25 Weeks!

Apologies for the gap between posts. The boys are still growing well and we are officially at 25 weeks! They are getting cuter and cuter. Caleb weighs 1lb 15 oz and Julian weighs 1lb 10 oz.

Two Little Boys...Definitely

Baby A is our little fighter. He's the one that has had the most trauma (clot is near him, had the nuchal translucency and now has a little water in between his umbilical cord and the placenta. He's sure to be a scrapper once we welcome him to the world.


Baby A is a stud. Check out his super manly forehead!


Baby B is the....lover (wasn't sure what to put here, fighter was already taken). We're so geeked for his arrival


Two little boys, definitely.... or as close as you can be to sure without seeing the plumbing up close and personal. Yesterday was our 18 week ultrasound. Both boys are right where they need to be in size and development. The nuchal translucency discussed previously has rectified itself and some blood work Melissa had gave us some real piece of mind. Thanks for all of your prayers and words of encouragement during our worrying phase. We're both super excited to be roughly half way there! It has been a long 4 months, but hopefully things will speed up some.

We started on Melissa's red meat diet today. We bought a book that outlines a meal plan that helps produce bigger and stronger multiples. Its a fairly long book, but its basic premise is to eat a ton. We stocked up on lots of beef, lamb and fish. We're also pumping Melissa full of supplements. Its crazy how baby-centric we've become. We're sure its annoying to most of you and we apologize. But we're not going to change in the foreseeable future, so please bear with us.

We'd love your input on a couple of names we've come to like. Now bear in mind that these are speculative names and we tend to waffle quite a bit, so don't be offended if we end up with different ones. We like Julian Oliver and Caleb Maxwell. Melissa likes the full names and I am excited about the nicknames (Jo-Jo and C-Max). I'm mostly excited about having two sons to pin all of my lost sports fantasies onto. Just kidding. Sort of.

Anyway, we'd love your feedback. We'll try to be more regular and keep you posted on the other aspects of our lives. Not sure what those other aspects are at the moment, but as soon as it comes to us, we'll be sure to report.

April 6, two little boys... probably

The babies are now about 3.5 inches, or 9 cm long. They are both doing well. Each comes with his own little button nose that is too sweet for words. By the way, the doctor said he was 'very confident' that Baby B was a boy (this we had prior knowledge of) and today he added that he was 'pretty confident' that Baby A was a boy as well! Looks like we might have two little brothers in there. We had our hearts set on having a little girl and a little boy, we were surprised at how disappointed we were initially! Sadly, we'll have to pack away all the adorable baby girl outfits we've been accumulating and wait for the next round. Luckily, the darling baby shoes that Jaima bought us are quite 'boyish', so they will get lots of use. The doctor also spotted some nuchal translucency, a little fluid collection behind the back of the neck in Baby A. It could just mean that the lymphatic system isn't quite developed yet, or, less likely, it could be an indication of other concerns. Just when Melissa's been feeling better and we thought we were out of the woods! Our prayers continue that our little babies are both well. Our next appointment is in two weeks on April 20.

Genealogy: I am doing it!

I am clearly a genealogy nerd! I thought I would include this for those who care (those who don't are free to jump down to see the cute baby pictures Melissa posted). For those interested, my fifth great grandfather is Julian Puente, who was born in 1770. While Melissa and I both love "Baby B", Julian might be a close runner up. If we have a boy, that is!

twins-icles

As you all know, we are currently 13 1/2 weeks pregnant, with two squirmy babies. These little ones have got to be some of the most photographed fetuses ever. While you can tell a lot from the movement on the ultrasound monitor, most of the photos came out looking like big blobs. We only put up a few that we thought were a little easier to make out. When in doubt, just look for the big head. Below, follow the Puente babies on their momentous journey, starting from when they were just 4 day-old zygotes (4 days past fertilization) on January 14, 2006.

first photo op

Here we are- four days into it. If you check out the little guy on the bottom right corner, he looks like a tiny curled up larva with his head at the top... awww!! Three embryos were transferred, our ultrasound two weeks later revealed that two of them had attached!

two little peas- Feb 8

It's hard to tell much from these photos... but the black eyeball-looking things are holding our tiny little babies. Here was our first glimpse at our little guys, just two weeks old and the size of a dot!!

March 14

This was a pretty momentous week. Two days earlier, after watching Baby A skip and twirl around for awhile, we focused on Baby B. After awhile he decided to do a big long stretch and lo and behold- it's a boy! At only 11 weeks along the doctor said we're better off waiting a little bit to confirm the reading, but by all accounts we've got a (not so) little Ian in there.

March 23 and each about the size of a peach

Here we are at 12 weeks. The bottom photo is Baby A. We saw his/her hand stretching up with his/her five little fingers! It was so cute. Babies were dancing around a lot during the ultrasound, but it's too early for mommy to feel their movements. Baby B was a little more mellow than his sibling, if you look carefully at the middle photo you can see him sucking his thumb. We're seriously considering sticking with those names, by the way: Baby A & Baby B.