The first and only time I wrote on here about being pregnant was such a beautiful night. I felt inspired to speak up to other women about the wonders of carrying a child. My hormones were in full swing and I was overwhelmed with joy and excitement. I couldn’t sleep that night. Little did I know that I was hours from meeting my precious babies. At 4 A.M. my water broke. I was so ready to talk to you all about morning sickness and picking baby names in the weeks to come as I patiently waited for my dudes while on bed rest. But no, they were ready to come into this world, tiny and all. William and Matthew were born November 4th, 2014.
Before I get into the glory details of my birth… the happiest day of my life, let’s backtrack to that first trimester. If only I would of blogged about it all as it was happening. Moms-to-be if you like to write, don’t let time get the best of you, write and write all your feelings down. Although I made use of mini-blogging on Instagram, I really wish I would of written more. Because now when I look back and read what it is that was going on back then I get so nostalgic. I get that feeling of wanting to be pregnant again. I probably didn’t think I would ever say that those first three months, but that’s how life goes. The day we found out I was pregnant I had a family shoot in the afternoon which I almost canceled. I wasn’t feeling myself at home and had horrible cramps. All along I thought I would be getting my period soon and it was a bad case of PMS. But in good ‘ol Abby fashion, I pushed through and shot the session. I came home with a terrible pain in my belly button. I had picked up Boston Market and didn’t even want to eat dinner. My husband saw just how tired and bloated I was and he suggested I take a pregnancy test. “You look horrible, you should take a pregnancy test.” I guess that’s what men assume… looking like crap = being pregnant. Gee thanks babe. I almost didn’t take it because I had already taken two other test days before when I saw my period was a no show. To my big surprise that little line kept darkening and I was in major freak out mode. Shakes, crying and freaking out all while sitting on the toilet. I always pictured in my dreams a cute way of telling my husband, ‘hey we’re pregnant!!’ but he happened to be outside of the bathroom waiting. Waiting to hear what he already knew. So I cried and he thought something was wrong. Until I showed him the stick. The smile on his face… I wish my eyeballs could transfer the image to paper. I loved seeing how he nervously freaked out just as much I did as it started to sink in. We rushed to the closest CVS and it was closed. Next CVS and it was open. Yes! Bought three more tests and took them all. It was confirmed, the tests said there was a little miracle in the forming.
The utter happiness lasted about ten days, then I had to cope with the symptoms. Still happy, but physically not feeling well. I had a bad case of all-day-sickness. Not really sure why it’s called morning sickness if its going to follow you along no matter what time of the day it is. I had a strong sense of smells that made it impossible to be around people because at one point or another EVERYONE would stink to me. Perfumes, cleaning products, food, babies, everything and everyone… except Coco. Can you imagine how frustrated everyone (particularly my husband) was to know that I wouldn’t come close to them but I had no problem cuddling my dog? I can’t even begin to tell you all the discussions my hubs and mom would have with me over this. They somehow thought they could reason and convince me into thinking that the only one that stunk around here was the dog. Pregnant mommas, if you happen to have a bad case of bloodhound like me, try this: place in a Ziploc bag any one thing you actually like to smell. (I didn’t carry Coco around. Haha!) Coffee. I was in dire need for coffee since I cut it cold turkey when I found out I was pregnant. Not that I had to, but the way I was in taking that caffeine was no good for me or baby. So that’s what helped, I would carry around a bag of coffee beans and every time I would get a whiff of something that was unpleasant to me, I would pull out my Ziploc bag.
Another side effect I had was feeling the need to vomit and not being able to. Therefore I was gagging all the time. Running to the bathroom, sitting there in front of the toilet, and nothing. Cough. Cough. Cry even, and nothing. My stomach was aching most of the day from this which resulted in my appetite being completely gone. I would be so so hungry and say, Hey I could definitely go for some burgers right now. My husband would get so excited I was finally ready to eat, we would get there, I would order, I would get a whiff of food, and that’s it. I would rush out of the restaurant and go gag in the parking lot. It wasn’t easy. Physically stressful and mentally exhausting. How was I nourishing my babies if I couldn’t eat. What was I giving them in order for them to grow and be healthy? Nothing. Or at least that’s what I would think about when I would get like this. I lost about 10 pounds those first few months. I would wake up in the morning doubting I was even pregnant because I had no belly. It wasn’t until the night time that I had a little bump going on. Which also just made me look fat and not pregnant. Just like every other woman out there, I wanted my bump to grow. I would caress my stomach even if I didn’t have much to show just because. Just because I knew somewhere in there were my two little ones. I would talk to them all the time and tell them to hang in there with me. “I’m sorry momma can’t feed you anything yummy.” We would visit the Maternal/Fetal Specialist every two or three weeks in the beginning and he would reassure us that the babies were growing not to worry about whether or not I was eating properly. If it wasn’t because I would get to see them that often, I would of been freaking out my entire pregnancy. Ultra-sounds are definitely a big perk of multiples. We would get an ultrasound every doctor visit. We were so ready for those doctor visits to come along just to see what W & M were up to. Back then we would see of the twins very active. VERY ACTIVE. Always moving not really letting the tech get good pictures of him while the other twin was such a poser. He would even switch from profile to full front so that we would cover all the angles. William, the active one… Matthew, the calm one. And it’s just so today. It’s incredible to us to see how their personalities have always been defined.
Next time I will talk more about how we found out we were expecting twins and how I felt when the doctors would bring up the possibility of there being something wrong with our babies. Happy news for everyone that’s been waiting for me… A.B. Gail Photography is now booking sessions again! I won’t be scheduling many sessions a month, so please be advised that there will only be two weekend spots available, several weekday opportunities and one birth session booking a month. At this time we are not photographing weddings, high school seniors, fifteens, sweet sixteens, head-shots, parties or events. I will be focusing strictly on what I love to shoot, babies and young children. The before (pregnancy & birth) and the after (newborn & families). If you are interested in a session, please feel free to email or call me to discuss availability. Thanks!
