Twins!!!!

Alright....now seeing it in picture form maybe I am bigger than what I see in the mirror. I just don't feel very big. It seems to me to just look pretty average with about where I am each pregnancy right around 21 weeks. But....2 babies grow in there!

In all honesty, the sonogram always seemed so far away to me that it was hard to get really excited about it. The first part of last week my anticipation began to grow as I realized how near we were to seeing a healthy growing baby. But as Monday approached nervousness pervaded and my enthusiasm waned more than a little. After lots of traveling over the past week I realized as we laid in bed Sunday night that I had felt no movement for 2 entire days. This is normal for me in every way, probably in part due to the fact I just stay up and moving all throughout the day and never really take time to pay attention to any inner things taking place within. But, as I pushed around and felt nothing Sunday night and then Monday morning dawned bright and early...after a restless sleep....I still could feel nothing. We opted to take all of the children with us so we'd all be there to find out what baby is and to let them see the sonogram. We stayed on time and were out the door by 8 yesterday morning. A quick appt before hitting the road for the sonogram revealed baby had a significant growth spurt between 16 and 21 weeks but nothing really all that questionable. A quick check with the doppler and immediately the thumping heart was comfortingly heard.

The rest of the morning seemed to float by. I was overly content with a heart beat knowing we had nothing to fear on the sonogram machine. The image of a lifeless baby stays with one far longer than I ever imagined possible and, despite my resolve to fight the fear, it still so easily creeps upon me. Having heard baby alive and well the 2 hour drive was spent with children happily conversing in carseats while Brad and I happily talked about everything and nothing.

And I must back up to say that nothing in this pregnancy even remotely pointed to double occupancy going on in there. I didn't even get a positive pregnancy test result until quite late in the game. I have, in the past, always been able to get one fairly early but this pregnancy took a week longer to show up on a test than any other pregnancy has.....my first indication that hormone levels were not all that high in the beginning. At 12 weeks I measured 10.5 cm in fundal height....perfectly normal for a single pregnancy for me. My record is to measure 2 cm behind the entire pregnancy with single babies and right on target with my gestational weeks when I carried Garrison and Grant. At 16 weeks I measured 17 cm but still not enough of an indicator to even hint towards two. It was more than likely a one time event growth spurt. Only one heartbeat and uterine capacity certainly didn't seem overly taxed. And, looking in the mirror, I was just way too small for there to ever be 2 in there. So, fairly early on we ruled out 2 and continued forth with a single pregnancy with definite girl in mind due to the severity of the morning sickness. So convinced were we that it was merely one girl that we had a definite name picked out and had really nothing in the line of thinking for boys!

We finally arrived for the sonogram and all 10 of us plus our midwife got comfy in the tiny little room. The sonographer put the scanner to my stomach and my only thought was that it was looking a little crowded within utero. My intelligent self surmised I must really need to pee worse than I had originally thought. Full bladder equals a rather squished up baby. Attentive husband saw the 2 sets of rib cages immediately but said nothing. I briefly saw 2 round little heads go by and she began scanning quickly to orient herself. I figured it was just the roundness of baby's head and the connected roundness of it's little abdomen. So, I said nothing. She paused and stated...."Well, to begin with, if you didn't already know, you're having twins. There's 2 in here." I am quite convinced the children thought we had just won the baby lottery. We were absolutely all overjoyed. In the mental chaos of it all I only vaguely remembered how just not really exactly even a full 2 or 3 weeks ago...I kind of got rid of every twin thing we owned since I was so fully convinced we'd never have another set.

It was easily seen that both babies are breech and facing my back...the reason I rarely feel any movement. Any movement they make is being directed towards my spine. They are both entirely mild babies based on what was observed yesterday. With heads touching one another they both had both hands up by their faces. At one point we were able to get a half way decent profile look at each of them but they looked a bit like tiny little boxers with both hands covering each of their faces for the majority of the time. Baby B eventually did begin to wake a little as we watched him yawn and finally remove his hands for a brief moment. Baby A proved to be entirely content with not budging at all and never once removed hands to reveal his entire face...though we did get a few profile peeks....in 3D at that!

As thoughts raced through my head trying to really absorb the reality of it all my next questions turned to whether their placentas were fused or if there was any hope they eventually would. Strange but that was huge to me. I really don't want to have to deliver 2 of them. So, somewhere in my head I was hoping for a fused one just to hurry up the delivery process of it all when we get to that point. And indeed both babies have their own sac and it appears the placenta is either one or has fused. Odds are it has already fused since the likelihood of them being identical is almost non existent. I was just happy to see one big fused one. It was a bit funny to me that I didn't even really think of genders or wonder what they might be....so in awe was I over the fact there were 2 in there. Finally my brain got around to that part of it and the search began. But it proved to be a bit more difficult as both babies were quite content in their positions.

Baby B had legs crossed casually and it took a full 30 minutes to finally determine that he is most definitely a boy. Baby A, on the other hand, had his umbilical cord through his legs along with having his legs closed. It took the entire hour of the sonogram to ever see anything on him. Finally with a little pushing and prodding at the very end he did eventually come out of his shell a little and reveal enough to know that he is indeed yet another definite little boy. The boys are crazily excited. It took Evye and Aubrey the afternoon to warm up to the thought of it all but by the end of the day they were just as excited as the boys.

It still has yet to really all sink in. The great name debate has begun. And today I realized for the first time that sweet, feisty little Ivye will be sandwiched quite nicely with 4 boys on top and at least 2 on bottom. I figure she'll either be the toughest girl yet or be the absolute girliest one of the three of them.

So, now the picture progression of an unforeseen twin pregnancy!

21 weeks with twins!

Barefoot and pregnant. Doesn't get much more stereotypical than this!

16 weeks

12 weeks

9 weeks

6 weeks






The top of two perfect little heads! They are currently both breech so we were able to get heads together. Garrison and Grant stayed vertex/breech the entire pregnancy so we never did get their 2 heads together. These boys are now so big that they are unable to both fit in one pic so the best we could do was this shot!

The 1st are Baby B's legs, the 2nd Baby A's legs and the 3rd is B's profile pic. In the 2nd pic you can see A's ribs next to B's legs.
Boys' gender determination pictures. You can't tell much but in the real pics there's little arrows pointing directly to boy parts.

Baby A boy in 1st picture

Baby B boy in 2nd picture

Baby B...he's the only one that would cooperate for a face pic. Baby A proved to be very mild and quite shy when it came to anything we tried to see. His hand remained over his face the entire sonogram and the cord remained between his closed legs for almost the entire hour of the sono!