24 Weeks!

William and Westyn had their picture taken again on 8/20/2010. Everything looked great and they are still a boy and a girl :) William still likes to have his picture taken as you can se from the beautiful profile on the left....his cute little nose and pouty lips. Sister on the other hand wants to curl up and be left alone. Because of her position it is hard to get a good profile picture of her. Instead she is looking at the camera so you can see her little eye sockets. She is making her scary face....that reminds me of the movie Scream. Maybe we can get a better picture of her next time.

They are getting a little tight in there and I am sure it is going to get even tighter in the next few weeks. Rena is doing great! And looks wonderful!! She says she feels "big" and I can understand that....but she is gorgeous!! I found this neat little graphic of what the fraternal twins look like at 24 weeks.

At 24 weeks, they each weigh about 1-1/2 lbs and are over 13” long. They are both long and skinny right now but they will start to plump up in the next few weeks. Their brains are now starting to develop along with their taste buds. Their lungs are developing the “branches” of their respiratory “tree” as well as cells that produce surfactant. This substance will help their air sacs inflate once they hit the outside world. The babies can hear now, which has been the most amazing development for us. We have figured out that we can record little messages and send them to Rena’s cell phone. She plays them for the babies and they start really kicking and getting so excited! This is just incredible. It is like they already know our voices and know that we are their mommy and daddy. I can hardly record a message without tearing up....to talk to them and address them by name....it is just amazing!!

This past weekend we took a class at the hospital called Marvelous Multiples. The class consisted of 5 couples all expecting boy/girl twins with the exception of one couple who was expecting boy/boy twins. We were the only 3 man team (only surrogacy). The teacher was so much fun. She is a labor and delivery nurse at the hospital and the mother of twins herself. We learned so much about what is normal and not normal in a twin pregnancy. We were able to tour the hospital, including an antepartum room, a labor room, the operating area (didn’t go in an actual room), a recovery room and the NICU. The Huntsville Hospital NICU is so nice. We pray that the twins won’t actually have a need to be in there and we will only wave at the nice NICU nurses from the outside, but I feel at ease that if they need to be there, they will receive excellent care.

The class was a great experience. And starting next week we begin our parenting class. This is a 4 session class that is highly recommended for first time parents. We will learn basic care of infants as well as infant CPR, health issues, when to call the pediatrician, etc. I think we will learn alot from this class too. I am excited about it!!

So all you experienced moms reading this, please don’t laugh at us taking “parenting classes”....we know you all learned “the hard way”. You get a gold star...or actaully you should recieve a medal. I am sure there are some things we will learn “the hard way” too. But I plan to read all the books, attend all the class and gain as much knowledge as I can before they get here.....and I guarantee we will still make mistakes.....many many mistakes....just hopefully not mistakes that will scar them for life.

The nesting phase continues at our house. We have started work on the nursery, but there is still lots more to do....each day I panic a little more. There is so much to do and so little time. The sand is running through the hour glass and we can't stop it now. I pray it will all work out. I will post pictures of the progress in a later post....there isn’t much progress right now :)

In other news, some of our good friends welcomed home new babies last week. Tabitha and Cameron Heck gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Rylan Josiah was born on August 24th. I can’t wait to hold him. And Brian and Jenny Wiggins welcomed a precious baby girl into their family. Madison Grace was born August 27th. I was able to hold Maddie in the hospital. She is just a little sweetie! I could have held her all day....but we didn’t stay too long so we could give mom a chance to rest..18 hours of labor....YOU GO JENNY!!! I’ll be back to see little Maddie soon :)

Congratulations to our sweet friends! This is such a precious time and we are so very happy for you! I thought of you when I read this little poem.