I wasn’t sure what to expect from this appointment, I couldn’t remember what particularly happened at this one with Jackson, but I did remember that I got to hear his heartbeat for the first time, so I was equally excited, and nervous that she would either not try or be unable to find one, or both heartbeats. (Does that fear ever go? I don’t actually remember it being this bad with my son!)
I got to meet the midwife I will hopefully continue to see throughout the rest of my pregnancy, and she was lovely, which is really reassuring. She looked for my Nuchal Test results letter which I had forgotten to put in my notes, so I have to bring them to my next midwife appointment, and after all the paperwork was filled in she got me to jump up on the bed and listened to their heartbeats. She found left twin really quickly, but struggled a little to find the right one. However once she found them, they were very clearly different babies as they were in very different places with left twin being quite low down and right twin to the other side and higher, up nearer my belly button and with heartrates differing by 10bpm.
It was so nice to hear, and means I can now relax and look forward to my private gender scan tomorrow as I know they are both alive today, so I won’t be panicking about her not seeing two heartbeats.

Today I had my 16 week private gender scan!
I get 4 weekly scans from my consultant from 20 weeks, however that left an 8 week gap between the 12 and 20 week scans so I decided to book my own, just to check in, to see if we could find out the gender, and also, as my NHS hospital doesn’t allow children into the scan rooms, this would be my sons only opportunity to see the babies moving on a scan. I was allowed 5 people in the scan room, and by happy coincidence my two best friends weren’t at work and therefore able to come! Which I loved, 5 of the most important people in these babies lives in the room to see them.
She called us all into the scan room and started by checking they both had heartbeats, which, despite having heard them both the day before it turned out I was still nervous about not hearing! But they were both there.

She was mildly confused by the scan report from my 12 week scan which said I had one anterior and one posterior placenta as she said they were both posterior (sometimes they can move as the uterus grows) so I should be able to feel lots of movement (I haven’t felt any yet which is starting to worry me a little as  I started feeling something with my son by 15 weeks)
She moved round both babies and saw all their little details, pointing things out as she went. Jackson was excited about seeing the babies moving. She said they were laying one on top of the other ‘bunkbeds’ as she called it, opposite ways round, head to bottom.
She managed to see that twin one was a boy immediately, however, twin two was sat on their brothers head and therefore it was difficult to see the important bits! She got me to go empty my bladder and have a jump around. This managed to move them just enough and she confirmed that the nub theory was correct and I was indeed adding two more boys to my family.

Walking out of the scan my mum turned to me and said ‘atleast you have one of your boy names sorted’ Which is true, I have had a second boy name decided since I had Jackson, but all of a sudden it didn’t seem right and I was doubting even that name!
Back to the drawing board.

I wasn’t overly worried about what abnormalities this scan would show, having had the 16 week scan 4 weeks previously, in which everything looked perfect, however I did hold my breath until I had it confirmed that there were two heartbeats.
They started off the scan both head down next to each other, twin one on the left and twin two on the right.
He was very thorough and checked all their major organs, their faces and spines, and double checked for me that they were both boys (definitely)
He really struggled to get me some decent photos of them because of how they were laying, however, to his credit he really persevered and managed to get some images that look like babies!
He did say that I still have one anterior and one posterior placenta (back to what I was told at the 12 week scan and the opposite of what I was told at my private 16 week scan!) The babies had also gone back to one on the left and one on the right and not one on top of the other… which has me doubting the 16 week scan a little!
They finished the scan with twin one having flipped completely whilst we were looking at twin two and being head up, apparently we don’t start worrying about them staying head down until 36 weeks!
Loving these little babies more and more each time I see them. Just hope I start to feel them move soon!

I had started to worry that I wasn’t feeling any movement even though I have two babies in my tummy, I was feeling Jackson a lot earlier last time, little bits as early at 15 weeks, and was even seeing him move by 19 weeks, but when 16 weeks came and went, 17 weeks and still nothing I started to worry.
I sat in the bath at 17 weeks and spent the entire time feeling my stomach and staring at it hoping something would happen, but nothing.
At 18 weeks I was laying on the sofa looking at my stomach and just below my belly button I could see a rippling that wasn’t my heartbeat or breathing, and after that I saw a few more movements that I couldn’t feel at all, but were definitely the babies moving around.
Within a week I had started to feel a few movements, but it was mostly visible movement, having progressed from rippling to actual jabs under my skin.
At 20 weeks Jackson managed to feel his brothers move and it lit up his face knowing that was them kicking.
Now, at 21 weeks I am feeling semi-regular movement. Right twin is reliably awake at some point between 3 and 6am (who knows why I am!!) and left twin between 8 and 10am. Jackson wasn’t a morning kicker at all and all his activity was in the evening. These two only occasionally wake up to kick during the evening. It seems I have two early risers on my hands! Help!
Hopefully they’ll start kicking at a few more points during the day, but atleast for now I know when to check if I haven’t felt them for a while!