Logan and Madelyn's Brothers

Today was the 5th scan of my twins - 1st Level II scan. After two hours of laying on a hard table and bad back pain from it, things look good so far.

We knew both babies were in two sacs but what we learned today is they share a placenta. The peri doctor called it monochorionic twins. From the research below that Tony found, these twins are identical. However, the doctor said they "could" be identical. I don't know what to believe except they are both boys and it's definitely obvious - 100%.

Anyway, at this time both babies are good. They are too young gestationally to get good pictures of their hearts and spine but from what they could tell everything is good so far.

One concern with monochorionic twins is the chance at twin to twin transfusion. There's a 15% chance of this occurring in pregnancies like mine. Right now that is not a problem. Both babies measured 18w2d and I am 17 weeks today. They are a little over a week bigger in measurements unlike Reagan who was 3 weeks behind. I will be scanned every 3-4 weeks for now and I'm assuming closer together as I get further along. So I'm guessing I'm going to be under the care of both my OB and this specialist doctor the entire pregnancy. Thank God for Insurance. Unfortunately our deductible will reset in January back to zero. My next scan with them and the specialist is 3 weeks from today and I see the OB the day after.

When we first went to our visit, we learned we had been set up to talk with a genetic counselor. We had no idea this was going to occur. She wanted to talk to us about Triploidy and the chances of it occurring again. We didn't learn anything new we didn't already know but it's always reassuring to hear the chances of that occurring again are 1%. Since there is spina bifida on my side of the family tree, they are wanting to make sure this is not the case with these babies at the next scan but at this time they couldn't tell mainly b/c the babies were so close together. I did find out my AFP test was negative which is great. It does not test for Triploidy and I also learned with twins they can not scan for Trisomies with that blood test. Amnio's were not done today and there was no concern to have them at this time. That was a relief. I think I was more worried about not being able to go trick-or-treating with Logan tonight after amnio's than the risk of miscarriage associated with it.

We are making lists of questions to ask the doctors soon. I'm concerned b/c the earliest ultrasounds look like the babies had to have separate placentas and not just one. I don't understand how they fused together. I just can't seem to have an easy pregnancy that's for sure.

Unless we change our minds, the boys names will be...
Nathaniel Cade Hooker and Andrew Cole Hooker