We're pregnant!

So I'm going to backtrack a bit and start at the beginning of things.  About a year ago, Matt and I decided we wanted to try to start our family.  We are both around 30 and since we waited until we were a bit older than most people we know to get married, now was as good a time as any to try.  Without going into great detail, we stopped preventing pregnancy in November of 2013.  I had read that it usually takes a month to get the hormones of birth control to cycle out of one's system so I didn't think we'd get pregnant right away.

It took us a couple of months to actually conceive and get pregnant.  I don't remember the exact day we found out we were pregnant.  It was sometime the second week of April 2013.  I remember I was late by about a week so I told Matt I needed to take a pregnancy test to find out.  I bought the test on my way to work but didn't take it until later that night.  I usually get nervous and over-think things so it took me a while to feel the urge to go to the bathroom and take the test.  I sneaked away though at some point in the evening and took the test.  Having to wait the three minutes was the worst!  When I looked at the results, I wasn't sure if it was positive since the second line looked so faint.  I read and reread the box and instructions to make sure I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing.  It was positive!!

Looking back, I should have come up with some creative way to surprise Matt with the news, but I was just so happy, I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it from him.  So I went back downstairs and announced that I had taken the test and it was positive to which he replied with an enthusiastic, albeit unsure, "Okay".  I said I'd call my doctor's office in the morning to schedule an appointment so we could go in and make sure I was in fact pregnant.  I called the next morning and we scheduled our appointment for what we thought was around 8 weeks, May 2nd.

It's interesting how one knows one's own body.  I could tell, even early on, that there was something different with me.  I knew I was pregnant.  Matt was pretty sure because I was sure that I was pregnant. Nevertheless, we waited.  I think we waited 3 weeks before our first appointment.  It was pretty strange going about our daily lives knowing I was pregnant but not telling anyone.  We wanted to wait until we knew for sure before we told very many people.  I think we told our parent's we were pregnant, but it didn't go much beyond that.

When May 2nd finally came, we were both pretty excited for the appointment.  I had been feeling some discomfort in my tummy, some light cramping was pretty much it and I was really tired, but nothing was too out of the ordinary.  We checked in and when the nurse called us back, Matt got settled in our room while I gave a urine sample.  When I joined him, I remember we were joking about the initial ultrasound- the procedure is rather uncomfortable (most of you ladies know what I'm talking about) and to have my husband in the room made it that much more weird. When my doctor came in the room, she asked me some basic questions about how I was feeling, what kind of symptoms I was experiencing, etc.  Then she did the ultrasound and we finally got to see what had waited weeks to have confirmed...there was a baby on the screen.  And not just one baby, but two!!

At first, I wasn't sure what I was seeing was true.  She asked us, "Do you see that?" And we both said haphazardly, "Yes...." she said, "There's one heart beat and there's the second heart beat."  Our response, "What?!?!?!"  We were in complete and utter disbelief and shock!  Neither of us have twins in our family so we were completely surprised by the news.

Before the doctor began the ultrasound, we discussed the possibility of doing a VBAC for this pregnancy.  I'd had a baby 7 years ago who was delivered via c-section so I wanted to try to have a natural delivery if I could.  She said we'd monitor how the baby was doing throughout the pregnancy before we decided as a VBAC can come with some complications.  Well, with the twins, it was definitely off the table! After she said it was twins, I just looked at her and said, "Well I guess we didn't need to have that conversation."  She said she didn't want to risk not being able to get the babies delivered fast enough if there ended up being any complications.  I was crushed, but knew it would be the best decision in the long run.

Because it was twins, we were automatically considered "high-risk", though there were no real threats at the beginning.  She referred us to a Maternal-Fetal Specialist whom we scheduled an appointment with a couple weeks later.  I'll go in to more detail about those appointments later.

Once our appointment was over, Matt and I still had to go to work and finish out our days.  Driving to work is kind of a blur as I was still just overwhelmed with the whole news of being pregnant with twins.  Once I got to my office, I knew there was no way I would be able to go the whole afternoon without saying something.  I started to get very worked up and emotional (I think the news was finally settling in my mind) and I just asked everyone at my office if they had a minute because I wanted to tell them something.  So through tears streaming down my face, I announced I was pregnant and we just found out it is twins.  My bosses and co-workers were so relieved by the news (I think they thought I was going to say I had cancer or something since I was so overwhelmed).  They all congratulated me and thus began The Journey of Twinsmith. :)