Two of a Kind

As I'm sitting here on Monday morning, reflecting on the past weekend, I can't help but be overwhelmed with gratefulness. I'm no fool in thinking that I made this life for myself. I did nothing, except to try and listen for God's direction, and I know I fell short in that too. He has blessed me with so much, and I do not deserve it. But that's my God. I'm reminded of this verse: "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (Matthew 7:11) I know that I LOVE giving my son good gifts. It makes sense that God would want to do the same for us. The gifts He gives are not the materialistic things. They are the things that make your life rich. Not money rich, it's like chocolate rich. Think dove chocolate versus dollar store crap. (my metaphors make sense in my head)

So anyway, on to my weekend. Saturday morning my parents and two sisters, and Jeremy's parents and two sisters went with us to breakfast. We ate, we laughed, I chugged water so my bladder would be full for the ultrasound. Then we headed to Baby's Bungalow. Their set-up is great: a dim-lit room, comfy couches, a huge tv for everyone to watch the ultrasound on. We had 10 people shoved in that room, all eager to see my two little babies. Once they popped up on the screen, there were "awwwww's" around the room. Then it turned to sniffles. It's safe to say there are a lot of people who will love these twins.

If you've had ultrasounds, you know the emotions that come with it. Watching your little miracle in there moving around, heart beating, is just indescribable. The ultrasound tech told us that she could easily tell the gender of both twins! What a relief. I kept thinking how lame it would be to throw a gender reveal party with no genders to reveal....

Alright, fast forward 5 LONG hours later. We're at my parent's house, both sides of the family are there. We said the party would start at 5 and we'd do the reveal after everyone got some snacks, maybe around 5:30. It was 4:59, everyone was there, some people had snacks, close enough! Jeremy was ready to go. So here's the video:

Two boys! Two more boys! We are so excited! We always said that we wanted lots of boys, and we're off to a great start. More trucks, more camo, more legos, more tools! Easton will be so excited to have brothers. They will be best buds. We are truly blessed to be having what we were really hoping for! (I'm sure I will change my mind about that once the first elbow goes through my wall, or the first baseball goes through my window, or during the first trip to the ER cause someone fell out of a tree).

I've seen my twins on an ultrasound 4 times now, and yet sometimes it doesn't seem real. But last night, it hit me. I know I have a growing belly, I know I have pictures of them, but when I felt movement for the first time last night, it all connected. These two precious babies are growing inside of me right now. And before 14 weeks, I could feel them. Not the "oh, maybe that was the babies." It was the "oh my gosh, that was them!". Cue the tears. What a miracle.

I will end this with saying thank you to all who are reading this. To you who care enough to listen to my thoughts about my pregnancy. Thank you to the countless people who have said congratulations. To the people who have hugged me. To the people who have rejoiced with me. Thank you to the hundreds of people who have liked my posts on facebook. It seems silly, but that's hundreds of people who are excited for me and my beautiful family. We appreciate your kind words, and we covet your prayers.

The Waiting Game

2 Days. 2 DAYS! I can hardly contain myself. I have a stupid grin on my face at work this morning, behind all the snot from this lovely cold I caught. In two days, we are heading to Baby's Bungalow to find out my twin's gender. Baby's Bungalow is this cute little place that does elective ultrasounds, and boasts gender determination at 13 weeks gestation. By Saturday, I will be 13 weeks, 3 days and we are hoping to find out both genders. We have both families coming with us to watch the ultrasound, followed by a big party in the evening with the whole family from both sides. There we will all find out together and eat and party the night away (or until about 8pm... my new bedtime). I cannot wait!!

I had my second prenatal appointment last week and my mom got to go with me. She was thrilled that they did an ultrasound to look at the heartbeats. I'm pretty sure these two babies have her wrapped around their fingers already! Other than the normal pap smear/physical (with Mom in the room... AWKWARD!), we just chatted about the babies. My doctor is surprisingly supportive of my desire to have a VBAC which is wonderful! The only stipulation: one or both have to be head down. I also have to deliver at a bigger hospital that is more accustomed to doing these types of deliveries. The doc said that she used to do breech deliveries during her residency, but isn't comfortable with them anymore. I love my doctor. She is so blunt, like me.  She said when a lady comes in "with legs hanging out of her vagina" then she will have to do a breech delivery. Such a wonderful image. Just think about it.

In other news, I have a doula! I'm very excited to have her help me through this. I'm not going to lie, the delivery scares me just a little bit, so it will be great to have a positive, encouraging lady by my side.  Her business is called Baby's Breath and she is a friend of mine. She is just starting out and will get to throw a VBAC with twins on her resume if all works out. I'm so glad her and I can help each other out. It's safe to say our friendship will be different after she sees me in labor and delivering babies. It like being drunk, some people are happy drunks and some are absolutely miserable drunks. I'm sure there are people out there that go through labor with a smile on their face, but the majority probably does some yelling/punching/fit-throwing. If anything, I probably won't take out my pain on my doula, it will be my poor husband. I remember my sister in labor and her husband turned the TV to Braveheart... maybe not the movie you want to make your wife watch during labor. I can just picture Jer doing the same thing. But I guess we will see! Should be interesting.

Last update: yes, I'm showing! The bump is not entirely made up of the chicken fingers and honey mustard I've been eating. Doc says I should be feeling movement in two or three weeks! So exciting. Babies are the size of peaches this week. Precious! Makes me thing of Psalm 139:

"For you created my inmost being;

    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

    your works are wonderful,

    I know that full well.

15 

My frame was not hidden from you

    when I was made in the secret place,

    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

16 

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

    all the days ordained for me were written in your book

    before one of them came to be."

It is crazy to think that every day of my twin's lives are already known by God. He knows what they will look like, what their personalities will be like, what hobbies they will have, what friends they will make, when they will get married. What an awesome God we serve! And to think that he is carefully knitting them together in my womb right now! What a miracle.

Well, thanks for reading all my rambling, so much is going through my head right now! It's nice to write it all out. I will be sure to update on Saturday with genders!

10 Week Update

Yesterday, Jeremy and I went to the first "official" ultrasound for the twins. I can't put into words how I feel watching an ultrasound. It is so amazing how little, black and white blobs on a screen can make you feel! Both babies were squirming around, and both had perfect heartbeats. We are in love already.

As far as the technical side goes, there are two amniotic sacs, two chorionic sacs, and two placentas. This is the safest way to have twins, we were told.  It also means that they most likely are fraternal. There is a small chance they could be identical, but it makes more sense to assume they are fraternal. They both are the exact same size, measuring right on time (10 weeks as of today).  The hope is that they continue to be the same size.  The ultrasound tech also told us that I ovulated from my left ovary... I don't know why you need to know that, but I found it interesting anyway.

The doctor we spoke to went through pretty much all the information we needed to know about twin pregnancy. I'm considered high risk because of the twins, but the doctor assured us that all of the risks are small and manageable. I have a higher chance of developing gestational diabetes, and a higher chance of preterm labor.  Apparently, around 50% of twins are born between 32-36 weeks. I am praying to make it to 38-39 weeks. If family history is any indication, I believe I can make it that long (my mother was 5 days LATE with her twins!). Even if they are born in that 32-36 week range, there would be no long term complications.

Quite a bit of the time we had with the doctor was spent talking about delivery. With Easton, I had to have a C-Section because he was breech. I remember crying after scheduling my C-Section. If you don't go through labor, you can't be a real mom, I thought. I came to terms with it and did fine with the surgery, but recovery was no piece of cake.  Before knowing it was twins, I was determined to do a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). After much talk with the doctor, it looks like that still may be an option! I was so glad to hear that. I can't imagine trying to recover from major surgery with two newborns and a 2 year old! I would be so hard to breast feed, too. And yes, I'm going to do that... My mom did it, so I can do it!  But anyway, my delivery will have to be a last minute decision. There are just too many variables that will have to be taken into consideration.

We made the announcement on Facebook yesterday after we got done with our appointment. It was killing me! I was ready to tell the world. Easton was NOT thrilled about me making him pose with a frame, but somehow I got some cute pics!

We are just so excited about this! And by "we," I mean me. Jeremy is excited, too, but he's not at the talk-about-it-every-second-of-every-day point that I am. Men have a different way of showing their excitement, I guess.

Alright, I'm done rambling.  Next thing I'll be posting about should be our gender reveal! We are going to try Baby Bungalow in Buffalo to see if they can tell the gender at 13 weeks.

I'll leave you with another cute picture. The "Hill Twins" just sounds so great, doesn't it?