How did you find out you were having twins?
I’ve heard women in the past talk about how they knew things about their baby by mere instinct when they were pregnant. Like how they felt they were having a girl/boy even before ultrasounds existed. There’s one mom I know that all along her pregnancy she thought she was having twins and had to wait until she delivered to confirm. Maybe that’s what would of happened to me if we were in living in those days of no medical intervention.
I was about 6 weeks pregnant when we found out we were expecting a baby. My husband and I were thrilled to share the news with family & friends and decided to tell them each separately. The first time there was mention of “twins” was when we told my brother-in-law at D’s parent’s house. He took a quick glance at me and said, “and your having twins.” We all laughed and joked at what a weird thing to say. But those few words stayed with me. In the days to come I kept thinking about it. What if I am having twins? How could I take care of two babies at once? Was I prepared to come to know motherhood this way? What if I end up loosing one baby? … So many questions. So many doubts and worries clouded my mind every night while I tried to fall asleep. Here I was already thinking of horrible outcomes without even thinking about how great it would be. Just in case you are wondering, twins happen to run in both of our family’s genes. My husband had to make a quick road trip around this time and I was so nervous to be alone without him. What if there was something wrong with the baby? What if while he was gone I had to go to the hospital? ‘First time mom and worry-freak Abby’ was not a good combination for me. So after breakfast one day I asked him if we could go to an ultrasound center to see our baby. My first doctor’s visit was still a week away and I didn’t want him to leave on his trip without making sure everything was okay with the baby.
The nurse that attended us mentioned how small my belly was to find out the gender, and we corrected her that we were just there to see our baby. *And to make sure it was just one. “Why would you think you’re having twins?” – Oh maybe because at this point everyone kept saying the same thing and my gut was telling me they were all right. She started my ultrasound and spotted baby #1. “There it is. One baby, no worries. Do twins run in your family? It’s so odd for you to think you’re having twins so early on. Oh wait a minute, I think there’s another one.” My husband and I looked at each other, “ARE YOU SERIOUS? IS THIS A JOKE?” “No, no. I see two. Here’s one. And here’s the other. Let me get a picture of them both.” – Incoming nervous, excited, ‘I can’t believe it’ laughter. And for a good three or four minutes thats all D and I did, laugh. I couldn’t contain myself. I was so happy that in that moment every bit of worry flew far far way to where the sun don’t shine. Twins. Me. Mother of twins. I wanted one baby so bad, but this? This! Two babies? Two babies!! I just couldn’t. Couldn’t believe. Couldn’t explain to my husband the way my motherly hormones raged in every which way through my body and I felt AWE-SOME. AWEEEEESOMEEEE! My body was a nurturing vessel for two human beings. What an immense privilege.
My mother lives pretty close to the clinic we in so we called her to come take a look at ‘the baby’. We lied and said it hadn’t been our turn yet. She kept asking me if we saw if they were twins. And I laughed and responded, “Why do you guys keep telling me that? No we haven’t seen a thing. We’re waiting for you.” The nurse agreed to play dumb and re-do the scene. Needless to say, my mother freaked out. “I knew it! I knew it. Twins!!! Two girls!!” And that was that, now we had even bigger news to share with the whole family. Fun times Xs two. Everyone took the twin news in a bigger way than when we told them we were pregnant. Something about the fact that there would be two caused so much commotion to our family.
Fast forward almost two years, here we are. My little peanuts that danced happily that day in the ultrasound shocking us with the biggest surprise ever. While I was pregnant I remember looking for some kind of “twin outfit” for the hospital, but ended up taking precaution knowing that they would probably be premies so I should buy them just a tad bit bigger. Now is when the boys are able to fit into their twin shirts. And weird enough, Matthew our eldest is the wisest… and well our youngest, the one people refer to as the happy twin, has all the girls attention. D and I couldn’t be happier that everything happened this way. These two little boys were meant just for us.
Twin bodysuits: Carters (we ordered them while I was pregnant so it’s been a while, I’m sure you can find some in Etsy!)
Are there any baby/twin related questions you would like for me to answer and talk about? Let me know and I’ll write a blog post about it soon. Have a great weekend everyone!
