Twins

We went to the OB/GYN today for our first ultrasound and appointment. We were excited to actually see what was going on in Laura's oven but may have gotten more than we bargained for.

First, our doctor did a normal ultrasound on the outside of Laura's stomach and we could see right away that there were two sacs, meaning, twins. We were excited but I got a little worried as I noticed (and the doctor commented) that one of the sacs was smaller than the other. Later, he told us that the size of sacs isn't a problem a problem at this stage.

The two babies are about the size of tic-tacs right now. On the side of the pictures below you'll see little tick marks. From what I can tell those are centimeters (if that gives you a sense of scale). We got to see and hear both heart beats. I was very cool. I am definitely more of a visual learner and seeing the babies made the whole pregnancy more real to me.

These is a picture of the two sacs. It's their first picture together.	This is a picture of the larger sac.
This is the smaller sac.	(In case the ultrasounds aren't cutting it.)

I'm hoping that the babies will be the same sex (both boys or both girls) not only because they can share clothes but also because I think they will be able/want to do more things together. The clothes sharing thing is very interesting to me though.

I have already started calculating the extra cost and difficulty in planning for twins. For starters, twins are usually born earlier than single births by about 4-5 weeks (35-36 weeks total). The earlier delivery might actually be good in some ways. It might mean less stress for Mom since there will probably be more time between when Laura and Sarah deliver.

We are really excited, overwhelmed, a little scared (all of which I think are normal for any pregnancy). Laura will have visits with the doctor every 4 weeks and she'll have an ultrasound every time so that means lots of pictures. Hopefully I won't bore you with too many. We're looking forward to seeing pictures from Steve and Sarah. I'll try to keep you all up-to-date with the latest news.




P.S. For now we'd appreciate if you would only tell close family members (aunts, uncles) about the pregnancy. This isn't because we're trying to be secretive but because of the higher probability of a miscarriage in the first 12 weeks (i.e. If you have a miscarriage the more people you've told, the more people you have to explain the incredibly emotional miscarriage to). Thank you for respecting our wishes. I know its hard but we really appreciate it.

Were signed up now...welcome to the 2000's

Adam came over, since I cannot do this from work, the evil Mormons block this site, hoping that perhaps at work, I will work. So Howdy, we have no real news to announce, school starts tomorrow, Nathan starts kindergarten, Isaac starts pre-school and the other kids have completed their formal education and will start work in the mines underneath our basement...Sean

Popular Baby Names

This site is from the Social Security Office. They have compiled a list of the most popular names using social security card applications. You can search by name, state, year, or look at the 1000 top names for a particular decade. My family had fun with this site the other day looking up all of our names and various other fun names. Interestingly, Sariah is on the top 1000 (although almost at the bottom) for 2000-2007. Guillermo is on the list: the highest ranking is 363 in 1996. Have fun looking up names!

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/index.html

For Baby-no-name's possibilities here are rankings from the year 2007:
Chloe - 16
Katherine - 39
Evelyn - 55
Claire - 66
Phoebe - 338
Eve - 618 (looked this one up just for fun)
Adelaide - 712 (this name was on the top 1000 until 1948 and then didn't make the list again until 2005)
Anabelle - 733
Adalaide - not on the list (this is a viable spelling of the name, it is a variant of the spelling Adelaide)