Pregnancy Questions Answered

Since announcing we are pregnant and expecting twins, I've had several questions:

When did you know/how did you know you were pregnant?

• We were trying to get pregnant so it was not unexpected to find out we were pregnant, but I did have some early signs before it was confirmed.
• Early signs- bloated feeling that did not go away after a few days, sensitive/tingly breasts, hungry ALL the time and slight nausea if I did not eat soon after feeling hungry, frequent trips to the restroom, clothes felt tighter and I did not want ANYTHING touching my stomach
• I am a side sleeper. Before I even took one of the tests, I knew I might be pregnant because it felt different when I slept on my side. Not painful, slightly uncomfortable and just plain different.
• I drink mostly water and a lot of water every day.  Kinda gross, but I noticed my urine color was consistenly dark. Usually it is very light due to all the water I drink.
• Complete confirmation came with taking 2 at home pregnancy tests, on different days.

   
Did you expect/suspect twins? Are you sure it's twins?

• I've always thought and hoped I might have twins. My mom is a twin and we have a family history of twins on my mom's side.  Family lore is that the oldest girl in the family has the twins. The first set of twins that I know of was my Great Grandmother Helen's twin sisters.  Rumor is that they died as young children in a hotel fire, but I've never heard confirmation one way or another, just that they existed. My grandmother, Norma, was the oldest girl in her family and her first pregnancy was twins-my Uncle John and my Mom, Janice. I am Janice's oldest girl, but the 2nd oldest girl and grandchild in the family. The oldest grandchild and girl is my cousin Angela, my Uncle John's daughter.  But technically, my Mom is the oldest girl in the family and I am her oldest girl, so the twins are happening again! I do think it would be kinda cool if my sister Megan or another one of my cousin's got the twin blessing too. It will be interesting to see if I have a girl and if she has twin's one day!

Looking back, I guess there were some potential signs that it was twins.

•  When I took the at home pregnancy tests, both times it turned positive immediately.  I mean I didn't even have time to lay the stick on the counter and it was already a plus sign. I thought I did it wrong since the box says to wait X amount of time. Nope! Same thing when I took the second test 2 days later.
• At 8 weeks, I needed bigger pants and skirts. Everything felt tight!  I do have some of those pregnancy bands that you can wear your regular clothes unbuttoned or unzipped, put the band on to hide the zips and buttons and look somewhat normal in your clothes.  Pregnancy belly bands have really helped me wear my regular clothes a bit longer. 
• My breasts were also tingly and felt heavy. I have a large chest and most days just ignore and deal with them. This felt different so I knew something was up.
• I was hungry about every 2 hours
• Of course, nausea, nausea, nausea

The main reason we found out/knew it was twins was an early vaginal ultrasound at 7 weeks.  Most people do not have an ultrasound this early, but they did mine because of  bleeding. On a Saturday night, I started having some major scary bleeding. It was not just spotting; I had already spotted a couple times before, a little scary, but it stopped. This bleeding was bright red, had clumps/clots from dime sized to the length of your finger, and went on for 5+ minutes. BUT no pain or cramping.  Every time I tried to wipe to see if it was stopping, it just got worse and worse.  I alternated between trying not to cry because I was losing my baby, freaking out because I couldn't get the blood to stop and wondering why if I was losing this baby, why wasn't it painful. At one point, I just stopped wiping, as I listened to the blood do a steady dripping pour out of my body into the toilet bowl (I'll never forget that sound) and thought "ok God, if this is your will, thank you for not making it painful and please let this end soon".

During this time, Elliot is on the phone with the emergency line to our doctor. He gets thru quickly to the on call nurse, tells her the issue and she says she's going to page the on call Dr. and have them call us back.  Fifteen minutes later, the Dr. calls back and Elliot and her discuss what's been going on. My bleeding has finally ended and I'm resting on the bed. The Dr. says since there was no pain, I'm probably ok, just put on a pad, monitor to see if I bleed more and rest all day on Sunday.  Monday we call our Dr. and after hearing about the bleeding, they want us in for an ultrasound.  I am hopeful at this point that I still have the baby, since there was no pain, and are praying that the baby and I are ok and healthy and nothing is too damaged from all this bleeding.

Elliot and I nervously go into the ultrasound room and get ready for the tech.  She comes in, gets me and the machine ready and begins. We had explained to her about the bleeding and were worried about the status of our baby. She turned the machine's screen away from our view and Elliot and I wait. I'm watching Elliot and he's watching the tech.  I can't look at the tech; I'm awaiting the news that the baby is gone and there's damage. There's a long, long pause as I hear her turning dials and moving around the ultrasound wand.  She announces "everything is ok, and its twins!".  Elliot's eyebrows hit the roof!  The tech turns the screen and I see 2 sacs and 2 blobs floating around.  Elliot asks "are you sure?"  We are both in shock-amazed that our baby(ies!) is(are) alive and it's twins!  She starts zooming in to look at each and do all the necessary measurements.  She tells us that they are measuring for 8 weeks (yea! I gained a week!) and they look great and healthy.  I start quietly crying because I can't believe they are healthy after all that bleeding and it's twins. What an amazing blessing!  The tech prints out a ton of pics for the Dr. and gives us the three you see below. 

We spent a joyful afternoon and evening call our family and friends to share the happy news. Please pray for us and our babies in the coming months.

Our first picture of the babies!

Baby A!

Baby B!