Pregnancy, the beginning

In the past, all we ever had to do was think about having a baby and we were pregnant immediately. This time around wasn't as easy but we've become thankful for the extra time we were given and obviously wouldn't change the way things worked out.

I went to my first appointment around 8 weeks and was able to see our little blob via ultrasound but they weren't able to get a good measurement for dating the pregnancy so I went back around 9 weeks and ultrasound was able to measure our baby as being due at around May 11th, 2017. Four weeks later I was back at the doctor for my regular checkup and another little peek at my baby.

Having four children with a few minimally complicated pregnancies, I've seen more than my share of ultrasound pictures. When my doctor started the ultrasound I knew I wasn't seeing anything I'd ever seen before. My brain tried to make sense of it and I thought maybe I was looking at a weird view of the head and abdomen. I knew what I was looking at but was still pretty shocked when my doctor tilted her head and said "Well, I know I have other twins right now but uh, did we know you were having two?"

There is no experience that compares to that moment. I had always said I needed twin boys so I could know 100% that I didn't need any more children. But never, never in my wildest dreams, did I ever think for a second that I would ever actually have twins. There is no history of twins on either side of our families and the extra time it took us to conceive led me to think it was even less possible now. My first reaction was a whispered "holy shit!" closely followed by a dismayed "but we just got a puppy". More on that stupid decision later, I promise.

We spent some time looking at both babies and taking measurements and they were both very active. It was so amazing to see these two tiny humans kicking and hitting each other and bouncing all around! I believe that pregnancy is as close to a true miracle as people will ever come and often marvel at the sheer impossibility of it all but this, this is just another level. One egg, one little seed that was intended to create one whole person split in half and became double.

My OB told me that she always sends her patients to an imaging center for the big anatomy scan but because I am carrying twins she was sending me to another place for a super special ultrasound before 16 weeks. I think I either wasn't listening well or just failed to grasp the fact that this wasn't ever going to be a one time thing. I was also going to be monitored by a perinatologist throughout my pregnancy because carrying twins puts you straight into the high risk category. Yay!

I'm going to attempt to share some pictures in these posts at some point but will need to come back later to add those. I have a relatively new computer and haven't saved any photos onto it yet.