In late July Jackie and I discovered that our family was expanding. We usually wait several weeks just to make sure everything is okay before we tell everyone (usually after I go to the doctor for that first ultrasound) but this time I struggled to conceal my nausea and tiredness. My family was coming to visit and I knew there would be no hiding it from them so on my mother's birthday which I admit I forgot--can I blame baby brain?--I sent her a text of the kids saying happy birthday and told her that her birthday surprise was that next year there would be one more singing to her! After that we let everyone in on the secret.
Over the next few weeks I felt much like any other pregnant woman--sick and tired! In my mind those are good things because they mean a healthy pregnancy. I wasn't overly sick or overly tired, but something was different. I had a funny feeling and kept finding myself referring to the baby as "them" or "the babies." I Googled things like "have a feeling it's twins" to see if other moms had a feeling that was later confirmed to be true. In almost all the cases I found on forums, it wasn't. I figured I was just crazy.
In August I had my first doctor's appointment. I chuckled to myself when the receptionist asked me if this was my first or second baby. "This is my fifth," I told her. I almost needed an extra sheet of paper to list all my information, ha ha. Sitting in the room I scanned the photos of babies the doctor had delivered. It was as if all the twin pictures jumped out at me in 3D. Part of me was afraid I would be disappointed when I saw just one baby on the ultrasound screen.
The doctor entered grinning at me. "I told the nurse it would probably be twins this time," she chuckled. At that point the screen was turned toward the doctor. She grinned again and said, "I swear I was just kidding." She turned the screen towards me and this is what I saw:
It's crazy but everything did get so much better at week 13. I haven't been nauseous, my energy is returning, and food is tasting really good! Last night Jackie and I enjoyed a night out. And as I mentioned on FB last night, it was quite nice walking into a Mexican restaurant with my pants already unbuttoned. Jackie laughed when I first showed him "the rubber band trick" but I wanted to share it in case there are other preggos out there who don't quite fit into maternity pants yet but definitely can't button their old pants. You simply loop a rubber band or hair elastic through your button hole then back through itself and use it to button your jeans. And voila! You can eat a basket of chips and salsa and a giant burrito in comfort! Ha ha.
And that is the story of my first trimester carrying multiples! I hope to blog more often now especially because I love looking up blogs by other mamas and want to share what I'm experiencing so that perhaps if other women are Googling things they might find some information here. So forgive me if I over-share, lol.
Over the next few weeks I felt much like any other pregnant woman--sick and tired! In my mind those are good things because they mean a healthy pregnancy. I wasn't overly sick or overly tired, but something was different. I had a funny feeling and kept finding myself referring to the baby as "them" or "the babies." I Googled things like "have a feeling it's twins" to see if other moms had a feeling that was later confirmed to be true. In almost all the cases I found on forums, it wasn't. I figured I was just crazy.
In August I had my first doctor's appointment. I chuckled to myself when the receptionist asked me if this was my first or second baby. "This is my fifth," I told her. I almost needed an extra sheet of paper to list all my information, ha ha. Sitting in the room I scanned the photos of babies the doctor had delivered. It was as if all the twin pictures jumped out at me in 3D. Part of me was afraid I would be disappointed when I saw just one baby on the ultrasound screen.
The doctor entered grinning at me. "I told the nurse it would probably be twins this time," she chuckled. At that point the screen was turned toward the doctor. She grinned again and said, "I swear I was just kidding." She turned the screen towards me and this is what I saw:
My intuition was right! There were two perfect little 10-week old babies, hearts flashing away, wiggling their arms and legs. My heart nearly burst! I barely remember anything else the doctor said. She said I could call Jackie in her office (unfortunately, he'd had class and didn't get to come home with me). I knew he was in class so I text him saying, "Hey, can you talk?" Of course he couldn't so I then had to tell him via text that there had been a little surprise on the ultrasound. He honestly didn't believe me! After I convinced him, I called my mom--she was a bit surprised, too. Then I showed Keeleigh the ultrasound picture. "There's two of them?!" she asked. From there it was a whirlwind of excitement telling everyone and sharing the picture on Facebook. I was just ecstatic. I still am!
Looking back as we were asking ourselves how this happened since twins don't run in our family, I realized that the month I conceived I had hyper-ovulated. I generally have mild ovulation pain each month but that month, that day, it was intense. I had even Googled "appendicitis" thinking something might be wrong. Since the pain went away, I didn't think anything else of it.
Like I said, in the first trimester I experienced fairly normal pregnancy symptoms. I was nauseous just about 24 hours a day but was only physically sick about three times, a far cry from the sickness some of the twin moms I'd Googled (why, yes, I do overuse Google) said they experienced. I was pretty tired and relished the days when I got to take a nap but everything felt pretty manageable. The one thing I was surprised at was how quickly my pants were getting tight! During my pregnancy with Piper (#4) I didn't show forever (I also had had NO morning sickness). I was still wearing my regular jeans at 12 and 13 weeks easy. I was reaching for leggings and elastic at around 8 weeks this time around.
Here are my first trimester belly shots:
It's crazy but everything did get so much better at week 13. I haven't been nauseous, my energy is returning, and food is tasting really good! Last night Jackie and I enjoyed a night out. And as I mentioned on FB last night, it was quite nice walking into a Mexican restaurant with my pants already unbuttoned. Jackie laughed when I first showed him "the rubber band trick" but I wanted to share it in case there are other preggos out there who don't quite fit into maternity pants yet but definitely can't button their old pants. You simply loop a rubber band or hair elastic through your button hole then back through itself and use it to button your jeans. And voila! You can eat a basket of chips and salsa and a giant burrito in comfort! Ha ha.
And that is the story of my first trimester carrying multiples! I hope to blog more often now especially because I love looking up blogs by other mamas and want to share what I'm experiencing so that perhaps if other women are Googling things they might find some information here. So forgive me if I over-share, lol.
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