Ultrasound 7/8

Along with being my mom's birthday (Happy Birthday Mom), today was our first doctors visit since week 12.  Our primary concern with this visit was Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS).  Its a fairly common condition where blood vessels form between the umbilical cords of the twins and one could start taking blood (and nourishment) from the other, essentially starving it out.  To cut to the chase, ultra sounds looked great and showed no signs of the condition, both babies are growing perfectly.   With that said, TTTS can show up at any time, and the closer we get to delivery, the more likely it is to show up. (EDIT** 7/25**  The previous comment is incorrect.  TTTS is NOT more likely to show up the closer we get to delivery)  It is treatable, but the shorter amount of time the girls would have it, the better.  Dr was very positive about it.

Now for slightly not 100% positive news.  The ultra sound did detect a condition called Single Umbilical Artery (SUA) in one of the two girls.  This is a fairly uncommon condition (about 5% of twins, 1% of singletons) in which the umbilical cord only has one artery, where normally it would have two.  This condition in of itself is entirely harmless as one artery is plenty to supply an adequate blood flow to the baby.  However, the condition does have a tendency to parallel other birth defects, about 25% of babies with the condition will have other birth defects.  These birth defects can typically be detected early on via blood tests (which we had done for our previous visit) and through ultrasound tests.  All the blood tests have come back negative for defects and the ultrasounds from our previous visit plus this most recent visit all showed that both babies were doing just great.  In other words, SUA means there is a higher risk of birth defects, but thorough testing has shown there are none and in all probability, there aren't any.  In the Dr's words, its something to keep an eye on, but nothing to worry about.

This ultrasound was the first in a long series of them.  We will be going back about every other week to keep an eye on the development of the girls.  All in all, the doctor is positive, we are positive, everything is business as usual as it could be.  Now, it would be in bad taste if I posted all of this stuff about ultrasounds without sharing their first pictures with you.... so without further ado I introduce to you to Baby A and Baby B (Baby B didn't really want her picture taken).