23 Weeks, 3 Days

I had an appointment yesterday. During my sonogram, the tech noticed that baby B (Lily) is smaller than Mia. Mia, Baby A is measuring 23 weeks, 3 days and is 1 lb, 10 ounces. Lily, Baby B is measuring 22 weeks, 2 days and is 1 lb, 5 ounces. At my appointment 3 weeks ago, the girls were almost exactly the same weight, which is how they should be. They told me that at this point, we shouldnt' start to worry too much. Both girls have plenty of fluid around them and have strong heartbeats and good movement. They will however be monitoring me every 2 weeks now to ensure that they both continue to grow properly.

Dr. Hirsch said that the likely worse case senario would be that they would have to deliver me earlier than planned, possibly around 32 weeks, and the girls would have to remain in the NICU for a while. This is only if it becomes clear that we do have a problem, and Lily is not getting the nutrition she needs from my placenta. I keep telling Mia that she better start sharing better or she is so grounded for like 18 years.

We are definitely not at that point yet. There is a good chance that i'll go back in 2 weeks and they will be closer to equal again. Or maybe Lily is just smaller. As long as they both continue to grow then all is good. The good thing is that this is happening now, in the later stages of my pregnancy, when the girls have gotten past viability. They would have an 85% chance of survival, if delivered today. That goes up every day that they stay inside of me.

So any prayers anyone can spare would be so much appreciated.

She's gone

Shadow died yesterday. She waited for us to get home then she died in my lap about 20 minutes later. It was really horrible and i'll save all the details. I keep telling myself at least she didn't suffer long and it wasn't a long drawn out illness. I really wasn't ready to let her go though.

Here are some pictures of Shadow..

The good and the bad

The good things first. We signed the contracts on the Co op on Friday! Writing that check for 10% was so scary!! Hopefully we'll be closing by the beginning of October and moving by the middle of the month.

The girls are moving so much lately! It's really amazing! Pete got to feel a kick for the first time the other day. He was really excited by it. I told him how they are moving and kicking me all the time and he said "those are MY girls, I knew they'd be cool".. lol.

Lisa and Ali spent the night on Friday. Ali never ceases to amaze me with her whit. At one point Lisa told her to remember to be careful around me and she said "yeah yeah i know, Aunt Julie is getting Fat", then looked at me with this evil little grin. She's too cute. She talks to and about the girls all the time and she read a story to them, a book she picked out just for them because she knew it so she could read it to them.

For the bad news, Shadow is sick. She is dying. The vet thinks she probably only has a month or so left. She's got a mass in her abdomen which they think is a lymph node tumor. She 's also got fluid in her lungs which tells them the cancer has already spread. We could go forward with treatment, which would involve hospitalization, a biopsy of the tumor, a chest X-Ray and then Chemo. Because I'm pregnant I couldn't be anywhere near her because of the chemo drugs and there is no guarantee that she would get better. Plus the cost would be anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000. So we're not going to put her through that. She's going to go on prednisone, a steroid that will help her feel better for now. The vet says we'll know when she's in pain cause she'll stop eating. As much as I want to hold on to her for as long as we can, i don't want her to suffer. so for now we are just spoiling her rotten and loving her to peices. I can't beleive the girls aren't going to get to love her too.

4 feet, 4 hands, 2 hearts

So we have 2 very healthy perfect little girls. They both have all of their limbs and all of their organs. 4 chambers in each heart, stomach and bladders full of fluid. The are both in a "footling breach" position right now. Meaning the are both heads up feet down, directly on my bladder. They are still staying together, on my right side. My cervix still looks great, so no threat of pre term labor. My BP is 112 over 70 which is fabulous. They were both very shy, and put their hands in front of their faces or turned around each time she tried to snap a picture. So here are the pics, they are 3D of their faces, but as I said, they are doing their best to hide themselves..