Twins?!

When Kurt and I went in for our first doctor's appointment, the doctor told us everything that I can and cannot do during my pregnancy, and what to expect. Then he took us in a room and we had our first ultrasound. At this point, I was about 9 weeks along. He said that at this early stage, the best image is taken through a transvaginal ultrasound. This was kind of how it went:

Doctor: "Ok, there's your baby"

(He pointed to a gray blob that was moving slightly)

Me & Kurt: "Oh, awesome!"

(Doctor moved the probe a little to the left)

Doctor: "Oh, and there's another one!"

Me  & Kurt: "Wait, what?? Are you sure?"

Doctor: "Yup, you're having twins!"

Basically everything he had just told me to expect of my pregnancy was out the window. No more exercise, very little hope for natural delivery, lots more weight gain, and lots more rest. He said we should expect more ultrasounds than normal for a singleton pregnancy, and probably more visits.

When we left the doctor's office, Kurt and I were still in shock, but we had these to prove what we just saw:

Baby A: measuring about 20 mm and about 8 weeks and 4 days old.

Baby B: measuring about 24 mm at 9 weeks old.

Even though they were measuring at different sizes at this stage, there was still no kind of confirmation of what type of twins they were. He told us he'd only be able to tell once we could see the sacs and placentas. So as of now, we're still not sure whether they are fraternal or identical, but I'm leaning more towards identical.

After the appointment, we tried to call our parents immediately. They were all in shock - we all thought that there was really no history of twins on either side. Through further digging, we realized that there is some history of twins in our families. Nothing overly significant, but still there. But everyone was so happy about this miracle, and it took us a long while for it to really sink in. 

My first trimester went really smoothly - pretty much no sickness, nothing alarming, just a little fatigue for the first 3 months.

However, the first day of my second trimester took a turn for the worst. I was throwing up constantly, and at anytime - while I was driving to work, in the middle of the night, whatever - and it was always just water coming out over and over again. After a long streak of this, we called the doctor again and went in for another check up. 

We knew we shouldn't expect an ultrasound at this visit, but after telling him of my unusual beginning to my second trimester, he wanted to take a look. He pulled our babies up on his screen, and we saw them moving all over the place. The ultrasound only gave us a good picture of the tops of their heads, but we saw their arms moving around and both strong heartbeats. They were doing well. :) 

Our babies at 13 weeks :) 

So far, the throwing up hasn't stopped. This trimester is turning out to be very different from the first. A lot of dry mouth, throwing up, and back pain. I have to be constantly resting. But we are so glad that we got to see our beautiful babies again :)

For those of you who may be interested in our timeline, I found this really cool pregnancy calculator that shows us everything week by week! (What can I say - I'm obsessed!)

Even though the 40 week due date says April 14, twins normally come no later than 37 weeks which puts our babies in March. We hope that they can continue to do well until then. We are so excited to meet them in just about five more months!

The Whole Story...

So, for those of you who don't know yet... Kurt and I are expecting our first child! I'm currently in my 7th week of pregnancy and I just want to document everything from the past few weeks.

At the beginning of August, after our one year anniversary, we went on a family camp out with Kurt's family in American Fork Canyon. I knew that it was supposed to be my "time of the month" that weekend and I was absolutely dreading it. For some reason, camping and "Mother Nature's gift" always came hand in hand. The first day was fine and I didn't feel any symptoms, but the second day I started cramping and I knew that it was about to start. So I waited and waited, but it never came. The cramps kept coming over the next few days, but nothing else which really confused me.

While Kurt was at work the next week he sent me a link to an article all about how cramps are associated with pregnancy. That was the first that we suspected anything. They said that a woman can experience cramps when the fertilized egg is being implanted in her uterus. Hmmm.... Well, we decided that if I still hadn't gotten my period by that Wednesday that we'd take a test. Lo and behold, no period.

So when Wednesday came, I headed to Macey's to buy a test and the cheapest test they had was $11.99 for two (rip-off - don't do it). Well, we were both excited to find out and I went to the bathroom to take the test. We waited as the first bold line showed up. All we needed were two lines to know that we were expecting. Then there was a line, but it was SUPER faint. We both saw that and were like, "wait... what does that mean??!" The image on the box clearly showed two BOLD lines.

We were a little happy, but we needed to confirm. So we headed to Target and got a Clearblue test ($7.99 for two - way cheaper!). This test clearly states "NOT PREGNANT" or "PREGNANT". Just what we needed. So, again, I went to the bathroom and took it. We waited as a little hour glass icon flashed for a minute and then saw that wonderful word: PREGNANT!

With two tests to confirm, we started immediately planning how we'd tell our families. We headed to a park near our house and spat out announcement ideas. 

We'll just cut to the chase:

For my family, we made a video that went along with my mom's birthday present:

My mom called me screaming in excitement when they watched the video. We were SO happy the secret was off our chests because we couldn't keep it in much longer.

Next, for Kurt's family, I made an LDS version of Mad Gab for the Family Home Evening we were in charge of that Sunday. 

Mad Gab is a game where you have to sound out what is written on the card to get the common/known phrase. Here are a few examples, let's see if you can guess without looking at the caption:

(Follow the prophet)

(I Love To See The Temple)

(There is Sunshine in My Soul Today)

And last but not least....

(Kurt and Des are pregnant!)

Kurt's grandma was the first to guess the meaning of that last card and everyone was really happy for us. 

For our last and final announcement, to extended family and friends, we made another video...

We are so excited for our new addition and what the next eight months or so have in store for us! It's been a thrilling, nerve-racking, exciting, new and amazing experience for both of us.