Since time seems to be going by quicker and our due date will be approaching faster than we know it, we have decided to open a blog to keep our family and friends updated.
We will start by telling everyone a little history about us.
Bryan and I met through friends while in college. We dated over three years before getting engaged on July 1, 2008. We married a little over a year after our engagement on July 18, 2009. From the start we both knew we wanted children and planned on trying shortly after our wedding. The plan was to start trying in October after our honeymoon, but after spending time in 105 degree weather last August, I told Bryan I did not want to be 9 months pregnant in the heat of the summer. We figured that things would happen when the time was right and decided to not necessarily "try" to get pregnant but not take any measures to prevent it.
Sometime during the 1st week in August I began feeling funny at work so I contacted my doctor who ordered some blood work including a blood pregnancy test. Everything came back normal and the pregnancy test was negative, which was no surprise to me since I had a pretty good idea that I wasn't pregnant. We figured it was either a bug or just exhaustion from the wedding. So we went about life as newlyweds. It was shortly after that, that we had made our decision about not waiting until October.
Towards the end of August I began to feel a really heavy feeling in my belly, but thought that even if I were pregnant it would be way too soon to have symptoms. One night it felt like someone had placed a brick right in the lower part of my abdomen. I didn't think too much of it at the time.
It was during a camping/ four-wheeling trip the last weekend in August that I continued to have weird feelings in my lower abdomen. This time it was more of a cramp like feeling. I figured it was just one of the "joys" of being female. After talking to our good friend Crystal, who had a baby about 3 months prior, I decided to take a pregnancy test when we got home.
As soon as we got home, on August 30th, I took one of the digital pregnancy tests. I was expecting it to say "Not Pregnant" but much to my surprise it read "Pregnant". I yelled out from the bathroom to Bryan, "Bryan, come here!” His response was, "No! I don't want to see anything gross." I yelled back, "It's not gross! Come here!" Eventually I convinced him to come see what I had and as he opened the door I handed him the positive pregnancy test. His first response, with a big grin on his face, was "NuUh...........Take another one!” So after a little time I took a second test which again said "Pregnant". His response again was "Take another one". Finally after three positive pregnancy tests we were convinced that yes, we were actually pregnant.
The next morning I called my doctor who ordered a blood pregnancy test, which was also positive, and scheduled our first prenatal visit for October 21st.
In the mean time I was already starting to outgrow my clothing and had terrible morning sickness which lasted all day. I kept telling people, "my pants don't fit" and no one really paid too much attention. I eventually bought a pair of pants that were a size bigger and about two or three weeks later those were snug too. I said "my pants don't fit again, I think I need maternity pants" and everyone just kind of laughed but I knew it couldn't be weight gain from eating because I could hardly keep anything down. Finally in October I said "my pants don't fit, I need maternity pants" and convinced Bryan to take me to the maternity store in Spokane, where I found several pairs of pants. They made such a difference I asked the girl if I could wear them out of the store. I began to think that my growth was all in my head but I didn't care as long as I was comfortable. As time passed I still kept growing. I remember one of my coworkers saying, "Oh, I remember my 20 week ultrasound. I was still wearing my regular clothes and I didn't even feel pregnant, except when we got see the baby." I thought to myself, I don't know what you're talking about, I'm only 9 weeks and I'm already in maternity clothes.
After returning from our honeymoon in October, we had our first doctor's visit. We were 11 weeks pregnant and both very excited for our first ultrasound and to hear the heartbeat. The first half of the visit was just taking a health history, blood pressure, and weight. I got up on the scale as instructed and the nurse said "You've gained 15 lbs". For some odd reason I didn't think anything of it. It wasn't until Dr. Berg said, "You gained 15 lbs in the first 3 months?" I said, "I guess" while in my head I was thinking how is this possible, I can hardly eat. She said, "And you're already in maternity clothes?" I hung my head and said "yes". She kept repeating over and over "You've gained 15lbs in 3 months and you're in maternity clothes". So I quickly said "Maybe my dates are off, maybe I'm further along than I thought?" She flipped through my file and said "No, you had a negative pregnancy test the 2nd week of August." I finally said "Do you think I'm getting fat?" and her response was "Twins?" I immediately said "Noooo!" She just smiled. I blurted out "There better not be!"
After our conversation and my exam Bryan had arrived from work so the nurse brought him back to the room for our first ultrasound. As she was moving the probe around we saw the first glimpse of baby and no more than a few seconds later a second little baby flashed up on the screen. Dr. Berg said "Yep! There's two!” Bryan was jumping up and down and kept saying "Yes! Yes!" and I began to laugh and cry all at the same time. She then quickly went over the common concerns with pregnancy and the risks with twins, although I didn't really retain much of the information. She asked with a big smile "Is it okay if I tell the rest of the staff?" (Who had all known me for years) and I told her that would be fine. I got dressed and we walked out of the room, Bryan with a big grin on his face and me with the look of shock. As we walked up to the front everyone was smiling and congratulating us.
Bryan quickly texted everyone and called his family. I called my parents who were in town to have dinner with us. I carefully began telling my mom about our visit trying not to spill the beans. I tried to keep it a secret until I could tell them in person and show them the ultrasound pictures. My mom asked "Did you see the baby!?!" and said "Yes" and she asked "Did you get to hear the heartbeat!?!" and I began to say "No, she just......" and before I had finished my mom asked "There is just one right!?!" I said "Well....." she yelled "What there's two!?!!!" I told her "Yes!" she said "Really, there's two!?!!!!" I said "Yep! There's two!” I could hear her pull the phone away and say "Darold! There's two! She's having twins!" Finally when I met up with them only about a mile away from my doctor's office I showed them the ultrasound with the two little babies in it. That is when my mom began the calling chain telling everyone that we were expecting twins.
After several days of shock and enough time for everything to sink in, I too, was excited about having twins. I knew that we had our work cut out for us but how can you not be excited about having two babies to love. I figured God wouldn't give us something we couldn't handle and He must see something in us that I hadn't seen yet to bless us with two babies. Someone at work told me, God blesses extra special couples with special needs children or multiples. I tell myself this every time I am feeling "the pains of pregnancy" and the discomfort that comes with growing two babies at once.
So fast forward to 19 weeks. We are finally far enough along to find out the sex of our babies. One evening while I was at work one of the ultrasound techs offered to do an ultrasound to tell us the sexes, even though we had our official ultrasound in just a few days. Unable to turn down an opportunity to see our little ones again I called Bryan who met me during my dinner break at work for our own special ultrasound. It was then that we found out that we are expecting two boys. I don't think you could have found a prouder daddy in the whole world that night. Bryan could not stop smiling for days. A couple of days later we had our official ultrasound which we got to share with grandma, grandpa, and great-grandma-to-be. I was so excited about our babies, I wanted to share it with both of our families and invite them come to one of our ultrasounds. It was great to hear all the laughter when they babies would interact with each other in the womb. We saw anything from kicking each other to Baby B sticking his butt over Baby A's face while trying to get a good profile picture of Baby A.
And that brings us to today. We are 21 weeks and 1 day pregnant. We have been spending most of our time trying to prepare for our little guys and counting down the days until we get to meet them.
We have our 5 month appointment tomorrow and we will write a little blurb about how it goes.
We will start by telling everyone a little history about us.
Bryan and I met through friends while in college. We dated over three years before getting engaged on July 1, 2008. We married a little over a year after our engagement on July 18, 2009. From the start we both knew we wanted children and planned on trying shortly after our wedding. The plan was to start trying in October after our honeymoon, but after spending time in 105 degree weather last August, I told Bryan I did not want to be 9 months pregnant in the heat of the summer. We figured that things would happen when the time was right and decided to not necessarily "try" to get pregnant but not take any measures to prevent it.
Sometime during the 1st week in August I began feeling funny at work so I contacted my doctor who ordered some blood work including a blood pregnancy test. Everything came back normal and the pregnancy test was negative, which was no surprise to me since I had a pretty good idea that I wasn't pregnant. We figured it was either a bug or just exhaustion from the wedding. So we went about life as newlyweds. It was shortly after that, that we had made our decision about not waiting until October.
Towards the end of August I began to feel a really heavy feeling in my belly, but thought that even if I were pregnant it would be way too soon to have symptoms. One night it felt like someone had placed a brick right in the lower part of my abdomen. I didn't think too much of it at the time.
It was during a camping/ four-wheeling trip the last weekend in August that I continued to have weird feelings in my lower abdomen. This time it was more of a cramp like feeling. I figured it was just one of the "joys" of being female. After talking to our good friend Crystal, who had a baby about 3 months prior, I decided to take a pregnancy test when we got home.
As soon as we got home, on August 30th, I took one of the digital pregnancy tests. I was expecting it to say "Not Pregnant" but much to my surprise it read "Pregnant". I yelled out from the bathroom to Bryan, "Bryan, come here!” His response was, "No! I don't want to see anything gross." I yelled back, "It's not gross! Come here!" Eventually I convinced him to come see what I had and as he opened the door I handed him the positive pregnancy test. His first response, with a big grin on his face, was "NuUh...........Take another one!” So after a little time I took a second test which again said "Pregnant". His response again was "Take another one". Finally after three positive pregnancy tests we were convinced that yes, we were actually pregnant.
The next morning I called my doctor who ordered a blood pregnancy test, which was also positive, and scheduled our first prenatal visit for October 21st.
In the mean time I was already starting to outgrow my clothing and had terrible morning sickness which lasted all day. I kept telling people, "my pants don't fit" and no one really paid too much attention. I eventually bought a pair of pants that were a size bigger and about two or three weeks later those were snug too. I said "my pants don't fit again, I think I need maternity pants" and everyone just kind of laughed but I knew it couldn't be weight gain from eating because I could hardly keep anything down. Finally in October I said "my pants don't fit, I need maternity pants" and convinced Bryan to take me to the maternity store in Spokane, where I found several pairs of pants. They made such a difference I asked the girl if I could wear them out of the store. I began to think that my growth was all in my head but I didn't care as long as I was comfortable. As time passed I still kept growing. I remember one of my coworkers saying, "Oh, I remember my 20 week ultrasound. I was still wearing my regular clothes and I didn't even feel pregnant, except when we got see the baby." I thought to myself, I don't know what you're talking about, I'm only 9 weeks and I'm already in maternity clothes.
After returning from our honeymoon in October, we had our first doctor's visit. We were 11 weeks pregnant and both very excited for our first ultrasound and to hear the heartbeat. The first half of the visit was just taking a health history, blood pressure, and weight. I got up on the scale as instructed and the nurse said "You've gained 15 lbs". For some odd reason I didn't think anything of it. It wasn't until Dr. Berg said, "You gained 15 lbs in the first 3 months?" I said, "I guess" while in my head I was thinking how is this possible, I can hardly eat. She said, "And you're already in maternity clothes?" I hung my head and said "yes". She kept repeating over and over "You've gained 15lbs in 3 months and you're in maternity clothes". So I quickly said "Maybe my dates are off, maybe I'm further along than I thought?" She flipped through my file and said "No, you had a negative pregnancy test the 2nd week of August." I finally said "Do you think I'm getting fat?" and her response was "Twins?" I immediately said "Noooo!" She just smiled. I blurted out "There better not be!"
After our conversation and my exam Bryan had arrived from work so the nurse brought him back to the room for our first ultrasound. As she was moving the probe around we saw the first glimpse of baby and no more than a few seconds later a second little baby flashed up on the screen. Dr. Berg said "Yep! There's two!” Bryan was jumping up and down and kept saying "Yes! Yes!" and I began to laugh and cry all at the same time. She then quickly went over the common concerns with pregnancy and the risks with twins, although I didn't really retain much of the information. She asked with a big smile "Is it okay if I tell the rest of the staff?" (Who had all known me for years) and I told her that would be fine. I got dressed and we walked out of the room, Bryan with a big grin on his face and me with the look of shock. As we walked up to the front everyone was smiling and congratulating us.
Bryan quickly texted everyone and called his family. I called my parents who were in town to have dinner with us. I carefully began telling my mom about our visit trying not to spill the beans. I tried to keep it a secret until I could tell them in person and show them the ultrasound pictures. My mom asked "Did you see the baby!?!" and said "Yes" and she asked "Did you get to hear the heartbeat!?!" and I began to say "No, she just......" and before I had finished my mom asked "There is just one right!?!" I said "Well....." she yelled "What there's two!?!!!" I told her "Yes!" she said "Really, there's two!?!!!!" I said "Yep! There's two!” I could hear her pull the phone away and say "Darold! There's two! She's having twins!" Finally when I met up with them only about a mile away from my doctor's office I showed them the ultrasound with the two little babies in it. That is when my mom began the calling chain telling everyone that we were expecting twins.
After several days of shock and enough time for everything to sink in, I too, was excited about having twins. I knew that we had our work cut out for us but how can you not be excited about having two babies to love. I figured God wouldn't give us something we couldn't handle and He must see something in us that I hadn't seen yet to bless us with two babies. Someone at work told me, God blesses extra special couples with special needs children or multiples. I tell myself this every time I am feeling "the pains of pregnancy" and the discomfort that comes with growing two babies at once.
So fast forward to 19 weeks. We are finally far enough along to find out the sex of our babies. One evening while I was at work one of the ultrasound techs offered to do an ultrasound to tell us the sexes, even though we had our official ultrasound in just a few days. Unable to turn down an opportunity to see our little ones again I called Bryan who met me during my dinner break at work for our own special ultrasound. It was then that we found out that we are expecting two boys. I don't think you could have found a prouder daddy in the whole world that night. Bryan could not stop smiling for days. A couple of days later we had our official ultrasound which we got to share with grandma, grandpa, and great-grandma-to-be. I was so excited about our babies, I wanted to share it with both of our families and invite them come to one of our ultrasounds. It was great to hear all the laughter when they babies would interact with each other in the womb. We saw anything from kicking each other to Baby B sticking his butt over Baby A's face while trying to get a good profile picture of Baby A.
And that brings us to today. We are 21 weeks and 1 day pregnant. We have been spending most of our time trying to prepare for our little guys and counting down the days until we get to meet them.
We have our 5 month appointment tomorrow and we will write a little blurb about how it goes.
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Wow, Ashley. What a great idea! Thanks for keeping us informed. Love you, Brenda
ReplyDeleteThis is how I ended up starting our family blog!! Started it through pregnancy...now people check it all the time, however i'm not as good at updating as I used to be!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to keep reaading yours and to see the boys when they come into the world!