Who Knew What One Year Would Hold

One year ago today we found out we were having a baby.

How excited we were and how in the dark we were that there would be two of the cutest people joining our family. I remember taking a test, yelling for Justin and walking around with a secret for months just like it was yesterday.

I found this picture today when I was preparing for a professional development I was doing. Another thing that has changed over the past year has been my job and my decision to still work, but have the ability to focus more on my girls at home. Ah, life. I also wasn't 6 weeks pregnant at this point, but more like 3. Crazy multiple hormones!

One year ago tomorrow I went to the doctor to take a blood test to get confirmation. That was confirmed to us and when I went for my initial appointment the nurse asked me about family history of twins. Again, something I said was never going to happen.

But I can't imagine it any other way {Have you looked at my pictures lately?!? They're just all so cute!}

The date in that picture is just funny. On January 13th they were almost 2 months old! It is a crazy fast life we are living. We have to soak it up.

June 1st will mark the date of when we saw them for the first time. The first time my thoughts went to 3 kids and how in our original plans {God can start laughing now} we talked about only having 2. How I was freaking out and Justin was laughing, which is a perfect example of our relationship. Good thing we balance each other out. I'm not sure I stopped freaking out the entire 33 weeks and for sure didn't after they were born.

It was also the day we shared our secret with some of our closest friends and family. What a fun day!

Watching me grow at a rapid speed was pure craziness. Who knew a body could change so fast and so much. Getting to see two wiggling babies every 2 weeks was the highlight of the pregnancy.

Over the year we had a few scares when I was pregnant. An ER visit, is that contractions?! and the biggest one was calling Justin to get home because my water broke. Going to the hospital over a month early I would classify under the scariest day of my life. They thrived in the Tripler NICU and we made life long friends who love our girls. What a blessing those nurses and doctors were and are to us.

At the end of our experiences in the past year, I can reflect and be so joyful that we have three healthy and growing girls. We made new friends along the way. Grew together as a family. Helped each other. Cried {okay really just the girls and me}. Watched Claire burst with joy at seeing her sisters and do such a fabulous job at wanting to help. Made changes to jobs and so much more!

These two tiny faces make me so happy that we got two out of the deal! What a sweet life we have.

Kennedy and Kinley's Birthday Part 2

I was rolled into the OR at around 2 am on Tuesday morning. Thirty minutes after the initial "we will have babies in the hour" statement. Tripler's labor and delivery just got some new operating rooms and they were nice and bright..and seemed so small! I imagined a giant OR that would be big enough for tons of people to be running around, but really it was freezing cold and looked pretty tiny. Also tiny was the table they wanted me to get up on! I got up on the table without Justin in the room, which also freaked me out. I asked my nurse to hold my hand while I got the spinal put in. I was talked through the whole procedure which was nice because I was visibly shaking and about to cry. I can now say having both an epidural and a spinal, the spinal was less painful. It was done and next thing I knew the doctor and my nurse were hosting my legs, which I could still feel pressure on, but not my actual legs up onto the table and someone was taking my head backwards. I had been so concerned I would be able to feel the pain and the spinal wouldn't work! I asked how I would know if it worked and they asked me if I could feel some thing and when I said no they said then it worked!

About that time my face started itching, I felt like I was going to be sick, and more people were coming in. Except Justin.

The doctor put up the curtain and said "see you in just a little bit".  I was still asking where Justin was at this point and the curtain in my face was not helping me. I heard them say that they were starting and then Justin finally walked in with my music I so desperately needed so I wouldn't be thinking about my guts being sprawled across the table. I had also informed them I didn't need to hear what they are doing so don't worry about talking loudly :) At one point I heard a doctor say "I lost suction" I knew (thought!) I was about to die and then she started singing to my music. Holy moly these people didn't know I was about to lose it behind the curtain.

Soon after I heard Dr. Squires say "uterus" and then "team Twin A are you ready?" and then it was time at 2:41 am Kennedy was out! The anesthesiologist told Justin to stand up and look and he did. He also told him to snap some pictures- which I will keep to myself because they are lovely. I saw one of the NICU doctors walk by with Kennedy and then we heard her sweet little cry. I felt some tugging and pulling, again not nearly what I had envisioned in my head. Then at 2:42 am Dr. Squires said "team Twin B are you ready?" and there was Kinley. They cleaned them up got their initial stats and headed to the NICU. Justin followed the girls and I was left with the doctors, nurses and anesthesiologist to sew me up!

Between my music and making small talk with the people behind the curtain it really didn't take long to sew me up. In about 30-45 minutes I was free of the curtain in my face and being rolled over to a recovery bed. They sat me up and started wheeling me out when I started telling them I was going to be sick. The very kind nurse got me a tiny kidney shaped thing and told me I'd be fine it was just from rolling around and the medicine. Nope it wasn't. I got sick. It was glamorous in the middle of the hallway.

Luckily, Justin had left me my phone so I could make our important phone calls to let everyone know they were here. I was high on babies and drugs and I felt great- minus the few waves of getting sick. Justin was with the girls until I texted him asking him where he was and then he ran back to me because he thought something was wrong! He walked in on me Skyping my dad in China to tell him that Kennedy and Kinley were here. Gotta love technology. I really wanted Justin to come back up to give me the report on what was happening with the girls- not to freak him out. We were in recovery for about 2 hours and then got wheeled down to the mother baby floor where I was ready to go meet these girls I'd felt moving around for 33 weeks. Unfortunately, I was told I'd have to wait until I could walk to my wheelchair without throwing up.

Our friend and photographer Brenda came up and Justin took her down to the NICU to snap some pictures of the girls. She was supposed to be there when the girls came, but again, there were other plans in the works for these two and they came rather fast in the middle of the night. They came back and I got to see some pictures and videos of the girls and that held me over for a little bit...but I was still ready to get down there.

My friend Serena had come to the hospital and I told Tan, my nurse, to load me up because we were going down there. Justin and Serena were speed racers plowing down the hallway of Tripler and I started getting sick again. We didn't tell Tan. Justin was already a frequent flyer in the NICU so he took us through the hand washing station and the doors to go see Kennedy and Kinley for the first time. They were/are in separate rooms in their little isolates and getting plenty of help from all the amazing nurses there. I usually get freaked out by seeing little babies hooked up to monitors and having breathing machines around, but theres nothing scary about what they have going on. We are so lucky these little ones grew so good inside and are a good weight and far along. They had a CPAP on mainly to keep expanding their lungs with a little oxygen. That trip was wearing me out and after about 20 minutes I had to go lay down. We promised we'd be back with a big sister in a few hours and went to nap.

November 27th had a crazy start to the day, but it ended up in such a sweet way with all our babies meeting.

That's the next post :)

**I realized later that it was a good thing that I didn't send Justin home to sleep on Monday night like I had thought about because there was no way he would have gotten back in time.

Baby Time: Kennedy and Kinley Part 1

We had a big ultrasound to see their growth on November 21st. Everything looked great and they were each measuring in at the size expected of a singleton. We scheduled our 36 week growth scan and our appointment for 34 weeks. The guy at reception laughed and said we wouldn't make it to the scan, but see you next week! We enjoyed the weekend, finished a few things for their room, asked my friend Serena and my mom if I would know if my water broke (it didn't break with Claire), and went to sleep on Sunday not expecting a big week.

Monday morning my mom and I had planned to go pick up some Christmas presents and go to lunch with a friend. Kennedy had other plans for us. I woke up at 8 am and went down the hall to tell my mom I was up and was going to jump in the shower quick and would be ready soon. When I turned around I felt something pop, literally, and then I started screaming "my water broke I think!". Some people told me it would be like a trickle and not like in the movies. This was the movies. I called the hospital and they asked me if I peed myself. Nope. For sure not. They told me to relax and come on up. I had called Justin at work before the hospital and told him what happened. I'm pretty sure he has never gotten home so fast in his life. Good thing we live 10 minutes from work and 5 from the hospital.

When we got to the hospital there were a couple other women waiting in the waiting room in obvious pain and one walking the hall. I sat on a beach towel as I tried to not freak out that today could be the day. At 33 weeks and 2 days we weren't prepared for this event. They called me back before the poor woman who were sitting there before me and I got hooked up to the machines. Sure enough water had broken, I was at a 1 (I'd leave that out, but it gets important), and they were still breech.

They wheeled me back to a room where various doctors started coming in to brief us on what they wanted to do over the next FEW days! WHAT! I wasn't having contractions I didn't think and I figured it was going to be an emergency to get them out since someone had broken their water and the risk of infection would be high. Apparently not. My nurse was great and got me nice and comfortable in bed while I was told I wouldn't be getting up anymore due to the medicine they would give me. My doctor came in and had me sign some forms that I knew I would have surgery and I knew the issues we could have.  He then told me they were going to start some antibiotics so that we could keep the babies in, they would give me some medicine to stop the little contractions, and we were going to keep them inside until 34 weeks which would be Saturday. I also would get a steroid shot at 9 that morning and then one in 24 hours. After the first one I wasn't sure I'd make it through the second one. (Who the heck willingly shoots themselves up with steroids is beyond me) I wouldn't be leaving labor and delivery for almost a week. I know there are women who are up there for months so I tried not to complain, but my butt started going numb by hour 2 and I wasn't going to make it 5 days on that bed not getting up.

At that point I told Justin he could go back to work and finish whatever he was doing for the day. Since he's on shore duty it's pretty nice and he gets off mid afternoon. Off he went to work and in came the NICU doctor. She came in and started the NICU brief with me- their lungs aren't developed hence the steroids, they would be in the NICU for awhile, she answered my questions if there would be long term issues, and was overall wonderful. She told me we would shoot for Saturday but would like me to wait until next Monday (tomorrow) to have my c-section because the full staff would be here. So, one week. I figured okay get me a more comfortable bed and I'll sit here for a week and try not to go insane. My nurse was on it. It never came.

I sat there all day and it wasn't too bad. Justin came back, my friends Serena and Karissa came by, my mom and Justin ran to Target to get me some magazines, went and got Claire, and brought her back up to see me. I hadn't been allowed to eat just incase something happened during the day and they needed to do the c-section. Everything was good though and at 3:30 they let me eat.

At 6, I got my dose of medicine to stop the contractions and was settled in to be there for a week. My nurse left and a new one came on duty. Justin and I decided to watch The Hangover and just hang out for a bit before trying to sleep. At about 10:30 Justin decided he was going to sleep and maybe I should too. I could not get comfortable! I kept moving and we kept losing the babies on the monitors. I called the nurse in at 11:30 and asked to move on my side. At midnight I needed to take another dose of medicine to stop the contractions which had started to increase. My blood pressure, which is always low, was too low and they couldn't give me the medicine. We tried moving from side to side for about 30 minutes to see if it would go up. No luck.

At 1:00 the doctor was called in to evaluate what should happen. He decided he would see if my contractions had made me make any progress. I'm praying no and yes at the same time. No because I would love for the girls to stay put for the second dose of steroids and yes because I was so uncomfortable. These contractions felt like they did with Claire and I knew I had made some sort of progress. Justin asked the doctor at what point would I need to be at for something to happen. He said more progress than this morning. Well well well....I was at a 4 and that was for sure more than this morning. He looked at me and said "we will have babies within the hour".  Dr. Squires must have seen my panic because he asked if I was okay and if I had any questions. I just looked at him and said please don't kill me. Cue the anesthesiologist who had obviously just been woken up from his nap. I thought he was drunk, but my nurse assured me he'd been asleep and he was just a weirdo who got paid too much and had too much on the line to be drunk :) He did turn out to be amazing at his job and talked to me through the whole procedure he did before the surgery and after the girls and Justin were gone from the OR. He was from Houston I found out so I knew he would be okay!

Within minutes my nurse was out of the room and back in dressed for the OR, Justin was in scrubs, and I was in a wheelchair making my way into a freezing cold OR without Justin to get ready to meet our two newest babies.

I think I'd been in denial for 33 weeks that we were having twins until I rounded the corner to see two little isolates and two warming beds waiting for Kennedy and Kinley to make their debut.

Stayed tuned for Part 2!

Twins at 28 Weeks

Today we went to see the girls in our monthly growth scan and check on them on our bi-weekly doctor appointment. To say these two are doing great would be an understatement!

We saw the ultrasound tech first and I just really love her. She talks me through our entire ultrasound every time we go see her and I really appreciate it because I have no clue what we are looking at. At this point it is so crowded in there it all just looks like body parts everywhere and who knows what belongs to who! Everything looked great! They want their fluid levels to be between 5-25 and they were at an 18, the membrane is still nice and thick, and they are both moving like crazy. They are head to head and in one picture look like they are just chatting with their hands against the membrane. The average single baby at this point should weigh around 2 lbs. 8 oz.

Baby A aka Kennedy: She measured in at 2 lbs. 11 oz and that puts her in the 47th percentile. Since our last growth scan she has gained 1 lb. 2 oz. Still breech and doesn't seem to have any plans of moving. She has been this way for 2 months at least. She is the deciding factor for a c-section and so far she's making the decision really easy. She's basically standing straight up with her feet pressing on my back. We got no pictures of her profile because her face was turned away the entire time. We did get some cute little toes and arms.

Baby B aka Kinley: She measured in at 2 lbs. 12 oz and that puts her in the 52nd percentile. Since our last growth scan she has gained 1 lb. 3 oz. and now outweighs her sister. She has now flipped herself breech from two weeks ago when her head was literally crammed in my hip bone causing major pain issues for me and the doctor scared she wasn't going to move from there to do a growth scan this week. Kinley is folded in half with her feet up in her face and her sisters.

So basically we are rockstars :) Their positioning is exactly what I thought considering the movements I'm feeling. We will go back in two weeks at 30 weeks for a check-up with a doctor and then back in four weeks at 32 weeks for another growth scan and check-up. It's crazy how time is flying.

Exciting news of the visit consists of obtaining my parking pass for the hospital! The parking at Tripler is out of control or you have to valet. Today when I pulled up to valet they told me they were full, but I informed him I had just driven by two open spots and what do you know- he let me in! Justin was late to the appointment because of work and the fact that he had to basically park on the other side of Oahu. The very nice gentleman at the front desk of the clinic knocked on my door and said "Mrs. Brown you have a very tall visitor who wants to join you today". Poor guy has had to miss the last couple appointments because of work so I was glad he was able to make it for the very end of the ultrasound.

This week will be my last full week with my kids at school. We've had a bunch of different sicknesses going around the whole school and the doctors weren't thrilled that I was going to be going back to finish the week off. Little do they know I know about a little surprise and have parent teacher conferences on Friday. Monday I will go in for part of the morning and then leave the kiddos with my sub who is super excited!

Pumpkin Patch Hawaiian Style

Yes, it's Hawaii.

Yes, you can see the beach from the pumpkin patch.

Yes, it's warm and not as cool as pumpkin patches on the mainland....

but, it's fall! I love fall. Texas never had serious falls- the weather would get cool, then hot again, and then cool- until it was about November...that was until I moved to Lubbock and then there were always cooler temperatures starting in September or October. I loved it. This year I took out our Halloween decorations in September because I couldn't handle it. I wanted to put out the warm smelling candles and enjoy the pumpkins. Claire is loving it. She plays with the decorations and wants to carry around spiders and pumpkins. She loves to have them watch her eat too.

This past weekend we took a trip to the pumpkin patch. We told her we were going the night before and we talked about picking out a pumpkin. We woke up on Sunday morning and dressed her up in her long sleeved pumpkin dress. Not the most practical choice for the Hawaiian pumpkin patch, but she was for sure the cutest pumpkin picker around. We met the Oren and Holcomble families at the patch and had fun.

There was yummy food set up- we for sure got giant mason jars of homemade lemonade. Claire and Justin fed animals, which was a huge step from last year because she tried to crawl up me last year to get away from them. She loved the donkeys, sheep, turkey, turtles, and the most odd looking chickens I've ever seen. She refused to get in the cow train with Ryan and Jack. I even tried to bribe her with fruit snacks without any success. We ended our visit with walking in the patch to find some pumpkins. I love that she is talking so much- so my favorite quote from the patch was "this punkin is heavvvvy".

Since then she has shown everyone on Skype her pumpkin and has had it watch her eat all day today. I think this year we will choose paint over carving for Claire. Can't wait to see how it turns out!

This particular patch has only been open for 3 years this year and it will be really great as it gets bigger. They bring the pumpkins in from the mainland in big Matson shipping crates and then they place them out in the field. While it's not cutting them straight off the vines- we get to go pick pumpkins out and Claire enjoyed herself...even if we were in shorts and slippers :)

Names for the Twins

Before Claire was born we went back and forth on names. I made a list of names I loved and Justin kept saying no to every single name. I was annoyed and so was he that we couldn't agree. We went on a vacation to Kauai over Christmas/New Year time and he randomly said the name Claire. It wasn't on my list of names and wasn't even one I was sure I liked. I finally liked how it sounded once we threw in my middle name to it and so she was named.

I made one thing was for sure: I got to name the next baby!

Here we are, just short of 3 years of that trip, and we are ready to name two more little ones! It was cute that he thought that he would get to name one and I would name one. Nope, not how it's going! My thoughts are this- I'm just a super lucky person who gets to have two more girls, I get to carry them around with me for roughly, if we are lucky, 34-37 weeks, I get to birth them- so I get to name them...both.

When we found out they were both girls I pulled out my list. The list literally had just girls names on it. I've never imagined myself to be a mom to boys so it just wasn't something I ever thought about. I marked off names I knew Justin had and would say no to and started giving my suggestions. It sounded like this would be a battle of the names again, but he gave me one stipulation, one of them had to have his Mema's middle name, Josephine. Easy enough and now they have names!

Their names are Kennedy Elizabeth and Kinley Josephine. Both of the first names are names that were on my list of names, but the middle names come from two special women in our lives that will never get the chance to meet our girls.

Kennedy's middle name is my Aunt Liz's name that passed away from breast cancer my senior year of college. She is my mom's sister and someone that I wish could meet all of our sweet girls. This summer I visited my cousin in Dallas and while we were talking she said that sometimes it just hits her that she is gone and that she would have loved to be around to see all of our kids grow up. I figured there is no better middle name. While we were moving, I found a letter that Liz wrote me shortly before she died and it sealed the deal. Kennedy Elizabeth was named and I love it.

Kinley's middle name comes from Justin's Mema's middle name. She was someone that was always loved by their entire family and still is. She welcomed me into her home and when she suddenly passed away, right around the time Liz did, it was hard. It was the one request Justin made in the naming process and I agreed to it. Kinley Josephine will be so loved and I can't wait until she's here.

Both of the girls have names that hold special places for us and we are so excited for them to get here. Claire is practicing saying their names, loves to point to their pictures on the fridge, and loves to give them kisses. Today I'm 24 weeks and I feel like a tank :) We are going to the doctor every two weeks and we love getting to see them move around. Last week we took Claire and she was interested for all of 30 seconds. We have an ultrasound and doctor appointment on Wednesday so I'll write an update about how they're growing!

Baby Girls: 20 Weeks

Yesterday we went for our 20 week ultrasound sound and anatomy scan. I'm always so nervous when heading to these appointments. I basically pace around all morning, tell Justin roughly 20 times I'm scared to get in the car, and then feel like I might throw up until they see something moving around on the screen. Yesterday was no different. They told me at 15 weeks I probably wouldn't feel them move around much because both their placentas were in the front and blocking me from feeling their movements.

My mom is in town helping us move and Justin had to check out of our old house so my mom loaded up Claire and we took her to daycare. After dropping her off we raced back to the hospital to make it there for my 8 am ultrasound that was supposed to last two hours. They called me back and had me lay down in a different room then I was in the last time. There were going to be two ultrasound techs looking at the girls today! That scared me alone. They started the ultrasound and we saw the girls moving around so I could finally just lay there and relax.

Baby A was the first to be scanned and everything checked out perfectly! She has all the right parts, everything is measuring on track, and she was cooperative through the whole thing. Baby B was second and had the same report. No issues with feet, hands, or nose- I didn't even know they looked to make sure they had a nose bone?!? It is just crazy the amount of things you can see on an ultrasound. At the hospital I was able to just lay there and look up at the ceiling where they have the little monitor to watch the ultrasound. The girls are for sure moving in there and kicking each other around. They are both currently head down which is different that 5 weeks ago when one was sideways and one way breech. They can always move more in the coming weeks. I'm just not sure where they are going to fit in there! I feel like my stomach has been stretched to its max. Baby A is measuring in at 12 oz and Baby B is measuring in at 11 oz. I got to meet one of the other high risk doctors yesterday so I'm starting to feel really comfortable with how things are going. We will see them again in 2 weeks just at a small check in and then again in 4 weeks at another measuring check in.

Last week I started feeling more movement on the right side so I knew something was going on in there. I'm obviously bigger than I was with Claire at this point, but I still think it's so strange I don't feel them as much as I thought I would since there are two of them. We've been busy moving since last week so I haven't been paying that much attention to them moving around, but it's starting to pick up speed. I can feel more movement when I get home from work and just sit on the couch.

We've had the girls ultrasound up on the refrigerator door since 15 weeks so when we were moving they got moved into a bag for safe keeping. Poor Claire went in the kitchen one day and came back out asking "where my sisters?". She also keeps asking me if my tummy hurts. Sweet baby.

*Just a side note to myself: I've been really uncomfortable and have been having to drink a cup of water or something in the middle of the night. The night before I had had a red gatorade by the bed. When I woke up I finished it off and went to brush my teeth. I gagged and of course threw up...the red gatorade. I stood there and freaked for about 30 seconds to a minute that I was about to die and Justin was going to be left to raise Claire alone. I then looked down and saw the empty bottle and sighed a big sigh of relief. Glad I didn't die yesterday.

The Twin (GIRLS!)

We had a check up on Monday after we got back from Texas. I hadn't been to the doctor in 6 weeks so I was ready to go back. We had to go have a dating ultrasound so that we could be enrolled in the multiple/twin clinic. We got called back and I was beyond crazy nervous to go in there. As soon as I got up on the table she started our ultrasound. Right away we saw two little people wiggling around. She gave us lots of information on twins and explained what she was doing and looking at. She looked around at first and told us that they are Di/Di Twins which is the best they can be. They are in two separate sacs with two separate placentas. After all my googling the past few months this is a big relief. There can be complications towards the end if they are sharing a placenta and one takes more than their share of nutrients.

She looked around, measured them, figured out Twin B is sitting on Twin A and kicking it's head. After a few minutes I asked her if she thought she could tell what they are. Twin A wasn't moving as quickly as the other so we started there. A few seconds later she was able to tell us that Twin A is a GIRL! After looking at Twin B, who is apparently a dancer and likes to kick it's sister straight in the head, and keep it's legs crossed we decided to give it a short break. As soon as the tech started looking again we noticed that Twin B is another GIRL! WOAH! Three girls in our house. We are excited, thrilled, and shocked. I thought they were both girls, Justin thought they were a boy and girl, and tons of other people said two boys. Both girls looked great. Both are weighing in at 4 ounces, Twin A has a heartbeat of 151 and Twin B has a heartbeat of 149, both great!

As we wrapped up the ultrasound we talked about what would happen now. We will always go to up to the clinic by labor and delivery where they do ultrasounds and non-stress tests. We will have an appointment every 2 weeks, which just sounds crazy! I think I'll ask for a parking pass (and maybe a room?!?!) at my next appointment :) We also figured out I was 15 weeks and a couple days, which is further along than I thought.

Here they are!

Claire still has no idea what's going on besides there are two babies in my tummy and she likes to pat them. We've talked about how they are girls this week and she now says "gurls" when I ask her what they are.

BabIES Make FIVE

Two seems to be the number of the year in our house! Claire turns two this weekend and we found out we are having two babies! Crazy and exciting all at the same time! Part of this was written a few weeks ago so I wouldn't forget...it's just been waiting to be published :)

We knew we wanted another baby. It didn't take too long to get pregnant with Claire and these two were no exception either. After a few weeks I thought I should go get a test and see what was going on. I bought a box of 5 tests thinking I would need them for a few months. I took 4 of them and they were all negative. I was going crazy in my head thinking of what could possibly be wrong with me after all this time. I went to the doctor on a Thursday where they drew blood...it was negative. I told the nurse I would be back.

On Tuesday of the next week Claire and I went and walked Winston after dinner. We got home and I decided I wasn't feeling great. I had been so sleepy for weeks at work, but remember, 4 at home tests and one blood test said negative. I took the last test and it was positive. I yelled for Justin who I think was in the garage and began my freak out. Would Claire hate us? I hope not. Would she be mad she didn't have enough time of just her? She's done way cool stuff for a two year old. Who goes to China two times in one year?!?! This happened way faster than with Claire...were we even ready yet?!? Yes. The next morning I went to school and told them I'd be right back I needed to run to the base to go to the clinic. The nurse looked at me like I was crazy because she had told me to come back in two weeks if I was still concerned. I got my blood drawn, went back to work, waited, and went back during music to hear what I already knew. I'm pregnant. According to my levels I was 6 weeks and 1 day. I'm now doubting this...here's why...

It's TWINS. As in two little people. As in just like their daddy and uncle-daddy (what we call Jeremy). Justin is a twin so I'm sure this question or response will be brought up many times..."well of course you're having twins, their dad is a twin". Well while he is a twin, identical twins are not passed down. It also doesn't matter if the dad is a twin- they even told me that at the hospital. Twins are passed down on the mothers side of the family when they are fraternal. My great grandma was a twin and had twins so that might be where the link it. This was always something I thought would be so cool, but never really thought it would happen. Well it's happening!

I scheduled an appointment to have an ultrasound in town because at the hospital you don't get one until 20 weeks and I wanted to see our little person (now people) before I went to Texas for 6 weeks this summer. I was so nervous going in. I mean you are always nervous to not see anything or see lots of things. We went here with Claire so we knew the girl doing the ultrasound. I laid down and she started. Justin sat to my left and the screen turned on. I looked at the huge TV screen and saw two little sacs. I kept thinking and I'm pretty sure verbalized "holy shit". I can't even lie. I looked over at Justin who had his jaw basically on the ground and was laughing. I kept saying "is that two" "what" "no way". She found the two little cuties moving around with hearts beating. One is much more out there than the other one. One is hiding in the corner. Right now it they look to be separate and have a little wall between them. People keep asking me what I think. I think I'm still in shock. I'm excited. It's a huge blessing to have kids in general, but two at one time is just going to be a crazy fun time.

The next Tuesday we went to the doctor at the hospital. My appointment had gotten moved from 1 to 4. Big mistake on their part because I was armed with questions and an ultrasound. The doctor had never done an ultrasound with twins- it's a training hospital and he's an intern! He was great though. Answered all my questions like they were a test, which made the teacher in me happy. I have all his answers written down. I will now be enrolled in a "twin clinic" and will be seen every other week rather than every month. At this doctors appointment they did an ultrasound and measured the little people. We found out that the blood work didn't give an accurate week because there were two of them. This pushed me back to a little over 7 weeks. I was ready to announce to the world, but those plans got halted!

Claire knows there are babies in my tummy. If you ask her she will either point to my stomach or lift up her own shirt. When you ask her how many there are she responds with "1, no 2" but has recently added "4 and 7" which would be a big negative, sister!

We've told very few people so far, but now it's time for it to be out there! We will need your thoughts and prayers for a great pregnancy and healthy babies. My due date is sometime in January 2013. They will be here in December, I'm sure, and hopefully not sooner than that. I have been feeling okay this pregnancy. I've felt nauseous pretty much all day every day for weeks. I have to make sure I always have water with me and I'm eating. I get sick most of the time when I'm starving.

Everything is exciting! It's finally sunken in that there are two, we have shared our news with the world, and I'm feeling good...minus being a little sick. It happened with Claire though so I'm not surprised.

Yesterday, the 4th of July, I had to make a trip to the ER. After an ultrasound and some tests everything is fine. Baby A is measuring 12 weeks and a day and Baby B is measuring two days behind. Their heart rates were 161 and 160 which is great. Everything checked out. We saw them moving and I felt better. Even though everything is good right now prayers are what we need the most! Two healthy babies and a healthy me and we will be good to go!

And just because I want to remember this before I forget: I went and saw a psychic when I was like 20 with a group of friends. I sat down and said nothing. She told me I would get married and move across an ocean: check. She also told me I would have twin boys with blonde hair and blue eyes: we will see. I had been having weird dreams. Like plucking feathers from my face weird- I don't even know what the heck that's about. Or being at the housing office telling them we were having twins and actually needed a 4 bedroom house not a 3. Last night my dream consisted of every single student I've ever taught being in my class next year. Holy cow it was craziness.

Book Pages

These are the pages I made for the first part of Claire's scrapbook. These are all out of order but you get the idea. 

I decided that I wanted to do the actual first year in actual paper. While it is nice to do it on the computer I honestly get bored of looking at the computer all the time. So, this being the 3rd one I have made on the computer the next one will be a hard copy. 

What I'm Working On...

A scrapbook of waiting for Claire and Claire's first year. Hopefully I'll be done before she's one :)