Twin Pregnancy Story: Part 1

Our journey through twin pregnancy, and some other events surrounding it, is what first inspired me to create this blog. This will be part 1 of a multiple-post series detailing our journey. I just need to get this all out before I can continue with any other blogging, it seems.

Though this is what first gave me inspiration to share, it is by no means the first leg of our (my husband Brian and I) journey. No, that began long before we even met. But that will all be woven together in time.

It is almost Valentine’s Day. A year ago, Valentine’s Day 2015, I had just found out I was pregnant, no idea yet it was twins. I distinctly remember going on a date with Brian that day, while our good friends watched our then-one-year-old son. I think I remember it well, sadly, because of the nausea that made me unable to eat a perfectly delicious Italian meal. As we draw closer to that date, it makes me more eager to invite others in on this journey, both while I process through it, and beyond into the future.

Here is our story.

Part 1: Weeks 8-15 | Excitement and Joy

“Oh, I see something wiggling there!…(long pause)…I think I see two something’s there!”

I knew the truth before the nurse practitioner even exclaimed those words. The second she had put the probe on my belly, I knew there were two babies inside me. The picture looked just like the first time we saw Joshua at 10 weeks, only there were two tiny 2cm babies wiggling around. I was about 8 weeks along this time. God already knew this was going to happen, so it was nothing new to Him, but this was the point where my whole world changed.

All the nurse practitioner could tell me was that she had never done a first ultrasound for twins and that she would have me see a specialist doctor called a perinatologist for another ultrasound in a few weeks. They could tell me if they were identical or fraternal twins and make sure everything else was okay. Otherwise, for the time being, I was to just treat it like a “normal”pregnancy.

My best friend was watching our son, so I left the appointment and drove across town to pick him up. In the office I sat stunned and didn’t say much, and couldn’t think of a single question to ask. The minute I got in the car, I became aware of my heart pounding in my chest. Excitement, anticipation, and anxiety, all came crashing down with overwhelming strength. I was at the appointment alone, as Brian was at work substitute teaching. This being the second baby and all, I suppose it hadn’t seemed as big of a deal if he came with me to the appointment, and at that point, him working as many days as possible was so important. I had assumed if he got off work for the “big” anatomy scan ultrasound at 20 weeks, that would be great, and I would go to all the other ones myself.

I laughed and cried simultaneously the entire way to my friend’s house. I knew I wanted to share the news that we were actually having twins with Brian before telling anyone else, so when I reached my friend’s house I had the hardest time keeping my mouth shut! She asked, “How did the appointment go?” I felt my face flush a little and just said, “Oh, everything looked really good and healthy on the ultrasound!” I quickly changed the subject to Joshua and how he had been for her, because I was about to burst with the news.

Brian already knew I was pregnant, of course; I had found out at about 5 weeks along. When I got home from my appointment though, I immediately went to Pinterest to find some clever ways to tell your husband you’re expecting twins. I ended up deciding to use the little cars from the game of Life. I taped them on a little card. The front said, “Our Family Before…” with a car with three people in it. The inside said, “…and After,” with a car with five people in it. I also put one of the ultrasound photos. When he came home from work, I told him I had a cute idea to share with people that we are pregnant, and I wanted to see if he liked my idea. I handed him the card, and he said, “Aww, cute!” Then he opened it up. He took one look, and immediately looked at me with huge eyes and said, clearly in shock, “We’re having twins?” I cried and nodded. Brian was clearly excited and happy, and that was that. It felt more real than ever. We were having two babies!

We had already told our family and close friends we were pregnant, so we spent the next few weeks enjoying making the second announcement that we were having twins. My brother took a great picture of my mom’s face when she heard the news; her mouth stayed open long enough for us to get a picture, she was so shocked. Our friends and family were very excited along with us, and have had an amazing support system from them since sharing the news.

Between weeks 8 to 14, I started to do a little research into twins and twin pregnancy. I knew from reading that I was probably having identical twins. When you look at an ultrasound, early ID twin pictures essentially look like two babies inside one big circle, while fraternal will have a baby each inside their own black circle, separated by grey. On more high-tech machines, you can usually see a thin white line in the middle of the ID twins’ sac, which is a membrane. That membrane is good news.

There are four types of twin pregnancies. This little picture below that I found online is a good explanation, but basically I knew I either had “mono-di” or “mono-mono” twins. I spent a few weeks concerned that they were mono-mono, which is very rare but also dangerous. My first ultrasound looked that way because you could not see the membrane between the babies. However, I had such terrible morning sickness during those weeks that I mostly thought about nausea anyway.

My one-year-old spent most of the time reading books with me on the couch or watching DVD’s because I was so terribly sick. I had been fairly sick when I was pregnant with him too, but this was more intense as I couldn’t keep food down the entire day. We still lived about 8 hours from all our family at that point, so I was especially grateful for our church small group and dear ministry staff friends. They helped ease the burden as much as possible by watching our son, and once a group of ladies even babysat for a big portion of a day while the others brought food, cleaned my whole house, and forced me to take a nap.

By week 16 I had not gained any weight, but thankfully hadn’t lost any either. It made my little bump grow, but the rest of me looked rather sickly, as you can tell below between my 12 and 16 week photos. That was the week my morning sickness finally subsided. It was followed by 2-3 weeks of the “honeymoon period” of just enjoying pregnancy, then on to more…complications.

At week 14, I went in for my appointment with a perinatologist at the maternal fetal medicine (MFM) clinic at the hospital. The ultrasound was quite long, but right away they showed me the membrane separating the girls. Phew, a sigh of relief. My pregnancy would be okay; everything would be just “fine” from that point on, right?

12 weeks

16 weeks