We often talked about a family, but realized that we really liked our lives the way they were. We could travel whenever we wanted, go out to dinner whenever we wanted, buy whatever gadgets tickled our fancy. We decided to adopt a rescued golden retriever dog we named Tabasco. He became enough "responsibility" for us and we were very happy with our little family.
Fast forward to July 2007 when we found out we were pregnant. A.Total.Surprise. About a week after the shock of the pregnancy wore off we were laying in bed one night about to go to sleep. Tim turned to me and said "you know we're going to end up with twins or triplets". I asked him what prompted him to say such a crazy thing. He replied that with my family history (my mom is a fraternal twin in a family with several sets of multiples) and the fact that NONE of our friends have multiples, it would be just our luck to be the ones with twins. We would totally forget about that conversation until a few weeks later, when we had our first ultrasound. The dr. went in and found a little bean on the screen . .. and then said something I will never forget. "Here's your baby and here is your other baby". Um, WHAT?!?!? Tim and I just stared at the woman in total shock. I don't think we really said anything. She said it is always interesting to see people's reactions. Um, yeah. We told our families later that weekend and they were shocked as well -- to say the least. Tim is an only child and I have one brother -- needless to say, our families really didn't believe we would ever actually have a baby -- let alone two at one time!
The next several months were very difficult. I experienced 10 weeks of non-stop all day "morning" sickness. I so wish I could have been brave and gone through my pregnancy with a big surprise at the end, but we decided to learn the genders as soon as possible. We were overjoyed to learn in mid- November that "baby A" was a boy and "baby B" a girl. Woo-hoo . . . JACKPOT!!
We were still in for a very rough road ahead. I was placed on strict bedrest at 24 weeks due to a shortened cervix. It was very scary and I was not given a good prognosis if the babies would arrive so early. Thankfully, I was allowed be at on bedrest at home and spent the next 9 weeks in the loving care of my husband and dog (as well as our family & friends). I don't know what I would have done without all of their support during this time! It was a roller coaster from week to week. I was able to spend my time at home connecting to other MoMs both locally and across the web. I don't know what I would have done without their encouragement and advice!
My twins were born on Feb. 13, 2008 at 32 weeks 6 days gestation by c-section (the easiest part of my entire pregnancy, as I like to say!). Bennett Michael & Kendyll Samantha (their middle names are in honor of their grandfathers, Mike & Sam) were healthy and both weighing in at over 4lbs. The next few weeks were difficult -- both babies needed assistance with breathing and spent time learning to eat. Kendyll was in the NICU for 21 days and Bennett came home after 26 days (during the "Blizzard of 2008" in Ohio).
Bennett & Kendyll are 6 months old and you would never know they were preemies. We are so blessed and are enjoying our time with them -- even if we have to field random questions from strangers every time we go in public ("are they twins?", "did you have them at the same time?", "are they identical?"). I never thought I'd be a mom, let alone a mom of twins. Do we miss our old lives -- sure. But I wouldn't change our lives now for anything! We have made some sacrifices and I chose to return to work full-time. We are fortunate to be able to have someone come to our home to watch Bennett & Kendyll and although we spend more in diapers & formula (and now cereal & food) than we ever thought, we are so blessed to have our healthy family.
~~ Sara (Nestie beefsbride)
http://mommyoftwinsinwaiting.blogspot.com/
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