Quick and Belated

Today we are 11 weeks pregnant with our adopted embryos!  Sorry for being silent so long, I (Odessa) have not had a 'no-kiddo' day since Oct. 28 and blogging with them home doesn’t seem to happen. 

Things seem to be going well.  We had our 7 week confirmation ultrasound on October 29 and a twin pregnancy was confirmed (pictured in previous post).  At that time we were instructed to make a full intake appointment for 9 weeks.  The appointment on November 4 involved a full lab work up (including 8 tubes of blood taken), health history for every one of my relatives, several questions about any visits to West Africa,  and another ultrasound.

 Green circles are heads and red circles are baby "B"'s arm buds, baby "B" gave us a little wiggle during the ultrasound.

The ultrasound confirmed that we are still having twins!  They are both growing at the same rate and right on target.  Both had a heartbeat of 176 (girls???).  With all things confirmed as looking good we were given the all clear to not visit again until 13 weeks. 

We had written before the 7 week checkup that we were really looking forward to the pregnancy confirmation ultrasound because it would mean we could change forms of medications and no longer have to do shots.  We were so looking forward to giving up this morning and evening routine – but it was not to be.  When we called to order the new meds we found out it would be $1,200 for a 28 day supply and insurance wouldn't cover it.  Financially it wasn't going to work, so we placed the order for 8 more vials of progesterone and 60 more needles and pushed through.  This has been one of the bigger challenges of this whole adventure, not only because it involves needles, but because of the time demand.  We wake up every day extra early to prep a shot, give a shot, clean up, and massage it in; then repeat again at bed time.  We are so excited that this will be done in 6 more days.

Other than the shots, this pregnancy has been fairly similar to the ones I had with the girls.  Nausea, stress headaches, cravings, and other pregnancy symptoms are present but usually manageable.  I do seem to be more tired – but I don’t know if this is because I am carrying twins, I’m 10 years older than the first time I did this, I’m working still part-time, I’m keeping up with my school age kids routines, or all of the above. 

I feel very blessed to be able to carry children again and thank God for all the life He has given my family.

Now to answer some common questions:

“Do you know what you are having?”  No, hopefully babies and not puppies.  It is too early (confirmation through ultrasound is usually at 20 weeks), AND WE ARE NOT SURE WE ARE EVEN GOING TO.

“Do you have names picked out?”  No, nothing is settled.  We don’t feel the need to settle early and may not even settle until they are here.  We have been discussing and are open to suggestions OR for a $10,000 donation to our GoFundMe account you can choose a middle name!  Feel free to post name suggestions in the comments below (if nothing else it will give us a laugh).  We prefer names from literature (Radagast), scripture (Tychicus), or classics (Helen).  Special bonus if you include 'the', 'of', or 'a.'

Here’s to keeping you all guessing!  Thank you so much for following our story of embryo adoption!