Twins!!

At the end of last summer my husband, Bryan, and I were debating whether or not we should have more children. We had always said that we would have three, but after the birth of our second child in 2009, and the recession we weren't sure if having another was wise.  As finances began to get tighter and the needs of our two children increased, we decided that we would try a long-term birth control method, like the IUD. Our current form of birth control were condoms, which I must admit, we weren't 100% faithful using.

In September, I made an appointment with my OB-Gyn to get the IUD, however they make you wait until your next menstrual to have it inserted. I went home a little disappointed, but figured one month wasn't that horrible. When October came and went and there was still no sign, I didn't immediately freak out since I wasn't always regular in the past. When Halloween came and went and with Thanksgiving approaching and still no sign of my period, I was beginning to get a little nervous. I brushed off my nerves and was trying to convince myself that I was just being paranoid. There was just no way that I could be pregnant... right? So, when my birthday rolled around, I decided, what the heck I'll take an EPT-test just to make sure I wasn't pregnant before I enjoyed a few beers in celebration. So, I peed and I waited. It did not take long for the plus sign to appear, I remember my heart pounding out of my chest because then I knew without a doubt that I was pregnant, for the third time.

After finding out, I cried a little bit and shook a lot. I paced and paced waiting for Bryan to come home from work. When he walked through the door I remember running to him and hitting him and then throwing myself in his arms as I wept. He kept asking me, "what's wrong? Why are you crying?" I looked up at him and said, "I'm freaking pregnant, Bryan!" He was so good, he held me and said, "that's not a reason to cry, you should be happy. You always wanted three, now you got it," then he laughed at me for being so dramatic. I think I must have cried for the first three days after finding out, and to be honest I can't really say if they were tears of sadness or happiness, but maybe tears of complete confusion and guilt. My youngest, Jackie, was only about 15 months at the time. How could I do this to her? How could I be so selfish to have another baby when she was still very much a baby in my eyes? Those were just some of the questions running through my mind, least of which was how were we going to afford another baby?

The next week I got in to see my OB-Gyn and they calculated that I was about 11 weeks pregnant, but they set me up with an early ultrasound to get a more accurate date. The next week I dropped baby Jackie off at a friend's house and went in for my ultrasound. The days before I just kept having a feeling that something wasn't right. My worst fear was that I was going to find out that I was miscarrying just when I was coming to terms with having three children. Even though this was not a planned pregnancy, deep down I knew that I wanted this baby as much as I wanted my other two. I got to my appointment, went in and laid down on the table, and tried to tell myself that what ever the out come I would be ok. When the technician put the wand to my belly, I saw immediately a little peanut of an embryo, but then she moved it really quickly and I saw another little sac with another little embryo. I started to panic then because I knew; I knew there were two "babies" in there. The technician didn't say anything right away, but I remember looking at her face and seeing that she knew it too, but she was waiting for something. After moving the wand back over the first spot and quickly finding a heartbeat, she moved back to the other spot to see about a second heartbeat. It was there, just as strong as the other embryos heartbeat. I asked her then, "are there really two, is that really another baby?" She looked at me and simply said, "yes, you're having twins." I laughed; not the haha "that's so funny" laugh, but the nervous, "are you serious?" laugh. I could not believe that I would be having twins! They do not run on either side of our families, how could this have been possible? After the measurements were taken of the embryos I was clear that I was not 11 weeks along, but only 5 weeks.

I left the office in a daze and sat in my car looking at the pictures, there was one that was taken of both babies together. I picked up my phone and didn't know who I was going to call first, but I had to tell someone. So, I called my boss, I figured it would be the quickest call and she needed to know that once again I would be taking a maternity leave come the summer. That call turned into the longest, but she was so happy for me that she asked if she could tell the rest of the lab the good news. Then I called Bryan and the conversation went something like this:
-Well, I guess we need to get a minivan.
-Why, you don't think three car seats will fit in the back?
-No, I don't think four car seats will fit in the back.
-What do you mean?
-We're having twins.
-No we're not, you're lying to me.
-No I'm not, we're really having twins.
-Whatever Jaime, I'll believe it when I see the pictures, but I'm working now.
(He didn't believe me until he  saw the picture with the two of them together.)

I called my sister next and told her, she thought it was hilarious and laughed at me. When I called my mom it was like talking to Bryan, she couldn't believe that I could have twins, but she was overjoyed to find out. My father-in-law said, "but it's not April Fool's, are you really telling me the truth?" And that's how it went on down the list of friends and family. But if it were not for the love and support that I received from each and everyone of them, I don't know if I would have felt the same bubbling joy and excitement.