I found out I was pregnant in the middle of February, right around Valentine's Day. Unlike with the boys, we chose to keep the news to ourselves for a little while this time instead of telling family right away. This time more than the others, I felt very worried and concerned about losing the pregnancy early and it didn't feel right to me to share the news until I was ready. I didn't have morning sickness as early as I did with Eli and I worried myself crazy that that fact was a bad sign. Right when I started to really worry, the nausea hit me like a ton of bricks. We told our immediate families at that point and our extended families a couple weeks later.
The morning sickness was SO intense and lasted for so long every day that it definitely had me wondering what was going on. Was it because it was my third pregnancy and it gets worse every time? Was it because I was carrying a girl and it was worse than my boys? Around 9 weeks, I started noticing that I already felt pregnant. My clothes still fit and I hadn't gained any weight but I just felt.... like I was already growing at a much faster rate than it ever had with the boys. In the back of my mind I thought could there be more than one baby? But I didn't say anything to anyone- not even Josh because I figured he would just laugh at me!
We saw my family doctor (who is also an OB) for my first check up at 10 weeks. While she was listening for the heartbeat and examining me, she kept asking me if I was sure about my dates- if I could be farther along than I thought. She said I definitely felt more like 15 weeks which could indicate we were a month further than we thought OR there was multiples. As soon as she mentioned a possibility for more than one baby, I just knew. She listened for two heartbeats but could only find one and ordered an ultrasound for 2 weeks later. At that point, I knew of the real possibility that my feeling about having multiples was possible but was also concerned about the fact that she could only find one heartbeat. Josh was definitely less sure there were two and less consumed by the possibility than I was. That two week wait was really difficult for me.
Ultrasound day arrived and I was SO nervous! All our paperwork all only had 'one fetus' marked on it and the tech was unaware there was even a question of that until she put the probe on my stomach. This is what we all saw:
"Uhhhhh..... did you know there were two??" she said. I watched
Josh's face go into shock and I just remember feeling SO validated!
Watching the tech type Twin A and Twin B on the screen was completely
surreal! She said that they each had their own placenta and their own
amniotic sac, making them di/di twins. As far as medical danger with
twins goes, di/di twins are the least risky which we were very happy to
hear. We also found out right away that they were fraternal twins (not identical). The tech was able to see that I had ovulated twice (TMI?) which was totally amazing to see and showed that each baby came from their own egg. We told our families the news right away and everyone was
SHOCKED. SO happy but so shocked!
Thankfully, we found out on a Friday morning so we had all weekend to kind of digest the new surprise blessing. I was in such bliss after finding out and I don't think it really hit me until around 4:00 Saturday morning when I woke up, started panicking, and couldn't go back to sleep. Don't get me wrong- I was SO happy but I am a worrier by nature and was really caught off guard by our new financial situation that we were unprepared for and how we were going to have two babies at once!
Obviously, since then we have become well adjusted to this beautiful blessing and are absolutely overjoyed. I'd be completely lying if I said my financial and logistical worries were gone- we still have no idea how we are going to pull this off exactly but we have faith that we will figure it out. We may be flying by the seat of our pants but we know that God blessed us with these babies for a reason and we know how very fortunate we are. Looking forward to the adventure!
For highlights from the next 15 weeks that I didn't blog about- click here.
This space fell silent for so long because at some point I just wasn't sure I had anything of interest to say! Life with a 1 and 3 year old.... now a 2 and 4 year old is plain old crazy and sometimes routine but never boring. The last 6 months have been arguably the most unexpectedly exciting of our lives so far and I felt like now was a time that I certainly didn't want to forget.
So I'm back to blogging. Sometimes what stopped me before was the pressure to have perfect pictures/perfect grammar/perfect content. I'm letting that go now. My pictures will not be perfect and the posts won't always be concise or on-topic but that is just fine with me. I'll get better- I promise.
So.... what's been going on in our lives?
* Caleb turned 4 and Eli turned 2 and they are the very best of friends. Caleb loved preschool last year and will start Pre-K in the fall. Our Pre-K is every day, half days which will be quite the adjustment for everyone! I know he is ready for it though and has been counting down the days since preschool was over in May. Eli has really grown up in the past year and his spunky personality is coming through more and more. He is so very sweet when he wants to be and also has so much more sass than his big brother. Sometimes, he gives us a run for our money!
* Josh and I have been working like crazy on updating our home. I think when I stopped posting, we had around 3 rooms in the entire house done. We got a burst of motivation this last winter because we were preparing to have the boy's birthday party at our house and did our entire main level and basement in a few weeks. The last few months, Josh finished two of the bedrooms upstairs and now we only have 3 rooms left to do in the entire house. Our bedroom, the laundry room, and our upstairs bathroom. Can. Not. Wait. (I've been taking pictures the whole time and hopefully one of these days will get around to putting all the before/after photos up on here.)
* We're tackling the art of potty training our second child. I thought it would get easier after the first... but that's not true. At least not for us. Potty training is not for the faint of heart and it is exhausting. Slow and steady is our motto right now.
*We spent our spring and early summer doing all the fun things we could as a family of 4. We played, we went to movies, we traveled to visit family, we picked out new bedding and paint for the 'Big Boy Room', and we soaked up our time together because..... as of October we will no longer be a family of 4. Our family is expecting..... TWINS! We are thrilled, shocked, excited, nervous and everything in between. A post on how we found out and how the pregnancy is going is on it's way. We are currently 26 weeks and trucking along.
This is definitely a time in our lives where nothing is boring...
