Sunday, November 25, 2012

13 weeks : Nest prep begins


13 weeks and a good appointment have made me realize we might need to start getting ready for this momentous event in the lives of the Benders. So nesting has begun.

When we have time I have begun the process of transforming the guest room into a new big boy room for Isaac, which means finding a home for the multitudes of stuff in the guest room..... The studio is getting an overhaul to make room for wrapping paper and ribbons. Next week I will have some before shots of each room. For now I am color coordinating tissue paper and recovering shoe boxes that Luke put dowel rods in for my ribbon collection.

Then will come the process of making the nursery 2 kid compatible.... and (maybe?) and some girlieness to the room, but there won't be much change there. 

Check back next week to see what's happening in the nest!


Wednesday, November 21, 2012

12 weeks and looking good so far

So, today we had our 12 week apt, and everything looked good! I got to see the little munchkins again, and one seems to be pretty lively, the other a little lazy, but who knows. I am getting more and more excited and optimistic that this is really happening. Luke and I have decided we should document the tummy growth to see if I can possibly get any bigger than I was with Isaac. Everyone constantly asked me if I was having twins with him. This time I can say, why yes we are!

                12 weeks : twins  


40 weeks : Isaac (this is me saying, ok come already!)

If you see me wearing this same shirt every Saturday for the rest of the pregnancy you will know know why. It's one of the only shirts that expanded enough for me to wear at full term with the I-man.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support, we could not have asked for better friends.

Now it's just the 4 week waiting game for our next appointment.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Fetal Medicine appointment 11/6

Today we saw the Fetal Medicine Dr. for them to see if they could see a membrane between our 2 littles. It was quite an unnerving appointment at first because the Dr. said the original Dr. we saw was afraid we might have had a hemorrhage, along with the possibility that the kids might be in the same sac. What that means, or would have meant I have no idea, but thankfully they found nothing wrong.

On top of that they found a very clear sac around both babies!! Praise God. That means their chances of survival went way up.

There is still the risk of Twin to Twin Transfusion (TTS).
From the TTS foundation website

What is TTTS?

-Twin to Twin Transfusion
Syndrome (TTTS) is a disease of the placenta (or afterbirth) that affects identical twin pregnancies.
-TTTS affects identical twins (or higher multiple gestations) who share a common monochorionic placenta.
-The shared placenta contains abnormal blood vessels which connect the umbilical cord and circulations of the twins.
-The common placenta may also be shared unequally by the twins
-The events in pregnancy that lead to TTTS are all random.
-TTTS is not hereditary or genetic, nor caused by anything the parents did or did not do.


There are also greater risks for identical twins to have heart defects, which they will monitor closely. The Dr. did not explain why this is true.

The last thing they will be checking for is that the kiddos do not try and come to early by putting to much pressure on my cervix (sorry if this is TMI), so there still may be the possibility of bed rest.

But again, right now everything looks good. We will have our next appointment at 12 weeks, so till then it's just grow babies grow.

We appreciate all your prayers and support. We know that God has truly blessed us with these littles and the people he has placed in our lives. For that I am truly thankful.




This is the letter we sent to some of our friends and family when we found out our news.

Hello all,

   The Bender clan thought we were only adding 1 new addition when we found out we were pregnant, but when we went in for our 8 week ultra sound the tech said, "Heart beat looks good..... and so does the other one...." 

  Luke said all I kept saying was, "seriously?" "Seriously!?!". We have no history of twins on either side of the family, and are not undergoing any type of fertility treatment, so we are just some of those rare people blessed with spontaneously occurring identical twins.

Our original appointment with our midwife for a typical second birth changed to consulting with a Dr. because we are now bumped up to a high risk pregnancy. We are also going to be consulting with a special high risk Dr. because, as of right now the kiddos have been diagnosed as mono-mono twins, which means they share the same sac and the same placenta. This is very rare (1 in 50,000) and very dangerous because not only will they have the potential common twin problem of Twin to Twin transfusion, the fact that they are in the same sac means they are also in danger of getting tangled in each others chords. Mono-Mono twins only have a 50 to 60 % survival rate.

The good news is that many people diagnosed with this find out later that the babies are actually separated by a membrane, but it was not readily apparent on early ultrasounds. This is our prayer.

What this means for us : If they are mono-mono I may be put under full time observation (hospital bed rest) as early as 24 weeks so they can intervene at the first sign of trouble. Even if they are not, the Dr.'s will be monitoring twin to twin transfusion very closely throughout the pregnancy and our little ones may potentially come early and have some stay in the NICU.

Right now our littles look GREAT. They have made it through a trip to Vegas, a church wide garage sale, and Momma's 2 ear infections and subsequent illness, so they are already some tough cookies!

I am still learning a lot, and won't know much more until 12 weeks when we have our next appointment and referral to the specialist. We wanted to let you all know now so you can be in prayer. Everything may turn out just fine, but we will still need prayer for adjusting to life as the parents of not only a 2 year old, but twins on top of that!

I will keep you all updated, probably through facebook or a blog as things progress. 

We want to Thank you all for being our friends, and the wonderful support we have received from you in the past and ask you for your prayers in the future. We know that God is Big and He can do amazing things. We also know that God is good no matter what the outcome of this is. We are very grateful that we know we are not in this alone. 

Luke, Erin, and big brother Isaac.