Tuesday evening update

We're at the end of another very long day...another good day. We had our weekly appointment with the perinatologist, actually the technician. It was only about 20 minutes long but long enough to get all the measurements and know that we didn't have to go to Seattle for the surgery. With each passing day, it looks less and less likely that we will need the surgery.

Although the technician said the numbers are "irrelevant", they were 9.12 and 5.61 centimeters. As a refresher, the donor was 2.3 -> 7.4 -> 5.6 cm. The recipient was 9.6 -> 9.1 -> 9.1 cm. He kind of stressed this last week that the maximum vertical pocket that's being measured was an indicator that the problem could be serious but was not the "tell all" that they are looking for. The majority of the visit was spent measuring the blood flow through the heart and in their brain. I tried to ask more specific questions about how that is looking or if there's a range we should be looking for or anything else and he said that is all looks good. They are looking at the shape of the return that he gets from measuring the flow and that will be compared to the previous week to look for trends.

The doctor didn't stick his head in like he did last time to reassure us that everything looked good but the technician said that he didn't see anything that would warrant any immediate response and that the doctor would call if needed after he takes a closer look at the results.

It's all good news. 2 weeks ago we left the room in tears because we were so scared. Last week we were in tears because we were so relieved and happy. Today we just left. We were, of course, happy to not be on a plane but after last week weren't really expecting any dramatic changes. This felt like a check-up and not a diagnosis for the first time in a while...which is good.

Both babies were active. Lisa had a few moments this week where she had not felt them kick in a while and became concerned...concerned enough to tell me and then have me come over and feel her stomach until I felt them both move. So it was a relief to see that they are moving in there NON STOP!! It was good for Lisa to watch them kick and swirl and stretch and still not feel a thing. We got some more pictures but ran out of time this evening and didn't scan them in.

For those of you who have asked, we have registered. We registered with Babies R Us. Be careful though, we found another couple with the same names registered in another state.

We've had a lot of input from our friends who had the twins last year. We are also receiving some hand-me-downs from those twins since they are now a year old and outgrowing some things so we didn't register for some things like a bath tub or bottles.

Nursery update....there is none. :( The goal is to have it emptied out and painted by Sunday!! I've taken the before pictures so now all I have to do is....well everything.

And the names. Sorry just another teaser. We are still debating the spelling. I thought we were in agreement but apparently there is more than one way to spell Chrysanthemum and Aloevera....that's weird.

Keep the prayers coming and thank you for checking in on us and thinking of us.