Our newest daughters are Anne-Claire and Elise. As you all know Emma and Charlotte both have three Christian names and all the middle names come from family sources. To refresh your memory, Emma Maria Isabel gets her name from Chris's great-grandmother, Emi, my mom, grandma and great-grandmother are/were all Maria's, and Chris's Memaw's middle name was Isabel. Charlotte Mary Caron is named for Chris's mom, Mary, and his Granny whose middle name is Caron. We will reveal Anne-Claire and Elise's middle names when they are born.
It has also become something of a tradition to look to literary sources for our girls' names--Jane Austen and Emily, Charlotte, and Anne Bronte have all influenced our taste. After Charlotte was born we jokingly said our third daughter had to be named Anne, but it just seemed to fit when we were faced with an actual child needing a name. Claire was a name that Chris and I both liked and seemed to fit perfectly with Anne. In case you're wondering she will be called Anne-Claire, but we're counting Claire as the second name of her three. We came up with Elise as an alternative to Elizabeth, which we both liked but thought came with too many common nicknames we weren't real interested in attaching to our daughter.
So there you have them. The four Holmes girls are Emma, Charlotte, Anne-Claire, and Elise. We hope everyone will love their names as much as we do, but if you don't, please keep it to yourselves. :)
Now, about my ultrasound...while it was wonderful to get to see beautiful Anne-Claire and Elise again, it wasn't all positive yesterday. As you've probably figured out, I did get confirmation that they are in fact both girls. We still don't know whether they are identical or fraternal and might not know that until after they're born. Identical twins can have two different placentas (dichorionic) and two different amniotic sacs (diamniotic), so if we discover in another ultrasound that they are dichorionic/diamniotic that doesn't necessarily rule out their being identical. With that said, yesterday the tech thought she detected a thin dividing membrane, which indicates they are diamniotic, but still only saw one placenta (monochorionic). It is still possible they are dichorionic but the placentas have fused or it could be one big placenta.
The things that concerned the tech yesterday and my OB today, were that it appears as though the thin membrane is located in such a place as to give Elise a lot less room in my uterus than Anne-Claire has. In other words, Anne-Claire has an olympic-size pool to enjoy, and Elise is in a small wading pool. This could be contributing to Elise's smaller size and lower fluid level both of which could be problematic. Both girls had strong heartbeats and are moving and kicking appropriately. However, despite the large area Anne-Claire appears to have at her disposal she seems to be staying right by Elise, which puts both girls primarily on my right side. The tech said that the location of the membrane and the placement of her cord could be keeping Anne-Claire so close to Elise.
The tech recommended that I see a maternal-fetal specialist, or a doctor that specializes in higher risk pregnancies, and my OB concurred, so we can see if there is real cause for concern or not. I hope to get in to see the specialist in Indianapolis early next week for a level 2 ultrasound. In the meantime, my OB wants me to limit my activity, get more rest, and drink more water. He asked me if I worked and was pleased when I said, "No." However, I'm not sure that being at home with a 3 1/2 year- and 17 month-old is that much better in terms of getting more rest, but we'll see. I'm going to do my best to take it easy and praying that this doesn't turn into official bed rest.
Now for pictures...I have to say I don't love the picture we got of Anne-Claire because it is a full-face shot instead of a profile but it's what the tech gave me. She gave me 2 profile shots of Elise, so I considered using them both and saying that one of them was Anne-Claire but couldn't do that to her. She also gave me a shot with both little round heads. Here they are:
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