I confess! I'm pregnant!!!

Oh alright! I confess, I'm not just fat, I'm pregnant too!!! Due on 28 Jan 2010 :)

Hahahahaa... Finally I have a reason to be fat! kekeke... though frankly, I am hoping not to put on too much weight, since I hadn't shed everything from the first round with Isaac.

We have actually been planning to have our 2nd one for a very long time, but then, we have been trying to try for a long time. What? hahaha... well... it's not easy to TRY when Isaac was still breastfeeding not too long ago, so, everytime we get up to anything, we're invariable interrupted by the lil bugger. Also by the time we get him to sleep, we're tired too! So we sleep too... hahaha..

So anywayz, after much delay, and much hinting from my mother-in-law (who was frankly getting quite worried and wondering if she'd be having more than one grandkid at all from us) and some light hinting from my mum (light - in the sense that she wasn't hinting us as 'urgently' as she was before Isaac was conceived)... we finally conceived! phew!

Dr Ang, our nice gynae whom we adore, told us to use ovulation sticks this time round. She didn't ask us to use them when we conceived Isaac, and we didn't question why she asked us to use them this time round either. But some months later - after months of trying to try - we're glad she asked us to use ovulation sticks - so that we know WHEN to do it! hahahaa... Really useful so that we weren't literally shooting in the dark *snigger*snigger*...

So not too long after we managed to try on THE date as indicated by the ovulation shtick - we conceived! wooohooo!!! confetti!!! We eagerly bought pregnancy test kit to test, and positive it was, yay!!!

By our calculation (see, we experts now, after having one Isaac) we were about 4 weeks plus at the time we tested positive - so we decided to wait. Coz if you see the gynae too early, the baby is too tiny to be seen on the scan, and we'd have wasted money going to the gynae. So... kekeke... we got our appointment on Week 7.

Here's our first scan, at 7 weeks! Yay!!! Got sound (heartbeat) got picture (pls see scan below) = we're pregnant for sure!!! kekeke... "Congrats! You're pregnant!" said Dr Ang. The very next day after the gynae visit, we flew off to Perth for our June 2009 trip :)

Four weeks later, we happily went for our 2nd gynae visit... We always enjoyed gynae visits. Firstly, we can see our baby through the monitor. Secondly, we can take snapshots of the scan of the baby home for keepsakes (and to show to my parents and parents in law). Thirdly, we get to kar cheow our gynae Dr Ang, whom we enjoy joking with and talking to.

I was on the gurney; Dr Ang had just applied the gel stuff on my tummy and was using the scanner to scan my tummy (hubbs was distracted by Isaac) when Dr Ang exclaimed:" Pamela!!!" I was alarmed:"Huh?! What what?! what happened?!" Then she said:"Look!" as we all turned to look at the screen... "You're having TWINS!!!"

It was hilarious! Hubbs and I were stunned for the moment, then I started laughing, causing the gurney to shake pretty violently. Hubbs was stunned a split second longer, and then he was smiling widely from ear to ear, staring at the screen. We both were. It was amazing.

Even to the untrained, albeit one-timed experienced us, we could see that there were obviously 2 babies on the screen. You could see two distinct "bags" - which was the amniotic sac - that had a baby in each. At 11 weeks, it was already evident that they were babies, as in, you could already make out the head and the body etc.

But it was almost unbelieveable! We only had 1 baby four weeks ago! Now, there's another 1?! We were still so stunned that we hardly asked any questions coz the questions just did not occur to us at that point in time! We were just simply stunned and overjoyed with this miracle of life!

Dr Ang pointed out that she could only see one placenta, and hence that meant that the twins were Identical Twins - as one placenta implied that it was one fertilised egg that split into two. Identical twins meant that we would get either 2 girls, or 2 boys.

To answer the many variations of questions that I've had fielded to me...

You can't get one boy & one girl from identical twins coz it's split from one fertilised egg - the fertilised egg already has a gender when it is fertilised, and it won't change gender after it's split. One boy one girl twins are Fraternal Twins - which means they come from two different fertilised eggs, and hence is possibly of a different gender from each other. Each egg would then have their own placenta.

Fraternal twins, who come from different fertilised eggs, are nevertheless brother and sister (or bro & bro, or sis & sis), and so it is possible that they would still look very alike, very similar - but that does not make them "Identical Twins". Afterall, you may be born 3 years apart from your sibling, but you could look very similar/alike, right? The first question that I asked Dr Ang when I finally stopped laughing, was: "They have completely SPLIT, right???" Having twins was great, but having Siamese twins was not funny at all. But thankfully she replied:"Yes yes, completely split already - you see..." as she pointed to the screen. Yes, it was very obvious that the twins were separated and in their own amniotic sac. Dr Ang says it's good that they each have their own sac, that it's safer that way.

The babies also look like they're both of about the same size. Which is good, since I've heard of how one can be so much smaller that it can't survive and might die off. So I was very glad to see that they were both approximately the same size.

We also did their neckfold thickness test on the 11th week checkup, as we were scheduled to do so. Thankfully, both babies passed the test too. This was to test for down syndrome.

On 14th August 2009 (Happy Birthday, Joel!!!), we had our 3rd gynae visit, at 16th Week. We were very excited to have this gynae visit so that we could ask Dr Ang our questions, and also, this was the week when she said we'd be able to find out the gender of the twins! Our friends were almost equally split in guessing whether it was 2 boys or 2 girls.

Hubbs and I spoke about it before the visit, and we both agreed that we'd be happy whether it was 2 boys or 2 girls. 2 boys would be a bit tougher on us since boys are more active, and usually more difficult to take care as compared to girls. But we thought it'd be nice for Isaac to have 2 brothers to play rough with.

2 girls would be sweet, and a nice addition since we already have a boy. Also, hubbs would be pleased to have 2 princesses. The girls would also have no lack of clothes and stuff since my sister could pass me my nieces stuff. But most of all, 2 girls should be easier to handle, which would be good since having 2 at a time would certainly make us very busy!

So guess what?! Think God heard my prayers to give us what he thought we could handle - so he blessed us with 2 girls! :) Well, actually, Dr Ang only saw the gender of one baby (see below) - but then, since they're supposed to be identical twins, so, it is deduced to be 2 girls :p
On this visit, I had my blood drawn for the blood test, which was to test for a whole assortment of stuff. A week later, Dr Ang called me to say that my blood test results are alright - not as good as they were for Isaac's pregnancy, but still okay. Though she did caveat to say that blood test results would not be as accurate now, since I was having twins, but nevertheless, they were a pretty good indicator and it was good that my results were okay.

She did mention though, that even though my iron levels were alright, they were not as good compared to the time when I had Isaac. She said it's normal since I was having twins, and so the twins were drawing whatever iron they needed from me. Thus, she said I should eat more red meat, and stuff rich in iron such as broccolli and spinach.

So it seems... that all is alright :) I have been rather worried, coz when I read up about twins online, it seems like there are a lot of things that can go wrong, and that its considered a high risk pregnancy etc... quite scary! But as Clarine (my colleague who's a mother of twins ;p ) advised me, she said that I shouldn't read and scare myself, and should just pray that everything is alright! :) And so I will! :) Haha!!!