Babies update

We got to hear our babies' heartbeats today! It was so much fun. One of them was moving around so much that the doctor had a hard time getting a reading. You could hear these little sounds (kind of like a swoosh) that the doctor said were movements. Very cool.

Our doctor visit was with our new OB -- a woman who has a lot of experience with multiples. I was pleased with her and like what I'm hearing from her (for example, her philosophy on bed rest is to avoid it unless there is a serious medical complication that requires it....I've heard some doctors just automatically order it with multiples regardless of your condition!).

She said my size was good and heartbeats were good -- meaning it appears that everyone is growing properly. We're scheduled for another ultrasound on Friday. This one is going to do some further genetic screening (we all passed the first round of screening). They are being extra cautious -- because of my age we have a 1 in 80 chance that 1 of the babies would have something like Down's syndrome. Very scary. This next test will be more conclusive than the earlier screenings, and if they find anything on this, then we will be scheduled for amniocentesis. Hopefully it won't get to that.

We're hopeful that maybe the ultrasound on Friday will also give us the unexpected gift of showing us the genders! Normally they don't look for this until the 20th week, but I've heard that sometimes you can see it this early. So we've got our fingers crossed. If we don't see it, then they'll be another ultrasound scheduled for the 20th week (which would be the week of Sept 8th).

The doctor told me I should expect to have to reduce my work hours after we pass the 28th week (which would be the start of November) and probably completely quit working by around Christmas. I was kind of expecting that anyway. I'm gearing up for the likelihood that I'll be pretty well planted in a recliner or bed for the most part once we get past December 1st.

In other baby news....we've started the fun process of buying stuff. Right now I'm scoping for gently-used car seats, stroller frame, cribs and stuff like that. There is a lot of used stuff out there that is in perfectly good condition and way, way cheaper than the new stuff. We'd rather go that route -- especially on the things you only use for 6 months -- and save our money for more important things (like the millions of diapers we're going to need!).

We'll also start setting up registries soon. I won't finalize that, though, until we know the genders.

I also got a list of pre-natal class options today, so I'll be signing us up for some of those. There's even a multiples class in September which we will definitely sign up for.