On December 24, 2013 I missed a period for the first time since
starting them 16 years ago. I couldn't believe it when I woke up and I
was two days late. Even after being "fertility aware" for two years I
was always ridiculously regular. I did the math and realized that we may
have cut it a little close this time thanks to a once-in-a-blue-moon
drunken night at the local bar with J and H. Unfortunately, we were
leaving for Christmas Eve out west and I had no time to get or take a
test so I put it out of my head and went on with the day sure I would
have a little Christmas gift all to myself the next morning. Not
exactly. That's how I found myself trolling the Rite Aid and grocery
store parking lots looking for an open sign at 8am Christmas morning.
Again, no such luck. So I spent Christmas day wondering if this would be
our last one just the two of us (it made me savor our morning together
that much more), thinking that next year would be full of toys and baby
clothes, and then wondering if I was really ready for this. At 9am on
the 26th I woke up and ran to Rite Aid.The cashier said, "You look a
little nervous, I take it this is unexpected?" I said "Yup, but I'm
ready so either way it's ok!" It's funny, I knew for sure at that point
that I was pregnant. Really. The blue lines a few minutes later only
confirmed it. C handled it like a movie star. While I had a momentary
freak out (despite being "ready!" just a few minutes prior) he cried and
hugged me and told me he was so happy. It was a perfect moment for us,
sort of our last as just the two of us as we neared the end of the
newlywed chapter and the beginning of the parenthood one.
On
January 28th, 2014 we found out that our little Christmas surprise was
actually double the fun/trouble/love/blessings! I was so terrified that
our first ultrasound would show something was wrong, I never even
thought that there could be more than one in there. I didn't have any
type of gut feeling or intuition at any point although I had thought
about it. It was the most amazing thing seeing a tiny baby shape appear
on the screen. I was so relieved everything was going ok that even after
noticing the tech was holding up her two fingers I didn't know at all
what it meant. For a few seconds it looked a lot like a peace sign to
me, so.. peace is what I thought. I took a deep breath and said
something like, "Yes, be peaceful."
And then the tech laughed and said "No, no, there's two. Two babies."
I was shaking with excitement and nerves before and at that point I just started laughing, not at all believing her.
And then all of a sudden there were two
little babies on the screen to my right. They had huge heads and tiny
torsos with budding feet and arms sticking out and I couldn't believe
they were actually inside me. The tech showed us Baby A, and there was a
tiny fluttering right in the middle of the chest - a so perfect, so
fast heartbeat. She moved on to Baby B whose heart looked like the
smallest clapping hands. C asked if they were and the tech laughed and
told us no, that it was another strong heartbeat. He, again, handled it
like a pro. Although we were both completely knocked out in surprise he
was so elated and smiling from ear to ear. I have to admit for someone
who was ready and willing to forgo getting action around "that time" in
order to avoid having a baby he certainly took a surprise twin pregnancy
quite well! We laughed and laughed the whole way home. It still hasn't
really terrified us yet. We just figure it's twice the fun and the love
as much as it's twice the work and stress. We have an amazing support
system and we know we can handle this, no matter how broke we are or how
small our house is or anything. We have each other and enough love for a
whole flock of babies, although we're happy with the two. We only ever
wanted two so another bonus is with one pregnancy and labor we get an
insta-family. How lucky are we?
xo,
M & C
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