Unexpected Surprises

In July, we learned that I was pregnant. It's a very emotion-filled time when you just learn that you're going to have a baby. Lots of things run through your head. You're excited and a little scared at the same time. I understand why so many people wait until the 2nd trimester to tell their friends and family, just in case the pregnancy is not viable.

That month I must have taken nine of those home pregnancy tests just to be sure that I was really pregnant. Yes, they really can detect the hCG hormone much earlier BUT that little positive sign is sooooo faint that you just can't be sure....

We really wanted to wait before we told anyone, but it just so happens that I'm a horrible liar and it also just so happened that my aunt decided to pat my tummy and asked if I was expecting. What the heck!??! I'm not even supposed to be showing yet and she thinks I'm pregnant already? So the next thing you know, my family knows and of course we had to tell Michael's parents as well. So much for keeping it a secret.

Not long into the pregnancy I started feeling the dreaded morning sickness. It didn't happen in the morning at first, it usually hit after work, right before dinner. Then the next week it would be in the afternoons right after lunch. Soon it ended up being ALL day and included vomiting as well. From everyone that I had talked to about morning sickness, this was unusually bad. There would be times when I had to pull over on the side of the road just to vomit. My doctor prescribed all sort of meds for me and still the sickness continued. Anyway, my lovely nausea/vomiting eventually cut short my vacation with my mom and sister in the beautiful Mediterranean.

Once I returned home, Michael insisted that we visit our GP since we did not have an appointment yet to see our obstetrician and her assistant had mentioned that we should have had an early ultrasound. With a little more pushing we were able to get a drop-in spot at the Chinatown Ultrasound Clinic. Yes, it was a little ghetto.

Now we knew there could be a chance that I was pregnant with twins. First, twins runs in my family, secondly I was just more sick during this pregnancy than most and thirdly I looked way more pregnant than the 14 weeks that I was.

Finally the technician brought me into the room. You're supposed to drink a lot of water before your ultrasound so that the imaging is better or something like that. At this point I was ready to burst. Unfortunately, Michael was not allowed into the room until the tech finished doing all her measurements so that she wouldn't miss anything. She found my uterus with the ultrasound wand and there were these two irregular blobs in the middle. She starts asking me questions about how many kids I have, how many I wanted, and I mention to her that we had joked about having twins and getting it all over and done with in one go. That's when she finally confirmed what I saw was for real. We're having twins!! At this point I'm crying, asking for my husband, and I'm just completely elated! It's unbelievable!! Then she let me listen to their heartbeat and starts taking stills of their bodies, hands, etc. FINALLY Michael is allowed in and told the good news and she goes through everything again.

After all the excitement about having twins subsides, you start to think about what you need to do to keep them healthy and well. There's so much that can go wrong esp. with two babies. So far things are well.