It's Better!

Posted on behalf of goldengrace

Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought that I would be the mother of twins. My husband and I were married for almost two years when we found out we were expecting. We had our first appointment with my Doctor when I was 7 weeks pregnant. She did an ultrasound in the office and said that she saw one perfect heartbeat. We were thrilled.

Fast forward to the end of my first trimester. We had an ultrasound appointment, and we so excited to see out little one. As I laid on the table, the tech asked us if this was our first ultrasound. We so no, and she said "Oh, so you know you are having twins then!" We laughed and thought she was just kidding. The she told us to look up at the screen, and there they were, our two little babies. To say we were in shock is an understatement. This was not what we had planned but we were thrilled, thankful, and terrified.

From that point on my pregnancy was normal until 26 weeks. At that point, I started contracting and going into pre-term labor. Over the next few months, I was rushed to Labor and Delivery three times, thankfully they were able to stop the contractions. I was sent home each time with a medication to try keep the contractions at bay, and on strict bed rest. Not exactly what I had imagined, but all that mattered at that point was keeping my boys in for as long as possible. Once again, this was not what we had planned.

On New Year's Eve 2007, I was at my Doctor's office for some routine testing. She noticed that I was contracting and that my blood pressure was a little higher than normal. She made the decision that today would be our boy's birthday. I was terrified. I was only 34 weeks pregnant and knew that the boys were not fully developed yet. I have never experienced that type of fear before in my entire life. Brandon Orlando was born first at 11:56 weighing in at 5lbs 1oz. Brody Craig came next am weighed in at a whopping 6lbs 1oz. Both boys were immediately whisked away to the NICU.

The next morning, I was finally stable enough to be wheeled in to see my boys. They were beautiful, I was instantly in love with both of them. All I wanted to do was hold them and never let go. The boys did well in the NICU. The main issue they faced was their feeding. It took them both two weeks to master it and then were finally able to come home. Those two weeks were the hardest two weeks of my life, this was the farthest thing from what we had planned.

Brandon and Brody are almost 8 months old now and are perfect, happy, and healthy little boys. Brody is my cuddle bear and loves to snuggle into my arms every night before bed. Brandon is my happy go lucky boy, his smile melts my heart. Although there are days when having two screaming babies makes me feel like I just might go crazy, all the other moments with them make up for it. I am so blessed to have these two boys and know they will bring us a lifetime of joy. There are many days that go by and I think... this is not what we had planned, its better!