I'm baaak!!

I haven't been blogging much because we have had a very stressful few months. Anyone that's reading this probably knows that we found out I was pregnant the first of August. At my first OB appointment the doctor told us we were having twins!! Needless to say, we were a bit SHOCKED!! We went back two weeks later and found out that we had lost one of the twins. The doctor told us that this was very common and is what is known as a vanishing twin. We were sad about the loss but also somewhat relieved. So my doctor scheduled us to go to Texas Tech sonogram center for a better sonogram in two weeks. When we went for this sonogram the doctor suspected something that is called TRAP twins. TRAP twins is a condition where the surviving twin is pumping blood into the twin that has died. Causing the demised twin or TRAP twin to continue to grow and put stress on the surviving twin's heart. This is a VERY rare condition that happens in 1 in every 35,000 identical twins. However, it was still too early in the pregnancy to see if the blood flow was there. So you guessed it, we had to wait another two weeks and come back for another sonogram. During this two weeks, I googled everything I could on TRAP twin (probably not the smartest thing to do but I wanted to be informed). There is a lot of freaky stuff out there!! Finally, after what I thought was the longest two weeks we went back to Tech for another sono. It was then that they did confirm that yes it was TRAP twins. Needless to say we were devastated and scared. Luckily, (thank God for modern medicine) there is a procedure that can be done where a needle is stuck into my stomach and through radio frequency ablation they can cut off the blood flow. And also what was lucky there is a doctor in Dallas that can do the procedure. Plans were put into the making but the doctor wanted me to be close to 17 weeks. So once again we had a very long and stressful 2 1/2 week wait to go to Dallas. But during this time, something changed in me and I felt very calm and at peace with everything that was going on. Normally, I'm a huge worrier and freak out but at this time I just knew that everything was going to be ok. The plans were set and the time came for us to go to Dallas. We went to Plano and met with fetal specialist Dr. Karitski. He is AWESOME! I was so worried that the doctor would be a jerk or not care about us but this couldn't had been further from the truth. Once we arrived they started a sonogram with a tech and she informed us that we are having a GIRL!! We were excited but so focused on the reason we were there I don't think it really sunk in. The doctor came in a little later and really started looking at the TRAP twin. And even to my untrained eye, I could tell there wasn't much blood flow and that it looked like it did 3 weeks ago at Tech. He was very thorough and explained that there was minimal blood flow and it would do more harm to do the procedure so he wanted us to let things run there course naturally. He did have us go to a fetal cardiologist to make sure her heart wasn't stressed any. And thankfully, that report came back great too. So the doctor suggested we go shopping and enjoy Dallas because there was no need for us to have the procedure. We couldn't believe what we were hearing, this never crossed our minds!! The Sunday before we left the whole congregation at our church prayed for us and I really feel that we had so many praying for us and that is why we had the outcome that we did. So now we go for weekly ultrasounds, we've already had one and the baby is doing great!! And the doctors don't see any reason for us not to have a regular pregnancy the rest of the time. I finally feel like I can be excited about this pregnancy and that this little girl is truly a miracle!! We are thinking about names and I'm pretty sure that we are going to use Fayth as her middle name (spelled that way after my Grandma Fay whom I think has been watching over her). But also because, man we have had nothing but FAITH to keep us going the last few months! So anyways that's why I haven't been blogging but this pretty much updates you on what's been going on! And just encase you forgot what Rylan looks like here are some recent pictures of our favorite little guy!!