Posted by mama playground | Posted in 18 week twin ultrasound, Twins, Ultrasound | Posted on 13-06-2009
Well, this was the biggy! It is more than finding out gender (although at this ultrasound they do offer the option of peeking between the legs). They tell you if the babies are developing normally, size is in accordance with due date, two hemispheres of the brain, no cysts in the brain, cleft palate, club feet, intestines all in place, spinal closure, downs syndrome risk, heart chambers and valves looking good, location of placenta, length of cervix, amniotic fluid levels and they count fingers and toes. It was more information than any human being should possibly want to know, but for us gestating creatures it only skims the surface of curiosity about what is going on in the magical hidden world of our bodies.
The good news is that the twins are doing great in all respects! At first I cried a bit during the ultrasound but then I just gaped open mouthed at them moving around and looking so cute. The twins are di/di which means that they are probably fraternal. They have separate placentas which are both located well in the uterus and not covering my cervix. My cervix is holding out nice and strong. It seems strange, but I am so proud of my cervix!
They have plenty of fluid, are developing right on course, and all of their parts are where they should be. The tech and doctor both measured their head circumference, femur length, and abdominal size to compare the twins to each other and monitor their relative growth over our next ultrasounds. One is slightly larger than the other but totally within normal range.
Twin A is a very mellow little one. The tech was able to take all conceivable measurements in a timely fashion and Twin A cooperated fully. Twin B was a bit more of a handful. Twin B was bouncing and moving and squirming before the tech could capture images and save them to the computer or print them out. It was cracking me up. When you have a singleton pregnancy you might blame yourself for too much sugar in your diet or something, but no way. One twin was mellow as can be and the other was cracked out. That is just them and it is cute to see little possible signs of personality.
We had 1 1/2 hours worth of scanning. I had no idea it would take that long. Apparently they allow 1 hour for each twin because twins are considered high risk and they need to be extra thorough. They babies didn’t seem to mind the attention and we were captivated. All in all a very positive experience. We are doing it kiddos! Halfway there