Anatomy u/s timing with twins, earlier?

[~Adorkable~]

so I'm pondering my Anatomy Ultrasound and it's timing, I know that the suggested range is anywhere from 18-22 weeks depending on who you talk to.

I'm going to be moving and driving across country to boot from about 18w3d till maybe as long as 20w. Then checking in with my new military hospital. They will hopefully have all my records electronically so starting up with them should be smooth. But we all know what it is like the first week in a new town, yuck.

So I'm wondering if I should just get my ultrasound before I leave, on 18w0d or 1d ? Or is this two early to get the info they need? I assume that I will be getting more scans later from the way I see my being handled now, so I guess if they need a recheck it's not the end of the earth.

One of the great books that I got recommended from here says that development in twins is actually faster then singletons in the second trimester, not nessisarily size wise but in organ development and such. If that is true then having the scan at the beginning of the window might be just perfect?

What are the issues with maybe waiting till 21w?

What has experience taught you ladies about these things?

[Gena 22]

No time to write much. My gut reaction is that more rides on info sharing. If you think it might be hard to get good records from one doc to another - wait. If you trust that docs will get transferred well, or if you worry it might be hard to get a timely appointment on the other side - get it now.

The only twin development issue I see that could be crucial is number of placentas and thickness of the membrane. These get harder to see as the weeks go on.

Do you know you're carrying di-di twins? If so, great. If you don't have an answer - scan early!

That's my $0.02.

Best wishes with the twins and the move, wow!

[~Adorkable~]

Gena, look like I'm moving to your neck of the woods, DC! Yeah I know they are di,di that was very clear in an earlier ultrasound, though location of the placentas was slightly less clear, but looked good too. This is just about the babies anatomy.
And since I'm with the military medical system, they are pretty unified and digital, so getting records over there might be pretty smooth but getting an appointment may be harder, we are not sure.

[Gena 22]

Great! Does that mean you'll be delivering at Bethesda Naval Hospital?

If you have your choice of docs outside the military system, I can give you some names.

Congrats and welcome!

[medicinemansgirl]

I say go before the move. You know you can get in now and I'm just the impatient type anyway!! LOL! With my 1st set we were able to tell both were boys at 15 wks. That was the earliest I'd ever heard of being able to accurately detect any kind of gender. THe 2 techs said it's easier with boys than girls so at 15 wks when you see a definite little something sticking out it's just a give away. Girls however are not so easy that early sometimes. I never truly believed they were both boys until I went back at 20 wks and had another u/s in which it was confirmed they were both still boys.

With the one and only u/s I've had with these 2 it was done at 21 wks and it was much harder to see anything on them. THey were both so big that it made it hard to really see anything. It didn't help that they were both breech and facing my back so all we really got to see were the back of 2 heads and 2 little butts. Occasionally we'd get a good profile pic but we never did see both of their full faces. And gender detection took almost the entire hour of the u/s!! They were big, both facing my back and one's legs were crossed and the other had the cord through his legs. We played around until we were really sure they were both boys. But, my opinion is go early while you can and drink some OJ before you go to get the babies moving!! I've had gender u/s's with a bunch of my singles at 21 wks and they were easy but with 2 being in there and them being so big it proved to be a bit harder.

[~Adorkable~]

Yeah I could see the thinking that the earlier might be better since they have more room to look around at everything, but mind you although I am looking forward to finding out the sexes, I want most of all to get a clean scan and see that all their parts are as they should be.

[newmommy7-08]

I had mine at 18w2d, and have continued w/ every 4 weeks since. That's what my midwives do for twins. There were some things like the kidneys that were hard to see, but they just rechecked for those 4 weeks later. It wasn't a really big deal, since the same thing happened at DS's 21w u/s... some things are just harder to get good pictures of at that stage. They were able to tell the sex at that point as well.

[DoomaYula]

I say do it early -- it will probably take some time to get all set up in the new city. I found out the sex of my twins at 18w. I also found out they had TTTS, so I'm glad I went in that early, wish I could have found out even earlier.