From 2 to 4

I met my husband in college in 2001. He waited for me to finish up graduate school, and we were married 5 years later. We knew we wanted to start a family fairly early, so after a year or so we started trying. At first I just knew I would get pregnant right away. I did everything I could think of to help us get pregnant quickly; charting my temperature, changing my diet, balancing my Qi, acupressure, using ovulation kits. Nothing seemed to work, so after a year of no success, we went back to the doctor for various infertility tests. It turned out that my hormones were out of whack, so my doctor put me on Clomid. That did it! After one cycle, I was pregnant and 9 weeks later, at an ultrasound, I saw two little bubbles! I know right away I was having twins, and was so excited and nervous.
My husband was very apprehensive about the entire process because when he was born, he had a twin brother that died shortly after birth. He was very nervous and came with me to all appointments because he had many, many questions for the doctor as well.
Our babies were due in February 2009, and decided to grace us with their presence 2 months early! When I was 29 weeks pregnant, I started having cramping. I had been on bedrest for 1 week due to a shortened cervix, and at 29 weeks was in labor. They couldn't take care of me where I was meant to have my babies, so I was flown in a helicopter from my suburban hospital to one in "the big city" where there was a NICU because they thought I was going to have the babies that day. I had steroid shots to develop their lungs, and was put on a variety of medications (magnesium sulfate, nifedipine, and turbutaline) to keep me from contracting and having babies. I laid in bed, watched what I ate (due to gestational diabetes), was monitered CONSTANTLY, and got very bored. I kept contracting all day and night, but they kept stopping my labor. After 3 weeks, my body couldn't do it any longer and we had our 2 lovely boys at 32 weeks to the day! They were born at 9:45 and 9:57am and were rushed to the NICU for monitering right away. When the boys were born, they were only 4 lbs. each. They needed to stay in the hospital (for Christmas and New Year's) to learn how to eat and to moniter breathing and temperature. They came home a short 2 weeks later at a little over 4 lbs. When I think back today, I can't believe they came home with us - they were so tiny, no wonder I was scared to death!! Now the boys are almost 3 months old, have tripled their birth weights (they're really good eaters like their mom) and they are so far "on track" as 3 month olds. We have been so blessed to have such healthy and wonderful boys!

Lucas then Lucas now

Andrew then Andrew now