WOW. Ready or not......

So I had my first pre-natal appointment today. I found out I was pregnant 6 weeks ago and purposefully made my appointment for this far out, just because I didn't want to go to the doctor more times than I needed to. The first few weeks went by fine. Then a couple weeks ago I start to get a little bit antsy. By the beginning of this week I couldn't WAIT to get to the doctor and see what was up with my little peanut. I knew that most likely my doctor would be doing an ultrasound and I couldn't wait : )

Chip's mom came over to babysit for us so that Chip could come. We left at 9:35 and got to the office about 5 minutes before my appointment time. I filled out paperwork and we sat and waited. It was fun to be back in the office....it brings back so many memories : )

When I turned in my paperwork, the wonderful receptionist informed me that the ultrasound machine hadn't been working and that they were HOPEFULLY getting it fixed RIGHT THEN and that HOPEFULLY I'd be able to get an ultrasound...but she just wanted to give me a heads up. I have to admit...I was a little disappointed, but I knew either way it would be fine and eventually I'd get to see my little kiddo..even if it wasn't today.

So they called me back. We did the normal routine....weight....pee in a cup....and they put me in the exam room with the u/s machine. AS we were sitting in their the receptionist came and looked at the machine and whatever "update" or "fix" they were running on it had completed and it was FIXED! Hurray!!!

So...the medical assistant came in. Asked all the routine questions....history, current symptoms, etc. She took my blood pressure....104/69. Good. And then we waited.

Dr. C came in...it was so fun to see her! As she was getting things ready Chip made some comment like "Ok...do the ultrasound and show us we're having twins." We've been joking this whole pregnancy about twins....we've joked about it every pregnancy, in fact. Chip always tells me how nice it would be to just get two out of the way with one pregnancy.

So she starts the ultrasound and we see this right away:

Dr. C said "Sorry Chip...one baby". Everything looked great....she measured....listened to the heartbeat. Such GREAT and AWESOME things to see and hear.

As she's looking around a little more she started to say "hmmm". She then pointed out two circles to us. This:

She said- See these two circles?
Me- Yeah
Her- These are yolk sacs...there are two. You don't have two with one baby. This is sorta freaking me out a little bit.
Me- What? (In my head I am thinking...whatever..she is just messing with me because we were talking about twins)

She continued to look at the baby and move around to different angles....as she did this she was telling us about the one time that she "missed" seeing twins at an early ultrasound. She said that it was because one baby was directly behind the second. They didn't find out until the "big" 20 week ultrasound.

So then she shows us a different angle that was from the top of the head. Only there wasn't 1 head. There were 2. She went on to say...."see, sometimes ultrasounds can do like a double picture type thing...but that looks like 2 separate babies"

Then she went back to the yolk sacs again and said "see...that's definitely two yolk sacs...that's not a double picture"

By this point I was thinking...Wow...there really might be two in there. WHAT?!?!

She went on saying..."yeah, I really think this is just like that other twin pregnancy....your second baby is just laying right behind the first". She told me that she was sending me for a confirmation ultrasound, but that she was pretty sure there were two babies.

So by this time I am thinking...wow...there ACTUALLY REALLY might be two. I am thinking she's like 75% sure or something. So I asked "Like...in percentages....how sure ARE you?" She responded "I'm 99% sure". That was when it really hit HARD. 99% sure is like REALLY REALLY sure. She started talking to us about twin pregnancies...what to expect....what extra vitamins to take, etc. I sat there the whole time talking about all of it, but feeling like it wasn't really ME we were talking about....not OUR twins.

So we left the office. We called our families and told them what was going on. I called to make my follow up u/s appointment and they told me they could see me today! Woohoo!! I wouldn't have to wait to confirm this 99% sure news!

So we went home and let Chip's mom leave. We had lunch. I felt like the minutes were DRAGGING by until I could leave for the ultrasound. Chip stayed home with the k ids. I was getting antsy so I left a little early to drop off a prescription for my extra vitamins. I got to the ultrasound place right on time.....filled out paperwork...and waited. They finally called me back. This was it. The confirming moment.

The ultrasound tech introduced herself and asked what exactly they were looking for. I explained what had happened earlier and showed her the two ultrasound pictures from above. The she started the ultrasound. Right away we saw this:

Two babies. No mistaking it. Definitely two. TWINS!!

She told me they were sharing a placenta. From what I have read....shared placenta = identical! They each have their own sacs though, which is good since sharing a sac makes them even more high risk. They are already higher risk because of sharing the placenta.

She got their heart rates. Baby A was measuring at 9 weeks 1 day and the heart rate was 185bpm.

Baby B was measuring 9 weeks 3 days and the heart rate was 169bpm.

Both looked GREAT and perfectly on track! Here are babies A & B...side by side pictures:

So. That was our day. I made lots of phone calls and had fun sharing the news with the masses on Facebook. It's still sinking in....lots of emotions...mostly great and wonderful ones, with a few anxious ones mixed in. But our hope and trust in God and His Sovereign plan helps to calm those anxious feelings. We know that He has given us these two precious gifts and we can't wait to meet them both. We are SOO thankful for the "extra" blessing and we know that Christ is the provider of strength, patience, love, and so much more....He promises to give us all of the things we need if we trust Him and place Him first. So we know that He will equip us to raise these little blessings. There will be hard times....but there will also be SO many times filled with fun, laughter, and extra joy :)

It's a good thing we really wanted 4 kids : ) God just allowed us to get there even sooner than we expected.....and we already thought we were on the SUPER FAST plan...just goes to show that "A man's heart plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps" (Proverbs 16:9) These weren't exactly the "steps" we were planning on...but we're ready.....or trying to be!

PS- I guess it makes sense now why I have been SOOOO tired (see previous post..hehe)!