

My next appointment is in 2 weeks.  I will probably start non-stress tests around then as well.  They are just an additional layer of monitoring to make sure we are not in distress and are still developing properly.  It just involves getting hooked up to monitors and laying there for a while.  Until then, hopefully no more appointments and hopefully no problems.