The Crawdad Chronicles: Shock of a Lifetime

Ryan and I have had the "is our family complete" conversation almost since Harrison was born. After a lot of time, talking, and prayer we decided we would do the unthinkable and let the children outnumber us and we were thrilled when we found out we were pregnant with #3!

After going to the doctor for my first appointment and again for blood work she finally scheduled me for my first ultrasound. The background of this appointment is that the New Bern office was booked that day so I ended up driving about 20-30 minutes away. Ryan was planning on coming with me but called me a couple of hours before to tell me that he hadn't even started his surgery yet and there was no way he was going to make it. My exact words were, "Don't worry about it honey. I have had so many ultrasounds and it's not like it's our first kid." In hindsight this makes me laugh! My memory of the ultrasound that day is that it was taking a LONG time and the tech wasn't saying anything. My mind immediately went to the worst case scenarios and I tried not to cry as I waited for them to tell me that something was wrong. Finally the lady said, "Let me tell you what I'm seeing. Here is a baby. And over here is another one. Do twins run in your family?" I about fell off the table! Tears welled up in my eyes but I'm not sure if they were tears of joy or fear, lol. There are no words that would do my feelings justice. Never in a million years did I think we would have twins. Sure we had joked about it before but there was no reason to ever think that that would be a reality for us.

Two babies!

On that drive home I was just in complete shock. I finally pulled over into a parking lot and just sat there processing what I had been told and the information my doctor had given me. My mind was racing! When I got home my mom was keeping the boys and I said, "Just look at this. Just look at this." In hindsight I should have announced this news in a special way but I was just floored at that moment. Several people asked me if I immediately called Ryan to tell him but considering he was operating on someone I decided it might be better if I surprised him with this news in person. When he finally got home and asked me how the appointment went I just handed him the picture wordlessly and after a few minutes he said, "Is this for real? Is this a joke?" Quite possibly the biggest surprise of our life!

I called Ryan's mom and my dad that night to break the news and needless to say they were both in shock. "Are you kidding?" was the phrase we kept hearing! I decided to just text Whitney and Rod and David and Greer. I ended up taking a screen shot of part of our conversation to remember. They were pretty surprised to say the least!

We asked our immediate families to keep it quiet for a few weeks while we had time to process it. I will be honest. Of course we were thrilled to get this double blessing but it was also very overwhelming and scary. Being told you are now in a high risk pregnancy, reading the statistics on twin pregnancies, early labor, NICU time, and just the physical implications of carrying two babies was a lot to take in. Not to mention the thought that we are going to have four kids with the oldest barely being five. It was a lot to think about.

Flowers from my sweet hubby

For various reasons I didn't blog much about my first two pregnancies and I had already decided I wanted to record more this time with it being my last. Well as I type this I'm half way through- not doing so good with the blogging! Here is a quick synopsis of the first half of this twin pregnancy which unfortunately has not been the most fun time of my life. My first two pregnancies were hard but this one has been very difficult and unfortunately James and Harrison have had to deal with a mom that has not functioned very well most days.

3 weeks- found out I was pregnant
4 weeks- started feeling queasy
5 weeks- started throwing up every day, multiple times a day
Weeks 9-11 were awful, throwing up 10+ times a day, couldn't keep anything down, lost almost 10 pounds. At this point I literally begged for help from my mom and mother in law because I literally could not function to be able to take care of the boys.
By 16 weeks thankfully I only was getting sick every 2 to 3 days but still feeling very nauseous. Also around 16 weeks I felt the first flutters! I always describe it as feeling like a goldfish is swimming in my belly.
18 weeks we found out the genders! I also have been able to feel some real kicks and jabs, especially at night while laying in bed. I told someone that I have no doubt they are kicking during the day but chasing after the boys all day long keeps me from noticing.
20 weeks- Ryan could feel the babies moving. One of the best moments thus far. Unfortunately this was also around the time that I started having bad back pain and pelvic/hip pain.

A few of our pictures from the past few months:

This is just a few of my medicines (along with a Lego creation that James made me to help me feel better). At one point I think I was on four different prescriptions plus over the counter meds!

The night told my bible study girls (minus Shannon). Their reaction was priceless!

Bump shot!

This is not a great picture but makes me laugh. I'm explaining things to Shannon and she looks so concerned, lol.

We ended up telling James after our 12 week appointment. He was so funny, just like "whatever mom." He asked more questions about it as the days went on and he liked seeing the ultrasound pictures. He has loved kissing my belly and talking to them through the microphone (a.k.a my belly button)

A few of the many many ultrasound pictures we have gotten. One of the perks of twins is lots of ultrasounds. I love seeing how much they can change in just a few weeks.