After almost a month of officially knowing that I was pregnant I was incredibly excited to find out exactly how far along I really was. Again the joys of having a stressful job wreaking havoc on any sort of cycle I had going made the actual conception date quite the mystery. I had my first ultrasound and official appointment scheduled over at Women's Medical Center. (This after two at-home pregnancy tests, and two blood tests administered by the military since the first result apparently disappeared into cyber oblivion.) There was no doubt in my mind that I was pregnant, but how pregnant was important to find out!
John was really supportive of me throughout the entire pregnancy with Kaleb and was at my side at all of my appointments. This time around his schedule isn't necessarily going to permit that, but I was pleased that he wanted to go along for the ultrasound. That morning I woke up and drank the required amount of water to prepare. John took Kaleb to daycare and met me over at the clinic, after a quick stop for a refill for my water bottle. Too much water, too early wasn't a great combination for me so I practically had to start over with drinking!
Finally after a short while in the waiting room we got called back for the ultrasound. I positioned myself on the mini-bed and John got comfortable on the chair. I was rocking maternity jeans because none of my regular jeans were going to cooperate with my new expanding belly. I pulled down the fabulous navy stretch fabric that all pregnant women come to know and love and prepared for the goo!
The set up was quite nice, with a tv monitor mounted on the wall for John and I to view instead of having to peek over and see what the tech was seeing. The first picture that popped up on the screen was fairly clear to me, it looked like an amniotic sac but I didn't see a baby. The tech scrolled down a little farther to what I thought was a different angle of the same thing, this time I saw a blur of potential baby.
"Ummm...well, there's two."
My head exploded in that moment! I hear John say, "Can you check again?"
A little more pressure and a few clear strokes there was no more question in my mind that there truly were two babies. But I still absolutely couldn't wrap my head around how on earth they got there!! I have no history of twins in my family, except one occasion when fertility drugs also played a role, and John's family was full of singletons as well.
We watched with very little communication, we both were in shock. I kept checking in with John as the scan went on to view more specifics, making sure he wasn't going to pass out on me! Hearing the tech refer to Baby A and Baby B was such a foreign concept from my initial game plan!
Everything was beginning to make more sense, about the portion of pregnancy that had already passed. The overwhelming nausea, the aches and cramping that I hadn't experienced until much further along with Kaleb.
We established that I was 10 weeks and 4 days along. I was truly hoping that I was farther, but knowing now that my body is doing double the work it was alright.
After the initial shock wore off it was very cool to see the different angles and the wiggly little fetuses. Both babies were so active, and watching their heartbeats was really incredible.
John went home after that portion of the appointment because he had seen what he needed and wanted to avoid seeing anything he didn't want to see! All of the labs and paps and lovely femine things that follow on the initial appointment.
I sat in the waiting room, mentally going over the news that absolutely changes all of our lives. I was mentally calculating the cost of duplicate everything, this pregnancy sure was a lot cheaper an hour before! My cell phone was at home charging so I didn't have the opportunity to call my mom, update my facebook or any of the other technological wonders that I was aching to use--since I was just bursting wanting to share this crazy new information!
It was actually a very neat coincidence that one of my girlfriends from the spouses group showed up for an appointment of her own and I was able to squeal and get it out there in the universe.
The rest of the day was a blur of spreading the word and trying to accomplish some work in the process. When I got home after work, I caught up with my boys out playing in the backyard. I asked John if he had explained to Kaleb what was going on. He said that he had told him, but he wasn't sure it stuck in his three year old head. I called Kaleb over, got down to his level and said, "Hey honey, remember how mommy has a baby in her tummy?"
Before I could even finish my thought Kaleb interrupted, "No mommy, two babies." I looked at John with raised eyebrows, I had been told. My fear that Kaleb would be upset by the news vanished and despite the fact that I know he will have issues when the babies are born and he suddenly has to share the spotlight, he is very happy in the now. So despite all my concerns and nerves I know that I can do this, even if it does terrify me! I am just going to take it one day at a time!
