Let me start off by saying I hate the term "gender reveal". Frankly, gender is something a child or adult feels and associates with. This is becoming more and more apparent and accepted, thanks to the LGBT community and even pop culture (hello, who didn't watch or hear about the Bruce Jenner interview!?). What we are in fact revealing is their biological sex - penis or vagina. There, I said it! But I guess somewhere down the line, someone decided using the word "sex" for a baby would be inappropriate and so we're stuck with the term "gender reveal," and SEO would suggest I better go ahead and use it, so... onward with our story!!

With our first child, we did not find out his sex beforehand. It was my husband's job at delivery to figure it out and make the announcement (which he totally forgot to do in the moment, so I was the first to realize when they put the baby on my chest and my hand cupped his nether regions!!). But this time around, we want to know. We HAVE to know!!! Do we need to buy some more boy clothes? Do we need to keep my son's stuff and buy girl stuff as well, or can we get rid of his stuff and stock up on frilly pink goodness?? Of course I was desperately hoping for at least 1 girl, because, hello, 3 boys??? Yikes...

Because I'm having twins, even though they're di-di (2 separate sacks and placentas), I'm automatically "high risk" and have recently started having sonograms every two weeks. I thought we could determine sexes at our 16 week scan and even walked into the room telling the technician I didn't want to know and would she please write it on a piece of paper and seal it up so I could find out together with my husband later. Well, of course she couldn't see any of the babies' bits or bobs, so I was stuck waiting two more tortuous weeks!

This time, I walked into the 18 week scan without an ounce of will power. I was glued to the screen and told her I am dying to know what these babies are!! After a while, she finally announced Baby A is a girl, and showed me the "3 dots" that proved so, not to mention lack of a penis. Baby B was a bit harder to figure out but finally she got the same proof and was confident to announce that we were in fact having TWO GIRLS!!!

I had just written an article for Mommy Nearest on fun ways to do a gender reveal, so I just went with the one that was cheapest and easiest - the balloon unveiling! I didn't spill the beans to my hubby, so was able to capture his true reaction in the video, which is priceless!! Here ya go!!

One interesting piece of information having two babies of the same sex does not tell us is whether or not they are identical (from one egg) or fraternal (from two eggs). If they were boy/girl we would know they are fraternal. But two girls... we'll have to wait and see what they look like when they're born! If they look identical, we can do a genetic test (swab of the cheek) to find out. From what I've read, it seems the chances of them being identical is about 30%. Not sure which I'd prefer, not that I have a choice in the matter HA!

And now we're on to the real fun... PICKING OUT NAMES!!! We want the name to be pronounced the same in English and Japanese, so "R", "L", and "TH" are off limits. We also want all 5 of us to have different initials, so no names starting with "H", "R", or "K"! And... GO!

Everybody loves a big ol' beautiful baby bump. The only thing cuter is the actual baby! But that bump can bring with it sometimes debilitating aches and pains. But there's no need for mothers-to-be to simply grin and bear it, not when It's You Babe has such a great line of belly support!!

Whether you're suffering from aches and pains of a large and in charge preggo belly, or need help with more serious conditions such as prolapsed uterus, pubic symphysis, hip separation, or vulvar varicosities, It's You Babe has got you covered!

I didn't have too many problems with my singleton pregnancy, but this time around with twins I'm sure I will need some help lugging around my ginormous belly!! At just 4 months, I won't need support for some time, but I went ahead and got the Best Cradle by It's You Babe.

It's a bit intimidating when you take it out of the box, but you'll figure it out in no time just from reviewing the picture on the box or going to their Prenatal Cradle how-to video. The Best Cradle differs only in that it has an adjustable waist band with three sets of hooks; the shoulder straps for both devices adjust just like a bra. You just put it over your head like a t-shirt, hook it under your belly, and adjust the shoulder straps as needed. Pretty simple really!

The support is supposed to mimic the natural ways a mother tries to support herself, such as holding up her belly with both hands, or placing a hand on her back for support. It's certainly not a sexy piece of lingerie, but it seems like an amazingly helpful product. I haven't had the chance to put it to the real test yet with my third trimester twin belly, but am looking forward to doing so in a few months and will be updating this review with those details!

You can purchase maternity support items from It's You Babe on their website or on Amazon, and one lucky winner of my $500 value Best for Your Bump Giveaway will receive her choice of either the Prenatal Cradle ($59), Best Cradle ($69), or Mini Cradle ($25)!!

Still extremely nauseas around the clock... check!
Eating for 3... check!
Switch to maternity pants... check!
Nuchal Translucency Scan... check!!

Nuchal what now? Yep, you know, the NT scan where they measure the back of the baby's neck to assess their risk of having Down Syndrome. It's offered to all pregnant women between 11-13 weeks. Apparently during this period the back of the baby's neck is still translucent so they can measure the amount of fluid back there. Baby's with Down's have more fluid, and also lack a nasal bone at this point (you can see Kenzo's scan here, which was done at 13 weeks). Just before heading off to my high risk sonogram clinic today, I read a post from a mom in my Multiples group who went for her NT scan only to discover both of her babies' hearts had stopped beating, which kind of brought back the reality of that risk still being very real even this far along! Agh. I was a bit nervous during my 45 minute walk to the clinic!!

But... everything is GOOD!! Both babies' necks and noses were absolutely perfect. They were both measuring a few days ahead (Baby A was 12w3d and Baby B was 12w5d), which is fine, always good when they're the same size and measuring close to their gestational age (which today is 11w6d)! 

I wasn't prepared for how active they were on the screen. Last time I saw them they still resembled little jelly beans, but this time they've definitely taken human form and were just scissor kicking and karate chopping up a storm!! In my keepsake photos, you can't see much in the way of limbs, but in the live video you could see arms and legs and profiles. I was giggling like a school girl it was just really really cool to see them dancing around in me, especially since I can't feel them doing so yet. 

They also did a blood test, which combined with the scans and another blood test at 16 weeks will give a better assessment of the risk of Down's along with some other chromosomal disorders. I guess if something comes back high risk, you have the option of doing a more invasive test such as an Amnio, but I'm pretty sure we'd pass on that since it comes with a 1% risk of miscarriage!! No thanks!! Some people don't even do the Nuchal scan because they don't want to have pointless worry, but for me, I like to have my mind put at ease when they tell me everything looks good, which they did this time and also with Kenzo last time, phew!

I also wasn't prepared for the schedule the doctor set forth for me. My next visit will be at 16 weeks (hopefully we can determine genders!!) and from there I'll have to get scanned every other week til 28 weeks, and from there every week!!! And that's just the high risk clinic, my OB/Midwives have their own schedule, so pretty much it's like weekly or bi-weekly visits starting in a month. UGH!! Very annoying, but at the same time it's nice to be able to see and hear the babies that often and just be reassured that all looks good!

I haven't had a chance to take a belly shot recently, it's not a cute bump anyway but rather a bloated pooch, so here's an idea of what's going on via babycenter.com :)

One more week til I'm officially out of the first trimester, not that it's a magical point where the nausea will stop, but here's hoping!!!

How?? What?? TWINS!?!?! That's pretty much the reaction we've been getting, and you can imagine a similar dialogue is going on inside our heads tenfold! With no history of twins in either of our families, and having never undergone any kind of fertility treatments, discovering two babies on that 7 week ultrasound was beyond shocking.

The first twin suspicions...

When Kenzo turned two this past Christmas we decided to go ahead and start trying for our next and final child. We didn't have an especially difficult time conceiving Kenzo - we tried for a a couple of months before stepping it up to the scientific method with daily temperature taking and peeing on ovulation predictor sticks, and then we had success on our second try. But this time? I started straight away with the temp taking and ovulation sticks, and we also mixed in the Shettles Method since we were hoping for a girl. Just 26 days into my first cycle, I started having random waves of nausea and we joked that I was pregnant. Just joking because, hello, WAY too early for any symptoms! But, it prompted me to go out and buy a pregnancy test and the next morning (a couple of days before my missed period) it lit up with record speed - much faster than it should have. 

And then there's the nausea. It's not morning sickness, it's all day and all night sickness. I don't want to eat, but know that if I don't I will just feel worse and worse and eventually throw up. So, I have to eat, pretty much every hour on the hour. And I wake up 2-3 times a night to pee, and have to eat during at least one of those breaks or I can't fall back to sleep because I feel so sick! It's pretty miserable and much MUCH worse than my last pregnancy.

The agonizing wait for pregnancy confirmation...

I found out just before 4 weeks that I was preggo, and had to wait another 3 weeks before I could visit my midwife to confirm the pregnancy (I could have gone earlier but I didn't want to risk her not finding a heartbeat because it was too early). This wait was pure TORTURE!!! The main worry, for me anyway, was that it was not a viable pregnancy (for example, no heartbeat) and that I was enduring this miserable morning sickness for nothing!

The twin discovery...

I asked the midwife to do an abdominal sonogram, since last time at 7 weeks preggo it worked just fine, and I wanted to avoid the super scary transvaginal wand that she had all ready to go, condom and all. She agreed to give it a go on my belly and sure enough, there was the baby! She was doing measurements and said everything looked good, though it wasn't super clear and so I told her to just go ahead and do the transvaginal scan so that I could have a better picture to take home to show to daddy. 

As soon as she inserted that bad boy, I hadn't even had a chance to look at the screen yet, she blurts out, "Well, I'm glad we went inside... IT'S TWINS!!!" My head whipped around to the screen faster than I could blurt out the litany of swear words that followed... "WHAT THE F&%$!!!! WHAT!??! WHAAAAAAAAAT!!! HOLY SH!T!!! WHAT!!!???" Cue the waterworks (bad BAD choice to wear mascara that day!) and laughter and more swearing. Then we both just fell into hysterical laughter and "Oh my god"s. I laid there taking it all in (randomly blurting out things like "How am I going to do this???") as she probed around taking measurements. She found both heartbeats and had them measuring to size, so she said everything was looking great! We had a quick consultation after I was dressed, discussing that I'm now "high risk", meaning many more check-ups and ultrasounds, that I have to rotate through the OB's in the office and not just the midwives, and also that I'm a good candidate for a vaginal twin birth as long as Baby A is head down (apparently Baby B will just ride Baby A's coattails out, and Baby B being breech doesn't matter too much).

One week later I went to a high risk sonogram facility for a better scan, and was truly relieved to get everything reconfirmed that the twins (TWINS!?!??!) were measuring exactly to date (8 weeks 2 days) and had strong heart beats. The relief was a relief in itself, showing me that I had come to terms with the whole twin thing and was actually over the moon about it!

The risks and fears with twins...

The main worry early on, which is the first thing that pops up when you Google "Twin Pregnancy", is a phenomenon called "Vanishing Twin Syndrome". It's this thing where one twin dies (probably because of chromosomal issues) and gets reabsorbed into your body (or the other twin absorbs him). Often with no signs or symptoms, you just show up for your next checkup and there are no longer twins in there. Supposedly, once both heartbeats are found and both twins are measuring to date, the risk is much smaller, but there is always a risk.

With twins, there is also increased risk of preterm labor ("term" is considered 37 weeks for twins, but making it at least to 36 weeks is pretty much the goal), low birth weight (less risk if mama gains 24 pounds by week 24 - yikes!!), and preeclampsia. Oh yeah, and stretch marks (which I was lucky to avoid last time... probably not so lucky this time!)

Also, if the twins share a placenta (which happens for some identical twins), there is a risk of "Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome" where one twin hogs the nutrition and puts the other twin in danger. So, when we found out today that our twins have their own gestational sacks which means they'll each grow their own placenta, that was a HUGE relief!!

Beyond those fears are the emotional and logistical fears... How the heck will we manage with a toddler and newborn twins?? Will our tiny home be big enough? How will we afford to travel with FIVE in our family? How will I get around the city with THREE KIDS!? What if the babies have something wrong with them or arrive super early - NICU doesn't allow siblings, what would we do with Kenzo?? Ugh. SO MANY FEARS!!! Suffice it to say, I haven't been sleeping well!!

Are they identical or fraternal??

Unfortunately we won't know for some time... If the babies were sharing a sack or placenta, we would know they're identical (i.e. from one egg that divided). If the babies are boy/girl, we will know they are fraternal (i.e. from two separate eggs that both got fertilized individually). But, if they're boy/boy or girl/girl, we won't know until they are born and we can swab their cheeks for the Zygosity genetic testing. And yes, we're definitely going to find out the sex this time (we didn't with Kenzo), and that'll probably be somewhere around 16-20 weeks.

So... that's our big announcement and all of the emotions behind what we've been going through the past couple of weeks! Do you have twins or any advice for us?? I'd love if you shared below!!!